Tom Holland

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.

He ends up going to Canusium, taking charge of the soldiers there.

He works hard to get them into fighting order, and then he hands them over to the command of the man who has been sent by the Senate to replace him.

For Varro, the prospect of going back to Rome is obviously a terrible one.

He's presided over the worst defeat in Rome's history.

He does go back and he's braced to accept whatever punishment the Senate might decree.

But the Senate is impressed by his courage in returning to face the music.