Siege of Capua (211 BC) shortly afterwards. Polybius - The Rise of the Roman Empire, pp 387–394 Siege of Capua (211 BC) The Siege of Capua was fought in 211 BC, when the Romans besieged Capua. It is described by Polybius at 9.4-7, and by Livy at 26.4-6. 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 there. The Romans had attempted to march on Capua several times since its defection but were thwarted by the return of Hannibal's army rushing
Titus Manlius Torquatus (consul 235 BC) to cross the Po river, then defeated the Boii there. The Celts lost 23,000 men and 5,000 of them were captured, but the consuls had to retreat because of poor weather and decease among their troops. In 216 BC, as one of the most senior senators then living, he successfully opposed the ransoming of the Romans taken prisoner at the Battle of Cannae, on the grounds that they had made no effort to break out of the Carthaginian lines. In 215 BC he was sent to Sardinia, after the illness of Quintus Mucius Scaevola and defeated a Carthaginian attempt under