species of torture;” they told him “he had gone off to the Bruttians, in order to get out of the way, as it were, lest Capua should be taken before his eyes; while, by Hercules, the Romans, on the contrary, could not be drawn off from the siege of Capua, even by an attack upon their city.  So much more constant were the Romans in their enmity than the Carthaginians in their friendship.  If he would return to Capua and direct the whole operations of the war to that point, that both themselves and the Campanians would be prepared for a sally.  That they had crossed the Alps not to carry on a war with the people of Rhegium nor Tarentum.  That where the Roman legions were, there the armies of the Carthaginians ought to be.  Thus it was that victories had been gained at Cannae and Trasimenus; by uniting, by pitching their camp close to that of the enemy, by trying their fortune.”  A letter to this effect was given to some Numidians who had already engaged to render their services for a stated reward.  These men came into the camp to Flaccus under pretence of being deserters, with the intention of quitting it by seizing an opportunity, and the famine, which had so long existed at Capua, afforded a pretext for desertion which no one could suspect.  But a Campanian woman, the paramour of one of the deserters, unexpectedly entered the camp, and informed the Roman general that the Numidians had come over according to a preconcerted plan of treachery, and were the bearers of letters to Hannibal; that she was prepared to convict one of the party of that fact, as he had discovered it to her.  On being brought forward, he at first pretended, with considerable pertinacity, that he did not know the woman; but afterwards, gradually succumbing to the force of truth, when he saw the instruments of torture called for and preparing, he confessed that it was so.  The letters were produced, and a discovery was made of an additional fact, before concealed, that other Numidians were strolling about in the Roman camp, under pretence of being deserters.  Above seventy of these were arrested, and, with the late deserters, scourged with rods; and after their hands had been cut off, were driven back to Capua.  The sight of so severe a punishment broke the spirit of the Campanians.

13.  The people, rushing in crowds to the senate-house, compelled Lesius to assemble a senate, and openly threatened the nobles, who had now for a long time absented themselves from the public deliberations, that unless they attended the meeting of the senate, they would go round to their houses and drag them all before the public by force.  The fear of this procured the magistrate a full senate.  Here, while the rest contended for sending ambassadors to the Roman generals, Vibius Virrius, who had been the instigator of the revolt from the Romans, on being asked his opinion, observed, that “those persons who spoke of sending ambassadors, and of peace, and a surrender, did not bear in mind either what they would do if