xt day he set out as
soon as it was light, and following the rumour and the track of the
enemy by forced marches, came up with them not far from Venusia. Here
also an irregular battle took place, in which two thousand of the
Carthaginians were slain. The Carthaginian quitting this place made
for Metapontum, marching by night and over mountainous districts in
order to avoid a battle. Thence Hanno, who commanded the garrison of
that place, was sent into Bruttium with a small party to raise a
fresh army. Hannibal, after adding his forces to his own, went back
to Venusia by the same route by which he came, and proceeded thence
to Canusium. Nero had never quitted the enemy's steps, and when he
himself went to Metapontum, had sent for Quintus Fulvius into Lucania,
lest that region should be left without protection.

43. Meanwhile four Gallic horsemen and two Numidians, who were sent to
Hannibal with a letter from Hasdrubal, after he had retired from the
siege of Placentia, having traversed nearly the whole length of Italy
through the midst of enemies, while following Hannibal as he was
retiring to Metapontum, were taken to Tarentum by mistaking the roads;
where they were seized by some Roman foragers, who were straggling
through the fields, and brought before the proprietor, Caius Claudius.
At first they endeavoured to baffle him by evasive answers, but
threats of applying torture being held out to them, they were
compelled to confess the truth; when they fully admitted that they
were the bearers of a letter from Hasdrubal to Hannibal. They were
delivered into the custody of Lucius Virginius, a military tribune,
together with the letter sealed as it was, to be conveyed to the
consul Claudius. At the same time two troops of Samnites were sent
with them as an escort. Having made their way to the consul, the
letter was read by means of an interpreter, and the captives were
interrogated; when Claudius, coming to the conclusion that the
predicament of the state was not such as that her generals should
carry on the war, each within the limits of his own province, and with
his own troops, according to the customary plans of warfare, and with
an enemy marked out for him by the senate, but that some unlooked
for and unexpected enterprise must be attempted, which, in its
commencement, might cause no less dread among their countrymen than
their enemies, but which, when accomplished, might convert their
great fear into great joy, sent t