Battle of Capua crush the rebellion of Syphax without the Scipios gaining any advantages in Iberia. In Sicily, the Siege of Syracuse continued. On the whole, the Romans under Marcus Claudius Marcellus had gained the upper hand. The Carthaginians had not recovered from the ravages of pestilence which had decimated their army. Capua had defected to Hannibal after the Battle of Cannae in 216 BC. Hannibal had made Capua his winter quarter in 215 BC and had conducted his campaigns against Nola and Casilinum from here. The Romans had recaptured Casilinum, crucial for attacking Capua, in 214 BC. Since then they had conducted
Sexuality in ancient Rome insult against a husband who failed to prevent it. Despite the external controls and restrictions placed on a slave's sexuality, Roman art and literature perversely often portray slaves as lascivious, voyeuristic, and even sexually knowing. One of the themes of Roman comedy that distinguishes it from its Greek models is the depiction of master-slave relations. Freeborn Romans who fell into slavery were supposed to be protected from sexual exploitation, as indicated by two different stories recorded by ancient historians. Before the abolition of debt bondage in the 4th century BC, free Romans were sometimes driven to sell themselves or their