Ab Urbe Condita, books 23-25 - 24
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Book XXIV HAVING returned from Campania to the land of the Bruttii, Hanno, with the Bruttii as supporters and guides, attacked the Greek cities, which were all the more ready to remain in alliance with Rome because they saw that the Bruttii, whom they both hated and feared, had gone over to the side of the Carthaginians. Regium was the first city to be attacked, and some days were spent there to no purpose. Meantime the Locrians hastily brought grain and wood and the other things needed to supply their wants from the farms into the city, also that no booty might be left for the enemy. And every day a larger crowd poured out of all the gates. Finally there were left in the city only six hundred men, who were made to repair walls and gates and to carry arms to the battlements. Against the multitude made up of all ages and classes, wandering about the country, many of the unarmed, Hamilcar the Carthaginian sent out his cavalry. Forbidden to injure anyone, they interposed their squadrons merely to shut off from the city those who had scattered in flight. The commander himself, after capturing higher ground from which he could see the country and the city, ordered a cohort of Bruttii to go up to the walls and call out the chief men of the Locrians to a conference, and with a promise of Hannibal's friendship to encourage them to surrender the city. In the conference the Bruttians at first were not believed at all. Then, when the Carthaginians were seen on the hills, and a few returning fugitives repeatedly asserted that all the rest of the multitude were in the power of the enemy, overcome by fear, they answered that they would consult the people. An assembly being at once called, all the fickle preferred political change and a new alliance; also those whose relations had been shut off outside the city by the enemy had mortgaged their affections, having virtually given hostages. And the few silently approved of steadfast loyalty, rather than dared to declare and defend it. Hence surrender to the Carthaginians was voted with apparently unquestioned unanimity. After Lucius Atilius, commander of the garrison, and the Roman soldiers who were with him had been secretly led down to the harbour and put on ships to be carried to Regium, they admitted Hamilcar and the Carthaginians into the city on condition that a treaty be made at once on fair terms. The promise of such a treaty was almost broken after they surrendered, when the Carthaginian charged that the Roman had been allowed by trickery to go away, while the Locrians pleaded that he had escaped unaided. Also the cavalry pursued him in the hope that possibly the current in the strait might delay the ships or bring them to shore. They did not indeed overtake the men they were pursuing, but they sighted other ships crossing the strait from Messana to Regium. It was the Roman soldiers sent by Claudius, the praetor, to garrison and hold the city. And so the siege of Regium was at once raised. Peace was granted the Locrians by Hannibal's order: they were, namely, to live in freedom under their own laws, the city to be open to the Carthaginians, the harbour in the power of the Locrians, the alliance to rest upon this basis: that the Carthaginian should help the Locrian, the Locrian the Carthaginian, in peace and in war. Thus the Carthaginians were withdrawn from the strait, though the Bruttians were indignant because they had left Regium and Locri untouched, the cities which they had counted upon plundering. And so without aid they enlisted and armed 15,000 of their young men and set out to besiege Croton, another Greek city and on the sea, believing that it would be a great addition to their resources if they should hold a fortified city and harbour on the seacoast. It troubled them that they did not quite dare not to call the Carthaginians to their aid, for fear they might seem to have failed to act as became allies. At the same time they feared that, if the Carthaginian should again be rather an arbiter of peace than a helper in war, fighting to secure freedom for Croton might be profitless, as previously for Locri. And thus it seemed best to send legates to Hannibal and gain assurance from him that Croton when captured should belong to the Bruttians. Hannibal having replied that decision in the matter lay with those on the ground, thus referring them to Hanno, they obtained no definite answer from Hanno. He did not wish a city well-known and rich to be plundered, and he was hoping that, while the Bruttian was besieging them and the Carthaginians obviously neither approving nor helping the siege, they would all the more promptly come over to his side. At Croton there was among the citizens no one policy or common preference. One malady, so to speak, had attacked all the city-states of Italy, that the common people were at odds with the upper class, the senate inclining to the Romans, the common people drawing the state to the side of the Carthaginians. This disagreement in the city was reported to the Bruttians by a deserter: that Aristomachus was the leader of the plebeians and advised surrender of the city; also that in the sparsely inhabited city, with its walls at a great distance, there were only scattered posts and guards of the senators; that wherever plebeians were on guard there was free access to the city. With the deserter as adviser and leader the Bruttians completely encircled the city, and being admitted by the plebeians, they took the whole city by assault, with the exception of the citadel. The optimates held the citadel, having previously prepared a place of refuge for such an emergency. To it Aristomachus also fled, as though he had advised surrendering the city to the Carthaginians, not to the Bruttians. The city of Croton had a wall with a circuit of twelve miles before the coming of Pyrrhus to Italy. Since the desolation caused by that war scarcely half of the city was inhabited. The river which had flowed through the middle of the city now flowed past, outside the quarters which had numerous houses, and the citadel was far from the inhabited portions. Six miles from the famous city was a temple more famous than the city itself, that of Lacinian Juno, revered by all the surrounding peoples. There a sacred grove, which was enclosed by dense woods and tall fir-trees, had in its centre luxuriant pastures, where cattle of all kinds, being sacred to the goddess, used to pasture without any shepherd. And at night the flocks of each kind would return separately to their stalls, being never harmed by wild beasts lying in wait, nor by the dishonesty of men. Therefore great profits were made from the cattle, and out of the profits a massive golden column was wrought and consecrated. And the temple was famous for its wealth also, not merely for its sanctity. They give it some pretended marvels also, as generally in places so noted. It is reported that in the space in front of the temple there is an altar whose ashes are never stirred by any wind. But the citadel of Croton, on one side overhanging the sea, while the other slopes down toward the country, was once protected merely by its natural situation, but later encircled with a wall also, where, along the cliffs on the farther side, it had been taken by ruse of Dionysius, tyrant of Sicily. In that citadel, sufficiently safe, as it seemed, the optimates of Croton were at the time maintaining themselves, besieged even by their own plebs as well as by the Bruttians. Finally the Bruttians, seeing that the citadel was for their resources impregnable, were of necessity constrained to beg aid of Hanno. He attempted to compel the Crotonians to surrender on condition that they permit a colony of Bruttians to be established there, and allow the city, desolate and depopulated by wars, to recover its old-time numbers. But among them all he prevailed upon no one except Aristomachus. They claimed that they would sooner die than mingle with the Bruttians and change to the rites, customs and laws, and presently even the language, of another people. Aristomachus, since he was unable by persuasion to bring them to surrender and could find no opportunity to betray the citadel, as he had betrayed the city, alone went over to Hanno. Soon after that the Locrian legates entered the citadel with Hanno's consent and persuaded them to allow themselves to be transferred to Locri, and not to risk desperate measures. Permission to that effect they had already obtained from Hannibal, having sent legates for that very purpose. So Croton was evacuated, and the Crotonians were led down to the sea and went on shipboard. They went, the whole number of them, to Locri. In Apulia even the winter was not without conflict between the Romans and Hannibal. Sempronius, the consul, was wintering at Luceria, Hannibal not far from Arpi. Skirmishes between them kept occurring as opportunity offered, or the favourable moment for one side or the other. And in consequence the Romans were better soldiers, daily more cautious and safer from surprise attacks. In Sicily everything had been changed for the Romans by the death of Hiero and the transfer of the kingdom to his grandson Hieronymus, a boy hardly able to keep his independence under control, much less absolute power. Such was the age, such the disposition which guardians and friends took in hand, to throw him into all the vices. Hiero, seeing that this would happen, is said in his extreme old age to have wished to leave Syracuse free, that kingly power gained and confirmed by good qualities might not come to an end in disgrace under the tyranny of a boy. This his plan was opposed might and main by his daughters, who thought the boy would have the kingly title, but that complete control would be in their hands and those of their husbands, Adranodorus and Zoippus, who were being left as the principal guardians. It was not easy for a man now in his ninetieth year, surrounded day and night by the blandishments of women, to be independent and turn his attention from the personal to the public interest. Accordingly he merely left fifteen guardians for the boy, and dying entreated them to keep inviolate that loyalty to the Roman people which he had maintained for fifty years and to choose above all to have the young man tread in his footsteps and continue the training in which he had been brought up. Such were his instructions. After he had breathed his last the guardians produced the will and brought the boy, at that time about fifteen years old, before an assembly of the people. While a few men, who had been posted in all parts of the assembly to start applause, showed approval of the will, while the rest, as if deprived of a father and in an orphaned city, had only fears, the guardians <took charge>. Then came the king's funeral, honoured rather by the love and regard of the citizens than by the grief of his family. Soon afterwards Adranodorus removed the rest of the guardians, saying that Hieronymus was now a young man and capable of ruling. And laying down his own guardianship, which was shared with a number of others, he took to himself alone the powers of them all. It would have been difficult for any king, even a good one and self-controlled, to find favour with the Syracusans as successor to Hiero, so beloved. But certainly Hieronymus at his very first appearance showed how different everything was, just as if he wished by his vices to make them regret his grandfather. For, though through so many years they had seen Hiero and his son Gelo not differing from the rest of the citizens in garb or in any other distinction, they beheld purple and a diadem and armed attendants and a man who came forth from the palace sometimes even in a chariot with four white horses after the manner of Dionysius the tyrant. This haughty state and costume were suitably attended by contempt shown towards everyone, by haughty ears, insulting words, infrequent access, not only for outsiders but even for his guardians, by unheard of lusts, by inhuman cruelty. Consequently such alarm had laid hold of all that some of the guardians anticipated the dreaded punishments either by suicide or by flight. Three of them, who alone had more intimate access to the palace, Adranodorus and Zoippus, the sons-in-law of Hiero, and a certain Thraso, were not indeed much listened to on other matters; but as two of them were inclining to the Carthaginians, Thraso to alliance with Rome, by their partisan rivalry they were occasionally attracting the young man's attention, when a conspiracy formed against the life of the tyrant was revealed by one Callo, of the same age as Hieronymus and from boyhood accustomed to all the rights of intimacy. The informer was able to name but one of the conspirators, Theodotus, by whom he had himself been approached. And Theodotus, at once seized and handed over for torture to Adranodorus, confessed without hesitation in regard to himself, but did not reveal his accomplices. Finally, racked by all the tortures which pass human endurance, pretending to be mastered by his sufferings, he turned informer against the innocent instead of against his accomplices, and falsely stated that Thraso was responsible for the plan: that they would not have ventured upon such an undertaking if they had not relied upon so powerful a leader. He also named attendants of the tyrant as associates, men whose lives, it occurred to him, as he was fabricating between pains and groans, were of the least account. His mentioning Thraso made the information particularly credible to the mind of the tyrant. Accordingly Thraso was forthwith handed over for execution, and the rest, equally innocent, shared his punishment. Not one of the accomplices either hid himself or fled, though their partner in the plot was long under torture. Such confidence was theirs in the courage and loyalty of Theodotus, and such will-power to keep secrets did Theodotus himself possess. Thus as soon as Thraso, who was the sole link to an alliance with the Romans, had been removed from their midst, matters at once tended unquestionably toward defection. And ambassadors were sent to Hannibal, and he sent back with a young noble named Hannibal also Hippocrates and Epicydes, who were born at Carthage but Syracusans by origin (their grandfather being an exile), Carthaginians themselves on the mother's side. Through these men an alliance was made between Hannibal and the tyrant of Syracuse, and with Hannibal's consent they remained with the tyrant. Appius Claudius, the praetor, whose province was Sicily, on learning of this, forthwith sent legates to Hieronymus. While they were saying that they had come to renew the alliance which they had had with his grandfather, they were heard with derision and dismissed by Hieronymus, who in jest asked what success they had had in the battle at Cannae; for Hannibal's envoys reported what was scarcely to be believed. He wished to know, he said, what the truth was, that he might accordingly determine from which side he had the more to hope. The Romans departed, saying that they would return to him when he began to give a sober hearing to embassies, and warning rather than asking him not to be rash in changing his loyalty. Hieronymus sent ambassadors to Carthage to make a treaty in accordance with the alliance arranged with Hannibal. The agreement was that, after they had driven the Romans out of Sicily (and this would be shortly done if they would send ships and an army), the river Himera, which nearly divides the island in halves, should be the boundary of the kingdom of Syracuse and the Carthaginian empire. Thereupon, puffed up by the flatteries of those who bade him remember not Hiero only but also King Pyrrhus, his maternal grandfather, Hieronymus sent another embassy, through which he declared it was fair for them to yield all Sicily to him, and for the Carthaginian people to seek their own dominion over Italy. At this trifling and boastful spirit in a madcap youth they did not wonder, nor find fault either, provided they made him break with the Romans. VII. But in everything he was on the verge of ruin. For after sending Hippocrates and Epicydes in advance, each with two thousand armed men, to attack the cities which were held by Roman garrisons, he