At this time Mago the Bruttian was said to have spoken in a manly and practical fashion.
For, as it seems, he said there were two opportunities of deciding about themselves and their country of which the one had been let slip.
For the proper time, surely, to question what the orders of the consuls would be and why the senate made no reference to their city was not the present but the time when they put themselves at the mercy of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a>.
Once they had done this they should be clearly aware that they must accept any order unless it were flagrantly oppressive and beyond expectation.
In the latter case they must again consider if they should expose their country to war and its terrors, or not daring to face the attack of the enemy, yield unresistingly to every demand.
But as they all, owing to the war being close upon them and owing to the uncertainty of the future, were inclined to obey the orders, it was decided to send the hostages to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Lilybaeum&groupId=690&placeId=1261">Lilybaeum</a>, and choosing at once three hundred of their young men they dispatched them with great lamentations and tears, as each was escorted by his near friends and relatives, the women being especially violent in their grief.
On arriving at <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Lilybaeum&groupId=690&placeId=1261">Lilybaeum</a> the hostages were at once handed over through the consuls to Quintus Fabius Maximus, who was then in command in <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Sicily&groupId=973&placeId=1724">Sicily</a>, and by him they were safely conveyed to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a> and the whole body confined in the dock of the large warship with sixteen banks of oars.
Walbank Commentary