[Sidenote: B.C. 216 (_a.u._ 538)] Though in these matters they were fortunate, they encountered elsewhere a fearful disaster, than which they never suffered one more terrible either earlier or subsequently. It was preceded by certain portents and the solemn verses of the Sibyl which had prophesied the disaster to them so many years before. Remarkable was also the prediction of Marcius. He also was a soothsayer and it was his rede that, inasmuch as they were Trojans of old, they should be overthrown in the Plain of Diomed. This was in Daunian Apulia and took its name from the settlement of Diomed, which he made there in the course of his wanderings. In that plain is also Cannæ, where the present misfortune occurred, close to the Ionian Gulf and near the mouths of the Aufidus. The Sibyl had urged them to beware of the spot, yet said it would avail them naught, even if they should keep it under strictest guard.
Such were the oracular utterances: now what befell the Romans was this. [Sidenote: FRAG. 56^21] THE COMMANDERS WERE ÆMILIUS PAULUS AND TERENTIUS VARRO, MEN NOT OF SIMILAR TEMPERAMENT. FOR THE ONE WAS A PATRICIAN, POSSESSED OF THE GRACES OF EDUCATION, AND ESTEEMED SAFETY BEFORE HASTE: BUT TERENTIUS HAD BEEN BROUGHT UP AMONG THE RABBLE, WAS PRACTICED IN VULGAR BRAVADO, AND SO DISPLAYED LACK OF PRUDENCE IN NEARLY ALL RESPECTS, THINKING, FOR INSTANCE, THAT HE ALONE SHOULD HAVE THE LEADERSHIP IN VIEW OF THE QUIET BEHAVIOR OF HIS COLLEAGUE. NOW THEY BOTH REACHED THE CAMP AT A MOST OPPORTUNE TIME: HANNIBAL HAD NO LONGER ANY PROVENDER; SPAIN WAS IN TURMOIL; THE AFFECTION OF THE ALLIES WAS BEING ALIENATED FROM HIM; AND IF THEY HAD WAITED FOR EVEN THE BRIEFEST POSSIBLE PERIOD, THEY WOULD HAVE CONQUERED. AS MATTERS WENT, HOWEVER, THE RECKLESSNESS OF TERENTIUS AND THE SUBMISSIVENESS OF PAULUS COMPASSED THEIR DEFEAT. Hannibal attempted to lead them into a conflict at once, and with a few followers drew near their stronghold: then, when a sortie was made, he purposely fell back to create the impression of being afraid and so drew them the more surely into a set battle. But, as Paulus restrained his own soldiers from pursuit, Hannibal simulated terror and that night packed up as if to depart; and he left behind him numerous articles lying within the palisade and ordered the rest of the baggage to be escorted with a considerable show of carelessness so as to make the Romans devote their attention to plundering it and give him thereby a chance to attack them. He would have translated his wish into fact, if Paulus had not held back his soldiers, in spite of their reluctance, and held back Terentius as well.