30.43
Whilst
all were in favour of peace the consul Cnaeus Lentulus, who was in
command of the fleet, prevented the House from passing any resolution.
Thereupon, two tribunes of the plebs, Manius Acilius and Q. Minucius, at
once brought the questions before the people: Was it their will and pleasure
that the senate should pass a decree for the conclusion of peace with
Carthage? Who was to grant the peace? and Who was to bring away the
army from Africa? On the question of peace all the tribes voted in the
affirmative; they also made an order that Scipio should grant the peace and
bring the army home. In pursuance of this decision the senate decreed that P.
Scipio should, in agreement with the ten commissioners, make peace with
the people or Carthage on such terms as he thought right. On this the
Carthaginians expressed their thanks to the senators, and begged that they
might be allowed to enter the City and converse with their
fellow-countrymen who were detained as State-prisoners. These were
members of the nobility, some of them their own friends and relations, and
others there were for whom they had messages from their friends at home.
When this was arranged they made a further request that they might be
allowed to ransom any of the prisoners whom they wished. They were told
to furnish the names, and they gave in about two hundred. The senate then
passed a resolution that a commission should be appointed to take back to P.
Scipio in Africa two hundred of the prisoners whom the Carthaginians had
selected and to inform him that if peace were established he was to restore
them to the Carthaginians without ransom. When the fetials received orders
to proceed to Africa for the purpose of striking the treaty they requested the
senate to define the procedure. The senate accordingly decided upon this
formula: "The fetials shall take with them their own flints and their own
herbs; when a Roman praetor orders them to strike the treaty they shall
demand the sacred herbs from him." The herbs given to the fetials are usually
taken from the Citadel. The Carthaginian envoys were at length dismissed
and returned to Scipio. They concluded peace with him on the terms
mentioned above, and delivered up their warships, their elephants, the
deserters and refugees and 4000 prisoners including Q. Terentius Calleo, a
senator. Scipio ordered the ships to be taken out to sea and burnt. Some
authorities state that there were 500 vessels, comprising every class
propelled by oars. The sight of all those vessels suddenly bursting into flames
caused as much grief to the people as if Carthage itself were burning. The
deserters were dealt with much more severely than the fugitives; those
belonging to the Latin contingents were beheaded, the Romans were
crucified.