§22.56.1cum in hanc sententiam pedibus omnes issent, summotaque foro per magistratus turba patres diversi ad sedandos tumultus discessissent, tum demum litterae a C. Terentio consule allatae sunt: §22.56.2L. Aemilium consulem exercitumque caesum; sese Canusii esse, reliquias tantae cladis velut ex naufragio colligentem; ad decem milia militum ferme esse inconpositorum inordinatorumque; Poenum sedere ad Cannas, in captivorum —; §22.56.3pretiis praedaque alia nec victoris animo nec magni ducis more nundinantem. §22.56.4tum privatae quoque per domos clades vulgatae sunt, adeoque totam urbem opplevit luctus, ut sacrum anniversarium Cereris intermissum sit, quia nec lugentibus id facere est fas nec ulla in illa tempestate matrona expers luctus fuerat. §22.56.5itaque ne ob eandem causam alia quoque sacra publica aut privata desererentur, senatus consulto diebus triginta luctus est finitus. §22.56.6ceterum cum sedato urbis tumultu revocati in curiam patres essent, aliae insuper ex Sicilia litterae allatae sunt ab T. Otacilio propraetore, regnum Hieronis a classe Punica vastari; §22.56.7cui opem inploranti ferre vellet, nuntiatum sibi esse alia classem ad Aegates insulas stare paratam instructamque, §22.56.8ut, ubi se versum ad tuendam Syracusanam oram Poeni sensissent, Lilybaeum extemplo provinciamque aliam Romanam adgrederentur.
When all had voted for this motion, and the crowd had been cleared from the Forum by the magistrates, and the senators had dispersed in different directions to quell the tumults, then at last a letter was brought from the consul Gaius Terentius: that the consul Lucius Aemilius and the army had been slain; that he himself was at Canusium, collecting the remnants of so great a disaster as if from a shipwreck; that there were about ten thousand disorganized and disordered soldiers; that the Carthaginian was sitting at Cannae, bargaining over the captors' — ransom and other booty, in a manner suited neither to the spirit of a victor nor the custom of a great leader. Then private disasters also became known through the houses, and grief so filled the whole city that the annual festival of Ceres was suspended, because it is not religiously permissible for those in mourning to perform it, and at that time no matron had been free from mourning. Therefore, lest for the same reason other public or private rites should also be abandoned, by a decree of the senate the mourning was limited to thirty days. But when, after the tumult of the city was quieted, the senators had been recalled to the senate house, another letter besides was brought from Sicily from the propraetor Titus Otacilius: that the kingdom of Hiero was being laid waste by a Carthaginian fleet; and that when he wished to bring help to him as he implored aid, it had been reported to him that another fleet was lying ready and equipped at the Aegates islands, so that, as soon as the Carthaginians perceived that he had turned to protect the Syracusan coast, they might immediately attack Lilybaeum and the other Roman province.
itaque classe opus esse, si regem socium Siciliamque tueri vellent.
Therefore, there was need of a fleet, if they wished to protect their ally the king and Sicily.