which had fallen on a city in their neighbourhood, having reached
thither, the inhabitants had time to shut their gates, and place
guards on the walls, that they might, at least, be besieged before
they were taken, and send messengers to the Roman praetor. Lucius
Furius Purpureo, who had then the command of the province, had, in
pursuance of the decree of the senate, disbanded the army, excepting
five thousand of the allies and Latin confederacy; and had remained,
with these troops, in the nearest district of the province about
Ariminum. He immediately informed the senate, by letter, in what
confusion the province was. That, "of the two colonies which had
escaped in the dreadful storm of the Punic war, one was taken and
sacked by the present enemy, and the other besieged. Nor was his
army capable of affording sufficient protection to the distressed
colonists, unless he chose to expose five thousand allies to be
slaughtered by forty thousand invaders (for so many there were in
arms); and by such a loss, on his side, to augment the courage of the
enemy, already elated on having destroyed one Roman colony."

11. This letter having been read they decreed, that the consul
Aurelius should order the army which he had appointed to assemble on a
certain day in Etruria, to attend him on the same day at Ariminum; and
should either go in person, if the public business would permit,
to suppress the tumult of the Gauls, or write to the praetor Lucius
Furius, that, as soon as the legions from Etruria came to him, he
should send five thousand of the allies to guard that place in the
mean time, and should himself proceed to relieve the colony from
the siege. They also determined, that ambassadors should be sent
to Carthage, and also into Numidia, to Masinissa: to Carthage, to
announce that "their countryman, Hamilcar, having been left in Gaul,
(either with a part of the army formerly commanded by Hasdrubal, or
with that of Mago--they did not with certainty know which,) was waging
war, contrary to the treaty. That he had excited the armies of the
Gauls and Ligurians to arms against the Roman people. That, if they
wished for peace, they must recall him, and give him up to the Roman
people." They were ordered at the same time to tell them, that "all
the deserters had not been sent back; that a great part of them were
said to appear openly in Carthage, who ought to be sought after, and
surrendered according to the treaty." Such was the mess