prowed ships sailing up the coast of the Tyrrhene
sea, where he now had his headquarters. He did not reckon on the
jealousy of his success which filled the breasts of the rulers of his
country, a jealousy which even self-interest was unable to overcome.
From the first he had borne their burden alone, and owing to the
treachery and baseness of his own nation in the end it proved too heavy
for his shoulders.

* * * * *

Soon Hannibal began to understand that he would get help from no one,
and from Carthage least of all, and the knowledge was very bitter. The
Romans had gathered together a fresh army of eighty or ninety thousand
men, and had armed a large number of their slaves, offering them
freedom. Any check, however slight, to the Carthaginian army was the
cause of joy and thankfulness in Rome, for, as Livy says, 'not to be
conquered by Hannibal then was more difficult than to vanquish him
afterwards.'

In spite of Thrasymene and Cannae things were now changed, and it was
Hannibal who was on the defensive. The Romans had learned their lesson,
and the legions always lying at the heels of Hannibal's army were
commanded by experienced generals, who adopted the policy of Fabius and
were careful never to risk a battle.

Thus three years passed away, and Carthage, absorbed in the difficult
task of keeping Spain, from which she drew so much of her wealth, in her
hands, sent thither all the troops she could muster to meet the Romans,
who were gradually gaining ground in the peninsula.

In Italy the war was shifting to the south, and about 213 B.C. Hannibal
was besieged in the town of Tarentum by a Roman fleet which had blocked
the entrance to the gulf on which the city was situated. The alarm in
Tarentum was great; escape seemed impossible; but Hannibal ordered
boards to be placed in the night across a little spit of land that lay
between the gulf and the open sea. When darkness fell, the boards were
greased, and ox-hides stretched tightly over them. Then one by one the
imprisoned Tarentine fleet was dragged along the boards and launched on
the other side, and when all the ships were afloat, they formed in a
line and attacked the Roman vessels, which were soon sunk or destroyed.

It was deeds such as these which showed the power Hannibal still
possessed, and kept alive the Roman dread of him; yet he himself knew
that the triumph of Rome was only a work of time, and that the kingdom
of Cart