§24.6.1ita, quod unum vinculum cum Romanis societatis erat, Thrasone sublato e medio extemplo haud dubie ad defectionem res spectabat; §24.6.2legatique ad Hannibalem missi ac remissi ab eo cum Hannibale nobili adulescente Hippocrates et Epicydes, nati Carthagine, sed oriundi ab Syracusis exule avo, Poeni ipsi materno genere.
Thus, since Thraso, the single bond of alliance with the Romans, had been removed, the situation immediately and undoubtedly tended toward defection; and ambassadors were sent to Hannibal, and sent back by him, together with a noble youth named Hannibal, Hippocrates and Epicydes, who were born at Carthage but originated from Syracuse through their exiled grandfather, being themselves Carthaginians on their mother's side.
§24.6.3per hos iuncta societas Hannibali ac Syracusano tyranno; nec invito Hannibale apud tyrannum manserunt.
Through them an alliance was formed between Hannibal and the Syracusan tyrant; and, with the consent of Hannibal, they remained with the tyrant.
§24.6.4Appius Claudius praetor, cuius Sicilia provincia erat, ubi ea accepit, extemplo legatos ad Hieronymum misit.
Appius Claudius the praetor, whose province Sicily was, when he heard this, immediately sent ambassadors to Hieronymus.
qui cum sese ad renovandam societatem, quae cum avo fuisset, venisse dicerent, per ludibrium auditi dimissique sunt ab quaerente per iocum Hieronymo, quae fortuna eis pugnae ad Cannas fuisset; vix credibilia enim legatos Hannibalis narrare; §24.6.5velle, quid veri sit, scire, ut ex eo, utram spem sequatur, consilium capiat.
When they said that they had come to renew the alliance which had existed with his grandfather, they were heard with derision and dismissed by Hieronymus, who asked them in jest what their fortune had been in the battle at Cannae; for, he said, the messages of Hannibal's ambassadors were scarcely credible; he wished to know what the truth was, so that he might take counsel from it as to which hope he should follow.
§24.6.6Romani, cum serio legationes audire coepisset, redituros se ad eum dicentes esse, monito magis eo quam rogato, ne fidem temere mutaret, proficiscuntur.
The Romans, saying that they would return to him when he should begin to listen to embassies in earnest, departed after rather warning than entreating him not rashly to change his allegiance.
§24.6.7Hieronymus legatos Carthaginem misit ad foedus ex societate cum Hannibale pacta faciendum.
Hieronymus sent ambassadors to Carthage to make a treaty based on the alliance agreed upon with Hannibal.
convenit, ut, cum Romanos Sicilia expulissent — id autem brevi fore, si naves atque exercitum misissent —, Himera amnis, qui ferme dividit insulam, finis regni Syracusani ac Punici imperii esset.
It was agreed that when they had expelled the Romans from Sicily—which, moreover, would shortly happen if they sent ships and an army—the river Himera, which almost divides the island, should be the boundary of the Syracusan kingdom and the Carthaginian empire.
§24.6.8aliam deinde inflatus adsentationibus eorum, qui eum non Hieronis tantum sed Pyrrhi etiam regis, materni avi, iubebant meminisse, legationem misit, qua aecum censebat Sicilia sibi omni cedi, Italiae imperium proprium quaeri Carthaginiensi populo.
Then, puffed up by the flattery of those who bade him remember not only Hiero but also King Pyrrhus, his maternal grandfather, he sent another embassy, through which he thought it fair that all Sicily should be ceded to him, and that the dominion of Italy should be sought for the Carthaginian people as their own.
§24.6.9hanc levitatem ac iactationem animi neque mirabantur in iuvene furioso neque arguebant, dummodo averterent eum ab Romanis.
They neither wondered at nor censured this levity and boasting of mind in a mad youth, provided they could turn him away from the Romans.