Titus Livius (Livy) · c. 27 BCE–17 CE (for Ab urbe condita; individual books composed within this span)
passage 144 of 406 · BOOK IX. > BOOK XXI. (47/52)
↪ you wandered here via “number of prisoners in Sicily” — the connecting lines are tinted below
squadron set out along with him, and on their passage they heard that a battle had been fought at Lilybaeum, and that the enemy's ships had been scattered and taken.
- The consul having dismissed Hiero with the royal fleet, and left the praetor to defend the coast of Sicily, passed over himself from
Lilybaeum to the island Melita, which was held in possession by the
Carthaginians. On his arrival, Hamilcar, the son of Gisgo, the commander of the garrison, with little less than two thousand soldiers, together with the town and the island, are delivered up to him: thence, after a few days, he returned to Lilybaeum, and the prisoners taken, both by the consul and the praetor, excepting those illustrious for their rank, were publicly sold. When the consul considered that Sicily was sufficiently safe on that side, he crossed over to the islands of Vulcan, because there was a report that the
Carthaginian fleet was stationed there: but not one of the enemy was discovered about those islands. They had already, as it happened, passed over to ravage the coast of Italy, and having laid waste the territory of Vibo, were also threatening the city. The descent made by the enemy on the Vibonensian territory is announced to the consul as he was returning to Sicily: and letters were delivered to him which had been sent by the senate, about the passage of Hannibal into Italy, commanding him as soon as possible to bring assistance to his colleague. Perplexed with having so many anxieties at once, he immediately sent his army, embarked in the fleet, by the upper sea to
Ariminum; he assigned the defence of the territory of Vibo, and the sea-coast of Italy, to Sextus Pomponius, his lieutenant-general, with twenty-five ships of war: he made up a fleet of fifty ships for Marcus
Aemilius the praetor; and he himself, after the affairs of Sicily were settled, sailing close along the coast of Italy with ten ships, arrived at Ariminum, whence, setting out with his army for the river
Trebia, he joined his colleague.
HKB