Many of the Tarentines were put to death, thirty thousand were
sold for slaves, and the city was sacked by the soldiers. Three thousand
talents were brought into the public treasury.
While everything else was being carried off, it is said that the clerk
who was taking the inventory asked Fabius what his pleasure was with
regard to the gods, meaning the statues and pictures. Fabius replied,
"Let us leave the Tarentines their angry gods." However, he took the
statue of Hercules from Tarentum and placed it in the Capitol, and near
to it he placed a brazen statue of himself on horseback, acting in this
respect much worse than Marcellus, or rather proving that Marcellus was
a man of extraordinary mildness and generosity of temper, as is shown in
his Life.
XXIII. Hannibal is said to have been hastening to relieve Tarentum, and
to have been within five miles of it when it was taken. He said aloud:
"So then, the Romans also have a Hannibal; we have lost Tarentum just as
we gained it." Moreover in private he acknowledged to his friends that
he had long seen that it was very difficult, and now thought it
impossible for them to conquer Italy under existing circumstances.
Fabius enjoyed a second triumph for this success, which was more
glorious than his first. He had contended with Hannibal and easily
baffled all his attempts just as a good wrestler disengages himself with
ease from the clutches of an antagonist whose strength is beginning to
fail him; for Hannibal's army was no longer what it had been, being
partly corrupted by luxury and plunder, and partly also worn out by
unremitting toils and battles.
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