enators, on the same day dismissed his lictors, got rid of the
crowd which escorted him, and mixed with the people in the Forum,
transacting some business of his own as a private man.

X. Now the people, by placing Minucius on the same footing with the
dictator, thought to humble Fabius, but they formed a very false
estimate of his character. He did not reckon their ignorance to be his
misfortune, but as Diogenes the philosopher, when some one said "They
are deriding you," answered "But I am not derided," thinking that those
alone are derided who are affected and disturbed by it, so Fabius
quietly and unconcernedly endured all that was done, hereby affording an
example of the truth of that philosophic maxim that a good and honest
man can suffer no disgrace. Yet he grieved over the folly of the people
on public grounds, because they had given a man of reckless ambition an
opportunity for indulging his desire for battle; and, fearing that
Minucius would be altogether beside himself with pride and vain glory,
and would soon do some irreparable mischief, he left Rome unperceived by
any one. On reaching the camp, he found Minucius no longer endurable,
but insolent and overbearing, and demanding to have the sole command
every other day. To this Fabius would not agree, but divided his forces
with him, thinking it better to command a part than partly to command
the whole of the army. He took the first and fourth legion, and left the
second and third to Minucius, dividing the auxiliary troops equally with
him.

As Minucius gave himself great airs, and was gratified at the thought
that the greatest officer in the State had been humbled and brought low
by his means, Fabius reminded him that if he judged aright, he would
regard Hannibal, not Fabius, as his enemy; but that if he persisted in
his rivalry with his colleagues, he must beware lest he, the honoured
victor, should appear more careless of the safety and success of his
countrymen, than he who had been overcome and ill-treated by them.

XI. Minucius thought all this to be merely the expression of the old
man's jealousy. He took his allotted troops, and encamped apart from
him. Hannibal was not ignorant of what was passing, and watched all
their movements narrowly.

There was a hill between the two armies, which it was not difficult to
take, which when taken would afford an army a safe position, and one
well supplied with necessaries. The plain by which it was surrounded