University of Virginia Library

28.4

The capture of this city was a source of great gratification to those who had effected it, as it was also to the commander-in-chief and the rest of the army. The entry of the troops was a noteworthy sight owing to the immense number of prisoners who preceded them. Scipio bestowed the highest commendation on his brother, and declared that the capture of Orongis was as great an achievement as his own capture of New Carthage. The winter was now coming on, and as the season would not admit of his making an attempt on Gades or pursuing Hasdrubal's army, dispersed as it was throughout the province, Scipio brought his entire force back into Hither Spain. After dismissing the legions to their winter quarters, he sent his brother to Rome with Hanno and the other prisoners of high rank, and then retired to Tarraco. The Roman fleet under the command of the proconsul M. Valerius Laevinus sailed during the year to Africa, and committed widespread devastation round Utica and Carthage; plunder was carried off under the very walls of Utica and on the frontiers of Carthage. On their return to Sicily they fell in with a Carthaginian fleet of seventy vessels. Out of these seventeen were captured, four were sunk, the rest scattered in flight. The Roman army, victorious alike on land and sea, returned to Lilybaeum with an enormous amount of plunder of every kind. Now that the enemy's ships had been driven off and the sea rendered safe, large supplies of corn were conveyed to Rome.