a short distance from the shore, afforded an escape for
those who could swim. Several noble youths, however, were captured and
slain in that affair. Among whom, Hegeas, the commander of the
cavalry, fell when pursuing the retreating enemy too eagerly. The
sight of the walls, which were not favourable to a besieging force,
deterred the Carthaginian from storming the city.

2. Thence he turned his course to Capua, which was wantoning under a
long course of prosperity, and the indulgence of fortune: amid the
general corruption, however, the most conspicuous feature was the
extravagance of the commons, who exercised their liberty without
limit. Pacuvius Calavius had rendered the senate subservient to
himself and the commons, at once a noble and popular man, but who had
acquired his influence by dishonourable intrigues. Happening to hold
the chief magistracy during the year in which the defeat at the
Trasimenus occurred, and thinking that the commons, who had long felt
the most violent hostility to the senate, would attempt some desperate
measure, should an opportunity for effecting a change present itself;
and if Hannibal should come into that quarter with his victorious
army, would murder the senators and deliver Capua to the
Carthaginians; as he desired to rule in a state preserved rather than
subverted (for though depraved he was not utterly abandoned), and as
he felt convinced that no state could be preserved if bereaved of its
public council, he adopted a plan by which he might preserve the
senate and render it subject to himself and the commons. Having
assembled the senate, he prefaced his remarks by observing, "that
nothing would induce him to acquiesce in a plan of defection from the
Romans, were it not absolutely necessary; since he had children by the
daughter of Appius Claudius, and had a daughter at Rome married to
Livius: but that a much more serious and alarming matter threatened
them, than any consequences which could result from such a measure.
For that the intention of the commons was not to abolish the senate by
revolting to the Carthaginians, but to murder the senators, and
deliver the state thus destitute to Hannibal and the Carthaginians.
That it was in his power to rescue them from this danger, if they
would resign themselves to his care, and, forgetting their political
dissensions, confide in him." When, overpowered with fear, they all
put themselves under his protection, he proceeded: "I will shut yo