advanced to Pachynum with a part of
his forces to meet it. Nor did the Carthaginians delay longer at
Syracuse. Bomilcar, who at the same time that he did not feel
sufficient confidence in his naval strength, as the Romans had a fleet
more than double his number, was aware that delay which could be
attended with no good effect, would only increase the scarcity of
provisions among the allies by the presence of his troops, sailed out
into the deep, and crossed over into Africa. Himilco, who had in vain
followed Marcellus to Syracuse, to see if he could get any opportunity
of engaging him before he was joined by larger forces, failing in this
object, and seeing that the enemy were secured at Syracuse, both by
their fortifications and the strength of their forces, to avoid
wasting time in sitting by as an idle spectator of the siege of his
allies, without being able to do any good, marched his troops away, in
order to bring them up wherever the prospect of revolt from the Romans
might invite him, and wherever by his presence he might inspire
additional courage in those who espoused his interest. He first got
possession of Murgantia, the Roman garrison having been betrayed by
the inhabitants themselves. Here a great quantity of corn and
provisions of every kind had been laid up by the Romans.

37. To this revolt the minds of other states also were stimulated; and
the Roman garrisons were now either driven out of the citadels, or
treacherously given up and overpowered. Enna, which stood on an
eminence lofty and of difficult ascent on all sides, was impregnable
on account of its situation, and had besides in its citadel a strong
garrison commanded by one who was very unlikely to be overreached by
treachery, Lucius Pinarius, a man of vigorous mind, who relied more on
the measures he took to prevent treachery, than on the fidelity of the
Sicilians; and at that time particularly the intelligence he had
received of so many cities being betrayed, and revolting, and of the
massacre of the garrisons, had made him solicitous to use every
precaution. Accordingly, by day and night equally, every thing was
kept in readiness, and every place furnished with guards and watches,
the soldiery being continually under arms and at their posts. But when
the principal men in Enna, who had already entered into a covenant
with Himilco to betray the garrison, found that they could get no
opportunity of circumventing the Roman, they resolved to act op