The booty of the young men attracted notice, and less astonishment was therefore felt that they should frequently repeat the attempt.  At a second meeting with Hannibal they entered into a solemn engagement, that the Tarentines should be free, enjoying their own laws, and all their rights uninterfered with; that they should neither pay any tribute to the Carthaginians, nor receive a garrison against their will; that their present garrison should be delivered up to the Carthaginians.  These points being agreed upon, Philemenus then began to repeat more frequently his customary practice of going out and returning to the city followed by his dogs, and furnished with the other requisites for hunting; for he was remarkable for his fondness of hunting; and generally bringing home something which he had captured or taken away from the enemy, who had purposely placed it in his way he presented it to the commander or the guards of the gates.  They supposed that he preferred going and returning by night through fear of the enemy.  After this practice had become so familiar, that at whatever time of the night he gave a signal, by whistling, the gate was opened, Hannibal thought that it was now time to put the plan in execution.  He was at the distance of three days’ journey, and to diminish the wonder which would be felt at his keeping his camp fixed in one and the same place so long, he feigned himself ill.  Even to the Romans who formed the garrison of Tarentum, his protracted inactivity had ceased to be an object of suspicion.

9.  But after he determined to proceed to Tarentum, selecting from his infantry and cavalry ten thousand men, whom, from activity of body, and lightness of arms, he judged best adapted for the expedition, he began his march in the fourth watch of the night; and sending in advance about eighty Numidian horsemen, ordered them to scour the country on each side of the road, and narrowly examine every place, lest any of the rustics who might have observed his army at a distance should escape; to bring back those who were got before, and kill those whom they met, that they might appear to the neighbouring inhabitants to be a plundering party, rather than a regular army.  Hannibal himself, marching at a rapid pace, pitched his camp about fifteen miles from Tarentum; and without telling his soldiers even there, what was their destination, he only called them together and admonished them to march all of them in the road, and not to suffer any one to turn aside or deviate from the line; and above all, that they would be on the watch, so as to catch the word of command, and not do any thing without the order of their leaders; that in due time he would issue his commands as to what he wished to be done.  About the same hour a rumour reached Tarentum, that a few Numidian horsemen were devastating the fields, and had terrified the rustics through a wide extent of country; at which intelligence the Roman praefect took no further step than to order a division of his