HKB
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Often appears with: siege and fortification · conquest, plunder, and captives · hannibal · roman punishment · poverty and wealth · petelia · paulinus of nola · nola · lake avernus and puteoli · diplomacy and embassies · campanian ambassadors · appian way
Usually: narrative (3) · sudden reversal of fortune (1) · censure (1) · detachment (1)
As Roman preparations alarm the Campanians, they urge Hannibal to besiege Capua; Hannibal moves from Arpi to Tifata, then to Lake Avernus to attack Puteoli and its garrison.
proclamation being armed and equipped by their masters, embarked with cooked provisions for thirty days. Then first it happened that the Roman fleet was manned at the expense of individuals. 12. These unusually great preparations alarmed the Campanians particularly, lest the Romans should commence the year's campaign with the siege of Capua. They therefore sent ambassadors to Hannibal, to implore him to bring his ar…
He continues the comparison, suggesting the retreat of the Goths was not fear, recounts Alaric’s advance along the Appian Way and the destruction of Capua’s fate contrasted with Nola and Paulinus, and notes Italy’s declining prosperity under the empire’s fall.
114 (return) [ See the pathetic complaint of Jerom, (tom. v. p. 400,) in his preface to the second book of his Commentaries on the Prophet Ezekiel.] There exists in human nature a strong propensity to depreciate the advantages, and to magnify the evils, of the present times. Yet, when the first emotions had subsided, and a fair estimate was made of the real damage, the more learned and judicious …
Polybius contrasts Capua and Petelia: Capua’s wealth breeds luxury until it calls in Hannibal and is punished by Rome, while Petelia stays loyal through a harsh eleven-month siege and surrenders with Rome’s approval.
CAPUA AND PETELIA [Sidenote: Capua and Petelia, the contrast of their fortunes.] +1.+ The people of Capua, in Campania, becoming wealthy through the fertility of their soil, degenerated into luxury and extravagance surpassing even the common report about Croton and Sybaris. Being then unable to support their burden of prosperity they called in Hannibal; and were accordingly treated with great severity by Rome. But …