after the destruction of two generals and two
armies, the Roman cause had been defended and the province retained
by their valour; the Illiturgians had received the punishment due to
their offence, but there was no one found to reward them for their
meritorious services." The tribunes replied, "that, considering the
nature of their complaints, what they requested was just, and that
they would lay it before the general; that they were happy that there
was nothing of a more gloomy and irremediable character; that both
Publius Scipio, by the favour of the gods, and the commonwealth, were
in a situation to requite them." Scipio, who was accustomed to war
but inexperienced in the storms of sedition, felt great anxiety on the
occasion, lest the army should run into excess in transgressing, or
himself in punishing. For the present he resolved to persist in
the lenient line of conduct with which he had begun, and sending
collectors round to the tributary states, to give the soldiers hopes
of soon receiving their pay. Immediately after this a proclamation was
issued that they should come to Carthage to receive their pay, whether
they wished to do so in detached parties or all in a body. The sudden
suppression of the rebellion among the Spaniards had the effect of
tranquillizing the mutiny, which was by this time beginning to subside
of itself; for Mandonius and Indibilis, relinquishing their attempt,
had returned within their borders when intelligence was brought
that Scipio was alive; nor did there now remain any person, whether
countryman or foreigner, whom they could make their companion in
their desperate enterprise. On examining every method, they had no
alternative except that which afforded a retreat from wicked designs,
which was not of the safest kind, namely, to commit themselves either
to the just anger of the general, or to his clemency, of which
they need not despair. For he had pardoned even enemies whom he had
encountered with the sword; while they reflected that their sedition
had been unaccompanied with wounds or blood, and was neither in itself
of an atrocious character nor merited severe punishment. So natural is
it for men to be over-eloquent in extenuating their own demerit. They
felt doubtful whether they should go to demand their pay in single
cohorts or in one entire body; but the opinion that they should go in
a body, which they regarded as the safer mode, prevailed.

26. At the same time, when they wer