Revolt in the Country
And for these overpowering miseries they had themselves to thank more than any one else. During the late war
they had availed themselves of what they regarded as a reasonable pretext for exercising their supremacy over the inhabitants
of
Libya with excessive harshness. They had exacted half of
all agricultural produce; had doubled the tribute of the towns;
and, in levying these contributions, had refused to show any
grace or indulgence whatever to those who were in embarrassed
circumstances. Their admiration and rewards were reserved,
not for those generals who treated the people with mildness
and humanity, but exclusively for those who like Hanno secured them the most abundant supplies and war material,
though at the cost of the harshest treatment of the provincials.
These people therefore needed no urging to revolt: a
Revolt of the country people. |
single messenger sufficed. The women, who
up to this time had passively looked on while
their husbands and fathers were being led off to
prison for the non-payment of the taxes, now bound themselves by an oath in their several towns
that they would conceal nothing that they possessed; and, stripping off their ornaments, unreservedly contributed them to furnish pay for the
soldiers. They thus put such large means into the hands of
Mathōs and Spendius, that they not only discharged the
arrears due to the mercenaries, which they had promised them
as an inducement to mutiny, but remained well supplied for
future needs. A striking illustration of the fact that true policy
does not regard only the immediate necessities of the hour,
but must ever look still more keenly to the future.
