t he might be
allowed to mount his horse; besides the two legions which had been
enlisted by the consuls in the beginning of the year, and besides the
cohorts collected out of the Picenian and Gallic territories,
descended to that last resort of the state when almost despaired of,
and when propriety gives place to utility, and made proclamation, that
of such persons as had been guilty of capital crimes or were in prison
on judgment for debt, those who would serve as soldiers with him, he
would order to be released from their liability to punishment and
their debts. These six thousand he armed with the Gallic spoils which
were carried in the procession at the triumph of Caius Flaminius. Thus
he marched from the city at the head of twenty-five thousand men.
Hannibal, after gaining Capua, made a second fruitless attempt upon
the minds of the Neapolitans, partly by fear and partly by hope: and
then marched his troops across into the territory of Nola: not
immediately in a hostile attitude, for he did not despair of a
voluntary surrender, yet intending to omit nothing which they could
suffer or fear, if they delayed the completion of his hopes. The
senate, and especially the principal members of it, persevered
faithfully in keeping up the alliance with the Romans; the commons, as
usual, were all inclined to a change in the government and to espouse
the cause of Hannibal, placing before their minds the fear lest their
fields should be devastated, and the many hardships and indignities
which must be endured in a siege; nor were there wanting persons who
advised a revolt. In this state of things, when a fear took possession
of the senate, that it would be impossible to resist the excited
multitude if they went openly to work, devised a delay of the evil by
secret simulation. They pretended that they were agreeable to the
revolt to Hannibal; but that it was not settled on what terms they
should enter into the new alliance and friendship. Thus having gained
time, they promptly sent ambassadors to the Roman praetor, Marcellus
Claudius, who was at Casilinum with his army, and informed him what a
critical situation Nola was in; that the fields were already in the
possession of Hannibal and the Carthaginians, and that the city soon
would be, unless succour were sent; that the senate, by conceding to
the commons that they would revolt when they pleased, had caused them
not to hasten too much to revolt. Marcellus, after bestowing high