When the news of the Carthaginian disaster had spread throughout Libya,
their allies, who had long hated the oppressive rule of the Carthaginians and even more at this
time because of the betrayal of the soldiers at Syracuse, were inflamed against them.
[
2]
Consequently, being led on partly by anger and partly by
contempt for them because of the disaster they had suffered, they endeavoured to assert their
independence. After exchanging messages with one another they collected an army, moved orward,
and pitched camp in the open.
[
3]
Since they were speedily joined
not only by freemen but also by slaves, there was gathered in a short time a body of two
hundred thousand men. Seizing Tynes, a city situated not far from Carthage, they based their
line of battle on it, and since they had the better of the fighting, they confined the
Phoenicians within their walls.
[
4]
The Carthaginians, against
whom the gods were clearly fighting, at first gathered in small groups and in great confusion
and besought the deity to put an end to its wrath; thereupon the entire city was seized by
superstitious fear and dread, as every man anticipated in imagination the enslavement of the
city. Consequently they voted by every means to propitiate the gods who had been sinned
against.
[
5]
Since they had included neither Core nor Demeter in
their rites, they appointed their most renowned citizens to be priests of these goddesses, and
consecrating statues of them with all solemnity, they conducted their rites, following the
ritual used by the Greeks. They also chose out the most prominent Greeks who lived among them
and assigned them to the service of the goddesses. After this they constructed ships and made
careful provision of supplies for the war.
[
6]
Meanwhile the revolters, who were a motley mass, possessed no capable
commanders, and what was of first importance, they were short of provisions because they were
so numerous, while the Carthaginians brought supplies by sea from Sardinia. Furthermore, they
quarrelled among themselves over the supreme command and some of them were bought off with
Carthaginian money and deserted the common cause. As a result, both because of the lack of
provisions and because of treachery on the part of some, they broke up and scattered to their
native lands, thus relieving the Carthaginians of the greatest fear.
Such was the state of affairs in Libya at this time.