Kitap 34
61
When he had brought the king over to his view, he thought he ought to prepare his countrymen, but he would not run the risk of sending a written communication lest it should be intercepted and his plans discovered. During his visit to Ephesus he had picked up a Tyrian servant named Aristo and, as he had experience of the intelligent way in which he executed less important commissions, Hannibal decided to make use of him. By means of bribes and lavish promises, which the king himself endorsed, he was induced to go to Carthage with instructions. Hannibal supplied him with a list of those whom it was necessary to interview, and he also provided him with secret signs by which they might know that he had really been commissioned by Hannibal. As the man was constantly going about Carthage, Hannibal's enemies found out the reason for his visit quite as soon as his friends, and the matter became the subject of conversation at social gatherings and in the clubs. At last it gave rise to discussion in the senate, where various speakers asserted that nothing was gained by Hannibal's banishment if he was able to form treasonable designs, and by carrying on an agitation amongst the citizens threaten the peace and security of the State. They declared that one Aristo, a Tyrian stranger, had come furnished with instructions from Hannibal and Antiochus, that men who were well known were holding furtive colloquies with him every day, and that a mischief was being secretly hatched which would soon break out and bring about universal ruin. There was a general outcry and all present demanded that Aristo should be summoned and questioned as to the object of his visit, and unless he explained it, sent with a deputation to Rome. "We have suffered enough," they said, "for one man's recklessness; if private citizens offend it will be at their own risk, the State must be preserved from the taint and even from the suspicion of guilt."
