FABIUS MAXIMUS.

SUCH were the memorable actions of Pericles, | had passed for heaviness and insensibility, was

as far as we have been able to collect them; and now we proceed to the life of Fabius Maximus.

The first Fabius was the son of Hercules, by one of the nymphs, according to some authors; or, as others say, by a woman of the country, near the river Tyber. From him came the family of the Fabii, one of the most numerous and illustrious in Rome. Yet some authors write, that the first founders of this family were called Fodi,† on account of their catching wild beasts by means of pits; for a pit is still in Latin called fovea, and the word fodere signifies to dig: but in time, two letters being changed, they had the name of Fabii. This family produced many eminent men, the most considerable of whom was Rullus, by the Romans surnamed Marimus, or the Great, and from him the Fabius Maximus of whom we are writing, was the fourth in descent.

really an immoveable firmness of soul. He saw what an important concern the adminis tration was, and in what wars the republic was frequently engaged, and, therefore, by exercise prepared his body, considering its strength as a natural armour; at the same time, he improved his powers of persuasion, as the engines by which the people are to be moved, adapting them to the manner of his life. For in his eloquence there was nothing of affectation, no empty, plausible elegance, but it was full of that good sense which was peculiar to him, and had a sententious force and depth, said to have resembled that of Thucydides. There is an oration of his still extant, which he delivered before the people, on occasion of his son's funeral, who died after he had been consul.

Fabius Maximus was five times consul;* and in his first consulship was honoured with a triumph for the victory he gained over the Ligurians; who, being defeated by him in a set battle, with the loss of a great number of men, were driven behind the Alps, and kept from such inroads and ravages as they had used to make in the neighbouring provinces.

This last had the surname of Verrucosus, from a small wart on his upper lip. He was likewise called Ovicula,§ from the mildness and gravity of his behaviour when a boy. Nay, his composed demeanour, and his silence, his caution in engaging in the diversions of the other boys, the slowness and difficulty with Some years after, Hannibal, having invaded which he took what was taught him, together Italy and gained the battle of Trebia, adwith the submissive manner in which he com- vanced through Tuscany, laying waste the plied with the proposals of his comrades, country, and striking Rome itself with terror brought him under the suspicion of stupidity and astonishment. This desolation was anand foolishness, with those that did not thor-nounced by signs and prodigies, some familiar oughly know him. Yet a few there were who to the Romans, as that of thunder, for instance, perceived that his composedness was owing to the solidity of his parts, and who discerned withal a magnanimity and lion-like courage in his nature. In a short time, when application to business drew him out, it was obvious even to the many, that his seeming inactivity was a command which he had of his passions, that his cautiousness was prudence, and that what

• The most numerous, for that family alone undertook the war against the Veientes, and sent out three hundred and six persons of their own name, who were all slain in that expedition. It was likewise one of the most illustrious; for the Fabii had borne the highest offices in the state, and two of them had been seven times consul.

and others quite strange and unaccountable. For it was said, that certain shields sweated blood, that bloody corn was cut at Antium, that red-hot stones fell from the air, that the Falerians saw the heavens open, and many billets fall, upon one of which these words

Fabius was consul the first time in the year of Rome 521; and the fifth time in the tenth year of the second Punic war, in the year of Rome 545.

Here Plutarch leaves a void of fifteen years. It was not, indeed, a remarkable period of the life of Fabius. Hannibal entered Italy in the year of Rome 535. He defeated Scipio in the battle of Ticinus, before he beat Sempronius in that of Trebia.

Plutarch misunderstood Livy, and of the two prodigies which he mentions, made but one. Livy says, Pliny's account of the matter is much more proba-"At Falerium the sky was seen to open, and in the be, viz. that they were called Fubii a Fubis, from their void space a great light appeared. The lots at Prækill in raising beans; as several other families of note neste shrunk of their own accord, and one of them among the Romans were denominated from other dropped down, whereon was written, " Mars brandishbranches of husbandry. Indeed their first heroes tilled eth his sword." Liv. lib. xxii.-These lots were bits the ground with their own hands. of oak, handsomely wrought, with some ancient characters inscribed upon them. When any came to consult them, the coffer in which they were kept was opened, and a child having first shaken them together, drew out one from the rest, which contained the answer to the querist's demand. As to the lots being shrunk, which Livy mentions, and which was considered as a bad omen, no doubt the priests had two sets, a smaller and a greater, which they played upon the people's superstition as they pleased. Cicero says, they were very little regarded in his time. Cic. de Divinat. lib. îì.

