One morning they saw the chains of the harbour lowered, and three flat-bottomed boats passing through the canal of Taenia entered the lake.
Gisco was visible on the first at the prow.

Behind him rose an enormous chest, higher than a catafalque, and furnished with rings like hanging crowns.

Then appeared the legion of interpreters, with their hair dressed like sphinxes, and with parrots tattooed on their breasts.
Friends and slaves followed, all without arms, and in such numbers that they shouldered one another.

The three long, dangerously-loaded barges advanced amid the shouts of the onlooking army.
As soon as Gisco disembarked the soldiers ran to him.

He had a sort of tribune erected with knapsacks, and declared that he should not depart before he had paid them all in full.
There was an outburst of applause, and it was a long time before he was able to speak.
Then he censured the wrongs done to the Republic, and to the Barbarians; the fault lay with a few mutineers who had alarmed Carthage by their violence.