substitute his own person for his country in the affections of his soldiers; and such an one was this young commander.  After he had accustomed his men to face the legionaries in the warfare of outposts before Drepana and Lilybaeum, he established himself with his force on Mount Ercte (Monte Pellegrino near Palermo), which commands like a fortress the neighbouring country; and making them settle there with their wives and children, levied contributions from the plains, while Phoenician privateers plundered the Italian coast as far as Cumae.  He thus provided his people with copious supplies without asking money from the Carthaginians, and, keeping up the communication with Drepana by sea, he threatened to surprise the important town of Panormus in his immediate vicinity.  Not only were the Romans unable to expel him from his stronghold, but after the struggle had lasted awhile at Ercte, Hamilcar formed for himself another similar position at Eryx.  This mountain, which bore half-way up the town of the same name and on its summit the temple of Aphrodite, had been hitherto in the hands of the Romans, who made it a basis for annoying Drepana.  Hamilcar deprived them of the town and besieged the temple, while the Romans in turn blockaded him from the plain.  The Celtic deserters from the Carthaginian army who were stationed by the Romans at the forlorn post of the temple—­a reckless pack of marauders, who in the course of this siege plundered the temple and perpetrated every sort of outrage —­defended the summit of the rock with desperate courage; but Hamilcar did not allow himself to be again dislodged from the town, and kept his communications constantly open by sea with the fleet and the garrison of Drepana.  The war in Sicily seemed to be assuming a turn more and more unfavourable for the Romans.  The Roman state was losing in that warfare its money and its soldiers, and the Roman generals their repute; it was already clear that no Roman general was a match for Hamilcar, and the time might be calculated when even the Carthaginian mercenary would be able boldly to measure himself against the legionary.  The privateers of Hamilcar appeared with ever-increasing audacity on the Italian coast:  already a praetor had been obliged to take the field against a band of Carthaginian rovers which had landed there.  A few years more, and Hamilcar might with his fleet have accomplished from Sicily what his son subsequently undertook by the land route from Spain.

A Fleet Built by the Romans
Victory of Catulus at the Island Aegusa

The Roman senate, however, persevered in its inaction; the desponding party for once had the majority there.  At length a number of sagacious and high-spirited men determined to save the state even without the interposition of the government, and to put an end to the ruinous Sicilian war.  Successful corsair expeditions, if they had not raised the courage of the nation, had aroused energy and hope in a portion