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.
