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.