When Hiero had retired, the Mamertines took courage because of the presence of Claudius. He therefore assailed the Carthaginians, who were now isolated, and their rampart, which was situated on a kind of peninsula. For on the one side the sea enclosed it and on the other some marshes, difficult to traverse. At the neck of this peninsula, the only entrance and a very narrow one, a cross wall had been built. In an attempt to carry this point by force the Romans fared badly and withdrew under a shower of weapons. [Sidenote: FRAG. 43^9] THE LIBYANS THEN TOOK COURAGE AND SALLIED OUT, PURSUING THE FUGITIVES, AS THEY THOUGHT THEM, BEYOND THE NARROW STRIP OF LAND. THEREUPON THE ROMANS WHEELED, ROUTED THEM, AND KILLED A NUMBER, SO THAT THEY DID NOT ISSUE FROM THE CAMP AGAIN,--AT LEAST SO LONG AS CLAUDIUS WAS IN MESSANA. He, however, not daring to attack the approach in force, left a detachment behind in Messana and turned his steps toward Syracuse and Hiero. He personally superintended the assault upon the city, and now and then the inhabitants would come out to battle. Each side would sometimes be victorious and sometimes incur defeat. One day the consul got into a confined position and would have been caught, had he not, before being surrounded, sent to Hiero an invitation to agree to some terms. When the representative came with whom he was to conclude the terms, he kept falling back unobtrusively, while he conversed with him, until he had retired to safety. But the city could not easily be taken, and a siege, on account of scarcity of food supplies and disease in the army, was impracticable. Claudius accordingly withdrew; and the Syracusans following held discussions with his scattered followers and would have made a truce, if Hiero also had been willing to agree to terms. The consul left behind a garrison in Messana and sailed back to Rhegium.
[Sidenote: B.C. 263 (_a.u._ 491)] As Etruscan unrest had come to a standstill and affairs in Italy were perfectly peaceful, whereas the Carthaginian state was becoming ever greater, the Romans ordered both the consuls to make an expedition into Sicily. Valerius Maximus and Otacilius Crassus consequently crossed over and in their progress through the island together and separately they won over many towns by capitulation. When they had made the majority of places their own, they set out for Syracuse. Hiero in terror sent a herald to them with offers: he expressed a readiness to restore the cities of which they had been deprived, promised money, and liberated the prisoners. On these terms he obtained peace, for the consuls thought they could subjugate the Carthaginians more easily with his help. After reaching an agreement with him, then, they turned their attention to the remaining cities garrisoned by Carthaginians. They were repulsed from all of them except Segesta, which they took without resistance. Its inhabitants because of their relationship with the Romans (they declare they are descended from Æneas) slew the Carthaginians and joined the Roman alliance.