to sell a district of the Campanian territory extending
from the Grecian trench to the sea, with permission
to receive information as to what land belonged to
a native Campanian, in order that it might be put
into the possession of the Roman people. The reward
fixed upon for the informer was a tenth part of the
value of the lands so discovered. Cneius Servilius,
the city praetor, was also charged with seeing that
the Campanians dwelt where they were allowed, according
to the decree of the senate, and to punish such as
dwelt anywhere else. The same summer, Mago, son
of Amilcar, setting out from the lesser of the Balearian
islands, where he had wintered, having put on board
his fleet a chosen body of young men, conveyed over
into Italy twelve thousand foot, and about two thousand
horse, with about thirty ships of war, and a great
number of transports. By the suddenness of his
arrival he took Genoa, as there were no troops employed
in protecting the sea-coast. Thence he brought
his fleet to shore, on the coast of the Alpine Ligurians,
to see if he could create any commotion there.
The Ingaunians, a tribe of the Ligurians, were at that
juncture engaged in war with the Epanterians, a people
inhabiting the mountains. The Carthaginian, therefore,
having deposited his plunder at Savo, an Alpine town,
left ten ships of war for its protection. He
sent the rest to Carthage to guard the sea-coast, as
it was reported that Scipio intended to pass over
thither; formed an alliance with the Ingaunians, whose
friendship he preferred; and commenced an attack upon
the mountaineers. His army increased daily, the
Gauls flocking to his standard from all sides, from
the splendour of his fame. When the senate received
information of these things, by a letter from Spurius
Lucretius, they were filled with the most intense anxiety,
lest the joy they had experienced on the destruction
of Hasdrubal and his army, two years before, should
be rendered vain by another war’s springing
up in the same quarter, equal in magnitude, but under
a new leader. They therefore ordered Marcus Livius,
proconsul, to march his army of volunteer slaves out
of Etruria to Ariminum, and gave in charge to Cneius
Servilius to issue orders, if he thought it necessary
for the safety of the state, that the city legions
should be marched out under the command of any person
he thought proper. Marcus Valerius Laevinus led
those legions to Arretium. About the same time,
as many as eighty transports of the Carthaginians
were captured, near Sardinia, by Cneius Octavius,
who had the government of that province. Caelius
states that they were laden with corn and provisions,
sent for Hannibal; Valerius, that they were conveying
the plunder of Etruria, and the Ligurian mountaineers
who had been captured, to Carthage. In Bruttium
scarcely any thing was done this year worth recording.
A pestilence had attacked both Romans and Carthaginians
with equal violence; but the Carthaginian army, in
addition to sickness, was distressed by famine.
Hannibal passed the summer near the temple of Juno
Lacinia, where he erected and dedicated an altar with
an inscription engraved in Punic and Greek characters,
setting forth, in pompous terms, the achievements
he had performed.