o the Anio, three
miles from the city, and fixing his position there, he advanced with
two thousand horse from the Colline gate as far as the temple of
Hercules, and riding up, took as near a view as he could of the walls
and site of the city. Flaccus, indignant that he should do this so
freely, and so much at his ease, sent out a party of cavalry, with
orders to displace and drive back to their camp the cavalry of the
enemy. After the fight had begun, the consuls ordered the Numidian
deserters who were on the Aventine, to the number of twelve hundred,
to march through the midst of the city to the Esquiliae, judging that
no troops were better calculated to fight among the hollows, the
garden walls, and tombs, or in the enclosed roads which were on all
sides. But some persons, seeing them from the citadel and Capitol as
they filed off on horseback down the Publician hill, cried out that
the Aventine was taken. This circumstance occasioned such confusion
and terror, that if the Carthaginian camp had not been without the
city, the whole multitude, such was their alarm, would have rushed
out. They then fled for refuge into their houses and upon the roofs,
where they threw stones and weapons on their own soldiers as they
passed along the streets, taking them for enemies. Nor could the
tumult be repressed, or the mistake explained, as the streets were
thronged with crowds of rustics and cattle, which the sudden alarm had
driven into the city. The battle between the cavalry was successful,
and the enemy were driven away; and as it was necessary to repress the
tumults which were arising in several quarters without any cause, it
was resolved that all who had been dictators, consuls, or censors,
should be invested with authority till such time as the enemy had
retired from the walls. During the remainder of the day and the
following night, several tumults arose without any foundation, and
were repressed.

11. The next day Hannibal, crossing the Anio, drew out all his forces
in order of battle; nor did Flaccus and the consuls decline to fight.
When the troops on both sides were drawn up to try the issue of a
battle, in which Rome was to be the prize of the victors, a violent
shower of rain mingled with hail created such disorder in both the
lines, that the troops, scarcely able to hold their arms, retired to
their camps, less through fear of the enemy than of any thing else. On
the following day, likewise, a similar tempest separ