agreed respecting the
number of the ships taken, respecting the weight of gold and silver,
and of the money brought into the public treasury. If we must assent
to some of their statements, the medium is nearest to the truth.
However, Scipio having summoned the hostages, first bid them all keep
up their spirits observing, "that they had fallen into the hands of
the Roman people, who chose to bind men to them by benefits rather
than by fear, and keep foreign nations attached to them by honour and
friendship, rather than subject them to a gloomy servitude." Then
receiving the names of the states to which they belonged, he took an
account of the captives, distinguishing the number belonging to each
people, and sent messengers to their homes, to desire that they would
come and take back their respective friends. If ambassadors from any
of the states happened to be present, he delivered their countrymen to
them in person, and assigned to them the quaestor, Caius Flaminius,
the charge of kindly taking care of the rest. Meanwhile, there
advanced from the midst of the crowd of hostages a woman in years, the
wife of Mandonius, who was the brother of Indibilis, the chieftain of
the Illergetians; she threw herself weeping at the general's feet, and
began to implore him to give particularly strict injunctions to their
guardians with respect to the care and treatment of females. Scipio
replied, that nothing certainly should be wanting; when the woman
rejoined: "We do not much value such things, for what is not good
enough for such a condition? A care of a different kind disquiets me,
when beholding the age of these females; for I am myself no longer
exposed to the danger peculiar to females." Around her stood the
daughters of Indibilis, in the bloom of youth and beauty, with others
of equal rank, all of whom looked up to her as a parent. Scipio then
said: "Out of regard for that discipline which I myself and the Roman
nation maintain, I should take care that nothing, which is any where
held sacred, should be violated among us. In the present case, your
virtue and your rank cause me to observe it more strictly; for not
even in the midst of misfortunes have you forgotten the delicacy
becoming matrons." He then delivered them over to a man of tried
virtue, ordering him to treat them with no less respect and modesty
than the wives and mothers of guests.

50. The soldiers then brought to him a female captive, a grown-up
virgin, of such e