II.  He was consul five times, and in his first consulship obtained a triumph over the Ligurians.  They were defeated by him and driven with great loss to take refuge in the Alps, and thus were prevented from ravaging the neighbouring parts of Italy as they had been wont to do.  When Hannibal invaded Italy, won his first battle at the Trebia, and marched through Etruria, laying everything waste as he went, the Romans were terribly disheartened and cast down, and terrible prodigies took place, some of the usual kind, that is, by lightning, and others of an entirely new and strange character.  It was said that shields of their own accord became drenched with blood:  that at Antium standing corn bled when it was cut by the reapers; that red-hot stones fell from heaven, and that the sky above Falerii was seen to open and tablets to fall, on one of which was written the words “Mars is shaking his arms.”

None of these omens had any effect upon Caius Flaminius, the consul, for, besides his naturally spirited and ambitious nature, he was excited by the successes which he had previously won, contrary to all reasonable probability.  Once, against the express command of the Senate, and in spite of the opposition of his colleague, he engaged with the Gauls and won a victory over them.  Fabius also was but little disturbed by the omens, because of their strange and unintelligible character, though many were alarmed at them.  Knowing how few the enemy were in numbers, and their great want of money and supplies, he advised the Romans not to offer battle to a man who had at his disposal an army trained by many previous encounters to a rare pitch of perfection, but rather to send reinforcements to their allies, keep a tight hand over their subject cities, and allow Hannibal’s brilliant little force to die away like a lamp which flares up brightly with but little oil to sustain it.

III.  This reasoning had no effect upon Flaminius, who said that he would not endure to see an enemy marching upon Rome, and would not, like Camillus of old, fight in the streets of Rome herself.  He ordered the military tribunes to put the army in motion, and himself leaped upon his horse’s back.  The horse for no visible reason shied in violent terror, and Flaminius was thrown headlong to the ground.  He did not, however, alter his determination, but marched to meet Hannibal, and drew up his forces for battle near the lake Thrasymenus, in Etruria.  When the armies met, an earthquake took place which destroyed cities, changed the courses of rivers, and cast down the crests of precipices; but in spite of its violence, no one of the combatants perceived it.  Flaminius himself, after many feats of strength and courage, fell dead, and around him lay the bravest Romans.  The rest fled, and the slaughter was so great that fifteen thousand were killed, and as many more taken prisoners.  Hannibal generously desired to bury the body of Flaminius with military honours, to show his esteem for the consul’s bravery; but it could not be found among the slain, and no one knew how it disappeared.