22.23
These
were the main incidents of the campaign in Spain during the second summer
of the Punic war. In Italy the masterly inaction of Fabius had for a short time
stemmed the tide of Roman disasters. It was a cause of grave anxiety to
Hannibal, for he fully realised that the Romans had chosen for their
commander-in-chief a man who conducted war on rational principles and not
by trusting to chance. But amongst his own people, soldiers and civilians
alike, his tactics were viewed with contempt, especially after a battle had
been brought about owing to the rashness of the Master of the Horse in the
Dictator's absence which would be more correctly described as fortunate
rather than as successful. Two incidents occurred which made the Dictator
still more unpopular. One was due to the crafty policy of Hannibal. Some
deserters had pointed out to him the Dictator's landed property, and after all
the surrounding buildings had been levelled to the ground he gave orders for
that property to be spared from fire and sword and all hostile treatment
whatever in order that it might be thought that there was some secret bargain
between them. The second cause of the Dictator's growing unpopularity was
something which he himself did, and which at first bore an equivocal aspect
because he had acted without the authority of the senate, but ultimately it
was universally recognised as redounding very greatly to his credit. In
carrying out the exchange of prisoners it had been agreed between the
Roman and the Carthaginian commanders, following the precedent of the
first Punic war, that whichever side received back more prisoners than they
gave should strike a balance by paying two and a half pounds of silver for
each soldier they received in excess of those they gave. The Roman prisoners
restored were two hundred and forty-seven more than the Carthaginians.
The question of this payment had been frequently discussed in the senate, but
as Fabius had not consulted that body before making the agreement there
was some delay in voting the money. The matter was settled by Fabius
sending his son Quintus to Rome to sell the land which had been untouched
by the enemy; he thus discharged the obligation of the State at his own
private expense. When Hannibal burnt Gereonium after its capture, he left a
few houses standing to serve as granaries, and now he was occupying a
standing camp before its walls. He was in the habit of sending out two
divisions to collect corn, he remained in camp with the third ready to move
in any direction where he saw that his foragers were being attacked.
