is ill news, seemed to be fired with new vigour.(690) Every man strove
to be foremost in the muster roll; so that, in a very little time, an army
of ten thousand men was raised, who, crossing the strait, marched by land
to join the besiegers.

(M113) At the same time, P. Claudius Pulcher, the consul, formed a design
of attacking Adherbal in Drepanum.(691) He thought himself sure of
surprising him, because, after the loss lately sustained by the Romans at
Lilybaeum, the enemy could not imagine that they would venture out again at
sea. Flushed with these hopes, he sailed out with his fleet in the night,
the better to conceal his design. But he had to do with an active general,
whose vigilance he could not elude, and who did not even give him time to
draw up his ships in line of battle, but fell vigorously upon him whilst
his fleet was in disorder and confusion. The Carthaginians gained a
complete victory. Of the Roman fleet, only thirty vessels got off, which
being in company with the consul, fled with him, and got away in the best
manner they could along the coast. All the rest, amounting to fourscore
and thirteen, with the men on board them, were taken by the Carthaginians;
a few soldiers excepted, who had escaped from the wreck of their vessels.
This victory displayed as much the prudence and valour of Adherbal, as it
reflected shame and ignominy on the Roman consul.

Junius, his colleague, was neither more prudent nor more fortunate than
himself, but lost his whole fleet by his ill conduct.(692) Endeavouring to
atone for his misfortune by some considerable action, he held a secret
correspondence with the inhabitants of Eryx,(693) and by that means got
the city surrendered to him. On the summit of the mountain stood the
temple of Venus Erycina, which was certainly the most beautiful as well as
the richest of all the Sicilian temples. The city stood a little below the
summit of this mountain, and the only access to it was by a road very long
and very rugged. Junius posted one part of his troops upon the top, and
the remainder at the foot of the mountain, imagining that he now had
nothing to fear; but Hamilcar, surnamed Barca, father of the famous
Hannibal, found means to get into the city, which lay between the two
camps of the enemy, and there fortified himself. From this advantageous
post he harassed the Romans incessantly for two years. One can scarce
conceive how it was possible for the Carthaginians to defend themse