The History of Rome (Books 21–30) — Livy
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AB URBE CONDITA
Translation/edition: Rev. Canon Roberts (1912)
Language: English
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## Book XXI

Translated by B. O. Foster
1. IN THIS preface to a part of my history I may properly assert what many an historian has declared at the outset of his entire work, to wit, that the war which I am going to describe was the most memorable of all wars ever waged — the war, that is, which, under the leadership of Hannibal, the Carthaginians waged with the Roman People. [2] For neither have states or nations met in arms possessed of ampler resources, nor was their own might and power ever so great. Nor yet were they strangers to one another’s modes of fighting, which the First Punic War had made them understand. And so variable were the fortunes of the war and so uncertain was its outcome that those who ultimately conquered had been nearer ruin. [3] The animosity, too, with which they fought was almost greater than their strength: the Romans were enraged that the conquered should be actually drawing sword upon their conquerors; the Phoenicians, because they believed that the conquered had been treated with domineering arrogance and greed.
[11.4] It is said moreover that when Hannibal, then about nine years old, was childishly teasing his father Hamilcar to take him with him into Spain, his father, who had finished the African war and was sacrificing, before crossing over with his army, led the boy up to the altar and made him touch the offerings and bind himself with an oath that so soon as he should be able he would be the declared enemy of the Roman People. [5] The loss of Sicily and Sardinia was a continual torture to the proud spirit of Hamilcar. For he maintained that they had surrendered Sicily in premature despair, and that the Romans had wrongfully appropriated Sardinia — and even imposed an indemnity on them besides — in the midst of their African disturbances.
2. Tormented by these thoughts, he so bore himself in the African War, which followed hard upon the Roman peace and lasted for five years, and likewise afterwards, during the nine years he spent in Spain in extending the Punic empire, that it was plain to see that he meditated a more important war than the one he was engaged in, and that if his life had been prolonged, [2] the Phoenicians would have invaded Italy under the leadership of Hamilcar, as they did in fact under that of Hannibal.
[11.3] Hamilcar’s very timely death and the boyhood of Hannibal delayed the war. In the interval betwixt father and son, the supreme command devolved, for about eight years, on Hasdrubal. [4] It was his youthful beauty, they say, that won for him in the first instance the favour of Hamilcar, who subsequently selected him, no doubt for other, that is mental, qualifications, to be his son-in-law. As such — through the influence of the Barcine faction which was very strong with the soldiers and the common people — he was given the command, though the leading citizens had no liking for this step. [5] Relying more often on policy than force, Hasdrubal enlarged the sway of Carthage rather by setting up friendly relations with the petty kings and winning over new tribes through the goodwill of their leaders than by war and arms. [6] But he was not a whit more safe for being at peace. A certain barbarian slew him openly, to avenge his master, whom Hasdrubal had put to death. On being seized by the bystanders he expressed in his countenance the cheerfulness of one who had escaped, and even as he was being tortured, joy so got the upper hand of agony that he seemed actually to smile. [7] With this Hasdrubal, because of the marvellous skill which he had shown in tempting the native tribes to join his empire, the Roman People had renewed their covenant, with the stipulation that neither side should extend its dominion beyond the Ebro, while the Saguntines, situated between the empires of the two peoples, should be preserved in independence.
3. For Hasdrubal’s successor there could be no question but that the choice originating with the soldiers — who immediately bore young Hannibal into the praetorium and with loud and universal acclamation hailed him general — would obtain the ratification of the senate. The approval of the commons followed. [2] The new commander had been summoned to Spain by Hasdrubal when a mere lad, and the matter had even been debated in the senate. The Barcine party were urging that Hannibal should become inured to warfare and succeed to the resources of his father, when Hanno, the leader of the other faction, addressed the House. [3] “There is reason,” said he, “in Hasdrubal’s request, nevertheless I am opposed to granting it.” [4] When astonishment at a speech so inconsistent had attracted everybody’s attention, he continued: “The youthful charms which Hasdrubal himself permitted Hannibal’s father to enjoy he considers that he has the right to require again at the hands of the son. But that we should accustom our young men, by way of military training, to gratify the concupiscence of our generals is most unseemly. [5] Or do we fear lest Hamilcar’s son may too late behold the inordinate powers and the regal pomp which his father has set up? that the son of the king who left our armies as a legacy to his son-in-law may find us too slow in accepting him for our master? [6] For my part, I think that the young man should be kept at home and taught to live in submission to the laws and the magistrates, upon an equal footing with the others, lest one day this small fire kindle a great conflagration.”
4. A few, and these included nearly all the best men, supported Hanno, but, as often happens, the larger party prevailed over the better. Hannibal was sent to Spain, where he was no sooner come than he won the favour of the entire army. [2] The old soldiers thought that Hamilcar was restored to them as he had been in his youth; they beheld the same lively expression and piercing eye, tile same cast of countenance and features. But he soon brought it to pass that his likeness to his father was the least consideration in gaining him support. [3] Never was the same nature more adaptable to things the most diverse — obedience and command. And so one could not readily have told whether he were dearer to the general or the army. [4] When any bold or difficult deed was to be done, there was no one whom Hasdrubal liked better to entrust with it, nor did any other leader inspire his men with greater confidence or daring. [5] To reckless courage in incurring dangers he united the greatest judgment when in the midst of them. No toil could exhaust his body or overcome his spirit. Of heat and cold he was equally tolerant. His consumption of meat and drink was determined by natural desire, not by pleasure. [6] His times of waking and sleeping were not marked off by day or night: [7] what time remained when his work was done he gave to sleep, which he did not court with a soft bed or stillness, but was seen repeatedly by many lying on the ground wrapped in a common soldier’s cloak amongst the sentinels and outguards. His dress was in no way superior to that of his fellows, but his arms and horses were conspicuous. [8] Both of horsemen and of foot-soldiers he was undoubtedly the first — foremost to enter battle, and last to leave it when the fighting had begun. [9] These admirable qualities of the man were equalled by his monstrous vices: his cruelty was inhuman, his perfidy worse than Punic; he had no regard for truth, and none for sanctity, no fear of the gods, no reverence for an oath, no religious scruple. [10] With this endowment of good and evil traits he served for the space of three years under Hasdrubal, omitting nothing that should be done or seen by one who was to become a great commander.
5. For the rest, from the day on which he was proclaimed commander-in-chief, as though Italy had been assigned to him for his field of operations and he [2] had been instructed to make war on Rome, he felt that no postponement was permissible, lest he too, like his father Hamilcar, and afterwards Hasdrubal, should be overtaken, while delaying, by some accident, and resolved upon attacking the Saguntines. [3] But since an attack on them must certainly provoke the Romans to hostile action, he marched first into the territory of the Olcades — a tribe living south of the Ebro, within the limits of the Carthaginians but not under their dominion — that he might appear not to have aimed at the Saguntines but to have been drawn into that war by a chain of events, as he conquered the neighbouring nations and annexed their territories. [4] Cartala, a wealthy town, the capital of that tribe, he stormed and sacked; and this so terrified the lesser towns that they submitted and agreed to an indemnity. The victorious army, enriched with spoil, was led back to New Carthage for [5] the winter. There, by a generous partition of the booty and the faithful discharge of all arrears of pay, he confirmed them all, both citizens and allies, in their allegiance to himself; and early in the spring pushed forward into the land of [6] the Vaccaei. Their cities, Hermandica and Arbocala, were taken by assault. Arbocala, thanks to the bravery and numbers of its inhabitants, held out for a [7] long time. The fugitives from Hermandica, uniting with the exiles of the [8] Olcades — the tribe which had been subdued in the previous summer — roused up the Carpetani, and falling upon Hannibal as he was returning from the Vaccaei, not far from the river Tagus, threw his column, encumbered as it was with booty, into [9] some disorder. Hannibal refrained from battle and encamped on the bank of the river. As soon as the enemy were settled for the night and silent, he crossed the river by a ford, and so laid out his rampart as to allow them room for crossing, resolving to attack them as they were [10] passing over. He ordered his cavalry to charge their column of foot when they saw that it had [11] entered the stream, and posted the elephants, of which he had forty, along the bank. The Carpetani, together with the contingents of the Olcades and Vaccaei, numbered a hundred thousand — an invincible array, had they been going to fight in a [12] fair field. And so, inspired by a native intrepidity, confiding in their multitude, and believing — since they supposed that their enemies had retreated out of fear — that victory was delayed but till they should have passed the river, they broke into a cheer, and, staying for no man’s orders, rushed into the stream wherever it happened to [13] be nearest. From the other side a great body of cavalry was sent in [14] against them. The meeting in mid-channel was no equal conflict, for there the footmen were unsteady, and, scarce trusting to the ford, might even have been overthrown by unarmed riders, urging their horses forward at haphazard; while the horsemen, having their bodies and weapons free and horses that were steady even in the deep pools, could fight either at close quarters or [15] long range. A great part of them perished in the stream; some the eddying current carried over to their enemies, where they were trampled down by [16] the elephants. The rearmost, who could retreat to their own bank more safely, were gathering from the various directions in which they had fled, when, before they could recover from so great a panic, Hannibal entered the stream in a fighting column, and driving them in confusion from the bank, laid waste their fields, and in a few days’ time received the surrender of the [17] Carpetani also. And now everything south of the Ebro, except Saguntum, was in the hands of the Carthaginians.
6. With the Saguntines there was as yet no war, but quarrels that might be a pretext for it were already being sown betwixt them and their neighbours, especially the Turdetani. Now when the side of the Turdetani was espoused by the same man who had sowed the quarrel, and it was clearly seen that he was aiming not at arbitration but force, the Saguntines sent ambassadors to Rome, imploring help for a war that was now [3] indubitably imminent. The Roman consuls at that time were Publius Cornelius Scipio and Tiberius Sempronius Longus. After introducing the ambassadors into the senate, they had brought up the question of public policy, and the senators had voted to dispatch envoys to Spain, to examine into the affairs of their [4] allies, to the end that, if there appeared to be just cause, they might formally warn Hannibal to keep aloof from the Saguntines, the allies of the Roman People; after which they were to cross over into Africa, to Carthage, and [5] present the complaint of Rome’s allies. This embassy had been voted but not yet sent off, when, sooner than all expectation, came the news that Saguntum was besieged. The case was [6] then referred anew to the senate. Some were for sending the consuls into Spain and Africa respectively and waging war by land and sea; others wanted to direct their [7] whole force against Spain and Hannibal; some there were who argued that so grave a quarrel should not be lightly entered on, and proposed to await the return [8] of the envoys out of Spain. This last opinion, which seemed the safest, carried the day, and the envoys, Publius Valerius Flaccus and Quintus Baebius Tamphilus, were sent off with the more dispatch. They were to go to Saguntum first, to Hannibal, and thence, if he would not cease hostilities, to Carthage, to demand the surrender of the general himself in satisfaction of the broken treaty.
7. While the Romans were thus planning and deliberating, the siege of Saguntum was already being pressed with the greatest vigour. [2] This city was much the wealthiest of those beyond the Ebro and was situated about a mile from the sea. Its inhabitants are said to have come originally from the island of Zacynthus, and to have included also a strain from the Ardeate Rutulians. [3] Be this as it may, they had attained quickly to their great prosperity, whether owing to the produce of the sea or the land, to the growth of their population, or to the integrity of their discipline, which caused [4] them to keep faith with their allies even to their own undoing. [5] Crossing their borders with a hostile army Hannibal laid waste their country far and wide and advanced in three divisions against their city. There was an angle of the wall that gave on a valley more open and more level than the other ground about the town. [6] Against this he determined to bring up pent-houses, that under their cover the battering-rams might be brought into contact with the walls. [7] But though the ground at some distance from the wall was smooth enough for moving the pent-houses, the attempt succeeded very ill when it came to the final execution of it. There was a great overhanging tower, and the wall — as was natural in a suspected place — had been carried up to a greater height than elsewhere, and the pick of the fighting men having been stationed there, where the greatest danger threatened, offered a more strenuous resistance. [8] At first they drove the assailants off with missiles and left no spot safe for their pioneers; [9] afterwards not only did their javelins dart from wall and tower, but they even had the hardihood to sally out against the pickets and earthworks of their enemies, and in these rough-and-tumble fights hardly more Saguntines fell than Phoenicians. [10] But when Hannibal himself, who had somewhat incautiously ventured up under the wall, was severely wounded in the front of his thigh with a heavy javelin and sank to the ground, those about him fell into such confusion and dismay as almost to abandon their works and pent-houses.
8. For the next few days, while the general’s hurt was healing, there was rather a blockade than an assault; but though during this interval there was rest from combat, yet was there no slackening in the preparation of engines and defences. [2] Accordingly the fighting broke out afresh more fiercely than before, and pent-houses began to be pushed forward and rams brought up at many points, though in some places the ground would hardly admit of them. [3] The Phoenician was lavishly equipped with men — he is credibly supposed to have had a hundred and fifty thousand under arms — but [4] the townsmen, who, in order to guard and defend every quarter, had been divided into numerous companies, found their strength inadequate. [5] And so now the walls were being battered with rams and in many places had been severely shaken. One section, giving way continuously for some distance, had exposed the town: three towers in a row, together with the wall connecting them, had come down with a loud crash. [6] The Phoenicians believed that the town was taken with that breach, through which from either side men rushed to attack, as though the wall had protected both parties alike. [7] It was not at all like the mellays that commonly occur in sieges, where one side gets an opportunity, but regular battle lines had formed, as in an open field, between the ruins of the wall and the buildings of the city, which stood at some distance off. [8] On this side hope, on that despair inspired courage. The Phoenicians believed the city to be theirs, if they put forth a little effort. The Saguntines opposed their bodies to defend their city, denuded of its walls, nor would one of them draw back his foot lest he admit an enemy to the spot which he had vacated. [9] And the harder both sides fought and the more they crowded in together, the greater was the number of those wounded, for no missile fell without taking effect on shield or body. [10] The Saguntines had a javelin, called a phalarica, with a shaft of fir, which was round except at the end whence the iron projected; this part, four-sided as in the pilum, they wrapped with tow and smeared with pitch. [11] Now the iron was three feet long, that it might be able to go through both shield and body. But what chiefly made it terrible, even if it stuck fast in the shield and did not penetrate the body, was this, that when it [12] had been lighted at the middle and so hurled, the flames were fanned to a fiercer heat by its very motion, and it forced the soldier to let go his shield, and left him unprotected against the blows that followed.
9. When the outcome of the struggle had long been doubtful, and the Saguntines, because they were holding out beyond their hopes, had gained new courage, while the Phoenician, because he had not conquered, was as good as beaten; [2] suddenly the townspeople set up a shout and thrust forth their enemies amongst the ruins of the wall, and routing them out from thence, confused and frightened, drove them back at last in full flight to their camp.
In the meantime it was announced that ambassadors had come from Rome. [3] Hannibal sent men to the shore to meet them and say that it would not be safe for them to come to him through the armed bands of so many unruly tribes, and that he had no time for listening to embassies at so critical a juncture. It was clear that, if they were denied a hearing, they would at once proceed to Carthage. [4] He therefore dispatched couriers before them, with a letter for the leaders of the Barcine faction, so that they might prepare the minds of their adherents to prevent the opposing party from affording any satisfaction to the Roman People.
10. Accordingly, save for being admitted and allowed a hearing, this mission also was idle and of no effect. [2] Hanno stood alone in pleading for the treaty against the views of the senate. There was a deep hush while he spoke, by reason of his personal authority, but he was listened to without approval. He adjured the senators in the name of the gods, vouchers for treaties and their witnesses, to provoke not a Roman along with the Saguntine war. [3] He had advised them and forewarned them not to send the offspring of Hamilcar to the army; neither the man’s ghost nor his progeny was at rest, nor ever, so long as any of the lineage and name of Barca should survive, would the treaty with the Romans rest untroubled. [4] “You have sent to your armies,” he went on, “as though heaping fuel on a fire, a youth who burns with lust for sovereign power and sees but one way to obtain it — if, by sowing seeds of war, he can raise up other wars and live girt round with arms and legions. [5] You have therefore fed these flames with which you are now ablaze. Your armies now invest Saguntum, which the treaty forbids them to approach: ere long the Roman legions will be investing Carthage, led by those very gods who helped them in the former war to avenge the broken treaty. [6] Is it your enemy you know not, or yourselves, or the fortunes of both peoples? When ambassadors came from allies on behalf of allies, your worthy general would not admit them to his camp, but thrust aside the law of nations; nevertheless these men, being driven from a place where even an enemy’s envoys are admitted, have come to you. They seek amends in accordance with a treaty. That the state may be void of offence, they demand the author of the wrong, the man on whom they charge the guilt. [7] The more mildly they proceed, the more slowly they begin, the more obstinate, I fear, when they have begun, will be their rage. Set Eryx and the Aegatian islands before your eyes, and all that you suffered by land and sea for four and twenty years. [8] Nor was this boy your leader, but Hamilcar himself, the father, a second Mars, as his partisans will have it. But we could not keep our hands from Tarentum, that is, from Italy, as by treaty bound, even as now we cannot keep them from Saguntum. [9] Gods therefore vanquished men, and that which had been verbally disputed — which people of the twain had broken the treaty — the outcome of the war, like an impartial judge, decided, and to those who had the right granted the victory. [10] It is Carthage against which Hannibal is now bringing up his pent-houses and towers; it is the walls of Carthage he is battering with his rams. Saguntum’s walls — may my prophecy prove false! — will fall upon our heads, and the war we have entered upon with the Saguntines we must carry on against the Romans. [11] ‘Shall we then surrender Hannibal?’ someone will ask. I know that my influence is slight, because of my quarrel with his father; but I rejoiced when Hamilcar perished, for this reason, that were he living, we should now be at war with Rome; [12] and this young man, who, like a fury, now brandishes the torch of war, I loathe and abominate, and I hold, not only that he ought to be surrendered in expiation of the broken treaty, but that, if none demanded him, he ought to be deported to the farthest limits of land and sea — to be banished to a place whence neither name nor fame of his could reach us, nor he be able to vex the quiet of our state. [13] My opinion is this: we should send ambassadors at once to Rome, to give satisfaction to the senate; and others to announce to Hannibal that he must withdraw his army from Saguntum, and to hand over Hannibal himself to the Romans as the treaty requires; a third embassy I would send to make restitution to the Saguntines.”
11. When Hanno had concluded, not a single person found it necessary to oppose his arguments, so nearly unanimous was the senate in supporting Hannibal. They declared that Hanno had spoken more bitterly than Valerius Flaccus, the Roman envoy. [2] They then gave their answer to the envoys, to the effect that the war had been begun by the Saguntines, not by Hannibal, and that the Roman People would be doing wrong if they preferred the Saguntines to their very ancient alliance with the Carthaginians.
[11.3] While the Romans were wasting time in dispatching embassies, Hannibal had allowed his soldiers, exhausted as they were with fighting and constructing works, to rest for a few days, after posting outguards to look to the pent-houses and other engines. Meanwhile he kindled their ardour, now by inciting them to rage against their enemies, again by holding out hopes of rewards. [4] But when he made a speech proclaiming that the spoils of the captured city should go to the soldiers, they were so excited, one and all, that if the signal had been given instantly, it seemed as if no force could have withstood them. [5] The Saguntines, though they had had a rest from fighting, neither attacking nor being attacked for several days, had laboured incessantly, both day and night, to replace the wall where its collapse had exposed the town.
The assault was now resumed, with far greater fury than before, and it was hard for the inhabitants to know, when shouts and cries were resounding on every hand, to what point they should first, or preferably, bring up supports. [6] Hannibal was present in person to urge on his men, where they were pushing up a movable tower that surpassed in height all the defences of the city. [7] As soon as it had been brought up, and the catapults and ballistae distributed through all its platforms had stripped the ramparts of defenders, Hannibal, believing that he now had his opportunity, sent about five hundred Africans with pickaxes to undermine the wall. This was no hard task, for the rubble had not been solidified with mortar, but filled in with mud, after an ancient mode of building. [8] It therefore fell for wider stretches than were actually hacked away, and through the breaches bands of armed men passed into the city. [9] They even seized an elevation, and setting up catapults and ballistae there, built a wall around it, so as to have within the town itself a stronghold that commanded it like a citadel. [10] The Saguntines too built a wall within the old one, to protect that part of the city that was not yet taken. On both sides the soldiers worked and fought with the utmost energy; but the Saguntines, contracting their defences, were bringing their city day by day within a smaller compass. [11] At the same time there was an increasing scarcity of everything, on account of the long blockade; and the prospect of help from without was growing less, [12] since the Romans, their only hope, were so far away, and all the country round about was in the possession of their enemies. [13] Yet their drooping spirits were revived for a little while by the sudden departure of Hannibal for the territories of the Oretani and the Carpetani. These two nations, exasperated by a rigorous conscription, had seized the recruiting officers and thereby given rise to fears of a revolt, but were caught unprepared by Hannibal’s celerity, and laid down the arms they had taken up.
12. But the siege of Saguntum did not flag. Maharbal, the son of Himilco, whom Hannibal had left in charge, so bestirred himself that the absence of the general was felt neither by his countrymen nor by the enemy. [2] He fought a number of successful skirmishes, and with three battering-rams laid low a considerable portion of the wall, and on Hannibal’s return, showed him the place all covered with the newly fallen ruins. [3] And so the troops were led at once against the citadel itself, and a fierce battle began, in which many on both sides were killed and a part of the citadel was taken.
An all but hopeless attempt to arrange a peace was then made by two men, Alco, a Saguntine, and a Spaniard named Alorcus. [4] Alco, thinking that something might be effected by entreaties, went over to Hannibal in the night, without the knowledge of the Sanguntines. But finding that tears were of no avail and that the terms obtainable were such as a wrathful conqueror would impose, he changed from pleader to deserter, and remained with the enemy, declaring that anybody who should treat for peace on those conditions would be put to death. [5] The conditions were as follows: they must make restitution to the Turdetani, and, delivering up all their gold and silver, quit their city with a single garment each and take up their abode where the Phoenician should direct them. [6] When Alco asserted that the Saguntines would not accept such terms, Alorcus, affirming that where all else is conquered the heart is conquered too, undertook the negotiation of a peace. He was at that time a soldier in the service of Hannibal, but was officially recognized by the Saguntines as their friend and guest. [7] Openly surrendering his weapon to the sentries, he passed the enemy’s lines, and was conducted — by his own command — before the Saguntine general. [8] A crowd of all descriptions immediately flocked together there; but all save the senators were sent away, and Alorcus, being permitted to address them, spoke as follows:
13. “If Alco, your own fellow citizen, after going to Hannibal to sue for peace, had brought back to you the terms of peace which Hannibal offers, this journey of mine would have been superfluous, for I should have come to you neither as Hannibal’s spokesman nor yet as a deserter. [2] But seeing that, whether through your fault or his own, he has stopped behind with your enemy — his own if his fears were feigned, yours if it is unsafe to bring you a true report — that you might not be ignorant that terms there are upon which you may enjoy both life and peace, I have come to you myself, having regard to the long-standing friendship which subsists between us. [3] Moreover, that I say what I say for your sake and no other’s, you may take this as proof: so long as you held your ground with your own forces, and expected to receive help from the Romans, I never mentioned peace to you; [4] but now that you have no longer any hope from Rome, and neither your arms nor your fortifications are adequate to defend you, I bring you a peace more necessary than equitable. [5] That this peace may be realized there is some ground for hoping only if, even as Hannibal proposes it in the spirit of a conqueror, so you shall hearken to it in the spirit of the conquered, and shall not consider as lost what is taken from you, since all things are the victor’s, but consider whatever is left you as a gift. [6] Your city, which he has in great part overthrown, and almost wholly captured, he takes from you: your lands he leaves you, and intends to designate a site whereon you may erect a new town. [7] All your gold and silver, both public and private, he orders to be brought to him: your persons, with those of your wives and children, he preserves inviolate, if you are willing to go forth unarmed from Saguntum with two garments each. [8] These terms a victorious enemy imposes on you; these terms, albeit harsh and cruel, your fortune counsels you to accept. Indeed I am not without hope that when full control of everything shall have been granted him, he may remit somewhat of this severity; [9] but even this you ought, I think, rather to endure than to suffer yourselves to be massacred and your wives and children to be forcibly dragged away into captivity before your eyes, in accordance with the laws of war.”
14. To hear this speech the populace had little by little crowded round, and the people’s council had mingled with the senate, when on a sudden the leading men, withdrawing from the throng before an answer could be given, fetched all the gold and silver, both of state and private ownership, into the market-place, and casting it into a fire which they had hurriedly made up for this purpose, many threw themselves headlong into the same flames. [2] The resulting panic and dismay had no sooner spread to all the city, than another loud noise and outcry were heard from the citadel. A tower that had long been battered had collapsed, and through the breach a cohort of Phoenicians had rushed in and signalled to the general that the city was denuded of its customary guards and sentinels. [3] Hannibal, deeming it no time to hesitate, when such an opportunity offered, attacked with all his strength and captured the city out of hand. [4] He had given orders that all the grown inhabitants be put to the sword — a cruel command, but found in the upshot to have been well-nigh inevitable; for who could be spared of those who either shut themselves up with their wives and children and burned the houses over their own heads, or took arms and never gave over fighting till they died?
15. The captured town yielded enormous spoils. For although much property had been destroyed on purpose by its owners, and in the carnage rage had scarce made any distinction of years, and the captives had been given as booty to the soldiers, nevertheless [2] it is agreed that a large sum was realized from the sale of goods, and much valuable furniture and apparel sent to Carthage.
[11.3] Some have recorded that Saguntum was taken in the eighth month from the beginning of the siege; that Hannibal then retired to New Carthage, into winter quarters; and then, after leaving New Carthage, arrived in the fifth month in Italy. [4] If this is so, it cannot have been the case that Publius Cornelius and Tiberius Sempronius were the consuls to whom the Saguntine envoys were dispatched in the beginning of the siege, and who, in their own year of office, fought with Hannibal, the one at the river Ticinus, and both — a little later — at the Trebia. [5] Either all these things took up somewhat less time, or Saguntum was not first besieged but finally captured in the outset of the year which had Cornelius and Sempronius as consuls. [6] For the battle at the Trebia cannot have been fought as late as the consulship of Gnaeus Servilius and Gaius Flaminius; for Gaius Flaminius began his consulship at Ariminum, having been elected under the presidency of Tiberius Sempronius who was then consul, and had, after the battle at the Trebia, come to Rome to hold the consular elections, and then returned to the winter quarters of the army.
16. At almost the same time the ambassadors who had returned from Carthage brought back word to Rome that all was hostile in that quarter, and the fall of Saguntum was announced. [2] And so great was the grief of the senators, and their pity at the unmerited doom of their allies, and their shame at having failed to help them, and their wrath against the Carthaginians and fear for the safety of the commonwealth — as though the enemy were already at their gates — that, confounded with so many simultaneous emotions, they rather trembled than deliberated. [3] For they felt that they had never encountered a fiercer or more warlike foe, and that Rome had never been so torpid and unwarlike. The Sardinians and Corsicans, the Histrians and Illyrians, had provoked but had hardly exercised the Roman arms; [4] while against the Gauls there had been desultory fighting rather than real war. But the Phoenician was an old and experienced enemy, who in the hardest kind of service amongst the Spanish tribes had for three and twenty years invariably got the victory; [5] he was accustomed to the keenest of commanders, was flushed with the conquest of a very wealthy city, and crossing the Ebro and drawing after him the many Spanish peoples which he had enlisted, would be rousing up the Gallic tribes — [6] always eager to unsheathe the sword — and the Romans would have to contend in war with all the world, in Italy and under the walls of Rome.
17. The fields of operation of the consuls had already been named: they were now commanded to draw lots for them. Cornelius obtained Spain, Sempronius Africa with Sicily. [2] Six legions were voted for that year, with such allied contingents as the consuls themselves should approve and as large a fleet as could be got ready. There were enrolled four and twenty thousand Roman foot-soldiers and eighteen hundred horsemen, and of the allies forty thousand foot-soldiers and four thousand four hundred horsemen. [3] Of ships there were launched two hundred and twenty quinqueremes, and twenty swift cruisers. [4] The question was then laid before the people whether it were their will and pleasure that war be declared against the people of Carthage; and on their voting in the affirmative a supplication was held throughout the City and the gods were besought to grant a fair and prosperous outcome to the war which the Roman People had decreed.
[11.5] The forces were divided between the consuls as follows: Sempronius received two legions — each numbering four thousand foot and three hundred horse — sixteen thousand foot of the allies, and eighteen hundred horse, together with a hundred and sixty warships and twelve swift cruisers. [6] With these forces for land and sea Tiberius Sempronius was dispatched to Sicily, that he might cross by that way into Africa, if the other consul were able to keep the Phoenicians out of Italy. [7] Cornelius was given fewer troops, since Lucius Manlius, the praetor, was also being sent into Gaul with a not inconsiderable army; [8] and of ships, in particular, he received a smaller number, namely, sixty quinqueremes, for they did not suppose that the enemy would come by sea or use that kind of warfare. He had two Roman legions with their proper complement of horse, and fourteen thousand infantry of the allies, with sixteen hundred horse. [9] The province of Gaul received two Roman legions and ten thousand foot of the allies, with a thousand allied and six hundred Roman horse. These troops were designed for the same service — the Punic War.
18. When these arrangements had been made, in order that, before going to war, they might observe all the formalities, they dispatched into Africa an embassy consisting of certain older men, to wit, Quintus Fabius, Marcus Livius, Lucius Aemilius, Gaius Licinius, and Quintus Baebius, to demand of the Carthaginians whether Hannibal had attacked Saguntum with the sanction of [2] the state; and if, as seemed likely to be the case, they should avow the act and stand to it as their public policy, to declare war on the [3] Carthaginian People. As soon as the Romans had come to Carthage and the senate had granted them an audience, Quintus Fabius asked only the one question contained in [4] his instructions. Then one of the Carthaginians replied: “There was something headlong, Romans, even in your former embassy, when you demanded that we surrender Hannibal on the ground that he was laying siege to Saguntum on his own responsibility; but your present embassy, though expressed thus far more mildly, is in reality [5] more harsh. For on that occasion Hannibal was both accused and his surrender called for; at present you are trying to wring a confession from us, and, as though we had pleaded guilty, demand [6] instant satisfaction. But to me it would seem that you ought to ask, not whether Saguntum was besieged as the result of private or of public policy, but whether justly [7] or unjustly. For it belongs to us to enquire what our fellow citizen has done on our authority or his own, and to punish him; with you the only question we have to discuss is this, whether what he did was permissible under [8] the treaty. Well then, since you wish that a distinction should be drawn between the things that generals do by direction of the state and the acts for which they are themselves responsible, let me remind you that we have a [9] treaty with you, which Gaius Lutatius, your consul, made, wherein, although the allies of both sides were protected, there was no provision made regarding the Saguntines, for as yet they were not [10] your allies. ‘But,’ you will say, ‘in that treaty which was made with Hasdrubal, the Saguntines are expressly cared for.’ To this I shall make no other answer than the one that I have learnt from you. For you denied that you were bound by the treaty which Gaius Lutatius, the consul, originally entered into with us, because it had been made without the senate’s sanction or the people’s command; accordingly a new treaty, having the approval of the state, was [11] entered into. Now, if you are not bound by your treaties, unless they are concluded at your own instance or command, no more could the treaty of Hasdrubal, which he made without our knowledge, be binding [12] upon us. Cease then to prate of Saguntum and the Ebro, and bring forth at last the thought with which your mind has long been [13] in travail!” Then the Roman, gathering up his toga into a fold, said, “We bring you here both war and peace; choose which you will!” When he had said these words, they cried out with no less truculence that he might give them whichever [14] he liked; and on his shaking out the fold again, and announcing that he gave them war, they all replied that they accepted it, and in that same spirit in which they accepted it were resolved to wage it.
19. This straightforward demand and declaration of war seemed more in keeping with the dignity of the Roman People than to bandy words regarding the rights involved in treaties, especially at that moment, when Saguntum had been destroyed. [2] Though for that matter, had it been proper to debate the question, what comparison could there be between Hasdrubal’s treaty and the earlier treaty of Lutatius, which was altered? [3] For in the treaty of Lutatius it had been expressly added that it should be valid only if the people ratified it; but in Hasdrubal’s treaty no such proviso had been made, and by the silence of so many years the treaty had during his lifetime been so sanctioned that even on its author’s death no slightest change was made in it. [4] And yet, even if the earlier treaty were adhered to, the Saguntines had been sufficiently protected by the provision made concerning the allies of both the parties; for there had been no specification of “those who were then allies,” nor exception of “such as might afterwards be received.” [5] And since they were permitted to take new allies, who would think it fair either that they should admit no one, however deserving, to their friendship, or that, having once taken people under their protection, they should not defend them — provided only that allies of the Carthaginians should not be tempted to desert them nor be made welcome if they left them voluntarily?
[11.6] The ambassadors, conformably to the instructions given them in Rome, crossed over from Carthage into Spain for the purpose of approaching the different states and winning them to an alliance, or at least detaching them from the Phoenicians. [7] The Bargusii were the first they visited, and being warmly welcomed by them, for men were wearying of the Punic sway, they aroused in many nations south of the Ebro a desire to revolt. [8] From there they came to the Volciani, who gave them an answer that was carried all over Spain and turned all the other states against an alliance with the Romans. [9] For the eldest of them replied as follows in their council: “With what face, Romans, can you ask us to prefer your friendship to the Carthaginian, when those who did so have been more cruelly betrayed by you, their allies, than destroyed by their enemy, the Phoenician? You must seek allies, in my opinion, only where the disaster of Saguntum is unknown. [10] To the Spanish peoples the ruins of Saguntum will constitute a warning, no less emphatic than deplorable, that none should trust to the honour or alliance of the Romans.” [11] Being then bidden straightway to depart out of the borders of the Volciani, they received from that day forth no kinder response from any Spanish council. Accordingly, having traversed that country to no purpose, they passed over into Gaul.
20. There they beheld a strange and terrifying spectacle, for the Gauls, as was customary with the race, came armed to their assembly. When the envoys, boasting of the renown and valour of the Roman People and the extent of their dominion, requested the Gauls to deny the Phoenician a passage through their lands and cities, if he should attempt to carry the war into Italy, [3] it is said that they burst out into such peals of laughter that the magistrates and elders could scarce reduce the younger men to order [4] — so stupid and impudent a thing it seemed, to propose that the Gauls should not suffer the invaders to pass into Italy, but bring down the war on their own heads, and offer their own fields to be pillaged in place of other men’s. When at last the uproar had been quelled, the Gauls made answer to the envoys that they owed the Romans no kindness nor the Carthaginians any grudge, to induce them to draw the sword in behalf of the former or against the [5] latter; on the contrary, [6] they heard that men of their own race were being driven from the land and even out of the borders of Italy by the Roman People, and were paying tribute and suffering every other [7] humiliation. In the rest of the Gallic councils their proposals and the replies they got were to substantially the same effect, nor did they hear a single word of a truly friendly or peaceable tenor until they reached [8] Massilia. Here they learned of all that had happened from their allies, who had made enquiries with faithful diligence. They reported that Hannibal had been beforehand with the Romans in gaining the good-will of the Gauls, but that even he would find them hardly tractable — so fierce and untamed was their nature — unless from time to time he should make use of gold, of which the race is very covetous, to secure the favour of their principal [9] men. So the envoys, having travelled through the nations of Spain and Gaul, returned to Rome, not long after the consuls had set out for their respective commands. They found the citizens all on tip-toe with expectation of the war, for the rumour persisted that the Phoenicians had already crossed the Ebro.
21. Hannibal, after the capture of Saguntum, had withdrawn his army into winter quarters at New Carthage. There he learned what had been done in Rome and Carthage and what had been decreed, and that he was not only commander in the war, but the cause of it as well. [2] So, having divided or sold off what was left of the plunder, he thought best to defer his plans no longer, and, calling together the soldiers of Spanish blood, thus addressed them: [3] “My allies, I doubt not that you yourselves perceive how, having conquered every tribe in Spain, we must either bring our campaigning to a close and disband our armies, or shift the seat of war to other countries. [4] For these nations here will enjoy the blessings not merely of peace, but also of victory, only if we look to other nations for spoils and glory. [5] Since, therefore, you are on the eve of an expedition that will carry you far afield, and it is uncertain when you will see again your homes and what there is dear to each of you, if any of you desires to visit his friends, I grant him furlough. [6] Be at hand, I charge you, with the first signs of spring, that with Heaven’s good help we may begin a war that shall bring us vast renown and booty.” [7] There were very few who did not welcome the opportunity thus freely proffered of visiting their homes, for they were already homesick and looked forward to an even longer separation from their friends. [8] The full winter’s rest between the labours already undergone and those that were presently to come gave them new strength and courage for a fresh encounter with every hardship. [9] Early in the spring they assembled in obedience to their orders.
When Hannibal had reviewed the contingents sent in by all the nations, he went to Gades and discharged his vows to Hercules, binding himself with fresh ones, in case he should be successful in the remainder of his undertaking. [10] Then, with equal concern for attack and defence, lest while he should be himself advancing upon Italy by an overland march through Spain and Gaul, Africa might lie exposed and open to a Roman invasion on the side of Sicily, he resolved to garrison that country with a powerful force. [11] To supply its place he requisitioned troops for himself from Africa — lightarmed slingers chiefly — so that Africans might serve in Spain and Spaniards in Africa, and both be the better soldiers for being far from home, as though mutually pledged to loyalty. [12] Thirteen thousand eight hundred and fifty targeteers and eight hundred and seventy Baliaric slingers, with twelve hundred horsemen drawn from many nations, he sent to Africa. [13] A part of these troops were to be a garrison for Carthage, a part to be distributed through the country. At the same time he directed that recruiting officers be sent out into the states, and that four thousand picked men be brought to Carthage, to serve at once as defenders and as hostages.
22. And considering that neither must Spain be neglected, and so much the less since he was not unaware that Roman ambassadors had journeyed through it to seek the support of its leading men, he appointed it to be the charge of his brother Hasdrubal — an [2] active, energetic man — and secured it with troops, for the most part African. Of infantry there were eleven thousand eight hundred and fifty Africans, three hundred Ligurians, and five hundred Baliares. [3] To these infantry forces he added the following units of cavalry: four hundred and fifty Libyphoenicians — a race of mixed Punic and African blood — and some eight hundred Numidians and Moors, who dwell near the ocean, and a little company of three hundred Spanish Ilergetes. Finally, that no sort of land force might be lacking, there were twenty-one elephants. [4] He also assigned a fleet to Spain, for the protection of its seaboard, since it might be expected that the Romans would again on this occasion employ that mode of warfare in which they had been victorious. There were fifty quinqueremes, two quadriremes, and five triremes. But only thirty-two quinqueremes and the five triremes were equipped and manned with rowers.
From Gades Hannibal returned to New Carthage, to the winter quarters of his army. [5] Setting out from thence, he marched along the coast, past the city of Onusa, to the Ebro. [6] It was there, as they tell, that he saw in his sleep a youth of godlike aspect, who declared that he was sent by Jupiter to lead him into Italy: let him follow, therefore, nor anywhere turn his eyes away from his guide. [7] At first he was afraid and followed, neither looking to the right nor to the left, nor yet behind him; but presently wondering, with that curiosity to which all of us are prone, what it could be that he had been forbidden to look back upon, he was unable to command his eyes; [8] then he saw behind him a serpent of monstrous size, that moved along with vast destruction of trees and underbrush, and a storm-cloud coming after, with loud claps of thunder; [9] and, on his asking what this prodigious portent was, he was told that it was the devastation of Italy: he was therefore to go on, nor enquire further, but suffer destiny to be wrapped in darkness.
23. Rejoicing at this vision, he led his troops across the Ebro in three columns, after sending agents ahead, to win over with presents the Gauls who dwelt in the region which the army had to cross, and to explore the passes of the Alps. [2] He had ninety thousand foot and twelve thousand horse when he crossed the Ebro. He now subdued the Ilergetes, and the Bargusii and Ausetani, and also Lacetania, which lies at the foot of the Pyrenees. All this coast he put in charge of Hanno, that the passes connecting Spain and Gaul might be under his control. [3] To garrison this district, he gave Hanno ten thousand foot and a thousand horse.
[11.4] When the army had entered the defiles which lead over the Pyrenees, and more definite rumours had spread amongst the barbarians that the war was to be with Rome, three thousand of the Carpetanian foot turned back. It was understood that they were influenced not so much by the war as by the long march and the impossibility of crossing the Alps. [5] To recall them or to detain them forcibly would have been hazardous, for it might have roused resentment in the savage bosoms of the others. [6] And so Hannibal sent back to their homes above seven thousand more, whom he had perceived to be chafing at the service, pretending that he had also dismissed the Carpetani.
24. Then, in order that his troops might not become demoralized by delay and inaction, he crossed the Pyrenees with the remainder of his forces and pitched his camp by the town of Iliberri. [2] The Gauls, though they heard that the war was aimed at Italy, nevertheless, because it was said that the Spaniards beyond the Pyrenees had been forcibly subjugated and strong garrisons imposed upon them, were driven by the fear of servitude to arm themselves, and several tribes assembled at Ruscino. [3] When Hannibal was apprised of this, he was more afraid of delay than of fighting, and dispatched ambassadors to their chieftains to inform them that he wished to confer with them in person, and suggested that either they come nearer to Iliberri or that he would go forward to Ruscino, so that being close to one another they might meet more easily. [4] He would be glad, he said, to receive them in his camp, nor would he hesitate to go to them. He had come into Gaul as a friend, not as an enemy, and would keep his sword sheathed, if the Gauls would let him, till he had entered Italy. [5] Thus far his emissaries. But when the Gallic chieftains, moving up their camp at once near Iliberri, came, nothing loath, to the Phoenician, they were captivated by his gifts, and permitted the army to march unmolested through their borders and past the town of Ruscino.
25. In Italy meanwhile nothing more was known than that Hannibal had crossed the Ebro — which was the news that Massiliot envoys brought to Rome — when, as though he had already crossed the Alps, the Boi, after rousing up the Insubres, revolted. To this they were incited not so much by their old animosity against the Roman People as by vexation at the recent establishment of colonies in Gallic territory, near the Po, at Placentia and [3] Cremona. Flying to arms they made an incursion into that very district, and spread such terror and confusion that not only the rural population, but the Roman commissioners themselves, who had come for the purpose of assigning lands, not trusting to the walls of Placentia, fled to Mutina. (Their names were Gaius Lutatius, Gaius Servilius, and Marcus Annius. There is no question about Lutatius: for Annius and Servilius, some annals have Manius Acilius and Gaius Herennius, others Publius Cornelius Asina and Gaius Papirius [4] Maso. This, too, is uncertain, whether envoys sent to expostulate with the Boi were maltreated, or an attack was made upon the three commissioners as they were measuring off the [5] land.) Whilst they lay shut up in Mutina, the Gauls — who know nothing of the art of assaulting cities, and, besides, are very indolent in regard to siege-works, and were now sitting idly down before the walls without attempting them [6] — feigned a readiness to treat for peace; and their leaders having invited the Romans to send out spokesmen to confer with them, they seized these envoys, in violation not only of the [7] law of nations, but also of a pledge which they had given for this time, and declared that they would not let them go unless their own hostages were restored to them. When word arrived of this affair of the envoys, and Mutina and its garrison were in danger, Lucius Manlius, the praetor, blazing with resentment, set out for Mutina with his army in loose marching [8] order. In those days the road led through a forest, as the country was not, for the most part, under cultivation, and Manlius, advancing without reconnaissance, plunged into an ambush, and after sustaining heavy losses, managed with difficulty to get through into the open [9] fields. There he entrenched a camp, and since the Gauls lacked heart to assail it, [10] the soldiers recovered their spirits, though it was no secret that as many as five hundred men had [11] fallen. Then they began their march again, nor, so long as the column advanced through open country, was the enemy to be seen; but when they had once more got into the woods, the Gauls attacked [12] their rear, and throwing the whole column into terror and confusion, slew seven hundred soldiers and carried off six ensigns. The alarming onsets of the Gauls and the panic of the Romans ended when they got clear of the trackless [13] woods and thickets. Thereafter, marching across open ground, the Romans had no difficulty in protecting their column, and hastened to Tannetum, a village lying near the Po, where by means of temporary fortifications and [14] supplies got in by the river, and with the help also of the Brixian Gauls, they defended themselves against the enemy, whose numbers were increasing daily.
26. When the news of this sudden insurrection was brought to Rome, and the Fathers learnt that the Punic War was augmented by a war with the Gauls, they commanded Gaius Atilius, the praetor, to take one Roman legion and five thousand of the allies — a [2] force which the consul had just levied — and proceed to the relief of Manlius. Atilius reached Tannetum without any fighting, for the enemy had retired in alarm.
[11.3] Publius Cornelius, too, after enrolling a new legion in place of that which had been sent with the praetor, set out from the City with sixty ships of war, and coasting Etruria and the mountainous country of Liguria and the Salui, arrived at Massilia, and went into camp at the nearest mouth of the Rhone — for [4] the river discharges itself into the sea by several — hardly believing, even then, that Hannibal could have crossed the Pyrenees. [5] But when he found that Hannibal was actually planning how to cross the Rhone, being uncertain where he should encounter him, and his soldiers not having as yet fully recovered from the tossing of the sea, he sent out a chosen band of three hundred cavalry, with Massiliot guides and Gallic auxiliaries, to make, while he was waiting, a thorough reconnaissance, and have a look at the enemy from a safe distance.
[11.6] Hannibal, having pacified the others through fear or bribery, had now reached the territory of a powerful nation called the Volcae. They inhabit both banks of the Rhone, but doubting their ability to keep the Phoenician from the western bank, they had brought nearly all their people over the Rhone, so as to have the river for a bulwark, and were holding the eastern bank [7] with arms. The rest of the dwellers by the river, and such of the Volcae themselves as had clung to their homes, were enticed by Hannibal’s gifts to assemble large boats from every quarter and to fashion new ones; and indeed they themselves were eager to have the army set across as soon as possible and to relieve their district of the burden of so huge a horde of men. So they brought together a vast number of boats, and of canoes roughly fashioned for local traffic, and made new ones by hollowing out [8] single trees. The Gauls took the lead in this, but the soldiers presently fell to work themselves, when they found the timber plentiful and the [9] labour light. They were unshapely troughs, but the men could make them quickly, and their one concern was to get something that would float and hold a cargo, in which they might ferry themselves and their belongings over.
27. Everything was now in readiness for the crossing, which, however, was menaced by the enemy on the other side, who covered the whole bank with their horse and foot. [2] In order to draw them off, Hannibal ordered Hanno, the son of Bomilcar, to set out in the first watch of [3] the night with a part of the troops, chiefly Spaniards, and, making a march of one day up the stream, to take the first opportunity of crossing it, with the greatest secrecy, and fetch a compass with his column, so that, when the time came, he might assail the enemy in the rear. [4] The Gauls who had been appointed to be his guides informed him that some five-and-twenty miles upstream the river flowed round a little island, and being wider where it divided, and therefore shallower, afforded a passage. There they quickly felled some trees and constructed rafts to transport the men and horses and other burdens. [5] The Spaniards without more ado stuffed their clothes into skins, and placing their bucklers on top of these and supporting themselves by means of them, swam across. The rest of the force, too, got over, by means of the rafts which they had made, and went into camp near the river. [6] They were tired by the night march and their strenuous exertions, but their commander allowed them but one day to rest, being intent on carrying out the stratagem at the proper time. [7] Resuming their march on the following day they sent up a smoke-signal from an elevated place, to show that they had got over the river and were not far off. When Hannibal saw this, he gave the order to cross, so as not to miss the favourable moment. [8] The infantry had their skiffs all ready and equipped, while the cavalry had large boats, for the most part, on account of their horses. The large boats were sent across higher up the stream, to take the force of the current, and provided smooth water for the skiffs that crossed below them. [9] A good part of the horses swam and were towed by their halters from the sterns of the boats, except those which they had saddled and bridled and put on board, that their riders might have them ready for instant use on landing.
28. The Gauls rushed to meet them on the bank, with all sorts of yells and their customary songs, clashing their shields together above their heads and brandishing darts in their [2] right hands, despite the menace of so great a multitude of vessels coming against them and the loud roaring of the river and the confused hallooing of the boatmen and the sailors, as they strove to force their way athwart the current or shouted encouragement to their fellows from the further bank. [3] But the tribesmen were already somewhat daunted by the tumult which confronted them, when a still more appalling clamour arose in the rear, where Hanno had captured their camp. He was soon on the scene himself, and a twofold terror hemmed them in, as that mighty force of armed men came out upon the shore and the unlooked-for line of battle closed in from behind. [4] When the Gauls had attempted charges in both directions and found themselves repulsed, they broke through where the way seemed least beset, and fled in confusion to their several villages. Hannibal brought over at leisure the rest of his forces, and giving himself no more concern over Gallic outbreaks, pitched his camp.
I believe that there were various plans for transporting the elephants; at all events the tradition varies as to how it was accomplished. [5] Some say that the elephants were first assembled on the bank, and then the keeper of the fiercest of them provoked the beast and fled into the water; as he swam off, the elephant pursued him and drew the herd in his train; and though they were afraid of the deep water, yet as soon as each of them got out of his depth, the current itself swept him over to the other bank. [6] It is, however, more generally believed that they were carried across on rafts; this method, as it would be the safer, if the thing were to be done, so, in view of its accomplishment, is more probably the one employed. [7] A raft, two hundred feet long and fifty feet wide, was thrust out from the shore into the stream, and, after being moored to the bank above by a number of stout hawsers, so as not to be carried down the current, was covered with earth, like a bridge, in order that the beasts might boldly venture upon it, as on solid ground. [8] A second raft, of equal width and a hundred feet long, and fit for crossing the river, was coupled to the first. Then the elephants, with the females leading, were driven out over the stationary raft, as over a road; and after they had passed on to the smaller raft adjoining it, the ropes by which this had been loosely attached were cast off and it was towed across by some rowboats to the eastern bank. [9] After landing the first contingent in this fashion, they returned and fetched the others over. [10] The elephants exhibited no signs of fear so long as they were being driven along as though on a connected bridge; they first became frightened when the raft was cast loose from the other and was carried out into mid-channel. [11] The crowding together which resulted, as those on the outside shrank back from the water, gave rise to a slight panic, till terror itself, as they looked at the water all about them, made them quiet. [12] Some, in their frenzy, even fell overboard; but, steadied by their very weight, threw off their riders, and feeling their way to the shallow places, got out upon the land.
29. Whilst the elephants were being got across, Hannibal had dispatched five hundred Numidian horsemen in the direction of the Roman camp, to find out where the enemy were and in what force, and what they meant to do. [2] This body fell in with the three hundred Roman horsemen, sent out, as was mentioned before, from the mouth of the Rhone. [3] The battle that followed was more hotly fought than the size of the contending forces would suggest, for besides the many who were wounded, the numbers of the slain were about equal on both sides, and only the dismay and panic of the Numidians gave the victory to the Romans, who were by that time fairly exhausted. The victors lost about a hundred and forty, not all Romans but some of them Gauls; the vanquished about two hundred. [4] This was at once the beginning of the war and an omen that promised the Romans success in the final outcome, though their victory would be by no means without bloodshed and would only come after a doubtful struggle.
[11.5] When the participants in this affair had returned to their respective generals, it was impossible for Scipio to adopt any settled plan, except to frame his own measures to meet the strategy and movements of the enemy; [6] while Hannibal, uncertain whether to march on, as he had begun, to Italy, or give battle to the first Roman army that had come in his way, was diverted from an immediate trial of strength by the arrival of Boian envoys, with their chief Magalus. These assured him that they would guide his march and share its perils, and urged him to avoid a battle and to keep his forces whole and unimpaired for the invasion of Italy. [7] The rank and file were fearful of the enemy — for their memory of the former war was not yet erased — but more fearful of the interminable march over the Alps, an undertaking which rumour made appalling, at any rate to the inexperienced.
30. Accordingly Hannibal, having settled in his own mind to go forward and advance on Italy, called the soldiers together and worked on their feelings with alternate chiding and encouragement. [2] He marvelled, he said, what sudden terror had invaded breasts that had ever been dauntless. For these many years they had been victorious in war, nor had they quitted Spain until all the tribes and territories which lay between two distant seas were in the power of the Carthaginians. [3] Then, indignant that the Roman People should demand that whoever had laid siege to Saguntum be surrendered up to them, as though to expiate a felony, they had crossed the Ebro, in order to wipe out the Roman name and liberate the world. [4] The march had not then seemed long to any of them, though they meant to advance from the setting to the rising sun; [5] but now, when they could see that they had measured off the greater part of it; when they had made their way, through the fiercest tribes, over the Pyrenees; when they had crossed the Rhone — that mighty river — in the teeth of so many thousand Gauls, overcoming, too, the violence of the stream itself; when the Alps, the other side of which was in Italy, were in full sight; [6] — were they halting now, as though exhausted, at the very gates of their enemies? [7] What else did they think that the Alps were but high mountains? They might fancy them higher than the ranges of the Pyrenees; but surely no lands touched the skies or were impassable to man. The Alps indeed were inhabited, were tilled, produced and supported living beings; their defiles were practicable for armies. [8] Those very ambassadors whom they beheld had not crossed the Alps in the air on wings. Even the ancestors of these men had not been natives of Italy, but had lived there as foreign settlers, and had often crossed these very Alps in great companies, with their children and their wives, in the manner of emigrants. [9] For armed soldiers, taking nothing with them but the instruments of war, what could be impassable or insurmountable? To capture Saguntum, what dangers or what hardships had they not endured for eight long months? [10] Now that Rome, the capital of the world, was their objective, could anything seem so painful or so difficult as to delay [11] their enterprise? Had Gauls once captured that which the Phoenician despaired of approaching? Then let them yield in spirit and manhood to a race which they had so often vanquished in the course of the last few days, or look to end their march in the field that lay between the Tiber and the walls of Rome.
31. After encouraging them with this exhortation, he bade them refresh themselves and make ready for the march. [2] Setting out the following day he advanced up the Rhone towards the interior of Gaul, not that it was the more direct way to the Alps, but believing that the farther he retired from the sea, the less likely he was to fall in with the Romans, [3] with whom he had no mind to fight a battle until he should arrive in Italy. The fourth day’s march brought him to the Island. [4] There the rivers Isara and Rhone, rushing down from different Alps, unite their waters, after enclosing a considerable territory, and the Island is the name which has been given to the plains lying between them. [5] Near by is the country of the Allobroges, a tribe, even at that early day, inferior to no Gallic tribe in wealth or reputation. Just then it was a prey to discord. [6] Two brothers were disputing the sovereignty. The elder, Braneus by name, who had held sway before, was being driven out by a faction of juniors headed by the younger brother, whose right was less but his might greater. [7] This quarrel having very opportunely been referred to Hannibal for settlement, who thus became arbiter of the kingdom, he espoused the sentiments of the senate and the leading men and restored the sovereign power to the elder. [8] In requital of this service he was assisted with provisions and supplies of every sort, particularly clothing, which the notorious cold of the Alps made it necessary to provide.
[11.9] Having settled the contentions of the Allobroges, Hannibal was now ready for the Alps; but instead of marching directly towards them, he turned to the left, to the country of the Tricastini, and thence proceeded through the outer borders of the territory of the Vocontii to the Tricorii, by a road which nowhere presented any difficulties, until he came to the Druentia. This, too, is an Alpine river and by far the most difficult of all the rivers of Gaul [11] to cross; for, though it brings down a vast volume of water, it does not admit of navigation, since, not being confined within any banks, but flowing at once in several channels, not always the same, it is ever forming new shallows and new pools — a fact which makes it dangerous for foot-passengers as well — besides which it rolls down jagged stones and affords no sure or stable footing to one who [12] enters it. And at that time, as it happened, it was swollen with rains, and the crossing took place amidst the wildest tumult, for the men — besides their other difficulties — were confused by their own excitement and bewildered outcries.
32. Publius Cornelius the consul, some three days after Hannibal had left the bank of the Rhone, marched in fighting order to the enemy’s camp, intending to offer battle without delay. [2] But finding the works deserted, and perceiving that he could not readily overtake the enemy, who had got so long a start of him, he returned to the sea, where he had left his ships, thinking that he would thus be more safely and easily enabled to confront Hannibal as he descended from the Alps. [3] Still, that he might not leave Spain stripped of Roman defenders — for the lot had assigned it to him as his province — he [4] sent Gnaeus Scipio, his brother, with the chief part of his troops, to deal with Hasdrubal, with the object not merely of protecting the allies and of winning over new ones, but also of driving Hasdrubal out of Spain. [5] He himself, with extremely scanty forces, sailed back to Genoa, proposing to safeguard Italy with the army which lay in the valley of the Po.
[11.6] Hannibal, leaving the Druentia, and advancing for the most part through a champaign country, reached the Alps without being molested by the Gauls who inhabited those regions. [7] Then, though report, which is wont to exaggerate uncertain dangers, had already taught them what to expect, still, the near view of the lofty mountains, with their snows almost merging in the sky; the shapeless hovels perched on crags; the frost-bitten flocks and beasts of burden; the shaggy, unkempt men; animals and inanimate objects alike stiff with cold, and all more dreadful to look upon than words can tell, renewed their consternation. [8] As their column began to mount the first slopes, mountaineers were discovered posted on the heights above, who, had they lain concealed in hidden valleys, might have sprung out suddenly and attacked them with great rout and slaughter. Hannibal gave the command to halt, and sent forward some Gauls to reconnoitre. [9] When informed by them that there was no getting by that way, he encamped in the most extensive valley to be found in a wilderness of rocks and precipices. [10] He then employed these same Gauls, whose speech and customs did not differ greatly from those of the mountaineers, to mingle in their councils, and in this way learned that his enemies guarded the pass only by day, and at night dispersed, every man to his own home. As soon as it was light, he advanced up the hills, as though lie hoped to rush the defile by an open attack in the daytime. [11] Then having spent the day in feigning a purpose other than his real one, he entrenched a camp on the spot where he had halted. [12] But no sooner did he perceive that the mountaineers had dispersed from the heights and relaxed their vigilance, than, leaving for show more fires than the numbers of those who remained in camp demanded; leaving, too, the baggage and the cavalry and a great part of the infantry, he put himself at the head of some light-armed soldiers — all [13] his bravest men — and, marching swiftly to the head of the defile, occupied those very heights which the enemy had held.
33. With the ensuing dawn the Carthaginians broke camp and the remainder of their army began to move. [2] The natives, on a signal being given, were already coming in from their fastnesses to occupy their customary post, when they suddenly perceived that some of their enemies were in possession of the heights and threatened them from above, and that others were marching through the pass. [3] Both facts presenting themselves at the same time to their eyes and minds kept them for a moment rooted to the spot. Then, when they saw the helter-skelter in the pass and the column becoming embarrassed by its own confusion, the horses especially being frightened [4] and unmanageable, they thought that whatever they could add themselves to the consternation of the troops would be sufficient to destroy them, and rushed down from the cliffs on either side, over trails and trackless ground alike, with all the ease of habit. [5] Then indeed the Phoenicians had to contend at one and the same time against their foes and the difficulties of the ground, and the struggle amongst themselves, as each endeavoured to outstrip the rest in escaping from the danger, was greater than the struggle with the enemy. [6] The horses occasioned the greatest peril to the column. Terrified by the discordant yells, which the woods and ravines redoubled with their echoes, they quaked with fear; and if they happened to be hit or wounded, were so maddened that they made enormous havoc not only of men but of every sort of baggage. [7] Indeed the crowding in the pass, which was steep and precipitous on both sides, caused many — some of them armed men — to be flung down to a great depth; but when beasts of burden with their packs went hurtling down, it was just like the crash of falling walls. [8] Dreadful as these sights were, still Hannibal halted for a little while and held back his men, so as not to augment the terror and confusion. [9] Then, when he saw that the column was being broken in two, and there was danger lest he might have got his army over to no avail, if it were stripped of its baggage, he charged down from the higher ground and routed the enemy by the very impetus of the attack, though he added to the disorder amongst his own troops. [10] But the flurry thus occasioned quickly subsided, as soon as the roads were cleared by the flight of the mountaineers; and the whole army was presently brought over the pass, not only without molestation but almost in silence. [11] Hannibal then seized a stronghold which was the chief place in that region, together with the outlying hamlets, and with the captured food and flocks supported his troops for three days. And in those three days, being hindered neither by the natives, who had been utterly cowed at the outset, nor very greatly by the nature of the country, he covered a good deal of ground.
34. They came next to another canton, thickly settled for a mountain district. There, not by open fighting, but by his own devices, trickery and deception, Hannibal was all but circumvented. [2] The elder headmen of the strongholds waited on him, as a deputation, and said that, taught by other men’s misfortunes — a useful warning — they preferred to experience the friendship of the Phoenicians rather than their might; [3] they were ready, therefore, to carry out his orders, and they requested him to accept provisions and guides and also hostages as a guarantee of good faith. [4] Hannibal, neither blindly trusting nor yet repulsing them, lest, being spurned, they might become openly hostile, returned a friendly answer, accepted the proffered hostages, and used the supplies, which they had brought down, themselves, to the road. But he drew up his column, before following their guides, by no means as though for a march through a friendly country. [5] The van was made up of elephants and cavalry; he himself, with the main strength of the infantry, came next, looking warily about him and watching everything. [6] When they had got to a narrow place, which was overhung on one side by a ridge, the tribesmen rose up on every quarter from their ambush and assailed them, front and rear, fighting hand to hand and at long range, and rolling down huge boulders on the marching troops. [7] The rear-guard bore the brunt of the attack, and as the infantry faced about to meet it, it was very evident that if the column had not been strengthened at that point, it must have suffered a great disaster in this pass. [8] Even so, they were in the utmost peril and came near destruction. For while Hannibal was hesitating to send his division down into the defile, since he had no troops left to secure the rear of the infantry, as he himself secured that of the horse, the [9] mountaineers rushed in on his flank, and breaking through the column, established themselves in the road, so that Hannibal spent one night without cavalry or baggage.
35. On the following day, since by now the barbarians were attacking with less vigour, his forces were re-united and surmounted the pass; and though they suffered some casualties, still they lost more baggage animals than men. [2] From this point on the mountaineers appeared in smaller numbers, and, more in the manner of brigandage than warfare, attacked sometimes the van, sometimes the rear, whenever the ground afforded an advantage, or the invaders, pushing on too far ahead or lagging behind, gave opportunity. [3] The elephants could be induced to move but very slowly along the steep and narrow trails; but wherever they went they made the column safe from its enemies, who were unaccustomed to the beasts and afraid of venturing too near them.
[11.4] On the ninth day they arrived at the summit of the Alps, having come for the most part over trackless wastes and by roundabout routes, owing either to the dishonesty of their guides, or — when they would not trust the guides — to their blindly entering some valley, guessing at the way. For two days they lay encamped on the summit. [5] The soldiers, worn with toil and fighting, were permitted to rest; and a number of baggage animals which had fallen among the rocks made their way to the camp by following the tracks of the army. [6] Exhausted and discouraged as the soldiers were by many hardships, a snow-storm — for the constellation of the Pleiades was now setting — threw them into a great fear. [7] The ground was everywhere covered deep with snow when at dawn they began to march, and as the column moved slowly on, dejection and despair were to be read in every countenance. [8] Then Hannibal, who had gone on before the standards, made the army halt on a certain promontory which commanded an extensive prospect, and pointing out Italy to them, and just under the Alps the plains about the Po, he told them that they were now scaling the ramparts not only of Italy, but of Rome itself; the rest of the way would be level or downhill; [9] and after one, or, at the most, two battles, they would have in their hands and in their power the citadel and capital of Italy.
[11.10] The column now began to make some progress, and even the enemy had ceased to annoy them, except to make a stealthy raid, as occasion offered. But the way was much more difficult than the ascent had been, as indeed the slope of the Alps on the Italian [11] side is in general more precipitous in proportion as it is shorter. [12] For practically every road was steep, narrow, and treacherous, so that neither could they keep from slipping, nor could those who had been thrown a little off their balance retain their footing, but came down, one on top of the other, and the beasts on top of the men.
36. They then came to a much narrower cliff, and with rocks so perpendicular that it was difficult for an unencumbered soldier to manage the descent, though he felt his way and clung with his hands to the bushes and roots that projected here and there. [2] The place had been precipitous before, and a recent landslip had carried it away to the depth of a good thousand feet. [3] There the cavalry came to a halt, as though they had reached the end of the road, and as Hannibal was wondering what it could be that held the column back, word was brought to him that the cliff was impassable. [4] Going then to inspect the place himself, he thought that there was nothing for it but to lead the army round, over trackless and untrodden steeps, however circuitous the detour might be. [5] But that way proved to be insuperable; for above the old, untouched snow lay a fresh deposit of moderate depth, through which, as it was soft and not very deep, the men in front found it easy to advance; [6] but when it had been trampled down by the feet of so many men and beasts, the rest had to make their way over the bare ice beneath and the slush of the melting snow. [7] Then came a terrible struggle on the slippery surface, for it afforded them no foothold, while the downward slope made their feet the more quickly slide from under them; so that whether they tried to pull themselves up with their hands, or used their knees, these supports themselves would slip, and down they would come again! Neither were there any stems or roots about, by which a man could pull himself up with foot or hand — only smooth ice and thawing snow, on which they were continually rolling. [8] But the baggage animals, as they went over the snow, would sometimes even cut into the lowest crust, and pitching forward and striking out with their hoofs, as they struggled to rise, would break clean through it, so that numbers of them were caught fast, as if entrapped, in the hard, deep-frozen snow.
37. At last, when men and beasts had been worn out to no avail, they encamped upon the ridge, after having, with the utmost difficulty, cleared enough ground even for this purpose, so much snow were they obliged to dig out and remove. [2] The soldiers were then set to work to construct a road across the cliff-their only possible way. Since they had to cut through the rock, they felled some huge trees that grew near at hand, and lopping off their branches, made an enormous pile of logs. This they set on fire, as soon as the wind blew fresh enough to make it burn, and pouring vinegar over the glowing rocks, caused them to crumble. [3] After thus heating the crag with fire, they opened a way in it with iron tools, and relieved the steepness of the slope with zigzags of an easy gradient, so that not only the baggage animals but even the elephants could be led down. [4] Four days were consumed at the cliff, and the animals nearly perished of starvation; for the mountain tops are all practically bare, and such grass as does grow is buried under snow. [5] Lower down one comes to valleys and sunny slopes and rivulets, and near them woods, and places that begin to be fitter for man’s habitation. [6] There the beasts were turned out to graze, and the men, exhausted with toiling at the road, were allowed to rest. Thence they descended in three days’ time into the plain, through a region now that was less forbidding, as was the character of its inhabitants.
38. Such were the chief features of the march to Italy, which they accomplished five months after leaving New Carthage — as certain authorities state — having crossed the Alps in fifteen days. [2] The strength of Hannibal’s forces on his entering Italy is a point on which historians are by no means agreed. Those who put the figures highest give him a hundred thousand foot and twenty thousand horse; the lowest estimate is twenty thousand foot and six thousand horse. [3] Lucius Cincius Alimentus, who says that he was taken prisoner by Hannibal, would be our weightiest authority, did he not confuse the reckoning by adding in Gauls and Ligurians: including these, he says that Hannibal brought eighty thousand foot and ten thousand horse — but [4] it is more probable, and certain historians so hold, that these people joined his standard in Italy; he says, moreover, that he had learned from Hannibal’s own lips that after crossing the Rhone he lost thirty-six thousand men and a vast number of horses and other animals. [5] The Taurine Gauls were the first people he encountered on descending into Italy. [6] Since all are agreed on this point, I am the more astonished at the difference of opinion in regard to his route over the Alps, and that it should be commonly held that he crossed by the Poenine Pass and that from this circumstance that ridge of the Alps derived its name — and [7] that Coelius should state that he crossed by the ridge of Cremo; for both these passes would have brought him down, not amongst the Taurini but through the Salassi Montani to the Libuan Gauls. [8] Neither is it probable that these routes to Gaul were open at that time; those leading to the Poenine Pass, at any rate, would have been blocked by tribes of half-German stock. [9] Nor for that matter — if anyone happens to consider this point of consequence — do the Seduni Veragri, who inhabit those mountains, know of their having been named from any passage of the Phoenicians (or Poeni) but from that deity whose sanctuary is established on their very summit and whom the mountaineers call Poeninus.
39. Quite opportunely for the opening of the campaign, the Taurini, the nearest tribe, had begun a war against the Insubres. But Hannibal was unable to put an army in the field to aid the Insubres, as the soldiers while convalescing felt more keenly than ever the distress arising from the hardships they had undergone; [2] for rest coming after toil, plenty after want, comfort after filth and wet, produced all manner of disorders in their squalid and well-nigh brutalized bodies. [3] This was the reason why the consul Publius Cornelius, who had come by sea to Pisa, though the army which he received from Manlius and Atilius was made up of raw recruits, still quaking from their recent defeats, yet marched in all haste towards the Po, that he might join battle with an enemy not yet restored to vigour. [4] But when the consul reached Placentia, Hannibal had already broken camp and taken the capital city of the Taurini by assault, because they would not freely come into his friendship. [5] On the other hand, he would have brought the Gauls who dwell along the Po to join him, not alone from fear but even of their own free choice, had not the consul taken them by surprise, appearing unexpectedly whilst they were looking about them for a pretext to revolt. [6] Hannibal, too, moved forward from the Taurini, being persuaded that the Gauls, uncertain which side they had best adhere to, would attach themselves to those who were on the spot.
[11.7] The armies were now almost within sight of each other, and the opposing generals, though as yet they did not know one another well, had yet each been imbued with a kind of admiration for his antagonist. [8] For Hannibal’s name had been very renowned amongst the Romans, even before the destruction of Saguntum, and Scipio was a man of mark in the eyes of Hannibal, from the mere fact of his having been selected, in preference to any other, to command against himself. [9] Each had increased the other’s good opinion — Scipio, because, though left behind in Gaul, he had confronted Hannibal at his crossing over into Italy; Hannibal by the audacity with which he had conceived and executed his passage of the Alps.
[11.10] Scipio, however, was the first to cross the Po. He brought his army up to the river Ticinus, and in order to put heart into the men before leading them out to fight, harangued them after the following fashion:
40. “Soldiers, if I were leading into battle the army that I had under me in Gaul, I should have deemed it unnecessary to address you. [2] For what point would there have been in exhorting either those horsemen who at the river Rhone had signally defeated the horsemen of the enemy, or those legions with which I pursued this very enemy in his flight, and by the confession implied in his withdrawal and avoidance of a battle, gained a virtual victory? [3] As it is, since that army, enrolled for service in Spain, is campaigning there under my auspices with my brother Gnaeus Scipio, where the senate and the Roman People desired that it should serve, and I myself, that you might [4] have a consul for your leader against Hannibal and the Phoenicians, have of my own choice undertaken the present conflict, it is right that your new commander should say a word or two to his new soldiers.
[11.5] “That you may not be ignorant what manner of war it is, or what your enemies are, you are to fight, my men, with those whom you defeated in the former war, on land and sea; with those from whom you exacted tribute for twenty years; with those from whom you wrested Sicily and Sardinia, which you now hold as the spoils of war. [6] You and they will therefore enter the present struggle with such spirits as usually attend the victors and the vanquished. Nor are they now going to fight because they dare, but because they must; [7] unless you think that those who avoided battle when their strength was unimpaired would, now that they have lost two-thirds of their infantry and cavalry in the passage of the Alps, have become more hopeful! [8] But, you will say, their numbers indeed are small, but their courage and vigour are so great that scarce any force could withstand their might and power. Nay, not so! [9] They are but the semblance, the shadows of men, wasted away with hunger and cold, with filth and squalor; bruised and crippled amongst the rocks and cliffs; moreover, their limbs are frost-bitten, their muscles stiffened by the snow, their bodies numb with cold, their arms shattered and broken, their horses lame and feeble. [10] That is the cavalry, that the infantry with which you are to fight; you have no enemy — only the last relics of an enemy! And I fear nothing more than this, that when you have fought, it may seem to have been the Alps that conquered Hannibal. [11] But perhaps it was right that the gods themselves, without any human aid, should begin and decide a war with a general and a people who break their treaties; and that we, whose injury was second to that of the gods, should add the finishing stroke to a war already so begun and so decided.
41. “I am not afraid that anyone may suppose that I am using these brave words to encourage you, but that in my heart I think otherwise. [2] It was open to me to proceed with my army to my own province, Spain, for which I had already started; I might there have had a brother to share my counsels and my dangers, and Hasdrubal instead of Hannibal for my enemy, and a war undoubtedly less difficult to conduct; [3] nevertheless, when rumours of this enemy reached me, as I sailed along by the coast of Gaul, I landed, and sending my cavalry ahead, moved my camp up to the Rhone. [4] In a cavalry engagement — for this was the arm with which I was given the opportunity of fighting — I put the enemy to rout: his infantry column, marching hastily off as if in flight, I could not overtake by land; returning therefore to my ships I accomplished with all possible expedition so circuitous a voyage and march, and am come to confront this redoubtable enemy almost at the very foot of the Alps. Does it look as though I were avoiding battle and had blundered upon him unawares? [5] or, rather, as though I were in hot haste to encounter him and to provoke and bait him into fighting? [6] I would willingly make trial whether the earth has suddenly produced in the last twenty years another breed of Carthaginians, or whether they are the same who fought at the Aegatian islands and whom you suffered to depart from Eryx at a rating of eighteen denarii a head; [7] and whether our friend Hannibal is a rival, as he himself would have it, of the wandering Hercules, or has been left to the Roman People by his father to be their tributary, tax-payer, and slave. [8] Were he not maddened by the crime he committed at Saguntum, he would surely have regard, if not for his conquered country, yet at least for his house and his father and the treaties written by the hand of Hamilcar, who, under the orders of our consul, withdrew his garrison from Eryx; [9] who submitted with rage and anguish to the heavy terms imposed upon the beaten Carthaginians; who agreed, on withdrawing from Sicily, to pay tribute to the Roman People. [10] And so I could wish you, soldiers, to fight not only with that courage with which you are wont to fight against other enemies, but with a kind of resentful rage, as if you saw your slaves all at once take up arms against you. [11] When we had shut them up at Eryx, we might have killed them by starvation, the worst torment that man can know; we might have dispatched our victorious fleet to Africa, and in a few days’ time, without the slightest struggle, have annihilated Carthage. [12] But we gave them the quarter they besought of us; we lifted the siege and let them go; we made peace with them when we had conquered them; and thereafter, when they were hard pressed by the war in Africa, we regarded them as under our protection. [13] In requital of these benefits they are coming in the train of a crazy youth to assail our country! [14] And I would that your honour only and not your very existence were in jeopardy: you have got to fight not for the ownership of Sicily and Sardinia, which were formerly in dispute, but for Italy. [15] There is no second army at our back to stop the enemy, in case we fail to beat him, nor are there other Alps to obstruct his advance while we make ready new defences. Here, soldiers, is the spot where we must make our stand, as though we were fighting before the walls of Rome. [16] Let each and every one of you consider that his arms protect, not his own person, but his wife and little children; nor let him be concerned for his family alone, but remember that ours are the hands to which the senate and the Roman People are now looking, and that even as our might and valour shall prove to be, [17] such henceforward will be the fortune of that City and the Roman empire.” So spoke the consul to the Romans.
42. Hannibal thought it well to encourage his soldiers by an object lesson before haranguing them. He therefore caused the army to gather in a circle for the spectacle, and setting in the midst some captive mountaineers with fetters on them, gave the order to throw some Gallic weapons down at their feet, and bade an interpreter enquire if any were willing to fight for life or death, on condition of being granted freedom, if victorious, and presented with a horse and arms. [2] When the captives, to the last man, called for sword and combat, and lots were being cast to decide amongst them, each hoped that he should be the one whom fortune selected for that contest; [3] and he who had drawn the lot would leap for joy, and dancing about — as their custom is — while the others showered congratulations on him, would eagerly snatch up his weapons. [4] But when they fought, the feeling, not only in the bosoms of the other captives but even amongst the onlookers in general, was such that the fortune of those who conquered was not more praised than that of those who met an honourable death.
43. Having thus, by the exhibition of several pairs, worked on the passions of his troops, he dismissed them. Then, convening an assembly, he addressed them — so it is said — in the following strain: “If that spirit which but now was roused in you by the example of the plight of others shall presently be yours, when you consider your own prospects, then, soldiers, the victory is ours. [2] For that was no mere spectacle, but a kind of picture, as it were, of your own condition. [3] And I incline to think that Fortune has laid you under stronger bonds and heavier necessities than your captives. [4] On the right and on the left two seas encompass you, and you have not a single ship, even to flee in; round you is the river Po — the Po, a greater and more turbulent river than the Rhone; behind you tower the Alps, which you hardly scaled when you were fresh and vigorous. [5] Here, soldiers, you must conquer or die, where for the first time you have faced the enemy. And the same Fortune which has laid upon you the necessity of fighting holds forth the promise of such prizes, in the event of victory, that men are wont to ask not even the immortal gods for greater. [6] If it were only Sicily and Sardinia, wrested from our fathers, that we were going to recover by our valour, these would still be great enough rewards. As it is, whatever the Romans have won and heaped up in the course of all their triumphs, whatever they possess, is all destined — and its owners with it — to be yours. [7] Come then! Arm yourselves, with Heaven helping you, to earn this splendid wage! [8] Long enough have you been chasing flocks on the barren mountains of Lusitania and Celtiberia, without seeing any recompense for all your toil and dangers. [9] It is now time for you to make rich and lucrative campaigns, and reap the large rewards of so long a march over so many mountains and rivers and through so many warlike tribes. Here Fortune has fixed the final goal of your labours; here, when your wars are ended, she will worthily requite you.
[11.10] “Nor must you think that in proportion to the great name of the war will be the difficulty you will have in winning it. [11] It has often happened that even an enemy held cheap has caused a bloody battle, and that nations and princes of renown have been very lightly overcome. Take from your enemies this one glory of the Roman name, and in what particular can they bear comparison with you? [12] To say nothing of your twenty years of service and your far-famed courage and good fortune, you [13] have come from the Pillars of Hercules, from the Ocean and the uttermost limits of the world, and through so many of the fiercest tribes of Spain and Gaul have fought your way victoriously to this field. [14] You will be pitted against an army of recruits, who have been this very summer cut to pieces, routed, and besieged by Gauls — an army as yet unknown to its general and one that knows not him. [15] Or am I, who if not actually born in the headquarters of my father-most illustrious of commanders — was at least brought up there, am I, the subjugator of Spain and Gaul and conqueror not only of the Alpine tribes, but — what is much more — of the Alps themselves, am I, I ask you, to compare myself to this six-months general, who has deserted his own army? [16] Why, if one were to show him to-day the Phoenicians and Romans without their standards, I am certain he would not know which army he was consul of. [17] For my part, soldiers, I regard it as no slight advantage that there is not one of you in whose sight I have not often myself performed some soldierly feat; not one of whose courage I have not in my turn been a spectator and eye-witness — whose deeds of prowess, noted, together with their times and circumstances, I am not able to rehearse. [18] I shall enter the battle in company with men whom I have praised and decorated a thousand times, and to all of whom I was a foster-son before I was their general. Opposed to me will be men who do not even know each other.
44. “Wherever I turn my eyes I see nothing but eagerness and strength, a veteran infantry, cavalry from the noblest tribes, riding with bridles or without, here [2] the trustiest and most valiant of allies, there Carthaginians, prepared to fight not only in defence of their native land, but in satisfaction of a most righteous indignation. [3] We are the assailants, and are descending with hostile standards into Italy, where we shall fight with more boldness and courage than our foes in proportion as our hopes are higher and the gallantry of the assailant greater than his who but defends himself. [4] Moreover, our hearts are kindled and pricked by rancour, wrongs, and insults. They called for the punishment of myself first, as your leader, then of all of you who had borne a part in the assault upon Saguntum; had we been given up, they meant to have inflicted upon us the worst of tortures. [5] Most inhuman and most arrogant of nations, they reckon the world as theirs and subject to their pleasure. With whom we are to be at war, with whom at peace, they think it right that they should determine. [6] They circumscribe and hem us in with boundaries of mountains and rivers which we may not cross; yet they do not observe those boundaries which they have set. [7] ‘ Do not cross the Ebro! Have naught to do with the Saguntines!’ But Saguntum is free. ‘ Do not budge from where you are in any direction!’ Is it not enough that you have taken away my ancient provinces of Sicily and Sardinia? Are you taking away Spain as well? If I withdraw from these, shall you cross over into Africa? Shall, do I say? They have dispatched the two consuls of this year, the one into Africa, and the other into Spain! [8] Nothing is left us anywhere, except what we shall defend by force of arms. They can afford to be timid and unenterprising who have something to fall back upon; whom their own country and their own fields will receive as they flee over safe and peaceful roads. As for you, you must be stout-hearted men, and discarding, without vain regrets, all hopes of anything but victory or death, either conquer or, if Fortune falters, sooner perish in battle than in flight. [9] If this idea has been firmly fixed and implanted in your hearts, let me say once more: the victory is already yours. The immortal gods have bestowed on man no sharper weapon for winning victories than contempt of death.”
45. When the spirits of the soldiers on both sides had been whetted for the struggle by these speeches, the Romans threw a bridge over the Ticinus and erected a fort besides for its protection; [2] and the Phoenician, whilst his enemies were engaged in fortification, sent Maharbal with a squadron of Numidians, numbering five hundred horse, to ravage the fields belonging to the allies of the Roman People, with orders to spare the Gauls as much as possible and tempt their leaders to desert. [3] On the completion of the bridge, the Roman army marched over into the country of the Insubres, and took up a position five miles from Victumulae. [4] It was there that Hannibal had his camp, who, quickly recalling Maharbal and his cavalry, when he saw that a battle was imminent, called his troops together — for he never felt that he had done enough in the way of preparing and cheering the men — and held out definite rewards to them to fight for; [5] he would give them land, he said, in Italy, Africa, or Spain, as each might choose, tax-free to the recipient and to his children; those who had rather have money than land he would content with silver; if any of the allies desired to become citizens of Carthage, he would give them the opportunity; [6] as for such as preferred to go back to their homes, he would see to it that they should feel no inclination to change places with any of their countrymen; [7] besides this he promised freedom to the slaves who had come with their masters, and declared that he would make restitution to the latter, at the rate of two for one. [8] And that they might know that these promises would be kept, he held a lamb with his left hand, and with his right a flint, and praying that if he should deceive them, then Jupiter and the other gods might slay him, even as he had slain the lamb, he thereupon smote the lamb’s head with the stone. [9] Then indeed they all, as though each had received the blessing of the gods on his own particular hopes, and thought that their fulfilment was being delayed only because they were not yet fighting, cried out with one accord and one voice for battle.
46. On the Roman side there was far less alacrity, for, besides other things, they were also frightened by some recent portents: [2] a wolf had entered the camp and after rending those whom it met, had itself escaped unharmed; and a swarm of bees had settled in a tree that hung over the consul’s tent. [3] After averting these omens, Scipio set out with his cavalry and light-armed darters to reconnoitre at close hand the enemy’s camp and the size and character of his forces, and encountered Hannibal, who had likewise come out with his cavalry to explore the surrounding country. [4] Neither party descried the other at first; afterwards an increasingly thick cloud of dust, that rose with the advance of so many men and horses, gave them notice that their enemies were approaching. Both bodies halted and began to make ready for battle. [5] Scipio stationed his darters and Gallic horse in front, holding in reserve the Romans and the best of the allies; Hannibal put the cavalry who rode with bridles in the centre, and made his wings strong with Numidians. Hardly had the battle-cry been raised, when the darters fled through their supports to the second line. [6] Then followed a cavalry fight of which the issue was for a time in doubt; but by and by the horses became excited by the presence of the foot-soldiers who were mingled with them, and many riders lost their seats or dismounted on seeing their fellows in distress, and the battle was now fought chiefly on foot; until the Numidians, who were posted on the flanks, rode round in a little circuit and showed themselves on the rear. [7] So alarming a sight filled the Romans with dismay, and, to add to their fear, the consul was wounded and was only saved from danger by the intervention of his son, who was just reaching manhood. [8] This is the youth who will have the glory of finishing this war, and be surnamed Africanus, from his famous victory over Hannibal and the Phoenicians. [9] However, the rout was chiefly amongst the darters, the first to be charged by the Numidians: the cavalry rallied, and receiving the consul into their midst, and shielding him not only with their arms but with their persons also, brought him back to camp without panic or confusion at any point in their retreat. (The credit for saving the consul’s life is given by Coelius to a Ligurian slave. [10] I should prefer, for my own part, that the story about his son were the true one, and this is the version which most authorities have handed down and tradition has established. )
47. Such was the first battle fought with Hannibal, in which it was clearly seen that the Phoenician was superior in cavalry and that consequently open plains, like those between the Po and the Alps, were ill-suited to the Romans for campaigning. [2] Accordingly, the next night Scipio gave his men the order to pack up without making any noise, and quitting his camp on the Ticinus, marched swiftly to the Po, intending to use the bridge of boats which he had thrown across the river and had not yet broken up, in order to set his army over without confusion or interruption by the enemy. [3] They were at Placentia before Hannibal was well aware that they were gone from the Ticinus; nevertheless some six hundred men, who were lingering on the northern bank and taking their time about casting off the raft, fell into Hannibal’s hands. He was not able to cross the bridge, for when the end was cast off, the whole raft swung down stream with the current.
[11.4] Coelius states that Mago with the cavalry and the Spanish foot immediately swam the river, and that Hannibal himself led his army across the Po by an upper ford, after placing the elephants in a line to break the current of the river. [5] Those who are acquainted with the Po will hardly credit this account; for, in the first place, it is unlikely that the horsemen could have breasted so strong a current without the loss of arms or horses, even if all the Spaniards had swum over on inflated skins, and in the second place it would have needed a circuitous march of many days to reach fords on the Po by which an army encumbered with baggage could get across.
[11.6] Those writers seem to me more worthy of belief who relate that in two days’ search a pace was scarcely found where the river could be spanned by a bridge of boats; by this the cavalry and light Spanish infantry were sent forward under Mago. [7] While Hannibal, who had lingered on the northern bank to give a hearing to some Gallic embassies, was bringing over the heavy infantry, Mago and his horsemen advanced a day’s march from the crossing of the river towards Placentia and the enemy. [8] A few days later, Hannibal went into camp behind entrenchments, six miles from the town, and on the following day drew up his troops in sight of the enemy and offered battle.
48. The next night there was a bloody affray in the Roman camp, occasioned by some Gallic auxiliaries, though the confusion was greater than the loss of life. [2] Some two thousand foot-soldiers and two hundred horsemen cut down the guards doing duty at the gates and fled to Hannibal, who received them with fair words, and after encouraging them to hope for great rewards, sent them off to their several states to solicit the support of their countrymen. [3] Scipio apprehended that this bloodshed would prove to be a signal for the defection of all the Gauls, and that they would fly to arms, as if maddened by the contagion of this crime. [4] Accordingly, though still troubled with his wound, he marched silently away in the fourth watch of the next night to the river Trebia, and encamped on higher ground, where hills made it more difficult for cavalry to operate. [5] He was less successful than he had been on the Ticinus in eluding the observation of Hannibal, who sent after him first the Numidians and then all his cavalry, and would have thrown the rearguard at least into disorder, had not the Numidians, in their greed for booty, turned aside to plunder the camp which the Romans had abandoned. [6] Whilst they frittered away the time there, rummaging in every nook and cranny without finding anything that really repaid them for the loss of time, they let their enemies slip through their fingers. The Romans had already passed the Trebia and were marking out their camp, when the Numidians caught sight of them and cut down a few loiterers whom they intercepted on the hither side of the stream. [7] Scipio could no longer bear the pain occasioned by the jolting of his wound in travelling, and besides he judged it best to wait for the arrival of his colleague, who was already recalled — so he had heard — from Sicily. He therefore chose what seemed to be the safest place near the river for a permanent camp, and proceeded to entrench it.
[11.8] Hannibal, too, went into camp not far away. Elated as he was at the victory of his horse, he was no less worried by the dearth of food, which increased from day to day, as he advanced through hostile territory without having anywhere arranged beforehand for supplies. [9] In the village of Clastidium the Romans had got together a great quantity of corn. Thither Hannibal dispatched some soldiers, who were making preparations to assault the place, when hopes were held out of its betrayal. The price was not a large one: Dasius of Brundisium, who was in command of the garrison, accepted a bribe of four hundred gold pieces, and turned Clastidium over to Hannibal. [10] This served the Phoenicians as a granary, while they lay encamped on the Trebia. The surrendered garrison were spared, as Hannibal wished to gain at the very outset a reputation for clemency.
49. Though the war on land had come to a standstill at the Trebia, engagements had in the meantime been fought by land and sea off Sicily and the islands near the Italian coast, not only by Sempronius the consul, but even before his coming thither. [2] Twenty quinqueremes with a thousand men at arms had been sent by the Carthaginians to lay waste the coast of Italy; nine of them reached Liparae and eight the Isle of Vulcan; three the current diverted from their course into the Straits. [3] These last were sighted by the people of Messana, and Hiero, king of the Syracusans, who happened to be in Messana at the time, waiting for the Roman consul, dispatched twelve ships, which captured the enemy’s ships without a struggle and brought them into the harbour of Messana. [4] It was learned from the prisoners that, besides the fleet of twenty galleys to which they themselves belonged — which had sailed for Italy — five and thirty other quinqueremes were on the way to Sicily to rouse up the old allies; [5] the seizure of Lilybaeum was their prime object; but they supposed that the same storm by which they had themselves been scattered had struck this fleet as well and had driven it out of its course to the Aegatian Islands. [6] The king wrote a full account of these rumours, just as they had come to him, to Marcus Aemilius, the praetor, [7] who was in command in Sicily, and warned him to garrison Lilybaeum strongly. The praetor at once sent out his lieutenants and tribunes to the cities round about, and urged his people to be on their guard. [8] Above all, Lilybaeum was kept in a state of readiness for war, an edict having been published directing the naval allies to bring to their ships cooked rations for ten days, so that, on the signal being given, there might be nothing to delay their embarkation. All along the coast men were sent to keep a look-out from the watch-towers for the coming of the enemy’s fleet. [9] And so, notwithstanding that the Carthaginians had delayed their sailing on purpose that they might come up to Lilybaeum in the dark, they were nevertheless perceived, because there was a moon all night and they bore down under a spread of canvas. [10] The signal was at once displayed from the watchtowers, and in the town the call to arms was sounded and the ships were manned; some of the troops were at once on the walls or guarding the gates, some on the ships. [11] And the Carthaginians, seeing that they should have to do with men who were not unprepared, stood off from the harbour until dawn and employed the time in taking down their masts and sails and putting the fleet in fighting trim. [12] When the day broke, they withdrew into the open sea, to give room for the battle and to allow their enemy’s ships a ready egress from the harbour. Nor did the Romans shun the encounter. [13] They remembered the victories that had been won in that same vicinity, and relied on the numbers and the bravery of their men. 50. Once at sea, the Romans wanted to join battle and match their strength against the enemy’s at close quarters. [2] The Phoenicians, on the contrary, preferred to manœuvre; to conduct the affair by strategy, not by force, and to make it a contest rather of ships than of men or arms. [3] For although their fleet was well equipped with rowers, they were short of fighting men; and when a ship was grappled, the men-at-arms in her were greatly outnumbered by their enemies. [4] Perceiving this, the Romans derived a fresh access of courage from their numbers, and the other side were correspondingly disheartened by their fewness. Seven Punic ships were instantly cut out and captured, and the rest took to flight. [5] There were seventeen hundred soldiers and sailors on the captured ships, including three Carthaginian nobles. The Roman fleet returned intact into the harbour: one ship only had been rammed, and even this was brought safely in.
[11.6] After this engagement, but before the people in Messana had got wind of it, the consul Tiberius Sempronius came to that city. [7] As he was entering the straits, King Hiero put out to meet him, with his fleet in fighting order, and passing over from the royal galley to the praetorian, congratulated Sempronius on having arrived in safety with his army and his ships, and prayed that he might have a safe and successful passage to Sicily. [8] He then described conditions in the island and the attempts made by the Carthaginians, and promised that with the same spirit with which, in [9] his youth, he had helped the Roman People in the former war he would help them now, as an old man, and would furnish corn and clothing gratis to the legions of the consul and the naval allies. [10] He added that Lilybaeum and the cities of the coast were in great danger, and that some of them would welcome a revolution. [11] In view of these things, the consul saw fit to sail without delay for Lilybaeum, and the king attended him with the royal fleet. On the voyage they learned of the action that had been fought near that city, and the defeat and capture of the enemy’s ships.
51. From Lilybaeum the consul dismissed King Hiero and his fleet, and leaving the praetor to protect the coast of Sicily, set sail for the island of Melita, which was held by the Carthaginians. [2] On his arrival, Hamilcar, Gisgo’s son, the commandant of the garrison, surrendered himself and nearly two thousand soldiers, together with the town and island. From Melita Sempronius returned in a few days to Lilybaeum, and consul and praetor sold into slavery the prisoners they had made, with the exception of those who were distinguished by noble birth. When the consul judged that Sicily was in no danger from that quarter, he crossed over to the Isles of Vulcan, where it was rumoured that a Punic fleet was lying; but no single enemy was discovered near those islands. [3] They had already, as it happened, sailed across to ravage the Italian [4] coast, and after pillaging the country about Vibo, were even threatening the town. [5] The consul was returning again to Sicily when tidings reached him of the enemy’s raid on the lands of Vibo, and a letter was delivered to him from the senate, apprising him of Hannibal’s descent into Italy and bidding him go to the assistance of his colleague at the earliest possible moment. [6] Beset with many cares at once, he immediately embarked his army and dispatched it through the Adriatic to Ariminum; to Sextus Pomponius, his lieutenant, he assigned five and twenty ships of war, with the task of defending the territory of Vibo and the coast of Italy; the fleet under Marcus Aemilius the praetor he increased to fifty sail. [7] He himself, after settling the affairs of Sicily, took ten ships, and skirting the Italian coast, arrived at Ariminum. Thence he marched with his army to the Trebia and effected a junction with his colleague.
52. Now that both the consuls and all the forces which the Romans could muster were opposing Hannibal, it was obvious enough either that the troops there under arms were able to defend Rome’s empire or that her case was hopeless. [2] Nevertheless one of the consuls, disheartened by a single cavalry engagement and weak from his wound, preferred to postpone the decision. The other, unwearied and therefore the more impetuous, would put up with no delay.
[11.3] The country between the Trebia and the Po was in those days inhabited by Gauls, who in this struggle of two mighty peoples maintained a neutral attitude and plainly intended to court the good-will of the victor. [4] This policy was agreeable enough to the Romans, if only the Gauls made no disturbance, but was far from acceptable to Hannibal, who declared repeatedly that he had come on the invitation of the Gauls, to set them free. [5] In his resentment at this state of affairs, and in order at the same time to sustain his troops with plunder, he ordered two thousand foot and a thousand horse — chiefly Numidians but with a sprinkling of Gauls — to [6] waste the entire country-side, field after field, right up to the banks of the Po. The helpless Gauls, who had been undecided until then, were compelled to turn from the authors of their wrongs to those who might avenge them; and, sending envoys to the consuls, besought the Romans to come to the aid of a land that was suffering for its inhabitants’ too great loyalty to Rome. [7] Cornelius liked neither the occasion nor the time for fighting, and regarded the Gauls with suspicion, both because of many acts of perfidy, and especially — even though time had obliterated those ancient grievances — because of the recent treachery of the Boi. [8] Sempronius, on the contrary, held that the strongest bond for keeping the allies to their obligations was the defence of those who should first stand in need of help. [9] On the present occasion, while his colleague hesitated, Sempronius sent his cavalry, interspersed with about a thousand foot-soldiers, armed with darts, to protect the Gallic lands beyond the Trebia. [10] Falling unexpectedly upon the enemy, who were scattered and disorganized — most of them laden too with spoils — they drove them with great slaughter in a terror-stricken rout to the very outposts of the Carthaginian camp. Thence the enemy poured out in numbers and repulsed the Romans, in their turn; but reserves came up and restored the day. [11] Thereafter the fortune of the battle shifted, as pursuit was followed by retreat; and though in the end the opposing armies were on even terms, still the enemy had lost more men and the Romans got the credit of a victory.
53. But to no one did the victory seem greater or more unequivocal than to Sempronius the consul; he was beside himself with joy that with that arm of the service with which the other consul had been beaten, he himself had been successful. [2] He declared that the spirits of the men were restored and renewed, and that no one but his colleague desired to put off the struggle; Cornelius, he said, was sick in spirit rather than in body, and the recollection of his wound made him dread a battle and its missiles. [3] But they must not droop and languish along with a sick man. Why indeed should they further postpone the conflict, or waste time? What third consul, what other army were they waiting for? [4] The Carthaginians were encamped in Italy and almost within sight of Rome. Their object was, not to get back Sicily and Sardinia, taken from them after their defeat, nor to cross the Ebro and occupy northern Spain, but to expel the Romans from the land of their fathers and from their native soil. [5] “How would our fathers groan,” he cried, “that were wont to wage war about the walls of Carthage, could they see us, their offspring, two consuls and two consular armies, cowering within our camp in the heart of Italy; and the Phoenician in full sway over all the territory between the Alps and the Apennines!” Thus he ran on, as he sat by the bed of his sick colleague; thus he argued in the praetorium, almost as if haranguing the troops. [6] His impatience was increased, too, by the near approach of the elections, lest the war go over to the term of the new consuls and he lose the opportunity of gaining all the glory for himself, while his colleague was laid up. [7] Accordingly, despite the unavailing protests of Cornelius, he commanded the soldiers to make ready for an early battle.
Hannibal, since he saw what was best for the enemy, hardly dared to hope that the consuls would take any rash or ill-considered step; but knowing, as he did — by hearsay first and afterwards by experience — that [8] one of them was of a fiery and reckless disposition, and believing that the late successful brush with the Carthaginian raiders would have made him still more headstrong, he was fairly confident that the good fortune of a general engagement was at hand. [9] It was therefore his one concern to let slip no opportunity for bringing this about, while the soldiers of the enemy still lacked experience, while the abler of their generals was incapacitated by his wound, while the courage of the Gauls was up — since [10] he knew that their vast multitude would follow the less willingly, the farther they were drawn from home. [11] For these and similar reasons he hoped that a battle would soon be fought, and was eager, should there be any hesitation, to force it on. And so, when his Gallic scouts — who were safer for gathering the information that he wanted because there were men of that nation in both camps — had reported that the Romans were prepared to fight, the Phoenician began to look about for a place in which to lay an ambush.
54. Between the two camps was a water-course, shut in by very high banks on either side and overgrown all round with marsh-grass and the underbrush and brambles with which uncultivated land is usually clothed. When Hannibal, riding over the ground himself, saw that this place afforded sufficient cover even for cavalry, he said to his brother Mago, “This will be the place for you to hold. [2] Choose out a hundred men from all the infantry and a hundred from the cavalry, and come with them to my quarters at the first watch. It is time now to sup and rest.” With that he broke up the council. In a little while Mago presented himself with his picked men. [3] “I see the stoutest of my men,” said Hannibal, “but that your numbers too may be strong to match your bravery, choose, each of you, from the squadrons and the maniples, nine others like yourselves. Mago will point out to you the spot where you are to lie in ambush; you have an enemy who is blind to these stratagems.” [4] Mago and his thousand horse and thousand foot being thus dispatched, Hannibal ordered the Numidian cavalry to cross the Trebia at dawn, and riding up to the enemy’s gates and discharging missiles against his outposts, to lure him into battle; and then, when the fight was on, to give ground insensibly and draw him across the river. Such were the orders of the Numidians. [5] The other officers, both of cavalry and of infantry, were instructed to make their men have breakfast, and then, armed and with horses saddled, to await the signal.
[11.6] On the flurry caused by the Numidians, Sempronius, confident where cavalry was concerned, first led out all of this part of his forces; then six thousand of the infantry; and finally all the rest of his troops. He had fully made up his mind beforehand and was eager for the battle. [7] It chanced to be the time of year when the days are shortest, and it was snowing in the region between the Alps and the Apennines, and the proximity of rivers and marshes intensified the bitter cold. [8] Moreover, men and horses had been turned out in haste, without stopping for food or doing anything to guard against becoming chilled; there was no warmth in them, and the nearer they approached the atmosphere of the river the sharper grew the cold wind in their faces. [9] But when, in pursuit of the fleeing Numidians, they entered the water — swollen breast-high with the rain that had fallen in the night — or at any rate when they got out upon the further bank, then indeed their bodies were all so benumbed that they could hardly hold their weapons; and at the same time they were fainting with fatigue, and, as the day wore on, with hunger as well.
55. Hannibal’s soldiers had in the meantime made fires before their tents; in each company they had been served with oil to supple their joints, and had breakfasted at leisure. When, therefore, they were told that the enemy had crossed the river, they were eager both in mind and body, as they armed and went out to battle. [2] In front of the standards Hannibal placed the Baliares, light-armed troops numbering about eight thousand, and behind these his heavy infantry, tile strength and flower of his army; the wings he formed of ten thousand horse, and, dividing the elephants, stationed them outside the wings. [3] The consul’s troopers were scattered in pursuit of the Numidians, when suddenly the latter made a stand and took them unawares; whereupon he called them back and posted them on either flank of the infantry. [4] There were eighteen thousand Romans and twenty thousand allies of the Latin name, besides the auxiliaries of the Cenomani, the only Gallic tribe that continued loyal. These were the contending forces.
The Baliares began the battle, but those light-armed troops, finding the legions too strong to cope with, were quickly withdrawn and sent to the wings. [5] This manœuvre at once caused the Roman cavalry acute distress; for they numbered but four thousand, and, tired as they were, would scarce have been able to hold out any longer against the enemy’s ten thousand cavalry alone, who were most of them fresh; [6] and now they were overwhelmed, as it were with a cloud of missiles, by the Baliares. [7] Besides this, the elephants, looming large on the outer extremities of the wings, gave rise to such a panic, particularly among the horses, not only by their strange appearance, but also by their unfamiliar smell, as to bring about a general flight. [8] As for the infantry, they were fairly matched in courage, but not in strength, which was unimpaired in the case of the Phoenicians, who had refreshed themselves shortly before entering the battle, while the Romans were faint with fasting and fatigue, and were stiff and numb with cold. Yet their courage would have enabled them to resist, had they fought against infantry alone. [9] But the Baliares, having put the cavalry to flight, were raining missiles on their flanks; the elephants had now charged the centre of the line; and Mago and his Numidians, as soon as the Roman army had passed their ambuscade without observing it, started up in their rear, and caused the wildest panic and confusion. [10] Nevertheless, amidst all these evils, the line held for a time unshaken, and even — what no one had dared to hope for — against the elephants. [11] Skirmishers, expressly posted to deal with the beasts, would throw darts at them and make them turn away, and then pursuing them would strike them under the tail, where the skin is softest and it is possible to wound them.
56. In their terror they were now on the point of charging their own people, when Hannibal gave orders to drive them from the centre to the extreme left wing, against the Gallic auxiliaries. Here they immediately caused a decided stampede, and the Romans experienced a fresh alarm when they saw B.C. 218 their auxiliaries routed. [2] And so, hemmed in as they now were on every side, about ten thousand men, when they found it impossible to escape at any other point, forced a passage, with great slaughter of their enemies, through the Carthaginian centre, which was composed of Gallic auxiliaries, and being cut off by the river [3] from returning to their camp and so blinded by the rain that they could not well discern where to help their comrades, took the shortest way to Placentia. After that sundry groups broke out at various points. [4] Those who headed for the river were either drowned in its eddies, or, while they hesitated to enter it, were overtaken by the enemy; [5] but those who scattered over the countryside in flight made their way by following the tracks of the retreating column, to Placentia; others, venturing, in their terror of the enemy, to attempt the river, got across, and reached the camp. [6] The mingled rain and snow and the intolerable sharpness of the cold brought death to many men and beasts of burden and to almost all the elephants. [7] The Phoenicians pursued their enemies no further than to the river Trebia, and got back to camp so benumbed and chilled as hardly to feel the joy of victory. Consequently, when, in the night that followed, the garrison of the camp, and such soldiers without arms [8] for the most part-as had survived the rout, were crossing the Trebia on rafts, they either heard nothing, owing to the noise made by the rain, or being unable, for weariness and wounds, to bestir themselves, pretended not to hear; and unmolested Polybius (II. lxxiv, 11), all but one perished from the effects of the rain and snow that followed the battle. [9] by the enemy Scipio led his army in silence to B.C. 218 Placentia, and thence-after crossing the Po-to Cremona, so that that one town might not be overburdened with furnishing winter quarters for two armies.
57. To Rome the news of this disaster brought such consternation that people looked for the immediate appearance of the hostile army before their very City, and knew not which way to turn for any hope or help in defending their gates and walls against its onset. [2] When one consul had been defeated on the Ticinus, the other had been summoned back from Sicily; but now that two consuls and two consular armies had been beaten, what other generals, what other legions had they to call upon? [3] In the midst of this alarm the consul Sempronius arrived. He had made his way, taking tremendous risks, through the enemy’s cavalry — which was widely dispersed in quest of booty — relying more on audacity than calculation or the prospect of eluding his enemies, or of resisting, should he be unable to elude them. [4] The election of consuls was the one crying need of the hour. This Sempronius accomplished and returned forthwith to his winter quarters. [5] The choice had fallen on Gnaeus Servilius and — for the second time — on Gaius Flaminius.
For the rest, the Romans were given no peace even in their winter quarters. The Numidian cavalry ranged far and wide, and any ground that was too rough for them was covered by the Celtiberians and Lusitani. [6] The result was the cutting off of all supplies from every quarter, save such as were brought up the Po in ships. Their magazine, which was near Placentia, was elaborately fortified and strongly garrisoned. This place Hannibal hoped to capture by assault, and set out thither with his cavalry and light infantry. [7] He had counted mainly on the concealment of his movements for their effectiveness; but his night attack failed to catch the sentries off their guard, and the defenders at once set up so loud an outcry that it was heard even in Placentia. And so at break of day the consul was on the spot with his cavalry, having ordered the legions to follow him in fighting column. [8] Meanwhile, a cavalry engagement took place, in which Hannibal was wounded and withdrew from the fight, and [9] the enemy were so alarmed by this that the post was successfully defended. [10] After this Hannibal, when he had rested only a few days and his wound was scarce healed over, set out to attack Victumulae. This had been a Roman magazine in the Gallic war, and having then been fortified had since attracted numerous settlers from the various peoples dwelling in the neighbourhood; [11] and just then the fear of raids had caused large numbers to flock in from the countryside. [12] Such was the character of the population, which, fired by the story of the stout defence of the fortress near Placentia, flew to arms and went out to meet Hannibal. More like marching columns than embattled armies they encountered each other in the road; and since on one side there was only an undisciplined rabble, and on the other a general who relied upon his soldiers, and soldiers who confided in their general, some thirty-five thousand men were routed by a very few. [13] The next day they surrendered and received a garrison within their walls. Being commanded to give up their weapons they complied: whereupon a signal was suddenly given to the victors to sack the town, as if they had taken it by storm. [14] Nor was any cruelty omitted which historians generally deem worth noting on such an occasion; but every species of lust and outrage and inhuman insolence was visited upon the wretched inhabitants. Such were Hannibal’s winter expeditions.
58. For no long time thereafter, while the cold was still unbearable, he allowed his men to rest, and on the first doubtful [2] signs of spring broke up his winter quarters and marched towards Etruria, with the object of drawing that nation also to his standards, either by force or with their own consent, as he had done with the Gauls and the Ligurians. [3] In attempting to cross the Apennines he was assailed by a storm so terrible as almost to surpass the horrors of the Alps. With the wind and rain blowing full in their faces, at first — because they must either have dropped their arms or else, if they struggled against it, be caught by the hurricane and hurled to the ground — they [4] halted; then, when it actually stopped their breath and would not allow them to respire, they turned their backs on the gale and for a time huddled together on the ground. [5] And now the heavens resounded with a frightful tumult, and between the terrific crashes the lightning flashed. [6] Deafened and blinded, they were all stunned with fear. At length the downpour ceased, but the wind only blew the more furiously, and there seemed to be nothing to do but to pitch camp on the very spot where they had been caught. [7] This, however, was but a fresh beginning of their troubles, for they could neither spread nor set up a tent, nor, once set up, would it stay in place, for the wind rent everything to shreds and swept it away; [8] and when presently the moisture taken up by the wind had been congealed over the cold mountain ridges, it descended in such a storm of sleet that the men let go of everything and threw themselves on their faces on the ground, overwhelmed by their shelters rather than protected by them; [9] and the cold that ensued was so severe that when anyone sought to rise and lift himself from out that pitiful heap of men and beasts, for a long time he would be unable, because his sinews were so stiff and tense that he could hardly bend his joints. [10] Afterwards, when at last by exerting themselves they had recovered the power of motion and regained their courage, and had begun here and there to kindle fires, each, in his helplessness, applied to someone else for help. [11] For two days they remained on that spot as if beleaguered. Many men and many horses perished, and seven of the elephants that had survived the battle on the Trebia.
59. Descending from the Apennines, Hannibal turned back once more towards Placentia, and after marching about ten miles went into camp. The next day he advanced against the enemy with twelve thousand foot and five thousand horse. [2] Nor did the consul Sempronius, who had now returned from Rome, decline the combat. That day there were only three miles between the two encampments. On the following day they fought, with great spirit and with shifting fortunes. [3] At the first encounter the Romans had so far the best of it that not only were they victorious in the battle, but they pursued the beaten enemy to his camp, and were soon attacking the camp itself. [4] Hannibal stationed a few defenders on the rampart and at the gates and received the rest in a crowded throng within the enclosure, where he bade them watch intently for the signal to sally forth. [5] It was now about the ninth hour of the day, when the Roman general, who had worn out his men to no avail and saw no prospect of capturing the camp, bade sound the recall. [6] When Hannibal heard this and perceived that the fighting had grown lax and that the enemy had retired from his rampart, he suddenly sent his cavalry against them from the right and left and rushed out himself with the strength of his infantry from the centre of the camp. [7] Seldom has there been a fiercer battle or one more notable for the losses on both sides than this would have been, had the light permitted it to be prolonged; but darkness put an end to a conflict which had been begun with the greatest ardour. [8] The fury of the combatants was consequently greater than the carnage, and as the battle was practically a drawn one, so were the losses equal when the opposing forces separated. [9] On neither side had more than six hundred of the infantry fallen or half as many of the cavalry; but the loss of the Romans was out of proportion to the number slain, for it included several knights, five tribunes of the soldiers, and three praefects of the allies. [10] After this engagement Hannibal retired into Liguria and Sempronius to Luca. The Ligurians had ambushed and made prisoners of two Roman quaestors, Gaius Fulvius and Lucius Lucretius, with two tribunes of the soldiers and five members of the equestrian order — mostly sons of senators. These men they handed over to Hannibal on his coming among them, as a further earnest of their peaceful and friendly disposition towards him.
60. Whilst these things were going on in Italy, Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio, who had been sent out to Spain with a fleet and an army, had [2] set sail from the mouth of the Rhone and passing the Pyrenees had put into Emporiae. [3] Landing his army there and beginning with the Laeetani, he had brought all that coast, as far as the river Ebro, under Roman sway, partly by renewing old alliances and partly by forming new ones. [4] The reputation which he there acquired for clemency and justice availed not only with the maritime tribes, but also with the more warlike clans inhabiting the interior and the mountainous parts; so that he was able not only to establish peaceful relations but even to conclude a military alliance with them, and several strong cohorts of auxiliaries were raised there.
[11.5] North of the Ebro Hanno was the Carthaginian commander, for Hannibal had left him there to defend that region. Feeling, therefore, that something ought to be done, before everything was lost to Carthage, he pitched his camp in sight of the enemy and offered battle. [6] The Roman general saw no reason to put off the engagement; he knew that he must fight with Hanno and Hasdrubal, and chose rather to deal with them separately than both at once. Neither was the battle very difficult to win. [7] Six thousand of the enemy were killed and two thousand captured, together with the garrison of the camp — for this too was attacked and taken. The general himself and several chieftains were made prisoners, and Cissis, a town which stood near the camp, was carried by assault. [8] The plunder of the town yielded objects of little worth — household belongings of barbarians and slaves of no great price — but the camp made the soldiers rich; [9] for in it they found not only the valuables of the army that they had just defeated, but also those of the army that was now serving under Hannibal in Italy, for the men had left nearly all their treasures behind when they crossed the Pyrenees, so as not to burden themselves with heavy baggage on the march.
61. Hasdrubal had not yet received definite tidings of this disaster when he crossed the Ebro with eight thousand infantry and a thousand cavalry, as though to confront the Romans at their first arrival; but on learning of the catastrophe at Cissis and the loss of the camp, he turned and marched in the direction of the sea. [2] Not far from Tarraco he came upon the soldiers of the fleet and the naval allies, who were dispersed and wandering over the country-side, with the carelessness which usually attends success; and sending out his cavalry in all directions he drove them, with much slaughter and more confusion, to their ships. [3] But not venturing to tarry longer in that region, lest Scipio should be down upon him, he retreated across the Ebro. [4] Scipio, hearing of these new enemies, did indeed march thither with all speed; but after punishing a few of the ships’ captains, he left a garrison of moderate size in Tarraco and returned with the fleet to Emporiae. [5] No sooner was he gone than Hasdrubal appeared, and inciting the Ilergetes, who had given Scipio hostages, to revolt, he used the young men of this very tribe to lay waste the fields of the allies who were faithful to the Romans. [6] But this having roused Scipio from his winter quarters, he retreated again and abandoned all the territory north of the Ebro. Scipio invaded the country of the Ilergetes — left thus in the lurch by the instigator of their revolt — with fire and sword, and driving them all into the city of Atanagrus, the capital of that nation, laid siege to them. [7] Within a few days he had exacted more hostages of them than before, and mulcting them also in a sum of money, had received them under his authority and rule. [8] Thence he marched against the Ausetani, near the Ebro, who were likewise allies of the Phoenicians; and besieging their city, laid an ambush for the Lacetani, as they were bringing assistance to their neighbours, and fell upon them in the night, not far from the city, when they would have entered it. [9] The slain amounted to about twelve thousand; almost all the others lost their arms, and scattering over the fields in all directions, fled to their homes. As for the besieged, nothing could have saved them but a winter that was most unfavourable to the besiegers. [10] The blockade lasted thirty days, during which time the snow rarely lay less than four feet deep, and so completely had it covered the mantlets and pent-houses of the Romans that this alone was sufficient to protect them from the firebrands that were several times discharged upon them by the enemy. [11] Finally, when their chief Amusicus had fled and taken refuge with Hasdrubal, they made terms and surrendered, agreeing to pay twenty talents of silver. The Romans returned to Tarraco and went into winter quarters.
62. In Rome or near it many prodigies occurred that winter, or — as often happens when men’s thoughts are once turned upon religion — many were reported and too easily credited. Some of these portents were: that a free-born infant of six months had cried “Triumph!” [2] in the provision market; that in the cattle market an ox had climbed, [3] of its own accord, to the third storey of a house and then, alarmed by the outcry of the occupants, had thrown itself down; [4] that phantom ships had been seen gleaming in the sky; that the temple of Hope, in the provision market, had been struck by lightning; that in Lanuvium a slain victim had stirred, and a raven had flown down into Juno’s temple and alighted on her very couch; that in the district of Amiternum, in many places, apparitions of men in shining raiment had appeared in the distance, but had not drawn near to anyone; [5] that in the Picentian country there had been a shower of pebbles; that at Caere the lots had shrunk; that in Gaul a wolf had snatched a sentry’s sword from its scabbard and run off with it. [6] For the other prodigies the decemviri were commanded to consult the Books, but for the shower of pebbles in the Picentian country a nine days’ sacrifice was proclaimed. They then set about the expiation of the other portents, and in this virtually all the citizens bore a part. [7] First of all, the city was purified, and major victims were offered up to the designated gods; [8] a gift of gold weighing forty pounds was carried to Lanuvium for Juno, and a bronze statue was dedicated to Juno, by the matrons, on the Aventine; a lectisternium was ordered at Caere, where the lots had shrunk; and a supplication was ordered to be made to Fortune on Mount Algidus; [9] in Rome, too, a lectisternium was specially appointed for Juventas, and a supplication at the temple of Hercules, and later the entire people was commanded to observe this rite at all the pulvinaria; [10] also five major victims were slain in honour of the Genius of the Roman People; and Gaius Atilius Serranus the praetor was ordered to make a vow, “if the commonwealth should abide for ten years in its present state.” [11] The making of these vows and expiations, as prescribed by the Sibylline Books, went far to alleviate men’s anxiety concerning their relations with the gods.
63. Of the consuls designate, Flaminius, to whom the legions wintering at Placentia had been assigned by lot, dispatched an edict and a letter to the consul, commanding that these troops should be ready in the camp at Ariminum on the Ides of March. [2] It was here, in his province, that he designed to enter on the consulship, for he remembered his former controversies with the senators, which he had waged when a tribune of the plebs, and later as consul — in the first place about his consulship, which they tried to annul, and again concerning his triumph. He was also hated by the senators on account of an unprecedented law which Quintus Claudius the tribune of the plebs had introduced, despite the opposition of the senate, with the backing of Gaius Flaminius alone of all that body, providing that no senator or senator’s son should own a sea-going ship of more than three hundred amphoras burden — this was reckoned to be sufficient to transport the crops from one’s fields, and all money-making was held unseemly [4] in a senator. The measure, which was vehemently opposed, had been productive of great resentment on the part of the nobles against Flaminius, who had advocated its enactment; but had procured for him the favour of the plebs and afterwards [5] a second consulship. Believing, therefore, that his enemies would falsify the auspices and make use of the Latin Festival and other means of hindering a consul, to detain him in the City, he pretended that he had to take a journey, and departing, as a private citizen, slipped away secretly [6] to his province. This behaviour, when the truth came out, aroused fresh indignation in the breasts of the already hostile senators: Gaius Flaminius, they said, was waging war not only with the senate, but this time with [7] the immortal gods. He had formerly been made consul without the confirmation of the auspices, and, though both gods and men had sought to recall him from the very battle-line, he had not obeyed; now, conscious of having spurned them, he had fled the Capitol and the vows that were regularly undertaken, that he might not, on the day of entering upon his office, approach the temple of [8] Jupiter Optimus Maximus; that he might not see and consult the senate, which hated him and which he alone of all men hated; that he might not proclaim the Latin Festival and offer the accustomed sacrifice to Jupiter Latiaris on [9] the Alban Mount; that he might not, after receiving auspices, go up to the Capitol to make his vows, and thence proceed, in the general’s cloak and accompanied by lictors, to his province; like some camp-follower, without insignia and without lictors, he had set out in secret and by stealth, precisely as though [10] going into exile; he thought, forsooth, that it was more in keeping with the dignity of his high command to begin his magistracy in Ariminum than in Rome — to assume the purple-bordered toga in an inn than in the presence of [11] his household gods! With one accord they voted to recall him and drag him back and compel him to discharge in person all his obligations to gods and men, before he went to his army [12] and his province. On this commission — for commissioners they resolved to dispatch — Quintus Terentius and Marcus Antistius set forth, but moved Flaminius no more than the letter sent him by the senate had moved him in [13] his former consulship. A few days later he entered on his magistracy, and as he was offering up a calf, it escaped — after being struck — out of the hands of those who would have sacrificed it, and spattered many of the bystanders [14] with its blood. The dismay and confusion were even greater among those who stood farther B..217 off and knew not what was occasioning the panic. By most people it was regarded as an omen [15] of great terror. After this the army comprising the two legions received from Sempronius, the consul of the year before, and the two taken over from Gaius Atilius the praetor, began its march into Etruria through the passes of the Apennines.
SUMMARY OF BOOK XXI
IN this book is described the beginning of the Second Punic War, and how Hannibal, the general of the Phoenicians, crossed the river Ebro in violation of the treaty. Besieging Saguntum, a city belonging to allies of the Roman People, he captured it in the eighth month. These injuries led to the dispatch of ambassadors to the Carthaginians, to complain. On their refusing satisfaction, war was declared against Carthage. Hannibal, after surmounting the passes of the Pyrenees, traversed Gaul — having routed the Volcae, who had attempted to stop him — and arrived at the Alps. After a troublesome passage of these mountains, in the course of which he also defeated in several battles the Gallic mountaineers, when they blocked his way, he descended into Italy and routed the Romans in a cavalry battle near the river Ticinus. In this battle Publius Cornelius Scipio was wounded and was saved by his son, who later received the name of Africanus. Again a Roman army was routed near the river Trebia. After this Hannibal crossed the Apennines, with great distress to his soldiers, because of violent storms. In Spain Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio fought successfully against the Phoenicians and captured the enemy’s general, Mago.

