30.38
After
the return of the envoys to Scipio the quaestors received instructions to
make an inventory from the public registers of all the government property in
the transports, and all the private property was to be notified by the owners.
Twenty-five thousand pounds of silver were required to be paid down as an
equivalent for the pecuniary value, and a three months' armistice granted to
the Carthaginians. A further stipulation was made that as long as the
armistice was in force, they should not send envoys to any place but Rome,
and if any envoys came to Carthage they were not to allow them to leave
until the Roman commander had been informed of the object of their visit.
The Carthaginians envoys were accompanied to Rome by L. Veturius Philo,
M. Marcius Ralla and L. Scipio the commander-in-chief's brother. During
this time the supplies which arrived from Sicily and Sardinia made provisions
so cheap that the traders left the corn for the sailors in return for its freight.
The first news of the resumption of hostilities by Carthage created
considerable uneasiness in Rome. Tiberius Claudius was ordered to take a
fleet without loss of time to Sicily and from there to Africa; the other consul
was ordered to remain in the City until the position of affairs in Africa was
definitely known. Tib. Claudius was extremely slow in getting his fleet ready
and putting out to sea, for the senate had decided that Scipio rather than he,
though consul, should be empowered to fix the terms on which peace should
be granted. The general alarm at the tidings from Africa was increased by
rumours of various portents. At Cumae the sun's disk was seen to diminish in
size and there was a shower of stones; in the district of Veliternum the
ground subsided and immense caverns were formed in which trees were
swallowed up; at Aricia the forum and the shops round it were struck by
lightning, as were also portions of the walls of Frusino and one of the gates;
there was also a shower of stones on the Palatine. The latter portent was
expiated, according to the traditional usage, by continuous prayer and
sacrifice for nine days, the others by sacrifice of full-grown victims. In the
middle of all these troubles there was an extraordinarily heavy rainfall which
was also regarded as supernatural. The Tiber rose so high that the Circus
was flooded and arrangements were made to celebrate the Games of Apollo
outside the Colline Gate at the temple of Venus Erucina. On the actual day,
however, the sky suddenly cleared and the procession which had started for
the Colline Gate was recalled and conducted to the Circus as it was
announced that the water had subsided. The return of the solemn spectacle
to its proper place added to the public joy and also to the number of
spectators.
