Thus the Carthaginians marched back from the straits amidst the protests of the Bruttians, who complained that the cities which they had marked for themselves for plunder had been left unmolested. They determined to act on their own account, and after enrolling and arming 15,000 of their own fighting men they proceeded to attack Croto, a Greek city situated on the coast. They imagined that they would gain an immense accession of strength if they possessed a seaport with a strongly fortified harbour. What troubled them was that they could not quite venture to summon the Carthaginians to their aid lest they should be thought not to have acted as allies ought to act, and again, if the Carthaginian should for the second time be the advocate of peace rather than of war, they were afraid that they would, fight in vain against the freedom of Croto as they had against that of Locri. It seemed the best course to send to Hannibal and obtain from him an assurance that on its capture Croto should pass to the Bruttians. Hannibal told them that it was a matter for those on the spot to arrange and referred them to Hanno, for neither he nor I-Ianno wanted that famous and \tvealthy city to be plundered, and they hoped that when the Bruttians attacked it and it was seen that the Carthaginians neither assisted nor approved of the attack, the defenders would come over to Hannibal all the sooner. In Croto there was neither unity of purpose nor of feeling; it seemed as though a disease had attacked all the cities of Italy alike, everywhere the populace were hostile to the aristocracy. The senate of Croto were in favour of the Romans, the populace wanted to place their state in the hands of the Carthaginians. This division of opinion in the city was reported by a deserter to the Bruttians. According to his statements, Aristomachus was the leader of the populace and was urging the surrender of the city, which was extensive and thickly populated, with fortifications covering a large area. The positions where the senators kept watch and ward were few and scattered, wherever the populace kept guard the way lay open into the city. At the suggestion of the deserter and under his guidance the Bruttians completely invested the town, and at the very first assault were admitted by the populace and took possession of the whole place with the exception of the citadel. This was held by the aristocrats, who had prepared it beforehand as a place of refuge in case anything of this sort should happen. .A.ristomachus, too, fled there, and gave out that he had advised the surrender of the city to the Carthaginians, not to the Bruttians. 1