only once. Yet
they were in such hard straits for money that the silver coinage which
was previously unalloyed and pure was now mixed with copper.

IX, 1.--All this is what took place in Italy at that period. Some
slaves also formed a conspiracy against Rome, but were apprehended in
advance. And a spy caught in the city had his hands cut off and was
released that he might tell the Carthaginians his experience with his
own lips.--In Spain in a sea-fight near the mouth of the Iber Scipio
was victorious; for when the struggle proved to be too even, the sails
were cut down in order that the men being placed in a desperate
position might struggle more zealously. He also ravaged the country,
got possession of numerous fortresses and through his brother Publius
Scipio gained control of some Spanish cities. A Spaniard named Habelux
affecting loyalty to the Carthaginians but in reality in the Roman
service persuaded the Carthaginian guardian of the Spanish hostages to
send them to their homes, in order that they might use their influence
to bring their cities into friendly relations. Habelux naturally took
charge of them, inasmuch as he had been the one to suggest the idea,
but first sent to the Scipios and held a discussion about what he
desired; then, while he was secretly taking the hostages away by
night, he of course got captured. In this way it was the Romans who
obtained possession of these men and acquired control of their native
states by returning them to their homes.

_(BOOK 15, BOISSEVAIN.)_

[Sidenote: B.C. 216 (_a.u._ 538)] Though in these matters they were
fortunate, they encountered elsewhere a fearful disaster, than which
they never suffered one more terrible either earlier or subsequently.
It was preceded by certain portents and the solemn verses of the Sibyl
which had prophesied the disaster to them so many years before.
Remarkable was also the prediction of Marcius. He also was a
soothsayer and it was his rede that, inasmuch as they were Trojans of
old, they should be overthrown in the Plain of Diomed. This was in
Daunian Apulia and took its name from the settlement of Diomed, which
he made there in the course of his wanderings. In that plain is also
Cannae, where the present misfortune occurred, close to the Ionian Gulf
and near the mouths of the Aufidus. The Sibyl had urged them to beware
of the spot, yet said it would avail them naught, even if they should
keep it under strictest guard.

Such were t