s and difficulties which he
encountered in struggling through the marshes were immense; great
numbers of his horses and beasts of burden perished, and he himself lost
the sight of one eye by a violent attack of ophthalmia. At length,
however, he reached Faesulae in safety, and was able to allow his troops a
short interval of repose.

The Consuls for this year were Cn. Servilius and C. Flaminius. The
latter was the author of the celebrated Agrarian Law which occasioned
the Gallic War, and in his first consulship he had gained a great
victory over the Insubrian Gauls (see p. 79)(Sixth paragraph of Chapter
XI.--Transcriber). He had been raised to his second consulship by
popular favor, in spite of the opposition of the Senate; and he hurried
from Rome before the Ides of March,[32] lest the Senate might throw any
obstacle in the way of his entering upon his consulship. He was a man of
great energy, but headstrong and reckless. When Hannibal arrived at
Faesulae, Flaminius was with his army at Arretium. It was always the
object of Hannibal to bring the Roman commanders to a battle, and
therefore, in moving from Faesulae, he passed by the Roman general, and
advanced toward Perugia, laying waste the fertile country on his line of
march. Flaminius immediately broke up his camp, and, following the
traces of Hannibal, fell into the snare which was prepared for him. His
army was attacked under the most disadvantageous circumstances, where it
was hemmed in between rocky heights, previously occupied by the enemy,
and the Lake of Trasimenus. Its destruction was almost complete.
Thousands fell by the sword, among whom was the Consul himself;
thousands more perished in the lake, and no less than 15,000 prisoners
fell into the hands of Hannibal, who on his side is said to have lost
only 1500 men. Hannibal's treatment of the captives on this occasion, as
well as after the battle of the Trebia, was marked by the same policy
on which he afterward uniformly acted; the Roman citizens alone were
retained as prisoners, while their Italian allies were dismissed without
ransom to their respective homes. By this means he hoped to excite the
nations of Italy against their Roman masters, and to place himself in
the position of the leader of a national movement rather than that of a
foreign invader. It was probably in order to give time for this feeling
to display itself that he did not, after so decisive a victory, push on
toward Rome itself; but, a