26.6
M.
Atilius now brought up the leading maniple of the sixth legion against the
Spanish cohort; L. Porcius Licinius and T. Popilius, who were in command
of the camp, were keeping up a fierce struggle in front of the breastwork,
and killed some of the elephants whilst they were actually clambering over it.
Their bodies rolled down into the fosse and filled it up, making a bridge for
the passage of the enemy, and a terrible carnage began over the prostrate
elephants. On the other side of the camp the Capuans and their Punic
garrison had by this time been repulsed, and the fighting went on right up to
the city gate which leads to the Volturnus. The efforts of the Romans to
break in were frustrated not so much by the arms of the defenders as by the
ballistae and scorpions which were mounted over the gate and kept the
assailants at a distance by the missiles they discharged. A further check was
given them by a wound received by Appius Claudius; he was struck by a
heavy javelin in the upper part of the chest under the left shoulder, whilst he
was riding along the front encouraging his men. A great many of the enemy
were however killed outside the gate; the rest were driven in hasty flight into
the city. When Hannibal saw the destruction of his Spanish cohort and the
energy with which the Romans were defending their lines, he gave up the
attack and recalled the standards. The retiring column of infantry was
followed by the cavalry who were to protect the rear in case the enemy
harassed their retreat. The legions were burning to pursue them, but Fulvius
ordered the "retire" to be sounded, as he considered that he had gained quite
enough in making both the Capuans and Hannibal himself realise how little
he could do in their defence.
Some authors who describe this battle say that 8000 of Hannibal's
men were killed that day and 3000 Capuans, and that 15 standards were
taken from the Carthaginians and 18 from the Capuans. In other accounts I
find that the affair was nothing like so serious, there was more excitement
and confusion than actual fighting. According to these writers the Numidians
and Spaniards broke unexpectedly into the Roman lines with the elephants,
and these animals, trotting all over the camp, upset the tents and created
terrible uproar and panic during which the baggage animals broke their
tethers and bolted. To add to the confusion Hannibal sent some men got up
as Italians, who could speak Latin, to tell the defenders in the name of the
consul that as the camp was lost each man must do his best to escape to the
nearest mountains. The trick was, however, soon detected and frustrated
with heavy loss to the enemy, and the elephants were driven out of the camp
with firebrands. In any case, however it began or ended, this was the last
battle fought before Capua surrendered. The "medix tuticus," the supreme
magistrate of Capua, happened for that year to be Seppius Loesius, a man of
humble birth and slender fortune. The story goes that owing to a portent
which had occurred in his mother's household she consulted a soothsayer on
behalf of her little boy, and he told her that the highest official position in
Capua would come to her son. As she was not aware of anything which
would justify such expectations she replied, "You are indeed describing a
desperate state of things in Capua when you say that such an honour will
come to my son." Her jesting reply to what was a true prediction turned out
itself to be true, for it was only when famine and sword were pressing them
sorely and all hope of further resistance was disappearing that Loesius
accepted the post. He was the last Capuan to hold it, and he only did so
under protest; Capua, he declared, was abandoned and betrayed by all her
foremost citizens.