too setting out with all the rest of the army —and they were about fifteen thousand infantry and cavalry —had gone to Leontini. The conspirators all of whom, as it happened, were in the army, took possession of an empty house looking down upon the narrow street by which the king used to go down to the market-place. There, while the rest, drawn up under arms, were to stand waiting for him to pass, one of them —his name was Dinomenes —, as being a body-guard, was assigned the rôle of halting, on some pretext, the column following the king in the narrow street, when he approached the door of the house. This was carried out as had been arranged. Dinomenes, raising one foot and pretending to loosen a knot drawn too tight, delayed the crowd and caused such a gap that, when the attack on the king was made as he passed without guards, he was stabbed with several thrusts before help could reach him. On hearing the shouting and uproar they hurled their weapons at Dinomenes, who was now obviously blocking the way. In the midst of these, however, he escaped with only two wounds. The guards fled as soon as they saw the king lying there. Of the assassins some proceeded to the market-place and into a crowd which rejoiced in its freedom, some to Syracuse to forestall the designs of Adranodorus and the other supporters of the king. In the unsettled state of affairs Appius Claudius, seeing a war beginning near at hand, informed the senate by letter that Sicily was being won over to the Carthaginian people and Hannibal. For his own part, to meet the schemes of the Syracusans, he concentrated all his garrisons on the frontier between the province and the kingdom. At the end of that year Quintus Fabius by the authority of the senate fortified and garrisoned Puteoli, which as a commercial centre had grown in population during the war. Then, while on his way to Rome to hold the elections, he proclaimed them for the first date available for an election, and without stopping passed the city and came down to the Campus. On the day set the right to vote first fell to the century of the younger men of the Aniensis tribe, and it named Titus Otacilius and Marcus Aemilius Regillus as consuls. Thereupon Quintus Fabius, after silence had been made, spoke somewhat as follows: If we had either peace in Italy or such a war and such an enemy that there was ample room for carelessness, should someone interpose any delay to the enthusiasm which you bring to the Campus in order to entrust magistracies to the men of your choice, such a man would seem to me forgetful of your freedom. But since in this war, in dealing with this enemy, never has a mistake been made by any commander without huge losses to us, you ought in electing consuls to enter the polls with the same seriousness with which you go into battle-line under arms, and each man should say to himself: 'I name as consul a man who is a match for Hannibal the general.' This year at Capua, when Vibellius Taurea, a distinguished Campanian knight, challenged, Asellus Claudius, a distinguished Roman knight, was matched against him. Against the Gaul who once challenged at the bridge over the Anio our ancestors sent Titus Manlius, who relied upon his courage and his strength. There was the same reason, I am inclined to admit, why not many years later Marcus Valerius found no lack of confidence in him when he took up arms for the fray against a Gaul who made a like challenge. Just as we desire to have foot and horse stronger than those of the enemy, if not, then a match for him, so let us seek a general who is a match for the commander of the enemy. When we shall have chosen the man who is the greatest commander in the state, nevertheless, although suddenly chosen, elected for a single year, he will be pitted against an experienced permanent general, hampered by no restrictions of time or authority to prevent him from doing and directing everything as the phases of the war shall require. But with us the year rolls round in mere preparation and while we are just beginning. Having sufficiently stated what kind of men you ought to elect as consuls, it remains for me to say a few words in regard to those to whom the favour of the first century to vote has inclined. Marcus Aemilius Regillus is the flamen of Quirinus, and we can neither send him away from the sacred rites nor keep him at home without abandoning our responsibility for the gods or else for the war. Titus Otacilius has my sister's daughter as his wife and children by her. But not so slight are your favours to my ancestors and myself that I can fail to hold the state of more account than personal ties. Any one of the sailors and passengers can steer when the sea is calm. When a savage storm comes and the ship is swept over a rough sea by the wind, then there is need of a man and a pilot. We are not sailing a calm sea, but have been almost sunk already by a number of squalls. And so who is to sit at the helm is for you to decide with the greatest seriousness and foresight. In a lesser affair we have tested you, Titus Otacilius. Certainly you have not shown any reason why we should trust you for greater things. This year we equipped the fleet which you commanded for three purposes: to ravage the coast of Africa, to make our Italian shores safe, but above all to prevent reinforcements with pay and supplies from being brought over from Carthage for Hannibal. Citizens, elect Titus Otacilius consul, if he has performed, I do not say all of these things, but some part of them, for the state. But if, while you, Titus Otacilius, commanded the fleet, even the things he did not need came to Hannibal from home safe and intact, as though he had conquered the sea, if the coast of Italy has been more unsafe this year than that of Africa, what reason can you give why we are to match you by preference as commander against such an enemy as Hannibal? If you were consul we should propose the appointment of a dictator, following the precedent of our ancestors, and you could not be incensed that some one in the Roman state was considered a better man in war than you. It is to no one's interest more than yours, Titus Otacilius, that no such burden be placed on your shoulders that you may fall beneath it. I earnestly entreat and urge you, citizens, that the same spirit which you would show if, while standing armed in battle-line, you had suddenly to choose two generals under whose command and auspices you should fight, be yours today also in electing consuls to whom your sons shall repeat the oath, in response to whose edict they shall assemble, under whose guardian care they shall serve. The Lake of Trasumennus and Cannae are sad examples to recall, but to guard against like disasters they are a warning. Herald, summon the Aniensis century of the younger men to vote again! While Titus Otacilius was fiercely and noisily shouting that Fabius wanted to have his consulship prolonged, the consul ordered the lictors to go up to him, and, as he had not entered the city, having gone without a halt directly to the Campus, he warned Otacilius that the fasces carried before the consul had their axes. Meanwhile the leading century proceeded to vote, and in it were elected consuls Quintus Fabius Maximus for the fourth time and Marcus Marcellus for the third time. The rest of the centuries without exception named the same men as consuls. And of the praetors one, Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, was reflected, the others newly created, Titus Otacilius Crassus for the second time, Quintus Fabius, son of the consul and at the time curule aedile, and Publius Cornelius Lentulus. The election of praetors being now completed, the senate decreed that Quintus Fulvius by special designation should have the duties of city praetor, and that he, and no one else, should be in charge of the city when the consuls took the field. There were great floods twice that year and the Tiber overflowed the farms with great destruction of buildings and cattle and much loss of life. In the fifth year of the Second Punic War, Quintus Fabius Maximus entering his fourth consulship and Marcus Claudius Marcellus his third attracted the attention of the citizens more than was usual. For many years there had been no such pair of consuls. Old men recalled that thus Maximus Rullus had been declared consul with Publius Decius for the Gallic war, thus, later on, Papirius and Carvilius against the Samnites and Bruttians and the people of Lucania and of Tarentum. Marcellus was made consul in his absence, being with the army; for Fabius, who was present and himself conducted the election, his consulship was continued. The times and the straits of war and danger to the existence of the state deterred any one from searching for a precedent for that, and from suspecting the consul of greed for power. On the contrary they praised his high-mindedness, in that, knowing the state had need of a great commander, and that he was himself undoubtedly that man, he counted his own unpopularity, should any be the consequence, as of less moment than the advantage of the state. X. On the day on which the consuls entered upon office the senate met on the Capitol, and it was decreed first of all that the consuls should decide by lot or by mutual arrangement which of them should hold the election for naming the censors before leaving for the army. Then for all who were with the army their commands were continued, and they were ordered to remain in their assignments, Tiberius Gracchus at Luceria, where he was with the army of slave-volunteers, Gaius Terentius Varro in the Picene district, Marcus Pomponius in the Gallic; and that of the praetors of the previous year, now as propraetors, Quintus Mucius should govern Sardinia and Marcus Valerius should be in command of the sea-coast at Brundisium, watchful against all movements of Philip, King of the Macedonians. Sicily was assigned as his province to Publius Cornelius Lentulus, the praetor, and to Titus Otacilius the same fleet which he had had against the Carthaginians the previous year. Prodigies in large numbers —and the more they were believed by men simple and devout, the more of them used to be reported —were reported that year: that at Lanuvium ravens had made a nest inside the temple of Juno Sospita; that in Apulia a green palm took fire; that at Mantua a lake, the overflow of the river Mincius, appeared bloody; and at Cales it rained chalk, and at Rome in the Cattle Market blood; and that on the Vicus Insteius an underground spring flowed with such a volume of water that the force of a torrent, as it were, overturned the jars, great and small, that were there and carried them along; that the Atrium Publicum on the Capitol, the temple of Vulcan in the Campus, that of Vacuna and a public street in the Sabine country, the wall and a gate at Gabii were struck by lightning. Moreover other marvels were widely circulated: that the spear of Mars at Praeneste moved of itself; that an ox in Sicily spoke; that among the Marrucini an infant in its mother's womb shouted Hail, triumph! ; that at Spoletium a woman was changed into a man; that at Hadria an altar was seen in the sky, and about it the forms of men in white garments. In fact at Rome also, actually in the city, directly after the appearance of a swarm of bees in the Forum —a wonder because it is rare —certain men, asserting that they saw armed legions on the Janiculum, aroused the city to arms, whereas those who were on the Janiculum denied that anyone had been seen there except the usual dwellers on that hill. Atonement was made for these prodigies with full-grown victims on the advice of the soothsayers, and a season of prayer to all the gods who had festal couches at Rome was proclaimed. The rites which concerned peace with the gods being now completed, the consuls laid before the senate the condition of the state and the conduct of the war, and what forces there were and where severally stationed. It was voted to carry on the war with eighteen legions; that each consul should take two; that with two legions in each case Gaul and Sicily and Sardinia should be held; that with two legions Quintus Fabius, a praetor, should be in charge of Apulia, and that with two legions of slave-volunteers Tiberius Gracchus should be in command in the region of Luceria; that one legion each should be left for Gaius Terentius, the proconsul, in the Picene district and for Marcus Valerius for service with the fleet near Brundisium; that two should form the garrison of the city. To make up this number of legions six new legions had to be enrolled. The consuls were ordered to enroll them as soon as possible, and to furnish a fleet, so that, including the ships at anchor defending the coast of Calabria, the fleet should amount that year to a hundred and fifty warships. After conducting the levy and launching a hundred new ships, Quintus Fabius held an election for the choosing of censors. Marcus Atilius Regulus and Publius Furius Philus were elected. As the rumour that there was a war in Sicily spread more widely, Titus Otacilius was ordered to set sail thither with his fleet. Owing to the lack of sailors the consuls in accordance with a decree of the senate issued an edict that a man who in the censorship of Lucius Aemilius and Gaius Flaminius had been rated —either he or his father —at from 50,000 to 100,000 asses, or if his property had since increased to that amount, should furnish one sailor provided with six months' pay; that one who had more than 100,000 and up to 300,000 should furnish three sailors and a year's pay; he who had over 300,000 and up to a million asses, five sailors; he who had over a million, seven; that senators should furnish eight sailors and a year's pay. The sailors furnished in accordance with this edict went on board armed and equipped by their masters, and with cooked rations for thirty days. It was the first time that a Roman fleet was manned with crews secured at private expense. This extraordinary preparation particularly alarmed the Campanians, for fear the Romans might begin that year's war with a siege of Capua. Accordingly they sent legates to Hannibal to beg him to bring his army to Capua. New armies, they said, were being enrolled at Rome for besieging it, and the defection of no city had more embittered the Romans. Since they reported this with such excitement, Hannibal, thinking he must make haste, lest he be anticipated by the Romans, set out from Arpi and established himself by Tifata in his old camp above Capua. Then leaving Numidians and Spaniards to defend the camp and Capua at the same time, he came down with the rest of his army to the Lake of Avernus, with the pretext of sacrificing, in reality to attack Puteoli and the garrison which was there. Maximus, on being informed that Hannibal had left Arpi and was returning to Campania, without interrupting his journey by day or night returned to the army. And he ordered Tiberius Gracchus to bring his troops from Luceria to Beneventum, and Quintus Fabius, the praetor —he was the consul's son —, to relieve Gracchus at Luceria. Two praetors set out at the same time for Sicily, Publius Cornelius to the army, and Titus Otacilius to take command of the sea-coast and of naval operations. And the others set out for their several assignments, and those whose commands had been prolonged held the same regions as in the previous year. While Hannibal was at the Lake of Avernus five-noble young men came to him from Tarentum, some of whom had been captured at the Lake of Trasumennus, others at Cannae, and sent to their homes with that same courtesy which the Carthaginian had shown toward all allies of the Romans. Mindful of his favours, they reported that they had induced a large part of the young men of Tarentum to prefer the friendship and alliance of Hannibal to those of the Roman people; and that, as legates sent by their people, they asked Hannibal to bring his army nearer to Tarentum. If his standards, if his camp should be seen from Tarentum there would be no delay in the surrender of the city; that the common people were in the power of the younger men, the Tarentine state in the hands of the common people. Hannibal praised them and overwhelmed them with great promises, and bade them return home to carry out their undertaking promptly; that