e employed in these deliberations,
a council was held on their case at Carthage; when a warm debate took
place as to whether they should visit with punishment the originators
only of the mutiny, who were in number not more than thirty-five, or,
whether atonement should be made for this defection, (for such it was
rather than a mutiny,) of so dreadful a character as a precedent, by
the punishment of a greater number. The opinion recommending the
more lenient course, that the punishment should fall where the guilt
originated, was adopted. For the multitude a reprimand was considered
sufficient. On the breaking up of the council, orders were given to
the army, which was in Carthage, to prepare for an expedition against
Mandonius and Indibilis, and to get ready provisions for several days,
in order that they might appear to have been deliberating about this.
The seven tribunes who had before gone to Sucro to quell the mutiny,
having been sent out to meet the army, gave in, each of them, five
names of persons principally concerned in the affair, in order that
proper persons might be employed to invite them to their homes, with
smiles and kind words; and that, when overpowered with wine, they
might be thrown into chains. They were not far distant from Carthage
when the intelligence, received from persons on the road, that the
whole army was going the following day with Marcus Silanus against
the Lacetanians, not only freed them from all the apprehensions which,
though they did not give utterance to them, sat heavy upon their
minds, but occasioned the greatest transport, because they would
thus have the general alone, and in their power, instead of being
themselves in his. They entered the city just at sun-set, and saw the
other army making every preparation for a march. Immediately on their
arrival they were greeted in terms feigned for the purpose, that
their arrival was looked upon by the general as a happy and seasonable
circumstance, for they had come when the other army was just on
the point of setting out. After which they proceeded to refresh
themselves. The authors of the mutiny, having been conveyed to their
lodgings by proper persons, were apprehended by the tribunes without
any disturbance, and thrown into chains. At the fourth watch the
baggage belonging to the army, which, as it was pretended, was
about to march, began to set out. As soon as it was light the troops
marched, but were stopped at the gate, and guards