5. In the beginning of the summer in which these events occurred, Publius Sulpicius, proconsul, and king Attalus, having passed the winter at Aegina, as before observed, united their fleets, consisting of twenty-three Roman quinqueremes and thirty-five belonging to the king, and proceeded to Lemnos. Philip also, that he might be prepared for every kind of measure, whether it should be necessary to meet the enemy on land or sea, came down to the coast of Demetrias and appointed to his army a day on which to meet him at Larissa. On the news of the king's arrival, ambassadors from his allies came to Demetrias from all sides. For the Aetolians, inspirited both by their alliance with the Romans and the approach of king Attalus, were ravaging the neighbouring states; not only the Acarnanians, Boeotians, and Euboeans were very much alarmed, but the Achaeans also were kept in a state of terror, both by the hostile proceedings of the Aetolians, and also by Machanidas, tyrant of Lacedaemon, who had encamped at a short distance from the borders of the Argives. All of these stating the dangers which threatened their possessions, both by land and sea, entreated succour from the king. Philip received accounts even from his own kingdom, that things were not in a state of tranquillity; that both Scerdilaedus and Pleuratus were in motion, and that some of the Thracians, and particularly the Maedians, would certainly make incursions on the contiguous provinces of Macedonia, should the king be occupied with a distant war. The Boeotians, indeed, and the people inhabiting the inland parts of Greece, told him that the Aetolians had obstructed by a ditch and rampart the straits of Thermopylae, where the road is very narrow and confined, in order to prevent their passing to the assistance of the allied states. So many disturbances arising on all hands were sufficient to awaken an inactive general. He dismissed the ambassadors, promising to assist them all according as opportunity and circumstances allowed. For the present, he sent to Peparethus a body of troops to garrison the city, for this was the most urgent business, as information had been received thence that Attalus, crossing over to Lemnos, was devastating all the neighbouring country. He sent Polyphantas with a small detachment to Boeotia, and also Menippus, one of his guards, with one thousand targeteers (the target is not unlike the ordinary buckler) to Chalcis. Five hundred Agrianians were added, that every part of the island might be secured. He went himself to Scotussa, and ordered the Macedonian soldiers to be removed thither from Larissa. Here he heard that the Aetolians had been summoned to an assembly at Heraclea, and that king Attalus was to come and advise with them as to the conduct of the war. Determining to interrupt this meeting by his sudden approach, he led his troops by forced marches to Heraclea, where he arrived just after the assembly had broken up. However, he destroyed the crops, which were nearly ripe, particularly those round the Aenian bay. He then marched back to Scotussa, and leaving there the main army, retired to Demetrias with the royal guards. In order to be prepared against every attempt of the enemy, he sent persons hence to Phocis, Euboea, and Peparethus, to select elevated situations, from which fires lighted upon them might be seen from a distance. He fixed a watch-tower on Tisaeum, a mountain whose summit is prodigiously high, in order that when the enemy made any attempt he might instantly receive intimation of it by means of fires lighted up at a distance. The Roman general and king Attalus then passed over from Peparethus to Nicaea, and thence sailed to Orcus, the first city of Euboea, on the left as you proceed to Chalcis and the Euripus from the bay of Demetrias. It was agreed upon between Attalus and Sulpicius, that the Romans should attack the town on the side next the sea, and the king's forces on the land side.

6. Four days after the fleet arrived, they attacked the city. That time had been employed in private conferences with Plator, whom Philip had put in command of the place. The city has two citadels, one overhanging the coasts, the other in the middle of the town, from which there is a subterraneous passage to the ocean, whose entrance next the sea is defended by a strong fortification, a tower five stories high. Here the affair commenced with a most furious contest, the tower being furnished with all kinds of weapons, and engines and machines of every kind for the purpose of the assault having been landed from the ships. While the eyes and attention of all were turned to that quarter, Plator opened one of the gates and received the Romans into the citadel next the sea, which they instantly became masters of. The inhabitants, driven thence, fled to the other citadel in the middle of the city; but there had been troops posted there to shut the gates against them; so that, being thus excluded, they were surrounded and either slain or made prisoners. Meanwhile the Macedonian garrison stood under the wall of the citadel, formed into a compact body, neither confusedly attempting a retreat, nor obstinately engaging in a contest. These men Plator, after obtaining permission from Sulpicius, put on board ships and landed them at Demetrias in Phthiotis; he himself withdrew to Attalus. Sulpicius, elated with the success at Oreum, gained with so much ease, proceeded to Chalcis with his victorious fleet, where the issue by no means answered his expectations. The sea, which is wide on both sides, being here contracted into a narrow strait, might perhaps, at first view, exhibit the appearance of two harbours facing the two entrances of the Euripus. It would be difficult to find a station more dangerous for shipping; for not only do the winds come down with great violence from the high mountains on each side, but the strait itself of the Euripus does not ebb and flow seven times a day at stated times, as is reported, but the current changing irregularly, like the wind, now this way now that, is hurried along like a torrent rolling headlong down a steep mountain, so that no quiet is given to vessels there day or night. But not only did so perilous a station receive his ships, but the town was strong and impregnable, covered on one side by the sea, and very well fortified on the other towards the land, secured by a strong garrison, and above all, by the fidelity of the praefects and principal men, which was wavering and unsettled at Oreum. Though the business had been rashly undertaken, the Roman still acted with prudence, in so far as he speedily gave up the attempt, after he had seen all the difficulties which surrounded him, that he might not waste time, and passed his fleet over from thence to Cynus in Locris, the port of the town of Opus, which is one mile distant from the sea.

7. Philip had received notice of this from Oreum, by the signal fires; but through the treachery of Plator they were raised from the watch-tower at a later period. As he was not a match for the enemy's forces at sea, it was difficult for him to approach the island; and thus, by delay, the opportunity was lost. He moved with promptness to the assistance of Chalcis as soon as he received the signal. For although Chalcis is a city of the same island, yet it is separated from the continent by so narrow a strait, that they communicate by means of a bridge, and the approach to it is easier by land than by water. Philip therefore, going from Demetrias to Scotussa, and setting out thence at the third watch, dislodged the guard, put to flight the Aetolians who kept the pass of Thermopylae, and drove the enemy in confusion to Heraclea, marching in one day to Elatia in Phocis, a distance of above sixty miles. Almost on the same day the town of Opus was taken and plundered by Attalus. Sulpicius had given it up to the king because Oreum had been plundered a few days before by the Roman soldiers, the royal soldiers not having shared the booty. The Roman fleet having retired thither, Attalus, who was not aware of Philip's approach, wasted time in levying contributions from the principal inhabitants, and so sudden was his coming, that had he not been descried by some Cretans, who happened to go farther from the town than usual in quest of forage, he might have been surprised. He fled hastily to the sea and his ships, without arms, and in the greatest disorder. Just as they were putting off from the land Philip arrived, and even from the shore created much alarm among the mariners. He returned thence to Opus, accusing both gods and men, because he had lost an opportunity of so great importance, almost snatched from his hands. He also reproached the Opuntians with the like anger, because they had, immediately on sight of the enemy, made almost a voluntary surrender, though they might have prolonged the siege till his arrival. Having settled affairs at Opus, he proceeded thence to Thronium. Attalus, too, at first retired from Oreum; but there receiving intelligence that Prusias, king of Bithynia, had invaded his kingdom, he withdrew his attention from the Romans and the Aetolian war, and passed over into Asia. Sulpicius also withdrew his fleet to Aegina, from whence he had set out in the beginning of spring. Philip took Thronium with as little difficulty as Attalus had at Opus. It was inhabited by foreigners, fugitives from Thebes in Phthiotis, who, on the capture of their own town by Philip, had fled to the protection of the Aetolians, and received from them a city as a settlement which had been laid waste and desolated in a former war by the same Philip. Having recovered Thronium, as has been a little before mentioned, he set out thence; and having taken Tritonos and Drymae, inconsiderable towns of Doris, he came thence to Elatia, where he had ordered the ambassadors of Ptolemy and the Rhodians to wait for him. While consulting there as to the best method of bringing the Aetolian war to a conclusion, (for these ambassadors attended the late council of the Romans and Aetolians at Heraclea,) intelligence is brought that Machanidas intended to attack the Elians while busied in preparing for the celebration of the Olympic games. Thinking it his duty to prevent such an attempt, he dismissed the ambassadors with a gracious answer to the effect, that he had neither caused the war, nor would he be any obstacle to the restoration of peace, if it should be possible on equitable and honourable terms; then marching quickly through Boeotia he came down from Megara, and thence to Corinth, where receiving supplies of provisions, he went to Phlius and Pheneus. And now, when he had proceeded as far as Heraea, having received intelligence that Machanidas, terrified at the news of his approach, had retreated to Lacedaemon, he betook himself to Aegium, where the Achaeans were assembled in council, expecting at the same time to meet there a Carthaginian fleet, which he had sent for, in order that he might accomplish something by sea. But the Carthaginians had left a few days before, and were gone to the Oxean islands; and thence, hearing that the Romans and Attalus had left Oreum, to the harbours of the Acarnanians, for they feared that it was intended to attack them, and that they would be overpowered while within the straits of Rhium, which is the name of the entrance of the Corinthian bay.