he would be there at the right moment. With this hope the Tarentines were sent away. He himself had conceived a great desire to gain possession of Tarentum. He saw that the city was not only rich and famous but also a seaport, and favourably placed in the direction of Macedonia, and that accordingly King Philip, if he should cross into Italy, would make for this port, since the Romans held Brundisium. Then, after accomplishing the rite for which he had come, and devastating the territory of Cumae as far as the promontory of Misenum, while he lingered there, he suddenly headed his column toward Puteoli, to surprise the Roman garrison. There were six thousand men and the place was defended by a wall also, not merely by nature. There the Carthaginian tarried three days, attacking the garrison from every side; and then, when he met with no success, he set out to ravage the territory of Neapolis, rather in anger than with the hope of taking the city. His coming into a neighbouring region aroused the common people of Nola, who had long been estranged from the Romans and hostile to their own senate. Consequently legates came to invite Hannibal, bringing a definitive promise to surrender the city. Marcellus, the consul, was called in by the leading men and forestalled their undertaking. From Cales he had hastened in one day to Suessula, though the river Volturnus had delayed his crossing. Thence he sent six thousand infantry and three hundred horsemen that night into Nola, to defend the senate. And whereas the consul did everything with energy, in order to anticipate him in occupying Nola, Hannibal was wasting time, having twice already made the vain attempt, and being now less inclined to believe the men of Nola. At the same time not only did Quintus Fabius, the consul, come to Casilinum, to attack the city, held by a Carthaginian garrison, but also, as if by prearrangement, Hanno, with a large force of infantry and cavalry, from the land of the Bruttii, came to Beneventum from one side, while on the other side Tiberius Gracchus came to it from Luceria. The latter at first entered the town, and then, on hearing that Hanno had pitched his camp about three miles from the city by the river Calor, and from that point was ravaging the country, he likewise left the city and pitched camp about a mile from the enemy. There he held an assembly of the soldiers. The legions he had were largely made up of slave-volunteers, who now for two years had preferred silently to earn their freedom rather than openly to demand it. Yet as he came out of winter quarters he had been aware that there was murmuring in the column, as they asked whether they were ever at all to serve as free men. And he had written to the senate, not so much what they wanted as what they had deserved; that he had had good and brave service from them up to that time, and that they lacked nothing toward the standard of the real soldier except their freedom. In this matter he had been given permission to do whatever he thought to be for the good of the state. And so, before engaging the enemy, he announced that the time had come for them to gain the freedom for which they so long had hoped; that the next day he would fight, standards against standards, in a clear and open field, where without any fear of ambush the battle could be fought with pure courage. Whoever should bring back the head of an enemy would by his order be a free man at once. Whoever retreated from his post would meet the punishment of a slave. Each man's fortune was in his own hand. The giver of their freedom would be not merely himself, but the consul Marcus Marcellus, but the whole senate, for they had been consulted by him and had given him permission in the matter of their freedom. He then read the letter of the consul and the decree of the senate. Upon that a shout was raised with great applause. They clamoured for battle and with high spirit insisted that he give the signal at once. Gracchus announced a battle for the morrow and dismissed the assembly. The soldiers were happy, especially those for whom freedom was to be the reward of a single day's service, and spent the rest of the day in putting their arms in order. On the next day, when the signals began to sound, these soldiers were the first of all to assemble at headquarters, ready and in formation. After sunrise Gracchus led his troops out into line, and the enemy did not delay the battle. They had seventeen thousand infantry, mostly Bruttians and Lucanians, twelve hundred cavalry, among them very few Italians, nearly all the rest Numidians and Mauri. The battle was fierce and long; for four hours it did not incline either way. And nothing hampered the Romans more than that enemies' heads were made the price of freedom. For when a man had boldly slain an enemy, in the first place he was wasting time in cutting off the head with difficulty in the confusion and turmoil; and then, as his right hand was occupied in holding the head, the bravest had ceased to be fighters, while the battle was turned over to the spiritless and the fearful. When the tribunes of the soldiers reported' this to Gracchus: that they were not wounding a single enemy standing, but butchering the fallen; and that in the soldier's right hands there were human heads instead of swords, he ordered the command at once given that they should throw away the heads and attack the enemy. Their courage, he said, was sufficiently clear and conspicuous, and for active men freedom would be beyond a doubt. Thereupon the battle Was renewed, and the cavalry also charged the enemy. Since the Numidians met this charge gallantly and the cavalry battle was no less spirited than that of the infantry, the issue was for the second time made doubtful. While the commanders on both sides heaped abuse, the Roman on the Bruttians and Lucanians, so many times defeated and subdued by their ancestors, the Carthaginian on the Roman slaves and prison-house .soldiers, Gracchus finally declared that they had no reason to hope for freedom, unless on that day the enemy should-be routed and put to flight. Those words at last so fired their courage that, as though they were suddenly different men, they raised a shout again and charged the enemy with such force that they could no longer be withstood. At first the front line of the Carthaginians, then the second was in confusion; finally the whole line was forced back. Then it was unmistakeable flight, and fleeing they dashed into their camp in such fright and excitement that no one halted even at the gates or on the wall. And the Romans, pursuing in almost unbroken column, fought an entirely new battle while hemmed in by the enemies' wall. There the battle was indeed more hampered in a confined space, but the slaughter was more savage. And they were aided by the captives, who, seizing weapons during the confusion and advancing in a mass, slashed the Carthaginians from the rear and also hindered their flight. And so out of that great army less than two thousand men, mainly cavalry at that, escaped along with the general himself. All the rest were slain or captured. Captured were also thirty-eight standards. Of the victors about two thousand fell. All the booty except the captives was given to the soldiers. Cattle also were excepted, if the owners should identify them within thirty days. When they had returned to camp laden with booty, about four thousand of the slave-volunteers, who had fought with less spirit and had not dashed into the camp with the others, for fear of punishment occupied a hill not far from the camp. The next day they were brought down by military tribunes and arrived after an assembly of the soldiers had been called by Gracchus. There the proconsul first presented military decorations to the old soldiers, to each according to his valour and his part in that battle; and then he said that, so far as the slave-volunteers were concerned, he preferred to have all of them, the . worthy and the unworthy, praised by himself, rather than to have any one of them punished that day; that, with the prayer that it might be good and happy and fortunate for the state and for the men themselves, he ordered them all to be free. At these words they raised a shout with great enthusiasm, and now embracing and congratulating each other, now raising their hands to heaven, they prayed for every blessing for the Roman people and for Gracchus himself. Thereupon Gracchus said: Before making you all equals by the right of freedom, I wished to stamp not one man of you with the mark of a brave or of a cowardly soldier. But now, the promise made in the name of the state being already fulfilled, to prevent the loss of every distinction between valour and cowardice, I shall order the names of those who, remembering their refusal to fight, left us a while ago to be reported to me; and summoning them one by one I shall make them swear that, excepting men who shall have illness as an excuse, they will take food and drink standing only, so long as they shall be in the service. This penalty you will bear with patience, if you will reflect that you could not have been marked with any slighter sign of cowardice. He then gave the signal to pack baggage, and the soldiers carrying and driving their booty returned with sport and mirth so gaily to Beneventum that they seemed to be returning from a feast on a day of general festivity, not from a battle. All the people of Beneventum, having come out en masse to the gates to meet them, embraced the soldiers, congratulated them, invited them into their houses. Feasts had been made ready by all in the atria of their houses. To these they invited the soldiers and implored Gracchus to allow the soldiers to feast. And Gracchus did permit them, provided they all feasted in the open, each before the door of his house. Everything was brought out. Wearing caps or white woollen headbands the volunteers feasted, some reclining, and some standing served and ate at the same time. This seemed to deserve the order Gracchus gave on his return to Rome for a representation of that day of festivity to be painted in the Temple of Liberty which his father, with money yielded by fines, caused to be built on the Aventine and dedicated. While these things were going on about Beneventum, Hannibal, after ravaging the territory of Neapolis, removed his camp to Nola. When the consul learned of his approach, summoning Pomponius, the propraetor, with the army which was in camp above Suessula, he prepared to advance to meet the enemy and to engage without delay. He sent Gaius Claudius Nero with the best of the cavalry out by the gate farthest from the enemy in the silence of the night, and commanded him to ride around unseen and follow the enemy's column slowly, and when he saw that the battle had begun, to throw himself upon their rear. Whether it was by losing the way that Nero was unable to carry this out, or from the shortness of the time, is uncertain. After the battle had begun in his absence, the Roman indeed unquestionably had the upper hand; but since the cavalry were not there at the right moment, the prearranged plan for the battle was ruined. Marcellus, not venturing to pursue the retreating, gave his men, victorious though they were, the signal to retire. More than two thousand of the enemy, however, are said to have been slain that day, of the Romans less than four hundred. About sunset Nero, returning with his horses and men exhausted to no purpose by their efforts for a day and a night, without even seeing the enemy, was sternly rebuked by the consul, who went so far as to say that it was his fault that the disaster suffered at Cannae was not paid back to the enemy. On the next day the Roman went into line of battle, while the Carthaginian, beaten, as he tacitly admitted also, remained in camp. The third day, giving up hope of capturing Nola, an undertaking which had never prospered, he set out in the dead of night for Tarentum, led by a surer hope of its betrayal. And it was with no less spirit that the Roman state was administered at home than in the field. The censors, freed from the charge of contracting for public works on account of the emptiness of the treasury, turned their attention to the control of morals and the punishment of vices which had sprung from that war, just as bodies suffering from long illnesses of themselves produce defects. First they summoned those who after the battle of Cannae were said to have abandoned the state. The foremost among them, Marcus Caecilius Metellus, happened at this time to be quaestor. Inasmuch as he and the rest of those guilty of the same offence, on being ordered to plead their cases, proved unable to clear themselves, the censors gave their verdict that in conversation and formal speeches they had attacked the state, in order to form a conspiracy to desert Italy. Next after them were summoned those who had been too crafty in interpreting the discharge of an oath, —those of the captives who, after setting out and then returning secretly to Hannibal's camp, thought the oath they had sworn, that they would return, had been discharged. From these men and those mentioned above their horses, if they had such from the state, were taken away, and all were ejected from their tribes and made aerarii. And the diligence of the censors did not confine itself to regulating the senate and the order of the knights. From the lists of the younger men they culled the names of all who during four years had not served, without having had a legitimate exemption from the service or ill health as an excuse. And of these above two thousand names were placed on the list of the aerarii, and they all were ejected from their tribes. And to this relentless stigma of the censors was added a severe decree of the senate that all of those whom the censors had stigmatised should serve on foot and be sent to Sicily, to the remnant of the army of Cannae. For this class of soldiers the term of service was not at an end until the enemy should be driven out of Italy. Since the censors on account of the emptiness of the treasury now refrained from letting contracts for the maintenance of temples and the furnishing of horses used in religious processions and for similar matters, those who had been in the habit of such ; bidding came in large numbers to the censors, and urged them to take action and let contracts at once for everything, just as if there were money in the treasury; that no one would claim his money from the treasury until the war was over. Then came the owners of the slaves Tiberius Sempronius had manumitted at Beneventum, and said they had been summoned by the bank commissioners to receive the price of their slaves; but that they would not receive it until the war was over. Such being now the tendency of the people to relieve the poverty of the treasury, funds, first of wards, and then of widows and single women, began also to be turned in; for those who brought in the sums believed that nowhere could they deposit them with a sense of greater safety and honesty than under the guarantee of the state. Thereafter when anything was purchased or provided for wards and widows and single women, it was paid for by an order of a quaestor. This generosity of private citizens spread from the city also even to the camps, so that no knight, no centurion accepted pay, and the man who did accept was reproachfully called a hireling. Quintus Fabius, the consul, had his camp near Casilinum, which was held by a garrison of two thousand Campanians and seven hundred of Hannibal's soldiers. In command was Statius Metius, who had been sent by Gnaeus Magius, of Atella (who was the medix tuticus that year), and Metius had armed slaves and plebeians without distinction, in order to make an attack upon the Roman camp while the consul was occupied with the siege of Casilinum. Of all this nothing escaped Fabius. So he sends word to his colleague at Nola that he needs the other army, to face the Campanians while Casilinum was being besieged: either Marcellus should leave a suitable garrison at Nola and come in person, or if Nola held him back and there was still danger from Hannibal, he would himself summon Tiberius Gracchus, the proconsul, from Beneventum. On receiving this message Marcellus left two thousand soldiers as a garrison at Nola, and