ravages as they had used to make in the neighbouring pro

vinces.

Some years after,* Hannibal having invaded Italy, and gained the battle of Trebia, advanced through Tuscany, laying waste the country, and striking Rome itself with ter ror and astonishment. This defolation was announced by figns and prodigies, fome familiar to the Romans, as that of thunder for inftance, and others quite ftrange and unaccountable. For it was faid, that certain fhields fweated blood, that bloody corn was cut at Antium, that red-hot ftones fell from the air, that the Falerians faw the heavens open, † and many billets fall, upon one of which these words were very legible, Mars brandifheth his arms. But Caius Flaminius, then conful, was not difcouraged by any of these things. He was indeed naturally a man of much fire and ambition, and befides was elated by former fucceffes which he had met with contrary to all probability; for against the sense of the senate and his colleague, he had engaged with the Gauls and beaten them. Fabius likewife paid but little regard to prodigies, as too abfurd to be believed, notwithstanding the great effect they had upon the multitude. But being informed how small the numbers of the enemy were, and of their want of money, he advised B 2 the

Here Plutarch leaves a void of fifteen years. It was not indeed a remarkable period of the life of Fabius, Hannibal entered Italy in the year of Rome 535. He defeated Scipio in the battle of Ticinus, before he beat Sempronius in that of Trebia.

+ Plutarch misunderstood Livy, and of the two prodigies which he mentions, made but one. Livy fays, " At Falerium the fky was feen "to open, and in the void space a great light appeared. The lots at "Prænefte fhrunk of their own accord, and one of them dropped down, "whereon was written, Mars brandifbeth his frvord." Liv. lib. xxii.

Thefe lots were bits of oak handfomely wrought, with fome ancient characters infcribed upon them. When any came to confult them, the coffer in which they were kept was opened, and a child having firit fhaken them together, drew out one from the refl, which contained the answer to the querift's demand. As to the lots being fhrunk, which Livy mentions, and which was confidered as a bad omen, no doubt the priests had two fets, a fmaller and a greater, which they played upon the people's fuperftition as they pleafed. Cicero fays, they were very little regarded in his time. Cic. de divinat. lib. ii.

If Fabius was not moved by thofe prodigies, it was not because he despised them, (as his colleague did, who according to Livy, neither feared the gods nor took advice of men) but because he hoped by appeafing the anger of the gods, to render the prodigies ineffectual. It was not Fabius, however, but Cn. Servilius Geminus, who was colleague to Flaminius.

the Romans to have patience; not to give battle to a man who led on an army hardened by many conflicts for this very purpofe, but to fend fuccours to their allies, and to fecure the towns that were in their poffeffion, until the vigour of the enemy expired of itself, like a flame for want of fuel.

He could not, however, prevail upon Flaminius. That general declared he would never fuffer the war to approach Rome, nor, like Camillus of old, difpute within the walls, who fhould be the mafter of the city. He, therefore, ordered the tribunes to draw out the forces, and mounted his horse, but was thrown headlong off the horfe, without any vifible caufe, being feized with a fright and trembling. Yet he perfifted in his refolutions of marching out to meet Hannibal, and drew up his army near the lake called Thrafymenus, in Tuscany.

While the armies were engaged, there happened an earthquake, which overturned whole cities, changed the courfe of rivers, and tore off the tops of mountains: yet not one of the combatants was. in the leaft fenfible of that violent motion. Flaminius himfelf, having greatly fignalized his ftrength and valour, fell; and with him the braveft of his troops; the reft being routed, a great carnarge enfued: full fifteen thousand were flain, and as many taken prifoners. Hannibal was very defirous of difcovering the body of Flaminius, that he might bury it with due honour, as a tribute to his bravery, but he could not find it, nor could any account be given what became of it.

When

*This fall from his horfe, which was confidered as an ill omen, was followed by another as bad. When the enfign attempted to pull his standard out of the ground, in order to march, he had not strength enough to do it. But where is the wonder, fays Cicero, to have a horfe take fright, or to find a ftandard-bearer feebly endeavouring to draw up the ftandard, which he had perhaps purpofely ftruck deep into the ground?

Now the lake of Perugia.

Notwithstanding this complete victory, Hannibal loft only fifteen hundred men; for he fought the Romans at great advantage, having drawn them into an ambufcade between the hills of Cortona and the Jake Thrafymenus. Livy, and Valerius Maximus, make the number of prifoners only fix thoufand; but Polybius fays, they were much more numerous. About ten thoufand Romans, most of them wounded made their cfcape, and took their rout to Rome, where few of them arrived, the reft dying of their wounds before they reached the capital. Two mothers were fo tranfported with joy, one at the gate of the city, when the faw her fon unexpectedly appear, and the other at home, where the found her fon, that they both expired on the spot.

66

When the Romans loft the battle of Trebia, neither the generals fent a true account of it, nor the meffenger reprefented it as it was: both pretended the victory was doubtful. But as to the laft, as foon as the prætor Pomponius was apprifed of it, he affembled the people, and without difguifing the matter in the leaft, made this declaration: Romans, we have loft a great battle, our army is cut to pieces, and Flaminius, the conful, is flain; think, therefore, what is to be done for your fafety." The fame commotion which a furious wind caufes in the ocean, did these words of the prætor produce in fo vaft a multitude. In the first confternation, they could not fix upon any thing: but at length all agreed that affairs required the direction of an abfolute power, which they called the dictatorship, and that a man fhould be pitched upon for it, who would exercise it with fteadiness and intrepidity. That fuch a man was Fabius Maximus, who had a spirit and dignity of manners equal to fo great a command, and befides was of an age in which the vigour of the body is fufficient to execute the purposes of the mind, and courage is tempered with prudence.