8. Philip was grieved and vexed when he reflected, that though he proceeded with the utmost speed on all occasions, yet he had not come up in time to accomplish any one object, and that fortune had frustrated his activity by snatching away every advantage from before his eyes. In the assembly, however, concealing his chagrin, he discoursed with elated spirits, calling gods and men to witness, that "he had never been wanting at any time or place, so as not to repair instantly wherever the enemy's arms resounded, but that it was difficult to calculate whether the war was carried on more boldly by him or more pusillanimously by the enemy. Such was the manner in which Attalus had slipped out of his hands from Opus; Sulpicius from Chalcis; and so, within these few days, Machanidas. That flight, however, was not always successful; and that that should not be esteemed a difficult war in which victory would be certain if the enemy could be brought to a regular engagement. He had already obtained one very great advantage, which was a confession on the part of the enemy themselves, that they were not a match for him; and in a short time," he said, "he would be in possession of undoubted victory; for that he would engage with him with a result no better than their expectations." The allies listened to the king with great satisfaction. He then gave up to the Achaeans Heraera and Triphylia. Aliphera he restored to the Megalopolitans, they having brought satisfactory proof that it belonged to their territories. Then having received some ships from the Achaeans, three quadriremes and three biremes, he sailed to Anticyra, whence with seven quinqueremes and more than twenty barks, which he had sent to the bay of Corinth to join the Carthaginian fleet, he proceeded to Erythrae, a town of the Aetolians near Eupalium, where he made a descent. He was not unobserved by the Aetolians; for all who were either in the fields or in the neighbouring forts of Potidania and Apollonia, fled to the woods and mountains. The cattle which they could not drive off in their haste they seized and put on board. He sent Nicias, praetor of the Achaeans, to Aegium with these and the other booty; and then going to Corinth, ordered his army to march by land through Boeotia, while he himself, sailing from Cenchreae along the coast of Attica, round the promontory of Sunium, reached Chalcis, having passed almost through the midst of the enemy's fleet. After commending in the highest terms their fidelity and bravery, as neither fear nor hope had influenced their minds, and after exhorting them to show the same fidelity in maintaining the alliance, he sailed to Oreum; and having placed such of the chief inhabitants as chose to fly, rather than surrender to the Romans, in the command of the city and the direction of affairs, he sailed over from Euboea to Demetrias, from which place he at first set out to succour his allies. After this, having laid the keels of one hundred ships of war at Cassandrea, and collected a large number of ship carpenters for the completion of that business, and as both the departure of Attalus and the seasonable assistance he had brought to his allies had tranquillized affairs in Greece, he retired into his own dominions, in order to make war upon the Dardanians.

9. Just at the close of the summer during which these operations were carried on in Greece, when Quintus Fabius, son of Maximus, ambassador from Marcus Livius the consul, brought a message to Rome to the senate, to the effect, that the consul considered that Lucius Portius with his legions formed a sufficient protection for the province, that he might himself retire thence, and that the consular army might be withdrawn, the fathers directed that not only Livius should return to the city, but also his colleague, Caius Claudius. The only difference made between them in the decree was, that they ordered the army of Marcus Livius to be led back, and the legions of Nero to remain in their province opposed to Hannibal. The consuls agreed between themselves by letter, that as they had conducted the affairs of the commonwealth with unanimity, they should arrive at the city at the same time, though they came from different quarters. He who arrived first at Praeneste was enjoined to wait there for his colleague. It so happened that they both came to Praeneste on the same day, and thence, sending a proclamation before them, directing that there should be a full attendance of the senate at the temple of Bellona, three days after, they came up to the city, when they were met by the whole body of the inhabitants. Not only did the whole body pour around them and salute them, but each person individually, desiring to touch the victorious right hands of the consuls, some congratulated them, while others thanked them because by their services the state had been preserved. In the senate, when, having made a recital of their services according to the custom observed by all generals, they had requested, that "in consideration of the brave and successful conduct of the affairs of the commonwealth, honours should be paid to the immortal gods, and they themselves enter the city in triumph;" the fathers replied, that "they most willingly decreed those things which they requested in gratitude to the gods in the first instance, and, next to them, to the consuls." A supplication in the name of both, and a triumph to both of them, having been decreed, lest after having carried on the war with entire unanimity they should have a separate triumph, they made the following agreement; that "since both the service had been performed in the province of Marcus Livius, and he was in possession of the command on the day on which the battle was fought, and further, that as the army of Livius had been withdrawn and had come to Rome, while Nero's could not be withdrawn from the province, Marcus Livius should enter the city in a four-horse chariot and followed by the soldiers; Caius Claudius on horseback without soldiers." This plan of associating the generals in the triumph increased the glory of both, but particularly of him who had yielded to his colleague in the honours he received, as much as he surpassed him in merit. The people said, that "the general on horseback had traversed the whole length of Italy in the space of six days, and had fought a pitched battle with Hasdrubal in Gaul, on the very day on which Hannibal supposed that he was occupying a camp pitched in Apulia to oppose him. That thus one consul, acting in defence of either extremity of Italy against two leaders, had opposed against one his skill, against the other his person. That the name of Nero had been sufficient to confine Hannibal within his camp, while with regard to Hasdrubal, by what, but his arrival, had he been overwhelmed and annihilated? The other consul might move along raised aloft in a chariot, drawn if he pleased by a number of horses, but that the real triumph was his who was conveyed by one horse; and that Nero, though he should go on foot, would be immortalized, whether on account of the glory he had acquired in the war, or the contempt he had shown for it in the triumph." Such continual expressions of the spectators attended Nero all the way to the Capitol. The money they brought into the treasury was three hundred thousand sesterces, with eighty thousand asses of brass. Marcus Livius distributed among the soldiers fifty-six asses each. Caius Claudius promised the same sum to his absent troops when he returned to the army. It was observed that more verses were written by the soldiery upon Caius Claudius in their jocular style, than upon their own consul; that the horsemen highly extolled Lucius Veturius and Quintus Caecilius, lieutenant-generals, and exhorted the commons to create them consuls for the ensuing year; that the consuls added their authority to the recommendation of the knights, relating in the public assembly the following day with what courage and fidelity their two lieutenant-generals in particular had served them.

10. When the time for the elections approached, and it was resolved that it should be held by a dictator, the consul Caius Claudius nominated as dictator his colleague Marcus Livius, who appointed Quintus Caecilius his master of the horse. Lucius Veturius and Quintus Caecilius were created consuls by Marcus Livius the dictator, the latter being then master of the horse. After this the election of praetors was held. The persons appointed were, Caius Servilius, Marcus Caecilius Metellus, Titus Claudius Asellus, and Quintus Mamilius Turinus, who was at that time plebeian aedile. When the elections were finished, the dictator, having abdicated his office and dismissed his army, set out for his province of Etruria, according to a decree of the senate, to make inquiry what states of the Tuscans and Umbrians had formed schemes of revolt from the Romans to Hasdrubal at the time of his approach, and what states had assisted him with auxiliaries, provisions, or succours of any kind. Such were the transactions this year at home and abroad. The Roman games were thrice repeated in full by the curule aediles, Cneius Servilius Caepio and Servius Cornelius Lentulus. In the same manner the plebeian games also were once repeated entire by the plebeian aediles, Manius Pomponius Matho and Quintus Mamilius Thurinus.

