<p rend="Plain Text">The situation and importance of Tarentum</p>
<p rend="Plain Text">The year 210 was one of minor operations in <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Italy&groupId=656&placeId=1199">Italy</a>. For Roman gains in Apulia and <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Samnium&groupId=943&placeId=1678">Samnium</a> cf. ix. 26. 2 n.; but the proconsul Cn. Fulvius lost several thousand men and his own life in an ambush at Herdonea in Apulia (Livy, xxvii. 1. 3–15; cf. De Sanctis, iii. 2. 459 n. 28). Marcellus had a successful skirmish with Hannibal near <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Venusia&groupId=1057&placeId=1860">Venusia</a> (Livy, xxvii. 2; Plut. Marc. 24. 5); and the Roman garrison in Tarentum was hard pressed owing to the sinking of a convoy from <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Sicily&groupId=973&placeId=1724">Sicily</a> by a Tarentine fleet (Livy, xxvi. 39. 1–19; De Sanctis, iii. 2. 461 n. 31). Discouraged, twelve Latin colonies withheld men and money (Livy, xxvii. 9. 7). In 209 the consul Q. Fulvius Flaccus marched south into Lucania, and took the surrender of the <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Hirpini&groupId=634&placeId=1165">Hirpini</a> and several Lucanian communities including Vulci in the absence of Hannibal, who had advanced into Apulia against Marcellus (Livy, xxvii. 12. 1–15. 3). Meanwhile the other consul, Q. Fabius Maximus, took Manduria, south-east of Tarentum (Livy, xxvii. 15. 4), as a preliminary to advancing to the relief of the garrison in Tarentum itself; cf. Hallward, CAH, viii. 81–82. The present passage clearly introduces P.'s account of the recapture of Tarentum, which falls in Ol. 142, 3 = 210/9, in fact in 209 (see above, p. 14); see Livy, xxvii. 15. 9–16. 9 for the recovery.</p>
Walbank Commentary