great approbation, and at last of general shouting from the assembly,
while their minds could scarcely contain their joy. They then ran off
in various directions, some to the different temples of the gods,
to return thanks, others to their homes, to impart the joyful
intelligence to their wives and children. The senate decreed a
supplication for three days, because Marcus Livius and Caius Claudius,
the consuls, had cut off the general and legions of the enemy, their
own army being safe. This supplication Caius Hostilius, the praetor,
proclaimed in the assembly, and was celebrated both by men and women.
During the whole three days all the temples were uniformly crowded,
whilst the matrons, dressed in their richest robes, and accompanied
by their children, just as though the war had been brought to a
conclusion, and free from every apprehension, offered thanksgivings
to the immortal gods. This victory produced an alteration also in the
condition of the state, so that immediately from this event, just as
though it had been a time of peace, men were not afraid to do business
with each other, buying, selling, lending, and paying borrowed money.
Caius Claudius, the consul, on his return to his camp, ordered the
head of Hasdrubal, which he had carefully kept and brought with him,
to be thrown before the advanced guards of the enemy, and the African
prisoners to be shown to them bound just as they were. Two of these
also he unbound, and bid them go to Hannibal and tell him what had
occurred. Hannibal, smitten by such severe distress, at once public
and domestic, is said to have declared that he recognised the destiny
of Carthage; and decamping thence with the intention of drawing
together into Bruttium, the remotest corner of Italy, all his
auxiliaries which he could not protect when widely scattered, removed
into Bruttium the whole state of the Metapontines, summoned away from
their former habitations, and also such of the Lucanians as were under
his authority.