In the thirteenth year of the Punic war, when Lucius Veturius Philo and Quintus Caecilius Metellus were consuls, Bruttium was assigned to both of them, as their province, to carry on the war with Hannibal. The praetors then cast lots for their provinces: Marcus Caecilius Metellus had the city jurisdiction; Quintus Mamilius, the foreign; Caius Servilius, Sicily; Tiberius Claudius, Sardinia. The armies were distributed thus: to one of the consuls was given the army which Caius Claudius the consul of the former year, to the other that which Quintus Claudius the propraetor, had commanded, consisting of two legions each. It was decreed that Marcus Livius, proconsul, who was continued in command for the year, should take the two legions of volunteer slaves from Caius Terentius the propraetor, and that Quintus Mamilius, transferring his judicial business to his colleague, should occupy Gaul with the army which Lucius Porcius, the praetor, had commanded, with orders to lay waste the lands of those Gauls who had revolted to the Carthaginians on the approach of Hasdrubal. The protection of Sicily was assigned to Caius Servilius with the two legions which fought at Cannae, in the same manner as Caius Mamilius had held it. The old army which Aulus Hostilius had commanded was conveyed out of Sardinia, and the consuls enlisted a new legion, which Tiberius Claudius might take over with him. Quintus Claudius and Caius Hostilius Tubulus were continued in command for a year, that the former might hold Tarentum as his province, the latter, Capua. Marcus Valerius, the proconsul, to whom had been committed the protection of the sea-coast round Sicily, was ordered to deliver thirty ships to Caius Servilius, and return to the city with all the rest of the fleet.

11. In a state where the greatest anxiety prevailed, in consequence of the very critical situation in which the war stood, and where all events, prosperous or adverse, were attributed to the interposition of the gods, accounts of many prodigies were received; that the temple of Jupiter at Tarracina, and that of Mater Matuta at Satricum, had been struck by lightning. The people of Satricum were no less terrified by two snakes gliding into the temple of Jupiter by the very doors. A report was brought from Antium, that bloody ears of corn had been seen by the reapers. At Caere a pig with two heads had been littered, and a lamb yeaned which was both male and female. Intelligence was brought that two suns had been seen at Alba, and that light had suddenly appeared during night at Fregellae. An ox was reported to have spoken in the Roman territory. A copious perspiration was said to have exuded from the altar of Neptune, in the Flaminian circus; and the temples of Ceres, Safety, and Quirinus were said to have been struck by lightning. The consuls were directed to expiate these prodigies with victims of the larger sort, and to make a supplication for one day. These things were executed according to a decree of the senate. The extinction of the fire in the temple of Vesta struck more terror upon the minds of men than all the prodigies which were reported from abroad, or seen at home; and the vestal, who had the guarding of it for that night, was scourged by the command of Publius Licinius the pontiff. Although this event was not appointed by the gods as a portent, but had happened through human neglect, yet it was thought proper that it should be expiated with victims of the larger sort, and that a supplication should be made at the temple of Vesta.

Before the consuls set out for the campaign, they were cautioned by the senate to take care that the common people should be brought back into the country; for since, through the goodness of the gods, the war was removed from the city of Rome and Latium, the country might be inhabited without fear. That it was most inconsistent that greater care should be taken in cultivating Sicily than Italy. But it was a matter by no means easy for the people, the free labourers having been cut off by war, and there being a scarcity of slaves, their cattle having been carried off as booty, and the farmhouses pulled down or burnt. A large number, however, compelled by the authority of the consuls, returned into the country. The mention of this affair had been occasioned by ambassadors of Placentia and Cremona, who complained that their lands were being invaded and laid waste by the neighbouring Gauls; that a large portion of their settlers had dispersed; that their cities were thinly inhabited, and their lands devastated and deserted. Mamilius the praetor was charged with the protection of the colonies from the enemy. The consuls, in conformity with a decree of the senate, issued an edict that all who were citizens of Cremona and Placentia should return to those colonies before a certain day; after which, in the beginning of spring, they set out for the campaign. Quintus Caecilius, the consul, received the army from Caius Nero; Lucius Veturius received his from Quintus Claudius the propraetor, filling it up with new-raised soldiers, whom he had himself enlisted. The consuls marched their army into the territory of Consentia, and devastating the country on all hands, when the troops were loaded with plunder, they were thrown into such confusion by some Bruttians and Numidian spearmen, who attacked them in a narrow defile, that not only the booty but the troops were in danger. There was more of confusion, however than fighting; and sending the booty in advance, the legions themselves also escaped into a place free from danger. Proceeding thence into Lucania, the whole of that people returned, without a contest, into subjection to the Roman people.

12. No action with Hannibal took place this year; for neither did he present himself after the public and personal calamity so recently inflicted, and the Romans did not provoke him while he remained quiet, such power did they consider that single general possessed, though every thing else around him was falling into ruin. Indeed I know not whether he was not more deserving of admiration in adversity than in prosperity; inasmuch as though he carried on a war in the territory of enemies through a period of thirteen years, at so great a distance from home, with varying success, and with, an army not composed of his own countrymen, but made up of the offscouring of all nations, without communion of laws, customs, or language, different in their appearance, their dress, their arms, their religious ceremonies and observances, and I had almost said, their gods; yet he so effectually united them by some one bond, that no disturbance ever arose either among the soldiers themselves, or between them and their general, though he often wanted money to pay them, and provisions, as being in a hostile country, through want of which, in the former Punic war, many dreadful transactions had occurred between the generals and their soldiers. But after the destruction of Hasdrubal and his army, in which all hopes of victory had been treasured up; and after retiring from the possession of every other part of Italy by withdrawing into Bruttium, one corner of it; to whom does it not appear wonderful that no disturbance arose in the camp? For to other circumstances this also was added, that he had no nope of subsisting his army, except from the lands of Bruttium, which, though they were all cultivated, would be very insufficient for the maintenance of so large an army. Besides, many of the youth were drawn off from the cultivation of the fields, and engaged in the war; and a custom also prevailed among the people of that nation, grafted on a naturally depraved inclination, of carrying on a predatory kind of warfare. Nor did he receive any supplies from home, where they were anxious about the retention of Spain, as if every thing was going on prosperously in Italy. In Spain the state of affairs was in one respect similar, but in another widely different; similar in that the Carthaginians, having been defeated with the loss of their general, had been driven to the remotest coast of that country, even to the ocean; but different, because Spain, both from the nature of the country and the genius of its inhabitants, was better adapted not only than Italy, but than any other part of the world, for renewing a war. And accordingly, therefore, though this was the first of the provinces on the continent which the Romans entered, it was the last which was at length reduced, in the present age, under the conduct and auspices of Augustus Caesar. Here Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo, the greatest and most renowned general concerned in the war, next to the Barcine family, returning from Gades, and encouraged in his hopes of reviving the war by Mago, son of Hamilcar, by means of levies made throughout the Farther Spain, armed as many as fifty thousand foot and four thousand five hundred horse. With regard to his mounted force, authors are pretty much agreed, but some state that seventy thousand infantry were led to the city Silpia. Here the two Carthaginian generals sat down on open plains, with a determination not to avoid a battle.

