Calling themselves Mamertines, after Mars, one form of whose
name was Mamers, these interlopers began to extend their power over the
island. In their contests with Hiero, King of Syracuse, they found
themselves in need of help. In the emergency there was a fatal division
of counsel, one party wishing to call upon Rome and the other thinking
best to ask Carthage, which already held the whole of the western half
of the island and the northern coast, and had for centuries been aiming
at complete possession of the remainder. Owing to this want of united
purpose it came about that both cities were appealed to, and it very
naturally happened that the fortress of the Mamertines was occupied by
a garrison from Carthage before Rome was able to send its army.
The Roman senate had hesitated to send help to the Mamertines because
they were people whom they had driven out of Rhegium, as robbers, six
years before, with the aid of the same Hiero, of Syracuse, who was now
besieging them. However, the people of Rome, not troubled with the
honest scruples of the senate, were, under the direction of the
consuls, inflamed by the hope of conquest and of the riches that they
expected would follow success, and a war which lasted twenty-three
years was the result of their reckless greed (B.
Pages:
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159