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Appius had no difficulty in driving the Capuans from his earthworks, but Fulvius had to meet a much heavier attack from Hannibal and his Carthaginians on the other side. Here the sixth legion gave way and a cohort of Spaniards with three elephants succeeded in getting up to the breastwork. They had penetrated the Roman line, and whilst they saw their chance of breaking through into the camp they saw also the danger of being cut off from their supports. When Fulvius saw the disorder of the legion and the danger which threatened the camp, he called upon Q. Navius and other centurions of the first rank to charge the enemy's cohort which was fighting just under the breastwork. "It is a most critical moment," he told them; "either you must allow the enemy to go on, in which case they will break into the camp with less difficulty than they found in breaking through the closed ranks of the legion, or you must dispose of them whilst they are still below the breastwork. It will not be a hard fight; they are a small body, cut off from their support; and the very fact of the Roman line being broken will be an advantage if both sections close on the enemy's flanks, who would then be hemmed and exposed to a double attack." On hearing this Navius took the standard of the second maniple of hastati from the bearer and advanced with it against the enemy, threatening at the same time to throw it into their midst if his men did not promptly follow him and take their share in the fighting. He was a huge man and his armour set him off, and as he lifted the standard high in the air, he attracted all eyes. But when he was close to the Spaniards they hurled their javelins at him from all sides, and almost the whole of their line turned their attention to this one man. Neither the number of the enemy, however, nor the force of their missiles were able to check the gallant fellow's onset.
