While these events were occurring in Italy, the consul, Cn. Servilius Geminus, with a fleet of 120 vessels, visited Sardinia and Corsica and received hostages from both islands; from there he sailed to Africa. Before landing on the main1and he laid waste the island of l\fenix and allowed the inhabitants of Cercina to save their island from a similar visitation by paying an indemnity of ten talents of silver. After this he disembarked his forces ori' the African coast and sent them, both soldiers and seamen, to ravage the country. . They dispersed far and wide just as though they were plundering uninhabited islands, and consequently their recklessness led them into an ambuscade. Straggling in small parties, they were surrounded by large numbers of the enemy who knew the country, whilst they were strangers to it, with the result that they were driven in wild flight and with heavy loss back to their ships. After losing as many as a thousand men-amongst them the quaestor Sempronius Blaesus-the fleet hastily put to sea from shores:.1ined with the enemy and held its course to Sicily. Here it was handed over to T. Otacilius, in order that his second in command, P. Sura, might take it back to Rome. Servilius himself proceeded overland through Sicily and crossed tire Strait into Italy, in consequence of a despatch from Q. Fabius recalling him and his colleague, M. Atilius, to take over the armies, as his six months' tenure of office had almost expired. All the annalists, with one or two exceptions, state that Fabius acted against Hannibal as Dictator; Caelius adds that he was the first Dictator who was appointed by the people. But Caelius and the rest have forgotten that the right of nominating a Dictator lay \vith the consul alone, and Servilius, who was the only consul at the time, was in Gaul. The citizens, appalled .by three successive defeats, could not endure the thought of delay, and recourse was had to the appointment by the people of a man to act in place of a Dictator (" pro dictatore "). His subsequent achievements, his brilliant reputation as a commander, and the exaggerations which his descendants introduced into the inscription on his bust easily explain the belief which ultimately gained ground, that Fabius, who had only been pro-dictator, was actually Dictator.