## Book XXII

Translated by B. O. Foster
1. SPRING WAS now drawing on, and accordingly Hannibal moved out of his winter encampment. He had tried before this to cross the Apennines, but had failed because of the intolerable cold. [2] And the delay had been attended with the greatest danger and anxiety; for when the Gauls, whom the hope of spoil and pillage had excited to revolt, perceived that instead of harrying and plundering the fields of others, their own lands were the seat of war and were burdened with the winter quarters of both armies, they turned their hatred back again from the Romans upon Hannibal. [3] But though their leaders laid many a plot against him, their treachery to one another saved him, for they gave him information of these conspiracies with the same inconstancy with which they had conspired. Moreover, changing now his dress and now his headgear, he protected himself against their plots by the uncertainty which this gave rise to. [4] Still, the fear of such plots was another reason for quitting his winter quarters early.
About the same time, on the Ides of March, Gnaeus Servilius entered on his consulship at Rome. [5] On his then referring the state of the nation to the senate for discussion, their anger at Gaius Flaminius was renewed. They had chosen two consuls, they said, but had only one; for what proper authority or right of auspices did Flaminius possess? [6] Magistrates, they urged, carried with them this prerogative when they set out from home — from their own and the nation’s hearth — after celebrating the Latin Festival, sacrificing on the Alban Mount and duly offering up their vows on the Capitol; [7] but a private citizen could neither take the auspices with him, nor, if he had left Rome without them, receive them new from the beginning on foreign soil.
[12.8] Men’s fears were augmented by the prodigies reported simultaneously from many places: that in Sicily the javelins of several soldiers had taken fire, and that in Sardinia, as a horseman was making the round of the night-watch, the same thing had happened to the truncheon which he held in his hand; that many fires had blazed up on the shore; that two shields had sweated blood; that certain soldiers had been struck with lightning; that the sun’s disk had seemed to be contracted; [9] that glowing stones had fallen from the sky at Praeneste; that at Arpi bucklers had appeared in the sky and the sun had seemed to be fighting with the moon; that at Capena two moons had risen in the daytime; [10] that the waters of Caere had flowed mixed with blood, and that bloodstains had appeared in the water that trickled from the spring of Hercules itself; that at Antium, when some men were reaping, bloody ears of corn had fallen into their basket; that at Falerii the sky had seemed to be rent as it were with a great fissure; and through the opening a bright light had shone; [11] and that lots had shrunk and that one had fallen out without being touched, on which was written, “Mavors brandishes his spear;” [12] that in Rome, about the same time, the statue of Mars on the Appian Way and the images of the wolves had sweated; that at Capua there had been the appearance of a sky on fire and of a moon that fell in the midst of a shower of rain. [13] Afterwards less memorable prodigies were also given credence: that certain folk had found their goats to have got woolly fleeces; that a hen had changed into a cock and a cock into a hen.
[12.14] When the consul had laid these reports before the senate exactly as they had come to him and had introduced into the House the men who vouched for their truth, he consulted the Fathers regarding their religious import. [15] It was voted that these prodigies should be expiated, in part with greater, in part with lesser victims, and that a supplication should be held for three days at all the couches of the gods; [16] as for the rest, when the decemvirs should have inspected the Books, such rites were to be observed as they should declare, in accordance with the sacred verses, to be pleasing to the gods. [17] Being so admonished by the decemvirs, they decreed that the first gift should be made to Jupiter, a golden thunderbolt weighing fifty pounds; and that Juno and Minerva should be given offerings of silver; [18] that Juno Regina on the Aventine and Juno Sospita at Lanuvium should receive a sacrifice of greater victims, and that the matrons, each contributing as much as she could afford, should make up a sum of money and carry it as a gift to Juno Regina on the Aventine and there celebrate a lectisternium; and that even the very freed-women should contribute money, in proportion to their abilities, for an offering to Feronia. [19] These measures being taken, the decemvirs sacrificed at Ardea in the market-place with the greater victims. Finally-the month was now December — victims were slain at the temple of Saturn in Rome and a lectisternium was ordered-this time senators administered the rite — and [20] a public feast, and throughout the City for a day and a night “Saturnalia” was cried, and the people were bidden to keep that day as a holiday and observe it in perpetuity.
2. While the consul was occupied at Rome in appeasing the gods and levying troops, Hannibal, who had left his winter quarters, heard that Flaminius, the other consul, had already arrived at Arretium; [2] and so, though another route, longer, to be sure, but less difficult, was pointed out to him, he took the shorter, though the marshes, which the river Arno had lately flooded to an unusual extent. [3] He ordered the Spaniards and the Africans and all the flower of his veteran army, taking their own baggage with them so as not to want the necessities of life wherever they might be forced to halt, to march in the van; the Gauls to follow them and form the centre of the column; and the cavalry to fall in behind. [4] Mago and the Numidian light horse were to bring up the rear, their principal duty being to keep the Gauls in order, in case they should weary of the long and painful march — for the race is ill adapted to such hardships — and attempt to steal away or refuse to go forward.
[12.5] Those in front only asked that their guides lead on before. Through deep and well-nigh bottomless quagmires left by the flood, almost engulfed in the mud into which they plunged, they nevertheless followed on after their standards. [6] But the Gauls could neither keep from falling when they slipped, nor regain their footing, once they had plunged into a hole; the flesh was neither sustained by the spirit nor the spirit by hope. Some could hardly drag their tired limbs along; others, their courage yielding once for all to their weariness, dropped down and died amongst the baggage-animals, for these too were lying all about. [7] What distressed them most of all was the want of sleep, which they had now endured for four days and three nights. [8] And since everything was under water and they could find no dry spot on which to stretch their weary bodies, they would pile their packs in the flood and lie down on these; [9] or the heaps of sumpter-animals that were everywhere strewn about along the line of march would afford a makeshift bed — for all they asked was a place that stood out above the water, where they could snatch a little sleep.
[12.10] Hannibal himself, whose eyes were suffering in the first place from the trying spring weather, alternating betwixt hot and cold, rode upon the sole surviving elephant, that he might be higher above the water. [11] But lack of sleep, damp nights, and the air of the marshes affected his head, and since he had neither place nor time for employing remedies, he lost the sight of one of his eyes.
3. Many men and beasts had perished miserably, when at last he got out from the marshes, and pitching his camp on the first dry ground available, ascertained from scouts whom he had sent on ahead that the Roman army lay around the walls of Arretium. [2] He then went to work with all possible diligence to learn the plans and temper of the consul, the lie of the land and the roads, his resources for provisioning the army — everything, in short, which it was important to find out.
[12.3] The district was one of the most fertile in Italy, for the Etruscan plains between Faesulae and Arretium abound in corn and flocks and all sorts of provisions. The consul had been proud and headstrong since his former consulship, and lacked all proper reverence, not only for the laws and for the senate’s majesty, but even for the gods. [4] This native rashness had been nourished by the success which Fortune had bestowed on him in political and military enterprises. It was therefore sufficiently apparent that, seeking no counsel, either divine or human, he would manage everything with recklessness and headlong haste; but to make him incline the more towards his characteristic faults, the Phoenician planned to provoke and exasperate him. [5] Leaving the enemy therefore on his left, and looking out for an [6] opportunity to ambush him, he proceeded to lay waste the heart of Etruria and exhibited to the consul from afar all the havoc that fire and sword could possibly effect.
[12.7] Flaminius, even had his enemy sat still, was not the man to have sat still himself; but now, when he saw the farms of the allies being harried and pillaged almost under his own eyes, he felt it as a personal disgrace that the Phoenician should be roaming through the midst of Italy, and marching, with no one to dispute his passage, to assault the very walls of Rome. [8] In the council of war the rest were all for safe in preference to showy measures: he should wait, they said, for his colleague to come up, in order that they might unite their forces and conduct the war with a common policy and resolution; [9] meantime, he should employ his cavalry and skirmishers to check the enemy’s widespread, unrestricted pillaging. [10] Enraged by this advice, Flaminius flung out of the council, and having given the signal at once for marching and for fighting, exclaimed, “Ay, truly! Let us sit still under the walls of Arretium, for here are our native city and our household gods; let Hannibal slip through our fingers and ravage Italy, and, laying waste and burning everything, march clear to Rome; and let us not move from this spot, till the Fathers, as once they summoned Camillus from Veii, shall summon Gaius Flaminius from Arretium.”
[12.11] Uttering these scornful words he bade pluck up the standards quickly, and vaulted upon his horse, when suddenly the charger stumbled, and unseating the consul threw him over his head. The dismay which this occasioned in all who were present, [12] as an evil omen for beginning the campaign, was intensified on its being reported that, although the standard-bearer was exerting all his might, the standard could not be pulled up. [13] Rounding upon the messenger the consul cried, “Do you bring me a dispatch too from the senate, forbidding me to fight? Go, tell them to dig the standard out, if their hands are too numb with fear to pull it up!”
[12.14] The column then began to advance, though the higher officers, besides disapproving of the consul’s plan, were terrified by the double prodigy. The soldiers, most of them, rejoiced in the temerity of their commander: their hopes ran high: the grounds for hoping they did not scrutinize.
4. Hannibal laid waste the land between the city of Cortona and Lake Trasumennus with every circumstance of cruelty known to war, in order the more to whet his enemy’s anger and prompt him to avenge the sufferings of his allies. [2] And now he had reached a spot designed by nature for an ambuscade, where Trasumennus approaches closest to the mountains of Cortona. Between them is nothing but a very narrow track, as though room had been left expressly for this purpose; the ground then widens into a little plain; beyond this the hills rise steeply. [3] At this point he laid out a camp in the open, for himself and his African and Spanish troops only; the Baliares and the rest of his light-armed forces he led round behind the mountains; the cavalry he stationed near the entrance to the defile, where some hillocks formed a convenient screen for them, so that when the Romans should have entered the pass, they might block the road, and trap the entire army between the lake and the mountains.
Flaminius had reached the lake at sunset; the next morning, without reconnoitring, and scarcely waiting for broad daylight, he passed through the defile. [4] As the column began to spread out on the more open ground, they caught sight of those enemies only who were right in front of them; the ambush in their rear and that above them they failed to perceive. [5] The Phoenician had now gained his object, the Romans were hemmed in between the mountains and the lake and their escape cut off by his own troops, when he made the signal for all his forces to attack at once. [6] As they charged down, each at the nearest point, their onset was all the more sudden and unforeseen inasmuch as the mist from the lake lay less thickly on the heights than on the plain, and the attacking columns had been clearly visible to one another from the various hills and had therefore delivered their charge at more nearly the same instant. [7] From the shouting that arose on every side the Romans learned, before they could clearly see, that they were surrounded; and they were already engaged on their front and flank before they could properly form up or get out their arms and draw their swords.
5. Amidst the general consternation the consul himself displayed — if allowance be made for the terrifying circumstances — considerable coolness. He brought such order as time and place permitted out of the confusion in the ranks, where the men were all turning different ways to face the various shouts; and wherever he could go and make himself heard, he tried to encourage them and bade them stand and fight. [2] Their position, he said, was one from which vows and supplications to the gods could not extricate them, but only their own brave exertions: it was the sword that opened a way through embattled enemies, and the less men feared, the less, in general, was their danger. [3] But the din and confusion were so great that neither advice nor orders could be heard, and so far were the men from knowing their proper standards companies and places, that they had hardly enough spirit to arm and prepare themselves to fight, and some were borne down while more encumbered than protected by their armour. [4] Indeed the fog was so thick that ears were of more use than eyes, and the groans of the wounded, the sound of blows on body or armour and the mingled shouts and screams of assailants and assailed made them turn and gaze, now this way and now that. [5] Some, as they sought to escape, were swept into a crowd of combatants and held there; others, trying to get back into the fight, were turned aside by a throng of fugitives. [6] When attempts to break through had resulted everywhere in failure and they found themselves shut in on the flanks by the mountains and the lake, and in front and rear by the enemy; when it became apparent that their only hope of safety lay in their right arms and their swords; then every man became his own commander and urged himself to action, and the battle began all over again. [7] It was no ordered battle, with the troops marshalled in triple line, nor did the vanguard fight before the standards and the rest of the army behind them, neither did each soldier keep to his proper legion cohort and maniple: [8] it was chance that grouped them, and every man’s own valour assigned him his post in van or rear; and such was the frenzy of their eagerness and so absorbed were they in fighting, that an earthquake, violent enough to overthrow large portions of many of the towns of Italy, turn swift streams from their courses, carry the sea up into rivers, and bring down mountains with great landslides, was not even felt by any of the combatants.
6. The conflict lasted for about three hours, and was bitterly contested at every point; but nowhere did it rage so fiercely as about the consul. [2] He was attended by the bravest of his soldiers and stoutly lent a hand himself, wherever he saw the Romans hard pressed and in dire straits. [3] His arms made him conspicuous, and the enemy attacked and his own people defended him with the greatest fury, until an Insubrian horseman, named Ducarius, who recognized the consul also by his face, cried out to his countrymen, “Behold the man who massacred our legions and laid waste our fields and our city! Now will I offer him up as a sacrifice to the shades of our fellow citizens so foully slain!” [4] Then clapping spurs to his horse, he dashed through the very thick of his enemies, and first cutting down the armour-bearer, who had thrown himself in the way of his onset, transfixed the consul with his spear, but could not despoil him, for the veterans interposed their shields and kept him off.
[12.5] A great part of the Romans now began to run; neither lake nor mountains could any longer check the panic; defiles and precipices were all alike to them, as they rushed blindly to escape, and arms and men came down pell-mell together. [6] Many, having no room to flee, waded out into the shallow water at the margin of the lake, and kept on till only their heads and shoulders were above the surface. [7] Some were driven by their unreasoning panic even to attempt escape by swimming; but this was an endless, desperate undertaking, and either their hearts failed them and they sank in the deep water, or else, exhausted to no purpose, they struggled back with difficulty to the shoals, and were cut down on every hand by the horsemen, who rode into the water after them.
[12.8] Some six thousand of those in the van made a valiant thrust through the enemy that barred their way, and got out of the defile without knowing anything of what was going on behind them. Taking up their stand on some rising ground, whence they could only hear the shouting and the clash of arms, they could neither know nor make out, for the murk, which way the victory was going. [9] It was not until the battle was decided, that the mist dissolved with the growing heat of the sun and revealed the day, when the clear light on hill and plain showed that all was lost and the Roman army shamefully discomfited. [10] And so, lest they should be seen afar and the enemy’s cavalry be sent against them, they hurriedly pulled up their standards and marched off as fast as they could go. [11] On the following day, when besides their other misfortunes they were threatened also with the extremity of hunger, Maharbal — who with all the cavalry had overtaken them in the night — pledged his word that if they delivered up their arms, he would let them go, with a single garment each, and they surrendered. [12] This pledge Hannibal observed with true Punic reverence and threw them all into chains.
7. Such was the famous battle of Trasumennus, a disaster memorable as few others have been in Roman history. [2] Fifteen thousand Romans were killed on the field; ten thousand, scattered in flight over all Etruria, made their way by different roads to the City. [3] Two thousand five hundred of the enemy fell in the battle and many perished subsequently of their wounds. Some writers multiply the losses on both sides: I myself, besides that I would not idly exaggerate anything — a [4] vice to which historians are in general all too prone — have taken Fabius, who lived at the time of this war, as my authority, in preference to any other. [5] Hannibal dismissed scot-free the prisoners of the Latin name and gave the Romans into captivity. Having issued orders that the bodies of his own dead should be sorted out from the heaps of their enemies and buried, he would have given the body of Flaminius burial also, but though he-caused it to be searched for with great diligence, he could not find it.
[12.6] At Rome the first tidings of this defeat brought the citizens into the Forum in a frightened and tumultuous throng, while the matrons wandered about the streets and demanded of all they met what sudden disaster had been reported and how it was going with the army. [7] And when the crowd, like some vast public assembly, turned to the Comitium and the senate-house and called for the magistrates, at last, as the sun was almost going down, Marcus Pomponius, the praetor, said, “A great battle has been fought, and we were beaten.” [8] And although they learned nothing more definite from him, still they picked up a rumour here and a rumour there, and returning to their homes brought word that the consul and a great part of his soldiers had been slain: [9] that only a few survived, either dispersed as fugitives throughout Etruria or taken prisoners by the enemy.
[12.10] The vicissitudes of the defeated army were no more various than the apprehensions which preyed upon the minds of those whose relatives had served under Gaius Flaminius, the consul. They were ignorant of how those dear to each of them were faring, nor did anyone really know what to hope or fear. [11] On the next and on several succeeding days the City gates were thronged with a crowd in which the women almost outnumbered the men, waiting for some kinsman, or for news of him. Surrounding anybody who came along, they plied him with questions, nor could they tear themselves away — especially from those they were acquainted with — until they had enquired into every detail. [12] Very different were the expressions you would have noted in their countenances, according as the tidings they received were glad or sorrowful, when they moved away from their informants and returned to their homes, surrounded by friends, congratulating or consoling them. [13] The women especially exhibited extremes of joy and grief; one, on suddenly meeting her son safe and sound at the very gate, expired, they say, in his embrace; another, whose son had been falsely reported dead, sat sorrowing at home, and no sooner beheld him entering the house, than she died of excessive joy. [14] For some days the praetors kept the senate in session in the Curia, from sunrise until sunset, deliberating with what possible commander or what forces they could withstand the victorious Phoenicians.
8. They had not yet fully determined what to do, when, lo! another disaster was reported, for which they were quite unprepared. Four thousand horse under the propraetor Gaius Centenius had been sent by the Consul Servilius to join his colleague; but on hearing of the battle at Trasumennus they had turned aside into Umbria, and had there fallen into the hands of Hannibal. [2] The news of this affair affected people variously: some, whose thoughts were taken up with a greater sorrow, regarded this fresh loss of the cavalry as trivial in comparison with their former losses; [3] others refused to judge of the misfortune as an isolated fact, but held that, just as when a man was sick, any disorder, however slight, was felt more than a worse one would be [4] by a healthy man, so now, when the state was sick and suffering, any untoward occurrence should be gauged not by its intrinsic importance but by the enfeebled condition of the commonwealth, which could endure no aggravation. [5] And so the citizens had recourse to a remedy that had now for a long time neither been employed nor needed — the creation of a dictator. And because the consul, who alone was supposed to possess the power to nominate one, was absent, and because it was no easy matter, when Italy was beset with Punic arms, to get a courier or a letter through to him, they did what had never been done until that day, and created a dictator by popular election. [6] Their choice fell on Quintus Fabius Maximus, and Marcus Minucius Rufus they made master of the horse. [7] To them the senate entrusted the task of strengthening the walls and towers of the City, of disposing its defences as to them seemed good, and of breaking down the bridges over the rivers: they would have to fight for their City and their homes, since they had not been able to save Italy.
9. Hannibal marched straight on through Umbria as far as Spoletium. [2] But when, after systematically ravaging the country, he attempted to storm the town, he was repulsed with heavy losses; and conjecturing from the strength of a single colony which he had unsuccessfully attacked how vast an undertaking the City of Rome would be, he turned aside into the Picentine territory, a land [3] not only abounding in all kinds of produce, but filled with livestock, which his greedy and impoverished men gathered in from far and wide. [4] He remained in camp there for some days, while his soldiers recovered from the marches they had made in wintry weather and through swamps, and from the battle, which, however successful its outcome, had been no light or easy adventure. [5] After allowing sufficient rest to his soldiers, who delighted more in booty and rapine than in quiet and repose, he resumed his march and laid waste the Praetutian and Hadrian fields, and after these the lands of the Marsi, Marrucini and Paeligni, and the nearest part of Apulia, in the vicinity of Arpi and Luceria.
[12.6] Gnaeus Servilius, the consul, had engaged in skirmishes with the Gauls and had taken one insignificant town by assault, when he learned of the destruction of his colleague and the army, and being now alarmed for the safety of the capital, lest he should be absent in the very crisis of its peril, set out for Rome.
[12.7] Quintus Fabius Maximus, dictator now for the second time, convened the senate on the day he entered upon his office. Taking up first the question of religion, he convinced the Fathers that the consul Flaminius had erred more through his neglect of the ceremonies and the auspices than through his recklessness and ignorance; [8] and asserting that they ought to enquire of the gods themselves how the displeasure of the gods might be appeased, prevailed with them to do what is rarely done except when dreadful prodigies have been announced, and order the decemvirs to consult the Sibylline books. [9] When the decemvirs had inspected the Books of Fate, they reported to the Fathers that the vow which had been made to Mars on account of this war had not been duly performed, and must be performed afresh and on an ampler scale; [10] that great games must be vowed to Jupiter, and temples to Venus Erycina and to Mens; and finally that a supplication and lectisternium must be celebrated in honour of the gods, and a Sacred Spring be vowed, if they proved victorious and the state remained as it had been before the outbreak of hostilities. [11] The senate, seeing that Fabius would be occupied with the conduct of the war, commanded Marcus Aemilius the praetor, as the college of pontifices had recommended, to see that all these measures were promptly put into effect.
10. When the senate had passed these resolutions, the praetor consulted the college, and Lucius Cornelius Lentulus, the Pontifex Maximus, gave his opinion that first of all a popular vote must be taken about the Sacred Spring; for it could not be vowed without the authorization of the people. [2] The question was put to them in this form: “Do you will and so order that these things be done in the manner following? If the Republic of the Roman People, the Quirites, shall be preserved for the next five years — as I would wish it preserved — in [3] these wars, to wit, the war of the Roman People with the People of Carthage and the wars with the Gauls on this side of the Alps, let the Roman People, the Quirites, offer up in indefeasible sacrifice to Jupiter what the spring shall have produced of swine, sheep, goats and cattle — which shall not have been consecrated to some other deity — beginning with the day which the senate and the People shall have designated. [4] Let him who shall make a sacrifice do so at such time and by such rite as shall seem good to him; in what manner soever he does it, let it be accounted duly done. [5] If the animal which he ought to sacrifice dies, let it be deemed unconsecrate and let no guilt attach to him; if any shall hurt it or slay it unawares, let it be no sin; if any shall steal it, let no guilt attach to the People nor to him from whom it shall have been stolen; [6] if he shall sacrifice unwittingly on a black day, let the sacrifice be deemed to have been duly made; by night or by day, if slave or freeman perform the sacrifice, let it be deemed to have been duly made; if sacrifice shall be performed before the senate and the People shall have ordered it to be performed, let the People be absolved therefrom and free [7] of obligation.”
[12.8] For the same cause great games were vowed, to cost three hundred and thirty-three thousand, three hundred and thirty-three and a third bronze asses, and, besides, a sacrifice to Jupiter of three hundred oxen, and of white oxen and the other customary victims to many other gods. When the vows had been duly pronounced, a supplication was decreed, and was performed not only by the urban population, with their wives and children, but by such country folk besides, as, having some fortune of their own, were beginning to feel concern for [9] the Commonwealth. A lectisternium was then celebrated during three days under the supervision of the decemvirs who had charge of sacrifices. Six couches were displayed: one for Jupiter and Juno, a second for Neptune and Minerva, a third for Mars and Venus, a fourth for Apollo and Diana, a fifth for Vulcan and Vesta, a sixth for Mercury [10] and Ceres. The temples were then vowed — that to Venus Erycina by Quintus Fabius Maximus the dictator, because the Books of Fate had given out that he whose authority in the state was paramount should make the vow; and the temple to Mens by the praetor Titus Otacilius.
11. Religious duties being thus acquitted, the dictator turned to affairs of war and state, and called upon the senate to decide with what and how many legions the victorious enemy should be faced. [2] It was voted that he should take over the army of Gnaeus Servilius, the consul; that he should enroll, besides, from the citizens and the allies, as many horsemen and foot-soldiers as seemed good to him; and with regard to all other questions should act as he deemed conducive to the welfare of the state. [3] Fabius announced that he should add two legions to the army that Servilius had commanded. These legions he enlisted, through his master of the horse, and commanded them to assemble at Tibur on a given day. [4] He also issued an edict that those who dwelt in unfortified towns and hamlets should remove to places of safety; and that all the inhabitants of that district where Hannibal was likely to be marching should abandon their farms, first burning the buildings and destroying the crops, that there might be no supplies for him of any kind. [5] He himself went out by the Flaminian way to meet the consul and his army, and when, close to the Tiber near Ocriculum, he came in sight of the column and saw the consul riding towards him at the head of his cavalry, he dispatched an orderly to bid the consul appear before the dictator without lictors. [6] The consul obeyed, and their meeting vividly impressed the greatness of the dictatorship on citizens and allies, who had now, with the lapse of years, almost forgotten that supreme authority. Just then a dispatch was delivered from the City, announcing that ships of burden with supplies from Ostia for the army in Spain had been captured by the Punic fleet off the port of Cosa. [7] Accordingly, the consul was ordered to set out at once for Ostia and, manning such ships as were at Rome or Ostia with soldiers and naval allies, to pursue the enemy’s fleet and protect the coasts of Italy. [8] A vast number of men had been enrolled in Rome; even freedmen who had children and were of military age had taken the oath. [9] Of this urban levy those who were less than thirty-five years old were sent on board the ships; the others were left to garrison the City.
12. The dictator, after taking over the consul’s army from Fulvius Flaccus, his lieutenant, marched through the Sabine country to Tibur, where he had given the new levies notice to assemble on a certain day. [2] From Tibur he marched to Praeneste, and striking across the country came out into the Latin Way, and then, reconnoitring the roads with the utmost circumspection, advanced in the direction of the enemy, though resolved nowhere to commit himself to fortune, except in so far as necessity might compel him.
[12.3] On the day when Fabius first encamped in sight of the enemy, not far from Arpi, the Phoenician promptly led out his forces into line and offered battle. [4] But when he perceived that all was quiet on the other side, and could hear no sounds of commotion in their camp, he went back to his quarters, exclaiming scornfully that the boasted martial spirit of the Romans was broken at last, that the war was fought and won, that they had openly bade valour and renown farewell; [5] but in the silence of his heart he was troubled by the thought that he would have a general to deal with by no means like Flaminius or Sempronius, since the Romans, schooled by their misfortunes, had now at last sought out a leader to match Hannibal. [6] The prudence of the dictator was indeed an immediate source of worry to him, but, possessing as yet no experience of his firmness, he began to provoke and try his temper by frequent shifting of his camp and by pillaging the lands of the allies before his very eyes. [7] Now he would march off rapidly and disappear; and now would lie in wait at some turn of the road, in hopes to cut the Romans off when they had descended on to level ground.
[12.8] Fabius kept leading his troops along the heights, at a moderate distance from the enemy, so as neither to lose touch nor yet come to blows with him. He would keep his men in camp, except for such necessary duties as obliged their leaving it; when they went out for wood and fodder, they were neither few in number nor dispersed; [9] a corps of cavalry and skirmishers drawn up and ready for sudden onsets made everything safe for his own men and dangerous for the scattered pillagers of the enemy. [10] He refused to stake all on a general engagement, and yet by means of little skirmishes, undertaken from a safe position and with a place of refuge close at hand, he at length accustomed his soldiers, disheartened by their former defeats, to be less diffident of their own courage and good fortune.
[12.11] But even Hannibal was not more vexed by these prudent measures than was the master of the horse, who was only withheld from plunging the nation into ruin by his subordinate authority. Violent and hasty in his opinions and of unbridled tongue, he spoke of Fabius — at first in the hearing of a few, but after a time quite openly to everybody — not [12] as deliberate but as slothful, not as cautious but as timid, inventing faults that neighboured on his virtues; and exalted himself by disparaging his superior — an infamous practice, which has grown in favour from the all too great prosperity of many who have followed it.
13. Hannibal, leaving the Hirpini, crossed over into Samnium, laid waste the lands of Beneventum, and captured the city of Telesia. He even deliberately sought to vex the Roman general, for he hoped that by so often insulting and distressing his allies he might anger him and induce him to come down and fight on equal terms. [2] Amongst the numerous allies of Italian stock who had been made prisoners by Hannibal at Trasumennus and afterwards released were three Campanian knights, whom he had even then enticed with gifts and promises to procure for him the goodwill of their countrymen. [3] These men now informed him that if he would bring his army into Campania the opportunity would be afforded him of taking Capua. It was a weighty undertaking for such men to enter into, and Hannibal hesitated, now trusting and again distrusting them, but in the end they persuaded him to march from Samnium into Campania. [4] He warned them again and again to confirm their words with deeds, and dismissed them with orders to come back to him with more people, including some of their leading men. [5] He then ordered his guide to conduct him to the territory of Casinum, for he had been told by those who knew the country that if he occupied that pass he could keep the Romans from marching to the aid of their allies. [6] But the difficulty experienced by Carthaginians in pronouncing Latin names caused the guide to understand Casilinum instead of Casinum; and quitting the proper road he led him down through the districts of Allifae, Caiatia and Cales into the Plain of Stella. [7] There Hannibal, looking round on the mountains and rivers that enclosed the plain, called up the guide and asked him where in the world he was. [8] And only when the guide had answered that he should lodge that night in Casilinum, did he perceive at last how the man had blundered, and that Casinum lay far off in another direction. [9] Whereupon he scourged the guide, and, to terrify the others, crucified him, and going into camp behind entrenchments, dispatched Maharbal with the cavalry to ravage the Falernian countryside. The devastation extended even to the Baths of Sinuessa. [10] The Numidians wrought great havoc and spread dismay and terror more widely still; [11] yet this terror, even though all the country blazed with war, did not cause the allies to waver in their loyalty, assuredly because the rule under which they were governed was just and temperate, nor did they refuse — and that is the only guarantee of loyalty — to yield obedience to their betters.
14. But when Hannibal had encamped by the river Volturnus, and the fairest district in all Italy was in flames, and the smoke went curling up from burning farm-houses, while Fabius continued to march along the ridges of Mount Massicus, there was almost a new outburst of sedition. [2] For the disaffected had kept quiet for several days, believing that the army, which had been moving more rapidly than usual, was hastening to preserve Campania from devastation. [3] But when they reached the farthest extremity of the range, and saw the enemy down below them setting fire to the farms of the Falernian district and the colony of Sinuessa, and yet no word was uttered about fighting, Minucius cried, “Are we come here as to a spectacle, that we may gratify our eyes with the slaughter of our friends and the burning of their homes? [4] If nothing else can awaken us to a sense of shame, do we feel none when we behold these fellow citizens of ours whom our fathers sent as colonists to Sinuessa to secure this frontier from the Samnite enemy? [5] It is not our Samnite neighbours who are wasting it now, but Phoenician invaders, who have been suffered to come all this way, from the farthest, limits of the world, by our delays and slothfulness. So greatly, alas! [6] do we degenerate from our fathers that we behold overrun with enemies and in the possession of Numidians and Moors that coast past which they could not see the Punic navies cruising without feeling that their empire was disgraced. [7] When, a little while ago, Saguntum was besieged, we appealed indignantly, not to men only, but to treaties and to the gods; but now that Hannibal is scaling the walls of a Roman colony, we look on with indifference. [8] The smoke from burning farm-houses and fields comes into our eyes and mouths; our ears are ringing with the lamentations of our allies, who invoke our aid more often than that of Heaven; and here we are, leading our army — like a flock of sheep — through summer pastures and by devious mountain trails, and hiding ourselves in clouds and forests. [9] If Marcus Furius had tried to recover Rome from the Gauls by wandering thus over mountain heights and passes, even as this new Camillus, this wonderful dictator to whom we have turned in our distress, is planning to recover Italy from Hannibal, the Gauls would be in Rome to-day; and I fear that if we linger thus, our fathers will so often have preserved it only for Hannibal and the Phoenicians. [10] But that brave man and true Roman, on the day that the news was brought to Veii of his being appointed dictator, by command of the people in pursuance of a senatorial resolution — though [11] Janiculum was high enough for him to have sat there and enjoyed a prospect of the enemy — came down into the plain, and on that very day, in the midst of the City — where now the Gallic Pyres are — and again on the following day, this side of Gabii, cut the legions of the Gauls to [12] pieces. What! When, many years later, at the Caudine Forks, our Samnite foe had sent us under the yoke, was it, pray, by scouring the heights of Samnium, or by pressing Luceria hard and laying siege to it, and by challenging the victorious enemy, that Lucius Papirius Cursor struck off the yoke from Roman necks and imposed it on the [13] haughty Samnite? What else was it than swiftness that gave the victory, not long since, to Gaius Lutatius, who bore down upon the enemy’s fleet, laden deep with stores and hampered with its own munitions and equipment, on the day after he [14] sighted it? It is folly to think that a war can be won by sitting still or making vows; you must arm and go down into the field, and do battle, man to man! Rome’s greatness has come from daring and from doing; not from these sluggish policies that timid folk [15] term cautious.” When Minucius held forth in this fashion, like a general encouraging his troops, a crowd of tribunes and Roman knights would gather round him, and his fiery words even reached the ears of the common soldiers; and if the election of their general had rested with the men, they showed unmistakably that Minucius would have been preferred to Fabius.
15. But Fabius, watching his own men no less carefully than the enemy, proved first that it was not in them to overcome his resolution. Though he knew full well that his policy of waiting was in bad repute, not only in his camp but by this time in Rome as well, he held doggedly to the same line of conduct and dragged out the remainder of the summer; [2] so that Hannibal, disappointed in his hopes of the battle which he had made every effort to bring on, was now looking round for a place to winter in; for the country where he was, though a land of plenty for the time being, could not support him permanently, being taken up with orchards and vineyards, and planted everywhere with agreeable rather than necessary fruits. [3] Fabius was informed of this by his scouts. Feeling certain that Hannibal would leave the Falernian district, by the same passes through which he had entered it, he posted a fair-sized garrison on Mount Callicula and another in Casilinum. [4] (The river Volturnus runs through this town, which marks the boundary between the Falernian district and Campania). The main army he led back by the same ridges, after sending on Lucius Hostilius Mancinus with four hundred cavalry of the allies to reconnoitre. [5] Mancinus was one of the crowd of young officers who often listened to the blustering speeches of the master of the horse. He advanced at first as if making a reconnaissance, with the object of observing the enemy from a safe distance. [6] But when he saw the Numidians roaming about through the villages, and had even seized the opportunity to cut off a few of them, his heart was suddenly filled with the lust of combat, and he forgot the instructions [7] of the dictator, who had bade him proceed as far as was compatible with safety, and retire before the enemy should see him. [8] The Numidians, first one troop and then another, by charging and then retreating, drew him on almost to their very camp and wore out his horses and his men. Then Carthalo, the commander of all the enemy’s cavalry, swooped down upon the Romans at a gallop, and routing them before he had got within a javelin-throw, pursued them as they fled for nearly five miles at one stretch. [9] As soon as Mancinus perceived that the enemy would not give over the pursuit, and that he could not hope [10] to get away, he rallied his men and led them back into the fight, though overmatched in every particular. [11] Accordingly, he himself and the best of his troopers were surrounded and slain, and the rest in a scattered flight made their way first to Cales, and thence, by well-nigh impassable trails, to the dictator.
It happened that on that day Minucius had joined Fabius. He had been sent to secure the pass which contracts above Tarracina into a narrow gorge close to the sea, to prevent the Phoenician from taking the Appian Way from Sinuessa into Roman territory. [12] Combining their forces, the dictator and the master of the horse camped on the road where Hannibal was going to march.
16. The enemy was two miles away. Next day the Phoenicians were on the march, filling the road which lay between the two camps. [2] The Romans had formed up just under their rampart and had clearly the advantage of position. None the less did Hannibal advance with his light infantry and cavalry, to provoke them into fighting. At one point after another the Phoenicians attacked, dashing up and then retreating. The Roman line stood firm. [3] The battle was long drawn out and was more to the liking of the dictator than of Hannibal. Two hundred fell on the Roman side, and eight hundred of the enemy.
[12.4] Hannibal now seemed to be hemmed in, the road to Casilinum being blocked. The Romans had Capua and Samnium at their backs and all their wealthy allies to furnish them with provisions; but the Phoenicians faced the prospect of passing the winter between the cliffs of Formiae and the sands and marshes of Liternum, and amid tangled forests. [5] Hannibal did not fail to perceive that his own strategy was being turned against him. Accordingly, since he could not get out by way of Casilinum, but must take to the mountains and cross the ridge of Callicula, fearing lest the Romans should assail his troops as they were marching through the gorges, he [6] resolved to approach the mountains under cover of darkness in the forepart of the night, after first contriving a terrifying exhibition, to cheat the enemy’s eyes. [7] Preparations for the ruse were made as follows. Pine-knots, collected from all the country round, and bundles of twigs and dry branches were tied to the horns of cattle, of which — counting those that were broken in and those that were not — they possessed, among their other rustic spoils, a considerable number. [8] Of these, they got together about two thousand head, and Hasdrubal was commissioned to drive this herd in the night, with their horns ablaze, on to the mountains, and particularly — if it should be feasible — above the pass held by the enemy.
17. In the dusk of evening the Carthaginians broke camp in silence, driving on the cattle a little way before the standards. [2] When they reached the foothills and the narrow roads, the signal was immediately given to set fire to the horns and drive the herd up the mountain. And their very-fear, as the flames at once shot up from their heads, and the heat, that soon penetrated to the quick at the base of their horns, made the cattle as wild as though they had gone crazy. [3] As they suddenly rushed this way and that, all the bushes far and near seemed to be burning, as if the woods and mountains had been set on fire; and when they shook their heads, they only fanned the blaze and made it: look as if men were running about in all directions. [4] When the troops who had been posted to hold the pass caught sight of certain-fires on the mountain-tops above them, they thought that they were surrounded and forsook their station. Where the fewest flames were flashing — for this seemed the safest way — they made for the summits of the ridges, but nevertheless fell in with some of the cattle which had strayed from their herds. [5] And at first, when they saw them afar, breathing fire, as they supposed, they were dazed by the wonder of it, and stood stock still; [6] but afterwards, perceiving it to be a trick devised by men, they concluded that it was an ambush and took to their heels in greater confusion than before. They also ran into some light-armed soldiers of the enemy; the darkness, however, by equalizing their fears, kept both sides there till daylight without either beginning the battle. [7] In the meanwhile Hannibal had conveyed his entire army through the pass — surprising some of his enemies in the pass itself — and had pitched his camp in the district of Allifae.
18. Fabius heard the din, but believing it to be an ambush, and disliking, in any case, to fight at night, kept his men within their works. At break of day there was a battle under the ridge. [2] The- Romans had cut off the light-armed troops of the enemy from the others, and possessing some superiority in numbers, would easily have overpowered them, had it not been for the arrival of a cohort of Spaniards, which Hannibal had sent back expressly to forestall them. [3] These troops were more used to mountains, and better suited to skirmishing amid rocks and crags, and being more agile and more lightly armed, they had no difficulty — thanks to the nature of the fighting — in getting the better of an enemy whose heavy armour and stationary tactics were adapted to level ground. [4] Thus the struggle had been far from equal, when they parted and made off for their respective camps. [5] Hardly any of the Spaniards had been hurt, but the Romans had lost a considerable number of their men.
Fabius, too, broke camp, and marching through the pass established himself in a lofty and naturally strong position above Allifae. [6] Hannibal now feigned a movement upon Rome by way of Samnium, and marched back right to the land of the Paeligni, pillaging as he went. Fabius led his troops along the ridges between the enemy’s army and the City, neither shunning his foe nor coming to grips with him. [7] From the Paelignian country the Phoenician turned, and marched back towards Apulia till he came to Gereonium, a town which its own inhabitants had abandoned in their alarm at the collapse of a part of its walls. [8] The dictator encamped in the country about Larinum, and being summoned thence to Rome on religious business, commanded, counselled, and all but entreated the master of the horse to put more trust in prudence than in fortune, and rather to imitate his strategy than that of Sempronius and Flaminius. [9] He was not to suppose, said Fabius, that nothing had been accomplished, because almost the whole summer had been tediously spent in baffling the enemy;. physicians too sometimes found rest more efficacious than motion and activity;, [10] it was no small matter to have ceased to be defeated by an enemy who had so often been victorious, and to have breathed again after a series of disasters. When he had thus fore-warned the master of the horse — but all in vain — he set out for Rome.
19. At the beginning of the summer in which these operations were carried on, war was also begun in Spain by land and sea. [2] To the number of ships, all rigged and fitted out, which Hasdrubal had taken over from his brother he added ten, and entrusted the fleet of forty sail to Himilco; [3] and then, setting out from Carthage, he made his ships keep near the land and led his army along the shore, prepared to do battle with whatever part of their forces tile Romans might bring against him. [4] When Gnaeus Scipio learned that the enemy had left his winter quarters, he was minded at first to do the same; but on second thoughts concluded not to risk a battle on land, in view of the enormous number of auxiliaries with which rumour credited the Carthaginian, and embarking some of his best troops, went out to meet the enemy with a fleet of five and thirty ships.
[12.5] On the second day out of Tarraco he came to an anchorage ten miles from the mouth of the river Ebro. Thence he dispatched two Massiliot scouting vessels, who reported that the Punic fleet was lying in the mouth of the river and their camp established on the bank. [6] Accordingly, in order to take them off their guard and unprepared, while at the same time spreading a universal panic, he weighed anchor and proceeded towards the enemy. The Spaniards have numerous towers built on heights, which they use both as watch-towers and also for protection against pirates. [7] From one of these the hostile ships were first descried, and on a signal being made to Hasdrubal, the alarm broke out on land and in the camp before it reached the sea and the ships; for no one had yet heard the beat of the oars or other nautical sounds, nor had the promontories yet disclosed the fleet to view, when suddenly one galloper-after another, sent off by Hasdrubal, dashed up to the sailors, who were strolling about the beach or resting in their tents and thinking of nothing so little as of the enemy or of fighting on that day, and bade them board their ships in haste and arm themselves, for the Roman fleet was even then close to the harbour. [8] These orders the gallopers who had been sent out carried [9] far and wide, and presently Hasdrubal himself appeared on the scene with his entire army, and all was noise and confusion as the rowers and soldiers rushed down together to their ships, as though their object were rather to flee the shore than to enter battle. [10] Hardly were they all on board, when some cast off the hawsers and swung out on to their anchors, and others — that nothing might detain them — cut the anchor cables, and, in the hurry and excessive haste with which everything was done, the soldiers’ gear interfered with the sailors in the performance of their tasks, and the confusion of the sailors kept the soldiers from taking and fitting on their armour.
[12.11] By this time the Romans were not only drawing near, but had already formed their ships in order of battle. The result was that the Phoenicians were dismayed alike by the enemy’s attack and by their own confusion, and after making rather a pretence of fighting than actually engaging, turned about and ran for it. [12] With a line so extended — and many ships came up at the same time — they were quite unable to get into the river’s mouth against the current, but rowed in anywhere to the land; and getting ashore, some through shoals and others on a dry beach, some with their arms and some without, they fled to the battle-line of their friends, which was drawn up along the shore. Two, however, of the Punic ships had been taken in the first attack and four had been sunk.
20. The Romans, although the land was in the possession of the enemy, whose line of battle could be seen extending all along the shore, continued without the slightest hesitation to press their pursuit of the terror-stricken fleet, and, attaching cables to the stern of every vessel which had neither broken its prow on the beach nor grounded [2] its keel in the shoals, they towed it out to sea, until they had captured some twenty-five of the forty ships. [3] Nor was this the most brilliant feature of the victory, but the fact that the Romans in one easy battle had made themselves the masters of all that coast.
[12.4] So they spread their sails for Onusa, where they disembarked and stormed and sacked the city, and thence laid a course [5] for Carthage, and after devastating all the country round about, ended by setting fire even to the buildings that adjoined the walls and gates. [6] Then the fleet — heavy-laden now with plunder — sailed to Longuntica, where they found a great quantity of esparto-grass, which Hasdrubal had got together for the use of his ships. Of this they took what they needed and burned all the rest. [7] And they not only cruised along the mainland, but crossed over to the island of Ebusus. There they endeavoured strenuously for two days, but without success, to capture the chief city of the [8] island. And when they saw that their hopes were vain and their time was being wasted, they [9] betook themselves to pillaging the country-side, and after sacking and burning several villages, returned to their ships with more booty than they had collected from the mainland. Here envoys from the Baliaric islands came to Scipio to sue for peace.
[12.10] The fleet now put about and returned to the northern part of the province, and thither flocked ambassadors from all the communities on this side of the Ebro and even from many places in farthest Spain; but the communities that gave hostages and really came under the rule and government of Rome were more than a hundred and [11] twenty. Feeling, therefore, sufficiently strong on land, as well as on the sea, the Roman general advanced as far as the pass of [12] Castulo. Hasdrubal retired into Lusitania, nearer the ocean.
21. It looked as if the rest of the summer would be undisturbed, and so it would have been as far as the Phoenicians were concerned. [2] But, besides that the Spaniards themselves are constitutionally restless and eager for change, no sooner had the Romans withdrawn from the pass to the seacoast, than Mandonius and Indibilis — the [3] latter had formerly been a chieftain of the Ilergetes — roused up their countrymen and invaded the peaceful territories of Rome’s allies, on a marauding expedition. [4] To oppose them Scipio dispatched a tribune of the soldiers with light-armed auxiliaries. They easily routed the enemy — a mere hastily-organized militia — slaying a thousand of them, making some prisoners, and disarming the greater part. [5] Nevertheless, this outbreak induced Hasdrubal, who was retreating towards the ocean, to turn back and cross the Ebro, for the purpose of protecting his allies. [6] The Phoenicians were in camp in the country of the Ilergavonenses, the Romans near Nova Classis, when tidings came which gave at once a new turn to the campaign. [7] The Celtiberians, who had sent their leading men to treat with the Romans and had given hostages, incited by a message from Scipio, rose up in arms and invaded the Carthaginian province with a powerful army. [8] They captured three towns by assault, and afterwards twice engaged successfully in battle with Hasdrubal himself, slaying some fifteen thousand of their enemies, and taking four thousand prisoners, with many military standards.
22. Such was the position of affairs in Spain when Publius Scipio came into the province. The senate had prolonged his command after the consulship and had sent him out with thirty men-ofwar and eight thousand soldiers and a great convoy of supplies. [2] This fleet, which the number of cargo-vessels swelled to an enormous size, caused great rejoicing amongst the Romans and their allies, when it was made out in the offing and standing in dropped anchor in the harbour of Tarraco. [3] There Scipio disembarked his troops and set out to join his brother; and from that time forward they carried on the war with perfect harmony of temper and of purpose.
[12.4] Accordingly, while the Carthaginians were taken up with the Celtiberian campaign, they lost no time in crossing the Ebro, and seeing nothing of any enemy, marched directly on Saguntum, where it was said that hostages from all over Spain were being guarded in the citadel by a small garrison, to whose keeping they had been consigned by Hannibal. [5] It was this pledge alone that checked the inclination of all the Spanish states to ally themselves with Rome, for fear that the blood of their own children might expiate the guilt of their defection. [6] From this constraint Spain was released by the machinations — more clever than honest — of one man. Abelux was his name, and he was a noble Spaniard of Saguntum. [7] Loyal hitherto to the Phoenicians, he had now — as barbarians are for the most part prone to do — altered his allegiance with the alteration in their fortunes. But reflecting that a deserter who went over to the enemy without betraying to them something of great moment was but a single worthless and dishonoured individual, he proposed to benefit his new allies to the utmost extent of his ability. [8] And considering everything that fortune could put into his power, he inclined for choice to deliver up the hostages, believing that this was the one thing that would most effectively secure for the Romans the friendship of the Spanish leaders.
[12.9] But since he knew that the men guarding the hostages would do nothing without the orders of Bostar, the governor, he [10] artfully approached Bostar himself, who was encamped outside the city, on the very shore, to preclude the approach of the Romans from that quarter. Taking him on one side, he explained the situation, as though the other had no knowledge of it. [11] Fear, he said, had until then kept the Spaniards down, because the Romans were a long way off; now the Roman camp was on this side of the Ebro, a sure stronghold and asylum for any who wished a change; those, accordingly, who were not bound by fear must be secured by kindness and generosity. [12] When Bostar asked in amazement what this gift could be that should suddenly be of so great value, “Send back the hostages to their homes,” said Abelux. [13] “That will at once be grateful personally to their parents, who are the people of most consequence in their own states, and to their tribes in general. [14] Everyone wishes to be trusted: confide in people, and almost always you confirm their confidence in you. The task of restoring the hostages to their homes I request for myself, that I may work, as well as counsel, for the furtherance of my plan, and to an act that is gracious in itself lend such added grace as I am able.”
[12.15] Once he had brought Bostar round — for his wits were not as sharp as those of most Phoenicians — he departed secretly by night for the enemy’s outposts, and encountering certain Spanish auxiliaries, who conducted him to Scipio, disclosed his plan, and when he had given pledges and received them, and had agreed upon a time and place for turning over the hostages, returned to Saguntum. [16] The following day he spent with Bostar, receiving instructions how to carry out the enterprise, and left him with the understanding that he was to go at night, in order to elude the enemy’s sentinels. [17] At the hour agreed on with the Romans he wakened the boys’ custodians, and led them all, as if unwittingly, into the trap prepared by his own treachery. They were then conducted to the Roman camp. [18] The remainder of the plan for the restoration of the hostages to their friends was carried out, through the agency of Abelux, exactly as he and Bostar had agreed, and everything was done as it would have been if he had been acting in the name of the Carthaginians.
[12.19] The gratitude which the Romans won under such circumstances was much greater than the Carthaginians would have enjoyed. For the Carthaginians had been found to be harsh and arrogant in the hour of their prosperity, and their gentleness might have appeared as the result of misfortune and timidity; but the Romans on first coming thither — and [20] till then they were unknown — had begun with an act of clemency and liberality, and Abelux was held to have shown discernment, and not without reason to have changed his friends. [21] The Spaniards were therefore all with one accord intending to revolt, and would have drawn the sword at once, if winter had not intervened and compelled both Romans and Carthaginians to retire to their quarters.
23. Such was the course of events in Spain in the second summer of the Punic war. In Italy meanwhile the defeated Romans had been afforded a little breathing space by Fabius’s wise policy of holding back. [2] This policy, though it occasioned Hannibal no small anxiety — for he saw that the Romans had finally chosen a military leader who waged war as reason and not as blind chance dictated — yet [3] incurred the scorn of Fabius’s fellow citizens, both soldiers and civilians, especially when his absence had been followed, thanks to the rashness of the master of the horse, by a battle which may truthfully be characterized as having ended with more rejoicing than success. [4] Two things, moreover, increased the dictator’s unpopularity. One was a crafty ruse of Hannibal’s. Some deserters having pointed out to him the dictator’s farm, he razed to the ground all the buildings in its neighbourhood, but ordered that this one place should be preserved from fire and sword and every kind of hostile violence, in order that it might appear that Fabius was in this way being rewarded for some secret compact. [5] The other was something that he did himself, which, though perhaps open to criticism in the first place — because he had not waited for the authorization of the senate — redounded in the upshot, and in no uncertain manner, greatly to his fame. [6] In exchanging prisoners the Roman and Phoenician generals had followed the example set in the first Punic war and had agreed that the side which recovered more men than it restored should pay for each two pounds and a half of silver. [7] The Romans recovered two hundred and forty-seven more than the Phoenicians, but the senate, though the matter was often discussed, was slow in voting the money owing for them, on the ground that the dictator had not consulted them; [8] till finally Fabius sent his son Quintus to Rome to sell the farm which the enemy had spared, and discharged the nation’s obligation at his own expense.
[12.9] Hannibal lay encamped under the walls of Gereonium, where he had left a few buildings standing, to serve as granaries, when he captured and burned the city. [10] From there he would send two-thirds of his army to gather corn; the other third, ready to march, he kept at the post under his own command, with the twofold object of protecting the camp and of guarding lest any attack be made upon his foragers.
24. The Roman army was at that time in the neighbourhood of Larinum. Minucius, the master of the horse, was in command, for the dictator, as has been said before, had departed for the City. [2] The camp had been established on a high hill in a position of security, but was now brought down to level ground; and more vigorous measures were being discussed — in keeping with the temper of the general — for attacking the enemy’s scattered foragers, or his camp, which was left but lightly garrisoned.
[12.3] Hannibal saw well enough that the change in leaders had brought a change in strategy, and that the Romans were likely to be more bold than prudent. [4] But though the enemy was close at hand, he himself did something that would almost seem incredible, and sent out a third part of his troops to forage, retaining two-thirds in his camp; [5] then he brought the camp itself up nearer the enemy, about two miles away from Gereonium, to a hill in full sight of the Romans, that they might know that he was watching to protect his foragers, if they should be at all molested. [6] He then observed a hill even nearer the Romans and threatening their very camp; but since, if he should attempt to take it openly by daylight, the Romans, who had a shorter way to go, would doubtless get ahead of him, he sent some Numidians secretly in the night, and they seized the hill. [7] They were holding the place next day, when the Romans, despising their scanty numbers, dislodged them and transferred their own camp thither. [8] There was now, at all events, but a very little space between rampart and rampart, and this the Romans had pretty well covered with their troops, which they had drawn up in line of battle. At the same time they had sent out their cavalry and skirmishers from the side of the camp which was farthest from the enemy, and these had fallen upon the scattered foragers, whom they routed with great slaughter. [9] Still, Hannibal did not dare to fight a battle, for his forces were so small that he was hardly able to defend his camp, if the Romans should assault it, and he now began [10] to wage war by the arts of Fabius, inaction and delay, and had withdrawn his troops to their former camp, which lay under the walls of Gereonium.
[12.11] Some writers relate that there was even a regular pitched battle, in which the Phoenicians were driven from the field at the first encounter and pursued all the way to their camp, from which they sallied and quickly dismayed the Romans in their turn; but that Numerius Decimius the Samnite then came up and restored the day. [12] They say that Decimius, who was the person of most consequence both for family and fortune, not only in his own town of Bovianum but in all Samnium, was on his way to the camp, by the dictator’s order, at the head of eight thousand foot and five hundred horse, when, appearing on Hannibal’s rear, he was mistaken by both armies for reinforcements coming up with Quintus Fabius from Rome. [13] Hannibal, fearing some trap as well, drew back his men, and the Romans, pressing forward and assisted by the Samnites, carried, that same day, two redoubts. [14] Six thousand of the enemy were slain and fully five thousand Romans. Nevertheless, though the losses had been so nearly equal, a foolish tale was carried to Rome of an extraordinary victory, with a letter from the master of the horse that was more foolish still.
25. These events were the occasion of many speeches both in the senate and in the popular assembly. [2] The citizens rejoiced, and only the dictator refused to credit either rumour or dispatch, and declared that even though the story were all true, he feared success more than adversity. [3] Then Marcus Metilius, tribune of the plebs, cried out that this was past all bearing: not only had the dictator prevented a successful engagement being fought while he was present, but [4] he even objected now that the victory was won, and persisted in drawing out the war and wasting time, in order the longer to remain in office, and to continue, both at Rome and in the army, in sole possession of authority; for one of the consuls had fallen in battle, and the other — under [5] the pretext of pursuing the Punic fleet — had been sent a great way off from Italy; the two praetors were employed in Sicily and Sardinia, neither of which required a praetor at this time; [6] and Marcus Minucius, the master of the horse, that he might not see the enemy or carry out any military operation, had been kept almost a prisoner. [7] Thus it had actually come to pass that not only Samnium — whose territories, as though they lay beyond the Ebro, had already been surrendered to the Phoenicians — but Campania, and the districts both of Cales and Falerii had been utterly laid waste; while the dictator sat still at Casilinum and used the legions of the Roman People to protect his own estate. [8] The army — eager as it was to fight — and the master of the horse had virtually been cooped up and confined within the rampart; and their swords, as though they had been captured enemies, had been taken from them. [9] At last, when the dictator had gone away, they had come out from behind their works, as if released from a blockade, and had routed and put to flight their enemies. [10] For all these reasons, if their ancient spirit had still animated the Roman plebs, he would boldly have proposed the abrogation of Quintus Fabius’s command; as it was, he should move the adoption of a moderate measure, to wit, the elevation of the master of the horse to a footing of equality with the dictator. [11] Yet, even so, they must not let Fabius rejoin his army till he had first installed a consul in the place of Gaius Flaminius.
[12.12] The dictator refrained from making speeches to the people, in a cause that was far from popular. Even the senate listened coldly when he spoke in high terms of the enemy, and charging the reverses of the past two years to the rashness and [13] ignorance of the Roman generals, declared that the master of the horse must answer to him for having fought against his orders. [14] If his authority and strategy should be paramount, he would soon let people know that with a good commander fortune was of little moment; that mind and reason were in control; [15] and that to have preserved the army in its hour of danger, yet without disgrace, was more glorious than to have slain many thousands of the enemy. [16] After making several speeches to this purport, yet without effect, and presiding over the election of Marcus Atilius Regulus to the consulship, that he might not take a personal part in the dispute about the command, on the day preceding the bringing forward of the resolution he left by night for the army.
[12.17] When at break of day the plebs assembled in their council, though at heart they were inclined to dislike the dictator and to favour the master of the horse, yet they wanted sufficient courage to come forward and advocate a course which most of them approved, so that the motion, despite its exceeding popularity, lacked support. [18] One man alone was found to urge the passage of the bill. This was Gaius Terentius Varro, praetor of the year before, whose antecedents were not merely base but even sordid. [19] It is said that his father had been a butcher, who peddled his wares himself, and that he had employed this very son about the menial tasks associated with that calling.
26. The young man had no sooner inherited from his father the money gained in this kind of occupation than he felt encouraged to hope for a more liberal career, and resolved to enter public life; [2] and by declaiming on behalf of ignoble men and causes against the property and reputation of persons of the better sort achieved first notoriety and then office. [3] He had held the quaestorship and both aedileships — plebeian and curule — and finally even the praetorship. He now ventured to aspire to the consulship, and with considerable shrewdness sought to capture the favour of the populace by [4] exploiting their animosity against the dictator, with the result that he alone reaped all the popularity growing out of the plebiscite.
[12.5] Everyone, whether in Rome or with the army, whether friend or foe, looked on the passing of this bill as an insult to the dictator — everyone, [6] that is, but the dictator himself, who with the same unruffled spirit with which he had borne the slanders uttered against him before the multitude by his adversaries now bore the injustice of the infuriated people. [7] While still on the way he received a dispatch from the senate about the equal division of command, but fairly confident that though the authority of the commanders had been equalized, their abilities had not, he returned to the army with a spirit that neither fellow citizens nor enemies could daunt.
27. As for Minucius, success and the favour of the crowd had already made him well-nigh insufferable. [2] But now, at all events, he cast away all modesty and moderation and boasted of his triumph not only over Hannibal but over Quintus Fabius as well: [3] that wonderful leader, to whom his countrymen had turned in their distress as a match for Hannibal, had by vote of the people been reduced to a level — the superior with his subordinate, the dictator with his master of the horse; and this action, to which history could afford no parallel, had been taken in that very state in which masters of the horse had been used to tremble and shudder at the rods and axes of the dictator; so conspicuous had been his own success and courage. [4] He would therefore follow up his good fortune, if the dictator persisted in that dilatory and inactive course which gods and men had united in condemning. [5] Accordingly, on the day of his first meeting with Quintus Fabius, he said that the very first thing to be settled was the manner in which they should exercise the joint command: [6] he himself thought that the best way would be for each to have supreme command and authority either every other day, or, if longer periods seemed preferable, for equally apportioned times, to the end that he [7] might be a match for the enemy not only in strategy but in numbers also, if he should meet with a favourable opportunity for fighting.
[12.8] This proposal by no means suited Quintus Fabius, for he saw that everything which his rash colleague should have got control of would be controlled by Fortune: he had been made, he said, to share the supreme command with another, not deprived of it; [9] he would therefore never voluntarily relinquish that share which he possessed of the power to guide the campaign prudently; he would not divide with Minucius the times or days of commanding, but would divide the army, and in accordance with his own plans would save what he could, since he was not permitted to save everything. [10] In this way he brought about a division of the legions, such as was customary between consuls. The first and fourth fell to Minucius, the second and third to Fabius. [11] In like manner they divided equally the cavalry and auxiliaries, both allies and Latins. The master of the horse chose that their camps, too, should be separated.
28. All this caused Hannibal a twofold joy, for, fully acquainted as he was with whatever went on amongst his enemies both from much information brought in by deserters and from the discoveries of his own spies, he reckoned on entrapping [2] the uncontrolled rashness of Minucius after his own fashion, while he saw that the sagacity of Fabius had been deprived of half its strength.
[12.3] There was a hill between the camp of Minucius and that of the Phoenicians, and it was certain that he who occupied it would place his enemy in a rather bad position. [4] This Hannibal was desirous not so much of capturing without a struggle — though this would have been worth while — as of using to bring on a battle with Minucius, who would sally forth, as he well knew, to oppose him. [5] It appeared at first sight that none of the ground between could be used for an ambush, since it not only had nothing on it in the shape of trees, but was nowhere so much as screened with brambles. But in fact it was formed by nature for covering an ambuscade — all the more because in a bare valley no such trap could be suspected — for in its windings there were hollow cliffs, so large that some of them would hold two hundred soldiers. [6] In these lurking-places Hannibal concealed five thousand foot and horse — as many in each as could readily lie in wait there. [7] Lest, however, the movement of anyone who might carelessly step out or the glint of arms should [8] betray the ruse, in a valley so bare and open, he dispatched a small party at dawn to seize the hill already mentioned and draw off the enemy’s attention.
The Romans no sooner descried them than they laughed at their small numbers, and everybody asked to be assigned the duty of dislodging the Carthaginians and capturing the place. [9] Their general himself, as fatuous and rash as anyone, called the men to arms and railed at the enemy with idle threats. [10] First he ordered out the light infantry; then he sent the cavalry off in a solid column; finally, when he saw that the enemy too were bringing up supports, he set forth with his legions in battle array. Hannibal likewise, as the struggle waxed hotter and his men were sore bested, sent in reinforcement after [11] reinforcement, horse and foot, till he now had a regular army in the field, and both sides were engaged with all their forces. [12] The Roman light infantry, as they were advancing from the lower ground on to the height which the enemy had already occupied, was the first to suffer a repulse, and as they were driven downhill, caused a panic among the cavalry, which was coming up behind them, and fled to the standards of the legions. [13] These alone maintained their line undaunted, when all the rest were in full flight, and it looked as if, had the battle been a regular front-to-front engagement, they would have proved fully equal to their enemy — so encouraged had they been by the successful action a few days before. [14] But the men in ambush, suddenly springing out and charging them on both flanks and in the rear, worked such havoc and alarm that not one of them had any courage left for fighting or any hope in flight.
29. “There it is,” said Fabius, when first the cries of the frightened soldiers were heard, and then the confusion in the distant battle-line became discernible; “misfortune has not overtaken rashness more quickly than I feared. [2] Though made equal to Fabius in authority, he finds Hannibal his superior, both in courage and in fortune. But another time will do for upbraiding and resentment; for the present, march out from your trenches, and let us wrest from the enemy his victory and from our fellow citizens a confession of their blunder.”
[12.3] By this time large numbers of the Romans had either been slain or were casting about for a way to escape, [4] when suddenly Fabius and his army appeared, as though they had come down from heaven to help them; and before they got within a javelin’s range or struck a blow, had checked both the headlong flight of the Romans and the reckless fury of the enemy’s attack. [5] Those who had quitted their ranks and dispersed this way and that came running up on every side to the unbroken line; those who had retreated in a body faced about to meet the enemy and, forming a circle, at first slowly retreated, but presently, being more compactly drawn together, stood their ground. [6] And now the beaten army and the fresh one had pretty much united into a single line and were ready to advance against the enemy, when Hannibal sounded the recall, declaring openly that he had beaten Minucius, but that Fabius had beaten him.
[12.7] When the troops had got back to their camps, towards the close of a day of such varied fortune, Minucius called his men together and thus addressed them: “Soldiers, I have often heard that the best man is he who can himself advise us what is profitable; [8] the next best he who listens to good advice; but that he who can neither counsel well nor obey: another has the meanest capacity of all. [9] Since to us the first rank of intelligence and capacity has been denied, let us hold fast to the second or middle state, and while we are learning to command, make up our minds to obey a man of wisdom. [10] Let us join our camp to that of Fabius; and when we have brought our standards to his tent, and I have given him the name of ‘Father’ — as [11] befits his goodness to us and his great position — you, soldiers, will salute as ‘patrons’ those whose hands and swords just now protected you; and, if nothing else, this day shall at least have conferred on us the, glory of possessing thankful hearts.”
30. The moment the signal was given, the order to pack was shouted round. Setting forth they marched in column to the dictator’s camp, to the astonishment of Fabius himself and all who were about. [2] When they had planted their ensigns before the tribunal, the master of the horse advanced in front of the rest and called upon Fabius by the name of Father, and his entire army saluted the soldiers who had gathered round them as their patrons. [3] Then Minucius said, “To my parents, Dictator, with whom I have just made you equal in name, which is all that speech can do, I owe only my life; to you I owe not merely my own safety but the safety of all of these. [4] Accordingly I am the first to reject and repeal that plebiscite which has been more onerous to me than honourable, and to place myself again under your command and auspices and restore to you these standards and these legions; and may good fortune come of it to you and to me and to these your armies, to the preserved and the preserver. [5] Lay aside, I pray, your just resentment, and bid me retain my post of master of the horse and these their own proper companies and ranks.” [6] Then hands were clasped, and the assembly being dismissed, the soldiers were kindly and hospitably entertained, alike by friends and strangers, and a day which a little earlier had been very gloomy and almost accurst was turned into one of rejoicing.
[12.7] In Rome, when the report of this affair came in, and was later confirmed by letters not only from both commanders, but from the soldiers generally in both armies, all men joined in lauding Maximus to the skies. [8] With Hannibal and the hostile Phoenicians his renown was equally great; then for the first time they realized that they were fighting with Romans and in Italy. [9] For during the past two years they had so despised the Roman generals and soldiers that they could hardly believe that they were at war with the same nation as that of which they had heard such terrifying stories from their fathers. [10] And Hannibal is said to have remarked, as he was returning from the field, that at last that cloud which had long been hovering about the mountain-tops had broken in a storm of rain.
31. While these things were happening in Italy, Gnaeus Servilius Geminus the consul, with a fleet of a hundred and twenty ships, sailed round Sardinia and Corsica, and after taking hostages from both, bore away for Africa. [2] Before descending on the mainland, he plundered the island of Menix; and after accepting ten talents of silver, which the people of Cercina gave him, to induce him not to burn and pillage their territory also, he sailed in to the coast of Africa and disembarked his troops. [3] Soldiers and naval allies went off to pillage the country-side and dispersed as freely as if they were plundering desert islands. [4] And so they quickly fell into an ambush, and losing contact with each other, and knowing nothing of the country, were set upon by large bands of their enemies, who knew it well, and driven back to their ships in a bloody and disgraceful rout. [5] Fully a thousand men were lost, including the quaestor, Tiberius Sempronius Blaesus. Moorings were cast off in a hurry, and the fleet, leaving the shore behind it lined with enemies, stood away for Sicily. [6] At Lilybaeum it was handed over to the praetor Titus Otacilius, to be conducted by his lieutenant, Publius Cincius, back to Rome. [7] The consul himself proceeded overland through Sicily to the straits, where he crossed into Italy, in obedience to a dispatch from Quintus Fabius. The dictator had sent for Servilius, and for Marcus Atilius his colleague, to take over his armies, for his six months’ tenure of authority was drawing to a close.
[12.8] Nearly all the annalists state that Fabius was dictator in his campaign against Hannibal; Coelius even writes that he was the first to be created dictator by the people. [9] But Coelius and the rest forget that only the consul Gnaeus Servilius, who was then far away in his province of Gaul, had the right of naming a dictator. [10] It was because the nation, appalled by their great disaster, could not put up with so long a delay that resort was had to the popular election of an acting dictator. [11] Thereafter the general’s successes and his great renown, and the additions which his descendants made to the inscription which accompanies his portrait, led easily to the belief that one who had in fact been made acting dictator had been dictator.
32. The consuls — Atilius taking over the army of Fabius and Geminus Servilius that of Minucius — constructed a winter camp betimes, and carried on the war for the rest of the autumn with the greatest harmony, on the lines laid down by Fabius. [2] As often as Hannibal went out to forage, they were sure to appear, at one place or another, harassing his march and cutting off the stragglers: a general engagement, which the enemy sought with all the arts at his command, they declined to risk; [3] and Hannibal was driven to such extremity of want, that if he had not thought that his departure would necessarily look like flight, he would have gone back into Gaul. For he had given up all hope of supporting his army in those regions, if the next consuls should make use of the same strategy.
[12.4] Winter had already brought the fighting about Gereonium to a standstill, when envoys from Neapolis arrived in Rome. [5] Bringing forty massive golden bowls into the senate-house, they delivered themselves to this effect: that they knew that the treasury of the Roman People was becoming exhausted by the war, and since it was being waged no less in behalf of the cities and lands of the allies than for the capital and citadel of Italy — the City of Rome — and [6] for its empire, the Neapolitans had deemed it right to employ the gold which their ancestors had bequeathed them, whether for the adornment of their temples or as a subsidy in time of need, to assist the Roman People; [7] had they thought themselves capable of helping with their persons, they would have offered these with the same heartiness; it would gratify them if the Roman senators and people would look on all the possessions of the Neapolitans as their own, and consider [8] that their gift deserved a willing acceptance, as being greater and of more account in respect of the friendliness and good-will of the givers than in actual value. [9] The envoys received a vote of thanks for this generosity and thoughtfulness, and the bowl of least weight was accepted.
33. At about this time a Carthaginian spy who for two years had eluded capture was caught in Rome, and after his hands had been cut off, was allowed to go; and five and twenty slaves were crucified, on the charge of having conspired in the Campus Martius. [2] The informer was rewarded with freedom and twenty thousand sesterces. [3] Ambassadors were dispatched to Philip, King of the Macedonians, to demand the person of Demetrius of Pharus, who, beaten in war, had fled to him for refuge; [4] and others to expostulate with the Ligurians, because they had aided the Phoenician with supplies and men, and at the same time to observe at close range what was going on amongst the Boi and the Insubres. [5] Ambassadors were likewise sent to King Pineus in Illyria, to demand a tribute which was overdue, or, in case he wished the time extended, to take hostages. [6] So far were the Romans, though bearing upon their shoulders the burden of a mighty war, from permitting any concern of theirs to escape them, in however remote a part of the world it lay. [7] They were troubled, too, that the contract for the temple of Concord, which the praetor Lucius Manlius had vowed two years before in Gaul, during the mutiny of the soldiers, had hitherto not been let. [8] Accordingly the city praetor, Marcus Aemilius, appointed for the purpose two commissioners, Gaius Pupius and Caeso Quinctius Flamininus, who arranged to have the temple built on the Citadel.
The same praetor, acting on instructions from the senate, wrote to the consuls, requesting that, if it seemed good to them, one of them would come to Rome to hold an election of consuls, and promising to appoint the comitia for the day which they [9] should designate. To this the consuls answered that they could not withdraw from the presence of the enemy without detriment to [10] the republic; it would therefore be better that the election be conducted by an interrex than that one of the consuls be called away from the seat [11] of war. To the senators it seemed preferable that the consuls should appoint a dictator to preside at the election. They appointed Lucius Veturius Philo, who named Marcus Pomponius Matho master of [12] the horse. There was a flaw in their appointment and they were commanded on the fourteenth day to resign their magistracy, whereupon the state reverted to an interregnum.
34. The authority of the consuls was extended for a year. To be interrex the Fathers named Gaius Claudius Cento, the son of Appius, and after him Publius Cornelius Asina. The latter conducted an election, which was marked by a bitter struggle between patricians and plebeians.
[12.2] Gaius Terentius Varro had endeared himself to the plebeians — the class to which he himself belonged — by invectives against the leading men and the usual tricks of the demagogue. The blow he had struck at the influence and dictatorial authority of Fabius brought him the glory which is won by defaming others, and the rabble was now striving to raise him to the consulship, while the patricians opposed the attempt with all their might, lest men should acquire the custom of assailing them as a means of rising to their level. [3] Quintus Baebius B.C. 217 Herennius, a tribune of the plebs and kinsman of Gaius Terentius, railed not only at the senate but at the augurs too, because they had forbidden the dictator to accomplish the election, and by placing them in an unfavourable light, strengthened the candidacy of his friend. [4] The nobles, he said, had been seeking war for many years, and it was they who had brought Hannibal into Italy. It was their machinations, too, that were spinning out the war, when it might be brought to a victorious conclusion. [5] That four legions if united were able to hold their own in a general engagement had been shown in a successful battle fought by Marcus Minucius, when Fabius was absent. [6] Notwithstanding this, two legions had just been exposed to be massacred by the enemy and subsequently rescued from the massacre, to the end that the names of Father and Patron might be conferred on one who had kept the Romans from conquering before keeping them from being conquered. [7] After that the consuls had employed the arts of Fabius to prolong the war, when they were able to have ended it. [8] The nobles had all made a compact to this effect; nor would his hearers see an end of the war until they had elected a true plebeian, a new man, to the consulship; for the plebeian nobles had already been admitted to the same rites as the others and had begun to look down on the plebs from the moment when they themselves had ceased to be looked down on by the patricians. [9] Who could fail to see that their end and purpose in resorting to an interregnum had been to keep the election in the hands of the patricians? [10] To this end both consuls had remained with their army in the field; to this end, later on, because a dictator had been named, against their wishes, for the purpose of holding an election, they had succeeded in having the augurs declare that there had been a flaw in his appointment. [11] They had therefore the interregnum they desired. But at least one consulship belonged to the Roman plebs; and the people meant to keep it free, and bestow it on him who would rather win an early victory than remain long in command.
35. When the plebs had been inflamed by these harangues, though there were three patrician candidates, Publius Cornelius Merenda, Lucius Manlius Volso, and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, [2] and two plebeians of families which had already been ennobled, namely, Gaius Atilius Serranus and Quintus Aelius Paetus, of whom one was a pontifex, the other an augur, Gaius Terentius was the only consul elected, and the assembly called to choose a colleague for him was therefore under his control. [3] The nobles, finding that Varro’s competitors had not been able to command the necessary strength, thereupon obliged Lucius Aemilius Paulus to stand, though he held out long and earnestly against their importunity. He had been consul together with Marcus Livius, and the condemnation of his colleague — from which he had not himself escaped unscathed — had embittered him against the plebs. [4] On the next election day all those who had been Varro’s rivals withdrew their names, the consul was given Paulus, rather as a competent opponent than as a colleague. [5] The election of praetors then took place, and Marcus Pomponius Matho and Publius Furius Philus were chosen. To Philus the lot assigned the urban praetorship, for administering justice in Rome; to Pomponius the jurisdiction in suits between Roman citizens and foreigners. [6] Two additional praetors were elected, Marcus Claudius Marcellus for Sicily, and Lucius Postumius Albinus for Gaul. [7] These were all elected in their absence, and not one of them, except Terentius the consul, received a magistracy which he had not already filled before, a number of stout-hearted, active men being passed over because it seemed unwise at such a juncture to give any man an office to which he was new.
36. The armies also were augmented. But how large were the additions of infantry and cavalry I should hardly venture to declare with any certainty — so greatly do historians differ in regard to the numbers and kinds of troops. [2] Some say that ten thousand new soldiers were enlisted as replacements; others that four new legions were enrolled, so that they took the field with eight. [3] Some assert that the legions were also increased in the numbers of their infantry and cavalry, and that each received an additional thousand foot and a hundred horse, bringing up the total of every one to five thousand foot and three hundred horse; [4] and that double the number of horse and an equal number of foot were furnished by the allies. [5] One thing is not disputed — that they proceeded with more energy and enthusiasm than in former years, because the dictator had given them ground for hoping that they would be able to defeat the enemy.
[12.6] Before, however, the new legions marched out from the City, the decemvirs were instructed to consult the Sacred Books, on account of a general alarm occasioned by strange portents. [7] For a shower of stones had been reported as having fallen at Rome on the Aventine, and about the same time at Aricia; in the Sabine country the images of the gods, and at Caere the waters that flowed from the hot spring had been drenched with blood — a [8] prodigy all the more alarming from its having occurred so often; and in the arched way which used to lead to the Campus Martius some men had been struck by lightning and killed. These prodigies were expiated as the Books directed. [9] Ambassadors came from Paestum, bringing golden bowls to Rome. They were thanked, as the Neapolitans had been, but the gold was not accepted.
37. About this time a fleet came in to Ostia from King Hiero with a great store of supplies. [2] His envoys were introduced into the senate, where they told how the news of the destruction of Gaius Flaminius the consul and his army had so grieved the King that no disaster to himself or his own kingdom could have distressed him more. [3] Accordingly, though well aware that the greatness of the Roman People was almost more astonishing in adversity than in prosperity, he had nevertheless sent them all those things with which good and faithful allies were wont to assist their friends in time of [4] war, and he earnestly besought the Conscript Fathers not to refuse them. [5] In the first place, for the omen’s sake, they were bringing a golden Victory, weighing two hundred and twenty pounds, which they begged the Romans to accept and keep, and to regard it as their own for ever. [6] They had also brought three hundred thousand measures of wheat and two hundred thousand of barley, that there might be no failure of provision; and whatever additional quantity were needed they stood ready to convey to any place which the senate might designate. [7] For heavy foot and horse, the King knew that the Roman People employed none but Romans and Latins; [8] but amongst the light-armed auxiliaries, he had seen in the camps of the Romans even foreigners; he had therefore sent a thousand archers and slingers, a force well adapted to cope with Moors and Baliares and other tribes that fought with missiles. [9] To these gifts they added a piece of advice, that the praetor, namely, who might be assigned to Sicily should sail over with his fleet to Africa, so that the enemy, too, might have war on their own soil, whereby they would experience less freedom in dispatching aid to Hannibal.
[12.10] The senate, in replying to the royal emissaries, said that Hiero was a good man and a rare ally, who from the time when he became a friend of the Roman People had maintained an unswerving loyalty, and always and in every place had given generous assistance to the Roman cause. For this the Romans were grateful, as in duty bound. [11] As for the gold, other states as well had proffered it, but the Roman People, though thankful for the kind intention, had not accepted it; [12] the Victory and her omen they did accept; and to that goddess they dedicated and assigned the Capitol, the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, to be her seat. Established in that citadel of Rome she would be gracious and propitious, faithful and steadfast, to the Roman People.
[12.13] The slingers and archers and the corn were turned over to the consuls. Twenty-five quinqueremes were added to the fleet of fifty ships that was under the command of Titus Otacilius in Sicily, and permission was given him, if he deemed it advantageous to the state, to sail across to Africa.
38. When they had finished with the levy, the consuls waited a few days for the soldiers from the allies and the Latins to come in. [2] An oath was then administered to the soldiers by their tribunes — which was a thing that they had never done before. [3] For until that day there had only been the general oath to assemble at the bidding of the consuls and not depart without their orders; then, after assembling, they would exchange a voluntary pledge amongst themselves — the cavalrymen in their decuries and the infantry in their centuries — that [4] they would not abandon their ranks for flight or fear, but only to take up or seek a weapon, either to smite an enemy or to save a fellow citizen. [5] This voluntary agreement amongst the men themselves was replaced by an oath administered formally by the tribunes.
Before the troops marched from the City, the consul Varro uttered many truculent harangues. [6] He declared that the war had been brought into Italy by the nobles, and would not cease to prey upon the nation’s vitals, if they had many generals like Fabius; but that he himself would put an end to it on the day when he came within sight of the enemy. [7] His colleague Paulus spoke but once, on the day before he left the City. [8] His words were more truthful than agreeable to the people; but he said nothing harsh against Varro, except this: that he marvelled — and indeed how should he not? — that a general, who before he knew either his own or the enemy’s army or the lie of the land or the character of the country, was already certain, ere he had yet laid aside the [9] dress of a civilian, what measures he must adopt when in the field — he [10] marvelled that such a general should even be able to predict the very day on which he would be giving battle to the enemy! [11] For himself, he would not anticipate, before they ripened, those plans with which circumstances provided men but which men could not well impose on circumstances. [12] He hoped that what was done with care and caution would turn out for the best: rashness was not only foolish but had hitherto been unfortunate as well It was quite apparently his own intention to choose a safe course rather than a hasty one; [13] and, to confirm him in this resolution, Quintus Fabius Maximus is said to have addressed him, on his setting out, to this effect: —
39. “If either, Lucius Aemilius, you had, as I should prefer, a colleague like yourself, or if you were like your colleague, my words would be superfluous. [2] For, as two good consuls, even if I held my peace, you would act in all respects in accordance with the public interest and your own loyalty; and, as bad ones, you would neither take my words into your ears nor my advice into your hearts. [3] As it is, when I see what your colleague is like and what you are like, it is to you alone that I must address myself: though I perceive that you will be a good man and good citizen to little purpose, if the state is lame on the other side and evil counsels enjoy the same rights and the same authority as good. [4] For you err, Lucius Paulus, if you suppose that your struggle will be less with Gaius Terentius than with Hannibal. I am not sure that you may not find the one more dangerous as an opponent than the other as an enemy, and that with your enemy you will have to contend only in battle; with your opponent, everywhere and at all times. [5] Against Hannibal and his legions you will have your cavalry and infantry to fight for you: when Varro takes the field, it will be to attack you with your own soldiers.
[12.6] “For the very omen’s sake, I would not have you remember Gaius Flaminius! Yet Flaminius only began to rave when he had been made consul and was in his province and had joined his army; whereas Varro was mad before he sought the consulship, as he was thereafter during his canvass, and is now as consul, before he has ever beheld his camp or the enemy. [7] And if a man can rouse such gusts of passion even now, by bragging of battles and of stricken fields among civilians, what think you he will do when surrounded by armed youths, where words are translated instantly into deeds? [8] And yet, if he fights at once, as he declares that he intends to do, either I know nothing of military science, of the nature of this war, and of our enemy, or another place will be more notorious than Trasumennus for our overthrow.
[12.9] “It is no time to boast, when I am speaking to one man, and for my part I had rather go too far in despising than in seeking reputation; but the simple truth is that the only way of conducting a war with Hannibal is the way in which I have conducted it; [10] and not only the event — that schoolmaster of fools — teaches us this, but the same reasoning which held good then will hold unchanged, so long as circumstances remain the same. [11] It is in Italy, our home-land, that we are fighting; everywhere about us are fellow citizens and friends; [12] they are helping us with arms, men, horses, and supplies, and will continue helping us — such proof of loyalty have they already given us in our adversity; each day that passes makes us better, wiser, more steadfast men. [13] Hannibal, on the contrary, is in an alien and hostile country, where all his surroundings are inimical and threatening, far from home and native city; for him there is no peace, on either land or sea; no cities receive him, no walls protect him; nowhere does he see aught that he can call his own; he subsists on the plunder of each day; he has barely a third of that army which he led across the Ebro; [14] more have perished by starvation than by the sword, and the few that are left have no longer any food. [15] Can you doubt then that if we sit still we must gain the victory over one who is growing weaker every day and is destitute of provisions, of replacements, and of money? [16] How long, before Gereonium, a pitiful fort in Apulia, as if it had been the walls of Carthage, has he — but of myself I will not boast, even to you. [17] See how the consuls of last year, Servilius and Atilius, made a mock of him!
“This is the only way of safety, Lucius Paulus, and your fellow citizens will do more than your enemies to make it hard and dangerous for you. [18] For your own soldiers will desire the same thing as the soldiers of the enemy; Varro, the Roman consul, will long for the same thing as Hannibal, the Phoenician commander-in-chief. Single-handed you will have to thwart two generals. But thwart them you will, if you stand out with sufficient firmness against rumours and men’s idle talk, if neither the foolish applause bestowed upon your colleague nor your own unmerited disgrace shall move you. [19] Truth, they say, is all too frequently eclipsed but never extinguished. He who scorns false glory shall possess the true. [20] Let them call you timid, instead of cautious; slow, instead of circumspect; unwarlike, instead of experienced soldier. I had rather a wise enemy should fear you than foolish fellow citizens should praise you. He who dares all things will earn Hannibal’s contempt; he who does nothing rashly will inspire him with fear. [21] Yet I do not urge that you do nothing, but that reason and not fortune should be your guide. Be master always of yourself and all that is yours; be armed and watchful; be not wanting when opportunity presents itself to you, neither present an opportunity to your enemy. [22] All things will be clear and definite to one who does not hurry. Haste is improvident and blind.”
40. In reply to this the consul spoke in no very cheerful strain, admitting rather that what Fabius said was true than that it was easy of accomplishment. [2] The dictator had found his master of the horse intolerable: what power or influence then would a consul have over a turbulent and headstrong colleague? [3] In his former consulship he had escaped badly burnt from the flames of popular resentment; he hoped that everything would turn out for the best; but if any misfortune should befall, he would sooner expose his life to the swords of the enemy than to the suffrages of his angry fellow citizens.
[12.4] Immediately after this conference they say that Paulus set out, escorted by the foremost senators: the plebeian consul was escorted by his own friends, the plebeians — in point of numbers the more imposing throng, though it contained no persons of distinction.
[12.5] When they got to the camp, the new forces were united with the old and the camp was divided into two, with the new and smaller one nearer Hannibal, while the greater part of the army and all the choicest troops were in the old one. [6] Of the consuls of the year before, Marcus Atilius pleaded the excuse of age and was sent back to Rome; Geminus Servilius was put in command of the smaller camp, having under him a Roman legion and two thousand infantry and cavalry of the allies. [7] Hannibal, though lie perceived that the forces of his enemies were augmented by a half, was nevertheless greatly rejoiced at the coming of the consuls. [8] For not only were the spoils exhausted on which his men had subsisted from day to day, but there was not even any district left for them to spoil; for when it appeared that the farms were no longer safe, the corn had everywhere been carried into the walled towns, and in consequence there was barely grain enough left — as [9] was afterwards discovered — to last ten days, and the Spaniards, for want of food, had made ready to desert, if the Romans had only waited till the time was ripe.
41. But even Fortune furnished material to the recklessness and over-hasty temper of the consul. The repulse of a foraging party had led to a general mellay, which came about from the soldiers rushing forward to attack the enemy, rather than from any plan or orders on the part of the generals; and in this the Phoenicians by no means held their own. [2] About seventeen hundred of them were slain and not more than a hundred of Romans and allies. But the consul Paulus, who was in command that day — for they commanded on alternate days — was [3] fearful of an ambuscade and checked the victors in their headlong pursuit, despite the angry remonstrances of Varro, who cried out that they had let the enemy slip through their hands and that they might have brought the war to a conclusion if they had not relaxed their efforts.
[12.4] Hannibal was not greatly disconcerted by this reverse; indeed he rejoiced that the hook should have been baited, as it were, for the rashness of the more impetuous consul, and especially for that of the new soldiers. [5] All the circumstances of his enemies were as familiar to him as his own: that their generals were unlike each other and were at loggerheads, and that nearly two-thirds of their army consisted of recruits. [6] Believing, therefore, that place and time were favourable for a ruse, he left his camp full of every sort of public and of private riches, and putting himself at the head of his troops, who carried nothing but their weapons, marched over the nearest ridge, drew up the [7] infantry in ambush on the left, and the cavalry on the right, and made the baggage-train pass through the valley between, intending to fall upon [8] the enemy whilst they were preoccupied and encumbered with the pillage of the camp, which would seem to them to have been deserted by its owners. [9] He left a large number of fires burning, as though he had sought by means of this illusory appearance of an encampment to hold the consuls to their positions — as he had cheated Fabius the year before — till he could gain as long a start as possible in his retreat.
42. When day came, first the fact that the outposts had been withdrawn, and afterwards — as they came nearer — the unwonted silence filled the Romans with amazement. [2] Then, as it became quite evident that there was no one in the camp, there was a rush of men to the headquarters of the consuls, announcing that the enemy had retreated in such trepidation as to quit the camp without striking their tents, and had even left a great number of fires burning to conceal their flight. [3] Next they began to clamour for the order to advance and to pursue the enemy and plunder the camp without delay, and one of the consuls behaved like a member of the mob of soldiers. [4] Paulus kept insisting on the need for watchfulness and circumspection, and finally, when there was no other way in which he could withstand the mutiny and the leader of the mutiny, he sent the praefect Marius Statilius with a troop of Lucanian horse to reconnoitre.
[12.5] Riding up to the gates, Statilius commanded the others to wait outside the trenches, and himself with two horsemen entered the camp. After making a thorough and careful examination he reported that there was undoubtedly some treachery afoot. [6] The fires, he said, had been left on the side of the camp that faced the Romans; the tents were open and all kinds of valuables were left exposed to view; here and there he had seen silver carelessly flung down in the lanes, as if to tempt a pillager.
[12.7] The report, which had been made with the purpose of checking the soldiers’ greed, only inflamed it, and they began to shout that if the signal were not given, they would go without any leaders. But there was no lack of a leader; for Varro at once gave the command to start. [8] Paulus himself wished to delay; and when the sacred fowls had refused their sanction, he gave orders to notify his colleague, who was just setting forth with the standards from [9] the gate. Varro was greatly vexed at this, but the recent disaster of Flaminius and the memorable defeat at sea of the consul Claudius, in the first Punic War made him fearful of offending the [10] heavenly powers. On that day, it might almost be said, the very gods put off, but did not prevent, the calamity that impended over the Romans: for it chanced that when the consul ordered the standards back into the camp and the soldiers were refusing to obey him, two slaves appeared on the scene, one belonging to a Formian, the other to a Sidicinian knight. They had been captured by the Numidians, along with other foragers, in the consulship of Servilius and Atilius, and on that day had escaped back to [11] their masters. Being conducted to the consuls, they stated that Hannibal’s entire army was lying in ambush just over the [12] nearest hills. Their opportune arrival restored the authority of the consuls, when one of them, by running after popularity, and by unprincipled indulgence, had impaired their prestige — beginning with his own — amongst the soldiers.
43. Hannibal, perceiving that the Romans, although they had acted ill-advisedly, had not proceeded to the extremity of rashness, returned to the camp, his stratagem having been detected and rendered idle. [2] There, however, the scarcity of corn forbade his remaining many days, and new plans were daily forming, not only amongst the soldiers, the mingled offscourings of every race on earth, but even in the mind of the general himself. [3] For when the men, with murmurs at first and afterwards with loud clamours, demanded their arrears of pay, and complained at first of the scarcity of corn, and finally of being starved; and when the report went round that the mercenaries — particularly those of Spanish blood — had resolved on going over to the enemy; [4] they say that even Hannibal himself had thoughts of abandoning all his infantry and saving himself and his cavalry by escaping into Gaul. [5] Such being the projects that were entertained in camp and such the temper of his soldiers, he decided to move from his present quarters to Apulia, where the climate was warmer and in consequence of this the harvest earlier; at the same time it would be the more difficult, the greater their distance from the enemy, for those of his followers who were fickle to desert. [6] He set out in the night, after making up some fires, as before, and leaving a few tents standing where they would be seen, so that the Romans might be withheld from following him through fear of an ambush, as before.
But when the same Lucanian, Statilius, had made a thorough reconnaissance beyond the camp and on the other side of the mountains, and had reported seeing the enemy on the march a long way off, then the question of pursuing him began to be [8] debated. The consuls were each of the same mind as they had always been; but Varro had the support of almost everybody, Paulus of none except Servilius, the consul of the year [9] before. The will of the majority prevailed, and they set forward, under the urge of destiny, to make Cannae famous for the calamity which there befell the [10] Romans. This was the village near which Hannibal had pitched his camp, with his back to the Volturnus, a wind that brings clouds of dust over the drought-parched [11] plains. Such a disposition was very convenient for the camp itself and bound to be particularly salutary when the troops formed up for battle, facing in the opposite direction, with the wind blowing only on their backs, and ready to fight with enemies half-blinded by the dust driven into their faces.
44. The consuls, after making a sufficient reconnaissance of the roads, followed the Phoenicians until they came to Cannae, where, having the enemy in view, they divided their forces, as they had done before, and fortified two camps, at about the same distance from one another as at Gereonium. [2] The river Aufidus, flowing past both their camps, was readily accessible to water-carriers at such spots as were convenient for each, though not without fighting; [3] it was, however, from the smaller camp, which was situated across the Aufidus, that the Romans could fetch water more freely, since the enemy had no troops posted on the further bank.
[12.4] Hannibal had conceived a hope that the consuls would give him an opportunity of fighting in a place that was formed by nature for a cavalry action, in which arm he was invincible. He therefore drew out his men in battle array and ordered the Numidians to make a sally and provoke the enemy. [5] This caused the camp of the Romans to be once more the scene of strife amongst the soldiers and dissension between the consuls. Paulus cast in Varro’s teeth the recklessness of Sempronius and Flaminius; [6] Varro retorted that Fabius was a specious example for timid and slothful generals, and called on gods and men to witness that it was through no fault of his that Hannibal had by now acquired as it were a prescriptive right to Italy, for he was kept in fetters by his colleague, and the soldiers, enraged as they were and eager to fight, were deprived of swords and arms. [7] Paulus rejoined that if anything untoward should befall the legions, recklessly abandoned to an ill-advised and rash engagement, he would himself be guiltless of all blame, but would share in all the consequences; let Varro, he said, see to it, that where tongues were bold and ready, hands — when it came to fighting — were no less so.
45. While they wasted time, rather quarrelling than consulting, Hannibal withdrew the rest of his troops, whom he had kept in line till far on in the day, [2] into his camp, and sent the Numidians across the river to attack the men from the smaller Roman camp who were fetching water. [3] They had hardly come out upon the other bank when their shouts and tumult sent that unorganized rabble flying, and they rode on till they came to the party that was stationed in front of the rampart, and almost to the very gates. [4] So wholly outrageous, however, did it seem that by now even a Roman camp should be terrorized by irregular auxiliaries, that only one thing kept the Romans from crossing the river forthwith and giving battle — the fact that Paulus happened then to be in command.
[12.5] The next morning, therefore, Varro, whom the lot had made commander for that day, hung out the signal, without saying a word of the matter to his colleague, and, making his troops fall in, led them over the river. Paulus followed him, for he could more easily disapprove the plan than deprive it of his help. [6] Once across, they joined to their own the forces which they had kept in the smaller camp, and marshalled their battle-line as follows: on the right wing — the one nearer the river — they placed the Roman cavalry, and next them the Roman foot; [7] the left wing had on the outside the cavalry of the allies; and nearer the centre, in contact with the Roman legions, the infantry of the allies. The slingers and other light-armed auxiliaries were formed up in front. [8] The consuls had charge of the wings, Terentius of the left, Aemilius of the right; and Geminus Servilius was entrusted with the centre.
46. Hannibal crossed the river at break of day, after sending ahead of him the Baliares and the other light-armed troops, and posted each corps in line of battle, in the order in which he had brought it over. [2] The Gallic and Spanish horse were next the river, on the left wing, facing the Roman cavalry; [3] the right wing was assigned to the Numidian horse; the centre was composed of infantry, so arranged as to have the Africans at both ends, and between them Gauls and Spaniards. [4] The Africans might have passed for an array of Romans, equipped as they were with arms captured partly at the Trebia but mostly at Lake Trasumennus. [5] The Gauls and the Spaniards had shields of almost the same shape; their swords were different in use and in appearance, those of the Gauls being very long and pointless, whilst the Spaniards, who attacked as a rule more by thrusting than by striking, had pointed ones that were short and handy. These tribes were more terrifying to look on than the others, because of the size of their bodies and the display they made of them. [6] The Gauls were naked from the navel up; the Spaniards had formed up wearing crimson-bordered linen tunics that shone with a dazzling whiteness. The total number of the infantry who then took their place in line was forty thousand, of the cavalry ten thousand. [7] The generals commanding on the wings were Hasdrubal on the left, Maharbal on the right; Hannibal himself, with his brother Mago, had the centre.
[12.8] The sun — whether they had so placed themselves on purpose or stood as they did by accident — was, very conveniently for both sides, on their flanks, the Romans looking south, the Phoenicians north. [9] A wind — which those who live in those parts call Volturnus — beginning to blow against the Romans carried clouds of dust right into their faces and prevented them from seeing anything.
47. With a shout the auxiliaries rushed forward and the battle began between the light-armed troops. Then the Gallic and Spanish horse which formed the left wing engaged with the Roman right in a combat very unlike a cavalry action. [2] For they had to charge front to front, there being no room to move out round the flank, for the river shut them in on one side and the ranks of infantry on the other. [3] Both parties pushed straight ahead, and as the horses came to a standstill, packed together in the throng, the riders began to grapple with their enemies and drag them from their seats. They were fighting on foot now, for the most part; but sharp though the struggle was, it was soon over, and the defeated Roman cavalry turned and fled.
[12.4] Towards the end of the cavalry engagement the infantry got into action. At first they were evenly matched in strength and courage, as long as the Gauls and Spaniards maintained their ranks; [5] but at last the Romans, by prolonged and frequent efforts, pushing forward with an even front and a dense line, drove in the wedge-like formation which projected from the enemy’s line, for it was too thin to be strong; [6] and then, as the Gauls and Spaniards gave way and fell back in confusion, pressed forward and without once stopping forced their way through the crowd of fleeing, panic-stricken foes, till they reached first the centre and ultimately — for they met with no resistance — the African supports. [7] These had been used to form the two wings, which had been drawn back, while the centre, where the Gauls and Spaniards had been stationed, projected somewhat. When this wedge was first driven back so far as to straighten the front, and then, continuing to yield, even left a hollow in the centre, the Africans had already begun a flanking movement on either side, and as the Romans rushed incautiously in between, they [8] enveloped them, and presently, extending their wings, crescent-wise, even closed in on their rear. From this moment the Romans, who had gained one battle to no purpose, gave over the pursuit and slaughter of the Gauls and Spaniards and began a new fight with [10] the Africans. In this they were at a twofold disadvantage: they were shut in, while their enemies ranged on every side of them; they were tired, and faced troops that were fresh and strong.
48. By this time the Roman left, where the cavalry of the allies had taken position facing the Numidians, was also engaged, though the fighting was at first but sluggish. It began with a Punic ruse. [2] About five hundred Numidians, who, in addition to their customary arms and missiles, carried swords concealed under their corslets, pretended to desert. [3] Riding over from their own side, with their bucklers at their backs, they suddenly dismounted and threw down bucklers and javelins at the feet of their enemies. Being received into the midst of their ranks they were conducted to the rear and ordered to fall in behind. [4] And while the battle was getting under way at every point, they kept quite still; but no sooner were the minds and eyes of all absorbed in the struggle, than they snatched up the shields which lay strewn about everywhere amongst the heaps of slain, and assailing the Romans from behind and striking at their backs and hamstrings, effected a great slaughter and a terror and confusion that were even greater. [5] And now in one place there was a panic rout and in another an obstinate though hopeless struggle, when Hasdrubal, who commanded in that part of the field, withdrew the Numidians from the centre — since they fought but half-heartedly against men who met them face to face — and [6] dispatching them in pursuit of the scattered fugitives, sent in the Spanish and Gallic cavalry to help the Africans, who were now almost exhausted, though more with slaying than with fighting.
49. In the other part of the field Paulus, although he had received a severe wound from a sling at [2] the very outset of the battle, nevertheless repeatedly opposed himself to Hannibal, with his men in close formation, and at several points restored the [3] fight. He was guarded by Roman cavalry, who finally let their horses go, as the consul was growing too weak even to control his horse. At this Hannibal, being told by someone that the consul had ordered his troopers to dismount, is said to have exclaimed: “How much better if he had handed them over to me in [4] fetters!” The dismounted horsemen fought as men no longer doubting that the enemy must be [5] victorious. They were beaten, but chose rather to die where they stood than to run away; and the victors, angry that their victory was thus delayed, cut them down, when they could not rout them. But they routed them at last, when only a few were left, exhausted with fighting and with [6] wounds. The survivors were now all dispersed, and those who could attempted to regain their horses and escape.
[12.7] Gnaeus Lentulus, a tribune of the soldiers, as he rode by on his horse, caught sight of the consul sitting on a stone and covered with [8] blood. “Lucius Aemilius,” he cried, “on whom the gods ought to look down in mercy, as the only man without guilt in this day’s disaster, take this horse, while you have still a little strength remaining and I can attend you and raise you up and guard [9] you. Make not this battle calamitous by a consul’s death; even without that there are tears and grief enough.”
To this the consul answered, “All honour, Cornelius, to your [10] manhood! But waste not in unavailing pity the little time you have to escape the enemy. Go, and tell the senators in public session to fortify the City of Rome and garrison it strongly before the victorious enemy draws near: in private say to Quintus Fabius that Lucius Aemilius has lived till this hour and now dies remembering his [11] precepts. As for me, let me breathe my last in the midst of my slaughtered soldiers, lest either for a second time I be brought to trial after being consul, or else stand forth the accuser of my colleague, blaming another in defence of my own [12] innocence.” While they were speaking, there came up with them first a crowd of fleeing Romans, and then the enemy, who overwhelmed the consul, without knowing who he was, beneath a rain of [13] missiles. Lentulus, thanks to his horse, escaped in the confusion. The rout was now everywhere complete. Seven thousand men escaped into the smaller camp, ten thousand into the larger, and about two thousand into the village of Cannae [14] itself. These last were immediately cut off by Carthalo and his cavalry, for the village was not fortified. The other consul, whether by accident or by design, had not joined any throng of fugitives, but fled to Venusia with some fifty [15] horsemen.
It is said that forty-five thousand five hundred foot and two thousand seven hundred horse were slain, in an almost equal proportion of citizens and [16] allies. In the number were the quaestors of both consuls, Lucius Atilius and Lucius Furius Bibaculus, and twenty-nine military tribunes, some of consular rank, some of praetorian or aedilician — amongst others are mentioned Gnaeus Servilius Geminus and Marcus Minucius, who had been master of the horse in the preceding years and consul several years before [17] — and besides these, eighty senators or men who had held offices which would have given them the right to be elected to the senate, but had volunteered to serve as soldiers in the [18] legions. The prisoners taken in this battle are said to have numbered three thousand foot-soldiers and fifteen hundred horsemen.
50. Such was the battle of Cannae, a calamity as memorable as that suffered at the Allia, and though less grave in its results — because [2] the enemy failed to follow up his victory — yet for the slaughter of the army even more grievous and disgraceful. [3] For the flight at the Allia, though it betrayed the City, saved the army: at Cannae the consul who fled was accompanied by a scant fifty men; the other, dying, had well-nigh the entire army with him.
In the two Roman camps the crowd was half-armed and destitute of leaders. The men in the larger camp sent a messenger bidding those in the smaller one come over to them in the night, while the enemy, exhausted by the fighting and by the feasting that had followed on [4] their triumph, were sunk in sleep: they would then set out in one body for Canusium. [5] This plan some were for totally rejecting. Why, they asked, did not those who summoned them come themselves to the smaller camp, where they could just as well effect a junction? Clearly because the ground between was covered with enemies and they preferred to expose to such danger the persons of others rather than their own. Some were not so much displeased with the plan as wanting in resolution. [6] Then said the military tribune Publius Sempronius Tuditanus: “So you had rather be captured by the greediest and most cruel of foes, and be appraised at so much a head by those who ask, ‘Are you a Roman citizen or a Latin ally?’ in order that from the insults and misery you suffer, the other may win distinction? [7] ‘Not so!’ each man will answer, if you are indeed fellow citizens of Lucius Aemilius the consul, who preferred an honourable death to life with ignominy, and of all those heroes who lie in heaps around him! [8] But before daylight surprises us and the enemy blocks our way in greater force, let us break out through these men that are clamouring in disorder and confusion at our gates. [9] With a sword and a stout heart a man may pass through enemies, be they never so thick. In close formation you may scatter this loose and unorganized force as though there were nothing in your way. Follow me, then, as many of you as desire safety for yourselves and for the commonwealth! [10] “Uttering these words he grasped his sword, and, forming a column, strode away through the midst of the enemy; [11] and when the Numidians hurled missiles at their right sides, which were unprotected, they shifted their shields to the right and so got through, about six hundred of them, to the larger camp; and thence, after being joined by the other great body of men, they made their way at once without loss to Canusium. [12] These things the conquered did rather from the urge of such courage as each derived from his own nature or from chance than in consequence of their own deliberation or any man’s authority.
51. Hannibal’s officers crowded round him with congratulations on his victory. The others all advised him, now that he had brought so great a war to a conclusion, to repose himself and to allow his weary soldiers to repose for the remainder of that day and the following night. [2] But Maharbal, the commander of the cavalry, held that no time should be lost. “Nay,” he cried, “that you may realize what has been accomplished by this battle, in five days you shall banquet in the Capitol! Follow after; I will precede you with the cavalry, that the Romans may know that you are there before they know that you are coming!” [3] To Hannibal the idea was too joyous and too vast for his mind at once to grasp it. And so, while praising Maharbal’s goodwill, he declared that he must have time to deliberate regarding his advice. [4] Then said Maharbal, “In very truth the gods bestow not on the same man all their gifts; you know how to gain a victory, Hannibal: you know not how to use one.” That day’s delay is generally believed to have saved the City and the empire.
[12.5] The morning after, as soon as it was light, they pressed forward to collect the spoil and to gaze on a carnage that was ghastly even to enemies. [6] There lay those thousands upon thousands of Romans, foot and horse indiscriminately mingled, as chance had brought them together in the battle or the rout. Here and there amidst the slain there started up a gory figure whose wounds had begun to throb with the chill of dawn, and was cut down by his enemies; [7] some were discovered lying there alive, with thighs and tendons slashed, baring their necks and throats and bidding their conquerors drain the remnant of their blood. [8] Others were found with their heads buried in holes dug in the ground. They had apparently made these pits for themselves, and heaping the dirt over their faces shut off their breath. [9] But what most drew the attention of all beholders was a Numidian who was dragged out alive from under a dead Roman, but with mutilated nose and ears; for the Roman, unable to hold a weapon in his hands, had expired in a frenzy of rage, while rending the other with his teeth.
52. After spending a good part of the day in gathering spoils, Hannibal proceeded to attack the smaller camp. The first thing that he did was to throw up an entrenchment which cut them off from the river. [2] But they were all so tired out from fighting and lack of sleep, as well as from wounds, that they surrendered even sooner than he had expected. The terms agreed upon were as follows: they were to give up their arms and horses; the ransom was fixed at three hundred chariot-pieces for every Roman, two hundred for every ally, and one hundred for every slave; [3] on the payment of this price they were to go free, with a single garment each. [4] They then received their enemies into the camp and were all placed in custody, citizens being separated from allies. During the delay there, those in the larger camp who possessed sufficient strength and courage, amounting to four thousand foot and two hundred horse, had escaped, some in a body, others scattering — no less safely — over the country-side, and reached Canusium. The camp itself the wounded and timorous surrendered to the enemy on the same terms as the other. [5] It yielded enormous spoils, and except for the horses and men and such silver as there was — which was mostly on the harness of the horses, for they then used very little plate, especially when in the field — the rest of the booty was all given up to pillage. [6] He then commanded the bodies of his dead to be brought into one place for burial. It is said that they numbered about eight thousand of his bravest men. Some historians state that the Roman consul, too, was sought out and given burial.
[12.7] Those who escaped to Canusium were aided by an Apulian woman of birth and fortune named Busa. The townspeople had merely afforded them the protection of the walls and shelter, but she provided them with corn, clothing, and money for the way, in return for which munificence she was afterwards, on the conclusion of the war, voted honours by the senate.
53. Now though there were four tribunes of the soldiers on the ground — Quintus Fabius Maximus of the first legion, whose father had been dictator the year before, Lucius [2] Publicius Bibulus and Publius Cornelius Scipio of the second legion, and Appius Claudius Pulcher, who had very recently been aedile, of the third legion — the [3] supreme command was by unanimous consent made over to Publius Scipio, the merest youth, and to Appius Claudius. [4] These two were considering the general situation, in company with a few others, when Publius Furius Philus, the son of an ex-consul, came in and told them that they were idly entertaining a lost hope; the state was already given over and mourned as dead; [5] some of the young nobles, of whom Marcus Caecilius Metellus was the chief, were looking to the sea and ships, proposing to abandon Italy and flee for refuge to some king. [6] These evil tidings, dreadful in themselves and coming as a new distress on the top of so many disasters, stunned those who heard them with a dull amazement. But when they would have called a council to talk the matter over, young Scipio, the predestined leader in this war, declared that it was no matter for taking counsel: [7] they must be bold and act, not deliberate, in the face of this great evil; let them take arms and go with him at once, as many as wished to save the state; [8] no camp was so truly the camp of the enemy as one where such thoughts were rife. [9] He proceeded, with only a few followers, to the quarters of Metellus, where he found a gathering of the young men of whom he had been informed. [10] Raising his sword over their heads, as they sat in consultation, “I solemnly swear,” he said, “that even as I myself shall not desert the republic of the Roman People, so likewise shall I suffer no other Roman citizen to do so; [11] if I wittingly speak false, may Jupiter Optimus Maximus utterly destroy me, my house, my family, and my estate. [12] Marcus Caecilius, I call on you and the others who are present to swear after these terms, and if any refuse to swear, let him know that against him this sword is drawn.” [13] Quaking as though they beheld the victorious Hannibal, all took the oath, and delivered themselves into the custody of Scipio.
54. While this was happening at Canusium, about four thousand five hundred horse and foot, who had scattered over the country-side in flight, made their way to Venusia, to the consul. [2] All these the inhabitants distributed amongst various families where they might be kindly received and cared for, and bestowed on each horseman a toga and a tunic and twenty-five chariot-pieces, and on each foot-soldier ten pieces, together with arms, where they were needed. In all other matters, too, they dealt hospitably by them, both as a town and as individuals, in their zeal that the People of Venusia should not lag behind a Canusian woman in friendly offices.
[12.4] But the great multitude was beginning to be too heavy a burden upon [5] Busa — and indeed there were now as many as ten thousand men — and Appius and Scipio, when they learned that the other consul was alive, immediately dispatched a messenger to let him know what forces of infantry and cavalry they had with them, and at the same time to enquire whether he desired the army to be brought to Venusia or remain [6] at Canusium. Varro transferred his own troops to Canusium; and they now had something resembling a consular army, and might look to defend themselves against the enemy, behind walls, at all events, if not in [7] the field.
But at Rome it was reported that not even these pitiful remnants of citizens and allies survived, but that the army with its two consuls was clean destroyed and all their forces [8] blotted out. Never, save when the City had been captured, was there such terror and confusion within the walls of Rome. I shall therefore confess myself unequal to the task, nor attempt a narrative where the fullest description would fall short of the truth. The year before a consul and his army had been lost at Trasumennus, and now it was not merely one blow following another, but a calamity many times as great that [9] was reported; two consuls and two consular armies had been lost, and there was no longer any Roman camp, or general, or soldier; Hannibal was master of Apulia, Samnium, and well-nigh the whole [10] of Italy. Surely there was no other people that would not have been overwhelmed by a disaster of such [11] vast proportions. Would you compare the disaster off the Aegatian islands, which the Carthaginians suffered in the sea-fight, by which their spirit was so broken that they relinquished Sicily and Sardinia and suffered themselves to become tax-payers and tributaries? or the defeat in Africa to which this very Hannibal afterwards succumbed? In no single aspect are they to be compared with this calamity, except that they were endured with less of fortitude.
55. Publius Furius Philus and Marcus Pomponius, the praetors, called the senate together in the Curia Hostilia, to consult about the defence of Rome; [2] for they made no doubt that the enemy, after wiping out their armies, would be advancing to besiege the City, which was all that remained to do to end the war. [3] But when, amid dangers at once so immense and so incalculable, they failed to think of even any tolerable plan of action, and were deafened with the cries and lamentations of the women, both the living and the dead — in the lack as yet of any announcement — being [4] indiscriminately mourned in almost every house, then Quintus Fabius Maximus urged that light-armed horsemen be sent out along the Appian and Latin ways, and questioning those they met — for some there would surely be who had dispersed and made off in the rout — bring back word of the fortunes of the consuls and the armies, and if the immortal gods, taking pity on the empire, had spared any remnant of the Roman name, where those forces were; [5] whither Hannibal had gone after the battle, what his plans were, what he was doing and was likely to do. [6] To discover and ascertain these facts was a task, he said, for active youths; what the Fathers themselves must do, since there were not magistrates enough, was this: quell the panic and confusion in the City; keep the matrons off the streets and compel them each to abide in her own home; [7] restrain families from lamentation; procure silence throughout the City; see that bearers of any news were brought before the praetors — every man must wait at home for tidings that concerned himself; [8] — and, besides this, post sentries at the gates, to keep anyone from leaving the City, and make the people rest all hope of safety on the safety of Rome and of its walls. When the tumult had died down, then the Fathers must be convened again and consider how to defend the City.
56. After they had all voted for this proposal without debate, and the throng had been cleared out of the Forum by the magistrates, and the Fathers had dispersed in various directions to still the uproar, then at last came a dispatch from Gaius Terentius the consul, announcing that the consul Lucius Aemilius and his army had been destroyed; [2] that he himself was at Canusium, collecting — as though after a storm at sea — the wreckage of that great disaster; that he had about ten thousand men, not organised or assigned to companies; [3] that the Phoenician was sitting down at Cannae, haggling over the ransom of his prisoners and over the rest of the booty, exhibiting neither the spirit of a conqueror nor the behaviour of a great commander.
[12.4] Announcement was then made from house to house of the losses they had each sustained, and the entire City was so filled with lamentation that the annual rite of Ceres was allowed to lapse, since it may not be performed by mourners, nor was there at that time a single matron who was not bereaved. [5] Accordingly, lest for this same reason other public or private rites might be neglected, the senate decreed that mourning should be limited to thirty days.
[12.6] But when the confusion in the City had subsided and the Fathers had been summoned back to the senate-house, another dispatch was brought in from Sicily, from the propraetor Titus Otacilius. [7] He reported that Hiero’s kingdom was being laid waste by a Punic fleet, and that when he would have responded to Hiero’s appeal for help, he had got news of another fleet, that was standing off the Aegatian islands, all ready and equipped, so that when the Phoenicians should perceive that he had turned his back on them to go to the rescue of the Syracusan coast, they might instantly descend on Lilybaeum and the rest of the Roman province. [8] A fleet was therefore necessary if they desired to protect the king, their ally, and Sicily.
57. When the dispatches from the consul and the praetor had been read out, the senate voted to send Marcus Claudius, the praetor commanding the fleet at Ostia, to Canusium, and to write to the consul to turn the army over to him and come to Rome at the earliest moment compatible with the welfare of the state.
They were terrified not only by the great disasters they had suffered, but also by a number of prodigies, and in particular because two Vestals, Opimia and Floronia, had in that year been convicted of unchastity. Of these one had been buried alive, as the custom is, near the Colline Gate, and the other had killed herself. [2] Lucius Cantilius, a secretary to the pontiffs — one [3] of those who are now called the lesser pontiffs — had been guilty with Floronia, and the Pontifex Maximus had him scourged in the Comitium so severely that he died under the blows. [4] Since in the midst of so many misfortunes this pollution was, as happens at such times, converted into a portent, the decemvirs were commanded to consult the Books, and Quintus Fabius Pictor was [5] dispatched to Delphi, to enquire of the oracle with what prayers and supplications they might propitiate the gods, and what would be the end of all their calamities. [6] In the meantime, by the direction of the Books of Fate, some unusual sacrifices were offered; amongst others a Gaulish man and woman and a Greek man and woman were buried alive in the Cattle Market, in a place walled in with stone, which even before this time had been defiled with human victims, a sacrifice wholly alien to the Roman spirit.
[12.7] Deeming that the gods had now been sufficiently appeased, Marcus Claudius Marcellus sent fifteen hundred soldiers whom he had under him, enrolled for service with the fleet, from Ostia to Rome, to defend the City; and sending before him to Teanum Sidicinum the naval legion (to wit, the third ) under its tribunes, handed over the fleet to his colleague Publius Furius Philus and a few days later hastened by forced marches to Canusium. [8] The senate then authorized the appointment of a dictator and Marcus Junius [Pera] was named to that office, with Tiberius Sempronius as master of the horse. [9] Proclaiming a levy they enlisted the young men over seventeen and some who still wore the purple-bordered dress of boyhood. Of these they made up four legions and a thousand horse. They also sent men to the allies and the Latins to take over their soldiers, as by treaty provided. [10] They gave orders that armour, weapons and other equipment should be made ready, and took down from the temples and porticoes the ancient spoils of enemies. [11] The levy wore a strange appearance, for, owing to the scarcity of free men and the need of the hour, they bought, with money from the treasury, eight thousand young and stalwart slaves and armed them, first asking each if he were willing to serve. [12] They preferred these slaves for soldiers, though they might have redeemed the prisoners of war at less expense.
58. For Hannibal, after his great victory at Cannae, had been more concerned with the projects of a conqueror than with those of one who was still waging war. [2] Mustering the prisoners and dividing them into two groups, he addressed a few kindly words to the allies and dismissed them without ransom, as he had done previously at the Trebia and Lake Trasumennus. He then called up the Romans also and spoke to them with a mildness he had never shown before. [3] He was waging, he said, no war of extermination with them, but was contending for honour and dominion. His forerunners had yielded to the valour of the Romans, and he was striving to compel them in their turn to yield to his own good fortune and valour. [4] He would therefore give them an opportunity to redeem the prisoners, and would fix their ransom at five hundred chariot-pieces for each horseman, three hundred for each foot-soldier, and a hundred for each slave.
[12.5] Although this was a rather large addition to the ransom which the horsemen had agreed to on surrendering, they joyfully accepted any terms of treaty. [6] It was resolved that the prisoners should themselves elect ten representatives to go to the senate in Rome; nor did Hannibal take any other pledge of their good faith than their oath that they would return. [7] Carthalo, a Carthaginian noble, was sent with them, so that, if he should see that the Romans inclined to peace, he might offer terms. [8] The envoys had just left the camp when one of them, a fellow of thoroughly un-Roman character, returned to it — as if he had forgotten something — in order to free himself from his oath, and before dark had caught up with his companions. [9] When the news reached Rome that they were coming, a lictor was sent to meet Carthalo on the way and warn him in the name of the Dictator to depart before nightfall out of Roman territory.
59. As for the envoys of the prisoners, the dictator admitted them into the senate, where their leader spoke as follows: “Marcus Junius and Conscript Fathers, none of us is unaware that no state ever held prisoners of war in less esteem than ours. [2] But, unless we overrate our cause, there have never been men who came into the power of the enemy less deserving than ourselves of your neglect. [3] For we did not yield up our swords through fear on the field of battle, but standing on the heaped bodies of the slain prolonged the combat almost until nightfall and then retired to our camp. [4] The rest of the day and the succeeding night, though exhausted with fighting and with wounds, we defended the stockade. [5] On the following day, surrounded by a victorious army and cut off from water, having no longer any hope of breaking through the throng of enemies, and thinking it no disgrace that when fifty thousand of our troops had been cut down, some few Roman soldiers should survive the battle of Cannae, we finally stipulated [6] for a price at which we might be ransomed, and delivered to the enemy the arms in which there was no longer any help. [7] Even our ancestors — so we had heard — redeemed themselves from the Gauls with gold; and your fathers, despite their fierce opposition to terms of peace, sent envoys to Tarentum to ransom prisoners. [8] And yet neither the battle with the Gauls at the Allia nor that with Pyrrhus at Heraclea owed its unhappy fame so much to carnage as to craven flight. At Cannae the plains are covered with heaps of Roman corpses, and if we survive, it is only because our enemies’ swords were dulled and their strength spent with slaughtering. [9] There are some of us, too, who were never even in the battle, but were left to guard the camp, and on its surrender passed into the enemy’s hands. [10] Think not that I envy the good luck or circumstances of any fellow citizen or fellow soldier, nor would I raise myself by thrusting another down; but — unless there be a prize for fleetness of foot and running — it is not those who, without weapons for the most part and fleeing from the fight, never stopped until they reached Venusia or Canusium that can justly set themselves above us or boast that they are better defenders of the state than [11] we. Both in them and in us you shall have good and valiant soldiers; but we shall be even more eager than they to defend our country, since we shall owe to your kindness our redemption and our restoration to that country. You are levying soldiers of every age and condition; I hear that eight thousand slaves are being [12] armed. Our number is not less than that, and our ransom would be no more costly than their purchase; I make no comparison between our worth and theirs, for that would be to insult the name of [13] Roman. One other point I would suggest, as meriting consideration, when you deliberate about this matter, Conscript Fathers: if haply you should incline to deal harshly by us — which we do not in the least deserve — to what enemy would you be leaving us? To a Pyrrhus, pray, who treated his prisoners like [14] guests? or to a barbarian and Phoenician, of whom it can hardly be determined whether his avarice or cruelty be [15] greater? If you could behold the fetters, the squalor, the degradation of your fellow-citizens, assuredly the sight would move you no less profoundly than if, on the other hand, you saw your legions lying slaughtered on the fields of Cannae. One thing you can see — the distress and tears of our kinsmen who are standing at the entrance of the Curia awaiting your [16] decision. When these people are in such suspense and agony for us and for those who are absent, what think you the men themselves must feel whose life and liberty are hanging in the balance? If Hannibal — Heaven help [17] me! — should himself be pleased, against his nature, to show us mercy, we should nevertheless deem life a worthless boon, if we had seemed to you unworthy of being ransomed. There once came back to Rome some prisoners whom Pyrrhus had allowed to go scot-free; but they came back in company with envoys, the first men of the state, whom you had sent to ransom [18] them. Am I to come back to my country as a citizen not reckoned to be worth three hundred pieces? Every man, Conscript Fathers, has his own way of [19] thinking. I know that my life and person are in jeopardy; but I am troubled more by the danger to my honour — lest we depart under your condemnation and rebuff; for the world will never believe that you were niggardly about the cost.”
60. As soon as he had finished speaking, the throng in the Comitium began to utter doleful cries, and holding out their hands to the Curia besought the senators to give them back their sons, their brothers, and their kinsmen. [2] Even the women had been driven by their fear and destitute condition to mingle in the Forum with the crowd of men. The senate was cleared of strangers and the debate began. [3] Opinions differed. Some were for ransoming the prisoners at the public cost; others would have no money disbursed by the state, but would not prohibit ransoming at the expense of individuals, and to such as might not [4] have the money in hand proposed to grant loans from the treasury, guarding the people against loss by taking sureties and mortgages. [5] Then Titus Manlius Torquatus, a man of an old-fashioned and, as it seemed to many, a too harsh austerity, was called upon for his opinion and spoke as follows:
[12.6] “If, in pleading the cause of those who are in the hands of our enemies, their representatives had been content to ask that they be ransomed, I should have said my say in a few words, without reflecting upon any of them; for what else need I have done than warn you to hold fast to the tradition of our fathers and teach a lesson necessary for military discipline? [7] But as it is, since they have almost boasted of having surrendered to the enemy, and have held that they are to be preferred not only to those who were captured by the enemy in battle, but also to those who made their way to Venusia and Canusium, and even to the consul, Gaius Terentius himself, I will not permit you to be ignorant, Conscript Fathers, of any part of their conduct there. [8] And I wish that what I am going to say to you I might say at Canusium in the presence of the army itself, the most competent witness to any man’s cowardice or valour, or that Sempronius, at least, were with us here, whose leadership if yonder men had followed, they would to-day be soldiers in a Roman camp, not prisoners in the hands of our enemies. [9] But when the enemy, worn out with fighting, and rejoicing in their victory, had themselves for the most part gone back to their own camp and left the night free for a sally; though seven thousand armed men could have forced their way even through a close array of foes, they neither attempted to do this of themselves, nor yet were willing to follow another. [10] During almost all that night Publius Sempronius Tuditanus ceased not to admonish and exhort them to let him lead them, while only a few of their enemies were near the camp, while everything was hushed and still, while the darkness might afford a cover for their enterprise. Before daylight, he declared, they could reach a place of safety among the towns of the allies. [11] If he had said what, within the recollection of our grandsires, Publius Decius, tribune of the soldiers, said in Samnium; or what Marcus Calpurnius Flamma said, when we ourselves were young men, in the former Punic war, to three hundred volunteers whom he was leading to take a hill that rose in the very midst of the enemy: ‘Soldiers, let us die, and by our death set free the beleaguered legions’ — if [12] Publius Sempronius had said this, I should have deemed you no true men, to say nothing of Romans, if none had come forward to share so brave an exploit. [13] But instead he points out to you a road that leads to safety as surely as to fame. He proposes to restore you to your country, to your parents, to your wives and children. You lack even the spirit to be saved! What would you do then if your country called on you to die? [14] Fifty thousand fellow Romans and allies lay slaughtered round you that very day. If so many brave examples could not move you, nothing ever will. If that dreadful carnage has not made life cheap, none ever will. Long for your country, whilst you are free and unattainted. Nay, rather, long for it whilst it is your country, whilst you are reckoned with its citizens. [15] Too late now is your longing; you have forfeited your status, lost your civic rights, been made slaves of the Carthaginians. Do you think to return, for ransom, to that condition which you forfeited by cowardice and turpitude? [16] You would not listen to Publius Sempronius, your fellow citizen, when he bade you arm and follow him; but you listened to Hannibal a little later, when he bade you betray the camp and surrender your arms. But why do I charge these men with cowardice when I could bring against them a charge of crime? [17] For not only did they refuse to follow a man who gave them good advice, but they tried to thwart and hinder him; and those heroic men were forced to draw their swords and thrust the cowards from their path. Aye, Publius Sempronius must needs break through a band of Roman citizens before he could break through their enemies: Can their country wish to recover such citizens as these? [18] If the others had resembled these, she would possess to-day no single citizen of all those who fought at Cannae. Out of seven thousand soldiers, six hundred were sufficiently courageous to force their way through and return to their country, free and armed. [19] Nor did these six hundred encounter any opposition from the enemy; how safe then, think you, would have been their march, if they had amounted almost to two legions? [20] You would have to-day under arms at Canusium, Conscript Fathers, twenty thousand brave and loyal men. But how can these men now be good and loyal citizens — for they themselves would hardly claim to be brave? [21] Unless we are to believe that they helped their comrades to sally out, when in fact they tried to prevent the sally; or that they grudge not those men both the safety and the renown their courage has earned them, knowing, as they do, that fear and cowardice are the cause of their own disgraceful servitude. They had a good chance of escaping in the silence of the night, but preferred to hide in their tents and await both the day and the enemy. [22] But perhaps, though they lacked the courage to sally forth, they had courage enough for a valiant defence of the camp? Perhaps they were besieged for several days and nights, and protected the rampart with their swords, and themselves with the rampart? [23] and finally, after suffering the last extremities, when every support of life gave out and their strength was so impaired with hunger that they could now no longer hold up their shields, they were overcome by the necessities of human nature and not by arms? [24] Nay, the sun was up when the enemy approached the rampart, and the day was not two hours old when, without once putting their fortune to the test of battle, they surrendered both their arms and their persons. Such, mark you, were the exploits these men performed during two days. [25] When they ought to have stood fast in the line and fought, they fled to their tents; when they ought to have fought for their stockade, they surrendered the camp, worthless alike in the field and behind entrenchments. [26] And you would have us ransom you? When it is time to sally from your camp, you hesitate and stop there; when it is needful that you stop and defend it with your swords, you hand over camp and swords and your own bodies to the enemy! [27] No, Conscript Fathers, I would no more vote for ransoming these men than I would for giving those others up to Hannibal, who forced their way from the camp through the midst of enemies, and, by exerting the utmost valour, gave themselves back to their country.”
61. After the speech of Manlius, though most of the senators, too, had relatives amongst the prisoners, yet, besides the example of a state which had shown from of old the scantiest consideration for [2] prisoners of war, they were also moved by the greatness of the sum required, not wishing either to exhaust the treasury, on which they had already made a heavy draft to purchase slaves and arm them for service, or to furnish Hannibal with money — the one thing of which he was rumoured to stand most in need. [3] When the stern reply, that the prisoners would not be ransomed, had gone forth, and fresh sorrow had been added to the old, at the loss of so many of their fellow-citizens, the crowd attended the envoys to the gate with many tears and lamentations. [4] One of them departed to his home, pretending to have freed himself from his oath when he deceitfully returned to the enemy’s camp. As soon as this became known and was reported to the senators, they voted unanimously to arrest him and appointed guards to conduct him back to Hannibal.
[12.5] There is also another accounts of the prisoners of war: that ten envoys came at first, and that the senate, after hesitating whether or no to admit them to the City, admitted them, with the proviso that they should have no hearing. [6] Later, on their delaying longer than anybody had anticipated, three additional envoys came, namely Lucius Scribonius and Gaius Calpurnius and Lucius Manlius; then at last a motion was made in the senate by a kinsman of Scribonius, who was tribune of plebs, that the prisoners be ransomed, but the motion was defeated; [7] the three new envoys now returned to Hannibal, but the original ten remained in Rome, alleging that they had freed themselves of their obligation by going back to Hannibal’s camp, after starting on their journey, under the pretext of reviewing the prisoners’ names. [8] A proposal to surrender them was hotly debated in the senate and was lost by only a few votes. [9] However, under the next censors the ten were so overwhelmed with every species of reprobation and disgrace that some of them killed themselves forthwith, and the rest during all the remainder of their lives avoided not only the Forum, but, one might almost say, the light of day and the public streets. [10] It is more amazing that the authorities should be so divergent than easy to make out the truth.
For the rest, how greatly this disaster exceeded those that had gone before is plain from this: the loyalty of the allies, which had held firm until the day of Cannae, now began to waver, assuredly for no other reason than because they had lost all hope of the empire. [11] Now these are the peoples that revolted: the Campanians, the Atellani, the Calatini, the Hirpini, a part of the Apulians, all the [12] Samnites but the Pentri, all the Bruttii, the Lucanians, and besides these the Uzentini and almost all the Greeks on the coast, the Tarentines, the Metapontines, the Crotoniates and the Locri, together with all the Cisalpine Gauls. [13] Yet these disasters and the falling away of the allies could not induce the Romans anywhere to mention peace, either before the consul came to Rome or after his coming had turned men’s thoughts anew to the calamity which they had suffered. [14] In that very hour there was such courage in the hearts of the citizens that when the consul was returning from that defeat for which he himself had been chiefly responsible, a crowd of all sorts and conditions went out to meet him on the way, and gave him thanks because he had not despaired of the state; [15] whereas, had he been the commander of the Carthaginians, there was no punishment he would not have been compelled to suffer.
SUMMARY OF BOOK XXII
HANNIBAL, losing sleep continuously in the marshes, went blind in one eye, and reached Etruria after marching through the swamps for four days and three nights without repose. Gaius Flaminius the consul, a headstrong man, set out, against the warning of the auspices, after digging out the military standards which they had been unable to pull up, and after the horse which he had mounted had thrown him over its head; and, entrapped by Hannibal in an ambush at Lake Thrasymennus, was slain and his army cut to pieces. Six thousand men who had broken through the enemy’s lines were thrown into chains through Hannibal’s perfidy, notwithstanding the pledge which Atherbal had given them. While the Romans were mourning at the tidings which had come of this calamity, two mothers died of joy on recovering the sons whom they had given up for lost. Because of this defeat a Sacred Spring was vowed, by the direction of the Sibylline Books.
When, after that, Quintus Fabius Maximus, who had been sent out as dictator to oppose Hannibal, was loath to meet him in the open field, for he would not trust his soldiers, who had been cowed by these defeats, in a battle with an enemy emboldened by his victories; and was satisfied merely to thwart the efforts of Hannibal, by blocking his way; Marcus Minucius, the master of the horse, a rash and headstrong man, charging the dictator with sluggishness and timidity persuaded the people to decree that his own authority should be equal to that of the dictator. But, the army being divided between them, Minucius gave battle in an unfavourable position, and his legions were in great peril, when Fabius Maximus came up with his army and saved him. Won over by this generosity, he joined his camp to that of Fabius, and, saluting him as his father, bade his army do the same.
Hannibal, after laying waste Campania, was penned in by Fabius between the town of Casilinum and Mount Callicula. Binding twigs about the horns of oxen and setting them on fire, he frightened off the detachment of Romans stationed on Callicula, and so marched over the pass. It was Hannibal, too, who spared the farm of Quintus Fabius Maximus the dictator, when burning all that country-side, in order to make him suspected of being a traitor.
Aemilius Paulus and Terentius Varro then became consuls and commanded the army which fought disastrously with Hannibal at Cannae. There were slain in that battle forty-five thousand Romans, including the consul Paulus, and ninety senators, and thirty others who had been consuls or praetors or aediles. After that some young nobles were plotting, in their despair, to abandon Italy, when Publius Cornelius Scipio, a tribune of the soldiers, who was later surnamed Africanus, held his drawn sword over the heads of the conspirators and vowing that he would treat as a public enemy whoever should not swear at his dictation, compelled them all to bind themselves with an oath not to abandon Italy.
There were so few soldiers that they armed eight thousand slaves. They were given an opportunity of ransoming the prisoners, but did not ransom them.
The book also describes the panic and grief in the City, and the operations, conducted more successfully, in Spain. The Vestals Opimia and Florentia were convicted of unchastity. The people went out to meet Varro, and thanked him because he had not despaired of the Republic.

