24.39
After
this speech he dismissed them to seek refreshment and rest. The next
morning some of them were posted in various places to block the streets and
close the exits from the theatre, the majority took their stand round the
theatre and on the ground above it; they had frequently watched the
proceedings of the assembly from there, and so their appearance aroused no
suspicion. The Roman commandant was introduced to the assembly by the
magistrates. He said that it was the consul and not he who had the right and
the power to decide the matter, and went pretty much over the same ground
as on the day before. At first one or two voices were heard and then several,
demanding the surrender of the keys, till the whole assembly broke out into
loud and threatening shouts, and seemed on the point of making a murderous
attack upon him as he still hesitated and delayed. Then, at last, he gave the
agreed signal with his toga, and the soldiers, who had long been ready and
waiting, raised a shout and rushed down upon the crowd, while others
blocked the exits from the densely packed theatre. Hemmed in and caged,
the men of Henna were ruthlessly cut down and lay about in heaps; not only
where the dead were piled up, but where in trying to escape they scrambled
over each other's heads and fell one upon another, the wounded stumbling
over the unwounded, the living over the dead. Then the soldiers dispersed in
all directions and the city was filled with dead bodies and people fleeing for
their lives, for the soldiers slew the defenceless crowd with as much fury as
though they were fighting against an equal foe, and glowing with all the
ardour of battle.
So Henna was saved for Rome by a deed which was criminal if it
was not unavoidable. Marcellus not only passed no censure on the
transaction, but even bestowed the plundered property of the citizens upon
his troops, thinking that by the terror thus inspired the Sicilians would be
deferred from any longer betraying their garrisons. The news of this
occurrence spread through Sicily almost in a day, for the city, lying in the
middle of the island, was no less famous for the natural strength of its
position than it was for the sacred associations which connected every part
of it with the old story of the Rape of Proserpine. It was universally felt that
a foul and murderous outrage had been offered to the abode of gods as well
as to the dwellings of men, and many who had before been wavering now
went over to the Carthaginians. Hippocrates and Himilco, who had brought
up their forces to Henna on the invitation of the would-be betrayers, finding
themselves unable to effect anything retired, the former to Murgantia, the
latter to Agrigentum. Marcellus marched back to Leontini, and after
collecting supplies of corn and other provisions for the camp he left a small
detachment to hold the city and returned to the blockade of Syracuse. He
gave Appius Claudius leave to go to Rome to carry on his candidature for
the consulship, and placed T. Quinctius Crispinus in his stead in command of
the fleet and the old camp, whilst he himself constructed and fortified winter
quarters in a place called Leon about five miles from Hexapylon. These were
the main incidents in the Sicilian campaign up to the beginning of the winter.
