27.44
The
excitement and alarm in Rome were quite as great as they had been two
years previously, when the Carthaginian camp was visible from the walls and
gates of the City. People could not make up their minds whether the consul's
daring march was more to be lauded or censured, and it was evident that
they would await the result before pronouncing for or against it -a most
unfair way of judging. "The camp." they said, "is left, near an enemy like
Hannibal, with no general, with an army from which its main strength, the
flower of its soldiery, has been withdrawn. Pretending to march into
Lucania, the consul has taken the road to Picenum and Gaul, leaving the
safety of his camp dependent upon the ignorance of the enemy as to what
direction he and his division have taken. What will happen if they find that
out, if Hannibal with his whole army decides to start in pursuit of Nero with
his 6000 men, or attacks the camp, left as it is to be plundered, without
defence, without a general with full powers or one who can take the
auspices?" The former disasters in this war, the recollection of the two
consuls killed the previous year, filled them with dread. "All those things," it
was said, "happened when the enemy had only one commander and one army
in Italy; now there are two distinct wars going on, two immense armies, and
practically two Hannibals in Italy, for Hasdrubal too is a son of Hamilcar and
is quite as able and energetic a commander as his brother. He has been
trained in war against Rome for many years in Spain, and distinguished
himself by the double victory in which he annihilated two Roman armies and
their illustrious captains. In the rapidity of his march from Spain, and the way
in which he has roused the tribes of Gaul to arms, he can boast of far greater
success than even Hannibal himself, for he got together an army in those
very districts in which his brother lost the greater part of his force by cold
and hunger, the most miserable of all deaths." Those who were acquainted
with recent events in Spain went on to say that he would meet in Nero a
general who was no stranger to him, for he was the general whom
Hasdrubal, when intercepted in a narrow pass, had duped and baffled as
though he were a child by making illusory proposals for peace. In this way
they exaggerated the strength of the enemy and depreciated their own, their
fears made them look on the darkest side of everything.