## Book XXIII

[13] Translated by William A. McDevitte
[13] B.C. 216-215
[13] The Campanians revolt to Hannibal. Mago is sent to Carthage to announce the victory of Cannae. Hanno advises the Carthaginian senate to make peace with the Romans, but is overborne by the Barcine faction. Claudius Marcellus the praetor defeats Hannibal at Nola. Hannibal’s army is enervated in mind and body by luxurious living at Capua. Casilinum is besieged by the Carthaginians, and the inhabitants reduced to the last extremity of famine. A hundred and ninety-seven senators elected from the equestrian order. Lucius Postumius is, with his army, cut off by the Gauls. Cneius and Publius Scipio defeat Hasdrubal in Spain, and gain possession of that country. The remains of the army, defeated at Cannae, are sent off to Sicily, there to remain until the termination of the war. An alliance is formed between Philip, king of Macedon, and Hannibal. Sempronius Gracchus defeats the Campanians. Successes of Titus Manlius in Sardinia he takes Hasdrubal the general, Mago, and Hanno prisoners. Claudius Marcellus again defeats the army of Hannibal at Nola, and the hopes of the Romans are revived as to the results of the war.
[13] * * * * *
[13] 1. After the battle of Cannae, Hannibal, having captured and plundered the Roman camp, had immediately removed from Apulia into Samnium; invited into the territory of the Hirpini by Statius, who promised that he would surrender Compsa. Tiebius, a native of Compsa, was conspicuous for rank among his countrymen; but a faction of the Mopsii kept him down — a family of great influence through the favour of the Romans. After intelligence of the battle of Cannae, and a report of the approach of Hannibal, circulated by the discourse of Trebius, the Mopsian party had retired from the city; which was thus given up to the Carthaginian without opposition, and a garrison received into it. Leaving there all his booty and baggage, and dividing his forces, he orders Mago to receive under his protection the cities of that district which might revolt from the Romans, and to force to defection those which might be disinclined. He himself, passing through the territory of Campania, made for the lower sea, with the intention of assaulting Naples, in order that he might be master of a maritime city. As soon as he entered the confines of the Neapolitan territory, he placed part of his Numidians in ambush, wherever he could find a convenient spot; for there are very many hollow roads and secret windings: others he ordered to drive before them the booty they had collected from the country, and, exhibiting it to the enemy, to ride up to the gates of the city. As they appeared to be few in number and in disorder, a troop of horse sallied out against them, which was cut off, being drawn into an ambuscade by the others, who purposely retreated: nor would one of them have escaped, had not the sea been near, and some vessels, principally such as are used in fishing, observed at a short distance from the shore, afforded an escape for those who could swim. Several noble youths, however, were captured and slain in that affair. Among whom, Hegeas, the commander of the cavalry, fell when pursuing the retreating enemy too eagerly. The sight of the walls, which were not favourable to a besieging force, deterred the Carthaginian from storming the city.
[13] 2. Thence he turned his course to Capua, which was wantoning under a long course of prosperity, and the indulgence of fortune: amid the general corruption, however, the most conspicuous feature was the extravagance of the commons, who exercised their liberty without limit. Pacuvius Calavius had rendered the senate subservient to himself and the commons, at once a noble and popular man, but who had acquired his influence by dishonourable intrigues. Happening to hold the chief magistracy during the year in which the defeat at the Trasimenus occurred, and thinking that the commons, who had long felt the most violent hostility to the senate, would attempt some desperate measure, should an opportunity for effecting a change present itself; and if Hannibal should come into that quarter with his victorious army, would murder the senators and deliver Capua to the Carthaginians; as he desired to rule in a state preserved rather than subverted (for though depraved he was not utterly abandoned), and as he felt convinced that no state could be preserved if bereaved of its public council, he adopted a plan by which he might preserve the senate and render it subject to himself and the commons. Having assembled the senate, he prefaced his remarks by observing, “that nothing would induce him to acquiesce in a plan of defection from the Romans, were it not absolutely necessary; since he had children by the daughter of Appius Claudius, and had a daughter at Rome married to Livius: but that a much more serious and alarming matter threatened them, than any consequences which could result from such a measure. For that the intention of the commons was not to abolish the senate by revolting to the Carthaginians, but to murder the senators, and deliver the state thus destitute to Hannibal and the Carthaginians. That it was in his power to rescue them from this danger, if they would resign themselves to his care, and, forgetting their political dissensions, confide in him.” When, overpowered with fear, they all put themselves under his protection, he proceeded: “I will shut you up in the senate-house, and pretending myself to be an accomplice in the meditated crime, I will, by approving measures which I should in vain oppose, find out a way for your safety. For the performance of this take whatever pledge you please.” Having given his honour, he went out; and having ordered the house to be closed, placed a guard in the lobby that no one might enter or leave it without his leave.
[13] 3. Then assembling the people, he thus addressed them: “What you have so often wished for, Campanians, the power of punishing an unprincipled and detestable senate, you now have, not at your own imminent peril, by riotously storming the houses of each, which are guarded and garrisoned with slaves and dependants, but free and without danger. Take them all, shut up in the senate-house, alone and unarmed; nor need you do any thing precipitately or blindly. I will give you the opportunity of pronouncing upon the life or death of each, that each may suffer the punishment he has deserved. But, above all, it behoves you so to give way to your resentment, as considering that your own safety and advantage are of greater importance. For I apprehend that you hate these particular senators, and not that you are unwilling to have any senate at all; for you must either have a king, which all abominate, or a senate, which is the only course compatible with a free state. Accordingly you must effect two objects at the same time; you must remove the old senate and elect a new one. I will order the senators to be summoned one by one, and I shall put it to you to decide whether they deserve to live or die: whatever you may determine respecting each shall be done; but before you execute your sentence on the culprit, you shall elect some brave and strenuous man as a fresh senator to supply his place.” Upon this he took his seat, and, the names having been thrown together into an urn, he ordered that the name which had the lot to fall out first should be proclaimed, and the person brought forward out of the senate-house. When the name was heard, each man strenuously exclaimed that he was a wicked and unprincipled fellow, and deserved to be punished. Pacuvius then said, “I perceive the sentence which has been passed on this man; now choose a good and upright senator in the room of this wicked and unprincipled one.” At first all was silence, from the want of a better man whom they might substitute; afterwards, one of them, laying aside his modesty, nominating some one, in an instant a much greater clamour arose; while some denied all knowledge of him, others objected to him at one time on account of flagitious conduct, at another time on account of his humble birth, his sordid circumstances, and the disgraceful nature of his trade and occupation. The same occurred with increased vehemence with respect to the second and third senators, so that it was evident that they were dissatisfied with the senator himself, but had not any one to substitute for him; for it was of no use that the same persons should be nominated again, to no other purpose than to hear of their vices, and the rest were much more mean and obscure than those who first occurred to their recollection. Thus the assembly separated, affirming that every evil which was most known was easiest to be endured, and ordering the senate to be discharged from custody.
[13] 4. Pacuvius, having thus rendered the senators more subservient to himself than to the commons by the gift of their lives, ruled without the aid of arms, all persons now acquiescing. Henceforward the senators, forgetful of their rank and independence, flattered the commons; saluted them courteously; invited them graciously; entertained them with sumptuous feasts; undertook those causes, always espoused that party, decided as judges in favour of that side, which was most popular, and best adapted to conciliate the favour of the commons. Now, indeed, every thing was transacted in the senate as if it had been an assembly of the people. The Capuans, ever prone to luxurious indulgence not only from natural turpitude, but from the profusion of the means of voluptuous enjoyment which flowed in upon them, and the temptations of all the luxuries of land and sea; at that time especially proceeded to such a pitch of extravagance in consequence of the obsequiousness of the nobles and the unrestrained liberty of the commons, that their lust and prodigality had no bounds. To a disregard for the laws, the magistrates, and the senate, now, after the disaster of Cannae, was added a contempt for the Roman government also, for which there had been some degree of respect. The only obstacles to immediate revolt were the intermarriages which, from a remote period, had connected many of their distinguished and influential families with the Romans; and, which formed the strongest bond of union, that while several of their countrymen were serving in the Roman armies, particularly three hundred horsemen, the flower of the Campanian nobility, had been selected and sent by the Romans to garrison the cities of Sicily.
[13] 5. The parents and relations of these men with difficulty obtained that ambassadors should be sent to the Roman consul. The consul, who had not yet set out for Canusium, they found at Venusia with a few half-armed troops, an object of entire commiseration to faithful, but of contempt to proud and perfidious allies, like the Campanians. The consul too increased their contempt of himself and his cause, by too much exposing and exhibiting the disastrous state of his affairs; for when the ambassadors had delivered their message, which was, that the senate and people of Capua were distressed that any adverse event should have befallen the Romans, and were promising every assistance in prosecuting the war, he observed, “In bidding us order you to furnish us with all things which are necessary for the war, Campanians, you have rather observed the customary mode of addressing allies, than spoken suitably to the present posture of our affairs; for hath anything been left us at Cannae, so that, as if we possessed that, we can desire what is wanting to be supplied by our allies? Can we order a supply of infantry, as if we had any cavalry? Can we say we are deficient in money, as if that were the only thing we wanted? Fortune has not even left us anything which we can add to. Our legions, cavalry, arms, standards, horses, men, money, provisions, all perished either in the battle, or in the two camps which were lost the following day. You must, therefore, Campanians, not assist us in the war, but almost take it upon yourselves in our stead. Call to mind how formerly at Saticula we received into our protection and defended your ancestors, when dismayed and driven within their walls; terrified not only by their Samnite but Sidicinian enemies; and how we carried on, with varying success, through a period of almost a century, a war with the Samnites, commenced on your account. Add to this, that when you gave yourselves up to us we granted you an alliance on equal terms, that we allowed you your own laws, and lastly, what before the disaster at Cannae was surely a privilege of the highest value, we bestowed the freedom of our city on a large portion of you, and held it in common with you. It is your duty, therefore, Campanians, to look upon this disaster which has been suffered as your own, and to consider that our common country must be protected. It is not a Samnite or Tuscan foe we are engaged with, so that the empire taken from us might still continue in Italy. A Carthaginian enemy draws after him from the remotest regions of the world, from the straits of the ocean and the pillars of Hercules, a body of soldiers who are not even natives of Africa, destitute of all laws, and of the condition and almost of the language of men. Savage and ferocious from nature and habit, their general has rendered them still more so, by forming bridges and works with heaps of human bodies; and, what the tongue can scarcely utter, by teaching them to live on human flesh. What man, provided he were born in any part of Italy, would not abominate the idea of seeing and having for his masters these men, nourished with such horrid food, whom even to touch were an impiety; of fetching laws from Africa and Carthage; and of suffering Italy to become a province of the Moors and Numidians? It will be highly honourable, Campanians, that the Roman empire, sinking under this disastrous defeat, should be sustained and restored by your fidelity and your strength. I conceive that thirty thousand foot and four thousand horse may be raised in Campania. You have already abundance of money and corn. If your zeal corresponds with your means, neither will Hannibal feel that he has been victorious, nor the Romans that they have been defeated.”
[13] 6. After the consul had thus spoken, the ambassadors were dismissed; and as they were returning home, one of them, named Vibius Virius, observed, “that the time had arrived at which the Campanians might not only recover the territory once injuriously taken away by the Romans, but also possess themselves of the sovereignty of Italy. For they might form a treaty with Hannibal on whatever terms they pleased; and there could be no question but that after Hannibal, having put an end to the war, had himself retired victorious into Africa, and had withdrawn his troops, the sovereignty of Italy would be left to the Campanians.” All assenting to Vibius, as he said this, they framed their report of the embassy so that all might conclude that the Roman power was annihilated. Immediately the commons and the major part of the senate turned their attention to revolt. The measure, however, was postponed for a few days at the instigation of the elder citizens. At last, the opinion of the majority prevailed, that the same ambassadors who had gone to the Roman consul should be sent to Hannibal. I find in certain annals, that before this embassy proceeded, and before they had determined on the measure of revolting, ambassadors were sent by the Campanians to Rome, requiring that one of the consuls should be elected from Campania if they wished assistance to the Roman cause. That from the indignation which arose, they were ordered to be removed from the senate-house, and a lictor despatched to conduct them out of the city and command them to lodge that day without the Roman frontier. But as this request is too much like that which the Latins formerly made, and as Coelius and other writers had, not without reason, made no mention of it, I have not ventured to vouch for its truth.
[13] 7. The ambassadors came to Hannibal and concluded a treaty of peace with him on the terms, “That no Carthaginian commander should have any authority over a Campanian citizen, nor any Campanian serve in war or perform any office against his will: that Capua should have her own laws and her own magistrates: that the Carthaginian should give to the Campanians three hundred captives selected by themselves, who might be exchanged for the Campanian horse who were serving in Sicily.” Such were the stipulations: but in addition to them, the Campanians perpetrated the following atrocities; for the commons ordered that the prefects of the allies and other citizens of Rome should be suddenly seized, while some of them were occupied with military duties, others engaged in private business, and be shut up in the baths, as if for the purpose of keeping them in custody, where, suffocated with heat and vapour, they might expire in a horrid manner. Decius Magius, a man who wanted nothing to complete his influence except a sound mind on the part of his countrymen, had resisted to the uttermost the execution of these measures, and the sending of the embassy to Hannibal, and when he heard that a body of troops was sent by Hannibal, bringing back to their recollection, as examples, the haughty tyranny of Pyrrhus and the miserable slavery of the Tarentines, he at first openly and loudly protested that the troops should not be admitted, then he urged either that they should expel them when received, or, if they had a mind to expiate, by a bold and memorable act, the foul crime they had committed in revolting from their most ancient and intimate allies, that leaving slain the Carthaginian troops they should give themselves back to the Romans. These proceedings, having been reported to Hannibal, for they were not carried on in secret, he at first sent persons to summon Magius into his presence at his camp, then, on his vehemently refusing to come, on the ground that Hannibal had no authority over a Campanian, the Carthaginian, excited with rage, ordered that the man should be seized and dragged to him in chains, but afterwards, fearing lest while force was employed some disturbance might take place, or lest, from excitement of feeling, some undesigned collision might occur, he set out himself from the camp with a small body of troops, having sent a message before him to Marius Blosius, the praetor of Campania, to the effect, that he would be at Capua the next day. Marius calling an assembly, issued an order that they should go out and meet Hannibal in a body, accompanied by their wives and children. This was done by all, not only with obedience, but with zeal, with the full agreement of the common people, and with eagerness to see a general rendered illustrious by so many victories. Decius Magius neither went out to meet him, nor kept himself in private, by which course he might seem to indicate fear from a consciousness of demerit, he promenaded in the forum with perfect composure, attended by his son and a few dependants, while all the citizens were in a bustle to go to see and receive the Carthaginian. Hannibal, on entering the city, immediately demanded an audience of the senate; when the chief men of the Campanians, beseeching him not to transact any serious business on that day, but that he would cheerfully and willingly celebrate a day devoted to festivity in consequence of his own arrival, though naturally extremely prone to anger, yet, that he might not deny them any thing at first, he spent a great part of the day in inspecting the city.
[13] 8. He lodged at the house of the Ninii Celeres, Stenius and Pacuvius, men distinguished by their noble descent and their wealth. Thither Pacuvius Calavius, of whom mention has already been made, who was the head of the party which had drawn over the state to the Carthaginian cause, brought his son, a young man, whom he had forced from the side of Decius Magius, in conjunction with whom he had made a most determined stand for the Roman alliance in opposition to the league with the Carthaginians; nor had the leaning of the state to the other side, or his father’s authority, altered his sentiments. For this youth his father procured pardon from Hannibal, more by prayers than by clearing him. Hannibal, overcome by the entreaties and tears of his father, even gave orders that he should be invited with his father to the banquet; to which entertainment he intended to admit no Campanian besides his hosts, and Jubellius Taurea, a man distinguished in war. They began to feast early in the day, and the entertainment was not conformable to the Carthaginian custom, or to military discipline, but as might be expected in a city and in a house both remarkable for luxury, was furnished with all the allurements of voluptuousness. Perolla, the son of Calavius, was the only person who could not be won either by the solicitations of the masters of the house, or those which Hannibal sometimes employed. The youth himself pleaded ill health as an apology, while his father urged as an excuse the disturbed state of his mind, which was not surprising. About sunset, Calavius, who had gone out from the banquet, was followed by his son; and when they had arrived at a retired place, (it was a garden at the back part of the house,) he said, “I have a plan to propose to you, my father, by which we shall not only obtain pardon from the Romans for our crime, in that we revolted from them to the Carthaginian, but shall be held in much higher esteem, than we Campanians ever have been.” When the father inquired with surprise what that plan could be, he threw back his gown off his shoulder and exposed to view his side, which was girt with a sword. “Forthwith will I ratify the alliance with Rome with the blood of Hannibal. I was desirous that you should be informed of it first, in case you might prefer to be absent while the deed is performing.”
[13] 9. On hearing and seeing which the old man, as though he were actually present at the transactions which were being named to him, wild with fear, exclaimed, “I implore, I beseech you, my son, by all the ties which unite children to parents, that you will not resolve to commit and to suffer every thing that is horrible before the eyes of a father. Did we but a few hours ago, swearing by every deity, and joining right hands, pledge our fidelity to Hannibal, that immediately on separating from the conference we should arm against him the hands which were employed as the sacred pledges of our faith? Do you rise from the hospitable board to which as one of three of the Campanians you have been admitted by Hannibal, that you may ensanguine that very board with the blood of your host. Could I conciliate Hannibal to my son, and not my son to Hannibal? But let nothing be held sacred by you, neither our pledges, nor the sense of religion, nor filial duty; let the most horrid deeds be dared, if with guilt they bring not ruin upon us. Will you singly attack Hannibal? What will that numerous throng of freemen and slaves be doing? What the eyes of all intent on him alone? What those so many right hands? Will they be torpid amidst your madness? Will you be able to bear the look of Hannibal himself, which armed hosts cannot sustain, from which the Roman people shrink with horror? And though other assistance be wanting, will you have the hardihood to strike me when I oppose my body in defence of Hannibal’s? But know that through my breast you must strike and transfix him. Suffer yourself to be deterred from your attempt here, rather than to be defeated there. May my entreaties prevail with you, as they did for you this day.” Upon this, perceiving the youth in tears, he threw his arms around him, and kissing him affectionately, ceased not his entreaties until he prevailed upon him to lay aside his sword and give his promise that he would do no such thing. The young man then observed, “I will indeed pay to my father the debt of duty which I owe to my country, but I am grieved for you on whom the guilt of having thrice betrayed your country rests; once when you sanctioned the revolt from the Romans; next when you advised the alliance with Hannibal; and thirdly, this day, when you are the delay and impediment of the restoration of Capua to the Romans. Do thou, my country, receive this weapon, armed with which in thy behalf I would fain have defended this citadel, since a father wrests it from me.” Having thus said, he threw the sword into the highway over the garden wall, and that the affair might not be suspected, himself returned to the banquet.
[13] 10. The next day an audience of a full senate was given to Hannibal, when the first part of his address was full of graciousness and benignity, in which he thanked the Campanians for having preferred his friendship to an alliance with the Romans, and held out among his other magnificent promises “that Capua should soon become the capital of all Italy, and that the Romans as well as the other states should receive laws from it. That there was, however, one person who had no share in the Carthaginian friendship and the alliance formed with him, Decius Magius, who neither was nor ought to be called a Campanian. Him he requested to be surrendered to him, and that the sense of the senate should be taken respecting his conduct, and a decree passed in his presence.” All concurred in this proposition, though a great many considered him as a man undeserving such severe treatment; and that this proceeding was no small infringement of their liberty to begin with. Leaving the senate-house, the magistrate took his seat on the consecrated bench, ordered Decius Magius to be apprehended, and to be placed by himself before his feet to plead his cause. But he, his proud spirit being unsubdued, denied that such a measure could be enforced agreeably to the conditions of the treaty; upon which he was ironed, and ordered to be brought into the camp before a lictor. As long as he was conducted with his head uncovered, he moved along earnestly haranguing and vociferating to the multitude which poured around him on all sides. “You have gotten that liberty, Campanians, which you seek; in the middle of the forum, in the light of day, before your eyes, I, a man second to none of the Campanians, am dragged in chains to suffer death. What greater outrage could have been committed had Capua been captured? Go out to meet Hannibal, decorate your city to the utmost, consecrate the day of his arrival, that you may behold this triumph over a fellow-citizen.” As the populace seemed to be excited by him, vociferating these things, his head was covered, and he was ordered to be dragged away more speedily without the gate. Having been thus brought to the camp, he was immediately put on board a ship and sent to Carthage, lest if any commotion should arise at Capua on account of the injustice of the proceeding, the senate also should repent of having given up a leading citizen; and lest if an embassy were sent to request his restoration, he must either offend his new allies by refusing their first petition, or, by granting it, be compelled to retain at Capua a promoter of sedition and disturbance. A tempest drove the vessel to Cyrenae, which was at that time under the dominion of kings. Here flying for refuge to the statue of king Ptolemy, he was conveyed thence in custody to Alexandria to Ptolemy; and having instructed him that he had been thrown into chains by Hannibal, contrary to the law of treaties, he was liberated and allowed to return to whichever place he pleased, Rome or Capua. But Magius said, that Capua would not be a safe place for him, and that Rome, at a time when there was war between the Romans and Capuans, would be rather the residence of a deserter than a guest. That there was no place that he should rather dwell in, than in the dominions of him whom he esteemed an avenger and the protector of his liberty.
[13] 11. While these things were carrying on, Quintus Fabius Pictor, the ambassador, returned from Delphi to Rome, and read the response of the oracle from a written copy. In it both the gods were mentioned, and in what manner supplication should be made. It then stated, “If you do thus, Romans, your affairs will be more prosperous and less perplexed; your state will proceed more agreeably to your wishes; and the victory in the war will be on the side of the Roman people. After that your state shall have been restored to prosperity and safety, send a present to the Pythian Apollo out of the gains you have earned, and pay honours to him out of the plunder, the booty, and the spoils. Banish licentiousness from among you.” Having read aloud these words, translated from the Greek verse, he added, that immediately on his departure from the oracle, he had paid divine honours to all these deities with wine and frankincense; and that he was ordered by the chief priest of the temple, that, as he had approached the oracle and performed the sacred ceremonies decorated with a laurel crown, so he should embark wearing the crown, and not put it off till he had arrived at Rome. That he had executed all these injunctions with the most scrupulous exactness and diligence, and had deposited the garland on the altar of Apollo at Rome. The senate decreed that the sacred ceremonies and supplications enjoined should be carefully performed with all possible expedition. During these events at Rome and in Italy, Mago, the son of Hamilcar, had arrived at Carthage with the intelligence of the victory at Cannae. He was not sent direct from the field of battle by his brother, but was detained some days in receiving the submission of such states of the Bruttii as were in revolt. Having obtained an audience of the senate he gave a full statement of his brother’s exploits in Italy: “That he had fought pitched battles with six generals, four of whom were consuls, two a dictator and master of the horse, with six consular armies; that he had slain above two hundred thousand of the enemy, and captured above fifty thousand. That out of the four consuls he had slain two; of the two remaining, one was wounded, the other, having lost his whole army, had fled from the field with scarcely fifty men; that the master of the horse, an authority equal to that of consul, had been routed and put to flight; that the dictator, because he had never engaged in a pitched battle, was esteemed a matchless general; that the Bruttii, the Apulians, part of the Samnites and of the Lucanians had revolted to the Carthaginians. That Capua, which was the capital not only of Campania, but after the ruin of the Roman power by the battle of Cannae, of Italy also, had delivered itself over to Hannibal. That in return for these so many and so great victories, gratitude ought assuredly to be felt and thanks returned to the immortal gods.”
[13] 12. Then, in proof of this such joyful news, he ordered the golden rings to be poured out in the vestibule of the senate-house, of which there was such a heap that some have taken upon themselves to say that on being measured they filled three pecks and a half. The statement has obtained and is more like the truth, that there were not more than a peck. He then added, by way of explanation, to prove the greater extent of the slaughter, that none but knights, and of these the principal only, wore that ornament. The main drift of his speech was, “that the nearer the prospect was of bringing the war to a conclusion, the more should Hannibal be aided by every means, for that the seat of war was at a long distance from home and in the heart of the enemy’s country. That a great quantity of corn was consumed and money expended; and that so many pitched battles, as they had annihilated the armies of the enemy, had also in some degree diminished the forces of the victor. That a reinforcement therefore ought to be sent; and money for the pay, and corn for the soldiers who had deserved so well of the Carthaginian name.” After this speech of Mago’s, all being elated with joy, Himilco, a member of the Barcine faction, conceiving this a good opportunity for inveighing against Hanno, said to him, “What think you now, Hanno? do you now also regret that the war against the Romans was entered upon? Now urge that Hannibal should be given up; yes, forbid the rendering of thanks to the immortal gods amidst such successes; let us hear a Roman senator in the senate-house of the Carthaginians.” Upon which Hanno replied, “I should have remained silent this day, conscript fathers, lest, amid the general joy, I should utter any thing which might be too gloomy for you. But now, to a senator, asking whether I still regret the undertaking of the war against the Romans, if I should forbear to speak, I should seem either arrogant or servile, the former of which is the part of a man who is forgetful of the independence of others, the latter of his own. I may answer therefore to Himilco, that I have not ceased to regret the war, nor shall I cease to censure your invincible general until I see the war concluded on some tolerable terms; nor will any thing except a new peace put a period to my regret for the loss of the old one. Accordingly those achievements, which Mago has so boastingly recounted, are a source of present joy to Himilco and the other adherents of Hannibal; to me they may become so; because successes in war, if we have a mind to make the best use of fortune, will afford us a peace on more equitable terms; for if we allow this opportunity to pass by, on which we have it in our power to appear to dictate rather than to receive terms of peace, I fear lest even this our joy should run into excess, and in the end prove groundless. However, let us see of what kind it is even now. I have slain the armies of the enemy, send me soldiers. What else would you ask if you had been conquered? I have captured two of the enemy’s camps, full, of course, of booty and provisions; supply me with corn and money. What else would you ask had you been plundered and stripped of your camp? And that I may not be the only person perplexed, I could wish that either Himilco or Mago would answer me, for it is just and fair that I also should put a question, since I have answered Himilco. Since the battle at Cannae annihilated the Roman power, and it is a fact that all Italy is in a state of revolt; in the first place, has any one people of the Latin confederacy come over to us? In the next place, has any individual of the five and thirty tribes deserted to Hannibal?” When Mago had answered both these questions in the negative, he continued: “there remains then still too large a body of the enemy. But I should be glad to know what degree of spirit and hope that body possesses.”
[13] 13. Mago declaring that he did not know; “Nothing,” said he, “is easier to be known. Have the Romans sent any ambassadors to Hannibal to treat of peace? Have you, in short, ever heard that any mention has been made of peace at Rome?” On his answering these questions also in the negative: “We have upon our hands then, said he, a war as entire as we had on the day on which Hannibal crossed over into Italy. There are a great many of us alive now who remember how fluctuating the success was in the former Punic war. At no time did our affairs appear in so prosperous a condition as they did before the consulship of Caius Lutatius and Aulus Posthumius. In the consulship of Caius Lutatius and Aulus Posthumius we were completely conquered at the islands Aegates. But if now, as well as then, (oh! may the gods avert the omen!) fortune should take any turn, do you hope to obtain that peace when we shall be vanquished which no one is willing to grant now we are victorious. I have an opinion which I should express if any one should advise with me on the subject of proffering or accepting terms of peace with the enemy; but with respect to the supplies requested by Mago, I do not think there is any necessity to send them to a victorious army; and I give it as my opinion that they should far less be sent to them, if they are deluding us by groundless and empty hopes.” But few were influenced by the harangue of Hanno, for both the jealousy which he entertained towards the Barcine family, made him a less weighty authority; and men’s minds being taken up with the present exultation, would listen to nothing by which their joy could be made more groundless, but felt convinced, that if they should make a little additional exertion the war might be speedily terminated. Accordingly a decree of the senate was made with very general approbation, that four thousand Numidians should be sent as a reinforcement to Hannibal, with four hundred elephants and many talents of silver. Moreover, the dictator was sent forward into Spain with Mago to hire twenty thousand foot and four thousand horse, to recruit the armies in Italy and Spain.
[13] 14. But these resolutions, as generally happens in the season of prosperity, were executed in a leisurely and slothful manner. The Romans, in addition to their inborn activity of mind, were prevented from delaying by the posture of their affairs. For the consul was not wanting in any business which was to be done by him; and the dictator, Marcus Junius Pera, after the sacred ceremonies were concluded, and after having, as is usual, proposed to the people that he might be allowed to mount his horse; besides the two legions which had been enlisted by the consuls in the beginning of the year, and besides the cohorts collected out of the Picenian and Gallic territories, descended to that last resort of the state when almost despaired of, and when propriety gives place to utility, and made proclamation, that of such persons as had been guilty of capital crimes or were in prison on judgment for debt, those who would serve as soldiers with him, he would order to be released from their liability to punishment and their debts. These six thousand he armed with the Gallic spoils which were carried in the procession at the triumph of Caius Flaminius. Thus he marched from the city at the head of twenty-five thousand men. Hannibal, after gaining Capua, made a second fruitless attempt upon the minds of the Neapolitans, partly by fear and partly by hope: and then marched his troops across into the territory of Nola: not immediately in a hostile attitude, for he did not despair of a voluntary surrender, yet intending to omit nothing which they could suffer or fear, if they delayed the completion of his hopes. The senate, and especially the principal members of it, persevered faithfully in keeping up the alliance with the Romans; the commons, as usual, were all inclined to a change in the government and to espouse the cause of Hannibal, placing before their minds the fear lest their fields should be devastated, and the many hardships and indignities which must be endured in a siege; nor were there wanting persons who advised a revolt. In this state of things, when a fear took possession of the senate, that it would be impossible to resist the excited multitude if they went openly to work, devised a delay of the evil by secret simulation. They pretended that they were agreeable to the revolt to Hannibal; but that it was not settled on what terms they should enter into the new alliance and friendship. Thus having gained time, they promptly sent ambassadors to the Roman praetor, Marcellus Claudius, who was at Casilinum with his army, and informed him what a critical situation Nola was in; that the fields were already in the possession of Hannibal and the Carthaginians, and that the city soon would be, unless succour were sent; that the senate, by conceding to the commons that they would revolt when they pleased, had caused them not to hasten too much to revolt. Marcellus, after bestowing high commendations on the Nolans, urged them to protract the business till his arrival by means of the same pretences; in the mean time, to conceal what had passed between them, as well as all hope of succour from the Romans. He himself marched from Casilinum to Calatia, and thence crossing the Vulturnus, and passing through the territories of Saticula and Trebula, pursuing his course along the mountains above Suessula, he arrived at Nola.
[13] 15. On the approach of the Roman praetor, the Carthaginians retired from the territory of Nola and marched down to the sea close upon Naples, eager to get possession of a maritime town to which there would be a safe course for ships from Africa. But hearing that Naples was held by a Roman prefect, Marcus Junius Silanus, who had been invited thither by the Neapolitans themselves, he left Naples as he had left Nola, and directed his course to Nuceria, which he at length starved into capitulation, after having besieged it for a considerable time, often by open force, and often by soliciting to no purpose sometimes the commons, at other times the nobles; agreeing that they should depart with single garments and without arms. Then, as wishing to appear from the beginning to show lenity to all the inhabitants of Italy except the Romans, he proposed rewards and honours to those who might remain with him, and would be willing to serve with him. He retained none, however, by the hopes he held out; they all dispersed in different directions throughout the cities of Campania, wherever either hospitable connexions or the casual impulse of the mind directed them, but principally to Nola and Naples. About thirty senators, including as it happened all of the first rank, made for Capua; but being shut out thence, because they had closed their gates on Hannibal, they betook themselves to Cumae. The plunder of Nuceria was, given to the soldiery, the city sacked and burned. Marcellus continued to hold possession of Nola, relying not more from confidence in his own troops than from the favourable disposition of the leading inhabitants. Apprehensions were entertained of the commons, particularly Lucius Bantius, whose having been privy to an attempt at defection, and dread of the Roman praetor, stimulated sometimes to the betrayal of his country, at others, should fortune fail him in that undertaking, to desertion. He was a young man of vigorous mind, and at that time enjoying the greatest renown of almost any of the allied cavalry. Found at Cannae half dead amid a heap of slain, Hannibal had sent him home, after having had him cured, with the kindest attention, and even with presents. In gratitude for this favour, he had conceived a wish to put Nola under the power and dominion of the Carthaginian; but his anxiety and solicitude for effecting a change did not escape the notice of the praetor. However, as it was necessary that he should be either restrained by penal inflictions or conciliated by favours, he preferred attaching to himself a brave and strenuous ally, to depriving the enemy of him; and summoning him into his presence, in the kindest manner said, “that the fact that he had many among his countrymen who were jealous of him, might be easily collected from the circumstance that not one citizen of Nola had informed him how many were his splendid military exploits. But that it was impossible for the valour of one who served in the Roman camp to remain in obscurity; that many who had served with him had reported to him how brave a man he was, how often and what dangers he had encountered for the safety and honour of the Roman people; and how in the battle of Cannae he had not given over fighting till, almost bloodless, he was buried under a heap of men, horses, and arms which fell upon him. Go on then,” says he, “and prosper in your career of valour, with me you shall receive every honour and every reward, and the oftener you be with me, the more you shall find it will be to your honour and emolument.” He presented the young man, delighted with these promises, with a horse of distinguished beauty, ordered the quaestor to give him five hundred denarii, and commanded the lictors to allow him to approach him whenever he might please.
[13] 16. The violent spirit of the youth was so much soothed by the courteous treatment of Marcellus, that thenceforward no one of the allies displayed greater courage or fidelity in aiding the Roman cause. Hannibal being now at the gates, for he had moved his camp back again from Nuceria to Nola, and the commons beginning to turn their attention to revolt afresh, Marcellus, on the approach of the enemy, retired within the walls; not from apprehension for his camp, but lest he should give an opportunity for betraying the city, which too many were anxiously watching for. The troops on both sides then began to be drawn up; the Romans before the walls of Nola, the Carthaginians before their own camp. Hence arose several battles of small account between the city and the camp, with varying success, as the generals were neither willing to check the small parties who inconsiderately challenged the enemy, nor to give the signal for a general engagement. While the two armies continued to be thus stationed day after day, the chief men of the Nolans informed Marcellus, that conferences were held by night between the commons of Nola and the Carthaginians; and that it was fixed, that, when the Roman army had gone out at the gates, they should make plunder of their baggage and packages, then close the gates and post themselves upon the walls, in order that when in possession of the government and the city, they might then receive the Carthaginian instead of the Roman. On receiving this intelligence Marcellus, having bestowed the highest commendations on the senators, resolved to hazard the issue of a battle before any commotion should arise within the city. He drew up his troops in three divisions at the three gates which faced the enemy; he gave orders that the baggage should follow close by, that the servants, suttlers’ boys, and invalids should carry palisades; at the centre gate he stationed the choicest of the legionary troops and the Roman cavalry, at the two gates on either side, the recruits, the light-armed, and the allied cavalry. The Nolans were forbidden to approach the walls and gates, and the troops designed for a reserve were set over the baggage, lest while the legions were engaged in the battle an attack should be made upon it. Thus arranged they were standing within the gates. Hannibal, who had waited with his troops drawn up in battle-array, as he had done for several days, till the day was far advanced, at first was amazed that neither the Roman army marched out of the gates, nor any armed man was to be seen on the walls, but afterwards concluding that the conferences had been discovered, and that they were quiet through fear, he sent back a portion of his troops into the camp, with orders to bring into the front line, with speed, every thing requisite for assaulting the city; satisfied that if he urged them vigorously while they were indisposed to action, the populace would excite some commotion in the city. While, in the van, the troops were running up and down in a hurried manner in discharge of their several duties, and the line was advancing up to the gates, suddenly throwing open the gate, Marcellus ordered that the signal should be given, and a shout raised, and that first the infantry and after them the cavalry should burst forth upon the enemy with all possible impetuosity. They had occasioned abundant terror and confusion in the centre of the enemy’s line, when, at the two side gates, the lieutenant-generals, Publius Valerius Flaccus and Caius Aurelius, sallied forth upon the wings. The servants, suttlers’ boys, and the other multitude appointed to guard the baggage, joined in the shout, so that they suddenly exhibited the appearance of a vast army to the Carthaginians, who despised chiefly their paucity of numbers. For my own part I would not take upon me to assert what some authors have declared, that two thousand eight hundred of the enemy were slain, and that the Romans lost not more than five hundred. Whether the victory was so great or not; it is certain that a very important advantage, and perhaps the greatest during the war, was gained on that day: for not to be vanquished by Hannibal was then a more difficult task to the victorious troops, than to conquer him afterwards.
[13] 17. When Hannibal, all hope of getting possession of Nola being lost, had retired to Acerrae, Marcellus, having closed the gates and posted guards in different quarters to prevent any one from going out, immediately instituted a judicial inquiry in the forum, into the conduct of those who had been secretly in communication with the enemy. He beheaded more than seventy who were convicted of treason, and ordered their foods to be confiscated to the Roman state; and then committing the government to the senate, set out with all his forces, and, pitching a camp, took up a position above Suessula. The Carthaginian, having at first endeavoured to win over the people of Acerrae to a voluntary surrender, but finding them resolved, makes preparations for a siege and assault. But the people of Acerrae had more spirit than power. Despairing therefore, of the defence of the city, when they saw their walls being circumvallated, before the lines of the enemy were completed, they stole off in the dead of night through the opening in the works, and where the watches had been neglected; and pursuing their course through roads and pathless regions, accordingly as design or mistake directed each, made their escape to those towns of Campania which they knew had not renounced their fidelity. After Acerrae was plundered and burnt, Hannibal, having received intelligence that the Roman dictator with the new-raised legions was seen at some distance from Casilinum, and fearing lest, the camp of the enemy being so near, something might occur at Capua, marched his army to Casilinum. At that time Casilinum was occupied by five hundred Praenestines, with a few Romans and Latins, whom the news of the defeat at Cannae had brought to the same place. These men setting out from home too late, in consequence of the levy at Praeneste not being completed at the appointed day, and arriving at Casilinum before the defeat was known there, where they united themselves with other troops, Romans and allies, were proceeding thence in a tolerably large body, but the news of the battle at Cannae them back to Casilinum. Having spent several days there in evading and concerting plots, in fear themselves and suspected by the Campanians, and having now received certain information that the revolt of Capua and the reception of Hannibal were in agitation, they put the townsmen to the sword by night, and seized upon the part of the town on this side the Vulturnus, for it is divided by that river. Such was the garrison the Romans had at Casilinum; to these was added a cohort of Perusians, in number four hundred and sixty, who had been driven to Casilinum by the same intelligence which had brought the Praenestines a few days before. They formed a sufficient number of armed men for the defence of walls of so limited extent, and protected on one side by the river. The scarcity of corn made them even appear too numerous.
[13] 18. Hannibal having now advanced within a short distance of the place, sent forward a body of Getulians under a commander named Isalca, and orders them in the first place, if an opportunity of parley should be given, to win them over by fair words, to open the gates, and admit a garrison; but, if they persisted in obstinate opposition, to proceed to action, and try if in any part he could force an entrance into the city. When they had approached the walls, because silence prevailed there appeared a solitude; and the barbarian, supposing that they had retired through fear, made preparation for forcing the gates and breaking away the bars, when, the gates being suddenly thrown open, two cohorts, drawn up within for that very purpose, rushed forth with great tumult, and made a slaughter of the enemy. The first party being thus repulsed, Maharbal was sent with a more powerful body of troops; but neither could even he sustain the sally of the cohorts. Lastly, Hannibal, fixing his camp directly before the walls, prepared to assault this paltry city and garrison, with every effort and all his forces, and having completely surrounded the city with a line of troops, lost a considerable number of men, including all the most forward, who were shot from the walls and turrets, while he pressed on and provoked the enemy. Once he was very near cutting them off, by throwing in a line of elephants, when aggressively sallying forth, and drove them in the utmost confusion into the town; a good many, out of so small a number, having been slain. More would have fallen had not night interrupted the battle. On the following day, the minds of all were possessed with an ardent desire to commence the assault, especially after a golden mural crown had been promised, and the general himself had reproached the conquerors of Saguntum with the slowness of their siege of a little fort situated on level ground; reminding them, each and all, of Cannae, Trasimenus, and Trebia. They then began to apply the vineae and to spring mines: nor was any measure, whether of open force or stratagem, unemployed against the various attempts of the enemy. These allies of the Romans erected bulwarks against the vineae, cut off the mines of the enemy by cross-mines, and met their efforts both covertly and openly, till, at last, shame compelled Hannibal to desist from his undertaking; and, fortifying a camp in which he placed a small guard, that the affair might not appear to have been abandoned, he retired into winter quarters to Capua. There he kept, under cover, for the greater part of the winter, that army, which, though fortified by frequent and continued hardships against every human ill, had yet never experienced or been habituated to prosperity. Accordingly, excess of good fortune and unrestrained indulgence were the ruin of men whom no severity of distress had subdued; and so much the more completely, in proportion to the avidity with which they plunged into pleasures to which they were unaccustomed. For sleep, wine, feasting, women, baths, and ease, which custom rendered more seductive day by day, so completely unnerved both mind and body, that from henceforth their past victories rather than their present strength protected them; and in this the general is considered by those who are skilled in the art of war to have committed a greater error than in not having marched his troops to Rome forthwith from the field of Cannae: for his delay on that occasion might be considered as only to have postponed his victory, but this mistake to have bereaved him of the power of conquering. Accordingly, by Hercules, as though he marched out of Capua with another army, it retained in no respect any of its former discipline; for most of the troops returned in the embrace of harlots; and as soon as they began to live under tents, and the fatigue of marching and other military labours tried them, like raw troops, they failed both in bodily strength and spirit. From that time, during the whole period of the summer campaign, a great number of them slunk away from the standards without furloughs, while Capua was the only retreat of the deserters.
[13] 19. However, when the rigour of winter began to abate, marching his troops out of their winter quarters he returned to Casilinum; where, although there had been an intermission of the assault, the continuance of the siege had reduced the inhabitants and the garrison to the extremity of want. Titus Sempronius commanded the Roman camp, the dictator having gone to Rome to renew the auspices. The swollen state of the Vulturnus and the entreaties of the people of Nola and Acerrae, who feared the Campanians if the Roman troops should leave them, kept Marcellus in his place; although desirous himself also to bring assistance to the besieged. Gracchus, only maintaining his post near Casilinum, because he had been enjoined by the dictator not to take any active steps during his absence, did not stir; although intelligence was brought from Casilinum which might easily overcome every degree of patience. For it appeared that some had precipitated themselves from the walls through famine and that they were standing unarmed upon the walls, exposing their undefended bodies to the blows of the missile weapons. Gracchus, grieved at the intelligence, but not daring to fight contrary to the injunctions of the dictator, and yet aware that he must fight if he openly attempted to convey in provisions, and having no hope of introducing them clandestinely, collected corn from all parts of the surrounding country, and filling several casks sent a message to the magistrate to Casilinum, directing that they might catch the casks which the river would bring down. The following night, while all were intent upon the river, and the hopes excited by the message from the Romans, the casks sent came floating down the centre of the stream, and the corn was equally distributed among them all. This was repeated the second and third day; they were sent off and arrived during the same night; and hence they escaped the notice of the enemy’s guards. But afterwards, the river, rendered more than ordinarily rapid by continual rains, drove the casks by a cross current to the bank which the enemy were guarding; there they were discovered sticking among the osiers which grew along the banks; and, it being reported to Hannibal, from that time the watches were kept more strictly, that nothing sent to the city by the Vulturnus might escape notice. However, nuts poured out at the Roman camp floated down the centre of the river to Casilinum, and were caught with hurdles. At length they were reduced to such a degree of want, that they endeavoured to chew the thongs and skins which they tore from their shields, after softening them in warm water; nor did they abstain from mice or any other kind of animals. They even dug up every kind of herb and root from the lowest mounds of their wall; and when the enemy had ploughed over all the ground producing herbage which was without the wall, they threw in turnip seed, so that Hannibal exclaimed, Must I sit here at Casilinum even till these spring up? and he, who up to that time had not lent an ear to any terms, then at length allowed himself to be treated with respecting the ransom of the free persons. Seven ounces of gold for each person were agreed upon as the price; and then, under a promise of protection, they surrendered themselves. They were kept in chains till the whole of the gold was paid, after which they were sent back to Cumae, in fulfilment of the promise. This account is more credible than that they were slain by a body of cavalry, which was sent to attack them as they were going away. They were for the most part Praenestines. Out of the five hundred and seventy who formed the garrison, almost one half were destroyed by sword or famine; the rest returned safe to Praeneste with their praetor Manicius, who had formerly been a scribe. His statue placed in the forum at Praeneste, clad in a coat of mail, with a gown on, and with the head covered, formed an evidence of this account; as did also three images with this legend inscribed on a brazen plate, “Manicius vowed these in behalf of the soldiers who were in the garrison at Casilinum.” The same legend was inscribed under three images placed in the temple of Fortune.
[13] 20. The town of Casilinum was restored to the Campanians, strengthened by a garrison of seven hundred soldiers from the army of Hannibal, lest on the departure of the Carthaginian from it, the Romans should assault it. To the Praenestine soldiers the Roman senate voted double pay and exemption from military service for five years. On being offered the freedom of the state, in consideration of their valor, they would not make the exchange. The account of the fate of the Perusians is less clear, as no light is thrown upon it by any monument of their own, or any decree of the Romans. At the same time the Petelini, the only Bruttian state which had continued in the Roman alliance, were attacked not only by the Carthaginians, who were in possession of the surrounding country, but also by the rest of the Bruttian states, on account of their having adopted a separate policy. The Petelini, unable to bear up against these distresses, sent ambassadors to Rome to solicit aid, whose prayers and entreaties (for on being told that they must themselves take measures for their own safety, they gave themselves up to piteous lamentations in the vestibule of the senate-house) excited the deepest commiseration in the fathers and the people. On the question being proposed a second time to the fathers by Manius Pomponius, the praetor, after examining all the resources of the empire, they were compelled to confess that they had no longer any protection for their distant allies, and bid them return home, and having done every thing which could be expected from faithful allies, as to what remained to take measures for their own security in the present state of fortune. On the result of this embassy being reported to the Petelini, their senate was suddenly seized with such violent grief and dismay, that some advised that they should run away wherever each man could find an asylum, and abandon the city. Some advised, that as they were deserted by their ancient allies, they should unite themselves with the rest of the Bruttian states, and through them surrender themselves to Hannibal. The opinion however which prevailed was that of those who thought that nothing should be done in haste and rashly, and that they should take the whole matter into their consideration again. The next day, when they had cooled upon it, and their trepidation had somewhat subsided, the principal men carried their point that they should collect all their property out of the fields, and fortify the city and the walls.
[13] 21. Much about the same time letters were brought from Sicily and Sardinia. That of Titus Otacilius the propraetor was first read in the senate. It stated that Lucius Furius the praetor had arrived at Lilybaeum from Africa with his fleet. That he himself, having been severely wounded, was in imminent danger of his life; that neither pay nor corn was punctually furnished to the soldiers or the marines; nor were there any resources from which they could be furnished. That he earnestly advised that such supplies should be sent with all possible expedition; and that, if it was thought proper, they should send one of the new praetors to succeed him.
[13] Nearly the same intelligence respecting corn and pay was conveyed in a letter from Aulus Cornelius Mammula, the propraetor, from Sardinia. The answer to both was, that there were no resources from whence they could be supplied, and orders were given to them that they should themselves provide for their fleets and armies. Titus Otacilius having sent ambassadors to Hiero, the only source of assistance the Romans had, received as much money as was wanting to pay the troops and a supply of corn for six months. In Sardinia, the allied states contributed liberally to Cornelius. The scarcity of money at Rome also was so great, that on the proposal of Marcus Minucius, plebeian tribune, a financial triumvirate was appointed, consisting of Lucius Aemilius Papus, who had been consul and censor, Marcus Atilius Regulus, who had been twice consul, and Lucius Scribonius Libo, who was then plebeian tribune. Marcus and Caius Atilius were also created a duumvirate for dedicating the temple of Concord, which Lucius Manlius had vowed when praetor. Three pontiffs were also created, Quintus Caecilius Metellus, Quintus Fabius Maximus, and Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, in the room of Publius Scantinius deceased, and of Lucius Aemilius Paulus the consul, and of Quintus Aelius Paetus, who had fallen in the battle of Cannae.
[13] 22. The fathers having repaired, as far as human counsels could effect it, the other losses from a continued series of unfortunate events, at length turned their attention on themselves, on the emptiness of the senate-house, and the paucity of those who assembled for public deliberation. For the senate-roll had not been reviewed since the censorship of Lucius Aemilius and C. Flaminius, though unfortunate battles, during a period of five years, as well as the private casualties of each, had carried off so many senators. Manius Pomponius, the praetor, as the dictator was now gone to the army after the loss of Casilinum, at the earnest request of all, brought in a bill upon the subject. When Spurius Carvilius, after having lamented in a long speech not only the scantiness of the senate, but the fewness of citizens who were eligible into that body, with the design of making up the numbers of the senate and uniting more closely the Romans and the Latin confederacy, declared that he strongly advised that the freedom of the state should be conferred upon two senators from each of the Latin states, if the Roman fathers thought proper, who might be chosen into the senate to supply the places of the deceased senators. This proposition the fathers listened to with no more equanimity than formerly to the request when made by the Latins themselves. A loud and violent expression of disapprobation ran through the whole senate-house. In particular, Manlius reminded them that there was still existing a man of that stock, from which that consul was descended who formerly threatened in the Capitol that he would with his own hand put to death any Latin senator he saw in that house. Upon which Quintus Fabius Maximus said, “that never was any subject introduced into the senate at a juncture more unseasonable than the present, when a question had been touched upon which would still further irritate the minds of the allies, who were already hesitating and wavering in their allegiance. That that rash suggestion of one individual ought to be annihilated by the silence of the whole body; and that if there ever was a declaration in that house which ought to be buried in profound and inviolable silence, surely that above all others was one which deserved to be covered and consigned to darkness and oblivion, and looked upon as if it had never been made.” This put a stop to the mention of the subject. They determined that a dictator should be created for the purpose of reviewing the senate, and that he should be one who had been a censor, and was the oldest living of those who had held that office. They likewise gave orders that Caius Terentius, the consul, should be called home to nominate a dictator; who, leaving his troops in Apulia, returned to Rome with great expedition; and, according to custom, on the following night nominated Marcus Fabius Buteo dictator, for six months, without a master of the horse, in pursuance of the decree of the senate.
[13] 23. He having mounted the rostrum attended by the lictors, declared, that he neither approved of there being two dictators at one time, which had never been done before, nor of his being appointed dictator without a master of the horse; nor of the censorian authority being committed to one person, and to the same person a second time; nor that command should be given to a dictator for six months, unless he was created for active operations. That he would himself restrain within proper bounds those irregularities which chance, the exigencies of the times, and necessity had occasioned. For he would not remove any of those whom the censors Flaminius and Aemilius had elected into the senate; but would merely order that their names should be transcribed and read over, that one man might not exercise the power of deciding and determining on the character and morals of a senator; and would so elect in place of deceased members, that one rank should appear to be preferred to another, and not man to man. The old senate-roll having been read, he chose as successors to the deceased, first those who had filled a curule office since the censorship of Flaminius and Aemilius, but had not yet been elected into the senate, as each had been earliest created. He next chose those who had been aediles, plebeian tribunes, or quaestors; then of those who had never filled the office of magistrate, he selected such as had spoils taken from an enemy fixed up at their homes, or had received a civic crown. Having thus elected one hundred and seventy-seven senators, with the entire approbation of his countrymen, he instantly abdicated his office, and, bidding the lictors depart, he descended from the rostrum as a private citizen, and mingled with the crowd of persons who were engaged in their private affairs, designedly wearing away this time, lest he should draw off the people from the forum for the purpose of escorting him home. Their zeal, however, did not subside by the delay, for they escorted him to his house in great numbers. The consul returned to the army the ensuing night, without acquainting the senate, lest he should be detained in the city on account of the elections.
[13] 24. The next day, on the proposition of Manius Pomponius the praetor, the senate decreed that a letter should be written to the dictator, to the effect, that if he thought it for the interest of the state, he should come, together with the master of the horse and the praetor, Marcus Marcellus, to hold the election for the succeeding consuls, in order that the fathers might learn from them in person in what condition the state was, and take measures according to circumstances. All who were summoned came, leaving lieutenant-generals to hold command of the legions. The dictator, speaking briefly and modestly of himself, attributed much of the glory Of the campaign to the master of the horse, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus. He then gave out the day for the comitia, at which the consuls created were Lucius Posthumius in his absence, being then employed in the government of the province of Gaul, for the third time, and Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, who was then master of the horse and curule aedile. Marcus Valerius Laevinus, Appius Claudius Pulcher, Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, and Quintus Mucius Scaevola, were then created praetors. After the election of the magistrates, the dictator returned to his army, which was in winter quarters at Teanum, leaving his master of the horse at Rome, to take the sense of the fathers relative to the armies to be enlisted and embodied for the service of the year, as he was about to enter upon the magistracy after a few days. While busily occupied with these matters, intelligence arrived of a fresh disaster — fortune crowding into this year one calamity after another — that Lucius Posthumius, consul elect, himself with all his army was destroyed in Gaul. He was to march his troops through a vast wood, which the Gauls called Litana. On the right and left of his route, the natives had sawed the trees in such a manner that they continued standing upright, but would fall when impelled by a slight force. Posthumius had with him two Roman legions, and besides had levied so great a number of allies along the Adriatic Sea, that he led into the enemy’s country twenty-five thousand men. As soon as this army entered the wood, the Gauls, who were posted around its extreme skirts, pushed down the outermost of the sawn trees, which falling on those next them, and these again on others which of themselves stood tottering and scarcely maintained their position, crushed arms, men, and horses in an indiscriminate manner, so that scarcely ten men escaped. For, most of them being killed by the trunks and broken boughs of trees, the Gauls, who beset the wood on all sides in arms killed the rest, panic-struck by so unexpected a disaster. A very small number, who attempted to escape by a bridge, were taken prisoners, being intercepted by the enemy who had taken possession of it before them. Here Posthumius fell, fighting with all his might to prevent his being taken. The Boii having cut off his head, carried it and the spoils they stole off his body, in triumph into the most sacred temple they had. Afterwards they cleansed the head according to their custom, and having covered the skull with chased gold, used it as a cup for libations in their solemn festivals, and a drinking cup for their high priests and other ministers of the temple. The spoils taken by the Gauls were not less than the victory. For though great numbers of the beasts were crushed by the falling trees, yet as nothing was scattered by flight, every thing else was found strewed along the whole line of the prostrate band.
[13] 25. The news of this disaster arriving, when the state had been in so great a panic for many days, that the shops were shut up as if the solitude of night reigned through the city; the senate gave it in charge to the aediles to go round the city, cause the shops to be opened, and this appearance of public affliction to be removed. Then Titus Sempronius, having assembled the senate, consoled and encouraged the fathers, requesting, “that they who had sustained the defeat at Cannae with so much magnanimity would not now be cast down with less calamities. That if their arms should prosper, as he hoped they would, against Hannibal and the Carthaginians, the war with the Gauls might be suspended and deferred without hazard. The gods and the Roman people would have it in their power to revenge the treachery of the Gauls another time. That they should now deliberate about the Carthaginian foe, and the forces with which the war was to be prosecuted.” He first laid before them the number of foot and horse, as well citizens as allies, that were in the dictator’s army. Then Marcellus gave an account of the amount in his. Those who knew were asked what troops were in Apulia with Caius Terentius Varro the consul. But no practicable plan could be devised for raising consular armies sufficient to support so important a war. For this reason, notwithstanding a just resentment irritated them, they determined that Gaul should be passed over for that year. The dictator’s army was assigned to the consul; and they ordered such of the troops of Marcellus’s army as had fled from Cannae, to be transported into Sicily, to serve there as long as the war continued in Italy. Thither, likewise, were ordered to be sent as unfit to serve with him, the weakest of the dictator’s troops, no time of service being appointed, but the legal number of campaigns. The two legions in the city were voted to the other consul who should be elected in the room of Posthumius; and they resolved that he should be elected as soon as the auspices would permit. Besides, two legions were immediately to be recalled from Sicily, out of which the consul, to whom the city legions fell, might take what number of men he should have occasion for. The consul Caius Terentius Varro was continued in his command for one year, without lessening the army he had for the defence of Apulia.
[13] 26. During these transactions and preparations in Italy, the war in Spain was prosecuted with no less vigour; but hitherto more favourably to the Romans. The two generals had divided their troops, so that Cneius acted by land, and Publius by sea. Hasdrubal, general of the Carthaginians, sufficiently trusting to neither branch of his forces, kept himself at a distance from the enemy, secured by the intervening space and the strength of his fortifications, until, after much solicitation, four thousand foot and five hundred horse were sent him out of Africa as a reinforcement. At length, inspired with fresh hopes, he moved nearer the enemy; and himself also ordered a fleet to be equipped and prepared for the protection of the islands and sea-coasts. In the very onset of renewing the war, he was greatly embarrassed by the desertion of the captains of his ships, who had ceased to entertain a sincere attachment towards the general and the Carthaginian cause, ever since they were severely reprimanded for abandoning the fleet in a cowardly manner at the Iberus. These deserters had raised an insurrection among the Tartessians, and at their instigation some cities had revolted; they had even taken one by force. The war was now turned from the Romans into that country, which he entered in a hostile manner, and resolved to attack Galbus, a distinguished general of the Tartessians, who with a powerful army kept close within his camp, before the walls of a city which had been captured but a few days before. Accordingly, he sent his light-armed troops in advance to provoke the enemy to battle, and part of his infantry to ravage the country throughout in every direction, and to cut off stragglers. There was a skirmish before the camp, at the same time that many were killed and put to flight in the fields. But having by different routes returned to their camp, they so quickly shook off all fear, that they had courage not only to defend their lines, but challenge the enemy to fight. They sallied out, therefore, in a body from the camp, dancing according to their custom. Their sudden boldness terrified the enemy, who a little before had been the assailants. Hasdrubal therefore drew off his troops to a tolerably steep eminence, and secured further by having a river between it and the enemy. Here the parties of light-armed troops which had been sent in advance, and the horse which had been dispersed about, he called in to join him. But not thinking himself sufficiently secured by the eminence or the river, he fortified his camp completely with a rampart. While thus fearing and feared alternately, several skirmishes occurred, in which the Numidian cavalry were not so good as the Spanish, nor the Moorish darters so good as the Spanish targetteers, who equalled them in swiftness, but were superior to them in strength and courage.
[13] 27. The enemy seeing they could not, by coming up to Hasdrubal’s camp, draw him out to a battle, nor assault it without great difficulty, stormed Asena, whither Hasdrubal, on entering their territories, had laid up his corn and other stores. By this they became masters of all the surrounding country. But now they became quite ungovernable, both when on march and within their camp.
[13] Hasdrubal, therefore, perceiving their negligence, which, as usual, was the consequence of success, after having exhorted his troops to attack them while they were straggling and without their standards, came down the hill, and advanced to their camp in order of battle. On his approach being announced in a tumultuous manner, by men who fled from the watchposts and advanced guards, they shouted to arms; and as each could get his arms, they rushed precipitately to battle, without waiting for the word, without standards, without order, and without ranks. The foremost of them were already engaged, while some were running up in parties, and others had not got out of their camp. However, at first, the very boldness of their attack terrified the enemy. But when they charged their close ranks with their own which were thin, and were not able to defend themselves for want of numbers, each began to look out for others to support him; and being repulsed in all quarters they collected themselves in form of a circle, where being so closely crowded together, body to body, armour to armour, that they had not room to wield their arms, they were surrounded by the enemy, who continued to slaughter them till late in the day. A small number, having forced a passage, made for the woods and hills. With like consternation, their camp was abandoned, and next day the whole nation submitted. But they did not continue long quiet, for immediately upon this, Hasdrubal received orders from Carthage to march into Italy with all expedition. The report of which, spreading over Spain, made almost all the states declare for the Romans. Accordingly he wrote immediately to Carthage, to inform them how much mischief the report of his march had produced. “That if he really did leave Spain, the Romans would be masters of it all before he could pass the Iberus. For, besides that he had neither an army nor a general whom he could leave to supply his place, so great were the abilities of the Roman generals who commanded there, that they could scarcely be opposed with equal forces. If, therefore, they had any concern for preserving Spain, they ought to send a general with a powerful army to succeed him. To whom, however prosperous all things might prove, yet the province would not be a position of ease.”
[13] 28. Though this letter made at first a great impression on the senate, yet, as their interest in Italy was first and most important, they did not at all alter their resolution in relation to Hasdrubal and his troops. However, they despatched Himilco with a complete army, and an augmented fleet, to preserve and defend Spain both by sea and land. When he had conveyed over his land and naval forces, he fortified a camp; and having drawn his ships upon dry land, and surrounded them with a rampart, he marched with a chosen body of cavalry, with all possible expedition; using the same caution when passing through people who were wavering, and those who were actually enemies; and came up with Hasdrubal. As soon as he had informed him of the resolutions and orders of the senate, and in his turn been thoroughly instructed in what manner to prosecute the war in Spain, he returned to his camp; his expedition more than any thing else saving him, for he quitted every place before the people could conspire. Before Hasdrubal quitted his position he laid all the states in subjection to him under contribution. He knew well that Hannibal purchased a passage through some nations; that he had no Gallic auxiliaries but such as were hired; and that if he had undertaken so arduous a march without money, he would scarcely have penetrated so far as the Alps. For this reason, having exacted the contributions with great haste, he marched down to the Iberus. As soon as the Roman generals got notice of the Carthaginian senate’s resolution, and Hasdrubal’s march, they gave up every other concern, and uniting their forces, determined to meet him and oppose his attempt. They reflected, that when it was already so difficult to make head against Hannibal alone in Italy, there would be an end of the Roman empire in Spain, should Hasdrubal join him with a Spanish army. Full of anxiety and care on these accounts, they assembled their forces at the Iberus, and crossed the river; and after deliberating for some time whether they should encamp opposite to the enemy, or be satisfied with impeding his intended march by attacking the allies of the Carthaginians, they made preparations for besieging a city called Ibera, from its contiguity to the river, which was at that time the wealthiest in that quarter. When Hasdrubal perceived this, instead of carrying assistance to his allies, he proceeded himself to besiege a city which had lately placed itself under the protection of the Romans; and thus the siege which was now commenced was given up by them, and the operations of the war turned against Hasdrubal himself.
[13] 29. For a few days they remained encamped at a distance of five miles from each other, not without skirmishes, but without going out to a regular engagement. At length the signal for battle was given out on both sides on one and the same day, as though by concert, and they marched down into the plain with all their forces. The Roman army stood in triple line; a part of the light troops were stationed among the first line, the other half were received behind the standards, the cavalry covering the wings. Hasdrubal formed his centre strong with Spaniards, and placed the Carthaginians in the right wing, the Africans and hired auxiliaries in the left. His cavalry he placed before the wings, attaching the Numidians to the Carthaginian infantry, and the rest to the Africans. Nor were all the Numidians placed in the right wing, but such as taking two horses each into the field are accustomed frequently to leap full armed, when the battle is at the hottest, from a tired horse upon a fresh one, after the manner of vaulters: such was their own agility, and so docile their breed of horses. While they stood thus drawn up, the hopes entertained by the generals on both sides were pretty much upon an equality; for neither possessed any great superiority, either in point of the number or quality of the troops. The feelings of the soldiers were widely different. Their generals had, without difficulty, induced the Romans to believe, that although they fought at a distance from their country, it was Italy and the city of Rome that they were defending. Accordingly, they had brought their minds to a settled resolution to conquer or die; as if their return to their country had hinged upon the issue of that battle. The other army consisted of less determined men; for they were principally Spaniards, who would rather be vanquished in Spain, than be victorious to be dragged into Italy. On the first onset, therefore, ere their javelins had scarcely been thrown, their centre gave ground, and the Romans pressing on with great impetuosity, turned their backs. In the wings the battle proceeded with no less activity; on one side the Carthaginians, on the other the Africans, charged vigorously, while the Romans, in a manner surrounded, were exposed to a twofold attack. But when the whole of the Roman troops had united in the centre, they possessed sufficient strength to compel the wings of the enemy to retire in different directions; and thus there were two separate battles, in both of which the Romans were decidedly superior, as after the defeat of the enemy’s centre they had the advantage both in the number and strength of their troops. Vast numbers were slain on this occasion; and had not the Spaniards fled precipitately from the field ere the battle had scarce begun, very few out of the whole army would have survived. There was very little fighting of the cavalry, for as soon as the Moors and Numidians perceived that the centre gave way, they fled immediately with the utmost precipitation, leaving the wings uncovered, and also driving the elephants before them. Hasdrubal, after waiting the issue of the battle to the very last, fled from the midst of the carnage with a few attendants. The Romans took and plundered the camp. This victory united with the Romans whatever states of Spain were wavering, and left Hasdrubal no hope, not only of leading an army over into Italy, but even of remaining very safely in Spain. When these events were made generally known at Rome by letters from the Scipios, the greatest joy was felt, not so much for the victory, as for the stop which was put to the passage of Hasdrubal into Italy.
[13] 30. While these transactions were going on in Spain, Petilia, in Bruttium, was taken by Himilco, an officer of Hannibal’s, several months after the siege of it began. This victory cost the Carthaginians much blood and many wounds, nor did any power more subdue the besieged than that of famine; for after having consumed their means of subsistence, derived from fruits and the flesh of every kind of quadrupeds, they were at last compelled to live upon skins found in shoemakers’ shops, on herbs and roots, the tender barks of trees, and berries gathered from brambles: nor were they subdued until they wanted strength to stand upon the walls and support their arms. After gaining Petilia, the Carthaginian marched his forces to Consentia, which being less obstinately defended, he compelled to surrender within a few days. Nearly about the same time, an army of Bruttians invested Croton, a Greek city, formerly powerful in men and arms, but at the present time reduced so low by many and great misfortunes, that less than twenty thousand inhabitants of all ages remained. The enemy, therefore, easily got possession of a city destitute of defenders: of the citadel alone possession was retained, into which some of the inhabitants fled from the midst of the carnage during the confusion created by the capture of the city. The Locrians too revolted to the Bruttians and Carthaginians, the populace having been betrayed by the nobles. The Rhegians were the only people in that quarter who continued to the last in faithful attachment to the Romans, and in the enjoyment of their independence. The same alteration of feeing extended itself into Sicily also; and not even the family of Hiero altogether abstained from defection; for Gelo, his oldest son, conceiving a contempt for his father’s old age, and, after the defeat of Cannae, for the alliance with Rome, went over to the Carthaginians; and he would have created a disturbance in Sicily, had he not been carried off, when engaged as arming the people and soliciting the allies, by a death so seasonable that it threw some degree of suspicion even upon his father. Such, with various result, were the transactions in Italy, Africa, Sicily, and Spain during this year. At the close of the year, Quintus Fabius Maximus requested of the senate, that he might be allowed to dedicate the temple of Venus Erycina, which he had vowed when dictator. The senate decreed, that Tiberius Sempronius, the consul elect, as soon as ever he had entered upon his office, should propose to the people, that they should create Quintus Fabius duumvir, for the purpose of dedicating the temple. Also, in honour of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, who had been consul twice and augur, his three sons, Lucius, Marcus, and Quintus exhibited funeral games and twenty-two pairs of gladiators for three days in the forum. The curule aediles, Caius Laetorius, and Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus consul elect, who during his aedileship had been master of the horse, celebrated the Roman games, which were repeated for three days. The plebeian games of the aediles, Marcus Aurelius Cotta and Marcus Claudius Marcellus, were thrice repeated. At the conclusion of the third year of the Punic war, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus the consul entered upon his office on the ides of March. Of the praetors, Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, who had before been consul and censor, had by lot the city jurisdiction; Marcus Valerius Laevinus, the foreign. Sicily fell to the lot of Appius Claudius Pulcher; Sardinia to Quintus Mucius Scaevola. The people ordered that Marcus Marcellus should be in command as proconsul, because he was the only Roman general who had been successful in his operations in Italy since the defeat at Cannae.
[13] 31. The senate decreed, the first day they deliberated in the Capitol, that double taxes should be imposed for that year, one moiety of which should be immediately levied, as a fund from which pay might be given forthwith to all the soldiers, except those who had been at Cannae. With regard to the armies they decreed, that Tiberius Sempronius the consul should appoint a day for the two city legions to meet at Cales, whence these legions should be conveyed into the Claudian camp above Suenula. That the legions which were there, and they consisted principally of the troops which had fought at Cannae, Appius Claudius Pulcher, the praetor, should transport into Sicily; and that those in Sicily should be removed to Rome. Marcus Claudius Marcellus was sent to the army, which had been ordered to meet at Cales on a certain day, with orders to march the city legions thence to the Claudian camp. Titus Metilius Croto, lieutenant-general, was sent by Appius Claudius Pulcher to receive the old army and remove it into Sicily. People at first had expected in silence that the consul would hold an assembly for the election of a colleague, but afterwards perceiving that Marcus Marcellus, whom they wished above all others to be consul this year, on account of his brilliant success during his praetorship, was removed to a distant quarter, as it were on purpose, a murmuring arose in the senate-house, which the consul perceiving, said “Conscript fathers, it was conducive to the interest of the state, both that Marcus Marcellus should go into Campania to make the exchange of the armies, and that the assembly should not be proclaimed before he had returned thence after completing the business with which he was charged, in order that you might have him as consul whom the situation of the republic required and yourselves prefer.” Thus nothing was said about the assembly till Marcellus returned. Meanwhile Quintus Fabius Maximus and Titus Otacilius Crassus were created duumvirs for dedicating temples, Otacilius to Mens, Fabius to Venus Erycina. Both are situated in the Capitol, and separated by one channel. It was afterwards proposed to the people, to make Roman citizens of the three hundred Campanian horsemen who had returned to Rome after having faithfully served their period, and also that they should be considered to have been citizens of Cumae from the day before that on which the Campanians had revolted from the Roman people. It had been a principal inducement to this proposition, that they themselves said they knew not to what people they belonged, having left their former country, and being not yet admitted into that to which they had returned. After Marcellus returned from the army, an assembly was proclaimed for electing one consul in the room of Lucius Posthumius. Marcellus was elected with the greatest unanimity, and was immediately to enter upon his office, but as it thundered while he entered upon it, the augurs were summoned, who pronounced that they considered the creation formal, and the fathers spread a report that the gods were displeased, because on that occasion, for the first time, two plebeians had been elected consuls. Upon Marcellus’s abdicating his office, Fabius Maximus, for the third time, was elected in his room. This year the sea appeared on fire; at Sinuessa a cow brought forth a horse foal; the statues in the temple of Juno Sospita Lanuvium flowed down with blood; and a shower of stones fell in the neighbourhood of that temple: on account of which shower the nine days’ sacred rite was celebrated, as is usual on such occasions, and the other prodigies were carefully expiated.
[13] 32. The consuls divided the armies between them. The army which Marcus Junius the dictator had commanded fell to the lot of Fabius. To that of Sempronius fell the volunteer slaves, with twenty-five thousand of the allies. To Marcus Valerius the praetor were assigned the legions which had returned from Sicily. Marcus Claudius, proconsul, was sent to that army which lay above Suessula for the protection of Nola. The praetors set out for Sicily and Sardinia. The consuls issued a proclamation, that as often as they summoned a senate, the senators and those who had a right to give their opinion in the senate, should assemble at the Capuan gate. The praetors who were charged with the administration of justice, fixed their tribunals in the public fish market; there they ordered sureties to be entered into, and here justice was administered this year. Meanwhile news was brought to Carthage, from which place Mago, Hannibal’s brother, was on the point of carrying over into Italy twelve thousand foot, fifteen hundred horse, twenty elephants, and a thousand talents of silver, under a convoy of sixty men of war, that the operations of the war had not succeeded in Spain, and that almost all the people in that province had gone over to the Romans. There were some who were for sending Mago with that fleet and those forces into Spain, neglecting Italy, when an unexpected prospect of regaining Sardinia broke upon them. They were informed, that “the Roman army there was small, that Aulus Cornelius, who had been praetor there, and was well acquainted with the province, was quitting it, and that a new one was expected. Moreover, that the minds of the Sardinians were now wearied with the long continuance of rule; and that during the last year it had been exercised with severity and rapacity. That the people were weighed down with heavy taxes, and an oppressive contribution of corn: that there was nothing wanting but a leader to whom they might revolt.” This secret embassy had been sent by the nobles, Hampsicora being the chief contriver of the measure, who at that time was first by far in wealth and influence. Disconcerted and elated almost at the same time by these accounts, they sent Mago with his fleet and forces into Spain, and selecting Hasdrubal as general for Sardinia, assigned to him about as large a force as to Mago. At Rome, the consuls, after transacting what was necessary to be done in the city now prepared themselves for the war. Tiberius Sempronius appointed a day for his soldiers to assemble at Sinuessa; and Quintus Fabius also, having first consulted the senate, issued a proclamation, that all persons should convey corn from the fields into fortified towns, before the calends of June next ensuing: if any neglected to do so he would lay waste his lands, sell his slaves by auction, and burn his farm-houses. Not even the praetors, who were created for the purpose of administering justice, were allowed an exemption from military employments. It was resolved that Valerius the praetor should go into Apulia, to receive the army from Terentius, and that, when the legions from Sicily had arrived, he should employ them principally for the protection of that quarter. That the army of Terentius should be sent into Sicily, with some one of the lieutenant-generals. Twenty-five ships were given to Marcus Valerius, to protect the sea-coast between Brundusium and Tarentum. An equal number was given to Quintus Fulvius, the city praetor, to protect the coasts in the neighbourhood of the city. To Caius Terentius, the proconsul, it was given in charge to press soldiers in the Picenian territory, and to protect that part of the country; and Titus Otacilius Crassus, after he had dedicated the temple of Mens in the Capitol, was invested with command, and sent into Sicily to take the conduct of the fleet.
[13] 33. On this contest, between the two most powerful people in the world, all kings and nations had fixed their attention. Among them Philip, king of the Macedonians, regarded it with greater anxiety, in proportion as he was nearer to Italy, and because he was separated from it only by the Ionian Sea. When he first heard that Hannibal had crossed the Alps, as he was rejoiced that a war had arisen between the Romans and the Carthaginians, so while their strength was yet undetermined, he felt doubtful which he should rather wish to be victorious. But after the third battle had been fought and the third victory had been on the side of the Carthaginians, he inclined to fortune, and sent ambassadors to Hannibal. These, avoiding the harbours of Brundusium and Tarentum, because they were occupied by guards of Roman ships, landed at the temple of Juno Lacinia. Thence passing through Apulia, on their way to Capua, they fell in with the Roman troops stationed to protect the country, and were conveyed to Marcus Valerius Laevinus, the praetor, who lay encamped in the neighbourhood of Luceria. Here Xenophanes, who was at the head of the embassy, fearlessly stated, that he was sent by King Philip to conclude a treaty of alliance and friendship with the Roman people, and that he had commissions to the Roman consuls, senate, and people. The praetor, highly delighted with this new alliance with a distinguished potentate, amidst the desertions of her old allies, courteously entertained these enemies as guests, and furnished them with persons to accompany them carefully to point out the roads, and inform them what places, and what passes, the Romans or the enemy occupied. Xenophanes passing through the Roman troops came into Campania, whence, by the shortest way, he entered the camp of Hannibal, and concluded a treaty of alliance and friendship with him on the following terms: That “King Philip, with as large a fleet as he could, (and it was thought he could make one of two hundred ships,) should pass over into Italy, and lay waste the sea-coast, that he should carry on the war by land and sea with all his might; when the war was concluded, that all Italy, with the city of Rome itself, should be the property of the Carthaginians and Hannibal, and that all the booty should be given up to Hannibal. That when Italy was completely subdued they should sail into Greece, and carry on war with such nations as the king pleased. That the cities on the continent and the islands which border on Macedonia, should belong to Philip, and his dominions.”
[13] 34. A treaty was concluded between the Carthaginian general and the ambassadors, upon nearly these terms; and Gisgo, Bostar, and Mago were sent as ambassadors with them to receive the ratification of the king in person. They arrived at the same place, near the temple of Juno Lacinia, where the vessel lay concealed in a creek. Setting out thence, when they had got into the open sea, they were descried by the Roman fleet, which was guarding the coasts of Calabria. Publius Valerius Flaccus having sent fly-boats to pursue and bring back the ship, the king’s party at first attempted to fly; but afterwards, finding that they were overmatched in swiftness, they delivered themselves up to the Romans, and were brought to the commander of the fleet. Upon being asked by him who they were, whence they came, and whither they were going, Xenophanes, having once been pretty successful, made up a fictitious story and said, “that he was sent from Philip to the Romans; that he had succeeded in reaching Marcus Valerius, to whom alone he had safe access; that he was unable to make his way through Campania, which was beset with the troops of the enemy.” But afterwards the Carthaginian dress and manners excited suspicions of the messengers of Hannibal, and when interrogated, their speech betrayed them; then on their companions being removed to separate places, and intimidated by threats, even a letter from Hannibal to Philip was discovered, and the agreement made between the king of the Macedonians and the Carthaginian. These points having been ascertained, the best course appeared to be, to convey the prisoners and their companions as soon as possible to the senate at Rome, or to the consuls, wheresoever they might be; for this service five of the fastest sailing vessels were selected, and Lucius Valerius Antias sent in command of them, with orders to distribute the ambassadors through all the ships separately, and take particular care that they should hold no conversation or consultation with each other. About the same time Aulus Cornelius Mammula, on his return from the province of Sardinia, made a report of the state of affairs in the island; that every body contemplated war and revolt; that Quintus Mucius who succeeded him, being on his arrival affected by the unwholesomeness of the air and water, had fallen into a disorder rather lingering than dangerous, and would for a long time be incapable of sustaining the violent exertion of the war; that the army there, though strong enough for the protection of a province in a state of tranquillity, was, nevertheless, not adequate to the maintenance of the war which seemed to be about to break out. Upon which the fathers decreed, that Quintus Fulvius Flaccus should enlist five thousand foot and four hundred horse, and take care that the legion thus formed should be transported as soon as possible into Sardinia, and send invested with command whomsoever he thought fit to conduct the business of the war until Mucius had recovered. For this service Titus Manlius Torquatus was sent; he had been twice consul and censor, and had subdued the Sardinians during his consulate. Nearly about the same time a fleet sent from Carthage to Sardinia under the conduct of Hasdrubal, surnamed the Bald, having suffered from a violent tempest, was driven upon the Balearian islands, where a good deal of time was lost in refitting the ships, which were hauled on shore, so much were they damaged, not only in their rigging but also in their hulls.
[13] 35. As the war was carried on in Italy with less vigour since the battle of Cannae, the strength of one party having been broken, and the energy of the other relaxed, the Campanians of themselves made an attempt to subjugate Cumae, at first by soliciting them to revolt from the Romans, and when that plan did not succeed, they contrived an artifice by which to entrap them. All the Campanians had a stated sacrifice at Hamae. They informed the Cumans that the Campanian senate would come there, and requested that the Cuman senate should also be present to deliberate in concert, in order that both people might have the same allies and the same enemies; they said that they would have an armed force there for their protection, that there might be no danger from the Romans or Carthaginians. The Cumans, although they suspected treachery, made no objection, concluding that thus the deception they meditated might be concealed. Meanwhile Tiberius Sempronius, the Roman consul, having purified his army at Sinuessa, where he had appointed a day for their meeting, crossed the Vulturnus, and pitched his camp in the neighbourhood of Liternum. As his troops were stationed here without any employment, he compelled them frequently to go through their exercise, that the recruits, which consisted principally of volunteer slaves, might accustom themselves to follow the standards, and know their own centuries in battle While thus engaged, the general was particularly anxious for concord, and therefore enjoined the lieutenant-generals and the tribunes that “no disunion should be engendered among the different orders, by casting reproaches on any one on account of his former condition. That the veteran soldier should be content be placed on an equal footing with the tiro, the free-man with the volunteer slave; that all should consider those men sufficiently respectable in point of character and birth, to whom the Roman people had intrusted their arms and standards; that the measures which circumstances made it necessary to adopt, the same circumstances also made it necessary to support when adopted.” This was not more carefully prescribed by the generals than observed by the soldiers; and in a short time the minds of all were united in such perfect harmony, that the condition from which each became a soldier was almost forgotten. While Gracchus was thus employed, ambassadors from Cumas brought him information of the embassy which had come to them from the Campanians, a few days before, and the answer they had given them; that the festival would take place in three days from that time; that not only the whole body of their senate, but that the camp and the army of the Campanians would be there. Gracchus having directed the Cumans to convey every thing out of their fields into the town, and to remain within their walls, marched himself to Cumae, on the day before that on which the Campanians were to attend the sacrifice. Hamae was three miles distant from his position. The Campanians had by this time assembled there in great numbers according to the plan concerted; and not far off Marius Alfius, Medixtuticus, which is the name of the chief magistrate of the Campanians, lay encamped in a retired spot with fourteen thousand armed men, considerably more occupied in making preparation for the sacrifice and in concerting the stratagem to be executed during it, than in fortifying his camp or any other military work. The sacrifice at Hamae lasted for three days. It was a nocturnal rite, so arranged as to be completed before midnight. Gracchus, thinking this the proper time for executing his plot, placed guards at the gates to prevent any one from carrying out intelligence of his intentions; and having compelled his men to employ the time from the tenth hour in taking refreshment and sleep, in order that they might be able to assemble on a signal given as soon as it was dark. He ordered the standards to be raised about the first watch, and marching in silence, reached Hamae at midnight; where, finding the Campanian camp in a neglected state, as might be expected during a festival, he assaulted it at every gate at once; some he butchered while stretched on the ground asleep, others as they were returning unarmed after finishing the sacrifice. In the tumultuous action of this night more than two thousand men were slain, together with the general himself, Marius Alfius, and thirty-four military standards were captured.
[13] 36. Gracchus, having made himself master of the enemy’s camp with the loss of less than a hundred men, hastily returned to Cumae, fearful of an attack from Hannibal, who lay encamped above Capua on Tifata; nor did his provident anticipation of the future deceive him; for as soon as intelligence was brought to Capua of this loss, Hannibal, concluding that he should find at Hamae this army, which consisted for the most part of recruits and slaves, extravagantly elated with its success, despoiling the vanquished and collecting booty, marched by Capua at a rapid pace, ordering those Campanians whom he met in their flight to be conducted to Capua under an escort, and the wounded to be conveyed in carriages. He found at Hamae the camp abandoned by the enemy, where there was nothing to be seen but the traces of the recent carnage, and the bodies of his allies strewed in every part. Some advised him to lead his troops immediately thence to Cumae, and assault the town. Though Hannibal desired, in no ordinary degree, to get possession of Cumae at least, as a maritime town, since he could not gain Neapolis; yet as his soldiers had brought out with them nothing besides their arms on their hasty march, he retired to his camp on Tifata. But, wearied with the entreaties of the Campanians, he returned thence to Cumae the following day, with every thing requisite for besieging the town; and having thoroughly wasted the lands of Cumae, pitched, his camp a mile from the town, in which Gracchus had stayed more because he was ashamed to abandon, in such an emergency, allies who implored his protection and that of the Roman people, than because he felt confidence in his army. Nor dared the other consul, Fabius, who was encamped at Cales, lead his troops across the Vulturnus, being employed at first in taking new auspices, and afterwards with the prodigies which were reported one after another; and while expiating these, the aruspices answered that they were not easily atoned.
[13] 37. While these causes detained Fabius, Sempronius was besieged, and now works were employed in the attack. Against a very large wooden tower which was brought up to the town, the Roman consul raised up another considerably higher from the wall itself; for he had made use of the wall, which was pretty high of itself, as a platform, placing strong piles as supports. From this the besieged at first defended their walls and city, with stones, javelins, and other missiles; but lastly, when they perceived the tower advanced into contact with the wall they threw upon it a large quantity of fire, making use of blazing fire-brands; and while the armed men were throwing themselves down from the tower in great numbers, in consequence of the flames thus occasioned, the troops sallying out of the town at two gates at once, routed the enemy, and drove them back to their camp; so that the Carthaginians that day were more like persons besieged than besiegers. As many as one thousand three hundred of the Carthaginians were slain, and fifty-nine made prisoners, having been unexpectedly overpowered, while standing careless and unconcerned near the walls and on the outposts, fearing any thing rather than a sally. Gracchus sounded a retreat, and withdrew his men within the walls, before the enemy could recover themselves from the effects of this sudden terror. The next day Hannibal, supposing that the consul, elated with his success, would engage him in a regular battle, drew up his troops in battle-array between the camp and the city; but finding that not a man was removed from the customary guard of the town, and that nothing was hazarded upon rash hopes, he returned to Tifata without accomplishing any thing. At the same time that Cumae was relieved from siege, Tiberius Sempronius, surnamed Longus, fought successfully with the Carthaginian general, Hanno, at Grumentum in Lucania. He slew above two thousand of the enemy, losing two hundred and eighty of his own men. He took as many as forty-one military standards. Hanno, driven out of the Lucanian territory, drew back among the Bruttii. Three towns belonging to the Hirpinians, which had revolted from the Romans, were regained by force by the praetor, Marcus Valerius, Vercellius and Sicilius, the authors of the revolt, were beheaded; above a thousand prisoners sold by auction; and the rest of the booty having been given up to the soldiery, the army was marched back to Luceria.
[13] 38. While these things were taking place in Lucania and Hirpinia, the five ships, which were conveying to Rome the captured ambassadors of the Macedonians and Carthaginians, after passing round the whole coast of Italy from the upper to the lower sea, were sailing by Cumae, when, it not being known whether they belonged to enemies or allies, Gracchus despatched some ships from his fleet to meet them. When it was ascertained, in the course of their mutual inquiries that the consul was at Cumae, the ships put in there, the captives were brought before the consul, and their letters placed in his hands. The consul, after he had read the letters of Philip and Hannibal, sent them all, sealed up, to the senate by land, ordering that the ambassadors should be conveyed thither by sea. The ambassadors and the letters arriving at Rome nearly on the same day, and on examination the answers of the ambassadors corresponding with the contents of the letters, at first intense anxiety oppressed the fathers, on seeing what a formidable war with Macedonia threatened them, when with difficulty bearing up against the Punic war; yet so far were they from sinking under their calamities, that they immediately began to consider how they might divert the enemy from Italy, by commencing hostilities themselves. After ordering the prisoners to be confined in chains, and selling their attendants by public auction, they decreed, that twenty more ships should be got ready, in addition to the twenty-five ships which Publius Valerius Flaccus had been appointed to command. These being provided and launched, and augmented by the five ships which had conveyed the captive ambassadors to Rome, a fleet of fifty ships set sail from Ostia to Tarentum. Publius Valerius was ordered to put on board the soldiers of Varro, which Lucius Apustius, lieutenant-general, commanded at Tarentum; and, with this fleet of fifty ships, not only to protect the coast of Italy, but also to make inquiry respecting the Macedonian war. If the plans of Philip corresponded with his letter, and the discoveries made by his ambassadors, he was directed to acquaint the praetor, Marcus Valerius, with it, who, leaving Lucius Apustius, lieutenant-general, in command of the army, and going to Tarentum to the fleet, was to cross over to Macedonia with all speed, and endeavour to detain Philip in his own dominions. The money which had been sent into Sicily to Appius Claudius, to be repaid to Hiero, was assigned for the support of the fleet and the maintenance of the Macedonian war. This money was conveyed to Tarentum, by Lucius Apustius, lieutenant-general, and with it Hiero sent two hundred thousand pecks of wheat, and a hundred thousand of barley.
[13] 39. While the Romans were engaged in these preparations and transactions, the captured ship, which formed one of those which had been sent to Rome, made its escape on the voyage and returned to Philip; from which source it became known that the ambassadors with their letters had been made prisoners. Not knowing, therefore, what had been agreed upon between Hannibal and his ambassadors, or what proposals they were to have brought back to him, he sent another embassy with the same instructions. The ambassadors sent to Hannibal were Heraclitus, surnamed Scotinus, Crito of Beraea, and Sositheus of Magnesia; these successfully took and brought back their commissions, but the summer had passed before the king could take any step or make any attempt. Such an influence had the capture of one vessel, together with the ambassadors, in deferring a war which threatened the Romans. Fabius crossed the Vulturnus, after having at length expiated the prodigies, and both the consuls prosecuted the war in the neighbourhood of Capua. Fabius regained by force the towns Compulteria, Trebula, and Saticula, which had revolted to the Carthaginians; and in them were captured the garrisons of Hannibal and a great number of Campanians. At Nola, as had been the case the preceding year, the senate sided with the Romans, the commons with Hannibal; and deliberations were held clandestinely on the subject of massacring the nobles and betraying the city; but to prevent their succeeding in their designs, Fabius marched his army between Capua and the camp of Hannibal on Tifata, and sat down in the Claudian camp above Suessula, whence he sent Marcus Marcellus, the proconsul, with those forces which he had under him, to Nola for its protection.
[13] 40. In Sardinia also the operations of the war, which had been intermitted from the time that Quintus Mucius, the praetor, had been seized with a serious illness, began to be conducted by Titus Manlius, the praetor. Having hauled the ships of war on shore at Carale, and armed his mariners, in order that he might prosecute the war by land, and received the army from the praetor, he made up the number of twenty-two thousand foot and twelve hundred horse. Setting out for the territory of the enemy with these forces of foot and horse, he pitched his camp not far from the camp of Hamsicora. It happened that Hampsicora was then gone among the Sardinians, called Pelliti, in order to arm their youth, whereby he might augment his forces. His son, named Hiostus, had the command of the camp, who coming to an engagement, with the presumption of youth, was routed and put to flight. In that battle as many as three thousand of the Sardinians were slain, and about eight hundred taken alive. The rest of the army at first wandered in their flight through the fields and woods, but afterwards all fled to a city named Cornus, the capital of that district, whither there was a report that their general had fled; and the war in Sardinia would have been brought to a termination by that battle, had not the Carthaginian fleet under the command of Hasdrubal, which had been driven by a storm upon the Balearian islands, come in seasonably for inspiring a hope of renewing the war. Manlius, after hearing of the arrival of the Punic fleet, returned to Carale, which afforded Hampsicora an opportunity of forming a junction with the Carthaginian. Hasdrubal, having landed his forces and sent back his fleet to Carthage, set out under the guidance of Hampsicora, to lay waste the lands of the allies of the Romans; and he would have proceeded to Carale, had not Manlius, meeting him with his army, restrained him from this wide-spread depredation. At first their camps were pitched opposite to each other, at a small distance; afterwards skirmishes and slight encounters took place with varying success; lastly, they came down into the field and fought a regular pitched battle for four hours. The Carthaginians caused the battle to continue long doubtful, for the Sardinians were accustomed to yield easily; but at last, when the Sardinians fell and fled on all sides around them, the Carthaginians themselves were routed. But as they were turning their backs, the Roman general, wheeling round that wing with which he had driven back the Sardinians, intercepted them, after which it was rather a carnage than a battle. Two thousand of the enemy, Sardinians and Carthaginians together, were slain, about three thousand seven hundred captured, with twenty-seven military standards.
[13] 41. Above all, the general, Hasdrubal, and two other noble Carthaginians having been made prisoners, rendered the battle glorious and memorable; Mago, who was of the Barcine family, and nearly related to Hannibal, and Hanno, the author of the revolt of the Sardinians, and without doubt the instigator of this war. Nor less did the Sardinian generals render that battle distinguished by their disasters; for not only was Hiostus, son of Hampsicora, slain in the battle, but Hampsicora himself flying with a few horse, having heard of the death of his son in addition to his unfortunate state, committed suicide by night, lest the interference of any person should prevent the accomplishment of his design. To the other fugitives the city of Cornus afforded a refuge, as it had done before; but Manlius, having assaulted it with his victorious troops, regained it in a few days. Then other cities also which had gone over to Hampsicora and the Carthaginians, surrendered themselves and gave hostages, on which having imposed a contribution of money and corn, proportioned to the means and delinquency of each, he led back his troops to Carale. There launching his ships of war, and putting the soldiers he had brought with him on board, he sailed to Rome, reported to the fathers the total subjugation of Sardinia, and handed over the contribution of money to the quaestors, of corn to the aediles, and the prisoners to the praetor Fulvius. During the same time, as Titus Otacilius the praetor, who had sailed over with a fleet of fifty ships from Lilybaeum to Africa, and laid waste the Carthaginian territory, was returning thence to Sardinia, to which place it was reported that Hasdrubal had recently crossed over from the Baleares, he fell in with his fleet on its return to Africa; and after a slight engagement in the open sea, captured seven ships with their crews. Fear dispersed the rest far and wide, not less effectually than a storm. It happened also, at the same time, that Bomilcar arrived at Locri with soldiers sent from Carthage as a reinforcement, bringing with him also elephants and provisions. In order to surprise and overpower him, Appius Claudius, having hastily led his troops to Messana, under pretext of making the circuit of the province, crossed over to Locri, the tide being favourable. Bomilcar had by this time left the place, having set out for Bruttium to join Hanno. The Locrians closed their gates against the Romans, and Appius Claudius returned to Rome without achieving any thing, by his strenuous efforts. The same summer Marcellus made frequent excursions from Nola, which he was occupying with a garrison, into the lands of the Hirpini and Caudine Samnites, and so destroyed all before him with fire and sword, that he renewed in Samnium the memory of her ancient disasters.
[13] 42. Ambassadors were therefore despatched from both nations at the same time to Hannibal, who thus addressed the Carthaginian: “Hannibal, we carried on hostilities with the Roman people, by ourselves and from our own resources, as long as our own arms and our own strength could protect us. Our confidence in these failing, we attached ourselves to king Pyrrhus. Abandoned by him, we accepted of a peace, dictated by necessity, which we continued to observe up to the period when you arrived in Italy, through a period of almost fifty years. Your valour and good fortune, not more than your unexampled humanity and kindness displayed towards our countrymen, whom, when made prisoners, you restored to us, so attached us to you, that while you our friend were in health and safety, we not only feared not the Romans, but not even the anger of the gods, if it were lawful so to express ourselves. And yet, by Hercules, you not only being in safety and victorious, but on the spot, (when you could almost hear the shrieks of our wives and children, and see our buildings in flames,) we have suffered, during this summer, such repeated devastations, that Marcellus, and not Hannibal, would appear to have been the conqueror at Cannae; while the Romans boast that you had strength only to inflict a single blow; and having as it were left your sting, now lie torpid. For near a century we waged war with the Romans, unaided by any foreign general or army; except that for two years Pyrrhus rather augmented his own strength by the addition of our troops, than defended us by his. I will not boast of our successes, that two consuls and two consular armies were sent under the yoke by us, nor of any other joyful and glorious events which have happened to us. We can tell of the difficulties and distresses we then experienced, with less indignation than those which are now occurring. Dictators, those officers of high authority, with their masters of horse, two consuls with two consular armies, entered our borders, and, after having reconnoitred and posted reserves, led on their troops in regular array to devastate our country. Now we are the prey of a single propraetor, and of one little garrison, for the defence of Nola. Now they do not even confine themselves to plundering in companies, but, like marauders, range through our country from one end to the other, more unconcernedly than if they were rambling through the Roman territory. And the reason is this, you do not protect us yourself, and the whole of our youth, which, if at home, would keep us in safety, is serving under your banners. We know nothing either of you or your army, but we know that it would be easy for the man who has routed and dispersed so many Roman armies, to put down these rambling freebooters of ours, who roam about in disorder to whatsoever quarter the hope of booty, however groundless, attracts them. They indeed will be the prey of a few Numidians, and a garrison sent to us will also dislodge that at Nola, provided you do not think those men undeserving that you should protect them as allies, whom you have esteemed worthy of your alliance.”
[13] 43. To this Hannibal replied, “that the Hirpini and Samnites did every thing at once: that they both represented their sufferings, solicited succours, and complained that they were undefended and neglected. Whereas, they ought first to have represented their sufferings, then to have solicited succours; and lastly, if those succours were not obtained, then, at length, to make complaint that assistance had been implored without effect. That he would lead his troops not into the fields of the Hirpini and Samnites, lest he too should be a burthen to them, but into the parts immediately contiguous, and belonging to the allies of the Roman people, by plundering which, he would enrich his own soldiers, and cause the enemy to retire from them through fear. With regard to the Roman war, if the battle of Trasimenus was more glorious than that at Trebia, and the battle of Cannae than that of Trasimenus, that he would eclipse the fame of the battle of Cannae by a greater and more brilliant victory.” With this answer, and with munificent presents, he dismissed the ambassadors. Having left a pretty large garrison in Tifata, he set out with the rest of his troops to go to Nola. Thither came Hanno from the Bruttii with recruits and elephants brought from Carthage. Having encamped not far from the place, every thing, upon examination, was found to be widely different from what he had heard from the ambassadors of the allies. For Marcellus was doing nothing, in such a way that he could be said to have committed himself rashly either to fortune or to the enemy. He had gone out on plundering expeditions, having previously reconnoitred, planted strong guards, and secured a retreat; the same caution was observed and the same provisions made, as if Hannibal were present. At this time, when he perceived the enemy on the approach, he kept his forces within the walls, ordered the senators of Nola to patrol the walls, and explore on all hands what was doing among the enemy. Of these Herennius Bassus and Herius Petrius, having been invited by Hanno, who had come up to the wall, to a conference, and gone out with the permission of Marcellus, were thus addressed by him, through an interpreter. After extolling the valour and good fortune of Hannibal, and vilifying the majesty of the Roman people, which he represented as sinking into decrepitude with their strength; he said, “but though they were on an equality in these respects, as once perhaps they were, yet they who had experienced how oppressive the government of Rome was towards its allies, and how great the clemency of Hannibal, even towards all his prisoners of the Italian name, were bound to prefer the friendship and alliance of the Carthaginians to those of the Romans.” If both the consuls with their armies were at Nola, still they would no more be a match for Hannibal than they had been at Cannae, much less would one praetor with a few raw soldiers be able to defend it. It was a question which concerned themselves more than Hannibal whether he should take possession of Nola as captured or surrendered, for that he would certainly make himself master of it, as he had done with regard to Capua and Nuceria, and what difference there was between the fate of Capua and Nuceria, the Nolans themselves, situated as they were nearly midway between them, were well aware. He said he was unwilling to presage the evils which would result to the city if taken by force, but would in preference pledge himself that if they would deliver up Nola, together with Marcellus and his garrison, no other person than themselves should dictate the conditions on which they should come into the friendship and alliance of Hannibal.
[13] 44. To this Herennius Bassus replied, that, “a friendship had subsisted now for many years between the Romans and the Nolans, which neither party up to that day regretted; and even had they been disposed to change their friends upon a change of fortune, it was now too late to change; had they intended to surrender themselves to Hannibal, they should not have called a Roman garrison to their aid: that all fortunes both were now and should to the last be shared with those who had come to their protection.” This conference deprived Hannibal of the hope of gaining Nola by treachery; he therefore completely invested the city, in order that he might attack the walls in every part at once. Marcellus, when he perceived that he had come near to the walls, having drawn up his troops within the gate, sallied forth with great impetuosity; several were knocked down and slain on the first charge: afterwards the troops running up to those who were engaged, and their forces being thus placed on an equality? the battle began to be fierce; nor would there have been many actions equally memorable, had not the combatants been separated by a shower of rain attended with a tremendous storm. On that day, after having engaged in a slight contest, and with inflamed minds, they retired, the Romans to the city, the Carthaginians to their camp. Of the Carthaginians, however, there fell from the shock of the first sally not more than thirty, of the Romans not one. The rain continued without intermission through the whole night, until the third hour of the following day, and therefore, though both parties were eager for the contest, they nevertheless kept themselves within their works for that day. On the third day Hannibal sent a portion of his troops into the lands of the Nolans to plunder. Marcellus perceiving this, immediately led out his troops and formed for battle, nor did Hannibal decline fighting. The interval between the city and the camp was about a mile. In that space, and all the country round Nola consists of level ground, the armies met. The shout which was raised on both sides, called back to the battle, which had now commenced, the nearest of those cohorts which had gone out into the fields to plunder. The Nolans too joined the Roman line. Marcellus having highly commended them, desired them to station themselves in reserve, and to carry the wounded out of the field but not take part in the battle, unless they should receive a signal from him.
[13] 45. It was a doubtful battle; the generals exerting themselves to the utmost in exhorting, and the soldiers in fighting Marcellus urged his troops to press vigorously on men who had been vanquished but three days before, who had been put to flight at Cumae only a few days ago, and who had been driven from Nola the preceding year by himself, as general, though with different troops. He said, “that all the forces of the enemy were not in the field; that they were rambling about the country in plundering parties, and that even those who were engaged, were enfeebled with Campanian luxury, and worn out with drunkenness, lust, and every kind of debauchery, which they had been indulging in through the whole winter. That the energy and vigour had left them, that the strength of mind and body had vanished, by which the Pyrenees and the tops of the Alps had been passed. That those now engaged were the remains of those men, with scarcely strength to support their arms and limbs. That Capua had been a Cannae to Hannibal; that there his courage in battle, his military discipline, the fame he had already acquired, and his hopes of future glory, were extinguished.” While Marcellus was raising the spirits of his troops by thus inveighing against the enemy, Hannibal assailed them with still heavier reproaches. He said, “he recognised the arms and standards which he had seen and employed at Trebia and Trasimenus, and lastly at Cannae; but that he had indeed led one sort of troops into winter quarters at Capua, and brought another out. Do you, whom two consular armies could never withstand, with difficulty maintain your ground against a Roman lieutenant-general, and a single legion with a body of auxiliaries? Does Marcellus now a second time with impunity assail us with a band of raw recruits and Nolan auxiliaries? Where is that soldier of mine, who took off the head of Caius Flaminius, the consul, after dragging him from his horse? Where is the man who slew Lucius Paulus at Cannae? Is it that the steel hath lost its edge? or that your right hands are benumbed? or what other miracle is it? You who, when few, have been accustomed to conquer numbers, now scarce maintain your ground, the many against the few. Brave in speech only, you were wont to boast that you would take Rome by storm if you could find a general to lead you. Lo! here is a task of less difficulty. I would have you try your strength and courage here. Take Nola, a town situated on a plain, protected neither by river nor sea; after that, when you have enriched yourselves with the plunder and spoils of that wealthy town, I will either lead or follow you whithersoever you have a mind.”
[13] 46. Neither praises nor reproaches had any effect in confirming their courage. Driven from their ground in every quarter, while the Romans derived fresh spirits, not only from the exhortations of their general, but from the Nolans, who, by their acclamations in token of their good wishes, fed the flame of battle, the Carthaginians turned their backs, and were driven to their camp, which the Roman soldiers were eager to attack; but Marcellus led them back to Nola, amidst the great joy and congratulations even from the commons, who hitherto had been more favourable to the Carthaginians. Of the enemy more than five thousand were slain on that day, six hundred made prisoners, with nineteen military standards and two elephants. Four elephants were killed in the battle. Of the Romans less than a thousand were killed. The next day was employed by both parties in burying their dead, under a tacit truce. Marcellus burnt the spoils of the enemy, in fulfilment of a vow to Vulcan. On the third day after, on account of some pique, I suppose, or in the hope of more advantageous service, one thousand two hundred and seventy-two horsemen, Numidians and Spaniards, deserted to Marcellus. The Romans had frequently availed themselves of their brave and faithful service in that war. After the conclusion of the war, portions of land were given to the Spaniards in Spain, to the Numidians in Africa, in consideration of their valour. Having sent Hanno back from Nola to the Bruttians with the troops with which he had come, Hannibal went himself into winter quarters in Apulia, and took up a position in the neighbourhood of Arpi. Quintus Fabius, as soon as he heard that Hannibal was set out into Apulia, conveyed corn, collected from Nola and Naples, into the camp above Suessula; and having strengthened the fortifications and left a garrison sufficient for the protection of the place during the winter, moved his camp nearer to Capua, and laid waste the Campanian lands with fire and sword; so that at length the Campanians, though not very confident in their strength, were obliged to go out of their gates and fortify a camp in the open space before the city. They had six thousand armed men, the infantry, unfit for action. In their cavalry they had more strength. They therefore harassed the enemy by attacking them with these. Among the many distinguished persons who served in the Campanian cavalry was one Cerrinus Jubellius, surnamed Taurea. Though of that extraction, he was a Roman citizen, and by far the bravest horseman of all the Campanians, insomuch that when he served under the Roman banners, there was but one man, Claudius Asellus, a Roman, who rivalled him in his reputation as a horseman. Taurea having for a long time diligently sought for this man, riding up to the squadrons of the enemy, at length having obtained silence, inquired where Claudius Asellus was, and asked why, since he had been accustomed to dispute about their merit in words, he would not decide the matter with the sword, and if vanquished give him spolia opima, or if victorious take them.
[13] 47. Asellus, who was in the camp, having been informed of this, waited only to ask the consul leave to depart from the ordinary course and fight an enemy who had challenged him. By his permission, he immediately put on his arms, and riding out beyond the advanced guards called on Taurea by name, and bid him come to the encounter when he pleased. By this time the Romans had gone out in large bodies to witness the contest, and the Campanians had crowded not only the rampart of the camp, but the walls of the city to get a view of it. After a flourish of expressions of mutual defiance, they spurred on their horses with their spears pointed. Then evading each other’s attacks, for they had free space to move in, they protracted the battle without a wound. Upon this the Campanian observed to the Roman, “This will be only a trial of skill between our horses and not between horsemen, unless we ride them down from the plain into this hollow way. There, as there will be no room for retiring, we shall come to close quarters.” Almost quicker than the word, Claudius leaped into the hollow way. Taurea, bold in words more than in reality, said, “Never be the ass in the ditch;” an expression which from this circumstance became a common proverb among rustics. Claudius having rode up and down the way to a considerable distance, and again come up into the plain without meeting his antagonist, after reflecting in reproachful terms on the cowardice of the enemy, returned in triumph to the camp, amidst great rejoicing and congratulation. To the account of this equestrian contest, some histories add a circumstance which is certainly astonishing, how true it is, is an open matter of opinion that Claudius, when in pursuit of Taurea, who fled back to the city, rode in at one of the gates of the enemy which stood open and made his escape unhurt through another, the enemy being thunderstruck at the strangeness of the circumstance.
[13] 48. The camps were then undisturbed, the consul even moved his camp back, that the Campanians might complete their sowing, nor did he do any injury to the lands till the blades in the corn-fields were grown sufficiently high to be useful for forage. This he conveyed into the Claudian camp above Suessula, and there erected winter quarters. He ordered Marcus Claudius, the proconsul, to retain at Nola a sufficient force for the protection of the place, and send the rest to Rome, that they might not be a burthen to their allies nor an expense to the republic. Tiberius Gracchus also, having led his legions from Cumae to Luceria in Apulia, sent Marcus Valerius, the praetor, thence to Brundusium with the troops which he had commanded at Luceria, with orders to protect the coast of the Sallentine territory, and make provisions with regard to Philip and the Macedonian war. At the close of the summer, the events of which I have described, letters arrived from Publius and Cneius Scipio, stating the magnitude and success of their operations in Spain, but that the army was in want of money, clothing, and corn, and that then crews were in want of every thing. With regard to the pay, they said, that if the treasury was low, they would adopt some plan by which they might procure it from the Spaniards, but that the other supplies must certainly be sent from Rome, for otherwise neither the army could be kept together nor the province preserved. When the letters were read, all to a man admitted that the statement was correct, and the request reasonable, but it occurred to their minds, what great forces they were maintaining by land and sea, and how large a fleet must soon be equipped if a war with Macedon should break out, that Sicily and Sardinia, which before the war had wielded a revenue, were scarcely able to maintain the troops which protected those provinces, that the expenses were supplied by a tax, that both the number of the persons who contributed this tax was diminished by the great havoc made in their armies at the Trasimenus and Cannae, and the few who survived, if they were oppressed with multiplied impositions, would perish by a calamity of a different kind. That, therefore, if the republic could not subsist by credit, it could not stand by its own resources. It was resolved, therefore, that Fulvius, the praetor, should present himself to the public assembly of the people, point out the necessities of the state, and exhort those persons who had increased their patrimonies by farming the public revenues, to furnish temporary loans for the service of that state, from which they had derived their wealth, and contract to supply what was necessary for the army in Spain, on the condition of being paid the first when there was money in the treasury. These things the praetor laid before the assembly, and fixed a day on which he would let on contract the furnishing the army in Spain with clothes and corn, and with such other things as were necessary for the crews.
[13] 49. When the day arrived, three companies, of nineteen persons, came forward to enter into the contract; but they made two requests: one was, that they should be exempt from military service while employed in that revenue business; the second was, that the state should bear all losses of the goods they shipped, which might arise either from the attacks of the enemy or from storms. Having obtained both their requests, they entered into the contract, and the affairs of the state were conducted by private funds. This character and love of country uniformly pervaded all ranks. As all the engagements were entered into with magnanimity, so were they fulfilled with the strictest fidelity; and the supplies were furnished in the same manner as formerly, from an abundant treasury. At the time when these supplies arrived, the town of Illiturgi was being besieged by Hasdrubal, Mago, and Hamilcar the son of Bomilcar, on account of its having gone over to the Romans. Between these three camps of the enemy, the Scipios effected an entrance into the town of their allies, after a violent contest and great slaughter of their opponents, and introduced some corn, of which there was a scarcity; and after exhorting the townsmen to defend their walls with the same spirit which they had seen displayed by the Roman army fighting in their behalf, led on their troops to attack the largest of the camps, in which Hasdrubal had the command. To this camp the two other generals of the Carthaginians with their armies came, seeing that the great business was to be done there. They therefore sallied from the camp and fought. Of the enemy engaged there were sixty thousand; of the Romans about sixteen; the victory, however, was so decisive, that the Romans slew more than their own number of the enemy, and captured more than three thousand, with nearly a thousand horses and fifty-nine military standards, five elephants having been slain in the battle. They made themselves masters of the three camps on that day. The siege of Illiturgi having been raised, the Carthaginian armies were led away to the siege of Intibili; the forces having been recruited out of that province, which was, above all others, fond of war, provided there was any plunder or pay to be obtained, and at that time had an abundance of young men. A second regular engagement took place, attended with the same fortune to both parties; in which above three thousand of the enemy were slain, more than two thousand captured, together with forty-two standards and nine elephants. Then, indeed, almost all the people of Spain came over to the Romans, and the achievements in Spain during that summer were much more important than those in Italy.
[13] * * * * *

