to Sucro to quell the mutiny, having been sent out
to meet the army, gave in, each of them, five names
of persons principally concerned in the affair, in
order that proper persons might be employed to invite
them to their homes, with smiles and kind words; and
that, when overpowered with wine, they might be thrown
into chains. They were not far distant from Carthage
when the intelligence, received from persons on the
road, that the whole army was going the following
day with Marcus Silanus against the Lacetanians, not
only freed them from all the apprehensions which,
though they did not give utterance to them, sat heavy
upon their minds, but occasioned the greatest transport,
because they would thus have the general alone, and
in their power, instead of being themselves in his.
They entered the city just at sun-set, and saw the
other army making every preparation for a march.
Immediately on their arrival they were greeted in
terms feigned for the purpose, that their arrival
was looked upon by the general as a happy and seasonable
circumstance, for they had come when the other army
was just on the point of setting out. After which
they proceeded to refresh themselves. The authors
of the mutiny, having been conveyed to their lodgings
by proper persons, were apprehended by the tribunes
without any disturbance, and thrown into chains.
At the fourth watch the baggage belonging to the army,
which, as it was pretended, was about to march, began
to set out. As soon as it was light the troops
marched, but were stopped at the gate, and guards were
sent round to all the gates to prevent any one going
out of the city. Then those who had arrived the
day before, having been summoned to an assembly, ran
in crowds into the forum to the tribunal of the general,
with the presumptuous purpose of intimidating him
by their shouts. At the same time that the general
mounted the tribunal, the armed troops, which had
been brought back from the gates, spread themselves
around the rear of the unarmed assembly. Then
all their insolence subsided; and, as they afterwards
confessed, nothing terrified them so much as the unexpected
vigour and hue of the general, whom they had supposed
they should see in a sickly state, and his countenance,
which was such as they declared that they did not
remember to have ever seen it even in battle.
He sat silent for a short time till he was informed
that the instigators of the mutiny were brought into
the forum, and that every thing was now in readiness.
27. Then, a herald having obtained silence, he thus began: “I imagined that language would never fail me in which to address my army; not that I have ever accustomed myself to speaking rather than action, but because, having been kept in a camp almost from my boyhood, I had become familiar with the dispositions of soldiers. But I am at a loss both for sentiments and expressions with which to address you, whom I know not even by what name I ought to call. Can I call you countrymen, who have revolted from your


