+26.+ With this suggestion in their minds these officers deliberated on
the means of raising money; and having communicated their decisions to
Scipio, he said that he would now consult them on the next necessary
step. They accordingly resolved that they would name a day on which
all were to appear; and that then they would pardon the general body
of the men, but severely punish the instigators of the mutiny, who
were as many as thirty-five. The day having arrived, and the mutineers
having appeared to make terms and receive their pay, Scipio gave secret
instructions to the tribunes, who had been sent on the mission to them,
to meet them; and, each of them selecting five of the ringleaders,
to greet them with politeness and invite them, if possible, to their
own tent, or, if they could not do that, to dinner or some such
entertainment. But to the troops with him he sent round orders to have
provisions for a considerable period ready in three days’ time, because
they were to march against the deserter Andobales under Marcus Silanus.
When they heard this the mutineers were much emboldened, because they
imagined that they would have everything in their own hands, as the
other troops would be gone by the time they joined the general.
[Sidenote: The mutiny suppressed and the ringleaders executed at New
Carthage.]
+27.+ Upon the approach of the mutineers, Scipio gave orders to his
army to march out the next morning at daybreak with their baggage. But
he instructed the tribunes and praefects that, as soon as they met the
mutineers, they should order their men to put down their baggage, and
keep them under arms at the city gate; and then, placing a detachment
at each of the gates, take good care that none of the mutineers should
leave the city. The officers who had been sent to meet the men fell
in with them on their arrival, and took the ringleaders with every
appearance of civility to their own tents, in accordance with the
arrangement that had been made. At the same time orders had been given
to them to arrest the thirty-five immediately after dinner, and to keep
them in fetters: without allowing any one in the tent to go out, except
the messenger who was to inform the general from each of them that this
had been accomplished.
[Sidenote: Scipio’s speech to the mutineers.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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