13. When Scipio received an account of the collection of so large an army, he felt convinced that he would not be a match for so great a multitude with the Roman legions only, without making a show at least of the auxiliary troops of the barbarians; at the same time that he did not think it right that they should form so large a portion of his force as to occasion important consequences if they should change sides, which had brought ruin upon his father and his uncle. Therefore, sending forward Silanus to Colca, who was sovereign of twenty-eight towns, to receive from him the infantry and cavalry, which he promised to enlist during the winter, he himself set out from Tarraco; and collecting small bodies of auxiliaries from his allies, who lay near his road as he proceeded, he came to Castulo. To this place Silanus led the auxiliaries, consisting of three thousand infantry and five hundred horse. Thence he advanced to the city of Baecula, with his entire army of countrymen and allies, foot and horse, amounting to forty-five thousand. Mago and Masinissa attacked them with the whole body of their cavalry while forming their camp, and would have dispersed those engaged in the works, had not a party of horse, concealed by Scipio behind an eminence conveniently situated for the purpose, unexpectedly charged them when rushing on to the attack, and, ere the battle was well begun, routed all the most forward, both those who had advanced nearest the rampart, and those who were foremost in charging the very workmen. With the rest of the troops who came up with their standards, and in order of march, the contest lasted longer, and was for a considerable time doubtful. But when first the light cohorts from the outposts, and then the troops withdrawn from the works and ordered to take arms, came up, being more numerous than those which had been engaged, and fresh while they were fatigued, and now a large body of armed troops rushed from the camp to the battle, the Carthaginians and Numidians at once turned their backs. At first they moved off in troops without breaking their ranks, through fear or precipitation; but afterwards, when the Romans pressed furiously upon their rear, and they were unable to bear the violence of their attack, then at length, utterly regardless of order, they fled precipitately in every direction, as suited each man's convenience. And although, in consequence of this battle, the spirits of the Romans were considerably raised, and those of the enemy depressed, yet, for several days following, the horsemen and light-armed troops never ceased from skirmishes.

14. After having made sufficient trial of their strength in these slight engagements, Hasdrubal first led out his forces for battle, and then the Romans also advanced. But both the armies stood drawn up before their ramparts; and as neither party began the attack, and the sun was now going down, the Carthaginian first, and then the Roman, led back his troops into the camp. The same occurred for several days. The Carthaginian was always the first to lead out his troops into the field, and the first to give the signal for retiring, when they were weary with standing. Neither party sallied from their posts, nor was a weapon discharged, or a word uttered. On one side the Romans occupied the centre, on the other, the Carthaginians and Africans together; the allies occupied the wings, which were composed of Spaniards on both sides. The elephants which stood before the Carthaginian line, appeared at a distance like castles. It was now commonly talked of in both camps, that they would fight in the order in which they had stood when drawn up, and that their centres, composed of Romans and Carthaginians, who were the principals in the war, would engage with equal courage and strength. When Scipio perceived that this was firmly believed, he studiously altered all his arrangements against the day on which he intended to fight. He issued orders through the camp at evening, that the men and horses should be refreshed and fed before daylight, and that the horsemen, armed themselves, should keep their horses bridled and saddled. When it was scarcely yet daylight, he sent all his cavalry, with the light troops, against the Carthaginian outposts, and then without delay advanced himself, at the head of the heavy body of the legions, having strengthened his wings with Roman soldiers, and placed the allies in the centre, contrary to the full anticipations of his own men and of the enemy. Hasdrubal, alarmed by the shout of the cavalry, sprang out of his tent, and, perceiving a tumult before the rampart, and his own troops in a state of hurry and confusion, the standards of the legions gleaming at a distance, and the plain filled with the enemy, immediately sent out the whole body of his cavalry against the horsemen of the enemy; marching himself out of the camp, at the head of the infantry, without departing at all from the usual arrangement in forming his line. The battle between the cavalry had continued for a long time doubtful; nor could they decide it themselves, because, when repulsed, which was the case in a manner alternately, they had a safe retreat upon the line of infantry. But when the armies were not more than five hundred paces distant from each other, Scipio, sounding a retreat and opening his files, received into the midst of them the whole body of his cavalry and light-armed troops; and dividing them into two parts, placed them in reserve behind the wings. After this, when it was now time to commence the battle, he ordered the Spaniards, who formed the centre, to advance at a slow pace; he himself sent a messenger from the right wing, for that he commanded, to Silanus and Marcius to extend the wing on the left in the same manner as they should see him extend that on the right, and engage the enemy with the light-armed of the horse and foot, before the two centres could meet. The wings being thus extended, they advanced against the enemy at a rapid pace, with three cohorts of infantry, and three troops of horse, each with the addition of skirmishers, the rest following them in an oblique line. There was a depression in the centre of the line, because the battalions of the Spaniards advanced slower than the rest, and the wings had already encountered the enemy, when the veteran Carthaginians and Africans had not yet come within distance to discharge their darts; nor dared they run in different directions to the wings to assist them when fighting, lest they should expose their centre to the enemy approaching over against them. The wings were hard pressed, by a twofold attack; the cavalry, the light-armed, and the skirmishers, wheeling round, charged their flanks, while the cohorts pressed them hard in front, in order to separate the wings from the rest of the line.

15. The battle was now extremely unequal in every part, both because an irregular band of Balearians and raw Spaniards were opposed to Roman and Latin soldiers, and further, because, as the day was now getting on, Hasdrubal's troops began to grow languid, having been dispirited by the alarm in the morning, and compelled to go out hastily into the field, without refreshing themselves with food. Scipio had designedly spun out the day, in order that the battle might take place at a late hour; for it was not until the seventh hour that the battalions of infantry charged the wings. It was considerably later before the battle reached the centres, so that the heat from the meridian sun, and the fatigue of standing under arms, together with hunger and thirst, enfeebled their bodies before they engaged the enemy. Thus they stood still, supporting themselves upon their shields. In addition to their other misfortunes, the elephants too, terrified at the tumultuous kind of attack of the cavalry, the skirmishers, and the light-armed, had transferred themselves from the wings to the centre. Fatigued therefore in mind and body, they gave ground, preserving their ranks, however, just as though the army were retreating entire at the command of their general. But when the victors, perceiving that the enemy had given way, charged them on all sides with increased vehemence on that very account, so that the shock could hardly be sustained, though Hasdrubal endeavoured to stop them and hinder them from retiring, vociferating, "that there were hills on their rear, and a safe refuge if they would retreat without precipitation;" yet, fear getting the better of their sense of shame, and all those who were nearest the enemy giving way, they immediately turned their backs, and all gave themselves up to disorderly flight. The first place they halted at was the foot of the hills, where they endeavoured to recall the soldiers to their ranks, the Romans hesitating to advance their line up the opposite steep; but afterwards, when they saw them push on briskly, renewing their flight, they were driven into their camp in extreme alarm. Nor were the Romans far from the rampart; and such was their impetuosity, that they would have taken their camp had not so violent a shower of rain suddenly poured down, while, as is usually the case, the solar rays darted with the greatest intensity between the clouds surcharged with water, that the victors with difficulty returned to their camp. Some were even deterred, by superstition, from making any further attempts that day. Though night and the rain invited the Carthaginians to take necessary rest, yet, as their fears and the danger would not allow them to delay, as it was expected that the enemy would assault their camp as soon as it was light, they raised their rampart by stones collected from the neighbouring valleys around them on all sides, with the determination to defend themselves by works, since there was but little protection in their arms. But the desertion of their allies made it appear safer to fly than stay. Attanes, prince of the Turdetani, began this revolt; he deserted at the head of a numerous band of his countrymen. Then two fortified towns, together with their garrisons, were delivered up by their praefects to the Romans. And, lest the evil should spread more widely, now that the disposition to revolt from the Carthaginians had evinced itself in one instance, Hasdrubal decamped during the silence of the ensuing night.

16. The troops in the outposts having brought word, as soon as it was light, that the enemy had departed, Scipio, despatching his cavalry in advance, ordered the army to move forward; and so rapidly were they led, that had they directly followed the track of the fugitives, they would certainly have overtaken them; but they trusted to the report of their guides, that there was a shorter cut to the river Baetis, where they might attack them while crossing it. Hasdrubal, being precluded from passing the river, turned his course to the ocean; and they now advanced in disorder and in the manner of fugitives, so that the Roman legions were left considerably behind. The cavalry and light-armed, attacking sometimes their rear, and sometimes their flank, harassed and delayed them; and as they were obliged to halt, in consequence of these frequent annoyances, and engaged sometimes the cavalry, at other times the skirmishers and the auxiliary infantry, the legions came up. After this it was no longer a fight, but a butchering as of cattle, till the general himself, who was the first to run away, made his escape to the neighbouring hills with about six thousand men half armed; the rest were slain or made prisoners. The Carthaginians hastily fortified an irregular camp on the highest eminence, and from thence they defended themselves without difficulty, the enemy failing in his attempt to get at them, from the difficulty of the ascent. But a siege in a place bare and affording no means of subsistence, was hardly to be supported, even for a few days; the troops therefore deserted to the enemy. At last the general himself, having procured some ships, for the sea was not at a great distance, left his army by night and effected his escape to Gades. Scipio, having heard of the flight of the general of the enemy, left ten thousand foot and one thousand cavalry for Silanus to carry on the siege of the camp, and returned to Tarraco with the rest of the troops, after a march of seventy days, during which he took cognizance of the causes of the petty princes and states, in order that rewards might be conferred according to a just estimate of their merits. After his departure, Masinissa, having held a private conference with Silanus, passed over into Africa with a few of his countrymen, in order that he might induce his nation also to acquiesce in his new designs. The cause of this sudden change was not so evident at the time, as the proof was convincing which was afforded by his subsequent fidelity, preserved to extreme old age, that he did not on this occasion act without reasonable grounds. Mago went to Gades in the ships which had been sent back by Hasdrubal. Of the rest of the troops thus abandoned by their generals, some deserted and others betook themselves to flight, and in this manner were dispersed through the neighbouring states. There was no body of them considerable either for numbers or strength. Such were, as near as possible, the circumstances under which the Carthaginians were driven out of Spain, under the conduct and auspices of Publius Scipio, in the thirteenth year from the commencement of the war, and the fifth from the time that Publius Scipio received the province and the army. Not long after, Silanus returned to Tarraco to Scipio, with information that the war was at an end.

