22.11
After
the various obligations towards the gods had thus been discharged, the
Dictator referred to the senate the question of the policy to be adopted with
regard to the war, with what legions and how many the senators thought he
ought to meet their victorious enemy. They decreed that he should take over
the army from Cneius Servilius, and further that he should enrol from
amongst the citizens and the allies as many cavalry and infantry as he
considered requisite; all else was left to his discretion to take such steps as
he thought desirable in the interests of the republic. Fabius said that he
would add two legions to the army which Servilius commanded; these were
raised by the Master of the Horse and he fixed a day for their assembling at
Tibur. A proclamation was also issued that those who were living in towns
and strongholds that were not sufficiently fortified should remove into places
of safety, and that all the population settled in the districts through which
Hannibal was likely to march should abandon their farms, after first burning
their houses and destroying their produce, so that he might not have any
supplies to fall back upon. He then marched along the Flaminian road to
meet the consul. As soon as he caught sight of the army in the
neighbourhood of Ocriculum near the Tiber, and the consul riding forward
with some cavalry to meet him, he sent an officer to tell him that he was to
come to the Dictator without his lictors. He did so, and the way they met
produced a profound sense of the majesty of the dictatorship amongst both
citizens and allies, who had almost by this time forgotten that greatest of all
offices. Shortly afterwards a despatch was handed in from the City stating
that some transports which were carrying supplies for the army in Spain had
been captured by the Carthaginian fleet near the port of Cosa. The consul
was thereupon ordered to man the ships which were lying off Rome or at
Ostia with full complements of seamen and soldiers, and sail in pursuit of the
hostile fleet and protect the coast of Italy. A large force was raised in Rome,
even freedmen who had children and were of the military age had been
sworn in. Out of these city troops, all under thirty-five years of age were
placed on board the ships, the rest were left to garrison the City.
