Scipio kept Laelius with him to advise as to the disposal of the prisoners, the hostages and the booty, and when all had [2??] been arranged, he assigned him one of the captured quinqueremes, and placing on board Mago and some fifteen senators who had been made prisoners with him, he sent Laelius to Rome to report his victory. He had himself decided to spend a few days in New Carthage, and he employed this time in exercising his military and naval forces. [3] On the first day the legions, fully equipped, went through various evolutions over a space of four miles; the second day was employed in rubbing up and sharpening their weapons in front of their tents; the third day they engaged in regular battle. [4] practice with single-sticks and darts, the points of which were muffled with balls of cork or lead; the fourth day they rested, and on the fifth they were again exercised under arms. This alternation of exercise and rest was kept up as long as they remained in Carthage. [5] The rowers and marines put out to sea when the weather was [6??] calm and tested the speed and handiness of their ships in a sham fight. These maneuvers going on outside the city on land and sea sharpened the men both physically and mentally for war; [7] the city itself resounded with the din of warlike constructions carried on by the artisans of every kind who were kept together in the Government workshops. The general devoted his attention equally to everything. [8] At one time he was present with the fleet watching a naval encounter; at another he was exercising his legions; then he would be giving some hours to an inspection of the work which was going on in the shops and in the arsenal and dockyards, where the vast number of artisans were vying with each other as to who could work the hardest. [9] After starting these various undertakings and seeing that the damaged portions of the walls were repaired, he started for Tarraco, leaving a detachment in the city for its protection. [10] On his way he was met by numerous delegations; some of them he dismissed, after giving his reply while still on the march; others he put off till he reached Tarraco, where he had given notice to all the allies, old and new, to meet him. [11] Almost all the tribes south of the Ebro obeyed the summons, as did many also from the northern province. The Carthaginian generals did their best to suppress any rumours of the fall of New Carthage, then when the facts came out too clearly to be either suppressed or perverted, they tried to minimise its importance. [12] It was by a sudden ruse, almost by stealth, they said, that one city out of the whole of Spain had been filched from them in a single day; a young swaggerer elated with this trifling success had in the intoxication of his delight made believe that it was a great victory. [13] But when he learnt that three generals and three victorious armies were bearing down upon him he would be painfully reminded of the deaths which had already visited his family. [14] This was what they told people generally, but they themselves were perfectly aware how much their strength was in every way weakened by the loss of New Carthage.
