sioned might detain their enemy, went away with
a speed which resembled flight, and overtook the body of their army
before night.

8. Scipio, seeing that the citadel was abandoned by the enemy, and
their camp deserted, called the Locrians to an assembly and rebuked
them severely for their defection. He inflicted punishment on the
persons principally concerned, and gave their effects to the leaders
of the other party, in consideration of their extraordinary fidelity
to the Romans. As to the Locrians in general, he said that he would
neither grant them any thing, nor take any thing from them. They might
send ambassadors to Rome, and they should experience that treatment
which the senate thought proper to adopt. Of one thing, however, he
said he was confident, which was, that although they had deserved ill
at the hands of the Romans, they would be better off when subject to
them, though incensed against them, than they had been when in the
power of their friends the Carthaginians. Leaving Quintus Pleminius
lieutenant-general, and the garrison which had taken the citadel to
defend the city, the general himself crossed over to Messana with the
forces he had brought with him. The Locrians had been treated with
such insolence and cruelty by the Carthaginians since their revolt
from the Romans, that they were able to endure severities of an
ordinary kind not only with patience but almost willingness. But
indeed, so greatly did Pleminius surpass Hamilcar, who had commanded
the garrison, so greatly did the Roman soldiers in the garrison
surpass the Carthaginians in villany and rapacity, that it would
appear that they endeavoured to outdo each other, not in arms, but in
vices. None of all those things which render the power of a superior
hateful to the powerless was omitted towards the inhabitants, either
by the general or his soldiers. The most shocking insults were
committed against their own persons, their children, and their wives,
For their rapacity did not abstain from the spoliation even of
sacred things; and not only were other temples violated, but even
the treasures of Proserpine, which had never been touched through
all ages, excepting that they were said to have been carried away by
Pyrrhus, who restored the spoils, together with a costly offering in
expiation of his sacrilege. Therefore, as on the former occasion,
the royal ships, wrecked and shattered, brought nothing safe to land,
except the sacred money of the god