28.46
Scipio
sailed to Sicily with 7000 volunteers on board his thirty warships, and P.
Licinius proceeded to Bruttium. Of the two consular armies stationed there
he selected the one which the former consul L. Veturius had commanded.
He allowed Metellus to keep the legions he was in command of, as he
thought he would do better with men accustomed to his leadership. The
praetors also departed for their several provinces. As money was needed for
the war the quaestors received instructions to sell that part of the Capuan
territory which extends from the Fossa Graeca to the coast, and evidence
was asked for of any cases where land had been appropriated by a citizen of
Capua, that it might be included in the Roman stateland. The informer was
to receive a gratuity of ten per cent. of the value of the land. The City
praetor, Cnaeus Servilius, was also to see that the citizens of Capua were
residing where the senate had given them permission to reside, and any who
were living elsewhere were to be punished. During the summer Mago who
had been wintering in Minorca embarked with a force of 12,000 infantry and
2000 cavalry, and set sail for Italy with about thirty warships and a large
number of transports. The coast was quite unguarded and he surprised and
captured Genua. From there he went on to the Ligurian coast on the chance
of rousing the Gauls. One of their tribes -the Ingauni -were at the time
engaged in a war with the Epanterii, an Alpine tribe. After storing his
plunder in Savo and leaving ten vessels as guardships, Mago sent the
remainder of his ships to Carthage to protect the coast, as it was rumoured
that Scipio intended to invade Africa, and then he formed an alliance with
the Ingauni, from whom he expected more support than from the
mountaineers, and commenced to attack the latter. His army grew in
numbers every day; the Gauls, drawn by the spell of his name, flocked to him
from all parts. The movement became known in Rome through a despatch
from Spurius Lucretius, and the senate were filled with the gravest
apprehensions. It seemed as though the joy with which they heard of the
destruction of Hasdrubal and his army two years before would be completely
stultified by the outbreak of a fresh war in the same quarter, quite as serious
as the former one, the only difference being in the commander. They sent
orders to the proconsul M. Livius to move the army of Etruria up to
Ariminum, and the City praetor, Cnaeus Servilius, was empowered, in case
he thought it advisable, to order the City legions to be employed elsewhere
and give the command to the man whom he thought most capable. M.
Valerius Laevinus led these legions to Arretium. About this time Cnaeus
Octavius who was commanding in Sardinia captured as many as eighty
Carthaginian transports in the neighbourhood. According to Coelius' account
they were loaded with corn and supplies for Hannibal; Valerius, however,
says that they were carrying the plunder from Etruria and the Ligurian and
Epanterian prisoners to Carthage. Hardly anything worth recording took
place in Bruttium this year. A pestilence attacked the Romans and the
Carthaginians and was equally fatal to both, but in addition to the epidemic,
the Carthaginians were suffering from scarcity of food. Hannibal spent the
summer near the temple of Juno Lacinia, where he built and dedicated an
altar with a long inscription recording his exploits in Phoenician and also in
Greek.
End of Book 28
