predicament of the state was not such as that her generals should
carry on the war, each within the limits of his own province, and with
his own troops, according to the customary plans of warfare, and with
an enemy marked out for him by the senate, but that some unlooked
for and unexpected enterprise must be attempted, which, in its
commencement, might cause no less dread among their countrymen than
their enemies, but which, when accomplished, might convert their
great fear into great joy, sent the letter of Hasdrubal to Rome to the
senate; and at the same time informed the conscript fathers what his
intentions were; and recommended that, as Hasdrubal had written to his
brother that he should meet him in Umbria, they should send for the
legion from Capua to Rome, enlist troops at Rome, and oppose the city
forces to the enemy at Narnia. Such was his letter to the senate.
Messengers were sent in advance through the territory of Larinum,
Marrucia, Frentana, and Praetutia, where he was about to march his
army, with orders that they should all bring down from their farms and
towns to the road-side provisions ready dressed for the soldiers to
eat; and that they should bring out horses and other beasts of burden,
so that those who were tired might have plenty of conveyances. He then
selected the choicest troops out of the whole army of the Romans and
allies, to the amount of six thousand infantry and one thousand horse;
and gave out that he intended to seize on the nearest town in Lucania
and the Carthaginian garrison in it, and that they should all be
in readiness to march. Setting out by night he turned off towards
Picenum, and making his marches as long as possible, led his troops to
join his colleague, having left Quintus Catius, lieutenant-general, in
command of the camp.

44. At Rome the alarm and consternation were not less than they had
been two years before, when the Carthaginian camp was pitched over