took the field against Carthage. (Mai, p. 183. Cp. Zonaras, 8, 12.)

[Sidenote: B.C. 256 (_a.u._ 498)] 16. Their leaders were Regulus and
Lucius, preferred before others for their excellence. Regulus was,
indeed, in so great poverty that he did not readily consent, on that
account, to take up the command; and it was voted that his wife and
children should be furnished their support from the public treasury.
(Valesius, p. 593. Zonaras, 8, 12.)

17. ¶ Hanno had been sent to the Romans by Hamilcar, as was pretended,
in behalf of peace, but in reality for the sake of delay. And he, when
some clamored for his arrest, because the Carthaginians by fraud
[lacuna] Cornelius [lacuna] [Mai, p. 183.] Four pages of the MS. are
lacking. (Zonaras, 8, 12.)

18. Dio the Roman, who wrote a history about the Empire and the Republic
of Rome and describes the far-famed Carthaginian war, says that when
Regulus,

[Sidenote: B.C. 256 (_a.u._ 498)] consul for Rome, was warring against
Carthage, a serpent suddenly crept out of the palisade of the Roman army
and lay there. By his command the Romans slew the reptile and having
flayed it sent its skin, a great prodigy, to the Roman senate. And when
measured by the same senate (as the same Dio says) it was found to have
a length of one hundred and twenty feet. In addition to its length its
thickness was also notable. (Ioannes Damascenus, On Serpents, vol. I, p.
472, A.B. Cp. Zonaras, 8, 13.)

19. ¶ The Carthaginians in fear of capture sent heralds to the consul to
the end that by some satisfactory arrangement they might turn aside the