by the pontiffs, who said, that one shrine could not with propriety
be dedicated to two deities; because if it should be struck with
lightning or any kind of portent should happen in it, the expiation
would be attended with difficulty as it could not be ascertained
to which deity sacrifice ought to be made; nor could one victim
be lawfully offered to two deities, unless in particular cases.
Accordingly another temple to Virtue was erected with all speed.
Nevertheless, these temples were not dedicated by Marcellus himself.
Then at length he set out, with the troops raised to fill up the
numbers, to the army he had left the preceding year at Venusia.
Crispinus, who endeavoured to reduce Locri in Bruttium by a siege,
because he considered that the affair of Tarentum had added greatly to
the fame of Fabius, had sent for every kind of engine and machine from
Sicily; he also sent for ships from the same place to attack that part
of the city which lay towards the sea. But this siege was raised by
Hannibal's bringing his forces to Lacinium, and in consequence of a
report, that his colleague, with whom he wished to effect a junction,
had now led his army from Venusia. He therefore returned from Bruttium
into Apulia, and the consuls took up a position in two separate camps,
distant from each other less than three miles, between Venusia and
Bantia. Hannibal, after diverting the war from Locri, returned also
into the same quarter. Here the consuls, who were both of sanguine
temperament, almost daily went out and drew up their troops for
action, confidently hoping, that if the enemy would hazard an
engagement with two consular armies united, they might put an end to
the war.

26. As Hannibal, who gained one and lost the other of the two battles
which he fought the preceding year with Marcellus, would have equal
grounds for hope and fear, should he encounter the same general