17. Lucius Scipio was sent to Rome to convey the news of the reduction of Spain, and with him a number of distinguished captives. While everybody else extolled this achievement as an event in the highest degree joyful and glorious, yet the author of it alone, whose valour was such that he never thought he had achieved enough, and whose search for true glory was insatiable, considered the reduction of Spain as affording but a faint idea of the hopes which his aspiring mind had conceived. He now directed his view to Africa and Great Carthage, and the glorious termination of the war, as redounding to his honour, and giving lustre to his name. Judging it therefore to be now necessary to pave the way to his object, and to conciliate the friendship of kings and nations, he resolved first to sound the disposition of Syphax, king of the Masaesylians, a nation bordering on the Moors, and lying for the most part over-against that quarter of Spain in which New Carthage is situated. The king was at the present juncture in league with the Carthaginians; and Scipio, concluding that he would not hold it as more binding and sacred than was customary with barbarians, sent Caius Laelius as envoy to him with presents. The barbarian, delighted with these, and seeing that the Roman cause was then successful in every quarter, but that the Carthaginians were unfortunate in Italy, and no longer existed in Spain, consented to accept the friendship of the Romans, but refused to give or receive a solemn ratification of it except the Roman general himself were present in person. This being the case, Laelius returned to Scipio, having received from the king merely an assurance of a safe journey. To one desirous of getting a footing in Africa, Syphax was of great importance, as he was the most powerful king in that country, had already had experience of the Carthaginians themselves in war, and the boundaries of his dominions lay very conveniently with respect to Spain, from which they are separated by a narrow strait. Scipio, therefore, considering it an object of sufficient importance to warrant his attempting it, notwithstanding the greatness of the danger which attended it, since he could not effect it otherwise, left for the protection of Spain Lucius Marcius at Tarraco, and Marcus Silanus at New Carthage, to which place he had gone on foot by long marches; and setting out himself in company with Caius Laelius, with two quinqueremes from Carthage, passed over into Africa, working the vessels with oars for the greatest part of the voyage, in consequence of the calmness of the sea, though sometimes they were assisted by a gentle breeze. It so happened, that just at that time Hasdrubal, having been driven out of Spain, had entered the harbour with seven triremes, and having cast anchor was mooring his ships. The sight of two quinqueremes, which it was the firm opinion of everybody belonged to the enemy, and might be overpowered by superior numbers before they entered the harbour, produced no other effect than a tumult and confusion among the soldiers and sailors, who endeavoured to no purpose to get their arms and ships ready; for their sails, impelled by a somewhat brisker gale from the sea, brought the quinqueremes into the harbour before the Carthaginians weighed their anchors, and no one dared make any further stir now that they were in the king's harbour. Thus Hasdrubal, who landed first, and Scipio and Laelius, who landed soon after, proceeded to the king.

18. Syphax considered it highly honourable to him, as it really was, that generals of the two most powerful people of the age should come to him on the same day to solicit peace and friendship with him. He invited them both to become his guests; and, as it was the will of fortune that they should be under one roof, and under the protection of the same household gods, he endeavoured to bring them together to a conference, in order to put an end to the difference between them; when Scipio declared, that there was no personal enmity between the Carthaginian and himself which he might do away with by a conference, and that he could not transact any business relating to the republic with an enemy without the command of the senate. But the king being earnest in his endeavours to persuade him to come to the same entertainment, lest one of his guests should appear to be excluded, he did not withhold his assent. They supped together at the king's table, and Scipio and Hasdrubal even sat at meat on the same couch, because it was the king's pleasure. So courteous was the manner of Scipio, so naturally happy and universal was his genius, that by his conversation he gained the esteem not only of Syphax, a barbarian, and unused to Roman manners, but even of a most inveterate enemy, who openly avowed, that "he appeared to him more to be admired for the qualities he displayed on a personal interview with him, than for his exploits in war, and that he had no doubt that Syphax and his kingdom were already at the disposal of the Romans, such were the abilities that man possessed for gaining the esteem of others. That it, therefore, was incumbent upon the Carthaginians not more to inquire by what means they had lost Spain, than to consider how they might retain possession of Africa. That it was not from a desire to visit foreign countries, or to roam about delightful coasts, that so great a Roman captain, leaving a recently subdued province, and his armies, had crossed over into Africa with only two ships, entering an enemy's territory, and committing himself to the untried honour of the king, but in pursuance of a hope he had conceived of subduing Africa. That it had been long the object of his anxious solicitude, and had drawn from him open expressions of his indignation, that Scipio was not carrying on war in Africa in the same way as Hannibal was in Italy." Scipio, having formed a league with Syphax, set out from Africa, and, after having been tossed about during his voyage by variable and generally tempestuous winds, made the port of New Carthage on the fourth day.

19. As Spain was undisturbed by a Carthaginian war, so it was evident that some of the states remained quiet more from fear, arising from a consciousness of demerit, than from sincere attachment. The most remarkable of them, both for their greatness and guilt, were Illiturgi and Castulo. Castulo had been in alliance with the Romans when in prosperity, but had revolted to the Carthaginians after the destruction of the Scipios and their armies. The Illiturgians, by betraying and putting to death those who fled thither after that calamity, had added villany to revolt. It would have been more deserved than expedient to have executed severe vengeance upon these people on his first arrival, while the affairs of Spain were in an uncertain state; but now, when all was tranquil, as the time for visiting them with punishment appeared to have arrived, he summoned Lucius Marcius from Tarraco, and sent him with a third of his forces to attack Castulo, and with the rest of the army he himself reached Illiturgi, after about five days' march. The gates were closed, and every arrangement and preparation made for repelling an attack; so completely had the consciousness of what they deserved produced the same effect as a declaration of war against them. From this circumstance Scipio commenced his exhortation to his soldiers: he said, that "by closing their gates the Spaniards had themselves shown what their deserts were by what they feared, and that therefore they ought to prosecute the war against them with much greater animosity than against the Carthaginians. For with the latter the contest was carried on for empire and glory almost without any exasperated feeling, while they had to punish the former for perfidy, cruelty, and villany. That the time had now arrived when they should take vengeance for the horrid massacre of their fellow soldiers, and for the treachery which was prepared for themselves, had they been carried in their flight to the same place; and by the severity of the punishment inflicted in the present instance, establish it as a law for ever, that no one should consider a Roman citizen and soldier, whatever his situation, a fit object for injurious treatment." Animated by this exhortation of their general, they distributed the scaling-ladders to men selected from each of the companies; and the army being divided into two parts, so that Laelius, as lieutenant-general, might command one, they attacked the city in two places at once; thus creating an alarm in two quarters at the same time. It was not by the exhortations of one general, nor of the several nobles who were present, that the townsmen were stimulated to a vigorous defence of the city, but by the fear which they themselves entertained; they bore in mind, and admonished each other, that the object aimed at was punishment, and not victory. That the only question for them was, where they should meet death, whether in the battle and in the field, where the indiscriminate chance of war frequently raised up the vanquished and dashed the victor to the ground; or whether, after a short interval, when the city was burnt and plundered, after suffering every horror and indignity, they should expire amid stripes and bonds before the eyes of their captive wives and children. Therefore, not only those who were of an age to bear arms, or men only, but women and children, beyond the powers of their minds and bodies, were there, supplying with weapons those who were fighting in defence of the place, and carrying stones to the walls for those who were strengthening the works; for not only was their liberty at stake, which excites the energies of the brave only, but they had before their eyes the utmost extremity of punishment, to be inflicted on all indiscriminately, and an ignominious death. Their minds were worked up to the highest pitch, both by emulation in toil and danger, and also by the mere sight of each other. Accordingly the contest was entered upon with such ardour, that the army which had subdued the whole of Spain was frequently driven back from the walls of one town, and exhibited such a want of resolution in the contest as was not very honourable to it. When Scipio perceived this, he was afraid lest, by the failure of his attempts, the courage of the enemy should be raised and his own troops be dispirited; and thinking it incumbent upon him to exert himself in person and share the danger, reproved his soldiers for their cowardice, and ordered the scaling-ladders to be brought, threatening to mount the wall himself, since the rest hesitated. He had now advanced near the walls with no small danger, when a shout was raised from all sides by the soldiers, who were alarmed at the danger their general was exposed to, and the scaling-ladders began to be reared in several places at once. Laelius too, in another quarter, pressed on vigorously. It was then that the energy of the townsmen was subdued, and those who defended the walls being beaten off, the Romans took possession of them. The citadel also was captured during the confusion on a side where it was thought impregnable.

