to confusion. Secondly, in his disposition of his forces
he showed great skill. The best troops were placed on the wings, and the
centre, which was composed of the worst, was made to project far beyond
the rest of the line. The troops on each wing were told that when the
Romans had driven in this part of the line and were so become partly
enclosed, that each wing must turn inwards, and attack them in the flank
and rear and endeavour to surround them. This was the cause of the
greatest slaughter; for when the centre gave way, and made room for the
pursuing Romans, Hannibal's line assumed a crescent form, and the
commanders of the select battalions charging from the right and left of
the Romans attacked them in flank, destroying every man except such as
escaped being surrounded. It is related that a similar disaster befel
the Roman cavalry. The horse of Paulus was wounded, and threw its rider,
upon which man after man of his staff dismounted and came to help the
consul on foot. The cavalry, seeing this, took it for a general order to
dismount, and at once attacked the enemy on foot. Hannibal, seeing this,
said, "I am better pleased at this than if he had handed them over to me
bound hand and foot." This anecdote is found in those writers who have
described the incidents of the battle in detail. Of the consuls, Varro
escaped with a few followers to Venusia. Paulus, in the whirling eddies
of the rout, covered with darts which still stuck in his wounds, and
overwhelmed with sorrow at the defeat, sat down on a stone to await his
death at the hands of the enemy. The blood with which his face and head
were covered made it hard for any one to recognise him; but even his own
friends and servants passed him by, taking no heed of him. Only
Cornelius Lentulus, a young patrician, saw and recognised him.
Dismounting from his horse and leading it up to him he begged him to
take it and preserve his life, at a time when the State especially
needed a wise ruler. But he refused, and forced the youth, in spite of
his tears, to remount his horse. He then took him by the hand, saying,
"Lentulus, tell Fabius Maximus, and bear witness yourself, that Paulus
Aemilius followed his instructions to the last, and departed from
nothing of what was agreed upon between us; but he was vanquished first
by Varro, and secondly by Hannibal." Having given Lentulus these
instructions he sent him away, and flinging himself on to the enemy's
swords perished. In th