1For Hannibal, after so successful a battle at Cannae, busy with the concerns of a victor rather than of one waging war, had the captives brought out and separated, and when he had spoken kindly to the allies, as before at the Trebia and Lake Trasimene, and released them without ransom, he called the Romans too and addresses them, as he had never done before, in quite a gentle speech: he was not waging a war of extermination with the Romans; 3he was contending for honour and empire. 3His fathers had yielded to Roman valour, and he was striving that the Romans in their turn should yield to his own good fortune and valour together.
4So he was giving the captives the opportunity to ransom themselves; 4the price per head would be five hundred quadrigati for a horseman, three hundred for a foot soldier, a hundred for a slave. 5Although this added a good deal for the horsemen to the price on which they had agreed when surrendering, they nevertheless gladly accepted any terms of agreement whatever. 6It was decided that ten should be chosen by their own vote to go to the senate at Rome, and no other pledge of good faith was taken than that they should swear to return. 7With them was sent Carthalo, a Carthaginian noble, to offer terms, if by chance their minds were inclined towards peace.
8When they had left the camp, one of them, a man of a most un-Roman character, returned to the camp as if he had forgotten something, in order to release himself from his oath, and caught up with his companions before nightfall. 9When it was reported that they were coming to Rome, a lictor was sent to meet Carthalo, to tell him in the dictator's name to leave Roman territory before nightfall.