## Book XXIV

[14] Translated by William A. McDevitte
[14] B.C. 215-213
[14] Hieronymus, king of Syracuse, whose grandfather Hiero had been a faithful ally of Rome, revolts to the Carthaginians, and for his tyranny is put to death by his subjects. Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, the proconsul, defeats the Carthaginians under Hanno at Beneventum chiefly by the services of the slaves in his army, whom he subsequently liberated. Claudius Marcellus, the consul, besieges Syracuse. War is declared against Philip, king of Macedon, he is routed by night at Apollonia and retreats into Macedonia. This war is intrusted to Valerius the praetor. Operations of the Scipios against the Carthaginians in Spain. Syphax, king of the Numidians, is received into alliance by the Romans, and is defeated by Masinissa, king of the Massillians, who fought on the side of the Carthaginians. The Celtiberians joined the Romans, and their troops having been taken into pay, mercenary soldiers for the first time served in a Roman camp.
[14] * * * * *
[14] 1. On his return from Campania into Bruttium, Hanno, with the assistance and under the guidance of the Bruttians, made an attempt upon the Greek cities; which were the more disposed to continue in alliance with the Romans, because they perceived that the Bruttians, whom they feared and hated, had taken part with the Carthaginians. The first place attempted was Rhegium, where several days were spent without effect. Meanwhile the Locrians hastily conveyed from the country into the city, corn, wood, and other things necessary for their use, as also that no booty might be left for the enemy. The number of persons which poured out of every gate increased daily, till at length those only were left in the city whose duty it was to repair the walls and gates, and to collect weapons in the fortresses. Against this mixed multitude, composed of persons of all ages and ranks, while rambling through the country, and for the most part unarmed, Hamilcar, the Carthaginian, sent out his cavalry, who, having been forbidden to hurt any one, only interposed their squadrons, so as to cut them off from the city when dispersed in flight. The general himself, having posted himself upon an eminence which commanded a view of the country and the city, ordered a cohort of Bruttians to approach the walls, call out the leaders of the Locrians to a conference, and promising them the friendship of Hannibal, exhort them to deliver up the city. At first the Bruttians were not believed in any thing they stated in the conference, but afterwards, when the Carthaginian appeared on the hills, and a few who had fled back to the city brought intelligence that all the rest of the multitude were in the power of the enemy, overcome with fear, they said they would consult the people. An assembly of the people was immediately called, when, as all the most fickle of the inhabitants were desirous of a change of measures and a new alliance, and those whose friends were cut off by the enemy without the city, had their minds bound as if they had given hostages, while a few rather silently approved of a constant fidelity than ventured to support the opinion they approved, the city was surrendered to the Carthaginians, with an appearance of perfect unanimity. Lucius Atilius, the captain of the garrison, together with the Roman soldiers who were with him, having been privately led down to the port, and put on board a ship, that they might be conveyed to Rhegium, Hamilcar and the Carthaginians were received into the city on condition that an alliance should be formed on equal terms; which condition, when they had surrendered, the Carthaginian had very nearly not performed, as he accused them of having sent away the Roman fraudulently, while the Locrians alleged that he had spontaneously fled. A body of cavalry went in pursuit of the fugitives, in case the tide might happen to detain them in the strait, or might carry the ships to land. The persons whom they were in pursuit of they did not overtake, but they descried some ships passing over the strait from Messana to Rhegium. These contained Roman troops sent by the praetor, Claudius, to occupy the city with a garrison. The enemy therefore immediately retired from Rhegium. At the command of Hannibal, peace was concluded with the Locrians on these terms: that “they should live free under their own laws; that the city should be open to the Carthaginians, the harbour in the power of the Locrians. That their alliance should rest on the principle, that the Carthaginian should help the Locrian and the Locrian the Carthaginian in peace and war.”
[14] 2. Thus the Carthaginian troops were led back from the strait, while the Bruttians loudly complained that Locri and Rhegium, cities which they had fixed in their minds that they should have the plundering of, they had left untouched. Having therefore levied and armed fifteen thousand of their own youth, they set out by themselves to lay siege to Croto, which was also a Greek city, and on the coast, believing that they would obtain a great accession to their power, if they could get possession of a city upon the sea-coast, which had a port and was strongly defended by walls. This consideration annoyed them, that they neither could venture on the business without calling in the Carthaginians to their assistance, lest they should appear to have done any thing in a manner unbecoming allies, and on the other hand, lest, if the Carthaginian general should again show himself to have been rather an umpire of peace than an auxiliary in war, they should fight in vain against the liberty of Croto, as before in the affair of the Locrians. The most advisable course, therefore, appeared to be, that ambassadors should be sent to Hannibal, and that a stipulation should be obtained from him that Croto, when reduced, should be in possession of the Bruttians. Hannibal replied, that it was a question which should be determined by persons on the spot, and referred them to Hanno, from whom they could obtain no decisive answer. For they were unwilling that so celebrated and opulent a city should be plundered, and were in hopes that if the Bruttians should attack it, while the Carthaginians did not ostensibly approve or assist in the attack, the inhabitants would the more readily come over to them. The Crotonians were not united either in their measures or wishes. All the states of Italy were infected with one disease, as it were, the commons dissented from the nobles, the senate favouring the Romans, while the commons endeavoured to draw the states over to the Carthaginians. A deserter announced to the Bruttii that such a dissension prevailed in the city, that Aristomachus was the leader of the commons, and the adviser of the surrender of the city, that the city was of wide extent and thinly inhabited, that the walls in every part were in ruins, that it was only here and there that the guards and watches were kept by senators, and that wherever the commons kept guard, there an entrance lay open. Under the direction and guidance of the deserter, the Bruttians completely invested the city, and being received into it by the commons, got possession of every part, except the citadel, on the first assault. The nobles held the citadel, which they had taken care beforehand to have ready as a refuge against such an event. In the same place Aristomachus took refuge, as though he had advised the surrender of the city to the Carthaginians, and not to the Bruttians.
[14] 3. The wall of the city of Croto in circuit extended through a space of twelve miles, before the arrival of Pyrrhus in Italy. After the devastation occasioned by that war, scarcely half the city was inhabited. The river which had flowed through the middle of the town, now ran on the outside of the parts which were occupied by buildings, and the citadel was at a distance from the inhabited parts. Six miles from this celebrated city stood the temple of Juno Lacinia, more celebrated even than the city itself, and venerated by all the surrounding states. Here was a grove fenced with a dense wood and tall fir trees, with rich pastures in its centre, in which cattle of every kind, sacred to the goddess, fed without any keeper; the flocks of every kind going out separately and returning to their folds, never being injured, either from the lying in wait of wild beasts, or the dishonesty of men. These flocks were, therefore, a source of great revenue, from which a column of solid gold was formed and consecrated; and the temple became distinguished for its wealth also, and not only for its sanctity. Some miracles are attributed to it, as is generally the case with regard to such remarkable places. Rumour says that there is an altar in the vestibule of the temple, the ashes of which are never moved by any wind. But the citadel of Croto, overhanging the sea on one side, on the other, which looks towards the land, was protected formerly by its natural situation only, but was afterwards surrounded by a wall. It was in this part that Dionysius, the tyrant of Sicily, took it by stratagem, approaching by way of some rocks which faced from it. This citadel, which was considered sufficiently secure, was now occupied by the nobles of Croto, the Bruttians, in conjunction even with their own commons, besieging them. The Bruttians, however, perceiving at length that it was impossible to take the citadel by their own efforts, compelled by necessity, implored the aid of Hanno. He endeavoured to bring the Crotonians to surrender, under an agreement that they should allow a colony of Bruttians to settle there; so that their city, desolate and depopulated by wars, might recover its former populousness: but not a man besides Aristomachus did he move; they affirmed, that “they would die sooner than, mixing with Bruttians, be turned to the rites, manners, and laws, and soon the language also of others.” Aristomachus alone, since he was neither able to persuade them to surrender, nor could obtain an opportunity for betraying the citadel as he had betrayed the city, deserted to Hanno. A short time afterwards ambassadors of Locri, entering the citadel with the permission of Hanno, persuaded them to allow themselves to be removed to Locri, and not resolve to hazard extremities. They had already obtained leave from Hannibal to do this, by ambassadors sent for this purpose. Accordingly, Croto was evacuated, and the inhabitants were conducted to the sea, where they embarked; and the whole multitude removed to Locri. In Apulia, Hannibal and the Romans did not rest even during the winter. The consul Sempronius wintered at Luceria, Hannibal not far from Arpi. Slight engagements took place between them, accordingly as either side had an opportunity or advantage; by which the Roman soldiery were improved, and became daily more guarded and more secure against stratagems.
[14] 4. In Sicily, the death of Hiero, and the transfer of the government to his grandson, Hieronymus, had completely altered all things with regard to the Romans. Hieronymus was but a boy, as yet scarcely able to bear liberty, still less sovereign power. His guardians and friends gladly observed in him a disposition which might be easily plunged into every kind of vice; which Hiero foreseeing, is said to have formed an intention, in the latter part of his long life, of leaving Syracuse free, lest the sovereignty which had been acquired and established by honourable means, should be made a sport of and fall into ruin, under the administration of a boy. This plan of his his daughters strenuously opposed, who anticipated that the boy would enjoy the name of royalty, but that the administration of all affairs would be conducted by themselves and their husbands, Andranodorus and Zoippus, for these were left the principal of his guardians. It was not an easy task for a man in his ninetieth year, beset night and day by the winning artifices of women, to disenthral his judgment, and to consult only the good of the state in his domestic affairs. Accordingly, all he did was to leave fifteen guardians over his son, whom he entreated, on his death-bed, to preserve inviolate that alliance with the Romans, which he had himself cultivated for fifty years, and to take care that the young king should, above all things, tread in the steps of his father, and in that course of conduct in which he had been educated. Such were his injunctions. On the death of the king, the will was brought forward by the guardians, and the young king, who was now about fifteen, introduced into the public assembly, where a few persons, who had been placed in different parts on purpose to raise acclamations, expressed their approbation of the will; while all the rest were overwhelmed with apprehensions, in the destitute condition of the state, which had lost as it were its parent. The funeral of the king was then performed, which was honoured more by the love and affection of his citizens than the attentions of his kindred. Andranodorus next effected the removal of the other guardians, giving out that Hieronymus had now attained the years of manhood, and was competent to assume the government; and thus, by voluntarily resigning the guardianship which he shared with several others, united the powers of all in himself.
[14] 5. It would scarcely have been easy even for any good and moderate king, succeeding one so deeply rooted in their affections as Hiero was, to obtain the favour of the Syracusans. But Hieronymus, forsooth, as if he was desirous of exciting regret for the loss of his grandfather by his own vices, showed, immediately on his first appearance, how completely every thing was changed. For those who for so many years had seen Hiero and his son Gelon differing from the rest of the citizens neither in the fashion of their dress nor any other mark of distinction, now beheld the purple, the diadem, and armed guards, and their king sometimes proceeding from his palace in a chariot drawn by four white horses, according to the custom of the tyrant Dionysius. This costliness in equipage and appearance was accompanied by corresponding contempt of everybody, capricious airs, insulting expressions, difficulty of access, not to strangers only, but even to his guardians also, unheard of lusts, inhuman cruelty. Terror so great took possession of every body therefore, that some of his guardians, either by a voluntary death, or by exile, anticipated the tenor of his inflictions. Three of those persons to whom alone belonged a more familiar access to the palace, Andranodorus and Zoippus, sons-in-law of Hiero, and one Thraso, were not much attended to upon other subjects, but the two former exerting themselves in favour of the Carthaginians, while Thraso argued for the Roman alliance, they sometimes engaged the attention of the young king by their zeal and earnestness. It was at this time that a conspiracy formed against the life of the tyrant was discovered by a certain servant, of the same age as Hieronymus, who from his very childhood had associated with him on entirely familiar terms. The informer was able to name one of the conspirators, Theodotus, by whom he himself had been solicited. He was immediately seized, and delivered to Andranodorus to be subjected to torture, when, without hesitation, he confessed as to himself, but concealed his accomplices. At last, when racked with every species of torture, beyond the power of humanity to bear, pretending to be overcome by his sufferings, he turned his accusation from the guilty to the innocent, and feigned that Thraso was the originator of the plot, without whose able guidance, he said, they never would have been bold enough to attempt so daring a deed, he threw the guilt upon such innocent men, near the king’s person, as appeared to him to be the most worthless, while fabricating his story amid groans and agonies. The naming of Thraso gave the highest degree of credibility to the story in the mind of the tyrant. Accordingly he was immediately given up to punishment, and others were added who were equally innocent. Not one of the conspirators, though their associate in the plot was for a long time subjected to torture, either concealed himself or fled, so great was their confidence in the fortitude and fidelity of Theodotus, and so great was his firmness in concealing their secret.
[14] 6. Thus on the removal of Thraso, who formed the only bond which held together the alliance with the Romans, immediately affairs clearly indicated defection. Ambassadors were sent to Hannibal, who sent back in company with a young man of noble birth named Hannibal, Hippocrates and Epicydes, natives of Carthage, and of Carthaginian extraction on their mother’s side, but whose grandfather was an exile from Syracuse. Through their means an alliance was formed between Hannibal and the tyrant of Syracuse; and, with the consent of Hannibal, they remained with the tyrant. As soon as Appius Claudius, the praetor, whose province Sicily was, had received information of these events, he sent ambassadors to Hieronymus; who, upon stating that the object of their mission was to renew the alliance which had subsisted between the Romans and his grandfather, were heard and dismissed in an insulting manner, Hieronymus asking them sneeringly, “how they had fared at the battle of Cannae? for that the ambassadors of Hannibal stated what could hardly be credited.” He said, “he wished to know the truth, in order that before he made up his mind, he might determine which he should espouse as offering the better prospect.” The Romans replied, that they would return to him when he had learned to receive embassies with seriousness; and, after having cautioned, rather than requested him, not rashly to change his alliance, they withdrew. Hieronymus sent ambassadors to Carthage, to conclude a league in conformity with the alliance with Hannibal. It was settled in the compact, that after they had expelled the Romans from Sicily, (which would speedily be effected if the Carthaginians sent ships and troops,) the river Himera, which divides the island in nearly equal portions, should be the limit of the Carthaginian and Syracusan dominions. Afterwards, puffed up by the flattery of those persons who bid him be mindful, not of Hiero only, but of king Pyrrhus, his maternal grandfather, he sent another embassy, in which he expressed his opinion that equity required that the whole of Sicily should be conceded to him, and that the dominion of Italy should be acquired as the peculiar possession of the Carthaginians. This levity and inconstancy of purpose in a hot-headed youth, did not excite their surprise, nor did they reprove it, anxious only to detach him from the Romans.
[14] 7. But every thing conspired to hurry him into perdition. For having sent before him Hippocrates and Epicydes with two thousand armed men, to make an attempt upon those cities which were occupied by Roman garrisons, he himself also proceeded to Leontium with all the remaining troops, which amounted to fifteen thousand foot and horse, when the conspirators (who all happened to be in the army) took possession of an uninhabited house, which commanded a narrow way, by which the king was accustomed to go to the forum. The rest stood here prepared and armed, waiting for the king to pass by. One of them, by name Dinomenes, as he was one of the body-guards, had the task assigned him of keeping back the crowd behind in the narrow way, upon some pretext, when the king approached the door. All was done according to the arrangement. Dinomenes having delayed the crowd, by pretending to lift up his foot and loosen a knot which was too tight, occasioned such an interval, that an attack being made upon the king, as he passed by unattended by his guards, he was pierced with several wounds before any assistance could be brought. When the shout and tumult was heard, some weapons were discharged on Dinomenes, who now openly opposed them; he escaped from them, however, with only two wounds. The body-guard, as soon as they saw the king prostrate, betook themselves to flight. Of the assassins, some proceeded to the forum to the populace, who were rejoiced at the recovery of their liberty; others to Syracuse to anticipate the measures of Andranodorus and the rest of the royal party. Affairs being in this uncertain state, Appius Claudius perceiving a war commencing in his neighbourhood, informed the senate by letter, that Sicily had become reconciled to the Carthaginians and Hannibal. For his own part, in order to frustrate the designs of the Syracusans, he collected all his forces on the boundary of the province and the kingdom. At the close of this year, Quintus Fabius, by the authority of the senate, fortified and garrisoned Puteoli, which, during the war, had begun to be frequented as an emporium. Coming thence to Rome to hold the election, he appointed the first day for it which could be employed for that purpose, and, while on his march, passed by the city and descended into the Campus Martius. On that day, the right of voting first having fallen by lot on the junior century of the Anien tribe, they appointed Titus Otacilius and Marcus Aemilius Regillus, consuls, when Quintus Fabius, having obtained silence, delivered the following speech:
[14] 8. “If we had either peace in Italy, or had war with such an enemy that the necessity to be careful was less urgent than it is, I should consider that man as wanting in respect for your liberty, who would at all impede that zealous desire which you bring with you into the Campus Martius, of conferring honours on whom you please. But since during the present war, and with the enemy we have now to encounter, none of our generals have ever committed an error which has not been attended with most disastrous consequences to us, it behoves you to use the same circumspection in giving your suffrages for the creation of consuls, which you would exert were you going armed into the field of battle. Every man ought thus to say to himself I am nominating a consul who is to cope with the general Hannibal. In the present year, at Capua, when Jubellius Taurea, the most expert horseman of the Campanians, gave a challenge, Claudius Asellus, the most expert among the Roman horsemen, was pitted against him. Against the Gaul who at a former period gave a challenge on the bridge of the Amo, our ancestors sent Titus Manlius, a man of resolute courage and great strength. It was for the same reason, I cannot deny it, that confidence was placed in Marcus Valerius, not many years ago, when he took arms against a Gaul who challenged him to combat in a similar manner. In the same manner as we wish to have our foot and horse more powerful, but if that is impracticable, equal in strength to the enemy, so let us find out a commander who is a match for the general of the enemy. Though we should select the man as general whose abilities are greater than those of any other in the nation, yet still he is chosen at a moment’s warning, his office is only annual; whereas he will have to cope with a veteran general who has continued in command without interruption, unfettered by any restrictions either of duration or of authority, which might prevent him from executing or planning every thing according as the exigencies of the war shall require. But with us the year is gone merely in making preparations, and when we are only commencing our operations. Having said enough as to what sort of persons you ought to elect as consuls, it remains that I should briefly express my opinion of those on whom the choice of the prerogative century has fallen. Marcus Aemilius Regillus is flamen of Quirinus, whom we can neither send abroad nor retain at home without neglecting the gods or the war. Otacilius is married to my sister’s daughter, and has children by her, but the favours you have conferred upon me and my ancestors, are not such as that I should prefer private relationship to the public weal. Any sailor or passenger can steer the vessel in a calm sea, but when a furious storm has arisen, and the vessel is hurried by the tempest along the troubled deep, then there is need of a man and pilot We are not sailing on a tranquil sea, but have already well nigh sunk with repeated storms, you must therefore employ the utmost caution and foresight in determining who shall sit at the helm Of you, Titus Otacilius, we have had experience in a business of less magnitude, and, certainly you have not given us any proof that we ought to confide to you affairs of greater moment The fleet which you commanded this year we fitted out for three objects: to lay waste the coast of Africa, to protect the shores of Italy, but, above all, to prevent the conveyance of reinforcements with pay and provisions from Carthage to Hannibal. Now if Titus Otacilius has performed for the state, I say not all, but any one of these services, make him consul But if, while you had the command of the fleet supplies of whatever sort were conveyed safe and untouched to Hannibal, even as though he had no enemy on the sea, if the coast of Italy has been more infested this year than that of Africa, what can you have to urge why you should be preferred before all others as the antagonist of Hannibal? Were you consul, we should give it as our opinion that a dictator should be appointed in obedience to the example of our ancestors Nor could you feel offended that some one in the Roman nation was deemed superior to you in war It concerns yourself more than any one else, Titus Otacilius, that there be not laid upon your shoulders a burthen under which you would fall I earnestly exhort you, that with the same feelings which would influence you if standing armed for battle, you were called upon suddenly to elect two generals, under whose conduct and auspices you were to fight, you would this day elect your consuls, to whom your children are to swear allegiance, at whose command they are to assemble, and under whose protection and care they are to serve. The Trasimene Lake and Cannae are melancholy precedents to look back upon, but form useful warnings to guard against similar disasters Crier, call back the younger century of the Amen tribe to give their votes again”
[14] 9. Titus Otacilius, vociferating in the most furious manner, that his object was to continue in the consulship, the consul ordered the lictors to go to him, and as he had not entered the city, but had proceeded directly without halting from his march to the Campus Martius, admonished him that the axes were in the fasces which were carried before him. The prerogative century proceeded to vote a second time, when Quintus Fabius Maximus for the fourth time, and Marcus Marcellus for the third time, were created consuls. The other centuries voted for the same persons without any variation. One praetor, likewise, Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, was re-elected; the other new ones who were chosen, were Titus Otacilius Crassus a second time, Quintus Fabius, son of the consul, who was at that time curule aedile, and Publius Cornelius Lentulus. The election of the praetors completed, a decree of the senate was passed, that Quintus Fulvius should have the city department out of the ordinary course, and that he in preference to any other should command in the city while the consuls were absent in the war. Great floods happened twice during this year, and the Tiber overflowed the fields, with great demolition of houses and destruction of men and cattle. In the fifth year of the second Punic war Quintus Fabius Maximus for the fourth time, and Marcus Claudius Marcellus for the third time, entering upon their office, drew the attention of the state upon them in a more than ordinary degree, for there had not been two such consuls now for many years. The old men observed, that thus Maximus Rullus and Publius Decius were declared consuls for conducting the Gallic war; that thus afterwards Papirius and Carvilius were appointed to that office against the Samnites, the Bruttians, and the Lucanian with the Tarentine people. Marcellus, who was with the army, was created consul in his absence; to Fabius, who was present and held the election himself, the office was continued. The critical state of affairs, the exigencies of the war, and the danger which threatened the state, prevented any one from looking narrowly into the precedent, or suspecting that the consul was actuated by an excessive love of command; on the contrary, they applauded his magnanimity in that when he knew the state was in want of a general of the greatest ability, and that he was himself confessedly such an one, he thought less of the personal odium which might arise out of the transaction, than of the good of the state.
[14] 10. On the day on which the consuls entered on their office, the senate was assembled in the Capitol, and in the first place a decree was passed to the effect that the consuls should draw lots, and settle between themselves which should hold the election for the creation of censors, before they proceeded to join the army. Next, all those who had the command of armies were continued in their offices, and ordered to remain in their provinces; Tiberius Gracchus at Luceria, where he was with an army of volunteer slaves; Caius Terentius Varro in the Picenian, and Manius Pomponius in the Gallic territory. Of the praetors of the former year, it was settled that Quintus Mucius should have the government of Sardinia as propraetor, Marcus Valerius the command of the sea-coast near Brundusium, watchful against all the movements of Philip, king of the Macedonians. To Publius Cornelius Lentulus, the praetor, the province of Sicily was assigned. Titus Otacilius received the same fleet which he had employed the year before against the Carthaginians. Many prodigies were reported to have happened this year, which increased in proportion as they were believed by the credulous and superstitious. That crows had built a nest within the temple of Juno Sospita at Lanuvium; that a green palm-tree had taken fire in Apulia; that a pool at Mantua, formed by the overflowing of the river Mincius, had assumed the appearance of blood; that it had rained chalk at Cales, and blood at Rome in the cattle market; that a fountain under ground in the Istrian street had discharged so violent a stream of water, that rolling along with the impetuosity of a torrent, it carried away the butts and casks which were near it; that the public court in the Capitol had been struck by lightning; also the temple of Vulcan in the Campus Martius, a nut-tree in the Sabine territory, a wall and gate at Gabii. Now other miracles were published: that the spear of Mars at Praeneste moved forward of its own accord; that in Sicily an ox had spoken; that a child in the womb of its mother cried out Io Triumphe! in the country of the Marrucinians; at Spoletum, that a woman was transformed into a man; at Hadria, that an altar, with appearances as of men surrounding it in white clothing, was seen in the heavens. Nay, even in the city of Rome itself, after a swarm of bees had been seen in the forum, some persons roused the citizens to arms, affirming that they saw armed legions on the Janiculum; but those who were on the Janiculum at the time, declared that they had seen no person there besides the usual cultivators of the hill. These prodigies were expiated by victims of the larger kind, according to the response of the aruspices; and a supplication was ordered to all the deities who had shrines at Rome.
[14] 11. The ceremonies which were intended to propitiate the gods being completed, the consuls took the sense of the senate on the state of the nation, the conduct of the war, what troops should be employed, and where they were severally to act. It was resolved that eighteen legions should be engaged in the war; that the consuls should take two each; that two should be employed in each of the provinces of Gaul, Sicily, and Sardinia; that Quintus Fabius, the praetor, should have the command of two in Apulia, and Tiberius Gracchus of two legions of volunteer slaves in the neighbourhood of Luceria; that one each should be left for Caius Terentius, the proconsul, for Picenum, and to Marcus Valerius for the fleet off Brundusium, and two for the protection of the city. To complete this number of legions six fresh ones were to be enlisted, which the consuls were ordered to raise as soon as possible; and also to prepare the fleet, so that, together with the ships which were stationed off the coasts of Calabria, it might amount that year to one hundred and fifty men of war. The levy completed, and the hundred new ships launched, Quintus Fabius held the election for the creation of censors, when Marcus Atilius Regulus and Publius Furius Philus were chosen. A rumour prevailing that war had broken out in Sicily, Titus Otacilius was ordered to proceed thither with his fleet; but as there was a deficiency of sailors, the consuls, in conformity with a decree of the senate, published an order that those persons who themselves or whose fathers had been rated in the censorship of Lucius Aemilius and Caius Flaminius, at from fifty to one hundred thousand asses, or whose property had since reached that amount, should furnish one sailor and six months’ pay; from one to three hundred thousand, three sailors with a year’s pay; from three hundred thousand to a million, five sailors; above one million, seven sailors; that senators should furnish eight sailors with a year’s pay. The sailors furnished according to this proclamation being armed and equipped by their masters, embarked with cooked provisions for thirty days. Then first it happened that the Roman fleet was manned at the expense of individuals.
[14] 12. These unusually great preparations alarmed the Campanians particularly, lest the Romans should commence the year’s campaign with the siege of Capua. They therefore sent ambassadors to Hannibal, to implore him to bring his army to Capua, and tell him that new armies were levying at Rome for the purpose of besieging it; and that there was not any city the defection of which had excited more hostile feelings. As they announced this with so much fear, Hannibal concluded he must make haste lest the Romans should get there before him; and setting out from Arpi, took up his position in his old camp at Tifata, above Capua. Leaving his Numidians and Spaniards for the protection both of the camp and Capua, he went down thence with the rest of his troops to the lake Avernus on the pretence of performing sacrifice, but in reality to make an attempt upon Puteoli and the garrison in it. Maximus, on receiving intelligence that Hannibal had set out from Arpi, and was returning to Campania, went back to his army, pursuing his journey without intermission by night or by day. He also ordered Tiberius Gracchus to bring up his troops from Luceria to Beneventum, and Quintus Fabius the praetor, the son of the consul, to go to Luceria in the room of Gracchus. At the same time the two praetors set out for Sicily, Publius Cornelius to join his army, Otacilius to take the command of the sea-coast and the fleet; the rest also proceeded to their respective provinces, and those who were continued in command remained in the same countries as in the former year.
[14] 13. While Hannibal was at the lake Avernus, five noble youths came to him from Tarentum. They had been made prisoners partly at the lake Trasimenus, and partly at Cannae, and had been sent home by the Carthaginian with the same civility which he had shown towards all the Roman allies. They stated to him that, impressed with gratitude for his favours, they had succeeded in inducing a large portion of the Tarentine youth to prefer his alliance and friendship to that of the Romans; and that they were sent by their countrymen as ambassadors to request Hannibal to bring his forces nearer to Tarentum; that if his standards and camp were within sight of Tarentum, that city would be delivered into his hands without delay; that the commons were under the influence of the youth, and the state of Tarentum in the hands of the commons. Hannibal after bestowing the highest commendations upon them, and loading them with immense promises, bid them return home to mature their plans, saying that he would be there in due time. With these hopes, the Tarentines were dismissed. Hannibal had himself conceived the strongest desire of getting possession of Tarentum. He saw that it was a city opulent and celebrated, on the coast, and lying conveniently over against Macedonia. And that as the Romans were in possession of Brundusium, king Philip would make for this port if he crossed over into Italy. Having completed the sacrifice for which he came, and during his stay there laid waste the territory of Cumae as far as the promontory of Misenum, he suddenly marched his troops thence to Puteoli to surprise the Roman garrison there. It consisted of six thousand men, and the place was secured not only by its natural situation, but by works also. The Carthaginian having waited there three days, and attempted the garrison in every quarter, without any success, proceeded thence to devastate the territory of Naples, influenced by resentment more than the hope of getting possession of the place. The commons of Nola, who had been long disaffected to the Romans and at enmity with their own senate, moved into the neighbouring fields on his approach; and in conformity with this movement ambassadors came to invite Hannibal to join them, bringing with them a positive assurance that the city would be surrendered to him. The consul, Marcellus, who had been called in by the nobles, anticipated their attempt. In one day he had reached Suessula from Cales, though the river Vulturnus had delayed him crossing; and from thence the ensuing night introduced into Nola for the protection of the senate, six thousand foot and three hundred horse. The dilatoriness of Hannibal was in proportion to the expedition which the consul used in every thing he did in order to preoccupy Nola. Having twice already made the attempt unsuccessfully, he was slower to place confidence in the Nolans.
[14] 14. During the same time, the consul, Fabius, came to attempt Casilinum, which was occupied by a Carthaginian garrison; and, as if by concert, Hanno approached Beneventum on one side from the Bruttians, with a large body of foot and horse, while on the other side Gracchus approached it from Luceria. The latter entered the town first. Then, hearing that Hanno had pitched his camp three miles from the city, at the river Calor, and from thence was laying waste the country, he himself marched without the walls, and pitching his camp about a mile from the enemy, harangued his soldiers. The legions he had consisted for the most part of volunteer slaves, who chose rather to earn their liberty silently by another year’s service, than demand it openly. The general, however, on quitting his winter quarters, had perceived that the troops murmured, asking when the time would arrive that they should serve as free citizens. He had written to the senate, stating not so much what they wanted as what they had deserved; he said they had served him with fidelity and courage up to that day, and that they wanted nothing but liberty, to bring them up to the model of complete soldiers. Permission was given him to act in the business as he thought for the interest of the state, and, accordingly, before he engaged with the enemy, he declared that the time was now arrived for obtaining that liberty which they had so long hoped for; that on the following day he should fight a pitched battle on a level and open plain, in which the contest would be decided by valour only, without any fear of ambuscade. The man who should bring back the head of an enemy, he would instantly order to be set free; but that he would punish, in a manner suited to a slave, the man who should quit his post; that every man’s fortune was in his own hands; that not he himself alone would authorize their enfranchisement, but the consul, Marcus Marcellus, and the whole body of the fathers, who, on being consulted by him on the subject, had left the matter to his disposal. He then read the letter of the consul and the decree of the senate, on which they raised a general shout of approbation, demanded to be led to battle, and vehemently urged him to give the signal forthwith. Gracchus broke up the assembly, after proclaiming the battle for the following day. The soldiers, highly delighted, particularly those whose enfranchisement was to be the reward of one day’s prowess, employed the remaining time in getting ready their arms.
[14] 15. The next day, as soon as the trumpets began to sound, they were the first to assemble at the general’s tent, armed and ready for action. When the sun had risen, Gracchus led out his troops to the field of battle; nor did the enemy delay to engage him. His troops consisted of seventeen thousand infantry, principally Bruttians and Lucanians, with twelve hundred horse, among which were very few Italians, almost all the rest being Numidians and Moors. The contest was fierce and protracted. For four hours neither side had the advantage, nor did any other circumstance more impede the Romans, than that the heads of their enemies were made the price of their liberty. For when each man had gallantly slain his enemy, first, he lost time in cutting off his head, which was done with difficulty amid the crowd and confusion, and secondly, all the bravest troops ceased to be engaged in fight, as their right hands were employed in holding the heads; and thus the battle was left to be sustained by the inactive and cowardly. But when the military tribunes reported to Gracchus that the soldiers were employed not in wounding any of the enemy who were standing, but in mangling those who were prostrate, their right hands being occupied in holding the heads of men instead of their swords, he promptly ordered a signal to be given that they should throw down the heads and charge the enemy; that they had given evident and signal proofs of valour, and that the liberty of such brave men was certain. Then the fight was revived, and the cavalry also were sent out against the enemy. The Numidians engaging them with great bravery, and the contest between the cavalry being carried on with no less spirit than that between the infantry, the victory again became doubtful; when, the generals on both sides vilifying their opponents, the Roman saying, that their enemies were Bruttians and Lucanians, who had been so often vanquished and subjugated by their ancestors; the Carthaginian, that the troops opposed to them were Roman slaves, soldiers taken out of a workhouse; at last Gracchus exclaimed, that his men had no ground to hope for liberty unless the enemy were routed and put to flight that day.
[14] 16. These words at length kindled their courage so effectually, and renewing the shout, as if suddenly changed into other men, they bore down upon the enemy with such impetuosity that they could not longer be withstood. First, of the Carthaginians who stood before the standards; then the standards were thrown into disorder; and lastly the whole line was compelled to give way. They then turned their backs downright, and fled precipitately to their camp with such terror and consternation, that not a man made stand in the gates or on the rampart; while the Romans, who pursued them so close as to form almost a part of their body commenced the battle anew, enclosed within the rampart of the enemy. Here the battle was more bloody as the combatants had less room to move, from the narrowness of the place in which they fought. The prisoners too assisted; for snatching up swords in the confusion, and forming themselves into a body, they slew the Carthaginians in the rear and prevented their flight. Thus less than two thousand men out of so large an army, and those principally cavalry, effected their escape with their commander, all the rest were slain or taken prisoners. Thirty-eight standards were taken. Of the victors about two thousand fell. All the booty except that of the prisoners was given up to the soldiery. Such cattle also as the owners should identify within thirty days was excepted. When they returned to their camp loaded with spoil, about four thousand of the volunteer slaves who had fought with less spirit, and had not joined in breaking into the enemy’s camp, through fear of punishment, took possession of a hill not far from the camp. Being brought down thence the next day by a military tribune, it happened that they arrived during an assembly of the soldiers which Gracchus had called. At this assembly the proconsul, having first rewarded the veteran soldiers with military presents, according to the valour displayed, and the service rendered by each man in the engagement, then observed, with respect to the volunteer slaves, that he would rather that all should be praised by him whether deserving it or not, than that any one should be chastised on that day. I bid you, said he, all be free, and may the event be attended with advantage, happiness, and prosperity to the state and to yourselves. These words were followed by the most cordial acclamations, the soldiers sometimes embracing and congratulating one another, at other times lifting up their hands to heaven, and praying that every blessing might attend the Roman people, and Gracchus in particular; when Gracchus addressed them thus: “Before I had placed you all on an equal footing with respect to the enjoyment of liberty, I was unwilling to affix any marks by which the brave and dastardly soldier might be distinguished. But now the pledge given by the state being redeemed, lest all distinction between courage and cowardice should disappear, I shall order that the names of those persons be laid before me, who, conscious of their dastardly conduct in the battle, have lately seceded. I shall have them cited before me, when I shall bind them by an oath, that none of them, except such as shall have the plea of sickness, will, so long as they serve, take either meat or drink in any other posture than standing. This penalty you will bear with patience when you reflect that it is impossible your cowardice could be marked with a slighter stigma.” He then gave the signal for packing up the baggage; and the soldiers, sporting and jesting as they drove and carried their booty, returned to Beneventum in so playful a mood, that they appeared to be returning, not from the field of battle, but from a feast celebrated on some remarkable holiday. All the Beneventans pouring out in crowds to meet them at the gate, embraced, congratulated, and invited the troops to entertainments. They had all prepared banquets in the courts of their houses, to which they invited the soldiers, and of which they entreated Gracchus to allow them to partake. Gracchus gave permission, with the proviso that they should feast in the public street. Each person brought every thing out before his door. The volunteers feasted with caps of liberty on their heads, or filletted with white wool; some reclining at the tables, others standing, who at once partook of the repast, and waited upon the rest. It even seemed a fitting occasion that Gracchus, on his return to Rome, should order a picture representing the festivities of that day to be executed in the temple of Liberty, which his father caused to be built on the Aventine out of money arising from fines, and which his father also dedicated.
[14] 17. While these events occurred at Beneventum, Hannibal having laid waste the territory of Naples, moved his camp to Nola. The consul, as soon as he was aware of his approach, sent for Pemponius the propraetor, with the troops he had in the camp above Suessula; and then prepared to meet the enemy and to make no delay in fighting. He sent out Caius Claudius Nero in the dead of night with the main strength of the cavalry, through the gate which was farthest removed from the enemy, with orders to make a circuit so as not to be observed, and then slowly to follow the enemy as they moved along, and as soon as he perceived the battle begun, to charge them on the rear. Whether Nero was prevented from executing these orders by mistaking the route, or from the shortness of the time, is doubtful. Though he was absent when the battle was fought, the Romans had unquestionably the advantage; but as the cavalry did not come up in time, the plan of the battle which had been agreed upon was disconcerted and Marcellus, not daring to follow the retiring enemy, gave the signal for retreat when his soldiers were conquering More than two thousand of the enemy are said, however, to have fallen on that day; of the Romans, less than four hundred. Nero, after having fruitlessly wearied both men and horses, through the day and night, without even having seen the enemy, returned about sunset; when the consul went so far in reprimanding him as to assert, that he had been the only obstacle to their retorting on the enemy the disaster sustained at Cannae. The following day the Roman came into the field, but the Carthaginian, beaten even by his own tacit confession, kept within his camp. Giving up all hope of getting possession of Nola, a thing never attempted without loss, during the silence of the night of the third day he set out for Tarentum, which he had better hopes of having betrayed to him.
[14] 18. Nor were the Roman affairs administered with less spirit at home than in the field. The censors being freed from the care of letting out the erection of public works, from the low state of the treasury, turned their attention to the regulation of men’s morals, and the chastisement of vices which sprung up during the war, in the same manner as constitutions broken down by protracted disease, generate other maladies. In the first place, they cited those persons who, after the battle of Cannae, were said to have formed a design of abandoning the commonwealth, and leaving Italy. The chief of these was Lucius Caecilius Metellus, who happened to be then quaestor. In the next place, as neither he nor the other persons concerned were able to exculpate themselves on being ordered to make their defence, they pronounced them guilty of having used words and discourse prejudicial to the state, that a conspiracy might be formed for the abandonment of Italy. After them were cited those persons who showed too much ingenuity in inventing a method of discharging the obligation of their oath, namely, such of the prisoners as concluded that the oath which they had sworn to return, would be fulfilled by their going back privately to Hannibal’s camp, after setting out on their journey. Such of these and of the above-mentioned as had horses at the public expense were deprived of them, and all were degraded from their tribes and disfranchised. Nor was the attention of the censors confined to the regulation of the senate and the equestrian order. They erased from the lists of the junior centuries the names of all who had not served during the last four years, unless they were regularly exempted, or were prevented by sickness. Those too, amounting to more than two thousand names, were numbered among the disfranchised, and were all degraded. To this more gentle stigma affixed by the censors, a severe decree of the senate was added, to the effect that all those whom the censor had stigmatized, should serve on foot, and be sent into Sicily to join the remains of the army of Cannae, a class of soldiers whose time of service was not to terminate till the enemy was driven out of Italy. The censors, in consequence of the poverty of the treasury, having abstained from receiving contracts for the repairs of the sacred edifices, the furnishing of curule horses, and similar matters, the persons who had been accustomed to attend auctions of this description, came to the censors in great numbers, and exhorted them to “transact all their business and let out the contracts in the same manner as if there were money in the treasury. That none of them would ask for money out of the treasury before the war was concluded.” Afterwards the owners of those slaves whom Tiberius Sempronius had manumitted at Beneventum, came to them, stating that they were sent for by the public bankers, to receive the price of their slaves, but that they would not accept of it till the war was concluded. This disposition on the part of the commons to sustain the impoverished treasury having manifested itself, the property of minors first, and then the portions of widows, began to be brought in; the persons who brought them being persuaded, that their deposit would no where be more secure and inviolable than under the public faith. If any thing was bought or laid in for the widows and minors, an order upon the quaestor was given for it. This liberality in individuals flowed from the city into the camp also, insomuch that no horseman or centurion would accept of his pay, and those who would accept it were reproached with the appellation of mercenary men.
[14] 19. Quintus Fabius, the consul, was encamped before Casilinum, which was occupied by a garrison of two thousand Campanians and seven hundred of the soldiers of Hannibal. The commander was Statius Metius, who was sent there by Cneius Magius Atellanus, who was that year Medixtuticus and was arming the slaves and people without distinction, in order to assault the Roman camp, while the consul was intently occupied in the siege of Casilinum. None of these things escaped Fabius. He therefore sent to his colleague at Nola, “That another army was requisite, which might be opposed to the Campanians, while the siege of Casilinum was going on; that either he should come himself, leaving a force sufficient for the protection of Nola, or if the state of Nola required him to stay there, in consequence of its not being yet secure against the attempts of Hannibal, that he should summon Tiberius Gracchus, the proconsul, from Beneventum.” On this message, Marcellus, leaving two thousand troops in garrison at Nola, came to Casilinum with the rest of his forces; and at his arrival the Campanians, who were already in motion, desisted from their operations. Thus the siege of Casilinum was commenced by the two consuls. But as the Roman soldiers received many wounds as they rashly approached the walls, and as they did not succeed satisfactorily in their attempts. Fabius gave it as his opinion that this, which was a small matter, though as difficult as more important ones, should be abandoned, and that they should retire from the place, as affairs of greater moment were pressing. Marcellus, however, succeeded in persuading him that they should not go away with their object unaccomplished, observing that as there were many objects which great generals should not attempt, so when once attempted they should not be abandoned, because the mere report in either case would have important consequences. Upon this the vineae and all kinds of military works and engines were applied; in consequence of which, the Campanians entreated Fabius to allow them to retire to Capua in safety; when a few of them having come out of the town, Marcellus took possession of the gate through which they passed, and first slew all indiscriminately who were near the gate, and then rushing in, the slaughter commenced in the town also. About fifty of the Campanians, who at first came out of the city, having fled for refuge to Fabius, arrived safe at Capua under his protection. Thus Casilinum was captured on an accidental opportunity which occurred during the conferences and delay of those who were soliciting protection. The prisoners, both those who were Campanians and those who were Hannibal’s soldiers, were sent to Rome, where they were shut up in a prison. The crowd of townsmen was distributed among the neighbouring people to be kept in custody.
[14] 20. At the same time that the consuls retired from Casilinum, their object having been accomplished, Gracchus, who was in Lucania, sent, under a prefect of the allies, some cohorts which he had levied in that country to ravage the lands of the enemy. These, as they were straggling in a careless manner, Hanno surprising, retorted upon his enemy a defeat not much less disastrous than he had himself received at Beneventum, and then hastily retired to the territory of the Bruttians, lest Gracchus should overtake him. Of the consuls, Marcellus returned to Nola, whence he had come, Fabius proceeded to Samnium to waste the lands, and recover by force the cities which had revolted. The Samnites of Caudium suffered the severest devastation; their fields were laid waste by fire for a wide extent, and both men and cattle were conveyed away as booty. The towns of Compulteria, Telesia, Compsa, Melae, Fulfulae, and Orbitanium, were taken by storm. Blandae, belonging to the Lucanians, and Aecae to the Apulians, were taken after a siege. Twenty-five thousand of the enemy were captured or slain in these towns, and three hundred and seventy deserters recovered; who, being sent to Rome by the consul, were all of them beaten with rods in the comitium, and thrown down from the rock. Such were the achievements of Fabius within the space of a few days. Ill health detained Marcellus from active operations at Nola. The town of Accua also was taken by storm, during the same period, by the praetor Quintus Fabius, whose province was the neighbourhood of Luceria; he also fortified a stationary camp at Ardonea. While the Romans were thus employed in different quarters, Hannibal had reached Tarentum, utterly destroying every thing whichsoever way he went. In the territory of Tarentum, the troops at length began to march in a peaceable manner. There nothing was violated, nor did they ever go out of the road; it was evident that this was done not from the moderation of the soldiery, or their general, but to conciliate the affections of the Tarentines. However, on advancing almost close to the walls without perceiving any movement, which he expected would occur on the sight of his vanguard, he pitched his camp about a mile off the city. Three days before the arrival of Hannibal, Marcus Livius, who had been sent by Marcus Valerius, the propraetor, commanding the fleet at Brundusium, had enlisted the young nobility of Tarentum, and stationing guards at every gate, and round the walls, wherever circumstances made it necessary, had kept such a strict watch both by day and night, as to give no opportunity for making any attempt either to the enemy or doubtful allies. On this account several days were consumed there to no purpose, when Hannibal, as none of those who had come to him at the lake Avernus, either came themselves or sent any letter or message, perceiving that he had carelessly followed delusive promises, moved his camp thence. Even after this he did not offer any violence to the Tarentine territory, not quitting the hope of shaking their allegiance to the Romans, though his simulated lenity had hitherto been of no advantage to him; but as soon as he came to Salapia he collected stores of corn there from the Metapontine and Heraclean lands; for midsummer was now past, and the situation pleased him as a place for winter quarters. From hence the Moors and Numidians were detached to plunder the territory of Sallentum, and the neighbouring woods of Apulia, from which not much booty of any other sort was obtained, but principally droves of horses, four thousand of which were distributed among his horsemen to be broken.
[14] 21. The Romans, since a war by no means to be despised was springing up in Sicily, and the death of the tyrant had furnished the Syracusans with more enterprising leaders, rather than changed their attachment to the Carthaginian cause, or the state of their minds, decreed that province to Marcus Marcellus, one of their consuls. After the assassination of Hieronymus, at first a tumult had taken place among the soldiery in the territory of the Leontines. They exclaimed furiously that the manes of the king should be appeased with the blood of the conspirators. Afterwards the frequent repetition of the word liberty, which was restored to them, a word so delightful to the ear, the hopes they had conceived of largesses from the royal treasury, and of serving in future under better generals, the relation of the horrid crimes and more horrid lusts of the tyrant, effected such an alteration in their sentiments, that they suffered to lie unburied the corpse of the king, whom a little before they regretted. As the rest of the conspirators remained behind, in order to keep the army on their side, Theodotus and Sosis, mounted on the king’s horses, rode off to Syracuse with all possible speed, that they might surprise the king’s party, while unacquainted with all that had occurred. But they were anticipated not only by report, than which nothing is swifter in such affairs, but also by a messenger who was one of the royal servants. In consequence, Andranodorus had occupied with strong garrisons the Insula and the citadel, and every other convenient part which he could. After sunset, when it was now growing dark, Theodotus and Sosis rode in by the Hexapylum, and displayed the royal vest stained with blood, and the ornament of the king’s head; then passing through the Tycha, and calling the people at once to liberty and arms, bid them assemble in the Achradina. Some of the multitude ran out into the streets, some stood in the porches of their houses, while others looked out from the roofs and windows, and inquired what was the matter. Every part of the city was filled with lights and noises of various kinds. Assemblies of armed men were formed in the open spaces. Those who had no arms tore down from the temple of the Olympian Jupiter the spoils of the Gauls and Illyrians, which had been presented to Hiero by the Roman people, and hung up there by him; at the same time offering up prayers to Jupiter, that he would willingly, and without feeling offence, lend those consecrated weapons to those who were arming themselves in defence of their country, of the temples of their gods, and their liberty. This multitude was also joined by the watches which were stationed through the principal quarters of the city. In the island, Andranodorus, among other places, secured the public granaries by a garrison. This place, which was enclosed by a wall of stones hewn square, and built up on high, after the manner of a citadel, was occupied by a body of youth, who had been appointed to garrison it, and these sent messengers to the Achradina, to give information that the granaries and the corn were in the power of the senate.
[14] 22. At break of day the whole populace, armed and unarmed, assembled at the senate-house in the Achradina: where from the altar of Concord, which stood there, one of the nobles, named Polyaenus, delivered a liberal and temperate address. He said, that “men who had experienced servitude and contumely, were enraged against an evil which was well known, but that the Syracusans had rather heard from their fathers than seen with their own eyes the disasters which civil discord introduces.” He said, “he commended them for the alacrity with which they had taken arms; but that he should commend them more if they should abstain from using them unless compelled by extreme necessity. At present he advised that ambassadors should be sent to Andranodorus, to charge him to submit to the direction of the senate and the people, to throw open the gates of the island, and withdraw the garrison. If he resolved to usurp the sovereignty of which he had been appointed guardian, that he would recommend that their liberty be recovered more energetically from Andranodorus than it had been from Hieronymus.” From this assembly ambassadors were despatched. The senate began now to meet, which though during the reign of Hiero it had continued to be the public council of the state, from the time of his death up to the present had never been assembled or consulted upon any subject. When the ambassadors came to Andranodorus, he was himself moved by the unanimous opinion of his countrymen, by their having possession of other parts of the city, and by the fact that the strongest part of the island was betrayed and placed in the hands of others; but his wife, Demarata, the daughter of Hiero, still swelling with the pride of royalty and female presumption, called him out from the presence of the ambassadors, and reminded him of the expression so often repeated by the tyrant Dionysius, “that a man ought only to relinquish sovereign power when dragged by the feet, and not while sitting on horseback. That it was an easy thing, at any moment one pleased, to give up possession of grandeur, but that to create and obtain them was difficult and arduous. That he should obtain from the ambassadors a little time to deliberate, and to employ it in fetching the soldiers from the Leontines; to whom, if he promised the royal treasure, every thing would be at his disposal.” This advice, suggested by a woman, Andranodorus neither entirely rejected nor immediately adopted, considering it the safer way to the attainment of power to temporize for the present. Accordingly he told the ambassadors to carry word back, that he should act subserviently to the senate and the people. The next day, as soon as it was light, he threw open the gates of the island, and came into the forum of the Achradina; then mounting the altar of Concord, from which Polyaenus had delivered his harangue the day before, he commenced a speech by soliciting pardon for his delay. “He had kept the gates closed,” he said, “not as separating his own from the public interest, but from fear as to where the carnage would stop when once the sword was drawn; whether they would be satisfied with the blood of the tyrant, which was sufficient for their liberty, or whether all who were connected with the court, by consanguinity, affinity, or any offices, would, as implicated in another’s guilt, be butchered. After he perceived that those who had liberated their country were desirous of preserving it when liberated, and that the counsels of all were directed towards the public good, he had not hesitated to restore to his country his own person and every thing else which had been committed to his honour and guardianship, since the person who had intrusted him with them had fallen a victim to his own madness.” Then turning to the persons who had killed the tyrant, and calling on Theodotus and Sosis by name, he said, “You have performed a memorable deed, but believe me, your glory is only beginning, not yet perfected; and there still remains great danger lest the enfranchised state should be destroyed, if you do not provide for its tranquillity and harmony.”
[14] 23. At the conclusion of this speech, he laid the keys of the gates and of the royal treasure at their feet; and on that day, retiring from the assembly in the highest spirits, they made supplication with their wives and children at all the temples of the gods. On the following day an assembly was held for the election of praetors. Andranodorus was created among the first; the rest consisted for the most part of the destroyers of the tyrant; two of these, Sopater and Dinomenes, they appointed in their absence. These, on hearing of what had passed at Syracuse, conveyed thither the royal treasure which was at Leontini, and put it into the hands of quaestors appointed for that purpose. The treasure also in the island and the Achradina was delivered to them, and that part of the wall which formed too strong a separation between the island and the other parts of the city, was demolished by general consent. Every thing else which was done was in conformity with this inclination of their minds to liberty. Hippocrates and Epicydes, on hearing of the death of the tyrant, which Hippocrates had wished to conceal even by putting the messenger to death, being deserted by the soldiery, returned to Syracuse, as that appeared the safest course under present circumstances; but lest if they appeared there in common they should become objects of suspicion, and looked upon as persons who were seeking an opportunity of effecting some change, they in the first place addressed themselves to the praetors and then through them to the senate. They declared, that “they were sent by Hannibal to Hieronymus, as to a friend and ally; that they had obeyed the orders of that man whom their general wished them to obey; that they desired to return to Hannibal; but as the journey would not be safe, as armed Romans were ranging at large through the whole of Sicily, that they requested to be furnished with some escort which might convey them in safety to Locri in Italy; and that thus they would confer a great obligation upon Hannibal, with little trouble.” The request was easily obtained, for they were desirous of getting rid of these generals of the king, who were skilled in war, and at once necessitous and enterprising. But they did not exert themselves so as to effect what they desired with the requisite speed. Meanwhile these young men, who were of a military turn and accustomed to the soldiers, employed themselves in circulating charges against the senate and nobles, sometimes in the minds of the soldiers themselves, sometimes of the deserters, of which the greater part were Roman sailors, at other times of men belonging to the lowest order of the populace, insinuating, that “what they were secretly labouring and contriving to effect, was to place Syracuse under the dominion of the Romans with the pretence of a renewed alliance, and then that faction and the few promoters of the alliance would be supreme.”
[14] 24. The crowds of persons disposed to hear and credit these insinuations which flowed into Syracuse from every quarter increased daily, and afforded hopes, not only to Epicydes but to Andranodorus also, of effecting a revolution. The latter, wearied at length by the importunities of his wife, who warned him, “that now was the favourable time for seizing the government, while every thing was in confusion in consequence of liberty being recent and not yet regularly established; while a soldiery supported by the royal pay was to be met with, and while generals sent by Hannibal and accustomed to the soldiery might forward the attempt;” he communicated his design with Themistus, who had married the daughter of Gelon, and a few days afterwards incautiously disclosed it to a certain tragic actor, named Ariston, to whom he was in the habit of committing other secrets. He was a man of reputable birth and fortune, nor did his profession disgrace them, for among the Greeks no pursuit of that kind was considered dishonourable. He therefore discovered the plot to the praetors, from a conviction that his country had a superior claim upon his fidelity. These having satisfied themselves that his statement was not false by indubitable proofs, took the advice of the elder senators, and with their sanction, having placed a guard at the doors, slew Themistus and Andranodorus as soon as they had entered the senate-house. A disturbance arising in consequence of this act, which, as none but the praetors knew the cause of it, wore an appearance of atrocity, the praetors, having at length procured silence, introduced the informer into the senate-house; and after he had in a regular manner detailed to the senate every particular, showing that the conspiracy owed its origin to the marriage of Harmonia, the daughter of Gelon, with Themistus; that the African and Spanish auxiliaries had been prepared to murder the praetors and others of the nobility; that it had been given out that their goods were to be the booty of the assassins; that already a band of mercenaries accustomed to obey the command of Andranodorus had been procured for the reoccupation of the island; and having then distinctly represented to them the several parts which the persons implicated in the transaction were performing, and having brought under their view the entire plot prepared for execution with men and arms; it seemed to the senate that they had fallen as justly as Hieronymus had. A shout was raised before the senate-house by a crowd of people variously disposed and uncertain of the facts; but as they were conducting themselves in a furious and menacing manner, the bodies of the conspirators in the vestibule of the senate-house restrained them with such alarm, that they silently followed the more discreet part of the commons to an assembly. Sopater was the person commissioned by the senate and his colleague to explain the affair.
[14] 25. Treating them as if they stood upon their trial, he began with their past lives; and insisted that Andranodorus and Themistus were the authors of every act of iniquity and impiety which had been perpetrated since the death of Hiero. “For what,” said he, “did the boy Hieronymus ever do of his own accord? What could he do who had scarce as yet arrived at puberty? His tutors and guardians had ruled, while the odium rested on another. Therefore they ought to have been put to death either before Hieronymus or with him. Nevertheless those men, deservedly marked out for death, had attempted fresh crimes after the decease of the tyrant; first openly, when, closing the gates of the island, Andranodorus declared himself heir to the throne, and kept that as proprietor which he had held only in the capacity of guardian; afterwards, when betrayed by those who were in the island and blockaded by the whole body of the citizens who held the Achradina, he endeavoured to obtain, by secret and artful means, that sovereignty which he had in vain attempted openly; whom not even benefits and honorary distinction could move, for even this conspirator against the liberty of his country was created praetor among her liberators. But that wives of royal blood had infected them with this thirst for royalty, one having married the daughter of Hiero, the other the daughter of Gelon.” On hearing these words, a shout arose from every part of the assembly, that “none of these women ought to live, and that not one of the royal family should be left alive.” Such is the nature of the populace; they are either cringing slaves or haughty tyrants. They know not how with moderation to spurn or to enjoy that liberty which holds the middle place; nor are there generally wanting ministers, the panders to their resentment, who incite their eager and intemperate minds to blood and carnage. Thus, on the present occasion, the praetors instantly proposed the passing of a decree, which was consented to almost before it was proposed, that all the royal family should be put to death; and persons despatched for the purpose by the praetors, put to death Demarata, the daughter of Hiero, and Harmonia, the daughter of Gelon, the wives of Andranodorus and Themistus.
[14] 26. There was a daughter of Hiero, named Heraclea, the wife of Zoippus, who, having been sent by Hieronymus as ambassador to king Ptolemy, had become a voluntary exile. As soon as she was apprized that they were coming to her also, she fled for refuge into the chapel to the household gods, accompanied by her two virgin daughters, with dishevelled hair, and other marks of wretchedness. In addition to this, she had recourse to prayers also; she implored them “by the memory of her father, Hiero, and her brother, Gelon, that they would not suffer her, a guiltless person, to be consumed by their hatred of Hieronymus. That all that she had derived from his reign was the exile of her husband. That neither did she enjoy the same advantages as her sister while Hieronymus was alive, nor was her cause the same as hers now he was dead. What? Though her sister would have shared the throne with Andranodorus, had he succeeded in his designs, she must have been in servitude with the rest. Can any one doubt, that if information should be conveyed to Zoippus that Hieronymus had been put to death, and that Syracuse was free, he would instantly embark and return to his native land. But how are all human hopes deceived! His wife and children are struggling for their lives in his native land, now blessed with liberty! In what manner standing in the way of liberty or the laws? What danger could arise to any one from them, from a solitary, and in a manner, widowed woman and girls living in a state of orphanage? But perhaps it will be granted that no danger is to be apprehended from them, but alleged that the whole royal family is detested. If this were the case, she entreated that they would banish them far from Syracuse and Sicily, and order them to be conveyed to Alexandria, the wife to her husband, the daughters to their father.” Seeing that their ears and minds were unimpressed, and that certain of them were drawing their swords to prevent a fruitless consumption of time, she gave over entreating for herself, and began to implore them to “spare, at least, her daughters, at an age which even exasperated enemies spared.” She entreated them “that they would not, in their revenge on tyrants, themselves imitate the crimes which were odious to them.” While thus employed, they dragged her from the sanctuary and murdered her; and after that they fell upon the virgins, who were sprinkled with the blood of their mother; who, distracted alike by fear and grief, and as if seized with madness, rushed out of the chapel with such rapidity, that had there been an opening by which they might have escaped into the street, they would have filled the city with confusion. As it was, they several times made their escape through the midst of so many armed men with their persons uninjured in the contracted space which the house afforded, and extricated themselves from their grasp, though they had to disengage themselves from so many and such strong hands; but at length enfeebled by wounds, and after covering every place with blood, they fell down lifeless. This murder, piteous as it was in itself, was rendered still more so by its happening that a short time after it a message arrived that they should not be killed, as the minds of the people were now turned to compassion. This compassion then gave rise to a feeling of anger, because so much haste had been shown in carrying the punishment into effect, and because no opportunity was left for relenting or retracing the steps of their passion. The multitude therefore gave vent to their indignation, and demanded an election to supply the places of Andranodorus and Themistus, for both of them had been praetors; an election by no means likely to be agreeable to the praetors.
[14] 27. The day was fixed for the election, when, to the surprise of all, one person from the extremity of the crowd nominated Epicydes, and then another from the same quarter nominated Hippocrates. Afterwards the voices in favour of these persons increased with the manifest approbation of the multitude. The assembly was one of a heterogeneous character, consisting not only of the commons, but a crowd of soldiers, with a large admixture even of deserters, who were desirous of innovation in every thing. The praetors, at first, concealed their feelings, and were for protracting the business; but at length, overcome by the general opinion, and apprehensive of a sedition, they declared them the praetors. These did not, however, immediately openly avow their sentiments, though they were chagrined that ambassadors had been sent to Appius Claudius to negotiate a ten days’ truce, and that on obtaining this, others were sent to treat for the renewal of the old alliance. The Romans, with a fleet of a hundred ships, were then stationed at Murgantia, waiting the issue of the commotion raised at Syracuse by the death of the tyrants, and to what their recent acquisition of liberty would impel the people. Meanwhile, the Syracusan ambassadors were sent by Appius Claudius to Marcellus on his coming into Sicily, and Marcellus having heard the conditions of peace, and being of opinion that matters might be brought to a settlement, himself also sent ambassadors to Syracuse to treat with the praetors in person on the renewal of the alliance. But now by no means the same state of quiet and tranquillity existed there. Hippocrates and Epicydes, their fears being removed, after that intelligence had arrived that a Carthaginian fleet had put in at Pachynum, complained sometimes to the mercenary soldiers, at other times to the deserters, that Syracuse was being betrayed to the Romans. And when Appius began to station his ships at the mouth of the port, in order to inspire the other party with courage, their false insinuations appeared to receive great corroboration; and on the first impulse, the populace had even run down in a disorderly manner to prevent them from disembarking.
[14] 28. While affairs were in this unsettled state, it was resolved to call an assembly; in which, when some leaned to one side and some to the other, and an insurrection being on the point of breaking out, Apollonides, one of the nobles, delivered a speech fraught with salutary advice, considering the critical state of affairs: “Never,” he said, “had a state a nearer prospect of safety and annihilation. For if they would all unanimously espouse the cause either of the Romans or the Carthaginians, there could be no state whose condition would be more prosperous and happy; but if they pulled different ways, the war between the Romans and Carthaginians would not be more bloody than that which would take place between the Syracusans themselves, in which both the contending parties would have their forces, their troops, and their generals, within the same walls. Every exertion ought therefore to be made that all might think alike. Which alliance would be productive of the greater advantages, was a question of quite a secondary nature, and of less moment; though the authority of Hiero ought to be followed in preference to that of Hieronymus in the selection of allies, and a friendship of which they had had a happy experience through a space of fifty years, ought to be chosen rather than one now untried and formerly unfaithful. That it ought also to have some weight in their deliberations, that peace with the Carthaginians might be refused in such a manner as not immediately, at least, to have a war with them, while with the Romans they must forthwith have either peace or war.” The less of party spirit and warmth appeared in this speech the greater weight it had. A military council also was united with the praetors and a chosen body of senators; the commanders of companies also, and the praefects of the allies, were ordered to consult conjointly. After the question had been agitated with great warmth, at length, as there appeared to be no means of carrying on a war with the Romans, it was resolved that a treaty of peace should be formed, and that ambassadors should be sent with those from Rome to ratify the same.
[14] 29. Not many days intervened before ambassadors came from the Leontines, requesting troops to protect their frontiers; an embassy which appeared to afford a very favourable opportunity for disencumbering the city of a turbulent and disorderly rabble, and for removing their leaders to a distance. The praetor, Hippocrates, was ordered to lead the deserters thither. Many of the mercenary auxiliaries accompanying them made them number four thousand armed men. This expedition gave great delight both to those who were sent and those who sent them, for to the former an opportunity was afforded of change which they had long desired, while the latter were rejoiced because they considered that a kind of sink of the city had been drained off. But they had, as it were, only relieved a sick body for a time, that it might afterwards fall into a more aggravated disease. For Hippocrates began to ravage the adjoining parts of the Roman province, at first by stealthy excursions, but afterwards, when Appies had sent a body of troops to protect the lands of the allies, he made an attack with all his forces upon the guard posted over against him, and slew many. Marcellus, when informed of this, immediately sent ambassadors to Syracuse, who said that the faith of the treaty had been broken, and that there would never be wanting a cause for hostilities, unless Hippocrates and Epicydes were removed not only from Syracuse, but far from all Sicily. Epicydes, lest by being present he should be arraigned for the offence committed by his absent brother, or should be wanting on his own part in stirring up a war, proceeded himself also to the Leontines; and seeing that they were already sufficiently exasperated against the Romans, he endeavoured to detach them from the Syracusans also. His argument was, that the terms on which they had formed a treaty of peace with the Romans were, that whatever people had been subject to their kings should be placed under their dominion; and that now they were not satisfied with liberty unless they could also exercise kingly power and dominion over others. The answer, therefore, he said, which they ought to send back was, that the Leontines also considered themselves entitled to liberty, either on the ground that the tyrant fell in the streets of their city, or that there the shout was first raised for liberty; and that they were the persons who, abandoning the king’s generals, flocked to Syracuse. That, therefore, either that article must be expunged from the treaty, or that that term of it would not be admitted. They easily persuaded the multitude; and when the ambassadors of Syracuse complained of the slaughter of the Roman guard, and ordered that Hippocrates and Epicydes should depart either to Locri or any other place they pleased, provided they quitted Sicily, a reply was made to them in a haughty manner, “that they had neither placed themselves at the disposal of the Syracusans to make a peace for them with the Romans, nor were they bound by the treaties of other people.” This answer the Syracusans laid before the Romans, declaring at the same time that “the Leontines were not under their control, and that, therefore, the Romans might make war on them without violating the treaty subsisting between them; that they would also not be wanting in the war, provided that when brought again under subjection, they should form a part of their dominion, agreeably to the conditions of the peace.”
[14] 30. Marcellus marched with his entire forces against Leontini, having sent for Appius also, in order that he might attack it in another quarter; when, such was the ardour of the troops in consequence of the indignation they felt at the Roman guards being put to the sword during the negotiations for a peace, that they took the town by storm on the first assault. Hippocrates and Epicydes, perceiving that the enemy were getting possession of the walls and breaking open the gates, retired with a few others into the citadel, from which they fled unobserved during the night to Herbessus. The Syracusans, who had marched from home with eight thousand troops, were met at the river Myla by a messenger, who informed them that the city was taken. The rest which he stated was a mixture of truth and falsehood; he said that there had been an indiscriminate massacre of the soldiers and the townsmen, and that he did not think that one person who had arrived at puberty had survived; that the town had been pillaged, and the property of the rich men given to the troops. On receiving such direful news the army halted; and while all were under violent excitement, the generals, Sosis and Dinomenes, consulted together as to the course to be taken. The scourging and beheading of two thousand deserters had given to this false statement a plausibility which excited alarm; but no violence was offered to any of the Leontine or other soldiers after the city was taken; and every man’s property was restored to him, with the exception only of such as was destroyed in the first confusion which attended the capture of the city. The troops, who complained of their fellow-soldiers having been betrayed and butchered, could neither be induced to proceed to Leontini, nor wait where they were for more certain intelligence. The praetors, perceiving their minds disposed to mutiny, but concluding that their violence would not be of long continuance, if those who had led them on to such folly were removed, led the troops to Megara, whence they themselves with a few horsemen proceeded to Herbessus, under the expectation of having the city betrayed to them in the general consternation; but being disappointed in this attempt, they resolved to resort to force, and moved their camp from Megara on the following day, in order to attack Herbessus with all their forces. Hippocrates and Epicydes having formed the design of putting themselves into the hands of the soldiers, who were for the most part accustomed to them, and were now incensed at the report of the massacre of their comrades, not so much as a safe measure on the first view of it as that it was their only course, now that all hope was cut off, went out to meet the army. It happened that the troops which marched in the van were six hundred Cretans, who had been engaged in the service of Hieronymus under their command, and were under obligation to Hannibal, having been captured at the Trasimenus among the Roman auxiliaries, and dismissed by him. Hippocrates and Epicydes, recognising them by their standards and the fashion of their armour, held out olive branches, and the fillets usually worn by suppliants, and implored them to receive them into their ranks, protect them when received, and not betray them to the Syracusans, by whom they themselves would soon be delivered up to the Romans to be butchered.
[14] 31. But the Cretans with one accord called out to them to be of good courage; that they would share every fortune with them. During this conversation, the vanguard had halted, and the march was delayed; nor had the cause of the delay as yet reached the generals. After the report had spread that Hippocrates and Epicydes were there, and a voice was heard through the whole army, which showed evidently that the troops were pleased at their arrival, the praetors immediately gallopped to the front, and earnestly asked “what was the meaning of that violation of discipline, which the Cretans had committed in holding conference with the enemy, and allowing them to mingle with their ranks without the authority of the praetors.” They ordered Hippocrates to be seized and thrown into chains. On hearing which such a clamour was raised, first by the Cretans and then by the rest, that it was quite evident if they proceeded farther that they would have cause to fear. In this state of anxiety and perplexity, they gave orders to march back to Megara, whence they had set out, and sent messengers to Syracuse, to give information of their present condition. Hippocrates added a deception, seeing that the minds of the troops were disposed to entertain every suspicion. Having sent some Cretans to lie in wait in the roads, he read a letter he pretended had been intercepted, but which he had written himself. The address was: “The praetors of Syracuse to the consul Marcellus.” After the customary wishing of health, it stated “that he had acted duly and properly in sparing none of the Leontines, but that the cause of all the mercenary troops was the same, and that Syracuse would never be tranquil while there were any foreign auxiliaries in the city or in the army. That it was therefore necessary that he should endeavour to get into his power those who were encamped at Megara, with their praetors, and by punishing them, at length restore Syracuse to liberty.” After this letter had been read, they ran to seize their arms in every direction, with so great a clamour, that the praetors, in the utmost consternation, rode away to Syracuse during the confusion. The mutiny, however, was not quelled even by their flight, but an attack was made upon the Syracusan soldiers; nor would any one have escaped their violence, had not Hippocrates and Epicydes opposed the resentment of the multitude, not from pity or any humane motive, but lest they should cut off all hope of effecting their return; and that they might have the soldiers, both as faithful supporters of their cause, and as hostages, and conciliate to themselves their relatives and friends, in the first place by so great an obligation, and in the next by reason of the pledge. Having also experienced that the populace could be excited by any cause, however groundless or trifling, they procured a soldier of the number of those who were besieged at Leontini, whom they suborned to carry a report to Syracuse, corresponding with that which had been falsely told at the Myla; and by vouching for what he stated, and relating as matters which he had seen, those things of which doubts were entertained, to kindle the resentment of the people.
[14] 32. This man not only obtained credit with the commons, but being introduced into the senate-house, produced an impression upon the senate also. Some men of no small authority openly declared, that it was very fortunate that the rapacity and cruelty of the Romans had been made apparent in the case of the Leontines; that if they had entered Syracuse, they would have committed the same or even more horrible acts, as there the temptations to rapacity would have been greater. All, therefore, advised that the gates should be closed and the city guarded, but not the same persons were objects of fear or hatred to all alike. Among the soldiers of every kind, and a great part of the people, the Roman name was hated. The praetors, and a few of the nobles, though enraged by the fictitious intelligence, rather directed their cautions against a nearer and more immediate evil. Hippocrates and Epicycles were now at the Hexapylum; and conversations were taking place, fomented by the relatives of the native soldiers who were in the army, touching the opening of the gates, and the allowing their common country to be defended from the violence of the Romans. One of the doors of the Hexapylum was now thrown open, and the troops began to be taken in at it, when the praetors interposed; and first by commands and menaces, then by advice, they endeavoured to deter them from their purpose, and last of all, every other means proving ineffectual, forgetful of their dignity, they tried to move them by prayers, imploring them not to betray their country to men heretofore the satellites of the tyrant, and now the corrupters of the army. But the ears of the excited multitude were deaf to all these arguments, and the exertions made from within to break open the gates, were not less than those without; the gates were all broken open, and the whole army received into the Hexapylum. The praetors, with the youth of the city, fled into the Achradina; the mercenary soldiers and deserters, with all the soldiers of the late king who were at Syracuse, joined the forces of the enemy. The Achradina also was therefore taken on the first assault, and all the praetors, except such as escaped in the confusion, were put to the sword. Night put an end to the carnage. On the following day the slaves were invited to liberty, and those bound in prison were released; after which this mixed rabble created Hippocrates and Epicydes their praetors, and thus Syracuse, when for a brief period the light of liberty had shone on it, relapsed into her former state of servitude.
[14] 33. The Romans, on receiving information of these events, immediately moved their camp from Leontini to Syracuse. It happened at this time that ambassadors were sent by Appius in a quinquereme, to make their way through the harbour. A quadrireme was sent in advance, which was captured as soon as it entered the mouth of the harbour, and the ambassadors with difficulty made their escape. And now not only the laws of peace but of war also were not regarded, when the Roman army pitched their camp at Olympium, a temple of Jupiter, a mile and a half from the city. From which place also it was thought proper that ambassadors should be sent forward; these were met by Hippocrates and Epicydes with their friends without the gate, to prevent their entering the city. The Roman, who was appointed to speak, said that “he did not bring war, but aid and assistance to the Syracusans, not only to such as, escaping from the midst of the carnage, fled to the Romans for protection, but to those also, who, overpowered by fear, were submitting to a servitude more shocking, not only than exile, but than death. Nor would the Romans suffer the horrid murder of their friends to go unavenged. If, therefore, those who had taken refuge with them were allowed to return to their country with safety, the authors of the massacre delivered up, and the Syracusans reinstated in the enjoyment of their liberty and laws, there would be no necessity for arms; but if these things were not done, they would direct their arms unceasingly against those who delayed them, whoever they might be.” Epicydes replied, that “if they had been commissioned with any message for them, they would have given them an answer; and when the government of Syracuse was in the hands of those persons to whom they were come, they might visit Syracuse again. If they should commence hostilities, they would learn by actual experience that it was by no means the same thing to besiege Syracuse and Leontini.” With this he left the ambassadors and closed the gate. The siege of Syracuse then commenced by sea and land at the same time; by land on the side of the Hexapylum; by sea on the side of the Achradina, the wall of which is washed by its waves; and as the Romans felt a confidence that as they had taken Leontini by the terror they occasioned on the first assault, they should be able in some quarter to effect an entrance into a city so desert, and diffused over so large an extent of ground, they brought up to the walls every kind of engine for besieging cities.
[14] 34. And an attempt made with so much energy would have succeeded, had it not been for one person then at Syracuse. That person was Archimedes, a man of unrivalled skill in observing the heavens and the stars, but more deserving of admiration as the inventor and constructor of warlike engines and works, by means of which, with a very slight effort, he turned to ridicule what the enemy effected with great difficulty. The wall which ran along unequal eminences, most of which were high and difficult of access, some low and open to approach along level vales, he furnished with every kind of warlike engine, as seemed suitable to each particular place. Marcellus attacked from the quinqueremes the wall of the Achradina, which, as before stated, was washed by the sea. From the other ships the archers and slingers and light infantry, whose weapon is difficult to be thrown back by the unskilful, allowed scarce any person to remain upon the wall unwounded. These, as they required room for the discharge of their missiles, kept their ships at a distance from the wall. Eight more quinqueremes joined together in pairs, the oars on their inner sides being removed, so that side might be placed to side, and which forming as it were ships, were worked by means of the oars on the outer sides, carried turrets built up in stories, and other engines employed in battering walls. Against this naval armament, Archimedes placed on different parts of the walls engines of various dimensions. Against the ships which were at a distance he discharged stones of immense weight. Those which were nearer he assailed with lighter, and therefore more numerous missiles. Lastly, in order that his own men might heap their weapons upon the enemy, without receiving any wounds themselves, he perforated the wall from the top to the bottom with a great number of loop-holes, about a cubit in diameter, through which some with arrows, others with scorpions of moderate size, assailed the enemy without being seen. Certain ships which came nearer to the walls in order to get within the range of the engines, he placed upon their sterns, raising up their prows by throwing upon them an iron grapple, attached to a strong chain, by means of a tolleno which projected from the wall, and overhung them, having a heavy counterpoise of lead which forced back the lever to the ground; then the grapple being suddenly disengaged, the ship falling as it were from the wall, was, by these means, to the utter consternation of the mariners, dashed in such a manner against the water, that even if it fell back in an erect position it took in a great quantity of water. Thus the attack by sea was foiled, and their whole efforts were directed to an attack by land with all their forces. But on this side also the place was furnished with a similar array of engines of every kind, procured at the expense of Hiero, who had given his attention to this object through a course of many years, and constructed by the unrivalled abilities of Archimedes. The nature of the place also assisted them; for the rock which formed the foundation of the wall was for the most part so steep, that not only materials discharged from engines, but such as were rolled down by their own gravity, fell upon the enemy with great force; the same cause rendered the approach to the city difficult, and the footing unsteady. Wherefore, a council being held, it was resolved, since every attempt was frustrated, to abstain from assaulting the place, and keeping up a blockade, only to cut off the provisions of the enemy by sea and land.
[14] 35. Meanwhile, Marcellus, who had set out with about a third part of the army, to recover the towns which, during the commotion, had gone over to the Carthaginians, regained Helorus and Herbessus by voluntary surrender. Megara, which he took by storm, he demolished and plundered, in order to terrify the rest, but particularly the Syracusans. Much about the same time, Himilco, who had kept his fleet for a long time at the promontory of Pachynus, landed twenty-five thousand infantry, three thousand horse, and twelve elephants, at Heraclea, which they call Minoa. This force was much greater than that which he had before on board his fleet at Pachynus. But after Syracuse was seized by Hippocrates, he proceeded to Carthage, where, being aided by ambassadors from Hippocrates, and a letter from Hannibal, who said that now was the time to recover Sicily with the highest honour, while his own advice given in person had no small influence, he had prevailed upon the Carthaginians to transport into Sicily as large a force as possible, both of foot and horse. Immediately on his arrival he retook Heraclea, and within a few days after Agrigentum; and in the other states which sided with the Carthaginians, such confident hopes were kindled of driving the Romans out of Sicily, that at last even those who were besieged at Syracuse took courage; and thinking that half their forces would be sufficient for the defence of the city, they divided the business of the war between them in such a manner, that Epicydes superintended the defence of the city, while Hippocrates, in conjunction with Himilco, prosecuted the war against the Roman consul. The latter, having passed by night through the intervals between the posts, with ten thousand foot and five hundred horse, was pitching a camp near the city Acrillae, when Marcellus came upon them, while engaged in raising the fortifications, on his return from Agrigentum, which was already occupied by the enemy, having failed in his attempt to get there before the enemy by expeditious marching, Marcellus calculated upon any thing rather than meeting with a Syracusan army at that time and place; but still through fear of Himilco and the Carthaginians, for whom he was by no means a match with the forces he had with him, he was marching with all possible circumspection, and with his troops so arranged, as to be prepared for any thing which might occur.
[14] 36. It happened that the caution he had observed with intent to guard him against the Carthaginians, proved useful against the Sicilians. Having caught them in disorder and dispersed, employed in forming their camp, and for the most part unarmed, he cut off all their infantry. Their cavalry, having commenced a slight engagement, fled to Acrae with Hippocrates. This battle having checked the Sicilians in their purpose of revolting from the Romans, Marcellus returned to Syracuse, and a few days after Himilco, being joined by Hippocrates, encamped on the river Anapus, about eight miles distant from that place. Nearly about the same time, fifty-five ships of war of the Carthaginians, with Bomilcar as commander of the fleet, put into the great harbour of Syracuse from the sea, and a Roman fleet of thirty quinqueremes landed the first legion at Panormus; and so intent were both the contending powers upon Sicily, that the seat of war might seem to have been removed from Italy. Himilco, who thought that the Roman legion which had been landed at Panormus, would doubtless fall a prey to him on its way to Syracuse, was mistaken in his road; for the Carthaginian marched through the inland parts of the country, while the legion, keeping along the coast, and attended by the fleet, came up with Appius Claudius, who had advanced to Pachynum with a part of his forces to meet it. Nor did the Carthaginians delay longer at Syracuse. Bomilcar, who at the same time that he did not feel sufficient confidence in his naval strength, as the Romans had a fleet more than double his number, was aware that delay which could be attended with no good effect, would only increase the scarcity of provisions among the allies by the presence of his troops, sailed out into the deep, and crossed over into Africa. Himilco, who had in vain followed Marcellus to Syracuse, to see if he could get any opportunity of engaging him before he was joined by larger forces, failing in this object, and seeing that the enemy were secured at Syracuse, both by their fortifications and the strength of their forces, to avoid wasting time in sitting by as an idle spectator of the siege of his allies, without being able to do any good, marched his troops away, in order to bring them up wherever the prospect of revolt from the Romans might invite him, and wherever by his presence he might inspire additional courage in those who espoused his interest. He first got possession of Murgantia, the Roman garrison having been betrayed by the inhabitants themselves. Here a great quantity of corn and provisions of every kind had been laid up by the Romans.
[14] 37. To this revolt the minds of other states also were stimulated; and the Roman garrisons were now either driven out of the citadels, or treacherously given up and overpowered. Enna, which stood on an eminence lofty and of difficult ascent on all sides, was impregnable on account of its situation, and had besides in its citadel a strong garrison commanded by one who was very unlikely to be overreached by treachery, Lucius Pinarius, a man of vigorous mind, who relied more on the measures he took to prevent treachery, than on the fidelity of the Sicilians; and at that time particularly the intelligence he had received of so many cities being betrayed, and revolting, and of the massacre of the garrisons, had made him solicitous to use every precaution. Accordingly, by day and night equally, every thing was kept in readiness, and every place furnished with guards and watches, the soldiery being continually under arms and at their posts. But when the principal men in Enna, who had already entered into a covenant with Himilco to betray the garrison, found that they could get no opportunity of circumventing the Roman, they resolved to act openly. They urged, that “the city and the citadel ought to be under their control, as they had formed an alliance with the Romans on the understanding that they were to be free, and had not been delivered into their custody as slaves. That they therefore thought it just that the keys of the gates should be restored to them. That their honour formed the strongest tie upon good allies, and that the people and senate of Rome would entertain feelings of gratitude towards them if they continued in friendship with them of their own free will, and not by compulsion.” The Roman replied, that “he was placed there by his general to protect the place; that from him he had received the keys of the gates and the custody of the citadel, trusts which he held not subject to his own will, nor that of the inhabitants of Enna, but to his who committed them to him. That among the Romans, for a man to quit his post was a capital offence, and that parents had sanctioned that law by the death even of their own children. That the consul Marcellus was not far off; that they might send ambassadors to him, who possessed the right and liberty of deciding.” But they said, they would certainly not send to him, and solemnly declared, that as they could not obtain their object by argument, they would seek some means of asserting their liberty. Pinarius upon this observed, “that if they thought it too much to send to the consul, still they would, at least, grant him an assembly of the people, that it might be ascertained whether these denunciations came from a few, or from the whole state.” An assembly of the people was proclaimed for the next day, with the general consent.
[14] 38. After this conference, he returned into the citadel, and assembling his soldiers, thus addressed them: “Soldiers, I suppose you have heard in what manner the Roman garrisons have been betrayed and cut off by the Sicilians of late. You have escaped the same treachery, first by the kindness of the gods, and secondly by your own good conduct, in unremittingly standing and watching under arms. I wish the rest of our time may be passed without suffering or committing dreadful things. This caution, which we have hitherto employed, has been directed against covert treachery, but not succeeding in this as they wished, they now publicly and openly demand back the keys of the gates; but as soon as we shall have delivered them up, Enna will be instantly in the hands of the Carthaginians, and we shall be butchered under circumstances more horrid than those with which the garrison of Murgantia were massacred. I have with difficulty procured a delay of one night for deliberation, that I might employ it in acquainting you with the danger which threatens you. At daybreak they intend holding a general assembly for the purpose of criminating me, and stirring up the people against you; to-morrow, therefore, Enna will be inundated either with your blood, or that of its own inhabitants. If they are beforehand with you, you will have no hope left, but if you anticipate their proceedings, you will have no danger. Victory will belong to that side which shall have drawn the sword first. You shall all, therefore, full armed, attentively wait the signal. I shall be in the assembly, and by talking and disputing will spin out the time till every thing shall be ready. When I shall have given the signal with my gown, then, mind me raising a shout on all sides rush upon the multitude, and fell all before you with the sword, taking care that no one survive from whom either force or fraud can be apprehended. You, mother Ceres and Proserpine, I entreat, and all ye other gods, celestial and infernal, who frequent this city and these consecrated lakes and groves, that you would lend us your friendly and propitious aid, as we adopt this measure not for the purpose of inflicting, but averting injury. I should exhort you at greater length my soldiers, if you were about to fight with armed men, men unarmed and off their guard, you will slay to satiety. The consul’s camp too is near, so that nothing can be apprehended from Himilco and the Carthaginians’.”
[14] 39. Being allowed to retire immediately after this exhortation, they employed themselves in taking refreshment. The next day they stationed themselves some in one place and others in another, to block up the streets, and shut up the ways by which the townsmen might escape, the greater part of them stationing themselves upon and round the theatre, as they had been accustomed before also to be spectators of the assemblies. When the Roman praefect, having been brought into the presence of the people by the magistrates, said, that the power and authority of deciding the question appertained to the consul, and not to him, repeating for the most part what he had urged the day before, first of all a small number, and then more, desired him to give up the keys, but afterwards all with one consent demanded it, and when he hesitated and delayed, threatened him furiously, and seemed as though they would not further delay violent extremities then the praefect gave the signal agreed upon with his gown and the soldiers, who had been long anxiously waiting the signal, and in readiness, raising a shout, ran down, some of them from the higher ground, upon the rear of the assembly while others blocked up the passages leading out of the crowded theatre. The people of Enna thus shut up in the pit were put to the sword, being heaped one upon another not only in consequence of the slaughter, but also from their own efforts to escape, for some scrambling over the heads of others, and those that were unhurt falling upon the wounded, and the living upon the dead, they were accumulated together. Thence they ran in every direction throughout the city, when nothing was any where to be seen but flight and bloodshed, as though the city had been captured, for the rage of the soldiery was not less excited in putting to the sword an unarmed rabble, than it would have been had the heat of battle and an equality of danger stimulated it. Thus possession of Enna was retained, by an act which was either atrocious or unavoidable. Marcellus did not disapprove of the deed, and gave up the plunder of the place to the soldiery, concluding that the Sicilians, deterred by this example, would refrain from betraying their garrisons. As this city was situated in the heart of Sicily, and was distinguished both on account of the remarkable strength of its natural situation, and because every part of it was rendered sacred by the traces it contained of the rape of Proserpine of old, the news of its disaster spread though the whole of Sicily in nearly one day, and as people considered that by this horrid massacre violence had been done not only to the habitations of men, but even of the gods, then indeed those who even before this event were in doubt which side they should take, revolted to the Carthaginians Hippocrates and Himilco, who had in vain brought up their troops to Enna at the invitation of the traitors, retired thence, the former to Murgantia, the latter to Agrigentum. Marcellus retrograded into the territory of Leontium, and after collecting a quantity of corn and other provisions in his camp there, left a small body of troops to protect it, and then went to carry on the siege of Syracuse. Appius Claudius having been allowed to go from thence to Rome to put up for the consulship, he appointed Titus Quintus Crispinus to command the fleet and the old camp in his room. He himself fortified his camp, and built huts for his troops at a distance of five miles from Hexapylum, at a place called Leon. These were the transactions in Sicily up to the beginning of the winter.
[14] 40. The same summer the war with king Philip, as had been before suspected, broke out. Ambassadors from Oricum came to Marcus Valerius, the praetor, who was directing his fleet around Brundusium and the neighbouring coasts of Calabria, with intelligence, that Philip had first made an attempt upon Apollonia, having approached it by sailing up the river with a hundred and twenty barks with two banks of oars; after that, not succeeding so speedily as he had hoped, that he had brought up his army secretly to Oricum by night; which city, as it was situated on a plain, and was not secured either by fortifications or by men and arms, was overpowered at the first assault. At the same time that they delivered this intelligence, they entreated him to bring them succour, and repel that decided enemy of the Romans by land or by a naval force, since they were attacked for no other cause than that they lay over against Italy. Marcus Valerius, leaving Publius Valerius lieutenant-general charged with the protection of that quarter, set sail with his fleet equipped and prepared, having put on board of ships of burthen such soldiers as there was not room for in the men of war, and reached Oricum on the second day; and as that city was occupied by a slight garrison, which Philip had left on his departure thence, he retook it without much opposition. Here ambassadors came to him from Apollonia, stating that they were subjected to a siege because they were unwilling to revolt from the Romans, and that they would not be able any longer to resist the power of the Macedonians, unless a Roman force were sent for their protection. Having undertaken to perform what they wished, he sent two thousand chosen armed men in ships of war to the mouth of the river, under the command of Quintus Naevius Crista, praefect of the allies, a man of enterprise, and experienced in military affairs. Having landed his troops, and sent back the ships to join the rest of the fleet at Oricum, whence he had come, he marched his troops at a distance from the river, by a way not guarded at all by the king’s party, and entered the city by night, so that none of the enemy perceived him. During the following day they remained quiet, to afford time for the praefect to inspect the youth of Apollonia, together with the arms and resources of the city. Having derived considerable confidence from a review and inspection of these, and at the same time discovering from scouts the supineness and negligence which prevailed among the enemy, he marched out of the city during the dead of night without any noise, and entered the camp of the enemy, which was in such a neglected and exposed state, that it was quite clear that a thousand men had passed the rampart before any one perceived them, and that had they abstained from putting them to the sword, they might have penetrated to the royal pavilion. The killing of those who were nearest the gate aroused the enemy; and in consequence, they were all seized with such alarm and dismay, that not only none of the rest attempted to take arms or endeavour to expel the enemy from the camp, but even the king himself, betaking himself to flight, in a manner half naked and just as he was when roused from his sleep, hurried away to the river and his ships in a garb scarcely decent for a private soldier, much less for a king. Thither also the rest of the multitude fled with the utmost precipitation. Little less than three thousand men were slain or made prisoners in the camp; considerably more, however, were captured than slain. The camp having been plundered, the Apollonians removed into their city the catapults, ballistas, and other engines which had been got together for the purpose of assaulting their city, for the protection of their walls, in case at any time a similar conjuncture should arise; all the rest of the plunder which the camp afforded was given up to the Romans. Intelligence of these events having been carried to Oricum, Marcus Valerius immediately brought his fleet to the mouth of the river, that the king might not attempt to make his escape by ship. Thus Philip, having lost all hope of being able to cope with his enemies by land or sea, and having either hauled on shore or burnt his ships, made for Macedonia by land, his troops being for the most part unarmed and despoiled of their baggage. The Roman fleet, with Marcus Valerius, wintered at Oricum.
[14] 41. The same year the war was prosecuted in Spain with various success; for before the Romans crossed the Iberus, Mago and Hasdrubal had routed an immense army of Spaniards; and the farther Spain would have revolted from the Romans, had not Publius Cornelius, hastily crossing the Iberus with his army, given a seasonable stimulus to the wavering resolutions of his allies by his arrival among them. The Romans first encamped at a place called the High Camp, which is remarkable for the death of the great Hamilcar. It was a fortress strongly defended by works, and thither they had previously conveyed corn; but as the whole circumjacent country was full of enemy’s troops, and the Roman army on its march had been charged by the cavalry of the enemy without being able to take revenge upon them, two thousand men, who either loitered behind or had strayed through the fields, having been slain, the Romans quitted this place to get nearer to a friendly country, and fortified a camp at the mount of Victory. To this place came Cneius Scipio with all his forces, and Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo, and a third Carthaginian general, with a complete army, all of whom took up a position opposite the Roman camp and on the other side the river. Publius Scipio, going out with some light troops to take a view of the surrounding country, was observed by the enemy; and he would have been overpowered in the open plain, had he not seized an eminence near him. Here too he was closely invested, but was rescued from the troops which environed him by the arrival of his brother. Castulo, a city of Spain, so strong and celebrated, and so closely connected with the Carthaginians, that Hannibal had taken a wife from it, revolted to the Romans. The Carthaginians commenced the siege of Illiturgi, because there was a Roman garrison in it; and it seemed that they would carry the place, chiefly in consequence of a lack of provisions. Cneius Scipio, setting out with a legion lightly equipped, in order to bring succour to his allies and the garrison, entered the city, passing between the two camps of the enemy, and slaying a great number of them. The next day also he sallied out and fought with equal success. Above twelve thousand were slain in the two battles, more than a thousand made prisoners, and thirty-six military standards captured. In consequence of this they retired from Illiturgi. After this the siege of Bigerra, a city which was also in alliance with the Romans, was commenced by the Carthaginians; but Scipio coming up, raised the siege without experiencing any opposition.
[14] 42. The Carthaginians then removed their camp to Munda, whither the Romans speedily followed them. Here a pitched battle was fought, which lasted almost four hours; and while the Romans were carrying all before them in the most glorious manner, the signal for retreat was sounded, because the thigh of Cneius Scipio had been transfixed with a javelin. The soldiers round about him were thrown into a state of great alarm, lest the wound should be mortal. However, there was no doubt but that if they had not been prevented by the intervention of this accident, they might have taken the Carthaginian camp that day. By this time, not only the men, but the elephants, were driven quite up to the rampart; and even upon the top of it nine and thirty elephants were pierced with spears. In this battle, too, as many as twelve thousand are said to have been slain, nearly three thousand captured, with fifty-seven military standards. The Carthaginians retired thence to the city Auringis, whither the Romans followed them, in order to take advantage of their terror. Here Scipio again fought them, having been carried into the field in a small litter; the victory was decisive; but not half so many of the enemy were slain as before, because fewer survived to fight. But this family, which possessed a natural talent at renewing war and restoring its effects, in a short time recruited their army, Mago having been sent by his brother to press soldiers, and assumed courage to try the issue of a fresh struggle. Though the soldiers were for the most part different, yet as they fought in a cause which had so often been unsuccessful within the space of a few days, they carried into the field the same state of mind as those which had been engaged before, and the issue of the battle was similar. More than eight thousand were slain, not much less than a thousand captured, with fifty-eight military standards. The greater part of the spoils had belonged to the Gauls, consisting of golden chains and bracelets in great numbers. Also two distinguished Gallic petty princes, whose names were Moenicaptus and Civismarus, fell in this battle. Eight elephants were captured and three slain. When affairs went on so prosperously in Spain, the Romans began to feel ashamed that Saguntum, on account of which the war had originated, should continue for now the eighth year in the power of the enemy. Accordingly, having expelled by force the Carthaginian garrison, they retook that town, and restored it to such of the ancient inhabitants as had survived the fury of the war. The Turditanians also, who had been the cause of the war between that people and the Carthaginians, they reduced under their power, sold them as slaves, and razed their city.
[14] 43. Such were the achievements in Spain during the consulate of Quintus Fabius and Marcus Claudius. At Rome, as soon as the new plebeian tribunes entered upon their office, Lucius Metellus, a plebeian tribune, immediately appointed a day for impleading the censors, Publius Furius and Marcus Atilius, before the people. In the preceding year, when he was quaestor, they had deprived him of his horse, removed him from his tribe, and disfranchised him, on account of the conspiracy entered into at Cannae to abandon Italy. But being aided by the other nine tribunes, they were forbidden to answer while in office, and were discharged. The death of Publius Furius prevented their completing the lustrum. Marcus Atilius abdicated his office. An assembly for the election of consuls was held by Quintus Fabius Maximus. The consuls elected were Quintus Fabius Maximus, son of the consul, and Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus a second time, both being absent. The praetors appointed were Marcus Atilius, and the two curule aediles, Publius Sempronius Tuditanus and Cneius Fulvius Centumalus, together with Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. It is recorded, that the scenic games were this year, for the first time, celebrated for four days by the curule aediles. The aedile Tuditanus was the man who made his way through the midst of the enemy at Cannae when all the rest were paralysed with fear, in consequence of that dreadful calamity. As soon as the elections were completed, the consuls elect having been summoned to Rome, at the instance of Quintus Fabius, the consul, entered upon their office, and took the sense of the senate respecting the war, their own provinces as well as those of the praetors, and also respecting the armies to be employed, and which each of them was to command.
[14] 44. The provinces and armies were thus distributed: the prosecution of the war with Hannibal was given to the consuls, and of the armies, one which Sempronius himself had commanded, and another which the consul Fabius had commanded, each consisting of two legions. Marcus Aemilius, the praetor, who had the foreign jurisdiction, was to have Luceria as his province, with the two legions which Quintus Fabius, then consul, had commanded as praetor, his colleague, Marcus Atilius, the city praetor, undertaking the duties of his office. The province of Ariminum fell to the lot of Publius Sempronius, that of Suessula to Cneius Fulvius, with two legions each likewise; Fulvius taking with him the city legions; Tuditanus receiving his from Manius Pomponius. The following generals were continued in command, and their provinces assigned to them thus: to Marcus Claudius, so much of Sicily as lay within the limits of the kingdom of Hiero; to Lentulus, the propraetor, the old province in that island; to Titus Otacilius, the fleet; no additional troops were assigned to them. Marcus Valerius had Greece and Macedonia, with the legion and the fleet which he had there; Quintus Mucius had Sardinia, with his old army, consisting of two legions; Caius Terentius, Picenum, with one legion which he then commanded. Besides, orders were given to enlist two legions for the city, and twenty thousand men from the allies. With these leaders and these forces did they fortify the Roman empire against the many wars which had either actually broken out, or were suspected at one and the same time. After enlisting the city legions and raising troops to make up the numbers of the others, the consuls, before they quitted the city, expiated the prodigies which were reported. A wall and a gate had been struck by lightning; and at Aricia even the temple of Jupiter had been struck by lightning. Other illusions of the eyes and ears were credited as realities. An appearance as of ships had been seen in the river at Tarracina, when there were none there. A clashing of arms was heard in the temple of Jupiter Vicilinus, in the territory of Compsa; and a river at Amiternum had flowed bloody. These prodigies having been expiated according to a decree of the pontiffs, the consuls set out, Sempronius for Lucania, Fabius for Apulia. The father of the latter came into the camp at Suessula, as his lieutenant-general; and when the son advanced to meet him, the lictors, out of respect for his dignity, went on in silence. The old man rode past eleven of the fasces, when the consul ordered the lictor nearest to him to take care and he called to him to dismount; then at length dismounting, he exclaimed, “I wished to try, my son, whether you were duly sensible that you are a consul.”
[14] 45. To this camp came Dasias Altinius of Arpi privately and by night, attended by three slaves, with a promise that if he should receive a reward for it, he would engage to betray Arpi to them. Fabius having laid the matter before a council, some were of opinion that “he ought to be scourged and put to death as a deserter, as a man of unstable mind, and a common enemy to both sides; who, after the defeat at Cannae, had gone over to Hannibal and drawn Arpi into revolt, as if it were right that a man’s fidelity should vary according to the fluctuations of fortune; and who now, when the Roman cause, contrary to his hopes and wishes, was as it were rising up again, would seem to aggravate his baseness by recompensing those whom he had formerly betrayed, by fresh betrayal. That a man whose custom it was to espouse one side, while his heart was on another, was unworthy of confidence as an ally, and contemptible as an enemy; that he ought to be made a third example to deserters, in addition to the betrayers of Falerii and Pyrrhus.” On the other hand, Fabius, the father of the consul, observed, that, “forgetful of circumstances, men were apt to exercise a free judgment on every question in the heat of war, as in time of peace; for though in the present instance that which ought rather to form the object of their endeavours and to occupy their thoughts, is by what means it may be brought about that none of the allies may revolt from the Roman people, yet that they never think of; but, on the contrary, they urge that an example ought to be made of any who might repent and look back upon their former alliance. But if it is allowable to forsake the Romans, and not allowable to return to them, who can doubt but that in a short time the Romans, deserted by their allies, will see every state in Italy united in leagues with the Carthaginians. Not, however, that he was of opinion that any confidence was to be reposed in Altinius, but he would invent some middle course of proceeding. Treating him neither as an enemy nor as a friend for the present, his wish was, that he should be kept during the war in some city whose fidelity could be relied on, at a short distance from the camp, in a state of easy restraint; and that when the war was concluded, they should then deliberate whether he more deserved to be punished for his former defection, or pardoned for his present return.” The opinion of Fabius was approved of. Altinius was bound in chains and given into custody, together with his companions, and a large quantity of gold which he brought with him was ordered to be kept for him. He was kept at Cales, where, during the day, he was unconfined, but attended by guards who locked him up at night. He was first missed and inquired for at his house at Arpi. but afterwards, when the report of his absence had spread through the city, a violent sensation was excited, as if they had lost their leader, and, from the apprehension of some attempt to alter the present state of things, messengers were immediately despatched to Hannibal. With this the Carthaginian was far from being displeased, both because he had long regarded the man himself with suspicion, as one of doubtful fidelity, and because he had now been lucky enough to get a pretext for possessing himself of the property of so wealthy a person. But that the world might suppose that he had yielded to resentment more than to avarice, he added cruelty to rapacity; for he summoned his wife and children to the camp, and after having made inquiry, first, respecting the flight of Altinius, and then, touching the quantity of gold and silver which was left at his house, and informed himself on all these points, he burned them alive.
[14] 46. Fabius, setting out from Suessula, first set about the siege of Arpi; and having pitched his camp about half a mile from it, he took a near view of the site and walls of the city, and resolved to attack it, in preference, in that quarter where it was most secured by works, and where the least care was taken in guarding it. After getting all things together which could be of use in besieging a city, he selected the most efficient of the centurions out of the whole army, placing them under the command of tribunes of approved valour, and giving them six hundred soldiers, a number which was thought sufficient for the purpose. These he ordered to bring the scaling ladders to the place which he had marked out, as soon as the signal of the fourth watch had sounded. In this part there was a low and narrow gate, opening into a street which was little frequented, and which led through a deserted part of the city. He ordered them, after scaling the wall, to proceed to this gate, and break down the bars on the inside by force, and when they were in possession of that part of the city, to give a signal with a cornet, that the rest of the troops might be brought up, observing that he would have every thing prepared and ready. These orders were executed promptly, and that which seemed likely to impede their operations, served more than any thing to conceal them. A shower of rain, which came on suddenly at midnight, compelled the guards and watches to slip away from their posts and take shelter in the houses; and the noise of the shower, which was somewhat copious, at first prevented their hearing that which was made by the men in breaking open the gate. Afterwards, when it fell upon the ear more gently and uniformly, it lulled a great number of the men to sleep. After they had secured possession of the gate, they placed cornet-players in the street at equal distances, and desired them to sound, in order to call the consul. This being done according to the plan previously agreed upon, the consul ordered the troops to march, and a little before daylight entered the city through the broken gate.
[14] 47. Then at length the enemy were roused, the shower was now subsiding, and daylight coming on. Hannibal had a garrison of about five thousand armed men in the city, and the inhabitants themselves had three thousand men in arms; these the Carthaginians placed in front against the enemy, to guard against any treachery on their rear. The fight was carried on at first in the dark, and in the narrow streets, the Romans having seized not only the streets, but the houses also nearest the gate, that they might not be struck or wounded by any thing discharged at them from above. Some of the Arpinians and Romans recognised each other, which led to conversations, in which the Romans asked them, what it was they meant? for what offence on the part of the Romans, or what service on that of the Carthaginians, they, who were Italians, made war in favour of foreigners and barbarians, against their ancient allies the Romans, and endeavoured to render Italy tributary and stipendiary to Africa? The Arpinians urged in excuse of themselves, that in ignorance of all the circumstances, they had been sold to the Carthaginians by their nobility, and that they were kept in a state of thraldom and oppression by the few. A beginning having been made, greater numbers on both sides entered into conversation; and at length the praetor of Arpi was brought by his countrymen before the consul, and after exchanging assurances in the midst of the standards and the troops, the Arpinians suddenly turned their arms against the Carthaginians, in favour of the Romans. Some Spaniards also, little less than a thousand in number, after only stipulating with the consul that the Carthaginian garrison might be allowed to march out unhurt, passed over to the consul. The gates were therefore thrown open for the Carthaginians; and being allowed to go out unmolested, in conformity with the stipulation, they joined Hannibal in Salapia. Thus was Arpi restored to the Romans, without the loss of a life, except that of one man, who was formerly a traitor, and recently a deserter. The Spaniards were ordered to receive a double allowance of provisions, and on very many occasions the republic availed itself of their brave and faithful services. While one of the consuls was in Apulia, and the other in Lucania, a hundred and twelve Campanian noblemen, having gone out of Capua, with the permission of the magistrates, under pretence of collecting booty from the enemy’s lands, came into the Roman camp, which lay above Suessula. They told the soldiers, forming the vanguard, that they wished to speak with the praetor. Cneius Fulvius commanded the camp; who, on being informed of the circumstance, ordered ten of them to be brought into his presence unarmed; and after hearing their request, (and all they asked was, that when the Romans should recover Capua, their property might be restored to them,) they were all received under his protection. The other praetor, Sempronius Tuditanus, took by force the town of Aternum; more than seven thousand were captured, with a considerable quantity of coined brass and silver. A dreadful fire happened at Rome, which continued for two nights and a day; every thing was burnt to the ground between the Salinae and the Carmental gate, with the Aequimaelium and the Jugarian street. In the temples of Fortune, Mater Matuta, and Hope, which latter stood without the gate, the fire, spreading to a wide extent, consumed much both sacred and profane.
[14] 48. The same year, the two Cornelii, Publius and Cneius, as affairs were now in a prosperous state in Spain, and they had recovered many ancient allies, and attached fresh ones to them, extended their views even to Africa. Syphax was a king of the Numidians, who had suddenly become hostile to the Carthaginians; to him they sent three centurions as ambassadors, to form a treaty of friendship and alliance with him; and to promise, that, if he persevered in pressing the war against the Carthaginians, he would render an acceptable service to the senate and people of Rome, and they would endeavour to requite the favour with large additions, and at a seasonable time. This embassy was gratifying to the barbarian; and when conversing with the ambassadors on the art of war he heard the observations of those experienced soldiers, by comparing his own practice with so regular a system of discipline, he became sensible of how many things he himself was ignorant. Then he entreated them to give the first proof of their being good and faithful allies, “by letting two of them carry back the result of their embassy to their generals, while one remained with him as his instructor in military science, observing that the Numidian nation were unacquainted with the method of carrying on war with foot forces, being useful only as mounted soldiers. That it was in this manner that their ancestors had carried on war even from the first origin of their nation, and to this they were habituated from their childhood. But that they had to contend with an enemy who relied upon the prowess of their infantry; with whom, if they wished to be placed upon an equality in respect of efficient strength, they must also furnish themselves with infantry. That his dominions abounded with a large quantity of men fit for the purpose, but that he was unacquainted with the art of arming, equipping, and marshalling them; that all his infantry were unwieldy and unmanageable, like a rabble collected together by chance.” The ambassadors answered, that they would comply with his request for the present, on his engaging to send him back immediately, if their generals did not approve of what they had done. The name of the person who staid behind with the king was Quintus Statorius. With the two other Romans, the Numidian sent ambassadors into Spain, to receive the ratification of the alliance from the Roman generals. He gave it in charge to the same persons, forthwith to induce the Numidians, who were serving as auxiliaries among the Carthaginian troops, to go over to the other side. Statorius raised a body of infantry for the king out of the large number of young men which he found; and having formed them into companies, in close imitation of the Roman method, taught them to follow their standards and keep their ranks when being marshalled, and when performing their evolutions; and he so habituated them to military works and other military duties, that in a short time the king relied not more on his cavalry than on his infantry; and in a regular and pitched battle, fought on a level plain, he overcame his enemies, the Carthaginians. In Spain also the arrival of the king’s ambassadors was of the greatest advantage to the Romans, for at the news thereof the Numidians began rapidly to pass over. Thus the Romans and Syphax were united in friendship, which the Carthaginians hearing of, immediately sent ambassadors to Gala, who reigned in another part of Numidia, over a nation called Massylians.
[14] 49. Gala had a son named Masinissa, seventeen years of age, but a youth of such talents, that even at that time it was evident that he would render the kingdom more extensive and powerful than when he received it. The ambassadors represented that, “since Syphax had united himself with the Romans, that by their alliance he might strengthen his hands against the kings and nations of Africa, it would be better for Gala also to unite with the Carthaginians as soon as possible, before Syphax crossed over into Spain, or the Romans into Africa; that Syphax might be overpowered, while as yet he derived nothing from his league with the Romans but the name of it.” Gala, his son claiming to be intrusted with the conduct of the war, was easily prevailed upon to send an army, which, joined by the legions of the Carthaginians, totally defeated Syphax in a great battle. In this thirty thousand men are said to have been slain. Syphax, with a few horsemen, fled from the field, and took refuge among the Maurusian Numidians, a nation dwelling at the extremity of Africa, near the ocean, and over against Gades. But the barbarians flocking to his standard from all sides, in consequence of his great renown, he speedily armed a very large force. Before he passed over with these forces into Spain, which was separated only by a narrow strait, Masinissa came up with his victorious army; and here he acquired great glory in the prosecution of the war with Syphax, in which he acted alone and unsupported by any aid from the Carthaginians. In Spain nothing worth mentioning was performed, except that the Romans drew over to their side the Celtiberian youth, by giving them the same pay which they had stipulated with the Carthaginians to pay them. They also sent above three hundred Spaniards of the greatest distinction into Italy, to bring over their countrymen, who served among the auxiliary troops of Hannibal. The only memorable circumstance of this year in Spain was, that the Romans then, for the first time, employed mercenary troops in their camp, namely, the Celtiberians.
[14] * * * * *

