manner in which they had seized it in the war,
Scipio, who deemed it of the first importance to preserve the
public faith, restored their property to the Syracusans, partly by
proclamation, and partly even by judgments pronounced against those
who pertinaciously retained their unjust acquisitions. This measure
was acceptable not only to the persons immediately concerned, but to
all the states of Sicily, and so much the more energetically did they
give aid in the war. During the same summer a very formidable war
sprang up in Spain, at the instance of Indibilis the Hergetian, from
no other cause than the contempt he conceived for the other generals,
in consequence of his admiration of Scipio. He considered "that he was
the only commander the Romans had left, the rest having been slain by
Hannibal. That they had, therefore, no other general whom they
could send into Spain after the Scipios were cut off there, and that
afterwards, when the war in Italy pressed upon them with increased
severity, he was recalled to oppose Hannibal. That, in addition to the
fact that the Romans had the names only of generals in Spain, their
old army had also been withdrawn thence. That all the troops they had
there were irresolute, as consisting of an undisciplined multitude of
recruits. That there would never again occur such an opportunity for
the liberation of Spain. That up to that time they had been the slaves
either of Carthaginians or Romans, and that not to one or the other in
turns, but sometimes to both together. That the Carthaginians had been
driven out by the Romans, and that the Romans might be driven out by
the Spaniards, if they would unite: so that Spain, for ever freed
from a foreign yoke, might return to her native customs and rites."
By these and other observations he stirred up not only his countrymen,
but the Ausetanians also, a neighbouring nation, as well as other
states bordering on his own and their country. Accordingly, within a
few days, thirty thousand foot and about four thousand horse assembled
in the Sedetanian territory, according to the orders which had been
given.

2. On the other side, the Roman generals also, Lucius Lentulus and
Lucius Manlius Acidinus, lest by neglecting the first beginnings of
the war it should increase in violence, having united their armies,
and led their troops through the Ausetanian territory in a peaceable
manner, as though it had been the territory of friends instead of
enemies, c