Hanno escaped and hastened at once to Carthage.  The Carthaginians, seized with wrath and fear, crucified him and sent envoys to Catulus regarding peace.  And he was disposed to end the war since his office was soon to expire and he could not hope to destroy Carthage in so short a time; nor, again, did he care to leave his successors the glory of his own efforts.  Consequently they effected an armistice by giving him money, grain, and hostages; these preliminaries secured them the right of sending envoys to Rome and proposing as conditions that they retire from Sicily entire, yielding it to the Romans, as well as abandon all the surrounding islands, that they carry on no war with Hiero, and pay an indemnity, a part at the time of making the treaty and a part later, and that they return the Roman deserters and captives free of cost, but ransom their own.

Such were the terms agreed upon.  Hamilcar succeeded only in having the disgrace of going under the yoke left out.  After settling these conditions he led his soldiers out of the fortifications and sailed for home before the oaths were imposed.  The people of Rome soon learned of the victory and were greatly elated, feeling that their superiority was indisputable.  Upon the arrival of envoys they could no longer restrain themselves and hoped to possess all of Libya.  Therefore they would not abide by the terms of the consul:  instead, they exacted from them a very much larger sum of money than had been promised.  They forbade them also to sail past Italy or allied territory abroad in ships of war, or to employ mercenaries from such districts.

The first war between the Carthaginians and the Romans, then, ended this way in the twenty-fourth year.  Catulus celebrated a triumph over its conclusion.  Quintus Lutatius became consul and departed for Sicily, where with his brother Catulus he enforced order in all communities; and he deprived the islanders of arms.  Thus Sicily, with the exception of Hiero’s domain, was made a slave of Rome, and from this time its people were on a friendly footing with the Carthaginians.

Both soon were again involved in other wars outside.  At Carthage the remnant of their mercenary force and the slave population in the city and a large proportion of their hostages (influenced by the disasters of the State) joined in an attack upon it.  The Romans did not heed the invitations to aid the party that had assumed the offensive, but sent envoys in turn for discussion; and when they found themselves unable to reconcile the combatants, they released free of cost all the Carthaginian captives they were holding, sent grain to the city and permitted it to gather mercenaries from Roman allied territory.  By this action they were seeking to gain a reputation for fairness rather than displaying a real interest in their own advantage, and this later caused them trouble.  For the great Hamilcar Barca, after he had conquered his adversaries, did not dare to make a campaign against the Romans, much as he hated them; but he started for Spain contrary to the wishes of the magistrates at home.