mercenaries, newly levied, without the least experience, resolution, or zeal, since it was not for their own country they were going to fight. This soon appeared in the engagement. They could not sustain the first attack. Fifty of their vessels were sunk, and seventy taken, with their whole crews. The rest, favoured by a wind which rose very seasonably for them, made the best of their way to the little island from whence they had sailed. There were upwards of ten thousand taken prisoners. The consul sailed immediately for Lilybæum, and joined his forces to those of the besiegers. When the news of this defeat arrived at Carthage, it occasioned so much the greater surprise and terror, as it was less expected. The senate, however, did not lose their courage, though they saw themselves quite unable to continue the war. As the Romans were now masters of the sea, it was not possible for the Carthaginians to send either provisions, or reinforcements, to the armies in Sicily. An express was therefore immediately despatched to Barca, the general there, empowering him to act as he should think proper. Barca, so long as he had room to entertain the least hopes, had done every thing that could be expected from the most intrepid courage and the most consummate wisdom. But having now no resource left, he sent a deputation to the consul, in order to treat about a peace. “Prudence,” says Polybius, “consists in knowing how to resist and yield at a seasonable juncture.” Lutatius was not insensible how tired the Romans were grown of a war, which had exhausted them both of men and money; and the dreadful consequences which had attended on Regulus’s inexorable and imprudent obstinacy, were fresh in his memory. He therefore complied without difficulty, and dictated the following treaty. THERE SHALL BE PEACE BETWEEN ROME AND CARTHAGE (IN CASE THE ROMAN PEOPLE APPROVE OF IT) ON THE FOLLOWING CONDITIONS: THE CARTHAGINIANS SHALL EVACUATE ALL SICILY; SHALL NO LONGER MAKE WAR UPON HIERO, THE SYRACUSANS, OR THEIR ALLIES: THEY SHALL RESTORE TO THE ROMANS, WITHOUT RANSOM, ALL THE PRISONERS WHICH THEY HAVE TAKEN FROM THEM; AND PAY THEM, WITHIN TWENTY YEARS, TWO THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED EUBOIC TALENTS OF SILVER.(696) It is worth the reader’s remarking, by the way, the simple, exact, and clear terms in which this treaty is expressed; that, in so short a compass, adjusts the interests of two powerful republics and their allies, both by sea and land.