rom the strait, while
the Bruttians loudly complained that Locri and Rhegium, cities which
they had fixed in their minds that they should have the plundering of,
they had left untouched. Having therefore levied and armed fifteen
thousand of their own youth, they set out by themselves to lay siege
to Croto, which was also a Greek city, and on the coast, believing
that they would obtain a great accession to their power, if they could
get possession of a city upon the sea-coast, which had a port and was
strongly defended by walls. This consideration annoyed them, that they
neither could venture on the business without calling in the
Carthaginians to their assistance, lest they should appear to have
done any thing in a manner unbecoming allies, and on the other hand,
lest, if the Carthaginian general should again show himself to have
been rather an umpire of peace than an auxiliary in war, they should
fight in vain against the liberty of Croto, as before in the affair of
the Locrians. The most advisable course, therefore, appeared to be,
that ambassadors should be sent to Hannibal, and that a stipulation
should be obtained from him that Croto, when reduced, should be in
possession of the Bruttians. Hannibal replied, that it was a question
which should be determined by persons on the spot, and referred them
to Hanno, from whom they could obtain no decisive answer. For they
were unwilling that so celebrated and opulent a city should be
plundered, and were in hopes that if the Bruttians should attack it,
while the Carthaginians did not ostensibly approve or assist in the
attack, the inhabitants would the more readily come over to them. The
Crotonians were not united either in their measures or wishes. All the
states of Italy were infected with one disease, as it were, the
commons dissented from the nobles, the senate favouring the Romans,
while the commons endeavoured to draw the states over to the
Carthaginians. A deserter announced to the Bruttii that such a
dissension prevailed in the city, that Aristomachus was the leader of
the commons, and the adviser of the surrender of the city, that the
city was of wide extent and thinly inhabited, that the walls in every
part were in ruins, that it was only here and there that the guards
and watches were kept by senators, and that wherever the commons kept
guard, there an entrance lay open. Under the direction and guidance of
the deserter, the Bruttians completely invested the city, a