I told him that I saw no difficulty in yielding to his wish, and requested him to submit to me his inventory of the spoil. Casting my eye at it, I was not surprised to find that the articles made of gold were considerably larger in number than those made of silver. I knew that the Tyrrhenians had little or no communication with Tarshish and the other silver-producing countries, whilst they have free access to the sands of the Eridanus, and that by the road made by the Ligurian convicts they could cross the mountains to the Rhone. There were a good many articles of copper which came from Lower Vitalia, and amongst them some figures, which were evidently images of gods.
I sent for Gisgo to come on board and interrogate the prisoners in their own language. In their peculiar muffled accent they informed us that they had come from Populonia, and were subjects of King Tarchnas, who ruled over twenty Tyrrhenian cities. Populonia, they said, was their only sea-port, and thence they always set sail upon their cruises, their ships being manned with Ligurians as oarsmen and sailors, whilst their fighting men were nearly all Rasennæ. Two of their chiefs they mentioned as having been killed in the fight, whose names were Vivenna and Spurinna; Himilco gave it as his opinion that these names were identical with the Vitalian Vibius and Spurius.
Upon being shown the copper images of the gods which had been found amongst the plunder, the prisoners recognised them at once, and told us the names. There were Turms, the Hermes of the Hellenes; Turan, whom I believed to be our Ashtoreth; Sethlans, the same as our Khousor Phtah; Fouflouns the Dionysus of the Hellenes; and another called Menvra, of whom I had never heard, but whom Himilco declared to the Vitalian goddess Minerva.
The Tyrrhenians went on to say that they were allies of the Latins and of the Opsci, or Occi, a name which in our language signifies "workmen;" and that the semi-barbarous Samnites, although of the same race and speaking the same tongue as the Opsci, had committed depredations against them on the river Volturnus, or "the rolling stream;" and had likewise attacked the Latin settlement of Novla, or "the new city." In defence of their allies, the Rasennæ had declared war against the Samnites, and were on their way to attack them when they encountered us, and fell into our power. This was all the information they had to give me, and I sent the men back to the care of the crew, and we all retired to rest.
To face [page 163].
The day had hardly dawned when I rose, and looking a little to the left, I could see behind us the light, the flames, and the lurid smoke that issued from the crater of Mount Etna. The two women and all the men, who had never before seen such a spectacle, looked on, some in astonishment, some in downright terror. Hannibal was as surprised as anyone, and declared that except he knew to the contrary, he should have taken it for the mouth of hell; adding, that he thought it a great pity that all that mighty force of fire could not be utilised; it would make a splendid apparatus for reducing an obstinate city in a siege. To my inquiry whether he had never seen the burning mountain in Cilicia, he replied that, although he had passed several times, it had never been his good fortune to be there at the time of an eruption.
We passed sufficiently close to Etna to be able most distinctly to hear its roar. The women, really alarmed, betook themselves to their cabin. Hanno asked what was the distance of the volcano from us.
"Sixty stadia at least," I answered; "you seem surprised at our seeing it so plainly, but in the broad daylight it will not be nearly so conspicuous, although it is very lofty. My own reason for coming so close to it now is that we may the more directly steer into the Straits of Sicily."