30.19
Mago
withdrew during the night and marching as rapidly as his wound would allow
reached that part of the Ligurian coast which is inhabited by the Ingauni.
Here he was met by the deputation from Carthage which had landed a few
days previously at Genua. They informed him that he must sail for Africa at
the earliest possible moment; his brother Hannibal, to whom similar
instructions had been given, was on the point of doing so. Carthage was not
in a position to retain her hold upon Gaul and Italy. The commands of the
senate and the dangers threatening his country decided Mago's course, and
moreover there was the risk of an attack from the victorious enemy if he
delayed, and also of the desertion of the Ligurians who, seeing Italy
abandoned by the Carthaginians, would go over to those in whose power
they would ultimately be. He hoped too that a sea voyage would be less
trying to his wound than the jolting of the march had been, and that
everything would contribute to his recovery. He embarked his men and set
sail, but he had not cleared Sardinia when he died of his wound. Some of his
ships which had parted company with the rest when out at sea were captured
by the Roman fleet which was lying off Sardinia. Such was the course of
events in the Alpine districts of Italy. The consul C. Servilius had done
nothing worth recording in Etruria, nor after his departure for Gaul. In the
latter country he had rescued his father C. Servilius and also C. Lutatius after
sixteen years of servitude, the result of their capture by the Boii at
Tannetum. With his father on one side of him and Lutatius on the other he
returned to Rome honoured more on personal than public grounds. A
measure was proposed to the people relieving him from penalties for having
illegally acted as tribune of the plebs and plebeian aedile while his father who
had filled a curule chair was, unknown to him, still alive. When the bill of
indemnity was passed he returned to his province. The consul Cnaeus
Servilius in Bruttium received the surrender of several places, now that they
saw that the Punic War was drawing to a close. Amongst these were
Consentia, Aufugium, Bergae, Besidiae, Oriculum, Lymphaeum,
Argentanum, and Clampetia. He also fought a battle with Hannibal in the
neighbourhood of Croto, of which no clear account exists. According to
Valerius Antias, 5000 of the enemy were killed, but either this is an
unblushing fiction, or its omission in the annalists shows great carelessness.
At all events nothing further was done by Hannibal in Italy, for the
delegation summoning him to Africa happened to arrive from Carthage
about the same time as the one to Mago.
