f fifty pounds' weight,
manufactured for Jupiter, whom they considered the thunderer.

All these things took place before the battle at Lake Thrasymene, so
that the whole community were in a very feverish state of excitement
and anxiety before the news from Flaminius arrived. When these tidings
at last came, they threw the whole city into utter consternation. Of
course, the messenger went directly to the senate-house to report to
the government, but the story that such news had arrived soon spread
about the city, and the whole population crowded into the streets and
public squares, all eagerly asking for the tidings. An enormous throng
assembled before the senate-house calling for information. A public
officer appeared at last, and said to them in a loud voice, "We have
been defeated in a great battle." He would say no more. Still rumors
spread from one to another, until it was generally known throughout
the city that Hannibal had conquered the Roman army again in a great
battle, that great numbers of the soldiers had fallen or been taken
prisoners, and that the consul himself was slain.

The night was passed in great anxiety and terror, and the next day,
and for several of the succeeding days, the people gathered in great
numbers around the gates, inquiring eagerly for news of every one that
came in from the country. Pretty soon scattered soldiers and small
bodies of troops began to arrive, bringing with them information of
the battle, each one having a different tale to tell, according to his
own individual experience in the scene. Whenever these men arrived,
the people of the city, and especially the women who had husbands or
sons in the army, crowded around them, overwhelming them with
questions, and making them tell their tale again and again, as if the
intolerable suspense and anxiety of the hearers could not be
satisfied. The intelligence was such as in general to confirm and
increase the fears of those who listened to it; but sometimes, when it
made known the safety of a husband or a son, it produced as much
relief and rejoicing as it did in other cases terror and despair. That
maternal love was as strong an impulse in those rough days as it is in
the more refined and cultivated periods of the present age, is evinced
by the fact that two of these Roman mothers, on seeing their sons
coming suddenly into their presence, alive and well, when they had
heard that they had fallen in battle, were killed at once by the