20. Some African deserters, who were at that time among the Roman auxiliaries, while the townsmen were occupied in defending those quarters whence danger was apprehended, and the Romans were making approaches where they could gain access, observed that the most elevated part of the town, which was protected by a very high rock, was neither fortified by any work nor furnished with defenders. Being men of light make and nimble from being well exercised, they climbed up wherever they could gain access over the irregular projections of the rock, carrying with them iron spikes. If in any part they met with a cliff too steep and smooth, they fixed spikes at moderate intervals, and having thus formed a sort of steps, and those who were foremost pulling up those who followed, and those who were behind lifting up those before them, they succeeded in gaining the summit, whence they ran down with a shout into the city, which had already been taken by the Romans. Then it became manifest indeed that it was resentment and hatred which prompted the assault upon the city. No one thought of taking any alive, nor of booty, though every thing lay exposed to plunder. They butchered all indiscriminately, armed and unarmed, male and female. Their cruel resentment extended to the slaughter of infants. They then set fire to the houses, and pulled down those which could not be consumed by fire, so bent were they upon erasing even every vestige of the city, and blotting out the memory of their enemies. Scipio marched his army thence to Castulo, which was defended, not only by Spaniards who had assembled there, but also by the remains of the Carthaginian army, which had gone there from the various places to which they had been dispersed in their flight. But the news of the calamity of the Illiturgians had reached them before the arrival of Scipio; and in consequence of this, dismay and desperation had seized them; and as their cases were differently circumstanced, and each party was desirous of consulting its own safety independent of the other, at first secret jealousy, and then an open rupture, created a separation between the Carthaginians and Spaniards. Cerdubellus without disguise advised the latter to surrender. Himilco commanded the Carthaginian auxiliaries, which, together with the city, Cerdubellus delivered up to the Romans, having secretly obtained terms. This victory was attended with less cruelty; for not only was the guilt of this people less than the others, but their voluntary surrender had considerably mitigated resentment.

21. Marcius was then sent against the barbarians, to reduce under the authority and dominion of the Romans such of them as had not yet been subdued. Scipio returned to Carthage, to pay his vows to the gods, and to exhibit a gladiatorial show, which he had prepared on account of the death of his father and uncle. This exhibition of gladiators was not formed from that description of men which the lanistae are accustomed to procure, such as slaves, or those who sell their blood. All the service of the combatants was voluntary and gratuitous; for some were sent by the petty princes, to show an example of the natural courage of their people; others came forward to fight, in compliment to their general; others were induced to give and accept challenges, by a spirit of emulation and a desire of victory. Some decided by the sword disputes which they either could not or were unwilling to determine by argument, with an agreement that the matter in question should be given up to the victor. Nor was it confined to men of obscure rank, but comprehended persons of distinction and celebrity; such were Corbis and Orsua, cousins-german, who, having a dispute about the sovereignty of a city called Ibis, declared that they would contest it with the sword. Corbis was the elder of the two. The father of Orsua was the last sovereign, having succeeded to that dignity on the death of his elder brother. When Scipio was desirous of settling the dispute by argument and allaying their irritation, they both declared that they had refused that to their mutual kinsmen, and that they would appeal to no other judge, whether god or man, than Mars. The elder presuming upon his strength, the younger on the prime of youth, each wished to die in the combat rather than become the subject of the other; and every effort failing to prevent their prosecuting their mad design, they exhibited to the army a most interesting spectacle, and a proof how great mischief is occasioned among men by a thirst for power. The elder, in consequence of his experience in arms and his address, easily mastered the unscientific efforts of the younger. To this show of gladiators were added funeral games, proportioned to the means possessed, and with such magnificence as the provinces and the camp afforded.

22. Meanwhile the operations of the war were carried on with unabated activity by the lieutenant-generals. Marcius, crossing the river Baetis, which the natives call Certis, received the submission of two powerful cities without a contest. There was a city called Astapa, which had always sided with the Carthaginians; nor was it that which drew upon it the resentment of the Romans so much as the fact, that its inhabitants harboured an extraordinary animosity against them, which was not called for by the necessities of the war. Their city was not so secured by nature or art as to make their dispositions so fierce, but the natural disposition of the inhabitants, which took delight in plunder, had induced them to make excursions into the neighbouring lands belonging to the allies of the Romans, and to intercept such Roman soldiers, suttlers, and merchants as they found ranging about. They had also surrounded, by means of an ambuscade, and put to the sword on disadvantageous ground, a large company which was crossing their borders, for it had proved hardly safe to go in small parties. When the troops were marched up to assault this city, the inhabitants, conscious of their guilt, and seeing that it would be dangerous to surrender to an enemy so highly incensed, and that they could not hope to keep themselves in safety by means of their walls or their arms, resolved to execute upon themselves and those belonging to them a horrid and inhuman deed. They fixed upon a place in their forum, in which they collected the most valuable of their property, and having directed their wives and children to seat themselves upon this heap, they raised a pile of wood around it and threw on it bundles of twigs. They then ordered fifty armed youths to stand there and guard their fortunes, and the persons dearer to them than their fortunes, as long as the issue of the battle continued doubtful. If they should perceive that the battle went against them, and that it came to the point that the city must be captured, they might be assured that those whom they saw going out to engage the enemy would perish in the battle itself; but implored them by all the gods, celestial and infernal, that, mindful of their liberty, which must be terminated on that day either by an honourable death or ignominious servitude, they would leave nothing on which an exasperated enemy could wreak his fury; that they had fire and sword at their command, and it was better that friendly and faithful hands should destroy what must necessarily perish, than that enemies should insult it with haughty wantonness. To these exhortations a dreadful execration was added against any one who should be diverted from this purpose by hope or faint-heartedness. Then throwing open the gates, they rushed out at a rapid pace and with the utmost impetuosity. Nor was there any guard sufficiently strong opposed to them; for there could be nothing that was less apprehended than that they would have the courage to sally from their walls. A very few troops of horse, and the light-armed, hastily sent out of the camp for that purpose, opposed them. The battle was furious and spirited, rather than steady and regular in any degree. The horse, therefore, which had first encountered the enemy, being repulsed, created an alarm among the light-armed; and the battle would have been fought under the very rampart, had not the legions, which were their main strength, drawn out their line, though they had a very short time to form in. These too, for a short time, wavered around their standards, when the Astapans, blind with rage, rushed upon wounds and the sword with reckless daring; but afterwards the veteran soldiers, standing firm against their furious assaults, checked the violence of those that followed by the slaughter of the foremost. Soon after, the veteran troops themselves made an attempt to charge them, but seeing that not a man gave ground, and that they were inflexibly determined on dying each in his place, they extended their line, which the number of their troops enabled them to do with ease, and, surrounding their flanks, slew them all to a man while fighting in a circle.