with the rest of his army came to Casilinum; and upon his arrival the Campanians, who were already bestirring themselves, became inactive. So began the siege of Casilinum by the two consuls. Since in this operation the Roman soldiers rashly approaching the walls were receiving many wounds and the undertaking was not successful, Fabius thought that they should give up a small affair which was as difficult as great ventures, and that they must leave the place, since greater matters were impending. Marcellus, saying that, while there were many places which great generals ought not to attack, yet, once the attack has begun, they should not give them up, since reputation has great influence in both directions, carried his point, not to depart while their attempt was unsuccessful. Then while sheds and all other kinds of siege-works and apparatus were being brought up, and the Campanians were begging Fabius for permission to go to Capua in safety, after a few had left the city, Marcellus occupied the gate by which they were leaving. And a general slaughter began, first around the gate, and then, as the troops burst in, even inside the city. About fifty Campanians who had left the city first sought refuge with Fabius and, escorted by his men, reached Capua. Casilinum was captured, as opportunity offered during the conversations and the delay due to those who begged a promise of protection. And the captives, whether Campanians or of Hannibal's soldiers, were sent to Rome and there imprisoned. The mass of the townspeople were distributed among the neighbouring communities to be guarded. At the same time that they left Casilinum after their success, Gracchus in Lucania sent a number of cohorts which had been enlisted in that region, under the command of a prefect of the allies, into the enemy's farm lands to plunder. Hanno attacked as they were widely scattered, inflicting upon the enemy in return a defeat not much less serious than that which he had received near Beneventum, and withdrew hastily into the land of the Bruttians, that Gracchus might not overtake him. Of the consuls, Marcellus returned to Nola, whence he had come, Fabius advanced into Samnium, to lay waste their farms and to recover by force the cities which had revolted. Samnium around the Caudine Pass was more thoroughly laid waste. Farms were burned over far and wide, cattle and men carried off as booty. Conpulteria, Telesia and Compsa, towns of that region, were taken by storm, also Fugifulae and Orbitanium in Lucania. Blanda and, in Apulia, Aecae were taken after a siege. In these cities twenty-five thousand of the enemy were captured or slain, and three hundred and seventy deserters recovered. These were all sent to Rome by the consul, scourged in the Comitium and hurled from the Rock. Such were the acts of Fabius within a few days, while Marcellus was kept out of employment by illness at Nola. And the praetor Quintus Fabius, whose field of duty was around Luceria, stormed the town of Acuca about that time and fortified a permanent camp at Ardaneae. While the Romans were thus employed elsewhere, Hannibal had now reached Tarentum, leaving the most complete devastation wherever he had passed. Not until it had entered the territory of Tarentum did his column begin to advance peaceably. There they did no damage, and nowhere did they leave the road. And it was plain that this was not due to the self-restraint of the soldiers, but to the commander's orders, for the purpose of winning over the Tarentines. But when he had come quite close to the walls, and there was no movement at the first sight of his column, as he supposed there would be, he pitched camp about a mile from the city. In Tarentum three days before Hannibal approached the walls, Marcus Livius, who had been sent by Marcus Valerius, the propraetor in command of the fleet at Brundisium, actively enlisted young men, posted guards at all the gates and along the walls, wherever required, and alert by night as well as by day, he left neither the enemy nor wavering allies any opening for an attack. After spending some days there to no purpose, Hannibal, since none of the men who had come before him at the Lake of Avernus either came in person or sent a messenger or letter, saw that he had rashly followed empty promises and moved his camp away. Even then he left the territory of Tarentum unharmed, as he did not give up his hope of weakening their loyalty, although his pretended clemency had had no effect as yet. Arrived at Salapia, he brought in grain from the districts of Metapontum and Heraclea; for the summer was now over, and he thought well of the place for winter quarters. From it Numidians and Mauri were sent out to plunder in the Sallentine territory and the nearest forests of Apulia. From these places not many other cattle were driven off as booty, but chiefly herds of horses, about four thousand of which were distributed among the cavalry to be broken. The Romans, inasmuch as a war that was by no means to be despised was breaking out in Sicily, and the death of the tyrant had given energetic commanders to the Syracusans, and had not changed the situation or their feelings, assigned that country to Marcus Marcellus, one of the consuls, as his province. Directly after the assassination of Hieronymus there was at first an uproar among the soldiers at Leontini, and a fierce outcry that they must offer sacrificial vengeance to the dead king in the blood of the conspirators. Later the frequent mention of restored freedom —a word sweet to the ears —and the hope of a largess out of the king's money, and of serving under better generals, also the enumeration of the shameful crimes and still more shameful lusts of the tyrant, so changed their feelings that they allowed the body of the king, whose loss they had just been regretting, to lie unburied. Although the rest of the conspirators had remained, in order to keep their hold on the army, Theodotus and Sosis hastened to Syracuse on the king's horses at the greatest possible speed, to surprise his supporters while they were in complete ignorance. However, not only rumour, than which nothing is swifter in such cases, but also a messenger, one of the royal slaves, had anticipated them. And so Adranodorus had garrisoned the Island and the citadel and such other places as were possible and of advantage. By the Hexapylon after sunset Theodotus and Sosis rode into the city in the twilight, showing the bloody garment of the king and his diadem. Then riding across the quarter of Tycha, and calling people to freedom and at the same time to arms, they bid them assemble in Achradina. Of the populace some dash into the streets, some stand before the entrance to their houses, some look out from roofs and windows and keep asking what it means. Everywhere there are bright lights, every place filled with mingled noises. The armed gather in open spaces; those without arms take down from the Temple of Olympian Jupiter the spoils of Gauls and Illyrians, presented by the Roman people to Hiero and hung up there by him. And this they did with a prayer to Jupiter that he graciously consent to furnish consecrated arms to men arming themselves for their native city, for the temples of the gods, for liberty. This crowd also was added to the guard stationed by the leading citizens of the quarters. On the Island Adranodorus had garrisoned, among other positions, the public granaries. This place, which was walled about with squared stone and made strong like a citadel, was captured by the young men who had been assigned to its defence; and they sent messengers into Achradina to say that the granaries and the grain were under the authority of the senate. At daybreak all the people, armed and unarmed, gathered at the Senate House in Achradina. There, standing on the altar of Concord, which had been erected on that spot, one of the leading men, Polyaenus by name, delivered a speech at once outspoken and restrained. He said that men who had experienced the terrors of slavery and its humiliations had been inflamed against an evil which they knew. As for civil strife, the Syracusans had heard from their fathers, rather than seen for themselves, what disasters it brings. He praised them for having taken up arms readily, and would praise them the more willingly if they did not use them except when compelled by absolute necessity. For the present he approved of sending representatives to Adranodorus, to instruct him to put himself under the authority of the senate and people, open the gates of the Island and surrender the citadel. At the same time, if Adranodorus should try to turn a regency into a kingship of his own, he favoured reclaiming their freedom from Adranodorus much more fiercely than from Hieronymus. After this speech representatives were sent directly. Then began a session of the senate, which in the reign of Hiero had indeed continued to be the council of state, yet since his death had not been called together nor consulted about anything until that day. When the legates reached Adranodorus, he for his part was moved by the agreement of the citizens, also by the occupation of other quarters of the city, and especially by the betrayal and loss of the most strongly fortified part of the Island. But his wife Damarata, daughter of Hiero and still puffed up with princely pride and a woman's boldness, called him aside from the legates and reminded him of the oft-repeated utterance of Dionysius the tyrant, that one should leave a tyranny, not on horseback, but dragged by the feet. It was easy, she said, to give up the possession of an exalted station at any moment one wished; to create and achieve it was difficult and all but impossible. He should gain time for deliberation from the legates. He should use it to summon the soldiers from Leontini, and if he should promise them money from the royal treasury everything would be in his power. These feminine counsels Adranodorus neither wholly rejected nor at once adopted, thinking it a safer way to gain power if for the moment he should yield to the crisis. And so he bade the legates report that he would be under the authority of the senate and people. On the following day at dawn he opened the gates of the Island and came to the market-place of Achradina. There he mounted the altar of Concord, from which Polyaenus had addressed the people the day before, and began a speech in which he first begged pardon for his hesitation. For he had kept the gates closed, he said, not that he wished to separate his cause from that of the people, but because he feared what limit there would be to slaughter, when swords should once be drawn; whether they would be content with the death of the tyrant, which would be sufficient to secure freedom, or on the other hand every one who either by blood or marriage or certain duties was connected with the palace would be slain, as being chargeable with another's guilt. After he observed that those who had freed their native city wished also to keep her free, and that the common good was the aim of all, he had not hesitated to surrender to the city his own person and in addition all that had been confided to his honour and protection, since the man who had given that charge had been destroyed by his own madness. Turning then to the assassins of the tyrant and addressing Theodotus and Sosis by name, he said: It is a memorable deed that you have done. But believe me, your glory is but begun, not yet finished, and unless you provide for peace and harmony there remains a very great danger that this may be the funeral of the liberated state. After this speech he laid the keys of the gates and those of the royal treasure at their feet. And they, dismissed from the assembly and happy that day at least, with their wives and children gave thanks at all the temples of the gods. On the next day elections for the naming of magistrates were held. Among the first so named was Adranodorus, the rest largely assassins of the tyrant. Two who were not even present, Sopater and Dinomenes, were elected. These, hearing what had been done at Syracuse, brought the royal treasure that was at Leontini to Syracuse and turned it over to treasurers elected for that very purpose. The money that was on the Island was also transferred to Achradina. And that part of the wall which shut off the Island from the rest of the city by a needlessly strong fortification was thrown down by common consent. The other measures also were in keeping with this trend toward freedom. Hippocrates and Epicydes, on hearing of the tyrant's death, which Hippocrates had wished to keep secret even by slaying the messenger, were deserted by the soldiers and returned to Syracuse, since that course seemed safest in the circumstances. There, to avoid going about under suspicion as seeking some opportunity for a revolution, they first came before the magistrates, and then through them before the senate. They stated that, having been sent by Hannibal to Hieronymus as his friend and ally, they had obeyed the orders of the man to whom their own commander wished them to be obedient. They wished to return to Hannibal; but since the way was unsafe while the Romans were at large everywhere in Sicily, they asked the senators to give them some escort to conduct them to Locri in Italy. The senate, they said, would gain great favour with Hannibal by a small service. This request was readily granted; for the senate greatly desired the departure of the king's generals, as men skilled in military art, and, what was more, needy also and daring. But they took no active steps to carry out their wish with the required promptness. Meanwhile the generals, as young men of military training and familiar with soldiers, at one time in the presence of these, at another among the deserters, the majority of whom were from the crews of the Romans, at another even among the lowest of the people, made charges against the senate and the aristocrats: that they were secretly working and contriving that Syracuse under the guise of a reestablished alliance should be subject to the Romans, and that then a faction, that is, a few who supported the renewal of the treaty, should rule. Ready to hear and believe these charges, a daily larger multitude was flocking to Syracuse and giving not Epicydes only, but also Adranodorus, the hope of a revolution. The latter was at length wearied by admonitions of his wife: that it was now the time to seize the power, while everything was confused by the new freedom not yet organized; while the soldiers one met were fattened on the king's pay; while generals sent by Hannibal and familiar with the soldiers could aid the undertaking. Accordingly he formed a plot with Themistus, whose wife was Gelo's daughter, and after a few days rashly revealed it to one Aristo, a tragic actor, to whom he had been in the habit of confiding other secrets. This man's family and station were respectable and not tarnished by his artistic profession, since among the Greeks nothing of the sort brings discredit. And so thinking that the loyalty he owed to his native city took precedence, he reports the matter to the magistrates. They, finding from trustworthy information that this was not unfounded, conferred with the older men, placed a guard at the doors on their advice, and when Themistus and Adranodorus had entered the senate, slew them. And after the confusion resulting from an act even more terrible in appearance than in reality, since others were unaware of the reason, they at length secured silence and brought the informer into the Senate House. He first told everything in order: that the conspiracy had taken its start from the marriage of Gelo's daughter Harmonia, uniting her with Themistus; that African and Spanish auxiliaries had been made ready for the slaughter of the magistrates and other leading citizens, and the announcement made that their property would be spoil for the assassins; moreover that a force of mercenaries accustomed to the orders of Adranodorus had been provided, to occupy the Island again. He then set forth in detail what was to be done, and by whom, and pictured the whole conspiracy manned and armed. And to the senators indeed they appeared to have been slain with as much justice as Hieronymus. But in front of the Senate House there was shouting by the mixed crowd