24.2
Thus the
Carthaginians marched back from the straits amidst the protests of the
Bruttians, who complained that the cities which they had marked for
themselves for plunder had been left unmolested. They determined to act on
their own account, and after enrolling and arming 15,000 of their own
fighting men they proceeded to attack Croto, a Greek city situated on the
coast. They imagined that they would gain an immense accession of strength
if they possessed a seaport with a strongly fortified harbour. What troubled
them was that they could not quite venture to summon the Carthaginians to
their aid lest they should be thought not to have acted as allies ought to act,
and again, if the Carthaginian should for the second time be the advocate of
peace rather than of war, they were afraid that they would fight in vain
against the freedom of Croto as they had against that of Locri. It seemed the
best course to send to Hannibal and obtain from him an assurance that on its
capture Croto should pass to the Bruttians. Hannibal told them that it was a
matter for those on the spot to arrange and referred them to Hanno, for
neither he nor Hanno wanted that famous and wealthy city to be plundered,
and they hoped that when the Bruttians attacked it and it was seen that the
Carthaginians neither assisted nor approved of the attack, the defenders
would come over to Hannibal all the sooner.
In Croto there was neither unity of purpose nor of feeling; it
seemed as though a disease had attacked all the cities of Italy alike,
everywhere the populace were hostile to the aristocracy. The senate of Croto
were in favour of the Romans, the populace wanted to place their state in the
hands of the Carthaginians. This division of opinion in the city was reported
by a deserter to the Bruttians. According to his statements, Aristomachus
was the leader of the populace and was urging the surrender of the city,
which was extensive and thickly populated, with fortifications covering a
large area. The positions where the senators kept watch and ward were few
and scattered, wherever the populace kept guard the way lay open into the
city. At the suggestion of the deserter and under his guidance the Bruttians
completely invested the town, and at the very first assault were admitted by
the populace and took possession of the whole place with the exception of
the citadel. This was held by the aristocrats, who had prepared it beforehand
as a place of refuge in case anything of this sort should happen.
Aristomachus, too, fled there, and gave out that he had advised the surrender
of the city to the Carthaginians, not to the Bruttians.