23. But these, however, were acts committed by exasperated enemies in the heat of battle, and executed, in conformity with the laws of war, upon men armed and most fiercely resisting; there was another more horrible carnage in the city, where a harmless and defenceless crowd of women and children were butchered by their own countrymen, who threw their bodies, most of them still alive, upon the burning pile while streams of blood damped the rising flame; and lastly, wearied with the piteous slaughter of their friends, they threw themselves, arms and all, into the midst of the flames. When the carnage was now completed the victorious Romans came up, and at the first sight of so revolting a transaction they stood for some time wrapt in wonder and amazement; but afterwards, from a rapacity natural to humanity, wishing to snatch out of the fire the gold and silver which glittered amid the heap of other materials, some were caught by the flames, others scorched by the hot blasts, as the foremost were unable to retreat, in consequence of the immense crowd which pressed upon them. In this manner was Astapa destroyed by the sword and fire, without affording any booty to the soldiers. After the rest of the people in that quarter, influenced by fear, had made submission to him, Marcius led his victorious troops to Scipio, at Carthage. Just at this same time deserters arrived from Gades, who promised to betray the town and Carthaginian garrison which occupied it, together with the commander and the fleet. Mago had halted there after his flight, and having collected some ships on the ocean, had got together a considerable number of auxiliaries from the coast of Africa, on the other side the strait, and also by means of Hanno the prefect from the neighbouring parts of Spain. After pledges had been exchanged with the deserters, Marcius and Laelius were sent thither, the former with the light cohorts, the latter with seven triremes and one quinquereme, in order that they might act in concert by land and sea.

24. In consequence of Scipio's being afflicted with a severe fit of illness, which rumour represented as more serious than it really was; for every one made some addition to the account he had received, from a desire inherent in mankind of intentionally exaggerating reports, the whole province, and more especially the distant parts of it, were thrown into a state of ferment; and it was evident what a serious disturbance would have been excited had he really died, when an unfounded report created such violent commotions. Neither the allies kept their allegiance, nor the army their duty. Mandonius and Indibilis, who were not at all satisfied with what had occurred, for they had anticipated with certainty that they would have the dominion of Spain on the expulsion of the Carthaginians, called together their countrymen the Lacetani, and summoning the Celtiberian youth to arms, devastated in a hostile manner the territories of the Suessetanians and Sedetanians, allies of the Romans. Besides, a mutiny arose in the camp at Sucro. Here were eight thousand men, stationed as a guard over the nations dwelling on this side the Iberus. It was not on hearing uncertain rumours respecting the life of the general that their minds were first excited, but previously, owing to the licentiousness which naturally results from long-continued idleness, and in some degree also owing to the restraint felt in time of peace by men who had been accustomed to live freely on what they gained by plunder in an enemy's country. At first they only discoursed in private, asking what they were doing among people who were at peace with them, if there was a war in the province? if the war was terminated and the province completely subdued, why were they not conveyed back into Italy? The pay also was demanded with more insolence than was customary or consistent with military subordination, and the guards cast reproaches upon the tribunes while going round to the watches. Some too had gone out by night into the neighbouring lands, belonging to persons at peace with the Romans, to plunder; but at last they quitted their standards in the day-time and openly without furloughs. Every thing was done according to the caprice and unrestrained will of the soldiers, and nothing according to rule and military discipline, or the orders of those who were in command. The form, however, of a Roman camp was preserved solely in consequence of the hopes they entertained that the tribunes, catching the spirit of insubordination, would not be averse from taking part in the mutiny and defection, on which account they suffered them to dispense justice in their courts, went to them for the watch-word, and served in their turn on the outposts and watches; and as they had taken away the power of command, so they preserved the appearance of obedience to orders, by spontaneously executing their own. Afterwards, when they perceived that the tribunes censured and reprobated their proceedings, endeavoured to counteract them, and publicly declared that they would not take any share in their disorderly conduct, the mutiny assumed a decided character; when, after driving the tribunes from their courts, and shortly after from the camp, the command was conferred by universal consent upon Caius Albius of Cales and Caius Atrius of Umbria, common soldiers, who were the prime movers of the sedition. These men were so far from being satisfied with the ornaments used by tribunes, that they had the audacity to lay hold even of the insignia of the highest authority, the fasces and axes, without ever reflecting that their own backs and necks were in danger from those very rods and axes which they carried before them to intimidate others. Their mistaken belief of the death of Scipio had blinded their minds, and they doubted not that, in a short time, when that event should be made generally known, all Spain would blaze with war; that during this confusion money might be exacted from the allies and the neighbouring cities plundered; and that in this unsettled state of affairs, when there was nothing which any man would not dare, their own acts would be less conspicuous.

25. As they expected that other fresh accounts would follow those which they had received, not only of the death, but even of the burial, of Scipio, and yet none arrived; and as the rumour which had been so idly originated began to die away, the first author of it began to be sought out; and each backing out in order that he might appear rather to have inconsiderately credited than to have fabricated such a report, the leaders were forsaken, and began now to dread their own ensigns of authority, and to apprehend that, instead of that empty show of command which they wore, a legitimate and rightful power would be turned against them. The mutiny being thus paralysed, and credible persons bringing in accounts, first, that Scipio was alive, and, soon after, that he was even in good health, seven military tribunes were sent by Scipio himself. At the first arrival of these their minds were violently excited; but they were soon calmed by the mild and soothing language which they addressed to such of their acquaintance as they met with; for, going round first of all to the tents, and then entering the principia and the praetorium, wherever they observed circles of men conversing together, they addressed them, inquiring rather what it was that had occasioned their displeasure and sudden consternation, than taxing them with what had occurred. "That they had not received their pay at the appointed time," was generally complained; and "that although at the time of the horrid transaction of the Illiturgians, and after the destruction of two generals and two armies, the Roman cause had been defended and the province retained by their valour; the Illiturgians had received the punishment due to their offence, but there was no one found to reward them for their meritorious services." The tribunes replied, "that, considering the nature of their complaints, what they requested was just, and that they would lay it before the general; that they were happy that there was nothing of a more gloomy and irremediable character; that both Publius Scipio, by the favour of the gods, and the commonwealth, were in a situation to requite them." Scipio, who was accustomed to war but inexperienced in the storms of sedition, felt great anxiety on the occasion, lest the army should run into excess in transgressing, or himself in punishing. For the present he resolved to persist in the lenient line of conduct with which he had begun, and sending collectors round to the tributary states, to give the soldiers hopes of soon receiving their pay. Immediately after this a proclamation was issued that they should come to Carthage to receive their pay, whether they wished to do so in detached parties or all in a body. The sudden suppression of the rebellion among the Spaniards had the effect of tranquillizing the mutiny, which was by this time beginning to subside of itself; for Mandonius and Indibilis, relinquishing their attempt, had returned within their borders when intelligence was brought that Scipio was alive; nor did there now remain any person, whether countryman or foreigner, whom they could make their companion in their desperate enterprise. On examining every method, they had no alternative except that which afforded a retreat from wicked designs, which was not of the safest kind, namely, to commit themselves either to the just anger of the general, or to his clemency, of which they need not despair. For he had pardoned even enemies whom he had encountered with the sword; while they reflected that their sedition had been unaccompanied with wounds or blood, and was neither in itself of an atrocious character nor merited severe punishment. So natural is it for men to be over-eloquent in extenuating their own demerit. They felt doubtful whether they should go to demand their pay in single cohorts or in one entire body; but the opinion that they should go in a body, which they regarded as the safer mode, prevailed.

