re is no question about the fact
that, from the time Hannibal and his army got possession of their
comfortable quarters in Capua, the Carthaginian power began gradually
to decline. As Hannibal determined to make that city the Italian
capital instead of Rome, he, of course, when established there, felt
in some degree settled and at home, and was less interested than he
had been in plans for attacking the ancient capital. Still, the war
went on; many battles were fought, many cities were besieged, the
Roman power gaining ground all the time, though not, however, by any
very decisive victories.

In these contests there appeared, at length, a new Roman general named
Marcellus, and, either on account of his possessing a bolder and more
active temperament, or else in consequence of the change in the
relative strength of the two contending powers, he pursued a more
aggressive policy than Fabius had thought it prudent to attempt.
Marcellus was, however, cautious and wary in his enterprises, and he
laid his plans with so much sagacity and skill that he was almost
always successful. The Romans applauded very highly his activity and
ardor, without, however, forgetting their obligations to Fabius for
his caution and defensive reserve. They said that Marcellus was the
_sword_ of their commonwealth, as Fabius had been its _shield_.

The Romans continued to prosecute this sort of warfare, being more and
more successful the longer they continued it, until, at last, they
advanced to the very walls of Capua, and threatened it with a siege.
Hannibal's intrenchments and fortifications were too strong for them
to attempt to carry the city by a sudden assault, nor were the Romans
even powerful enough to invest the place entirely, so as completely to
shut their enemies in. They, however, encamped with a large army in
the neighborhood, and assumed so threatening an attitude as to keep
Hannibal's forces within in a state of continual alarm. And, besides
the alarm, it was very humiliating and mortifying to Carthaginian
pride to find the very seat of their power, as it were, shut up and
overawed by an enemy over whom they had been triumphing themselves so
short a time before, by a continued series of victories.

Hannibal was not himself in Capua at the time that the Romans came to
attack it. He marched, however, immediately to its relief, and
attacking the Romans in his turn, endeavored to compel them to _raise
the siege_, as it is technically