And then having issued proclamation that those whose towns or castles were unfortified should quit them and assemble in places of security; that all the inhabitants of that tract through which Hannibal was about to march, should remove from the country, having first burnt their buildings and spoiled their fruits, that there might not be a supply of any thing; he himself set out on the Flaminian road to meet the consul and his army; and when he saw in the distance the marching body on the Tiber, near Ocriculum, and the consul with the cavalry advancing to him, he sent a beadle to acquaint the consul that he must meet the dictator without the lictors.  When he had obeyed his command, and their meeting had exhibited a striking display of the majesty of the dictatorship before the citizens and allies, who, from its antiquity, had now almost forgotten that authority; a letter arrived from the city, stating that the ships of burden, conveying provisions from Ostia into Spain to the army, had been captured by the Carthaginian fleet off the port of Cossa.  The consul, therefore, was immediately ordered to proceed to Ostia, and, having manned the ships at Rome or Ostia with soldiers and sailors, to pursue the enemy, and protect the coasts of Italy.  Great numbers of men were levied at Rome, sons of freed-men even, who had children, and were of the military age, had taken the oath.  Of these troops levied in the city, such as were under thirty-five were put on board ships, the rest were left to protect the city.

12.  The dictator, having received the troops of the consul from Fulvius Flaccus, his lieutenant-general, marching through the Sabine territory, arrived at Tibur on the day which he had appointed the new-raised troops to assemble.  Thence he went to Praeneste, and cutting across the country, came out in the Latin way, whence he led his troops towards the enemy, reconnoitering the road with the utmost diligence; not intending to expose himself to hazard any where, except as far as necessity compelled him.  The day he first pitched his camp in sight of the enemy, not far from Arpi, the Carthaginian, without delay, led out his troops, and forming his line gave an opportunity of fighting:  but when he found all still with the enemy, and his camp free from tumult and disorder, he returned to his camp, saying indeed tauntingly, “That even the spirit of the Romans, inherited from Mars, was at length subdued; that they were warred down and had manifestly given up all claim to valour and renown:”  but burning inwardly with stifled vexation because he would have to encounter a general by no means like Flaminius and Sempronius; and because the Romans, then at length schooled by their misfortunes, had sought a general a match for Hannibal; and that now he had no longer to fear the headlong violence, but the deliberate prudence of the dictator.  Having not yet experienced his constancy, he began to provoke and try his temper, by frequently shifting his camp and laying waste the