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the infantry and the river on the right flank. Hannibal commanded the

centre of the army in person, Hanno the right wing, Hasdrubal the left

wing; Maharbal commanded the cavalry.

Varro placed his infantry in close and heavy order, so as to reduce

their front to that of the Carthaginians. The Roman cavalry, numbering

two thousand four hundred men, was on his right wing, and was thus

opposed to Hannibal's heavy cavalry, eight thousand strong. The cavalry

of the Italian allies, four thousand eight hundred strong, was on the

left wing facing the Numidians.

Emilius commanded the Roman right, Varro the left. The Carthaginians

faced north, so that the wind, which was blowing strongly from the

south, swept clouds of dust over their heads full into the faces of the

enemy. The battle was commenced by the light troops on both sides,

who fought for some time obstinately and courageously, but without any

advantage to either. While this contest was going on, Hannibal advanced

his centre so as to form a salient angle projecting in front of his

line. The whole of the Gauls and Spaniards took part in this movement,

while the Africans remained stationary; at the same time he launched his

heavy cavalry against the Roman horse.

The latter were instantly overthrown, and were driven from the field

with great slaughter. Emilius himself was wounded, but managed to join

the infantry. While the Carthaginian heavy horse were thus defeating

the Roman cavalry, the Numidians maneuvered near the greatly superior

cavalry of the Italian allies, and kept them occupied until the heavy

horse, after destroying the Roman cavalry, swept round behind their

infantry and fell upon the rear of the Italian horse, while the

Numidians charged them fiercely in front.

Thus caught in a trap the Italian horse were completely annihilated, and

so, before the heavy infantry of the two armies met each other, not a

Roman cavalry soldier remained alive and unwounded on the field.

The Roman infantry now advanced to the charge, and from the nature of

Hannibal's formation their centre first came in contact with the head of

the salient angle formed by the Gauls and Spaniards. These resisted with

great obstinacy. The principes, who formed the second line of the Roman

infantry, came forward and joined the spearmen, and even the triarii

pressed forward and joined in the fight. Fighting with extreme obstinacy

the Carthaginian centre was forced gradually back until they were again

in a line with the Africans on their flanks.

The Romans had insensibly pressed in from both flanks upon the point

where they had met with resistance, and now occupied a face scarcely

more than half that with which they had begun the battle. Still further

the Gauls and Spaniards were driven back until they now formed an angle

in rear of the original line, and in this angle the whole of the Roman

infantry in a confused mass pressed upon them. This was the moment for

which Hannibal had waited. He wheeled round both his flanks, and the

Africans, who had hitherto not struck a blow, now fell in perfect order

upon the flanks of the Roman mass, while Hasdrubal with his victorious

cavalry charged down like a torrent upon their rear. Then followed a

slaughter unequalled in the records of history. Unable to open out, to

fight, or to fly, with no quarter asked or given, the Romans and their

Latin allies fell before the swords of their enemies, till, of the

seventy thousand infantry which had advanced to the fight, forty

thousand had fallen on the field. Three thousand were taken prisoners,

seven thousand escaped to the small camp, and ten thousand made their

way across the river to the large camp, where they joined the force

which had been left there, and which had, in obedience to Varro's

orders, attacked the Carthaginian camp, but had been repulsed with a

loss of two thousand men. All the troops in both camps were forced

to surrender on the following morning, and thus only fifteen thousand

scattered fugitives escaped of the eighty-seven thousand two hundred

infantry and cavalry under the command of the Roman consuls.

Hannibal's loss in the battle of Cannae amounted to about six thousand

men.

CHAPTER XIX: IN THE MINES

The exultation of the Carthaginians at the total destruction of their

enemies was immense, and Maharbal and some of the other leaders urged

Hannibal at once to march upon Rome; but Hannibal knew the spirit of

the Roman people, and felt that the capture of Rome, even after

the annihilation of its army, would be a greater task than he could

undertake. History has shown how desperate a defence may be made by

a population willing to die rather than surrender, and the Romans, an

essentially martial people, would defend their city until the last gasp.

