upon Hannibal near Canusium. Hannibal frequently shifted his
camp, and tried to avoid a battle, but Marcellus was not to be shaken
off, and at length attacked his position, and by skirmishing provoked
him to fight. Marcellus sustained his attack, and the battle was put
an end to by night. Next morning his troops were again beheld under
arms, so that Hannibal in great anxiety called together the
Carthaginians and besought them to fight as they had never done
before. "You see," said he, "that even after our great victories, we
cannot rest in peace, unless we drive away this fellow." The armies
met; and Marcellus seems to have lost the day by an unseasonable
manoeuvre. His right wing was suffering, and he ordered up one of the
legions to support it; but this change produced confusion in the
ranks, and gave the victory to the enemy, with a loss of two thousand
seven hundred men to the Romans. Marcellus, after retiring to his
fortified camp, called together his soldiers, and reproached them,
saying that he saw before him the arms and bodies of many Romans, but
not one true Roman. They begged forgiveness, but he answered that he
could not forgive them when defeated, but would forgive them if
victorious. On the morrow he said that he would renew the battle, in
order that the Romans might hear of their victory before they heard of
their defeat. After these words he gave orders that the troops which
had given way should be supplied with rations of barley instead of
corn; which had such an effect upon them, that although many were
suffering from the hurts in the battle, yet, there was not one who did
not suffer more from the reproaches of Marcellus than from his wounds.

XXVI. At daybreak the scarlet robe, the well known signal of battle,
was displayed from the general's tent. The disgraced troops, at their
own request, were placed in the first rank; the rest of the army
followed under their officers. Hannibal hearing of this exclaimed:
"Hercules! What can one do with a man who knows not how to bear either
good or bad fortune. This is the only general who, when victorious
allows his foe no rest, and when defeated takes none himself. We shall
always, it seems, have to be fighting this man, who is equally excited
to attack by his confidence when victor, and his shame when
vanquished."

In the battle the men on each side were fighting on equal terms, when
Hannibal ordered his elephants to be brought into the front rank and
to att