1Before their plans were quite settled, another sudden disaster is reported: four thousand cavalry, sent with the propraetor Gaius Centenius by the consul Servilius to his colleague, had been surrounded by Hannibal in Umbria, where they had turned aside on hearing of the battle at Trasimene. 1The news of this affected men in different ways: some, their minds occupied with a greater grief, thought the recent loss of cavalry slight in comparison with the earlier losses; 3others did not judge what had happened on its own merits, but held that, just as in a weakened body even a slight ailment is felt more than a graver one in a healthy body, so then whatever misfortune befell a sick and weakened state must be judged not by the magnitude of events but by its exhausted strength, which could endure nothing that might weigh it down further.
5And so the state took refuge in a remedy for a long time neither wanted nor applied, the naming of a dictator. 5And because the consul, by whom alone it seemed a dictator could be named, was absent, and it was not easy for either messenger or letter to be sent through Italy occupied by Punic arms, the people did what had never been done before that day and elected Quintus Fabius Maximus dictator and Marcus Minucius Rufus master of the horse; 7and the senate gave them the task of strengthening the walls and towers of the city, placing garrisons wherever they thought fit, and breaking down the bridges over the rivers: they must fight for the city and their household gods, since they had been unable to protect Italy.