wer still farther. They gained over new tribes to the Roman
cause, took 20,000 Celtiberians into their pay, and felt themselves so
strong in B.C. 212 that they resolved to cross the Iberus and to make a
vigorous effort to drive the Carthaginians out of Spain. They
accordingly divided their forces; but the result was fatal. Publius was
destroyed, with the greater part of his troops; and Cneius was also
defeated, and fell in battle, twenty-nine days after the death of his
brother. These victories seemed to establish the superiority of Carthage
in Spain, and open the way for Hasdrubal to join his brother in Italy.

In Italy (B.C. 212) the two Consuls Appius Claudius and Q. Fulvius began
to draw together their forces for the purpose of besieging Capua.
Hannibal advanced to relieve it, and compelled the Consuls to withdraw;
but he was unable to force either of them to fight. Shortly afterward he
returned again to the south to urge on the siege of the citadel of
Tarentum, which still held out; and he spent the winter and the whole of
the ensuing spring (B.C. 211) in its immediate neighborhood. But during
his absence the Consuls had renewed the siege of Capua, and prosecuted
it with such activity, that they had succeeded in surrounding the city
with a double line of intrenchments. The pressing danger once more
summoned Hannibal to its relief. He accordingly presented himself before
the Roman camp, and attacked their lines from without, while the
garrison co-operated with him by a vigorous sally from the walls. Both
attacks were however repulsed, and Hannibal, foiled in his attempt to
raise the siege by direct means, determined on the bold manoeuvre of
marching directly upon Rome itself, in hopes of thus compelling the
Consuls to abandon their designs upon Capua, in order to provide for the
defense of the city. But this daring scheme was again frustrated; the
appearance of Hannibal before the gates of Rome for a moment struck
terror through the city; but a considerable body of troops was at the
time within the walls; and the Consul Fulvius, as soon as he heard of
Hannibal's march, hastened, with a portion of the besieging army, from
Capua, while he still left with the other Consul a force amply
sufficient to carry on the siege. Hannibal was thus disappointed in the
main object of his advance, and he had no means of effecting any thing
against Rome itself, where Fulvius and Fabius confined themselves
strictly to the defensive, al