affairs, and I am
sure that if no battle takes place with him for a year, he will either
perish in this country or be compelled to quit it; because even now,
when he seems to be victorious and carrying all before him, not one of
his enemies have come over to his side, while scarcely a third of the
force which he brought from home is now surviving." It is said that
Paulus answered as follows: "For my own part, Fabius, it is better for
me to fall by the spears of the enemy than be again condemned by the
votes of my own countrymen; but if public affairs are indeed in this
critical situation, I will endeavour rather to approve myself a good
general to you than to all those who are urging me to the opposite
course." With this determination Paulus began the campaign.

XV. Varro induced his colleague to adopt the system of each consul
holding the chief command on alternate days. He proceeded to encamp near
Hannibal on the banks of the river Aufidus, close to the village of
Cannae. At daybreak he showed the signal of battle (a red tunic
displayed over the General's tent), so that the Carthaginians were at
first disheartened at the daring of the consul and the great number of
his troops, more than twice that of their own army. Hannibal ordered his
soldiers to get under arms, and himself rode with a few others to a
rising ground, from which he viewed the enemy, who were already forming
their ranks. When one Gisco, a man of his own rank, said to him that the
numbers of the enemy were wonderful, Hannibal with a serious air
replied, "Another circumstance much more wonderful than this has escaped
your notice, Gisco." When Gisco asked what it might be, Hannibal
answered, "It is, that among all those men before you there is not one
named Gisco." At this unexpected answer they all began to laugh, and as
they came down the hill they kept telling this joke to all whom they
met, so that the laugh became universal, and Hannibal's staff was quite
overpowered with merriment. The Carthaginian soldiers seeing this took
courage, thinking that their General must be in a position to despise
his enemy if he could thus laugh and jest in the presence of danger.

XVI. In the battle Hannibal employed several stratagems: first, in
securing the advantage of position, by getting the wind at his back, for
it blew a hurricane, raising a harsh dust from the sandy plains, which
rose over the Carthaginians and blew in the faces of the Romans,
throwing them in