consulship of Laevinus and Marcellus--the registers scarcely sufficed to
contain the account of it, or the hands of the clerks to record it.

[Footnote 57: A sort of ornament suspended from the necks of children,
which, among the wealthy, was made of gold. It was in the shape of a
bubble on water, or, as Pliny says, of a heart.]

But how can I sufficiently praise the wisdom of the centuries in the
choice of magistrates, when the younger sought advice from the elder as
to what consuls should be created? They saw that against an enemy so
often victorious, and so full of subtlety, it was necessary to contend,
not only with courage, but with his own wiles. The first hope of the
empire now recovering, and, if I may use the expression, coming to life
again, was Fabius, who found a new mode of conquering Hannibal, which
was, _not to fight_. Hence he received that new name, so salutary to the
commonwealth, of _Cunctator_, or Delayer. Hence too it happened that he
was called by the people _the shield of the empire_. Through the whole
of Samnium, and through the Falerian and Gauran forests, he so harassed
Hannibal that he who could not be reduced by valor was weakened by
delay. The Romans then ventured, under the command of Claudius
Marcellus, to engage him; they came to close quarters with him, drove
him out of his dear Campania, and forced him to raise the siege of Nola.
They ventured likewise, under the leadership of Sempronius Gracchus, to
pursue him through Lucania, and to press hard upon his rear as he
retired; though they then fought him (sad dishonor!) with a body of
slaves, for to this extremity had so many disasters reduced them, but
they were rewarded with liberty, and from slaves they made them Romans.

O amazing confidence in the midst of so much adversity! O extraordinary
courage and spirit of the Roman people in such oppressive and
distressing circumstances! At a time when they were uncertain of
preserving their own Italy, they yet ventured to look to other
countries; and when the enemy were at their throat, flying through
Campania and Apulia, and making an Africa in the middle of Italy, they
at the same time both withstood that enemy and dispersed their arms over
the earth into Sicily, Sardinia, and Spain.

Sicily was assigned to Marcellus, and did not long resist his efforts;
for the whole island was conquered in the conquest of one city.
Syracuse, its great and, till that period, unconquered capital, though