28.24
Scipio
was overtaken by a serious illness, which rumour, however, made still more
serious, as each man from the innate love of exaggeration added some fresh
detail to what he had already heard. The whole of Spain, especially the
remoter parts, was much agitated at the news, and it was easy to judge what
an amount of trouble would have been caused by his actual death from
seeing what storms arose from the groundless rumour of it. Friendly states
did not preserve their fidelity, the army did not remain loyal. Mandonius and
Indibilis had made up their minds, that after the expulsion of the
Carthaginians the sovereignty of Spain would pass to them. When they
found that their hopes were frustrated they called out their countrymen, the
Lacetani, and raised a force amongst the Celtiberians with which they
ravaged the country of the Suessitanians and the Sedetanians, who were
allies of Rome. A disturbance of a different kind, an act of madness on the
part of the Romans themselves, occurred in the camp at Sucro. It was held
by a force of 8000 men who were stationed there to protect the tribes on this
side the Ebro. The vague rumours about their commander's life were not
however the primary cause of their movement. A long period of inactivity
had, as usual, demoralised them, and they chafed against the restraints of
peace after being accustomed to live on the plunder captured from the
enemy. At first their discontent was confined to murmurs amongst
themselves. "If there is war going on in the province," they said, "what are
we doing here amongst a peaceable population? If the war is at an end why
are we not taken back to Rome? "Then they demanded their arrears of pay
with an insolence quite inconsistent with military discipline or the respect
which soldiers should show towards their officers. The men at the outposts
insulted the tribunes as they went their rounds of inspection, and some went
off during the night to plunder the peaceable inhabitants in the
neighbourhood, till at last they used to quit their standards in broad daylight
without leave. They did everything just as their caprice and fancy dictated,
no attention was paid to rules or discipline or to the orders of their officers.
One thing alone helped to keep up the outward aspect of a Roman camp and
that was the hope which the men entertained that the tribunes would become
infected with their madness and take part in their mutiny. In this hope they
allowed them to administer justice from their tribunals, they went to them for
the watchword and the orders of the day, and relieved guard at the proper
intervals. Thus after depriving them of any real authority they kept up the
appearance of obedience, whilst they were actually their own commanders.
When they found that the tribunes censured and reprobated their
proceedings and endeavoured to repress them, and openly declared that they
would have nothing to do with their insensate folly, they broke out into open
mutiny. They drove the tribunes from their official seats, and then out of the
camp, and amidst universal acclamation placed the supreme command in the
hands of the chief ringleaders of the mutiny, two common soldiers whose
names were C. Albius of Cales and C. Atrius, an Umbrian. These men were
by no means content to wear the insignia of the military tribunes, they had
the audacity to affect those of the chief magistrates, the fasces and the axes.
It never occurred to them that those symbols which they had carried before
them to strike fear into others were impending over their own backs and
necks. The false belief that Scipio was dead blinded them; they felt certain
that the spread of this report would kindle the flames of war throughout the
whole of Spain. In the general turmoil they imagined that they would be able
to levy contributions on the allies of Rome and plunder the cities round
them, and when crime and outrage were being committed everywhere, what
they had done would not be noticed in the universal confusion.