They had an abundance of arms, and there were the two city legions,

which formed the regular garrison of the capital.

The instant the news of the defeat reached Rome, a levy of all males

over seventeen years of age was ordered, and this produced another ten

thousand men and a thousand cavalry. Eight thousand slaves who were

willing to serve were enlisted and armed, and four thousand criminals

and debtors were released from prison and pardoned, on the condition of

their taking up arms. The praetor Marcellus was at Ostia with the ten

thousand men with which he was about to embark for Sicily.

Thus Rome would be defended by forty-three thousand men, while Hannibal

had but thirty-three thousand infantry, and his cavalry, the strongest

arm of his force, would be useless. From Cannae to Rome was twelve days'

march with an army encumbered with booty. He could not, therefore, hope

for a surprise. The walls of Rome were exceedingly strong, and he had

with him none of the great machines which would have been necessary for

a siege. He must have carried with him the supplies he had accumulated

for the subsistence of his force, and when these were consumed he would

be destitute. Fresh Roman levies would gather on his rear, and before

long his whole army would be besieged.

In such an undertaking he would have wasted time, and lost the prestige

which he had acquired by his astonishing victory. Varro, who had escaped

from the battle, had rallied ten thousand of the fugitives at the strong

place of Canusium, and these would be a nucleus round which the rest of

those who had escaped would rally, and would be joined by fresh levies

of the Italian allies of Rome.

The Romans showed their confidence in their power to resist a siege by

at once despatching Marcellus with his ten thousand men to Canusium.

Thus, with a strongly defended city in front, an army of twenty thousand

Roman soldiers, which would speedily increase to double that number, in

his rear, Hannibal perceived that were he to undertake the siege of

Rome he would risk all the advantages he had gained. He determined,

therefore, to continue the policy which he had laid down for himself,

namely, to move his army to and fro among the provinces of Italy until

the allies of Rome one by one fell away from her, and joined him, or

until such reinforcements arrived from Carthage as would justify him in

undertaking the siege of Rome.

Rome herself was never grander than in this hour of defeat; not for

a moment was the courage and confidence of her citizens shaken. The

promptness with which she prepared for defence, and still more the

confidence which she showed by despatching Marcellus with his legion to

Canusium instead of retaining him for the defence of the city, show a

national spirit and manliness worthy of the highest admiration. Varro

was ordered to hand over his command to Marcellus, and to return to Rome

to answer before the senate for his conduct.

Varro doubted not that his sentence would be death, for the Romans,

like the Carthaginians, had but little mercy for a defeated general. His

colleague and his army had undoubtedly been sacrificed by his rashness.

Moreover, the senate was composed of his bitter political enemies, and

he could not hope that a lenient view would be taken of his conduct.

Nevertheless Varro returned to Rome and appeared before the senate. That

body nobly responded to the confidence manifested in it; party feeling

was suspended, the political adversary, the defeated general, were alike

forgotten, it was only remembered how Varro had rallied his troops, how

he had allayed the panic which prevailed among them, and had at once

restored order and discipline. His courage, too, in thus appearing,

after so great a disaster, to submit himself to the judgment of the

country, counted in his favour. His faults were condoned, and the senate

publicly thanked him, because he had not despaired of the commonwealth.

Hannibal, in pursuance of his policy to detach the allies of Italy from

Rome, dismissed all the Italian prisoners without ransom. The Roman

prisoners he offered to admit to ransom, and a deputation of them

accompanied an ambassador to offer terms of peace. The senate, however,

not only refused to discuss any terms of peace, but absolutely forbade

the families and friends of the prisoners to ransom them, thinking it

politic neither to enrich their adversary nor to show indulgence to

soldiers who had surrendered to the enemy.