## Book XXV

[15] Translated by William A. McDevitte
[15] B.C. 213-212
[15] Publius Cornelius Scipio, afterwards called Africanus, elected aedile before he had attained the age required by the law. The citadel of Tarentum, in which the Roman garrison had taken refuge, betrayed to Hannibal. Games instituted in honour of Apollo, called Apollinarian. Quintus Fulvius and Appius Claudius, consuls, defeat Hanno the Carthaginian general. Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus betrayed by a Lucanian to Mago, and slain. Centenius Penula, who had been a centurion, asks the senate for the command of an army, promising to engage and vanquish Hannibal, is cut off with eight thousand men. Cneius Fulvius engages Hannibal, and is beaten, with the loss of sixteen thousand men slain, he himself escapes with only two hundred horsemen. Quintus Fulvius and Appius Claudius, consuls, lay siege to Capua. Syracuse taken by Claudius Marcellus after a siege of three years. In the tumult occasioned by taking the city, Archimedes is killed while intently occupied on some figures which he had drawn in the sand. Publius and Cornelius Scipio, after having performed many eminent services in Spain, are slain, together with nearly the whole of their armies, eight years after their arrival in that country; and the possession of that province would have been entirely lost, but for the valour and activity of Lucius Marcius, a Roman knight, who, collecting the scattered remains of the vanquished armies, utterly defeats the enemy, storming their two camps, killing thirty-seven thousand of them, and taking eighteen hundred together with an immense booty.
[15] * * * * *
[15] 1. Hannibal passed the summer during which these events occurred in Africa and Italy, in the Tarentine territory, with the hope of having the city of the Tarentines betrayed to him. Meanwhile some inconsiderable towns belonging to them, and to the Sallentines, revolted to him. At the same time, of the twelve states of the Bruttians, which had in a former year gone over to the Carthaginians, the Consentians and Thurians returned to the protection of the Roman people. And more would have done the same, had not Titus Pomponius Veientanus, praefect of the allies, having acquired the appearance of a regular general, in consequence of several successful predatory expeditions in the Bruttian territory, got together a tumultuary band, and fought a battle with Hanno. In that battle, a great number of men, consisting, however, of a disorderly rabble of slaves and rustics, were slain or captured. The least part of the loss was, that the praefect himself was taken prisoner; for he was not only in the present instance guilty of having rashly engaged the enemy, but previously, in the capacity of farmer of the revenue, by iniquitous practices of every description, had shown himself faithless and injurious to the state, as well as the companies. Among the Lucanians, the consul, Sempronius, fought several small battles, but none worthy of being recorded, he also took several inconsiderable towns. In proportion as the war was protracted, and the sentiments no less than the circumstances of men fluctuated accordingly as events flowed prosperously or otherwise, the citizens were seized with such a passion for superstitious observances, and those for the most part introduced from foreign countries, that either the people or the gods appeared to have undergone a sudden change. And now the Roman rites were growing into disuse, not only in private, and within doors, but in public also; in the forum and Capitol there were crowds of women sacrificing, and offering up prayers to the gods, in modes unusual in that country. A low order of sacrificers and soothsayers had enslaved men’s understandings, and the numbers of these were increased by the country people, whom want and terror had driven into the city, from the fields which were lain uncultivated during a protracted war, and had suffered from the incursions of the enemy, and by the profitable cheating in the ignorance of others which they carried on like an allowed and customary trade. At first, good men gave protest in private to the indignation they felt at these proceedings, but afterwards the thing came before the fathers, and formed a matter of public complaint. The aediles and triumviri, appointed for the execution of criminals, were severely reprimanded by the senate for not preventing these irregularities, but when they attempted to remove the crowd of persons thus employed from the forum, and to overthrow the preparations for their sacred rites, they narrowly escaped personal injury. It being now evident, that the evil was too powerful to be checked by inferior magistrates, the senate commissioned Marcus Atilius, the city praetor, to rid the people of these superstitions. He called an assembly, in which he read the decree of the senate, and gave notice, that all persons who had any books of divination, or forms of prayer, or any written system of sacrificing, should lay all the aforesaid books and writings before him before the calends of April; and that no person should sacrifice in any public or consecrated place according to new or foreign rites.
[15] 2. Several of the public priests too died this year: Lucius Cornelius Lentulus, chief pontiff, Caius Papirius Maso, son of Caius, a pontiff, Publius Furius Philo, an augur, and Caius Papirius Maso, son of Lucius, a decemvir for the superintendence of sacred rites. In lieu of Lentulus, Marcus Cornelius Cethegus, in lieu of Papirius Cnaeius, Servilius Caepio, were created pontiffs. Lucius Quinctius Flaminius was created augur, and Lucius Cornelius Lentulus decemvir for the superintendence of sacred rites. The time for the election of consuls was now approaching; but as it was not thought proper to call the consuls away from the war with which they were intently occupied, Tiberius Sempronius, the consul, nominated Caius Claudius Centho as dictator to hold the election. He appointed Quintus Fulvius Flaccus as his master of the horse. On the first day on which the election could be held, the dictator appointed as consuls, Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, his master of the horse, and Appius Claudius Pulcher, who had held the government of Sicily as praetor. The praetors created were Cneius Fulvius Flaccus, Caius Claudius Nero, Marcus Junius Silanus, Publius Cornelius Sulla. The election completed, the dictator retired from his office. This year, Publius Cornelius Scipio, afterwards surnamed Africanus, held the office of curule aedile, with Marcus Cornelius Cethegus; and when the tribunes of the people opposed his pretensions to the aedileship, alleging, that no notice ought to be taken of him, because he had not attained the legal age for candidateship, he observed, “if the citizens in general are desirous of appointing me aedile, I am old enough.” Upon this the people ran to their respective tribes to give their votes, with feelings so strongly disposed in his favour, that the tribunes on a sudden abandoned their attempt. The largesses bestowed by the aediles were the following: the Roman games were sumptuously exhibited, considering the present state of their resources; they were repeated during one day, and a gallon of oil was given to each street. Lucius Villius Tapulus, and Marcus Fundanius Fundulus, the plebeian aediles, accused some matrons of misconduct before the people, and some of them they convicted and sent into exile. The plebeian games were repeated during two days, and a feast in honour of Jupiter was celebrated on occasion of the games.
[15] 3. Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, for the third time, and Appius Claudius entered upon the office of consuls. The praetors determined their provinces by lot. Publius Cornelius Sulla received both the city and the foreign jurisdiction, formerly allotted to two persons, Cneius Fulvius Flaccus, Apulia, Caius Claudius Nero, Suessula, and Marcus Junius Silanus, Tuscany. To the consuls the conduct of the war with Hannibal was decreed with two legions each, one taking the troops of Quintus Fabius, the consul of the former year, the other those of Fulvius Centumalus. Of the praetors, Fulvius Flaccus was to have the legions which were in Luceria under Aemilius the praetor, Nero Claudius those in Picenum under Caius Terentius, each raising recruits for himself to fill up the number of his troops. To Marcus Junius the city legions of the former year were assigned, to be employed against the Tuscans. Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus and Publius Sempronius Tuditanus were continued in command in their provinces of Lucania and Gaul with the armies they had, as was also Publius Lentulus in that part of Sicily which formed the ancient Roman province. Marcus Marcellus had Syracuse, and that which was the kingdom of Hiero. Titus Otacilius was continued in the command of the fleet, Marcus Valerius in that of Greece, Quintus Mucius Scaevola in that of Sardinia. The Cornelii, Publius and Cneius, were continued in the command of Spain. In addition to the armies already existing, two legions for the service of the city were levied by the consuls, and a total of twenty-three legions was made up this year. The levy of the consuls was impeded by the conduct of Marcus Posthumius Pyrgensis, almost accompanied with a serious disturbance. Posthumius was a farmer of the revenue, who, for knavery and rapacity, practised through a course of many years, had no equal except Titus Pomponius Veientanus, who had been taken prisoner the former year by the Carthaginians under the conduct of Hanno, while carelessly ravaging the lands in Lucania. As the state had taken upon itself the risk of any loss which might arise from storms to the commodities conveyed to the armies, not only had these two men fabricated false accounts of shipwrecks, but even those which had really occurred were occasioned by their own knavery, and not by accident. Their plan was to put a few goods of little value into old and shattered vessels, which they sank in the deep, taking up the sailors in boats prepared for the purpose, and then returning falsely the cargo as many times more valuable than it was. This fraudulent practice had been pointed out to Marcus Atilius, the praetor in a former year, who had communicated it to the senate; no decree, however, had been passed censuring it, because the fathers were unwilling that any offence should be given to the order of revenue farmers while affairs were in such a state. The people were severer avengers of the fraud; and at length two tribunes of the people, Spurius and Lucius Carvilius, being moved to take some active measure, as they saw that this conduct excited universal disgust, and had become notorious, proposed that a fine of two hundred thousand asses should be imposed on Marcus Posthumius. When the day arrived for arguing the question, the people assembled in such numbers, that the area of the Capitol could scarcely contain them; and the cause having been gone through, the only hope of safety which presented itself was, that Caius Servilius Casca, a tribune of the people, a connexion and relation of Posthumius, should interpose his protest before the tribes were called to give their votes. The witnesses having been produced, the tribunes caused the people to withdraw, and the urn was brought, in order that the tribes should draw lots which should give the vote first. Meanwhile, the farmers of the revenue urged Casca to stop the proceedings for that day. The people, however, loudly opposed it; and Casca happened to be sitting on the most prominent part of the rostrum, whose mind fear and shame were jointly agitating. Seeing that no dependence was to be placed in him for protection, the farmers of the revenue, forming themselves into a wedge, rushed into the void space occasioned by the removal of the people for the purpose of causing disturbance, wrangling at the same time with the people and the tribunes. The affair had now almost proceeded to violence, when Fulvius Flaccus, the consul, addressing the tribunes, said, “Do you not see that you are degraded to the common rank, and that an insurrection will be the result, unless you speedily dismiss the assembly of the commons.”
[15] 4. The commons being dismissed, the senate was assembled, when the consuls proposed the consideration of the interruption experienced by the assembly of the commons, in consequence of the violence and audacity of the farmers of the revenue. They said, that “Marcus Furius Camillus, whose banishment was followed by the downfall of the city, had suffered himself to be condemned by his exasperated countrymen. That before him, the decemviri, according to whose laws they lived up to the present day, and afterwards many men of the first rank in the state, had submitted to have sentence passed upon them by the people. But Posthumius Pyrgensis had wrested from the Roman people their right of suffrage, had dissolved the assembly of the commons, had set at nought the authority of the tribunes, had drawn up a body of men in battle-array against the Roman people; and seized upon a post, in order to cut off the tribunes from the commons, and prevent the tribes being called to give their votes. That the only thing which had restrained the people from bloodshed and violence, was the forbearance of the magistrates in giving way for the moment to the fury and audacity of a few individuals, and suffering themselves and the Roman people to be overcome; and that no opportunity might be afforded those who were seeking an occasion of violence, in dissolving, agreeably to the wish of the defendant himself, that assembly which he was about to interrupt by force of arms.” Observations of this kind having been urged with a warmth proportioned to the atrocity of the conduct which called them forth, by all the most respectable persons, and the senate having passed a decree to the effect that the violence offered was prejudicial to the state, and a precedent of pernicious tendency, immediately the Carvilii, tribunes of the people, giving up the action for a fine, appointed a day on which Posthumius should be tried capitally, and ordered, that unless he gave bail, he should be apprehended by the beadle, and carried to prison. Posthumius gave bail, but did not appear. The tribunes then proposed to the commons, and the commons resolved, that if Marcus Posthumius did not appear before the calends of May, and if on being cited on that day he did not answer, and sufficient cause were not shown why he did not, he would be adjudged an exile, his goods would be sold, and himself interdicted from water and fire. They then proceeded to indict capitally, and demand bail of each of the persons who had been the promoters of the disorder and riot. At first they threw into prison those who did not give bail, and afterwards even such as could; upon which the greater part of them went into exile, to avoid the danger to which this proceeding exposed them.
[15] 5. The knavery of the revenue farmers, and their subsequent audacious conduct to screen themselves from its effects, thus terminated. An assembly was then held for the creation of a chief pontiff. The new pontiff, Marcus Cornelius Cethegus, presided. The election was contested with the greatest obstinacy by three candidates, Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, the consul, who had been twice consul before and censor, Titus Manhus Torquatus, who had himself also been distinguished by two consulships and the censorship, and Publius Licinius Ciassus, who was about to stand for the office of curule aedile. In this contest, the last-mentioned candidate, though a young man, beat the others, who were his superiors in years, and had filled offices of honour. Before him there had not been a man for a hundred and twenty years, except Publius Cornelius Calussa, who had been created chief pontiff without having sat in the curule chair. Though the consuls found great difficulty in completing the levy, for in consequence of the scarcity of young men, it was not easy to procure enough for the two purposes of forming the new city legions, and recruiting the old ones, the senate forbade them to desist from the attempt, and ordered two triumvirates to be appointed, one of which within, the other without the fiftieth mile from the city, might ascertain the utmost number of free-born men which were to be found in the villages, and market towns, and hamlets, and enlist whom they thought strong enough to bear arms, though they had not attained the military age. That the tribunes of the people, if they thought proper, should propose to the people, that such as should take the military oath being under seventeen years, should be allowed to reckon their period of service in the same manner as if they had enlisted at seventeen or older. The two triumvirates, created agreeably to this decree of the senate, enlisted free-born men throughout the country. At the same time a letter from Marcellus from Sicily, respecting the petition of the troops who served with Publius Lentulus, was read in the senate. These troops were the relics of the disaster at Cannae, and had been sent out of the way into Sicily, as has been mentioned before, on an understanding that they should not be brought home before the conclusion of the Carthaginian war.
[15] 6. With the permission of Lentulus, these men sent the most distinguished of the cavalry and centurions, and a select body of the legionary infantry, as ambassadors to Marcellus, to his winter quarters. Having obtained leave to speak, one of them thus addressed him: “We should have approached you, Marcus Marcellus, when consul in Italy, as soon as that decree of the senate was passed respecting us, which, though not unjust, was certainly severe, had we not hoped, that being sent into a province which was in a state of disorder in consequence of the death of its kings, to carry on an arduous war against the Sicilians and Carthaginians together, we should make atonement to the state by our blood and wounds, in the same manner as, within the memory of our fathers, those who were taken prisoners by Pyrrhus at Heraclea, made atonement by fighting against the same Pyrrhus. And yet, for what fault of ours, conscript fathers, did you then, or do you now, feel displeasure towards us; for when I look upon you, Marcus Marcellus, I seem to behold both the consuls and the whole body of the senate; and had you been our consul at Cannae, a better fate would have attended the state as well as ourselves. Permit me, I entreat you, before I complain of the hardship of our situation, to clear ourselves of the guilt with which we are charged. If it was neither by the anger of the gods, nor by fate, according to whose laws the course of human affairs is unalterably fixed, but by misconduct that we were undone at Cannae; but whose was that misconduct; the soldiers’, or that of their generals? For my own part, I, as a soldier, will never say a word of my commander, particularly when I know that he received the thanks of the senate for not having despaired of the state; and who has been continued in command through every year since his flight from Cannae. We have heard that others also who survived that disaster, who were military tribunes, solicit and fill offices of honour, and have the command of provinces. Do you then, conscript fathers, pardon yourselves and your children, while you exercise severity towards such insignificant persons as we are? It was no disgrace to a consul and other leading persons in the state, to fly when no other hope remained; and did you send your soldiers into the field as persons who must of necessity die there? At the Allia nearly the whole army fled; at the Caudine Forks the troops delivered up their arms to the enemy, without even making an effort; not to mention other disgraceful defeats of our armies. Yet, so far from any mark of infamy being sought for, which might be fixed upon these troops, the city of Rome was recovered by means of those very troops who had fled to Veii from the Allia; and the Caudine legions, which had returned to Rome without their arms, being sent back armed to Samnium, brought under the yoke that very enemy who had exulted in the disgrace which, in this instance, attached to them. But is there a man who can bring a charge of cowardice or running away against the army which fought at Cannae, where more than fifty thousand men fell; from whence the consul fled with only seventy horsemen; where not a man survived, except perchance those whom the enemy left, being wearied with killing? When the proposal to ransom the prisoners was negatived, we were the objects of general commendation, because we reserved ourselves for the service of the state; because we returned to the consul to Venusia, and exhibited an appearance of a regular army. Now we are in a worse condition than those who were taken prisoners in the time of our fathers; for they only had their arms, the nature of their service, and the place where they might pitch their tents in the camp altered; all which, however, they got restored by one service rendered to the state, and by one successful battle. Not one of them was sent away into banishment; not one was deprived of the hope of completing the period of his service; in short, an enemy was assigned to them, fighting with whom they might at once terminate their life or their disgrace. We, to whom nothing can be objected, except that it is owing to us that any Roman soldier has survived the battle of Cannae, are removed far away, not only from our country and Italy, but even from an enemy; where we may grow old in exile, where we can have no hope or opportunity of obliterating our disgrace, of appeasing the indignation of our countrymen, or, in short, of obtaining an honourable death. We seek neither to have our ignominy terminated, nor our virtue rewarded, we only ask to be allowed to make trial of our courage, and to exercise our virtue. We seek for labour and danger that we may discharge the duty of men and soldiers. A war is carrying on in Sicily, now for the second year, with the utmost vigour on both sides. The Carthaginians are storming some cities, the Romans others, armies of infantry and horse are engaging in battle, at Syracuse the war is prosecuted by sea and by land. We hear distinctly the shout of the combatants, and the din of arms, while we ourselves lie inactive and unemployed, as if we had neither hands nor arms. The consul, Sempronius has now fought many pitched battles with the enemy with legions of slaves. They receive as the fruits of their exertion their liberty, and the rights of citizens. Let us at least be employed by you as slaves purchased for the service of this war, let us be allowed to combat with the enemy and acquire our freedom by fighting. Do you wish to make trial of our valour by sea, by land, in a pitched battle, or in the assault of towns? We ask as our portion all those enterprises which present the greatest difficulty and danger, that what ought to have been done at Cannae may be done as soon as possible, for the whole of our subsequent lives has been doomed to ignominy.”
[15] 7. At the conclusion of this speech they prostrated themselves at the knees of Marcellus. Marcellus replied, that the question was neither within his authority nor his power, that he would, however, write to the senate, and be guided in every thing he did by the judgment of the fathers. This letter was brought to the new consuls, and by them read in the senate, and, on the question being put relative to this letter, they decreed, “that the senate saw no reason why the interests of the republic should be intrusted to the hands of soldiers who had deserted then comrades, in battle, at Cannae. If Marcus Marcellus, the proconsul, thought otherwise, that he should act as he deemed consistent with the good of the republic and his own honour, with this proviso, however, that none of these men should be exempt from service, nor be presented with any military reward in consideration of valour, or be conveyed back to Italy, while the enemy was in that country.” After this, agreeably to the decree of the senate, and the order of the people, an election was held by the city praetor, at which five commissioners were created for the purpose of repairing the walls and turrets, and two sets of triumviri, one to search for the property belonging to the temples, and to register the offerings, the other for repairing the temples of Fortune and Mother Matuta within the Carmental gate, and also that of Hope without the gate, which had been destroyed by fire the year before. Dreadful storms occurred at this time. It rained stones for two days without intermission in the Alban mount. Many places were struck by lightning; two buildings in the Capitol, the rampart in the camp above Suessula in many places, and two of the men on guard were killed. A wall and certain towers at Cannae were not only struck with lightning, but demolished. At Reate, a vast rock was seen to fly about; the sun appeared unusually red and blood-like. On account of these prodigies there was a supplication for one day, and the consuls employed themselves for several days in sacred rites; at the same time there was a sacred rite performed through nine days. An accidental circumstance which occurred at a distance, hastened the revolt of Tarentum, which had now for a long time been the object of the hopes of Hannibal and of the suspicion of the Romans. Phileas, a native of Tarentum, who had been a long time at Rome under the pretence of an embassy, being a man of a restless mind, and ill brooking that inactive state in which he considered that his powers had been for too long a time sinking into imbecility, discovered for himself a means of access to the Tarentine hostages. They were kept in the court of the temple of Liberty, and guarded with less care, because it was neither the interest of themselves nor of their state to escape from the Romans. By corrupting two of the keepers of the temple, he was enabled to hold frequent conferences with them, at which he solicited them to come into this design; and having brought them out of their place of confinement as soon as it was dark, he became the companion of their clandestine flight, and got clear away. As soon as day dawned, the news of their escape spread through the city, and a party sent in pursuit, having seized them all at Tarracina, brought them back. They were led into the Comitium, and after being scourged with rods, with the approbation of the people, were thrown down from the rock.
[15] 8. The severity of this punishment exasperated the inhabitants of two of the most distinguished Greek states in Italy, not only publicly as communities, but privately as individuals, according as each was connected, either by relationship or friendship, with those who had been so disgracefully put to death. Of these about thirteen noble Tarentine youths formed a conspiracy, the chief of whom were Nico and Philemenus. Concluding that it would be right to confer with Hannibal before they took any step, they went to him, having been allowed to go out of the city by night on pretence of hunting. When they were now not far from the camp, all the rest hid themselves in a wood by the road side; but Nico and Philemenus, proceeding to the advanced guard, were seized, and at their own request brought before Hannibal. Having laid before him the motives of their plan, and the object they had in view, they received the highest commendation, and were loaded with promises; and that their countrymen might believe that they had gone out of the city to obtain plunder, they were desired to drive to the city some cattle of the Carthaginians which had been sent out to graze. A promise was given them that they might do this without danger or interruption. The booty of the young men attracted notice, and less astonishment was therefore felt that they should frequently repeat the attempt. At a second meeting with Hannibal they entered into a solemn engagement, that the Tarentines should be free, enjoying their own laws, and all their rights uninterfered with; that they should neither pay any tribute to the Carthaginians, nor receive a garrison against their will; that their present garrison should be delivered up to the Carthaginians. These points being agreed upon, Philemenus then began to repeat more frequently his customary practice of going out and returning to the city followed by his dogs, and furnished with the other requisites for hunting; for he was remarkable for his fondness of hunting; and generally bringing home something which he had captured or taken away from the enemy, who had purposely placed it in his way he presented it to the commander or the guards of the gates. They supposed that he preferred going and returning by night through fear of the enemy. After this practice had become so familiar, that at whatever time of the night he gave a signal, by whistling, the gate was opened, Hannibal thought that it was now time to put the plan in execution. He was at the distance of three days’ journey, and to diminish the wonder which would be felt at his keeping his camp fixed in one and the same place so long, he feigned himself ill. Even to the Romans who formed the garrison of Tarentum, his protracted inactivity had ceased to be an object of suspicion.
[15] 9. But after he determined to proceed to Tarentum, selecting from his infantry and cavalry ten thousand men, whom, from activity of body, and lightness of arms, he judged best adapted for the expedition, he began his march in the fourth watch of the night; and sending in advance about eighty Numidian horsemen, ordered them to scour the country on each side of the road, and narrowly examine every place, lest any of the rustics who might have observed his army at a distance should escape; to bring back those who were got before, and kill those whom they met, that they might appear to the neighbouring inhabitants to be a plundering party, rather than a regular army. Hannibal himself, marching at a rapid pace, pitched his camp about fifteen miles from Tarentum; and without telling his soldiers even there, what was their destination, he only called them together and admonished them to march all of them in the road, and not to suffer any one to turn aside or deviate from the line; and above all, that they would be on the watch, so as to catch the word of command, and not do any thing without the order of their leaders; that in due time he would issue his commands as to what he wished to be done. About the same hour a rumour reached Tarentum, that a few Numidian horsemen were devastating the fields, and had terrified the rustics through a wide extent of country; at which intelligence the Roman praefect took no further step than to order a division of his cavalry to go out the following day at sunrise to check the depredations of the enemy; and so far was he from directing his attention to any thing else on this account, that on the contrary, this excursion of the Numidians was a proof to him that Hannibal and his army had not moved from his camp. Early in the night Hannibal put his troops in motion, and Philemenus, with his customary burden of prey taken in hunting, was his guide. The rest of the conspirators waited the accomplishment of what had been concerted; and the agreement was, that Philemenus, while bringing in his prey through the small gate by which he was accustomed to pass, should introduce some armed men, while Hannibal in another quarter approached the gate called Temenis, which faced the east, in that quarter which was towards the continent, near the tombs which were within the walls. When he drew near to the gate, Hannibal raised a fire according to agreement, which made a blaze; the same signal was returned by Nico, and the fires were extinguished on both sides. Hannibal led his troops on in silence to the gate. Nico suddenly fell upon the guards while asleep, slew them in their beds, and opened the gate. Hannibal then entered with his infantry, ordering his cavalry to stay behind, that they might be able to bring their assistance wherever it was required without obstruction. Philemenus also in another quarter approached the small gate by which he was accustomed to pass and re-pass. His voice, which was well known, for he said he could scarcely bear the weight of the huge beast he had gotten, and his signal, which had now become familiar, having roused the guard, the small gate was opened. Two youths carrying in a boar, Philemenus himself followed, with a huntsman, unencumbered, and while the attention of the guard was incautiously turned upon those who carried the boar, in consequence of its astonishing size, he transfixed him with a hunting spear. About thirty armed men then entering, slew the rest of the guards, and broke open the adjoining gate, when a body of troops, in regular array, instantly rushed in. Being conducted hence in silence to the forum, they joined Hannibal. The Carthaginian then sent the Tarentines, with two thousand Gauls formed into three divisions, in different directions through the city, with orders to occupy the most frequented streets. A confusion arising, the Romans were put to the sword on all hands. The townsmen were spared; but in order to insure this, he instructed the Tarentine youths, when they saw any of their friends at a distance, to bid them be quiet and silent, and be of good courage.
[15] 10. The tumult and clamour was now such as usually takes place in a captured city, but no man knew for certain what was the occasion. The Tarentines supposed that the Romans had suddenly risen to plunder the city. To the Romans it appeared, that some commotion had been set on foot by the townsmen with a treacherous design. The praefect, who was awakened at the first alarm, escaped to the port, whence getting into a boat he was conveyed round to the citadel. The sound of a trumpet also from the theatre excited alarm; for it was a Roman trumpet, prepared by the conspirators for this very purpose; and as it was blown unskilfully by a Grecian, it could not be ascertained who gave the signal, or to whom it was given. At dawn of the day, the Romans recognised the Carthaginian and Gallic arms, which removed all doubt; and the Greeks, seeing the bodies of slain Romans spread about in all directions, perceived that the city had been taken by Hannibal. When the light had increased, so that they could discriminate with greater certainty, and the Romans who survived the carnage had taken refuge in the citadel, the tumult now beginning to subside a little, Hannibal gave orders to assemble the Tarentines without their arms. All of them attended the assembly, except those who had accompanied the Romans in their retreat to the citadel, to share every fortune with them. Here Hannibal having addressed the Tarentines in terms of kindness, and appealed to the services he had rendered to those of their countrymen whom he had captured at the Trasimenus and at Cannae, and having at the same time inveighed against the haughty domination of the Romans, desired that they would every one of them retire to their respective houses, and inscribe their names upon their doors; declaring, that he should give orders that those houses which had not the names written upon them should be plundered. That if any man should write his name upon the house of a Roman, (and the Romans occupied houses by themselves,) he should treat him as an enemy. Having dismissed the assembly, and the names inscribed upon the doors having made it easy to distinguish the house of an enemy from that of a friend, on a signal given, the troops ran in every direction to plunder the lodgings of the Romans, and a considerable booty was found.
[15] 11. The next day he led his troops to assault the citadel; but seeing that it was protected by very high rocks towards the sea, which washed the greater part of it, and formed it into a sort of peninsula, and towards the city by a wall and ditch, and consequently that it could not be taken by assault or by works; lest the design to protect the Tarentines should detain him from the prosecution of more important objects, and lest the Romans should have the power of sallying from the citadel whenever they pleased against the Tarentines, if left without a strong protecting force, he resolved to cut off the communication between the citadel and city by a rampart; not without a hope that he might have an opportunity of fighting with the Romans, when attempting to obstruct the work; and if they should sally forth too eagerly, that by killing many of them the strength of the garrison would be so far reduced, that the Tarentines alone would be easily able to defend themselves from them. After they had begun, the Romans, suddenly throwing open the gate, rushed in upon the workmen. The guard stationed before the works allowed itself to be driven back, in order that their boldness might be increased by success, and that they might pursue them when driven back, in greater numbers, and to a greater distance. Then on a signal given, the Carthaginians, whom Hannibal kept in readiness for this purpose, sprang up on all sides; nor could the Romans sustain the attack, but were prevented from precipitate flight by the narrowness of the ground, by impediments occasioned in some places by the works already commenced, in others by the preparations for the work. Most of them were driven headlong into the ditch, and more were killed in the flight than in the battle. After this the work was commenced without any attempt to obstruct it. A large ditch was formed, within which a rampart was thrown up. He prepared also to add a wall at a small distance, and on the same side, that they might defend themselves from the Romans even without a garrison. He, however, left them a small force, at once for their protection and to assist in building the wall. The general himself, setting out with the rest of his forces, pitched his camp at the river Galaesus, five miles from the city. Returning from this position to inspect the work, which had gone on somewhat faster than he had anticipated, he conceived a hope that the citadel might even be taken by storm; for it was not protected by an elevated situation as the other parts were, but placed upon a plain, and separated from the city only by a wall and ditch. While subjected to an attack from every kind of military engine and work, a reinforcement sent from Metapontum inspired the Romans with courage to assault the works of the enemy, by a sudden attack, under cover of the night. Some of them they threw down, others they destroyed by fire, and thus there was an end to Hannibal’s attempts against the citadel in that quarter. His only remaining hope was in a siege; nor did that afford a good prospect of success, because, occupying a citadel which was placed on a peninsula and commanded the entrance of the harbour, they had the sea open to them, while the city, on the contrary, was deprived of any supplies by sea: and thus the besiegers were in greater danger of want than the besieged. Hannibal assembled the chief men of the Tarentines, and laid before them all the present difficulties. He said, “That he could neither discover any method by which a citadel so well fortified could be taken, nor could he hope for any favourable result from a siege, while the enemy was master of the sea; but that if ships could be obtained, by which the introduction of supplies might be prevented, the enemy would either immediately evacuate it, or surrender themselves.” The Tarentines agreed with him; but were of opinion, that “he who gave the advice ought also to assist in carrying it into execution; for if the Carthaginian ships were brought there from Sicily, they would be able to effect it; but by what means could their own ships, shut up as they were in a confined harbour, the mouth of which was in the command of the enemy, be brought out into the open sea.” “They shall be brought out,” said Hannibal. “Many things which are difficult in themselves, are easily effected by contrivance. You have a city situated upon a plain; you have level and sufficiently wide roads extending in every direction. By the road which runs through the midst of the city from the harbour to the sea I will convey your ships in waggons without any great difficulty, and the sea will be ours which the enemy now commands. We will invest the citadel on one side by sea, on the other by land; nay, rather, in a short time, we will take it either abandoned by the enemy, or with the enemy in it.” This speech not only inspired hopes of accomplishing the object, but excited the greatest admiration of the general. Waggons were immediately collected from every quarter and joined together; machines were employed to haul the ships on shore, and the road was prepared, in order that the waggons might run more easily, and thus the difficulty of passing be diminished. Beasts of burden and men were next collected, and the work was actively commenced. After the lapse of a few days, the fleet, equipped and ready for action, sailed round the citadel, and cast anchor just before the mouth of the harbour. Such was the state of things at Tarentum, when Hannibal left it and returned to his winter quarters. Authors, however, are divided as to whether the defection of the Tarentines took place in the present or former year. The greater number, and those who, from their age, were more able to recollect these events, represent it to have occurred in the present year.
[15] 12. The Latin holidays detained the consuls and praetors at Rome till the fifth of the calends of May; on which day, having completed the solemnities on the mount, they proceeded to their respective provinces. Afterwards a new difficulty respecting religious matters arose out of the prophetic verses of Marcius, who had been a distinguished soothsayer; and on a search being made the year before, for books of this description, agreeably to a decree of the senate, these verses had fallen into the hands of Marcus Atilius, the city praetor, who had the management of that business, and he had immediately handed them over to the new praetor, Sulla. The importance attached to one of the two predictions of Marcius, which was brought to light after the event to which it related had occurred, and the truth of which was confirmed by the event, attached credence to the other, the time of whose fulfilment had not yet arrived. In the former prophecy, the disaster at Cannae was predicted in nearly these words: “Roman of Trojan descent, fly the river Canna, lest foreigners should compel thee to fight in the plain of Diomede. But thou wilt not believe me until thou shalt have filled the plain with blood, and the river carries into the great sea, from the fruitful land, many thousands of your slain countrymen, and thy flesh becomes a prey for fishes, birds, and beasts inhabiting the earth. For thus hath Jupiter declared to me.” Those who had served in that quarter recognised the correspondence with respect to the plains of the Argive Diomede and the river Canna, as well as the defeat itself. The other prophecy was then read, which was more obscure, not only because future events are more uncertain than past, but also from being more perplexed in its style of composition. “Romans, if you wish to expel the enemy and the ulcer which has come from afar, I advise, that games should be vowed, which may be performed in a cheerful manner annually to Apollo; when the people shall have given a portion of money from the public coffers, that private individuals then contribute, each according to his ability. That the praetor shall preside in the celebration of these games, who holds the supreme administration of justice to the people and commons. Let the decemviri perform sacrifice with victims after the Grecian fashion. If you do these things properly you will ever rejoice, and your affairs will be more prosperous, for that deity will destroy your enemies who now, composedly, feed upon your plains.” They took one day to explain this prophecy. The next day a decree of the senate was passed, that the decemviri should inspect the books relating to the celebration of games and sacred rites in honour of Apollo. After they had been consulted, and a report made to the senate, the fathers voted, that “games should be vowed to Apollo and celebrated; and that when the games were concluded, twelve thousand asses should be given to the praetor to defray the expense of sacred ceremonies, and also two victims of the larger sort.” A second decree was passed, that “the decemviri should perform sacrifice in the Grecian mode, and with the following victims: to Apollo, with a gilded ox, and two white goats gilded; to Latona, with a gilded heifer.” When the praetor was about to celebrate the games in the Circus Maximus, he issued an order, that during the celebration of the games, the people should pay a contribution, as large as was convenient, for the service of Apollo. This is the origin of the Apollinarian games, which were vowed and celebrated in order to victory, and not restoration to health, as is commonly supposed. The people viewed the spectacle in garlands; the matrons made supplications; the people in general feasted in the courts of their houses, throwing the doors open; and the day was distinguished by every description of ceremony.
[15] 13. While Hannibal was in the neighbourhood of Tarentum, and both the consuls in Samnium, though they seemed as if they were about to besiege Capua, the Campanians were experiencing famine, that calamity which is the usual attendant of a protracted siege. It was occasioned by the Roman armies’ having prevented the sowing of the lands. They therefore sent ambassadors to Hannibal, imploring him to give orders that corn should be conveyed to Capua from the neighbouring places, before both the consuls led their legions into their fields, and all the roads were blocked up by the troops of the enemy. Hannibal ordered Hanno to pass with his army from Bruttium into Campania, and to take care that the Campanians were supplied with corn. Hanno, setting out from Bruttium with his army, and carefully avoiding the camp of the enemy and the consuls who were in Samnium, when he drew near to Beneventum, pitched his camp on an eminence three miles from the city. He next ordered that the corn which had been collected during the summer, should be brought from the neighbouring people in alliance with him, into his camp, assigning a guard to escort those supplies. He then sent a messenger to the Capuans, fixing a day when they should attend at his camp to receive the corn, bringing with them vehicles and beasts of every description, collected from every part of their country. The Campanians executed this business with their usual indolence and carelessness. Somewhat more than four hundred vehicles, with a few beasts of burden besides, were sent. After receiving a reproof from Hanno for this conduct, who told them, that not even hunger, which excited dumb animals to exertion, could stimulate them to diligence, another day was named when they were to fetch the corn after better preparation. All these transactions being reported to the Beneventans, just as they occurred, they lost no time in sending ten ambassadors to the Roman consuls, who were encamped in the neighbourhood of Bovianum. The consuls, hearing what was going on at Capua, arranged it so that one of them should lead an army into Campania; and Fulvius, to whose lot that province had fallen, setting out by night, entered the walls of Beneventum. Being now near the enemy, he obtained information that Hanno had gone out to forage with a portion of his troops; that the Campanians were supplied with corn by a quaestor; that two thousand waggons had arrived together with an undisciplined and unarmed rabble; that every thing was done in a disorderly and hurried manner; and that the form of a camp, and all military subordination, were destroyed by the intermixture of rustics out of the neighbourhood. This intelligence being sufficiently authenticated, the consul ordered his soldiers to get ready only their standards and arms against the next night, as he must attack the Carthaginian camp. They set out at the fourth watch of the night, leaving all their packages and baggage of every description at Beneventum; and arriving a little before daylight at the camp, they occasioned such a panic, that, had the camp been situated on level ground, it might doubtlessly have been taken on the first assault. The height of its situation and the works defended it; for they could not be approached on any side except by a steep and difficult ascent. At break of day a hot engagement commenced, when the Carthaginians not only defended their rampart, but having more even ground, threw down the enemy as they attempted to ascend the steep.
[15] 14. Persevering courage, however, at length prevailed over every impediment, and they made their way up to the ditch and rampart in several parts at the same time, but with many wounds and much loss of soldiers. The consul, therefore assembling the military tribunes, said they must desist from this inconsiderate enterprise; and that it appeared to him to be the safer course, that the troops should be led back to Beneventum for that day, and then on the following day to pitch his camp close to that of the enemy, so that the Campanians could not quit it, nor Hanno return to it; and in order that that object might be attained with the greater ease, that he should send for his colleague and his army; and that they would direct their whole force on that point. This plan of the general was disconcerted, after the signal began to sound for a retreat, by the clamours of the soldiery, who despised so pusillanimous an order. Nearest to the gate of the enemy’s camp was a Pelignian cohort, whose commander, Vibius Accuaeus, seizing the standard, threw it over the rampart. Then pronouncing a curse upon himself and his cohort, if the enemy got possession of that standard, he rushed forward before the rest, and crossing the ditch and rampart, burst into the camp of the enemy. The Pelignians were now fighting within the rampart, when in another quarter Valerius Flaccus, a military tribune of the third legion, taunting the Romans with cowardice for conceding to allies the honour of taking the camp. Titus Pedanius, first centurion of the first century, snatched the standard out of the hands of the standard-bearer, and cried out, “Soon shall this standard, and this centurion, be within the rampart of the enemy; let those follow who would prevent the standard’s being captured by the enemy.” Crossing the ditch, he was followed first by the men of his own maniple, and then by the whole legion. By this time the consul also, changing his plan on seeing them crossing the rampart, began to incite and encourage his soldiers, instead of calling them off; representing to them, how critical and perilous was the situation of the bravest cohort of their allies and a legion of their countrymen. All, therefore, severally exerting themselves to the utmost, regardless whether the ground were even or uneven, while showers of weapons were thrown against them from all sides, the enemy opposing their arms and their persons to obstruct them, made their way and burst in. Many who were wounded, even those whose blood and strength failed them, pressed forward, that they might fall within the rampart of the enemy. The camp, therefore, was taken in an instant, as if it had been situated upon level ground, and not completely fortified. What followed was a carnage rather than a battle. The troops of both sides being huddled together within the rampart, above six thousand of the enemy were slain; above seven thousand, together with the Campanians who fetched the corn, and the whole collection of waggons and beasts of burden, were captured. There was also a great booty, which Hanno in his predatory excursions, which he had been careful to make in every quarter, had drawn together from the lands of the allies of the Romans. After throwing down the camp of the enemy, they returned thence to Beneventum; and there both the consuls (for Appius Claudius came thither a few days after) sold the booty and distributed it, making presents to those by whose exertions the camp of the enemy had been captured; above all, to Accuaeus the Pelignian, and Titus Pedanius, first centurion of the third legion. Hanno, setting off from Cominium in the territory of Cere, whither intelligence of the loss of the camp had reached him, with a small party of foragers, whom he happened to have with him, returned to Bruttium, more after the manner of a flight than a march.
[15] 15. The Campanians, when informed of the disaster which had befallen themselves and their allies, sent ambassadors to Hannibal to inform him, that “the two consuls were at Beneventum, which was a day’s march from Capua; that the war was all but at their gates and their walls; and that if he did not hasten to their assistance, Capua would fall into the power of the enemy sooner than Arpi had; that not even Tarentum itself, much less its citadel, ought to be considered of so much consequence as to induce him to deliver up to the Roman people, abandoned and undefended, Capua, which he used to place on an equal footing with Carthage.” Hannibal, promising that he would not neglect the interest of the Campanians, sent, for the present, two thousand horse, with the ambassadors, aided by which, they might secure their lands from devastation. The Romans, meanwhile, among the other things which engaged their attention, had an eye to the citadel of Tarentum, and the garrison besieged therein. Caius Servilius, lieutenant-general, having been sent, according to the advice of the fathers, by Publius Cornelius, the praetor, to purchase corn in Etruria, made his way into the harbour of Tarentum, through the guard-ships of the enemy, with some ships of burden. At his arrival, those who before, having very slight hopes of holding out, were frequently invited by the enemy, in conferences, to pass over to them, now, on the contrary, were the persons to invite and solicit the enemy to come over to them; and now, as the soldiers who were at Metapontum had been brought to assist in guarding the citadel of Tarentum, the garrison was sufficiently powerful. In consequence of this measure, the Metapontines, being freed from the fears which had influenced them, immediately revolted to Hannibal. The people of Thurium, situated on the same coast, did the same. They were influenced not more by the defection of the Metapontines and Tarentines, with whom they were connected, being sprung from the same country, Achaia, than by resentment towards the Romans, in consequence of the recent execution of the hostages. The friends and relations of these hostages sent a letter and a message to Hanno and Mago, who were not far off among the Bruttii, to the effect, that if they brought their troops up to the walls, they would deliver the city into their hands. Marcus Atinius was in command at Thurium, with a small garrison, who they thought might easily be induced to engage rashly in a battle, not from any confidence which he reposed in his troops, of which he had very few, but in the youth of Thurium, whom he had purposely formed into centuries, and armed against emergencies of this kind. The generals, after dividing their forces between them, entered the territory of Thurium; and Hanno, with a body of infantry, proceeded towards the city in hostile array. Hanno staid behind with the cavalry, under the cover of some hills, conveniently placed for the concealment of an ambush. Atinius, having by his scouts discovered only the body of infantry, led his troops into the field, ignorant both of the domestic treachery and of the stratagem of the enemy. The engagement with the infantry was particularly dull, a few Romans in the first rank engaging while the Thurians rather waited than helped on the issue. The Carthaginian line retreated, on purpose that they might draw the incautious enemy to the back of the hill, where their cavalry were lying in ambush; and when they had come there, the cavalry rising up on a sudden with a shout, immediately put to flight the almost undisciplined rabble of the Thurians, not firmly attached to the side on which they fought. The Romans, notwithstanding they were surrounded and hard pressed on one side by the infantry, on the other by the cavalry, yet prolonged the battle for a considerable time; but at length even they were compelled to turn their backs, and fled towards the city. There the conspirators, forming themselves into a dense body, received the multitude of their countrymen with open gates; but when they perceived that the routed Romans were hurrying towards the city, they exclaimed that the Carthaginian was close at hand, and that the enemy would enter the city mingled with them, unless they speedily closed the gates. Thus they shut out the Romans, and left them to be cut up by the enemy. Atinius, however, and a few others were taken in. After this for a short time there was a division between them, some being of opinion that they ought to defend the city, others that they ought, after all that had happened, to yield to fortune, and deliver up the city to the conquerors; but, as it generally happens, fortune and evil counsels prevailed. Having conveyed Atinius and his party to the sea and the ships, more because they wished that care should be taken of him, in consequence of the mildness and justice of his command, than from regard to the Romans, they received the Carthaginians into the city. The consuls led their legions from Beneventum into the Campanian territory, with the intention not only of destroying the corn, which was in the blade, but of laying siege to Capua; considering that they would render their consulate illustrious by the destruction of so opulent a city, and that they would wipe away the foul disgrace of the empire, from the defection of a city so near remaining unpunished for three years. Lest, however, Beneventum should be left without protection, and that in case of any sudden emergency, if Hannibal should come to Capua, in order to bring assistance to his friends, which they doubted not he would do, the cavalry might be able to sustain his attack, they ordered Tiberius Gracchus to come from Lucania to Beneventum with his cavalry and light-armed troops and to appoint some person to take the command of the legions and stationary camp, for the defence of Lucania.
[15] 16. An unlucky prodigy occurred to Gracchus, while sacrificing, previous to his departure from Lucania. Two snakes gliding from a secret place to the entrails, after the sacrifice was completed, ate the liver; and after having been observed, suddenly vanished out of sight. The sacrifice having been repeated according to the admonition of the aruspices, and the vessel containing the entrails being watched with increased attention, it is reported that the snakes came a second, and a third time, and, after tasting the liver, went away untouched. Though the aruspices forewarned him that the portent had reference to the general, and that he ought to be on his guard against secret enemies and machinations, yet no foresight could avert the destiny which awaited him. There was a Lucanian, named Flavius, the leader of that party which adhered to the Romans when the others went over to Hannibal; he was this year in the magistracy, having been created praetor by the same party. Suddenly changing his mind, and seeking to ingratiate himself with the Carthaginians, he did not think it enough that he himself should pass over to them, or that he should induce the Lucanians to revolt with him, unless he ratified his league with the enemy with the head and blood of the general, betrayed to them, though his guest. He entered into a secret conference with Mago, who had the command in Bruttium, and receiving a solemn promise from him, that he would take the Lucanians into his friendship, without interfering with their laws, if he should betray the Roman general to the Carthaginians, he conducted Mago to a place to which he was about to bring Gracchus with a few attendants. He then directed Mago to arm his infantry and cavalry, and to occupy the retired places there, in which he might conceal a very large number of troops. After thoroughly inspecting and exploring the place on all sides, a day was agreed upon for the execution of the affair. Flavius came to the Roman general, and said, that “he had begun a business of great importance, for the completion of which, it was necessary to have the assistance of Gracchus himself. That he had persuaded the praetors of all the states which had revolted to the Carthaginians in the general defection of Italy, to return into the friendship of the Romans, since now the Roman power too, which had almost come to ruin by the disaster at Cannae. was daily improving and increasing, while the strength of Hannibal was sinking into decay, and was almost reduced to nothing. He had told them that the Romans would be disposed to accept an atonement for their former offence; that there never was any state more easy to be entreated, or more ready to grant pardon; how often, he had observed to them, had they forgiven rebellion even in their own ancestors! These considerations,” he said, “he had himself urged, but that they would rather hear the same from Gracchus himself in person, and touching his right hand, carry with them that pledge of faith. That he had agreed upon a place with those who were privy to the transaction, out of the way of observation, and at no great distance from the Roman camp; that there the business might be settled in few words, so that all the Lucanian states might be in the alliance and friendship of the Romans.” Gracchus, not suspecting any treachery either from his words or the nature of the proposal, and being caught by the probability of the thing, set out from the camp with his lictors and a troop of horse, under the guidance of his host, and fell headlong into the snare. The enemy suddenly arose from their lurking-place, and Flavius joined them; which made the treachery obvious. A shower of weapons was poured from all sides on Gracchus and his troop. He immediately leaped from his horse, and ordering the rest to do the same, exhorted them, that “as fortune had left them only one course, they would render it glorious by their valour. And what is there left,” said he, “to a handful of men, surrounded by a multitude, in a valley hemmed in by a wood and mountains, except death? The only question was, whether, tamely exposing themselves to be butchered like cattle, they should die unavenged; or whether, drawing the mind off from the idea of suffering and anticipation of the event, and giving full scope to fury and resentment, they should fall while doing and daring, covered with hostile blood, amid heaps of arms and bodies of their expiring foes.” He desired that “all would aim at the Lucanian traitor and deserter;” adding, that “the man who should send that victim to the shades before him, would acquire the most distinguished glory, and furnish the highest consolation for his own death.” While thus speaking, he wound his cloak round his left arm, for they had not even brought their shields out with them, and then rushed upon the enemy. The exertion made in the fight was greater than could be expected from the smallness of the number. The bodies of the Romans were most exposed to the javelins, with which, as they were thrown on all sides from higher ground into a deep valley, they were transfixed. The Carthaginians seeing Gracchus now bereft of support, endeavoured to take him alive; but he having descried his Lucanian host among the enemy, rushed with such fury into their dense body that it became impossible to save his life without a great loss. Mago immediately sent his corpse to Hannibal, ordering it to be placed, with the fasces which were taken at the same time, before the tribunal of the general. This is the true account; Gracchus fell in Lucania, near the place called the Old Plains.
[15] 17. There are some who have put forth an account, stating, that when in the territory of Beneventum, near the river Calor, having gone out from his camp with his lictors and three servants, for the purpose of bathing, he was slain while naked and unarmed, and endeavouring to defend himself with the stones which the river brought down, by a party of the enemy which happened to be concealed among the osiers which grew upon the banks. Others state, that having gone out five hundred paces from the camp, at the instance of the aruspices, in order to expiate the prodigies before mentioned on unpolluted ground, he was cut off by two troops of Numidians who happened to be lying in ambush there. So different are the accounts respecting the place and manner of the death of so illustrious and distinguished a man. Various also are the accounts of the funeral of Gracchus. Some say that he was buried by his own friends in the Roman camp; others relate, and this is the more generally received account, that a funeral pile was erected by Hannibal, in the entrance of the Carthaginian camp; that the troops under arms performed evolutions, with the dances of the Spaniards, and motions of the arms and body, which were customary with the several nations; while Hannibal himself celebrated his obsequies with every mark of respect, both in word and deed. Such is the account of those who assert that the affair occurred in Lucania. If you are disposed to credit the statement of those who relate that he was slain at the river Calor, the enemy got possession only of the head of Gracchus; which being brought to Hannibal, he immediately despatched Carthalo to convey it into the Roman camp to Cneius Cornelius, the quaestor, who buried the general in the camp, the Beneventans joining the army in the celebration.
[15] 18. The consuls having entered the Campanian territory, while devastating the country on all sides, were alarmed, and thrown into confusion, by an eruption of the townsmen and Mago with his cavalry. They called in their troops to their standards from the several quarters to which they were dispersed, but having been routed when they had scarcely formed their line, they lost above fifteen hundred men. The confidence of the Campanians, who were naturally presumptuous, became excessive in consequence of this event, and in many battles they challenged the Romans; but this one battle, which they had been incautiously and imprudently drawn into, had increased the vigilance of the consuls. Their spirits were restored, while the presumption of the other party was diminished, by one trifling occurrence; but in war nothing is so inconsiderable as not to be capable, sometimes, of producing important consequences. Titus Quinctius Crispinus was a guest of Badius, a Campanian, united with him by the greatest intimacy. Their acquaintance had increased from the circumstance of Badius having received the most liberal and kind attentions at the house of Crispinus, in a fit of illness, at Rome, before the Campanian revolt. On the present occasion, Badius, advancing in front of the guards, which were stationed before the gate, desired Crispinus to be called; and Crispinus, on being informed of this, thinking that a friendly and familiar interview was requested, and the memory of their private connexion remaining even amidst the disruption of public ties, advanced a little from the rest. When they had come within view of each other, Badius exclaimed, “I challenge you to combat, Crispinus; let us mount our horses, and making the rest withdraw, let us try which is the better soldier.” In reply, Crispinus said, that “neither of them were in want of enemies to display their valour upon; for his own part, even if he should meet him in the field he would turn aside, lest he should pollute his right-hand with the blood of a guest;” and then turning round, was going away. But the Campanian, with increased presumption, began to charge him with cowardice and effeminacy, and cast upon him reproaches which he deserved himself, calling him “an enemy who sheltered himself under the title of host, and one who pretended to spare him for whom he knew himself not to be a match. If he considered; that when public treaties were broken, the ties of private connexion were not severed with them, then Badius the Campanian openly, and in the hearing of both armies, renounced his connexion of hospitality with Titus Quinctius Crispinus the Roman. He said, that there could exist no fellowship or alliance with him and an enemy whose country and tutelary gods, both public and private, he had come to fight against. If he was a man, he would meet him.” Crispinus hesitated for a long time; but the men of his troop at length prevailed upon him not to allow the Campanian to insult him with impunity. Waiting, therefore, only to ask his generals whether they would allow him to fight, contrary to rule, with an enemy who had challenged him; having obtained their permission, he mounted his horse, and addressing Badius by name, called him out to the combat. The Campanian made no delay. They engaged with their horses excited to hostility. Crispinus transfixed Badius with his spear in the left shoulder, over his shield. He fell from his horse in consequence of the wound; and Crispinus leaped down to despatch him as he lay, on foot. But Badius, before his enemy was upon him, ran off to his friends, leaving his horse and buckler. Crispinus, decorated with the spoils, and displaying the horse and arms which he had seized together with the bloody spear, was conducted amid the loud plaudits and congratulations of the soldiery into the presence of the consuls, where he was highly commended, and was presented with gifts.
[15] 19. Hannibal, having moved his camp from the territory of Beneventum to Capua, drew out his troops in order of battle the third day after his arrival; not entertaining the least doubt but that, as the Campanians had fought successfully a few days ago when he was absent, the Romans would be still less able to withstand him and his army, which had been so often victorious. After the battle had commenced, the Roman line was distressed chiefly from the attack of the cavalry, being overwhelmed with their darts, till the signal was given to the Roman cavalry to direct their horses against the enemy; thus it was a battle of the cavalry. But at this time the Sempronian army, commanded by Cneius Cornelius the quaestor, being descried at a distance, excited alarm in both parties equally, lest those who were approaching should be fresh enemies. As if by concert, therefore, both sounded a retreat; and the troops were withdrawn from the field to their camps, in an equal condition; a greater number, however, of the Romans fell in the first charge of the cavalry. The consuls, to divert the attention of Hannibal from Capua, departed thence on the following night in different directions, Fulvius into the territory of Cuma, Claudius into Lucania. The next day Hannibal, having received intelligence that the camp of the Romans was deserted, and that they had gone off in different directions in two divisions, doubtful at first which he should follow, commenced the pursuit of Appius; who, after leading him about whichever way he pleased, returned by another route to Capua. Hannibal, while in this quarter, had another opportunity of gaining an advantage. Marcus Centenius, surnamed Penula, was distinguished among the centurions of the first rank by the size of his person, and his courage. Having gone through his period of service, he was introduced to the senate by Publius Cornelius Sulla, when he requested of the fathers that five thousand men might be placed at his disposal. He said, that “as he was acquainted with the character of the enemy, and the nature of the country, he should speedily perform some service; and that he would employ those arts by which our generals and armies had been hitherto ensnared against the inventor of them.” This was not promised more foolishly than it was believed; as if the qualifications of a soldier and a general were the same. Instead of five, eight thousand men were given him, half Romans, half allies. He himself also got together a considerable number of volunteers, in the country, on his march; and having almost doubled his force, arrived in Lucania, where Hannibal had halted after having in vain pursued Claudius. No doubt could be entertained of the issue of a contest which was to take place between Hannibal, as general on one side, and a centurion on the other; between armies, one of which had grown old in victory, the other entirely inexperienced, and for the most part even tumultuary and half-armed. As soon as the troops came within sight of each other, and neither of them declined an engagement, the lines were formed. The battle, notwithstanding the utter disparity of the contending parties, lasted more than two hours, the Roman troops acting with the greatest spirit as long as their general survived. But after that he had fallen, for he continually exposed himself to the weapons of the enemy, not only from regard to his former character, but through fear of the disgrace which would attach to him if he survived a disaster occasioned by his own temerity, the Roman line was immediately routed. But so completely were they prevented from flying, every way being beset by the cavalry, that scarcely a thousand men escaped out of so large an army; the rest were destroyed on all hands, in one way or other.
[15] 20. The siege of Capua was now resumed by the consuls with the utmost energy. Every thing requisite for the business was conveyed thither and got in readiness. A store of corn was collected at Casilinum; at the mouth of the Vulturnus, where a town now stands, a strong post was fortified; and a garrison was stationed in Puteoli, which Fabius had formerly fortified, in order to have the command of the neighbouring sea and the river. Into these two maritime forts, the corn recently sent from Sicily, with that which Marcus Junius, the praetor, had bought up in Etruria, was conveyed from Ostia, to supply the army during the winter. But, in addition to the disaster sustained in Lucania, the army also of volunteer slaves, who had served during the life of Gracchus with the greatest fidelity, as if discharged from service by the death of their general, left their standards. Hannibal was not willing that Capua should be neglected, or his allies deserted, at so critical a juncture; but, having obtained such success from the temerity of one Roman general, his attention was fixed on the opportunity which presented itself of crushing the other general and his army. Ambassadors from Apulia reported that Cneius Fulvius, the praetor, had at first conducted his measures with caution, while engaged in besieging certain towns of Apulia, which had revolted to Hannibal; but that afterwards, in consequence of extraordinary success, both himself and his soldiers, being glutted with booty, had so given themselves up to licentiousness and indolence, that all military discipline was disregarded. Having frequently on other occasions, as well as but a few days ago, experienced what an army was good for, when conducted by an unskilful commander, he moved his camp into Apulia.
[15] 21. The Roman legions, and the praetor, Fulvius, were in the neighbourhood of Herdonia, where, receiving intelligence of the approach of the enemy, they had nearly torn up the standards and gone out to battle without the praetor’s orders; nor did any thing tend more to prevent it than the assured hope they entertained that they could do so whenever they pleased, consulting only their own will. The following night, Hannibal having obtained information that the camp was in a state of tumult, and that most of the troops were in a disorderly manner urging the general to give the signal, and calling out to arms, and therefore feeling convinced that an opportunity presented itself for a successful battle, distributed three thousand light troops in the houses in the neighbourhood, and among the thorns and woods. These, on a signal being given, were to rise up from their lurking-place with one accord; and Mago, with about two thousand horse, was ordered to occupy all the roads in the direction in which he supposed their flight would be directed. Having made these preparations during the night, he led his troops into the field at break of day. Nor did Fulvius decline the challenge; not so much from any hope of success entertained by himself, as drawn by the blind impetuosity of his soldiers. Accordingly, the line itself was formed with the same want of caution with which they entered the field, agreeably to the whim of the soldiers, who came up as chance directed, and took their stations just where they pleased; which they afterwards abandoned, as fear or caprice suggested. The first legion and the left wing of the allied troops were drawn up in front. The line was extended to a great length, the tribunes remonstrating, that there was no strength in it, and that wherever the enemy made the charge they would break through it: but no salutary advice reached their minds, nor even their ears. Hannibal was now come up, a general of a totally different character, with an army neither similar in its nature, nor similarly marshalled. The consequence was, that the Romans did not so much as sustain their shout and first attack. Their general, equal to Centenius in folly and temerity, but by no means to be compared with him in courage, when he saw things going against him, and his troops in confusion, hastily mounting his horse, fled from the field with about two hundred horsemen. The rest of the troops, beaten in front, and surrounded on the flank and rear, were slaughtered to such a degree, that out of eighteen thousand men, not more than two thousand escaped. The enemy got possession of the camp.
[15] 22. When these disastrous defeats, happening one upon another, were reported at Rome, great grief and consternation seized the city. But still, as the consuls had been hitherto successful when it was most important, they were the less affected by these disasters. Caius Lastorius and Marcus Metilius were sent as ambassadors to the consuls, with directions carefully to collect the remains of the two armies, and use every endeavour to prevent their surrendering themselves to the enemy, through fear or despair, (which was the case after the battle of Cannae,) and to search for the deserters from the army of volunteer slaves. Publius Cornelius was charged with the same business; to him also the levy was intrusted. He caused an order to be issued throughout the market and smaller towns, that search should be made for the volunteer slaves, and that they should be brought back to their standards. All these things were executed with the most vigilant care. The consul, Appius Claudius, having placed Decius Junius in command at the mouth of the Vulturnus, and Marcus Aurelius Cotta at Puteoli, with directions to send off the corn immediately to the camp, as each of the ships from Etruria and Sardinia arrived with it, returned himself to Capua, and found his colleague Quintus Fulvius at Casilinum, conveying every requisite thence, and making every preparation for the siege of Capua. Both of them then joined in besieging the city, summoning Claudius Nero, the praetor, from the Claudian camp at Suessula; who, leaving a small garrison there, marched down to Capua with all the rest of his forces. Thus there were three generals’ tents erected round Capua; and three armies, applying themselves to the work in different parts, proceeded to surround the city with a ditch and rampart, erecting forts at moderate intervals. The Campanians attempting to obstruct the work, a battle was fought in several places at once; the consequence of which was, that at length the Campanians confined themselves within their gates and walls. Before, however, these works were carried quite round, ambassadors were sent to Hannibal to complain that Capua was abandoned, and almost given up to the Romans, and to implore him, that he would now, at least, bring them assistance, when they were not only besieged, but surrounded by a rampart. A letter was sent to the consuls from Publius Cornelius, the praetor, directing that before they completely enclosed Capua with their works, they should grant permission to such of the Campanians as chose to quit Capua, and take their property with them. That those should retain their liberty, and all their possessions, who quitted it before the ides of March, but that those who quitted it after that day, as well as those who continued there, would be considered as enemies. Proclamation was made to the Campanians to this effect, but it was received with such scorn, that they spontaneously used insulting language and menaces. Hannibal had marched his legions from Herdonea to Tarentum, with the hope of getting possession of the citadel of that place, by force or stratagem. But not succeeding there, he turned his course to Brundusium, thinking that town would be betrayed to him, but, while fruitlessly spending time there also, the Campanian ambassadors came to him with complaints and entreaties. Hannibal answered them in a proud manner, that he had before raised the siege of Capua, and that now the consuls would not sustain his approach. The ambassadors, dismissed with these hopes, with difficulty effected their return to Capua, which was by this time surrounded by a double trench and rampart.
[15] 23. At the time when the circumvallation of Capua was carrying on with the greatest activity, the siege of Syracuse, which had been forwarded by intestine treachery, in addition to the efforts and bravery of the general and his army, was brought to a conclusion. For in the beginning of spring, Marcellus being in doubt whether he should direct the operations of the war against Himilco and Hippocrates at Agrigentum, or press the siege of Syracuse, though he saw that it was impossible to take the city by force, which, from its situation, both with respect to sea and land, was impregnable, nor by famine, as it was supported by an uninterrupted supply of provisions from Carthage, yet that he might leave no course untried, directed the Syracusan deserters (and there were in the Roman camp some men in this situation of the highest rank, who had been driven out of the city during the defection from the Romans, because they were averse to a change of measures) to sound the feelings of those who were of the same party in conferences, and to promise them, that if Syracuse was delivered up, they should have their liberty, and be governed by their own laws. There was no opportunity however, of having a conference; for as many were suspected of disaffection, the attention and observation of all were exerted, lest any thing of the kind should occur unknown to them. One of the exiles, who was a servant, having been allowed to enter the city in the character of a deserter, assembled a few persons, and opened a conversation upon the subject. After this, certain persons, covering themselves with nets in a fishing smack, were in this way conveyed round to the Roman camp, and conferred with the fugitives. The same was frequently repeated by different parties, one after another; and at last they amounted to eighty. But after every thing had been concerted for betraying the city, the plot was reported to Epicydes, by one Attalus, who felt hurt that he had not been intrusted with the secret; and they were all put to death with torture. This attempt having miscarried, another hope was immediately raised. One Damippus, a Lacedaemonian, who had been sent from Syracuse to king Philip, had been taken prisoner by the Roman fleet. Epicydes was particularly anxious to ransom this man above any other; nor was Marcellus disinclined to grant it; the Romans, even at this time, being desirous of gaining the friendship of the Aetolians, with whom the Lacedaemonians were in alliance. Some persons having been sent to treat respecting his ransom, the most central and convenient place to both parties for this purpose appeared to be at the Trogilian port, near the tower called Galeagra. As they went there several times, one of the Romans, having a near view of the wall, and having determined its height, as nearly as it could be done by conjecture, from counting the stones, and by forming an estimate, in his own mind, what was the height of each stone in the face of the work; and having come to the conclusion that it was considerably lower than he himself and all the rest had supposed it, and that it was capable of being scaled with ladders of moderate size, laid the matter before Marcellus. It appeared a thing not to be neglected; but as the spot could not be approached, being on this very account guarded with extraordinary care, a favourable opportunity of doing it was sought for. This a deserter suggested, who brought intelligence that the Syracusans were celebrating the festival of Diana; that it was to last three days, and that as there was a deficiency of other things during the siege, the feasts would be more profusely celebrated with wine, which was furnished by Epicydes to the people in general, and distributed through the tribes by persons of distinction. When Marcellus had received this intelligence, he communicated it to a few of the military tribunes; then having selected, through their means, such centurions and soldiers as had courage and energy enough for so important an enterprise, and having privately gotten together a number of scaling-ladders, he directed that a signal should be given to the rest of the troops to take their refreshment, and go to rest early, for they were to go upon an expedition that night. Then the time, as it was supposed, having arrived, when, after having feasted from the middle of the day, they would have had their fill of wine, and have begun to sleep, he ordered the soldiers of one company to proceed with the ladders, while about a thousand armed men were in silence marched to the spot in a slender column. The foremost having mounted the wall, without noise or confusion, the others followed in order; the boldness of the former inspiring even the irresolute with courage.
[15] 24. The thousand armed men had now taken a part of the city, when the rest, applying a greater number of ladders, mounted the wall on a signal given from the Hexapylos. To this place the former party had arrived in entire solitude; as the greater part of them, having feasted in the towers, were either asleep from the effects of wine, or else, half asleep, were still drinking. A few of them, however, they surprised in their beds, and put to the sword. They began then to break open a postern gate near the Hexapylos, which required great force; and a signal was given from the wall by sounding a trumpet, as had been agreed upon. After this, the attack was carried on in every quarter, not secretly, but by open force; for they had now reached Epipolae, a place protected by numerous guards, where the business was to terrify the enemy, and not to escape their notice. In effect they were terrified; for as soon as the sound of the trumpets was heard, and the shouts of the men who had got possession of the walls and a part of the city, the guards concluded that every part was taken, and some of them fled along the wall, others leaped down from it, or were thrown down headlong by a crowd of the terrified townsmen. A great part of the inhabitants, however, were ignorant of this disastrous event, all of them being overpowered with wine and sleep; and because, in a city of so wide extent, what was perceived in one quarter was not readily made known through the whole city. A little before day, Marcellus having entered the city with all his forces, through the Hexapylos, which was forced open roused all the townsmen; who ran to arms, in order, if possible, by their efforts, to afford succour to the city, which was now almost taken. Epicydes advanced with a body of troops at a rapid pace from the Insula, which the Syracusans themselves call Nasos, not doubting but that he should be able to drive out what he supposed a small party, which had got over the wall through the negligence of the guards. He earnestly represented to the terrified inhabitants who met him, that they were increasing the confusion, and that in their accounts they made things greater and more important than they really were. But when he perceived that every place around Epipolae was filled with armed men, after just teasing the enemy with the discharge of a few missiles, he marched back to the Achradina, not so much through fear of the number and strength of the enemy, as that some intestine treachery might show itself, taking advantage of the opportunity, and he might find the gates of the Achradina and island closed upon him in the confusion. When Marcellus, having entered the walls, beheld this city as it lay subjected to his view from the high ground on which he stood, a city the most beautiful, perhaps, of any at that time, he is said to have shed tears over it; partly from the inward satisfaction he felt at having accomplished so important an enterprise, and partly in consideration of its ancient renown. The fleets of the Athenians sunk there, and two vast armies destroyed, with two generals of the highest reputation, as well as the many wars waged with the Carthaginians with so much peril arose before his mind; the many and powerful tyrants and kings; but above all Hiero, a king who was not only fresh in his memory, but who was distinguished for the signal services he had rendered the Roman people, and more than all by the endowments which his own virtues and good fortune had conferred. All these considerations presenting themselves at once to his recollection, and reflecting, that in an instant every thing before him would be in flames, and reduced to ashes; before he marched his troops to the Achradina, he sent before him some Syracusans, who, as was before observed, were among the Roman troops, to induce the enemy, by a persuasive address, to surrender the city.
[15] 25. The gates and walls of the Achradina were occupied principally by deserters, who had no hopes of pardon in case of capitulation. These men would neither suffer those who were sent to approach the walls, nor to address them. Marcellus, therefore, on the failure of this attempt, gave orders to retire to the Euryalus, which is an eminence at the extremity of the city, at the farthest point from the sea, and commanding the road leading into the fields and the interior of the island, and is conveniently situated for the introduction of supplies. This fort was commanded by Philodemus, an Argive, who was placed in this situation by Epicydes. Marcellus sent Sosis, one of the regicides, to him. After a long conversation, being put off for the purpose of frustrating him, he brought back word to Marcellus, that Philodemus had taken time to deliberate. This man postponing his answer day after day, till Hippocrates and Himilco should quit their present position, and come up with their legions; not doubting but that if he should receive them into the fort, the Roman army, shut up as it was within the walls, might be annihilated, Marcellus, who saw that the Euryalus would neither be delivered up to him, nor could be taken by force, pitched his camp between Neapolis and Tycha, which are names of divisions of the city, and are in themselves like cities; fearful lest if he entered populous parts of the city, he should not be able to restrain his soldiers, greedy of plunder, from running up and down after it. When three ambassadors came to him from Tycha and Neapolis with fillets and other badges of supplicants, imploring him to abstain from fire and slaughter, Marcellus, having held a council respecting these entreaties, for so they were, rather than demands, ordered his soldiers, according to the unanimous opinion of the council, not to offer violence to any free person, but told them that every thing else might be their booty. The walls of the houses forming a protection for his camp, he posted guards and parties of troops at the gates, which were exposed, as they faced the streets, lest any attack should be made upon his camp while the soldiers were dispersed in pursuit of plunder. After these arrangements, on a signal given, the soldiers dispersed for that purpose; and though they broke open doors and every place resounded in consequence of the alarm and confusion created, they nevertheless refrained from blood. They did not desist from plunder till they had gutted the houses of all the property which had been accumulated during a long period of prosperity. Meanwhile, Philodemus also, who despaired of obtaining assistance, having received a pledge that he might return to Epicydes in safety, withdrew the garrison, and delivered up the fortress to the Romans. While the attention of all was engaged by the tumult occasioned in that part of the city which was captured, Bomilcar, taking advantage of the night, when, from the violence of the weather the Roman fleet was unable to ride at anchor in the deep, set out from the bay of Syracuse, with thirty-five ships, and sailed away into the main without interruption; leaving fifty-five ships for Epicydes and the Syracusans; and having informed the Carthaginians in what a critical situation Syracuse was placed, returned, after a few days, with a hundred ships; having, as report says, received many presents from Epicydes out of the treasure of Hiero.
[15] 26. Marcellus, by gaining possession of the Euryalus, and placing a garrison in it, was freed from one cause of anxiety; which was, lest any hostile force received into that fortress on his rear might annoy his troops, shut up and confined as they were within the walls. He next invested the Achradina, erecting three camps in convenient situations, with the hope of reducing those enclosed within it to the want of every necessary. The outposts of both sides had remained inactive for several days, when the arrival of Hippocrates and Himilco suddenly caused the Romans to be attacked aggressively on all sides; for Hippocrates, having fortified a camp at the great harbour, and given a signal to those who occupied the Achradina, attacked the old camp of the Romans, in which Crispinus had the command; and Epicydes sallied out against the outposts of Marcellus, the Carthaginian fleet coming up to that part of the shore which lay between the city and the Roman camp, so that no succour could be sent by Marcellus to Crispinus. The enemy, however, produced more tumult than conflict; for Crispinus not only drove back Hippocrates from his works, but pursued him as he fled with precipitation, while Marcellus drove Epicydes into the city; and it was considered that enough was now done even to prevent any danger arising in future from their sudden sallies. They were visited too by a plague; a calamity extending to both sides, and one which might well divert their attention from schemes of war. For as the season of the year was autumn, and the situation naturally unwholesome, though this was much more the case without than within the city, the intolerable intensity of the heat had an effect upon the constitution of almost every man in both the camps. At first they sickened and died from the unhealthiness of the season and climate; but afterwards the disease was spread merely by attending upon, and coming in contact with, those affected; so that those who were seized with it either perished neglected and deserted, or else drew with them those who sat by them and attended them, by infecting them with the same violence of disease. Daily funerals and death were before the eye; and lamentations were heard from all sides, day and night. At last, their feelings had become so completely brutalized by being habituated to these miseries, that they not only did not follow their dead with tears and decent lamentations, but they did not even carry them out and bury them; so that the bodies of the dead lay strewed about, exposed to the view of those who were awaiting a similar fate; and thus the dead were the means of destroying the sick, and the sick those who were in health, both by fear and by the filthy state and the noisome stench of their bodies. Some preferring to die by the sword, even rushed alone upon the outposts of the enemy. The violence of the plague, however, was much greater in the Carthaginian than the Roman army; for the latter, from having been a long time before Syracuse, had become more habituated to the climate and the water. Of the army of the enemy, the Sicilians, as soon as they perceived that diseases had become very common from the unwholesomeness of the situation, dispersed to their respective cities in the neighbourhood; but the Carthaginians, who had no place to retire to, perished, together with their generals, Hippocrates and Himilco, to a man. Marcellus, on seeing the violence with which the disease was raging, had removed his troops into the city, where their debilitated frames were recruited in houses and shade. Many however, of the Roman army were cut off by this pestilence.
[15] 27. The land forces of the Carthaginians being thus destroyed, the Sicilians, who had served under Hippocrates retired to two towns of no great size, but well secured by natural situation and fortifications; one was three miles, the other fifteen, from Syracuse. Here they collected a store of provisions from their own states, and sent for reinforcements. Meanwhile, Bomilcar, who had gone a second time to Carthage, by so stating the condition of their allies as to inspire a hope that they might not only render them effectual aid, but also that the Romans might in a manner be made prisoners in the city which they had captured, induced the Carthaginians to send with him as many ships of burden as possible, laden with every kind of provisions, and to augment the number of his ships. Setting sail, therefore, from Carthage with a hundred and thirty men of war and seven hundred transports, he had tolerably fair winds for crossing over to Sicily, but was prevented by the same wind from doubling Cape Pachynum. The news of the approach of Bomilcar, and afterwards his unexpected delay, excited alternate fear and joy in the Romans and Syracusans. Epicydes, apprehensive lest if the same wind which now detained him should continue to blow from the east for several days, the Carthaginian fleet would return to Africa, put the Achradina in the hands of the generals of the mercenary troops, and sailed to Bomilcar; whom he at length prevailed upon to try the issue of a naval battle, though he found him with his fleet stationed in the direction of Africa, and afraid of fighting, not so much because he was unequal in the strength or the number of his ships, for he had more than the Romans, as because the wind was more favourable to the Roman fleet than to his own. Marcellus also seeing that an army of Sicilians was assembling from every part of the island, and that the Carthaginian fleet was approaching with a great want of supplies, though inferior in the number of his ships, resolved to prevent Bomilcar from coming to Syracuse, lest, blocked up in the city of his enemies, he should be pressed both by sea and land. The two hostile fleets were stationed near the promontory of Pachynum, ready to engage as soon as the sea should become calm enough to admit of their sailing out into the deep. Accordingly, the east wind, which had blown violently for several days, now subsiding, Bomilcar got under sail first, his van seeming to make for the main sea, in order to double the promontory with greater ease; but seeing the Roman ships bearing down upon him, terrified by some unexpected occurrence, it is not known what, he sailed away into the main sea; and sending messengers to Heraclea, to order the transports to return to Africa, he passed along the coast of Sicily and made for Tarentum. Epicydes, thus suddenly disappointed in such great expectations, to avoid returning to endeavour to raise the siege of a city, a great part of which was already in the hands of the enemy, sailed to Agrigentum, intending to wait the issue of the contest, rather than take any new measures when there.
[15] 28. Intelligence of these events having been carried into the camp of the Sicilians, that Epicydes had departed from Syracuse, that the island was deserted by the Carthaginians, and almost again delivered up to the Romans; after sounding the inclinations of the besieged in conferences, they sent ambassadors to Marcellus, to treat about terms of capitulation. They had not much difficulty in coming to an agreement, that all the parts of the island which had been under the dominion of their kings should be ceded to the Romans; that the rest, with their liberty and their own laws, should be preserved to the Sicilians. They then invited to a conference the persons who had been intrusted with the management of affairs by Epicydes; to whom they said, that they were sent from the army of the Sicilians, at once to Marcellus and to them, that both those who were besieged and those who were not might share the same fortune; and that neither of them might stipulate any thing for themselves separately. They were then allowed to enter, in order to converse with their relations and friends; when, laying before them the terms which they had made with Marcellus, and holding out to them a hope of safety, they induced them to join with them in an attack upon the prefects of Epicydes, Polyclitus, Philistion, and Epicydes, surnamed Sindon. Having put them to death, they summoned the multitude to an assembly; and after complaining of the famine, at which they had been accustomed to express their dissatisfaction to each other in secret, they said, that “although they were pressed by so many calamities, they had no right to accuse Fortune, because it was at their own option how long they should continue to suffer them. That the motive which the Romans had in besieging Syracuse was affection for the Syracusans, and not hatred; for when they heard that the government was usurped by Hippocrates and Epicydes, the creatures first of Hannibal and then of Hieronymus, they took arms and began to besiege the city, in order to reduce not the city itself, but its cruel tyrants. But now that Hippocrates is slain, Epicydes shut out of Syracuse, his praefects put to death, and the Carthaginians driven from the entire possession of Sicily by sea and land, what reason can the Romans have left why they should not desire the preservation of Syracuse, in the same manner as they would if Hiero were still lining, who cultivated the friendship of Rome with unequalled fidelity? That, therefore, neither the city nor its inhabitants were in any danger, except from themselves, if they neglected an opportunity of restoring themselves to the favour of the Romans; and that no so favourable a one would ever occur as that which presented itself at the present instant, immediately upon its appearing that they were delivered from their insolent tyrants.”
[15] 29. This speech was received with the most unqualified approbation of all present. It was resolved, however, that praetors should be elected before the nomination of deputies; which being done, some of the praetors themselves were sent as deputies to Marcellus, the chief of whom thus addressed him: “Neither in the first instance did we Syracusans revolt from you, but Hieronymus, whose impiety towards you was by no means so great as towards us; nor afterwards was it any Syracusan who disturbed the peace established by the death of the tyrant, but Hippocrates and Epicydes, creatures of the tyrant; while we were overpowered, on the one hand by fear, and on the other by treachery. Nor can any one say that there ever was a time when we were in possession of our liberty, when we were not also at peace with you. In the present instance, manifestly, as soon as ever we became our own masters, by the death of those persons who held Syracuse in subjection, we lost no time in coming to deliver up our arms, to surrender ourselves, our city, and our walls, and to refuse no conditions which you shall impose upon us. To you, Marcellus, the gods have given the glory of having captured the most renowned and beautiful of the Grecian cities. Every memorable exploit which we have at any time achieved by land or sea accrues to the splendour of your triumph. Would you wish that it should be known only by fame, how great a city has been captured by you, rather than that she should stand as a monument even to posterity; so that to every one who visits her by sea or land, she may point out at one time our trophies gained from the Athenians and Carthaginians, at another time those which you have gained from us; and that you should transmit Syracuse unimpaired to your family, to be kept under the protection and patronage of the race of the Marcelli? Let not the memory of Hieronymus have greater weight with you than that of Hiero. The latter was your friend for a much longer period than the former was your enemy. From the latter you have realized even benefits, while the frenzy of Hieronymus only brought ruin upon himself.” At the hands of the Romans all things were obtainable and secure. There was a greater disposition to war, and more danger to be apprehended among themselves; for the deserters, thinking that they were delivered up to the Romans, induced the mercenary auxiliaries to entertain the same apprehension; and hastily seizing their arms, they first put the praetors to death, and then ran through the city to massacre the Syracusans. In their rage they slew all whom chance threw in their way, and plundered every thing which presented itself; and then, lest they should have no leaders, they elected six praetors, so that three might have the command in the Achradina, and three in the island. At length, the tumult having subsided, and the mercenary troops having ascertained, by inquiry, what had been negotiated with the Romans, it began to appear, as was really the case, that their cause and that of the deserters were different.
[15] 30. The ambassadors returned from Marcellus very opportunely. They informed them that they had been influenced by groundless suspicions, and that the Romans saw no reason why they should inflict punishment upon them. Of the three praefects of the Achradina one was a Spaniard, named Mericus. To him one of the Spanish auxiliaries was designedly sent, among those who accompanied the ambassadors. Having obtained an interview with Mericus in the absence of witnesses, he first explained to him the state in which he had left Spain, from which he had lately returned: “That there every thing was in subjection to the Roman arms; that it was in his power, by doing the Romans a service, to become the first man among his countrymen, whether he might be inclined to serve with the Romans, or to return to his country. On the other hand, if he persisted in preferring to hold out against the siege, what hope could he have, shut up as he was by sea and land?” Mericus was moved by these suggestions, and when it was resolved upon to send ambassadors to Marcellus, he sent his brother among them; who, being brought into the presence of Marcellus, apart from the rest, by means of the same Spaniard, after receiving an assurance of protection, arranged the method of carrying their object into effect, and then returned to the Achradina. Mericus then, in order to prevent any one from conceiving a suspicion of treachery, declared, that he did not like that deputies should be passing to and fro; he thought that they should neither admit nor send any; and in order that the guards might be kept more strictly, that such parts as were most exposed should be distributed among the prefects, each being made responsible for the safety of his own quarter. All approved of the distribution of the posts. The district which fell to the lot of Mericus himself extended from the fountain Arethusa to the mouth of the large harbour, of which he caused the Romans to be informed. Accordingly, Marcellus ordered a transport with armed men to be towed by a quadrireme to the Achradina during the night, and the soldiers to be landed in the vicinity of that gate which is near the fountain of Arethusa. This order having been executed at the fourth watch, and Mericus having received the soldiers when landed at the gate, according to the agreement, Marcellus assaulted the walls of the Achradina with all his forces at break of day, so that he not only engaged the attention of those who occupied the Achradina, but also bands of armed men, quitting their own posts ran to the spot from the island, in order to repel the furious attack of the Romans. During this confusion, some light ships which had been prepared beforehand, and had sailed round, landed a body of armed men at the island; these suddenly attacking the half-manned stations and the opened door of the gate at which the troops had a little before run out, got possession of the island without much opposition, abandoned as it was, in consequence of the flight and trepidation of its guards. Nor were there any who rendered less service, or showed less firmness in maintaining their posts, than the deserters; for as they did not repose much confidence even in those of their own party, they fled in the middle of the contest. When Marcellus learnt that the island was taken, one quarter of the Achradina in the hands of his troops, and that Mericus, with the men under his command, had joined them, he sounded a retreat, lest the royal treasure, the fame of which was greater than the reality, should be plundered.
[15] 31. The impetuosity of the soldiers having been checked, time and opportunity to escape were given to the deserters in the Achradina; and the Syracusans, at length delivered from their fears, threw open the gates of the Achradina, and sent deputies to Marcellus, requesting only safety for themselves and children. Having summoned a council, to which the Syracusans were invited who were among the Roman troops, having been driven from home during the disturbances, Marcellus replied, “that the services rendered by Hiero through a period of fifty years, were not more in number than the injuries committed against the Roman people in these few years by those who had had possession of Syracuse; but that most of these injuries had justly recoiled upon their authors, and that they had inflicted much more severe punishment upon themselves for the violation of treaties, than the Roman people desired. That he was indeed now besieging Syracuse for the third year, but not that the Romans might hold that state in a condition of slavery, but that the ringleaders of the deserters might not keep it in a state of thraldom and oppression. What the Syracusans could do was exemplified, either by the conduct of those Syracusans who were among the Roman troops, or that of the Spanish general, Mericus, who had delivered up the post which he was appointed to command, or, lastly, by the late but bold measure adopted by the Syracusans themselves. That the greatest possible recompence for all the evils and dangers which he had for so long a time undergone, both by sea and land, around the walls of Syracuse, was the reflection, that he had been able to take that city.” The quaestor was then sent with a guard to the island, to receive and protect the royal treasure. The city was given up to be plundered by the soldiery, after guards had been placed at each of the houses of those who had been with the Roman troops. While many acts exhibited horrid examples of rage and rapacity, it is recorded that Archimedes, while intent on some figures which he had described in the dust, although the confusion was as great as could possibly exist in a captured city, in which soldiers were running up and down in search of plunder, was put to death by a soldier, who did not know who he was; that Marcellus was grieved at this event, and that pains were taken about his funeral, while his relations also for whom diligent inquiry was made, derived honour and protection from his name and memory. Such, for the most part, was the manner in which Syracuse was captured. The quantity of booty was so great, that had Carthage itself, which was carrying on a contest on equal terms, been captured, it would scarcely have afforded so much. A few days before the taking of Syracuse, Titus Otacilius passed over from Lilybaeum to Utica with eighty quinqueremes, and entering the harbour before it was light, took some transports laden with corn; then landing, he laid waste a considerable portion of the country around Utica, and brought back to his ships booty of every description. He returned to Lilybaeum, the third day after he set out, with a hundred and thirty transports laden with corn and booty. The corn he sent immediately to Syracuse; and had it not been for the very seasonable arrival of this supply, a destructive famine threatened alike the victors and the vanquished.
[15] 32. Nothing very memorable had been done in Spain for about two years, the operations of the war consisting more in laying plans than in fighting; but during the same summer in which the events above recorded took place, the Roman generals, quitting their winter quarters, united their forces; then a council was summoned; and the opinions of all accorded, that since their only object hitherto had been to prevent Hasdrubal from pursuing his march into Italy, it was now time that an effort should be made to bring the war in Spain to a termination; and they thought that the twenty thousand Celtiberians, who had been induced to take arms that winter, formed a sufficient accession to their strength. There were three armies of the enemy. Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo, and Mago, who had united their forces, were about a five days’ journey from the Romans. Hasdrubal, son of Hamilcar, who was the old commander in Spain, was nearer to them: he was with his army near the city Anitorgis. The Roman generals were desirous that he should be overpowered first; and they hoped that they had enough and more than enough strength for the purpose. Their only source of anxiety was, lest the other Hasdrubal and Mago, terrified at his discomfiture, should protract the war by withdrawing into trackless forests and mountains. Thinking it, therefore, the wisest course to divide their forces and embrace the whole Spanish war, they arranged it so that Publius Cornelius should lead two-thirds of the Roman and allied troops against Mago and Hasdrubal, and that Cneius Cornelius, with the remaining third of the original army, and with the Celtiberians added to them, should carry on the war with the Barcine Hasdrubal. The two generals and their armies, setting out together, preceded by the Celtiberians, pitched their camp near the city Anitorgis, within sight of the enemy, the river only separating them. Here Cneius Scipio, with the forces above mentioned, halted, but Publius Scipio proceeded to the portion of the war assigned to him.
[15] 33. Hasdrubal perceiving that there were but few Roman troops in the camp, and that their whole dependence was on the Celtiberian auxiliaries; and having had experience of the perfidy of the barbarian nations in general, and particularly of all those nations among which he had served for so many years; as there was every facility of intercourse, for both camps were full of Spaniards, by secret conferences with the chiefs of the Celtiberians, he agreed with them, for a large consideration, to take their forces away. Nor did they conceive it to be any great crime; for the object was not that they should turn their arms against the Romans, while the reward which they were to receive to abstain from the war was large enough to remunerate them for their service in it. At the same time the mere rest from labour, the return to their homes, with the pleasure of seeing their friends and property, were pleasing to the generality. Accordingly, the multitude were prevailed upon as easily as their leaders. They had, moreover, nothing to fear from the Romans, in consequence of the smallness of their numbers, should they endeavour to detain them by force. It will indeed be the duty of all Roman generals to take care, and the instances here recorded should be considered as strong arguments, never to place so much confidence in foreign auxiliaries, as not to retain in their camps a preponderance of their own strength and of that force which is properly their own. The Celtiberians, suddenly taking up their standards, marched away, replying only to the Romans, who asked the cause of their departure and entreated them to stay, that they were called away by a war at home. Scipio seeing that his allies could be detained neither by prayers nor force, and that he was neither a match for his enemy without them, nor could again effect a junction with his brother, no other course which promised safety offering itself, resolved to retire as far as possible, carefully using every caution not to encounter the enemy any where on level ground. On his departing, the enemy, crossing the river, pursued him almost in his footsteps.
[15] 34. During the same period an equal terror and a greater danger pressed upon Publius Scipio. Masinissa was a young man at that time an ally of the Carthaginians, whom afterwards the friendship of the Romans rendered illustrious and powerful. He not only opposed himself with his Numidian cavalry to Scipio on his approach, but afterwards harassed him incessantly day and night, so as both to cut off his stragglers, who had gone out to a distance from the camp in search of wood and forage, and riding up to the very gates of his camp, and charging into the midst of his advanced guards, to fill every quarter with the utmost confusion. By night also alarm was frequently occasioned in the gates and rampart by his sudden attacks. Nor was there any time or place at which the Romans were exempt from fear and anxiety; and driven within their rampart, and deprived of every necessary, they suffered in a manner a regular siege; and it appeared that it would have been still straiter, if Indibilis, who it was reported was approaching with seven thousand five hundred Suessetani, should form a junction with the Carthaginians. Scipio, though a wary and provident general, overpowered by difficulties, adopted the rash measure of going to meet Indibilis by night, with the intention of fighting him wherever he should meet him. Leaving, therefore, a small force in his camp, under the command of Titus Fonteius, lieutenant-general, he set out at midnight, and meeting with the enemy, came to battle with him. The troops fought in the order of march rather than of battle. The Romans, however, had the advantage, though in an irregular fight; but the Numidian cavalry, whose observation the general supposed that he had escaped, suddenly spreading themselves round his flanks, occasioned great terror. After a new contest had been entered into with the Numidians, a third enemy came up in addition to the rest, the Carthaginian generals having come up with their rear when they were now engaged in fighting. Thus the Romans were surrounded on every side by enemies; nor could they make up their minds which they should attack first, or in what part, forming themselves into a close body, they should force their way through. The general, while fighting and encouraging his men, exposing himself wherever the strife was the hottest, was run through the right side with a lance; and when the party of the enemy, which, formed into a wedge, had charged the troops collected round the general, perceived Scipio falling lifeless from his horse, elated with joy, they ran shouting through the whole line with the news that the Roman general had fallen. These words spreading in every direction, caused the enemy to be considered as victors, and the Romans as vanquished. On the loss of the general the troops immediately began to fly from the field; but though it was not difficult to force their way through the Numidians and the other light-armed auxiliaries, yet it was scarcely possible for them to escape so large a body of cavalry, and infantry equal to horses in speed. Almost more were slain in the flight than in the battle; nor would a man have survived, had not night put a stop to the carnage, the day by this time rapidly drawing to a close.
[15] 35. After this, the Carthaginian generals, who were not slow in following up their victory, immediately after the battle, scarcely giving their soldiers necessary rest, hurry their army to Hasdrubal, son of Hamilcar; confidently hoping, that after uniting their forces with his, the war might be brought to a conclusion. On their arrival, the warmest congratulations passed between the troops and their generals, who were delighted with their recent victory; for they had not only destroyed one distinguished general and all his men, but looked forward to another victory of equal magnitude as a matter of certainty. The intelligence of this great disaster had not yet reached the Romans; but there prevailed a kind of melancholy silence and mute foreboding, such as is usually found in minds which have a presentiment of impending calamity. The general himself, besides feeling that he was deserted by his allies, and that the forces of the enemy were so much augmented, was disposed from conjecture and reasoning rather to a suspicion that some defeat had been sustained, than to any favourable hopes. “For how could Hasdrubal and Mago bring up their troops without opposition, unless they had terminated their part of the war? How was it that his brother had not opposed his progress or followed on his rear? in order that if he could not prevent the armies and generals of the enemy from forming a junction, he might himself join his forces with his brother’s.” Disturbed with these cares, he believed that the only safe policy for the present was to retire as far as possible; and, accordingly, he marched a considerable distance thence in one night, the enemy not being aware of it, and on that account continuing quiet. At dawn, perceiving that their enemy had decamped, they sent the Numidians in advance, and began to pursue them as rapidly as possible. The Numidians overtook them before night, and charged; sometimes their rear, at other times their flanks. They then began to halt and defend themselves as well as they could; but Scipio exhorted them at once to fight so as not to expose themselves, and march at the same time, lest the infantry should overtake them.
[15] 36. But having made but little progress for a long time, in consequence of his making his troops sometimes advance and at others halt, and night now drawing on, Scipio recalled his troops from the battle, and collecting them, withdrew to a certain eminence, not very safe, indeed, particularly for dispirited troops, but higher than any of the surrounding places. There, at first, his infantry, drawn up around his baggage and cavalry, which were placed in their centre, had no difficulty in repelling the attacks of the charging Numidians; but afterwards, when three generals with three regular armies marched up in one entire body, and it was evident that his men would not be able to do much by arms in defending the position without fortifications, the general began to look about, and consider whether he could by any means throw a rampart around; but the hill was so bare, and the soil so rough, that neither could a bush be found for cutting a palisade, nor earth for making a mound, nor the requisites for making a trench or any other work; nor was the place naturally steep or abrupt enough to render the approach and ascent difficult to the enemy, as it rose on every side with a gentle acclivity. However, that they might raise up against them some semblance of a rampart, they placed around them the panniers tied to the burdens, building them up as it were to the usual height, and when there was a deficiency of panniers for raising it, they presented against the enemy a heap of baggage of every kind. The Carthaginian armies coming up, very easily marched up the eminence, but were stopped by the novel appearance of the fortification, as by something miraculous, when their leaders called out from all sides, asking “what they stopped at? and why they did not tear down and demolish that mockery, which was scarcely strong enough to impede the progress of women and children; that the enemy, who were skulking behind their baggage, were, in fact, captured and in their hands.” Such were the contemptuous reproofs of their leaders. But it was not an easy task either to leap over or remove the burdens raised up against them, or to cut through the panniers, closely packed together and covered completely with baggage. When the removal of the burdens had opened a way to the troops, who were detained by them for a long time, and the same had been done in several quarters, the camp was now captured on all sides; the Romans were cut to pieces on all hands, the few by the many, the dispirited by the victorious. A great number of the men, however, having fled for refuge into the neighbouring woods, effected their escape to the camp of Publius Scipio, which Titus Fonteius commanded. Some authors relate that Cneius Scipio was slain on the eminence on the first assault of the enemy; others that he escaped with a few attendants to a castle near the camp; this, they say, was surrounded with fire, by which means the doors which they could not force were consumed; that it was thus taken, and all within, together with the general himself, put to death. Cneius Scipio was slain in the eighth year after his arrival in Spain, and on the twenty-ninth day after the death of his brother. At Rome the grief occasioned by their death was not more intense than that which was felt throughout Spain. The sorrow of the citizens, however, was partly distracted by the loss of the armies, the alienation of the province, and the public disaster, while in Spain they mourned and regretted the generals themselves, Cneius, however, the more, because he had been longer in command of them, had first engaged their affections, and first exhibited a specimen of Roman justice and forbearance.
[15] 37. When it seemed that the Roman armies were annihilated, and Spain lost, one man recovered this desperate state of affairs. There was in the army one Lucius Marcius, the son of Septimus, a Roman knight, an enterprising youth, and possessing a mind and genius far superior to the condition in which he had been born. To his high talents had been added the discipline of Cneius Scipio, under which he had been thoroughly instructed during a course of so many years in all the qualifications of a soldier. This man, having collected the troops which had been dispersed in the flight, and drafted some from the garrisons, had formed an army not to be despised, and united it with Titus Tonteius, the lieutenant-general of Publius Scipio. But so transcendent was the Roman knight in authority and honour among the troops, that when, after fortifying a camp on this side of the Iberus, it had been resolved that a general of the two armies should be elected in an assembly of the soldiers, relieving each other in the guard of the rampart, and in keeping the outposts until every one had given his vote, they unanimously conferred the supreme command upon Lucius Marcius. All the intervening time, which was but short, was occupied in fortifying their camp and collecting provisions, and the soldiers executed every order not only with vigour, but with feelings by no means depressed. But when intelligence was brought them that Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo, who was coming to put the finishing stroke to the war, had crossed the Iberus and was drawing near, and when they saw the signal for battle displayed by a new commander, then calling to mind whom they had had for their leaders a little while ago, relying on what leaders and what forces they used to go out to fight, they all suddenly burst into tears and beat their heads, some raising their hands to heaven and arraigning the gods, others prostrating themselves upon the ground and invoking by name each his own former commander. Nor could their lamentations be restrained, though the centurions endeavoured to animate their companies, and though Marcius himself soothed and remonstrated with them, asking them “why they had given themselves up to womanish and unavailing lamentations rather than summon up all their courage to protect themselves and the commonwealth together, and not suffer their generals to lie unavenged?” But suddenly a shout and the sound of trumpets were heard; for by this time the enemy were near the rampart. Upon this, their grief being suddenly converted into rage, they hastily ran to arms, and, as it were, burning with fury, rushed to the gates and charged the enemy, while advancing in a careless and disorderly manner. This unexpected event instantly struck terror into the Carthaginians, who wondering whence so many enemies could have sprung up so suddenly, as the army had been almost annihilated; what could have inspired men who had been vanquished and routed with such boldness and confidence in themselves; what general could have arisen now that the two Scipios were slain; who could command the camp, and who had given the signal for battle; in consequence of these so many and so unexpected circumstances, at first, being in a state of complete uncertainty and amazement, they gave ground; but afterwards, discomfited by the violence of the charge, they turned their backs; and either there would have been a dreadful slaughter of the flying enemy, or a rash and dangerous effort on the part of the pursuers, had not Marcius promptly given the signal for retreat, and by throwing himself in the way of the front rank, and even holding some back with his own hands, repressed the infuriated troops. He then led them back to the camp, still eager for blood and slaughter. When the Carthaginians, who were at first compelled to fly with precipitation from the rampart of their enemy, saw that no one pursued them, concluding that they had stopped from fear, now on the other hand went away to their camp at an easy pace, with feelings of contempt for the enemy. There was a corresponding want of care in guarding their camp; for though the enemy were near, yet it seemed that they were but the remains of the two armies which had been cut to pieces a few days before. As in consequence of this all things were neglected in the enemy’s camp, Marcius having ascertained this, addressed his mind to a measure which on the first view of it might appear rather rash than bold: it was, aggressively to assault the enemy’s camp, concluding that the camp of Hasdrubal, while alone, might be carried with less difficulty than his own could be defended, if the three armies and as many generals should again unite; taking into consideration also that either if he succeeded he would retrieve their prostrate fortune, or if repulsed, still, by making the attack himself, he would rescue himself from contempt.
[15] 38. Lest, however, the suddenness of the affair, and the fear of night, should frustrate a measure which was in itself ill adapted to his condition, he thought it right that his soldiers should be addressed and exhorted; and having called an assembly, he discoursed as follows: “Soldiers, either my veneration for our late commanders, both living and dead, or our present situation, may impress on every one the belief that this command, as it is highly honourable to me, conferred by your suffrages, so is it in its nature a heavy and anxious charge. For at a time when I should be scarcely so far master of myself as to be able to find any solace for my afflicted mind, did not fear deaden the sense of sorrow, I am compelled to take upon myself alone the task of consulting for the good of you all; a task of the greatest difficulty when under the influence of grief. And not even at that critical moment, when I ought to be considering in what manner I may be enabled to keep together for my country these remains of two armies, can I divert my mind from the affliction which incessantly preys upon me. For bitter recollection is ever present, and the Scipios ever disturb me with anxious cares by day and dreams by night, frequently rousing me from my sleep, and imploring me not to suffer themselves nor their soldiers, your companions in war, who had been victorious in this country for eight years, nor the commonwealth to remain unrevenged; enjoining me also to follow their discipline and their plans; and desiring that as there was no one more obedient to their commands while they were alive than I, so after their death I would consider that conduct as best, which I might have the strongest reason for believing they would have adopted in each case. I could wish also that you, my soldiers, should not show your respect for them by lamentations and tears, as if they were dead; (for they still live and flourish in the fame of their achievements;) but that whenever the memory of those men shall occur to you, you would go into battle as though you saw them encouraging you and giving you the signal. Nor certainly could anything else than their image presenting itself yesterday to your eyes and minds, have enabled you to fight that memorable battle, in which you proved to the enemy that the Roman name had not become extinct with the Scipios; and that the energy and valour of that people, which had not been overwhelmed by the disaster at Cannae, would, doubtlessly, emerge from the severest storms of fortune. Now since you have dared so much of your own accord, I have a mind to try how much you will dare when authorized by your general: for yesterday, when I gave the signal for retreat while you were pursuing the routed enemy with precipitation, I did not wish to break your spirit, but to reserve it for greater glory and more advantageous opportunities; that you might afterwards, when prepared and armed, seize an occasion of attacking your enemy while off their guard, unarmed, and even buried in sleep. Nor do I entertain the hope of gaining an opportunity of this kind rashly, but from the actual state of things. Doubtless, if any one should ask even himself, by what means, though few in number and disheartened by defeat, you defended your camp against troops superior in number and victorious, you would give no other answer than that, as this was the very thing you were afraid of, you had kept every place secured by works and yourselves ready and equipped. And so it generally happens: men are least secure against that which fortune causes not to be feared; because you leave unguarded and exposed what you think is not necessary to be cared about. There is nothing whatever which the enemy fear less at the present time, than lest we, who were a little while ago besieged and assaulted, should aggressively assault their camp ourselves. Let us dare, then, to do that which it is incredible we should have the courage to attempt; it will be most easy from the very fact of its appearing most difficult. At the third watch of the night I will lead you thither in silence. I have ascertained by means of scouts that they have no regular succession of watches, no proper outposts. Our shout at their gates, when heard, and the first assault, will carry their camp. Then let that carnage be made among men, torpid with sleep, terrified at the unexpected tumult, and overpowered while lying defenceless in their beds, from which you were so grieved to be recalled yesterday. I know that the measure appears to you a daring one; but in difficult and almost desperate circumstances the boldest counsels are always the safest. For if when the critical moment has arrived, the opportunity of seizing which is of a fleeting nature, you delay ever so little, in vain do you seek for it afterwards when it has been neglected. One army is near us; two more are not far off. We have some hopes if we make an attack now; and you have already made trial of your own and their strength. If we postpone the time and cease to be despised in consequence of the fame of yesterday’s irruption, there is danger lest all the generals and all the forces should unite. Shall we be able then to withstand three generals and three armies, whom Cneius Scipio with his army unimpaired could not withstand? As our generals have perished by dividing their forces, so the enemy may be overpowered while separated and divided. There is no other mode of maintaining the war; let us, therefore, wait for nothing but the opportunity of the ensuing night. Now depart, with the favour of the gods, and refresh yourselves, that, unfatigued and vigorous, you may burst into the enemy’s camp with the same spirit with which you have defended your own.” This new enterprise, proposed by their new general, they received with joy; and the more daring it was the more it pleased them. The remainder of the day was spent in getting their arms in readiness and recruiting their strength, the greater part of the night was given to rest, and at the fourth watch they were in motion.
[15] 39. At a distance of six miles beyond their nearest camp lay other forces of the Carthaginians. A deep valley, thickly planted with trees, intervened. Near about the middle of this wood a Roman cohort and some cavalry were placed in concealment with Punic craft. The communication between the two armies being thus cut off, the rest of the forces were marched in silence to the nearest body of the enemy; and as there were no outposts before the gates, and no guards on the rampart, they entered quite into the camp, as though it had been their own, no one any where opposing them. The signals were then sounded and a shout raised. Some put the enemy to the sword when half asleep; others threw fire upon the huts, which were covered in with dry straw; others blocked up the gates to intercept their escape. The enemy, who were assailed at once with fire, shouting, and the sword, were in a manner bereaved of their senses, and could neither hear each other, nor take any measures for their security. Unarmed, they fell into the midst of troops of armed men: some hastened to the gates; others, as the passes were flocked up, leaped over the rampart, and as each escaped they fled directly towards the other camp, where they were cut off by the cohort and cavalry rushing forward from their concealment, and were all slain to a man. And even had any escaped from that carnage, the Romans, after taking the nearer camp, ran over to the other with such rapidity, that no one could have arrived before them with news of the disaster. In this camp, as they were far distant from the enemy, and as some had gone off just before daylight for forage, wood, and plunder, they found every thing in a still more neglected and careless state. Their arms only were placed at the outposts, the men being unarmed, and either sitting and reclining upon the ground, or else walking up and down before the rampart and the gates. On these men, thus at their ease and unguarded, the Romans, still hot from the recent battle, and flushed with victory, commenced an attack; no effectual opposition therefore could be made to them in the gates. Within the gates, the troops having rushed together from every part of the camp at the first shout and alarm, a furious conflict arose; which would have continued for a long time, had not the bloody appearance of the Roman shields discovered to the Carthaginians the defeat of the other forces, and consequently struck them with dismay. This alarm produced a general flight; and all except those who were overtaken with the sword, rushing out precipitately wherever they could find a passage, abandoned their camp. Thus, in a night and a day, two camps of the enemy were carried, under the conduct of Lucius Marcius. Claudius, who translated the annals of Acilius out of Greek into Latin, states that as many as thirty-seven thousand men were slain, one thousand eight hundred and thirty made prisoners, and a great booty obtained; among which was a silver shield of a hundred and thirty-eight pounds’ weight, with an image upon it of the Barcine Hasdrubal. Valerius Antias states, that the camp Of Mago only was captured, and seven thousand of the enemy slain; and that in the other battle, when the Romans sallied out and fought with Hasdrubal, ten thousand were slain, and four thousand three hundred captured. Piso writes, that five thousand were slain in an ambuscade when Mago incautiously pursued our troops who retired. With all, the name of the general, Marcius, is mentioned with great honour, and to his real glory they add even miracles. They say, that while he was haranguing his men a stream of fire poured from his head without his perceiving it, to the great terror of the surrounding soldiers; and that a shield, called the Marcian, with an image of Hasdrubal upon it, remained in the temple up to the time of the burning of the Capitol, a monument of his victory over the Carthaginians. After this, affairs continued for a considerable time in a tranquil state in Spain, as both parties, after giving and receiving such important defeats, hesitated to run the hazard of a general battle.
[15] 40. During these transactions in Spain, Marcellus, after the capture of Syracuse, having settled the other affairs in Sicily with so much honour and integrity as not only to add to his own renown, but also to the majesty of the Roman people, conveyed to Rome the ornaments of the city, together with the statues and pictures with which Syracuse abounded. These were certainly spoils taken from enemies, and acquired according to the laws of war; but hence was the origin of the admiration of the products of Grecian art, and to that freedom with which at present all places, both sacred and profane, are despoiled; which at last recoiled upon the Roman gods, and first upon that very temple which was so choicely adorned by Marcellus. For foreigners were in the habit of visiting the temples dedicated by Marcellus near the Capuan gate, on account of their splendid ornaments of this description, of which a very small portion can be found. Embassies from almost all the states of Sicily came to him. As their cases were different, so were also the terms granted to them. Those who had either not revolted or had returned to the alliance before the capture of Syracuse, were received and honoured as faithful allies. Those who had been induced to submit through fear after the capture of Syracuse, as vanquished, received laws from the conqueror. The Romans, however, had still remaining a war of no small magnitude at Agrigentum, headed by Epicydes and Hanno, generals in the late war, and a third new one sent by Hannibal in the room of Hippocrates, a Libyphoenician by nation, and a native of Hippo, called by his countrymen Mutines; an energetic man, and thoroughly instructed in all the arts of war under the tuition of Hannibal. To this man the Numidian auxiliaries were assigned by Epicydes and Hanno. With these he so thoroughly overran the lands of his enemies, and visited his allies with such activity, in order to retain them in their allegiance, and for the purpose of bringing them seasonable aid as each required it, that in a short time he filled all Sicily with his fame, nor was greater confidence placed in any one else by those who favoured the Carthaginian interest. Accordingly the Carthaginian and Syracusan generals, who had been hitherto compelled to keep within the walls of Agrigentum, not more at the advice of Mutines than from the confidence they reposed in him, had the courage to go out from the walls, and pitched a camp near the river Himera. When this was announced to Marcellus, he immediately advanced and sat down at a distance of about four miles from the enemy, with the intention of waiting to see what steps they took, and what they meditated. But Mutines allowed no room or time for delay or deliberation, but crossed the river, and, charging the outposts of his enemy, created the greatest terror and confusion. The next day, in an engagement which might almost be called regular, he compelled his enemy to retire within their works. Being called away by a mutiny of the Numidians, which had broken out in the camp, and in which about three hundred of them had retired to Heraclea Minoa, he set out to appease them and bring them back; and is said to have earnestly warned the generals not to engage with the enemy during his absence. Both the generals were indignant at this conduct, but particularly Hanno, who was before disturbed at his reputation. “Is it to be borne,” said he, “that a mongrel African should impose restraints upon me, a Carthaginian general, commissioned by the senate and people?” Epicydes, who wished to wait, was prevailed upon by him to agree to their crossing the river and offering battle; for, said he, if they should wait for Mutines, and the battle should terminate successfully, Mutines would certainly have the credit of it.
[15] 41. But Marcellus, highly indignant that he who had repulsed Hannibal from Nola, when rendered confident by his victory at Cannae, should succumb to enemies whom he had vanquished by sea and land, ordered his soldiers immediately to take arms and raise the standards. While marshalling his army, ten Numidians rode up rapidly from the enemy’s line with information that their countrymen, first induced by the same causes which brought on the mutiny, in which three hundred of their number retired to Heraclea, and secondly, because they saw their commander, just on the approach of a battle, sent out of the way by generals who wished to detract from his glory, would not take any part in the battle. This deceitful nation made good their promise in this instance. Accordingly the spirits of the Romans were increased by the intelligence, which was speedily conveyed through the lines, that the enemy were abandoned by the cavalry, which the Romans principally feared; while at the same time the enemy were dispirited, not only because they were deprived of the principal part of their strength, but further, because they were afraid lest they should themselves be attacked by their own cavalry. Accordingly, there was no great resistance made: the first shout and onset determined the business. The Numidians who stood quiet in the wings during the action, when they saw their party turning their backs, accompanied them in their flight only for a short time; but when they perceived that they were all making for Agrigentum with the most violent haste, they turned off to the neighbouring towns round about, through fear of a siege. Many thousand men were slain and captured, together with eight elephants. This was the last battle which Marcellus fought in Sicily, after which he returned victorious to Syracuse. The year was now about closing; the senate therefore decreed that Publius Cornelius, the praetor, should send a letter to Capua to the consuls, with directions that while Hannibal was at a distance, and nothing of any great importance was going on at Capua, one of them, if they thought fit, should come to Rome to elect new magistrates. On the receipt of the letter, the consuls arranged it between themselves, that Claudius should hold the election, and Fulvius remain at Capua. The consuls created by Claudius were Cneius Fulvius Centumalus, and Publius Sulpicius Galba, the son of Servius, who had never exercised any curule magistracy. After this Lucius Cornelius Lentulus, Marcus Cornelius Cethegus, Caius Sulpicius, and Caius Calpurnius Piso, were created praetors. Piso had the city jurisdiction; Sulpicius, Sicily; Cethegus, Apulia; Lentulus, Sardinia. The consuls were continued in command for a year longer.
[15] * * * * *

