the higher from lower vessels.
The quinquereme was gallantly defended as long as their weapons
lasted; but these failing, and there being now nothing which could
save them but the nearness of the land, and the multitude which had
poured out from the camp upon the shore, they communicated a rapid
motion to the vessel by means of their oars, and running her against
the shore with all the force they could, they escaped themselves
without injury, and only lost the vessel. Thus when the truce had
been unequivocally violated by repeated acts of villany, Laelius and
Fulvius arrived from Rome with the Carthaginian ambassadors. Scipio
told them, that although the Carthaginians had not only broken their
faith pledged in the truce, but had also violated the laws of nations
in the persons of his ambassadors, yet he would not in their case
do any thing unworthy of the maxims of the Roman people or his own
principles; after saying which, he dismissed the ambassadors and
prepared for war. When Hannibal was now drawing near land, one of the
sailors, who was ordered to climb the mast to see what part of the
country they were making, said the prow pointed toward a demolished
sepulchre, when Hannibal, recognising the inauspicious omen, ordered
the pilot to steer by that place, and putting in his fleet at Leptis,
landed his forces there.

26. Such were the transactions in Africa this year. Those which
followed extended themselves into that year in which Marcus Servilius
Geminus, who was then master of the horse and Tiberius Claudius Nero
were consuls. However, at the close of the former year, deputies from
the allied states in Greece having arrived with complaints that their
lands had been devastated by the king's garrisons, and that their
ambassadors, who had gone into Macedonia to demand restitution had
not been admitted into the presence of Philip; and having also brought
information that four thousand men were said to have been conveyed
over into Africa, under the conduct of Sopater, to assist the
Carthaginians, and that a considerable quantity of money had been sent
with them; the senate resolved that ambassadors should be sent to the
king to inform him that the fathers considered that these acts were
contrary to the treaty. The persons sent were Caius Terentius Varro,
Caius Mamilius, and Marcus Aurelius. Three quinqueremes were assigned
to them. This year was rendered remarkable by a most extensive fire,
by which the buildings on t