sent him home, after having had him cured, with the kindest attention, and even with presents. In gratitude for this favour, he had conceived a wish to put Nola under the power and dominion of the Carthaginian; but his anxiety and solicitude for effecting a change did not escape the notice of the praetor. However, as it was necessary that he should be either restrained by penal inflictions or conciliated by favours, he preferred attaching to himself a brave and strenuous ally, to depriving the enemy of him; and summoning him into his presence, in the kindest manner said, "that the fact that he had many among his countrymen who were jealous of him, might be easily collected from the circumstance that not one citizen of Nola had informed him how many were his splendid military exploits. But that it was impossible for the valour of one who served in the Roman camp to remain in obscurity; that many who had served with him had reported to him how brave a man he was, how often and what dangers he had encountered for the safety and honour of the Roman people; and how in the battle of Cannae he had not given over fighting till, almost bloodless, he was buried under a heap of men, horses, and arms which fell upon him. Go on then," says he, "and prosper in your career of valour, with me you shall receive every honour and every reward, and the oftener you be with me, the more you shall find it will be to your honour and emolument." He presented the young man, delighted with these promises, with a horse of distinguished beauty, ordered the quaestor to give him five hundred denarii, and commanded the lictors to allow him to approach him whenever he might please.