26.49
After
this he ordered the hostages from the various Spanish states to be summoned
into his presence. It is difficult to give their number, for I find in one place
300 mentioned and in another 3724. There is a similar discrepancy amongst
the authorities on other points. One author asserts that the Carthaginian
garrison amounted to 10,000 men, another puts it at 7000, whilst a third
estimates it as not more than 2000. In one place you will find that there were
10,000 prisoners, in another the number is said to have exceeded 25,000. If I
followed the Greek author Silenus I should give the number of scorpions
large and small as 60; according to Valerius Antias there were 6000 large
ones and 13,000 small ones; so wildly do men invent. It is even a matter of
dispute who were in command. Most authorities agree that Laelius was in
command of the fleet, but there are some who say that it was M. Junius
Silanus. Antias tells us that Arines was the Carthaginian commandant when
the garrison surrendered, other writers say it was Mago. Nor are authors
agreed as to the number of ships that were captured, or the weight of gold
and silver, or the amount of money that was brought into the treasury. If we
are to make a choice, the numbers midway between these extremes are
probably nearest the truth. When the hostages appeared Scipio began by
reassuring them and dispelling their fears. They had, he told them, passed
under the power of Rome, and the Romans preferred to hold men by the
bonds of kindness rather than by those of fear. They would rather have
foreign nations united to them on terms of alliance and mutual good faith
than kept down in hard and hopeless servitude. He then ascertained the
names of the States from which they came and made an inventory of the
number belonging to each State. Messengers were then despatched to their
homes, bidding their friends to come and take charge of those who belonged
to them -where envoys from any of these States happened to be present he
restored their own relations to them on the spot; the care of the rest he
entrusted to C. Flaminius the quaestor, with injunctions to show them all
kindness and protection. Whilst he was thus engaged a high-born lady, wife
of Mandonius the brother of Indibilis, chief of the Ilergetes, came forward
from the crowd of hostages and flinging herself in tears at the general's feet
implored him to impress more strongly on their guards the duty of treating
the women with tenderness and consideration. Scipio assured her that
nothing would be wanting in this respect. Then she continued: "We do not
set great store on those things, for what is there that is not good enough for
the condition that we are in? I am too old to fear the injury to which our sex
is exposed, but it is for others that I am anxious as I look at these young
girls." Round her stood the daughters of Indibilis and other maidens of equal
rank in the flower of their youthful beauty, and they all looked up to her as a
mother. Scipio replied: "For the sake of the discipline which I in common
with all Romans uphold, I should take care that nothing which is anywhere
held sacred be violated amongst us; your virtue and nobility of soul, which
even in misfortune is not forgetful of matronly decorum, make me now still
more careful in this matter." He then delivered them into the charge of a man
of tried integrity, with strict injunctions to protect their innocence and
modesty as carefully as though they were the wives and mothers of his own
guests.