22.18
Fabius
watched all this confusion and excitement, but as he took it to be an
ambuscade, and in any case shrank from a battle in the night, he kept his men
within their lines. As soon as it was light there was a battle just under the
ridge of the mountain where the Carthaginian light infantry were cut off from
their main body and would easily have been crushed by the Romans, who
had considerably the advantage in numbers, had not a cohort of Spaniards
come up, who had been sent back by Hannibal to their assistance. These men
were more accustomed to the mountains and in better training for running
amongst rocks and precipices, and being both more lightly made and more
lightly armed they could easily by their method of fighting baffle an enemy
drawn from the lowlands, heavily armed and accustomed to stationary
tactics. At last they drew off from a contest which was anything but an equal
one. The Spaniards being almost untouched, the Romans having sustained a
heavy loss, each retired to their respective camps. Fabius followed on
Hannibal's track through the pass and encamped above Allifae in an elevated
position and one of great natural strength. Hannibal retraced his steps as far
as the Peligni, ravaging the country as he went, as though his intention was
to march through Samnium upon Rome. Fabius continued to move along the
heights, keeping between the enemy and the City, neither avoiding nor
attacking him. The Carthaginian left the Peligni, and marching back into
Apulia, reached Gereonium. This city had been abandoned by its inhabitants
because a portion of the walls had fallen into ruin. The Dictator formed an
entrenched camp near Larinum. From there he was recalled to Rome on
business connected with religion. Before his departure he impressed upon
the Master of the Horse, not only as commander-in-chief but as a friend
giving good advice and even using entreaties, the necessity of trusting more
to prudence than to luck, and following his own example rather than copying
Sempronius and Flaminius. He was not to suppose that nothing had been
gained now that the summer had been spent in baffling the enemy, even
physicians often gained more by not disturbing their patients than by
subjecting them to movement and exercises; it was no small advantage to
have avoided defeat at the hands of a foe who had been so often victorious
and to have obtained a breathing space after such a series of disasters. With
these unheeded warnings to the Master of the Horse he started for Rome.