Purfuant to thefe refolutions, Fabius was chofen * dictator, and he appointed + Lucius Minucius his general of the horfe. But first, he defired permiffion of the fenate to make ufe of a horfe when in the field. This was forbidden by an ancient law, either becaufe they placed their greateft ftrength in the infantry, and therefore chofe that the commander-in-chief fhould be always pofted among them; or elfe because they would have the dictator, whofe power in all other refpects was very great, and indeed arbitrary, in this cafe at leaft appear to be dependent upon the people. In the next place, Fabius, willing to fhow the high autho rity and grandeur of his office, in order to make the people more tratable and fubmiffive, appeared in public withtwenty-four lilors carrying the fafces before him; and when the furviving conful met him, he fent one of his officers to order him to difmifs his litors, and the other enfigns

B 3

* A dictator could not be regularly named but by the furviving conful, and Servilius being with the army, the people appointed Fabius by their own authority with the title of prodictator. However, the gratitude of Rome allowed his defcendants to put dictator inftead of prodicator in the lift of his titles.

+ According to Polybius and Livy, his name was not Lucius but Marcus Minucius; nor was he pitched upon by Fabius, but by the people.

enfigns of his employment, and to join him as a private

man.

Then beginning with an act of religion, which is the best of all beginnings, and affuring the people that their defeats were not owing to the cowardice of the foldiers, but to the general's neglect of the facred rites and aufpices, he exhorted them to entertain no dread of the enemy, but by extraordinary honours to propitiate the gods. Not that he wanted to infufe into them a fpirit of fuperftition, but to confirm their valour by piety, and to deliver them from every other fear by a fenfe of the divine protection. On that occafion he confulted feveral of thofe myfterious books of the Sibyls, which contained matters of great ufe to the flate; and it is faid, that fome of the prophecies found there, perfectly agreed with the circumftances of thofe times but it was not lawful for him to divulge them. However, in full affembly, he + vowed to the gods a ver facrum, that is, all the young which the next fpring fhall produce, on the mountains, the fields, the rivers, and meadows of Italy, from the goats, the fwine, the sheep, and the cows. He likewife vowed to exhibit the great games in honour of the gods, and to expend upon thofe games three hundred and thirty-three thousand fefterces, three hundred and thirty-three denarii, and one third of a denarius; which fum, in our Greek money, is eighty-three thousand five hundred and eighty-three drachmas, and two oboli. What his reafon might be for fixing upon that precife number, is not eafy to determine, unlefs it were on account of the perfection of the number three, as being the first of odd numbers, the first of plurals, and containing in itself the first differences, and the first elements of all numbers.

Fabius having taught the people to repofe themselves on acts of religion, made them more eafy as to future events. For his own part, he placed all his hopes of victory in himfelf, believing that heaven bleffes men with fuccefs, on account of their virtue and prudence; and therefore he watched the motions of Hannibal, not with a defign to give him battle, but by length of time to wafte his spirit and vigour, and gradually to destroy him by means of his fuperiority in men and money. To fecure himself against the enemy's horfe, he took care to encamp above them on high and mountainous

* καλλιρην αρχομενος ἐκ διων αρχη

This vow had formerly been made to Mars by Aulus Cornelius, and neglected.

mountainous places. When they fat ftill he did the fame; when they were in motion, he showed himself upon the heights, at fuch a distance as not to be obliged to fight against his inclination, and yet near enough to keep them in perpetual alarm, as if, amidst his arts to gain time, he intended every moment to give them battle.

Thefe dilatory proceedings expofed him to contempt, among the Romans in general, and even in his own army. The enemy, too, excepting Hannibal, thought him a man of no fpirit. He alone was fenfible of the keennefs of Fabius, and of the manner in which he intended to carry on the war, and therefore was determined, if poffible, either by ftratagem or force, to bring him to a battle, concluding, that otherwise the Carthaginians must be undone; fince they could not decide the matter in the field, where they had the advantage, but muft gradually wear away, and be reduced to nothing, when the difpute was only who should be fuperior in men and money. Hence it was, that he exhaufted the whole art of war; like a fkilful wrestler, who watches every opportunity to lay hold of his adverfary. Sometimes he advanced and alarmed him with the apprehenfions of an attack; fometimes by marching and countermarching he led him from place to place, hoping to draw him from his plan of caution. But as he was fully perfuaded of its utility, he kept immoveably to his refolution. Minucius, his general of horfe, gave him, however, no fmall trouble by his unfeafonable courage and heat, haranguing the army, and filling them with a furious defire to come to action, and a vain confidence of fuccefs. Thus the foldiers were taught to defpife Fabius, and by way of derifion to call him the Pedagogue of Hannibal, while they extolled Minutius as a great man, and one that acted up to the dignity of Rome. This led Minucius to give a freer fcope to his arrogance and pride, and to ridicule the dictator for encamping conftantly upon the mountains," as if he "did it on purpofe that his men might more clearly behold Italy laid waste with fire and fword." And he asked the friends of Fabius," whether he intended to take his army up into heaven, as he had bid adieu to the world below, or whether he would screen himself from the enemy with "clouds

66

B 4

* Εκτησαὶ των ύπερ τῆς ασφάλειας λογισμων Ευλομενος.

For the office of a pedagogue of old, was (as the name implies) to attend the children, to carry them up and down, and conduct them home again.