26.51
Scipio
kept Laelius with him to advise as to the disposal of the prisoners, the
hostages and the booty, and when all had been arranged, he assigned him
one of the captured quinqueremes, and placing on board Mago and some
fifteen senators who had been made prisoners with him, he sent Laelius to
Rome to report his victory. He had himself decided to spend a few days in
New Carthage, and he employed this time in exercising his military and naval
forces. On the first day the legions, fully equipped, went through various
evolutions over a space of four miles; the second day was employed in
rubbing up and sharpening their weapons in front of their tents; the third day
they engaged in regular battle. practice with single-sticks and darts, the
points of which were muffled with balls of cork or lead; the fourth day they
rested, and on the fifth they were again exercised under arms. This
alternation of exercise and rest was kept up as long as they remained in
Carthage. The rowers and marines put out to sea when the weather was calm
and tested the speed and handiness of their ships in a sham fight. These
maneuvers going on outside the city on land and sea sharpened the men both
physically and mentally for war; the city itself resounded with the din of
warlike constructions carried on by the artisans of every kind who were kept
together in the Government workshops. The general devoted his attention
equally to everything. At one time he was present with the fleet watching a
naval encounter; at another he was exercising his legions; then he would be
giving some hours to an inspection of the work which was going on in the
shops and in the arsenal and dockyards, where the vast number of artisans
were vying with each other as to who could work the hardest. After starting
these various undertakings and seeing that the damaged portions of the walls
were repaired, he started for Tarraco, leaving a detachment in the city for its
protection. On his way he was met by numerous delegations; some of them
he dismissed, after giving his reply while still on the march; others he put off
till he reached Tarraco, where he had given notice to all the allies, old and
new, to meet him. Almost all the tribes south of the Ebro obeyed the
summons, as did many also from the northern province. The Carthaginian
generals did their best to suppress any rumours of the fall of New Carthage,
then when the facts came out too clearly to be either suppressed or
perverted, they tried to minimise its importance. It was by a sudden ruse,
almost by stealth, they said, that one city out of the whole of Spain had been
filched from them in a single day; a young swaggerer elated with this trifling
success had in the intoxication of his delight made believe that it was a great
victory. But when he learnt that three generals and three victorious armies
were bearing down upon him he would be painfully reminded of the deaths
which had already visited his family. This was what they told people
generally, but they themselves were perfectly aware how much their strength
was in every way weakened by the loss of New Carthage.
End of Book 26
