§23.18.1Hannibal cum iam inde haud procul esset, Gaetulos cum praefecto nomine Isalca praemittit ac primo, si fiat conloquii copia, verbis benignis ad portas aperiundas praesidiumque accipiendum perlicere iubet, si in pertinacia perstent, vi rem gerere ac temptare, si qua parte invadere urbem possit.
Hannibal, when he was already not far from there, sent ahead the Gaetulians with a commander named Isalca, and ordered them, first, if an opportunity for a conference should be given, to entice them with mild words to open the gates and receive a garrison, but if they should persist in their obstiny, to conduct operations by force and to try if they could invade the city in any part.
§23.18.2ubi ad moenia adcessere, quia silentium erat, solitudo visa; metuque concessum barbarus ratus moliri portas et claustra refringere parat, §23.18.3cum patefactis repente portis cohortes duae, ad id ipsum instructae intus, ingenti cum tumultu erumpunt stragemque hostium faciunt.
When they approached the walls, because there was silence, it seemed deserted; and the barbarian, thinking that they had withdrawn out of fear, prepared to force the gates and break open the bars, when suddenly, the gates being thrown open, two cohorts, drawn up inside for this very purpose, burst out with a huge uproar and made a slaughter of the enemy.
§23.18.4ita primis repulsis Maharbal cum maiore robore virorum missus nec ipse eruptionem cohortium sustinuit.
The first having been thus repulsed, Maharbal, sent with a larger force of men, did not himself withstand the onset of the cohorts.
§23.18.5postremo Hannibal castris ante ipsa moenia positis parvam urbem parvumque praesidium summa vi atque omnibus copiis oppugnare parat, ac dum instat lacessitque, corona undique circumdatis moenibus, aliquot milites et promptissimum quemque e muro turribusque ictos amisit.
Finally, Hannibal, having pitched his camp before the very walls, prepared to assault the small city and the small garrison with the utmost force and with all his troops; and while he was pressing and harassing them, the walls being surrounded on all sides, he lost several soldiers and all the most active men, who were struck from the wall and the towers.
§23.18.6semel ultro erumpentis agmine elephantorum opposito prope interclusit trepidosque conpulit in urbem satis multis ut ex tanta paucitate interfectis.
Once, when they burst out of their own accord, he almost cut them off by opposing a line of elephants, and drove them terrified into the city, with a sufficiently large number slain, considering their great paucity.
plures cecidissent, ni nox proelio intervenisset.
More would have fallen, had not night intervened in the battle.
§23.18.7postero die omnium animi ad oppugnandum accenduntur, utique postquam corona aurea muralis proposita est, atque ipse dux castelli plano loco positi segnem oppugnationem Sagunti expugnatoribus exprobrabat, Cannarum Trasumennique et Trebiae singulos admonens universosque.
On the following day, the minds of all were inflamed for the assault, especially after a golden mural crown was proposed, and the general himself reproached the conquerors of Saguntum for their sluggish siege of a fort situated on level ground, reminding individuals and all together of Cannae, Trasumene, and Trebia.
§23.18.8inde vineae quoque coeptae agi cuniculique.
Thence, vineae also began to be pushed forward and tunnels to be dug.
nec ad varios conatus hostium aut vis ulla aut ars deerat ab sociis Romanorum: §23.18.9propugnacula adversus vineas statuere, transversis cuniculis hostium cuniculos excipere, et palam et clam coeptis obviam ire, donec pudor etiam Hannibalem ab incepto avertit, castrisque communitis ac praesidio modico inposito, ne omissa res videretur, in hiberna Capuam concessit.
Nor, against the various attempts of the enemy, did any force or skill fail on the part of the allies of the Romans: they erected bulwarks against the vineae, intercepted the enemy's tunnels with transverse tunnels, and opposed their undertakings both openly and secretly, until shame turned even Hannibal away from the attempt, and having fortified his camp and placed a moderate garrison, lest the enterprise should seem abandoned, he withdrew to Capua into winter quarters.
§23.18.10ibi partem maiorem hiemis exercitum in tectis habuit, adversus omnia humana mala saepe ac diu duratum, bonis inexpertum atque insuetum.
There, for the greater part of the winter, he kept his army in sheltered quarters—an army often and long hardened against all human ills, but inexperienced in and unaccustomed to good things.
§23.18.11itaque, quos nulla mali vicerat vis, perdidere nimia bona ac voluptates inmodicae, et eo inpensius, quo avidius ex insolentia in eas se merserant.
Therefore, those whom no force of adversity had conquered, excessive luxury and immoderate pleasures ruined; and they did so the more intensely, the more greedily they had plunged into them from unfamiliarity.
§23.18.12somnus enim et vinum et epulae et scorta balineaque et otium consuetudine in dies blandius ita enervaverunt corpora animosque, ut magis deinde praeteritae victoriae eos quam praesentes tutarentur vires,
For sleep and wine and banquets and harlots and baths and idleness, growing daily more seductive through habit, so enervated their bodies and minds, that thereafter their past victories protected them more than their present strength.
§23.18.13maiusque id peccatum ducis apud peritos artium militarium haberetur, quam quod non ex Cannensi acie protinus ad urbem Romanam duxisset; illa enim cunctatio distulisse modo victoriam videri potuit, hic error vires ademisse ad vincendum.
And this fault of the leader was held among those skilled in military arts to be greater than that he had not led his army directly from the field of Cannae to the city of Rome; for that delay could seem only to have postponed victory, but this error to have taken away the power to conquer.
itaque hercule, velut si cum alio exercitu. §23.18.14a Capua exiret, nihil usquam pristinae disciplinae tenuit.
And so, by Hercules, just as if with another army he were marching out of Capua, he retained nothing anywhere of his former discipline.
§23.18.15nam et redierunt plerique scortis inpliciti, et, ubi primum sub pellibus haberi coepti sunt, viaque et alius militaris labor excepit, tironum modo corporibus animisque deficiebant,
For most of them returned entangled with harlots, and, as soon as they began to be kept under skins and the march and other military labor took them up, they failed in body and mind like recruits.
§23.18.16et deinde per omne aestivorum tempus magna pars sine commeatibus ab signis dilabebantur, neque aliae latebrae quam Capua desertoribus erant.
And thereafter, through the whole time of summer campaigns, a large part slipped away from their standards without leave, nor did the deserters have any other hiding place than Capua.