This Fabius Rullus was five times consul, and gained several important victories over the Samnites, Tuscans, and other nations. It was not, however, from these great actions that he obtained the surname of Marimus, but from his behaviour in the censorship; during which he reduced the populace of Rome into four tribes, who before were dispersed among all the tribes in general, and by that means had very great power in the assemblies. These were called Trilus Urbanaa. Liv. lib. ix. cap. 46.

Oricula signifies a little sheep.

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might bury it with due honour, as a tribute to his bravery, but he could not find it. por could any account be given what became of it.

were very legible: Mars brandisheth his arms. | of discovering the body of Flaminius, that he But Caius Flaminius, then consul, was not discouraged by any of these things. He was, indeed, naturally a man of much fire and ambition, and, besides, was elated by former successes, which he had met with contrary to all probability; for, against the sense of the senate and his colleague, he had engaged with the Gauls and beaten them. Fabius likewise paid but little regard to prodigies, as too absurd to be believed, notwithstanding the great effect they had upon the multitude. But being informed how small the numbers of the enemy were, and of the want of money, he advised the Romans to have patience; not to give battle to a man who led on an army hardened by many conflicts for this very purpose; but to send succours to their allies, and to secure the towns that were in their possession, until the vigour of the enemy expired of itself, like a flame for want of fuel.

He could not, however, prevail upon Flaminius. That general declared he would never suffer the war to approach Rome, nor like Camillus of old, dispute within the walls who should be the master of the city. He, therefore, ordered the tribunes to draw out the forces, and mounted his horse, but was thrown headlong off, the horse, without any visible cause, being seized with a fright and trembling. Yet he persisted in his resolution of marching out to meet Hannibal, and drew up his army near the lake called Thrasymenus, in Tuscany.

While the armies were engaged, there happened an earthquake, which overturned whole cities, changed the course of rivers, and tore off the tops of mountains: yet not one of the combatants was in the least sensible of that violent motion. Flaminius himself, having greatly signalized his strength and valour, fell; and with him the bravest of his troops; the rest being routed, a great carnage ensued: full fifteen thousand were slain, and as many taken prisoners.§ Hannibal was very desirous

The

When the Romans lost the battle of Trebia, neither the generals sent a true account of it, nor the messenger represented it as it was: both pretended the victory was doubtful. But as to the last, as soon as the prætor Pomponius was apprised of it, he assembled the people, and without disguising the matter in the least, made this declaration: "Romans! we have lost a great battle; our army is cut to pieces, and Flaminius the consul is slain; think, therefore, what is to be done for your safety." same commotion which a furious wind causes in the ocean, did these words of the prætor produce in so vast a multitude. In the first consternation they could not fix upon any thing: but at length, all agreed that affairs required the direction of an absolute power, which they called the dictatorship, and that a man should be pitched upon for it, who would exercise it with steadiness and intrepidity. That such a man was Fabius Maximus, who had a spirit and dignity of manners equal to so great a command, and, besides, was of an age in which the vigour of the body is sufficient to execute the purposes of the mind, and courage is tempered with prudence.

Pursuant to these resolutions, Fabius was chosen dictator, and he appointed Lucius Minucius his general of the horse. But first he desired permission of the senate to make use of a horse when in the field. This was forbidden by an ancient law, either because they placed their greatest strength in the infantry, and therefore chose that the commander in chief should be always posted among them; or else because they would have the dictator, whose power in all other respects was very great, and, indeed, arbitrary, in this case at least appear to be dependent upon the people. In the next place, Fabius, willing to shew the high authority and grandeur of his office, in order to make the people more tractable and * If Fabius was not moved by those prodigies, it was submissive appeared in public with twenty-four not because he despised them, (as his colleague did, lictors carrying the fasces before him; and who, according to Livy, neither feared the gods nor when the surviving consul met him, he sent took advice of men,) but because he hoped, by appeas-one of his officers to order him to dismiss his ing the anger of the gods, to render the prodigies ineffectual. It was not Fabius, however, but Cn. Servilius Geminus, who was colleague to Flaminius.

