lowing him to ravage the whole country
without opposition, up to the very walls of Rome. Nothing therefore
remained for him but to retreat, and he accordingly recrossed the Anio,
and marched slowly and sullenly through the land of the Sabines and
Samnites, ravaging the country which he traversed. From thence he
retired to the Bruttii, leaving Capua to its fate. The city soon after
surrendered to the Romans. Its punishment was terrible. All the leaders
of the insurrection were beheaded; the chief men were imprisoned; and
the rest of the people were sold. The city and its territory were
confiscated, and became part of the Roman domain.

The commencement of the next season (B.C. 210) was marked by the fall of
Salapia, which was betrayed by the inhabitants to Marcellus; but this
loss was soon avenged by the total defeat and destruction of the army of
the Proconsul Cn. Fulvius at Herdonea. The Consul Marcellus, on his
part, carefully avoided an action for the rest of the campaign, while he
harassed his opponent by every possible means. Thus the rest of that
summer too wore away without any important results. But this state of
comparative inactivity was necessarily injurious to the cause of
Hannibal; the nations of Italy that had espoused that cause when
triumphant now began to waver in their attachment; and in the course of
the following summer (B.C. 209) the Samnites and Lucanians submitted to
Rome, and were admitted to favorable terms. A still more disastrous blow
to the Carthaginian cause was the loss of Tarentum, which was betrayed
into the hands of Fabius, as it had been into those of Hannibal. In vain
did the latter seek to draw the Roman general into a snare; the wary
Fabius eluded his toils. The recovery of Tarentum was the last exploit
in the military life of the aged Fabius, and was a noble completion to
his long list of achievements. From the time of the battle of Cannae he
had directed almost exclusively the councils of his country, and his
policy had been pre-eminently successful; but the times now demanded
bolder measures, and something else was necessary than the caution of
the Lingerer to bring the war to a close.

After the fall of Tarentum Hannibal still traversed the open country
unopposed, and laid waste the territories of his enemies. Yet we can not
suppose that he any longer looked for ultimate success from any efforts
of his own; his object was doubtless now only to maintain his ground in
the south un