of the allied
cavalry. Found at Cannae half dead amid a heap of slain, Hannibal had
sent him home, after having had him cured, with the kindest attention,
and even with presents. In gratitude for this favour, he had conceived
a wish to put Nola under the power and dominion of the Carthaginian;
but his anxiety and solicitude for effecting a change did not escape
the notice of the praetor. However, as it was necessary that he should
be either restrained by penal inflictions or conciliated by favours,
he preferred attaching to himself a brave and strenuous ally, to
depriving the enemy of him; and summoning him into his presence, in
the kindest manner said, "that the fact that he had many among his
countrymen who were jealous of him, might be easily collected from the
circumstance that not one citizen of Nola had informed him how many
were his splendid military exploits. But that it was impossible for
the valour of one who served in the Roman camp to remain in obscurity;
that many who had served with him had reported to him how brave a man
he was, how often and what dangers he had encountered for the safety
and honour of the Roman people; and how in the battle of Cannae he had
not given over fighting till, almost bloodless, he was buried under a
heap of men, horses, and arms which fell upon him. Go on then," says
he, "and prosper in your career of valour, with me you shall receive
every honour and every reward, and the oftener you be with me, the
more you shall find it will be to your honour and emolument." He
presented the young man, delighted with these promises, with a horse
of distinguished beauty, ordered the quaestor to give him five hundred
denarii, and commanded the lictors to allow him to approach him
whenever he might please.

16. The violent spirit of the youth was so much soothed by the
courteous treatment of Marcellus, that thenceforward no one of the
allies displayed greater courage or fidelity in aiding the Roman
cause. Hannibal being now at the gates, for he had moved his camp back
again from Nuceria to Nola, and the commons beginning to turn their
attention to revolt afresh, Marcellus, on the approach of the enemy,
retired within the walls; not from apprehension for his camp, but lest
he should give an opportunity for betraying the city, which too many
were anxiously watching for. The troops on both sides then began to be
drawn up; the Romans before the walls of Nola, the Carthaginians
before their own ca