n
cut off by war, and there being a scarcity of slaves, their cattle
having been carried off as booty, and the farmhouses pulled down or
burnt. A large number, however, compelled by the authority of the
consuls, returned into the country. The mention of this affair
had been occasioned by ambassadors of Placentia and Cremona, who
complained that their lands were being invaded and laid waste by
the neighbouring Gauls; that a large portion of their settlers had
dispersed; that their cities were thinly inhabited, and their lands
devastated and deserted. Mamilius the praetor was charged with the
protection of the colonies from the enemy. The consuls, in conformity
with a decree of the senate, issued an edict that all who were
citizens of Cremona and Placentia should return to those colonies
before a certain day; after which, in the beginning of spring, they
set out for the campaign. Quintus Caecilius, the consul, received
the army from Caius Nero; Lucius Veturius received his from Quintus
Claudius the propraetor, filling it up with new-raised soldiers,
whom he had himself enlisted. The consuls marched their army into the
territory of Consentia, and devastating the country on all hands,
when the troops were loaded with plunder, they were thrown into such
confusion by some Bruttians and Numidian spearmen, who attacked them
in a narrow defile, that not only the booty but the troops were
in danger. There was more of confusion, however than fighting; and
sending the booty in advance, the legions themselves also escaped into
a place free from danger. Proceeding thence into Lucania, the whole of
that people returned, without a contest, into subjection to the Roman
people.

12. No action with Hannibal took place this year; for neither did he
present himself after the public and personal calamity so recently
inflicted, and the Romans did not provoke him while he remained quiet,
such power did they consider that single general possessed, though
every thing else around him was falling into ruin. Indeed I know not
whether he was not more deserving of admiration in adversity than in
prosperity; inasmuch as though he carried on a war in the territory
of enemies through a period of thirteen years, at so great a distance
from home, with varying success, and with, an army not composed of his
own countrymen, but made up of the offscouring of all nations,
without communion of laws, customs, or language, different in their
appearance, their d