verse. At the neck of this peninsula,
the only entrance and a very narrow one, a cross wall had been built.
In an attempt to carry this point by force the Romans fared badly and
withdrew under a shower of weapons. [Sidenote: FRAG. 43^9] THE
LIBYANS THEN TOOK COURAGE AND SALLIED OUT, PURSUING THE FUGITIVES, AS
THEY THOUGHT THEM, BEYOND THE NARROW STRIP OF LAND. THEREUPON THE
ROMANS WHEELED, ROUTED THEM, AND KILLED A NUMBER, SO THAT THEY DID NOT
ISSUE FROM THE CAMP AGAIN,--AT LEAST SO LONG AS CLAUDIUS WAS IN
MESSANA. He, however, not daring to attack the approach in force, left
a detachment behind in Messana and turned his steps toward Syracuse
and Hiero. He personally superintended the assault upon the city, and
now and then the inhabitants would come out to battle. Each side would
sometimes be victorious and sometimes incur defeat. One day the consul
got into a confined position and would have been caught, had he not,
before being surrounded, sent to Hiero an invitation to agree to some
terms. When the representative came with whom he was to conclude the
terms, he kept falling back unobtrusively, while he conversed with
him, until he had retired to safety. But the city could not easily be
taken, and a siege, on account of scarcity of food supplies and
disease in the army, was impracticable. Claudius accordingly withdrew;
and the Syracusans following held discussions with his scattered
followers and would have made a truce, if Hiero also had been willing
to agree to terms. The consul left behind a garrison in Messana and
sailed back to Rhegium.

[Sidenote: B.C. 263 (_a.u._ 491)] As Etruscan unrest had come to a
standstill and affairs in Italy were perfectly peaceful, whereas the
Carthaginian state was becoming ever greater, the Romans ordered both
the consuls to make an expedition into Sicily. Valerius Maximus and
Otacilius Crassus consequently crossed over and in their progress
through the island together and separately they won over many towns by
capitulation. When they had made the majority of places their own,
they set out for Syracuse. Hiero in terror sent a herald to them with
offers: he expressed a readiness to restore the cities of which they
had been deprived, promised money, and liberated the prisoners. On
these terms he obtained peace, for the consuls thought they could
subjugate the Carthaginians more easily with his help. After reaching
an agreement with him, then, they turned their attention to the
remaini