Meanwhile Utica and Hippo-Zarytus were free since the Mercenaries
were no longer besieging them. Hamilcar commanded them to come to his
assistance. But not caring to compromise themselves, they answered him
with vague words, with compliments and excuses.
He went up again abruptly into the North, determined to open up one of
the Tyrian towns, though he were obliged to lay siege to it. He required
a station on the coast, so as to be able to draw supplies and men from
the islands or from Cyrene, and he coveted the harbour of Utica as being
the nearest to Carthage.
The Suffet therefore left Zouitin and turned the lake of Hippo-Zarytus
with circumspection. But he was soon obliged to lengthen out his
regiments into column in order to climb the mountain which separates
the two valleys. They were descending at sunset into its hollow,
funnel-shaped summit, when they perceived on the level of the ground
before them bronze she-wolves which seemed to be running across the
grass.
Suddenly large plumes arose and a terrible song burst forth, accompanied
by the rhythm of flutes. It was the army under Spendius; for some
Campanians and Greeks, in their execration of Carthage, had assumed the
ensigns of Rome. At the same time long pikes, shields of leopard's skin,
linen cuirasses, and naked shoulders were seen on the left.
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