oncerted, the Numidians seized on a gate which leads
towards the sea, having driven the guards from it, or put them to the
sword, and then received into the city a party of Romans sent for that
purpose; and when these troops were now marching into the heart of the
city and the forum with a great noise, Hanno, concluding that it was
nothing more than a disturbance and secession of the Numidians, such
as had happened before, advanced to quell the mutiny; but observing at
a distance that the numbers were greater than those of the Numidians,
and hearing the Roman shout, which was far from being new to him, he
betook himself to flight before he came within reach of their weapons.
Passing out of the town at a gate in the opposite quarter, and taking
Epicydes to accompany him, he reached the sea with a few attendants;
and having very seasonably met with a small vessel, they abandoned to
the enemy Sicily, for which they had contended for so many years, and
crossed over into Africa. The remaining multitude of Carthaginians and
Sicilians fled with headlong haste, but as every passage by which they
could escape was blockaded up, they were cut to pieces near the gates.
On gaining possession of the town, Laevinus scourged and beheaded
those who took the lead in the affairs of Agrigentum. The rest,
together with the booty, he sold. All the money he sent to Rome.
Accounts of the sufferings of the Agrigentines spreading through all
Sicily, all the states suddenly turned to the Romans. In a short time
twenty towns were betrayed to them, and six taken by storm. As many as
forty put themselves under their protection, by voluntary surrender.
The consul having rewarded and punished the leading men of these
states, according to their several deserts, and compelled the
Sicilians, now that they had at length laid aside arms, to turn their
attention to the cultivation of their lands, in order that the island
might by its produce not only maintain its inhabitants, but, as it had
frequently done on many former occasions, add to the supplies of Rome
and Italy, he returned into Italy, taking with him a disorderly
multitude from Agathyrna. These were as many as four thousand men,
made up of a mixed assemblage of every description of persons, exiles,
bankrupts, the greater part of them felons, who had supported
themselves by rapine and robbery, both when they lived in their native
towns, under the restraint of the laws, and also after that a
coinciden