This fall from his horse, which was considered as an ill omen, was followed by another as bad. When the ensign attempted to pull his standard out of the ground in order to march, he had not strength enough to do it: But where is the wonder, says Cicero, to have a horse take fright, or to find a standard-bearer feebly endeavouring to draw up the standard, which he had perhaps purposely struck deep into the ground? Now the lake of Perugia.

lictors and the other ensigns of his employment, and to join him as a private man.

Then beginning with an act of religion, which is the best of all beginnings, and assuring the people that their defeats were not owing to the cowardice of the soldiers, but to the general's neglect of the sacred rites and auspices, he exhorted them to entertain no dread of the enemy, but by extraordinary honours to propitiate the gods. Not that he wanted to infuse into them a spirit of superstition, but to confirm their valour by piety, and to deliver them from every other fear, by a sense of the Divine protection. On that occasion he consulted

Notwithstanding this complete victory, Hannibal lost only fifteen hundred men; for he fought the Romans at great advantage, having drawn them into an ambuscade between the hills of Cortona and the lake Thrasymenus. Livy and Valerius Maximus make the number of prisoners only six thousand; but Polybius says, they were much more numerous. About ten * A dictator could not be regularly named but by thousand Romans, most of them wounded, made their the surviving consul, and Servilius being with the escape, and took their route to Rome, where few of army, the people appointed Fabius by their own authorthem arrived, the rest dying of their wounds before ity, with the title of prodictator. However, the gratithey reached the capital. Two mothers were so trans-tude of Rome allowed his descendants to put dictator ported with joy, one at the gate of the city, when she saw her son unexpectedly appear, and the other at home, where she found her son, that they both expired on the spot.

instead of prodictator in the list of his titles.

According to Polybius and Livy, his name was not Lucius, but Marcus Minucius; nor was he pitched upon by Fabius, but by the people.

everal of those mysterious books of the Sibyls, | a furious desire to come to action, and a vain which contained matters of great use to the confidence of success. Thus the soldiers were state; and it is said, that some of the prophe- brought to despise Fabius, and by way of decics found there, perfectly agreed with the rision to call him the pedagogue of Hannibal,* circumstances of those times: but it was not while they extolled Minucius as a great man, lawful to divulge them. However, in full as- and one that acted up to the dignity of Rome. sembly, he vowed to the gods a ver sacrum, This led Minucius to give a freer scope to his that is, all the young which the next spring arrogance and pride, and to ridicule the dictator should produce, on the mountains, the fields, for encamping constantly upon the mountains, the rivers, and meadows of Italy, from the goats, "As if he did it on purpose that his men might the swine, the sheep, and the cows. He like-more clearly behold Italy laid waste with fire wise vowed to exhibit the great games in honour of the gods, and to expend upon those games three hundred and thirty-three thousand sesterces, three hundred and thirty-three denarii, and one third of a denarius; which sum in our Greek money is eighty-three thousand five hundred and eighty-three drachmas and two oboli. What his reason might be for fixing upon that precise number is not easy to determine, unless it were on account of the perfection of the number three, as being the first of odd numbers, the first of plurals, and containing in itself the first differences, and the first elements of all numbers.

Fabius having taught the people to repose themselves on acts of religion, made them more easy as to future events. For his own part, he placed all his hopes of victory in himself, believing that Heaven blesses men with success on account of their virtue and prudence; and therefore he watched the motions of Hannibal, not with a design to give him battle, but, by length of time, to waste his spirit and vigour, and gradually to destroy him by means of his superiority in men and money. To secure himself against the enemy's horse, he took care to encamp above them on high and mountainous places. When they sat still, he did the same; when they were in motion, he shewed himself upon the heights, at such a distance as not to be obliged to fight against his inclination, and yet near enough to keep them in perpetual alarm, as if, amidst his arts to gain time, he intended every moment to give them battle.

