their camps;
the Spaniards almost all untouched; the Romans having lost a few.
Fabius also moved his camp, and passing the defile, took up a position
above Allifae, in a strong and elevated place. Then Hannibal,
pretending to march to Rome through Samnium, came back as far as the
Peligni, spreading devastation. Fabius led his troops along the
heights midway between the army of the enemy and the city of Rome;
neither avoiding him altogether, nor coming to an engagement. From the
Peligni the Carthaginian turned his course, and going back again to
Apulia, reached Geronium, a city deserted by its inhabitants from
fear, as a part of its walls had fallen down together in ruins. The
dictator formed a completely fortified camp in the territory of
Larinum, and being recalled thence to Rome on account of some sacred
rites, he not only urged the master of the horse, in virtue of his
authority, but with advice and almost with prayers, that he would
trust rather to prudence than fortune; and imitate him as a general
rather than Sempronius and Flaminius; that he would not suppose that
nothing had been achieved by having worn out nearly the whole summer
in baffling the enemy; that physicians too sometimes gained more by
rest than by motion and action. That it was no small thing to have
ceased to be conquered by an enemy so often victorious, and to have
taken breath after successive disasters. Having thus unavailingly
admonished the master of the horse, he set out for Rome.

19. In the beginning of the summer in which these events occurred, the
war commenced by land and sea in Spain also. To the number of ships
which he had received from his brother, equipped and ready for action,
Hasdrubal added ten. The fleet of forty ships he delivered to Himilco:
and thus setting out from Carthage, kept his ships near the land,
while he led his army along the shore, ready to engage with whichever
part of his forces the enemy might fall in with. Cneius Scipio, when
he heard that the enemy had quitted his winter quarters, at first
formed the same plan; but afterwards, not daring to engage him by
land, from a great rumour of fresh auxiliaries, he advances to meet
him with a fleet of thirty-five ships, having put some chosen soldiers
on board. Setting out from Tarraco, on the second day, he reached a
convenient station, ten miles from the mouth of the Iberus. Two ships
of the Massilians, sent forward from that place reconnoitering,
brought word back t