Hannibal having by this time encamped his force in the market-place, and the Romans having retired to the citadel where they had always had a garrison, it being now bright daylight, he summoned all the Tarentines by herald to assemble unarmed in the market-place.
The conspirators also went round the town calling on the people to help the cause of freedom and exhorting them to be of good courage, as it was for their sake that the Carthaginians had come.
Those Tarentines who were favourably disposed to the Romans retired to the citadel when they knew what had happened, and the rest assembled in response to the summons without their arms and were addressed by Hannibal in conciliatory terms.
The Tarentines loudly cheered every sentence, delighted as they were at the unexpected prospect, and Hannibal on dismissing the meeting ordered everyone to return as quickly as possible to his own house and write on the door "Tarentine,"
decreeing the penalty of death against anyone who should write this on the house of a Roman.
He then selected the most suitable of his officers and sent them off to conduct the pillage of the houses belonging to Romans, ordering them to regard as enemy property all houses which were uninscribed, and meanwhile he kept the rest of his forces drawn up in order to act as a support for the pillagers.
Walbank Commentary