XIII. Marcellus, when elected consul for the third time, sailed to Sicily; for Hannibal's successes in the war had encouraged the Carthaginians to recover that island, especially as Syracusan politics were in a disturbed state in consequence of the death of the despot Hieronymus; and on this account a Roman army under Appius had already been sent there. When Marcellus had taken the command of this army, he received a large accession of Roman soldiers, whose misfortune was as follows. Of the troops who fought with Hannibal at Cannæ, some fled, and some were taken alive, in such numbers that the Romans scarcely thought that they had left sufficient citizens to man the city walls, but this remnant was so full of pride and so great of soul, that, though Hannibal offered to release the captives for a small ransom, they would not take them, but refused by a decree of the Senate, and endured to see some of them put to death, and others sold out of Italy as slaves. The mass of those who had saved themselves by flight they sent to Sicily, with orders not to set foot on the soil of Italy until the war with Hannibal was over. So when Marcellus went to Sicily, these men came in a body into his presence, and falling on the ground before him besought him to permit them to serve as honourable soldiers, promising with cries and tears that they would prove by their actions that it was more by their bad fortune than their cowardice that the defeat at Cannæ took place. Marcellus was touched with compassion, and wrote to the Senate asking to be allowed to fill up from these men the vacancies which would occur in the ranks of his army. Much discussion followed; and at last the Senate decreed that Rome did not require the services of cowardly citizens, but, if Marcellus nevertheless wished to make use of them, they must not receive any of the crowns and other rewards which are commonly bestowed by generals as the prizes of valour. This decree vexed Marcellus, and after the war in Sicily he returned to Rome and blamed the Senate that, in spite of all that he had done for them, they would not allow him to relieve so many citizens from such a miserable position.