infantry rescued
the people of Segesta, and Hamilcar would not venture to come into
close conflict with him. He strengthened the loyalty of the other
friendly settlements and returned to Rome at the close of autumn. Upon
his departure Hamilcar took forcible possession of the place called
Drepanum (it is a convenient roadstead), deposited there the objects
of greatest value and transferred to it all the people of Eryx. The
city of the latter, because it was a strong point, he razed to the
ground to prevent the Romans from seizing it and making it a base of
operations for the war. He captured some cities, too, some by force,
some by betrayal; and if Gaius Florus who wintered there had not
restrained him, he would have subjugated Sicily entire.

[Sidenote: B.C. 259 (_a.u._ 495)] Lucius Scipio, his colleague, made a
campaign against Sardinia and against Corsica. These islands are
situated in the Tyrrhenian sea only a short distance apart,--so short
a distance, in fact, that from a little way off they seem to be one.
His first landing place was Corsica. There he captured by force
Valeria, its largest city, and subdued the remainder of the region
without effort. As he was sailing toward Sardinia he descried a
Carthaginian fleet and directed his course to it. The enemy fled
before a battle could be joined and he came to the city of Olbia.
There the Carthaginians put in an appearance along with their ships,
and Scipio being frightened (for he had no infantry worthy the
mention) set sail for home.

These were the days when the Samnites with the cooeperation of other
captives and slaves in the city came to an agreement to form a
conspiracy against Rome. Numbers of them had been brought there with
a view to their utilization in the equipment of the fleet. Herius
Potilius, the leader of the auxiliary force, found it out and
pretended to be of like mind with them, in order that he might fully
inform himself in regard to what they had determined. As he was not
able to give knowledge of the affair,--for all those about him were
Samnites,--he persuaded them to gather in the Forum at a time when a
senate meeting was being convened and denounce him with declarations
that they were being wronged in the matter of the grain which they
were receiving. They did this and he was sent for as being the cause
of the tumult; and he then laid bare to the Romans the plot. For the
moment they merely dismissed the protestants (after they had become