unacquainted with the situation. Uttering wild threats, they were checked by the corpses of the conspirators before the entrance to the Senate House, in such fear that they silently followed the orderly populace to the assembly. Sopater was instructed by the senate and his colleagues to speak. Beginning with their previous life, just as if he were prosecuting them, he charged that every act of violence or impiety committed since the death of Hiero had been done by Adranodorus and Themistus. For what could Hieronymus, a boy who had hardly reached puberty, have done of his own motion? His guardians and teachers, shielded by the embitterment directed against another, had been the real kings. Accordingly they ought to have perished either before Hieronymus or at least with Hieronymus. But though doomed already and marked for death, they had contrived fresh crimes since the death of the tyrant, at first openly, when Adranodorus, closing the gates of the Island, took over the kingdom as his own inheritance and as owner entered into possession of what he had held as agent: again when, betrayed by those who were on the Island, beset by the whole body of citizens holding Achradina, he attempted secretly and craftily to win the kingdom which he had sought in vain openly and above board, and could not be won over even by the bestowal of public office. For among those who gained liberty for the state, he, a plotter against liberty himself, had been elected a magistrate. But their autocratic temper was due to their royal consorts, Hiero's daughter married to the one, Gelo's daughter to the other. Following this statement there arose in all parts of the assembly a shout that none of those women ought to live, nor any one of the family of the tyrants to survive. This is the nature of the mass: either it is a humble slave or a haughty master. As for freedom, which is the mean, they know no moderation either in assuming or in keeping it. And angry passions usually do not lack complaisant helpers, to provoke to bloodshed those who are immoderately eager for punishment; as in this case the magistrates forthwith proposed a bill-and it was adopted almost before it was proposed-that all members of the royal family should be put to death. And by order of the magistrates men were sent who put to death Damarata the daughter of Hiero and Harmonia the daughter of Gelo, being the wives of Adranodorus and Themistus. Heraclia was the daughter of Hiero and wife of Zoippus, who was sent as ambassador to King Ptolemy by Hieronymus and had accepted voluntary exile. She, having learned in advance that they were coming to her house also, fled into the chapel of the household gods with her two maiden daughters, her hair dishevelled and her general appearance moving to pity. And in addition were her prayers, now by the gods, now by the memory of her father Hiero and her brother Gelo, that they should not allow her innocent self to perish by the fire of resentment against Hieronymus. Nothing had she gained by his reign except the exile of her husband; and while Hieronymus lived, her station had not been so high as her sister's, nor was their situation the same after his death. What of it that, if Adranodorus' plans had succeeded, the sister would have reigned with her husband, while she herself and all the rest must be slaves? If someone should inform Zoippus that Hieronymus had been slain and Syracuse set free, who would have any doubt that he would forthwith board ship and return to his native city? How the hopes of men were disappointed! In his native city, now set free, his wife and children were fighting for their lives, offering what obstacle to freedom and laws? What danger to anyone was there from herself, a lone woman, virtually a widow, and from maidens living as orphans? But they might say that no danger was indeed feared from her, that nevertheless the royal family was hated. Therefore they should send them far from Syracuse and Sicily and bid them to be carried away to Alexandria, the wife to her husband, the daughters to their father. When they paid no attention whatever and shouted not to waste time, she could see some men drawing swords. Then ceasing entreaties for herself, she urgently begged them at least to spare the girls —an age on which even enraged enemies do not lay hands; that in taking vengeance on the tyrants they should not themselves imitate the crimes which they hated. While still speaking, they dragged her away from the altar and cut her throat, then turned their attack upon the girls spattered with B.C. 214 their mother's blood. Beside themselves for grief and fear, as though insane, they dashed out of the chapel with such speed that, if there had been any escape to the street, they would have caused a riot throughout the city. Even as it was, in the limited space of the house, amidst so many armed men, they several times escaped unharmed and tore themselves away from those who tried to hold them, although they had to fight off hands so many and so strong. At last exhausted by wounds, after staining everything with their blood, they fell lifeless. The slaughter, in itself pitiful, was made still more pitiful by the coincidence that shortly after came the word that they were not to be put to death, for animosity had suddenly changed to pity. From pity then came anger, that such haste to punish had been made, and no chance left for a change of mind or a cooling of anger. And so the multitude complained, and to replace Adranodorus and Themistus —for both had been magistrates —they clamoured for an election, which would not prove at all to the liking of the magistrates. A day was set for the election, and on that day, to the surprise of everybody, one man on the outskirts of the crowd nominated Epicydes, then after him another named Hippocrates, whereupon these shouts were repeated and with evident approval of the multitude. And the assembly was disturbed by the crowd not only of citizens but also of soldiers, even deserters in large part mingling with them and eager for any change. The magistrates at first ignored them and by postponing delayed matters. Finally, compelled by the general agreement and fearing an uprising, they declared Epicydes and Hippocrates magistrates. And at first the newly elected did not reveal their intentions, although they were indignant that legates had gone to Appius Claudius to sue for a ten days' truce, and that, this being secured, others had been sent to negotiate the renewal of the old treaty. At that time the Roman commander had a fleet of a hundred ships off Murgantia, waiting to see what would be the outcome of the disturbances at Syracuse due to the massacre of the tyrant's family, and to what the new and unwonted freedom would prompt them. About the same time Marcellus was just arriving in Sicily, and the Syracusan ambassadors were sent to him by Appius. After hearing the peace terms, Marcellus thought agreement could be reached, and himself sent ambassadors to Syracuse to treat in person with the magistrates for a renewal of the treaty. And by this time the situation there was by no means so orderly and peaceful. When word was received that a Carthaginian fleet had reached the promontory of Pachynum, Hippocrates and Epicydes, relieved of their fear, kept making the charge, now before the mercenaries, now among the deserters, that Syracuse was being betrayed to the Roman. But from the time Appius began to keep ships at anchor at the harbour mouth in order to encourage the men of the other party, the false charges apparently had received strong confirmation. And at first the crowd had even rushed down in disorder to keep them off in case they should be landing. In this confused state of affairs it 'was decided to summon the people to an assembly. There while some inclined in one direction, some in another, and an uprising was not far away, Apollonides, one of the leading citizens, made a speech which was well-advised, considering the crisis. He said that neither the prospect of safety nor that of destruction had ever been nearer to any state. For if with one mind they should all incline, whether to the Romans or to the Carthaginians, no state would be in a more highly favoured and happier condition. If they pulled in different directions, war between Carthaginians and Romans would not be more cruel than that among the Syracusans themselves, since within the same walls each side would have its own armies, its own weapons, its own generals. Accordingly they must make the greatest effort to reach agreement. Which alliance was the more advantageous was a question decidedly subordinate and of far less weight. Yet Hiero's authority ought to be followed in choosing allies rather than that of Hieronymus; in other words, a friendship which had proved happy for fifty years should be preferred to one unknown at present and formerly faithless. For their decision it was also of considerable importance that they could decline the Carthaginians' offer of peace without necessarily waging war with them at once. With the Romans they must straightway have either peace or-war. The less of party passion the speech seemed to have, the greater was its influence. To the magistrates and picked senators they added a military council also. Commanders of units and prefects of auxiliaries as well were ordered to take part in the deliberations. After the question had been repeatedly debated with great contention, finally, as they evidently had no means of carrying on a war with the Romans, it was decided to make an alliance with them, and to send ambassadors for the ratification. Not many days had elapsed, when ambassadors from Leontini arrived, pleading for a force to defend their territory. The request of this embassy seemed very timely for the purpose of relieving the city of a disorderly and turbulent multitude and of sending away its leaders. Hippocrates as magistrate was ordered to lead the deserters thither. Many of the mercenary auxiliaries followed, making four thousand armed men. That enterprise gave joy both to the senders and the sent; for the one party were given a long-desired opportunity for revolution, and the other rejoiced also to think that the dregs of the city had been drained off. But they relieved the diseased body, so to speak, merely for the moment, only to have it relapse presently into a more serious ailment. For Hippocrates began, at first with stealthy raids, to ravage lands on the border of the Roman province. Later, when Appius had sent troops to protect the farms of the allies, he made an attack with all his forces upon the unit on, guard duty facing him, and many were slain. Marcellus, being informed of this, at once sent legates to Syracuse, to say that the promised peace had been broken, and that a reason for war would never be wanting unless Hippocrates and Epicydes should be sent far away, not merely from Syracuse, but from all Sicily. Epicydes, to avoid being present under an accusation brought against his absent brother, or else failing to do his part in provoking war, went likewise to Leontini; and seeing that its citizens were sufficiently aroused against the Roman people, began also to estrange them from the Syracusans. For, he explained, the Syracusans had made an alliance with the Romans with the provision that all the states which had been subject to the kings should be under their rule; that now they were not satisfied with freedom, without also being lords and masters. They must therefore report to them that the Lenities likewise thought it right that they should be free, either because it was on the soil of their city that the tyrant fell, or because there for the first time men shouted the summons to liberty, and deserting the king's generals flocked to Syracuse. Accordingly either that clause, he said, must be removed from the treaty, or else an alliance on such terms was not to be accepted. The multitude was easily persuaded, and when the legates of the Syracusans complained of the slaughter of the Roman guard-post and also bade Hippocrates and Epicydes go away to Locri or wherever they preferred, provided they withdrew from Sicily, the people replied with spirit that they had not instructed the Syracusans to make a treaty for them with the Romans, and that they were not bound by treaties not of their own making. This was reported to the Romans by the Syracusans, who stated that the men of Leontini were not subject to their authority; and that consequently the Romans would make war upon them without violating the treaty made with Syracuse; also that they would themselves not refuse to give help in the war, on condition that, when reduced to subjection, the Leontini should again be under their authority, as had been settled in the treaty. Marcellus, proceeding with his whole army to Leontini and summoning Appius also to make an attack from the other side, found such enthusiasm in his soldiers, due to anger aroused by the slaughter of men of the guard while negotiations were pending, that they took the city at the first assault. Hippocrates and Epicydes, on seeing that the walls were being taken and gates forced, sought refuge with a few men in the citadel. Thence they fled secretly by night to Herbesus. The Syracusans, who had set out from home in a column of eight thousand men, were met at the river Mylas by a messenger, reporting that the city had been captured, but for the rest mingling the false with the true: that a general massacre of soldiers and townspeople had occurred, and no adults, he thought, had survived; that the city had been plundered, the property of the wealthy given away. On hearing news so terrible the column halted, and in the general excitement the commanders —and they were Sosis and Dinomenes — considered what they should do. The appearance of well-founded alarm had been lent to the falsehood by the scourging and beheading of deserters, about two thousand men. But not one of the Leontinians or of the other soldiers had been injured after the capture of the city; and, except what had been lost in the first confusion of the capture of the city, all their property was being restored to them. And the soldiers, complaining that their comrades had been betrayed to their death, could neither be induced to go to Leontini nor to wait at the same spot for more trustworthy news. The generals, seeing them inclined to mutiny, but that the outbreak would not last long if the leaders in folly should be removed, led the army to Megara: and then with a few horsemen they went themselves to Herbesus, in the hope of getting possession of the city by treachery, owing to the general alarm. When this undertaking disappointed them, they thought they must use force, and moved their camp from Megara the next day, to attack Herbesus with all their troops. Hippocrates and Epicydes, thinking that their plan to put themselves at the mercy of the soldiers, who were in large part used to them and also at that time inflamed by the report of the slaughter of their comrades, was not so much one which at first sight promised safety, as it was the only possible plan in a desperate situation, went out to meet the column. The first unit happened to be that of six hundred Cretans, who had served under them in the army of Hieronymus and were under obligations to Hannibal, as they had been captured among the Roman auxiliaries at Lake Trasumennus and allowed to go free. Recognizing them from their standards and the character of their weapons, Hippocrates and Epicydes, holding out olive branches and in addition the woollen bands of suppliants, implored them to admit them and, having done so, to protect and not betray them to the Syracusans, to be themselves presently surrendered by the same to the Roman people for brutal execution. And in fact the Cretans shouted to them to take courage, saying they would share every lot with them. During this conversation the standards had halted and the column was being held up. And word had not yet reached the generals as to what was the cause of the delay. When the report that Hippocrates and Epicydes were there did reach them, and down the whole length of the column there was a shout of evident joy over their coming, at once the generals made their way at a gallop to the head of the column. Asking what a practice, what a breach of