Kitap 24
2
In Croto there was neither unity of purpose nor of feeling; it seemed as though a disease had attacked all the cities of Italy alike, everywhere the populace were hostile to the aristocracy. The senate of Croto were in favour of the Romans, the populace wanted to place their state in the hands of the Carthaginians. This division of opinion in the city was reported by a deserter to the Bruttians. According to his statements, Aristomachus was the leader of the populace and was urging the surrender of the city, which was extensive and thickly populated, with fortifications covering a large area. The positions where the senators kept watch and ward were few and scattered, wherever the populace kept guard the way lay open into the city. At the suggestion of the deserter and under his guidance the Bruttians completely invested the town, and at the very first assault were admitted by the populace and took possession of the whole place with the exception of the citadel. This was held by the aristocrats, who had prepared it beforehand as a place of refuge in case anything of this sort should happen. Aristomachus, too, fled there, and gave out that he had advised the surrender of the city to the Carthaginians, not to the Bruttians.