## Book XXVI

[16] Translated by William A. McDevitte
[16] B.C 212-211
[16] Hannibal encamps on the banks of the Amo, within three miles of Rome. Attended by two thousand horsemen, he advances close to the Colline gate to take a view of the walls and situation of the city. On two successive days the hostile armies are hindered from engaging by the severity of the weather. Capua taken by Quintus Fulvius and Appius Claudius, the chief nobles die, voluntarily, by poison. Quintus Fulvius having condemned the principal senators to death, at the moment they are actually tied to the stakes, receives despatches from Rome, commanding him to spare their lives, which he postpones reading until the sentence is executed. Publius Scipio, offering himself for the service, is sent to command in Spain, takes New Carthage in one day. Successes in Sicily. Treaty of friendship with the Aetolians. War with Philip, king of Macedonia, and the Acarnanians.
[16] * * * * *
[16] 1. The consuls, Cneius Fulvius Centumalus and Publius Sulpicius Galba, having entered on their office on the ides of March, assembled the senate in the Capitol, and took the opinion of the fathers on the state of the republic, the manner of conducting the war, and on what related to the provinces and the armies. Quintus Fulvius and Appius Claudius, the consuls of the former year, were continued in command; and the armies which they before had were assigned to them, it being added that they should not withdraw from Capua, which they were besieging, till they had taken it. The Romans were now solicitously intent upon this object, not from resentment so much, which was never juster against any city, as from the consideration that as this city, so celebrated and powerful, had by its defection drawn away several states, so when reduced it would bring back their minds to respect for the former supreme government. Two praetors also of the former year, Marcus Junius and Publius Sempronius, were each continued in command of the two legions which they had under them, the former in Etruria, the latter in Gaul. Marcus Marcellus also was continued in command, that he might, as proconsul, finish the war in Sicily with the army he had there. If he wanted recruits he was to take them from the legions which Publius Cornelius, the propraetor, commanded in Sicily, provided he did not choose any soldier who was of the number of those whom the senate had refused to allow to be discharged, or to return home till the war was put an end to. To Caius Sulpicius, to whose lot Sicily had fallen, the two legions which Publius Cornelius had commanded were assigned, to be recruited from the army of Cneius Fulvius, which had been shamefully beaten, and had experienced a dreadful loss the year before in Apulia. To soldiers of this description the senate had assigned the same period of service as to those who fought at Cannae; and as an additional mark of ignominy upon both, they were not allowed to winter in towns, or to build huts for wintering within the distance of ten miles from any town. To Lucius Cornelius, in Sardinia, the two legions which Quintus Mucius had commanded were assigned; if recruits were wanted, the consuls were ordered to enlist them. To Titus Otacilius and Marcus Valerius was allotted the protection of the coasts of Sicily and Greece, with the legions and fleets which they had commanded. The Greek coast had fifty ships with one legion; the Sicilian, a hundred ships with two legions. Twenty-three legions were employed by the Romans in carrying on the war this year by land and sea.
[16] 2. In the beginning of the year, on a letter from Lucius Marcius being laid before the senate, they considered his achievements as most glorious; but the title of honour which he assumed (for though he was neither invested with the command by the order of the people, nor by the direction of the fathers, his letter ran in this form, “The propraetor to the senate”) gave offence to a great many. It was considered as an injurious precedent for generals to be chosen by the armies, and for the solemn ceremony of elections, held under auspices, to be transferred to camps and provinces, and (far from the control of the laws and magistrates) to military thoughtlessness. And though some gave it as their opinion, that the sense of the senate should be taken on the matter, yet it was thought more advisable that the discussion should be postponed till after the departure of the horsemen who brought the letter from Marcius. It was resolved, that an answer should be returned respecting the corn and clothing of the army, stating, that the senate would direct its attention to both those matters; but that the letter should not be addressed to Lucius Marcius, propraetor, lest he should consider that as already determined which was the very point they reserved for discussion. After the horsemen were dismissed, it was the first thing the consuls brought before the senate; and the opinions of all to a man coincided, that the plebeian tribunes should be instructed to consult the commons with all possible speed, as to whom they might resolve to send into Spain to take the command of that army which had been under the conduct of Cneius Scipio. The plebeian tribunes were instructed accordingly, and the question was published. But another contest had pre-engaged the minds of the people: Caius Sempronius Blaesus, having brought Cneius Fulvius to trial for the loss of the army in Apulia, harassed him with invectives in the public assemblies: “Many generals,” he reiterated, “had by indiscretion and ignorance brought their armies into most perilous situations, but none, save Cneius Fulvius, had corrupted his legions by every species of excess before he betrayed them to the enemy; it might therefore with truth be said, that they were lost before they saw the enemy, and that they were defeated, not by Hannibal, but by their own general. No man, when he gave his vote, took sufficient pains in ascertaining who it was to whom he was intrusting an army. What a difference was there between this man and Tiberius Sempronius! The latter having been intrusted with an army of slaves, had in a short time brought it to pass, by discipline and authority, that not one of them in the field of battle remembered his condition and birth, but they became a protection to our allies and a terror to our enemies. They had snatched, as it were, from the very jaws of Hannibal, and restored to the Roman people, Cumae, Beneventum, and other towns. But Cneius Fulvius had infected with the vices peculiar to slaves, an army of Roman citizens, of honourable parentage and liberal education; and had thus made them insolent and turbulent among their allies, inefficient and dastardly among their enemies, unable to sustain, not only the charge, but the shout of the Carthaginians. But, by Hercules, it was no wonder that the troops did not stand their ground in the battle, when their general was the first to fly; with him, the greater wonder was that any had fallen at their posts, and that they were not all the companions of Cneius Fulvius in his consternation and his flight. Caius Flaminius, Lucius Paullus, Lucius Posthumius, Cneius and Publius Scipio, had preferred falling in the battle to abandoning their armies when in the power of the enemy. But Cneius Fulvius was almost the only man who returned to Rome to report the annihilation of his army. It was a shameful crime that the army of Cannae should be transported into Sicily, because they fled from the field of battle, and not be allowed to return till the enemy has quitted Italy; that the same decree should have been lately passed with respect to the legions of Cneius Fulvius; while Cneius Fulvius himself has no punishment inflicted upon him for running away, in a battle brought about by his own indiscretion; that he himself should be permitted to pass his old age in stews and brothels, where he passed his youth, while his troops, whose only crime was that they resembled their general, should be sent away in a manner into banishment, and suffer an ignominious service. So unequally,” he said, “was liberty shared at Rome by the rich and the poor, by the ennobled and the common people.”
[16] 3. The accused shifted the blame from himself to his soldiers; he said, “that in consequence of their having in the most turbulent manner demanded battle, they were led into the field, not on the day they desired, for it was then evening, but on the following; that they were drawn up at a suitable time and on favourable ground; but either the reputation or the strength of the enemy was such, that they were unable to stand their ground. When they all fled precipitately, he himself also was carried away with the crowd, as had happened to Varro at the battle of Cannae, and to many other generals. How could he, by his sole resistance, benefit the republic, unless his death would remedy the public disasters? that he was not defeated in consequence of a failure in his provisions; that he had not, from want of caution, been drawn into a disadvantageous position; that he had not been cut off by an ambuscade in consequence of not having explored his route, but had been vanquished by open force, and by arms, in a regular engagement. He had not in his power the minds of his own troops, or those of the enemy. Courage and cowardice were the result of each man’s natural constitution.” He was twice accused, and the penalty was laid at a fine. On the third accusation, at which witnesses were produced, he was not only overwhelmed with an infinity of disgraceful charges, but a great many asserted on oath, that the flight and panic commenced with the praetor, that the troops being deserted by him, and concluding that the fears of their general were not unfounded, turned their backs; when so strong a feeling of indignation was excited, that the assembly clamorously rejoined that he ought to be tried capitally. This gave rise to a new controversy; for when the tribune, who had twice prosecuted him as for a finable offence, now, on the third occasion, declared that he prosecuted him capitally; the tribunes of the commons being appealed to, said, “they would not prevent their colleague from proceeding, as he was permitted according to the custom of their ancestors, in the manner he himself preferred, whether according to the laws or to custom, until he had obtained judgment against a private individual, convicting him either of a capital or finable offence.” Upon this, Sempronius said, that he charged Cneius Fulvius with the crime of treason; and requested Caius Calpurnius, the city praetor, to appoint a day for the comitia. Another ground of hope was then tried by the accused, viz. if his brother, Quintus Fulvius, could be present at his trial, who was at that time flourishing in the fame of his past achievements and in the near expectation of taking Capua. Fulvius wrote to the senate, requesting the favour in terms calculated to excite compassion, in order to save the life of his brother; but the fathers replied, that the interest of the state would not admit of his leaving Capua. Cneius Fulvius, therefore, before the day appointed for the comitia arrived, went into exile to Tarquinii, and the commons resolved that it was a legal exile.
[16] 4. Meanwhile all the strength of the war was directed against Capua. It was, however, more strictly blockaded than besieged. The slaves and populace could neither endure the famine, nor send messengers to Hannibal through guards so closely stationed. A Numidian was at length found, who, on undertaking to make his way with it, was charged with a letter; and going out by night, through the midst of the Roman camp, in order to fulfil his promise, he inspired the Campanians with confidence to try the effect of a sally from every quarter, while they had any strength remaining. In the many encounters which followed, their cavalry were generally successful, but their infantry were beaten: however, it was by no means so joyful to conquer, as it was miserable to be worsted in any respect by a besieged and almost subdued enemy. A plan was at length adopted, by which their deficiency in strength might be compensated by stratagem. Young men were selected from all the legions, who, from the vigour and activity of their bodies, excelled in swiftness; these were supplied with bucklers shorter than those worn by horsemen, and seven javelins each, four feet in length, and pointed with steel in the same manner as the spears used by light-armed troops. The cavalry taking one of these each upon their horses, accustomed them to ride behind them, and to leap down nimbly when the signal was given. When, by daily practice, they appeared to be able to do this in an orderly manner, they advanced into the plain between the camp and the walls, against the cavalry of the Campanians, who stood there prepared for action. As soon as they came within a dart’s cast, on a signal given, the light troops leaped down, when a line of infantry formed out of the body of horse suddenly rushed upon the cavalry of the enemy, and discharged their javelins one after another with great rapidity; which being thrown in great numbers upon men and horses indiscriminately, wounded a great many. The sudden and unsuspected nature of the attack, however, occasioned still greater terror; and the cavalry charging them, thus panic-struck, chased them with great slaughter as far as their gates. From that time the Roman cavalry had the superiority; and it was established that there should be velites in the legions. It is said that Quintus Navius was the person who advised the mixing of infantry with cavalry, and that he received honour from the general on that account.
[16] 5. While affairs were in this state at Capua, Hannibal was perplexed between two objects, the gaining possession of the citadel of Tarentum, and the retaining of Capua. His concern for Capua, however, prevailed, on which he saw that the attention of every body, allies and enemies, was fixed; and whose fate would be regarded as a proof of the consequences resulting from defection from the Romans. Leaving therefore, a great part of his baggage among the Bruttians, and all his heavier armed troops, he took with him a body of infantry and cavalry, the best he could select for marching expeditiously, and bent his course into Campania. Rapidly as he marched he was followed by thirty-three elephants. He took up his position in a retired valley behind Mount Tifata, which overhung Capua. Having at his coming taken possession of fort Galatia, the garrison of which he dislodged by force, he then directed his efforts against those who were besieging Capua. Having sent forward messengers to Capua stating the time at which he would attack the Roman camp, in order that they also, having gotten themselves in readiness for a sally, might at the same time pour forth from all their gates, he occasioned the greatest possible terror; for on one side he himself attacked them suddenly, and on the other side all the Campanians sallied forth, both foot and horse, joined by the Carthaginian garrison under the command of Bostar and Hanno. The Romans, lest in so perilous an affair they should leave any part unprotected, by running together to any one place, thus divided their forces: Appius Claudius was opposed to the Campanians; Fulvius to Hannibal; Caius Nero, the propraetor, with the cavalry of the sixth legion, placed himself in the road leading to Suessula; and Caius Fulvius Flaccus, the lieutenant-general, with the allied cavalry, on the side opposite the river Vulturnus. The battle commenced not only with the usual clamour and tumult, but in addition to the din of men, horses, and arms, a multitude of Campanians, unable to bear arms, being distributed along the walls, raised such a shout together with the clangour of brazen vessels, similar to that which is usually made in the dead of night when the moon is eclipsed, that it diverted the attention even of the combatants. Appius easily repulsed the Campanians from the rampart. On the other side Hannibal and the Carthaginians, forming a larger force, pressed hard on Fulvius. There the sixth legion gave way; being repulsed, a cohort of Spaniards with three elephants made their way up to the rampart. They had broken through the centre of the Roman line, and were in a state of anxious and perilous suspense, whether to force their way into the camp, or be cut off from their own army. When Fulvius saw the disorder of the legion, and the danger the camp was in, he exhorted Quintus Navius, and the other principal centurions, to charge the cohort of the enemy which was fighting under the rampart; he said, “that the state of things was most critical; that either they must retire before them, in which case they would burst into the camp with less difficulty than they had experienced in breaking through a dense line of troops, or they must cut them to pieces under the rampart: nor would it require a great effort; for they were few, and cut off from their own troops, and if the line which appeared broken, now while the Romans were dispirited, should turn upon the enemy on both sides, they would become enclosed in the midst, and exposed to a twofold attack.” Navius, on hearing these words of the general, snatched the standard of the second company of spearmen from the standard-bearer, and advanced with it against the enemy, threatening that he would throw it into the midst of them unless the soldiers promptly followed him and took part in the fight. He was of gigantic stature, and his arms set him off; the standard also, raised aloft, attracted the gaze both of his countrymen and the enemy. When, however, he had reached the standards of the Spaniards, javelins were poured upon him from all sides, and almost the whole line was turned against him; but neither the number of his enemies nor the force of the weapons could repel the onset of this hero.
[16] 6. Marcus Atilius, the lieutenant-general, also caused the standard of the first company of principes of the same legion to be borne against a cohort of the Spaniards. Lucius Portius Licinus and Titus Popilius, the lieutenant-generals, who had the command of the camp, fought valiantly in defence of the rampart, and slew the elephants while in the very act of crossing it. The carcasses of these filling up the ditch, afforded a passage for the enemy as effectually as if earth had been thrown in, or a bridge erected over it; and a horrid carnage took place amid the carcasses of the elephants which lay prostrate. On the other side of the camp, the Campanians, with the Carthaginian garrison, had by this time been repulsed, and the battle was carried on immediately under the gate of Capua leading to Vulturnus. Nor did the armed men contribute so much in resisting the Romans, who endeavoured to force their way in, as the gate itself, which, being furnished with ballistas and scorpions, kept the enemy at bay by the missiles discharged from it. The ardour of the Romans was also clamped by the general, Appius Claudius, receiving a wound; he was struck by a javelin in the upper part of his breast, beneath the left shoulder, while encouraging his men before the front line. A great number, however, of the enemy were slain before the gate, and the rest were driven in disorder into the city. When Hannibal saw the destruction of the cohort of Spaniards, and that the camp of the enemy was defended with the utmost vigour, giving up the assault, he began to withdraw his standards, making his infantry face about, but throwing out his cavalry in the rear lest the enemy should pursue them closely. The ardour of the legions to pursue the enemy was excessive, but Flaccus ordered a retreat to be sounded, considering that enough had been achieved to convince the Campanians, and Hannibal himself, how unable he was to afford them protection. Some who have undertaken to give accounts of this battle, record that eight thousand of the army of Hannibal, and three thousand Campanians, were slain; that fifteen military standards were taken from the Carthaginians, and eighteen from the Campanians. In other authors I find the battle to have been by no means so important, and that there was more of panic than fighting; that a party of Numidians and Spaniards suddenly bursting into the Roman camp with some elephants, the elephants, as they made their way through the midst of the camp, threw down their tents with a great noise, and caused the beasts of burden to break their halters and run away. That in addition to the confusion occasioned, a stratagem was employed; Hannibal having sent in some persons acquainted with the Latin language, for he had some such with him, who might command the soldiers, in the name of the consuls, to escape every one as fast as he could to the neighbouring mountains, since the camp was lost; but that the imposture was soon discovered, and frustrated with a great slaughter of the enemy; that the elephants were driven out of the camp by fire. However commenced, and however terminated, this was the last battle which was fought before the surrender of Capua. Seppius Lesius was Medixtuticus, or chief magistrate of Capua, that year, a man of obscure origin and slender fortune. It is reported that his mother, when formerly expiating a prodigy which had occurred in the family in behalf of this boy, who was an orphan, received an answer from the aruspex, stating, that “the highest office would come to him;” and that not recognising, at Capua, any ground for such a hope, exclaimed, “the state of the Campanians must be desperate indeed, when the highest office shall come to my son.” But even this expression, in which the response was turned into ridicule, turned to be true, for those persons whose birth allowed them to aspire to high offices, refusing to accept them when the city was oppressed by sword and famine, and when all hope was lost, Lesius, who complained that Capua was deserted and betrayed by its nobles, accepted the office of chief magistrate, being the last Campanian who held it.
[16] 7. But Hannibal, when he saw that the enemy could not be drawn into another engagement, nor a passage be forced through their camp into Capua, resolved to remove his camp from that place and leave the attempt unaccomplished, fearful lest the new consuls might cut off his supplies of provision. While anxiously deliberating on the point to which he should next direct his course, an impulse suddenly entered his mind to make an attack on Rome, the very source of the war. That the opportunity of accomplishing this ever coveted object, which occurred after the battle of Cannae, had been neglected, and was generally censured by others, he himself did not deny. He thought that there was some hope that he might be able to get possession of some part of the city, in consequence of the panic and confusion which his unexpected approach would occasion, and that if Rome were in danger, either both the Roman generals, or at least one of them, would immediately leave Capua; and if they divided their forces, both generals being thus rendered weaker, would afford a favourable opportunity either to himself or the Campanians of gaining some advantage. One consideration only disquieted him, and that was, lest on his departure the Campanians should immediately surrender. By means of presents he induced a Numidian, who was ready to attempt any thing, however daring, to take charge of a letter; and, entering the Roman camp under the disguise of a deserter, to pass out privately on the other side and go to Capua. As to the letter, it was full of encouragement. It stated, that “his departure, which would be beneficial to them, would have the effect of drawing off the Roman generals and armies from the siege of Capua to the defence of Rome. That they must not allow their spirits to sink; that by a few days’ patience they would rid themselves entirely of the siege.” He then ordered the ships on the Vulturnus to be seized, and rowed up to the fort which he had before erected for his protection. And when he was informed that there were as many as were necessary to convey his army across in one night, after providing a stock of provisions for ten days, he led his legions down to the river by night, and passed them over before daylight.
[16] 8. Fulvius Flaccus, who had discovered from deserters that this would happen, before it took place, having written to Rome to the senate to apprize them of it, men’s minds were variously affected by it according to the disposition of each. As might be expected in so alarming an emergency, the senate was immediately assembled, when Publius Cornelius, surnamed Asina, was for recalling all the generals and armies from every part of Italy to protect the city, disregarding Capua and every other concern. Fabius Maximus thought that it would be highly disgraceful to retire from Capua, and allow themselves to be terrified and driven about at the nod and menaces of Hannibal. “Was it probable that he, who, though victorious at Cannae, nevertheless dared not approach the city, now, after having been repulsed from Capua, had conceived hopes of making himself master of Rome? It was not to besiege Rome, but to raise the siege of Capua that he was coming. Jupiter, the witness of treaties violated by Hannibal, and the other deities, would defend the city of Rome with that army which is now at the city.” To these opposite opinions, that of Publius Valerius Flaccus, which recommended a middle course, was preferred. Regardful of both objects, he thought that a letter should be written to the generals at Capua, informing them of the force they had at the city for its protection, and stating, that as to the number of forces which Hannibal was bringing with him, or how large an army was necessary to carry on the siege of Capua, they themselves knew. If one of the generals and a part of the army could be sent to Rome, and at the same time Capua could be efficiently besieged by the remaining general and army, that then Claudius and Fulvius should settle between themselves which should continue the siege of Capua, and which should come to Rome to protect their capital from being besieged. This decree of the senate having been conveyed to Capua, Quintus Fulvius, the proconsul, who was to go to Rome, as his colleague was ill from his wound, crossed the Vulturnus with a body of troops, to the number of fifteen thousand infantry and a thousand horse, selected from the three armies. Then having ascertained that Hannibal intended to proceed along the Latin road, he sent persons before him to the towns on and near the Appian way, Setia, Cora, and Lanuvium, with directions that they should not only have provisions ready in their towns, but should bring them down to the road from the fields which lay out of the way, and that they should draw together into their towns troops for their defence, in order that each state might be under its own protection.
[16] 9. On the day he crossed the Vulturnus, Hannibal pitched his camp at a small distance from the river. The next day, passing by Cales, he reached the Sidicinian territory, and having spent a day there in devastating the country, he led his troops along the Latin way through the territory of Suessa, Allifae, and Casinum. Under the walls of Casinum he remained encamped for two days, ravaging the country all around; thence passing by Interamna and Aquinum, he came into the Fregellan territory, to the river Liris, where he found the bridge broken down by the Fregellans in order to impede his progress. Fulvius also was detained at the Vulturnus, in consequence of Hannibal’s having burnt the ships, and the difficulty he had in procuring rafts to convey his troops across that river from the great scarcity of materials. The army having been conveyed across by rafts, the remainder of the march of Fulvius was uninterrupted, a liberal supply of provisions having been prepared for him, not only in all the towns, but also on the sides of the road; while his men, who were all activity, exhorted each other to quicken their pace, remembering that they were going to defend their country. A messenger from Fregella, who had travelled a day and a night without intermission, arriving at Rome, caused the greatest consternation; and the whole city was thrown into a state of alarm by the running up and down of persons who made vague additions to what they heard, and thus increased the confusion which the original intelligence created. The lamentations of women were not only heard from private houses, but the matrons from every quarter, rushing into the public streets, ran up and down around the shrines of the gods, sweeping the altars with their dishevelled hair, throwing themselves upon their knees and stretching their uplifted hands to heaven and the gods, imploring them to rescue the city of Rome out of the hands of their enemies, and preserve the Roman mothers and their children from harm. The senate sat in the forum near the magistrates, in case they should wish to consult them. Some were receiving orders and departing to their own department of duty; others were offering themselves wherever there might be occasion for their aid. Troops were posted in the citadel, in the Capitol, upon the walls around the city, and also on the Alban mount, and the fort of Aesula. During this confusion, intelligence was brought that Quintus Fulvius, the proconsul, had set out from Capua with an army; when the senate decreed that Quintus Fulvius should have equal authority with the consuls, lest on entering the city his power should cease. Hannibal, having most destructively ravaged the Fregellan territory, on account of the bridge having been broken down, came into the territory of the Lavici, passing through those of Frusino, Ferentinum, and Anagnia; thence passing through Algidum he directed his course to Tusculum; but not being received within the walls, he went down to the right below Tusculum to Gabii; and marching his army down thence into the territory of the Pupinian tribe, he pitched his camp eight miles from the city. The nearer the enemy came, the greater was the number of fugitives slain by the Numidians who preceded him, and the greater the number of prisoners made of every rank and age.
[16] 10. During this confusion, Fulvius Flaccus entered the city with his troops through the Capuan gate, passed through the midst of the city, and through Carinae, to Esquiliae; and going out thence, pitched his camp between the Esquiline and Colline gates. The plebeian aediles brought a supply of provisions there. The consuls and the senate came to the camp, and a consultation was held on the state of the republic. It was resolved that the consuls should encamp in the neighbourhood of the Colline and Esquiline gates; that Caius Calpurnius, the city praetor, should have the command of the Capitol and the citadel; and that a full senate should be continually assembled in the forum, in case it should be necessary to consult them amidst such sudden emergencies. Meanwhile, Hannibal advanced his camp to the Anio, three miles from the city, and fixing his position there, he advanced with two thousand horse from the Colline gate as far as the temple of Hercules, and riding up, took as near a view as he could of the walls and site of the city. Flaccus, indignant that he should do this so freely, and so much at his ease, sent out a party of cavalry, with orders to displace and drive back to their camp the cavalry of the enemy. After the fight had begun, the consuls ordered the Numidian deserters who were on the Aventine, to the number of twelve hundred, to march through the midst of the city to the Esquiliae, judging that no troops were better calculated to fight among the hollows, the garden walls, and tombs, or in the enclosed roads which were on all sides. But some persons, seeing them from the citadel and Capitol as they filed off on horseback down the Publician hill, cried out that the Aventine was taken. This circumstance occasioned such confusion and terror, that if the Carthaginian camp had not been without the city, the whole multitude, such was their alarm, would have rushed out. They then fled for refuge into their houses and upon the roofs, where they threw stones and weapons on their own soldiers as they passed along the streets, taking them for enemies. Nor could the tumult be repressed, or the mistake explained, as the streets were thronged with crowds of rustics and cattle, which the sudden alarm had driven into the city. The battle between the cavalry was successful, and the enemy were driven away; and as it was necessary to repress the tumults which were arising in several quarters without any cause, it was resolved that all who had been dictators, consuls, or censors, should be invested with authority till such time as the enemy had retired from the walls. During the remainder of the day and the following night, several tumults arose without any foundation, and were repressed.
[16] 11. The next day Hannibal, crossing the Anio, drew out all his forces in order of battle; nor did Flaccus and the consuls decline to fight. When the troops on both sides were drawn up to try the issue of a battle, in which Rome was to be the prize of the victors, a violent shower of rain mingled with hail created such disorder in both the lines, that the troops, scarcely able to hold their arms, retired to their camps, less through fear of the enemy than of any thing else. On the following day, likewise, a similar tempest separated the armies marshalled on the same ground; but after they had retired to their camps the weather became wonderfully serene and tranquil. The Carthaginians considered this circumstance as a Divine interposition, and it is reported that Hannibal was heard to say, “That sometimes he wanted the will to make himself master of Rome, at other times the opportunity.” Two other circumstances also, one inconsiderable, the other important, diminished his hopes. The important one was, that while he lay with his armed troops near the walls of the city, he was informed that troops had marched out of it with colours flying, as a reinforcement for Spain; that of less importance was, that he was informed by one of his prisoners, that the very ground on which his camp stood was sold at this very time, without any diminution in its price. Indeed, so great an insult and indignity did it appear to him that a purchaser should be found at Rome for the very soil which he held and possessed by right of conquest, that he immediately called a crier, and ordered that the silversmiths’ shops, which at that time stood around the Roman forum, should be put up for sale. Induced by these circumstances he retired to the river Tutia, six miles from the city, whence he proceeded to the grove of Feronia, where was a temple at that time celebrated for its riches. The Capenatians and other states in the neighbourhood, by bringing here their first-fruits and other offerings according to their abilities, kept it decorated with abundance of gold and silver. Of all these offerings the temple was now despoiled. After the departure of Hannibal, vast heaps of brass were found there, as the soldiers, from a religious feeling, had thrown in pieces of uncoined brass. The spoliation of this temple is undoubted by historians; but Caelius asserts, that Hannibal, in his progress to Rome, turned out of his way to it from Eretum. According to him his route commenced with Amiternum, Caetilii, and Reate. He came from Campania into Samnium, and thence into Pelignia; then passing the town Sulmio, he entered the territory of the Marrucini; thence through the Alban territory he came to that of the Marsi, from which he came to Amiternum and the village of Foruli. Nor is this diversity of opinion a proof that the traces of so great an army could be confounded in the lapse of so brief a period. That he went that way is evident. The only question is, whether he took this route to the city, or returned by it from the city into Campania?
[16] 12. With regard to Capua, Hannibal did not evince such obstinate perseverance in raising the siege of it as the Romans did in pressing it; for quitting Lucania, he came into the Bruttian territory, and marched to the strait and Rhegium with such rapidity, that he was very near taking the place by surprise, in consequence of the suddenness of his arrival. Though the siege had been urged with undiminished vigour during his absence, yet Capua felt the return of Flaccus; and astonishment was excited that Hannibal had not returned with him. Afterwards they learnt, by conversations, that they were abandoned and deserted, and that the Carthaginians had given up all hopes of retaining Capua. In addition to this a proclamation was made by the proconsul, agreeably to a decree of the senate, and published among the enemy, that any Campanian citizen who came over before a stated day should be indemnified. No one, however, came over, as they were held together by fear more than fidelity; for the crimes they had committed during their revolt were too great to admit of pardon. As none of them passed over to the enemy, consulting their own individual interest, so no measure of safety was taken with regard to the general body. The nobility had deserted the state, nor could they be induced to meet in the senate, while the office of chief magistrate was filled by a man who had not derived honour to himself from his office, but stripped the office of its influence and authority by his own unworthiness. Now none of the nobles made their appearance even in the forum, or any public place, but shut themselves up in their houses, in daily expectation of the downfall of their city, and their own destruction together. The chief responsibility in every thing devolved upon Bostar and Hanno, the praefects of the Punic garrison, who were anxious on account of their own danger, and not that of their allies. They addressed a letter to Hannibal, in terms, not only of freedom, but severity, charging him with “delivering, not only Capua into the hands of the enemy, but with treacherously abandoning themselves also, and their troops, to every species of torture;” they told him “he had gone off to the Bruttians, in order to get out of the way, as it were, lest Capua should be taken before his eyes; while, by Hercules, the Romans, on the contrary, could not be drawn off from the siege of Capua, even by an attack upon their city. So much more constant were the Romans in their enmity than the Carthaginians in their friendship. If he would return to Capua and direct the whole operations of the war to that point, that both themselves and the Campanians would be prepared for a sally. That they had crossed the Alps not to carry on a war with the people of Rhegium nor Tarentum. That where the Roman legions were, there the armies of the Carthaginians ought to be. Thus it was that victories had been gained at Cannae and Trasimenus; by uniting, by pitching their camp close to that of the enemy, by trying their fortune.” A letter to this effect was given to some Numidians who had already engaged to render their services for a stated reward. These men came into the camp to Flaccus under pretence of being deserters, with the intention of quitting it by seizing an opportunity, and the famine, which had so long existed at Capua, afforded a pretext for desertion which no one could suspect. But a Campanian woman, the paramour of one of the deserters, unexpectedly entered the camp, and informed the Roman general that the Numidians had come over according to a preconcerted plan of treachery, and were the bearers of letters to Hannibal; that she was prepared to convict one of the party of that fact, as he had discovered it to her. On being brought forward, he at first pretended, with considerable pertinacity, that he did not know the woman; but afterwards, gradually succumbing to the force of truth, when he saw the instruments of torture called for and preparing, he confessed that it was so. The letters were produced, and a discovery was made of an additional fact, before concealed, that other Numidians were strolling about in the Roman camp, under pretence of being deserters. Above seventy of these were arrested, and, with the late deserters, scourged with rods; and after their hands had been cut off, were driven back to Capua. The sight of so severe a punishment broke the spirit of the Campanians.
[16] 13. The people, rushing in crowds to the senate-house, compelled Lesius to assemble a senate, and openly threatened the nobles, who had now for a long time absented themselves from the public deliberations, that unless they attended the meeting of the senate, they would go round to their houses and drag them all before the public by force. The fear of this procured the magistrate a full senate. Here, while the rest contended for sending ambassadors to the Roman generals, Vibius Virrius, who had been the instigator of the revolt from the Romans, on being asked his opinion, observed, that “those persons who spoke of sending ambassadors, and of peace, and a surrender, did not bear in mind either what they would do if they had the Romans in their power, or what they themselves must expect to suffer. What! do you think,” says he, “that your surrender will be like that in which formerly we placed ourselves and every thing belonging to us at the disposal of the Romans, in order that we might obtain assistance from them against the Samnites? Have you already forgotten at what a juncture we revolted from the Romans, and what were their circumstances? Have you forgotten how at the time of the revolt we put to death, with torture and indignity, their garrison, which might have been sent out? How often, and with determined hostility, we have sallied out against them when besieging us, and assaulted their camp? How we invited Hannibal to come and cut them off? And how most recently we sent him hence to lay siege to Rome? But come, retrace on the other hand what they have done in hostility towards us, that you may learn therefrom what you have to hope for. When a foreign enemy was in Italy, and that enemy Hannibal; when the flame of war was kindled in every quarter; disregarding every other object, disregarding even Hannibal himself, they sent two consuls with two consular armies to lay siege to Capua. This is the second year, that, surrounded with lines and shut up within our walls, they consume us by famine, having suffered in like manner with ourselves the extremest dangers and the severest hardships, having frequently had their troops slain near their rampart and trenches, and at last having been almost deprived of their camp. But I pass over these matters. It has been usual, even from of old, to suffer dangers and hardships in besieging an enemy’s city. The following is a proof of their animosity and bitter hatred. Hannibal assaulted their camp with an immense force of horse and foot, and took a part of it. By so great a danger they were not in the least diverted from the siege. Crossing the Vulturnus, he laid waste the territory of Cales with fire. Such calamities inflicted upon their allies had no effect in calling them off. He ordered his troops to march in hostile array to the very city of Rome. They despised the tempest which threatened them in this case also. Crossing the Anio, he pitched his camp three miles from the city, and lastly, came up to the very walls and gates. He gave them to understand that he would take their city from them, unless they gave up Capua. But they did not give it up. Wild beasts, impelled by headlong fury and rage, you may divert from their object to bring assistance to those belonging to them, if you attempt to approach their dens and their young. The Romans could not be diverted from Capua by the blockade of Rome, by their wives and children, whose lamentations could almost be heard from this place, by their altars, their hearths, the temples of their gods, and the sepulchres of their ancestors profaned and violated. So great was their avidity to bring us to punishment, so insatiable their thirst for drinking our blood. Nor, perhaps, without reason. We too would have done the same had the opportunity been afforded us. Since, however, the gods have thought proper to determine it otherwise, though I ought not to shrink from death, while I am free, while I am master of myself, I have it in my power, by a death not only honourable but mild, to escape the tortures and indignities which the enemy hope to inflict upon me. I will not see Appius Claudius and Quintus Fulvius in the pride and insolence of victory, nor will I be dragged in chains through Rome as a spectacle in a triumph, that afterwards in a dungeon, or tied to a stake, after my back has been lacerated with stripes, I may place my neck under a Roman axe. I will neither see my native city demolished and burnt, nor the matrons, virgins, and free-born youths of Campania dragged to constupration. Alba, from which they themselves derived their origin, they demolished from her foundations, that there might remain no trace of their rise and extraction, much less can I believe they will spare Capua, towards which they bear a more rancorous hatred than towards Carthage. For such of you, therefore, as have a mind to yield to fate, before they behold such horrors, a banquet is furnished and prepared at my house. When satiated with wine and food, the same cup which shall have been given to me shall be handed round to them. That potion will rescue our bodies from torture, our minds from insult, our eyes and ears from seeing and hearing all those cruelties and indignities which await the vanquished. There will be persons in readiness who will throw our lifeless bodies upon a large pile kindled in the court-yard of the house. This is the only free and honourable way to death. Our very enemies will admire our courage, and Hannibal will learn that those whom he deserted and betrayed were brave allies.”
[16] 14. More of those who heard this speech of Virrius approved of the proposal contained in it, than had strength of mind to execute what they approved. The greater part of the senate being not without hopes that the Romans, whose clemency they had frequently had proof of in many wars, would be exorable by them also, decreed and sent ambassadors to surrender Capua to the Romans. About twenty-seven senators, following Vibius Virrius to his home, partook of the banquet with him; and after having, as far as they could, withdrawn their minds, by means of wine, from the perception of the impending evil, all took the poison. They then rose from the banquet, after giving each other their right hands, and taking a last embrace, mingling their tears for their own and their country’s fate; some of them remained, that they might be burned upon the same pile, and the rest retired to their homes. Their veins being filled in consequence of what they had eaten, and the wine they drank, rendered the poison less efficacious in expediting death; and accordingly, though the greater part of them languished the whole of that night and part of the following day, all of them, however, breathed their last before the gates were opened to the enemy. The following day the gate of Jupiter, which faced the Roman camp, was opened by order of the proconsul, when one legion and two squadrons of allies marched in at it, under the command of Caius Fulvius, lieutenant-general. When he had taken care that all the arms and weapons to be found in Capua should be brought to him; having placed guards at all the gates to prevent any one’s going or being sent out, he seized the Carthaginian garrison, and ordered the Campanian senators to go into the camp to the Roman generals. On their arrival they were all immediately thrown into chains, and ordered to lay before the quaestor an account of all the gold and silver they had. There were seventy pounds of gold, and three thousand two hundred of silver. Twenty-five of the senators were sent to Cales, to be kept in custody, and twenty-eight to Teanum; these being the persons by whose advice principally it appeared that the revolt from the Romans had taken place.
[16] 15. Fulvius and Claudius were far from being agreed as to the punishment of the Campanian senators. Claudius was disposed to grant their prayer for pardon, but Fulvius was more inclined to severity. Appius, therefore, was for referring the entire disposal of the question to the Roman senate. He thought it right also, that the fathers should have the opportunity of asking them whether any of the Latin confederates, or of the municipal towns, had taken part in these designs, and whether they had derived any assistance from them in the war. Fulvius, on the contrary, urged that they ought by no means to run the hazard of having the minds of faithful allies harassed by doubtful accusations, and subjected to informers who never cared at all what they did or what they said. For this reason he said that he should prevent and put a stop to any such inquiry. After this conversation they separated; Appius not doubting but that his colleague, though he expressed himself so warmly, would, nevertheless, wait for a letter from Rome, in an affair of such magnitude. But Fulvius, fearing that his designs would be frustrated by that very means, dismissed his council, and commanded the military tribunes and the praefects of the allies to give notice to two thousand chosen horsemen to be in readiness at the third trumpet. Setting out for Teanum with this body of cavalry, he entered the gate at break of day, and proceeded direct to the forum; and a number of people having flocked together at the first entrance of the horsemen, he ordered the Sidicinian magistrate to be summoned; when he desired him to bring forth the Campanians whom he had in custody. These were all accordingly brought forth, scourged, and beheaded. He then proceeded at full speed to Cales; where, when he had taken his seat on the tribunal, and while the Campanians, who had been brought forth, were being bound to the stake, an express arrived from Rome, and delivered to him a letter from Caius Calpurnius, the praetor, and a decree of the senate. A murmur immediately pervaded the whole assembly, beginning at the tribunal, that the entire question respecting the Campanians was referred to the decision of the fathers, and Fulvius, suspecting this to be the case, took the letter, and without opening it put it into his bosom, and then commanded the crier to order the lictor to do his duty. Thus punishment was inflicted on those also who were at Cales. The letter was then read, together with the decree of the senate, when it was too late to prevent the business which was already executed, and which had been accelerated by every means to prevent its being obstructed. When Fulvius was now rising from his seat, Jubellius Taurea, a Campanian making his way through the middle of the city and the crowd, called upon him by name, and when Flaccus, who wondered greatly what he could want, had resumed his seat, he said, “Order me also to be put to death, that you may be able to boast, that a much braver man than yourself has been put to death by you.” Fulvius at first said, that the man could not certainly be in his senses, then, that he was restrained by a decree of the senate, even though he might wish it, when Jubellius exclaimed “Since, after the capture of my country, and the loss of my relations and friends, after having killed, with my own hand, my wife and children to prevent their suffering any indignity, I am not allowed even to die in the same manner as these my countrymen, let a rescue be sought in courage from this hated existence.” So saying, he thrust a sword, which he had concealed under his garment, right through his breast, and fell lifeless at the general’s feet.
[16] 16. Because not only what related to the punishment of the Campanians, but most of the other particulars of this affair, were transacted according to the judgment of Flaccus alone, some authors affirm that Appius Claudius died about the time of the surrender of Capua, and that this same Taurea neither came to Cales voluntarily nor died by his own hand, but that while he was being tied to the stake among the rest, Flaccus, who could not distinctly hear what he vociferated from the noise which was made, ordered silence, when Taurea said the things which have been before related “that he, a man of the greatest courage, was being put to death by one who was by no means his equal in respect to valour.” That immediately on his saying this, the herald, by command of the proconsul, pronounced this order. “Lictor, apply the rods to this man of courage, and execute the law upon him first.” Some authors also relate, that he read the decree of the senate before he beheaded them, but that as there was a clause in it, to the effect, that if he thought proper he should refer the entire question to the senate, he construed it that the decision as to what was most for the interest of the state was left to himself. He returned from Cales to Capua. Atella and Calatia surrendered themselves, and were received. Here also the principal promoters of the revolt were punished. Thus eighty principal members of the senate were put to death, and about three hundred of the Campanian nobles thrown into prison. The rest were distributed through the several cities of the Latin confederacy, to be kept in custody, where they perished in various ways. The rest of the Campanian citizens were sold. The remaining subject of deliberation related to the city and its territory. Some were of opinion that a city so eminently powerful, so near, and so hostile, ought to be demolished. But immediate utility prevailed, for on account of the land, which was evidently superior to any in Italy from the variety and exuberance of its produce, the city was preserved that it might become a settlement of husbandmen. For the purpose of peopling the city, a number of sojourners, freed-men, dealers, and artificers, were retained, but all the land and buildings were made the property of the Roman state. It was resolved, however, that Capua should only be inhabited and peopled as a city, that there should be no body-politic, nor assembly of the senate or people, nor magistrates. For it was thought that a multitude not possessing any public council, without a ruling power, and unconnected by the participation of any common rights, would be incapable of combination. They resolved to send a praefect annually from Rome to administer justice. Thus were matters adjusted at Capua, upon a plan in every respect worthy of commendation. Punishment was inflicted upon the most guilty with rigour and despatch, the populace dispersed beyond all hope of return, no rage vented in fire and ruins upon the unoffending houses and walls. Together also with advantage, a reputation for clemency was obtained among the allies, by the preservation of a city of the greatest celebrity and opulence, the demolition of which, all Campania, and all the people dwelling in the neighbourhood of Campania, would have bewailed, while their enemies were compelled to admit the ability of the Romans to punish their faithless allies, and how little assistance could be derived from Hannibal towards the defence of those whom he had taken under his protection.
[16] 17. The Roman senate having gone through every thing which required their attention relative to Capua, decreed to Caius Nero six thousand foot and three hundred horse, whichever he should himself choose out of those two legions which he had commanded at Capua, with an equal number of infantry, and eight hundred horse of the Latin confederacy. This army Nero embarked at Puteoli, and conveyed over into Spain. Having arrived at Tarraco with his ships, landed his troops, hauled his ships ashore, and armed his mariners to augment his numbers, he proceeded to the river Iberus, and received the army from Titus Fonteius and Lucius Marcius. He then marched towards the enemy. Hasdrubal, son of Hamilcar, was encamped at the black stones in Ausetania, a place situated between the towns Illiturgi and Mentissa. The entrance of this defile Nero seized, and Hasdrubal, to prevent his being shut up in it, sent a herald to engage that, if he were allowed to depart thence, he would convey the whole of his army out of Spain. The Roman general having received this proposition gladly, Hasdrubal requested the next day for a conference, when the Romans might draw up conditions relative to the surrender of the citadels of the towns, and the appointment of a day on which the garrisons might be withdrawn, and the Carthaginians might remove every thing belonging to them without imposition. Having obtained his point in this respect, Hasdrubal gave orders that as soon as it was dark, and during the whole of the night afterwards, the heaviest part of his force should get out of the defile by whatever way they could. The strictest care was taken that many should not go out that night, that the very fewness of their numbers might both be more adapted to elude the notice of the enemy from their silence, and to an escape through confined and rugged paths. Next day they met for the conference; but that day having been spent, on purpose, in speaking and writing about a variety of subjects, which were not to this point, the conference was put off to the next day. The addition of the following night gave him time to send still more out; nor was the business concluded the next day. Thus several days were spent in openly discussing conditions, and as many nights in privately sending the Carthaginian troops out of their camp; and after the greater part of the army had been sent out, he did not even keep to those terms which he had himself proposed; and his sincerity decreasing with his fears, they became less and less agreed. By this time nearly all the infantry had cleared the defile, when at daybreak a dense mist enveloped the whole defile and the neighbouring plains; which Hasdrubal perceiving, sent to Nero to put off the conference to the following day, as the Carthaginians held that day sacred from the transaction of any serious business. Not even then was the cheat suspected. Hasdrubal having gained the indulgence he sought for that day also, immediately quitted his camp with his cavalry and elephants, and without creating any alarm escaped to a place of safety. About the fourth hour the mist, being dispelled by the sun, left the atmosphere clear, when the Romans saw that the camp of the enemy was deserted. Then at length Claudius, recognising the Carthaginian perfidy, and perceiving that he had been caught by trickery, immediately began to pursue the enemy as they moved off, prepared to give battle; but they declined fighting. Some skirmishes, however, took place between the rear of the Carthaginians and the advanced guard of the Romans.
[16] 18. During the time in which these events occurred, neither did those states of Spain which had revolted after the defeat that was sustained, return to the Romans, nor did any others desert them. At Rome, the attention of the senate and people, after the recovery of Capua, was not fixed in a greater degree upon Italy than upon Spain. They resolved that the army there should be augmented and a general sent. They were not, however, so clear as to the person whom they should send, as that, where two generals had fallen within the space of thirty days, he who was to supply the place of them should be selected with unusual care. Some naming one person, and others another, they at length came to the resolution that the people should assemble for the purpose of electing a proconsul for Spain, and the consuls fixed a day for the election. At first they waited in expectation that those persons who might think themselves qualified for so momentous a command would give in their names, but this expectation being disappointed, their grief was renewed for the calamity they had suffered, and then regret for the generals they had lost. The people thus afflicted, and almost at their wits’ end, came down, however, to the Campus Martius on the day of the election, where, turning towards the magistrates, they looked round at the countenances of their most eminent men, who were earnestly gazing at each other, and murmured bitterly, that their affairs were in so ruinous a state, and the condition of the commonwealth so desperate, that no one dared undertake the command in Spain. When suddenly Publius Cornelius, son of Publius who had fallen in Spain, who was about twenty-four years of age, declaring himself a candidate, took his station on an eminence from which he could be seen by all. The eyes of the whole assembly were directed towards him, and by acclamations and expressions of approbation, a prosperous and happy command were at once augured to him. Orders were then given that they should proceed to vote, when not only every century, but every individual to a man, decided that Publius Scipio should be invested with the command in Spain. But after the business had been concluded, and the ardour and impetuosity of their zeal had subsided, a sudden silence ensued, and a secret reflection on what they had done, whether their partiality had not got the better of their judgment? They chiefly regretted his youth, but some were terrified at the fortune which attended his house and his name, for while the two families to which he belonged were in mourning, he was going into a province where he must carry on his operations between the tombs of his father and his uncle.
[16] 19. Perceiving the solicitude and anxiety which people felt, after performing the business with so much ardour, he summoned an assembly, in which he discoursed in so noble and high minded a manner, on his years, the command intrusted to him, and the war which he had to carry on, as to rekindle and renew the ardour which had subsided, and inspire the people with more confident hopes than the reliance placed on human professions, or reasoning on the promising appearance of affairs, usually engenders. For Scipio was not only deserving of admiration for his real virtues, but also for his peculiar address in displaying them, to which he had been formed from his earliest years; — effecting many things with the multitude, either by feigning nocturnal visions or as with a mind divinely inspired; whether it was that he was himself, too, endued with a superstitious turn of mind, or that they might execute his commands and adopt his plans without hesitation, as if they proceeded from the responses of an oracle. With the intention of preparing men’s minds for this from the beginning, he never at any time from his first assumption of the manly gown transacted any business, public or private, without first going to the Capitol, entering the temple, and taking his seat there; where he generally passed a considerable time in secret and alone. This practice, which was adhered to through the whole of his life, occasioned in some persons a belief in a notion which generally prevailed, whether designedly or undesignedly propagated, that he was a man of divine extraction; and revived a report equally absurd and fabulous with that formerly spread respecting Alexander the Great, that he was begotten by a huge serpent, whose monstrous form was frequently observed in the bedchamber of his mother, but which, on any one’s coming in, suddenly unfolding his coils, glided out of sight. The belief in these miraculous accounts was never ridiculed by him, but rather increased by his address; neither positively denying any such thing nor openly affirming it. There were also many other things, some real and others counterfeit, which exceeded in the case of this young man the usual measure of human admiration, in reliance on which the state intrusted him with an affair of so much difficulty, and with so important a command, at an age by no means ripe for it. To the forces in Spain, consisting of the remains of the old army, and those which had been conveyed over from Puteoli by Claudius Nero, ten thousand infantry and a thousand horse were added; and Marcus Junius Silanus, the propraetor, was sent to assist in the management of affairs. Thus with a fleet of thirty ships, all of which were quinqueremes, he set sail from the mouth of the Tiber, and coasting along the shore of the Tuscan Sea, the Alps, and the Gallic Gulf, and then doubling the promontory of the Pyrenees, landed his troops at Emporiae, a Greek city, which also derived its origin from Phocaea. Ordering his ships to attend him, he marched by land to Tarraco; where he held a congress of deputies from all the allies; for embassies had poured forth from every province on the news of his arrival. Here he ordered his ships to be hauled on shore, having sent back the four triremes of the Massilians which had, in compliment to him, attended him from their home. After that, he began to give answers to the embassies of the several states, which had been in suspense on account of the many vicissitudes of the war; and this with so great dignity, arising from the great confidence he had in his own talents, that no presumptuous expression ever escaped him; and in every thing he said there appeared at once the greatest majesty and sincerity.
[16] 20. Setting out from Tarraco, he visited the states of his allies and the winter quarters of his army; and bestowed the highest commendations upon the soldiers, because, though they had received two such disastrous blows in succession, they had retained possession of the province, and not allowing the enemy to reap any advantage from their successes, had excluded them entirely from the territory on this side of the Iberus, and honourably protected their allies. Marcius he kept with him, and treated him with such respect, that it was perfectly evident there was nothing he feared less than lest any one should stand in the way of his own glory. Silanus then took the place of Nero, and the fresh troops were led into winter quarters. Scipio having in good time visited every place where his presence was necessary, and completed every thing which was to be done, returned to Tarraco. The reputation of Scipio among his enemies was not inferior to that which he enjoyed among his allies and countrymen. They felt also a kind of presentiment of what was to come, which occasioned the greater apprehension, the less they could account for their fears, which had arisen without any cause. They had retired to their winter quarters in different directions. Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo, had gone quite to the ocean and Gades; Mago into the midland parts chiefly above the forest of Castulo; Hasdrubal, son of Hamilcar, wintered in the neighbourhood of Saguntum, close upon the Iberus. At the close of the summer in which Capua was recovered and Scipio entered Spain, a Carthaginian fleet, which had been fetched from Sicily to Tarentum, to cut off the supplies of the Roman garrison in the citadel of that place, had blocked up all the approaches to the citadel from the sea; but by lying there too long, they caused a greater scarcity of provisions to their friends than to their enemies. For so much corn could not be brought in for the townsmen, along the coasts which were friendly to them, and through the ports which were kept open through the protection afforded by the Carthaginian fleet, as the fleet itself consumed, which had on board a crowd made up of every description of persons. So that the garrison of the citadel, which was small in number, could be supported from the stock they had previously laid in without importing any, while that which they imported was not sufficient for the supply of the Tarentines and the fleet. At length the fleet was sent away with greater satisfaction than it was received. The scarcity of provisions, however, was not much relieved by it; because when the protection by sea was removed corn could not be brought in.
[16] 21. At the close of the same summer, Marcus Marcellus arriving at the city from his province of Sicily, an audience of the senate was given him by Caius Calpurnius, the praetor, in the temple of Bellona. Here, after discoursing on the services he had performed, and complaining in gentle terms, not on his own account more than that of his soldiers, that after having completely reduced the province, he had not been allowed to bring home his army, he requested that he might be allowed to enter the city in triumph; this he did not obtain. A long debate took place on the question, whether it was less consistent to deny a triumph on his return to him, in whose name, when absent, a supplication had been decreed and honours paid to the immortal gods, for successes obtained under his conduct; or, when they had ordered him to deliver over his army to a successor, which would not have been decreed unless there were still war in the province, to allow him to triumph, as if the war had been terminated, when the army, the evidence of the triumph being deserved or undeserved, were absent. As a middle course between the two opinions, it was resolved that he should enter the city in ovation. The plebeian tribunes, by direction of the senate, proposed to the people, that Marcus Marcellus should be invested with command during the day on which he should enter the city in ovation. The day before he entered the city he triumphed on the Alban mount; after which he entered the city in ovation, having a great quantity of spoils carried before him, together with a model of the capture of Syracuse. The catapultas and ballistas, and every other instrument of war were carried; likewise the rich ornaments laid up by its kings during a long continuance of peace; a quantity of wrought silver and brass, and other articles, with precious garments, and a number of celebrated statues, with which Syracuse had been adorned in such a manner as to rank among the chief Grecian cities in that respect. Eight elephants were also led as an emblem of victory over the Carthaginians. Sosis, the Syracusan, and Mericus, the Spaniard, who preceded him with golden crowns, formed not the least interesting part of the spectacle; under the guidance of one of whom the Romans had entered Syracuse by night, while the other had betrayed to them the island and the garrison in it. To both of them the freedom of the city was given, and five hundred acres of land each. Sosis was to have his portion in the Syracusan territory, out of the lands which had belonged either to the kings or the enemies of the Roman people, together with a house at Syracuse, which had belonged to any one of those persons who had been punished according to the laws of war. Mericus and the Spaniards who had come over with him were ordered to have a city and lands assigned to them in Sicily, which had belonged to some of those who had revolted from the Romans. It was given in charge to Marcus Cornelius to assign them the city and lands wherever he thought proper. In the same country, four hundred acres of land were decreed to Belligenes, by whose means Mericus had been persuaded to come over. After the departure of Marcellus from Sicily, a Carthaginian fleet landed eight thousand infantry and three thousand Numidian cavalry. To these the Murgantian territories revolted; Hybla, Macella, and certain other towns of less note followed their defection. The Numidians also, headed by Mutines, ranging without restraint through the whole of Sicily, ravaged with fire the lands of the allies of the Romans. In addition to these unfortunate circumstances, the Roman soldiers, incensed partly because they had not been taken from the province with their general, and partly because they had been forbidden to winter in towns, discharged their duties negligently, and wanted a a leader more than inclination for a mutiny. Amid these difficulties Marcus Cornelius, the praetor, sometimes by soothing, at other times by reproving them, pacified the minds of the soldiers; and reduced to obedience all the states which had revolted; out of which he gave Murgantia to those Spaniards who were entitled to a city and land, in conformity with the decree of the senate.
[16] 22. As both the consuls had Apulia for their province, and as there was now less to be apprehended from Hannibal and the Carthaginians, they were directed to draw lots for the provinces of Apulia and Macedonia. Macedonia fell to the lot of Sulpicius, who succeeded Laevinus. Fulvius having been called to Rome on account of the election, held an assembly to elect new consuls; when the junior Veturian century, which had the right of voting first, named Titus Manlius Torquatus and Titus Otacilius. A crowd collecting round Manlius, who was present, to congratulate him, and it being certain that the people would concur in his election, he went, surrounded as he was with a multitude of persons, to the tribunal of the consul, and requested that he would listen to a few words from him; and that he would order the century which had voted to be recalled. While all present were waiting impatiently to hear what it was he was going to ask, he alleged as an excuse the weakness of his eyes; observing, that “a pilot or a general might fairly be charged with presumption who should request that the lives and fortunes of others might be intrusted to him, when in every thing which was to be done he must make use of other people’s eyes. Therefore he requested, that, if it seemed good to him, he would order the junior Veturian century to come and vote again; and to recollect, while electing consuls, the war which they had in Italy, and the present exigencies of the state. That their ears had scarcely yet ceased to ring with the noise and tumult raised by the enemy, when but a few months ago they nearly scaled the walls of Rome.” This speech was followed by the century’s shouting out, one and all, that “they would not in the least alter their vote, but would name the same persons for consuls;” when Torquatus replied, “neither shall I as consul be able to put up with your conduct, nor will you be satisfied with my government. Go back and vote again, and consider that you have a Punic war in Italy, and that the leader of your enemies is Hannibal.” Upon this the century, moved by the authority of the man and the shouts of admirers around, besought the consul to summon the elder Veturian century; for they were desirous of conferring with persons older than themselves, and to name the consuls in accordance with their advice. The elder Veturian century having been summoned, time was allowed them to confer with the others by themselves in the ovile. The elders said that there were three persons whom they ought to deliberate about electing, two of them having already served all the offices of honour, namely, Quintus Fabius and Marcus Marcellus; and if they wished so particularly to elect some fresh person as consul to act against the Carthaginians, that Marcus Valerius Laevinus had carried on operations against king Philip by sea and land with signal success. Thus, three persons having been proposed to them to deliberate about, the seniors were dismissed, and the juniors proceeded to vote. They named as consuls, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, then glorious with the conquest of Sicily, and Marcus Valerius, both in their absence. All the centuries followed the recommendation of that which voted first. Let men now ridicule the admirers of antiquity. Even if there existed a republic of wise men, which the learned rather imagine than know of; for my own part I cannot persuade myself that there could possibly be a nobility of sounder judgment, and more moderate in their desire of power, or a people better moralled. Indeed that a century of juniors should have been willing to consult their elders, as to the persons to whom they should intrust a command by their vote, is rendered scarcely probable by the contempt and levity with which the parental authority is treated by children in the present age.
[16] 23. The assembly for the election of praetors was then held, at which Publius Manlius Vulso, Lucius Manlius Acidinus, Caius Laetorius, and Lucius Cincius Alimentus were elected. It happened that just as the elections were concluded, news was brought that Titus Otacilius, whom it seemed the people would have made consul in his absence, with Titus Manlius, had not the course of the elections been interrupted, had died in Sicily. The games in honour of Apollo had been performed the preceding year, and on the motion of Calpurnius, the praetor, that they should be performed this year also, the senate decreed that they should be vowed every year for the time to come. The same year several prodigies were seen and reported. At the temple of Concord, a statue of Victory, which stood on the roof, having been struck by lightning and thrown down, stuck among the figures of Victory, which were among the ornaments under the eaves, and did not fall to the ground from thence. Both from Anagnia and Fregellae it was reported that a wall and some gates had been struck by lightning. That in the forum of Sudertum streams of blood had continued flowing through a whole day; at Eretum, that there had been a shower of stones; and at Reate, that a mule had brought forth. These prodigies were expiated with victims of the larger sort, the people were commanded to offer up prayers for one day, and perform the nine days’ sacred rite. Several of the public priests died off this year, and fresh ones were appointed. In the room of Manius Aemilius Numida, decemvir for sacred rites, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus was appointed; in the room of Manius Pomponius Matho, the pontiff, Caius Livius; in the room of Spurius Carvilius Maximus, the augur, Marcus Servilius. As Titus Otacilius Crassus, a pontiff, died after the year was concluded, no person was nominated to succeed him. Caius Claudius, flamen of Jupiter, retired from his office, because he had distributed the entrails improperly.
[16] 24. During the same time Marcus Valerius Laevinus, having first sounded the intentions of the leading men by means of secret conferences, came with some light ships to a council of the Aetolians, which had been previously appointed to meet for this very purpose. Here having proudly pointed to the capture of Syracuse and Capua, as proofs of the success of the Roman arms in Sicily and Italy, he added, that “it was a custom with the Romans, handed down to them from their ancestors, to respect their allies; some of whom they had received into their state, and had admitted to the same privileges they enjoyed themselves, while others they treated so favourably that they chose rather to be allies than citizens. That the Aetolians would be honoured by them so much the more, because they were the first of the nations across the sea which had entered into friendship with them. That Philip and the Macedonians were troublesome neighbours to them, but that he had broken their strength and spirits already, and would still further reduce them to that degree, that they should not only evacuate the cities which they had violently taken from the Aetolians, but have Macedonia itself disturbed with war. And that as to the Acarnanians, whose separation from their body was a source of grief to the Aetolians, he would place them again under their ancient system of jurisdiction and dominion.” These assertions and promises of the Roman general, Scopas, who was at that time praetor of the nation, and Dorymachus, a leading man among the Aetolians, confirmed on their own authority, extolling the power and greatness of the Roman people with less reserve, and with greater force of conviction. However, the hope of recovering Acarnania principally moved them. The terms, therefore, were reduced to writing, on which they should enter into alliance and friendship with the Roman people, and it was added, that “if it were agreeable to them and they wished it, the Eleans and Lacedaemonians, with Attalus, Pleuratus, and Scerdilaedas, should be included on the same conditions.” Attalus was king of Asia; the latter, kings of the Thracians and Illyrians. The conditions were, that “the Aetolians should immediately make war on Philip by land, in which the Romans should assist, with not less than twenty quinqueremes. That the site and buildings, together with the walls and lands, of all the cities as far as Corcyra, should become the property of the Aetolians, every other kind of booty, of the Romans. That the Romans should endeavour to put the Aetolians in possession of Acarnania. If the Aetolians should make peace with Philip, they should insert a stipulation that the peace should stand good only on condition that they abstained from hostilities against the Romans, their allies, and the states subject to them. In like manner, if the Romans should form an alliance with the king, that they should provide that he should not have liberty to make war upon the Aetolians and their allies.” Such were the terms agreed upon; and copies of them having been made, they were laid up two years afterwards by the Aetolians at Olympia, and by the Romans in the Capitol, that they might be attested by these consecrated records. The delay had been occasioned by the Aetolian ambassadors’ having been detained at Rome. This, however, did not form an impediment to the war’s proceeding. Both the Aetolians immediately commenced war against Philip, and Laevinus taking, all but the citadel, Zacynthus, a small island near to Aetolia, and having one city of the same name with the island; and also taking Aeniadae and Nasus from the Acarnanians, annexed them to the Aetolians; and also considering that Philip was sufficiently engaged in war with his neighbours to prevent his thinking of Italy, the Carthaginians, and his compact with Hannibal, he retired to Corcyra.
[16] 25. To Philip intelligence of the defection of the Aetolians was brought while in winter quarters at Pella. As he was about to march an army into Greece at the beginning of the spring, he undertook a sudden expedition into the territories of Oricum and Apollonia, in order that Macedonia might not be molested by the Illyrians, and the cities bordering upon them, in consequence of the terror he would thus strike them with in turn. The Apollonians came out to oppose him, but he drove them, terrified and dismayed, within their walls. After devastating the adjacent parts of Illyricum he turned his course into Pelagonia, with the same expedition. He then took Sintia, a town of the Dardanians, which would have afforded them a passage into Macedonia. Having with the greatest despatch performed these achievements, not forgetting the war made upon him by the Aetolians and Romans in conjunction, he marched down into Thessaly through Pelagonia, Lyncus, and Bottiaea. He trusted that people might be induced to take part with him in the war against the Aetolians, and, therefore, leaving Perseus with four thousand armed men at the gorge, which formed the entrance into Thessaly, to prevent the Aetolians from passing it, before he should be occupied with more important business, he marched his army into Macedonia, and thence into Thrace and Maedica. This nation had been accustomed to make incursions into Macedonia when they perceived the king engaged in a foreign war, and the kingdom left unprotected. Accordingly, he began to devastate the lands in the neighbourhood of Phragandae, and to lay siege to the city Jamphorina, the capital and chief fortress of Maedica. Scopas, on hearing that the king had gone into Thrace, and was engaged in a war there, armed all the Aetolian youths, and prepared to invade Acarnania. The Acarnanian nation, unequal to their enemy in point of strength, and seeing that they had lost Aeniadae and Nasus, and moreover that the Roman arms were threatening them, prepare the war rather with rage than prudence. Having sent their wives, children, and those who were above sixty years old into the neighbouring parts of Epirus, all who were between the ages of fifteen and sixty, bound each other by an oath not to return unless victorious. That no one might receive into his city or house, or admit to his table or hearth, such as should retire from the field vanquished, they drew up a form of direful execration against their countrymen who should do so; and the most solemn entreaty they could devise, to friendly states. At the same time they entreated the Epirotes to bury in one tomb such of their men as should fall in the encounter, adding this inscription over their remains: HERE LIE THE ACARNANIANS, WHO DIED WHILE FIGHTING IN DEFENCE OF THEIR COUNTRY, AGAINST THE VIOLENCE AND INJUSTICE OF THE AETOLIANS. Having worked up their courage to the highest pitch by these means, they fixed their camp at the extreme borders of their country in the way of the enemy; and sending messengers to Philip to inform him of the critical situation in which they stood, they obliged him to suspend the war in which he was engaged, though he had gained possession of Jamphorina by surrender, and had succeeded in other respects. The ardour of the Aetolians was damped, in the first instance, by the news of the combination formed by the Acarnanians; but afterwards the intelligence of Philip’s approach compelled them even to retreat into the interior of the country. Nor did Philip proceed farther than Dium, though he had marched with great expedition to prevent the Acarnanians being overpowered; and when he had received information that the Aetolians had returned out of Acarnania, he also returned to Pella.
[16] 26. Laevinus set sail from Corcyra in the beginning of the spring, and doubling the promontory Leucate, arrived at Naupactus; when he gave notice that he should go thence to Anticyra, in order that Scopas and the Aetolians might be ready there to join him. Anticyra is situated in Locris, on the left hand as you enter the Corinthian Gulf. The distance between Naupactus and this place is short both by sea and land. In about three days after, the attack upon this place commenced on both elements. The attack from the sea produced the greatest effect, because there were on board the ships engines and machines of every description, and because the Romans besieged from that quarter. In a few days, therefore, the town surrendered, and was delivered over to the Aetolians, the booty, according to compact, was given up to the Romans. Laevinus then received a letter informing him, that he had been elected consul in his absence, and that Publius Sulpicius was coming as his successor. He arrived at Rome later than he was generally expected, being detained by a lingering illness. Marcus Marcellus, having entered upon the consulship on the ides of March, assembled the senate on that day merely for form’s sake He declared, that “in the absence of his colleague he would not enter into any question relative to the state or the provinces.” He said, “he well knew there were crowds of Sicilians in the neighbourhood of the city at the country-houses of those who maligned him, whom he was so far from wishing to prevent from openly publishing, at Rome, the charges which had been circulated and got up against him by his enemies, that did they not pretend that they entertained some fear of speaking of a consul in the absence of his colleague, he would forthwith have given them a hearing of the senate. That when his colleague had arrived, he would not allow any business to be transacted before the Sicilians were brought before the senate. That Marcus Cornelius had in a manner held a levy throughout all Sicily, in order that as many as possible might come to Rome to prefer complaints against him, that the same person had filled the city with letters containing false representations that there was still war in Sicily, in order to detract from his merit.” The consul, having acquired on that day the reputation of having a well-regulated mind, dismissed the senate, and it appeared that there would be almost a total suspension of every kind of business till the other consul returned to the city. The want of employment, as usual, produced expressions of discontent among the people. They complained of the length of the war, that the lands around the city were devastated wherever Hannibal had marched his hostile troops; that Italy was exhausted by levies, and that almost every year their armies were cut to pieces, that the consuls elected were both of them fond of war, men over-enterprising and impetuous, who would probably stir up war in a time of profound peace, and therefore were the less likely to allow the state to breathe in time of war.
[16] 27. A fire which broke out in several places at once in the neighbourhood of the forum, on the night before the festival of Minerva, interrupted these discourses. Seven shops, where five were afterwards erected, and the banks, which are now called the new banks, were all on fire at once. Afterwards the private dwellings caught, for there were no public halls there then, the prisons called the Quarry, the fish-market, and the royal palace. The temple of Vesta was with difficulty saved, principally by the exertions of thirteen slaves, who were redeemed at the public expense and manumitted. The fire continued for a day and a night. It was evident to every body that it was caused by human contrivance, because the flames burst forth in several places at once, and those at a distance from each other. The consul, therefore, on the recommendation of the senate, publicly notified, that whoever should make known by whose act the conflagration was kindled, should rewarded, if a free-man, with money, if a slave, with liberty. Induced by this reward, a slave of the Campanian family, the Calavii, named Mannus, gave information that “his masters, with five noble Campanian youths, whose parents had been executed by Fulvius, were the authors of the fire, and that they would commit various other acts of the same kind if they were not seized.” Upon this they were seized, as well as their slaves. At first, the informer and his evidence were disparaged, for that “he had run away from his masters the day before in consequence of a whipping, and that from an event which had happened by mere chance, he had fabricated this charge, from resentment and wantonness.” But when they were charged by their accusers face to face, and the ministers of their villanies begin to be examined in the middle of the forum, they all confessed, and punishment was inflicted upon the masters and their accessory slaves. The informer received his liberty and twenty thousand asses. The consul Laevinus, while passing by Capua, was surrounded by a multitude of Campanians, who besought him, with tears, that they might be permitted to go to Rome to the senate, so that if they could at length be in any degree moved by compassion, they might not carry their resentment so far as to destroy them utterly, nor suffer the very name of the Campanian nation to be obliterated by Quintus Flaccus. Flaccus declared, that “he had individually no quarrel with the Campanians, but that he did entertain an enmity towards them on public grounds and because they were foes, and should continue to do so as long as he felt assured that they had the same feelings towards the Roman people; for that there was no nation or people on earth more inveterate against the Roman name. That his reason for keeping them shut up within their walls was, that if any of these got out any where they roamed through the country like wild beasts, tearing and massacring whatever fell in their way. That some of them had deserted to Hannibal, others had gone and set fire to Rome; that the consul would find the traces of the villany of the Campanians in the half-burnt forum. That the temple of Vesta, the eternal fire, and the fatal pledge for the continuance of the Roman empire deposited in the shrine, had been the objects of their attack. That in his opinion it was extremely unsafe for any Campanians to be allowed to enter the walls of Rome.” Laevinus ordered the Campanians to follow him to Rome, after Flaccus had bound them by an oath to return to Capua on the fifth day after receiving an answer from the senate. Surrounded by this crowd, and followed also by the Sicilians and Aeolians, who came out to meet him, he went to Rome; taking with him into the city as accusers of two men who had acquired the greatest celebrity by the overthrow of two most renowned cities, those whom they had vanquished in war. Both the consuls, however, first proposed to the senate the consideration of the state of the commonwealth, and the arrangements respecting the provinces.
[16] 28. On this occasion Laevinus reported the state of Macedonia and Greece, of the Aetolians, Acarnanians, and Locrians, and the services he had himself performed there on sea and land. That “Philip, who was bringing an army against the Aetolians, had been driven back by him into Macedonia, and compelled to retire into the heart of his kingdom. That the legion might therefore be withdrawn from that quarter, and that the fleet was sufficient to keep the king out of Italy.” Thus much he said respecting himself and the province where he had commanded. The consuls jointly proposed the consideration of the provinces, when the senate decreed, that, “Italy and the war with Hannibal should form the province of one of the consuls; that the other should have the command of the fleet which Titus Otacilius had commanded, and the province of Sicily, in conjunction with Lucius Cincius, the praetor.” The two armies decreed to them were those in Etruria and Gaul, consisting of four legions. That the two city legions of the former year should be sent into Etruria and the two which Sulpicius, the consul, had commanded, into Gaul; that he should have the command of Gaul, and the legions there whom the consul, who had the province of Italy, should appoint. Caius Calpurnius, having his command continued to him for a year after the expiration of his praetorship, was sent into Etruria. To Quintus Fulvius also the province of Capua was decreed, with his command continued for a year. The army of citizens and allies was ordered to be reduced, so that, out of two, one legion should be formed consisting of five thousand foot and three hundred horse, those being discharged who had served the greatest number of campaigns. That of the allies there should be left seven thousand infantry and three hundred horse, the same rule being observed with regard to the periods of their service in discharging the old soldiers. With Cneius Fulvius, the consul of the former year, no change was made touching his province of Apulia nor his army; only he was continued in command for a year. Publius Sulpicius, his colleague, was ordered to discharge the whole of his army excepting the marines. It was ordered also, that the army which Marcus Cornelius had commanded, should be sent out of Sicily as soon as the consul arrived in his province. The soldiers which had fought at Cannae, amounting to two legions, were assigned to Lucius Cincius, the praetor, for the occupation of Sicily. As many legions were assigned to Publius Manlius Vulso, the praetor, for Sardinia, being those which Lucius Cornelius had commanded in that province the former year. The consuls were directed so to raise legions for the service of the city, as not to enlist any one who had served in the armies of Marcus Claudius, Marcus Valerius, or Quintus Fulvius, so that the Roman legions might not exceed twenty-one that year.
[16] 29. After the senate had passed these decrees, the consuls drew lots for their provinces. Sicily and the fleet fell to the lot of Marcellus; Italy, with the war against Hannibal, to Laevinus. This result so terrified the Sicilians, who were standing in sight of the consuls waiting the determination of the lots, that their bitter lamentations and mournful cries both drew upon them the eyes of all at the time, and afterwards furnished matter for conversation. For they went round to the several senators in mourning garments, affirming, that “they would not only abandon, each of them, his native country, but all Sicily, if Marcellus should again go thither with command. That he had formerly been implacable toward them for no demerit of theirs, what would he do now, when exasperated that they had come to Rome to complain of him? That it would be better for that island to be overwhelmed with the fires of Aetna, or sunk in the sea, than to be delivered up, as it were, for execution to an enemy.” These complaints of the Sicilians, having been carried round to the houses of the nobility, and frequently canvassed in conversations, which were prompted partly by compassion for the Sicilians and partly by dislike for Marcellus, at length reached the senate also. The consuls were requested to take the sense of the senate on an exchange of provinces. Marcellus said, that “if the Sicilians had already had an audience of the senate, his opinion perhaps might have been different, but as the case now stood, lest any one should be able to say that they were prevented by fear from freely venting their complaints respecting him, to whose power they were presently about to be subject, he was willing, if it made no difference to his colleague, to exchange provinces with him. That he deprecated a premature decision on the part of the senate, for since it would be unjust that his colleague should have the power of selecting his province without drawing lots, how much greater injustice would it be, nay, rather indignity, for his lot to be transferred to him.” Accordingly the senate, having rather shown than decreed what they wished, adjourned. An exchange of provinces was made by the consuls of themselves, fate hurrying on Marcellus to encounter Hannibal, that he might be the last of the Roman generals, who, by his fall, when the affairs of the war were most prosperous, might add to the glory of that man, from whom he derived the reputation of having been the first Roman general who defeated him.
[16] 30. After the provinces had been exchanged, the Sicilians, on being introduced into the senate, discoursed largely on the constant fidelity of king Hiero to the Roman people, converting it into a public merit. They said, “that the tyrants, Hieronymus, and, after him, Hippocrates and Epicydes, had been objects of detestation to them, both on other accounts and especially on account of then deserting the Romans to take part with Hannibal. For this cause Hieronymus was put to death by the principal young men among them, almost with the public concurrence, and a conspiracy was formed to murder Epicydes and Hippocrates, by seventy of the most distinguished of their youth; but being left without support in consequence of the delay of Marcellus, who neglected to bring up his troops to Syracuse at the time agreed upon, they were all, on an indictment that was made, put to death by the tyrants. That Marcellus, by the cruelty exercised in the sacking of Leontini, had given occasion to the tyranny of Hippocrates and Epicydes. From that time the leading men among the Syracusans never ceased going over to Marcellus, and promising him that they would deliver the city to him whenever he pleased; but that he, in the first instance, was disposed rather to take it by force, and afterwards, finding it impossible to effect his object by sea or land, after trying every means, he preferred having Syracuse delivered to him by Sosis, a brazier, and Mericus, a Spaniard, to receiving it from the principal men of Syracuse, who had so often offered it to him voluntarily to no purpose; doubtless in order that he might with a fairer pretext butcher and plunder the most ancient allies of the Roman people. If it had not been Hieronymus who revolted to Hannibal, but the people and senate of Syracuse; if the body of the Syracusan people, and not their tyrants, Hippocrates and Epicydes, who held them in thraldom, had closed the gates against Marcellus; if they had carried on war with the Roman people with the animosity of Carthaginians, what more could Marcellus have done in hostility than he did, without levelling Syracuse with the ground? Nothing indeed was left at Syracuse except the walls and gutted houses of her city, the temples of her gods broken open and plundered; her very gods and their ornaments having been carried away. From many their possessions also were taken away, so that they were unable to support themselves and their families, even from the naked soil, the only remains of their plundered property. They entreated the conscript fathers, that they would order, if not all, at least such of their property as could be found and identified, to be restored to the owners.” After they had made these complaints, Laevinus ordered them to withdraw from the senate-house, that the senate might deliberate on their requests, when Marcellus exclaimed, “Nay, rather let them stay here, that I may reply to their charges in their presence, since we conduct your wars for you, conscript fathers, on the condition of having as our accusers those whom we have conquered with our arms. Of the two cities which have been captured this year, let Capua arraign Fulvius, and Syracuse Marcellus.”
[16] 31. The deputies having been brought back into the senate-house, the consul said: “I am not so unmindful of the dignity of the Roman people and of the office I fill as consul, conscript fathers, as to make a defence against charges brought by Greeks, had the inquiry related only to my own delinquency. But it is not so much what I have done, as what they deserved to suffer, which comes into dispute. For if they were not our enemies, there was no difference between sacking Syracuse then, and when Hiero was alive. But if, on the other hand, they have renounced their connexion with us, attacked our ambassadors sword in hand, shut us out of their city and walls, and defended themselves against us with an army of Carthaginians, who can feel indignant that they should suffer the hostilities they have offered? I turned away from the leading men of the Syracusans, when they were desirous of delivering up the city to me, and esteemed Sosis and Mericus as more proper persons for so important an affair. Now you are not the meanest of the Syracusans, who reproach others with the meanness of their condition. But who is there among you, who has promised that he would open the gates to me, and receive my armed troops within the city? You hate and execrate those who did so; and not even here can you abstain from speaking with insult of them; so far is it from being the case that you would yourselves have done any thing of the kind. The very meanness of the condition of those persons, conscript fathers, with which these men reproach them, forms the strongest proof that I did not turn away from any man who was willing to render a service to our state. Before I began the siege of Syracuse I attempted a peace, at one time by sending ambassadors, at another time by going to confer with them; and after that they refrained not from laying violent hands on my ambassadors, nor would give me an answer when I held an interview with their chief men at their gates, then, at length, after suffering many hardships by sea and land, I took Syracuse by force of arms. Of what befell them after their city was captured they would complain with more justice to Hannibal, the Carthaginians, and those who were vanquished with them, than to the senate of the victorious people. If, conscript fathers, I had intended to conceal the fact that I had despoiled Syracuse, I should never have decorated the city of Rome with her spoils. As to what things I either took from individuals or bestowed upon them, as conqueror, I feel assured that I have acted agreeably to the laws of war, and the deserts of each. That you should confirm what I have done, conscript fathers, certainly concerns the commonwealth more than myself, since I have discharged my duty faithfully; but it is the duty of the state to take care, lest, by rescinding my acts, they should render other commanders for the time to come less zealous. And since, conscript fathers, you have heard both what the Sicilians and I had to say, in the presence of each other, we will go out of the senate-house together, in order that in my absence the senate may deliberate more freely.” Accordingly, the Sicilians having been dismissed, he himself also went away to the Capitol to levy soldiers.
[16] 32. The other consul then proposed to the fathers the consideration of the requests of the Sicilians, when a long debate took place. A great part of the senate acquiesced in an opinion which originated with Titus Manlius Torquatus, “that the war ought to have been carried on against the tyrants, the enemies both of the Syracusans and the Roman people; that the city ought to have been recovered, not captured; and, when recovered, should have been firmly established under its ancient laws and liberty, and not distressed by war, when worn out with a wretched state of bondage. That in the contest between the tyrants and the Roman general, that most beautiful and celebrated city, formerly the granary and treasury of the Roman people, which was held up as the reward of the victor, had been destroyed; a city by whose munificence and bounty the commonwealth had been assisted and adorned on many occasions, and lastly, during this very Punic war. Should king Hiero, that most faithful friend of the Roman empire, rise from the shades, with what face could either Syracuse or Rome be shown to him, when, after beholding his half-demolished and plundered native city, he should see, on entering Rome, the spoils of his country in the vestibule, as it were, of the city, and almost in the very gates?” Although these and other similar things were said, to throw odium upon the consul and excite compassion for the Sicilians, yet the fathers, out of regard for Marcellus, passed a milder decree, to the effect, “that what Marcellus had done while prosecuting the war, and when victorious, should be confirmed. That for the time to come, the senate would look to the affairs of Syracuse, and would give it in charge to the consul Laevinus, to consult the interest of that state, so far as it could be done without detriment to the commonwealth.” Two senators having been sent to the Capitol to request the consul to return to the senate-house, and the Sicilians having been called in, the decree of the senate was read. The deputies were addressed in terms of kindness, and dismissed, when they threw themselves at the knees of the consul, Marcellus, beseeching him to pardon them for what they had said for the purpose of exciting compassion, and procuring relief from their calamities, and to receive themselves and the city of Syracuse under his protection and patronage; after which, the consul addressed them kindly and dismissed them.
[16] 33. An audience of the senate was then granted to the Campanians. Their speech was more calculated to excite compassion, but their case less favourable, for neither could they deny that they deserved the punishment they had suffered, nor were there any tyrants to whom they could transfer their guilt. But they trusted that sufficient atonement had been made by the death of so many of their senators by poison and the hands of the executioner. They said, “that a few only of their nobles remained, being such as were not induced by the consciousness of their demerit to adopt any desperate measure respecting themselves, and had not been condemned to death through the resentment of their conquerors. That these implored the restoration of their liberty, and some portion of their goods for themselves and families, being citizens of Rome, and most of them connected with the Romans by affinity and now too near relationship, in consequence of intermarriages which had taken place for a long period.” After this they were removed from the senate-house, when for a short time doubts were entertained whether it would be right or not to send for Quintus Fulvius from Capua, (for Claudius, the proconsul, died after the capture of that place,) that the question might be canvassed in the presence of the general who had been concerned, as was done in the affair between Marcellus and the Sicilians. But afterwards, when they saw in the senate Marcus Atilius, and Caius Fulvius, the brother of Flaccus, his lieutenant-generals, and Quintus Minucius, and Lucius Veturius Philo, who were also his lieutenant-generals, who had been present at every transaction; and being unwilling that Fulvius should be recalled from Capua, or the Campanians put off, Marcus Atilius Regulus, who possessed the greatest weight of any of those present who had been at Capua, being asked his opinion, thus spoke: “I believe I assisted at the council held by the consuls after the capture of Capua, when inquiry was made whether any of the Campanians had deserved well of our state; and it was found that two women had done so; Vestia Oppia, a native of Atella and an inhabitant of Capua, and Faucula Cluvia, formerly a common woman. The former had daily offered sacrifice for the safety and success of the Roman people, and the latter had clandestinely supplied the starving prisoners with food. The sentiments of all the rest of the Campanians towards us had been the same,” he said, “as those of the Carthaginians; and those who had been decapitated by Fulvius, were the most conspicuous in rank, but not in guilt. I do not see,” said he, “how the senate can decide respecting the Campanians who are Roman citizens, without an order of the people. And the course adopted by our ancestors, in the case of the Satricani when they had revolted, was, that Marcus Antistius, the plebeian tribune, should first propose and the commons make an order, that the senate should have the power of pronouncing judgment upon the Satricani. I therefore give it as my opinion, that application should be made to the plebeian tribunes, that one or more of them should propose to the people a bill, by which we may be empowered to determine in the case of the Campanians.” Lucius Atilius, plebeian tribune, proposed to the people, on the recommendation of the senate, a bill to the following effect: “Concerning all the Campanians, Atellanians, Calatinians, and Sabatinians, who have surrendered themselves to the proconsul Fulvius, and have placed themselves under the authority and dominion of the Roman people; also concerning what things they have surrendered, together with their persons, both lands and city, divine or human, together with their utensils and whatsoever else they have surrendered; concerning these things, Roman citizens, I ask you what it is your pleasure should be done.” The commons thus ordered: “Whatsoever the senate on oath, or the majority of those present, may determine, that we will and order.”
[16] 34. The senate having taken the matter into their consideration in conformity with this order of the people, first restored to Oppia and Cluvia their goods and liberty; directing, that if they wished to solicit any other rewards from the senate, they should come to Rome. Separate decrees were passed respecting each of the Campanian families, all of which it is not worth while to enumerate. The goods of some were to be confiscated; themselves, their children, and their wives were to be sold, excepting such of their daughters as had married before they came into the power of the Roman people. Others were ordered to be thrown into chains, and their cases to be considered at a future time. They made the amount of income the ground on which they decided, whether the goods of the rest of the Campanians should be confiscated or not. They voted, that all the cattle taken except the horses, all the slaves except adult males, and every thing which did not belong to the soil, should be restored to the owners. They ordered that all the Campanians, Atellanians, Calatinians, and Sabatinians, except such as were themselves, or whose parents were, among the enemy, should be free, with a proviso, that none of them should become a Roman citizen or a Latin confederate; and that none of those who had been at Capua while the gates were shut should remain in the city or territory of Capua after a certain day. That a place should be assigned to them to inhabit beyond the Tiber, but not contiguous to it. That those who had neither been in Capua nor in any Campanian city which had revolted from the Romans during the war, should inhabit a place on this side the river Liris towards Rome; and that those who had come over to the Romans before Hannibal arrived at Capua, should be removed to a place on this side the Vulturnus, with a proviso, that none of them should have either land or house within fifteen miles of the sea. That such of them as were removed to a place beyond the Tiber, should neither themselves nor their posterity acquire or possess any property any where, except in the Veientian, Sutrian, or Nepetian territories; and, except on condition, that no one should possess a greater extent of land than fifty acres. That the goods of all the senators, and such as had been magistrates at Capua, Calatia, and Atella, should be sold at Capua; but that the free persons who were decreed to be exposed to sale, should be sent to Rome and sold there. As to the images and brazen statues, which were said to have been taken from the enemy, whether sacred or profane, they referred them to the college of pontiffs. They sent the Campanians away, considerably more grieved than they were when they came, in consequence of these decrees; and now they no longer complained of the severity of Quintus Fulvius towards them, but of the malignity of the gods and their own accursed fortune.
[16] 35. After the Sicilians and Campanians were dismissed, a levy was made; and after the troops had been enlisted for the army, they then began to consider about making up the number of rowers; but as there was neither a sufficient supply of men for that purpose, nor any money at that time in the treasury by which they might be purchased or paid, the consuls issued an edict, that private persons should furnish rowers in proportion to their income and rank, as had been done before, with pay and provisions for thirty days. So great was the murmuring and indignation of the people, on account of this edict, that a leader, rather than matter, was wanting for an insurrection. It was said, that “the consuls, after having ruined the Sicilians and Campanians, had undertaken to destroy and lacerate the Roman commons; that, drained as they had been for so many years by taxes, they had nothing left but wasted and naked lands. That the enemy had burned their houses, and the state had taken away their slaves, who were the cultivators of their lands, at one time by purchasing them at a low rate for soldiers, at another by commanding a supply of rowers. If any one had any silver or brass it was taken away from him, for the payment of rowers or for annual taxes. That no force could compel and no command oblige them to give what they had not got. That they might sell their goods and then vent their cruelty on their persons, which were all that remained to them. That they had nothing even left from which they could be redeemed.” These complaints were uttered not in secret, but publicly in the forum, and before the eyes of the consuls themselves, by an immense crowd which surrounded them; nor could the consuls appease them now by coercing nor by soothing them. Upon this they said that three days should be allowed them to consider of the matter; which interval the consuls employed in examining and planning. The following day they assembled the senate to consider of raising a supply of rowers; and after arguing at great length that the people’s refusal was fair, they brought their discourse to this point, that whether it were just or unjust, this burden must be borne by private individuals. For from what source could they procure rowers, when there was no money in the treasury? and how, without fleets, could Sicily be kept in subjection, or Philip be prevented from entering Italy, or the shores of Italy be protected?
[16] 36. In this perplexing state of affairs, when all deliberation was at a stand, and a kind of torpor had seized on men’s minds, Laevinus, the consul, observed, that “as the magistrates were more honoured than the senators, and the senators than the people, so also ought they to be the first in taking upon themselves every thing that was burdensome and arduous. If you would enjoin any duty on an inferior, and would first submit yourself and those belonging to you to the obligation, you will find everybody else more ready to obey; nor is an expense thought heavy, when the people see every one of their principal men taking upon himself more than his proportion of it. Are we then desirous that the Roman people should have and equip a fleet? that private individuals should without repugnance furnish rowers? Let us first execute the command ourselves. Let us, senators, bring into the treasury to-morrow all our gold, silver, and coined brass, each reserving rings for himself, his wife, and children, and a bulla for his son; and he who has a wife or daughters, an ounce weight of gold for each. Let those who have sat in a curule chair have the ornaments of a horse, and a pound weight of silver, that they may have a salt-cellar and a dish for the service of the gods. Let the rest of us, senators, reserve for each father of a family, a pound weight only of silver and five thousand coined asses. All the rest of our gold, silver, and coined brass, let us immediately carry to the triumviri for banking affairs, no decree of the senate having been previously made; that our voluntary contributions, and our emulation in assisting the state, may excite the minds, first, of the equestrian order to emulate us, and after them of the rest of the community. This is the only course which we, your consuls, after much conversation on the subject, have been able to discover. Adopt it, then, and may the gods prosper the measure. If the state is preserved, she can easily secure the property of her individual members, but by betraying the public interests you would in vain preserve your own.” This proposition was received with such entire approbation, that thanks were spontaneously returned to the consuls. The senate was then adjourned, when every one of the members brought his gold, silver, and brass into the treasury, with such emulation excited, that they were desirous that their names should appear among the first on the public tables; so that neither the triumviri were sufficient for receiving nor the notaries for entering them. The unanimity displayed by the senate was imitated by the equestrian order, and that of the equestrian order by the commons. Thus, without any edict, or coercion of the magistrates, the state neither wanted rowers to make up the numbers, nor money to pay them; and after every thing had been got in readiness for the war, the consuls set out for their provinces.
[16] 37. Nor was there ever any period of the war, when both the Carthaginians and the Romans, plunged alike in vicissitudes, were in a state of more anxious suspense between hope and fear. For on the side of the Romans, with respect to their provinces, their failure in Spain on the one hand, and their successes in Sicily on the other, had blended joy and sorrow; and in Italy, the loss of Tarentum was an injury and a source of grief to them, while the unexpected preservation of the citadel with the garrison was matter of joy to them. The sudden terror and panic occasioned by the siege and attack of Rome, was turned into joy by the capture of Capua, a few days after. Their affairs beyond sea also were equalized by a kind of compensation. Philip had become their enemy at a juncture somewhat unseasonable; but then the Aetolians, and Attalus, king of Asia, were added to their allies; fortune now, in a manner, promising to the Romans the empire of the east. The Carthaginians also set the loss of Capua against the capture of Tarentum; and as they considered it as glorious to them to have reached the walls of Rome without opposition, so they were chagrined at the failure of their attempt, and they felt ashamed that they had been held in such contempt, that while they lay under the walls of Rome, a Roman army was marched out for Spain at an opposite gate. With regard also to Spain itself, the greater the reason was to hope that the war there was terminated, and that the Romans were driven from the country, after the destruction of two such renowned generals and their armies, so much the greater was the indignation felt, that the victory had been rendered void and fruitless by Lucius Marcius, a general irregularly appointed. Thus fortune balancing events against each other, all was suspense and uncertainty on both sides, their hopes and their fears being as strong as though they were now first commencing the war.
[16] 38. What grieved Hannibal more than any thing was the fact, that Capua having been more perseveringly besieged by the Romans than defended by him, had turned from him the regard of many of the states of Italy, and it was not only impossible for him to retain possession of all these by means of garrisons, unless he could make up his mind to tear his army into a number of small portions, which at that time was most inexpedient, but he could not, by withdrawing the garrisons, leave the fidelity of his allies open to the influence of hope, or subject to that of fear. His disposition, which was strongly inclined to avarice and cruelty, induced him to plunder the places he could not keep possession of, that they might be left for the enemy in a state of desolation. This resolution was equally horrid in principle and in its issue, for not only were the affections of those who suffered such harsh treatment alienated from him, but also of the other states, for the warning affected a greater number than did the calamity. Nor did the Roman consul fail to sound the inclinations of the cities, whenever any prospect of success presented itself. Dasius and Blasius were the principal men in Salapia, Dasius was the friend of Hannibal, Blasius, as far as he could do it with safety, promoted the Roman interest, and, by means of secret messengers, had given Marcellus hopes of having the place betrayed to him, but the business could not be accomplished without the assistance of Dasius. After much and long hesitation and even then more for the want of a better plan than from any hope of success, he addressed himself to Dasius; but he, being both adverse to the measure and also hostile to his rival in the government, discovered the affair to Hannibal. Both parties were summoned, and while Hannibal was transacting some business on his tribunal, intending presently to take cognizance of the case of Blasius, and the accuser and the accused were standing apart from the crowd, which was put back, Blasius solicited Dasius on the subject of surrendering the city; when he exclaimed, as if the case were now clearly proved, that he was being treated with about the betrayal of the city, even before the eyes of Hannibal. The more audacious the proceeding was, the less probable did it appear to Hannibal and those who were present. They considered that the charge was undoubtedly a matter of rivalry and animosity, and that it had been brought because it was of such a nature that, not admitting of being proved by witnesses, it could the more easily be fabricated. Accordingly the parties were dismissed. But Blasius, notwithstanding, desisted not from his bold undertaking, till by continually harping upon the same subject, and proving how conducive such a measure would be to themselves and their country, he carried his point that the Punic garrison, consisting of five hundred Numidians, and Salapia, should be delivered up to Marcellus. Nor could it be betrayed without much bloodshed, consisting of the bravest of the cavalry in the whole Punic army. Accordingly, though the event was unexpected, and their horses were of no use to them in the city, yet hastily taking arms, during the confusion, they endeavoured to force their way out; and not being able to escape, they fell fighting to the last, not more than fifty of them falling into the hands of the enemy alive. The loss of this body of cavalry was considerably more detrimental to Hannibal than that of Salapia, for the Carthaginian was never afterwards superior in cavalry, in which he had before been most effective.
[16] 39. During this time the scarcity of provisions in the citadel of Tarentum was almost intolerable; the Roman garrison there, and Marcus Livius, the praefect of the garrison and the citadel, placing all their dependence in the supplies sent from Sicily; that these might safely pass along the coast of Italy, a fleet of about twenty ships was stationed at Rhegium. Decius Quinctius, a man of obscure birth, but who had acquired great renown as a soldier, on account of many acts of bravery, had charge of the fleet and the convoys. At first he had five ships, the largest of which were two triremes, given to him by Marcellus, but afterwards, in consequence of his spirited conduct on many occasions, three quinqueremes were added to his number, at last, by exacting from the allied states of Rhegium, Velia, and Paestum, the ships they were bound to furnish according to treaty, he made up a fleet of twenty ships, as was before stated. This fleet setting out from Rhegium, was met at Sacriportus, about fifteen miles from the city by Democrates, with an equal number of Tarentine ships. It happened that the Roman was then coming with his sails up, not expecting an approaching contest, but in the neighbourhood of Croto and Sybaris, he had supplied his ships with rowers, and had his fleet excellently equipped and armed for the size of his vessels, and it also happened, that just at the time when the enemy were in sight, the wind completely fell, so that there was sufficient time to furl their sails, and get their rowers and soldiers in readiness for the approaching action. Rarely elsewhere have regular fleets engaged with so much spirit, for they fought for what was of greater importance than the fleets themselves. The Tarentines, in order that, having recovered their city from the Romans after the lapse of almost a century, they might also rescue their citadel, hoping also to cut off the supplies of their enemy, if by a naval battle they could deprive them of the dominion of the sea. The Romans, that, by keeping possession of the citadel, they might prove that Tarentum was lost not by the strength and valour of their enemies, but by treachery and stealth. Accordingly, the signal having been given on both sides, they charged each other with the beaks of their ships, and neither did they draw back their own, nor allow the ships of the enemy with which they were engaged to separate from them, having thrown then grappling irons, and thus the battle was carried on in such close quarters, that they fought not only with missile weapons, but in a manner foot to foot even with their swords. The prows joined together remained stationary, while the sterns were moved round by the force of their adversaries’ oars. The ships were crowded together in so small a compass, that scarcely one weapon fell into the sea without taking effect. They pressed front against front like lines of troops engaging on land, and the combatants could pass from one ship to another. But the contest between two ships which had engaged each other in the van, was remarkable above the rest. In the Roman ship was Quinctius himself, in the Tarentine, Nico, surnamed Perco, who hated, and was hated by, the Romans, not only on public grounds, but also personally, for he belonged to that faction which had betrayed Tarentum to Hannibal. This man transfixed Quinctius with a spear while off his guard, and engaged at once in fighting and encouraging his men, and he immediately fell headlong with his arms over the prow. The victorious Tarentine promptly boarded the ship, which was all in confusion from the loss of the commander, and when he had driven the enemy back, and the Tarentines had got possession of the prow, the Romans, who had formed themselves into a compact body, with difficulty defending the stern, suddenly another trireme of the enemy appeared at the stern. Thus the Roman ship, enclosed between the two, was captured. Upon this a panic spread among the rest, seeing the commander’s ship captured, and flying in every direction, some were sunk in the deep and some rowed hastily to land, where, shortly after, they became a prey to the Thurians and Metapontines. Of the storeships which followed, laden with provisions, a very few fell into the hands of the enemy; the rest, shifting their sails from one side to another with the changing winds, escaped into the open sea. An affair took place at Tarentum at this time, which was attended with widely different success; for a party of four thousand men had gone out to forage, and while they were dispersed, and roaming through the country, Livius, the commander of the citadel and the Roman garrison, who was anxious to seize every opportunity of striking a blow, sent out of the citadel Caius Persius, an active officer, with two thousand soldiers, who attacked them suddenly when widely dispersed and straggling about the fields; and after slaying them for a long time on all hands, drove the few that remained of so many into the city, to which they fled in alarm and confusion, and where they rushed in at the doors of the gates, which were half-opened that the city might not be taken in the same attack. In this manner affairs were equally balanced at Tarentum, the Romans being victorious by land, and the Tarentines by sea. Both parties were equally disappointed in their hope of receiving provisions after they were within sight.
[16] 40. While these events were occurring, the consul, Laevinus, after a great part of the year had elapsed, having arrived in Sicily, where he had been expected by both the old and new allies, considered it his first and principal duty to adjust the affairs of Syracuse, which were still in a state of disorder, the peace being but recent. He then marched his legions to Agrigentum, the seat of the remaining part of the war, which was occupied by a strong garrison of Carthaginians; and here fortune favoured his attempt. Hanno was commander-in-chief of the Carthaginians, but their whole reliance was placed upon Mutines and the Numidians. Mutines, scouring the whole of Sicily, employed himself in carrying off spoil from the allies of the Romans; nor could he by force or stratagem be cut off from Agrigentum, or prevented from sallying from it whenever he pleased. The renown which he gained by this conduct, as it began now to eclipse the fame of the commander-in-chief, was at last converted into a source of jealousy; so that even now his successes were not as acceptable as they ought to have been, on account of the person who gained them. For these reasons Hanno at last gave his commission to his own son, concluding that by taking away his command he should also deprive him of the influence he possessed with the Numidians. But the result was very different; for their former attachment to him was increased by the envy incurred by him. Nor did he brook the affront put upon him by this injurious treatment, but immediately sent secret messengers to Laevinus, to treat about delivering up Agrigentum. After an agreement had been entered into by means of these persons, and the mode of carrying it into execution concerted, the Numidians seized on a gate which leads towards the sea, having driven the guards from it, or put them to the sword, and then received into the city a party of Romans sent for that purpose; and when these troops were now marching into the heart of the city and the forum with a great noise, Hanno, concluding that it was nothing more than a disturbance and secession of the Numidians, such as had happened before, advanced to quell the mutiny; but observing at a distance that the numbers were greater than those of the Numidians, and hearing the Roman shout, which was far from being new to him, he betook himself to flight before he came within reach of their weapons. Passing out of the town at a gate in the opposite quarter, and taking Epicydes to accompany him, he reached the sea with a few attendants; and having very seasonably met with a small vessel, they abandoned to the enemy Sicily, for which they had contended for so many years, and crossed over into Africa. The remaining multitude of Carthaginians and Sicilians fled with headlong haste, but as every passage by which they could escape was blockaded up, they were cut to pieces near the gates. On gaining possession of the town, Laevinus scourged and beheaded those who took the lead in the affairs of Agrigentum. The rest, together with the booty, he sold. All the money he sent to Rome. Accounts of the sufferings of the Agrigentines spreading through all Sicily, all the states suddenly turned to the Romans. In a short time twenty towns were betrayed to them, and six taken by storm. As many as forty put themselves under their protection, by voluntary surrender. The consul having rewarded and punished the leading men of these states, according to their several deserts, and compelled the Sicilians, now that they had at length laid aside arms, to turn their attention to the cultivation of their lands, in order that the island might by its produce not only maintain its inhabitants, but, as it had frequently done on many former occasions, add to the supplies of Rome and Italy, he returned into Italy, taking with him a disorderly multitude from Agathyrna. These were as many as four thousand men, made up of a mixed assemblage of every description of persons, exiles, bankrupts, the greater part of them felons, who had supported themselves by rapine and robbery, both when they lived in their native towns, under the restraint of the laws, and also after that a coincidence in their fortunes, brought about by causes different in each case, had congregated them at Agathyrna. These men Laevinus thought it hardly safe to leave in the island, when an unwonted tranquillity was growing up, as the materials of fresh disturbances; and besides, they were likely to be useful to the Rhegians, who were in want of a band of men habituated to robbery, for the purpose of committing depredations upon the Bruttian territory. Thus, so far as related to Sicily, the war was this year terminated.
[16] 41. In Spain, in the beginning of spring, Publius Scipio, having launched his ships, and summoned the auxiliary troops of his allies to Tarraco by an edict, ordered his fleet and transports to proceed thence to the mouth of the Iberus. He also ordered his legions to quit their winter quarters, and meet at the same place; and then set out from Tarraco, with five thousand of the allies, to join the army. On his arrival at the camp he considered it right to harangue his soldiers, particularly the old ones who had survived such dreadful disasters; and therefore, calling an assembly, he thus addressed them: “Never was there a new commander before myself who could, with justice and good reason, give thanks to his soldiers before he had availed himself of their services. Fortune laid me under obligations to you before I set eyes on my province or your camp; first, on account of the respect you have shown to my father and uncle, both in their lifetime and since their death; and secondly, because by your valour you have recovered and preserved entire, for the Roman people, and me their successor, the possession of the province which had been lost in consequence of so dreadful a calamity. But since, now, by the favour of the gods, our purpose and endeavour is not that we may remain in Spain ourselves, but that the Carthaginians may not; and not to stand on the bank of the Iberus, and hinder the enemy from crossing that river, but cross it first ourselves, and carry the war to the other side, I fear lest to some among you the enterprise should appear too important and daring, considering your late misfortunes, which are fresh in your recollection, and my years. There is no person from whose mind the memory of the defeats sustained in Spain could be obliterated with more difficulty than from mine; inasmuch as there my father and uncle were both slain within the space of thirty days, so that one death after another was accumulated on my family. But as the orphanhood and desolation of my own family depresses my mind, so both the good fortune and valour of our nation forbid me to despair of the safety of the state. It has happened to us by a kind of fatality, that in all important wars we have been victorious, after having been defeated. I pass over those wars of ancient date with Porsena, the Gauls, and Samnites. I will begin with the Punic wars. How many fleets, generals, and armies were lost in the former war? Why should I mention what has occurred in this present war? I have either been myself present at all the defeats sustained, or have felt more than any other those from which I was absent. What else are the Trebia, the Trasimenus, and Cannae, but monuments of Roman armies and consuls slain? Add to these the defection of Italy, of the greater part of Sicily and Sardinia, and the last terror and panic, the Carthaginian camp pitched between the Anio and the walls of Rome, and the victorious Hannibal seen almost in our gates. Amid this general ruin, the courage of the Roman people alone stood unabated and unshaken. When every thing lay prostrate on the ground, it was this that raised and supported the state. You, first of all, my soldiers, under the conduct and auspices of my father, opposed Hasdrubal on his way to the Alps and Italy, after the defeat of Cannae, who, had he formed a junction with his brother, the Roman name would now have been extinct. These successes formed a counterpoise to those defeats. Now, by the favour of the gods, every thing in Italy and Sicily is going on prosperously and successfully, every day affording matter of fresh joy, and presenting things in a better light. In Sicily, Syracuse and Agrigentum have been captured, the enemy entirely expelled the island, and the province placed again under the dominion of the Romans. In Italy, Arpi has been recovered and Capua taken. Hannibal has been driven into the remotest corner of Bruttium, having fled thither all the way from Rome, in the utmost confusion; and now he asks the gods no greater boon than that he might be allowed to retire in safety, and quit the territory of his enemy. What then, my soldiers, could be more preposterous than that you, who here supported the tottering fortune of the Roman people, together with my parents, (for they may be equally associated in the honour of that epithet,) when calamities crowded one upon another in quick succession, and even the gods themselves, in a manner, took part with Hannibal, should now sink in spirits when every thing is going on happily and prosperously? Even with regard to the events which have recently occurred, I could wish that they had passed with as little grief to me as to you. At the present time the immortal gods who preside over the destinies of the Roman empire, who inspired all the centuries to order the command to be given to me, those same gods, I say, by auguries and auspices, and even by nightly visions, portend entire success and joy. My own mind also, which has hitherto been to me the truest prophet, presages that Spain will be ours; that the whole Carthaginian name will in a short time be banished from this land, and will fill both sea and land with ignominious flight. What my mind presages spontaneously, is also supported by sound reasoning. Their allies, annoyed by them, are by ambassadors imploring our protection; their three generals, having differed so far as almost to have abandoned each other, have divided their army into three parts, which they have drawn off into regions as remote as possible from each other. The same fortune now threatens them which lately afflicted us; for they are both deserted by their allies, as formerly we were by the Celtiberians, and they have divided their forces, which occasioned the ruin of my father and uncle. Neither will their intestine differences allow them to unite, nor will they be able to cope with us singly. Only do you, my soldiers, favour the name of the Scipios, favour the offspring of your generals, a scion springing up from the trunks which have been cut down. Come then, veterans, lead your new commander and your new army across the Iberus, lead us across into a country which you have often traversed, with many a deed of valour. I will soon bring it to pass that, as you now trace in me a likeness to my father and uncle in my features, countenance, and figure, I will so restore a copy of their genius, honour, and courage, to you, that every man of you shall say that his commander, Scipio, has either returned to life, or has been born again.”
[16] 42. Having animated his troops with this harangue, and leaving Marcus Silanus with three thousand infantry and three hundred horse, for the protection of that district, he crossed the Iberus with all the rest of his troops, consisting of twenty-five thousand infantry and two thousand five hundred horse. Though certain persons there endeavoured to persuade him that, as the Carthaginian armies had retired from each other into three such distant quarters, he should attack the nearest of them; yet concluding that if he did so there was danger lest he should cause them to concentrate all their forces, and he alone should not be a match for so many, he determined for the present to make an attack upon New Carthage, a city not only possessing great wealth of its own, but also full of every kind of military store belonging to the enemy; there were their arms, their money, and the hostages from every part of Spain. It was, besides, conveniently situated, not only for a passage into Africa, but also near a port sufficiently capacious for a fleet of any magnitude, and, for aught I know, the only one on the coast of Spain which is washed by our sea. No one but Caius Laelius knew whither he was going. He was sent round with the fleet, and ordered so to regulate the sailing of his ships, that the army might come in view and the fleet enter the harbour at the same time. Both the fleet and army arrived at the same time at New Carthage, on the seventh day after leaving the Iberus. The camp was pitched over against that part of the city which looks to the north. A rampart was thrown up as a defence on the rear of it, for the front was secured by the nature of the ground. Now the situation of New Carthage is as follows: at about the middle of the coast of Spain is a bay facing for the most part the south-west, about two thousand five hundred paces in depth, and a little more in breadth. In the mouth of this bay is a small island forming a barrier towards the sea, and protecting the harbour from every wind except the south-west. From the bottom of the bay there runs out a peninsula, which forms the eminence on which the city is built; which is washed in the east and south by the sea, and on the west is enclosed by a lake which extends a little way also towards the north, of variable depth according as the sea overflows or ebbs. An isthmus of about two hundred paces broad connects the city with the continent, on which, though it would have been a work of so little labour, the Roman general did not raise a rampart; whether his object was to make a display of his confidence to the enemy from motives of pride, or that he might have free regress when frequently advancing to the walls of the city.
[16] 43. Having completed the other requisite works, he drew up his ships in the harbour, that he might exhibit to the enemy the appearance of a blockade by sea also; he then went round the fleet, and having warned the commanders of the ships to be particularly careful in keeping the night-watches, because an enemy, when besieged, usually tried every effort and in every quarter at first, he returned into his camp; and in order to explain to his soldiers the reason why he had adopted the plan of commencing the war with the siege of a city, in preference to any other, and also by exhortations to inspire them with hopes of making themselves masters of it, he summoned them to an assembly, and thus addressed them: “Soldiers, if any one among you suppose that you have been brought here to attack a single city, that man takes a more exact account of your present labour than of its profitable result from it. For you will in truth attack the walls of a single city, but in that single city you will have made yourselves masters of all Spain. Here are the hostages of all her most distinguished kings and states; and as soon as you shall have gained possession of these, they will immediately deliver into your hands every thing which is now subject to the Carthaginians. Here is the whole of the enemy’s treasure, without which they cannot carry on the war, as they are keeping mercenary troops, and which will be most serviceable to us in conciliating the affections of the barbarians. Here are their engines, their arms, their tackle, and every requisite in war; which will at once supply you, and leave the enemy destitute. Besides, we shall gain possession of a city, not only of the greatest beauty and wealth, but also most convenient as having an excellent harbour, by means of which we may be supplied with every requisite for carrying on the war both by sea and land. Great as are the advantages we shall thus gain, we shall deprive our enemies of much greater. This is their citadel, their granary, their treasury, their magazine, their receptacle for every thing. Hence there is a direct passage into Africa; this is the only station for a fleet between the Pyrenees and Gades; this gives to Africa the command of all Spain. But as I perceive you are arrayed and marshalled, let us pass on to the assault of New Carthage, with our whole strength, and with undaunted courage.” Upon this, they all with, one accord cried out that it should be done; and he led them to Carthage, and ordered that the assault should be made both by sea and land.
[16] 44. On the other side, Mago, the Carthaginian general, perceiving that a siege was being prepared for both by sea and land, himself also disposed his forces thus: he placed two thousand of the townsmen to oppose the enemy, on the side facing the Roman camp; he occupied the citadel with five hundred soldiers, and stationed five hundred on a rising ground, facing the east; the rest of his troops he ordered, intent on every thing that occurred, to hasten with assistance wherever the shout, or any sudden emergency, might call them. Then, throwing open the gate, he sent out those he had drawn up in the street leading to the camp of the enemy. The Romans, according to the direction of their general, retired a little, in order that they might be nearer to the reserved troops which were to be sent to their assistance during the engagement. At first they stood with pretty equal force, but afterwards the reserved troops, sent from time to time from the camp, not only obliged the enemy to turn their backs, but followed them up so close when flying in disorder, that had not a retreat been sounded, they seemed as though they would have rushed into the city together with the fugitives. The consternation in the field was not greater than in every part of the city; many of the outposts were abandoned in panic and flight; and the walls were deserted, as they leaped down each in the part nearest him. Scipio, who had gone out to an eminence called Mercury’s hill, perceiving that the walls were abandoned by their defenders in many parts, ordered all his men to be called out of his camp and advance to take the city, and orders them to bring the scaling-ladders. The general himself, covered by the shields of three stout young men, (for now an immense number of missiles of every description were let fly from the walls,) came up to the city, cheered them on, and gave the requisite orders; and, what was of the utmost importance in exciting the courage of his men, he appeared among them a witness and spectator of the valour or cowardice of each. Accordingly, they rushed forward, amidst wounds and weapons; nor could the walls, or the armed troops which stood upon them, repel them from eagerly mounting them. At the same time an attack was commenced by the fleet upon that part of the city which was washed by the sea. But here the alarm occasioned was greater than the force which could be employed; for while they were bringing the boats to shore, and hastily landing the ladders and the men, each man pressing forward to gain the land the shortest way, they hindered one another by their very haste and eagerness.
[16] 45. In the mean time, the Carthaginians had now filled the walls again with armed men, who were supplied with a great quantity of missiles from the immense stores which they had laid up. But neither men nor missiles, nor any thing else, so effectually defended them as the walls themselves, for very few of the ladders were equal to the height of them, and all those which were longer than the rest were proportionably weaker. Accordingly, those who were highest being unable to mount from them, and being followed, nevertheless, by others, they broke from the mere weight upon them. Some, though the ladders stood, a dizziness having come over their eyes in consequence of the height, fell to the ground. And as men and ladders were every where tumbling down, while the boldness and alacrity of the enemy were increased by the mere success, the signal for retreat was sounded, which afforded hopes to the besieged, not only of present rest after such a laborious contest, but also for the future, as it appeared their city could not be taken by scalade and siege. To raise works they considered would be attended with difficulty, and would give time to their generals to bring them assistance. Scarcely had the first tumult subsided, when Scipio ordered other fresh and unfatigued troops to take the ladders from those who were tired and wounded and assault the city with increased vigour. Having received intelligence that the tide was ebbing, and having before been informed by some fishermen of Tarraco who used to pass through the lake, sometimes in light boats, and, when these ran aground, by wading, that it afforded an easy passage to the wall for footmen, he led some armed men thither in person. It was about mid-day, and besides that the water was being drawn off naturally, in consequence of the tide receding, a brisk north wind rising impelled the water in the lake, which was already in motion, in the same direction as the tide, and rendered it so shallow, that in some parts the water reached only to the navel, while in others it scarcely rose above the knees. Scipio, referring this discovery, which he had made by his own diligence and penetration, to the gods and to miracle, which had turned the course of the sea, withdrawn it from the lake, and opened ways never before trodden by human feet to afford a passage to the Romans, ordered them to follow Neptune as their guide, and passing through the middle of the lake, make good their way to the walls.
[16] 46. Those who renewed the assault by land experienced great difficulty; for they were baffled not only by the height of the walls, but also because they exposed the Romans, as they approached them, to the missiles of the enemy from different quarters, so that their sides were endangered more than the fronts of their bodies. But in the other quarter five hundred passed without difficulty through the lake, and then mounted the wall, for neither was it defended by any fortifications, because there they thought the city was sufficiently protected by the nature of the place and the lake, nor were there any outposts or guards stationed there, because all were engaged in bringing succour to that quarter in which the danger appeared. Having entered the city without opposition, they proceeded direct, with all possible speed, to that gate near which the contest was concentrated; and so intently occupied with this were not only the minds, but the eyes and ears of all, both of those who were engaged in fighting, and of those who were looking on and encouraging the combatants, that no one perceived that the city had been captured in their rear till the weapons fell upon their backs, and they had an enemy on both sides of them. Then, the defenders having been thrown into confusion through fear, both the walls were captured, and the gate began to be broken open both from within and from without; and presently, the doors having been broken to pieces by blows, in order that the way might not be obstructed, the troops rushed in. A great number had also got over the walls, but these employed themselves in putting the townsmen to the sword; those which entered by the gate, forming a regular body, with officers and in ranks, advanced through the midst of the city into the forum. Scipio then perceiving that the enemy fled in two different directions, some to the eminence which lay eastward, which was occupied by a garrison of five hundred men, others to the citadel, into which Mago himself also had fled for refuge, together with almost all the troops which had been driven from the walls, sent part of his forces to storm the hill, and part he led in person against the citadel. Not only was the hill captured at the first assault, but Mago also, after making an effort to defend it, when he saw every place filled with the enemy, and that there was no hope, surrendered himself and the citadel, with the garrison. Until the citadel was surrendered, the massacre was continued in every quarter throughout the city; nor did they spare any one they met who had arrived at puberty: but after that, on a signal given, a stop was put to the carnage, and the victors turned their attention to the plunder, of which there was an immense quantity of every description.
[16] 47. Of males of free condition, as many as ten thousand were captured. Of these he allowed to depart such as were citizens of New Carthage; and restored to them their city, and all their property which the war had left them. The artisans amounted to two thousand, whom he assigned to the Roman people as their property; holding out to them a hope of speedy emancipation, provided they should address themselves strenuously to the service of the war. Of the rest of the mass of inhabitants, the young men and able-bodied slaves he assigned for the service of the fleet, to fill up the numbers of the rowers. He had also augmented his fleet with five ships which he had captured. Besides this multitude, there remained the Spanish hostages, to whom as much attention was paid as if they had been children of allies. An immense quantity of military stores was also taken; one hundred and twenty catapultae of the larger size, two hundred and eighty-one of the smaller; twenty-three ballistae of the larger size, fifty-two of the smaller; an immense number of scorpions of the larger and smaller size, and also of arms and missile weapons; and seventy-four military standards. Of gold and silver, an immense quantity was brought to the general; there were two hundred and seventy-six golden bowls, almost all of them weighing a pound; of silver, wrought and coined, eighteen thousand three hundred pounds’ weight; and of silver vessels an immense number. All these were weighed and reckoned to the quaestor, Caius Flaminius. There were twenty thousand pecks of wheat, and two hundred and seventy of barley. One hundred and thirteen ships of burden were boarded and captured in the harbour, some of them with their cargoes, consisting of corn and arms, besides brass, iron, sails, spartum, and other naval materials, of use in equipping a fleet; so that amid such large military stores which were captured, Carthage itself was of the least consideration.
[16] 48. Having ordered Caius Laelius with the marines to guard the city, Scipio led back his legions to the camp the same day in person; and as his soldiers were tired, as they had in one day gone through every kind of military labour; for they had engaged the enemy in the field, and had undergone very great fatigue and danger in taking the city; and after they had taken it had fought, and that on disadvantageous ground, with those who had fled to the citadel, he ordered them to attend to themselves. The next day, having assembled the land and naval forces, he, in the first place, ascribed praise and thanks to the immortal gods, who had not only in one day made him master of the wealthiest city in Spain, but had previously collected in it the riches of almost all Africa and Spain; so that while his enemy had nothing left, he and his army had a superabundance of every thing. He then commended in the highest terms the valour of his soldiers, because that neither the sally of the enemy, nor the height of the walls, nor the unexplored fords of the lake, nor the fort standing upon a high hill, nor the citadel, though most strongly fortified, had deterred them from surmounting and breaking through every thing. Therefore, though all credit was due to them all, he said that the man who first mounted the wall ought to be distinguished above the rest, by being honoured with a mural crown; and he desired that he who thought himself worthy of that reward would claim it. Two persons laid claim to it, Quintus Trebellius, a centurion of the fourth legion, and Sextus Digitius, a marine. Nor did these contest so fiercely as each excited the zeal of his own body of men. Caius Laelius, admiral of the fleet, patronized the marines, and Marcus Sempronius Tuditanus, the legionary troops. As this contest began almost to assume the character of a mutiny, Scipio having notified that he should appoint three delegates, who, after making themselves acquainted with the case, and examining the witnesses, might decide which had been the first to scale the wall and enter the town, added Publius Cornelius Caudinus, a middle party, to Laelius and Sempronius, the advocates of the two parties, and ordered these three delegates to sit and determine the cause. But as the contest was now carried on with increased warmth, because those high characters, who had acted more as moderators of the zeal of both than as advocates of any particular party, were withdrawn, Caius Laelius, leaving the council, went up to the tribunal of Scipio and informed him, “that the contest was proceeding without bounds or moderation, and that they had almost come to blows. But still, though no violence should take place, that the proceedings formed a most hateful precedent, for that the honours due to valour were being sought by fraud and perjury. That on one side stood the legionary troops, on the other the marines, ready to swear by all the gods what they wished, rather than what they knew, to be true, and to involve in the guilt of perjury not only themselves and their own persons, but the military standards, the eagles, and their solemn oath of allegiance. That he laid these matters before him, in accordance with the opinion of Publius Cornelius and Marcus Sempronius.” Scipio, after highly praising Laelius, summoned an assembly, and then declared, “that he had ascertained satisfactorily that Quintus Trebellius and Sextus Digitius had mounted the wall at the same time, and that he presented them both with mural crowns in consideration of their valour.” He then gave presents to the rest, according to the merit and valour of each. Above all he honoured Caius Laelius, the admiral of the fleet, by the placing him upon an equality with himself, and bestowing upon him every kind of commendation, and also by presenting him with a golden crown and thirty oxen.
[16] 49. He then ordered the Spanish hostages to be summoned. What the number of these was I feel reluctant to state, because in some authors I find that it was about three hundred, in others seven hundred and twenty-five. There is the same difference between authors with regard to the other particulars. One writes that the Punic garrison consisted of ten thousand, another of seven, a third of not more than two thousand. In some you may find that ten thousand persons were captured, in others above twenty-five thousand. I should have stated the number of scorpions captured, both of the greater and smaller size, at sixty, if I had followed the Greek author, Silenus, if Valerius Antius, of the larger at six thousand, of the smaller at thirteen, so great is the extent of falsehood. Nor are they agreed even respecting the commanders, most say that Laelius commanded the fleet, but some say Marcus Junius Silanus. Valerius Antius says, that Arines commanded the Punic garrison, and was given up to the Romans; other writers say it was Mago. They are not agreed respecting the number of the ships taken, respecting the weight of gold and silver, and of the money brought into the public treasury. If we must assent to some of their statements, the medium is nearest to the truth. However, Scipio having summoned the hostages, first bid them all keep up their spirits observing, “that they had fallen into the hands of the Roman people, who chose to bind men to them by benefits rather than by fear, and keep foreign nations attached to them by honour and friendship, rather than subject them to a gloomy servitude.” Then receiving the names of the states to which they belonged, he took an account of the captives, distinguishing the number belonging to each people, and sent messengers to their homes, to desire that they would come and take back their respective friends. If ambassadors from any of the states happened to be present, he delivered their countrymen to them in person, and assigned to them the quaestor, Caius Flaminius, the charge of kindly taking care of the rest. Meanwhile, there advanced from the midst of the crowd of hostages a woman in years, the wife of Mandonius, who was the brother of Indibilis, the chieftain of the Illergetians; she threw herself weeping at the general’s feet, and began to implore him to give particularly strict injunctions to their guardians with respect to the care and treatment of females. Scipio replied, that nothing certainly should be wanting; when the woman rejoined: “We do not much value such things, for what is not good enough for such a condition? A care of a different kind disquiets me, when beholding the age of these females; for I am myself no longer exposed to the danger peculiar to females.” Around her stood the daughters of Indibilis, in the bloom of youth and beauty, with others of equal rank, all of whom looked up to her as a parent. Scipio then said: “Out of regard for that discipline which I myself and the Roman nation maintain, I should take care that nothing, which is any where held sacred, should be violated among us. In the present case, your virtue and your rank cause me to observe it more strictly; for not even in the midst of misfortunes have you forgotten the delicacy becoming matrons.” He then delivered them over to a man of tried virtue, ordering him to treat them with no less respect and modesty than the wives and mothers of guests.
[16] 50. The soldiers then brought to him a female captive, a grown-up virgin, of such exquisite beauty, that whichever way she walked she attracted the eyes of every body. Scipio, on making inquiries as to her country and parentage, heard, among other particulars, that she was betrothed to a young prince of the Celtiberians, named Allucius. He immediately, therefore, summoned from their abode her parents and lover, and having heard in the mean time that the latter was desperately enamoured of her, as soon as he arrived he addressed him in a more studied manner than her parents. “A young man myself,” said he, “I address myself to a young man, and therefore there need be the less reserve in this conversation. As soon as your intended bride, having been captured by my soldiers, was brought into my presence, and I was informed that she was endeared to you, which her beauty rendered probable, considering that I should myself wish that my affection for my intended bride, though excessive, should meet with indulgence, could I enjoy the pleasures suited to my age, (particularly in an honourable and lawful love,) and were not my mind engrossed by public affairs, I indulge as far as I can your passion. Your mistress, while under my protection, has received as much respect as under the roof of her own parents, your father-in-law and mother-in-law. She has been kept in perfect safety for you, that she might be presented to you pure, a gift worthy of me and of you. This only reward I bargain for in return for the service I have rendered you, that you would be a friend to the Roman people, and if you believe that I am a true man, as these nations knew my father and uncle to have been heretofore, that you would feel assured that in the Roman state there are many like us, and that no nation in the world at the present time can be mentioned, with which you ought to be less disposed that you, or those belonging to you, should be at enmity, or with which you would rather be in friendship.” The young man, overcome at once with joy and modesty, clung to Scipio’s right hand, and invoked all the gods to recompense him in his behalf, since he himself was far from possessing means proportioned either to his own wishes or Scipio’s deserts. He then addressed himself to the parents and relatives of the damsel, who, on receiving her back without any reward, whom they had brought a very large weight of gold to redeem, entreated Scipio to accept it from them as a present to himself; affirming, that if he would do so, they should feel as grateful for it as they did for the restoration of their daughter inviolate. As they were so earnest in their entreaties, Scipio promised to accept it, and ordered it to be laid at his feet. Then calling Allucius to him, he said: “To the dowry which you are about to receive from your father-in-law, let these marriage presents also from me be added;” bidding him take away the gold and keep it for himself. Delighted with these presents and honours, he was dismissed to his home, where he inspired his countrymen with the deserved praises of Scipio, observing, “that a most godlike youth had come among them, who conquered every thing, not only by arms, but by kindness and generosity.” Accordingly, making a levy among his dependants, he returned to Scipio after a few days, with fourteen hundred chosen horsemen.
[16] 51. Scipio kept Laelius with him until he had disposed of the captives, hostages, and booty, in accordance with his advice; but when all these matters were satisfactorily arranged, he gave him a quinquereme; and selecting from the captives Mago, and about fifteen senators who had been made prisoners at the same time with him, put them on board, and sent him to Rome with the news of his victory. He himself employed the few days he had resolved to stay at Carthage, in exercising his naval and land forces. On the first day the legions under arms performed evolutions through a space of four miles; on the second day he ordered them to repair and clean their arms before their tents; on the third day they engaged in imitation of a regular battle with wooden swords, throwing javelins with the points covered with balls; on the fourth day they rested; on the fifth they again performed evolutions under arms. This succession of exercise and rest they kept up as long as they staid at Carthage. The rowers and mariners, pushing out to sea when the weather was calm, made trial of the manageableness of their ships by mock sea-fights. Such exercises, both by sea and land, without the city prepared their minds and bodies for war. The city itself was all bustle with warlike preparations, artificers of every description being collected together in a public workshop. The general went round to all the works with equal attention. At one time he was employed in the dock-yard with his fleet, at another he exercised with the legions; sometimes he would devote his time to the inspection of the works, which were every day carried on with the greatest eagerness by a multitude of artificers both in the workshops, and in the armoury and docks. Having put these preparations in a train, repaired the walls in a part where they had been shattered, and placed bodies of troops to guard the city, he set out for Tarraco; and on his way thither was visited by a number of embassies, some of which he dismissed, having given them answers on his journey, others he postponed till his arrival at Tarraco; at which place he had appointed a meeting of all his new and old allies. Here ambassadors from almost all the people dwelling on this side the Iberus, and from many dwelling in the further Spain, met. The Carthaginian generals at first industriously suppressed the rumour of the capture of Carthage; but afterwards, when it became too notorious to be concealed or dissembled, they disparaged its importance by their language. They said, that “by an unexpected attack, and in a manner by stealth, in one day, one city of Spain had been snatched out of their hands; that a presumptuous youth, elated with the acquisition of this, so inconsiderable an advantage, had, by the extravagance of his joy, given it the air of an important victory; but that as soon as he should hear that three generals and three victorious armies of his enemies were approaching, the deaths which had taken place in his family would occur to his recollection.” Such was the tone in which they spoke of this affair to the people, though they were, at the same time, far from ignorant how much their strength had been diminished, in every respect, by the loss of Carthage.

