Note 70 — BOOK V. History of Rome, from the Earliest Times to the Fall of the Western Empire, A. D. 476. (continued 2)
Reading edition
The Mamertines, “Children of Mars,” were a troop of Italian freebooters, formerly in the pay of Syracuse, but who had seized Messa´na and other fortresses in the north-east of Sicily, massacred the people, and made themselves independent.