University of Virginia Library

23.39

While these various steps were being taken, one of the captured ships which were on their way to Rome escaped during the voyage to Philip, and he then learnt that his agents had been captured together with his despatches. As he did not know what understanding they had come to with Hannibal, or what proposals Hannibal's agents were bringing to him, he despatched a second embassy with the same instructions. Their names were Heraclitus, surnamed Scotinus, Crito of Boeotia, and Sositheus the Magnesian. They accomplished their mission successfully, but the summer passed away before the king could attempt any active measures. So important was the seizure of that one ship with the king's agents on board in delaying the outbreak of the war which now threatened Rome! Fabius at last succeeded in expiating the portents and crossed the Vulturnus; both consuls now resumed the campaign round Capua. Combulteria, Trebula, and Austicula, all of which had revolted to Hannibal, were successfully attacked by Fabius, and the garrisons which Hannibal had placed in them as well as a large number of Campanians were made prisoners. At Nola, the senate were on the side of the Romans, as they had been the year before, and the populace, who were on the side of Hannibal, were hatching secret plots for the murder of the aristocrats and the betrayal of the city. To prevent them from carrying out their intentions Fabius marched between Capua and Hannibal's camp on Tifata and established himself in Claudius' camp overlooking Suessula. From there he sent M. Marcellus, who was propraetor, with the force under his command to occupy Nola.