Tom Holland

But they're not going to disobey the Sibylline books.

And so this is what they do.

They take them to the cattle market, the Forum Boarium.

And they wore this Greek and this gaul up.

And this is an indicator to the Romans, to everyone in Italy, and to the Carthaginians that they are going to carry on the fight.

Yeah.

So Fabius has obviously sent scouts out along the roads.

They say, no, nobody's coming from Cannae.

This kind of potential mutiny in Canusium with all the officers who are kind of panicking and wanting to go abroad.

This is put down by a young officer, no more than 19 years old at this point.

And he is called Publius Cornelius Scipio.

And he's the son of the consul who had confronted Hannibal in the year of his invasion of Italy.

And he had drawn his sword, pointed it at his jittery fellow officers and made them swear an oath.

And I quote, never to desert our country nor permit any other citizen of Rome to leave her in the lurch.

So, you know, morale is restored in Canusium.

And

Even the arrival in Rome of one of the two consuls who had been defeated at Cannae, which you might think would just plunge people into despondency.

Actually, it serves to boost spirits in the city.

And this consul who arrives is a guy called Terentius Varro.

And he, unlike his colleague who had fallen in the battle, he'd managed to escape the slaughter.