Fabius army was transferred to Atilius, Servilius Geminus took over the one which Minucius had commanded. They lost no time in fortifying their winter quarters, and during the remainder of the autumn conducted their joint operations in the most perfect harmony on the line which Fabius had laid down. [2] When Hannibal left his camp to collect supplies, they were conveniently posted at different spots to harass his main body and cut off stragglers; but they refused to risk a general engagement, though the enemy employed every artifice to bring one on. [3] Hannibal was reduced to such extremities that he would have marched back into Gaul had not his departure looked like flight. No chance whatever would have been left to him of feeding his army in that part of Italy if the succeeding consuls had persevered in the same tactics. [4] When the winter had brought the war to a standstill at Gereonium, envoys from Neapolis arrived in Rome. They brought with them into the Senate-house forty very heavy golden bowls, and addressed the assembled senators in the following terms: [5] "We know that the Roman treasury is being drained by the war, and since this war is being carried on for the towns and fields of the allies quite as much as for the head and stronghold of Italy, the City of Rome and its empire, we Neapolitans have thought it but right to assist the Roman people with the [6??] gold which has been left by our ancestors for the enriching of our temples and for a reserve in time of need. If we thought that our personal services would have been of any use we would just as gladly have offered them. [7] The senators and people of Rome will confer a great pleasure upon us if they look upon everything that belongs to the Neapolitans as their own, and deign to accept from us a gift, the value and importance [8??] of which lie rather in the cordial goodwill of those who gladly give it than in any intrinsic worth which it may itself possess." [9] A vote of thanks was passed to the envoys for their munificence and their care for the interests of Rome, and one bowl, the smallest, was accepted.
Livy. History of Rome. English Translation by. Rev. Canon Roberts. New York, New York. E. P. Dutton and Co. 1912. 1. Livy. History of Rome. English Translation. Rev. Canon Roberts. New York, New York. E. P. Dutton and Co. 1912. 2.
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