History of Rome

​After many men and beasts of burden had been miserably lost, when he had finally emerged from the marshes, he pitched camp where he first could on dry land; and he obtained certain information through scouts sent ahead that the Roman army was around the walls of Arretium.

​Then, with the greatest care, by inquiring into everything, he proceeded to investigate the consul’s plans and temper, the nature of the regions and the roads, the resources for procuring supplies, and all other things which it was of importance to know.

​The region was among the most fertile in Italy, the Etrurian plains, which lie between Faesulae and Arretium, rich in corn, cattle, and an abundance of all things.

​The consul was fierce from his previous consulship, and not only had insufficient respect for the laws and the majesty of the Senate, but not even for the gods. This rashness, natural to his character, fortune had nourished with successful outcomes in civil and military affairs.

​And so it was sufficiently clear that, consulting neither gods nor men, he would act in all things with ferocity and headlong haste; and that he might be more prone to his own vices, the Carthaginian prepared to agitate and provoke him. ​And leaving the enemy on his left, heading towards Faesulae, he set out to plunder in the middle of the Etrurian territory, and showed the consul from afar as great a devastation as possible with slaughter and fires.

​Flaminius, who would not have remained quiet even if the enemy had been quiet, when he saw the property of the allies being carried off and driven away almost before his very eyes, then indeed, thinking it a personal disgrace that the Carthaginian was now roaming through the midst of Italy and marching with none resisting to attack the very walls of Rome, ​while all the others in the council advised what was salutary rather than what was showy—that he should wait for his colleague, so that with joined forces they might manage the affair with a common mind and plan, ​and that meanwhile the enemy should be kept from their unrestrained license of plundering by the cavalry and light-armed auxiliaries—he flung himself in a rage from the council, and having at the same time displayed the signal both for marching and for battle, he said, “Nay, let us sit before the walls of Arretium!

​For here are our country and our household gods. Let Hannibal, let loose from our hands, lay waste Italy, and by destroying and burning all things let him reach the Roman walls; and let us not move from here until the Senate summons Gaius Flaminius from Arretium, as they once did Camillus from Veii.”

​While uttering these reproaches, when he ordered the standards to be pulled up more quickly and leaped upon his horse, the horse suddenly fell and threw the consul, who slipped over its head.

​While all who were around were terrified as by a foul omen of the undertaking, it was moreover reported that the standard could not be pulled up, though the standard-bearer strove with all his might.

​Turning to the messenger, he said, “Do you also bring letters from the Senate forbidding me to act? Go, report that they should dig up the standard, if their hands have grown stiff with fear for pulling it up.”

​The column then began to advance, the officers being terrified, besides the fact that they had disagreed with his plan, also by the double prodigy; but the soldiers in general were joyful at the ferocity of their leader, since they looked at the hope itself rather than the cause of hope.