History of Rome

​The praetors Publius Furius Philus and Marcus Pomponius summoned the senate to the Curia Hostilia to consult about the defense of the city;

​for they did not doubt that, now that the armies were destroyed, the enemy would come to besiege Rome, which remained the only task of the war.

​Since, in the face of disasters as unprecedented as they were immense, they could not even sufficiently develop a plan, and the shrieks of mourning women resounded, and, since nothing had yet been made public, the living and the dead were being lamented together indiscriminately in almost every house, ​then Quintus Fabius Maximus proposed that light-armed cavalry should be sent along both the Appian and Latin Ways, who, by questioning those they met—for surely there would be some scattered here and there from the flight—might bring back word of what the fortune of the consuls and the armies was, and, ​if the immortal gods, having pitied their dominion, had left any remnant of the Roman name, where those forces were; whither Hannibal had betaken himself after the battle, what he was preparing, what he was doing and was about to do.

​These matters were to be investigated and ascertained by active young men; but the other task was to be undertaken by the senators themselves, since there was a shortage of magistrates, to remove the confusion and panic in the city: they should keep the matrons from public places and compel each of them to remain within her own threshold, ​restrain the lamentations of families, bring silence throughout the city, see to it that messengers of all events are brought to the praetors—each person should wait at home for news of his own fortune—

​and furthermore place guards at the gates to prevent anyone from leaving the city, and compel people to hope for no safety except in the preservation of the city and its walls. Once the tumult was hushed, then the senators should be recalled to the senate house and consult about the defense of the city.