tempt the
impatient Minucius to an action. He accordingly drew nearer to the
Romans and encamped upon a hill three miles from their position.

Another hill lay about halfway between the two armies. Hannibal occupied
this during the night with two thousand of his light troops, but
next day Minucius attacked the position, drove off its defenders, and
encamped there with his whole army. For some days Hannibal kept his
force united in his intrenchments, feeling sure that Minucius would
attack him. The latter, however, strictly obeyed the orders of Fabius
and remained inactive.

It was all important to the Carthaginians to collect an ample supply of
food before winter set in, and Hannibal, finding that the Romans would
not attack him, was compelled to resume foraging expeditions. Two-thirds
of the army were despatched in various directions in strong bodies,
while the rest remained to guard the intrenchment.

This was the opportunity for which Minucius had been waiting. He at once
despatched the whole of his cavalry to attack the foraging parties,
and with his infantry he advanced to the attack of the weakly defended
Carthaginian camp. For a time Hannibal had the greatest difficulty in
resisting the assault of the Romans; but at last a body of four thousand
of the foragers, who had beaten off the Roman cavalry and made their way
into Geronium, came out to his support, and the Romans retired.

Hannibal, seeing the energy which Minucius had displayed, fell back to
his old camp near Geronium, and Minucius at once occupied the position
which he had vacated. The partial success of Minucius enabled the party
in Rome who had long been discontented with the waiting tactics of
Fabius to make a fresh attack upon his policy, and Minucius was now
raised to an equal rank with Fabius.

Minucius, elated with his elevation, proposed to Fabius either that
they should command the whole army on alternate days, or each should
permanently command one-half. Fabius chose the latter alternative, for
he felt certain that the impetuosity of his colleague would sooner or
later get him into trouble with such an adversary as Hannibal, and
that it was better to risk the destruction of half the army than of the
whole.

Minucius withdrew the troops allotted to him, and encamped in the plains
at a distance of a mile and a half from Fabius. Hannibal resolved at
once to take advantage of the change, and to tempt the Romans to attack
him by occupying a h