ir right arms which terminated in mere formless stumps. Their hands
had been cut off in wars with tribes of the interior, whose custom it
was to thus render their prisoners useless.

The Saguntines looked indifferently upon these enemies converted into
chattels, into beasts, by the cruel law of conquest, and forgetting the
presence of the Turdetani they discussed the city's quarrels, the
rivalry of factions, which seemed to have been stifled by the
intervention of the Roman legates. On the steps of a temple close at
hand the bloodstains of those beheaded because of their friendship for
Carthage could still be seen, and the adherents of Rome, who were in the
majority, discoursed bravely and praised the energetic counsel of the
envoys of the great Republic. The city would now live in peace and
security under the protection of Rome.

Actaeon, while listening to the conversation of these various groups,
glanced toward the temple and thought that he saw in the crowd streaming
up and down the steps the Celtiberian shepherd who had killed the Roman
legionary the night before. It was a swift vision; his dark sagum
vanished in the multitude, and the Greek was uncertain if it were really
he.

The morning advanced. Actaeon had spent a long time in the market, and he
thought that now the hour had come for occupying himself with other
matters. He must see Mopsus the archer, up on the Acropolis, and he
began the ascent following winding streets paved with cobbles, and lined
with white houses, where in the doorways sat women spinning and weaving
wool.

As the Greek approached the Acropolis, he admired the cyclopean walls of
great stones laid with rare art, solidly fitted without mortar-joints.
Here was the cradle of the city, relic of the companions of Zacynthus
as they established themselves among the rude indigenes.

He passed through a long archway, and found himself on the extensive
esplanade upon the eminence, surrounded by ramparts which could shelter
a population as great as Saguntum. On this immense plain, scattered at
random, rose the public buildings, recalling the epoch when the city
stood on the summit and had not yet descended, spreading toward the sea.
From its walls one could take in the immensity of the fertile domain,
the territories belonging to the Republic, reaching out of sight to the
south along the shore toward the boundary of the lands occupied by the
Olcades; the innumerable villages and estates, grouped