About fifty of the Campanians, who at first came out of the city, having fled for refuge to Fabius, arrived safe at Capua under his protection.  Thus Casilinum was captured on an accidental opportunity which occurred during the conferences and delay of those who were soliciting protection.  The prisoners, both those who were Campanians and those who were Hannibal’s soldiers, were sent to Rome, where they were shut up in a prison.  The crowd of townsmen was distributed among the neighbouring people to be kept in custody.

20.  At the same time that the consuls retired from Casilinum, their object having been accomplished, Gracchus, who was in Lucania, sent, under a prefect of the allies, some cohorts which he had levied in that country to ravage the lands of the enemy.  These, as they were straggling in a careless manner, Hanno surprising, retorted upon his enemy a defeat not much less disastrous than he had himself received at Beneventum, and then hastily retired to the territory of the Bruttians, lest Gracchus should overtake him.  Of the consuls, Marcellus returned to Nola, whence he had come, Fabius proceeded to Samnium to waste the lands, and recover by force the cities which had revolted.  The Samnites of Caudium suffered the severest devastation; their fields were laid waste by fire for a wide extent, and both men and cattle were conveyed away as booty.  The towns of Compulteria, Telesia, Compsa, Melae, Fulfulae, and Orbitanium, were taken by storm.  Blandae, belonging to the Lucanians, and Aecae to the Apulians, were taken after a siege.  Twenty-five thousand of the enemy were captured or slain in these towns, and three hundred and seventy deserters recovered; who, being sent to Rome by the consul, were all of them beaten with rods in the comitium, and thrown down from the rock.  Such were the achievements of Fabius within the space of a few days.  Ill health detained Marcellus from active operations at Nola.  The town of Accua also was taken by storm, during the same period, by the praetor Quintus Fabius, whose province was the neighbourhood of Luceria; he also fortified a stationary camp at Ardonea.  While the Romans were thus employed in different quarters, Hannibal had reached Tarentum, utterly destroying every thing whichsoever way he went.  In the territory of Tarentum, the troops at length began to march in a peaceable manner.  There nothing was violated, nor did they ever go out of the road; it was evident that this was done not from the moderation of the soldiery, or their general, but to conciliate the affections of the Tarentines.  However, on advancing almost close to the walls without perceiving any movement, which he expected would occur on the sight of his vanguard, he pitched his camp about a mile off the city.  Three days before the arrival of Hannibal, Marcus Livius, who had been sent by Marcus Valerius, the propraetor, commanding the fleet at Brundusium, had enlisted the young nobility of Tarentum, and stationing