ns whatever states of Spain were wavering,
and left Hasdrubal no hope, not only of leading an army over into
Italy, but even of remaining very safely in Spain. When these events
were made generally known at Rome by letters from the Scipios, the
greatest joy was felt, not so much for the victory, as for the stop
which was put to the passage of Hasdrubal into Italy.

30. While these transactions were going on in Spain, Petilia, in
Bruttium, was taken by Himilco, an officer of Hannibal's, several
months after the siege of it began. This victory cost the
Carthaginians much blood and many wounds, nor did any power more
subdue the besieged than that of famine; for after having consumed
their means of subsistence, derived from fruits and the flesh of every
kind of quadrupeds, they were at last compelled to live upon skins
found in shoemakers' shops, on herbs and roots, the tender barks of
trees, and berries gathered from brambles: nor were they subdued until
they wanted strength to stand upon the walls and support their arms.
After gaining Petilia, the Carthaginian marched his forces to
Consentia, which being less obstinately defended, he compelled to
surrender within a few days. Nearly about the same time, an army of
Bruttians invested Croton, a Greek city, formerly powerful in men and
arms, but at the present time reduced so low by many and great
misfortunes, that less than twenty thousand inhabitants of all ages
remained. The enemy, therefore, easily got possession of a city
destitute of defenders: of the citadel alone possession was retained,
into which some of the inhabitants fled from the midst of the carnage
during the confusion created by the capture of the city. The Locrians
too revolted to the Bruttians and Carthaginians, the populace having
been betrayed by the nobles. The Rhegians were the only people in that
quarter who continued to the last in faithful attachment to the
Romans, and in the enjoyment of their independence. The same
alteration of feeing extended itself into Sicily also; and not even
the family of Hiero altogether abstained from defection; for Gelo, his
oldest son, conceiving a contempt for his father's old age, and, after
the defeat of Cannae, for the alliance with Rome, went over to the
Carthaginians; and he would have created a disturbance in Sicily, had
he not been carried off, when engaged as arming the people and
soliciting the allies, by a death so seasonable that it threw some
degree of susp