termed, and retire. They had,
however, so intrenched themselves in the positions that they had
taken, and the assaults with which he encountered them had lost so
much of their former force, that he could accomplish nothing decisive.
He then left the ground with his army, and marched himself toward
Rome. He encamped in the vicinity of the city, and threatened to
attack it; but the walls, and castles, and towers with which Rome, as
well as Capua, was defended, were too formidable, and the preparations
for defense too complete, to make it prudent for him really to assail
the city. His object was to alarm the Romans, and compel them to
withdraw their forces from his capital that they might defend their
own.

There was, in fact, some degree of alarm awakened, and in the
discussions which took place among the Roman authorities, the
withdrawal of their troops from Capua was proposed; but this proposal
was overruled; even Fabius was against it. Hannibal was no longer to
be feared. They ordered back a small detachment from Capua, and added
to it such forces as they could raise within the city, and then
advanced to give Hannibal battle. The preparations were all made, it
is said, for an engagement, but a violent storm came on, so violent as
to drive the combatants back to their respective camps. This happened,
the great Roman historian gravely says, two or three times in
succession; the weather immediately becoming serene again, each time,
as soon as the respective generals had withdrawn their troops from the
intended fight. Something like this may perhaps have occurred, though
the fact doubtless was that both parties were afraid, each of the
other, and were disposed to avail themselves of any excuse to postpone
a decisive conflict. There was a time when Hannibal had not been
deterred from attacking the Romans even by the most tempestuous
storms.

Thus, though Hannibal did, in fact, in the end, get to the walls of
Rome, he did nothing but threaten when he was there, and his
encampment near the city can only be considered as a bravado. His
presence seems to have excited very little apprehension within the
city. The Romans had, in fact, before this time, lost their terror of
the Carthaginian arms. To show their contempt of Hannibal, they sold,
at public auction the land on which he was encamped, while he was
upon it besieging the city, and it brought the usual price. The
bidders were, perhaps, influenced somewhat by a patriotic