Hannibal and the Praenestes
In 217 BC Hannibal appeared on the Peninsula and the Romans showed great apprehension.
It is said that more than one person saw burning lamps fall from Heaven; the same people had no fear then of reporting them to the Senate. This was a clear symptom of how Hannibal's arrival made the population unreasonable, mixing the event with the supernatural.
Rome, to counter the Carthaginians, appointed Q. Fabius Maximus as Dictator, who ordered the cities associated with Rome to send soldiers; Praeneste sent 500 soldiers in Praeneste, meanwhile, the cohort was being prepared and "under the usual escort of a praetor it was sent towards Bari where the Roman army was staying: this praetor, his name was Manicius, or rather M. Anicius, had been for the previously Public Secretary, and had the reputation of a shrewd, determined and courageous man. He returned and fortified himself in Casilino, a city built above the Volturno.
Shortly afterwards Hannibal's troops arrived and laid siege to the city. But the Prenestina cohort did not lose heart. The defenders were fought by a deadly enemy, I mean by the shortage of food; so much so that some of those generous champions, impatient to suffer from hunger, had rushed from the walls, and even exposed themselves to enemy missiles.
The two Roman Captains Marcellus and Gracchus heard of all this with the help of a messenger, who sent Manicius to them across the river on a wineskin; but they were not in a position to be able to free him from those anguishes. Gracchus, who was closer, studied how to help him and at the same time let him know that he would push some barrels of spelled and wheat into the city at night through the current of the river: a ruse which succeeded three times; but as the torrent finally swelled due to the rains, the barrels were thrown onto the bank. The fact was discovered, and the enemies with the guards prevented the continuation of the relief.
They did the same thing, then, with some walnuts but it was very little for a legion.
The need reached such an end, that they used as food the leather torn from the shields, and from the saddles cooked in water, and a mouse was sold for 200 denarii: those who, leaving the gates, could collect the herbs growing nearby were considered lucky.
Having observed this, the Carthaginian had all the land around the walls plowed: the Manician, to mock the enemies, had turnip seed scattered on that land, which means that he was sure of preserving the square until that those seeds had borne fruit: and that Hannibal, dismayed by this, admitted that garrison to capitulation; for if the place was in extreme shortage, how was that turnip seed instantly found there?
If the Carthaginians approached right under the walls to plow the surrounding land, why didn't they stop there instead to prevent the besieged from going out and gathering the herbs? Embellishments therefore invented to adorn the story.
Later it happened that Hannibal agreed to leave them alive for the disbursement of seven ounces of gold, and sent them with a safe conduct to Cumae and from there, free to return to Rome.
The welcome they received was enormous: they obtained a double salary, exemption from the Roman militia for five years and were offered Roman citizenship which however was not accepted.
The Prenestines did not want to renounce their citizenship in favor of the Roman one. The refusal of Roman citizenship must necessarily have affected the inhabitants of the dominant one (Rome); so It is not surprised that, taking as an argument from the nuts, with which those forces supported themselves in the narrated siege, they began to mock the Prenestines with the nickname of Hazelnuts, and that Plautus, who lived in this time, called them proud.