These dilatory proceedings exposed him to contempt among the Romans in general, and even in his own army. The enemy too, excepting Hannibal, thought him a man of no spirit. He alone was sensible of the keenness of Fabius, and of the manner in which he intended to carry on the war, and therefore was determined, if possible, either by stratagem or force, to bring him to battle, concluding that otherwise the Carthaginians must be undone: since they could not decide the matter in the field, where they had the advantage, but must gradually wear away and be reduced to nothing, when the dispute was only who should be superior in men and money. Hence it was that he exhausted the whole art of war, like a skilful wrestler, who watches every opportunity to lay hold of his adversary. Sometimes he advanced and alarmed him with the apprehensions of an attack; sometimes by marching and countermarching he led him from place to place, hoping to draw him from his plan of caution. But as he was fully persuaded of its utility, he kept immoveably to his resolution. Minucius, his general of horse, gave him, however, no small trouble, by his unseasonable courage and beat, haranguing the army, and filling them with

and sword." And he asked the friends of Fabius, "Whether he intended to take his army up into heaven, as he had bid adieu to the world below, or whether he would screen himself from the enemy with clouds and fogs?" When the dictator's friends brought him an account of these aspersions, and exhorted him to wipe them off by risking a battle, "In that case," said he, "I should be of a more dastardly spirit than they represent me, if through fear of insults and reproaches, I should depart from my own resolution. But to fear for my country is not a disagreeable fear. That man is unworthy of such a command as this, who sinks under calumnies and slanders, and complies with the humour of those whom he ought to govern, and whose folly and rashness it is his duty to restrain."

After this, Hannibal made a disagreeable mistake. For intending to lead his army farther from Fabius, and to move into a part of the country that would afford him forage, he ordered the guides, immediately after supper, to conduct him to the plains of Casinum.f They taking the word wrong, by reason of his barbarous pronunciation of it, led his forces to the borders of Campania, near the town of Casalium, through which runs the river Lothronus, which the Romans call Vulturnus. The adjacent country is surrounded with mountains, except only a valley that stretches out to the sea. Near the sea the ground is very marshy, and full of large banks of sand, by reason of the overflowing of the river. The sea is there very rough and the coast almost impracticable.

As soon as Hannibal was entered into this valley, Fabius availing himself of his knowledge of the country, seized the narrow outlet, and placed in it a guard of four thousand men. The main body of his army he posted to advantage on the surrounding hills, and with the lightest and most active of his troops, fell upon the enemy's rear, and put their whole army in disorder, and killed about eight hundred of them.

Hannibal then wanted to get clear of so disadvantageous a situation; and, in revenge of the mistake the guides had made, and the danger

For the office of a pedagogue of old was, (as the name implies) to attend the children, to carry them up and down, and conduct them home again.

Hannibal had ravaged Samnium, plundered the territory of Beneventum, a Roman colony, and laid siege to Tilesia, a city at the foot of the Appenines. But finding that neither the ravaging of the country, nor even the taking of some cities could make Fabius quit his eminences, he resolved to make use of a stronger bait, which was to enter Campania, the finest country in Italy, and lay it waste under the dictator's eyes, hoping by that means to bring him to an action. But instead of conducting him to the plains of Casinum, led by the mistake which Plutarch mentions, his guides, him into the narrow passes of Casilinum, which divides Samnium from Campania.

they had brought him into, he crucified them | The senate, too, was offended, particularly with all. But not knowing how to drive the enemy from the heights they were masters of, and sensible besides of the terror and confusion that reigned amongst his men, who concluded themselves fallen into a snare, from which there was no escaping, he had recourse to stratagem.

the terms he had settled with Hannibal for the ransom of prisoners. For it was agreed between them, that the prisoners should be exchanged, man for man, and that if either of them had more than the other, he should release them for two hundred and fifty drachmas each man ;* and upon the whole account there remained two hundred and forty Romans unexchanged. The senate determined not to pay this ransom, and blamed Fabius as taking a step that was against the honour and interest of the state, in endeavouring to recover men wnom cowardice had betrayed into the hands of the enemy.

When Fabius was informed of the resentment of his fellow-citizens, he bore it with invincible patience; but being in want of money, and not choosing to deceive Hannibal, or to abandon his countrymen in their distress, he sent his son to Rome, with orders to sell part of his estate, and bring him the money immediately. This was punctually performed by his son, and Fabius redeemed the prisoners, several of whom afterwards offered to repay him, but his generosity would not permit him to accept it.

