History of Rome

​Around those same days, it was reported at Rome that both Mago and Hannibal had departed. The joy of this double cause of thanksgiving was diminished both because the commanders, though this had been ordered by the senate, seemed to have had too little of either spirit or strength in detaining them, ​and because they were anxious as to what the outcome would be, now that the whole weight of the war had shifted onto a single army and commander.

​Around the same days, Saguntine envoys arrived, bringing with them some Carthaginians whom they had arrested with money, who had crossed over into Spain to hire auxiliaries.

​They placed two hundred and fifty pounds of gold and eight hundred pounds of silver in the vestibule of the senate-house.

​The captured men having been received and put in prison, and the gold and silver restored, thanks were given to the envoys, and moreover, gifts and ships in which they might return to Spain were provided.

​Then mention was made by the elder senators that men perceive good things more sluggishly than evils; they remembered how much terror and dread there had been at the passage of Hannibal into Italy;

​what disasters, what griefs had then fallen upon them. The enemy’s camp had been seen from the walls of the city; what vows had been made by individuals and by the whole state! How often in public assemblies had the voices of those stretching out their hands to heaven been heard, ​asking whether indeed that day would ever come when they should see Italy free from enemies and flourishing in secure peace!

​At last, in the sixteenth year, the gods had granted this, and yet there was no one who proposed that thanks should be given to the gods; so true was it that men do not receive even a present favor with gratitude, much less are they sufficiently mindful of past ones.

​Then a shout arose from every part of the senate-house that the praetor Publius Aelius should lay the matter before them; and it was decreed that supplications should be made for five days at all the shrines, and that one hundred and twenty larger victims should be sacrificed.

​Laelius and the envoys of Masinissa having already been dismissed, when it was reported that the Carthaginian envoys, coming to the senate concerning peace, had been seen at Puteoli, and would come from there by land, it was decided that Gaius Laelius should be recalled so that the negotiations for peace might be conducted in his presence.

​Quintus Fulvius Gillo, Scipio’s lieutenant, brought the Carthaginians to Rome; since they were forbidden to enter the city, lodging was provided for them in the Villa Publica, and an audience of the senate was granted to them at the Temple of Bellona.