onour of
Apollo. After they had been consulted, and a report made to the
senate, the fathers voted, that "games should be vowed to Apollo and
celebrated; and that when the games were concluded, twelve thousand
_asses_ should be given to the praetor to defray the expense of
sacred ceremonies, and also two victims of the larger sort." A second
decree was passed, that "the decemviri should perform sacrifice in the
Grecian mode, and with the following victims: to Apollo, with a gilded
ox, and two white goats gilded; to Latona, with a gilded heifer." When
the praetor was about to celebrate the games in the Circus Maximus, he
issued an order, that during the celebration of the games, the people
should pay a contribution, as large as was convenient, for the service
of Apollo. This is the origin of the Apollinarian games, which were
vowed and celebrated in order to victory, and not restoration to
health, as is commonly supposed. The people viewed the spectacle in
garlands; the matrons made supplications; the people in general
feasted in the courts of their houses, throwing the doors open; and
the day was distinguished by every description of ceremony.

13. While Hannibal was in the neighbourhood of Tarentum, and both the
consuls in Samnium, though they seemed as if they were about to
besiege Capua, the Campanians were experiencing famine, that calamity
which is the usual attendant of a protracted siege. It was occasioned
by the Roman armies' having prevented the sowing of the lands. They
therefore sent ambassadors to Hannibal, imploring him to give orders
that corn should be conveyed to Capua from the neighbouring places,
before both the consuls led their legions into their fields, and all
the roads were blocked up by the troops of the enemy. Hannibal ordered
Hanno to pass with his army from Bruttium into Campania, and to take
care that the Campanians were supplied with corn. Hanno, setting out
from Bruttium with his army, and carefully avoiding the camp of the
enemy and the consuls who were in Samnium, when he drew near to
Beneventum, pitched his camp on an eminence three miles from the city.
He next ordered that the corn which had been collected during the
summer, should be brought from the neighbouring people in alliance
with him, into his camp, assigning a guard to escort those supplies.
He then sent a messenger to the Capuans, fixing a day when they should
attend at his camp to receive the corn, bringing with them vehicles