The contrivance was this. He caused two thousand oxen, which he had in his camp, to have torches and dry bavins well fastened to their horns. These, in the night, upon a signal given, were to be lighted, and the oxen to be driven to the mountains, near the narrow pass that was guarded by the enemy. While those that had it in charge were thus employed, he decamped, and marched slowly forward. So long as the fire was moderate, and burned only the torches and bavins, the oxen moved softly on, as they were driven up the hills; and the shepherds and herdsmen on the adjacent heights took them for an army that marched in order with lighted torches. But when their horns were burnt to the roots, and the fire pierced to the quick, terrified and mad with pain, they no longer kept any certain route, but run up the hills, with their foreheads and tails flaming, and setting every thing on fire that came in their way. The Romans who guarded the pass were astonished; for they appeared to them like a great number of men running up and down with torches, which scattered fire on every side. In their fears, of course, they concluded, that they should be attacked and surrounded by the enemy; for which reason they quitted the pass, and fled to the main body in the camp. Immediately Hannibal's light-armed troops took possession of the outlet, and the rest of his forces marched safely through,loaded with a rich booty Fabius discovered the stratagem that same night, for some of the oxen, as they were scattered about, fell into his hands: but, for fear of an ambush in the dark, he kept his men all night under arms in the camp. At break of day, he pursued the enemy, came up with their rear, and attacked them; several skirmishes ensued in the difficult passes of the mountains, and Hannibal's army was put in some disorder, until he detached from his van a body of Spaniards, light and nimble men, who were accustomed to climb such heights. These falling upon the heavy-armed Romans, cut off a considerable number of them, and obliged Fabius to retire. This brought upon him more contempt and calumny than ever: for having renounced open force, as if he could subdue Hannibal by conduct and foresight, he appeared now to be worsted at his own weapons. Hannibal, to incense the Romans still more against him, when he came to his lands, ordered them to be spared, and set a guard upon them to prevent the committing of the least injury there, while he was ravaging all the country around him, and laying it waste with Fabius disdained to make any defence against fire. An account of these things being brought these allegations of the tribune; he only deto Rome, heavy complaints were made there-clared that "He would finish the sacrifice and upon. The tribunes alleged many articles of other religious rites as soon as possible, that accusation against him, before the people, chiefly at the instigation of Metilius, who had no particular enmity to Fabius, but being strongly in the interest of Minucius, the general of the horse, whose relation he was, he thought by depressing Fabius to raise his friend

After this he was called to Rome by the priests, to assist at some of the solemn sacrifices, and therefore was obliged to leave the army to Minucius; but he both charged him as dictator, and used many arguments and entreaties with him as a friend, not to come to any kind of action. The pains he took were lost upon Minucius, for he immediately sought occasions to fight the enemy. And observing one day that Hannibal had sent out great part of his army to forage, he attacked those that were left behind, and drove them within their entrenchments, killing great numbers of them, so that they even feared he would storm their camp: and when the rest of the Carthaginian forces were returned, he retreated without loss. This success added to his temerity, and increased the ardour of his soldiers. The report of it soon reached Rome, and the advantage was represented as much greater than it really was. When Fabius was informed of it, he said, he dreaded nothing more than the success of Minucius. But the people, mightily elated with the news, ran to the forum; and their tribune Mitilius harangued them from the rostrum, highly extolling Minucius, and accusing Fabius now, not of cowardice and want of spirit, but of treachery. He endeavoured also to involve the principal men in Rome in the same crime, alleging, "That they had originally brought the war upon Italy, for the destruction of the common people, and had put the commonwealth under the absolute direction of one man, who, by his slow proceedings, gave Hannibal opportunity to establish himself in the country, and to draw fresh forces from Carthage, in order to effect a total conquest of Italy."

Livy calls this argenti pondo bina et seliras in militem; whence we learn that the Roman pondo, or pound weight of silver, was equivalent to one hundred Grecian drachmus or a mina.

and that the enemies loss did not exceed his by more † Others say, that he lost five thousand of his men, than a thousand.

