Varro doubted not that his sentence would be death, for the Romans, like the Carthaginians, had but little mercy for a defeated general.  His colleague and his army had undoubtedly been sacrificed by his rashness.  Moreover, the senate was composed of his bitter political enemies, and he could not hope that a lenient view would be taken of his conduct.  Nevertheless Varro returned to Rome and appeared before the senate.  That body nobly responded to the confidence manifested in it; party feeling was suspended, the political adversary, the defeated general, were alike forgotten, it was only remembered how Varro had rallied his troops, how he had allayed the panic which prevailed among them, and had at once restored order and discipline.  His courage, too, in thus appearing, after so great a disaster, to submit himself to the judgment of the country, counted in his favour.  His faults were condoned, and the senate publicly thanked him, because he had not despaired of the commonwealth.

Hannibal, in pursuance of his policy to detach the allies of Italy from Rome, dismissed all the Italian prisoners without ransom.  The Roman prisoners he offered to admit to ransom, and a deputation of them accompanied an ambassador to offer terms of peace.  The senate, however, not only refused to discuss any terms of peace, but absolutely forbade the families and friends of the prisoners to ransom them, thinking it politic neither to enrich their adversary nor to show indulgence to soldiers who had surrendered to the enemy.

The victory of Cannae and Hannibal’s clemency began to bear the effects which he hoped for.  Apulia declared for him at once, and the towns of Arpi and Celapia opened their gates to him; Bruttium, Lucania, and Samnium were ready to follow.  Mago with one division of the army was sent into Bruttium to take possession of such towns as might submit.  Hanno was sent with another division to do the same in Lucania.  Hannibal himself marched into Samnium, and making an alliance with the tribes, there stored his plunder, and proceeded into Campania, and entered Capua, the second city of Italy, which concluded an alliance with him.  Mago embarked at one of the ports of Bruttium to carry the news of Hannibal’s success to Carthage, and to demand reinforcements.

Neither Rome nor Carthage had the complete mastery of the sea, and as the disaster which had befallen Rome by land would greatly lessen her power to maintain a large fleet, Carthage could now have poured reinforcements in by the ports of Bruttium without difficulty.  But unfortunately Hannibal’s bitterest enemies were to be found not in Italy but in the senate of Carthage, where, in spite of the appeals of Mago and the efforts of the patriotic party, the intrigues of Hanno and his faction and the demands made by the war in Spain, prevented the reinforcements from being forwarded which would have enabled him to terminate the struggle by the conquest of Rome.