he was appointed to command, or, lastly, by the late but bold measure adopted by the Syracusans themselves.  That the greatest possible recompence for all the evils and dangers which he had for so long a time undergone, both by sea and land, around the walls of Syracuse, was the reflection, that he had been able to take that city.”  The quaestor was then sent with a guard to the island, to receive and protect the royal treasure.  The city was given up to be plundered by the soldiery, after guards had been placed at each of the houses of those who had been with the Roman troops.  While many acts exhibited horrid examples of rage and rapacity, it is recorded that Archimedes, while intent on some figures which he had described in the dust, although the confusion was as great as could possibly exist in a captured city, in which soldiers were running up and down in search of plunder, was put to death by a soldier, who did not know who he was; that Marcellus was grieved at this event, and that pains were taken about his funeral, while his relations also for whom diligent inquiry was made, derived honour and protection from his name and memory.  Such, for the most part, was the manner in which Syracuse was captured.  The quantity of booty was so great, that had Carthage itself, which was carrying on a contest on equal terms, been captured, it would scarcely have afforded so much.  A few days before the taking of Syracuse, Titus Otacilius passed over from Lilybaeum to Utica with eighty quinqueremes, and entering the harbour before it was light, took some transports laden with corn; then landing, he laid waste a considerable portion of the country around Utica, and brought back to his ships booty of every description.  He returned to Lilybaeum, the third day after he set out, with a hundred and thirty transports laden with corn and booty.  The corn he sent immediately to Syracuse; and had it not been for the very seasonable arrival of this supply, a destructive famine threatened alike the victors and the vanquished.

32.  Nothing very memorable had been done in Spain for about two years, the operations of the war consisting more in laying plans than in fighting; but during the same summer in which the events above recorded took place, the Roman generals, quitting their winter quarters, united their forces; then a council was summoned; and the opinions of all accorded, that since their only object hitherto had been to prevent Hasdrubal from pursuing his march into Italy, it was now time that an effort should be made to bring the war in Spain to a termination; and they thought that the twenty thousand Celtiberians, who had been induced to take arms that winter, formed a sufficient accession to their strength.  There were three armies of the enemy.  Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo, and Mago, who had united their forces, were about a five days’ journey from the Romans.  Hasdrubal, son of Hamilcar, who was the old commander in Spain, was nearer to them:  he was with his army near the city Anitorgis.