23.7
The
envoys came to Hannibal and negotiated a peace with him on the following
terms: No Carthaginian commander or magistrate was to have any
jurisdiction over the citizens of Capua nor was any Campanian citizen to be
obliged to serve in any military or other capacity against his will; Capua was
to retain its own magistrates and its own laws; and the Carthaginian was to
allow them to choose three hundred Romans out of his prisoners of war
whom they were to exchange for the Campanian troopers who were serving
in Sicily. These were the terms agreed upon, but the Campanians went far
beyond the stipulations in their criminal excesses. The populace seized
officers in command of our allies and other Roman citizens, some whilst
occupied with their military duties, others whilst engaged in their private
business, and ordered them to be shut up in the baths on the presence of
keeping them in safe custody; unable to breathe owing to the heat and fumes
they died in great agony. Decius Magius was a man who, if his
fellow-citizens had been rational, would have gained very great authority
with them. He did his best to prevent these crimes and to stop the envoys
from going to Hannibal. When he heard that troops were being sent by
Hannibal to garrison the city, he protested most earnestly against their being
admitted and referred, as warning examples, to the tyranny of Pyrrhus and
the wretched servitude into which the Tarentines fell. After they were
admitted he urged that they should be expelled, or what was better, if the
Capuans wished to clear themselves by a deed which would be remembered
from their guilt in revolting from ancient allies and blood-relations, let them
put the Carthaginian garrison to death and be once more friends with Rome.
When this was reported to Hannibal -for there was no secrecy
about Magius' action -he sent to summon him to his camp. Magius sent a
spirited refusal; Hannibal, he said, had no legal authority over a citizen of
Capua. The Carthaginian, furious at the rebuff, ordered the man to be
thrown into chains and brought to him. Fearing, however, on second
thoughts, that the use of force might create a tumult and feelings once
aroused might lead to a sudden outbreak, he sent a message to Marius
Blossius, the chief magistrate of Capua, that he would be there on the
morrow, and started with a small escort for the city. Marius called the people
together and gave public notice that they should assemble in a body with
their wives and children and go to meet Hannibal. The whole population
turned out, not because they were ordered, but because the mob were
enthusiastic in favour of Hannibal, and were eager to see a commander
famous for so many victories. Decius Magius did not go to meet him, nor did
he shut himself up at home, as this might have implied a consciousness of
guilt; he strolled leisurely about the Forum with his son and a few of his
clients, whilst the whole city was in a state of wild excitement at seeing and
welcoming Hannibal. When he had entered the city Hannibal asked that the
senate should be convened at once. The leading Campanians, however,
implored him not to transact any serious business then, but to give himself up
to the joyous celebration of a day which had been made such a happy one by
his arrival. Though he was naturally impulsive in his anger, he would not
begin with a refusal, and spent most of the day in viewing the city.
