1After Manlius had spoken, although most of the senators too were connected with the captives by kinship, besides the precedent of a state which from ancient times had shown little indulgence towards captives, the sum of money also influenced them, since they wished neither to drain the treasury, a large sum having already been paid out for buying and arming slaves for service, nor to enrich Hannibal, who, as rumour had it, was in great need of precisely this. 3When the grim answer had been given, that the captives would not be ransomed, and a new grief had been added to the old by the loss of so many citizens, they escorted the envoys to the gate with much weeping and lamentation.
4One of them went off home, on the ground that he had freed himself from his oath by his deceitful return to the camp. 4When this became known and was reported to the senate, all voted that he should be arrested and taken back to Hannibal under guards provided by the state. 4There is also another account of the captives: that ten came first; 5that when there had been doubt in the senate whether they should be admitted into the city or not, they were admitted on the condition, however, that they should not be granted an audience of the senate; 6that then, as they stayed longer than anyone expected, three more envoys came besides, Lucius Scribonius, Gaius Calpurnius and Lucius Manlius; 7that only then was the ransoming of the captives brought before the senate by a tribune of the plebs, a kinsman of Scribonius, and the senate did not vote for their ransom; 7that the three new envoys returned to Hannibal, while the ten old ones stayed behind, because, having gone back to Hannibal from their journey on the pretext of checking the names of the captives, they had released themselves from their oath; 8that the question of surrendering them was debated in the senate with great contention, and those who proposed surrendering them were defeated by a few votes; 9but that under the next censors they were so overwhelmed with every mark of censure and disgrace that some of them at once took their own lives, while the rest for the remainder of their lives shunned not only the forum but almost daylight and public view.
10You could more easily wonder that the authorities disagree so much than determine what is true. 10How much greater this disaster was than earlier disasters is shown by this fact alone, that the loyalty of the allies, which had stood firm until that day, then began to waver, for no other reason, surely, than that they had despaired of the empire. 11These are the peoples that revolted to the Carthaginians: the Campanians, Atellani, Calatini, Hirpini, part of the Apulians, the Samnites except the Pentri, all the Bruttii, the Lucanians, and besides these the Uzentini and almost all the Greek coast, the Tarentines, Metapontines, Crotonians and Locrians, and all the Cisalpine Gauls.
13Yet these disasters and defections of the allies did not move the Romans to make any mention of peace anywhere, neither before the consul's arrival at Rome nor after he returned and renewed the memory of the disaster they had suffered; 14and at that very time the state showed such greatness of spirit that, as the consul returned from so great a disaster, of which he himself had been the chief cause, people of all orders went out in crowds to meet him, and thanks were given him because he had not despaired of the state; 15had he been a commander of the Carthaginians, there is no punishment he would not have had to suffer.