discipline, it was on the part of the Cretans to join in conversation with an enemy and to admit the men to their own column without orders from the generals, they ordered them to be arrested and Hippocrates to be put in chains. Upon that command such an outcry was first raised by the Cretans, and then caught up by others, that it was easy to see that if they took any further steps they would have to fear for themselves. Troubled and uncertain as to their own situation, they ordered a retreat to Megara, from which they had set out, and sent messengers to Syracuse to report how matters stood. While men were inclined to suspect everything, Hippocrates also resorted to a ruse. After sending some of the Cretans to lie in wait by the roads, with the pretence that it had been intercepted, he publicly read a letter written by himself: The magistrates of Syracuse to the Consul Marcellus. Following the customary greeting it was stated that he had been entirely right in sparing no one at Leontini; but that the situation of all the mercenary soldiers was the same, and Syracuse would never have peace so long as there were any foreign auxiliaries in either the city or its army. Therefore he should take measures to reduce to submission the men who were encamped at Megara under the command of their own generals, and by their punishment to set Syracuse free at last. After this had been read, they rushed to arms with such shouting that during the confusion the generals rode away in alarm to Syracuse. And the mutiny was not quelled even by their flight; but attacks were repeatedly made on the Syracusan soldiers. Nor would they have spared any of them, had not Epicydes and Hippocrates opposed the enraged multitude, not out of pity and a humane intent, but in order not to cut off the hope of their own return, and that they might not only keep the men themselves as loyal soldiers and at the same time hostages, but also win over their relatives and friends, first by so great a service, and then by the personal security. And having learned how empty or faint a breath moves the crowd, they took a soldier from among those who had been besieged at Leontini and bribed him to carry to Syracuse a message in agreement with what had been falsely reported at the Mylas, and by showing himself to vouch for it and by relating the doubtful as things that he had seen, to inflame men's anger. This man was not only believed by the common people, but on being admitted to the Senate House, he stirred the senate as well. Some men of consequence openly declared it was very well that the avarice and cruelty of the Romans had been revealed at Leontini; that if they had entered Syracuse they would have done the same things or even more terrible, in proportion to the greater prize for avarice there. Accordingly, they all voted that the gates should be closed and the city guarded. But not all were afraid of the same persons or hated the same men. Among the whole military class and a large part of the common people the Roman name was hated. As for the generals and a few of the best citizens, although they had been misled by the false news, they were nevertheless more circumspect in the face of a danger more immediately impending. And already Hippocrates and Epicydes were at the Hexapylon, and there were communications through intermediaries who were relatives of citizens in the army: that they should open the gates and allow the defence of the city, their common home, against attack by the Romans. By this time one of the gates of the Hexapylon had been opened, and by it they had begun to be admitted, when the generals intervened. And at first by their military authority and by threats, then by using their personal influence to restrain them, finally, when all was without affect, disregarding dignity they prayed them not to betray their native city to former minions of the tyrant and present seducers of the army. But the ears of the excited crowd were deaf to all that; and the gates were being forced with no less violence from within than from without, and when all had been forced, the column was admitted through the whole breadth of the Hexapylon. The generals with the younger citizens flee for refuge to Achradina. The mercenary soldiers and deserters and such royal troops as were at Syracuse swell the column of the enemy. Thus Achradina also is taken by assault, and all the magistrates, except those who escaped in the midst of the uproar, are slain. Night put an end to the slaughter. On the next day slaves were called to wear the cap of freedom and criminals in chains released from prison; and all this assorted multitude elected Hippocrates and Epicydes generals. And Syracuse, after the light of liberty had shone upon it for a short time, had fallen back into its old-time servitude. When these facts were reported to the Romans, the camp was at once removed from Leontini to Syracuse. And, as it happened, legates had been sent by Appius by way of the harbour on a five-banker. The four-banker sent in advance was captured on entering the narrows. The legates barely escaped. And now there remained no longer any rights even of war, not to say of peace, when the Roman army pitched camp at the Olympium, that is, the Temple of Jupiter, a mile and a half from the city. From this place also it was decided to send legates in advance. To prevent their entering the city, Hippocrates and Epicydes and their retinue advanced beyond the gate to meet them. The speaker for the Romans said he was not bringing war, but aid and comfort to the Syracusans, both to those who, escaping from the midst of the slaughter, had sought refuge with the Romans, and to those who, subdued by their fear, were enduring a slavery more shameful, not only than exile, but even than death; and that the Romans would not leave the atrocious slaughter of their allies unavenged. Accordingly, if a safe return to their native city should be open to those who had sought refuge with the Romans, if those responsible for the slaughter should be surrendered and their freedom and laws restored to the Syracusans, there was no need of arms. If those conditions should not be met, the Romans would wage war against every man who caused delay. In reply Epicydes said that, if their message had been addressed to his colleague and himself, they would have given them an answer. When the Syracusan state should be under the control of the men to whom they came, then let them return. Should they make war, they would find from actual experience that to attack Syracuse was by no means the same as to attack Leontini. So he left the ambassadors and closed the gates. Thereupon began the siege of Syracuse at the same time by land and by sea, by land from the side of the Hexapylon, by sea from that of Achradina, the wall of which is washed by the waves. And because, having taken Leontini by a panic and the first assault, the Romans did not doubt that at some point they would make their way into a city immense and widely scattered, they brought all their equipment for besieging cities up to the walls. And an undertaking begun with so vigorous an assault would have met with success if one man had not been at Syracuse at that time. It was Archimedes, an unrivalled observer of the heavens and the stars, more remarkable, however, as inventor and contriver of artillery and engines of war, by which with the least pains he frustrated whatever the enemy undertook with vast efforts. The walls, carried along uneven hills, mainly high positions and difficult to approach, but some of them low and accessible from level ground, we reequipped by him with every kind of artillery, as seemed suited to each place. The wall of Achradina, which, as has been said already, is washed by the sea, was attacked by Marcellus with sixty five-bankers. From most of the ships archers and slingers, also light-armed troops, whose weapon is difficult for the inexpert to return, allowed hardly anyone to stand on the wall without being wounded; and these men kept their ships at a distance from the wall, since range is needed for missile weapons. Other five-bankers, paired together, with the inner oars removed, so that side was brought close to side, were propelled by the outer banks of oars like a single ship, and carried towers of several stories and in addition engines for battering walls. To meet this naval equipment Archimedes disposed artillery of different sizes on the walls. Against ships at a distance he kept discharging stones of great weight; nearer vessels he would attack with lighter and all the more numerous missile weapons. Finally, that his own men might discharge their bolts at the enemy without exposure to wounds, he opened the wall from bottom to top with numerous loopholes about a cubit wide, and through these some, without being seen, shot at the enemy with arrows, others from small scorpions. As for the ships which came closer, in order to be inside the range of his artillery, against these an iron grapnel, fastened to a stout chain, would be thrown on to the bow by means of a swing-beam projecting over the wall. When this sprung backward to the ground owing to the shifting of a heavy leaden weight, it would set the ship on its stern, bow in air. Then, suddenly released, it would dash the ship, falling, as it were, from the wall, into the sea, to the great alarm of the sailors, and with the result that, even if she fell upright, she would take considerable water. Thus the assault from the sea was baffled, and all hope shifted to a plan to attack from the land with all their forces. But that side also had been provided with the same complete equipment of artillery, at the expense and the pains of Hiero during many years, by the unrivalled art of Archimedes. The nature of the place also helped, in that the rock on which the foundations of the wall were laid is generally so steep that not only missiles from a machine, but also whatever rolled down of its own weight fell heavily upon the enemy. The same circumstance made approach to the wall difficult and footing unsteady. So, after a war council, since every attempt was being balked, it was decided to give up the assault and merely by a blockade to cut off the enemy by land and sea from their supplies. Meanwhile Marcellus set out with about a third of his army to recover the cities which in the unsettled state of affairs had gone over to the Carthaginians. Helorus and Herbesus he did recover by their own surrender; Megara he took by assault, destroyed and plundered, to terrify the others and especially the Syracusans. About the same time also Himilco, who had long kept his fleet off the promontory of Pachynum, landed at Heraclea, called Minoa, 25,000 infantry, 3,000 cavalry and twelve elephants, a very much larger force than that with which he had previously kept his fleet off Pachynum. But after Syracuse had been seized by Hippocrates, Himilco went to Carthage and was aided there both by the legates of Hippocrates and by a letter from Hannibal, who said the time had come to recover Sicily in the most honourable manner. Himilco himself, being an influential adviser, present in person, had easily prevailed upon them to send across to Sicily the largest possible forces of infantry and cavalry. Arrived at Heraclea, he recovered Agrigentum within a few days. And the hopes of the other city-states which were on the side of the Carthaginians were so fired to drive the Romans out of Sicily that finally even those who were besieged at Syracuse took courage. And thinking the city could be sufficiently defended by a part of the forces, they so divided the military duties that Epicydes should be in charge of the defence of the city, and Hippocrates, together with Himilco, should carry on the war against the Roman consul. With 10,000 infantry and five hundred horse he set out by night through places unguarded and pitched camp near the city of Acrillae. As they were fortifying, Marcellus arrived, returning from Agrigentum, which was already occupied, since it was in vain that he had endeavoured to anticipate the enemy by hastening thither. Nothing was farther from his thoughts than that a Syracusan army should meet him there at that time. Nevertheless, from fear of Himilco and the Carthaginians, being no match for them with the forces he had, he was advancing with all possible alertness and with a column so formed as to meet any emergency. The precaution which had been taken against Carthaginians served him, as it happened, against Sicilians. Coming upon them after they had broken ranks and were scattered in the act of pitching camp and mostly unarmed, he overwhelmed all the infantry. The cavalry, after a slight engagement, fled with Hippocrates to Acrae. Marcellus, by that battle having restrained the Sicilians inclined to revolt from the Romans, returned to Syracuse. And a few days later Himilco was joined by Hippocrates and pitched camp by the river Anapus, about eight miles away. About the same time it so happened that fifty-five warships of the Carthaginians under Bomilcar sailed from the open sea into the Great Harbour of Syracuse, and also a Roman fleet of thirty quinqueremes debarked the first legion at Panormus. And the war could be considered as now diverted from Italy, so intent were both nations upon Sicily. Himilco, thinking that the legion which had been landed at Panormus would certainly fall a prey to him on its way to Syracuse, was baffled by its route. For the Carthaginian led his troops along an inland road, while the legion, escorted by the fleet, made its way along the coast to Appius Claudius, who with a part of his forces had advanced as far as Pachynum to meet it. And so the Carthaginians did not tarry longer near Syracuse. On the one hand Bomilcar, lacking confidence in his own ships, since the Romans had a fleet of fully double the number, and at the same time seeing that by useless delay the lack of supplies for the allies was only intensified by his forces, put out to sea and crossed over to Africa. On the other hand Himilco first followed Marcellus to Syracuse to no purpose, in the hope that there might be some opportunity for an engagement before should unite with larger forces. Then, when no such opportunity fell to him, and he saw the enemy safe near Syracuse thanks to his fortifications and military strength, fearing to waste time in besieging him in vain and watching the blockade of the allies, he moved his camp away. His purpose was to bring up his army to any point to which the hope of revolting from the Romans might call him, and by his presence to give encouragement to those who inclined to support his cause. Murgantia was first recovered, after the inhabitants had betrayed the Roman garrison. There a great quantity of grain and supplies of every kind had been accumulated for the Romans. Upon this revolt, feeling was aroused in other city-states, and Roman garrisons were being either driven out of citadels or betrayed by treachery and slain. Henna, perched on a lofty site with cliffs on every side, was not only impregnable from its position, but also had a strong garrison in its citadel and a garrison commander who was certainly no easy prey to plotters. This was Lucius Pinarius, a man of high spirit and one who gave more weight to precautions against possible deception than to the honour of Sicilians. And at this time the news of so many cities betrayed and in revolt and of so many garrisons destroyed had made him more intent upon guarding against every danger. Accordingly every position had been prepared and provided with guards and sentinels night and day; and the soldier did not leave his arms and his post. When this was noticed by the leading men of Henna, who had already made an agreement with Himilco to betray the garrison, namely, that the Roman left no opportunity for treachery, they were forced to act openly. They said that city and citadel ought to be under their own control, if as free men they had entered into alliance with the Romans, and had not been consigned to custody as slaves. Consequently they said they thought it right that the keys of the gates should be restored to them. For good allies their loyalty was the strongest bond, and the Roman people and senate would be grateful to them only in case they remained in their friendship willingly and not under