he might return to the army and punish Minucius for fighting contrary to his orders." This occasioned a great tumult among the people, who were alarmed at the danger of Minucius. For it is in the dictator's power to imprison and afflict capital punishment without form of trial: and they thought that the wrath of Fabius now provoked, though he was naturally very mild and patient, would prove heavy and implacable. But fear kept them all silent, except Metilius, whose person, as tribune of the people, could not be touched, (for the tribunes are the only officers of state that retain their authority after the appointing of a dictator.) Metilius entreated, insisted that the people should not give up Minucius, to suffer, perhaps, what Manlius Torquatus caused his own son to suffer, whom he beheaded when crowned with laurel for his victory; but that they should take from Fabius his power to play the tyrant, and leave the direction of affairs to one who was both able and willing to save his country. The people, though much affected with this speech, did not venture to divest Fabius of the dictatorship, notwithstanding the odium he had incurred, but decreed that Minucius should share the command with him, and have equal authority in conducting the war, a thing never before practised in Rome. There was, however, another instance of it soon after upon the unfortunate action of Cannæ: for Marcus Junius the dictator being then in the field, they created another dictator, Fabius Buteo, to fill up the senate, many of whose members were slain in that battle. There was this difference, indeed, that Buteo had no sooner enrolled the new senators, than he dismissed his lictors and the rest of his retinue, and mixed with the crowd, stopping some time in the forum about his own affairs as a private man. When the people had thus invested Minucius with a power equal to that of the dictator, they thought they should find Fabius extremely humbled and dejected; but it soon appeared that they knew not the man. For he did not reckon their mistake any unhappiness to him; but as Diogenes, the philosopher, when one said, "They deride you," answered well, "But I am not derided;" accounting those only to be ridiculed, who feel the ridicule and are discomposed at it; so Fabius bore without emotion all that happened to himself, herein confirming that position in philosophy, which affirms that a wise and good man can suffer no disgrace. But he was under no small concern for the public, on account of the unadvised proceedings of the people, who had put it in the power of a rash man to indulge his indiscreet ambition for military distinction. And apprehensive that Minucius, infatuated with ambition, might take some fatal step, he left Rome very privately.

Upon his arrival at the camp, he found the arrogance of Minucius grown to such a height, that it was no longer to be endured. Fabius, therefore, refused to comply with his demand of having the army under his orders every other day, and, instead of that, divided the forces with him, choosing rather to have the full command of a part, than the direction of the whole by turns. He therefore took the first and fourth legions himself, leaving the second and third to Minucius; and the confederate forces were likewise equally divided.

Minucius valued himself' highly upon this, that the power of the greatest and most arbitrary office in the state was controlled and reduced for his sake. But Fabius put him in mind, "That it was not Fabius whom he had to contend with, but Hannibal: that if he would, notwithstanding, consider his colleague as his rival, he must take care lest he who had so successfully carried his point with the people, should one day appear to have their safety and interest less at heart than the man, who had been so ill treated by them." Minucius considering this as the effect of an old man's pique, and taking the troops that fell to his lot, marked out a separate camp for them.* Han nibal was well informed of all that had passed, and watched his opportunity to take advantage of it.

There was a hill betwixt him and the enemy, not difficult to take possession of, which yet would afford an army a very safe and commodious post. The ground about it, at a distance, seemed quite level and plain, though there were in it several ditches and hollows: and therefore, though he might privately have seized that post with ease, yet he left it as a bait to draw the enemy to an engagement. But as soon as he saw Minucius parted from Fabius, he took an opportunity in the night to place a number of men in those ditches and hollows: and early in the morning he openly sent out a small party, as if designed to make themselves masters of the hill, but really to draw Minucius to dispute it with them. The event answered his expectation. For Minucius sent out his light-armed troops first, then the cavalry, and at last, when he saw Hannibal send reinforcements to his men upon the hill, he marched out with all his forces in order of battle, and attacked with great vigour the Carthaginians, who were marking out a camp upon the hill. The fortune of the day was doubtful, until Hannibal, perceiving that the enemy had fallen into the snare, and that their rear was open to the ambuscade, instantly gave the signal. Hereupon, his men rushed out on all sides, and advancing with loud shouts, and cutting in pieces the hindmost ranks, they put the Romans in disorder and terror inexpressible. Even the spirit of Minucius began to shrink; and he looked first upon one officer and then upon another, but not one of them durst stand his ground; they all betook themselves to flight, and the flight itself proved fatal. For the Numidians, now victorious, galloped round the plain, and killed those whom they found dispersed.

Fabius was not ignorant of the danger of his countrymen. Foreseeing what would happen, he kept his forces under arms, and took care to be informed how the action went on: nor did he trust to the reports of others, but he himself looked out from an eminence not far from his camp. When he saw the army of his colleague surrounded and broken, and the cry reached him, not like that of men standing the charge, but of persons flying in great dismay,‡ he smote upon his thigh, and with a deep sigh

* About fifteen hundred paces from Fabius.

Five hundred horse and five thousand foot. Poylb. Homer mentions the custom of smiting upon the thigh in time of trouble; and we learn from Scripture. that it was practised in the East.