Liv. 22.54.1Eō tempore, quō haec Canusiī agēbantur Venusiam ad cōnsulem ad quattuor mīlia et quīngentī peditēs equitēsque, quī sparsī fugā per agrōs fuerant pervēnēre.At the time when these things were happening at Canusium, about four thousand five hundred infantry and cavalry, who had been scattered through the countryside in the flight, reached the consul at Venusia. Liv. 22.54.2Eōs omnēs Venusīnī per familiās benignē accipiendōs cūrandōsque cum dīvīsissent, in singulōs equitēs togās et tunicās et quadrīgātōs nummōs quīnōs vīcēnōs et peditī dēnōs et arma, quibus dēerant, dedērunt, cēteraque pūblicē ac prīvātim hospitāliter facta certātumque, nē ā muliere Canusīnā populus Uenusīnus officiīs vincerētur.The Venusians distributed them all among families to be kindly received and cared for, and gave each horseman a toga, a tunic and twenty-five quadrigati, and each foot soldier ten, and arms to those who lacked them, and every other hospitality was shown, publicly and privately, and they vied with one another so that the people of Venusia should not be outdone in kindness by a woman of Canusium. Liv. 22.54.4Sed gravius onus Būsae multitūdō faciēbat.But the great number made the burden heavier for Busa.
Liv. 22.54.4Et iam ad decem mīlia hominum erant;Indeed there were by now about ten thousand men; Liv. 22.54.4Appiusque et Scīpiō, postquam incolumem esse alterum cōnsulem accēpērunt, nūntium extemplō mittunt, quantae sēcum peditum equitumque cōpiae essent, scīscitātumque simul utrum Venusiam addūcī exercitum an manēre iubēret Canusī.and Appius and Scipio, after learning that the other consul was safe, at once send a messenger to report how large a force of infantry and cavalry they had with them, and at the same time to ask whether he ordered the army to be brought to Venusia or to remain at Canusium. Liv. 22.54.6Varrō ipse Canusium cōpiās trādūxit.Varro himself brought his forces over to Canusium. Liv. 22.54.6Et iam aliqua speciēs cōnsulāris exercitūs erat, moenibusque sē certē, etsī nōn armīs, ab hoste vidēbantur dēfēnsūrī.And now there was some semblance of a consular army, and it seemed that they would at least defend themselves from the enemy with walls, if not with arms. Liv. 22.54.7Rōmam nē hās quidem reliquiās superesse cīvium sociōrumque, sed occīdiōne occīsum cum ducibus exercitum dēlētāsque omnēs cōpiās allātum fuerat.To Rome word had been brought that not even these remnants of citizens and allies survived, but that the army had been wiped out to a man with its commanders and all the forces destroyed.
Liv. 22.54.8Numquam salvā urbe tantum pavōris tumultūsque intrā moenia Rōmāna fuit.Never, while the city remained safe, was there so much panic and confusion within the walls of Rome. Liv. 22.54.8Itaque succumbam onerī neque adgrediar narrāre, quae ēdissertandō minōra vērō faciam.I shall therefore give way under the burden and not attempt to narrate what I should only make smaller than the truth by describing it. Liv. 22.54.8Cōnsule exercitūque ad Trasumennum priōre annō āmissō, nōn vulnus super vulnus, sed multiplex clādēs, cum duōbus cōnsulibus duo cōnsulārēs exercitūs āmissī nūntiābantur, nec ūlla iam castra Rōmāna nec ducem nec mīlitem esse;A consul and his army having been lost at Trasimene the year before, it was not wound upon wound but a manifold disaster that was being announced: two consular armies lost together with two consuls, and no Roman camp, no general, no soldier any longer left; Liv. 22.54.10Hannibalis Āpūliam, Samnium ac iam prope tōtam Ītaliam factam.Apulia, Samnium and now almost the whole of Italy had become Hannibal's. Liv. 22.54.10Nūlla profectō alia gēns tantā mōle clādis nōn obruta esset.Surely there is no other nation that would not have been overwhelmed by so vast a weight of disaster.
Liv. 22.54.11Comparēs clādem ad Aegātēs īnsulās Carthāginiēnsium proeliō nāvālī acceptam, quā frāctī Siciliā ac Sardiniā cessēre et vectīgālīs ac stīpendiāriōs fierī sē passī sunt, aut pugnam adversam in Āfricā, cui posteā hic ipse Hannibal succubuit: nūllā ex parte conparandae sunt, nisi quod minōre animō lātae sunt.Compare the disaster the Carthaginians suffered in the sea battle off the Aegates islands, broken by which they gave up Sicily and Sardinia and allowed themselves to become tributary and tax-paying, or the defeat in Africa to which this same Hannibal later succumbed: in no respect can they be compared, except that they were borne with less courage.