the west, Numidia would rise. Finally, lack of provisions would
sooner or later lead them to devastate the surrounding country like
grasshoppers, and the rich trembled for their fine country-houses, their
vineyards and their cultivated lands.

Hanno proposed atrocious and impracticable measures, such as promising a
heavy sum for every Barbarian's head, or setting fire to their camp with
ships and machines. His colleague Gisco, on the other hand, wished them
to be paid. But the Ancients detested him owing to his popularity; for
they dreaded the risk of a master, and through terror of monarchy strove
to weaken whatever contributed to it or might re-establish it.

Outside the fortification there were people of another race and of
unknown origin, all hunters of the porcupine, and eaters of shell-fish
and serpents. They used to go into caves to catch hyenas alive, and
amuse themselves by making them run in the evening on the sands of
Megara between the stelae of the tombs. Their huts, which were made of
mud and wrack, hung on the cliff like swallows' nests. There they lived,
without government and without gods, pell-mell, completely naked, at
once feeble and fierce, and execrated by the people of all time on
account of their unclean food. One morning the sentries perceived that
they were all gone.

At last some members of the Great Council arrived at a decision. They
came to the camp without necklaces or girdles, and in open sandals
like neighbours. They walked at a quiet pace, waving salutations to
the captains, or stopped to speak to the soldiers, saying that all was
finished and that justice was about to be done to their claims.

Many of them saw a camp of Mercenaries for the first time. Instead of