1On the other side of the battle Paulus, although he had been badly struck by a sling-stone right at the start of the fighting, nevertheless often met Hannibal with his men in close order and restored the fight in several places, the Roman cavalry protecting him, until at last they gave up their horses, because the consul lacked the strength to manage his horse. 3Then, when someone reported that the consul had ordered the horsemen to dismount, Hannibal is said to have remarked: 'How much rather would I have him hand them over to me in chains!' 3The cavalry fought on foot, as one would expect when the enemy's victory was no longer in doubt, since the beaten preferred to die where they stood rather than flee, and the victors, angry with those who were delaying their victory, butchered the men they could not dislodge.
5Yet they did dislodge them, by now few survivors, exhausted by toil and wounds. 5Then all were scattered, and those who could were making for their horses again to escape. 6Gnaeus Lentulus, a military tribune, as he rode past and saw the consul sitting on a stone, covered in blood, said: 'Lucius Aemilius, you whom alone the gods should look upon with favour as guiltless of today's disaster, take this horse, while you still have some strength left and I am here beside you to lift you up and protect you. 8Do not make this battle a day of mourning by the death of a consul; 8even without that there are tears and grief enough.' 8To this the consul replied: 'All honour to your courage, Gnaeus Cornelius; 9but take care not to waste in useless pity the little time you have to escape from the enemy's hands.
10Go, and tell the senators publicly that they must fortify the city of Rome and, before the victorious enemy arrives, strengthen it with garrisons; 10and tell Quintus Fabius privately that Lucius Aemilius has lived until now, and is dying, mindful of his precepts. 11Let me breathe my last amid this slaughter of my soldiers, so that I may not either stand trial a second time after my consulship or come forward as my colleague's accuser, protecting my own innocence by charging another.' 12While they were thus engaged, first a crowd of fleeing citizens, then the enemy, overwhelmed them; 12not knowing who the consul was, they buried him under missiles; Lentulus was carried off by his horse amid the confusion.
12Then on every side they flee in disorder. 13Seven thousand men into the smaller camp, ten thousand into the larger, about two thousand into the village of Cannae itself; 13these fled for refuge, and the last were at once surrounded by Carthalo and the cavalry, since no fortification protected the village. 14The other consul, whether by chance or by design not caught up in any column of fugitives, escaped to Venusia with about fifty horsemen. 15Forty-five thousand five hundred infantry and two thousand seven hundred cavalry, citizens and allies in almost equal parts, are said to have been killed; 15among them both the consuls' quaestors, Lucius Atilius and Lucius Furius Bibaculus, and twenty-nine military tribunes, some of them former consuls, praetors and aediles (among these they count Gnaeus Servilius Geminus and Marcus Minucius, who had been master of horse the year before and consul some years earlier), and in addition eighty men who were either senators or had held the magistracies from which they ought to be chosen into the senate, since they had of their own will become soldiers in the legions.
18Three thousand infantry and fifteen hundred cavalry are said to have been captured in that battle.