25.22
The
news of these disasters, one after another, created very great grief and alarm
amongst the citizens in Rome, still, as they knew that the consuls were so far
successful where success was most important, they were not so much
disturbed by the tidings as they might have been. The senate despatched C.
Laetorius and M. Metilius with instructions to the consuls, telling them to
carefully get together the remains of the two armies and to see to it that the
survivors were not driven by fear and despair to surrender to the enemy, as
had happened after the disaster at Cannae. They were also to find out who
had deserted amongst the volunteer slaves. Publius Cornelius also was
charged with this latter task, as he was with the raising of fresh troops, and
he caused notices to be published through the market-towns and boroughs,
ordering that search should be made for the volunteer slaves, and that they
should be brought back to their standards. These instructions were all most
carefully carried out. Appius Claudius placed D. Junius in command at the
mouth of the Vulturnus, and M. Aurelius Cotta at Puteoli; whenever the
vessels arrived from Etruria and Sardinia they were at once to have the corn
sent on to the camp. Claudius then returned to Capua and found his
colleague Q. Fulvius bringing everything from Casilinum and making
preparations to attack the city. Both of them now commenced the
investment of the place, and they summoned the praetor, Claudius Nero,
who was in Claudius' old camp at Suessula. He, too, leaving a small force to
hold the position, came down with the rest of his army to Capua. So three
commanders had their headquarters now established round Capua, and three
armies working on different sides were preparing to ring the city round with
fosse and dyke. They erected blockhouses at certain intervals, and battles
took place in several places at once with the Campanians as they tried to
stop the work, the result being that at last the Campanians kept within their
walls and gates.
Before, however, the circle of investment was completed, envoys
were despatched to Hannibal to remonstrate with him for having abandoned
Capua which was now almost restored to the Romans, and to implore him to
bring them succour now, at all events, as they were no longer merely
besieged but completely blockaded. A despatch was sent to the consuls by P.
Cornelius bidding them give an opportunity to the inhabitants, before they
completed the investment, of leaving the place and carrying away their
property with them. Those who left before the 15th of March would be free
and remain in possession of all their property; after that date those who left
and those who remained would be alike treated as enemies. When this offer
was announced to the Campanians they treated it not only with scorn but
with gratuitous insults and threats as well. Shortly before this Hannibal had
left Herdonea for Tarentum in the hope of acquiring the place either by
treachery or by force, and as he failed to do so he bent his course towards
Brundisium, under the impression that the town would surrender. It was
whilst he was spending time here to no purpose that the envoys from Capua
came to him with their remonstrances and appeals. Hannibal answered them
in high-sounding words; "he had raised the siege of Capua once already, and
the consuls would not wait for his approach even now." Dismissed with this
hope the envoys had considerable difficulty in getting back to Capua,
surrounded as it now was with a double fosse and rampart.