enemy
should be upon him if he delayed, and lest the Ligurians themselves,
seeing that the Carthaginians were leaving Italy, should pass over
to those under whose power they were likely soon to be placed; at the
same time hoping that his wound would be less irritated by the motion
of sailing than marching, and that he would have greater facilities
for the cure of it, put his troops on board and set sail. But he had
scarcely cleared Sardinia when he died of his wound. Several also of
his ships, which had been dispersed in the main sea, were captured by
the Roman fleet which lay near Sardinia. Such were the transactions by
sea and land in that part of Italy which is adjacent to the Alps.
The consul, Caius Servilius, without having performed any memorable
achievement in Etruria, his province, and in Gaul, for he had advanced
thither also, but having rescued from slavery, which they had endured
for now the sixteenth year, his father, Caius Servilius, and his
uncle, Caius Lutatius, who had been taken by the Boians at the village
of Tanetum, returned to Rome with his father on one side of him and
his uncle on the other, distinguished, by family, rather than by
public, honours. It was proposed to the people, that Caius Servilius
should be indemnified for having filled the offices of plebeian
tribune and plebeian aedile contrary to what was established by the
laws, while his father, who had sat in the curule chair, was still
alive, he being ignorant of that circumstance. This proposition
having been carried, he returned to his province. The towns Consentia,
Uffugum, Vergae, Besidiae, Hetriculum, Sypheum, Argentanum, Clampetia,
and many other inconsiderable states, perceiving that the Carthaginian
cause was declining, went over to Cneius Servilius the consul in
Bruttium. The same consul fought a battle with Hannibal, in the
territory of Croto. The accounts of this battle are not clear.
Valerius Antias states that five thousand men were slain. But this
is an event of such magnitude, that either it must be an impudent
fiction, or negligently omitted. It is certain that nothing further
was done by Hannibal in Italy; for ambassadors from Carthage,
recalling him into Africa, came to him, as it happened, at the same
time that they came to Mago.

20. It is said that when Hannibal heard the message of the ambassadors
he gnashed with his teeth, groaned, and scarcely refrained from
shedding tears. After they had delivered the commands wi