compulsion. In reply to this the Roman commandant said that he had been placed at his post by his general and had received from him both the keys to the gates and the guarding of the citadel, to keep them, not at his own discretion nor that of the people of Henna, but of the man who had confided them to him. To leave one's post was among the Romans a capital offence, and fathers had punished that crime with the death even of their own sons. The consul Marcellus was not far away; they should send legates to him who had the right to decide the matter. But they said that they would not send them, and asserted that if they accomplished nothing by words, they would seek some means of recovering their freedom. Upon that Pinarius said that, if they objected to sending to the consul, very well, let them at least give him an assembly of the people, that it might be known whether their demand was that of a few men or of the whole city. They agreed to an assembly on the next day. Returning from that conference to the citadel, he called his men together and said: I believe you have heard, soldiers, how in these days Roman garrisons have been beset and overwhelmed by Sicilians. Such treachery you have escaped, thanks first to the favour of the gods, and then to your own courage, by standing guard day and night under arms. Would that the remaining time could be passed without either suffering or committing atrocities! In covert trickery the method of defence is that which we have so far employed. Since the trick does not succeed, they demand back the keys of the gates openly and above board. And the moment we surrender them, Henna will be in the hands of the Carthaginians, and we shall be more cruelly slaughtered here than was the garrison slain at Murgantia. With difficulty I have gained for deliberation one night in which to inform you of the impending danger. At daybreak they are to hold an assembly for the purpose of accusing me and arousing the people against you. And so tomorrow Henna will be deluged either with your blood or with that of the Hennensians. If forestalled, you will have no hope, nor any danger if you forestall them. Who first draws the sword will have the victory. Therefore, alert and armed, you will all await the signal. I shall be in the assembly, and I will kill time in speaking and disputing, until everything is ready. When I give the signal with my toga, then do you from all sides raise a shout, attack the crowd, and strike down everyone with the sword; and see to it that no one survives whose violence or treachery can be feared. Mother Ceres and Proserpina, and all the other gods, above and below, who inhabit this city, these hallowed lakes and groves, I pray that ye attend us with your favour and support, if so be that we are taking this step for the purpose of guarding against treachery, not of practising it. I should exhort you, soldiers, at greater length if your battle were to be with armed men. Unarmed and off their guard, you will massacre them to your hearts' content. And the consul's camp is near; I tell you this that you may have no possible fear from Himilco and the Carthaginians. Dismissed immediately after this exhortation, they took food and rest. On the following day they were posted in different places, to occupy the roads and close the ways of escape. The majority took their positions above and around the theatre, being already familiar with the sight of an assembly. The Roman commandant, being brought before the people by the magistrates, said that right and authority in the matter belonged to the consul, not to himself, and in general the same things he had said the day before. And at first insensibly and only a few, presently a larger number, then all, now with one voice kept bidding him to deliver the keys; and when he delayed and postponed, they repeated savage threats and apparently would not further postpone violence, their last resort. Thereupon the prefect gave the signal with his toga, as had been agreed, and the soldiers, alert and ready long before, dashed down, some of them from above, upon the rear of the assembly with a shout, while others, massed at the exits of the theatre, blocked the way. The men of Henna, shut up in the cavea, were slain and piled together not only owing to the slaughter, but also by the panic, since they rushed down over each others' heads, and as the unharmed fell upon the wounded, the living upon the dead, they were lying in heaps. Thence the soldiers scattered in every direction, and, just as in a captured city, flight and slaughter were in complete possession, while the wrath of the soldiers was not a whit less intense because they were slaying an unarmed crowd, than if equal danger and ardour for the fray were spurring them on. So by an act, it may have been criminal, it may have been unavoidable, Henna was held. Marcellus, without reproving the act, allowed the soldiers to plunder the Hennensians, thinking the frightened Sicilians had been deterred from betraying their garrisons. And as was natural in the case of a city in the heart of Sicily and famous, whether for the remarkable natural defences of its site, or as hallowed everywhere by the footprints of Proserpina, long ago carried away, news of the massacre made its way over the whole of Sicily almost in a single day. And then in truth, since they thought that the abode, not of men only but also of gods, had been desecrated by an atrocious massacre, even those who till then had wavered went over to the Carthaginians. Hippocrates thereupon went back to Murgantia, Himilco to Agrigentum, after bringing up their army to Henna to no purpose at the summons of the traitors. Marcellus returned to Leontini, had grain and other supplies brought into the camp, left a suitable garrison there and came to Syracuse to carry on the siege. He then relieved Appius Claudius, to sue for the consulship at Rome, and in his place put Titus Quinctius Crispinus in command of the fleet and the old camp. As for himself, he fortified and built winter quarters five miles from the Hexapylon — Leon they call the place. Such were the events in Sicily up to the beginning of the winter. The same summer the war with King Philip also that for some time had been foreshadowed broke out. Legates came from Oricum to Marcus Valerius, the praetor, who with his fleet was guarding Brundisium and the neighbouring coast of Calabria. They reported that Philip had first sailed up the river with a hundred and twenty small vessels having two banks of oars and attacked Apollonia; and that then, when the undertaking proved slower than he anticipated, had secretly moved his army to Oricum by night; also that that city, situated in a plain and not strong either in walls or armed men, had been taken by assault. Making this report, they begged him to lend aid and by land and sea to keep an undoubted enemy of the Romans away from the coast cities, which were being attacked for no other reason than that they faced Italy. Marcus Valerius, after leaving a garrison of two thousand soldiers and placing Publius Valerius, his lieutenant, in command of them, with his fleet drawn up and in readiness, while such soldiers as the warships could not accommodate had been placed on transports, came on the second day to Oricum; and as only a small garrison which the king had left when he withdrew held the city, he recaptured it after slight resistance. To it came legates from Apollonia, reporting that they were being besieged because they refused to revolt from the Romans and could no longer withstand the attack of the Macedonians, unless a Roman force should be sent. Valerius promised to do as they desired, and sent two thousand picked soldiers in warships to the mouth of the river under the command of a prefect of the allies, Quintus Naevius Crista, a man of action and an experienced soldier. He landed his men, sent the ships back to the rest of the fleet at Oricum, his starting-point, led his soldiers at a distance from the river along the road least beset by the king's troops and entered the city by night, so that no one of the enemy was aware of it. The following day they rested, that the prefect might inspect the young men of Apollonia and the arms and resources of the city. The result of that inspection gave him sufficient encouragement, and he learned also from scouts what carelessness and indifference there was among the enemy. Thereupon in the silence of the night and without making any noise he went out of the city and entered the enemy's camp, so neglected and open that a thousand men had entered the wall before anyone was aware of it, so it was generally asserted; also, that if they had refrained from slaughter, they could have reached the king's tent. The slaughter of the men nearest to the gate aroused the enemy. Then such alarm and panic took possession of them all that not only did no one else seize his arms and attempt to drive the enemy out of the camp, but even the king himself, fleeing almost half-naked, just as he was when awakened, fled to the river and his ships in a garb scarcely seemly even for a common soldier, much less a king. Thither the rest of the disorderly crowd also poured out. Little fewer than three thousand soldiers were either captured or slain in the camp; a considerably larger number of men were captured than slain. After plundering the camp the Apollonians carried away the catapults, ballistae and other engines which had been provided for a siege of the city to Apollonia, in order to defend their walls, if ever a similar situation should arise. All the remaining booty of the camp was left to the Romans. When this news reached Oricum, Marcus Valerius at once led his fleet to the mouth of the river, to prevent the king from escaping by ship. And so Philip, believing he would not be quite equal to a battle either on land or sea, stranded his ships, set fire to them, and started for Macedonia with an army in large part disarmed and despoiled. The Roman fleet wintered at Oricum under the command of Marcus Valerius. In the same year operations in Spain were chequered. For Mago and Hasdrubal, before the Romans should cross the Ebro, routed immense forces of Spaniards. And Farther Spain would have revolted from the Romans if Publius Cornelius had not hastily led his army across the Hiberus and arrived in the nick of time, while the allies were still wavering. At first the Romans had their camp at Castrum Album, noted as the place where the great Hamilcar fell. The citadel had been fortified and they had previously brought in grain. Yet the country all around was filled with the enemy, and the Roman column had been attacked with impunity by the enemy's cavalry and about two thousand men, either straggling or scattered over the farms, had been slain. The Romans therefore retired from the place to a position nearer peaceful regions and fortified a camp at Victory Mountain. Thither came Gnaeus Scipio with all his troops, and Hasdrubal the son of Gisgo, making three Carthaginian generals and a complete army; and all three established themselves across the river, opposite the Roman camp. Publius Scipio, who set out secretly to reconnoitre with unencumbered troops, did not escape the notice of the enemy, and they would have overwhelmed him in the open meadows if he had not captured a hill near by. Even there he was beset, but by the arrival of his brother he escaped a siege. Castulo revolted to the Romans, a strong and famous city of Spain, so closely joined to the Carthaginians by alliance that Hannibal's wife was from that place. The Carthaginians attempted to capture Iliturgis, because there was a Roman garrison there, and it seemed that they would take the town mainly by starvation. Gnaeus Scipio, to lend aid to the allies and the garrison, set out with an unencumbered legion, passing between their two camps, and after slaying many of the enemy entered the city, and on the following day engaged them in an equally successful sally. Over twelve thousand men were slain in the two battles, more than a thousand men captured, with thirty-six military standards. So they withdrew from Iliturgis. Then began the siege of Bigerra —these also were allies of the Romans —by the Carthaginians. Gnaeus Scipio on his arrival raised the siege without an engagement. Thereupon the Carthaginian camp was removed to Munda, and the Romans promptly followed them thither. There they fought in pitched battle for about four hours, and though the Romans were winning a brilliant victory, the signal for recall was given, because Gnaeus Scipio's thigh had been pierced by a light javelin, and fear that the wound might prove fatal had seized the soldiers around him. But there was no doubt that, if this delay had not occurred, the Carthaginian camp could have been captured that day. Already not only soldiers but the elephants also had been driven even up to the wall, and just as they crossed the trenches thirty-nine elephants were struck down by heavy javelins. In this battle also about twelve thousand men are said to have been slain, about three thousand captured, with fifty-seven military standards. The Carthaginians then retired to the city of Aurinx, and the Roman followed, to threaten men already terrified. There Scipio again engaged, being carried into battle-line in a litter, and the victory was not to be questioned. Less than half as many of the enemy as before, however, were slain, because fewer men had survived to fight. But, as Mago was sent by his brother to recruit soldiers, a race adapted by nature to renew wars and to make fresh preparations for them soon refilled the army and gave them the spirit to essay another conflict. The soldiers were mostly Gauls, and they fought with the same spirit as their predecessors for the side which had been beaten so many times within a few days, and with the same result. More than eight thousand men were slain, and not much less than a thousand captured, also fifty-eight military standards. And the spoils were largely Gallic, golden collars and armbands —a great number of them. Also two conspicuous princes of the Gauls —Moeniacoeptus and Vismarus were their names —fell in that battle. Eight elephants were captured, three slain. The situation in Spain being so favourable, the Romans came at last to be ashamed that the town of Saguntum, which was the cause of the war, had been by that time seven years in the power of the enemy. Accordingly the Carthaginian garrison was driven out by force, and recovering the town the Romans restored it to its former inhabitants —such of them as the violence of war had spared. And as for the Turdetani, who had brought on the war between Saguntum and the Carthaginians, they reduced them to subjection, sold them under the garland and destroyed their city. Such were the events in Spain in the consulship of Quintus Fabius and Marcus Claudius. At Rome, immediately after the newly elected tribunes of the plebs had entered upon office, a day was set by Marcus Metellus, a tribune of the plebs, for the censors Publius Furius and Marcus Atilius to appear at the bar of the people. In his quaestorship the year before they had taken away his horse, removed him from his tribe and made him an aerarian on account of the conspiracy formed at Cannae to desert Italy. But by the aid of nine tribunes they were forbidden to plead their cause while in office and were released. From completing the ceremony of purification they were prevented by the death of Publius Furius. Marcus Atilius abdicated his office. For the consulship the election was conducted by Quintus Fabius Maximus, the consul. Elected consuls, both in absence, were Quintus Fabius Maximus, the consul's son, and Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, the latter for the second time. Two men who were at the time curule aediles, Publius Sempronius Tuditanus and Gnaeus Fulvius Centumalus, were made praetors, and with them Marcus Atilius and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. Tradition has it that at the festival given that year by the curule aediles four days had dramatic performances for the first time. The aedile Tuditanus was the man who at Cannae, when others were paralyzed by fear in such a disaster, led his men through the midst of the enemy. These elections being completed, the consuls designate were