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.
