Summary of Book XXIII
THE Campanians revolted to Hannibal. Mago, who was
sent to Carthage to report the victory at Cannae, poured
out before the entrance of the Senate House golden rings
taken from bodies of the slain; and the tradition is that
there were more than a peck of them. After that report
Hanno, one of the Carthaginian nobles, tried to persuade the
Carthaginian senate to sue for peace from the Roman people.
And he did not carry it through, since the Barca faction
protested loudly. Claudius Marcellus, a praetor, fought
with success at Nola, making a sally from the city against
Hannibal. Casilinum, beset by the Carthaginians,
suffered so much from starvation that the besieged
ate thongs, hides stripped off from shields, and rats.
They lived on nuts sent down the river Volturnus by the
Romans. The senate was recruited by one hundred and
ninety-seven men from the equestrian order. Lucius
Postumius, the praetor, was slain with his army by the
Gauls. Gnaeus and Publius Scipio defeated Hasdrubal
in Spain and made Spain their own. The remnant of the
army of Cannae was relegated to Sicily, not to leave it
except after the end of the war. Sempronius Gracchus,
the consul, utterly defeated the Campanians. Claudius
Marcellus, a praetor, routed and worsted Hannibal's
army in battle at Nola, and was the first to give the Romans,
exhausted by so many disasters, a better hope for the war.
An alliance was formed between Philip, king of Macedonia,
and Hannibal. The book also contains the successes
gained over the Carthaginians by Publius and Gnaeus
Scipio in Spain and by Titus Manlius, the praetor, in
Sardinia. Hasdrubal, the general, and Mago and Hanno
were captured by them. The army of Hannibal lived in
such indulgence in winter quarters as to be weakened in
body and spirit.
