according to the pleasure of Scipio, not younger than fourteen nor older than thirty.  That he would grant them a truce on condition that the transports, together with their cargoes, which had been seized during the former truce, were restored.  Otherwise they would have no truce, nor any hope of a peace.”  When the ambassadors who were ordered to bear these conditions home reported them in an assembly, and Gisgo had stood forth to dissuade them from the terms, and was being listened to by the multitude, who were at once indisposed for peace and unfit for war, Hannibal, indignant that such language should be held and listened to at such a juncture, laid hold of Gisgo with his own hand, and dragged him from his elevated position.  This unusual sight in a free state having raised a murmur among the people, the soldier, disconcerted at the liberties which the citizens took, thus addressed them:  “Having left you when nine years old, I have returned after a lapse of thirty-six years.  I flatter myself I am well acquainted with the qualifications of a soldier, having been instructed in them from my childhood, sometimes by my own situation, and sometimes by that of my country.  The privileges, the laws, and customs of the city and the forum you ought to teach me.”  Having thus apologized for his indiscretion, he discoursed largely concerning the peace, showing how inoppressive the terms were, and how necessary it was.  The greatest difficulty was, that of the ships which had been seized during the truce nothing was to be found except the ships themselves:  nor was it easy to collect the property, because those who were charged with having it were opposed to the peace.  It was resolved that the ships should be restored, and that the men at least should be looked up; and as to whatever else was missing, that it should be left to Scipio to put a value upon it, and that the Carthaginians should make compensation accordingly in money.  There are those who say that Hannibal went from the field of battle to the sea-coast; whence he immediately sailed in a ship, which he had ready for the purpose, to king Antiochus; and that when Scipio demanded above every thing that Hannibal should be given up to him, answer was made that Hannibal was not in Africa.

38.  After the ambassadors returned to Scipio, the quaestors were ordered to give in an account, made out from the public registers, of the public property which had been in the ships; and the owners to make a return of the private property.  For the amount of the value twenty-five thousand pounds of silver were required to be paid down; and a truce for three months was granted to the Carthaginians.  It was added, that during the time of the truce they should not send ambassadors any where else than to Rome; and that, whatever ambassadors came to Carthage, they should not dismiss them before informing the Roman general who they were, and what they sought.  With the Carthaginian ambassadors, Lucius Veturius