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
distresse