The surprise of the Carthaginians was greater still when three hundred of their own people, who had been made prisoners during the Sicilian war, arrived on board an old Punic trireme.Hamilcar, in fact, had secretly sent back to the Quirites the crews of the Latin vessels, taken before the defection of the Tyrian towns; and, to reciprocate the courtesy, Rome was now sending him back her captives.She scorned the overtures of the Mercenaries in Sardinian, and would not even recognise the inhabitants of Utica as subjects.
Hiero, who was ruling at Syracuse, was carried away by this example.
For the preservation of his own States it was necessary that an equilibrium should exist between the two peoples; he was interested, therefore, in the safety of the Chanaanites, and he declared himself their friend, and sent them twelve hundred oxen, with fifty-three thousand nebels of pure wheat.
A deeper reason prompted aid to Carthage.It was felt that if the Mercenaries triumphed, every one, from soldier to plate-washer, would rise, and that no government and no house could resist them.
Meanwhile Hamilcar was scouring the eastern districts.He drove back the Gauls, and all the Barbarians found that they were themselves in something like a state of siege.
Then he set himself to harass them.He would arrive and then retire, and by constantly renewing this manoeuvre, he gradually detached them from their encampments.Spendius was obliged to follow them, and in the end Matho yielded in like manner.
He did not pass beyond Tunis.He shut himself up within its walls.
This persistence was full of wisdom, for soon Narr' Havas was to be seen issuing from the gate of Khamon with his elephants and soldiers.
Hamilcar was recalling him, but the other Barbarians were already wandering about in the provinces in pursuit of the Suffet.
The latter had received three thousand Gauls from Clypea.He had horses brought to him from Cyrenaica, and armour from Brutium, and began the war again.
Never had his genius been so impetuous and fertile.For five moons he dragged his enemies after him.He had an end to which he wished to guide them.
The Barbarians had at first tried to encompass him with small detachments, but he always escaped them.They ceased to separate then.
Their army amounted to about forty thousand men, and several times they enjoyed the sight of seeing the Carthaginians fall back.
The horsemen of Narr' Havas were what they found most tormenting.
Often, at times of the greatest weariness, when they were advancing over the plains, and dozing beneath the weight of their arms, a great line of dust would suddenly rise on the horizon; there would be a galloping up to them, and a rain of darts would pour from the bosom of a cloud filled with flaming eyes.The Numidians in their white cloaks would utter loud shouts, raise their arms, press their rearing stallions with their knees, and, wheeling them round abruptly, would then disappear.They had always supplies of javelins and dromedaries some distance off, and they would return more terrible than before, howl like wolves, and take to flight like vultures.The Barbarians posted at the extremities of the files fell one by one; and this would continue until evening, when an attempt would be made to enter the mountains.
Although they were perilous for elephants, Hamilcar made his way in among them.He followed the long chain which extends from the promontory of Hermaeum to the top of Zagouan.This, they believed, was a device for hiding the insufficiency of his troops.But the continual uncertainty in which he kept them exasperated them at last more than any defeat.They did not lose heart, and marched after him.
At last one evening they surprised a body of velites amid some big rocks at the entrance of a pass between the Silver Mountain and the Lead Mountain; the entire army was certainly in front of them, for a noise of footsteps and clarions could be heard; the Carthaginians immediately fled through the gorge.It descended into a plain, and was shaped like an iron hatchet with a surrounding of lofty cliffs.The Barbarians dashed into it in order to overtake the velites; quite at the bottom other Carthaginians were running tumultuously amid galloping oxen.A man in a red cloak was to be seen; it was the Suffet; they shouted this to one another; and they were carried away with increased fury and joy.Several, from laziness or prudence, had remained on the threshold of the pass.But some cavalry, debouching from a wood, beat them down upon the rest with blows of pike and sabre; and soon all the Barbarians were below in the plain.
Then this great human mass, after swaying to and fro for some time, stood still; they could discover no outlet.
Those who were nearest to the pass went back again, but the passage had entirely disappeared.They hailed those in front to make them go on; they were being crushed against the mountain, and from a distance they inveighed against their companions, who were unable to find the route again.
In fact the Barbarians had scarcely descended when men who had been crouching behind the rocks raised the latter with beams and overthrew them, and as the slope was steep the huge blocks had rolled down pell-mell and completely stopped up the narrow opening.
