1The consuls, Atilius taking over the Fabian army and Geminus Servilius the Minucian, fortified their winter quarters early, and for what remained of the autumn waged the war by Fabius' methods with the greatest harmony between themselves. 2When Hannibal went out foraging, they were at hand in various places at the right moment, harassing his column and picking off stragglers; 2they did not come to the hazard of a general engagement, which the enemy sought by every means; 3and Hannibal was reduced to such want that, had he not been bound to look as though he were fleeing if he departed, he would have gone back to Gaul, with no hope left of feeding his army in those parts if the following consuls waged war by the same methods.
4When the war had come to a halt at Gereonium, with winter now hindering it, envoys from Naples came to Rome. 4They brought into the senate house forty golden bowls of great weight and spoke so as to say that they knew the treasury of the Roman people was being drained by the war, and, since it was being waged alike on behalf of the cities and lands of the allies and on behalf of the head and citadel of Italy, the city of Rome, and of the empire, the Neapolitans had thought it right to help the Roman people with the gold that had been left them by their ancestors both for the adornment of their temples and as a reserve against misfortune; 7if they believed there was any help in themselves, they would have offered it with the same zeal.
7The Roman senators and people would do them a kindness if they regarded all the possessions of the Neapolitans as their own and judged them worthy to receive from them a gift greater and more ample in the spirit and goodwill of those who gave it gladly than in its actual value. 9The envoys were thanked for their generosity and concern; 9the bowl which was of least weight was accepted.