## Book XXVII

[17] Translated by William A. McDevitte
[17] Cneius Fulvius, proconsul, defeated by Hannibal and slain; the consul, Claudius Marcellus, engages him with better success. Hannibal, raising his camp, retires; Marcellus pursues, and forces him to an engagement. They fight twice; in the first battle, Hannibal gains the advantage; in the second, Marcellus. Tarentum betrayed to Fabius Maximus, the consul. Scipio engages with Hasdrubal, the son of Hamilcar, at Baetula, in Spain, and defeats him. Among other prisoners, a youth of royal race and exquisite beauty is taken; Scipio sets him free, and sends him, enriched with magnificent presents, to his uncle Masinissa. Marcellus and Quintus Crispinus, consuls, drawn into an ambuscade by Hannibal; Marcellus is slain, Crispinus escapes. Operations by Publius Sulpicius, praetor, against Philip and the Achaeans. A census held; the number of citizens found to amount to one hundred and thirty-seven thousand one hundred and eight: from which it appears how great a loss they had sustained by the number of unsuccessful battles they had of late been engaged in. Hasdrubal, who had crossed the Alps with a reinforcement for Hannibal, defeated by the consuls, Marcus Livius and Claudius Nero, and slain; with him fell fifty-six thousand men.
[17] * * * * *
[17] 1. Such was the state of affairs in Spain. In Italy, the consul Marcellus, after regaining Salapia, which was betrayed into his hands, took Maronea and Meles from the Samnites by force. As many as three thousand of the soldiers of Hannibal, which were left as a garrison, were here surprised and overpowered. The booty, and there was a considerable quantity of it, was given up to the troops. Also, two hundred and forty thousand pecks of wheat, with a hundred and ten thousand pecks of barley, were found here. The joy, however, thus occasioned, was by no means so great as a disaster sustained a few days afterwards, not far from the town Herdonea. Cneius Fulvius, the consul, was lying encamped there, in the hope of regaining Herdonea, which had revolted from the Romans after the defeat at Cannae, his position being neither sufficiently secure from the nature of the place, nor strengthened by guards. The natural negligence of the general was now increased by the hope that their attachment to the Carthaginians was shaken when they had heard that Hannibal, after the loss of Salapia, had retired from that neighbourhood into Bruttium. Intelligence of all these circumstances being conveyed to Hannibal by secret messengers from Herdonea, at once excited an anxious desire to retain possession of a city in alliance with him, and inspired a hope of attacking the enemy when unprepared. With a lightly equipped force he hastened to Herdonea by forced marches, so as almost to anticipate the report of his approach and in order to strike greater terror into the enemy, came up with his troops in battle-array. The Roman, equal to him in courage, but inferior in strength, hastily drawing out his troops, engaged him. The fifth legion and the left wing of the allied infantry commenced the battle with spirit. But Hannibal ordered his cavalry, on a signal given, to ride round as soon as the foot forces had their eyes and thoughts occupied with the contest before them, and one half of them to attack the camp of the enemy, the other half to fall upon their rear, while busily engaged in fighting. He himself, sarcastically alluding to the similarity of the name Fulvius, as he had defeated Cneius Fulvius, the praetor, two years ago, in the same country, expressed his confidence that the issue of the battle would be similar. Nor was this expectation vain; for after many of the Romans had fallen in the close contest, and in the engagement with the infantry, notwithstanding which they still preserved their ranks and stood their ground; the alarm occasioned by the cavalry on their rear, and the enemy shout, which was heard at the same time from their camp, first put to flight the sixth legion, which being posted in the second line, was first thrown into confusion by the Numidians; and then the fifth legion, and those who were posted in the van. Some fled precipitately, others were slain in the middle space, where also Cneius Fulvius himself, with eleven military tribunes, fell. Who can state with certainty how many thousands of the Romans and their allies were slain in this battle, when I find in some accounts that thirteen, in others that not more than seven, thousand were slain? The conquerors got possession of the camp and the spoil. Finding that Herdonea would have revolted to the Romans, and was not likely to continue faithful to him if he departed thence, he removed all its inhabitants to Metapontum and Thurium, and burnt it. He put to death the chief men who were found to have held secret conferences with Fulvius. Such of the Romans as escaped this dreadful carnage, fled half-armed, by different roads, into Samnium, to the consul Marcellus.
[17] 2. Marcellus, who was not much discouraged at this so great a disaster, sent a letter to the senate at Rome, with an account of the loss of the general and army at Herdonea; observing, however, “that he who, after the battle of Cannae, had humbled Hannibal when elated with victory, was now marching against him, and that he would cause that his present joy and exultation should not continue long.” At Rome, indeed, the grief occasioned by what had occurred, and the fears entertained for the future, were excessive. The consul passing out of Samnium into Lucania, pitched his camp at Numistro, on a plain within view of Hannibal, who occupied a hill. He added also another demonstration of his confidence; for he was the first to lead out his troops to battle, nor did Hannibal decline fighting when he saw the standards carried out from the gates. However, they drew up their forces so that the right wing of the Carthaginians was extended up the hill, while the left wing of the Romans was contiguous to the town. For a long time neither side had any advantage; but the battle having continued from the third hour till night, and the first lines, which consisted, on the part of the Romans, of the first legion and the right wing of the allied infantry, on the part of Hannibal, of the Spanish soldiers, the Balearic slingers, and the elephants, which were driven into the field after the commencement of the battle, being fatigued with fighting, the first legion was relieved by the third, and the right wing of allied infantry by the left; while on the part of the enemy fresh troops took up the battle in place of those who were tired. A new and desperate conflict suddenly arose, instead of that which was so feebly maintained, their minds and bodies being unimpaired by fatigue; but night separated the combatants while the victory was undecided. The following day the Romans stood drawn up for battle from sun-rise till late in the day; but none of the enemy coming out against them, they gathered the spoils at their leisure, and collecting the bodies of their own troops into a heap, burnt them. The following night Hannibal decamped in silence, and moved on into Apulia. As soon as daylight discovered the flight of the enemy, Marcellus, leaving his wounded under the protection of a small garrison at Numistro, in command of which he placed Lucius Furius Purpureo, a military tribune, commenced a close pursuit of Hannibal, and overtook him at Venusia. Here, during several days, parties of troops sallying from the outposts, battles took place between foot and horses promiscuously, rather irregular than important, but which for the most part were favourable to the Romans. The armies were marched thence through Apulia without any engagement worth recording; for Hannibal marched by night, seeking an opportunity for ambuscade, but Marcellus never followed him except in broad daylight, and after having explored the country.
[17] 3. In the mean time, while Flaccus was detained at Capua in selling the property of the nobles, and letting out the land which had been forfeited, all of which he let for a rent to be paid in corn, lest occasions for exercising severity toward the Campanians should be wanting, a new piece of inquiry which had been ripening in secret, was brought out in evidence. He had compelled his soldiers, withdrawn from the houses, to build for themselves huts after the military manner, near the gates and walls; at once, that the houses of the city might be let and occupied together with the land, also through fear, lest the excessive luxury of the city should enervate his troops as it had those of Hannibal. Now many of these were formed of hurdles or boards, others of reeds interwoven, all being covered with straw, as if combustable materials had been employed on purpose. A hundred and seventy Campanians, headed by the Blosii who were fathers, had formed a conspiracy to set fire to all these at a late hour of the night; but information of the conspiracy having been given by one of the slaves of the Blosii, the gates were suddenly closed by the command of the proconsul, and all the soldiers had been assembled under arms, on a signal given all who were implicated in the guilt were seized, and, after rigorous examination, were condemned and executed, informers were rewarded with liberty and ten thousand asses each. The people of Nuceria and Acerra, who complained that they had no where to dwell, Acerra being partly burnt, and Nuceria demolished, Fulvius sent to Rome to the senate. Permission was given to the people of Acerra to rebuild what had been destroyed by fire. The people of Nuceria were removed to Atella, as they preferred; the people of Atella being ordered to migrate to Calatia. Among the many and important events, sometimes prosperous, sometimes adverse, which occupied men’s thoughts, not even the citadel of Tarentum was forgotten. Marcus Ogulnius and Publius Aquillius went into Etruria as commissioners to buy up corn to be conveyed to Tarentum; and one thousand men out of the city troops, an equal number of Romans and allies, were sent to the same place, together with the corn, for its protection.
[17] 4. The summer was now on the close, and the time for the election of consuls drew nigh; but a letter from Marcellus, in which he stated, that it would not be for the interest of the state that he should depart a single step from Hannibal, whom he was severely pressing while retreating before him and evading an engagement, had excited anxiety, lest they must either recall the consul from the war at that time when he was most actively employed, or consuls should not be appointed for the year. The best course appeared to be to recall in preference the consul Valerius from Sicily, although he was out of Italy. A letter was sent to him by Lucius Manlius, the city praetor, by order of the senate, together with the letter of Marcus Marcellus, the consul, that he might learn from it what reason the senate had for recalling him from his province rather than his colleague. Much about this time ambassadors came to Rome from king Syphax with accounts of the successful battles which he had fought with the Carthaginians. They assured the senate that there was no people to whom the king was more hostile than the Carthaginians, and none to whom he was more friendly than the Romans. They said, that “he had before sent ambassadors into Spain, to Cneius and Publius Cornelius, the Roman generals, but that he was now desirous to solicit the friendship of the Romans, as it were, from the fountain-head itself.” The senate not only returned a gracious answer to the ambassadors, but also sent as ambassadors to the king, with presents, Lucius Genucius, Publius Paetelius, and Publius Popillius. The presents they carried were a purple gown and vest, an ivory chair, and a bowl formed out of five pounds of gold. They received orders to proceed forthwith to other petty princes of Africa carrying with them as presents for them gowns bordered with purple, and golden bowls weighing three pounds each. Marcus Atilius and Manius Acilius were also sent as ambassadors to Alexandria, to king Ptolemy and queen Cleopatra, to revive and renew the treaty of friendship with them, carrying with them as presents a gown and purple tunic, with an ivory chair for the king, and an embroidered gown and a purple vest for the queen. During the summer in which these transactions took place, many prodigies were reported from the country and cities in the neighbourhood; at Tusculum it was said that a lamb was yeaned with its dug full of milk; that the roof of the temple of Jupiter was struck with lightning and almost stripped of its entire covering. Much about the same time it was reported that the ground in front of the gate at Anagnia was struck, and that it continued burning for a day and a night without any thing to feed the fire; that at Compitum in the territory of Anagnia, the birds had deserted the nests in the trees in the grove of Diana; that snakes of amazing size had leaped up, like fishes sporting, in the sea at Taracina not far from the port; at Tarquinii, that a pig was produced with a human face; that in the territory of Capena at the grove of Feronia, four statues had sweated blood profusely for a day and a night. These prodigies were expiated with victims of the greater kind, according to a decree of the pontiffs, and a supplication was fixed to be performed for one day at Rome at all the shrines, and another in the territory of Capena at the grove of Feronia.
[17] 5. Marcus Valerius, the consul, having been summoned by letter, gave the command of the province and his army to Cincius the praetor, sent Marcus Valerius Messala, commander of the fleet, with half of the ships to Africa, at the same time to plunder the country and observe what the Carthaginians were doing, and what preparations they were making, and then set out himself with ten ships for Rome; where, having arrived in safety, he immediately convened the senate. Here he made a recital of his services. That “after hostilities had been carried on, and severe losses often sustained, both by sea and land, through a period of almost sixty years, he had completely terminated the business of the province. That there was not one Carthaginian in Sicily, nor one Sicilian absent of those who through fear had been compelled to go into exile and live abroad; that all of them were brought back to their cities and fields, and were employed in ploughing and sowing; that the land which was deserted was now again inhabited, not only yielding its fruits to its cultivators, but forming a most certain resource for the supply of provisions to the Roman people in peace and war.” After this, Mutines and such others as had rendered any services to the Roman people were introduced into the senate, and all received honorary rewards in fulfilment of the consul’s engagement. Mutines was also made a Roman citizen, a proposition to that effect having been made to the commons by a plebeian tribune, on the authority of the senate. While these things were going on at Rome, Marcus Valerius Messala, arriving on the coast of Africa before daylight, made a sudden descent on the territory of Utica; and after ravaging it to a great extent, and taking many prisoners, together with booty of every kind, he returned to his ships and sailed over to Sicily. He returned to Lilybaeum on the thirteenth day from the time he left it. From the prisoners, on examination, the following facts were discovered, and all communicated in writing to the consul Laevinus in order, so that he might know in what state the affairs of Africa were. That “five thousand Numidians, with Masinissa, the son of Gala, a youth of extraordinary spirit, were at Carthage, and that other troops were hiring throughout all Africa, to be passed over into Spain to Hasdrubal; in order that he might, as soon as possible, pass over into Italy, with as large a force as could be collected, and form a junction with Hannibal.” That the Carthaginians considered their success dependent on this measure. That a very large fleet was also in preparation for the recovery of Sicily, which they believed would sail thither in a short time. The recital of these facts had such an effect upon the senate, that they resolved that the consul ought not to wait for the election, but that a dictator should be appointed to hold it, and that the consul should immediately return to his province. A difference of opinion delayed this, for the consul declared that he should nominate as dictator Marcus Valerius Messala, who then commanded the fleet in Sicily; but the fathers denied that a person could be appointed dictator who was not in the Roman territory, and this was limited by Italy. Marcus Lucretius, a plebeian tribune, having taken the sense of the senate upon the question, it was decreed, “that the consul before he quitted the city, should put the question to the people, as to whom they wished to be appointed dictator, and that he should nominate whomsoever they directed. If the consul were unwilling that the praetor should put the question, and if even he were unwilling to do it, that then the tribunes should make the proposition to the commons.” The consul refusing to submit to the people what lay in his own power, and forbidding the praetor to do so, the plebeian tribunes put the question, and the commons ordered that Quintus Fulvius, who was then at Capua, should be nominated dictator. But on the night preceding the day on which the assembly of the people was to be held for that purpose, the consul went off privately into Sicily; and the fathers, thus deserted, decreed that a letter should be sent to Marcus Claudius, in order that he might come to the support of the state, which had been abandoned by his colleague, and appoint him dictator whom the commons had ordered. Thus Quintus Fulvius was appointed dictator by Marcus Claudius, the consul, and in conformity with the same order of the people, Publius Licinius Crassus, chief pontiff, was appointed master of the horse by Quintus Fulvius, the dictator.
[17] 6. After the dictator had arrived at Rome, he sent Cneius Sempronius Blaesus, who had acted under him as lieutenant general at Capua, into the province of Etruria, to take the command of the army there, in the room of the praetor, Caius Calpurnius, whom he had summoned by letter to take the command of Capua and his own army. He fixed the first date he could for the election: which, however, could not be brought to a conclusion, in consequence of a dispute which arose between the tribunes and the dictator. The junior century of the Galerian tribe, to whose lot it fell to give the votes first, had named Quintus Fulvius and Quintus Fabius as consuls; and the other centuries, on being called upon to vote according to their course, would have inclined the same way, had not the plebeian tribunes, Caius and Lucius Arennius interposed. They said, “that it was hardly constitutional that a chief magistrate should be continued in office but that it was a precedent still more shocking, that the very person who held the election should be appointed. Then therefore, if the dictator should allow his own name to appear they would interpose against the election; but if the names of any other persons besides himself were put up, they should not impede it.” The dictator defended the election by the authority of the fathers, the order of the commons, and precedents. For, “in the consulate of Cneius Servilius, when the other consul, Caius Flaminius, had fallen at Trasimenus, it was proposed to the people on the authority of the fathers, and the people had ordered, that as long as the war continued in Italy, it should be lawful for the people to elect to the consulship whomsoever they pleased, out of those persons who had been consuls, and as often as they pleased. That he had a precedent of ancient date, which was to the point, in the case of Lucius Posthumius Megellus, who, while he was interrex, had been created consul with Caius Junius Bubulcus, at an election over which he himself presided; and a precedent of recent date, in Quintus Fabius, who certainly would never have allowed himself to be re-elected, had it not been for the good of the state.” After the contest had been continued for a long time, by arguments of this kind, at length the tribunes and the dictator came to an agreement, that they should abide by what the senate should decide. The fathers were of opinion, that such was then the condition of the state, that it was necessary that its affairs should be conducted by old and experienced generals, who were skilled in the art of war; and, therefore, that no delay should take place in the election. The tribunes then withdrew their opposition, and the election was held. Quintus Fabius Maximus was declared consul for the fifth time, and Quintus Fulvius Flaccus for the fourth. The praetors were then created; Lucius Veturius Philo, Titus Quintus Crispinus, Caius Hostilius Tubulus, and Caius Aurunculeius. The magistrates for the year being appointed, Quintus Fulvius resigned the dictatorship. At the end of this summer, a Carthaginian fleet of forty ships, under the command of Hamilcar, passed over to Sardinia. At first it laid waste the territory of Olbia, and then Publius Manlius Vulso, with his army, making his appearance, it sailed round thence to the other side of the island, and devastating the territory of Caralis, returned to Africa with booty of every kind. Several Roman priests died this year, and others were substituted. Caius Servilius was appointed pontiff, in the place of Titus Otacilius Crassus. Tiberius Sempronius Longus, son of Tiberius, was appointed as augur, in the place of Titus Otacilius Crassus; and Tiberius Sempronius Longus, son of Tiberius, was appointed decemvir for the performance of sacred rites, in the room of Tiberius Sempronius Longus, son of Caius. Marcus Marcius, king of the sacred rites, and Marcus Aemilius Papus, chief curio, died; but no priests were appointed to succeed them this year. The censors this year were Lucius Veturius Philo, and Publius Licinius Crassus chief pontiff. Licinius Crassus had neither been consul nor praetor before he was appointed censor, he stepped from the aedileship to the censorship. These censors neither chose the senate, nor transacted any public business, the death of Lucius Veturius prevented it; on this Licinius also gave up his office. The curule aediles, Lucius Veturius and Publius Licinius Varus, repeated the Roman games during one day. The plebeian aediles, Quintus Catius and Lucius Porcius Licinius, furnished brazen statues for the temple of Ceres, out of the money arising from fines, and exhibited games with great pomp and splendour, considering the circumstances of the times.
[17] 7. At the close of this year, Caius Laelius, the lieutenant general of Scipio, came to Rome on the thirty-fourth day after he set out from Tarraco, and entering the city accompanied by a train of captives, drew together a great concourse of people. The next day, on being brought into the senate, he stated that Carthage, the capital of Spain, had been captured in one day, that several cities which had revolted were regained, and that fresh ones had been received into alliance. From the prisoners, information was gained, corresponding for the most part with what was contained in the letter of Marcus Valerius Messala. What produced the greatest effect upon the fathers, was the march of Hasdrubal into Italy, which was with difficulty resisting Hannibal and his forces. Laelius also, who was brought before the general assembly, gave a particular statement of the same things. The senate decreed a supplication for one day, on account of the successes of Publius Scipio, and ordered Caius Laelius to return as soon as possible to Spain, with the ships he had brought with him. I have laid the taking of Carthage in this year, on the authority of many writers, although aware that some have stated that it was taken the following year, because it appeared to me hardly probable that Scipio should have spent an entire year in Spain in doing nothing. Quintus Fabius Maximus for the fifth time, and Quintus Fulvius Flaccus for the fourth having entered on their offices of consuls on the ides of March, on the same day, Italy was decreed as the province of both, their command, however, was distributed to separate districts. Fabius was appointed to carry on the war at Tarentum; Fulvius in Lucania and Bruttium. Marcus Claudius was continued in command for the year. The praetors then cast lots for their provinces. Caius Hostilius Tubulus obtained the city jurisdiction; Lucius Veturius Philo the foreign, with Gaul; Titus Quinctius Crispinus, Capua; Caius Aurunculeius, Sardinia. The troops were thus distributed through the provinces: Fulvius received the two legions which Marcus Valerius Laevinus had in Sicily; Quintus Fabius, those which Caius Calpurnius had commanded in Etruria. The city troops were to succeed those in Etruria; Caius Calpurnius commanding the same province and the army. Titus Quinctius was to take the command of Capua, and the army which had served under Quintus Fulvius there. Lucius Veturius was to succeed Caius Laetorius, propraetor, in his province and the command of the army, which was then at Ariminum. Marcus Marcellus had the legions with which he had been successful when consul. To Marcus Valerius together with Lucius Cincius, for these also were continued in command in Sicily, the troops which had fought at Cannae were given, with orders to recruit them out of the surviving soldiers of the legions of Cneius Fulvius. These were collected and sent by the consuls into Sicily, and the same ignominious condition of service was added, under which the troops which had fought at Cannae served, and to those troops belonging to the army of Cneius Fulvius, the praetor, which had been sent thither by the senate through displeasure occasioned by a similar flight. Caius Aurunculeius was appointed to command, in Sardinia, the same legions with which Publius Manlius Vulso had occupied that province. Publius Sulpicius was continued in command for the year, with orders to hold Macedonia with the same legion and fleet. Orders were given to send thirty quinqueremes from Sicily to Tarentum, to the consul Fabius. With the rest of the ships, orders were given that Marcus Valerius Laevinus should either pass over himself into Africa to ravage the country, or send either Lucius Cincius or Marcus Valerius Messala. With regard to Spain, no alteration was made, except that Scipio and Silanus were continued in command, not for the year, but until they should be recalled by the senate. In such manner were the provinces and the commands of the armies distributed for this year.
[17] 8. Amid concerns of greater importance, an old dispute was revived at the election of a chief curio, when a priest was appointed to succeed Marcus Aemilius; the patricians denying that Caius Mamilius Vitulus, who was a plebeian candidate, ought to be allowed to stand, because no one before his time had held that priesthood who was not a patrician. The tribunes, on being appealed to, referred the matter to the senate. The senate left it to the decision of the people. Thus Caius Mamilius Vitulus was the first plebeian created chief curio. Publius Licinius, chief pontiff, compelled Caius Valerius Flaccus to be inaugurated flamen of Jupiter, against his will. Caius Valerius Laetorius was created decemvir for the performance of sacred rites, in the room of Quintus Mucius Scaevola, deceased. I should willingly have passed over in silence the reason of a flamen’s being compelled to be inaugurated, had he not become a good, from having been a bad character. In consequence of having spent his youth in idleness and debauchery, vices for which he had incurred the displeasure of his own brother, Lucius Flaccus, and the rest of his kinsmen, Caius Flaccus was chosen flamen by Publius Licinius, chief pontiff. As soon as his mind became occupied with the care of the sacred rites and ceremonies, he soon so completely divested himself of his former habits, that no one among all the youth was more esteemed, or enjoyed in a greater degree the approbation of the chief of the patricians, whether relations or aliens. Being raised by this generally good character to a proper confidence in himself, he claimed to be admitted into the senate; a thing intermitted for many years, on account of the worthlessness of former flamens. On entering the senate, Lucius Licinius, the praetor, led him out; on which the flamen appealed to the tribunes of the people. He demanded back the ancient privilege of his priesthood, which was given, together with the purple-bordered robe, and the curule chair, to the office of flamen. The praetor wished the question to rest not on the precedents contained in the annals, which were obsolete from their antiquity, but on the usual practice in all the cases of most recent date; urging, that no flamen of Jupiter, in the memory of their fathers or their grandfathers, had taken up that privilege. The tribunes giving it as their opinion, that justice required, that as the obliteration of the privilege was occasioned by the negligence of the flamens, the consequences ought to fall upon the flamens themselves, and not upon the office, led the flamen into the senate, with the general approbation of the fathers, and without any opposition, even from the praetor himself; while all were of opinion that the flamen had obtained his object more from the purity of his life, than any right appertaining to the priesthood. The consuls, before they departed to their provinces, raised two legions for the city, and as many soldiers as were necessary to make up the numbers of the other armies. The consul Fulvius appointed his brother, Caius Fulvius Flaccus, lieutenant-general, to march the old city army into Etruria, and to bring to Rome the legions which were in Etruria. And the consul Fabius ordered his son, Quintus Fabius Maximus, to lead the remains of the army of Fulvius, which had been collected, amounting to three thousand three hundred and thirty-six, into Sicily to Marcus Valerius, the proconsul, and to receive from him two legions and thirty quinqueremes. The withdrawing of these legions from the island did not at all diminish the force employed for the protection of that province, either in effect or appearance; for though, in addition to two veteran legions which were most effectively reinforced, he had a great number of Numidian deserters, both horse and foot, he raised also a body of Sicilian troops, consisting of men who had served in the armies of Epicydes and the Carthaginians, and were experienced in war. Having added these foreign auxiliaries to each of the Roman legions, he preserved the appearance of two armies. With one he ordered Lucius Cinctius to protect that portion of the island which had formed the kingdom of Hiero, with the other he himself guarded the rest of the island, which was formerly divided by the boundary of the Roman and Carthaginian dominions. He divided also the fleet of seventy ships, in order that it might protect the sea-coast, through the entire extent of its shores. He himself went through the island with the cavalry of Mutines to inspect the lands, observe those which were cultivated and those which were not, and, accordingly, either praise or reprove the owners. By this diligence so large a quantity of corn was produced, that he both sent some to Rome, and collected at Catana corn which might serve as a supply for the army, which was about to pass the summer at Tarentum.
[17] 9. But the transportation of the soldiers into Sicily, and they consisted chiefly of Latins and allies, had very nearly caused a serious commotion; from such trifling circumstances do events of great importance frequently arise. A murmuring arose among the Latins and allies at their meetings. They said, that “they had been drained by levies and contributions for ten years. That almost every year they fought with the most disastrous consequences. That some of them were slain in the field, others were carried off by disease. That a countryman of theirs who was enlisted by the Romans was more lost to them than one who was taken prisoner by the Carthaginians; for the latter was sent back to his country by the enemy without ransom, while the former was sent beyond the limits of Italy, into exile rather than military service. That the troops which fought at Cannae were growing old there, for eight years, and would die there before the enemy, who was now more than ever flourishing and vigorous would depart from Italy. If the old soldiers did not return to their country, and fresh ones were enlisted, that in a short time there would be no one left. That, therefore, they must refuse to the Roman people, before they came to utter desolation and want, what shortly their very condition would refuse. If the Romans saw their allies unanimous on this point that they would then certainly think of making peace with the Carthaginians; otherwise, Italy would never be without war while Hannibal was alive.” Thus they discoursed in their meetings. The Roman people had at that time thirty colonies. Twelve of these, for they all had embassies in Rome, told the consuls that they had not whence to furnish either men or money. The twelve were Ardea, Nepete Sutrium, Alba, Carseoli, Cora, Suessa, Cerceii, Setia, Cales Narnia, Interamna. The consuls, astonished at this new proceeding, were desirous to deter them from so hateful a measure and, considering that they could effect this better by censure and remonstrance than by mild means, said that “they had dared to say to the consuls what the consuls could not bring their minds to declare in the senate; for that this was not refusal to perform military service, but an open defection from the Roman people. They desired, therefore, that they would return to their colonies speedily, and that, considering the subject as untouched, as they had only spoken of, but not attempted, so impious a business, they would consult with their countrymen. That they would warn them that they were not Campanians or Tarentines, but Romans; that from thence they derived their origin, and thence were sent out into colonies and lands captured from the enemy, for the purpose of increasing the population. That they owed to the Romans what children owed to parents, if they possessed any natural affection, or any gratitude towards their mother country. That they should, therefore, consider the matter afresh; for that certainly what they then so rashly meditated, was the betraying the Roman empire, and putting the victory in the hands of Hannibal.” The consuls having spent a long time in exchanging arguments of this kind, the ambassadors, who were not at all moved by what they said, declared, that “they had nothing which they could carry home, nor had their senate any thing fresh to devise, having neither men to be enlisted, nor money to be furnished for pay.” The consuls, seeing that they were inflexible, laid the matter before the senate; where the alarm excited in the minds of all was so great, that “the greater part declared it was all over with the empire; that the rest of the colonies would take the same course, and that all the allies had conspired to betray the city of Rome to Hannibal.”
[17] 10. The consuls endeavoured to encourage and console the senate, telling them that “the other colonies would maintain their allegiance, and continue in their former state of dutiful obedience, and that those very colonies who had renounced their allegiance, would be inspired with respect for the empire, if ambassadors were sent round to them to reprove and not entreat them.” The senate having given them permission to do and to act as they might conceive best for the state; after sounding the intentions of the other colonies, the consuls summoned their ambassadors, and asked them whether they had their soldiers ready according to the roll? Marcus Sextilius of Fregellae replied, in behalf of the eighteen colonies, that “they both had their soldiers ready according to the roll, and if more were wanting would furnish more, and would perform with all diligence whatever else the Roman people commanded and wished; that to do this they wanted not means, and of inclination they had more than enough.” The consuls, having first told them that any praises bestowed by themselves alone seemed too little for their deserts, unless the whole body of the fathers should thank them in the senate-house, led them before the senate. The senate, having voted an address to them conceived in the most honourable terms, charged the consuls to take them before the assembly of the people; and, among the many other distinguished services rendered to themselves and their ancestors, to make mention also of this recent obligation conferred upon the state. Nor even at the present day, after the lapse of so many ages let their names be passed over in silence, nor let them be defrauded of the praise due to them. They were the people of Signia, Norba, Saticulum, Brundusium, Fregellae, Lucerium Venusia, Adria, Firma, Ariminum; on the other sea, Pontius Paestum, and Cosa; and in the inland parts Beneventum, Aesernia, Spoletum, Placentia, and Cremona. By the support of these colonies the empire of the Roman people then stood; and the thanks both of the senate and the people were given to them. As to the twelve other colonies which refused obedience, the fathers forbade that their names should be mentioned, that their ambassadors should either be dismissed or retained, to be addressed by the consuls. Such a tacit reproof appears most consistent with the dignity of the Roman people. While the consuls were getting in readiness all the other things which were necessary for the war, it was resolved that the vicesimary gold, which was preserved in the most sacred part of the treasury as a resource in cases of extreme exigencies should be drawn out. There were drawn out as many as four thousand pounds of gold, from which five hundred pounds each were given to the consuls, to Marcus Marcellus and Publius Sulpicius, proconsuls, and Lucius Veturius, the praetor, who had by lot obtained Gaul as his province; and in addition, one hundred pounds of gold were given to the consul Fabius, as an extraordinary grant to be carried into the citadel of Tarentum. The rest they employed in contracts, for ready money, for clothing for the army which was carrying on the war in Spain, to their own and their general glory.
[17] 11. It was resolved also, that the prodigies should be expiated before the consuls set out from the city. In the Alban mount, the statue of Jupiter and a tree near the temple were struck by lightning; at Ostia, a grove; at Capua, a wall and the temple of Fortune; at Sinuessa, a wall and a gate. Some also asserted, that water at Alba had flowed tinged with blood. That at Rome, within the cell of Fors Fortuna, an image, which was in the crown of the goddess, had fallen spontaneously from her head into her hands. At Privernum, it was satisfactorily established that an ox spoke, and that a vulture flew down into a shop, while the forum was crowded. And that a child was born at Sinuessa, of ambiguous sex, between a male and female, such as are commonly called Androgynes, a term derived from the Greek language, which is better adapted, as for most other purposes, so for the composition of words; also that it rained milk, and that a boy was born with the head of an elephant. These prodigies were then expiated with victims of the larger kind, and a supplication at every shrine and an offering up of prayers, was proclaimed for one day. It was also decreed, that Caius Hostilius, the praetor, should vow and perform the games in honour of Apollo as they had of late years been vowed and performed. During the same time, Quintus Fulvius, the consul, held an election for the creation of censors. Marcus Cornelius Cethegus, and Publius Sempronius Tuditanus, both of whom had not yet been consuls, were created censors. The question was put to the people on the authority of the fathers, and the people ordered that these censors should let to farm the Campanian lands. The choosing of the senate was delayed by a dispute which arose between the censors about the selection of a chief of the senate. The choice belonged to Sempronius; but Cornelius contended that the custom handed down by their fathers must be followed, which was, that they should choose him as chief of the senate who was first censor of those who were then alive; this was Titus Manlius Torquatus. Sempronius rejoined, that to whom the gods had given the lot of choosing, to him the same gods had given the right of exercising his discretion freely. That he would act in this affair according to his own free will, and would choose Quintus Fabius Maximus, whom he would prove to be the first man in the Roman state, even in the judgment of Hannibal. After a long verbal dispute, his colleague giving up the point, Quintus Fabius Maximus, the consul, was chosen, by Sempronius, chief of the senate. Another senate was then chosen, and eight names were passed over; among which was that of Lucius Caecilius Metellus, disrespected as the adviser of the abandonment of Italy, after the defeat at Cannae. In censuring those of the equestrian order, the same ground was acted upon, but there were very few to whom that disgrace belonged. All of the equestrian order belonging to the legions who had fought at Cannae, and were then in Sicily, were deprived of their horses. To this severe punishment they added another relating to time, which was, that the past campaign which they had served on horses furnished at the public expense should not be reckoned to them, but that they should serve ten campaigns on horses furnished at their own expense. They also searched for, and discovered, a great number of those who ought to have served in the cavalry; and all those who were seventeen years old at the beginning of the war and had not served, they disfranchised. They then contracted for the restoration of the seven shops, the shamble and the royal palace, situated round the forum, and which had been consumed by fire.
[17] 12. Having finished every thing which was to be done in Rome, the consuls set out for the war. Fulvius first went advance to Capua; in a few days Fabius followed. He implored his colleague in person, and Marcellus by a letter use the most vigorous measures to detain Hannibal, while he was making an attack upon Tarentum. That when that city was taken from the enemy, who had been repulsed on all sides and had no place where he might make a stand or look back up as a safe retreat, he would not then have even a pretext for remaining in Italy. He also sent a messenger to Rhegium, the praefect of the garrison, which had been placed there the consul Laevinus, against the Bruttians, and consisted eight thousand men, the greater part of whom had been brought from Agathyrna in Sicily, as has been before mentioned, and were men who had been accustomed to live by rapine. To these were added fugitives of the Bruttians natives of that country, equal to them in daring, and under an equal necessity of braving every thing. This band ordered to be marched, first, to lay waste the Bruttian territory, and then to attack the city Caulonia. After having executed the order, not only with alacrity, but avidity, and having pillaged and put to flight the cultivators of the land they attacked the city with the utmost vigour. Marcellus incited by the letter of the consul, and because he had made up his mind that no Roman general was so good a match for Hannibal as himself, set out from his winter quarters as soon as there was plenty of forage in the fields, and met Hannibal at Canusium. The Carthaginian was then endeavouring to induce the Canusians to revolt, but as soon as he heard that Marcellus was approaching, he decamped thence. The country was open, without any covers adapted for an ambuscade; he therefore began to retire thence into woody districts. Marcellus closely pursued him, pitched his camp close to his, and when he had completed his works, led out his troops into the field. Hannibal engaged in slight skirmishes, and sent out single troops of horse and the spearmen from his infantry, not considering it necessary to hazard a general battle. He was, however, drawn on to a contest of that kind which he was avoiding. Hannibal had decamped by night, but was overtaken by Marcellus in a plain and open country. Then, while encamping, Marcellus, by attacking the workmen on all hands, prevented the completion of his works. Thus a pitched battle ensued, and all their forces were brought into action; but night coming on, they retired from an equal contest. They then hastily fortified their camps, which were a small space apart, before night. The next day, as soon as it was light, Marcellus led out his troops into the field; nor did Hannibal decline the challenge, but exhorted his soldiers at great length, desiring them “to remember Trasimenus and Cannae, and thus quell the proud spirit of their enemies.” He said, “the enemy pressed upon him, and trod upon their heels; that he did not allow them to pass unmolested, pitch their camp, or even take breath and look around them; that every day, the rising sun and the Roman troops in battle-array were to be seen together on the plains. But if in one battle he should retire from the field, not without loss of blood, he would then prosecute the war more steadily and quietly.” Fired by these exhortations, and at the same time wearied with the presumption of the enemy, who daily pressed upon them and provoked them to an engagement, they commenced the battle with spirit. The battle continued for more than two hours, when the right wing of the allies and the chosen band began to give way on the part of the Romans; which Marcellus perceiving, led the eighteenth legion to the front. While some were retiring in confusion, and others were coming up reluctantly, the whole line was thrown into disorder, and afterwards completely routed; while their fears getting the better of their sense of shame, they turned their backs. In the battle and in the flight there fell as many as two thousand seven hundred of the citizens and allies; among which were four Roman centurions and two military tribunes, Marcus Licinius and Marcus Helvius. Four military standards were lost by the wing which first fled, and two belonging to the legion which came up in place of the retiring allies.
[17] 13. Marcellus, on his return to the camp, delivered an address to his soldiers so severe and acrimonious, that the words of their exasperated general were more painful to them than what they had suffered in the unsuccessful battle during the whole day. “I praise and thank the immortal gods,” said he “that in such an affair the victorious enemy did not assail our very camp, when you were hurrying into the rampart and the gates with such consternation. There can be no doubt but you would have abandoned the camp with the same cowardice with which you gave up the battle. What panic was this? What terror? What sudden forgetfulness of who you are, and who the persons with whom you were fighting, took possession of your minds? Surely these are the same enemies in conquering and pursuing whom when conquered you spent the preceding summer; whom latterly you have been closely pursuing while they fled before you night and day; whom you have wearied by partial battles; whom yesterday you would not allow either to march or encamp. I pass over those things in which you might be allowed to glory; I will mention a circumstance which of itself ought to fill you with shame and remorse. Yesterday you separated from the enemy on equal terms. What alteration has last night, what on this day, produced? Have your forces been diminished by them, or theirs increased? I verily do not seem to be talking to my own troops, or to Roman soldiers. The bodies and the arms are the same. Had you possessed the same spirit, would the enemy have seen your backs? Would they have carried off a standard from any company or cohort? Hitherto he was wont to boast of having cut to pieces the Roman legions, but yesterday you gave him the glory, for the first time, of having put to flight an army.” On this many soldiers began to call upon him to pardon them for that day, and entreat that he would now, whenever he pleased, make trial of the courage of his soldiers. “I will indeed make trial of you,” said he, “and to-morrow I will lead you into the field, that in the character of conquerors, rather than conquered men, you may obtain the pardon you seek.” To the cohorts which had lost their standards, he ordered that barley should be given. The centurions of the Campanians, whose standards were lost, he left to stand without their girdles and with their swords drawn; and gave orders that all, both horse and foot, should be ready under arms on the following day. Thus the assembly was dismissed; the soldiers confessing that they had been justly and deservedly rebuked; and that there was no one in the whole Roman army who had acquitted himself like a man, except the general, to whom they were bound to make atonement, either by their death or a glorious victory. The next day they appeared in readiness, according to the order, armed and equipped. The general praised them, and gave out, that “he should lead into the first line those who had commenced the flight on the preceding day, and those cohorts which had lost their standards. He now charged them all to fight and conquer, and exert every effort, one and all, that the intelligence of yesterday’s flight might not arrive at Rome before that of this day’s victory.” They were then ordered to refresh themselves with food, in order that, if the fight should continue longer than might be expected, their strength might not fail. After every thing had been done and said, by which the courage of the soldiers might be roused, they advanced into the field.
[17] 14. Hannibal, on receiving intelligence of this, said, “surely the enemy we have to do with can neither bear good nor bad fortune. If he is victorious, he fiercely pursues the vanquished. If conquered, he renews the contest with the victors.” He then ordered the signal to be given, and led out his forces. The battle was fought on both sides with much more spirit than the day before. The Carthaginians exerting themselves to the utmost, to keep the glory they had acquired yesterday; the Romans, to remove their disgrace. On the side of the Romans, the left wing, and the cohorts which had lost their standards, fought in the first line, and the twentieth legion was drawn up on the right wing. Lucius Cornelius Lentulus and Caius Claudius Nero, lieutenant-generals, commanded the wings, Marcellus gave vigour to the centre by his presence, as an encourager and a witness. On the part of Hannibal, the Spaniards, who were the flower of his whole army, occupied the front line. After the battle had continued doubtful for a long time, Hannibal ordered the elephants to be advanced into the front line, if by that means any confusion or panic could be created. At first, they threw the troops into confusion and broke their ranks, and treading some under foot, and dispersing others who were round them by the alarm they created, had made an opening in one part of the Roman line; and the flight would have spread more widely had not Caius Decimus Flavius, a military tribune seizing the standard of the first maniple of the spearmen ordered that maniple to follow him. He led them to the spot where the elephants, collected in a body, were creating the greatest confusion, and ordered them to discharge their javelins at them. As there was no difficulty in hitting such bulky bodies at a short distance, and where so many were crowded together, all their javelins stuck in them. But they were not all wounded, so those in whose hides the javelins stuck, as that race of animals is not to be depended on, by taking themselves to flight, drove away those also which were untouched. At that moment not only one maniple, but all the soldiers who could but overtake the body of retreating elephants, threw their javelins at them, each man exerting himself to his utmost. With so much greater impetuosity did the animals rush upon their own men, and so much greater carnage did they make amongst them than they had made amongst their enemies, in proportion as the violence with which they are impelled, and the consternation produced by them when under the influence of fear, is greater than when they are ruled by their masters seated on their backs. The Roman infantry bore their standards against the line of the enemy when thrown into disorder by the elephants which had crossed over to them, and, thus scattered and confused, led them to flight without any great opposition. Marcellus sent his cavalry after them as they fled; nor did they desist from the pursuit till they were driven in consternation to their camp. For in addition to the other causes which occasioned terror and dismay, two elephants had fallen just by the gate, and the soldiers were compelled to rush into the camp over the ditch and rampart. Here the greatest slaughter of the enemy occurred. There fell as many as eight thousand men and five elephants. Nor did the Romans gain a bloodless victory; about seventeen hundred of the two legions, and thirteen hundred of the allies were slain; a great number of the Romans and allies were wounded. The following night Hannibal decamped. The great number of the wounded prevented Marcellus from following him, as he desired.
[17] 15. TThe spies who were sent to watch his movements brought word back the next day that Hannibal was making for Bruttium. Much about the same time the Hirpinians, Lucanians, and Volcentes surrendered themselves to the consul, Quintus Fulvius, delivering up the garrisons of Hannibal which they had in their cities. They were mildly received by the consul, with only a verbal reproof for their past error. To the Bruttians also similar hopes of pardon were held out, when two brothers, Vibius and Pactius, by far the most illustrious persons of that nation, came from them to solicit the same terms of surrender which had been given to the Lucanians. Quintus Fabius, the consul, took by storm Manduria, a town in the territory of Sallentum, where as many as four thousand men were made prisoners, and much booty taken besides. Proceeding thence to Tarentum, he pitched his camp in the very mouth of the harbour: of the ships which Livius had employed for protecting convoys, some he loaded with engines and implements for attacking walls, others he furnished with machines for discharging missiles, and with stones and missiles of every kind; not only those which were impelled with oars, but the storeships also, in order that some might carry the engines and ladders to the walls, while others might wound the defenders of the walls by discharging missiles from the ships at a distance. These ships were fitted up and prepared to attack the town from the open sea; and the sea was free from the Carthaginian fleet, which had crossed over to Corcyra on account of Philip’s preparing to attack the Aetolians. Meanwhile, those who were attacking Caulon, in the territory of Bruttium, fearful lest they should be overpowered, had retired on the approach of Hannibal to an eminence, secure from an immediate attack. While Fabius was besieging Tarentum, he received assistance in the accomplishment of that great object by a circumstance which in the mere mention, is unimportant. Tarentum was occupied by a garrison of Bruttians, given them by Hannibal and the commander of that garrison was desperately in love with a girl, whose brother was in the army of the consul Fabius. Being informed, by a letter from his sister, of the new acquaintance she had formed with a wealthy stranger and one so honoured among his countrymen, and conceiving a hope that the lover, by means of his sister, might be induced to any thing she pleased, he acquainted the consul with the hope he had formed. His reasoning appeared not altogether unfounded, and he was desired to go to Tarentum as a deserter and having gained the confidence of the praefect by means of his sister, he began by sounding his disposition in a covert manner, and then, having sufficiently ascertained his weakness, induced him, by the aid of female fascinations, to the betrayal of that custody of the place to which he was appointed. After the method to be pursued and the time for putting the plan into effect had been agreed upon, a soldier, who was sent out of the city by night clandestinely, through the intervals between the guards, related to the consul what had been done, and what had been agreed upon to be done. At the first watch, Fabius, on a signal given to those who were in the citadel, and those who had the custody of the harbour went himself round the harbour, and took up a position of concealment, on the side of the city which faced the east. Then the trumpets began to sound at once from the citadel, the harbour, and the ships which had been brought to the shore from the open sea, and a shout was purposely raised, accompanied with the greatest confusion, in whatever quarter there was the least danger. Meanwhile, the consul kept the men in silence. Democrates, therefore, who had formerly commanded the fleet, and happened to be in command in the quarter, seeing that all was quiet around him, while other parts of the city resounded with such a din that sometimes shout like that of a captured city was raised, and fearing loss while he hesitated, the consul should make some attack and advance his standards, led his party over to the citadel, from which the most alarming noise proceeded. Fabius, concluding that the guard was withdrawn, both from the time which had elapsed and from the silence which prevailed, for not a voice met the ear from a quarter where a little while ago the noise and bustle of men resounded, rousing and calling each other to arms, ordered the ladders to be carried to that part of the wall where the person who had contrived the plot for betraying the city, had informed him that the Bruttian cohort kept guard. The wall was first captured in that quarter, the Bruttians aiding and receiving the Romans; and here they got over into the city: after which the nearest gate was broken open in order that the troops might enter in a large body. Then raising a shout, they proceeded to the forum, where they arrived much about daybreak, without meeting a single armed man; and drew upon themselves the attention of all the troops in every quarter, which were fighting at the citadel and at the harbour.
[17] 16. A battle was fought in the entrance of the forum, with greater impetuosity than perseverance. The Tarentines were not equal to the Romans in spirit, in their arms, in tactics, in activity or strength of body. Accordingly, having just discharged their javelins, they turned their backs almost before they had joined battle, and escaped in different directions through the streets of the city, with which they were acquainted, to their own houses and those of their friends. Two of their leaders, Nico and Democrates, fell while fighting bravely. Philomenus, who was the author of the plot for betraying the city to Hannibal, rode away from the battle at full speed. Shortly after, his horse, which was loose and straying through the city, was recognised, but his body could not be found any where. It was generally believed that he had pitched headlong from his horse into an open well. Carthalo, the praefect of the Carthaginian garrison, while coming to the consul unarmed, to put him in mind of a connexion of hospitality which subsisted between their fathers, was put to death by a soldier who met him. The rest were put to the sword on all hands, armed and unarmed indiscriminately, Carthaginians and Tarentines without distinction. Many of the Bruttians also were slain either by mistake or on account of an old grudge entertained against them, or else with a view to the report that the city was betrayed; in order that Tarentum might rather appear to have been captured by force of arms. The troops then ran off in all directions from the slaughter, to plunder the city. Thirty thousand slaves are said to have been captured; an immense quantity of silver, wrought and coined; eighty-three thousand pounds of gold; of statues and pictures so many that they almost equalled the decorations of Syracuse. But Fabius, with more magnanimity than Marcellus, abstained from booty of that kind. When his secretary asked him what he wished to be done with the statues of their gods, which are of immense size and represented as fighting, each having his peculiar habit, he gave orders that their angry gods should be left in the possession of the Tarentines. After this, the wall which separated the city from the citadel was razed and demolished. While things were going on thus at Tarentum, Hannibal, to whom the troops engaged in the siege of Caulonia had surrendered themselves, hearing of the siege of Tarentum, marched with the greatest expedition both night and day; but hearing that the city was taken, as he was hastening to bring assistance to it, he exclaimed, “the Romans too have their Hannibal. We have lost Tarentum by the same arts by which we took it.” However, that he might not appear to have turned his army in the manner of a fugitive, he encamped where he had halted, about five miles from the city. After staying there a few days, he retired to Metapontum, from which place he sent two Metapontines with letters from the principal men in the state to Fabius at Tarentum, to the effect, that they would accept of his promise that their past conduct should be unpunished, on condition of their betraying Metapontum together with the Carthaginian garrison into his hands. Fabius, who supposed that the communication they brought was genuine, appointed a day on which he would go to Metapontum, and gave the letters to the nobles, which were put into the hands of Hannibal. He, forsooth, delighted at the success of his stratagem, which showed that not even Fabius was proof against his cunning, planted an ambuscade not far from Metapontum. But when Fabius was taking the auspices, before he took his departure from Tarentum, the birds more than once refused approval. Also, on consulting the gods after sacrificing a victim, the aruspex forewarned him to be on his guard against hostile treachery and ambuscade. After the day fixed for his arrival had passed without his coming, the Metapontines were sent again to encourage him, delaying, but they were instantly seized, and, from apprehension of a severer mode of examination, disclosed the plot.
[17] 17. In the beginning of the summer during which these events occurred, after Publius Scipio had employed the whole of the winter in Spain in regaining the affections of the barbarians, partly by presents, and partly by sending home their hostages and prisoners, Edesco, a man distinguished among the Spanish commanders, came to him. His wife and children were in the hands of the Romans; but besides this motive, he was influenced by that apparently fortuitous turn in the state of feeling which had converted the whole of Spain from the Carthaginian to the Roman cause. The same motive induced Indibilis and Mandonius, who were undoubtedly the principal men in all Spain, to desert Hasdrubal and withdraw with the whole body of their countrymen to the eminences which overhung his camp, from which they had a safe retreat along a chain of hills to the Romans. Hasdrubal, perceiving that the strength of the enemy was increasing by such large accessions, while his own was diminishing, and that events would continue to flow in the same course they had taken, unless by a bold effort he effected some alteration, resolved to come to an engagement as soon as possible. Scipio was still more eager for a battle, as well from hope which the success attending his operations had increased, as because he preferred, before the junction of the enemy’s forces, to fight with one general and one army, rather than with their united troops. However, in case he should be obliged to fight with more armies than one at the same time, he had with some ingenuity augmented his forces; for seeing that there was no necessity for ships, as the whole coast of Spain was clear of Carthaginian fleets, he hauled his ships on shore at Tarraco and added his mariners to his land forces. He had plenty of arms for them, both those which had been captured at Carthage, and those which he had caused to be made after its capture, so large a number of workmen having been employed. With these forces, setting out from Tarraco at the commencement of the spring, for Laelius had now returned from Rome, without whom he wished nothing of very great importance to be attempted, Scipio marched against the enemy. Indibilis and Mandonius, with their forces, met him while on his march; passing through every place Without molestation, his allies receiving him courteously, and escorting him as he passed the boundaries of each district. Indibilis, who spoke for both, addressed him by no means stupidly and imprudently like a barbarian, but with a modest gravity, rather excusing the change as necessary, than glorying that the present opportunity had been eagerly seized as the first which had occurred. “For he well knew,” he said, “that the name of a deserter was an object of execration to former allies, and of suspicion to new ones; nor did he blame the conduct of mankind in this respect, provided, however, that the cause, and not the name, occasioned the twofold hatred.” He then recounted the services they had rendered the Carthaginian generals, and on the other hand their rapacity and insolence, together with the injuries of every kind committed against themselves and their countrymen. “On this account,” he said, “his person only up to that time had been with them, his heart had long since been on that side where he believed that right and justice were respected. That people sought for refuge, as suppliants, even with the gods when they could not endure the oppression and injustice of men. What he had to entreat of Scipio was, that their passing over to him might neither be the occasion of a charge of fraud nor a ground for respect, but that he would estimate their services according to what sort of men he should find them to be from experience from that day.” The Roman replied, that “he would do so in every particular; nor would he consider those men as deserters who did not look upon an alliance as binding where no law, divine or human, was unviolated.” Their wives and children were then brought before them and restored to them; on which occasion they wept for joy. On that day they were conducted to a lodging; on the following they were received as allies, by a treaty, after which they were sent to bring up their forces. From that time they had their tents in the same camp with the Romans, until under their guidance they had reached the enemy.
[17] 18. The army of Hasdrubal, which was the nearest of the Carthaginian armies, lay near the city Baecula. Before his camp he had outposts of cavalry. On these the light-armed, those who fought before the standards and those who composed the vanguard, as they came up from their march, and before they chose the ground for their camp, commenced an attack in so contemptuous a manner, that it was perfectly evident what degree of spirit each party possessed. The cavalry were driven into their camp in disorderly flight, and the Roman standards were advanced almost within their very gates. Their minds on that day having only been excited to a contest, the Romans pitched their camp. At night Hasdrubal withdrew his forces to an eminence, on the summit of which extended a level plain. There was a river on the rear, in front and on either side a kind of steep bank completely surrounded its extremity. Beneath this and lower down was another plain of gentle declivity, which was also surrounded by a similar ridge equally difficult of ascent. Into this lower plain Hasdrubal, the next day, when he saw the troops of the enemy drawn up before their camp, sent his Numidian cavalry and light-armed Baleares. Scipio riding out to the companies and battalions, pointed out to them, that “the enemy having abandoned, beforehand, all hope of being able to withstand them on level ground, had resorted to hills: where they stood in view, relying on the strength of their position, and not on their valour and arms.” But the walls of Carthage, which the Roman soldiers had scaled, were still higher. That neither hills, nor a citadel, nor even the sea itself, had formed an impediment to their arms. That the heights which the enemy had occupied would only have the effect of making it necessary for them to leap down crags and precipices in their flight, but he would even cut off that kind of retreat. He accordingly gave orders to two cohorts, that one of them should occupy the entrance of the valley down which the river ran, and that the other should block up the road which led from the city into the country, over the side of the hill. He himself led the light troops, which the day before had driven in the advanced guard of the enemy, against the light-armed troops which were stationed on the lower ridge. At first they marched through rugged ground, impeded by nothing except the road; afterwards, when they came within reach of the darts, an immense quantity of weapons of every description was showered upon them; while on their part, not only the soldiers, but a multitude of servants mingled with the troops, threw stones furnished by the place, which were spread about in every part, and for the most part convenient as missiles. But though the ascent was difficult, and they were almost overwhelmed with stones and darts, yet from their practice in approaching walls and their inflexibility of mind, the foremost succeeded in getting up. These, as soon as they got upon some level ground and could stand with firm footing, compelled the enemy, who were light-armed troops adapted for skirmishing, and could defend themselves at a distance, where an elusive kind of fight is carried on by the discharge of missiles, but yet wanted steadiness for a close action, to fly from their position; and, killing a great many, drove them to the troops which stood above them on the higher eminence. Upon this Seipio, having ordered the victorious troops to mount up and attack the centre of the enemy, divided the rest of his forces with Laelius; whom he directed to go round the hill to the right till he could find a way of easier ascent, while he himself, making a small circuit to the left, charged the enemy in flank. In consequence of this their line was first thrown into confusion, while they endeavoured to wheel round and face about their ranks towards the shouts which resounded from every quarter around them. During this confusion Laelius also came up, and while the enemy were retreating, that they might not be exposed to wounds from behind, their front line became disjoined, and a space was left for the Roman centre to mount up; who, from the disadvantage of the ground, never could have done so had their ranks stood unbroken with the elephants stationed in front. While the troops of the enemy were being slain on all sides, Scipio, who with his left wing had charged the right of the enemy, was chiefly employed in attacking their naked flank. And now there was not even room to fly; for parties of the Roman troops had blocked up the roads on both sides, right and left, and the gate of the camp was closed by the flight of the general and principal officers; added to which was the fright of the elephants, who, when in consternation, were as much feared by them as the enemy were. There were, therefore, slain as many as eight thousand men.
[17] 19. Hasdrubal, having seized upon the treasure before he engaged, now sent the elephants in advance, and collecting as many of the flying troops as he could, directed his course along the river Tagus to the Pyrenees. Scipio, having got possession of the enemy’s camp, and giving up all the booty to the soldiers, except the persons of free condition, found, on counting the prisoners, ten thousand foot and two thousand horse. Of these, all who were Spaniards he sent home without ransom; the Africans he ordered the quaestor to sell. After this, a multitude of Spaniards, consisting of those who had surrendered to him before and those whom he had captured the preceding day, crowding around, one and all saluted him as king; when Scipio, after the herald had obtained silence, declared that “in his estimation the most honourable title was that of general, which his soldiers had conferred upon him. That the name of king, which was in other countries revered, could not be endured at Rome. That they might tacitly consider his spirit as kingly, if they thought that the highest excellence which could be attributed to the human mind, but that they must abstain from the use of the term.” Even barbarians were sensible of the greatness of mind which could from such an elevation despise a name, at the greatness of which the rest of mankind were overawed. Presents were then distributed to the petty princes and leading men of the Spaniards, and out of the great quantity of horses which were captured, he desired Indibilis to select those he liked best to the number of three hundred. While the quaestor was selling the Africans, according to the command of the general, he found among them a full-grown youth remarkably handsome; and hearing that he was of royal blood, he sent him to Scipio. On being asked by Scipio “who he was, of what country, and why at that age he was in the camp?” he replied, “that he was a Numidian, that his countrymen called him Massiva; that being left an orphan by his father, he was educated by his maternal grandfather, Gala, the king of the Numidians. That he had passed over into Spain with his uncle Masinissa, who had lately come with a body of cavalry to assist the Carthaginians. That having been prohibited by Masinissa on account of his youth, he had never before been in battle. That the day on which the battle took place with the Romans, he had clandestinely taken a horse and arms, and, without the knowledge of his uncle, gone out into the field, where his horse falling forward, he was thrown headlong, and taken prisoner by the Romans.” Scipio, having ordered that the Numidian should be taken care of, completed the business which remained to be done on the tribunal, and returning to his pavilion, asked him, when he had been called to him, whether he wished to return to Masinissa? Upon his replying, with tears of joy, that he did indeed desire it, he presented the youth with a gold ring, a vest with a broad purple border, a Spanish cloak with a gold clasp, and a horse completely caparisoned, and then dismissed him, ordering a party of horse to escort him as far as he chose.
[17] 20. A council was then held respecting the war; when some advised that he should endeavour to overtake Hasdrubal forthwith. But thinking that hazardous, lest Mago and the other Hasdrubal should unite their forces with his, he sent a body of troops to occupy the pass of the Pyrenees, and employed the remainder of the summer in receiving the states of Spain into his alliance. A few days after the battle of Baecula, when Scipio on his return to Tarraco had now cleared the pass of Castulo, the generals, Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo, and Mago came from the farther Spain and joined Hasdrubal; a late assistance after the defeat he had sustained, though their arrival was somewhat seasonable, for counsel with respect to the further prosecution of the war. They then consulted together as to what was the feeling of the Spaniards in the quarters where their several provinces were situated, when Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo, alone gave it as his opinion, that the remotest tract of Spain which borders on the ocean and Gades, was, as yet, unacquainted with the Romans, and might therefore be somewhat friendly to the Carthaginians. Between the other Hasdrubal and Mago it was agreed, that “Scipio by his good offices had gained the affections of all, both publicly and privately; and that there would be no end of desertions till all the Spanish soldiers were removed to the remotest parts of Spain, or were marched over into Gaul. That, therefore, though the Carthaginian senate had not decreed it, Hasdrubal must, nevertheless, march into Italy, the principal seat and object of the war; and thus at the same time lead away all the Spanish soldiers out of Spain far from the name of Scipio. That the army, which had been diminished by desertions and defeats, should be recruited by Spanish soldiers. That Mago, having delivered over his army to Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo, should himself pass over to the Baleares with a large sum of money to hire auxiliaries; that Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo, should retire with the army into the remotest part of Lusitania, and avoid an encounter with the Romans. That a body of three thousand horse should be made up for Masinissa, the flower of the whole cavalry; and that he, shifting about from place to place throughout hither Spain should succour their allies and commit depredations on the towns and lands of their enemies.” Having adopted these resolutions, the generals departed to put in execution what they had resolved on. Such were the transactions in Spain of this year. At Rome the reputation of Scipio increased daily. The capture of Tarentum, though effected by artifice more than valour, was considered honourable to Fabius. The fame of Fulvius was on the wane. Marcellus was even under an ill report, not only because he had failed in his first battle, but further, because while Hannibal was going wherever he pleased throughout Italy, he had led his troops to Venusia in the midst of summer to lodge in houses. Caius Publicius Bibulus, a tribune of the people, was hostile to him. This man, ever since the time of his first battle which had failed, had in constant harangues made Claudius obnoxious and odious to the people; and now his object was to deprive him of his command. The connexions of Marcellus, however, then obtained leave that Marcellus, leaving a lieutenant-general at Venusia, should return to Rome to clear himself of the charges which his enemies were urging, and that the question of depriving him of his command should not be agitated during his absence. It happened that nearly at the same time, Marcellus, and Quintius Fulvius the consul, came to Rome, the former to exonerate himself from ignominy, the latter on account of the elections.
[17] 21. The question touching Marcellus’s command was debated in the Flaminian circus, in the presence of an immense concourse of plebeians and persons of every rank. The plebeian tribune accused, not only Marcellus, but the nobility generally. “It was owing,” he said, “to their dishonesty and dilatory conduct, that Hannibal occupied Italy, as though it were his province, for now ten years; that he had passed more of his life there than at Carthage. That the Roman people were enjoying the fruits of the prolonged command of Marcellus; that his army, after having been twice defeated, was now spending the summer at Venusia lodged in houses.” Marcellus so completely destroyed the effect of this harangue of the tribune, by the recital of the services he had rendered, that not only the bill for depriving him of his command was thrown out, but the following day he was created consul by the votes of all the centuries with wonderful unanimity. Titus Quinctius Crispinus, who was then praetor, was joined with him as his colleague. The next day Publius Licinius Crassus Dives, then chief pontiff, Publius Licinius Varus, Sextus Julius Caesar, and Quintus Claudius Flamen were created praetors. At the very time of the election, the public were thrown into a state of anxiety relative to the defection of Etruria. Caius Calpurnius, who held that province as propraetor, had written word that the Arretians had originated such a scheme. Accordingly Marcellus, consul elect, was immediately sent thither to look into the affair, and if it should appear to him of sufficient consequence, to send for his army and transfer the war from Apulia to Etruria. The Tuscans, checked by the alarm thus occasioned, desisted. To the ambassadors of Tarentum, who solicited a treaty of peace securing to them their liberty and the enjoyment of their own laws, the senate answered, that they might return when the consul Fabius came to Rome. The Roman and plebeian games were this year repeated each for one day. The curule aediles were, Lucius Cornelius Caudinus and Servius Sulpicius Galba; the plebeian aediles, Caius Servilius and Quintus Caecilius Metellus. It was asserted that Servilius was not qualified to be plebeian tribune or aedile, because it was satisfactorily established that his father, who, for ten years, was supposed to have been killed by the Boii in the neighbourhood of Mutina, when acting as triumvir for the distribution of lands, was alive and in the hands of the enemy.
[17] 22. In the eleventh year of the Punic war, Marcus Marcellus, for the fifth time, reckoning in the consulate in which he did not act in consequence of an informality in his creation, and Titus Quinctius Crispinus entered upon the office of consuls. To both the consuls the province of Italy was decreed, with both the consular armies of the former year; (the third was then at Venusia, being that which Marcus Marcellus had commanded.) That out of the three armies the consuls might, choose whichever two they liked, and that the third should be delivered to him to whose lot the province of Tarentum and the territory of Sallentum fell. The other provinces were thus distributed among the praetors: Publius Licinius Varus had the city jurisdiction, Publius Licinius Crassus, chief pontiff, the foreign, and wherever the senate though proper. Sextus Julius Caesar had Sicily, and Quintus Claudius Flamen, Tarentum. Quintus Fulvius Flaccus was to continue in command for a year, and hold the province of Capua, which had been held by Titus Quinctius, with one legion. Caius Hostilius Tubulus was also continued in command, with orders to go into Etruria, in the capacity of propraetor, and succeed Caius Calpurnius in the command of the two legions there. Lucius Veturius Philo was also continued in command, to hold in the capacity of propraetor the same province of Gaul with the same two legions with which he had held it as praetor. The senate decreed the same with respect to Caius Aurunculeius, who, as praetor, had held the province of Sardinia with two legions, which it did in the case of Lucius Veturius, and the question of the continuation of his command was proposed to the people. He had in addition, for the protection of the province, fifty ships which Publius Scipio had sent from Spain. To Publius Scipio and Marcus Silanus, their present province of Spain and their present armies were assigned. Of the eighty ships which he had with him, some taken from Italy and others captured at Carthage, Scipio was ordered to send fifty to Sardinia, in consequence of a report that great naval preparations were making at Carthage that year; and that the intention of the Carthaginians was to blockade the whole coasts of Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia with two hundred ships. In Sicily also the following distribution was made: to Sextus Caesar the troops of Cannae were assigned; Marcus Valerius Laevinus, who was also continued in command, was to have the fleet of seventy ships which was at Sicily, adding to it the thirty ships which the preceding year were stationed at Tarentum. With this fleet of a hundred ships he was ordered to pass over into Africa, if he thought proper, and collect booty. Publius Sulpicius was also continued in command for a year, to hold the province of Macedonia and Greece, with the same fleet. No alteration was made with regard to the two legions which were at Rome. Permission was given to the consuls to enlist as many troops as were necessary to complete the numbers. This year the Roman empire was defended by twenty-one legions. Publius Licinius Varus, the city praetor, was also commissioned to repair the thirty old men of war which lay at Ostia, and to man twenty new ones with full complements, in order that he might defend the sea-coast in the neighbourhood hood of Rome with a fleet of fifty ships. Caius Calpurnius was ordered not to move his army from Arretium till his successor had arrived. Both he and Tubulus were ordered to be particularly careful, lest any new plots should be formed in that quarter.
[17] 23. The praetors set out for their provinces. The consul were detained by religious affairs; for receiving intelligence of several prodigies, they could not easily obtain a favourable appearance from the victims. It was reported from Campania, that two temples, those of Fortune and Mars, and several sepulchres, had been struck by lightning. From Cumae, so does superstition connect the deities with the most trifling circumstances, that mice had gnawed some gold in the temple of Jupiter. That an immense swarm of bees had settled in the forum at Casinum. That at Ostia a wall and gate had been struck by lightning. At Caere, that a vulture had flown into the temple of Jupiter. That blood had flowed from a lake at Volsinii. On account of these prodigies, a supplication was performed for one day. For several days, victims of the larger kind were sacrificed without any favourable appearance, and for a long time the good will of the gods could not be obtained. The fatal event indicated by these portents pointed to the persons of the consuls, the state being unaffected. The Apollinarian games were first celebrated by Publius Cornelius Sulla, the city praetor, in the consulate of Quintus Fulvius and Appius Claudius; from that time all the city praetors in succession had performed them; but they vowed them for one year only, and fixed no day for their performance. This year a grievous pestilence attacked the city and the country; it showed itself, however, in protracted rather than fatal diseases. On account of this pestilence supplication was performed in every street throughout the city; and Publius Licinius Varus, the city praetor, was ordered to propose to the people a law to the effect, that a vow should be made to perform these games on a stated day for ever. He himself was the first who vowed them in this manner, and he celebrated them on the third day of the nones of July, a day which was henceforth kept sacred.
[17] 24. The reports respecting the people of Arretium became daily more serious, and the anxiety of the fathers increased. A letter was therefore written to Caius Hostilius, directing him not to delay taking hostages from that people; and Caius Terentius Varro was sent, with a command, to receive from him the hostages and convey them to Rome. On his arrival, Hostilius immediately ordered one legion, which was encamped before the city, to march into it; and having posted guards in suitable places, he summoned the senate into the forum and demanded hostages of them. On the senate’s requesting a delay of two days to consider the matter, he declared that they must themselves give them forthwith, or he would the next day take all the children of the senators. After this the military tribunes, the praefects of the allies, and the centurions, were ordered to keep watch at the gates, that no one might go out by night. This duty was not performed with sufficient care and attention, for seven of the principal senators, with their children, escaped before night, and before the guards were posted at the gates. The next day, as soon as it was light, the senate began to be summoned into the forum, when they were missed and their goods were sold. From the rest of the senators one hundred and twenty hostages, consisting of their own children, were taken and delivered over to Caius Terentius to be conveyed to Rome. Before the senate he made every thing more suspected than before. Considering, therefore, that there was imminent danger of a commotion in Tuscany, they ordered Caius Terentius himself to lead one of the city legions to Arretium, and to employ it for the protection of the city. It was also resolved, that Caius Hostilius, with the other army, should traverse the whole province, and use precautions, that no opportunity might be afforded to those who were desirous of altering the state of things. On his arrival at Arretium with the legion, Terentius asked the magistrates for the keys of the gates, when they declared they could not be found; but he, believing that they had been put out of the way with some bad intention rather than lost through negligence, took upon himself to have fresh locks put upon all the gates, and used diligent care to keep every thing in his own power. He earnestly cautioned Hostilius to rest his hope in this; that the Tuscans would remain quiet, if he should take care that not a step could be taken.
[17] 25. The case of the Tarentines was then warmly debated in the senate, Fabius being present, and himself defending those whom he had subdued by force of arms, while others entertained an angry feeling towards them; the greater part comparing them with the Campanians in guilt and punishment. A decree of the senate was passed conformably to the opinion of Manius Acilius, that the town should be guarded by a garrison, and that all the Tarentines should be kept within their walls; and further, that the question touching their conduct should be hereafter laid before the senate afresh when the state of Italy should be more tranquil. The case of Marcus Livius, praefect of the citadel of Tarentum, was also debated with no less warmth; some proposing a vote of censure against the praefect on the ground that Tarentum was betrayed to the enemy through his negligence, others proposing rewards for having defended the citadel for five years, and because Tarentum had been recovered chiefly by his single efforts; while some, adopting an intermediate course, declared that it appertained to the censors, and not to the senate, to take cognizance of his case; and of this latter opinion was Fabius, who added, however, “that he admitted that the recovery of Tarentum was owing to the efforts of Livius, as his friends openly boasted in the senate, but that there would have been no necessity for its recovery, had it not been lost.” One of the consuls, Titus Quinctius Crispinus, set out for Lucania, with some troops to make up the numbers, to take the command of the army which had served under Quintus Fulvius Flaccus. Marcellus was detained by a succession of religious scruples, which presented themselves to his mind. One of which was, that when in the Gallic war at Clastidium he had vowed a temple to Honour and Valour, its dedication was impeded by the pontiffs, who said, that one shrine could not with propriety be dedicated to two deities; because if it should be struck with lightning or any kind of portent should happen in it, the expiation would be attended with difficulty as it could not be ascertained to which deity sacrifice ought to be made; nor could one victim be lawfully offered to two deities, unless in particular cases. Accordingly another temple to Virtue was erected with all speed. Nevertheless, these temples were not dedicated by Marcellus himself. Then at length he set out, with the troops raised to fill up the numbers, to the army he had left the preceding year at Venusia. Crispinus, who endeavoured to reduce Locri in Bruttium by a siege, because he considered that the affair of Tarentum had added greatly to the fame of Fabius, had sent for every kind of engine and machine from Sicily; he also sent for ships from the same place to attack that part of the city which lay towards the sea. But this siege was raised by Hannibal’s bringing his forces to Lacinium, and in consequence of a report, that his colleague, with whom he wished to effect a junction, had now led his army from Venusia. He therefore returned from Bruttium into Apulia, and the consuls took up a position in two separate camps, distant from each other less than three miles, between Venusia and Bantia. Hannibal, after diverting the war from Locri, returned also into the same quarter. Here the consuls, who were both of sanguine temperament, almost daily went out and drew up their troops for action, confidently hoping, that if the enemy would hazard an engagement with two consular armies united, they might put an end to the war.
[17] 26. As Hannibal, who gained one and lost the other of the two battles which he fought the preceding year with Marcellus, would have equal grounds for hope and fear, should he encounter the same general again; so was he far from thinking himself a match for the two consuls together. Directing his attention, therefore, wholly to his own peculiar arts, he looked out for an opportunity for planting an ambuscade. Slight battles, however, were fought between the two camps with varying success. But the consuls, thinking it probable that the summer would be spun out in engagements of this kind, and being of opinion that the siege of Locri might be going on notwithstanding, wrote to Lucius Cincius to pass over to Locri with his fleet from Sicily. And that the walls might be besieged by land also, they ordered one half of the army, which formed the garrison of Tarentum, to be marched thither. Hannibal having found from certain Thurians that these things would be done, sent a body of troops to lie in ambush on the road leading from Tarentum. There, under the hill of Petelia, three thousand cavalry and two thousand foot were placed in concealment. The Romans, who proceeded without exploring their way, having fallen into the ambuscade, as many as two thousand soldiers were slain, and about twelve hundred made prisoners. The others, who were scattered in flight through the fields and forests, returned to Tarentum. There was a rising ground covered with wood situated between the Punic and Roman camps, which was occupied at first by neither party, because the Romans were unacquainted with its nature on that side which faced the enemy’s camp, while Hannibal had supposed it better adapted for an ambuscade than a camp. Accordingly, he had sent thither, by night, several troops of Numidians, concealing them in the midst of the wood. Not one of them stirred from his position by day, lest their arms or themselves should be observed from a distance. There was a general murmur in the Roman camp, that this eminence ought to be occupied and secured by a fort, lest if it should be seized by Hannibal they should have the enemy, as it were, immediately over their heads. Marcellus was moved by this consideration, and observed to his colleague, “Why not go ourselves with a few horsemen and reconnoitre? The matter being examined with our own eyes, will make our measures more certain.” Crispinus consenting, they set out with two hundred and twenty horsemen, of which forty were Fregellans, the rest Tuscans. Marcus Marcellus, the consul’s son, and Aulus Manlius, military tribunes, together with two prefects of the allies, Lucius Arennius and Manius Aulius, accompanied them. Some historians have recorded, that Marcellus had offered sacrifices on that day, and that in the first victim slain, the liver was found without its head; in the second, that all the usual parts were present, and that there was also an excrescence in the head. That the aruspex was not, indeed, pleased that the entrails should first have appeared mutilated and foul, and then too exuberant.
[17] 27. But the consul Marcellus was influenced by so ardent a desire of engaging with Hannibal, that he never thought their camps close enough. At that time also, as he quitted the rampart, he gave orders that the troops should be ready when occasion required, in order that if the hill, which they were going to examine, were thought convenient, they might collect their baggage and follow them. Before the camp there was a small plain; the road thence to the hill was open and exposed to view on all sides. A watchman who was stationed, not under the expectation of so important an event, but in order that they might be able to intercept any stragglers who had gone too far from the camp in search of wood or forage, gave a signal to the Numidians to rise simultaneously one and all from their concealment. Those who were to rise from the very summit of the hill, and meet the enemy, did not show themselves until those whose business it was to intercept their passage in the rear, had gone round. Then they all sprang up from every side, and, raising a shout, commenced an attack. Although the consuls were in such a position in the valley that they could neither make good their way up the hill, which was occupied by the enemy, nor retreat as they were intercepted in the rear, yet the contest might have been continued longer had not a retreat, commenced by the Tuscans, dismayed the rest of the troops. The Fregellans, however, did not give over fighting, though deserted by the Tuscans, while the consuls, uninjured, kept up the battle by encouraging their men and fighting themselves. But when they saw both the consuls wounded, and Marcellus transfixed with a lance and falling lifeless from his horse, then they too, and but a very few survived, betook themselves to flight, together with Crispinus the consul, who had received two javelin wounds, and young Marcellus, who was himself also wounded. Aulus Manlius, a military tribune, was slain, and of the two praefects of allies, Manius Aulius was slain, Lucius Arennius made prisoner. Five of the consul’s lictors fell into the enemy’s hands alive, the rest were either slain or fled with the consul. Forty-three horsemen fell in the battle or in the flight, and eighteen were taken alive. An alarm had been excited in the camp, and the troops were hastening to go and succour the consuls, when they saw one of the consuls and the son of the other wounded, and the scanty remains of this unfortunate expedition returning to the camp. The death of Marcellus was an event to be deplored, as well from other circumstances which attended it, as because that in a manner unbecoming his years, for he was then more than sixty, and inconsistently with the prudence of a veteran general, he had so improvidently plunged into ruin himself, his colleague, and almost the whole commonwealth. I should launch out into too many digressions for a single event, were I to relate all the various accounts which authors give respecting the death of Marcellus. To pass over others, Lucius Caelius gives three narratives ranged under different heads; one as it is handed down by tradition; a second, written in the panegyric of his son, who was engaged in the affair; a third, which he himself vouched for, being the result of his own investigation. The accounts, however, though varying in other points, agree for the most part in the fact, that he went out of the camp for the purpose of viewing the ground; and all state that he was cut off by an ambuscade.
[17] 28. Hannibal, concluding that the enemy were greatly dismayed by one of their consuls being slain and the other wounded, that he might not be wanting on any opportunity presenting itself, immediately transferred his camp to the eminence on which the battle had been fought. Here he found the body of Marcellus, and interred it. Crispinus, disheartened by the death of his colleague and his own wound, set out during the silence of the following night, and encamped upon the nearest mountains he could reach, in a position elevated and secured on all sides. Here the two generals exerted their sagacity, the one in effecting, the other in guarding against, a deception. Hannibal got possession of the ring of Marcellus, together with his body. Crispinus, fearing lest any artifice should be practised by the Carthaginian’s employing this signet as the means of deception, had sent round messengers to the neighbouring states, informing them, that “his colleague had been slain, and that the enemy were in possession of his seal, and that they must not give credit to any letters written in the name of Marcellus.” This message of the consul arrived at Salapia a little before a letter was brought from Hannibal, written in the name of Marcellus, to the effect, that “he should come to Salapia on the night which followed that day; that the soldiers in the garrison should hold themselves in readiness, in case he might want to employ them on any service.” The Salapians were aware of the fraud, and concluding that an opportunity for punishing them was sought by Hannibal, from resentment, not only on account of their defection, but also because they slew his horsemen, sent his messenger, who was a deserter from the Romans, back again, in order that the soldiers might do what was thought necessary, without his being privy to it, and then placed the townsmen in parties to keep guard along the walls, and in convenient parts of the city. The guards and watches they formed with extraordinary care for that night, and on each side of the gate at which they supposed the enemy would come, they opposed to them the choicest of the troops in the garrison. About the fourth watch, Hannibal approached the city. His vanguard was composed of Roman deserters, with Roman arms. These, all of whom spoke the Latin language, when they reached the gate, called up the guards, and ordered the gate to be opened, for the consul had arrived. The guards, as if awakened at their call, began to be in a hurry and bustle, and exert themselves in opening the gate, which was closed by letting down the portcullis; some raised this with levers, others drew it up with ropes to such a height that the men could come in without stooping. The opening was scarcely wide enough, when the deserters eagerly rushed through the gate, and after about six hundred had got in, the rope being let go by which it was suspended, the portcullis fell with a loud noise. Some of the Salapians fell upon the deserters, who were carrying their arms carelessly suspended upon their shoulders, as is customary after a march, as if among friends; others frightened away the enemy by discharging stones, pikes, and javelins from the tower adjoining the gate and from the walls. Thus Hannibal withdrew, having been caught by his own stratagem, and proceeded to raise the siege of Locri, which Cincius was carrying on with the greatest vigour, with works and engines of every kind, which were brought from Sicily. Mago, who by that time almost despaired of retaining and defending the town, derived his first gleam of hope on the death of Marcellus being reported. This was followed by a message, that Hannibal had despatched his Numidian cavalry in advance, and was himself following them with all possible speed with a body of infantry. As soon, therefore, as he was informed, by a signal displayed from the watch-towers, that the Numidians were drawing near, suddenly throwing open the gate he sallied out boldly upon the enemy, and at first, more because he had done it unexpectedly than from the equality of his strength, the contest was doubtful; but afterwards, when the Numidians came up, the Romans were so dismayed that they fled on all hands to the sea and their ships, leaving their works and the engines with which they battered the walls. Thus the siege of Locri was raised by the approach of Hannibal.
[17] 29. When Crispinus found that Hannibal had gone into Bruttium, he ordered Marcus Marcellus, a military tribune, to march the army, which his colleague had commanded, to Venusia. Having set out himself with his own legions for Capua, though scarcely able to endure the motion of the litter, from the severity of his wounds, he sent a letter to Rome stating the death of his colleague, and in how great danger he himself was. He said, “it was impossible for him to go to Rome to hold the election, both because he did not think he could bear the fatigue of the journey, and because he was anxious about Tarentum, lest Hannibal should direct his course thither from Bruttium. That it was expedient that commissioners should be sent to him, men of sound judgment, with whom he might communicate, when he pleased, respecting the commonwealth.” The reading of this letter excited great grief for the death of one of the consuls, and apprehension for the safety of the other. They therefore sent Quintus Fabius the younger to Venusia to the army; and to the consul three commissioners, Sextus Julius Caesar, Lucius Licinius Pollio, and Lucius Cincius Alimentus, though but a few days before he had returned from Sicily. These were directed to convey a message to the consul, to the effect, that if he could not himself go to Rome to hold the election, he should nominate a dictator within the Roman territory for that purpose. If the consul should have gone to Tarentum, that it was the pleasure of the senate that Marcus Claudius, the praetor, should march off his legions to that quarter in which he could protect the greatest number of the cities of the allies. The same summer Marcus Valerius crossed over from Sicily into Africa with a fleet of a hundred ships, and making a descent near the city Clupea, devastated the country to a wide extent, scarcely meeting with a single person in arms. Afterwards the troops employed in making these depredations were hastily led back to their ships, and a report had suddenly reached them that a Carthaginian fleet was drawing near. It consisted of eighty-three ships. With these the Romans fought successfully, not far from the city Clupea, and after taking eighteen and putting the rest to flight, returned to Lilybaeum with a great deal of booty gained both by land and sea. The same summer also Philip gave assistance to the suppliant Achaeans. They were harassed by Machanidas, tyrant of the Lacedaemonians, with a war in their immediate neighbourhood; and the Aetolians, having passed over an army in ships through the strait which runs between Naupactus and Patrae, called by the neighbouring people Rhion, had devastated their country. It was reported also, that Attalus, king of Asia, would pass over into Europe, because the Aetolians, in their last council, had offered to him the office of chief magistrate of their nation.
[17] 30. Philip, when marching down into Greece, for these reasons, was met at the city Lamia by the Aetolians, under the command of Pyrrhias, who had been created praetor that year jointly with Attalus, who was absent. They had with them also auxiliaries from Attalus, and about a thousand men sent from the Roman fleet by Publius Sulpicius. Against this general and these forces, Philip fought twice successfully, and slew full a thousand of his enemies in each battle. Whence, as the Aetolians were compelled by fear to keep themselves under the walls of Lamia, Philip led back his army to Phalara. This place is situated in the Malian bay, and was formerly thickly inhabited on account of its excellent harbour, the safe anchorage in its neighbourhood, and other conveniences of sea and land. Hither came ambassadors from Ptolemy, king of Egypt, the Rhodians, Athenians, and Chians, to put a stop to hostilities between the Aetolians and Philip. The Aetolians also called in one of their neighbours as a mediator, Amynander, king of the Athamanians. But all these were less concerned for the Aetolians, whose arrogance of disposition exceeded that of any other nation of Greece, than lest Philip and his empire, which was likely to prove injurious to the cause of liberty, should be intermixed with the affairs of Greece. The deliberations concerning a peace were put off, to a council of the Achaeans, for which a place and certain day were fixed upon; for the mean time a truce of thirty days was obtained. The king, setting out thence, went through Thessaly and Boeotia to Chalcis in Euboea, to prevent Attalus, who he heard was about to come to Euboea with a fleet, from entering the harbours and approaching the coasts. Leaving a force to oppose Attalus, in case he should cross over in the mean time, he set out thence with a small body of cavalry and light-armed troops, and came to Argos. Here the superintendence of the Heraean and Nemaean games having been conferred upon him by the suffrages of the people, because the kings of the Macedonians trace their origin from that state, after completing the Heraean games, he set out directly after the celebration for Aegium, to the council of allies, fixed some time before. Here measures were proposed for putting an end to the Aetolian war, in order that neither the Romans nor Attalus might have a pretext for entering Greece; but they were all upset by the Aetolians, before the period of the truce had scarcely expired, after they heard that Attalus had arrived at Aegina, and that a Roman fleet was stationed at Naupactus. For when called into the council of the Achaeans, where the same embassies were present which had negotiated for peace at Phalara, they at first complained of some trifling acts committed during the period of the truce, contrary to the faith of the convention; but at last they asserted, that it was impossible the war could be terminated unless the Achaeans gave back Pylus to the Messenians, unless Atintania was restored to the Romans, and Ardyaea to Scerdilaedus and Pleuratus. But Philip, conceiving it an indignity that the vanquished should presumptuously dictate terms to him the victor, said, “that he did not before either listen to proposals for peace, or agree to a truce, from any hope he entertained that the Aetolians would remain quiet, but in order that he might have all the allies as witnesses that he was desirous of peace, and that they were the occasion of this war.” Thus, without effecting a peace, he dismissed the council; and leaving four thousand troops for the protection of the Achaeans, and receiving five men of war, with which, if he could have joined them to the fleet of the Carthaginians lately sent to him, and the ships which were coming from Bithynia, from king Prusias, he had resolved to challenge the Romans, who had long been masters of the sea in that quarter, to a naval battle, the king himself went back from the congress to Argos; for now the time for celebrating the Nemaean games was approaching, which he wished to be celebrated in his presence.
[17] 31. While the king was occupied with the exhibition of the games, and was indulging himself during the days devoted to festivity with more freedom than in time of war, Publius Sulpicius, setting out from Naupactus, brought his fleet to the shore, between Sicyon and Corinth, and devastated without restraint a country of the most renowned fertility. Intelligence of this proceeding called Philip away from the games. He set out hastily with his cavalry, ordering his infantry to follow him closely; and attacking the Romans as they were scattered through the fields and loaded with booty, like men who feared nothing of the kind, drove them to their ships. The Roman fleet returned to Naupactus by no means pleased with their booty. The fame of a victory gained by Philip over the Romans, of whatever magnitude, increased the celebrity of the remaining part of the games. The festival was celebrated with extraordinary mirth, the more so as the king, in order to please the people, took the diadem off his head, and laid aside his purple robe with the other royal apparel, and placed himself, with regard to appearance, on an equality with the rest, than which nothing is more gratifying to free states. By this conduct he would have afforded the strongest hopes of the enjoyment of liberty, had he not debased and marred all by his intolerable lust; for he ranged night and day through the houses of married people with one or two companions, and in proportion as he was less conspicuous by lowering his dignity to a private level, the less restraint he felt; thus converting that empty show of liberty, which he had made to others, into a cover for the gratification of his own unbounded desires. For neither did he obtain his object in all cases by money or seductive arts, but he also employed violence in the accomplishment of his flagitious purposes; and it was dangerous both to husbands and parents to have presented any impediment to the gratification of royal lust, by an unseasonable strictness. From one man, Aratus, of the highest rank among the Achaeans, his wife, named Polycratia, was taken away and conveyed into Macedonia under the hope of a matrimonial connexion with royalty. After passing the time appointed for the celebration of the Nemaean games, and a few days more, in the commission of these profligate acts, he set out for Dymae to expel the garrison of the Aetolians, which had been invited by the Eleans, and received into the town. Cycliadas, who had the chief direction of affairs, met the king at Dymae, together with the Achaeans, who were inflamed with hatred against the Eleans, because they had disunited themselves from the rest of the Achaeans, and were incensed against the Aetolians, because they considered that they had stirred up a Roman war against them. Setting out from Dymae, and uniting their forces, they passed the river Larissus, which separates the Elean from the Dymaean territory.
[17] 32. The first day on which they entered upon the enemy’s confines, they employed in plundering. The following day they approached the city in battle-array, having sent their cavalry in advance, in order that, by riding up to the gates, they might provoke the Aetolians to make a sally, a measure to which they were naturally inclined. They were not aware that Sulpicius had passed over from Naupactus to Cyllene with fifteen ships, and landing four thousand armed men, had entered Elis during the dead of night, that his troops might not be seen. Accordingly, when they recognised the Roman standards and arms among the Aetolians, so unexpected an event occasioned the greatest terror; and at first the king had wished to withdraw his troops; but afterwards, an engagement having taken place between the Aetolians and Trallians, a tribe of Illyrians, when he saw his men hard pressed, the king himself with his cavalry charged a Roman cohort. Here his horse being pierced with a javelin threw the king, who fell over his head; when a conflict ensued, which was desperate on both sides; the Romans making a furious attack upon the king, and the royal party protecting him. His own conduct was highly meritorious, when though on foot he was obliged to fight among horsemen. Afterwards, when the contest was unequal, many were falling and being wounded around him, he was snatched away by his soldiers, and, being placed upon another horse, fled from the field. On that day he pitched his camp five miles from the city of the Eleans, and the next day led out all his forces to a fort called Pyrgus, whither he had heard that a multitude of rustics had resorted through fear of being plundered. This unorganized and unarmed multitude he took immediately on his approach, from the first effects of alarm; and by this capture compensated for the disgrace sustained at Elis. While engaged in distributing the spoil and captives, and there were four thousand men and as many as twenty thousand head of cattle of every kind, intelligence reached him from Macedonia that one Eropus had gained possession of Lychnidus by bribing the praefect of the citadel and garrison; that he held also certain towns of the Dassaretians, and that he was endeavouring to incite the Dardanians to arms. Desisting from the Achaean war, therefore, but still leaving two thousand five hundred armed troops of every description under the generals Menippus and Polyphantas for the protection of his allies, he set out from Dymae, and passing through Achaea, Boeotia, and Euboea, arrived on the tenth day at Demetrias in Thessaly.
[17] 33. Here he was met by other messengers with intelligence of still greater commotions; that the Dardanians, having poured into Macedonia, were in possession of Orestis, and had descended into the Argestaean plain; and that there was a general report among the barbarians that Philip was slain. In that expedition in which he fought with the plundering party near Sicyon, being carried by the fury of his horse against a tree, he broke off the extremity of one of the horns of his helmet against a projecting branch; which being found by a certain Aetolian and carried into Aetolia to Scerdilaedus, who knew it to be the ornament of his helmet, spread the report that the king was killed. After the king had departed from Achaea, Sulpicius, going to Aegina with his fleet, formed a junction with Attalus. The Achaeans fought successfully with the Aetolians and Eleans not far from Messene. King Attalus and Publius Sulpicius wintered at Aegina. In the close of this year Titus Quinctius Crispinus, the consul, after having nominated Titus Manlius Torquatus dictator for the purpose of holding the election and celebrating the games, died of his wound. Some say that he died at Tarentum, others in Campania. The death of the two consuls, who were slain without having fought any memorable battle, a coincidence which had never occurred in any former war, had left the commonwealth in a manner orphan. The dictator, Manlius, appointed as his master of the horse Caius Servilius, then curule aedile. On the first day of its meeting the senate ordered the dictator to celebrate the great games which Marcus Aemilius, the city praetor, had celebrated in the consulship of Caius Flaminius and Cneius Servilius, and had vowed to be repeated after five years. The dictator then both performed the games and vowed them for the following lustrum. But as the two consular armies without commanders were so near the enemy, disregarding every thing else, one especial care engrossed the fathers and the people, that of creating the consuls as soon as possible; and that they might create those in preference whose valour was least in danger from Carthaginian treachery; since, through the whole period of the war, the precipitate and hot tempers of their generals had been detrimental, and this very year the consuls had fallen into a snare for which they were not prepared, in consequence of their excessive eagerness to engage the enemy, but the immortal gods, in pity to the Roman name, had spared the unoffending armies, and doomed the consuls to expiate their temerity with their own lives.
[17] 34. On the fathers’ looking round to see whom they should appoint as consuls, Caius Claudius Nero appeared pre-eminently. They then looked out for a colleague for him, and although they considered him a man of the highest talents, they also were of opinion that he was of a more forward and vehement disposition than the circumstances of the war, or the enemy, Hannibal, required, they resolved that it would be right to qualify the impetuosity of his temper by uniting with him a cool and prudent colleague. The person fixed upon was Marcus Livius, who, many years ago, was, on the expiration of his consulship, condemned in a trial before the people; a disgrace which he took so much to heart, that he retired into the country, and for many years absented himself from the city, and avoided all public assemblies. Much about the eighth year after his condemnation, Marcus Claudius Marcellus and Marcus Valerius Laevinus, the consuls, had brought him back into the city; but he appeared in a squalid dress, his hair and beard allowed to grow, and exhibiting in his countenance and attire the deep impression of the disgrace he had sustained. Lucius Veturius and Publius Licinius, the censors, compelled him to have his beard and hair trimmed, to lay aside his squalid garb, to come into the senate, and discharge other public duties. But even then he either gave his assent by a single word, or signified his vote by walking to one side of the house, till the trial of Marcus Livius Macatus, a kinsman of his, whose character was at stake, obliged him to deliver his sentiments in the senate upon his legs. On being heard in the senate on this occasion, after so long an interval, he drew the eyes of all upon him, and gave occasion to conversations to the following effect: “That the people had injuriously disgraced a man who was undeserving of it and that it had been greatly detrimental to the state that, in so important a war, it had not had the benefit of the service and counsels of such a man. That neither Quintus Fabius nor Marcus Valerius Laevinus could be given to Caius Nero as colleagues, because it was not allowed for two patricians to be elected. That the same cause precluded Titus Manlius, besides that he had refused a consulship when offered to him, and would refuse it. That they would have two most distinguished consuls if they should add Marcus Livius as a colleague to Caius Claudius.” Nor did the people despise a proposal, the mention of which originated with the fathers. The only person in the state who objected to the measure was the man to whom the honour was offered, who accused his countrymen of inconstancy, saying, “that, having withheld their pity from him when arrayed in a mourning garment and a criminal, they now forced upon him the white gown against his will; that honours and punishments were heaped upon the same person. If they esteemed him a good man, why had they thus passed a sentence of condemnation upon him as a wicked and guilty one? If they had proved him a guilty man, why should they thus trust him with a second consulate after having improperly committed to him the first?” While thus remonstrating and complaining, the fathers rebuked him, putting him in mind, that “Marcus Furius too, being recalled from exile, had reinstated his country when shaken from her very base. That we ought to soothe the anger of our country as we would that of parents, by patience and resignation.” All exerting themselves to the utmost, they succeeded in uniting Marcus Livius in the consulate with Caius Claudius.
[17] 35. The third day afterwards the election of praetors was held. The praetors created were, Lucius Porcius Licinus, Caius Mamilius, Aulus Hostilius Cato, and Caius Hostilius Cato. The election completed, and the games celebrated, the dictator and master of the horse abdicated their offices. Caius Terentius Varro was sent as propraetor into Etruria, in order that Caius Hostilius might quit that province and go to Tarentum to that army which Titus Quinctius, the consul, had commanded, and that Lucius Manlius might go as ambassador across the sea, and observe what was going on there; and at the same time, as the games at Olympia, which were attended by the greatest concourse of persons of any solemnity in Greece, were about to take place that summer, that if he could without danger from the enemy, he might go to that assembly, in order that any Sicilians who might be there, having been driven away by the war, or any Tarentine citizens banished by Hannibal, might return to their homes, and be informed that the Roman people would restore to them every thing which they had possessed before the war. As a year of the most dangerous character seemed to threaten them, and there were no consuls to direct the government, all men fixed their attention on the consuls elect, wishing them to draw lots for their provinces, as soon as possible, and determine beforehand what province and what enemy each should have. The senate also took measures, at the instance of Quintus Fabius Maximus, to effect a reconciliation between them. For the enmity between them was notorious; and in the case of Livius his misfortunes rendered it more inveterate and acrimonious, as he considered that in that situation he had been treated with contempt. He was, therefore, the more inexorable, and said, “that there was no need of a reconciliation, for that they would use greater diligence and activity in every thing they did for fear lest they should give their colleague, who was an enemy, an opportunity of advancing himself at their expense.” However, the authority of the senate prevailed; and, laying aside their private differences, they conducted the affairs of the state in friendship and unanimity. Their provinces were not districts bordering upon each other, as in former years, but quite separate, in the remotest confines of Italy. To one was decreed Bruttium and Lucania, to act against Hannibal; to the other Gaul, to act against Hasdrubal, who, it was reported, was now approaching the Alps; and that he to whose lot Gaul fell should choose whichever he pleased of the two armies, one of which was in Gaul, the other in Etruria, and receive the city legions in addition; and that he to whose lot Bruttium fell, should, after enlisting fresh legions for the city, take the army of whichever of the consuls of the former year he pleased. That Quintus Fulvius, proconsul, should take the army which was left by the consul, and that his command should last for a year. To Caius Hostilius, to whom they had given the province of Tarentum in exchange for Etruria, they gave Capua instead of Tarentum, with one legion which Fulvius had commanded the preceding year.
[17] 36. The anxiety respecting the approach of Hasdrubal to Italy increased daily. At first, ambassadors from the Massilians had brought word that he had passed over into Gaul and that the expectations of the Gauls were raised by his coming, as he was reported to have brought a large quantity of gold for the purpose of hiring auxiliaries. Afterwards, Sextus Antistius and Marcus Raecius, who were sent from Rome, together with these persons, as ambassadors, to look into the affair, had brought word back that they had sent persons with Massilian guides, who, through the medium of Gallic chieftains connected with them by hospitality, might bring back all ascertained particulars; that they found that Hasdrubal, who had already collected an immense army, would cross the Alps the ensuing spring; and that the only cause which delayed him there was, that the passage of the Alps was closed by winter. Publius Aelius Paetus was created and inaugurated in the office of augur in the room of Marcus Marcellus and Cneius Cornelius Dolabella was inaugurated king of the sacred rites in the room of Marcus Marcius, who had died two years before. This same year, for the first time since Hannibal came into Italy, the lustrum was closed by the censors Publius Sempronius Tuditanus and Marcus Cornelius Cethegus. The citizens numbered in the census were one hundred and thirty-seven thousand one hundred and eight, a number considerably smaller than before the war. This year it is recorded that the Comitium was covered, and that the Roman games were repeated once by the curule aediles, Quintus Metellus and Caius Servilius; and that the plebeian games were repeated twice by Quintus Mamilius and Marcus Caecilius Metellus, plebeian aediles. The same persons also gave three statues for the temple of Ceres, and there was a feast in honour of Jupiter on occasion of the games. After this Caius Claudius Nero and Marcus Livius a second time entered upon their consulate; and as they had already, while consuls elect, drawn lots for their provinces, they ordered the praetors to draw lots for theirs. Caius Hostilius had the city jurisdiction, to which the foreign was added, in order that three praetors might go out to the provinces. Aulus Hostilius had Sardinia, Caius Mamilius, Sicily, Lucius Porcius, Gaul. The total amount of legions employed in the provinces was twenty-three, which were so distributed that the consuls might have two each; Spain, four; the three praetors in Sicily, Sardinia, and Gaul, two each; Caius Terentius, two in Etruria; Quintus Fulvius, two in Bruttium; Quintus Claudius two in the neighbourhood of Tarentum and the territory of Sallentum; Caius Hostilius Tubulus, one at Capua; and two were ordered to be enlisted for the city. For the first four legions the people elected tribunes, the consuls sent those for the rest.
[17] 37. Before the consuls set out, the nine days’ sacred rite was performed, as a shower of stones had fallen from the sky at Veii. After the mention of one prodigy, others also were reported, as usual. At Minturnae, that the temple of Jupiter and the grove of Marica, and at Atella also that a wall and gate, had been struck by lightning. The people of Minturnae added what was more alarming, that a stream of blood had flowed at their gate. At Capua, a wolf, which had entered at the gate by night, had torn a watchman. These prodigies were expiated with victims of the larger kind, and a supplication for one day was made, according to a decree of the pontiffs. The nine days’ sacred rite was then performed again, because a shower of stones had been seen to fall in the armilustrum. After the people’s minds had been freed from superstitious fears, they were again disturbed by intelligence that an infant had been born at Frusino as large as a child of four years old, and not so much an object of wonder from its size, as that it was born without any certain mark of distinction whether it was male or female, which was the case two years before at Sinuessa. Aruspices, called in from Etruria, declared this to be indeed a foul and ill-omened prodigy, which ought to be removed out of the Roman territory, and, being kept far from coming in contact with the earth, to be plunged into the deep. They shut it up alive in a chest, and carrying it away, threw it into the sea. The pontiffs also decreed, that thrice nine virgins should go through the city singing a hymn. While in the temple of Jupiter Stator they were learning this hymn, which was composed by the poet Livius, the temple of Juno Regina, on the Aventine, was struck by lightning; and the aruspices, on being consulted, having replied that that prodigy appertained to the matrons, and that the goddess must be appeased by a present, such of the matrons as dwelt within the city and within the tenth milestone from it, were summoned to the Capitol by an edict of the curule aediles; when they themselves chose twenty-five out of their own body, to whom they paid a contribution out of their dowries, from which a golden basin was made, as a present, and carried to the Aventine, where a sacrifice was performed by the matrons in a pure and chaste manner. Immediately a day was given out by the decemviri for another sacrifice to the same goddess, which was performed in the following order: two white heifers were led from the temple of Apollo into the city through the Carmental gate; after these, two cypress images of Juno Regina were carried; after these went seven and twenty virgins, arrayed in white vestments, and singing in honour of Juno Regina a hymn, which to the uncultivated minds of that time might appear to have merit, but if repeated now would seem inelegant and uncouth. The train of virgins was followed by the decemvirs, crowned with laurel, and in purple-bordered robes. From the gate they proceeded by the Jugarian street into the forum: in the forum the procession stopped, and the virgins, linked together by a cord passed through their hands, moved on, beating time with their feet to the music of their voices. They then proceeded by the Tuscan street and the Velabrum, through the cattle market, up the Publician hill, and to the temple of Juno Regina; where two victims were immolated by the decemviri, and the cypress images carried into the temple.
[17] 38. After the deities were appeased in due form, the consuls made the levy with greater diligence and strictness than any one remembered it to have been made in former years; for the war was now doubly formidable, in consequence of the advance of a new enemy into Italy, while the number of the youth from which they could enlist soldiers was diminished. They therefore resolved to compel the settlers upon the sea-coast, who were said to possess an exemption from service solemnly granted, to furnish soldiers; and on their refusing to do so, appointed that they should severally lay before the senate, on a certain day, the grounds on which they claimed exemption. On the appointed day the following people came to the senate: the people of Ostia, Alsia, Antium, Anxur, Minturnae, and Sinuessa, and, on the upper sea, Sena. After each people had stated their grounds of exemption, the exemption of none was allowed, as the enemy was in Italy, except those of Antium and Ostia, and of these colonies the young men were bound by oath that they would not lodge without the walls of their colony, while the enemy was in Italy, more than thirty days. Although it was the opinion of all that the consuls ought to proceed to the war as soon as possible, (for Hasdrubal ought to be met on his descent from the Alps, lest he might seduce the Cisalpine Gauls and Etruria, which was anxiously looking forward to a revolution; while it was necessary to occupy Hannibal with a war in his own quarters, lest he should emerge from Bruttium, and advance to meet his brother;) yet Livius delayed, not having sufficient confidence in the armies destined for his provinces. He said his colleague had his option to take which he pleased out of two excellent consular armies, and a third which Quintus Claudius commanded at Tarentum. He also made mention of recalling the volunteer slaves to their standards. The senate gave the consuls unrestricted liberty of filling up their numbers from what source they pleased, of selecting out of all the armies such as they liked, and of exchanging and removing from one province to another, as they thought conducive to the good of the state. In all these affairs the consuls acted with the most perfect harmony. The volunteer slaves were enlisted into the nineteenth and twentieth legions. Some authors state that very efficient auxiliaries were sent out of Spain also to Marcus Livius by Publius Scipio; namely, eight thousand Spaniards and Gauls, two thousand legionary soldiers, a thousand horse of Numidians and Spaniards together. That Marcus Lucretius brought these forces in ships, and that Caius Mamilius sent as many as four thousand bowmen and slingers out of Sicily.
[17] 39. A letter which was brought out of Gaul from Lucius Porcius, the praetor, increased the alarm at Rome. It stated that Hasdrubal had quitted his winter quarters, and was now crossing the Alps; that eight thousand Ligurians had been enlisted and armed, which would join him when he had crossed over into Italy, unless some general were sent into Liguria to engage them with a war. That he would himself advance as far as he thought it safe with his small forces. This letter obliged the consuls hastily to conclude the levy, and go earlier than they had determined into their provinces, with the intention that each should keep his enemy in his own province, and not allow them to form a junction or concentrate their forces. This object was much aided by an opinion possessed by Hannibal; for although he felt assured that his brother would cross over into Italy that summer, yet when he recollected what difficulties he had himself experienced through a period of five months, first in crossing the Rhone, then the Alps, contending against men, and the nature of the ground, he was far from expecting that his transit would be so easy and expeditious, and this was the cause of his moving more slowly from his winter quarters. But all things were done by Hasdrubal with less delay and trouble than he himself or any others expected. For the Arverni, and after them the other Gallic and Alpine nations in succession, not only gave him a friendly reception, but followed him to the war; and not only had roads been formed during the passage of his brother in most of the countries through which he marched, and which were before impassable, but also as the Alps had been passable for a period of twelve years, he marched through tribes of less ferocious dispositions. For before that time, being never visited by foreigners, nor accustomed, themselves, to see a stranger in their country, they were unsociable to the whole human race. And at first, not knowing whither the Carthaginian was going, they had imagined that their own rocks and forts, and the plunder of their cattle and people, were his objects; but afterwards, the report of the Punic war with which Italy was being desolated for now ten years, had convinced them that the Alps were only a passage, and that two very powerful nations, separated from each other by a vast tract of sea and land, were contending for empire and power. These were the causes which opened the Alps to Hasdrubal. But the advantage which he gained by the celerity of his march he lost by his delay at Placentia, while he carried on a fruitless siege, rather than an assault. He had supposed that it would be easy to take by storm a town situated on a plain; and the celebrity of the colony induced him to believe that by destroying it he should strike great terror into the rest. This siege not only impeded his own progress, but had the effect of restraining Hannibal, who was just on the point of quitting his winter quarters, after hearing of his passage, which was so much quicker than he expected; for he not only revolved in his mind how tedious was the siege of towns, but also how ineffectual was his attempt upon that same colony, when returning victorious from the Trebia.
[17] 40. The consuls, on departing from the city in different directions, had drawn the attention of the public, as it were, to two wars at once, while they called to mind the disasters which Hannibal’s first coming had brought upon Italy, and at the same time, tortured with anxiety, asked themselves what deities would be so propitious to the city and empire as that the commonwealth should be victorious in both quarters at once. Hitherto they had been enabled to hold out to the present time by compensating for their misfortunes by their successes. When the Roman power was laid prostrate at the Trasimenus and at Cannae in Italy, their successes in Spain had raised it up from its fallen condition. Afterwards, when in Spain one disaster after another had in a great measure destroyed two armies, with the loss of two distinguished generals, the many successes in Italy and Sicily had, as it were, afforded a haven for the shattered state; and the mere interval of space, as one war was going on in the remotest quarter of the world, gave them time to recover their breath. Whereas now two wars were received into Italy; two generals of the highest renown were besetting the Roman city; while the whole weight of the danger and the entire burden pressed upon one point. Whichever of these generals should be first victorious, he would in a few days unite his camp with the other. The preceding year also, saddened by the deaths of two consuls, filled them with alarm. Such were the anxious feelings with which the people escorted the consuls on their departure to their provinces. It is recorded that Marcus Livius, still teeming with resentment against his countrymen, when setting out to the war, replied to Fabius, who warned him not rashly to come to an action till he had made himself acquainted with the character of his enemy, that as soon as ever he had got sight of the troops of the enemy he would engage them. When asked what was his reason for such haste, he said, “I shall either obtain the highest glory from conquering the enemy, or the greatest joy from the defeat of my countrymen, a joy which they have deserved, though it would not become me.” Before the consul Claudius arrived in his province, Caius Hostilius Tubulus, attacking Hannibal with his light cohorts while marching his army through the extreme borders of the territory of Larinum into that of Sallentum, caused terrible confusion in his unmarshalled troops; he killed as many as four thousand, and captured nine military standards. Quintus Claudius, who had his camps distributed through the towns of the Sallentine territory, had quitted his winter quarters on hearing of the enemy; and Hannibal, fearing on that account lest he should have to engage with two armies at once, decamped by night, and retired from the Tarentine to the Bruttian territory. Claudius turned his army to the Sallentine territory. Hostilius, on his way to Capua, met the consul Claudius at Venusia. Here forty thousand infantry and two thousand five hundred horse were selected from both armies, with which the consul might carry on the war against Hannibal. The rest of the troops Hostilius was directed to march to Capua to deliver them over to Quintus Fulvius, proconsul.
[17] 41. Hannibal, having drawn together his forces from all quarters, both those which he had in winter quarters, and those which he had in the garrisons of the Bruttian territory, came to Grumentum in Lucania, with the hope of regaining the towns which through fear had revolted to the Romans. To the same place the Roman consul proceeded from Venusia, exploring the way as he went, and pitched his camp about fifteen hundred paces from the enemy. The rampart of the Carthaginians seemed almost united with the walls of Grumentum, though five hundred paces intervened. Between the Carthaginian and Roman camps lay a plain; and overhanging the left wing of the Carthaginians and the right of the Romans were some naked hills, which were not objects of suspicion to either party, as they had no wood upon them, nor any hiding-places for an ambuscade. In the plain which lay between them skirmishes hardly worth mentioning took place between parties sallying from the outposts. It was evident that what the Roman aimed at was to prevent the enemy from going off, while Hannibal, who was desirous of escaping thence, came down with all his forces, and formed in order of battle. Upon this the consul, imitating the crafty character of his enemy, ordered five cohorts, with the addition of five maniples, to pass the summit by night and sit down in the valleys on the opposite side; a measure to which he was prompted the more strongly in proportion as he felt that there could exist no suspicion of an ambuscade in hills so uncovered. Of the time for rising up from their retreat and of falling upon the enemy he informed Tiberius Claudius Asellus, a military tribune, and Publius Claudius, praefect of the allies, whom he sent with them. The general himself, at break of day, drew out all his forces, both foot and horse, for battle. Shortly after, the signal for battle was given out by Hannibal, and a noise was raised in the camp, from the troops running hastily to arms; then both horse and foot eagerly rushed through the gates, and spreading themselves over the plain, hastened to the enemy. The consul perceiving them thus disordered, gave orders to Caius Aurunculeius, a military tribune of the third legion, to send out the cavalry of the legion to charge the enemy with all possible vehemence, for that the enemy had spread themselves like cattle in such disorder throughout the whole plain, that they might be knocked down and trampled under foot before they could be formed.
[17] 42. Hannibal had not yet gone out of the camp, when he heard the shout of his troops engaged; and thus roused by the alarm, he hastily led his forces against the enemy. Already had the Roman horse spread terror through the Carthaginian van; the first legion also of the infantry and the right wing were commencing the action, while the troops of the Carthaginians, in disorder, engaged just as chance threw each in the way of horse or foot. The battle became more general by reinforcements, and the number of those who ran out to the combat. Hannibal, amid the terror and confusion, would have drawn up his troops while fighting, (which would not have been an easy task unless to a veteran general with veteran soldiers,) had not the shouts of the cohorts and maniples, running down from the hills, which was heard in their rear, created an alarm lest they should be cut off from their camp. After this they were seized with a panic, and a flight commenced in every part; but the number slain was less, because the nearness of the camp offered to the terrified troops a shorter distance to fly. For the cavalry hung upon their rear, and the cohorts, running down the declivities of the hills by an unobstructed and easy path, charged them transversely in flank. However, above eight thousand men were slain, above seven hundred made prisoners, and eight military standards taken. Of the elephants also, which had been of no use in such a sudden and irregular action, four were killed and two captured. The conquerors lost about five hundred Romans and allies. The following day the Carthaginian remained quiet. The Roman having led out his troops into the field, when he saw that no one came out to meet him, gave orders that the spoils of those of the enemy who were slain should be collected, and that the bodies of his own men should be gathered into one place and buried. After this, for several days following in succession, he came up so near the enemy’s gates that he almost seemed to be carrying in his standards. But at length Hannibal at the third watch, leaving a number of fires and tents in that part of the camp which faced the enemy, and also a few Numidians who might show themselves in the rampart and the gates, decamped and proceeded towards Apulia. As soon as it dawned, the Roman army came up to the trenches, and the Numidians, according to the plan concerted, took care to show themselves for a little time on the rampart and in the gates; and having deceived the enemy for some time, rode off at full speed, and overtook their friends on their march. The consul, when all was silence in the camp, and he could now no where see even the few who at break of day had walked up and down, sent two horsemen in advance to reconnoitre; and after he had ascertained that all was safe enough, ordered his troops to march in; and after staying there only while his men distributed themselves for plunder, sounded a retreat and led back his forces long before night. The next day he set out as soon as it was light, and following the rumour and the track of the enemy by forced marches, came up with them not far from Venusia. Here also an irregular battle took place, in which two thousand of the Carthaginians were slain. The Carthaginian quitting this place made for Metapontum, marching by night and over mountainous districts in order to avoid a battle. Thence Hanno, who commanded the garrison of that place, was sent into Bruttium with a small party to raise a fresh army. Hannibal, after adding his forces to his own, went back to Venusia by the same route by which he came, and proceeded thence to Canusium. Nero had never quitted the enemy’s steps, and when he himself went to Metapontum, had sent for Quintus Fulvius into Lucania, lest that region should be left without protection.
[17] 43. Meanwhile four Gallic horsemen and two Numidians, who were sent to Hannibal with a letter from Hasdrubal, after he had retired from the siege of Placentia, having traversed nearly the whole length of Italy through the midst of enemies, while following Hannibal as he was retiring to Metapontum, were taken to Tarentum by mistaking the roads; where they were seized by some Roman foragers, who were straggling through the fields, and brought before the proprietor, Caius Claudius. At first they endeavoured to baffle him by evasive answers, but threats of applying torture being held out to them, they were compelled to confess the truth; when they fully admitted that they were the bearers of a letter from Hasdrubal to Hannibal. They were delivered into the custody of Lucius Virginius, a military tribune, together with the letter sealed as it was, to be conveyed to the consul Claudius. At the same time two troops of Samnites were sent with them as an escort. Having made their way to the consul, the letter was read by means of an interpreter, and the captives were interrogated; when Claudius, coming to the conclusion that the predicament of the state was not such as that her generals should carry on the war, each within the limits of his own province, and with his own troops, according to the customary plans of warfare, and with an enemy marked out for him by the senate, but that some unlooked for and unexpected enterprise must be attempted, which, in its commencement, might cause no less dread among their countrymen than their enemies, but which, when accomplished, might convert their great fear into great joy, sent the letter of Hasdrubal to Rome to the senate; and at the same time informed the conscript fathers what his intentions were; and recommended that, as Hasdrubal had written to his brother that he should meet him in Umbria, they should send for the legion from Capua to Rome, enlist troops at Rome, and oppose the city forces to the enemy at Narnia. Such was his letter to the senate. Messengers were sent in advance through the territory of Larinum, Marrucia, Frentana, and Praetutia, where he was about to march his army, with orders that they should all bring down from their farms and towns to the road-side provisions ready dressed for the soldiers to eat; and that they should bring out horses and other beasts of burden, so that those who were tired might have plenty of conveyances. He then selected the choicest troops out of the whole army of the Romans and allies, to the amount of six thousand infantry and one thousand horse; and gave out that he intended to seize on the nearest town in Lucania and the Carthaginian garrison in it, and that they should all be in readiness to march. Setting out by night he turned off towards Picenum, and making his marches as long as possible, led his troops to join his colleague, having left Quintus Catius, lieutenant-general, in command of the camp.
[17] 44. At Rome the alarm and consternation were not less than they had been two years before, when the Carthaginian camp was pitched over against the Roman walls and gates; nor could people make up their minds whether they should commend, or censure, this so bold march of the consul. It was evident that the light in which it would be viewed would depend upon its success; than which nothing can be more unfair. They said, “that the camp was left near to the enemy, Hannibal, without a general, and with an army from which all the flower and vigour had been withdrawn; and that the consul had pretended an expedition into Lucania, when he was in reality going to Picenum and Gaul, leaving his camp secured only by the ignorance of the enemy, who were not aware that the general and part of his army were away. What would be the consequence if that should be discovered, and Hannibal should think proper either to pursue Nero with his whole army, who had gone off with only six thousand armed men, or to assault the camp, which was left as a prey for him, without strength, without command, without auspices?” The disasters already experienced in the war, the deaths of two consuls the preceding year, augmented their fears. Besides, all these events had occurred “when there was only one general and one army of the enemy in Italy; whereas now they had two Punic wars, two immense armies, and in a manner two Hannibals in Italy, inasmuch as Hasdrubal was descended from the same father, Hamilcar, was a general equally enterprising, having been trained in a Roman war during so many years in Spain, and rendered famous by a double victory, having annihilated two armies with two most renowned generals. For he could glory even more than Hannibal himself, on account of the celerity with which he had effected his passage out of Spain, and his success in stirring up the Gallic nations to arms, inasmuch as he had collected an army in those very regions in which Hannibal lost the major part of his soldiers by famine and cold, the most miserable modes of death.” Those who were experienced in the events which had occurred in Spain, added, that “he would not have to engage with Caius Nero, the general, as an unknown person, whom, when accidentally caught in a difficult defile, he had eluded and baffled like a little child, by drawing up fallacious terms of peace.” Under the dictation of fear, which always puts the worst construction upon things, they magnified all the advantages which the enemy possessed, and undervalued their own.
[17] 45. 45. When Nero had got such a distance from the enemy that his plan might be disclosed without danger, he briefly addressed his soldiers, observing, that “there never was a measure adopted by any general which was in appearance more daring than this, but in reality more safe. That he was leading them on to certain victory. For as his colleague had not set out to prosecute the war which he conducted, until forces both of horse and foot had been assigned to him by the senate to his own satisfaction, and those greater and better equipped than if he had been going against Hannibal himself, that they would, by joining him, however small the quantity of force which they might add, completely turn the scale. That when it was only heard in the field of battle (and he would take care that it should not be heard before) that another consul and another army had arrived, it would insure the victory. That rumour decided war; and that the most inconsiderable incidents had power to excite hope and fear in the mind. That they would themselves reap almost the entire glory which would be obtained if they succeeded, for it was invariably the case that the last addition which is made is supposed to have effected the whole. That they themselves saw with what multitudes, what admiration, and what good wishes of men their march was attended.” And, by Hercules, they marched amid vows, prayers, and commendations, all the roads being lined with ranks of men and women, who had flocked there from all parts of the country. They called them the safeguards of the state, the protectors of the city and empire of Rome. They said that the safety and liberty of themselves and their children were treasured up in their arms and right hands. They prayed to all the gods and goddesses to grant them a prosperous march, a successful battle, and a speedy victory over their enemies; and that they might be bound to pay the vows which they had undertaken in their behalf; so that as now they attended them off with anxiety, go after a few days’ interval they might joyfully go out to meet them exulting in victory. Then they severally and earnestly invited them to accept, offered them, and wearied them with entreaties, to take from them in preference to another, whatever might be requisite for themselves or their cattle. They generously gave them every thing in abundance, while the soldiers vied with each other in moderation, taking care not to accept any thing beyond what was necessary for use. They did not make any delay nor quit their ranks when taking food; they continued the march day and night, scarcely giving as much to rest as was necessary to the requirements of the body. Messengers were also despatched in advance to his colleague, to inform him of his approach, and to ask whether he wished that he should come secretly or openly, by day or night, whether they should lodge in the same or different camps. It appeared most advisable that they should come into the camp secretly by night.
[17] 46. A private signal was sent through the camp by the consul Livius, that each tribune should receive a tribune, each centurion a centurion, each horseman a horseman, each foot-soldier a foot-soldier; for it was not expedient that the camp should be enlarged, lest the enemy should discover the arrival of the other consul, while the crowding together of several persons, who would have their tents in a confined place, would be attended with less inconvenience, because the army of Claudius had brought with them on their expedition scarcely any thing except their arms. Claudius, on the very march, had augmented his numbers by volunteers; for not only veteran soldiers, who had completed their period of service, but young men also offered themselves without solicitation; and, as they vied with each other in giving in their names, he had enlisted those whose personal appearance and bodily strength seemed fit for military service. The camp of the other consul was near Sena, and Hasdrubal’s position was about five hundred paces from it. Nero, therefore, when he was now drawing near, halted under cover of the mountains, in order that he might not enter the camp before night. Having entered when all was still, they were severally conducted into their tents by the men of their own description, where they were hospitably entertained with the utmost joy on the part of all. The next day a council was held, at which Lucius Porcius Licinus, the praetor, was present. He had his camp joined to that of the consuls, and before their arrival, by leading his army along the heights, sometimes occupying narrow defiles that he might intercept his passage, at other times harassing his troops while marching by attacking their flank or rear, he had baffled the enemy by all the arts of war. This man was, on the present occasion, one of the council. Many inclined to the opinion that an engagement should be deferred till Nero had recruited his soldiers, who were weary with marching and watching, and had employed a few days in acquiring a knowledge of his enemy. Nero urged, not only by persuasion, but with the most earnest entreaties, “that they would not render rash by delay that measure of his which despatch had made safe. That Hannibal, who lay in a state of torpid inactivity in consequence of a delusion which would not continue long, had neither attacked his camp, left as it was without a leader, nor had directed his course in pursuit of him. That the army of Hasdrubal might be annihilated, and he might retire into Apulia before he stirred a step. The man who by delay gave time to the enemy both betrayed the camp to Hannibal, and opened a way to him into Gaul, so that he might effect a junction with Hasdrubal at his leisure, and when he pleased. That they ought to give the signal for battle instantly, and march out into the field, and take advantage of the delusion of their enemies present and absent, while neither those were aware that they had fewer, nor these that they had more and stronger forces to encounter.” On the breaking up of the council the signal for battle was displayed, and the troops immediately led into the field.
[17] 47. The Carthaginians were already standing before their camp in battle-array. This circumstance delayed the battle: Hasdrubal, who had advanced before the line with a few horsemen, remarked some old shields among the enemy, which he had not seen before, and some horses leaner than the rest their numbers also appeared greater than usual. Suspecting therefore, what was really the case, he hastily sounded a retreat, and sent a party to the river from which they got their water, where some of them might be intercepted, and notice taken whether there were perchance any there whose complexions were more than ordinarily sun-burnt, as from a recent march. At the same time he ordered a party to ride round the camp at a distance, and note whether the rampart was extended in any part, and also observe whether the signal sounded once or twice. Having received a report of all these particulars, the fact of the camp’s not being enlarged led him into error. There were now two camps, as there were before the other consul arrived, one belonging to Marcus Livius, the other to Lucius Porcius, and to neither of them had any addition been made to give more room for the tents. But the veteran general, who was accustomed to a Roman enemy, was much struck by their reporting that the signal sounded once in the praetor’s camp, and twice in the consul’s; there must therefore be two consuls, and felt the most painful anxiety as to the manner in which the other had got away from Hannibal. Least of all could he suspect, what was really the case, that he had got away from Hannibal by deceiving him to such an extent, as that he knew not where the general was, and where the army whose camp stood opposite to his own. Surely, he concluded, deterred by a defeat of no ordinary kind, he has not dared to pursue him; and he began to entertain the most serious fears that he had himself come too late with assistance, now that affairs were desperate, and lest the same good fortune attended the Roman arms in Italy which they had experienced in Spain. Sometimes he imagined that his letter could not have reached him, and that, it having been intercepted, the consul had hastened to overpower him. Thus anxious and perplexed, having put out the fires, he issued a signal at the first watch to collect the baggage in silence, and gave orders to march. In the hurry and confusion occasioned by a march by night, their guides were not watched with sufficient care and attention. One of them stopped in a place of concealment which he had beforehand fixed upon in his mind, the other swam across the river Metaurus, at a ford with which he was acquainted. The troops, thus deserted by their guides, at first wandered up and down through the fields; and some of them, overpowered with sleep, and fatigued with, watching, stretched themselves on the ground here and there, leaving their standards thinly attended. Hasdrubal gave orders to march along the bank of the river until the light should discover the road; but, pursuing a circuitous and uncertain course along the turnings and windings of that tortuous river, with the intention of crossing it as soon as the first light should discover a place convenient for the purpose he made but little progress; but wasting the day in a fruitless attempt to discover a ford, for the further he went from the sea the higher he found the banks which kept the river in its course, he gave the enemy time to overtake him.
[17] 48. First Nero arrived with the whole body of his cavalry, then Porcius came up with him, with the light infantry. And while these were harassing his weary troops on every side, and charging them, and the Carthaginian, stopping his march, which resembled a flight, was desirous of encamping on an eminence, on the bank of the river, Livius came up with all his foot forces, not after the manner of troops on march, but armed and marshalled for immediate action. When they had united all their forces, and the line was drawn out, Claudius took the direction of the battle in the right wing, Livius in the left; the management of the centre was given to the praetor. Hasdrubal, when he saw that an engagement was inevitable, giving over the fortification of a camp, placed his elephants in the front line, before the standards; on either side these he placed in the left wing the Gauls to oppose Claudius, not so much from any confidence he reposed in them, as because he believed them to be dreaded by the enemy; the right wing he took to himself against M. Livius, together with the Spaniards, in whom, as being veteran troops, he placed his greatest hopes. Behind the elephants, in the centre, the Ligurians were posted; but his line was rather long than deep. The Gauls were covered by a hill, which extended in front. That part of the line which was occupied by the Spaniards, engaged the left wing of the Romans, the whole of whose right wing, extending beyond the line of battle, was unengaged. The hill before them prevented their making an attack either in front or flank. Between Livius and Hasdrubal a furious contest arose, and the slaughter on both sides was dreadful. Here were both generals, here the major part of the Roman horse and infantry, here the Spaniards, veteran troops, and experienced in the Roman manner of fighting, and the Ligurians, a nation inured to war. The elephants were also driven to the same place which, on the first onset, disordered the van, and had made even dislodged the standards; but afterwards, the contest growing hotter, and the shout increasing, they became less submissive to their riders, and ranged to and fro between the two lines, as if not knowing to which side they belonged, like ships floating about without rudders. Claudius, when he had striven in vain to advance up the hill, repeatedly calling out to his soldiers, “To what purpose then have we performed so long a march with such expedition?” when he found it impossible to make his way to the enemy in that quarter, withdrawing several cohorts from the right wing, where he saw they would occupy an inactive station, rather than join in the fight, led them round the rear of the line, and, to the surprise not only of the enemy but his own party, charged their right flank; and such was their rapidity, that after showing themselves on their flank, they almost immediately made an attack on their rear. Thus on all sides, in front, flank, and rear, the Spaniards and Ligurians were cut to pieces; and now the carnage had even reached the Gauls. Here the least opposition was found; for a great number of them had quitted their standards, having slunk off during the night, and laid themselves down to sleep up and down the fields, while even those who were present, being tired with marching and watching, for their bodies are most intolerant of fatigue, could scarcely carry their arms upon their shoulders. And now it was mid-day, and thirst and heat gave them over to the enemy to be killed or captured in multitudes.
[17] 49. More elephants were killed by their guides than by the enemy. They used to have with them a workman’s knife, with a mallet. When these beasts began to grow furious, and attack their own party, the rider, placing this knife between the ears, just on the joint by which the neck is connected with the head, used to drive it in, striking it with all the force he could. This was found to be the most expeditious mode of putting these bulky animals to death, when they had destroyed all hope of governing them. This method was first practised by Hasdrubal, a general whose conduct both frequently on other occasions, and especially in this battle, deserved to be recorded. By encouraging the men when fighting, and sharing equally in every danger, he kept up the battle. Sometimes by entreating, at other times by rebuking, the troops, when tired and indisposed to fight from weariness and over-exertion, he rekindled their spirits. He called back the flying, and restored the battle in many places when it had been given up. At length, when fortune decidedly declared for the Romans, lest he should survive so great an army which had been collected under the influence of his name, he put spurs to his horse and rushed upon a Roman cohort, where he fell fighting, as was worthy of the son of Hamilcar and the brother of Hannibal. At no time during that war were so many of the enemy slain in one battle; so that a defeat equal to that sustained at Cannae, whether in respect of the loss of the general or the troops, was considered to have been retorted upon him. Fifty-six thousand of the enemy were slain, five thousand four hundred captured. The other booty was great, both of every other kind, and also of gold and silver. In addition to the rest, there were recovered above four thousand Roman citizens, who had been taken by the enemy, which formed some consolation for the soldiers lost in that battle. For the victory was by no means bloodless. Much about eight thousand of the Romans and the allies were slain; and so completely were even the victors satiated with blood and slaughter, that the next day, when Livius the consul received intelligence that the Cisalpine Gauls and Ligurians, who had either not been present at the battle or had made their escape from the carnage, were marching off in one body without a certain leader without standards, without any discipline or subordination; that if one squadron of horse were sent against them they might be all destroyed, he replied, “Let some survive to bear the news of the enemy’s losses and of our valour.”
[17] 50. Nero set out on the night following the battle, and marching at a more rapid rate than when he came, arrived at his camp before the enemy on the sixth day. As he was not preceded by a messenger, fewer people attended him on the march; but the joy felt was so great, that they were almost insane with delight. Neither state of feeling at Rome can be well described or told, whether that in which the citizens were when in doubtful expectation of the issue, or when they received the intelligence of victory. Every day, from the time that news arrived that the consul Claudius had set out, from sun-rise to sun-set, none of the senators ever quitted the senate-house, or did the people depart from the forum. The matrons, as they had themselves no means of affording assistance, had recourse to prayers and entreaties, and going about to all the temples, wearied the gods with vows and supplications. While the city was in this state of solicitude and suspense, a vague report first arrived that two Narnian horsemen had come from the field of battle into the camp which stood as a defence in the entrance to Umbria, with intelligence that the enemy were cut to pieces. At first they rather heard than credited this news, as being too great and too joyful for the mind to take in, or obtain a firm belief. Even the very rapidity with which it had arrived formed an obstacle to its reception; for it was stated that the battle took place two days before. After this a letter was brought which had been sent by Lucius Manlius Acidinus, from his camp, on the subject of the arrival of the Narnian horsemen. This letter being conveyed through the forum to the tribunal of the praetor, drew the senators out of the senate-house; and with such eagerness and hurry did the people crowd to the doors of the senate-house, that the messenger could not approach, but was dragged off by persons who asked him questions, and demanded vociferously that the letter should be read on the rostrum before it was read in the senate. At length they were put back and restrained by the magistrates; and thus the joy was gradually dispensed to their overpowered spirits. The letter was read first in the senate, and then in the assembly of the people. The effect was various, according to the difference in the cast of men’s minds, some thinking that there were already sure grounds for rejoicing, while others would place no confidence in the news, till they listened to ambassadors, or a letter from the consuls.
[17] 51. After this, news came that the ambassadors themselves were on the point of arriving. Then, indeed, people of all ages ran to meet them, each man being eager to be the first to receive an assurance of such joyful tidings, by the evidence of his eyes and ears. One continued train extended as far as the Mulvian bridge. The ambassadors, Lucius Veturius Philo, Publius Licinius Varus, and Quintus Caecilius Metellus, made their way into the forum, surrounded by a crowd of persons of every description; when some asked the ambassadors themselves, others their attendants, what had been done; and, as soon as each had heard that the army and general of the enemy had been cut off, that the Roman legions were safe, and the consuls unhurt, he immediately imparted the joyful intelligence to others, imparting to them the joy he felt himself. Having with difficulty made their way into the senate-house, and the crowd with still more difficulty being removed, that they might not mix with the fathers, the letter was read in the senate; after which the ambassadors were brought into the general assembly. Lucius Veturius Philo, after reading the letter himself, gave a more explicit account of all that had occurred, amidst great approbation, and at last of general shouting from the assembly, while their minds could scarcely contain their joy. They then ran off in various directions, some to the different temples of the gods, to return thanks, others to their homes, to impart the joyful intelligence to their wives and children. The senate decreed a supplication for three days, because Marcus Livius and Caius Claudius, the consuls, had cut off the general and legions of the enemy, their own army being safe. This supplication Caius Hostilius, the praetor, proclaimed in the assembly, and was celebrated both by men and women. During the whole three days all the temples were uniformly crowded, whilst the matrons, dressed in their richest robes, and accompanied by their children, just as though the war had been brought to a conclusion, and free from every apprehension, offered thanksgivings to the immortal gods. This victory produced an alteration also in the condition of the state, so that immediately from this event, just as though it had been a time of peace, men were not afraid to do business with each other, buying, selling, lending, and paying borrowed money. Caius Claudius, the consul, on his return to his camp, ordered the head of Hasdrubal, which he had carefully kept and brought with him, to be thrown before the advanced guards of the enemy, and the African prisoners to be shown to them bound just as they were. Two of these also he unbound, and bid them go to Hannibal and tell him what had occurred. Hannibal, smitten by such severe distress, at once public and domestic, is said to have declared that he recognised the destiny of Carthage; and decamping thence with the intention of drawing together into Bruttium, the remotest corner of Italy, all his auxiliaries which he could not protect when widely scattered, removed into Bruttium the whole state of the Metapontines, summoned away from their former habitations, and also such of the Lucanians as were under his authority.
[17] * * * * *