summoned to Rome, as proposed by Quintus Fabius, the consul, entered upon office and consulted the senate in regard to the war and the provinces, their own and those of the praetors, and as to the armies which they should respectively command; and the provinces and armies were divided as follows: the war with Hannibal was assigned to the consuls, and two armies, one which Sempronius himself, and the other which Fabius had commanded as consul. These were of two legions each. Marcus Aemilius, the praetor to whom fell jurisdiction in cases involving foreigners, was to assign his judicial function to his colleague Marcus Atilius, the city praetor, and have Luceria as his province, and two legions which Quintus Fabius, who was now consul, had commanded as praetor. To Publius Sempronius Ariminum fell as his assignment, to Gnaeus Fulvius, Suessula, likewise with two legions in each case, so assigned that Fulvius should take with him the legions at the city, and Tuditanus take over from Marcus Pomponius his legions. Commands and assignments were continued as follows: for Marcus Claudius Sicily, with the boundaries which Hiero's kingdom had had; for Publius Lentulus, as propraetor, the old province; for Titus Otacilius the fleet; and for them new armies were not added. So also for Marcus Valerius Greece and Macedonia, with the legion and the fleet which he had; for Quintus Mucius Sardinia, with its old army —there were two legions; for Gaius Terentius one legion which he already commanded, and Picenum. It was further ordered that two city legions should be enrolled, also twenty thousand allies. With these generals, these forces, they defended the Roman empire at the same time against many wars, either already begun or foreshadowed. The consuls, after enrolling two legions for the city and enlisting recruits to reinforce the others, before setting out from the city made expiation for the prodigies which had been reported. The wall and gates at... and at Aricia even the temple of Jupiter had been struck by lightning. And for eyes and ears there were other illusions, accepted as real: that in the river at Tarracina forms of warships which had no existence had been seen; and that in the temple of Jupiter Vicilinus, in the territory of Compsa, there was a sound of clashing arms; and that the river at Amiternum ran with blood. These portents being expiated according to a decree of the pontiffs, the consuls set out, Sempronius for Lucania, Fabius for Apulia. The father came as his son's lieutenant to the camp at Suessula. While the son was advancing to meet him and the lictors out of respect for the father's dignity were silent as they preceded the consul, the old man rode past eleven fasces. And not until the consul had ordered the last lictor to take notice and the latter had called out the order to dismount, did the father leap to the ground and say: I wished to find out, son, whether you were quite aware that you are consul. To that camp came Dasius Altinius of Arpi secretly by night with three slaves, promising that if rewarded he would betray Arpi. When Fabius brought the matter before the council, the others thought that as a deserter he should be scourged and put to death, a waverer and an enemy to both sides, who after the disaster at Cannae, as if loyalty should side with success, had gone over to Hannibal and dragged Arpi into revolt. But now, because, contrary to his expectation and his wishes, the Roman state seemed to be springing up again, as it were from the roots, he was promising to present the betrayed with a new betrayal, and always taking part with one side, but with the other in heart, faithless as an ally, inconstant as an enemy. To the betrayers of Falerii and of Pyrrhus he should be added as a third example to deserters. On the contrary the consul's father Fabius said that men were forgetting the situation, when they exercised free judgment in each individual case in the midst of the heat of war, as though in peace, the result was that, although the thing to be done and to be borne in mind was rather to prevent any allies-if this was somehow possible from abandoning the Roman people, they were not bearing that in mind. On the contrary, they were saying that, if a man came to his senses and turned his eyes to the previous alliance, he ought to be made a warning example. If then it was permissible to leave the Romans, but not to return to them, who could doubt that soon the Roman state, despaired of by the allies, would see the whole of Italy joined together by Carthaginian treaties? For himself, however, he was not the man to think that any trust should be placed in Altinius, but would follow a middle course. He thought it best, namely, that Altinius should not be treated as either enemy or ally for the present, that under qualified arrest he should be guarded for the duration of the war in some loyal city-state not far from the camp. When the war was over they should then deliberate whether his previous defection deserved punishment more than his present return merited pardon. They agreed with Fabius, and the man was turned over to representatives of Cales, himself and his companions. And it was ordered that the gold —and the weight of it was considerable —which he had then brought with him should be kept for him. At Cales he was free to go about by day followed by guards, at night confined and watched by them. At Arpi it was in his house that he was first missed and search for him began. Then the report spreading through the city caused the usual commotion when a leading man is missing, and for fear of a rebellion they at once sent messengers. The Carthaginian was by no means displeased at this news, since he had long regarded the man himself with suspicion, as unsettled in his loyalty, and also he now had an excuse for taking possession of the property of a man of such wealth and selling it. But that men might believe he was yielding to anger rather than greed, he added cruelty also to avarice, that is, he summoned the wife and children to the camp, and, after investigating first the flight of Altinius, then how much gold and silver had been left in his house, now fully informed, he burned them alive. Fabius setting out from Suessula first pressed the siege of Arpi. There he pitched his camp at a distance of about five hundred paces, and after observing the situation of the city and the walls at close range, he decided to attack just at that part of the city which was best defended by walls, because he saw that that was the most carelessly guarded. He assembled everything useful for siege operations, selected from the entire army the pick of the centurions, and placed tribunes who were brave men in command of them. And he assigned them six hundred soldiers —all that seemed necessary —and ordered them to carry ladders to that place, when the trumpet should sound for the fourth watch. There was a low, narrow gate there, as the street, leading through a deserted part of the city, was not much frequented. He ordered them first to climb over the wall by means of their ladders, and then to open that gate from the inside, or else break down the bars, and then, holding a part of the city, to give the signal on a trumpet for the rest of the troops to move up. He would have everything ready and in order. These commands were carried out with spirit, and a circumstance which seemed likely to hamper action proved of the greatest help to secrecy. Heavy rain beginning at midnight forced the guards and sentries to slip away from their posts and run to cover. And the sound, at first of a heavier shower, prevented the noise they made in forcing the gate from being heard clearly, and then, gentler and more monotonous as they listened, it lulled a great many of the men to sleep. Once in possession of the gate, they ordered the trumpeters, posted at equal intervals along the road, to sound, in order to summon the consul. This done according to agreement, the consul orders the standards to be carried out of the camp, and a little before daylight enters the city through the gate they had forced. Not until then were the enemy aroused, as the noise of the rain was now lessening and daylight approaching. In the city there was a garrison of Hannibal's, about five thousand armed men, and the citizens of Arpi also had armed three thousand men. These were the first troops with which the Carthaginians, to prevent any treachery in the rear, confronted the enemy. They fought at first in darkness and in narrow streets. The Romans gained possession not only of the streets but also of the houses nearest to the gate, that they might not be attacked and wounded from above. Thereupon some Arpini and Romans recognized each other and then began conversations. The Romans asked what the Arpini meant, for what offence on the part of the Romans, or for what service on the part of the Carthaginians they, although Italians, were waging war for foreigners and barbarians against their old allies the Romans, and making Italy a tributary and a taxpayer to Africa. The Arpini pleaded as excuse that in complete ignorance they had been sold by their leading citizens to the Carthaginian and captured and overpowered by a few men. With that beginning larger groups conversed with larger. Finally the magistrate of Arpi was escorted by fellowcitizens to the consul, and after promises had been given in the midst of standards and battle-lines, the Arpini suddenly fought for the Romans, turning their weapons against the Carthaginians. The Spanish troops also, hardly fewer than a thousand men, after making no other terms with the consul than that the Punic garrison be allowed to go without injury, brought their standards over to the consul. The gates were opened for the Carthaginians, they were allowed to leave, as promised, and came unharmed to Hannibal at Salapia. Arpi, with the loss of no man but a single veteran traitor and recent deserter, was restored to the Romans. To the Spaniards double rations were ordered to be issued, and the state repeatedly availed itself of their brave and faithful service. While one consul was in Apulia, the other in Lucania, a hundred and twelve noble Campanian horsemen, setting out from Capua, with permission of the magistrates, under pretext of plundering the enemy's country, came to the Roman camp above Suessula. They told the guards outside who they were; that they wished to speak with the praetor. Gnaeus Fulvius was in command of the camp, and on being informed, he ordered that ten of their number be disarmed and brought to him. After he had heard their demands —and they made no other request than that upon the recovery of Capua their property should be restored to them, they were all taken under his protection. And the other praetor, Sempronius Tuditanus, took the town of Atrinum by storm. More than seven thousand men were captured and a considerable amount of coined copper and silver. At Rome a terrible fire lasted two nights and a day. Everything between the Salinae and Porta Carmentalis was levelled to the ground, including the Aequimaelium and Vicus Iugarius, also the Temples of Fortune and Mater Matuta. Outside the gate also the fire spread to a distance and destroyed many buildings sacred and profane. The same year Publius and Gnaeus Cornelius, in consequence of their success in Spain and their recovery of many old allies and the addition of new allies, enlarged their hopes in the direction of Africa as well. There was Syphax, king of the Numidians, who had suddenly become an enemy of the Carthaginians. To him they sent three centurions as legates, to establish friendship and alliance with him, and to promise that if he should continue to embarrass the Carthaginians by war, it would be acceptable to the senate and the Roman people, and they would endeavour to return the favour at the right moment and with generous interest. This embassy pleased the barbarian, and he conferred with the ambassadors on the conduct of the war; and hearing what was said by experienced soldiers, he noted, from comparison with so well-ordered a system, how many things he did not know himself. Then, as the first act befitting good and faithful allies, be begged that two of the legates might report to their generals, and one remain with him as instructor in tactics. He said the Numidian nation was inexpert in infantry warfare, of service only as horsemen. This was the way their ancestors from their earliest history had waged war, thus they had themselves been trained from boyhood. But he had an enemy who relied upon infantry battles, and if he wished to be a match for him in military strength he too must acquire infantry. And for that purpose his kingdom was supplied with men in great numbers, but they did not understand the art of arming and equipping them and placing them in battle-line. Everything was formless and unmethodical, as if a mob had been gathered by chance. The legates replied that for the present they would do as he desired, after receiving his pledge to send back the man at once, if their generals should not approve of their action. Quintus Statorius was the name of the one who remained with the king. With the two Romans the king sent three legates from the Numidians to Spain, to receive confirmation from the Roman generals. He further instructed them at once to persuade Numidians who were auxiliaries in the forces of the Carthaginians to desert them. And Statorius out of the mass of young men enrolled infantry for the king, organized them almost in the Roman manner, taught them in formation and evolution to follow standards and keep their ranks, and to such an extent accustomed them to fortifying and other regular duties of the soldier that in a short time the king had as much confidence in his infantry as in his cavalry, and in a regular engagement in formal array on level ground he defeated the Carthaginian enemy. The Romans also in Spain profited greatly by the coming of the king's representatives. For upon the news of their arrival desertions by the Numidians began to be frequent. Thus began the friendship of the Romans with Syphax. When the Carthaginians learned of the matter they at once sent legates to Gala, who reigned in the other part of Numidia, his people being called the Maesulians. Gala had a son Masinissa, seventeen years old, but a young man of such promise that even then it was evident that he would make the kingdom larger and richer than what he had received. The legates stated that, inasmuch as Syphax had attached himself to the Romans, in order, through alliance with them, to be more powerful against the kings and peoples of Africa, it would be well for Gala too to attach himself as soon as possible to the Carthaginians, before Syphax should cross into Spain or the Romans into Africa. Syphax could be surprised, they said, while he had as yet no advantage from his treaty with the Romans except the name. They easily persuaded Gala to send an army, as his son was begging for the command; and reinforced by the Carthaginian legions, Masinissa defeated Syphax in a great battle. Thirty thousand men are said to have been slain in that battle. Syphax with a few horsemen fled from the field to the Maurusian Numidians, who live far away, near the Ocean opposite Gades. And as the barbarians on hearing of him flocked together from all sides, he soon armed immense forces with which to cross into Spain, separated only by a narrow strait. But Masinissa came with his victorious army, and there by himself, without any help from the Carthaginians, he carried on war against Syphax with great distinction. In Spain nothing notable occurred except that the Roman commanders attracted to their side the young men of the Celtiberians at the same pay at which these had made an agreement with the Carthaginians, and more than three hundred Spaniards of the highest rank were sent to Italy to win over their fellow-countrymen who were among Hannibal's auxiliaries. This is the only occurrence of that year in Spain that is worthy of record, since the Romans had no mercenary soldiers in their camps previous to the Celtiberians whom they had at that time.
Perseus Latin. CTS URN phi0914.phi00124.perseus-eng1. Via the Perseus Digital Library / Open Greek and Latin TEI corpora. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0. Source.