I shall have received sufficient and more than sufficient
atonement for it. Albius the Calenian, and Atrius
the Umbrian, with the rest of the principal movers
of this impious mutiny, shall expiate with their blood
the crime they have perpetrated. To yourselves,
if you have returned to a sound state of mind, the
sight of their punishment ought not only to be not
unpleasant, but even gratifying; for there are no persons
to whom the measures they have taken are more hostile
and injurious than to you.” He had scarcely
finished speaking, when, according to the plan preconcerted,
every object of terror was at once presented to their
eyes and ears. The troops, which had formed a
circle round the assembly, clashed their swords against
their shields; the herald’s voice was heard
citing by name the persons who had been condemned in
the council; the culprits were dragged naked into the
midst of the assembly, and at the same time all the
apparatus for punishment was brought forth. They
were tied to the stake, scourged with rods, and decapitated;
while those who were present were so benumbed with
fear, that not only no expression of dissatisfaction
at the severity of the punishment, but not even a
groan was heard. They were then all dragged out,
the place was cleared, and the men cited by name took
the oath of allegiance to Scipio before the military
tribunes, each receiving his full demand of pay as
he answered to his name. Such was the termination
and result which the insurrection of the soldiers,
which began at Sucro, met with.
30. During the time of these transactions, Hanno,
the lieutenant-general of Mago, having been sent from
Gades to the river Baetis with a small body of Africans,
by tempting the Spaniards with money, armed as many
as four thousand men; but afterwards, being deprived
of his camp by Lucius Marcius, and losing the principal
part of his troops in the confusion occasioned by
its capture, and some also in the flight, for the
cavalry pursued them closely while they were dispersed,
he made his escape with a few attendants. During
these transactions on the river Baetis, Laelius in
the mean time, sailing out of the straits into the
ocean, came with his fleet before Carteia, a city
situated on the coast of the ocean, where the sea begins
to expand itself, after being confined in a narrow
strait. He had entertained hopes of having Gades
betrayed to him without a contest, persons having
come unsolicited into the Roman camp to make promises
to that effect, as has been before mentioned.
The plot was discovered before it was ripe, and all
having been apprehended, were placed by Mago in the
hands of Adherbal the praetor, to be conveyed to Carthage.
Adherbal, having put the conspirators on board a quinquereme,
sent it in advance, because it sailed slower than
a trireme, and followed himself at a moderate distance
with eight triremes. The quinquereme was just
entering the strait, when Laelius, who had himself
also sailed out of the harbour of Carteia in a quinquereme,