26. At the same time, when they were employed in these deliberations, a council was held on their case at Carthage; when a warm debate took place as to whether they should visit with punishment the originators only of the mutiny, who were in number not more than thirty-five, or, whether atonement should be made for this defection, (for such it was rather than a mutiny,) of so dreadful a character as a precedent, by the punishment of a greater number. The opinion recommending the more lenient course, that the punishment should fall where the guilt originated, was adopted. For the multitude a reprimand was considered sufficient. On the breaking up of the council, orders were given to the army, which was in Carthage, to prepare for an expedition against Mandonius and Indibilis, and to get ready provisions for several days, in order that they might appear to have been deliberating about this. The seven tribunes who had before gone to Sucro to quell the mutiny, having been sent out to meet the army, gave in, each of them, five names of persons principally concerned in the affair, in order that proper persons might be employed to invite them to their homes, with smiles and kind words; and that, when overpowered with wine, they might be thrown into chains. They were not far distant from Carthage when the intelligence, received from persons on the road, that the whole army was going the following day with Marcus Silanus against the Lacetanians, not only freed them from all the apprehensions which, though they did not give utterance to them, sat heavy upon their minds, but occasioned the greatest transport, because they would thus have the general alone, and in their power, instead of being themselves in his. They entered the city just at sun-set, and saw the other army making every preparation for a march. Immediately on their arrival they were greeted in terms feigned for the purpose, that their arrival was looked upon by the general as a happy and seasonable circumstance, for they had come when the other army was just on the point of setting out. After which they proceeded to refresh themselves. The authors of the mutiny, having been conveyed to their lodgings by proper persons, were apprehended by the tribunes without any disturbance, and thrown into chains. At the fourth watch the baggage belonging to the army, which, as it was pretended, was about to march, began to set out. As soon as it was light the troops marched, but were stopped at the gate, and guards were sent round to all the gates to prevent any one going out of the city. Then those who had arrived the day before, having been summoned to an assembly, ran in crowds into the forum to the tribunal of the general, with the presumptuous purpose of intimidating him by their shouts. At the same time that the general mounted the tribunal, the armed troops, which had been brought back from the gates, spread themselves around the rear of the unarmed assembly. Then all their insolence subsided; and, as they afterwards confessed, nothing terrified them so much as the unexpected vigour and hue of the general, whom they had supposed they should see in a sickly state, and his countenance, which was such as they declared that they did not remember to have ever seen it even in battle. He sat silent for a short time till he was informed that the instigators of the mutiny were brought into the forum, and that every thing was now in readiness.

27. Then, a herald having obtained silence, he thus began: "I imagined that language would never fail me in which to address my army; not that I have ever accustomed myself to speaking rather than action, but because, having been kept in a camp almost from my boyhood, I had become familiar with the dispositions of soldiers. But I am at a loss both for sentiments and expressions with which to address you, whom I know not even by what name I ought to call. Can I call you countrymen, who have revolted from your country? or soldiers, who have rejected the command and authority of your general, and violated the solemn obligation of your oath? Can I call you enemies? I recognise the persons, faces, dress, and mien of fellow countrymen; but I perceive the actions, expressions, intentions, and feelings of enemies. For what have you wished and hoped for, but what the Ilergetians and Lacetanians did. Yet they followed Mandonius and Indibilis, men of royal rank, who were the leaders of their mad project; you conferred the auspices and command upon the Umbrian, Atrius, and the Calenian, Albius. Deny, soldiers, that you were all concerned in this measure, or that you approved of it when taken. I shall willingly believe, when you disclaim it, that it was the folly and madness of a few. For the acts which have been committed are of such a nature, that, if the whole army participated in them, they could not be expiated without atonements of tremendous magnitude. Upon these points, like wounds, I touch with reluctance; but unless touched and handled, they cannot be cured. For my own part, I believed that, after the Carthaginians were expelled from Spain, there was not a place in the whole province where, or any persons to whom, my life was obnoxious; such was the manner in which I had conducted myself, not only towards my allies, but even towards my enemies. But lo, even in my own camp, so much was I deceived in my opinion, the report of my death was not only readily believed, but anxiously waited for. Not that I wish to implicate you all in this enormity; for, be assured, if I supposed that the whole of my army desired my death, I would here immediately expire before your eyes; nor could I take any pleasure in a life which was odious to my countrymen and my soldiers. But every multitude is in its nature like the ocean; which, though in itself incapable of motion, is excited by storms and winds. So, also, in yourselves there is calm and there are storms; but the cause and origin of your fury is entirely attributable to those who led you on; you have caught your madness by contagion. Nay, even this day you do not appear to me to be aware to what a pitch of phrensy you have proceeded; what a heinous crime you have dared to commit against myself, your country, your parents, your children; against the gods, the witnesses of your oath; against the auspices under which you serve; against the laws of war, the discipline of your ancestors, and the majesty of the highest authority. With regard to myself, I say nothing. You may have believed the report of my death rather inconsiderately than eagerly. Lastly, suppose me to be such a man that it could not at all be a matter of astonishment that my army should be weary of my command, yet what had your country deserved of you, which you betrayed by making common cause with Mandonius and Indibilis? What the Roman people, when, taking the command from the tribunes appointed by their suffrages, you conferred it on private men? When, not content even with having them for tribunes, you, a Roman army, conferred the fasces of your general upon men who never had a slave under their command? Albius and Atrius had their tents in your general's pavilion. With them the trumpet sounded, from them the word was taken, they sat upon the tribunal of Scipio, upon whom the lictor attended, for them the crowd was cleared away as they moved along, before them the fasces with the axes were carried. When showers of stones descend, lightnings are darted from the heavens, and animals give birth to monsters, you consider these things as prodigies. This is a prodigy which can be expiated by no victims, by no supplications, without the blood of those men who have dared to commit so great a crime.

28. "Now, though villany is never guided by reason, yet so far as it could exist in so nefarious a transaction, I would fain know what was your design. Formerly, a legion which was sent to garrison Rhegium, wickedly put to the sword the principal inhabitants and kept possession of that opulent city through a space of ten years; on account of which enormity the entire legion, consisting of four thousand men, were beheaded in the forum at Rome. But they, in the first place, did not put themselves under the direction of Atrius the Umbrian, scarcely superior to a scullion, whose name even was ominous, but of Decius Jubellius, a military tribune; nor did they unite themselves with Pyrrhus, or with the Samnites or Lucanians, the enemies of the Roman people. But you made common cause with Mandonius and Indibilis, and intended also to have united your arms with them. They intended to have held Rhegium as a lasting settlement, as the Campanians held Capua, which they took from its ancient Tuscan inhabitants; and as the Mamertines held Messana in Sicily, without any design of commencing without provocation a war upon the Roman people or their allies. Was it your purpose to hold Sucro as a place of abode? where, had I, your general, left you on my departure after the reduction of the province, you would have been justified in imploring the interference of gods and men, because you could not return to your wives and children. But suppose that you banished from your minds all recollection of these, as you did of your country and myself; I would wish to track the course of a wicked design, but not of one utterly insane. While I was alive, and the rest of the army safe, with which in one day I took Carthage, with which I routed, put to flight, and expelled from Spain four generals and four armies of the Carthaginians; did you, I say, who were only eight thousand men, all of course of less worth than Albius and Atrius, to whom you subjected yourselves, hope to wrest the province of Spain out of the hands of the Roman people? I lay no stress upon my own name, I put it out of the question. Let it be supposed that I have not been injured by you in any respect beyond the ready credence of my death. What! if I were dead, was the state to expire with me? was the empire of the Roman people to fall with me? Jupiter, most good and great, would not have permitted that the existence of the city, built under the auspices and sanction of the gods to last for ever, should terminate with that of this frail and perishable body. The Roman people have survived those many and distinguished generals who were all cut off in one war; Flaminius, Paulus, Gracchus, Posthumius Albinus, Marcus Marcellus, Titus Quinctius Crispinus, Cneius Fulvius, my kinsmen the Scipios; and will survive a thousand others who may perish, some by the sword, others by disease; and would the Roman state have been buried with my single corpse? You yourselves, here in Spain, when your two generals, my father and my uncle, fell, chose Septimus Marcius as your general to oppose the Carthaginians, exulting on account of their recent victory. And thus I speak, on the supposition that Spain would have been without a leader. Would Marcus Silanus, who was sent into the province with the same power and the same command as myself, would Lucius Scipio my brother, and Caius Laelius, lieutenant-generals, have been wanting to avenge the majesty of the empire? Could the armies, the generals themselves, their dignity or their cause, be compared with one another? And even had you got the better of all these, would you bear arms in conjunction with the Carthaginians against your country, against your countrymen? Would you wish that Africa should rule Italy, and Carthage the city of Rome? If so, for what offence on the part of your country?