21.20
Here a
strange and appalling sight met their eyes; the men attended the council fully
armed, such was the custom of the country. When the Romans, after
extolling the renown and courage of the Roman people and the greatness of
their dominion, asked the Gauls not to allow the Carthaginian invaders a
passage through their fields and cities, such interruption and laughter broke
out that the younger men were with difficulty kept quiet by the magistrates
and senior members of the council. They thought it a most stupid and
impudent demand to make, that the Gauls, in order to prevent the war from
spreading into Italy, should turn it against themselves and expose their own
lands to be ravaged instead of other people's. After quiet was restored the
envoys were informed that the Romans had rendered them no service, nor
had the Carthaginians done them any injury to make them take up arms
either on behalf of the Romans or against the Carthaginians. On the other
hand, they heard that men of their race were being expelled from Italy, and
made to pay tribute to Rome, and subjected to every other indignity. Their
experience was the same in all the other councils of Gaul, nowhere did they
hear a kindly or even a tolerably peaceable word till they reached Massilia.
There all the facts which their allies had carefully and honestly collected
were laid before them; they were informed that the interest of the Gauls had
already been secured by Hannibal, but even he would not find them very
tractable, with their wild and untamable nature, unless the chiefs were also
won over with gold, a thing which as a nation they were most eager to
procure. After thus traversing Spain and the tribes of Gaul the envoys
returned to Rome not long after the consuls had left for their respective
commands. They found the whole City in a state of excitement; definite news
had been received that the Carthaginians had crossed the Ebro, and every
one was looking forward to war.
