Composed as the army was of citizens, allies,
and foreign troops, differing widely in language and customs, the
objects of the soldiers' greed differed also. But while their views of
what was right might vary, they all agreed in thinking nothing wrong.
Cremona lasted them four days. While all other buildings sacred and
secular sank in the flames, only the temple of Mefitis outside the
walls was left standing, saved either by its position or the power of
the presiding deity.[91]
Such was the end of Cremona two hundred and eighty-six years after 34
its foundation. It had been originally built in the consulship of
Tiberius Sempronius and Publius Cornelius, while Hannibal was
threatening to invade Italy, to serve as a bulwark against the Gauls
beyond the Po,[92] and to resist any other power that might break in
over the Alps. And so it grew and flourished, aided by its large
number of settlers, its conveniently situated rivers,[93] the
fertility of its territory, and its connexion through alliance and
intermarriage with other communities. Foreign invasions had left it
untouched only to become the victim of civil war. Antonius, ashamed of
his crime, and realizing his growing disfavour, proclaimed that no
citizen of Cremona was to be kept as a prisoner of war; and, indeed,
the unanimous feeling in Italy against buying such slaves had already
frustrated the soldiers' hope of profit. So they began to kill their
captives, whose relatives and friends, when this became known,
covertly bought their release.
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