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Publius Scipio, when he commanded on the Po, had not adopted this view of a defensive attitude, and the attempt of his successor to imitate him at Casilinum had failed in such a way as to afford a copious fund of ridicule to the scoffers of the city.
A turn of the road, a temporary makeshift, led them around Casilinum, whose little garrison lay close, nor opened their gates to friend or foe. There, at last, in the midst of the level plain that stretched down to the sea, lay Capua, gleaming white and radiant beneath the brush of the now descending sun. Gradually the great sweep of city walls grew lowering and massive.
From the Straits of Sicily, Buccelin, with thirty thousand Franks and Alamanni, slowly moved towards Capua, occupied with a wooden tower the bridge of Casilinum, covered his right by the stream of the Vulturnus, and secured the rest of his encampment by a rampart of sharp stakes, and a circle of wagons, whose wheels were buried in the earth.
After Acerrae was plundered and burnt, Hannibal, having received intelligence that the Roman dictator with the new-raised legions was seen at some distance from Casilinum, and fearing lest, the camp of the enemy being so near, something might occur at Capua, marched his army to Casilinum.
However, nuts poured out at the Roman camp floated down the centre of the river to Casilinum, and were caught with hurdles. At length they were reduced to such a degree of want, that they endeavoured to chew the thongs and skins which they tore from their shields, after softening them in warm water; nor did they abstain from mice or any other kind of animals.
That therefore, by Hercules, not only Samnium, which had now been yielded to the Carthaginians, as if it had been land beyond the Iberus, but the Campanian, Calenian, and Falernian territories had been devastated, while the dictator was sitting down at Casilinum, protecting his own farm with the legions of the Roman people: that the army, eager for battle, as well as the master of the horse, were kept back almost imprisoned within the rampart: that their arms were taken out of their hands, as from captured enemies: at length, as soon as ever the dictator had gone away, having marched out beyond their rampart, that they had routed the enemy and put him to flight.
Two of the new engines destroyed before Casilinum! Casilinum, forsooth! a paltry village, against which the Capuan children would hardly deign to march! It is Rome Rome Rome that calls and this great general, this conqueror, sits down before Nuceria, Acerrae, Nola, Casilinum.
"I do not know as to that," said the fellow, with the stubborn dulness of a peasant; "but I know it is hard to see your property and goods destroyed and to hold fast to allies who do not protect you and a Roman garrison at Casilinum all the time.
Thus having gained time, they promptly sent ambassadors to the Roman praetor, Marcellus Claudius, who was at Casilinum with his army, and informed him what a critical situation Nola was in; that the fields were already in the possession of Hannibal and the Carthaginians, and that the city soon would be, unless succour were sent; that the senate, by conceding to the commons that they would revolt when they pleased, had caused them not to hasten too much to revolt.
During the same time, the consul, Fabius, came to attempt Casilinum, which was occupied by a Carthaginian garrison; and, as if by concert, Hanno approached Beneventum on one side from the Bruttians, with a large body of foot and horse, while on the other side Gracchus approached it from Luceria. The latter entered the town first.
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