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Updated: July 5, 2025
As soon as they had saluted each other, and were going by the sea-side, they saw some scorpions fighting, which Marius took for an ill omen, whereupon they immediately went on board a little fisher-boat, and made toward Cercina, an island not far distant from the continent.
Cercina is a group of smaller islands above 50 miles north of Meninx, now called the Karkenna islands. These distances show that Marius must have been rambling about for some time this coast. Octavius Nepos and L. Cornelius Cinna were consuls B.C. 87. It is said that he received a considerable sum of money for undertaking this.
As soon as it was dark he went to the gate of the city, mounted the horse which was provided for him, and fled across the country to his castle. Here he found the vessel ready which he had ordered. He embarked, and put to sea. There is a small island called Cercina at a little distance from the coast. Hannibal reached this island on the same day that he left his tower.
While these events occur in Italy, Cneius Servilius Geminus, the consul, having sailed round the coast of Sardinia and Corsica with a fleet of one hundred and twenty ships, and received hostages from both places, crossed over into Africa, and before he made a descent upon the continent, having laid waste the island of Meninx, and received from the inhabitants of Cercina ten talents of silver, in order that their fields too might not be burnt and pillaged, he approached the shores of Africa, and landed his troops.
This excitement continued until the vessels at last arrived from Cercina, and made the truth known. Hannibal was himself, however, by this time, safe beyond the reach of all possible pursuit. He was sailing prosperously, so far as outward circumstances were concerned, but dejected and wretched in heart, toward Tyre. He landed there in safety, and was kindly received.
They had not gone far, before stress of weather, the wind blowing hard at north, drove the fleet from the coast; and it being now about the time that Arcturus rises, a violent storm of wind and rain came on, with thunder and lightning, the mariners were at their wits' end, and ignorant what course they ran, until on a sudden they found they were driving with the sea on Cercina, the island on the coast of Africa, just where it is most craggy and dangerous to run upon.
He sailed over, the same day, to the island of Cercina, where he found in the port a number of merchant ships, belonging to the Phoenicians, with their cargoes; and on landing was surrounded by a concourse of people, who came to pay their respects to him; on which he gave orders that, in answer to any inquiries, it should be said that he had been sent as ambassador to Tyre.
Syria and Phoenicia. King Antiochus. Hannibal's intrigues with Antiochus. Embassy from Rome. Flight of Hannibal. Island of Cercina. Stratagem of Hannibal. He sails for Syria. Excitement at Carthage. Hannibal safe at Ephesus. Carthaginian deputies. The change of fortune. Hannibal's unconquerable spirit. His new plans. Hannibal sends a secret messenger to Carthage. The placards.
Accordingly they forthwith embarked in a fishing boat, and passed over to the island Cercina, which was no great distance from the mainland; and it happened that they had only just set sail, when some horsemen despatched by the king were seen riding to the spot where they embarked. Marius thus escaped a danger equal to any that ever threatened him.
Some surmised that he had fled, as the case was; others, that he had been put to death through the treachery of the Romans; and there was visible in the expression of their countenances, that variety which might naturally be expected in a state divided into factions, whereof each supported a different interest. At length intelligence was brought, that he had been seen at Cercina.
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