them from disembarking.

28. While affairs were in this unsettled state, it was resolved to
call an assembly; in which, when some leaned to one side and some to
the other, and an insurrection being on the point of breaking out,
Apollonides, one of the nobles, delivered a speech fraught with
salutary advice, considering the critical state of affairs: "Never,"
he said, "had a state a nearer prospect of safety and annihilation.
For if they would all unanimously espouse the cause either of the
Romans or the Carthaginians, there could be no state whose condition
would be more prosperous and happy; but if they pulled different ways,
the war between the Romans and Carthaginians would not be more bloody
than that which would take place between the Syracusans themselves, in
which both the contending parties would have their forces, their
troops, and their generals, within the same walls. Every exertion
ought therefore to be made that all might think alike. Which alliance
would be productive of the greater advantages, was a question of quite
a secondary nature, and of less moment; though the authority of Hiero
ought to be followed in preference to that of Hieronymus in the
selection of allies, and a friendship of which they had had a happy
experience through a space of fifty years, ought to be chosen rather
than one now untried and formerly unfaithful. That it ought also to
have some weight in their deliberations, that peace with the
Carthaginians might be refused in such a manner as not immediately, at
least, to have a war with them, while with the Romans they must
forthwith have either peace or war." The less of party spirit and
warmth appeared in this speech the greater weight it had. A military
council also was united with the praetors and a chosen body of
senators; the commanders of companies also, and the praefects of the
allies, were ordered to consult conjointly. After the question had
been agitated with great warmth, at length, as there appeared to be no
means of carrying on a war with the Romans, it was resolved that a
treaty of peace should be formed, and that ambassadors should be sent
with those from Rome to ratify the same.

29. Not many days intervened before ambassadors came from the
Leontines, requesting troops to protect their frontiers; an embassy
which appeared to afford a very favourable opportunity for
disencumbering the city of a turbulent and disorderly rabble, and for
removing their leaders to a distan