ed with such fury into their dense body that it became
impossible to save his life without a great loss. Mago immediately
sent his corpse to Hannibal, ordering it to be placed, with the fasces
which were taken at the same time, before the tribunal of the general.
This is the true account; Gracchus fell in Lucania, near the place
called the Old Plains.

17. There are some who have put forth an account, stating, that when
in the territory of Beneventum, near the river Calor, having gone out
from his camp with his lictors and three servants, for the purpose of
bathing, he was slain while naked and unarmed, and endeavouring to
defend himself with the stones which the river brought down, by a
party of the enemy which happened to be concealed among the osiers
which grew upon the banks. Others state, that having gone out five
hundred paces from the camp, at the instance of the aruspices, in
order to expiate the prodigies before mentioned on unpolluted ground,
he was cut off by two troops of Numidians who happened to be lying in
ambush there. So different are the accounts respecting the place and
manner of the death of so illustrious and distinguished a man. Various
also are the accounts of the funeral of Gracchus. Some say that he was
buried by his own friends in the Roman camp; others relate, and this
is the more generally received account, that a funeral pile was
erected by Hannibal, in the entrance of the Carthaginian camp; that
the troops under arms performed evolutions, with the dances of the
Spaniards, and motions of the arms and body, which were customary with
the several nations; while Hannibal himself celebrated his obsequies
with every mark of respect, both in word and deed. Such is the account
of those who assert that the affair occurred in Lucania. If you are
disposed to credit the statement of those who relate that he was slain
at the river Calor, the enemy got possession only of the head of
Gracchus; which being brought to Hannibal, he immediately despatched
Carthalo to convey it into the Roman camp to Cneius Cornelius, the
quaestor, who buried the general in the camp, the Beneventans joining
the army in the celebration.

18. The consuls having entered the Campanian territory, while
devastating the country on all sides, were alarmed, and thrown into
confusion, by an eruption of the townsmen and Mago with his cavalry.
They called in their troops to their standards from the several
quarters to which they were dis