26.37
At no
period of the war were the Carthaginians and the Romans alike subjected to
greater vicissitudes of fortune, or to more rapid alternations of hope and
fear. In the provinces, the disasters in Spain on the one hand and the
successes in Sicily on the other filled the Romans with mingled feelings of
sorrow and joy. In Italy the loss of Tarentum was felt to be a grievous blow,
but the unexpected stand by the garrison in the citadel made all hearts glad,
and the sudden panic at the prospect of Rome being besieged and stormed
gave way to universal rejoicings when Capua was taken a few days later. In
the campaign overseas a kind of balance was struck. Philip began hostilities
at an inopportune moment for Rome, but in the new alliance with the
Aetolians and Attalus, king of Pergamum, it seemed as though Fortune were
giving a pledge of Rome's dominion in the East. The Carthaginians, again,
felt that the capture of Tarentum was a set-off against the loss of Capua, and
though they prided themselves on having marched unopposed up to the walls
of Rome they were mortified at the futility of their enterprise, and humiliated
by the contempt shown for them when a Roman army marched out on its
way to Spain whilst they were actually lying under the very walls. Even in
Spain itself, where the destruction of two great generals with their armies
had raised their hopes of finally expelling the Romans and finishing the war,
the higher their hopes had been, the greater the disgust they felt at their
victory being robbed of all its importance by L. Marcius, who was not even a
regular general. So whilst Fortune was holding the scales evenly and
everything was in suspense, both sides felt the same hopes and fears as
though the war were only just beginning.
