As affairs were in such a disturbed condition it was decided to hold an assembly. Here the most divergent views were expressed and things seemed to be approaching an outbreak of civil war when oneof their foremost citizens,Apollonides rose and made what was under the circumstances a wise and patriotic speech. "No city," he said, " has ever had a brighter prospect of permanent security or a stronger chance of being utterly ruined than we have at the present moment. If we are all agreed in our policy, ,vhether it take the side of Rome or the side of Carthage, no state will be in a more prosperous and happy condition; if ,ve all pull different ways, the war between the Carthaginians and the Romans will not be a more bitter one than between the Syracusans themselves, shut up as they are within the same walls, each side with its own army, its own munitions of war, its own general. We must then do our very utmost to secure unanimity. Which alliance will be the more advantageous to us is a much less important question, and much less depends upon it, but still I think that we ought to be guided by the authority of IIiero in choosing our allies rather than by that of Hieronymus; in any case we ought to prefer a. tried friendship of fifty years' standing to one of which we now know nothing and once found untrustworthy. There is also another serious consideration-we can decline to come to terms with the Carthaginians without having to fear immediate hostilities with them, but with the--Romans it is a question of <either peace or an immediate declaration of war." The absence of personal ambition and party spirit from this -speech gave it all he gr ater weight, and a council of war was at .once summoned, In whIch the praetors and a select number of 5enators were joined by the officers and commanders of the ,auxiliaries. There were frequent heated discussions, but finally, as there appeared to be no possible means of carrying on a war with Rome, it was decided to conclude a peace and ,to send an embassy along with the envoys who had come from Marcellus to btain its ratification.