Some said that they ought to send away the women, the sick, and the old men; others proposed to abandon the town, and found a colony far away.

But vessels were lacking, and when the sun appeared no decision had been made.
There was no fighting that day, all being too much exhausted.

The sleepers looked like corpses.
Then the Carthaginians, reflecting upon the cause of their disasters, remembered that they had not dispatched to Phoenicia the annual offering due to Tyrian Melkarth, and a great terror came upon them.

The gods were indignant with the Republic, and were, no doubt, about to prosecute their vengeance.
They were considered as cruel masters, who were appeased with supplications and allowed themselves to be bribed with presents.

All were feeble in comparison with Moloch the Devourer.