FLAMINIUS, CARIS, d. 217 B.C.; a Roman tribune, prmtor, and censor, and twice consul; the constructor of the circus and the great highway bearing his name. The latter was the first road across the Apennines, and connected the Tuscan and Adriatic seas. When a second time elected consul, without staying to go through the usual solemnities of installation at the capitol, or to celebrate the ferim Latinte, Flaminius hastened to Ariminum and thence to Arretium, there to be ready for an aggressive cam paign against Hannibal as soon as the roads should be open. Meanwhile, Hannibal, uneasy in his winter quarters, had accomplished, with comparative case, the passage of the Apennines, and forced his way southward across the flooded plains of the lower Arno. The consul, fearing lest the enemy should find Rome unprotected, impetuously set out in pursuit. Free to select his own ground, Hannibal chose to make his stand between Borghetto and Passignano, in the narrow defile formed by the hills of Cortona, which is closed at its entrance by the Trasimene lake. With the main body of his infantry he barred the further outlet at the hill of Torre, while the light troops and the cavalry were posted on the sides of the pass. It was early morning (June 23, according
to the uncorrected calendar, but in reality on some clay in April) when Flaminius reached the spot, an a thick haze covering bill and lake, altogether concealed the position and even the existence of the enemy, until the Roman army found itself'-com pletely and hopelesSly surrounded in the fatal defile. In the three hours' carnage that followed, 15,000 Romans perished, and Flaminius was among the slain. From the materials which Livy and Polybius furnish, it is manifest that Flaminius was a man of ability, energy, and probity, who with the bravery of a true soldier combined many of the best qualities of a popular democratic leader. While eminent, however, as the head of a political party, and successful in carrying some pieces of useful legislation, he has little or no claim to rank among the greater statesmen of the republic. Al; a general, moreover, he was headstrong and self-sufficient, and he seems to have owed such vic tories as he achieved to personal boldness favored by good fortune rather than to any superiority of strategical skill. (Compiled from Ency. Brit., 9th ed.)