Читать книгу Abridgement of Roman History - Eutropius - Страница 49

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Regulus, on arriving at Rome, and being conducted into the senate, would do nothing in the character of a Roman, declaring that, "from the day when he fell into the hands of the Africans, he had ceased to be a Roman." For this reason he both repelled his wife from embracing him, and gave his advice to the Romans, that "peace should not be made with the Carthaginians; for that they, dispirited by so many losses, had no hope left; and that, with respect to himself, he was not of such importance, that so many thousand captives should be restored on his account alone, old as he was, and for the sake of the few Romans who had been taken prisoners." He accordingly carried his point, for no one would listen to the Carthaginians, when they applied for peace. He himself returned to Carthage, telling the Romans, when they offered to detain him at Rome, that he would not stay in a city, in which, after living in captivity among the Africans, it was impossible for him to retain the dignity of an honourable citizen. Returning therefore to Africa, he was put to death with torture of every description,