§29.8.1Scipio ut et arcem relictam ab hostibus et vacua vidit castra, vocatos ad contionem Locrenses graviter ob defectionem incusavit; §29.8.2de auctoribus supplicium sumpsit bonaque eorum alterius factionis principibus ob egregiam fidem adversus Romanos concessit.
When Scipio saw both the citadel abandoned by the enemy and the camp empty, he summoned the Locrians to an assembly and heavily censured them for their defection; he inflicted punishment on the instigators and granted their property to the leaders of the other faction because of their outstanding loyalty toward the Romans.
§29.8.3publice nec dare nec eripere se quicquam Locrensibus dixit; Romam mitterent legatos; quam senatus aequum censuisset, eam fortunam habituros.
He said that publicly he was neither giving nor taking away anything from the Locrians; they should send ambassadors to Rome; they would have whatever fortune the senate should deem fair.
§29.8.4illud satis scire, etsi male de populo Romano meriti essent, in meliore statu sub iratis Romanis futures, quam sub amicis Carthaginiensibus fuerint.
He said that he knew this well enough: that even if they had deserved ill of the Roman people, they would be in a better condition under the angry Romans than they had been under their friends, the Carthaginians.
§29.8.5ipse Pleminio legato praesidioque, quod arcem ceperat, ad tuendam urbem relicto, cum quibus venerat copiis Messanam traiecit.
He himself, having left the lieutenant Pleminius and the garrison which had taken the citadel to protect the city, crossed over to Messana with the troops with which he had come.
ita superbe §29.8.6et crudeliter habiti Locrenses ab Carthaginiensibus post defectionem ab Romanis fuerant, ut modicas iniurias non aequo modo animo pati sed prope libenti possent; §29.8.7verum enim vero tantum Pleminius Hamilcarem praesidii praefectum, tantum praesidiarii milites Romani Poenos scelere atque avaritia superaverunt, ut non armis, sed vitiis videretur certari.
Thus proudly and cruelly had the Locrians been treated by the Carthaginians after their defection from the Romans, that they were able not only to bear moderate injuries with equanimity, but almost with willingness; but in truth, Pleminius so far surpassed Hamilcar, the commander of the garrison, and the Roman garrison soldiers so far surpassed the Carthaginians in wickedness and avarice, that it seemed a contest was being waged not with arms, but with vices.
§29.8.8nihil omnium, quae inopi invisas opes potentioris faciunt, praetermissum in oppidanos est ab duce aut a militibus; in corpora ipsorum, in liberos, in coniuges infandae contumeliae editae.
Nothing of all those things which make the wealth of the more powerful hateful to the poor was omitted against the townspeople by the leader or by the soldiers; unspeakable outrages were committed against their own persons, their children, and their wives.
§29.8.9iam avaritia ne sacrorum quidem spoliatione abstinuit, nec alia modo templa violata, sed Proserpinae etiam intacti omni aevo thensauri, praeterquam quod a Pyrrho, qui cum magno piaculo sacrilegii sui manubias rettulit, spoliati dicebantur.
Now avarice did not abstain even from the plundering of sacred things, and not only were other temples violated, but even the treasures of Proserpina, untouched through every age, except that they were said to have been plundered by Pyrrhus, who carried away his spoils with a great expiation for his sacrilege.
§29.8.10ergo sicut ante regiae naves laceratae naufragiis nihil in terram integri praeter sacram pecuniam deae, §29.8.11quam asportaverant, extulerunt, tum quoque alio genere cladis eadem illa pecunia omnibus contactis ea violatione templi furorem obiecit atque inter se ducem in ducem, militem in militem rabie hostili vertit.
Therefore, just as previously the king's ships, shattered by shipwrecks, brought out to land nothing intact except the sacred money of the goddess which they had carried away, so on this occasion also, by another kind of disaster, that very same money cast madness upon all who were contaminated by that violation of the temple, and with hostile rage turned leader against leader, and soldier against soldier.