discipline of the Roman army:  but also, you have been observed to be a brave man.  Your crime is atoned for by your valiant deeds, but for the future I shall commit you to the custody of another person.”  Then, to the astonishment of the soldier, he led the girl forward, joined their hands, and said:  “This lady pledges her word that you will remain in the camp with us.  You must prove by your conduct that it was not from any unworthy motive, for which she was the pretext, but solely through love for her that you used to desert your post.”  This is the story which is related about him.

XXI.  Fabius obtained possession of Tarentum by treachery in the following manner.  In his army was a young man of Tarentum whose sister was devotedly attached to him.  Her lover was a Bruttian, and one of the officers of Hannibal’s garrison there.  This gave the Tarentine hopes of effecting his purpose, and with the consent of Fabius he went into the city, being commonly supposed to have run away to see his sister.  For the first few days the Bruttian remained in his quarters, as she wished her amour with him not to be known to her brother.  He then, however, said:  “There was a rumour in the army that you were intimate with one of the chiefs of the garrison.  Who is he? for if he is as they say, a man of courage and distinction—­war, which throws everything into confusion, will care little what countryman he may be.  Nothing is disgraceful which we cannot avoid; but it is a blessing, at a time when justice has no power, that we should yield to a not disagreeable necessity.”  Upon this the lady sent for her Bruttian admirer and introduced him to her brother.  He, by encouraging the stranger in his passion, and assuring him that he would induce his sister to look favourably on it, had no difficulty in inducing the man, who was a mercenary soldier, to break his faith in expectation of the great rewards which he was promised by Fabius.  This is the account given of the transaction by most writers, though some say that the lady by whose means the Bruttian was seduced from his allegiance was not a Tarentine, but a Bruttian by race, who was on intimate terms with Fabius; and that as soon as she discovered that a fellow-countryman and acquaintance of hers was in command of the Bruttian garrison, told Fabius of it, and by interviews which she had with the officer outside the walls gradually won him over to the Roman interests.

XXII.  While these negotiations were in progress, Fabius, wishing to contrive something to draw Hannibal away, sent orders to the troops at Rhegium to ravage the Bruttian country and take Caulonia by storm.  The troops at Rhegium were a body of eight thousand men, mostly deserters:  and the most worthless of those disgraced soldiers whom Marcellus brought from Sicily, so that their loss would not cause any sorrow or harm to Rome; while he hoped that by throwing them out as a bait to Hannibal he might draw him away from Tarentum, as indeed he did.  Hannibal at