§27.16.1proelium in aditu fori maiore impetu quam perseverantia commissum est: non animo, non armis, non arte belli, non vigore ac viribus corporis par Romano Tarentinus erat.
The battle at the entrance of the forum was joined with more violence than perseverance; for the Tarentines were not equal to the Romans in spirit, in arms, in the art of war, nor in the vigor and strength of their bodies.
§27.16.2igitur pilis tantum coniectis, prius paene, quam consererent manus, terga dederunt, dilapsique per nota urbis itinera in suas amicorumque domos.
Therefore, having merely thrown their spears, almost before they joined hands, they turned their backs and dispersed through the familiar streets of the city to their own homes and those of their friends.
duo ex ducibus Nico §27.16.3et Democrates fortiter pugnantes cecidere; Philemenus, qui proditionis ad Hannibalem auctor fuerat, cum citato equo ex proelio avectus esset, §27.16.4vacuus paulo post equus errans per urbem cognitus, corpus nusquam inventum est: creditum vulgo est in puteum apertum ex equo praecipitasse.
Two of the leaders, Nico and Democrates, fell fighting bravely; Philemenus, who had been the author of the betrayal to Hannibal, having ridden away from the battle on a swift horse, his riderless horse was recognized shortly after wandering through the city, but his body was nowhere found; it was generally believed that he had plunged from his horse into an open well.
§27.16.5Carthalonem autem, praefectum Punici praesidii, cum commemoratione paterni hospitii positis armis venientem ad consulem miles obvius obtruncat.
Carthalo, however, the commander of the Punic garrison, as he was coming to the consul with laid-down arms, mentioning his father's hospitality, was cut down by a soldier who met him.
§27.16.6alii alios passim sine discrimine armatos inermisque caedunt, Carthaginienses Tarentinosque pariter.
Others slaughtered others here and there without distinction, armed and unarmed alike, Carthaginians and Tarentines equally.
Bruttii quoque multi passim interfecti, seu per errorem seu vetere in eos insito odio seu ad proditionis famam, ut vi potius atque armis captum Tarentum videretur, extinguendam.
Many Bruttians also were killed here and there, either by mistake, or from an old inbred hatred against them, or to extinguish the rumor of betrayal, so that Tarentum might seem to have been captured rather by force and arms.
§27.16.7tum a caede ad diripiendam urbem discursum.
Then they dispersed from the slaughter to plunder the city.
milia triginta servilium capitum dicuntur capta, argenti vis ingens facti signatique, auri octoginta tria milia pondo, signa et tabulae, prope ut Syracusarum ornamenta — aequaverint.
Thirty thousand slave-heads are said to have been captured, a huge quantity of wrought and coined silver, eighty-three thousand pounds of gold, and statues and paintings, so that they almost equaled the ornaments of Syracuse.
§27.16.8sed maiore animo generis eius praeda abstinuit Fabius quam Marcellus; qui interroganti scriba, quid fieri signis vellet ingentis magnitudinis — di sunt, suo quisque habitu in modum pugnantium formati —, deos iratos Tarentinis relinqui iussit.
But Fabius abstained from booty of that kind with a greater mind than Marcellus; when a scribe asked him what he wished to be done with the statues of immense size—they were gods, each shaped in his own posture after the manner of combatants—he ordered the angry gods to be left to the Tarentines.
§27.16.9murus inde, qui urbem ab arce dirimebat, dirutus est ac disiectus.
Then the wall which separated the city from the citadel was demolished and thrown down.
dum haec Tarenti aguntur, Hannibal, iis, qui Cauloniam obsidebant, §27.16.10in deditionem acceptis, audita oppugnatione Tarenti dies noctesque cursim agmine acto, cum festinans ad opem ferendam captam urbem audisset, “et Romani suum Hannibalem” inquit “habent: §27.16.11eadem qua ceperamus arte Tarentum amisimus. ” ne tamen fugientis modo convertisse agmen videretur, quo constituerat loco, quinque milia ferme ab urbe posuit castra.
While these things were being done at Tarentum, Hannibal, after receiving the surrender of those who were besieging Caulonia, having marched day and night with a rapid column upon hearing of the siege of Tarentum, when he heard, as he was hastening to bring aid, that the city had been captured, said: "The Romans too have their own Hannibal; we have lost Tarentum by the same art by which we had taken it." Yet, lest he should seem to have turned back his column in the manner of one fleeing, he pitched his camp in the place he had determined, about five miles from the city.
ibi paucos moratus dies Metapontum sese recepit.
Having delayed there a few days, he retired to Metapontum.
§27.16.12inde duos Metapontinos cum litteris principum eius civitatis ad Fabium Tarentum mittit, fidem ab consule accepturos inpunita iis priora fore, si Metapontum cum praesidio Punico prodidissent.
From there he sent two Metapontines with letters from the leading men of that state to Fabius at Tarentum, to receive a pledge from the consul that their former deeds would be unpunished for them, if they betrayed Metapontum with its Punic garrison.
§27.16.13Fabius quae adferrent vera esse ratus diem, qua accessurus esset Metapontum, constituit litterasque ad principes dedit, quae ad Hannibalem delatae sunt.
Fabius, believing what they brought to be true, appointed the day on which he would approach Metapontum and gave a letter to the leading men, which was carried to Hannibal.
§27.16.14enimvero laetus successu fraudis, si ne Fabius quidem dolo invictus fuisset, haud procul Metaponto insidias ponit.
Indeed, glad at the success of the fraud, if not even Fabius had been invincible to trickery, he laid an ambush not far from Metapontum.
§27.16.15Fabio auspicanti priusquam egrederetur ab Tarento, aves semel atque iterum non addixerunt; hostia quoque caesa consulenti deos haruspex cavendum a fraude hostili et ab insidiis praedixit.
As Fabius was taking the auspices before departing from Tarentum, the birds once and again did not give assent; also, when a victim was slain as he consulted the gods, the haruspex foretold that he must beware of hostile fraud and ambushes.
§27.16.16Metapontini, postquam ad constitutam non venerat diem, remissi, ut cunctantem hortarentur, ac repente conprehensi metu gravioris quaestionis detegunt insidias.
The Metapontines, after he had not come on the appointed day, having been sent back to encourage him as he hesitated, and suddenly seized, revealed the ambush through fear of a severer interrogation.