Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 23, 2025
No doubt every one of the leading men of the Barcine party was strictly watched; and did Hanno suspect that any of them were in communication with the escaped prisoner, he would take instant steps against them. He thought it better, therefore, that none should be acquainted with the secret until he was free. He therefore replied in the negative to the question of Nessus.
At nightfall he returned, and then went to the house of one of the leaders of the Barcine party with a message from Malchus to tell him where he was, and the events which had occurred since his landing at Carthage, and asking him to receive him privately in two hours' time, in order that he might consult him as to the best plan to be followed.
But few were influenced by the harangue of Hanno, for both the jealousy which he entertained towards the Barcine family, made him a less weighty authority; and men's minds being taken up with the present exultation, would listen to nothing by which their joy could be made more groundless, but felt convinced, that if they should make a little additional exertion the war might be speedily terminated.
The latter opinion prevailed, because it was that which Hasdrubal, who was present, and all the members of the Barcine faction, preferred.
At nine o'clock next morning the Syssite was crowded, the doors were closed, and the determination of the council was announced to the members, each of whom was ordered to hurry off to set the train in motion for a popular outbreak for eleven o'clock. It was not until an hour later that the news that the Barcine party intended to forestall them reached Hanno's headquarters.
Hasdrubal, however, surnamed by his countrymen Haedus, who had invariably recommended peace and was opposed to the Barcine faction, was regarded with greater interest than the rest. On these accounts the greater weight was attached to him when transferring the blame of the war from the State at large to the cupidity of a few.
The new general, Hanno, who had passed over from Africa, to supply the place of the Barcine Hasdrubal, with a new army, and formed a junction with Mago, having in a short time armed a large number of men in Celtiberia, which lies in the midway between the two seas, Scipio sent Marcus Silanus against him, with no more than ten thousand infantry and five hundred horse.
Hitherto the Barcine party had avoided fixing any period for their own demonstration, preferring to wait until they knew the intention of their opponents. The council now settled that it should take place on the following day at eleven o'clock, just when the working classes would have finished their morning meal.
Although none dared to complain openly, the news of these mysterious disappearances was not long in reaching the leaders of the Barcine party. These, however, were for the time powerless to act. Certain as they might be of the source whence these unseen blows descended, they had no evidence on which to assail so formidable a body as the judges.
Here Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo, the greatest and most renowned general concerned in the war, next to the Barcine family, returning from Gades, and encouraged in his hopes of reviving the war by Mago, son of Hamilcar, by means of levies made throughout the Farther Spain, armed as many as fifty thousand foot and four thousand five hundred horse.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking