o that they could discriminate with greater
certainty, and the Romans who survived the carnage had taken refuge in
the citadel, the tumult now beginning to subside a little, Hannibal
gave orders to assemble the Tarentines without their arms. All of them
attended the assembly, except those who had accompanied the Romans in
their retreat to the citadel, to share every fortune with them. Here
Hannibal having addressed the Tarentines in terms of kindness, and
appealed to the services he had rendered to those of their countrymen
whom he had captured at the Trasimenus and at Cannae, and having at
the same time inveighed against the haughty domination of the Romans,
desired that they would every one of them retire to their respective
houses, and inscribe their names upon their doors; declaring, that he
should give orders that those houses which had not the names written
upon them should be plundered. That if any man should write his name
upon the house of a Roman, (and the Romans occupied houses by
themselves,) he should treat him as an enemy. Having dismissed the
assembly, and the names inscribed upon the doors having made it easy
to distinguish the house of an enemy from that of a friend, on a
signal given, the troops ran in every direction to plunder the
lodgings of the Romans, and a considerable booty was found.

11. The next day he led his troops to assault the citadel; but seeing
that it was protected by very high rocks towards the sea, which washed
the greater part of it, and formed it into a sort of peninsula, and
towards the city by a wall and ditch, and consequently that it could
not be taken by assault or by works; lest the design to protect the
Tarentines should detain him from the prosecution of more important
objects, and lest the Romans should have the power of sallying from
the citadel whenever they pleased against the Tarentines, if left
without a strong protecting force, he resolved to cut off the
communication between the citadel and city by a rampart; not without a
hope that he might have an opportunity of fighting with the Romans,
when attempting to obstruct the work; and if they should sally forth
too eagerly, that by killing many of them the strength of the garrison
would be so far reduced, that the Tarentines alone would be easily
able to defend themselves from them. After they had begun, the Romans,
suddenly throwing open the gate, rushed in upon the workmen. The guard
stationed before the works allowe