23.36
After
getting possession of the enemies' camp with a loss of less than 100 men,
Gracchus speedily retired, fearing an attack from Hannibal, who had his
camp at Tifata, overlooking Capua. Nor were his anticipations groundless.
No sooner had the news of the disaster reached Capua than Hannibal,
expecting to find at Hamae an army, composed mostly of raw recruits and
slaves, wildly delighted at their victory, despoiling their vanquished foes and
carrying off the plunder, hurried on with all speed past Capua, and ordered
all the Campanian fugitives he met to be escorted to Capua and the wounded
to be carried there in wagons. But when he got to Hamae he found the camp
abandoned, nothing was to be seen but the traces of the recent slaughter and
the bodies of his allies lying about everywhere. Some advised him to march
straight to Cumae and attack the place. Nothing would have suited his
wishes better for, after his failure to secure Neapolis, he was very anxious to
get possession of Cumae that he might have one maritime city at all events.
As, however, his soldiers in their hurried march had brought nothing with
them beyond their arms he returned to his camp on Tifata. The next day,
yielding to the importunities of the Campanians, he marched back to Cumae
with all the necessary appliances for attacking the city, and after effectually
devastating the neighbourhood, fixed his camp at the distance of one mile
from the place. Gracchus still remained in occupation of Cumae, more
because he was ashamed to desert the allies who were imploring his
protection and that of the Roman people than because he felt sufficiently
assured as to his army. The other consul, Fabius, who was encamped at
Cales, did not venture to cross the Vulturnus; his attention was occupied
first with taking fresh auspices and then with the portents which were being
announced one after another, and which the soothsayers assured him would
be very difficult to avert.
