In vain Flaminius strove to rally his panic-stricken troops. They but rushed the more wildly hither and thither, falling now upon the enemy, now upon each other, in their despair. The Consul himself fought bravely, but he soon fell wounded to death. Thousands of his soldiers were slain. Some threw themselves into the lake, hoping to swim to safety, but their armour weighed them down and they were drowned. Others waded out as far as they dared into the water, only to be followed by the cavalry of the enemy and slaughtered without mercy. It was useless to cry for quarter that day, for it was a day of vengeance and of sacrifice to the gods of Carthage. In three short hours, the Roman army was not only defeated; it no longer existed. Only a body of six thousand men escaped. It had been at the vanguard of the army, and had cut its way through the enemy to the top of the hills. Here the survivors stayed until the mist lifted, knowing nothing of what had befallen their comrades, until it was too late to go to their aid. So they then entrenched themselves in a village not far from the lake, but Hannibal’s cavalry soon surrounded them and forced them to surrender. In the battle of Lake Trasimenus the Carthaginians lost but fifteen hundred men, and of these the larger number were Gauls. Fugitives from the army soon reached Rome, and threw the citizens into consternation by the terrible and different tales they told. The following day tidings of the awful slaughter at the edge of Lake Trasimenus reached the Senate. Then the people thronged into the Forum and surrounded the Senate-house, demanding to know what really had happened. In the evening, when the people’s patience was all but at an end, Marcus, one of the prætors, mounted the public platform and cried in a loud voice, ‘We are beaten, O Romans, in a great battle, our army is destroyed, and Flaminius the Consul is slain.’ At the words of Marcus the city became a scene of wild despair. Many men and women who had lost their husbands and sons called down the curses of the gods upon their enemy, others wept and prayed in the temples and forbore to curse, for all the bitterness of their loss. Amid the tumult, the Senate alone remained calm. Day after day, from early morning until late in the evening, it sat to consider how it might best save the city from the mighty conqueror. Three days passed, and then even worse tidings arrived. The Consul Servilius had sent his cavalry to prevent Hannibal’s advance on Rome, but it had been either captured or put to the sword. Servilius without his cavalry was powerless to prevent the Punic army from advancing upon the city. [Illustration: “We are beaten, O Romans, in a great battle, our army is destroyed.”] In a short time indeed, Hannibal, at the head of his triumphant army, was scarcely two days’ march from Rome. Flaminius was dead. Between Servilius and the city was the Carthaginian army.