§25.26.1Marcellus Euryalo recepto praesidioque addito una cura erat liber, ne qua ab tergo vis hostium in arcem accepta inclusos inpeditosque moenibus suos turbaret.
Marcellus, Euryalus having been recovered and a garrison added, was free from one care, lest any force of the enemy, received into the fort from behind, should throw into confusion his own men, who were shut in and impeded by the walls.
§25.26.2Achradinam inde trinis castris per idonea dispositis loca spe ad inopiam omnium rerum inclusos redacturum circumsedit.
Thereupon, having disposed three camps in suitable places, he besieged Achradina, in the hope that he would reduce those shut in to a destitution of all things.
§25.26.3cum per aliquot dies quietae stationes utrimque fuissent, repente adventus Hippocratis et Himilconis, ut ultro undique oppugnarentur Romani, fecit.
When the outposts on both sides had been quiet for several days, suddenly the arrival of Hippocrates and Himilco brought it about that the Romans were actually attacked from all sides.
§25.26.4nam et Hippocrates castris ad magnum portum communitis signoque iis dato, qui Achradinam tenebant, castra vetera Romanorum adortus est, quibus Crispinus praeerat, et Epicydes eruptionem in stationes Marcelli fecit, et classis Punica litori, quod inter urbem et castra Romana erat, adpulsa est, ne quid praesidii Crispino submitti a Marcello posset.
For both Hippocrates, having fortified a camp near the Great Harbor and given a signal to those who held Achradina, attacked the old Roman camp which Crispinus commanded; and Epicydes made a sally against the outposts of Marcellus; and the Carthaginian fleet was brought to the shore which lay between the city and the Roman camp, so that no reinforcement could be sent to Crispinus by Marcellus.
§25.26.5tumultum tamen maiorem hostes praebuerunt quam certamen; nam et Crispinus Hippocraten non reppulit tantum munimentis, sed insecutus etiam est trepide fugientem, et Epicyden Marcellus in urbem compulit.
The enemy, however, caused greater tumult than actual fighting; for not only did Crispinus repulse Hippocrates from the fortifications, but he even pursued him as he fled in panic, and Marcellus drove Epicydes back into the city.
§25.26.6satisque iam etiam in posterum videbatur provisum, ne quid ab repentinis eorum excursionibus periculi foret.
And sufficient precaution seemed to have been taken even for the future, lest there should be any danger from their sudden excursions.
accessit et ab pestilentia commune malum, §25.26.7quod facile utrorumque animos averteret a belli consiliis.
To this was added a common calamity from a pestilence, which easily diverted the minds of both sides from thoughts of war.
nam tempore autumni et locis natura gravibus, multo tamen magis extra urbem quam in urbe, intoleranda vis aestus per utraque castra omnium ferme corpora movit.
For as it was autumn and the places were naturally unhealthy—though much more so outside the city than inside—the intolerable intensity of the heat affected the bodies of almost everyone in both camps.
§25.26.8ac primo temporis ac loci vitio et aegri erant et moriebantur. postea curatio ipsa et contactus aegrorum volgabat morbos, ut aut neglecti desertique, qui incidissent, morerentur, aut adsidentis curantisque eadem vi morbi repletos secum traherent cotidianaque funera §25.26.9et morse ob oculos esset et undique dies noctesque ploratus audirentur.
And at first, they both fell ill and died owing to the unhealthiness of the season and the place; afterwards, the very care and contact of the sick spread the diseases, so that those who had fallen ill either died neglected and abandoned, or else dragged down with themselves those who sat by them and attended them, who were infected with the same virulence of the disease, and daily funerals and death were before their eyes, and wailings were heard on all sides day and night.
§25.26.10postremo ita adsuetudine mali efferaverant: animos, ut non modo lacrimis iustoque conploratu. prosequerentur mortuos, sed ne efferrent quidem aut sepelirent, iacerentque strata exanima corpora in conspectu similem mortem expectantium mortuique aegros, aegri validos cum metu, §25.26.11tum tabe ac pestifero odore corporum conficerent.
Finally, they had so hardened their hearts through familiarity with the calamity, that they not only did not follow the dead with tears and customary lamentation, but did not even carry them out or bury them; and the lifeless bodies lay stretched out in the sight of those who were expecting a similar death, and the dead wore out the sick, and the sick the healthy with fear, then with the decay and pestilential odor of the bodies.
et ut ferro potius morerentur, quidam invadebant soli hostium stationes.
And that they might rather die by the sword, some attacked the outposts of the enemy all alone.
§25.26.12multo tamen vis maior pestis Poenorum castra quam Romana adorta erat, nam Romani diu circumsedendo Syracusas caelo aquisque adsuerant magis.
The violence of the pestilence, however, had attacked the camp of the Carthaginians much more severely than that of the Romans; for the Romans, by long besieging Syracuse, had become more accustomed to the climate and the water.
§25.26.13ex hostium exercitu Siculi, ut primum videre ex gravitate loci volgari morbos, in suas quisque propinquas urbes dilapsi sunt; et. §25.26.14Carthaginienses quibus nusquam receptus erat, cum ipsis ducibus Hippocrate atque Himilcone ad internecionem omnes perierunt.
Of the enemy's army, the Sicilians, as soon as they saw that the diseases were spreading from the unhealthiness of the place, slipped away each to their own neighboring cities; and the Carthaginians, who had no place of retreat anywhere, perished to a man, together with their leaders Hippocrates and Himilco themselves.
§25.26.15Marcellus, ut tanta vis ingruebat mali, traduxerat in urbem suos infirmaque corpora tecta et umbrae recreaverant.
Marcellus, as so great a force of calamity was rushing in, had moved his men into the city, and roofs and shade had restored their weakened bodies.
multi tamen ex Romano exercitu eadem peste absumpti sunt.
Nevertheless, many of the Roman army were carried off by the same pestilence.