[282] Ibid. 2. 42.
[283] Florus ii. 7 (iii. 19). 6.
[284] Diod. xxxiv. 2. 43.
[285] Ibid. 2. 18; Florus l.c.
[286] Florus ii. 7 (iii. 19). 7 Quin illud quoque ultimum dedecus belli, capta sunt castra praetorum—nec nominare ipsos pudebit—castra Manli Lentuli, Pisonis Hypsaei. Itaque qui per fugitivarios abstrahi debuissent praetorios duces profugos praelio ipsi sequebantur. P. Popillius Laenas, the consul of 132 B.C., was praetor in Sicily either immediately before, or during the revolt (C.I.L. i. n. 351. l. g).
[287] Strabo vi. 2. 6. For the question whether they held Messana see p. 98.
[288] Florus ii. 7 (iii. 19). 2 Quis crederet Siciliam multo cruentius servili quam Punico bello esse vastatam?
[289] [Greek: epi tae prophasei ton drapeton] (Diodor. xxxiv. 2. 48). Wallon (Hist. de l'Esclavage ii. p. 307) takes these words to mean that the peasantry professed to be marching against the slaves.
[290] Mahaffy (l.c.) has raised and discussed this question. His conclusions are (i) that the pirates may have been influenced by a sense of business honour to the effect that the man-stealer should abide by his bargain, (ii) that these pirates may have received some large bribe, direct or indirect, from Rome, (iii) that the natural enmity between the slaves and the pirates may have hindered an agreement for transport, (iv) that the Cilician slaves, accustomed to permanent robber-bands, may have not held it impossible that Rome would acquiesce in such a creation in Sicily, (v) that the Syrian towns would not have troubled about the restoration of such of their members as had become slaves, even had they not feared to offend Rome. He remarks that the return of even free exiles to a Hellenistic city was a cause of great disturbance.
[291] Liv. Ep. lvi.; Oros. v. 9.