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Updated: May 1, 2025
But the discipline, the energy, and the persistence of the Carthaginian army, were too much for them; and just as the city was about to fall, Alorcus, a Spanish chieftain, and a mutual friend of both of the contending parties, undertook to mediate between them. He proposed to the Saguntines that they should surrender, allowing the Carthaginian general to make his own terms.
My father had a powerful ally whom I dare not name to you, and this ally calls me without saying why. The whole tribe displays tremendous enthusiasm for this expedition." After a pause Alorcus added: "You are welcome to stay here as long as you wish. My sisters will obey you as if you were Alorcus himself." "No; since you will not be here, nothing remains for me to do.
Near the Acropolis, when the procession was wholly within its walls, Alorcus discerned among the people a Celtiberian mounted on a horse covered with foam and sweat, beckoning him to approach. Alorcus, turning away from the troop of horsemen, trotted towards him. "What do you want?" he asked, in the harsh language of his country. "I am one of your tribe, and your father is my chief.
The conditions!" demanded the multitude, with a formidable howl which shook the Forum. "Remember," said Alorcus, "that what the conqueror offers you is a gift, for to-day he is master of everything you possess your lives and your estates." This terrible truth, falling upon the multitude, produced silence.
I prepared this for your father. I spent a whole moon extracting it from the wild apium, and one drop of it will kill like a lightning flash. If some day you fall vanquished, drink and die before your people behold their chieftain with a hand stricken off and serving the enemy as a slave." Alorcus slipped the chain over his head, concealing the heirloom in his breast.
Moreover, the people felt the weakness of hunger; they had little strength left for indignation, and they were eager to hear the messenger, to learn the fate reserved for them by the enemy. Alorcus advanced until he stood before the Elders, and the great concourse subsided into profound silence, interrupted only by the crackling of the wood in the fire. All eyes were fixed on the Celtiberian.
"He is my brother," he said, in the language of the country. "We have dwelt together in Saguntum. Besides, he is not a native of that city. He is from very far away, from a land where the men are almost gods, and he has journeyed hither with me to become acquainted with you." The women gazed at Actæon in astonishment on hearing the almost divine origin which Alorcus attributed to him.
It was the people returning from the races, acclaiming the victor. The arrogant Alorcus, dragged off the back of his horse, was borne on the shoulders of the most enthusiastic. The olive crown encircled his tossed and dusty hair. Actæon was beside him, celebrating his triumph fraternally, without a touch of envy.
At intervals pestilence robbed them of their flocks, the crops failed, and hunger decimated the tribes; then the strong devoured the weak. Alorcus remembered hearing this from the elders of his tribe as having occurred in remote times when Neton, Autubel, Nabi, and other divinities of the land, irritated against their people, had sent upon them these fearful punishments.
The wild race lasted long. The less skillful riders, and those with poorer mounts, were being out-stripped; the squadron was diminishing visibly. He who should remain longest on the track, ever in advance of the others, would win the crown, and the people made bets on the Celtiberian Alorcus, and on the Athenian Actæon who figured from the first instant at the head of the riders.
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