After this speech he dismissed them to seek refreshment and rest. The next morning some of them were posted in various places to block the streets and close the exits from the theatre, the majority took their stand round the theatre and on the ground above it; they had frequently watched the proceedings of the assembly from there, and so their appearance aroused no suspicion. The Roman commandant was introduced to the assembly by the magistrates. He said that it was the consul and not he who had the right and the power to decide the matter, and went pretty much over the same ground as on the day before. At first one or two voices were heard and then 58-Vera}, demanding the surrender of the keys, till the whole assembly broke out into loud and threatening shouts, and seelned on the point of making a murderous attack upon him as he still hesitated and delayed. Then, at last, he gave the agreed signal with his toga, and the soldiers, who had long been ready and waiting, raised a shout and rushed down upon the crowd, while others blocked the exits from the densely packed theatre. Hemmed in and caged, the men of Henna were ruthlessly cut down and lay about in eaps; not only where the dead were piled up, but where in trying to escape they scrambled over each other's heads and fell one upon another, the wounded stumbling over the unwounded, the living over the dead. Then the soldiers dispersed in all directions and the city was filled with dead bodies and people fleeing for their lives, for the soldiers slew the defenceless crowd with as much fury as though they were fighting against an equal foe, and glo\ving with an the ardour of battle. So Henna was saved for Rome by a deed which was criminal if it was not unavoidable. Marcellus not only passed no censure on the transaction, but even bestowed the plundered property of the citizens upon his troops, thinking that by the terror thus inspired the Sicilians would be deterred from any longer betraying their garrisons. The news of this occurrence spread through Sicily almost in a day, for the city, lying in the middle of the island, was no less famous for the natural strength of its position than it was for the sacred associations which connected every part of it with the old story of the Rape of Proserpine. It was universally felt that a foul and murderous outrage had been offered to the abode of gods as well as to the dwellings of men, and many who had before been wavering now went over to the Carthaginians. Hippocrates and Himilco, who had brought up their forces to Henna on the invitation of the would-be betrayers, finding themselves unable to effect anything retired, the former to Murgantia, the latter to Agrigentum. Marcellus marched back to Leontini, and after collecting supplies of com and other provisions for the camp he left a small detachment to hold the city and returned to the blockade of Syracuse.' He gave Appius Claudius leave to go to Rome to carryon his candidature for the consulship, and placed T. Quinctius Crispinus in his stead in command of the fleet and the old camp, whilst he himself constructed and fortified winter quarters in a place called Leon about five miles from I-Iexapylon. These were the main incidents in the Sicilian campaign up to the beginning of the \vinter.