§24.29.1dies haud ita multi intercesserunt, cum ex Leontinis legati praesidium finibus suis orantes venerunt; quae legatio peropportuna visa ad multitudinem inconditam ac tumultuosam exonerandam ducesque eius ablegandos.
Not so many days had intervened when envoys came from Leontini begging for a garrison for their territory; which embassy seemed very opportune for ridding the city of an undisciplined and turbulent multitude and sending away its leaders.
§24.29.2Hippocrates praetor ducere eo transfugas iussus; secuti multi ex mercennariis auxiliis quattuor milia armatorum effecerunt.
Hippocrates, the praetor, was ordered to lead the deserters thither; many from the mercenaries and auxiliaries followed, making up four thousand armed men.
§24.29.3et mittentibus. et missis ea laeta expeditio fuit; nam et illis, quod iam diu cupiebant, novandi res occasio data est, et hi sentinam quandam urbis rati exhaustam laetabantur.
The expedition was a source of joy both to those who sent them and to those who were sent; for to the latter was given an opportunity, which they had long desired, of revolutionizing affairs, while the former rejoiced, thinking that a kind of bilge-water of the city had been drained off.
ceterum levaverunt modo in praesentia velut corpus aegrum, quo mox in graviorem morbum recideret.
However, they only relieved for the present what was like a sick body, so that it soon relapsed into a more grievous disease.
§24.29.4Hippocrates enim finitima provinciae Romanae primo furtivis excursionibus vastare coepit; deinde, cum ad tuendos sociorum agros missum ab Appio praesidium esset, omnibus copiis impetum in oppositam stationem cum caede multorum fecit.
For Hippocrates began at first to devastate the territory bordering on the Roman province by stealthy incursions; then, when a garrison had been sent by Appius to protect the fields of the allies, he made an attack with all his forces upon the opposing outpost, killing many of them.
§24.29.5quae cum essent nuntiata Marcello, legatos extemplo Syracusas misit, qui pacis fidem ruptam esse dicerent nec belli defuturam umquam causam, nisi Hippocrates atque Epicydes non ab Syracusis modo, sed tota procul Sicilia ablegarentur.
When these things were reported to Marcellus, he immediately sent envoys to Syracuse to say that the pledge of peace had been broken, and that there would never be wanting a cause for war, unless Hippocrates and Epicydes were banished not only from Syracuse, but far away from the whole of Sicily.
§24.29.6Epicydes, ne aut reus criminis absentis fratris praesens esset, aut deesset pro parte sua concitando bello, profectus et ipse in Leontinos, quia satis eos adversus populum Romanum concitatos cernebat, avertere etiam ab Syracusanis coepit: §24.29.7nam ita eos pacem pepigisse cum Romanis, ut quicumque populi sub regibus fuissent, et suae dicionis essent, nec iam libertate eos contentos esse, nisi etiam regnent ac dominentur.
Epicydes, lest he should be present to answer for the crime of his absent brother, or should fail on his part in stirring up war, himself also set out for Leontini; and because he saw that they were sufficiently incited against the Roman people, he began to alienate them from the Syracusans as well: for (he said) they had made peace with the Romans on such terms that all the peoples who had been under the kings should also be under their sway, and that they were no longer content with their own liberty, unless they should also reign and lord it over others.
§24.29.8renuntiandum igitur eis esse Leontinos quoque aequom censere se liberos esse, vel quod in solo urbis suae tyrannus ceciderit, vel quod ibi primum conclamatum ad libertatem relictisque regiis ducibus Syracusas concursum sit.
Therefore, they ought to announce to them that the Leontines also thought it right that they should be free, either because the tyrant had fallen on the soil of their own city, or because there first the cry for liberty had been raised, and, deserting the royal officers, they had run to Syracuse.
§24.29.9itaque aut eximendum id de foedere esse, aut legem eam foederis non accipiendam. facile multitudini persuasum;
Therefore, either that article must be excluded from the treaty, or that condition of the treaty must not be accepted.
§24.29.10legatisque Syracusanorum et de caede stationis Romanae querentibus et Hippocratem atque Epicydem abire seu Locros seu quo alio Drallent, dummodo Sicilia cederent, iubentibus ferociter responsum est neque mandasse sese Syracusanis, §24.29.11ut pacem pro se cum Romanis facerent, neque teneri alienis foederibus.
The multitude was easily persuaded; and to the envoys of the Syracusans, who both complained of the slaughter of the Roman guard and ordered Hippocrates and Epicydes to depart either to Locri or wherever else they preferred, provided they withdrew from Sicily, a fierce answer was returned: that they had not commissioned the Syracusans to make peace for them with the Romans, nor were they bound by treaties made by others.
§24.29.12haec ad Romanos Syracusani detulerunt abnuentes Leontinos in sua potestate esse: itaque integro secum foedere bellum Romanos cum iis gestures, neque sese defuturos ei bello ita, ut in potestatem redacti suae rursus dicionis essent, sicut pax convenisset.
The Syracusans reported these things to the Romans, denying that the Leontines were under their power; and that therefore the Romans might wage war with them, the treaty with themselves remaining inviolate, and that they themselves would not fail to assist in that war, on the condition that, when reduced to submission, they should again be under their sway, as had been agreed upon in the peace.