To these
distresses also accrued another, and of all calamities the most
consummate, the calamity of discord: some were disposed to surrender;
others proposed present death, and to fall upon one another. There were
some too who advised a sally, and to die avenging their deaths. Nor were
these last mean men, though dissenting from the rest.
But there was one of their leaders, his name Dinis, a man stricken in
years, who, by long experience, acquainted with the power and clemency of
the Romans, argued, "that they must lay down their arms, the same being
the sole cure for their pressing calamities;" and was the first who
submitted, with his wife and children to the conqueror. There followed him
all that were weak through sex or age, and such as had a greater passion
for life than glory. The young men were parted between Tarsa and Turesis;
both determined to fall with liberty: but Tarsa declared earnestly "for
instant death; and that by it all hopes and fears were at once to be
extinguished;" and setting an example, buried his sword in his breast. Nor
were there wanting some who despatched themselves the same way.
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