They dared not remain at their post, but
abandoned the pass, and made for the main body. At that moment
Hannibal's light troops took possession of the heights commanding the
outlet, and the main army marched safely through, loaded with plunder.
VII. It happened that while it was yet night Fabius perceived the trick;
for some of the oxen in their flight had fallen into the hands of the
Romans; but, fearing to fall into an ambuscade in the darkness, he kept
his men quiet under arms. When day broke he pursued and attacked the
rearguard, which led to many confused skirmishes in the rough ground,
and produced great confusion, till Hannibal sent back his practised
Spanish mountaineers from the head of his column. These men, being light
and active, attacked the heavily-armed Roman infantry and beat off
Fabius' attack with very considerable loss. Now Fabius's unpopularity
reached its highest pitch, and he was regarded with scorn and contempt.
He had, they said, determined to refrain from a pitched battle, meaning
to overcome Hannibal by superior generalship, and he had been defeated
in that too. And Hannibal himself, wishing to increase the dislike which
the Romans felt for him, though he burned and ravaged every other part
of Italy, forbade his men to touch Fabius's own estates, and even placed
a guard to see that no damage was done to them. This was reported at
Rome, greatly to his discredit; and the tribunes of the people brought
all kinds of false accusations against him in public harangues,
instigated chiefly by Metilius, who was not Fabius's personal enemy, but
being a relative of Minucius, the Master of the Horse, thought that he
was pressing the interests of the latter by giving currency to all these
scandalous reports about Fabius.
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