Hannibal, from resentment, not only on account of their defection,
but also because they slew his horsemen, sent his messenger, who was a
deserter from the Romans, back again, in order that the soldiers might
do what was thought necessary, without his being privy to it, and then
placed the townsmen in parties to keep guard along the walls, and in
convenient parts of the city. The guards and watches they formed with
extraordinary care for that night, and on each side of the gate at
which they supposed the enemy would come, they opposed to them the
choicest of the troops in the garrison. About the fourth watch,
Hannibal approached the city. His vanguard was composed of Roman
deserters, with Roman arms. These, all of whom spoke the Latin
language, when they reached the gate, called up the guards, and
ordered the gate to be opened, for the consul had arrived. The guards,
as if awakened at their call, began to be in a hurry and bustle, and
exert themselves in opening the gate, which was closed by letting down
the portcullis; some raised this with levers, others drew it up with
ropes to such a height that the men could come in without stooping.
The opening was scarcely wide enough, when the deserters eagerly
rushed through the gate, and after about six hundred had got in, the
rope being let go by which it was suspended, the portcullis fell with
a loud noise. Some of the Salapians fell upon the deserters, who were
carrying their arms carelessly suspended upon their shoulders, as is
customary after a march, as if among friends; others frightened away
the enemy by discharging stones, pikes, and javelins from the tower
adjoining the gate and from the walls. Thus Hannibal withdrew, having
been caught by his own stratagem, and proceeded to raise the siege of
Locri, which Cincius was carrying on with the greatest vigour, with
works and engines of every kind, which were brought from Sicily. Mago,
who by that time almost despaired of retaining and defending the
town, derived his first gleam of hope on the death of Marcellus being