The victory of Cannae and Hannibal's clemency began to bear the effects

which he hoped for. Apulia declared for him at once, and the towns

of Arpi and Celapia opened their gates to him; Bruttium, Lucania, and

Samnium were ready to follow. Mago with one division of the army was

sent into Bruttium to take possession of such towns as might submit.

Hanno was sent with another division to do the same in Lucania. Hannibal

himself marched into Samnium, and making an alliance with the tribes,

there stored his plunder, and proceeded into Campania, and entered

Capua, the second city of Italy, which concluded an alliance with him.

Mago embarked at one of the ports of Bruttium to carry the news of

Hannibal's success to Carthage, and to demand reinforcements.

Neither Rome nor Carthage had the complete mastery of the sea, and as

the disaster which had befallen Rome by land would greatly lessen

her power to maintain a large fleet, Carthage could now have poured

reinforcements in by the ports of Bruttium without difficulty. But

unfortunately Hannibal's bitterest enemies were to be found not in Italy

but in the senate of Carthage, where, in spite of the appeals of Mago

and the efforts of the patriotic party, the intrigues of Hanno and

his faction and the demands made by the war in Spain, prevented the

reinforcements from being forwarded which would have enabled him to

terminate the struggle by the conquest of Rome.

Hannibal, after receiving the submission of several other towns and

capturing Casilinum, went into winter quarters at Capua. During the

winter Rome made gigantic efforts to place her army upon a war footing,

and with such success that, excluding the army of Scipio in Spain,

she had, when the spring began, twelve legions or a hundred and twenty

thousand men again under arms; and as no reinforcements, save some

elephants and a small body of cavalry, ever reached Hannibal from

Carthage, he was, during the remaining thirteen years of the war,

reduced to stand wholly on the defensive, protecting his allies,

harassing his enemy, and feeding his own army at their expense; and yet

so great was the dread which his genius had excited that, in spite of

their superior numbers, the Romans after Cannae never ventured again to

engage him in a pitched battle.

Soon after the winter set in Hannibal ordered Malchus to take a number

of officers and a hundred picked men, and to cross from Capua to

Sardinia, where the inhabitants had revolted against Rome, and were

harassing the praetor, Quintus Mucius, who commanded the legion which

formed the garrison of the island. Malchus and the officers under him

were charged with the duty of organizing the wild peasantry of the

island, and of drilling them in regular tactics; for unless acting

as bodies of regular troops, however much they might harass the Roman

legion, they could not hope to expel them from their country. Nessus of

course accompanied Malchus.

The party embarked in two of the Capuan galleys. They had not been many

hours at sea when the weather, which had when they started been fine,

changed suddenly, and ere long one of the fierce gales which are so

frequent in the Mediterranean burst upon them. The wind was behind them,

and there was nothing to do but to let the galleys run before it. The

sea got up with great rapidity, and nothing but the high poops at their

stern prevented the two galleys being sunk by the great waves which

followed them. The oars were laid in, for it was impossible to use them

in such a sea.

As night came on the gale increased rather than diminished. The

Carthaginian officers and soldiers remained calm and quiet in the storm,

but the Capuan sailors gave themselves up to despair, and the men at the

helm were only kept at their post by Malchus threatening to have them

thrown overboard instantly if they abandoned it. After nightfall he

assembled the officers in the cabin in the poop.

"The prospects are bad," he said. "The pilot tells me that unless the

gale abates or the wind changes we shall, before morning, be thrown upon

the coast of Sardinia, and that will be total destruction; for upon the

side facing Italy the cliffs, for the most part, rise straight up from

the water, the only port on that side being that at which the Romans

have their chief castle and garrison. He tells me there is nothing to be

done, and I see nought myself. Were we to try to bring the galley round

to the wind she would be swamped in a moment, while even if we could

carry out the operation, it would be impossible to row in the teeth of

this sea. Therefore, my friends, there is nothing for us to do save

to keep up the courage of the men, and to bid them hold themselves in

readiness to seize upon any chance of getting to shore should the vessel

strike."

All night the galley swept on before the storm. The light on the other