The Campanians had by this time assembled there in great numbers according to the plan concerted; and not far off Marius Alfius, Medixtuticus, which is the name of the chief magistrate of the Campanians, lay encamped in a retired spot with fourteen thousand armed men, considerably more occupied in making preparation for the sacrifice and in concerting the stratagem to be executed during it, than in fortifying his camp or any other military work.  The sacrifice at Hamae lasted for three days.  It was a nocturnal rite, so arranged as to be completed before midnight.  Gracchus, thinking this the proper time for executing his plot, placed guards at the gates to prevent any one from carrying out intelligence of his intentions; and having compelled his men to employ the time from the tenth hour in taking refreshment and sleep, in order that they might be able to assemble on a signal given as soon as it was dark.  He ordered the standards to be raised about the first watch, and marching in silence, reached Hamae at midnight; where, finding the Campanian camp in a neglected state, as might be expected during a festival, he assaulted it at every gate at once; some he butchered while stretched on the ground asleep, others as they were returning unarmed after finishing the sacrifice.  In the tumultuous action of this night more than two thousand men were slain, together with the general himself, Marius Alfius, and thirty-four military standards were captured.

36.  Gracchus, having made himself master of the enemy’s camp with the loss of less than a hundred men, hastily returned to Cumae, fearful of an attack from Hannibal, who lay encamped above Capua on Tifata; nor did his provident anticipation of the future deceive him; for as soon as intelligence was brought to Capua of this loss, Hannibal, concluding that he should find at Hamae this army, which consisted for the most part of recruits and slaves, extravagantly elated with its success, despoiling the vanquished and collecting booty, marched by Capua at a rapid pace, ordering those Campanians whom he met in their flight to be conducted to Capua under an escort, and the wounded to be conveyed in carriages.  He found at Hamae the camp abandoned by the enemy, where there was nothing to be seen but the traces of the recent carnage, and the bodies of his allies strewed in every part.  Some advised him to lead his troops immediately thence to Cumae, and assault the town.  Though Hannibal desired, in no ordinary degree, to get possession of Cumae at least, as a maritime town, since he could not gain Neapolis; yet as his soldiers had brought out with them nothing besides their arms on their hasty march, he retired to his camp on Tifata.  But, wearied with the entreaties of the Campanians, he returned thence to Cumae the following day, with every thing requisite for besieging the town; and having thoroughly wasted the lands of Cumae, pitched, his camp a mile from the town, in which Gracchus had stayed more because he was ashamed to abandon, in such an emergency, allies who implored his protection and that of the Roman people, than because he felt confidence in his army.  Nor dared the other consul, Fabius, who was encamped at Cales, lead his troops across the Vulturnus, being employed at first in taking new auspices, and afterwards with the prodigies which were reported one after another; and while expiating these, the aruspices answered that they were not easily atoned.