## Book XXVIII

[18] Translated by William A. McDevitte
[18] Successful operations against the Carthaginians in Spain, under Silanus, Scipio’s lieutenant, and L. Scipio, his brother; of Sulpicius and Attalus, against Philip, king of Macedonia. Scipio finally vanquishes the Carthaginians in Spain, and reduces that whole country; passes over into Africa, forms an alliance with Syphax, king of Numidia; represses and punishes a mutiny of a part of his army; concludes a treaty of friendship with Masinissa; returns to Rome, and is elected consul; solicits Africa for his province, which is opposed by Quintus Fabius Maximus; is appointed governor of Sicily, with permission to pass over into Africa.
[18] * * * * *
[18] 1. At the time when Spain appeared to be relieved in proportion to the degree in which the weight of the war was removed into Italy, by the passage of Hasdrubal, another war sprang up there equal in magnitude to the former. At this juncture, the Romans and Carthaginians thus occupied Spain: Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo, had retired quite to the ocean and Gades; the coast of our sea, and almost the whole of that part of Spain which lies eastward, was subject to Scipio and the Romans. The new general, Hanno, who had passed over from Africa, to supply the place of the Barcine Hasdrubal, with a new army, and formed a junction with Mago, having in a short time armed a large number of men in Celtiberia, which lies in the midway between the two seas, Scipio sent Marcus Silanus against him, with no more than ten thousand infantry and five hundred horse. Silanus, by marching with all the haste he could, (though the ruggedness of the roads, and narrow defiles obstructed with thick woods, which are very frequent in Spain, impeded him,) yet being guided by deserters from Celtiberia, natives of that place, reached the enemy, anticipating not only messengers but even all rumour of his coming. From the same source he ascertained, when they were about ten thousand paces from the enemy, that they had two camps, one on each side of the road in which they were marching; that the Celtiberians, a newly-raised army, in number above nine thousand, were on the left, and that the Carthaginian camp was stationed on the right. The latter was secured and protected by outposts, watches, and every kind of regular military guard, while the former was disorderly and neglected, as belonging to barbarians, who were raw soldiers, and were under the less apprehension, because they were in their own country. Silanus, concluding that this was the camp to be attacked first, ordered the troops to march as much as possible towards the left, lest he should be observed from any point by the Carthaginian outposts, and sending scouts in advance, pushed on towards the enemy at a rapid pace.
[18] 2. He was now about three thousand paces from the enemy, when as yet none of them had perceived him. The ground was covered with craggy places, and hills overgrown with bushes. Here in a hollow valley, and on that account unexposed to the view, he ordered his men to sit down and take refreshment. In the mean time the scouts returned, confirming the statements of the deserters. Then the Romans, collecting their baggage in the centre, took arms, and marched to battle in regular array. They were a thousand paces off when they were descried by the enemy, when suddenly all began to be in a state of hurry and confusion. At the first shout and tumult, Mago quitted the camp and rode up at full speed. As there were in the Celtiberian army four thousand targeteers and two hundred horsemen, this regular legion, as it formed the flower of his troops, he stationed in the first line; the rest, composed of light-armed, he posted in reserve. While he was leading them out of the camp thus marshalled, the Romans discharged their javelins at them before they had scarcely cleared the rampart. The Spaniards stooped down to avoid the javelins thrown at them by the enemy, and then rose up to discharge their own in turn; which the Romans having received according to their custom in close array, with their shields firmly united, they then engaged foot to foot, and began to fight with their swords. But the ruggedness of the ground, while it rendered ineffectual the agility of the Celtiberians who were accustomed to a skirmishing kind of battle, was at the same time not unfavourable to the Romans, who were accustomed to a steady kind of fight, except that the narrow passes and the bushes, which grew here and there, broke their ranks, and they were compelled to engage one against one and two against two, as if matched together. The same circumstance which obstructed the enemy’s flight, delivered them up, as it were, bound for slaughter. And now when almost all the targeteers had been slain, the light-armed and the Carthaginians, who had come up to their assistance from the other camp, having been thrown into confusion, were put to the sword. Not more than two thousand of the infantry, and all the cavalry, fled from the field with Mago before the battle was well begun. The other general, Hanno, was taken alive, together with those who came up when the battle was now decided. Almost the whole of the cavalry and the veteran infantry, following Mago in his flight, came to Hasdrubal on the tenth day in the province of Gades. The newly-raised Celtiberian troops, stealing off to the neighbouring woods, fled thence to their homes. By this very seasonable victory, a stop was put to a war which was not by any means so considerable as that to which it would have grown, had the enemy been allowed, after having prevailed upon the Celtiberians to join them, to solicit other nations also to take up arms. Scipio, therefore, having liberally bestowed the highest commendations on Silanus, and entertaining a hope that he might bring the war to a termination, if he did not impede it by a want of activity on his own part, proceeded into the remotest part of Spain against Hasdrubal. The Carthaginian, who then happened to be encamped in Baetica, in order to prevent his allies from wavering in their allegiance, retired quite to the ocean and Gades, in a manner much more resembling a flight than a march. He was afraid, however; that while he kept his forces together, he should form the principal object of attack. Before he crossed the strait to Gades he sent them into different cities, that they might both provide for their own safety by the help of walls, and for that of the town by their arms.
[18] 3. Scipio, seeing the enemy’s forces thus distributed, and that to carry about his forces to each of the several cities would be rather tedious than important, marched his army back. Not to leave all that country, however, to the Carthaginians, he sent his brother, Lucius Scipio, at the head of ten thousand foot and one thousand horse, to besiege the most important city of that quarter, called by the barbarians Orinx, and situated on the borders of the Milesians, a nation of Spain so called. The soil is fertile, and even silver is dug out of it by the inhabitants. This place served as a fort to Hasdrubal, from which he might make incursions on the inland states. Scipio encamped near the city. Before he formed his lines round it, he sent to the gates to sound the inclinations of the inhabitants, by a direct interview, and persuade them to make trial of the friendship of the Romans rather than of their power. As they answered nothing of a friendly nature, he threw a double trench and rampart round the place, dividing his army into three parts, in order that one division might assault it while the other two rested. The first of these beginning the attack, a furious and doubtful contest ensued. It was by no means easy to approach and bring the ladders to the walls, on account of the weapons which fell upon them; and even of those persons who had raised them, some were thrown down with forks made for the purpose, others were in danger of being laid hold of by iron grapples, and dragged up hanging to the wall. Scipio, seeing that the contest was equalized owing to the fewness of his party, and that the enemy, fighting from the wall, were superior to him, called off the first division and attacked them with the two others together. This so terrified the besieged, who were already fatigued with fighting with the former, that not only the townsmen forsook the walls in sudden flight, but the Carthaginian garrison, fearing that the town had been betrayed, also quitted their posts and collected themselves into a body. Upon this the inhabitants began to be alarmed, lest if the enemy broke into the town they should kill all they met indiscriminately, Carthaginian or Spaniard. They therefore suddenly threw open the gates and rushed out of the town, holding their shields before them, lest any weapons should be cast at them from a distance, and stretching out to view their bare right hands, that it might be seen they had thrown away their swords. Whether this was not observed, in consequence of the distance, or whether some deception was suspected, is not known; but an attack was made on the deserters, and they were put to death as a hostile force. Through this gate the enemy marched into the city in battle-array. The other gates were cut through and broken down with axes and sledges; and as each horseman entered, he galloped off to seize the forum, as had been ordered. A body of veteran troops were also added to the horse to support them. The legionary troops spread themselves in every part of the city, but neither killed nor plundered any, except such as defended themselves with arms. All the Carthaginians were put under guard, with more than three hundred of the inhabitants, who had shut the gates. The rest had the town put into their hands, and their property restored. About two thousand of the enemy fell in the assault on this city, and not more than ninety of the Romans.
[18] 4. As the taking of this town was a source of great joy to those who effected it, as well as to the general and the rest of the army, so their approach to their camp also presented a splendid spectacle, on account of the immense crowd of captives they drove before them. Scipio, having bestowed high commendations upon his brother, representing the capture of Orinx as equal in importance to the capture of Carthage by himself, led his forces back into hither Spain. He could not make an attempt on Gades, or pursue the army of Hasdrubal, now dispersed through all parts of the province, in consequence of the approach of winter. He therefore dismissed the legions into winter quarters, and sent his brother Lucius Scipio with Hanno, the enemy’s general, and other distinguished prisoners, to Rome, while he retired himself to Tarraco. During the same year, the Roman fleet under Marcus Valerius Laevinus, the proconsul, sailing over from Sicily into Africa, devastated to a wide extent the fields about Utica and Carthage. They carried off plunder from the remotest borders of the Carthaginian territory around the very walls of Utica. On their return to Sicily they were met by a Carthaginian fleet of seventy ships of war, of which seventeen were taken and four sunk; the rest were dispersed and compelled to fly. The Romans, victorious both by land and sea, returned to Lilybaeum with immense booty of every kind. The ships of the enemy having thus been driven from the whole sea, large supplies of corn were conveyed to Rome.
[18] 5. In the beginning of the summer in which these events occurred, Publius Sulpicius, proconsul, and king Attalus, having passed the winter at Aegina, as before observed, united their fleets, consisting of twenty-three Roman quinqueremes and thirty-five belonging to the king, and proceeded to Lemnos. Philip also, that he might be prepared for every kind of measure, whether it should be necessary to meet the enemy on land or sea, came down to the coast of Demetrias and appointed to his army a day on which to meet him at Larissa. On the news of the king’s arrival, ambassadors from his allies came to Demetrias from all sides. For the Aetolians, inspirited both by their alliance with the Romans and the approach of king Attalus, were ravaging the neighbouring states; not only the Acarnanians, Boeotians, and Euboeans were very much alarmed, but the Achaeans also were kept in a state of terror, both by the hostile proceedings of the Aetolians, and also by Machanidas, tyrant of Lacedaemon, who had encamped at a short distance from the borders of the Argives. All of these stating the dangers which threatened their possessions, both by land and sea, entreated succour from the king. Philip received accounts even from his own kingdom, that things were not in a state of tranquillity; that both Scerdilaedus and Pleuratus were in motion, and that some of the Thracians, and particularly the Maedians, would certainly make incursions on the contiguous provinces of Macedonia, should the king be occupied with a distant war. The Boeotians, indeed, and the people inhabiting the inland parts of Greece, told him that the Aetolians had obstructed by a ditch and rampart the straits of Thermopylae, where the road is very narrow and confined, in order to prevent their passing to the assistance of the allied states. So many disturbances arising on all hands were sufficient to awaken an inactive general. He dismissed the ambassadors, promising to assist them all according as opportunity and circumstances allowed. For the present, he sent to Peparethus a body of troops to garrison the city, for this was the most urgent business, as information had been received thence that Attalus, crossing over to Lemnos, was devastating all the neighbouring country. He sent Polyphantas with a small detachment to Boeotia, and also Menippus, one of his guards, with one thousand targeteers (the target is not unlike the ordinary buckler) to Chalcis. Five hundred Agrianians were added, that every part of the island might be secured. He went himself to Scotussa, and ordered the Macedonian soldiers to be removed thither from Larissa. Here he heard that the Aetolians had been summoned to an assembly at Heraclea, and that king Attalus was to come and advise with them as to the conduct of the war. Determining to interrupt this meeting by his sudden approach, he led his troops by forced marches to Heraclea, where he arrived just after the assembly had broken up. However, he destroyed the crops, which were nearly ripe, particularly those round the Aenian bay. He then marched back to Scotussa, and leaving there the main army, retired to Demetrias with the royal guards. In order to be prepared against every attempt of the enemy, he sent persons hence to Phocis, Euboea, and Peparethus, to select elevated situations, from which fires lighted upon them might be seen from a distance. He fixed a watch-tower on Tisaeum, a mountain whose summit is prodigiously high, in order that when the enemy made any attempt he might instantly receive intimation of it by means of fires lighted up at a distance. The Roman general and king Attalus then passed over from Peparethus to Nicaea, and thence sailed to Orcus, the first city of Euboea, on the left as you proceed to Chalcis and the Euripus from the bay of Demetrias. It was agreed upon between Attalus and Sulpicius, that the Romans should attack the town on the side next the sea, and the king’s forces on the land side.
[18] 6. Four days after the fleet arrived, they attacked the city. That time had been employed in private conferences with Plator, whom Philip had put in command of the place. The city has two citadels, one overhanging the coasts, the other in the middle of the town, from which there is a subterraneous passage to the ocean, whose entrance next the sea is defended by a strong fortification, a tower five stories high. Here the affair commenced with a most furious contest, the tower being furnished with all kinds of weapons, and engines and machines of every kind for the purpose of the assault having been landed from the ships. While the eyes and attention of all were turned to that quarter, Plator opened one of the gates and received the Romans into the citadel next the sea, which they instantly became masters of. The inhabitants, driven thence, fled to the other citadel in the middle of the city; but there had been troops posted there to shut the gates against them; so that, being thus excluded, they were surrounded and either slain or made prisoners. Meanwhile the Macedonian garrison stood under the wall of the citadel, formed into a compact body, neither confusedly attempting a retreat, nor obstinately engaging in a contest. These men Plator, after obtaining permission from Sulpicius, put on board ships and landed them at Demetrias in Phthiotis; he himself withdrew to Attalus. Sulpicius, elated with the success at Oreum, gained with so much ease, proceeded to Chalcis with his victorious fleet, where the issue by no means answered his expectations. The sea, which is wide on both sides, being here contracted into a narrow strait, might perhaps, at first view, exhibit the appearance of two harbours facing the two entrances of the Euripus. It would be difficult to find a station more dangerous for shipping; for not only do the winds come down with great violence from the high mountains on each side, but the strait itself of the Euripus does not ebb and flow seven times a day at stated times, as is reported, but the current changing irregularly, like the wind, now this way now that, is hurried along like a torrent rolling headlong down a steep mountain, so that no quiet is given to vessels there day or night. But not only did so perilous a station receive his ships, but the town was strong and impregnable, covered on one side by the sea, and very well fortified on the other towards the land, secured by a strong garrison, and above all, by the fidelity of the praefects and principal men, which was wavering and unsettled at Oreum. Though the business had been rashly undertaken, the Roman still acted with prudence, in so far as he speedily gave up the attempt, after he had seen all the difficulties which surrounded him, that he might not waste time, and passed his fleet over from thence to Cynus in Locris, the port of the town of Opus, which is one mile distant from the sea.
[18] 7. Philip had received notice of this from Oreum, by the signal fires; but through the treachery of Plator they were raised from the watch-tower at a later period. As he was not a match for the enemy’s forces at sea, it was difficult for him to approach the island; and thus, by delay, the opportunity was lost. He moved with promptness to the assistance of Chalcis as soon as he received the signal. For although Chalcis is a city of the same island, yet it is separated from the continent by so narrow a strait, that they communicate by means of a bridge, and the approach to it is easier by land than by water. Philip therefore, going from Demetrias to Scotussa, and setting out thence at the third watch, dislodged the guard, put to flight the Aetolians who kept the pass of Thermopylae, and drove the enemy in confusion to Heraclea, marching in one day to Elatia in Phocis, a distance of above sixty miles. Almost on the same day the town of Opus was taken and plundered by Attalus. Sulpicius had given it up to the king because Oreum had been plundered a few days before by the Roman soldiers, the royal soldiers not having shared the booty. The Roman fleet having retired thither, Attalus, who was not aware of Philip’s approach, wasted time in levying contributions from the principal inhabitants, and so sudden was his coming, that had he not been descried by some Cretans, who happened to go farther from the town than usual in quest of forage, he might have been surprised. He fled hastily to the sea and his ships, without arms, and in the greatest disorder. Just as they were putting off from the land Philip arrived, and even from the shore created much alarm among the mariners. He returned thence to Opus, accusing both gods and men, because he had lost an opportunity of so great importance, almost snatched from his hands. He also reproached the Opuntians with the like anger, because they had, immediately on sight of the enemy, made almost a voluntary surrender, though they might have prolonged the siege till his arrival. Having settled affairs at Opus, he proceeded thence to Thronium. Attalus, too, at first retired from Oreum; but there receiving intelligence that Prusias, king of Bithynia, had invaded his kingdom, he withdrew his attention from the Romans and the Aetolian war, and passed over into Asia. Sulpicius also withdrew his fleet to Aegina, from whence he had set out in the beginning of spring. Philip took Thronium with as little difficulty as Attalus had at Opus. It was inhabited by foreigners, fugitives from Thebes in Phthiotis, who, on the capture of their own town by Philip, had fled to the protection of the Aetolians, and received from them a city as a settlement which had been laid waste and desolated in a former war by the same Philip. Having recovered Thronium, as has been a little before mentioned, he set out thence; and having taken Tritonos and Drymae, inconsiderable towns of Doris, he came thence to Elatia, where he had ordered the ambassadors of Ptolemy and the Rhodians to wait for him. While consulting there as to the best method of bringing the Aetolian war to a conclusion, (for these ambassadors attended the late council of the Romans and Aetolians at Heraclea,) intelligence is brought that Machanidas intended to attack the Elians while busied in preparing for the celebration of the Olympic games. Thinking it his duty to prevent such an attempt, he dismissed the ambassadors with a gracious answer to the effect, that he had neither caused the war, nor would he be any obstacle to the restoration of peace, if it should be possible on equitable and honourable terms; then marching quickly through Boeotia he came down from Megara, and thence to Corinth, where receiving supplies of provisions, he went to Phlius and Pheneus. And now, when he had proceeded as far as Heraea, having received intelligence that Machanidas, terrified at the news of his approach, had retreated to Lacedaemon, he betook himself to Aegium, where the Achaeans were assembled in council, expecting at the same time to meet there a Carthaginian fleet, which he had sent for, in order that he might accomplish something by sea. But the Carthaginians had left a few days before, and were gone to the Oxean islands; and thence, hearing that the Romans and Attalus had left Oreum, to the harbours of the Acarnanians, for they feared that it was intended to attack them, and that they would be overpowered while within the straits of Rhium, which is the name of the entrance of the Corinthian bay.
[18] 8. Philip was grieved and vexed when he reflected, that though he proceeded with the utmost speed on all occasions, yet he had not come up in time to accomplish any one object, and that fortune had frustrated his activity by snatching away every advantage from before his eyes. In the assembly, however, concealing his chagrin, he discoursed with elated spirits, calling gods and men to witness, that “he had never been wanting at any time or place, so as not to repair instantly wherever the enemy’s arms resounded, but that it was difficult to calculate whether the war was carried on more boldly by him or more pusillanimously by the enemy. Such was the manner in which Attalus had slipped out of his hands from Opus; Sulpicius from Chalcis; and so, within these few days, Machanidas. That flight, however, was not always successful; and that that should not be esteemed a difficult war in which victory would be certain if the enemy could be brought to a regular engagement. He had already obtained one very great advantage, which was a confession on the part of the enemy themselves, that they were not a match for him; and in a short time,” he said, “he would be in possession of undoubted victory; for that he would engage with him with a result no better than their expectations.” The allies listened to the king with great satisfaction. He then gave up to the Achaeans Heraera and Triphylia. Aliphera he restored to the Megalopolitans, they having brought satisfactory proof that it belonged to their territories. Then having received some ships from the Achaeans, three quadriremes and three biremes, he sailed to Anticyra, whence with seven quinqueremes and more than twenty barks, which he had sent to the bay of Corinth to join the Carthaginian fleet, he proceeded to Erythrae, a town of the Aetolians near Eupalium, where he made a descent. He was not unobserved by the Aetolians; for all who were either in the fields or in the neighbouring forts of Potidania and Apollonia, fled to the woods and mountains. The cattle which they could not drive off in their haste they seized and put on board. He sent Nicias, praetor of the Achaeans, to Aegium with these and the other booty; and then going to Corinth, ordered his army to march by land through Boeotia, while he himself, sailing from Cenchreae along the coast of Attica, round the promontory of Sunium, reached Chalcis, having passed almost through the midst of the enemy’s fleet. After commending in the highest terms their fidelity and bravery, as neither fear nor hope had influenced their minds, and after exhorting them to show the same fidelity in maintaining the alliance, he sailed to Oreum; and having placed such of the chief inhabitants as chose to fly, rather than surrender to the Romans, in the command of the city and the direction of affairs, he sailed over from Euboea to Demetrias, from which place he at first set out to succour his allies. After this, having laid the keels of one hundred ships of war at Cassandrea, and collected a large number of ship carpenters for the completion of that business, and as both the departure of Attalus and the seasonable assistance he had brought to his allies had tranquillized affairs in Greece, he retired into his own dominions, in order to make war upon the Dardanians.
[18] 9. Just at the close of the summer during which these operations were carried on in Greece, when Quintus Fabius, son of Maximus, ambassador from Marcus Livius the consul, brought a message to Rome to the senate, to the effect, that the consul considered that Lucius Portius with his legions formed a sufficient protection for the province, that he might himself retire thence, and that the consular army might be withdrawn, the fathers directed that not only Livius should return to the city, but also his colleague, Caius Claudius. The only difference made between them in the decree was, that they ordered the army of Marcus Livius to be led back, and the legions of Nero to remain in their province opposed to Hannibal. The consuls agreed between themselves by letter, that as they had conducted the affairs of the commonwealth with unanimity, they should arrive at the city at the same time, though they came from different quarters. He who arrived first at Praeneste was enjoined to wait there for his colleague. It so happened that they both came to Praeneste on the same day, and thence, sending a proclamation before them, directing that there should be a full attendance of the senate at the temple of Bellona, three days after, they came up to the city, when they were met by the whole body of the inhabitants. Not only did the whole body pour around them and salute them, but each person individually, desiring to touch the victorious right hands of the consuls, some congratulated them, while others thanked them because by their services the state had been preserved. In the senate, when, having made a recital of their services according to the custom observed by all generals, they had requested, that “in consideration of the brave and successful conduct of the affairs of the commonwealth, honours should be paid to the immortal gods, and they themselves enter the city in triumph;” the fathers replied, that “they most willingly decreed those things which they requested in gratitude to the gods in the first instance, and, next to them, to the consuls.” A supplication in the name of both, and a triumph to both of them, having been decreed, lest after having carried on the war with entire unanimity they should have a separate triumph, they made the following agreement; that “since both the service had been performed in the province of Marcus Livius, and he was in possession of the command on the day on which the battle was fought, and further, that as the army of Livius had been withdrawn and had come to Rome, while Nero’s could not be withdrawn from the province, Marcus Livius should enter the city in a four-horse chariot and followed by the soldiers; Caius Claudius on horseback without soldiers.” This plan of associating the generals in the triumph increased the glory of both, but particularly of him who had yielded to his colleague in the honours he received, as much as he surpassed him in merit. The people said, that “the general on horseback had traversed the whole length of Italy in the space of six days, and had fought a pitched battle with Hasdrubal in Gaul, on the very day on which Hannibal supposed that he was occupying a camp pitched in Apulia to oppose him. That thus one consul, acting in defence of either extremity of Italy against two leaders, had opposed against one his skill, against the other his person. That the name of Nero had been sufficient to confine Hannibal within his camp, while with regard to Hasdrubal, by what, but his arrival, had he been overwhelmed and annihilated? The other consul might move along raised aloft in a chariot, drawn if he pleased by a number of horses, but that the real triumph was his who was conveyed by one horse; and that Nero, though he should go on foot, would be immortalized, whether on account of the glory he had acquired in the war, or the contempt he had shown for it in the triumph.” Such continual expressions of the spectators attended Nero all the way to the Capitol. The money they brought into the treasury was three hundred thousand sesterces, with eighty thousand asses of brass. Marcus Livius distributed among the soldiers fifty-six asses each. Caius Claudius promised the same sum to his absent troops when he returned to the army. It was observed that more verses were written by the soldiery upon Caius Claudius in their jocular style, than upon their own consul; that the horsemen highly extolled Lucius Veturius and Quintus Caecilius, lieutenant-generals, and exhorted the commons to create them consuls for the ensuing year; that the consuls added their authority to the recommendation of the knights, relating in the public assembly the following day with what courage and fidelity their two lieutenant-generals in particular had served them.
[18] 10. When the time for the elections approached, and it was resolved that it should be held by a dictator, the consul Caius Claudius nominated as dictator his colleague Marcus Livius, who appointed Quintus Caecilius his master of the horse. Lucius Veturius and Quintus Caecilius were created consuls by Marcus Livius the dictator, the latter being then master of the horse. After this the election of praetors was held. The persons appointed were, Caius Servilius, Marcus Caecilius Metellus, Titus Claudius Asellus, and Quintus Mamilius Turinus, who was at that time plebeian aedile. When the elections were finished, the dictator, having abdicated his office and dismissed his army, set out for his province of Etruria, according to a decree of the senate, to make inquiry what states of the Tuscans and Umbrians had formed schemes of revolt from the Romans to Hasdrubal at the time of his approach, and what states had assisted him with auxiliaries, provisions, or succours of any kind. Such were the transactions this year at home and abroad. The Roman games were thrice repeated in full by the curule aediles, Cneius Servilius Caepio and Servius Cornelius Lentulus. In the same manner the plebeian games also were once repeated entire by the plebeian aediles, Manius Pomponius Matho and Quintus Mamilius Thurinus.
[18] In the thirteenth year of the Punic war, when Lucius Veturius Philo and Quintus Caecilius Metellus were consuls, Bruttium was assigned to both of them, as their province, to carry on the war with Hannibal. The praetors then cast lots for their provinces: Marcus Caecilius Metellus had the city jurisdiction; Quintus Mamilius, the foreign; Caius Servilius, Sicily; Tiberius Claudius, Sardinia. The armies were distributed thus: to one of the consuls was given the army which Caius Claudius the consul of the former year, to the other that which Quintus Claudius the propraetor, had commanded, consisting of two legions each. It was decreed that Marcus Livius, proconsul, who was continued in command for the year, should take the two legions of volunteer slaves from Caius Terentius the propraetor, and that Quintus Mamilius, transferring his judicial business to his colleague, should occupy Gaul with the army which Lucius Porcius, the praetor, had commanded, with orders to lay waste the lands of those Gauls who had revolted to the Carthaginians on the approach of Hasdrubal. The protection of Sicily was assigned to Caius Servilius with the two legions which fought at Cannae, in the same manner as Caius Mamilius had held it. The old army which Aulus Hostilius had commanded was conveyed out of Sardinia, and the consuls enlisted a new legion, which Tiberius Claudius might take over with him. Quintus Claudius and Caius Hostilius Tubulus were continued in command for a year, that the former might hold Tarentum as his province, the latter, Capua. Marcus Valerius, the proconsul, to whom had been committed the protection of the sea-coast round Sicily, was ordered to deliver thirty ships to Caius Servilius, and return to the city with all the rest of the fleet.
[18] 11. In a state where the greatest anxiety prevailed, in consequence of the very critical situation in which the war stood, and where all events, prosperous or adverse, were attributed to the interposition of the gods, accounts of many prodigies were received; that the temple of Jupiter at Tarracina, and that of Mater Matuta at Satricum, had been struck by lightning. The people of Satricum were no less terrified by two snakes gliding into the temple of Jupiter by the very doors. A report was brought from Antium, that bloody ears of corn had been seen by the reapers. At Caere a pig with two heads had been littered, and a lamb yeaned which was both male and female. Intelligence was brought that two suns had been seen at Alba, and that light had suddenly appeared during night at Fregellae. An ox was reported to have spoken in the Roman territory. A copious perspiration was said to have exuded from the altar of Neptune, in the Flaminian circus; and the temples of Ceres, Safety, and Quirinus were said to have been struck by lightning. The consuls were directed to expiate these prodigies with victims of the larger sort, and to make a supplication for one day. These things were executed according to a decree of the senate. The extinction of the fire in the temple of Vesta struck more terror upon the minds of men than all the prodigies which were reported from abroad, or seen at home; and the vestal, who had the guarding of it for that night, was scourged by the command of Publius Licinius the pontiff. Although this event was not appointed by the gods as a portent, but had happened through human neglect, yet it was thought proper that it should be expiated with victims of the larger sort, and that a supplication should be made at the temple of Vesta.
[18] Before the consuls set out for the campaign, they were cautioned by the senate to take care that the common people should be brought back into the country; for since, through the goodness of the gods, the war was removed from the city of Rome and Latium, the country might be inhabited without fear. That it was most inconsistent that greater care should be taken in cultivating Sicily than Italy. But it was a matter by no means easy for the people, the free labourers having been cut off by war, and there being a scarcity of slaves, their cattle having been carried off as booty, and the farmhouses pulled down or burnt. A large number, however, compelled by the authority of the consuls, returned into the country. The mention of this affair had been occasioned by ambassadors of Placentia and Cremona, who complained that their lands were being invaded and laid waste by the neighbouring Gauls; that a large portion of their settlers had dispersed; that their cities were thinly inhabited, and their lands devastated and deserted. Mamilius the praetor was charged with the protection of the colonies from the enemy. The consuls, in conformity with a decree of the senate, issued an edict that all who were citizens of Cremona and Placentia should return to those colonies before a certain day; after which, in the beginning of spring, they set out for the campaign. Quintus Caecilius, the consul, received the army from Caius Nero; Lucius Veturius received his from Quintus Claudius the propraetor, filling it up with new-raised soldiers, whom he had himself enlisted. The consuls marched their army into the territory of Consentia, and devastating the country on all hands, when the troops were loaded with plunder, they were thrown into such confusion by some Bruttians and Numidian spearmen, who attacked them in a narrow defile, that not only the booty but the troops were in danger. There was more of confusion, however than fighting; and sending the booty in advance, the legions themselves also escaped into a place free from danger. Proceeding thence into Lucania, the whole of that people returned, without a contest, into subjection to the Roman people.
[18] 12. No action with Hannibal took place this year; for neither did he present himself after the public and personal calamity so recently inflicted, and the Romans did not provoke him while he remained quiet, such power did they consider that single general possessed, though every thing else around him was falling into ruin. Indeed I know not whether he was not more deserving of admiration in adversity than in prosperity; inasmuch as though he carried on a war in the territory of enemies through a period of thirteen years, at so great a distance from home, with varying success, and with, an army not composed of his own countrymen, but made up of the offscouring of all nations, without communion of laws, customs, or language, different in their appearance, their dress, their arms, their religious ceremonies and observances, and I had almost said, their gods; yet he so effectually united them by some one bond, that no disturbance ever arose either among the soldiers themselves, or between them and their general, though he often wanted money to pay them, and provisions, as being in a hostile country, through want of which, in the former Punic war, many dreadful transactions had occurred between the generals and their soldiers. But after the destruction of Hasdrubal and his army, in which all hopes of victory had been treasured up; and after retiring from the possession of every other part of Italy by withdrawing into Bruttium, one corner of it; to whom does it not appear wonderful that no disturbance arose in the camp? For to other circumstances this also was added, that he had no nope of subsisting his army, except from the lands of Bruttium, which, though they were all cultivated, would be very insufficient for the maintenance of so large an army. Besides, many of the youth were drawn off from the cultivation of the fields, and engaged in the war; and a custom also prevailed among the people of that nation, grafted on a naturally depraved inclination, of carrying on a predatory kind of warfare. Nor did he receive any supplies from home, where they were anxious about the retention of Spain, as if every thing was going on prosperously in Italy. In Spain the state of affairs was in one respect similar, but in another widely different; similar in that the Carthaginians, having been defeated with the loss of their general, had been driven to the remotest coast of that country, even to the ocean; but different, because Spain, both from the nature of the country and the genius of its inhabitants, was better adapted not only than Italy, but than any other part of the world, for renewing a war. And accordingly, therefore, though this was the first of the provinces on the continent which the Romans entered, it was the last which was at length reduced, in the present age, under the conduct and auspices of Augustus Caesar. Here Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo, the greatest and most renowned general concerned in the war, next to the Barcine family, returning from Gades, and encouraged in his hopes of reviving the war by Mago, son of Hamilcar, by means of levies made throughout the Farther Spain, armed as many as fifty thousand foot and four thousand five hundred horse. With regard to his mounted force, authors are pretty much agreed, but some state that seventy thousand infantry were led to the city Silpia. Here the two Carthaginian generals sat down on open plains, with a determination not to avoid a battle.
[18] 13. When Scipio received an account of the collection of so large an army, he felt convinced that he would not be a match for so great a multitude with the Roman legions only, without making a show at least of the auxiliary troops of the barbarians; at the same time that he did not think it right that they should form so large a portion of his force as to occasion important consequences if they should change sides, which had brought ruin upon his father and his uncle. Therefore, sending forward Silanus to Colca, who was sovereign of twenty-eight towns, to receive from him the infantry and cavalry, which he promised to enlist during the winter, he himself set out from Tarraco; and collecting small bodies of auxiliaries from his allies, who lay near his road as he proceeded, he came to Castulo. To this place Silanus led the auxiliaries, consisting of three thousand infantry and five hundred horse. Thence he advanced to the city of Baecula, with his entire army of countrymen and allies, foot and horse, amounting to forty-five thousand. Mago and Masinissa attacked them with the whole body of their cavalry while forming their camp, and would have dispersed those engaged in the works, had not a party of horse, concealed by Scipio behind an eminence conveniently situated for the purpose, unexpectedly charged them when rushing on to the attack, and, ere the battle was well begun, routed all the most forward, both those who had advanced nearest the rampart, and those who were foremost in charging the very workmen. With the rest of the troops who came up with their standards, and in order of march, the contest lasted longer, and was for a considerable time doubtful. But when first the light cohorts from the outposts, and then the troops withdrawn from the works and ordered to take arms, came up, being more numerous than those which had been engaged, and fresh while they were fatigued, and now a large body of armed troops rushed from the camp to the battle, the Carthaginians and Numidians at once turned their backs. At first they moved off in troops without breaking their ranks, through fear or precipitation; but afterwards, when the Romans pressed furiously upon their rear, and they were unable to bear the violence of their attack, then at length, utterly regardless of order, they fled precipitately in every direction, as suited each man’s convenience. And although, in consequence of this battle, the spirits of the Romans were considerably raised, and those of the enemy depressed, yet, for several days following, the horsemen and light-armed troops never ceased from skirmishes.
[18] 14. After having made sufficient trial of their strength in these slight engagements, Hasdrubal first led out his forces for battle, and then the Romans also advanced. But both the armies stood drawn up before their ramparts; and as neither party began the attack, and the sun was now going down, the Carthaginian first, and then the Roman, led back his troops into the camp. The same occurred for several days. The Carthaginian was always the first to lead out his troops into the field, and the first to give the signal for retiring, when they were weary with standing. Neither party sallied from their posts, nor was a weapon discharged, or a word uttered. On one side the Romans occupied the centre, on the other, the Carthaginians and Africans together; the allies occupied the wings, which were composed of Spaniards on both sides. The elephants which stood before the Carthaginian line, appeared at a distance like castles. It was now commonly talked of in both camps, that they would fight in the order in which they had stood when drawn up, and that their centres, composed of Romans and Carthaginians, who were the principals in the war, would engage with equal courage and strength. When Scipio perceived that this was firmly believed, he studiously altered all his arrangements against the day on which he intended to fight. He issued orders through the camp at evening, that the men and horses should be refreshed and fed before daylight, and that the horsemen, armed themselves, should keep their horses bridled and saddled. When it was scarcely yet daylight, he sent all his cavalry, with the light troops, against the Carthaginian outposts, and then without delay advanced himself, at the head of the heavy body of the legions, having strengthened his wings with Roman soldiers, and placed the allies in the centre, contrary to the full anticipations of his own men and of the enemy. Hasdrubal, alarmed by the shout of the cavalry, sprang out of his tent, and, perceiving a tumult before the rampart, and his own troops in a state of hurry and confusion, the standards of the legions gleaming at a distance, and the plain filled with the enemy, immediately sent out the whole body of his cavalry against the horsemen of the enemy; marching himself out of the camp, at the head of the infantry, without departing at all from the usual arrangement in forming his line. The battle between the cavalry had continued for a long time doubtful; nor could they decide it themselves, because, when repulsed, which was the case in a manner alternately, they had a safe retreat upon the line of infantry. But when the armies were not more than five hundred paces distant from each other, Scipio, sounding a retreat and opening his files, received into the midst of them the whole body of his cavalry and light-armed troops; and dividing them into two parts, placed them in reserve behind the wings. After this, when it was now time to commence the battle, he ordered the Spaniards, who formed the centre, to advance at a slow pace; he himself sent a messenger from the right wing, for that he commanded, to Silanus and Marcius to extend the wing on the left in the same manner as they should see him extend that on the right, and engage the enemy with the light-armed of the horse and foot, before the two centres could meet. The wings being thus extended, they advanced against the enemy at a rapid pace, with three cohorts of infantry, and three troops of horse, each with the addition of skirmishers, the rest following them in an oblique line. There was a depression in the centre of the line, because the battalions of the Spaniards advanced slower than the rest, and the wings had already encountered the enemy, when the veteran Carthaginians and Africans had not yet come within distance to discharge their darts; nor dared they run in different directions to the wings to assist them when fighting, lest they should expose their centre to the enemy approaching over against them. The wings were hard pressed, by a twofold attack; the cavalry, the light-armed, and the skirmishers, wheeling round, charged their flanks, while the cohorts pressed them hard in front, in order to separate the wings from the rest of the line.
[18] 15. The battle was now extremely unequal in every part, both because an irregular band of Balearians and raw Spaniards were opposed to Roman and Latin soldiers, and further, because, as the day was now getting on, Hasdrubal’s troops began to grow languid, having been dispirited by the alarm in the morning, and compelled to go out hastily into the field, without refreshing themselves with food. Scipio had designedly spun out the day, in order that the battle might take place at a late hour; for it was not until the seventh hour that the battalions of infantry charged the wings. It was considerably later before the battle reached the centres, so that the heat from the meridian sun, and the fatigue of standing under arms, together with hunger and thirst, enfeebled their bodies before they engaged the enemy. Thus they stood still, supporting themselves upon their shields. In addition to their other misfortunes, the elephants too, terrified at the tumultuous kind of attack of the cavalry, the skirmishers, and the light-armed, had transferred themselves from the wings to the centre. Fatigued therefore in mind and body, they gave ground, preserving their ranks, however, just as though the army were retreating entire at the command of their general. But when the victors, perceiving that the enemy had given way, charged them on all sides with increased vehemence on that very account, so that the shock could hardly be sustained, though Hasdrubal endeavoured to stop them and hinder them from retiring, vociferating, “that there were hills on their rear, and a safe refuge if they would retreat without precipitation;” yet, fear getting the better of their sense of shame, and all those who were nearest the enemy giving way, they immediately turned their backs, and all gave themselves up to disorderly flight. The first place they halted at was the foot of the hills, where they endeavoured to recall the soldiers to their ranks, the Romans hesitating to advance their line up the opposite steep; but afterwards, when they saw them push on briskly, renewing their flight, they were driven into their camp in extreme alarm. Nor were the Romans far from the rampart; and such was their impetuosity, that they would have taken their camp had not so violent a shower of rain suddenly poured down, while, as is usually the case, the solar rays darted with the greatest intensity between the clouds surcharged with water, that the victors with difficulty returned to their camp. Some were even deterred, by superstition, from making any further attempts that day. Though night and the rain invited the Carthaginians to take necessary rest, yet, as their fears and the danger would not allow them to delay, as it was expected that the enemy would assault their camp as soon as it was light, they raised their rampart by stones collected from the neighbouring valleys around them on all sides, with the determination to defend themselves by works, since there was but little protection in their arms. But the desertion of their allies made it appear safer to fly than stay. Attanes, prince of the Turdetani, began this revolt; he deserted at the head of a numerous band of his countrymen. Then two fortified towns, together with their garrisons, were delivered up by their praefects to the Romans. And, lest the evil should spread more widely, now that the disposition to revolt from the Carthaginians had evinced itself in one instance, Hasdrubal decamped during the silence of the ensuing night.
[18] 16. The troops in the outposts having brought word, as soon as it was light, that the enemy had departed, Scipio, despatching his cavalry in advance, ordered the army to move forward; and so rapidly were they led, that had they directly followed the track of the fugitives, they would certainly have overtaken them; but they trusted to the report of their guides, that there was a shorter cut to the river Baetis, where they might attack them while crossing it. Hasdrubal, being precluded from passing the river, turned his course to the ocean; and they now advanced in disorder and in the manner of fugitives, so that the Roman legions were left considerably behind. The cavalry and light-armed, attacking sometimes their rear, and sometimes their flank, harassed and delayed them; and as they were obliged to halt, in consequence of these frequent annoyances, and engaged sometimes the cavalry, at other times the skirmishers and the auxiliary infantry, the legions came up. After this it was no longer a fight, but a butchering as of cattle, till the general himself, who was the first to run away, made his escape to the neighbouring hills with about six thousand men half armed; the rest were slain or made prisoners. The Carthaginians hastily fortified an irregular camp on the highest eminence, and from thence they defended themselves without difficulty, the enemy failing in his attempt to get at them, from the difficulty of the ascent. But a siege in a place bare and affording no means of subsistence, was hardly to be supported, even for a few days; the troops therefore deserted to the enemy. At last the general himself, having procured some ships, for the sea was not at a great distance, left his army by night and effected his escape to Gades. Scipio, having heard of the flight of the general of the enemy, left ten thousand foot and one thousand cavalry for Silanus to carry on the siege of the camp, and returned to Tarraco with the rest of the troops, after a march of seventy days, during which he took cognizance of the causes of the petty princes and states, in order that rewards might be conferred according to a just estimate of their merits. After his departure, Masinissa, having held a private conference with Silanus, passed over into Africa with a few of his countrymen, in order that he might induce his nation also to acquiesce in his new designs. The cause of this sudden change was not so evident at the time, as the proof was convincing which was afforded by his subsequent fidelity, preserved to extreme old age, that he did not on this occasion act without reasonable grounds. Mago went to Gades in the ships which had been sent back by Hasdrubal. Of the rest of the troops thus abandoned by their generals, some deserted and others betook themselves to flight, and in this manner were dispersed through the neighbouring states. There was no body of them considerable either for numbers or strength. Such were, as near as possible, the circumstances under which the Carthaginians were driven out of Spain, under the conduct and auspices of Publius Scipio, in the thirteenth year from the commencement of the war, and the fifth from the time that Publius Scipio received the province and the army. Not long after, Silanus returned to Tarraco to Scipio, with information that the war was at an end.
[18] 17. Lucius Scipio was sent to Rome to convey the news of the reduction of Spain, and with him a number of distinguished captives. While everybody else extolled this achievement as an event in the highest degree joyful and glorious, yet the author of it alone, whose valour was such that he never thought he had achieved enough, and whose search for true glory was insatiable, considered the reduction of Spain as affording but a faint idea of the hopes which his aspiring mind had conceived. He now directed his view to Africa and Great Carthage, and the glorious termination of the war, as redounding to his honour, and giving lustre to his name. Judging it therefore to be now necessary to pave the way to his object, and to conciliate the friendship of kings and nations, he resolved first to sound the disposition of Syphax, king of the Masaesylians, a nation bordering on the Moors, and lying for the most part over-against that quarter of Spain in which New Carthage is situated. The king was at the present juncture in league with the Carthaginians; and Scipio, concluding that he would not hold it as more binding and sacred than was customary with barbarians, sent Caius Laelius as envoy to him with presents. The barbarian, delighted with these, and seeing that the Roman cause was then successful in every quarter, but that the Carthaginians were unfortunate in Italy, and no longer existed in Spain, consented to accept the friendship of the Romans, but refused to give or receive a solemn ratification of it except the Roman general himself were present in person. This being the case, Laelius returned to Scipio, having received from the king merely an assurance of a safe journey. To one desirous of getting a footing in Africa, Syphax was of great importance, as he was the most powerful king in that country, had already had experience of the Carthaginians themselves in war, and the boundaries of his dominions lay very conveniently with respect to Spain, from which they are separated by a narrow strait. Scipio, therefore, considering it an object of sufficient importance to warrant his attempting it, notwithstanding the greatness of the danger which attended it, since he could not effect it otherwise, left for the protection of Spain Lucius Marcius at Tarraco, and Marcus Silanus at New Carthage, to which place he had gone on foot by long marches; and setting out himself in company with Caius Laelius, with two quinqueremes from Carthage, passed over into Africa, working the vessels with oars for the greatest part of the voyage, in consequence of the calmness of the sea, though sometimes they were assisted by a gentle breeze. It so happened, that just at that time Hasdrubal, having been driven out of Spain, had entered the harbour with seven triremes, and having cast anchor was mooring his ships. The sight of two quinqueremes, which it was the firm opinion of everybody belonged to the enemy, and might be overpowered by superior numbers before they entered the harbour, produced no other effect than a tumult and confusion among the soldiers and sailors, who endeavoured to no purpose to get their arms and ships ready; for their sails, impelled by a somewhat brisker gale from the sea, brought the quinqueremes into the harbour before the Carthaginians weighed their anchors, and no one dared make any further stir now that they were in the king’s harbour. Thus Hasdrubal, who landed first, and Scipio and Laelius, who landed soon after, proceeded to the king.
[18] 18. Syphax considered it highly honourable to him, as it really was, that generals of the two most powerful people of the age should come to him on the same day to solicit peace and friendship with him. He invited them both to become his guests; and, as it was the will of fortune that they should be under one roof, and under the protection of the same household gods, he endeavoured to bring them together to a conference, in order to put an end to the difference between them; when Scipio declared, that there was no personal enmity between the Carthaginian and himself which he might do away with by a conference, and that he could not transact any business relating to the republic with an enemy without the command of the senate. But the king being earnest in his endeavours to persuade him to come to the same entertainment, lest one of his guests should appear to be excluded, he did not withhold his assent. They supped together at the king’s table, and Scipio and Hasdrubal even sat at meat on the same couch, because it was the king’s pleasure. So courteous was the manner of Scipio, so naturally happy and universal was his genius, that by his conversation he gained the esteem not only of Syphax, a barbarian, and unused to Roman manners, but even of a most inveterate enemy, who openly avowed, that “he appeared to him more to be admired for the qualities he displayed on a personal interview with him, than for his exploits in war, and that he had no doubt that Syphax and his kingdom were already at the disposal of the Romans, such were the abilities that man possessed for gaining the esteem of others. That it, therefore, was incumbent upon the Carthaginians not more to inquire by what means they had lost Spain, than to consider how they might retain possession of Africa. That it was not from a desire to visit foreign countries, or to roam about delightful coasts, that so great a Roman captain, leaving a recently subdued province, and his armies, had crossed over into Africa with only two ships, entering an enemy’s territory, and committing himself to the untried honour of the king, but in pursuance of a hope he had conceived of subduing Africa. That it had been long the object of his anxious solicitude, and had drawn from him open expressions of his indignation, that Scipio was not carrying on war in Africa in the same way as Hannibal was in Italy.” Scipio, having formed a league with Syphax, set out from Africa, and, after having been tossed about during his voyage by variable and generally tempestuous winds, made the port of New Carthage on the fourth day.
[18] 19. As Spain was undisturbed by a Carthaginian war, so it was evident that some of the states remained quiet more from fear, arising from a consciousness of demerit, than from sincere attachment. The most remarkable of them, both for their greatness and guilt, were Illiturgi and Castulo. Castulo had been in alliance with the Romans when in prosperity, but had revolted to the Carthaginians after the destruction of the Scipios and their armies. The Illiturgians, by betraying and putting to death those who fled thither after that calamity, had added villany to revolt. It would have been more deserved than expedient to have executed severe vengeance upon these people on his first arrival, while the affairs of Spain were in an uncertain state; but now, when all was tranquil, as the time for visiting them with punishment appeared to have arrived, he summoned Lucius Marcius from Tarraco, and sent him with a third of his forces to attack Castulo, and with the rest of the army he himself reached Illiturgi, after about five days’ march. The gates were closed, and every arrangement and preparation made for repelling an attack; so completely had the consciousness of what they deserved produced the same effect as a declaration of war against them. From this circumstance Scipio commenced his exhortation to his soldiers: he said, that “by closing their gates the Spaniards had themselves shown what their deserts were by what they feared, and that therefore they ought to prosecute the war against them with much greater animosity than against the Carthaginians. For with the latter the contest was carried on for empire and glory almost without any exasperated feeling, while they had to punish the former for perfidy, cruelty, and villany. That the time had now arrived when they should take vengeance for the horrid massacre of their fellow soldiers, and for the treachery which was prepared for themselves, had they been carried in their flight to the same place; and by the severity of the punishment inflicted in the present instance, establish it as a law for ever, that no one should consider a Roman citizen and soldier, whatever his situation, a fit object for injurious treatment.” Animated by this exhortation of their general, they distributed the scaling-ladders to men selected from each of the companies; and the army being divided into two parts, so that Laelius, as lieutenant-general, might command one, they attacked the city in two places at once; thus creating an alarm in two quarters at the same time. It was not by the exhortations of one general, nor of the several nobles who were present, that the townsmen were stimulated to a vigorous defence of the city, but by the fear which they themselves entertained; they bore in mind, and admonished each other, that the object aimed at was punishment, and not victory. That the only question for them was, where they should meet death, whether in the battle and in the field, where the indiscriminate chance of war frequently raised up the vanquished and dashed the victor to the ground; or whether, after a short interval, when the city was burnt and plundered, after suffering every horror and indignity, they should expire amid stripes and bonds before the eyes of their captive wives and children. Therefore, not only those who were of an age to bear arms, or men only, but women and children, beyond the powers of their minds and bodies, were there, supplying with weapons those who were fighting in defence of the place, and carrying stones to the walls for those who were strengthening the works; for not only was their liberty at stake, which excites the energies of the brave only, but they had before their eyes the utmost extremity of punishment, to be inflicted on all indiscriminately, and an ignominious death. Their minds were worked up to the highest pitch, both by emulation in toil and danger, and also by the mere sight of each other. Accordingly the contest was entered upon with such ardour, that the army which had subdued the whole of Spain was frequently driven back from the walls of one town, and exhibited such a want of resolution in the contest as was not very honourable to it. When Scipio perceived this, he was afraid lest, by the failure of his attempts, the courage of the enemy should be raised and his own troops be dispirited; and thinking it incumbent upon him to exert himself in person and share the danger, reproved his soldiers for their cowardice, and ordered the scaling-ladders to be brought, threatening to mount the wall himself, since the rest hesitated. He had now advanced near the walls with no small danger, when a shout was raised from all sides by the soldiers, who were alarmed at the danger their general was exposed to, and the scaling-ladders began to be reared in several places at once. Laelius too, in another quarter, pressed on vigorously. It was then that the energy of the townsmen was subdued, and those who defended the walls being beaten off, the Romans took possession of them. The citadel also was captured during the confusion on a side where it was thought impregnable.
[18] 20. Some African deserters, who were at that time among the Roman auxiliaries, while the townsmen were occupied in defending those quarters whence danger was apprehended, and the Romans were making approaches where they could gain access, observed that the most elevated part of the town, which was protected by a very high rock, was neither fortified by any work nor furnished with defenders. Being men of light make and nimble from being well exercised, they climbed up wherever they could gain access over the irregular projections of the rock, carrying with them iron spikes. If in any part they met with a cliff too steep and smooth, they fixed spikes at moderate intervals, and having thus formed a sort of steps, and those who were foremost pulling up those who followed, and those who were behind lifting up those before them, they succeeded in gaining the summit, whence they ran down with a shout into the city, which had already been taken by the Romans. Then it became manifest indeed that it was resentment and hatred which prompted the assault upon the city. No one thought of taking any alive, nor of booty, though every thing lay exposed to plunder. They butchered all indiscriminately, armed and unarmed, male and female. Their cruel resentment extended to the slaughter of infants. They then set fire to the houses, and pulled down those which could not be consumed by fire, so bent were they upon erasing even every vestige of the city, and blotting out the memory of their enemies. Scipio marched his army thence to Castulo, which was defended, not only by Spaniards who had assembled there, but also by the remains of the Carthaginian army, which had gone there from the various places to which they had been dispersed in their flight. But the news of the calamity of the Illiturgians had reached them before the arrival of Scipio; and in consequence of this, dismay and desperation had seized them; and as their cases were differently circumstanced, and each party was desirous of consulting its own safety independent of the other, at first secret jealousy, and then an open rupture, created a separation between the Carthaginians and Spaniards. Cerdubellus without disguise advised the latter to surrender. Himilco commanded the Carthaginian auxiliaries, which, together with the city, Cerdubellus delivered up to the Romans, having secretly obtained terms. This victory was attended with less cruelty; for not only was the guilt of this people less than the others, but their voluntary surrender had considerably mitigated resentment.
[18] 21. Marcius was then sent against the barbarians, to reduce under the authority and dominion of the Romans such of them as had not yet been subdued. Scipio returned to Carthage, to pay his vows to the gods, and to exhibit a gladiatorial show, which he had prepared on account of the death of his father and uncle. This exhibition of gladiators was not formed from that description of men which the lanistae are accustomed to procure, such as slaves, or those who sell their blood. All the service of the combatants was voluntary and gratuitous; for some were sent by the petty princes, to show an example of the natural courage of their people; others came forward to fight, in compliment to their general; others were induced to give and accept challenges, by a spirit of emulation and a desire of victory. Some decided by the sword disputes which they either could not or were unwilling to determine by argument, with an agreement that the matter in question should be given up to the victor. Nor was it confined to men of obscure rank, but comprehended persons of distinction and celebrity; such were Corbis and Orsua, cousins-german, who, having a dispute about the sovereignty of a city called Ibis, declared that they would contest it with the sword. Corbis was the elder of the two. The father of Orsua was the last sovereign, having succeeded to that dignity on the death of his elder brother. When Scipio was desirous of settling the dispute by argument and allaying their irritation, they both declared that they had refused that to their mutual kinsmen, and that they would appeal to no other judge, whether god or man, than Mars. The elder presuming upon his strength, the younger on the prime of youth, each wished to die in the combat rather than become the subject of the other; and every effort failing to prevent their prosecuting their mad design, they exhibited to the army a most interesting spectacle, and a proof how great mischief is occasioned among men by a thirst for power. The elder, in consequence of his experience in arms and his address, easily mastered the unscientific efforts of the younger. To this show of gladiators were added funeral games, proportioned to the means possessed, and with such magnificence as the provinces and the camp afforded.
[18] 22. Meanwhile the operations of the war were carried on with unabated activity by the lieutenant-generals. Marcius, crossing the river Baetis, which the natives call Certis, received the submission of two powerful cities without a contest. There was a city called Astapa, which had always sided with the Carthaginians; nor was it that which drew upon it the resentment of the Romans so much as the fact, that its inhabitants harboured an extraordinary animosity against them, which was not called for by the necessities of the war. Their city was not so secured by nature or art as to make their dispositions so fierce, but the natural disposition of the inhabitants, which took delight in plunder, had induced them to make excursions into the neighbouring lands belonging to the allies of the Romans, and to intercept such Roman soldiers, suttlers, and merchants as they found ranging about. They had also surrounded, by means of an ambuscade, and put to the sword on disadvantageous ground, a large company which was crossing their borders, for it had proved hardly safe to go in small parties. When the troops were marched up to assault this city, the inhabitants, conscious of their guilt, and seeing that it would be dangerous to surrender to an enemy so highly incensed, and that they could not hope to keep themselves in safety by means of their walls or their arms, resolved to execute upon themselves and those belonging to them a horrid and inhuman deed. They fixed upon a place in their forum, in which they collected the most valuable of their property, and having directed their wives and children to seat themselves upon this heap, they raised a pile of wood around it and threw on it bundles of twigs. They then ordered fifty armed youths to stand there and guard their fortunes, and the persons dearer to them than their fortunes, as long as the issue of the battle continued doubtful. If they should perceive that the battle went against them, and that it came to the point that the city must be captured, they might be assured that those whom they saw going out to engage the enemy would perish in the battle itself; but implored them by all the gods, celestial and infernal, that, mindful of their liberty, which must be terminated on that day either by an honourable death or ignominious servitude, they would leave nothing on which an exasperated enemy could wreak his fury; that they had fire and sword at their command, and it was better that friendly and faithful hands should destroy what must necessarily perish, than that enemies should insult it with haughty wantonness. To these exhortations a dreadful execration was added against any one who should be diverted from this purpose by hope or faint-heartedness. Then throwing open the gates, they rushed out at a rapid pace and with the utmost impetuosity. Nor was there any guard sufficiently strong opposed to them; for there could be nothing that was less apprehended than that they would have the courage to sally from their walls. A very few troops of horse, and the light-armed, hastily sent out of the camp for that purpose, opposed them. The battle was furious and spirited, rather than steady and regular in any degree. The horse, therefore, which had first encountered the enemy, being repulsed, created an alarm among the light-armed; and the battle would have been fought under the very rampart, had not the legions, which were their main strength, drawn out their line, though they had a very short time to form in. These too, for a short time, wavered around their standards, when the Astapans, blind with rage, rushed upon wounds and the sword with reckless daring; but afterwards the veteran soldiers, standing firm against their furious assaults, checked the violence of those that followed by the slaughter of the foremost. Soon after, the veteran troops themselves made an attempt to charge them, but seeing that not a man gave ground, and that they were inflexibly determined on dying each in his place, they extended their line, which the number of their troops enabled them to do with ease, and, surrounding their flanks, slew them all to a man while fighting in a circle.
[18] 24. But these, however, were acts committed by exasperated enemies in the heat of battle, and executed, in conformity with the laws of war, upon men armed and most fiercely resisting; there was another more horrible carnage in the city, where a harmless and defenceless crowd of women and children were butchered by their own countrymen, who threw their bodies, most of them still alive, upon the burning pile while streams of blood damped the rising flame; and lastly, wearied with the piteous slaughter of their friends, they threw themselves, arms and all, into the midst of the flames. When the carnage was now completed the victorious Romans came up, and at the first sight of so revolting a transaction they stood for some time wrapt in wonder and amazement; but afterwards, from a rapacity natural to humanity, wishing to snatch out of the fire the gold and silver which glittered amid the heap of other materials, some were caught by the flames, others scorched by the hot blasts, as the foremost were unable to retreat, in consequence of the immense crowd which pressed upon them. In this manner was Astapa destroyed by the sword and fire, without affording any booty to the soldiers. After the rest of the people in that quarter, influenced by fear, had made submission to him, Marcius led his victorious troops to Scipio, at Carthage. Just at this same time deserters arrived from Gades, who promised to betray the town and Carthaginian garrison which occupied it, together with the commander and the fleet. Mago had halted there after his flight, and having collected some ships on the ocean, had got together a considerable number of auxiliaries from the coast of Africa, on the other side the strait, and also by means of Hanno the prefect from the neighbouring parts of Spain. After pledges had been exchanged with the deserters, Marcius and Laelius were sent thither, the former with the light cohorts, the latter with seven triremes and one quinquereme, in order that they might act in concert by land and sea.
[18] 24. In consequence of Scipio’s being afflicted with a severe fit of illness, which rumour represented as more serious than it really was; for every one made some addition to the account he had received, from a desire inherent in mankind of intentionally exaggerating reports, the whole province, and more especially the distant parts of it, were thrown into a state of ferment; and it was evident what a serious disturbance would have been excited had he really died, when an unfounded report created such violent commotions. Neither the allies kept their allegiance, nor the army their duty. Mandonius and Indibilis, who were not at all satisfied with what had occurred, for they had anticipated with certainty that they would have the dominion of Spain on the expulsion of the Carthaginians, called together their countrymen the Lacetani, and summoning the Celtiberian youth to arms, devastated in a hostile manner the territories of the Suessetanians and Sedetanians, allies of the Romans. Besides, a mutiny arose in the camp at Sucro. Here were eight thousand men, stationed as a guard over the nations dwelling on this side the Iberus. It was not on hearing uncertain rumours respecting the life of the general that their minds were first excited, but previously, owing to the licentiousness which naturally results from long-continued idleness, and in some degree also owing to the restraint felt in time of peace by men who had been accustomed to live freely on what they gained by plunder in an enemy’s country. At first they only discoursed in private, asking what they were doing among people who were at peace with them, if there was a war in the province? if the war was terminated and the province completely subdued, why were they not conveyed back into Italy? The pay also was demanded with more insolence than was customary or consistent with military subordination, and the guards cast reproaches upon the tribunes while going round to the watches. Some too had gone out by night into the neighbouring lands, belonging to persons at peace with the Romans, to plunder; but at last they quitted their standards in the day-time and openly without furloughs. Every thing was done according to the caprice and unrestrained will of the soldiers, and nothing according to rule and military discipline, or the orders of those who were in command. The form, however, of a Roman camp was preserved solely in consequence of the hopes they entertained that the tribunes, catching the spirit of insubordination, would not be averse from taking part in the mutiny and defection, on which account they suffered them to dispense justice in their courts, went to them for the watch-word, and served in their turn on the outposts and watches; and as they had taken away the power of command, so they preserved the appearance of obedience to orders, by spontaneously executing their own. Afterwards, when they perceived that the tribunes censured and reprobated their proceedings, endeavoured to counteract them, and publicly declared that they would not take any share in their disorderly conduct, the mutiny assumed a decided character; when, after driving the tribunes from their courts, and shortly after from the camp, the command was conferred by universal consent upon Caius Albius of Cales and Caius Atrius of Umbria, common soldiers, who were the prime movers of the sedition. These men were so far from being satisfied with the ornaments used by tribunes, that they had the audacity to lay hold even of the insignia of the highest authority, the fasces and axes, without ever reflecting that their own backs and necks were in danger from those very rods and axes which they carried before them to intimidate others. Their mistaken belief of the death of Scipio had blinded their minds, and they doubted not that, in a short time, when that event should be made generally known, all Spain would blaze with war; that during this confusion money might be exacted from the allies and the neighbouring cities plundered; and that in this unsettled state of affairs, when there was nothing which any man would not dare, their own acts would be less conspicuous.
[18] 25. As they expected that other fresh accounts would follow those which they had received, not only of the death, but even of the burial, of Scipio, and yet none arrived; and as the rumour which had been so idly originated began to die away, the first author of it began to be sought out; and each backing out in order that he might appear rather to have inconsiderately credited than to have fabricated such a report, the leaders were forsaken, and began now to dread their own ensigns of authority, and to apprehend that, instead of that empty show of command which they wore, a legitimate and rightful power would be turned against them. The mutiny being thus paralysed, and credible persons bringing in accounts, first, that Scipio was alive, and, soon after, that he was even in good health, seven military tribunes were sent by Scipio himself. At the first arrival of these their minds were violently excited; but they were soon calmed by the mild and soothing language which they addressed to such of their acquaintance as they met with; for, going round first of all to the tents, and then entering the principia and the praetorium, wherever they observed circles of men conversing together, they addressed them, inquiring rather what it was that had occasioned their displeasure and sudden consternation, than taxing them with what had occurred. “That they had not received their pay at the appointed time,” was generally complained; and “that although at the time of the horrid transaction of the Illiturgians, and after the destruction of two generals and two armies, the Roman cause had been defended and the province retained by their valour; the Illiturgians had received the punishment due to their offence, but there was no one found to reward them for their meritorious services.” The tribunes replied, “that, considering the nature of their complaints, what they requested was just, and that they would lay it before the general; that they were happy that there was nothing of a more gloomy and irremediable character; that both Publius Scipio, by the favour of the gods, and the commonwealth, were in a situation to requite them.” Scipio, who was accustomed to war but inexperienced in the storms of sedition, felt great anxiety on the occasion, lest the army should run into excess in transgressing, or himself in punishing. For the present he resolved to persist in the lenient line of conduct with which he had begun, and sending collectors round to the tributary states, to give the soldiers hopes of soon receiving their pay. Immediately after this a proclamation was issued that they should come to Carthage to receive their pay, whether they wished to do so in detached parties or all in a body. The sudden suppression of the rebellion among the Spaniards had the effect of tranquillizing the mutiny, which was by this time beginning to subside of itself; for Mandonius and Indibilis, relinquishing their attempt, had returned within their borders when intelligence was brought that Scipio was alive; nor did there now remain any person, whether countryman or foreigner, whom they could make their companion in their desperate enterprise. On examining every method, they had no alternative except that which afforded a retreat from wicked designs, which was not of the safest kind, namely, to commit themselves either to the just anger of the general, or to his clemency, of which they need not despair. For he had pardoned even enemies whom he had encountered with the sword; while they reflected that their sedition had been unaccompanied with wounds or blood, and was neither in itself of an atrocious character nor merited severe punishment. So natural is it for men to be over-eloquent in extenuating their own demerit. They felt doubtful whether they should go to demand their pay in single cohorts or in one entire body; but the opinion that they should go in a body, which they regarded as the safer mode, prevailed.
[18] 26. At the same time, when they were employed in these deliberations, a council was held on their case at Carthage; when a warm debate took place as to whether they should visit with punishment the originators only of the mutiny, who were in number not more than thirty-five, or, whether atonement should be made for this defection, (for such it was rather than a mutiny,) of so dreadful a character as a precedent, by the punishment of a greater number. The opinion recommending the more lenient course, that the punishment should fall where the guilt originated, was adopted. For the multitude a reprimand was considered sufficient. On the breaking up of the council, orders were given to the army, which was in Carthage, to prepare for an expedition against Mandonius and Indibilis, and to get ready provisions for several days, in order that they might appear to have been deliberating about this. The seven tribunes who had before gone to Sucro to quell the mutiny, having been sent out to meet the army, gave in, each of them, five names of persons principally concerned in the affair, in order that proper persons might be employed to invite them to their homes, with smiles and kind words; and that, when overpowered with wine, they might be thrown into chains. They were not far distant from Carthage when the intelligence, received from persons on the road, that the whole army was going the following day with Marcus Silanus against the Lacetanians, not only freed them from all the apprehensions which, though they did not give utterance to them, sat heavy upon their minds, but occasioned the greatest transport, because they would thus have the general alone, and in their power, instead of being themselves in his. They entered the city just at sun-set, and saw the other army making every preparation for a march. Immediately on their arrival they were greeted in terms feigned for the purpose, that their arrival was looked upon by the general as a happy and seasonable circumstance, for they had come when the other army was just on the point of setting out. After which they proceeded to refresh themselves. The authors of the mutiny, having been conveyed to their lodgings by proper persons, were apprehended by the tribunes without any disturbance, and thrown into chains. At the fourth watch the baggage belonging to the army, which, as it was pretended, was about to march, began to set out. As soon as it was light the troops marched, but were stopped at the gate, and guards were sent round to all the gates to prevent any one going out of the city. Then those who had arrived the day before, having been summoned to an assembly, ran in crowds into the forum to the tribunal of the general, with the presumptuous purpose of intimidating him by their shouts. At the same time that the general mounted the tribunal, the armed troops, which had been brought back from the gates, spread themselves around the rear of the unarmed assembly. Then all their insolence subsided; and, as they afterwards confessed, nothing terrified them so much as the unexpected vigour and hue of the general, whom they had supposed they should see in a sickly state, and his countenance, which was such as they declared that they did not remember to have ever seen it even in battle. He sat silent for a short time till he was informed that the instigators of the mutiny were brought into the forum, and that every thing was now in readiness.
[18] 27. Then, a herald having obtained silence, he thus began: “I imagined that language would never fail me in which to address my army; not that I have ever accustomed myself to speaking rather than action, but because, having been kept in a camp almost from my boyhood, I had become familiar with the dispositions of soldiers. But I am at a loss both for sentiments and expressions with which to address you, whom I know not even by what name I ought to call. Can I call you countrymen, who have revolted from your country? or soldiers, who have rejected the command and authority of your general, and violated the solemn obligation of your oath? Can I call you enemies? I recognise the persons, faces, dress, and mien of fellow countrymen; but I perceive the actions, expressions, intentions, and feelings of enemies. For what have you wished and hoped for, but what the Ilergetians and Lacetanians did. Yet they followed Mandonius and Indibilis, men of royal rank, who were the leaders of their mad project; you conferred the auspices and command upon the Umbrian, Atrius, and the Calenian, Albius. Deny, soldiers, that you were all concerned in this measure, or that you approved of it when taken. I shall willingly believe, when you disclaim it, that it was the folly and madness of a few. For the acts which have been committed are of such a nature, that, if the whole army participated in them, they could not be expiated without atonements of tremendous magnitude. Upon these points, like wounds, I touch with reluctance; but unless touched and handled, they cannot be cured. For my own part, I believed that, after the Carthaginians were expelled from Spain, there was not a place in the whole province where, or any persons to whom, my life was obnoxious; such was the manner in which I had conducted myself, not only towards my allies, but even towards my enemies. But lo, even in my own camp, so much was I deceived in my opinion, the report of my death was not only readily believed, but anxiously waited for. Not that I wish to implicate you all in this enormity; for, be assured, if I supposed that the whole of my army desired my death, I would here immediately expire before your eyes; nor could I take any pleasure in a life which was odious to my countrymen and my soldiers. But every multitude is in its nature like the ocean; which, though in itself incapable of motion, is excited by storms and winds. So, also, in yourselves there is calm and there are storms; but the cause and origin of your fury is entirely attributable to those who led you on; you have caught your madness by contagion. Nay, even this day you do not appear to me to be aware to what a pitch of phrensy you have proceeded; what a heinous crime you have dared to commit against myself, your country, your parents, your children; against the gods, the witnesses of your oath; against the auspices under which you serve; against the laws of war, the discipline of your ancestors, and the majesty of the highest authority. With regard to myself, I say nothing. You may have believed the report of my death rather inconsiderately than eagerly. Lastly, suppose me to be such a man that it could not at all be a matter of astonishment that my army should be weary of my command, yet what had your country deserved of you, which you betrayed by making common cause with Mandonius and Indibilis? What the Roman people, when, taking the command from the tribunes appointed by their suffrages, you conferred it on private men? When, not content even with having them for tribunes, you, a Roman army, conferred the fasces of your general upon men who never had a slave under their command? Albius and Atrius had their tents in your general’s pavilion. With them the trumpet sounded, from them the word was taken, they sat upon the tribunal of Scipio, upon whom the lictor attended, for them the crowd was cleared away as they moved along, before them the fasces with the axes were carried. When showers of stones descend, lightnings are darted from the heavens, and animals give birth to monsters, you consider these things as prodigies. This is a prodigy which can be expiated by no victims, by no supplications, without the blood of those men who have dared to commit so great a crime.
[18] 28. “Now, though villany is never guided by reason, yet so far as it could exist in so nefarious a transaction, I would fain know what was your design. Formerly, a legion which was sent to garrison Rhegium, wickedly put to the sword the principal inhabitants and kept possession of that opulent city through a space of ten years; on account of which enormity the entire legion, consisting of four thousand men, were beheaded in the forum at Rome. But they, in the first place, did not put themselves under the direction of Atrius the Umbrian, scarcely superior to a scullion, whose name even was ominous, but of Decius Jubellius, a military tribune; nor did they unite themselves with Pyrrhus, or with the Samnites or Lucanians, the enemies of the Roman people. But you made common cause with Mandonius and Indibilis, and intended also to have united your arms with them. They intended to have held Rhegium as a lasting settlement, as the Campanians held Capua, which they took from its ancient Tuscan inhabitants; and as the Mamertines held Messana in Sicily, without any design of commencing without provocation a war upon the Roman people or their allies. Was it your purpose to hold Sucro as a place of abode? where, had I, your general, left you on my departure after the reduction of the province, you would have been justified in imploring the interference of gods and men, because you could not return to your wives and children. But suppose that you banished from your minds all recollection of these, as you did of your country and myself; I would wish to track the course of a wicked design, but not of one utterly insane. While I was alive, and the rest of the army safe, with which in one day I took Carthage, with which I routed, put to flight, and expelled from Spain four generals and four armies of the Carthaginians; did you, I say, who were only eight thousand men, all of course of less worth than Albius and Atrius, to whom you subjected yourselves, hope to wrest the province of Spain out of the hands of the Roman people? I lay no stress upon my own name, I put it out of the question. Let it be supposed that I have not been injured by you in any respect beyond the ready credence of my death. What! if I were dead, was the state to expire with me? was the empire of the Roman people to fall with me? Jupiter, most good and great, would not have permitted that the existence of the city, built under the auspices and sanction of the gods to last for ever, should terminate with that of this frail and perishable body. The Roman people have survived those many and distinguished generals who were all cut off in one war; Flaminius, Paulus, Gracchus, Posthumius Albinus, Marcus Marcellus, Titus Quinctius Crispinus, Cneius Fulvius, my kinsmen the Scipios; and will survive a thousand others who may perish, some by the sword, others by disease; and would the Roman state have been buried with my single corpse? You yourselves, here in Spain, when your two generals, my father and my uncle, fell, chose Septimus Marcius as your general to oppose the Carthaginians, exulting on account of their recent victory. And thus I speak, on the supposition that Spain would have been without a leader. Would Marcus Silanus, who was sent into the province with the same power and the same command as myself, would Lucius Scipio my brother, and Caius Laelius, lieutenant-generals, have been wanting to avenge the majesty of the empire? Could the armies, the generals themselves, their dignity or their cause, be compared with one another? And even had you got the better of all these, would you bear arms in conjunction with the Carthaginians against your country, against your countrymen? Would you wish that Africa should rule Italy, and Carthage the city of Rome? If so, for what offence on the part of your country?
[18] 29. “An unjust sentence of condemnation, and a miserable and undeserved banishment, formerly induced Coriolanus to go and fight against his country; he was restrained, however, by private duty from public parricide. What grief, what resentment instigated you? Was the delay of your pay for a few days, during the illness of your general, a reason of sufficient weight for you to declare war against your country? to revolt from the Roman people and join the Ilergetians? to leave no obligation, divine or human, unviolated? Without doubt, soldiers, you were mad; nor was the disease which seized my frame more violent than that with which your minds were affected. I shrink with horror from the relation of what men believed, what they hoped and wished. Let oblivion cover all these things if possible; if not, however it be, let them be covered in silence. I must confess my speech must have appeared to you severe and harsh, but how much more harsh, think you, must your actions be than my words! Do you think it reasonable that I should suffer all the acts which you have committed, and that you should not bear with patience even to hear them mentioned? But you shall not be reproached even with these things any further. I could wish that you might as easily forget them as I shall. Therefore, as far as relates to the general body of you, if you repent of the error you have committed, I shall have received sufficient and more than sufficient atonement for it. Albius the Calenian, and Atrius the Umbrian, with the rest of the principal movers of this impious mutiny, shall expiate with their blood the crime they have perpetrated. To yourselves, if you have returned to a sound state of mind, the sight of their punishment ought not only to be not unpleasant, but even gratifying; for there are no persons to whom the measures they have taken are more hostile and injurious than to you.” He had scarcely finished speaking, when, according to the plan preconcerted, every object of terror was at once presented to their eyes and ears. The troops, which had formed a circle round the assembly, clashed their swords against their shields; the herald’s voice was heard citing by name the persons who had been condemned in the council; the culprits were dragged naked into the midst of the assembly, and at the same time all the apparatus for punishment was brought forth. They were tied to the stake, scourged with rods, and decapitated; while those who were present were so benumbed with fear, that not only no expression of dissatisfaction at the severity of the punishment, but not even a groan was heard. They were then all dragged out, the place was cleared, and the men cited by name took the oath of allegiance to Scipio before the military tribunes, each receiving his full demand of pay as he answered to his name. Such was the termination and result which the insurrection of the soldiers, which began at Sucro, met with.
[18] 30. During the time of these transactions, Hanno, the lieutenant-general of Mago, having been sent from Gades to the river Baetis with a small body of Africans, by tempting the Spaniards with money, armed as many as four thousand men; but afterwards, being deprived of his camp by Lucius Marcius, and losing the principal part of his troops in the confusion occasioned by its capture, and some also in the flight, for the cavalry pursued them closely while they were dispersed, he made his escape with a few attendants. During these transactions on the river Baetis, Laelius in the mean time, sailing out of the straits into the ocean, came with his fleet before Carteia, a city situated on the coast of the ocean, where the sea begins to expand itself, after being confined in a narrow strait. He had entertained hopes of having Gades betrayed to him without a contest, persons having come unsolicited into the Roman camp to make promises to that effect, as has been before mentioned. The plot was discovered before it was ripe, and all having been apprehended, were placed by Mago in the hands of Adherbal the praetor, to be conveyed to Carthage. Adherbal, having put the conspirators on board a quinquereme, sent it in advance, because it sailed slower than a trireme, and followed himself at a moderate distance with eight triremes. The quinquereme was just entering the strait, when Laelius, who had himself also sailed out of the harbour of Carteia in a quinquereme, followed by seven triremes, bore down upon Adherbal and his triremes, feeling assured that the trireme, when once caught in the rapid strait, would not be able to return against the opposing current. The Carthaginian, alarmed by the suddenness of the affair, hesitated for some little time whether he should follow the trireme, or turn his prows against the enemy. This very delay put it out of his power to decline an action, for they were now within a weapon’s cast, and the enemy were bearing down upon him on all sides. The current also had rendered it impossible to manage the ships. Nor was the action like a naval engagement, inasmuch as it was in no respect subject to the control of the will, nor afforded any opportunity for the exercise of skill or method. The nature of the strait and the tide, which solely and entirely governed the contest, carried the ships against those of their own and the enemy’s party indiscriminately, though striving in a contrary direction; so that you might see one ship which was flying whirled back by an eddy and driven against the victors, and another which was engaged in pursuit, if it had fallen into an opposite current, turning itself away as if for flight. And when actually engaged, one ship while bearing down upon another with its beak directed against it, assuming an oblique position itself, received a stroke from the beak of the other; while another which lay with its side exposed to the enemy, receiving a sudden impulse, was turned round so as to present its prow. While the triremes were thus engaged in a doubtful and uncertain contest, in which every thing was governed by chance, the Roman quinquereme, whether being more manageable in consequence of its weight, or by means of more banks of oars making its way through the eddies, sunk two triremes, and swept off the oars from one side of another, while sailing by it with great violence. The rest too, had they come in its way, it would have disabled; but Adherbal, with his remaining four ships, sailed over into Africa.
[18] 31. Laelius returned victorious into Carteia; and hearing there what had occurred at Gades, that the plot had been discovered, the conspirators sent to Carthage, and that the hopes which had brought them there had been completely frustrated, he sent a message to Lucius Marcius, to the effect that, unless they wished to waste time uselessly in lying before Gades, they should return to the general; and Marcius consenting to the proposal, they both returned to Carthage a few days after. In consequence of their departure, Mago not only obtained a temporary relief from the dangers which beset him on all sides, both by sea and land, but also on hearing of the rebellion of the Ilergetians, conceived hopes of recovering Spain, and sent messengers to Carthage to the senate, who, at the same time that they represented to them in exaggerated terms both the intestine dissension in the Roman camp and the defection of their allies, might exhort them to send succours by which the empire of Spain, which had been handed down to them by their ancestors, might be regained. Mandonius and Indibilis, retiring within their borders, remained quiet for a little time, not knowing what course to take, till they knew what was determined upon respecting the mutiny; but not distrusting that if Scipio pardoned the error of his own countrymen, they also might obtain the same. But when the severe punishment inflicted came to be generally known, concluding that their offence also would be considered as demanding a similar expiation, they again summoned their countrymen to arms; and assembling the auxiliaries which had joined them before, they crossed over into the Sedetanian territory, where they had had a fixed camp at the beginning of the revolt, with twenty thousand foot and two thousand five hundred horse.
[18] 32. Scipio having without difficulty regained the affection of his soldiers, both by his punctuality in discharging the arrears of pay to all, as well the guilty as the innocent, and particularly by the looks and language of reconciliation towards all, before he quitted Carthage summoned an assembly; and after inveighing at large against the perfidy of the petty princes who were in rebellion, declared “that the feelings with which he set out to take revenge for their villany were widely different from those with which he lately corrected the error committed by his countrymen. That on the latter occasion, he had with groans and tears, as though he were cutting his own vitals, expiated either the imprudence or the guilt of eight thousand men with the heads of thirty; but now he was going to the destruction of the Ilergetians with joyful and animated feelings: for they were neither natives of the same soil, nor united with him by any bond of society. The only connexion which did subsist between them, that of honour and friendship, they had themselves severed by their wicked conduct.” When he looked at the troops which composed his army, besides that he saw that they were all either of his own country, or allies and of the Latin confederacy; he was also strongly affected by the circumstance, that there was scarcely a soldier in it who was not brought out of Italy into that country either by his uncle, Cneius Scipio, who was the first of the Roman name who had come into that province, or by his father when consul, or by himself. That they were all accustomed to the name and auspices of the Scipios; that it was his wish to take them home to their country to receive a well-earned triumph; and that he hoped that they would support him when he put up for the consulship, as if the honour sought were to be shared in common by them all. With regard to the expedition which they were just going to undertake, that the man who considered it as a war must be forgetful of his own achievements. That, by Hercules, Mago, who had fled for safety with a few ships beyond the limits of the world into an island surrounded by the ocean, was a source of greater concern to him than the Ilergetians; for in it there was both a Carthaginian general and a Carthaginian army, whatever might be its numbers; while here were only robbers and leaders of robbers, who, though they possessed sufficient energy for ravaging the lands of their neighbours, burning their houses, and carrying off their cattle, yet would have none at all in a regular and pitched battle; and who would come to the encounter relying more on the swiftness with which they can fly than on their arms. “Accordingly,” he said, “that he had thought it right to quell the Ilergetians before he quitted the province, not because he saw that any danger could arise from them, or that a war of greater importance could grow out of these proceedings; but in the first place, that a revolt of so heinous a character might not go unpunished, and in the next place, that not a single enemy might be said to be left in a province which had been subdued with such valour and success. He bid them, therefore, follow him, with the assistance of the gods, not so much to make war upon, for the contest was not with an enemy who was upon an equality with them, but to take vengeance on the basest of men.”
[18] 33. After this harangue he dismissed them, with orders to get themselves in readiness in every respect for marching the next day; when, setting out, he arrived at the river Iberus in ten days. Then crossing the river, he, on the fourth day, pitched his camp within sight of the enemy. Before him was a plain enclosed on all sides by mountains. Into the valley thus formed Scipio ordered some cattle, taken chiefly from the lands of the enemy, to be driven, in order to excite the rapacity of the barbarians, and then sent some light-armed troops as a protection for them, directing Laelius to charge the enemy from a place of concealment when they were engaged in skirmishing. A mountain which projected conveniently concealed the ambuscade of the cavalry, and the battle began without delay. The Spaniards, as soon as they saw the cattle at a distance, rushed upon them, and the light-armed troops attacked the Spaniards while occupied with their booty. At first they annoyed each other with missiles; but afterwards, having discharged their light weapons, which were calculated to provoke rather than to decide the contest, they drew their swords, and began to engage foot to foot. The fight between the infantry would have been doubtful, but that the cavalry then came up, and not only, charging them in front, trod down all before them, but some also, riding round by the foot of the hill, presented themselves on their rear, so that they might intercept the greater part of them; and consequently the carnage was greater than usually takes place in light and skirmishing engagements. The resentment of the barbarians was rather inflamed by this adverse battle, than their spirits depressed. Accordingly, that they might not appear cast down, they marched out into the field the following day as soon as it was light. The valley, which was confined, as has been before stated, would not contain all their forces. About two-thirds of their foot and all their cavalry came down to the engagement. The remainder of their infantry they stationed on the declivity of the hill. Scipio, conceiving that the confined nature of the ground would be in his favour, both because the Roman troops were better adapted for fighting in a contracted space than the Spanish, and also because the enemy had come down and formed their line on ground which would not contain all their forces, applied his mind to a new expedient. For he considered that he could not himself cover his flanks with his cavalry, and that those of the enemy which they had led out, together with their infantry, would be unable to act. Accordingly he ordered Laelius to lead the cavalry round by the hills as secretly as possible, and separate, as far as he could, the fight between the cavalry from that between the infantry. He himself drew up the whole body of his infantry against the enemy, placing four cohorts in front, because he could not extend his line further. He commenced the battle without delay, in order that the contest itself might divert the attention of the enemy, and prevent their observing the cavalry which were passing along the hills. Nor were they aware that they had come round before they beard the noise occasioned by the engagement of the cavalry in their rear. Thus there were two battles; two lines of infantry and two bodies of horse being engaged within the space occupied by the plain lengthwise; and that because it was too narrow to admit of both descriptions of force being engaged in the same lines. When the Spanish infantry could not assist their cavalry, nor their cavalry the infantry, and the infantry, which had rashly engaged in the plain, relying on the assistance of the cavalry, were being cut to pieces, the cavalry themselves also, being surrounded and unable to stand the shock of the enemy’s infantry in front, (for by this time their own infantry were completely overthrown,) nor of the cavalry in their rear, after having formed themselves into a circle and defended themselves for a long time, their horses standing still, were all slain to a man. Nor did one person, horse or foot, survive of those who were engaged in the valley. The third part, which stood upon the hill rather to view the contest in security than to take any part of it upon themselves, had both time and space to fly; among whom the princes themselves also fled, having escaped during the confusion, before the army was entirely surrounded.
[18] 34. The same day, besides other booty, the camp of the Spaniards was taken, together with about three thousand men. Of the Romans and their allies as many as one thousand two hundred fell in that battle; more than three thousand were wounded. The victory would have been less bloody had the battle taken place in a plain more extended, and affording facilities for flight. Indibilis, renouncing his purpose of carrying on war, and considering that his safest reliance in his present distress was on the tried honour and clemency of Scipio, sent his brother Mandonius to him; who, falling prostrate before his knees, ascribed his conduct to the fatal frenzy of those times, when, as it were from the effects of some pestilential contagion, not only the Ilergetians and Lacetanians, but even the Roman camp had been infected with madness. He said that his own condition, and that of his brother and the rest of his countrymen, was such, that either, if it seemed good, they would give back their lives to him from whom they had received them, or if preserved a second time, they would in return for that favour devote their lives for ever to the service of him to whom alone they were indebted for them. They before placed their reliance on their cause, when they had not yet had experience of his clemency, but now, on the contrary, placing no reliance on their cause, all their hopes were centred in the mercy of the conqueror. It was a custom with the Romans, observed from ancient times, not to exercise any authority over others, as subject to them, in cases where they did not enter into friendship with them by a league and on equal terms, until they had surrendered all they possessed, sacred and profane; until they had received hostages, taken their arms from them, and placed garrisons in their cities. In the present instance, however, Scipio, after inveighing at great length against Mandonius, who stood before him, and Indibilis, who was absent, said “that they had justly forfeited their lives by their wicked conduct, but that they should be preserved by the kindness of himself and the Roman people. Further, that he would neither take their arms from them, (which only served as pledges to those who feared rebellion,) but would leave them the free use of them, and their minds free from fear; nor would he take vengeance on their unoffending hostages, but upon themselves, should they revolt, not inflicting punishment upon a defenceless but an armed enemy. That he gave them the liberty of choosing whether they would have the Romans favourable to them or incensed against them, for they had experienced them under both circumstances.” Thus Mandonius was allowed to depart, having only a pecuniary fine imposed upon him to furnish the means of paying the troops. Scipio himself, having sent Marcius in advance into the Farther Spain, and sent Silanus back to Tarraco, waited a few days until the Ilergetians had paid the fine imposed upon them; and then, setting out with some troops lightly equipped, overtook Marcius when he was now drawing near to the ocean.
[18] 35. The negotiation which had some time before commenced respecting Masinissa, was delayed from one cause after another; for the Numidian was desirous by all means of conferring with Scipio in person, and of touching his right hand in confirmation of their compact. This was the cause of Scipio’s undertaking at this time a journey of such a length, and into so remote a quarter. Masinissa, when at Gades, received information from Marcius of the approach of Scipio, and by pretending that his horses were injured by being pent up in the island, and that they not only caused a scarcity of every thing to the rest, but also felt it themselves; moreover that his cavalry were beginning to lose their energy for want of employment; he prevailed upon Mago to allow him to cross over to the continent, to plunder the adjacent country of Spain. Having passed over, he sent forward three chiefs of the Numidians, to fix a time and place for the conference desiring that two might be detained by Scipio as hostages. The third being sent back to conduct Masinissa to the place to which he was directed to bring him, they came to the conference with a few attendants. The Numidian had long before been possessed with admiration of Scipio from the fame of his exploits; and his imagination had pictured to him the idea of a grand and magnificent person; but his veneration for him was still greater when he appeared before him. For besides that his person, naturally majestic in the highest degree, was rendered still more so by his flowing hair, by his dress, which was not in a precise and ornamental style, but truly masculine and soldier-like, and also by his age, for he was then in full vigour of body, to which the bloom of youth, renewed as it were after his late illness, had given additional fulness and sleekness. The Numidian, who was in a manner thunderstruck by the mere effect of the meeting, thanked him for having sent home his brother’s son. He affirmed, that from that time he had sought for this opportunity, which being at length presented to him, by favour of the immortal gods, he had not allowed to pass without seizing it. That he desired to serve him and the Roman people in such a manner, as that no one foreigner should have aided the Roman interest with greater zeal than himself. Although he had long since wished it, he had not been so able to effect it in Spain, a foreign and strange country; but that it would be easy for him to do so in that country in which he had been born and educated, under the hope of succeeding to his father’s throne. If, indeed, the Romans should send the same commander, Scipio, into Africa, he entertained a well-grounded hope that Carthage would continue to exist but a short time. Scipio saw and heard him with the highest delight, both because he knew that he was the first man in all the cavalry of the enemy, and because the youth himself exhibited in his manner the strongest proof of a noble spirit. After mutual pledges of faith, he set out on his return to Tarraco. Masinissa, having laid waste the adjacent lands, with the permission of the Romans, that he might not appear to have passed over into the continent to no purpose, returned to Gades.
[18] 36. Mago, who despaired of success in Spain, of which he had entertained hopes, from the confidence inspired first by the mutiny of the soldiers, and afterwards by the defection of Indibilis, received a message from Carthage, while preparing to cross over into Africa, that the senate ordered him to carry over into Italy the fleet he had at Gades; and hiring there as many as he could of the Gallic and Ligurian youth, to form a junction with Hannibal, and not to suffer the war to flag which had been begun with so much vigour and still more success. For this object Mago not only received a supply of money from Carthage, but himself also exacted as much as he could from the inhabitants of Gades, plundering not only their treasury, but their temples, and compelling them individually to bring contributions of gold and silver, for the public service. As he sailed along the coast of Spain, he landed his troops not far from New Carthage, and after wasting the neighbouring lands, brought his fleet thence to the city. Here, keeping his troops in the ships by day, he landed them by night, and marched them to that part of the wall at which Carthage had been captured by the Romans; for he had supposed both that the garrison by which the city was occupied was not sufficiently strong for its protection, and that some of the townsmen would act on the hope of effecting a change. But messengers who came with the utmost haste and alarm from the country, brought intelligence at once of the devastation of the lands, the flight of the rustics, and the approach of the enemy. Besides, the fleet had been observed during the day, and it was evident that there was some object in choosing a station before the city. Accordingly, the troops were kept drawn up and armed within the gate which looks towards the lake and the sea. When the enemy, rushing forward in a disorderly manner, with a crowd of seamen mingled with soldiers, came up to the walls with more noise than strength; the gate being suddenly thrown open, the Romans sallied forth with a shout, and pursued the enemy, routed and put to flight at the first onset and discharge of their weapons, all the way to the shore, killing a great number of them; nor would one of them have survived the battle and the flight, had not the ships, which had been brought to the shore, afforded them a refuge in their dismay. Great alarm and confusion also prevailed in the ships, occasioned by their drawing up the ladders, lest the enemy should force their way in together with their own men, and by cutting away their halsers and anchors that they might not lose time in weighing them. Many, too, met with a miserable death while endeavouring to swim to the ships, not knowing, in consequence of the darkness, which way to direct their course, or what to avoid. On the following day, after the fleet had fled back to the ocean whence it had come, as many as eight hundred were slain between the wall and the shore, and two thousand stand of arms were found.
[18] 37. Mago, on his return to Gades, not being allowed to enter the place, brought his fleet to shore at Cimbis, a place not far distant from Gades; whence he sent ambassadors with complaints of their having closed their gates upon a friend and ally. While they endeavoured to excuse themselves on the ground that it was done by a disorderly assembly of their people, who were exasperated against them on account of some acts of plunder which had been committed by the soldiers when they were embarking, he enticed their suffetes, which is the name of the chief magistracy among the Carthaginians, together with their quaestor, to come to a conference; when he ordered them to be lacerated with stripes and crucified. He then passed over with his fleet to the island Pityusa, distant about a hundred miles from the continent, and inhabited at that time by Carthaginians; on which account the fleet was received in a friendly manner; and not only were provisions liberally furnished, but also young men and arms were given them to reinforce their fleet. Rendered confident by these supplies, the Carthaginians crossed over to the Balearian islands, fifty miles distant. The Balearian islands are two in number; one larger than the other, and more powerful in men and arms; having also a harbour in which, as it was now the latter end of autumn, he believed he might winter conveniently. But here his fleet was opposed with as much hostility as he would have met with had the Romans inhabited that island. The only weapons they used at that time, and which they now principally employ, were slings; nor is there an individual of any other nation who possesses such a degree of excellence in the skilful use of this weapon, as the Balearians universally possess over the rest of the world. Such a quantity of stones, therefore, was poured like the thickest hail on the fleet, when approaching the shore, that, not daring to enter the harbour, they made off for the main. They then passed over to the lesser Balearian island, which is of a fertile soil, but not equally powerful in men and arms. Here, therefore, they landed, and pitched a camp in a strong position above the harbour; and having made themselves masters of the city and country without a contest, they enlisted two thousand auxiliaries, which they sent to Carthage, and then hauled their ships on shore for the winter. After Mago had left the coast of the ocean, the people of Gades surrendered to the Romans.
[18] 38. Such were the transactions in Spain under the conduct and auspices of Publius Scipio. Scipio himself, having put Lucius Lentulus and Lucius Manlius Acidinus in charge of the province, returned to Rome with ten ships. Having obtained an audience of the senate without the city, in the temple of Bellona, he gave an account of the services he had performed in Spain; how often he had fought pitched battles, how many towns he had taken by force from the enemy, and what nations he had brought under the dominion of the Roman people. He stated that he had gone into Spain against four generals, and four victorious armies, but that he had not left a Carthaginian in that country. On account of these services he rather tried his prospect of a triumph, than pressed it pertinaciously; for it was quite clear, that no one had triumphed up to that time for services performed, when not invested with a magistracy. When the senate was dismissed he entered the city, and carried before him into the treasury fourteen thousand three hundred and forty-two pounds of silver, and a great quantity of coined silver. Lucius Veturius Philo then held the assembly for the election of consuls, when all the centuries, with the strongest marks of attachment, named Publius Scipio as consul. Publius Licinius Crassus, chief pontiff, was joined with him as his colleague. It is recorded, that this election was attended by a greater number of persons than any other during the war. People had come together from all quarters, not only to give their votes, but also for the purpose of seeing Publius Scipio. They ran in crowds, not only to his house, but also to the Capitol; where he was engaged in offering a sacrifice of a hundred oxen to Jupiter, which he had vowed in Spain, impressed with a presentiment, that as Caius Lutatius had terminated the former Punic war, so Publius Scipio would terminate the present; and that as he had driven the Carthaginians out of every part of Spain, so he would drive them out of Italy; and dooming Africa to him as his province, as though the war in Italy were at an end. The assembly was then held for the election of praetors. Two were elected who were then plebeian aediles, namely, Spurius Lucretius and Cneius Octavius; and of private persons, Cneius Servilius Caepio and Lucius Aemilius Papus.
[18] In the fourteenth year of the Punic war, Publius Cornelius Scipio and Publius Licinius Crassus entered on the consulship, when the provinces assigned to the consuls were, to Scipio, Sicily, without drawing lots, his colleague not opposing it, because the care of the sacred affairs required the presence of the chief pontiff in Italy; to Crassus, Bruttium. The provinces of the praetors were then put to the determination of lots, when the city jurisdiction fell to Servilius; Ariminum, for so they called Gaul, to Spurius Lucretius; Sicily to Lucius Aemilius; Sardinia to Cneius Octavius. A senate was held in the Capitol, when, on the motion of Publius Scipio, a decree was made, that he should exhibit the games which he had vowed in Spain during the mutiny of the soldiers, out of the money which he had himself brought into the treasury.
[18] 39. He then introduced into the senate the Saguntine ambassadors, the eldest of whom thus spoke: “Although there remains no degree of suffering, conscript fathers, beyond what we have endured, in order that we might keep our faith towards you to the last; yet such are the benefits which we have received both from yourselves and your generals, that we do not repent of the calamities to which we have ourselves been exposed. On our account you undertook the war, and having undertaken it, you have continued to carry it on for now the fourteenth year with such inflexible perseverance, that frequently you have both yourselves been reduced, and have brought the Carthaginians to the last extremity. At a time when you had a war of such a desperate character in Italy, and Hannibal as your antagonist, you sent your consul with an army into Spain, to collect, as it were, the remains of our wreck. Publius and Cneius Cornelius, from the time they entered the province, never ceased from adopting such measures as were favourable to us and detrimental to our enemies. First of all, they restored to us our town; and, sending persons to collect our countrymen, who were sold and dispersed throughout all Spain, restored them from a state of slavery to freedom. When our circumstances, from being wretched in the extreme, had nearly assumed a desirable state, your generals Publius and Cneius Cornelius fell more to be lamented by ourselves even than by you. Then truly we seemed to have been dragged back from distant places to our ancient abode, to perish again, and witness the second destruction of our country. Nor did it appear that there was any need forsooth of a Carthaginian army or general to effect our destruction; but that we might be annihilated by the Turdulans, our most inveterate enemies, who had also been the cause of our former overthrow. When suddenly, to our great surprise, you sent us this Publius Scipio, in seeing whom declared consul, and in having it in our power to carry word back to our countrymen that we have seen it, for on him our hopes and safety entirely rest, we consider ourselves the most fortunate of all the Saguntines. He, when he had taken a great number of the cities of your enemies in Spain, on all occasions separated the Saguntines out of the mass of captives, and sent them back to their country; and lastly, by his arms he reduced to so low a state Turdetania, which harboured such animosity against us, that if that nation continued to flourish it was impossible that Saguntum could stand, that it not only was not an object of fear to us, but, and may I say it without incurring odium, not even to our posterity. We see the city of those persons demolished, to gratify whom Hannibal destroyed Saguntum. We receive tribute from their lands, which is not more acceptable to us from the advantage we derive from it than from revenge. In consideration of these benefits, than which we could not hope or wish for greater from the immortal gods, the senate and people of Saguntum have sent us ten ambassadors to you to return their thanks; and at the same time to offer you their congratulations on your having carried on your operations in Spain and Italy so successfully of late years, that you have subdued by your arms, and have gotten possession of Spain, not only as far as the river Iberus, but also to where the ocean forms the limit of the remotest regions of the world; while in Italy you have left nothing to the Carthaginian except so much space as the rampart of his camp encloses. We have been desired, not only to return thanks for these blessings to Jove most good and great, the guardian deity of the capitoline citadel, but also, if you should permit us, to carry into the Capitol this present of a golden crown in token of victory. We request that you would permit us so to do; and, if you think proper, that you would, by your authority, perpetuate and ratify the advantages which your generals have conferred upon us.” The senate replied to the Saguntines, “that the destruction and restoration of Saguntum would form a monument to all the nations of the world of social faith preserved on both sides. That, in restoring Saguntum, and rescuing its citizens from slavery, their generals had acted properly, regularly, and according to the wishes of the senate; and that, whatever other acts of kindness they had done to them, were in conformity with the wishes of the senate. That they gave them permission to deposit their present in the Capitol.” Orders were then given to furnish the ambassadors with apartments and entertainment, and that not less than ten thousand asses should be given to each as a present. After this, the rest of the embassies were introduced and heard. On the request of the Saguntines that they might go and take a view of Italy as far as they could with safety, they were furnished with guides, and letters were sent to the several towns, requiring them to entertain the Spaniards kindly. The senate then took into consideration the state of public affairs, the levying troops, and the provinces.
[18] 40. It being generally reported that Africa, as a new province, was destined for Publius Scipio without casting lots; and he himself, not content with any moderate share of glory, asserting that he had been declared consul, not only for prosecuting, but for finishing the war; that that object could not be accomplished by any other means than by his transporting an army into Africa; and himself openly declaring that he would do it through the people if the senate opposed him; the design by no means pleased the principal senators; and when the rest, either through fear or a wish to ingratiate themselves with him, only murmured, Quintus Fabius Maximus, being asked his opinion, thus spoke: “I know, conscript fathers, that by many of you the question which is this day agitated is considered as already determined; and that the man who shall deliver his sentiments on the subject of making Africa a province, as a new proposal, will speak to little purpose. But, in the first place, I cannot see how it can be considered as determined, that Africa shall be the province of the consul, that brave and active officer, when neither the senate have voted nor the people ordered that it should be constituted a province this year. In the next place, if it is determined, I think the consul is to blame, who, by pretending to consult the senate on a question already decided, insults that body, and not the senator only who delivers his sentiments in his place on the subject of deliberation. Now I am well aware, that by disapproving of this excessive eagerness to pass over into Africa, I subject myself to two imputations: one grounded on the caution inherent in my disposition, which young men may if they please call cowardice and sloth, so long as we have the consolation to reflect, that though hitherto the measures of others have always appeared on the first view of them the more plausible, mine on experience have proved the sounder. The other imputation is that of jealousy and envy towards the daily increasing glory of this most valiant consul. But if neither my past life and character, nor a dictatorship, together with five consulships, and so much glory acquired, both in peace and war, that I am more likely to loathe it than desire more, exempt me from such a suspicion, let my age at least acquit me. For what rivalry can there exist between myself and a man who is not equal in years even to my son? When I was dictator, when as yet in the possession of full vigour, and engaged in a series of affairs of the utmost magnitude, no one heard me, either in the senate or in the popular assembly, express any reluctance to have the command equally shared between myself and the master of the horse, at the time when he was maligning me; a proposition which no one ever heard mention of before. I chose to bring it about by actions rather than by words, that he who was placed on the same footing with me in the judgment of others, should soon by his own confession declare me his superior. Much less, after having passed through these honours, would I propose to myself to enter the lists of competition and rivalry with a man in the very bloom of youth. And that, forsooth, in order that Africa, if it shall have been denied to him, may be assigned as a province to me, who am now weary of life, and not merely of active employments. I must live and die with that share of glory which I have already acquired. I prevented Hannibal from conquering, in order that he might even be conquered by you, whose powers are now in full vigour.
[18] 41. “It is but fair, Publius Cornelius, that you should pardon me, if I, who in my own case never preferred the honour of men to the interest of the state, do not place even your fame before the public good. Although, if there were either no war in Italy, or an enemy of such a description that no glory could be acquired from conquering him, the man who would retain you in Italy, though actuated by a desire to promote the public good, might appear to wish to deprive you of an opportunity of acquiring renown when he objected to your removing the war. But since Hannibal is our antagonist, who is besieging Italy for now the fourteenth year, with an army unimpaired, will you have reason to be dissatisfied, Publius Cornelius, with the glory you will acquire, if you in your consulate shall drive out of Italy an enemy who has been the cause of so many deaths and so many disasters to us, and if you should enjoy the distinction of having terminated this, as Caius Lutatius did the former Punic war? Unless either Hamilcar is a general more worthy of consideration than Hannibal, or a war in Africa of more importance, or a victory there greater and more glorious, (should it be our lot to be victorious while you are consul,) than one here. Would you rather have drawn away Hamilcar from Drepanum and Eryx than have expelled the Carthaginians and Hannibal from Italy? Although you naturally prize more highly the renown which you have acquired than that which you hope for, yet surely you would not boast more of having freed Spain from war than of having freed Italy. Hannibal is not as yet in such a state as that the man who prefers another war would not appear to have feared rather than to have despised him. Why then do you not apply yourself to this, and carry the war in a straightforward manner to the place where Hannibal is, rather than pursue that circuitous course, according to which you expect that when you shall have crossed over into Africa Hannibal will follow you thither? Do you seek to obtain the distinguished honour of having finished the Punic war? After you have defended your own possessions, for this is naturally the first object, then proceed to attack those of others. Let there be peace in Italy before war in Africa; and let us be free from fear ourselves before we bring it upon others. If it is possible that both objects may be accomplished under your conduct and auspices, having first conquered Hannibal here, then go and lay siege to Carthage; but if one or other of these conquests must be left for the succeeding consuls, the former is both the greater and more glorious, and also the cause of the second. For now indeed, besides that the treasury is not able to maintain two different armies, one in Italy and one in Africa; besides that we nave nothing left from which we may equip fleets or be able to furnish provisions, who knows not how great danger would be incurred? Publius Licinius will wage war in Italy, Publius Scipio in Africa. What if, (an omen which may all the gods avert, and which my mind shrinks back with alarm from mentioning, — but what has happened may happen again, — ) what I say, if Hannibal, having gained a victory, should advance to the city? Shall we then at length send for you, our consul, out of Africa, as we formerly sent for Quintus Fulvius from Capua? What shall we say when we consider that in Africa also both parties will be liable to the chances of war? Let your own house, your father and your uncle, slain together with their armies within the space of thirty days, after that, having spent several years in the performance of the most important services, both by sea and land, they had inspired foreign nations with the highest reverence for the name of the Roman people and your family, be a warning to you. The day would fail me were I disposed to enumerate the kings and generals who have brought the most signal calamities upon themselves and their armies by rashly passing into the territories of their enemies. The Athenians, a state distinguished for prudence, leaving a war at home, sent a great fleet into Sicily at the instance of a youth equally enterprising and illustrious; but by one naval battle they reduced their flourishing republic to a state of humiliation from which she could never recover.
[18] 42. “But I am adducing foreign and too remote examples. That same Africa, and Marcus Atilius, who was a signal example of both extremes of fortune, may form a warning to us. Without doubt, Publius Cornelius, when you shall have a view of Africa from the sea, the reduction of your province of Spain will appear to you to have been a mere matter of sport and pastime. For what similarity is there between them? After sailing along the coast of Italy and Gaul to Emporiae without any enemy to oppose you, you brought your fleet to land at a city of our allies. There landing your soldiers, you marched them through countries entirely secure from danger to Tarraco, to join the allies and friends of the Roman people. After that, from Tarraco you marched through places garrisoned by Roman troops. On the banks of the Iberus were the armies of your father and your uncle, rendered still more furious after the loss of their generals, even by the very calamity they had suffered. The general, indeed, Lucius Marcius, had been irregularly constituted and chosen for the time by the suffrages of the soldiers; but had he been adorned with noble birth and the regular gradation of preferment, he would have been equal to the most distinguished generals, from his skill in every art of war. You then laid siege to Carthage, quite at your leisure, not one of the three Punic armies coming to the defence of their allies. The rest of your achievements, nor do I wish to disparage them, are by no means to be compared with what you will have to do in a war in Africa, where there is not a single harbour open to receive our fleet, no part of the country at peace with us, no state in alliance, no king in friendship with us, no room in any part either to take up a position or to advance. Whichever way you turn your eyes, all is hostility and danger. Do you trust in the Numidians and Syphax? Let it suffice to have trusted in them once. Temerity is not always successful, and the fraudulent usually pave the way to confidence in small matters, that when an advantageous opportunity occurs, they may deceive with great gain. Your father and uncle were not cut off by the arms of their enemies till they were duped by the treachery of their Celtiberian allies; nor were you yourself exposed to so much danger from Mago and Hasdrubal, the generals of your enemies, as from Indibilis and Mandonius, whom you had received into friendship. Can you place any confidence in Numidians after having experienced a defection in your own soldiers? Syphax and Masinissa would rather that they themselves should have the rule in Africa than the Carthaginians, but that the Carthaginians should rather than any other state. At present emulation and the various causes of dispute existing between them incite them against each other, because the fear of any foreign enemy is remote. But show them the Roman arms and a body of troops, natives of another country, and they will run together as if to extinguish a common conflagration. These same Carthaginians defended Spain in a different manner from that in which they will defend the walls of their capital, the temples of their gods, their altars, and their hearths; when their terrified wives will attend them on the way to the battle, and their little children will run to them. What, moreover, if the Carthaginians, feeling sufficiently secure in the harmony subsisting in Africa, in the attachment of the sovereigns in alliance with them, and their own fortifications, should, when they see Italy deprived of the support of yourself and your army, themselves assuming an offensive attitude, either send a fresh army out of Africa into Italy, or order Mago, who, it is certain, having passed over from the Baleares, is now sailing along the coast of Liguria and the Alps, to form a junction with Hannibal. Without doubt, we should be thrown into the same state of alarm as we were lately, when Hasdrubal passed over into Italy; that Hasdrubal, whom you, who are about to blockade, not Carthage only, but all Africa with your army, allowed to slip out of your hands into Italy. You will say that he was conquered by you. For that very reason I should be less willing, not on account of the commonwealth only, but of yourself, that, after having been defeated, he should be allowed to march into Italy. Suffer us to ascribe to your prudence all the successful events which have happened to you and the empire of the Roman people, and to impute all those of an adverse nature to the uncertain chances of war and to fortune. The more meritorious and brave you are, so much the more do your country and all Italy desire to retain you as their protector. You cannot even yourself pretend to deny, that where Hannibal is, there is the head and principal stress of the war, for you profess, that your motive in crossing over into Africa is to draw Hannibal thither. Whether, therefore, here or there, it is with Hannibal that you will have to contend. Will you then, I pray, have more power in Africa and alone, or here, with your own and your colleague’s army united? Is not the great difference which this makes proved to you even by the recent precedent of Claudius and Livius, the consuls? What! will Hannibal, who has now for a long time been unavailingly soliciting succours from home, be rendered more powerful in men and arms when occupying the remotest corner of the Bruttian territory, or when near to Carthage and supported by all Africa? What sort of policy is that of yours, to prefer fighting where your own forces will be diminished by one half, and the enemy’s greatly augmented, to encountering the enemy when you will have two armies against one, and that wearied with so many battles, and so protracted and laborious a service? Consider how far this policy of yours corresponds with that of your parent. He, setting out in his consulship for Spain, returned from his province into Italy, that he might meet Hannibal on his descent from the Alps; while you are going to leave Italy when Hannibal is there, not because you consider such a course beneficial to the state, but because you think it will redound to your own honour and glory; acting in the same manner as you did when leaving your province and your army without the sanction of a law, without a decree of the senate, you, a general of the Roman people, intrusted to two ships the fortune of the commonwealth and the majesty of the empire, which were then hazarded in your person. In my estimation, conscript fathers, Publius Cornelius was elected consul for the service of the state and of us, and not to forward his own individual interest; and the armies were enlisted for the protection of the city and of Italy, and not for the consuls, like kings, to carry into whatever part of the world they please from motives of vanity.”
[18] 43. Fabius having made a strong impression on a large portion of the senate, and especially those advanced in years, by this speech, which was adapted to the occasion, and also by his authority and his long-established reputation for prudence; and those who approved of the counsel of this old man being more numerous than those who commended the hot spirit of the young one; Scipio is reported thus to have spoken: “Even Quintus Fabius himself has observed, conscript fathers, in the commencement of his speech, that in the opinion he gave a feeling of jealousy might be suspected. And though I dare not myself charge so great a man with harbouring that feeling, yet, whether it is owing to a defect in his language, or to the fact, that suspicion has certainly not been removed. For he has so magnified his own honours and the fame of his exploits, in order to do away with the imputation of envy, that it would appear I am in danger of being rivalled by every obscure person, but not by himself, because, as he enjoys an eminence above every body else, an eminence to which I do not dissemble that I also aspire, he is unwilling that I should be placed upon a level with him. He has represented himself as an old man, and as one who has gone through every gradation of honour, and me as below the age even of his son; as if he supposed that the desire of glory did not exceed the limits of human life, and as if its chief part had not respect to memory and future ages. I am confident, that it is usual with all the most exalted minds, to compare themselves, not only with the illustrious men of the present, but of every age. For my own part, I do not dissemble that I am desirous, not only to attain to the share of glory which you possess, Quintus Fabius, but, (and in saying it I mean no offence,) if I can, even to exceed it. Let not such a feeling exist in your mind towards me, nor in mine towards those who are my juniors, as that we should be unwilling that any of our countrymen should attain to the same celebrity with ourselves; for that would be a detriment, not to those only who may be the objects of our envy, but to the state, and almost to the whole human race. He mentioned what a great degree of danger I should incur, should I cross over into Africa, so that he appeared solicitous on my account, and not only for the state and the army. But whence has this concern for me so suddenly sprung? When my father and uncle were slain; when their two armies were cut up almost to a man; when Spain was lost; when four armies of the Carthaginians and four generals kept possession of every thing by terror and by arms; when a general was sought for to take the command of that war, and no one came forward besides myself, no one had the courage to declare himself a candidate; when the Roman people had conferred the command upon me, though only twenty-four years of age; why was it that no one at that time made any mention of my age, of the strength of the enemy, of the difficulty of the war, and of the recent destruction of my father and uncle? Has some greater disaster been suffered in Africa now than had at that time befallen us in Spain? Are there now larger armies in Africa, more and better generals, than were then in Spain? Was my age then more mature for conducting a war than now? Can a war with a Carthaginian enemy be carried on with greater convenience in Spain than in Africa? After having routed and put to flight four Carthaginian armies; after having captured by force, or reduced to submission by fear, so many cities; after having entirely subdued every thing as far as the ocean, so many petty princes, so many savage nations; after having regained possession of the whole of Spain, so that no trace of war remains, it is an easy matter to make light of my services; just as easy as it would be, should I return victorious from Africa, to make light of those very circumstances which are now magnified in order that they may appear formidable, for the purpose of detaining me here. He says that there is no possibility of entering Africa; that there are no ports open. He mentions that Marcus Atilius was taken prisoner in Africa, as if Marcus Atilius had miscarried on his first access to Africa. Nor does he recollect that the ports of Africa were open to that very commander, unfortunate as he was; that he performed some brilliant services during the first year, and continued undefeated to the last, so far as related to the Carthaginian generals. You will not, therefore, in the least deter me by that example of yours. If that disaster had been sustained in the present, and not in the former war, if lately, and not forty years ago, yet why would it be less advisable for me to cross over into Africa after Regulus had been made prisoner there, than into Spain after the Scipios had been slain there? I should be reluctant to admit that the birth of Xanthippus the Lacedaemonian was more fortunate for Carthage than mine for my country. My confidence would be increased by the very circumstance, that such important consequences depended upon the valour of one man. But further, we must take warning by the Athenians, who inconsiderately crossed over into Sicily, leaving a war in their own country. Why, therefore, since you have leisure to relate Grecian tales, do you not rather set before us the instance of Agathocles, king of Syracuse, who, when Sicily was for a long time wasted by a Punic war, by passing over into this same Africa, removed the war to the country from whence it came.
[18] 44. “But what need is there of ancient and foreign examples to remind us what sort of thing it is boldly to carry terror against an enemy, and, removing the danger from oneself, to bring another into peril? Can there be a stronger instance than Hannibal himself, or one more to the point? It makes a great difference whether you devastate the territories of another, or see your own destroyed by fire and sword. He who brings danger upon another has more spirit than he who repels it. Add to this, that the terror excited by unknown circumstances is increased on that account. When you have entered the territory of an enemy, you may have a near view of his advantages and disadvantages. Hannibal did not expect that it would come to pass that so many of the states in Italy would come over to him as did so after the defeat at Cannae. How much less would any firmness or constancy be experienced in Africa by the Carthaginians, who are themselves faithless allies, oppressive and haughty masters! Besides, we, even when deserted by our allies, stood firm in our own strength, the Roman soldiery. The Carthaginians possess no native strength. The soldiers they have are obtained by hire; — Africans and Numidians — people remarkable above all others for the inconstancy of their attachments. Provided no impediment arises here, you will hear at once that I have landed, and that Africa is blazing with war; that Hannibal is preparing for his departure from this country, and that Carthage is besieged. Expect more frequent and more joyful despatches from Africa than you received from Spain. The considerations on which I ground my anticipations are the good fortune of the Roman people, the gods, the witnesses of the treaty violated by the enemy, the kings Syphax and Masinissa; on whose fidelity I will rely in such a manner as that I may be secure from danger should they prove perfidious. Many things which are not now apparent, at this distance, the war will develope; and it is the part of a man, and a general, not to be wanting when fortune presents itself, and to bend its events to his designs. I shall, Quintus Fabius, have the opponent you assign me, Hannibal; but I shall rather draw him after me than be kept here by him. I will compel him to fight in his own country, and Carthage shall be the prize of victory rather than the half-ruined forts of the Bruttians. With regard to providing that the state sustain no injury in the mean time, while I am crossing over, while I am landing my troops in Africa, while I am advancing my camp to the walls of Carthage; be not too sure that it is not an insult to Publius Licinius, the consul, a man of consummate valour, who did not draw lots for so distant a province merely that, as he was chief pontiff, he might not be absent from religious affairs, to say that he is unable to do that, now that the power of Hannibal is shaken, and in a manner shattered, which you Quintus Fabius, were able to effect when he was flying victorious throughout all Italy. By Hercules, even if the war would not be more speedily terminated by adopting the plan I propose, yet it were consistent with the dignity of the Roman people, and the high character they enjoy with foreign kings and nations, to appear to have had spirit not only to defend Italy, but also to carry hostilities into Africa; and that it should not be supposed and spread abroad that no Roman general dared what Hannibal had dared; that in the former Punic war, when the contest was about Sicily, Africa should have been so often attacked by our fleets and armies, and that now, when the contest is about Italy, Africa should be left undisturbed. Let Italy, which has so long been harassed, at length enjoy some repose; let Africa, in her turn, be fired and devastated. Let the Roman camp overhang the gates of Carthage rather than that we should again behold the rampart of the enemy from our walls. Let Africa be the seat of the remainder of the war. Let terror and flight, the devastation of lands, the defection of allies, and all the other calamities of war which have fallen upon us, through a period of fourteen years, be turned upon her. It is sufficient for me to have spoken on those matters which relate to the state, the war before us, and the provinces which form the subject of deliberation. My discourse would be tedious and uninteresting to you if, as Fabius has depreciated my services in Spain, I should also in like manner endeavour, on the other hand, to turn his glory into ridicule, and make the most of my own. I will do neither, conscript fathers; and if in nothing else, though a young man, I shall certainly have shown my superiority over this old man, in modesty and the government of my tongue. Such has been my life, and such the services I have performed, that I can gladly rest contented in silence with that opinion which you have spontaneously conceived of me.”
[18] 45. Scipio was heard less favourably, because, a report had been spread that, if he did not prevail with the senate to have Africa decreed to him as his province, he would immediately lay the matter before the people. Therefore, Quintus Fulvius, who had been consul four times, and censor, requested of the consul that he would openly declare in the senate whether “he submitted to the fathers to decide respecting the provinces; and whether he intended to abide by their determination, or to put it to the people.” Scipio having replied that he would act as he thought for the interest of the state, Fulvius then rejoined: “When I asked you the question I was not ignorant of what answer you would give, or how you would act; for you plainly show that you are rather sounding than consulting the senate; and, unless we immediately decree to you the province you wish, have a bill ready (to lay before the people). Therefore,” said he, “I require of you, tribunes of the people, to support me in refusing to give my opinion, because, though my recommendation should be adopted, the consul is not disposed to abide by it.” An altercation then arose, the consul asserting that it was unfair for the tribunes to interpose so as to prevent any senator from living his opinion in his place on being asked it. The tribunes came to the determination, “that if the consul submit to the senate the question relating to the provinces, whatever the senate decree we shall consider as final, nor will we allow a bill to be proposed to the people on the subject. If he does not submit it to them, we will support any one who shall refuse to deliver his sentiments upon the matter.” The consul requested the delay of a day to confer with his colleague. The next day the decision was submitted to the senate. The provinces were assigned in this manner: to one of the consuls Sicily and thirty ships of war, which Caius Servilius had commanded the former year; he was also permitted to cross over into Africa if he conceived it to be for the advantage of the state. To the other consul Bruttium and the war with Hannibal were assigned; with either that army which Lucius Veturius or that which Quintus Caecilius commanded. The two latter were to draw lots, and settle between themselves which should act in Bruttium with the two legions which the consul gave up; and he to whose lot that province fell, was to be continued in command for a year. The other persons also, besides the consuls and praetors, who were to take the command of armies and provinces, were continued in command. It fell to the lot of Quintus Caecilius to carry on the war against Hannibal in Bruttium, together with the consul. The games of Scipio were then celebrated in the presence of a great number of persons, and with the approbation of the spectators. The deputies, Marcus Pomponius Matho and Quintus Catius, sent to Delphi to convey a present out of the spoils taken from Hasdrubal, carried with them a golden crown of two hundred pounds’ weight, and representations of the spoils made out of a thousand pounds’ weight of silver. Scipio, though he could not obtain leave to levy troops, a point which he did not urge with great eagerness, obtained leave to take with him such as volunteered their services; and also, as he declared that the fleet would not be the occasion of expense to the state, to receive what was furnished by the allies for building fresh ships. First, the states of Etruria engaged to assist the consuls to the utmost of their respective abilities. The people of Caere furnished corn, and provisions of every description, for the crews; the people of Populoni furnished iron; of Tarquinii, cloth for sails; those of Volaterrae, planks for ships, and corn; those of Arretium, thirty thousand shields, as many helmets; and of javelins, Gallic darts, and long spears, they undertook to make up to the amount of fifty thousand, an equal number of each description, together with as many axes, mattocks, bills, buckets, and mills, as should be sufficient for fifty men of war, with a hundred and twenty thousand pecks of wheat; and to contribute to the support of the decurios and rowers on the voyage. The people of Perusia, Clusium, and Rusella furnished firs for building ships, and a great quantity of corn. Scipio had firs out of the public woods. The states of Umbria, and, besides them, the people of Nursia, Reate, and Amiternum, and all those of the Sabine territory, promised soldiers. Many of the Marsians, Pelignians, and Marrucinians volunteered to serve in the fleet. The Cameritans, as they were joined with the Romans in league on equal terms, sent an armed cohort of six hundred men. Having laid the keels of thirty ships, twenty of which were quinqueremes, and ten quadriremes, he prosecuted the work with such diligence, that, on the forty-fifth day after the materials were taken from the woods, the ships, being fully equipped and armed, were launched.
[18] 46. He set out into Sicily with thirty ships of war, with about seven thousand volunteers on board. Publius Licinius came into Bruttium to the two consular armies, of which he selected for himself that which Lucius Veturius, the consul, had commanded. He allowed Metellus to continue in the command of those legions which were before under him, concluding that he could act more easily with the troops accustomed to his command. The praetors also went to their different provinces. As there was a scarcity of money to carry on the war, the quaestors were ordered to sell a district of the Campanian territory extending from the Grecian trench to the sea, with permission to receive information as to what land belonged to a native Campanian, in order that it might be put into the possession of the Roman people. The reward fixed upon for the informer was a tenth part of the value of the lands so discovered. Cneius Servilius, the city praetor, was also charged with seeing that the Campanians dwelt where they were allowed, according to the decree of the senate, and to punish such as dwelt anywhere else. The same summer, Mago, son of Amilcar, setting out from the lesser of the Balearian islands, where he had wintered, having put on board his fleet a chosen body of young men, conveyed over into Italy twelve thousand foot, and about two thousand horse, with about thirty ships of war, and a great number of transports. By the suddenness of his arrival he took Genoa, as there were no troops employed in protecting the sea-coast. Thence he brought his fleet to shore, on the coast of the Alpine Ligurians, to see if he could create any commotion there. The Ingaunians, a tribe of the Ligurians, were at that juncture engaged in war with the Epanterians, a people inhabiting the mountains. The Carthaginian, therefore, having deposited his plunder at Savo, an Alpine town, left ten ships of war for its protection. He sent the rest to Carthage to guard the sea-coast, as it was reported that Scipio intended to pass over thither; formed an alliance with the Ingaunians, whose friendship he preferred; and commenced an attack upon the mountaineers. His army increased daily, the Gauls flocking to his standard from all sides, from the splendour of his fame. When the senate received information of these things, by a letter from Spurius Lucretius, they were filled with the most intense anxiety, lest the joy they had experienced on the destruction of Hasdrubal and his army, two years before, should be rendered vain by another war’s springing up in the same quarter, equal in magnitude, but under a new leader. They therefore ordered Marcus Livius, proconsul, to march his army of volunteer slaves out of Etruria to Ariminum, and gave in charge to Cneius Servilius to issue orders, if he thought it necessary for the safety of the state, that the city legions should be marched out under the command of any person he thought proper. Marcus Valerius Laevinus led those legions to Arretium. About the same time, as many as eighty transports of the Carthaginians were captured, near Sardinia, by Cneius Octavius, who had the government of that province. Caelius states that they were laden with corn and provisions, sent for Hannibal; Valerius, that they were conveying the plunder of Etruria, and the Ligurian mountaineers who had been captured, to Carthage. In Bruttium scarcely any thing was done this year worth recording. A pestilence had attacked both Romans and Carthaginians with equal violence; but the Carthaginian army, in addition to sickness, was distressed by famine. Hannibal passed the summer near the temple of Juno Lacinia, where he erected and dedicated an altar with an inscription engraved in Punic and Greek characters, setting forth, in pompous terms, the achievements he had performed.
[18] * * * * *

## Book XXIX

[19] Translated by William A. McDevitte
[19] In Spain, Mandonius and Indibilis, reviving hostilities, are finally subdued. Scipio goes over from Syracuse to Locri; dislodges the Carthaginian general; repulses Hannibal, and recovers that city. Peace made with Philip. The Idaean Mother brought to Rome from Phrygia; received by Publius Scipio Nasica, judged by the senate the best man in the state. Scipio passes over into Africa. Syphax, having married a daughter of Hasdrubal, renounces his alliance with Scipio. Masinissa, who had been expelled his kingdom by Syphax, joins Scipio with two hundred horsemen; they defeat a large army commanded by Hanno. Hasdrubal and Syphax approach with a most numerous force. Scipio raises the siege of Utica, and fortifies a post for the winter. The consul Sempronius gets the better of Hannibal in a battle near Croton. Dispute between Marcus Livius and Claudius Nero, censors.
[19] * * * * *
[19] 1. Scipio, after his arrival in Sicily, formed his volunteers into cohorts and centuries. Of these he kept about his person three hundred young men, in the bloom of their age and the prime of their strength, unarmed, and not knowing for what purpose they were reserved, as they were not included in the centuries, nor furnished with arms. He then selected out of the number of the youth of all Sicily three hundred horsemen, of the highest birth and fortune, who were to cross over with him into Africa, appointing a day on which they were to present themselves equipped and furnished with horses and arms. This severe service, far from their native land, appeared to them likely to be attended with many hardships, and great dangers, both by sea and land; nor did that anxiety affect themselves alone, but also their parents and relations. When the appointed day arrived, they exhibited their arms and horses. Then Scipio observed, “that an intimation had been conveyed to him that certain of the Sicilian horsemen felt a strong aversion to that service, as being severe and arduous. If there were any who entertained such a feeing, that he would rather they should then confess it to him, than, complaining afterwards, prove themselves slothful and useless soldiers to the state. He desired that they would openly avow their sentiments, for that he would hear them with kindly feeling.” When one of the number took courage to declare, that if he were allowed the uncontrolled exercise of his will he certainly would not serve, Scipio replied to him thus: “Since then, young man, you have not dissembled your sentiments, I will furnish a substitute for you, to whom I request that you transfer your arms, your horse, and other appliances of war; and, taking him hence immediately to your house, train him, and take care that he is instructed in the management of his horse and arms.” The youth accepted the terms joyfully, when Scipio delivered to him one of the three hundred whom he kept unarmed. The rest, seeing the horseman thus discharged without giving any offence to the general, began severally to excuse themselves and receive substitutes. Thus Roman horsemen were substituted for the three hundred Sicilian, without any expense to the state. The Sicilians had the care of instructing and training them, because the general had ordered that the man who should not do so, should serve himself. It is said that this turned out to be an admirable body of cavalry, and rendered effectual service to the state in many engagements. Afterwards, inspecting the legions, he chose out of them such soldiers as had served the greatest number of campaigns, particularly those who had acted under Marcellus; for he considered that they were formed under the best discipline, and also, from the long time in which they were engaged in the siege of Syracuse, were most skilled in the assault of towns: for his thoughts were now occupied with no small object, but the destruction of Carthage. He then distributed his army through the towns; ordered the Sicilian states to furnish corn, sparing that which had been brought from Italy; repaired his old ships, and sent Caius Laelius with them into Africa to plunder. His new ships he hauled on shore at Panormus, that they might be kept on land during the winter, as they had been hastily built of unseasoned timber.
[19] When every thing was got in readiness for the war he came to Syracuse, which had hardly yet returned to a state of tranquillity, after the violent commotions of the war. The Greeks, demanding restitution of their property, which had been granted to them by the senate, from certain persons of the Italian nation, who retained possession of it in the same forcible manner in which they had seized it in the war, Scipio, who deemed it of the first importance to preserve the public faith, restored their property to the Syracusans, partly by proclamation, and partly even by judgments pronounced against those who pertinaciously retained their unjust acquisitions. This measure was acceptable not only to the persons immediately concerned, but to all the states of Sicily, and so much the more energetically did they give aid in the war. During the same summer a very formidable war sprang up in Spain, at the instance of Indibilis the Hergetian, from no other cause than the contempt he conceived for the other generals, in consequence of his admiration of Scipio. He considered “that he was the only commander the Romans had left, the rest having been slain by Hannibal. That they had, therefore, no other general whom they could send into Spain after the Scipios were cut off there, and that afterwards, when the war in Italy pressed upon them with increased severity, he was recalled to oppose Hannibal. That, in addition to the fact that the Romans had the names only of generals in Spain, their old army had also been withdrawn thence. That all the troops they had there were irresolute, as consisting of an undisciplined multitude of recruits. That there would never again occur such an opportunity for the liberation of Spain. That up to that time they had been the slaves either of Carthaginians or Romans, and that not to one or the other in turns, but sometimes to both together. That the Carthaginians had been driven out by the Romans, and that the Romans might be driven out by the Spaniards, if they would unite: so that Spain, for ever freed from a foreign yoke, might return to her native customs and rites.” By these and other observations he stirred up not only his countrymen, but the Ausetanians also, a neighbouring nation, as well as other states bordering on his own and their country. Accordingly, within a few days, thirty thousand foot and about four thousand horse assembled in the Sedetanian territory, according to the orders which had been given.
[19] 2. On the other side, the Roman generals also, Lucius Lentulus and Lucius Manlius Acidinus, lest by neglecting the first beginnings of the war it should increase in violence, having united their armies, and led their troops through the Ausetanian territory in a peaceable manner, as though it had been the territory of friends instead of enemies, came to the position of the enemy, and pitched their camp at a distance of three miles from theirs. At first an unsuccessful attempt was made, through ambassadors, to induce them to lay down their arms; then the Spanish cavalry making a sudden attack on the Roman foragers, a body of cavalry was sent to support them from the Roman outposts, when a battle between the cavalry took place with no memorable issue to either side. The next day, at sun-rise, the whole force displayed their line, armed and drawn out for battle, at the distance of about a mile from the Roman camp. The Ausetanians were in the centre, the right wing was occupied by the Ilergetians, the left by some inconsiderable states of Spain. Between the wings and the centre they had left intervals of considerable extent, through which they might send out their cavalry when occasion required. The Romans also, drawing up their army in their usual manner, imitated the enemy in respect only of leaving themselves also intervals between the legions to afford passages for their cavalry. Lentulus, however, concluding that the cavalry could be employed with advantage by those only who should be the first to send them against the enemy’s line, thus broken by intervals, ordered Servius Cornelius, a military tribune, to direct the cavalry to ride at full speed into the spaces left in the enemy’s line. Lentulus himself, as the battle between the infantry was somewhat unfavourable in its commencement, waited only until he had brought up from the reserve into the front line the thirteenth legion to support the twelfth legion, which had been posted in the left wing, against the Ilergetians, and which was giving ground. And when the battle was thus placed on an equal footing in that quarter, he came to Lucius Manlius, who was exhorting the troops in the foremost line, and bringing up the reserves in such places as circumstances required, and told him that all was safe in the left wing, and that Cornelius Servius, who had been sent by him for that purpose, would soon pour round the enemy a storm of cavalry. He had scarcely uttered these words, when the Roman horse, riding into the midst of the enemy, at once threw their line of infantry into disorder, and closed up the passage by which the Spanish cavalry were to advance. The Spaniards, therefore, giving up all thoughts of fighting on horseback, dismounted and fought on foot. When the Roman generals saw that the ranks of the enemy were in confusion, that they were in a state of trepidation and dismay, their standards moving to and fro, they exhorted and implored their men to charge them while thus discomfited, and not allow them to form their line again. So desperate was their charge that the barbarians could not have withstood the shock, had not the prince Indibilis in person, together with the discounted cavalry, opposed himself to the enemy before the front rank of the infantry. There an obstinate contest continued for a considerable time; but those who fought round the king, who continued his resistance though almost expiring, and who was afterwards pinned to the earth by a javelin, having at length fallen, overwhelmed with darts, a general flight took place; and the number slain was the greater because the horsemen were prevented from remounting, and because the Romans pressed impetuously upon the discomfited troops; nor did they give over until they had deprived the enemy of their camp. On that day thirteen thousand Spaniards were slain, and about eight hundred captured. Of the Romans and allies there fell a little more than two hundred, and those principally in the left wing. Such of the Spaniards as were beaten out of their camp, or had escaped from the battle, at first dispersed themselves through the country, but afterwards returned each to his own state.
[19] 3. They were then summoned to an assembly by Mandonius, at which, after complaining bitterly of the losses they had sustained, and upbraiding the instigators of the war, they resolved that ambassadors should be sent with proposals to deliver up their arms and make a surrender. These, laying the blame on Indibilis, the instigator of the war, and the other chiefs, most of whom had fallen in the battle, and offering to deliver up their arms and surrender themselves, received for answer, that their surrender would be accepted on condition that they delivered up alive Mandonius and the rest of the persons who had fomented the war; but if they refused to comply, that armies should be marched into the territories of the Ilergetians and Ausetanians, and afterwards into those of the other states in succession. This answer given to the ambassadors, was reported to the assembly, and Mandonius and the other chiefs were there seized and delivered up for punishment. Peace was restored to the states of Spain, which were ordered to pay double taxes that year, and furnish corn for six months, together with cloaks and gowns for the army; and hostages were taken from about thirty of the states.
[19] The tumult occasioned by the rebellion in Spain having been thus excited and suppressed within the space of a few days, without any great disturbance, the whole terror of the war was directed against Africa. Caius Laelius having arrived at Hippo Regius by night, at break of day led his soldiers and mariners in regular array to lay waste the country. As all the inhabitants were living unguardedly, as in a time of peace, great damage was done; and messengers, flying in terror, filled Carthage with alarm, by reporting that the Roman fleet and the general, Scipio, had arrived; for there was a rumour that Scipio had already crossed over into Sicily. Not knowing accurately how many ships they had seen, or how large a body of troops was devastating the country, they, under the influence of fear, which represented them as greater than they really were, exaggerated every thing. Accordingly, at first, terror and dismay took possession of their minds, but afterwards grief, when they reflected that their circumstances had undergone so great a change; that they, who lately as conquerors had an army before the walls of Rome, and, after having laid prostrate so many armies of the enemy, had received the surrender of all the states of Italy, either by force or choice, now, the war having taken an unfavourable turn, were destined to behold the devastation of Africa and the siege of Carthage, without any thing like the resources to enable them to bear up against those calamities which the Romans possessed. To the latter the Roman commons and Latium afforded a supply of young men, which continually grew up more vigorous and more numerous, in the room of so many armies destroyed, while their own people, both those in the city and those in the country, were unfit for military service; their troops consisted of auxiliaries, procured by hire from the Africans, a faithless nation, and veering about with every gale of fortune. Now too, with regard to the kings, Syphax was alienated from them since his conference with Scipio, and Masinissa, by an open defection, had become their most determined enemy. Wherever they turned their eyes there was no hope, no aid. Neither did Mago excite any commotion on the side of Gaul, nor join his forces with those of Hannibal; while Hannibal himself was now declining both in reputation and strength.
[19] 4. Their minds, which had fallen into these melancholy reflections in consequence of the intelligence they had just received, were brought back by their immediate fears to deliberate how to oppose the instant danger. They resolved, that troops should be hastily levied both in the city and in the country; that persons should be sent to hire auxiliaries from the Africans; that the city should be fortified, corn collected, weapons and arms prepared, and ships equipped and sent to Hippo against the Roman fleet. But now, while engaged in these matters, news at length arrived that it was Laelius, and not Scipio; that the forces which he had brought over were only what were sufficient for making predatory incursions into the country, and that the principal stress of the war still lay in Sicily. Thus they were enabled to take breath, and they began to send embassies to Syphax and the other petty princes, for the purpose of strengthening their alliances. To Philip also ambassadors were sent, to promise him two hundred talents of silver, if he would cross over into Sicily or Italy. Ambassadors were also sent into Italy to the two generals, to desire them to keep Scipio at home by terrifying the enemy in every way they could. To Mago, not only ambassadors were sent, but twenty-five men of war, six thousand infantry, eight hundred horse, and seven elephants, besides a large sum of money to be employed in hiring auxiliaries, in order that, encouraged by these aids, he might advance his army nearer to the city of Rome, and form a junction with Hannibal. Such were the preparations and plans at Carthage. While Laelius was employed in carrying off an immense quantity of booty from the country, the inhabitants of which had no arms, and which was destitute of forces, Masinissa, moved by the report of the arrival of the Roman fleet, came to him attended by a small body of horse. He complained that “Scipio had not acted with promptness in this business, in that he had not already passed his army over into Africa, while the Carthaginians were in consternation, and while Syphax was entangled in wars with the neighbouring states, and in doubt and uncertainty as to the course he should take; that if time was allowed to Syphax to adjust his own affairs according to his mind, he would not in any thing keep his faith with the Romans inviolate.” He requested that he would exhort and stimulate Scipio not to delay. Though driven from his kingdom, he said he would join him with no despicable force of foot and horse. Nor was it right, said he that Laelius should continue in Africa, for he believed that a fleet had set sail from Carthage, with which, in the absence of Scipio, it would not be altogether safe to engage.
[19] 5. After this discourse Masinissa departed. Laelius, the next day, sailed from Hippo with his ships loaded with booty, and returning to Sicily, delivered to Scipio the injunctions of Masinissa. About the same time the ships which were sent from Carthage to Mago touched at the country between the Albingaunian Ligurians and Genoa. Mago happened to be lying here with his fleet at this time. After hearing the message of the ambassadors, directing him to collect as great a number of troops as possible, he immediately held a council of the Gauls and Ligurians, for a great number of both those nations were there. He said that he was sent to restore them to liberty, and, as they themselves might see, succours were sent him from home; but that it depended upon them with how great forces and how large an army the war for that purpose was to be carried on. That the Romans had two armies in the field, one in Gaul and another in Etruria. That he was well informed that Spurius Lucretius would form a junction with Marcus Livius, and that they on their part must arm many thousands, in order to cope with two Roman generals and two armies. The Gauls replied, that they had the strongest possible inclination to this, but as the Romans had one army within their borders, and another in the neighbouring country of Etruria, almost within sight, if it should be known that they had supported the Carthaginians with auxiliaries, those would immediately invade their territories on both sides with determined hostility. They requested that he would ask of the Gauls such aids as they could afford in a covert manner. The purposes of the Ligurians, they said, were unrestrained, because the Roman troops were at a distance from their lands and cities; that it was fair that they should arm their youth and take upon themselves a portion of the war. The Ligurians did not dissent; they only requested the space of two months to make their levies. Having dismissed the Gauls, Mago in the mean time secretly hired soldiers through their country. Provisions also of every description were sent to him privately by the Gallic states. Marcus Livius led his army of volunteer slaves out of Etruria into Gaul, and having joined Lucretius, prepared to meet Mago in case he should move from Liguria nearer to the city; but intending, if the Carthaginian should keep himself quiet under the angle formed by the Alps, to remain himself also in the same quarter, near Ariminum, for the protection of Italy.
[19] 6. After the return of Caius Laelius from Africa, though Scipio was goaded on by the exhortations of Masinissa; and the soldiers, on seeing the booty which was taken from the enemy’s country landed from the whole fleet, were inflamed with the strongest desire to cross over as soon as possible; this important object was interrupted by one of minor consideration, namely, that of regaining the town of Locri, which at the time of the general defection of Italy had itself also gone over to the Carthaginians. The hope of accomplishing this object beamed forth from a very trifling circumstance. The war was carried on in Bruttium rather in a predatory than a regular manner, the Numidians having set the example, and the Bruttians falling in with that practice, not more in consequence of their connexion with the Carthaginians, than from their natural inclination. At last the Romans also, who now took delight in plunder by a sort of infection, made excursions into the lands of their enemies so far as their leaders would permit it. Some Locrians who had gone out of the town, were surrounded by them and carried off to Rhegium. Among the number of the prisoners were certain artisans, who, as it happened, had been accustomed to work for the Carthaginians in the city of Locri for hire. They were recognised by some of the Locrian nobles, who having been driven out by the opposite faction, which had delivered up Locri to Hannibal, had retired to Rhegium; and having answered their other questions relative to what was going on at home, questions which are usually put by such as have been long absent, they gave them hopes that, if ransomed and sent back, they might be able to deliver up the citadel to them; for there they resided, and among the Carthaginians they enjoyed unlimited confidence. Accordingly, as these nobles were at once tormented with a longing for their country, and inflamed with a desire to be revenged on their enemies, they immediately ransomed the prisoners and sent them back, after having settled the plan of operation, and agreed upon the signals which were to be given at a distance and observed by them. They then went themselves to Scipio to Syracuse, with whom some of the exiles were; and having, by relating to him the promises made by the prisoners, inspired the consul with hopes which seemed likely to be realized, Marcus Sergius and Publius Matienus, military tribunes, were sent with them, and ordered to lead three thousand soldiers from Rhegium to Locri. A letter was also written to Quintus Pleminius, the propraetor, with directions that he should assist in the business. The troops, setting out from Rhegium and carrying with them ladders to suit the alleged height of the citadel, about midnight gave a signal to those who were to betray it from the place agreed upon. The latter were ready and on the watch, and having themselves also lowered down ladders made for the purpose, and received the Romans as they climbed up in several places at once, an attack was made upon the Carthaginian sentinels, who were fast asleep, as they were not afraid of any thing of the kind before any noise was made. Their dying groans were the first sound that was heard; then, awaking from their sleep, a sudden consternation and confusion followed, the cause of the alarm being unknown. At length, one rousing another, the fact became more certain, and now every one shouted “To arms” with all his might; “that the enemy were in the citadel and the sentinels slain;” and the Romans, who were far inferior in numbers, would have been overpowered, had not a shout raised by those who were outside of the citadel rendered it uncertain whence the noise proceeded, while the terror of an alarm by night magnified all fears, however groundless. The Carthaginians, therefore, terrified and supposing that the citadel was already filled with the enemy, gave up all thoughts of opposition and fled to the other citadel; for there were two at no great distance from each other. The townsmen held the city, which lay between the two fortresses, as the prize of the victors. Slight engagements took place daily from the two citadels. Quintus Pleminius commanded the Roman, Hamilcar the Carthaginian garrison. They augmented their forces by calling in aids from the neighbouring places. At last Hannibal himself came; nor would the Romans have held out, had not the general body of the Locrians, exasperated by the pride and rapacity of the Carthaginians, leaned towards the Romans.
[19] 7. When Scipio received intelligence that the posture of affairs at Locri had become more critical, and that Hannibal himself was approaching, lest even the garrison might be exposed to danger; for it was not an easy matter for it to retire thence; as soon as the direction of the tide in the strait had changed, he let the ships drive with the tide from Messana, having left his brother, Lucius Scipio, in command there. Hannibal also sent a messenger in advance from the river Butrotus, which is not far from the town of Locri, to desire his party to attack the Romans and Locrians at break of day in the most vigorous manner, while he on the opposite side assaulted the town, which would be unprepared for such a measure, as every one would have his attention occupied with the tumult created in the other quarter. But when, as soon as it was light, he found that the battle had commenced, he was unwilling to shut himself up in the citadel, where, by his numbers, he would crowd that confined place; nor had he brought with him scaling-ladders to enable him to mount the walls. Having, however, had the baggage thrown together in a heap, and displayed his line at a distance from the walls to intimidate the enemy, while the scaling-ladders and other requisites for an assault were preparing, he rode round the city with some Numidian horsemen, in order to observe in what quarter the attack might be best made. Having advanced towards the rampart, the person who happened to stand next him was struck by a weapon from a scorpion; and, terrified at an accident in which he had been exposed to so much danger, he retired, gave directions for sounding a retreat, and fortified a camp out of the reach of weapons. The Roman fleet from Messana came to Locri several hours before night. The troops were all landed and had entered the city before sun-set. The following day the fight began from the citadel on the part of the Carthaginians, and Hannibal, having now prepared ladders and all the other requisites for an assault, was coming up to the walls; when, throwing open the gate, the Romans suddenly sallied out upon him, Hannibal fearing nothing less than such a step. They slew as many as two hundred in the attack, having taken them by surprise. The rest Hannibal withdrew into the camp when he found the consul was there; and having despatched a messenger to those who were in the citadel, to desire them to take measures for their own safety, he decamped by night. Those who were in the citadel also, after throwing fire upon the buildings they occupied, in order that the alarm thus occasioned might detain their enemy, went away with a speed which resembled flight, and overtook the body of their army before night.
[19] 8. Scipio, seeing that the citadel was abandoned by the enemy, and their camp deserted, called the Locrians to an assembly and rebuked them severely for their defection. He inflicted punishment on the persons principally concerned, and gave their effects to the leaders of the other party, in consideration of their extraordinary fidelity to the Romans. As to the Locrians in general, he said that he would neither grant them any thing, nor take any thing from them. They might send ambassadors to Rome, and they should experience that treatment which the senate thought proper to adopt. Of one thing, however, he said he was confident, which was, that although they had deserved ill at the hands of the Romans, they would be better off when subject to them, though incensed against them, than they had been when in the power of their friends the Carthaginians. Leaving Quintus Pleminius lieutenant-general, and the garrison which had taken the citadel to defend the city, the general himself crossed over to Messana with the forces he had brought with him. The Locrians had been treated with such insolence and cruelty by the Carthaginians since their revolt from the Romans, that they were able to endure severities of an ordinary kind not only with patience but almost willingness. But indeed, so greatly did Pleminius surpass Hamilcar, who had commanded the garrison, so greatly did the Roman soldiers in the garrison surpass the Carthaginians in villany and rapacity, that it would appear that they endeavoured to outdo each other, not in arms, but in vices. None of all those things which render the power of a superior hateful to the powerless was omitted towards the inhabitants, either by the general or his soldiers. The most shocking insults were committed against their own persons, their children, and their wives, For their rapacity did not abstain from the spoliation even of sacred things; and not only were other temples violated, but even the treasures of Proserpine, which had never been touched through all ages, excepting that they were said to have been carried away by Pyrrhus, who restored the spoils, together with a costly offering in expiation of his sacrilege. Therefore, as on the former occasion, the royal ships, wrecked and shattered, brought nothing safe to land, except the sacred money of the goddess, which they were carrying away; so now also, that same money, by a different kind of calamity, cast a spirit of madness upon all who were contaminated by this violation of the temple, and turned them against each other with the fury of enemies, general against general, and soldier against soldier.
[19] 9. Pleminius had the chief command; that part of the soldiers which he had brought with him from Rhegium were under his own command, the rest were under the command of the tribunes. One of Pleminius’s men, while running away with a silver cup which he had stolen from the house of a townsman, the owners pursuing him, happened to meet Sergius and Matienus, the military tribunes. The cup having been taken away from him at the order of the tribunes, abuse and clamour ensued, and at last a fight arose between the soldiers of Pleminius and those of the tribunes; the numbers engaged and the tumult increasing at the same time, as either party was joined by their friends who happened to come up at the time. When the soldiers of Pleminius, who had been worsted, had run to him in crowds, not without loud clamouring and indignant feelings, showing their blood and wounds, and repeating the reproaches which had been heaped upon him during the dispute, Pleminius, fired with resentment, flung himself out of his house, ordered the tribunes to be summoned and stripped, and the rods to be brought out. During the time which was consumed in stripping them, for they made resistance, and implored their men to aid them, on a sudden the soldiers, flushed with their recent victory, ran together from every quarter, as if there had been a shout to arms against enemies; and when they saw the bodies of their tribunes now mangled with rods, then indeed, suddenly inflamed with much, more ungovernable rage, without respect, not only for the dignity of their commander, but of humanity, they made an attack upon the lieutenant-general, having first mutilated the lictors in a shocking manner; they then cruelly lacerated the lieutenant-general himself, having cut him off from his party and hemmed him in, and after mutilating his nose and ears left him almost lifeless. Accounts of these occurrences arriving at Messana, Scipio, a few days after, passing over to Locri in a ship with six banks of oars, took cognizance of the cause of Pleminius and the tribunes. Having acquitted Pleminius and left him in command of the same place, and pronounced the tribunes guilty and thrown them into chains, that they might be sent to Rome to the senate, he returned to Messana, and thence to Syracuse. Pleminius, unable to restrain his resentment, for he thought that the injury he had sustained had been treated negligently and too lightly by Scipio, and that no one could form an estimate of the punishment which ought to be inflicted in such a case, except the man who had in his own person felt its atrocity, ordered the tribunes to be dragged before him, and after lacerating them with every punishment which the human body could endure, put them to death; and not satisfied with the punishment inflicted on them while alive, cast them out unburied. The like cruelty he exercised towards the Locrian nobles, whom he heard had gone to Scipio to complain of the injuries he had done them. The horrid acts, prompted by lust and rapacity, which he had before perpetrated upon his allies, he now multiplied from resentment; thus bringing infamy and odium, not only upon himself, but upon the general also.
[19] 10. The time of the elections was now drawing near, when a letter from the consul Publius Licinius arrived at Rome, stating that “he himself and his army were afflicted with a severe sickness, nor could they have stood their ground had not the malady attacked the enemy with the same or even greater violence. Therefore, as he could not come himself to the election, he would, with the approbation of the senate, nominate Quintus Caecilius Metellus dictator, for the purpose of holding the election. That it was for the interest of the state that the army of Quintus Caecilius should be disbanded; for that it could not be made any use of under present circumstances, for Hannibal had now withdrawn his troops into winter quarters; and so violent was the malady which had infected that camp, that unless it was speedily broken up, there would not survive one man out of the whole army.” The senate left it to the consul to settle these matters, as he should deem consistent with the interest of the state and his own honour. The state was at this time suddenly occupied with a question of a religious nature, in consequence of the discovery of a prediction in the Sibylline books, which had been inspected on account of there having been so many showers of stones this year. It ran thus: “Whensoever a foreign enemy should bring war into the land of Italy, he may be driven out of Italy and conquered, if the Idaean Mother should be brought from Pessinus to Rome.” This prophecy, discovered by the decemviri, produced the greater impression upon the senate, because ambassadors also, who had carried a present to Delphi, had brought word back, that they had both obtained a favourable appearance in sacrificing to the Pythian Apollo, and that a response was delivered from the oracle, to the effect, that a much greater victory than that from the spoils of which they now brought presents, awaited the Roman people. They considered the presentiment which existed in the mind of Publius Scipio, with regard to the termination of the war, when he claimed Africa as his province, as corroborating the same anticipation. In order, therefore, that they might the more speedily put themselves in possession of victory, which was portended to them by the fates, omens, and oracles, they began to think what method could be adopted for conveying the goddess to Rome.
[19] 11. As yet the Roman people had none of the states of Asia in alliance with them. Recollecting, however, that formerly Aesculapius, on account of a sickness among the people, was fetched from Greece, which was not then united with them by any treaty; recollecting, also, that a friendship had already commenced between them and king Attalus, on account of the war which they waged in common against Philip, and that he would do whatever he could to oblige the Roman people, they resolved to send, as ambassadors to him, Marcus Valerius Laevinus, who had been twice consul, and had carried on operations in Greece; Marcus Caecilius Metellus, who had been praetor; Servius Sulpicius Galba, who had been aedile; and two who had been quaestors, Caius Tremellius Flaccus and Marcus Valerius Falto. To these five quinqueremes were assigned, in order that, in a manner suitable to the dignity of the Roman people, they might visit those lands where it was important to gain respect for the Roman name. The ambassadors, on their way to Asia, having landed at Delphi, immediately approached the oracle, inquiring what hopes the deity held out to themselves and the Roman people, of accomplishing the business for which they had been sent from home. It is said that the answer given was, “that they would obtain what they were seeking by means of king Attalus. When they had conveyed the goddess to Rome, they must take care that the best man at Rome should receive her to his hospitality.” They came to Pergamus to the king, who received the ambassadors graciously, and conducted them to Pessinus in Phrygia, and putting into their hands a sacred stone, which the inhabitants said was the mother of the gods, bid them convey it to Rome. Marcus Valerius Falto, who was sent in advance, brought word that the goddess was on her way, and that the most virtuous man in the state must be sought out, who might in due form receive and entertain her. Quintus Caecilius Metellus was nominated dictator for holding the elections, by the consul in Bruttium, and his army was disbanded. Lucius Veturius Philo was made master of the horse. The elections were held by the dictator; the consuls elected were Marcus Cornelius Cethegus and Publius Sempronius Tuditanus, who was absent, being engaged in his province of Greece. The praetors were then elected: Titus Claudius Nero, Marcus Marcius Ralla, Lucius Scribonius Libo, Marcus Pomponius Matho. On the conclusion of the elections, the dictator abdicated his office. The Roman games were repeated thrice, the plebeian seven times. The curule aediles were Cneius and Lucius Cornelius Lentulus: Lucius had the province of Spain; he was elected in his absence, and was absent while he filled the office. The plebeian aediles were Titus Claudius Asellus and Marcus Junius Pennus. Marcus Marcellus this year dedicated the temple of Virtue at the Porta Capena, in the seventeenth year after it had been vowed by his father during his first consulate at Clastidium in Gaul: also Marcus Aemilius Regillus, flamen of Mars, died this year.
[19] 12. For the last two years the affairs of Greece had been neglected. Accordingly, as the Aetolians were deserted by the Romans, on whom alone they depended for assistance, Philip compelled them to sue for and agree to a peace on whatever conditions he pleased. Had he not exerted himself to the utmost in expediting this measure, he would have been overpowered, while engaged in war with the Aetolians, by Publius Sempronius, the proconsul, who had been sent to succeed Sulpicius in the command, with ten thousand infantry and a thousand horse, together with thirty-five ships of war, a force of no small importance to bring to the assistance of allies. Ere the peace was well concluded, news was brought to the king that the Romans had arrived at Dyrrachium; that the Parthinians, and other bordering nations, were up in arms on seeing hopes of effecting a change; and that Dimallum was besieged. The Romans had turned their efforts to that quarter instead of assisting the Aetolians, for which purpose they had been sent, from resentment at the conduct of the Aetolians for making peace with the king without their sanction, contrary to the league. When Philip had received intelligence of these events, lest any greater commotion should arise in the neighbouring nations and states, he proceeded by forced marches to Apollonia, to which place Sempronius had retired, having sent Laetorius, his lieutenant-general, with a part of his forces and fifteen ships into Aetolia, to look into the state of affairs, and, if he could, dissolve the peace. Philip laid waste the lands of the Apollonians, and, advancing his troops to the tower, offered the Romans battle. But seeing that they remained quiet, only defending the walls, and not having sufficient confidence in his strength to assault the town, being desirous also of making peace with the Romans if possible, as he had with the Aetolians, or at least a truce, he withdrew into his own dominions, without further exciting their animosity by a fresh contest. During the same time the Epirots, wearied by the long continuance of the war, having first sounded the disposition of the Romans, sent ambassadors to Philip on the subject of a common peace; affirming that they were well satisfied that it might be arranged if he would come to a conference with Publius Sempronius, the Roman general. They easily prevailed on him to pass into Epirus, for neither were the king’s own inclinations averse from this measure. Phoenice is a city of Epirus; here Philip first conferred with Aeropus Dardas and Philip, praetors of the Epirots, and afterwards met Publius Sempronius. Amynander, king of the Athamanians, and other magistrates of the Epirots and Acarnanians, were present at the conference. The praetor Philip spoke first, and requested at once of the king and the Roman general, that they would put an end to the war, and grant this boon to the Epirots. Publius Sempronius proposed as the conditions of the peace, that the Parthinians, and Dimallum, and Bargulum, and Eugenium, should be under the dominion of the Romans; that Atintania, if on sending ambassadors to Rome they could prevail upon the senate to acquiesce, should be added to the dominions of the Macedonian. The peace having been agreed upon on these terms, Prusias king of Bithynia, the Achaeans, the Boeotians, the Thessalians, the Acarnanians, and the Epirots, were included in the treaty by the king; by the Romans, the Ilians, king Attalus, Pleuratus, Nabis tyrant of the Lacedaemonians, the Eleans, the Messenians, and Athenians. These conditions were committed to writing and sealed; and a truce was agreed upon for two months, to allow time for ambassadors being sent to Rome, that the people might order the peace upon these terms. All the tribes agreed in ordering it, because now that the operations of the war were removed into Africa, they were desirous to be relieved for the present from all other wars. The peace being concluded, Publius Sempronius took his departure for Rome, to attend to the duties of his consulship.
[19] 13. To Publius Sempronius and Marcus Cornelius, the consuls in the fifteenth year of the Punic war, the provinces assigned were, to Cornelius, Etruria, with the old army; to Sempronius, Bruttium, with directions to levy fresh legions. Of the praetors, to Marcus Marcius fell the city jurisdiction; to Lucius Scribonius Libo, the foreign, together with Gaul; to Marcus Pomponius Matho, Sicily; to Titus Claudius Nero, Sardinia. Publius Scipio was continued in command with the army and fleet which he had under him, as was also Publius Licinius, with directions to occupy Bruttium with two legions, so long as the consul should deem it for the advantage of the state that he should continue in the province with command. Marcus Livius and Spurius Lucretius were also continued in command, with the two legions with which they had protected Gaul against Mago; also Cneius Octavius, with orders that, after he had delivered up Sardinia and the legion to Titus Claudius, he should, with forty ships of war, protect the sea-coast within such limits as the senate should appoint. To Marcus Pomponius, the praetor in Sicily, the troops which had fought at Cannae, consisting of two legions, were assigned. It was decreed, that Titus Quinctius and Caius Tubulus, propraetors, should occupy, the former Tarentum, the latter Capua, as in the former year, each having his old army. With respect to the command in Spain, it was submitted to the people to decide on the two proconsuls to be sent into that province. All the tribes agreed in ordering that the same persons, namely, Lucius Cornelius Lentulus and Lucius Manlius Acidinus, should, as proconsuls, hold the command of those provinces as they had the former year. The consuls set about making the levies, both to raise new legions for Bruttium, and recruit the other armies; for so were they directed by the senate.
[19] 14. Although Africa had not as yet been openly declared a province, the senate keeping it a secret, I suppose, lest the Carthaginians should get intelligence of it beforehand, nevertheless, the most sanguine hopes were entertained in the city, that the enemy would be vanquished that year in Africa, and that the termination of the Punic war was at hand. This circumstance had filled the minds of the people with superstitious notions, and they were strongly disposed to credit and propagate accounts of prodigies, and for that reason more were reported. It was said, “that two suns had been seen; that it had become light for a time during the night; that at Setia a meteor had been seen, extending from the east to the west; that at Tarracina a gate, at Anagnia a gate and the wall in many places, had been struck by lightning; that in the temple of Juno Sospita, at Lanuvium, a noise had been heard, accompanied with a tremendous crash.” There was a supplication for one day for the purpose of expiating these, and the nine days’ sacred rite was celebrated on account of a shower of stones. In addition to these cares, they had to deliberate about the reception of the Idaean Mother; for besides that Marcus Valerius, one of the ambassadors who had come before the rest, had brought word that she would be in Italy forthwith a recent account had arrived that she was at Tarracina. The senate was occupied with the determination of a matter of no small importance, namely, who was the most virtuous man in the state. Every one doubtless would wish for himself the victory in this contest, rather than any office of command, or any honours, which could be conferred by the suffrages either of the senate or the people. Publius Scipio, son of Cneius who had fallen in Spain, a youth not yet of the age to be quaestor, they adjudged to be the best of the good men in the whole state. Though I would willingly record it for the information of posterity, had the writers who lived in the times nearest to those events mentioned by what virtues of his they were induced to come to this determination, yet I will not obtrude my own opinion, formed upon conjecture, relative to a matter buried in the obscurity of antiquity. Publius Cornelius was ordered to go to Ostia, attended by all the matrons, to meet the goddess; to receive her from the ship himself, and, when landed, place her in the hands of the matrons to convey her away. After the ship arrived at the mouth of the Tiber, Scipio, according to the directions given him, sailed out into the open sea, and, receiving the goddess from the priests, conveyed her to land. The chief matrons in the state received her, among whom the name of Claudia Quinta alone is worthy of remark. Her fame, which, as it is recorded, was before that time dubious, became, in consequence of her having assisted in so solemn a business, illustrious for chastity among posterity. The matrons, passing her from one to another in orderly succession, conveyed the goddess into the temple of Victory, in the Palatium, on the day before the ides of April, which was made a festival, while the whole city poured out to meet her; and, placing censers before their doors, on the way by which she was conveyed in procession, kindled frankincense, and prayed that she would enter the city of Rome willingly and propitiously. The people in crowds carried presents to the goddess in the Palatium; a lectisternium was celebrated, with games called the Megalesian.
[19] 15. When the business of recruiting the legions in the provinces was under consideration, it was suggested by certain senators that now was the time, when, by the favour of the gods, their fears were removed, to put a stop to certain things, however they might have been tolerated in perilous circumstances. The senators, being intent in expectation, subjoined, that the twelve Latin colonies which had refused to furnish soldiers to the consuls, Quintus Fabius and Quintus Fulvius, were enjoying, for now the sixth year, exemption from military service, as though it had been granted to them a mark of honour and favour; while in the mean time their good and dutiful allies, in return for their fidelity and obedience to the Roman people, had been exhausted by continual levies every year. By these words the recollection of the senate was renewed touching a matter which was now almost obliterated, and their indignation equally excited. Accordingly, without allowing the consuls to lay any other business before the senate in priority, they decreed, “that the consuls should summon to Rome the magistrates, and ten principal inhabitants, from each of the colonies, Xepete, Sutrium, Ardea, Cales, Alba, Carseoli, Sora, Suessa, Setia, Circeii, Narnia, and Interamna; for these were the colonies implicated in this affair; and command them that each of those colonies should furnish double the greatest number of foot soldiers which they had ever provided for the Roman people since the enemy had been in Italy, and one hundred and twenty horsemen each. If any of them was unable to make up that number of horsemen, that it should be allowed to furnish three foot soldiers for every horseman deficient. That both the foot and horse soldiers should be chosen from the wealthiest of the inhabitants, and should be sent out of Italy wheresoever there was want of recruits. If any of them refused to comply, it was their pleasure that the magistrates and ambassadors of such should be detained; and that, if they requested it, they should not be allowed an audience of the senate till they had obeyed these orders. Moreover, that an annual tax should be imposed upon them, and collected after the rate of one as for every thousand; and that a census should be taken in those colonies, according to a formula appointed by the Roman censors, which should be the same which was employed in the case of the Roman people; and that a return should be made at Rome by sworn censors of the colonies, before they retired from their office.” The magistrates and principal men of these colonies having been summoned to Rome, when the consuls imposed upon them the contribution of men, and the management of the tax, they vied with each other in making excuses, and remonstrating against it. They said “it was impossible that so large a number of men could be raised. That they could scarcely accomplish it, if even the simple contribution only, according to the established ratio, were required of them. They entreated and besought them that they might be allowed to appear before the senate and deprecate their resolution. They had committed no crime for which they deserved to be ruined; but, even if they were to be ruined, neither their own crime nor the resentment of the Roman people could make them furnish a greater number of soldiers than they had got.” The consuls, persisting, ordered the ambassadors to remain at Rome, and the magistrates to go home to make the levies; observing, that “unless the amount of soldiers enjoined were brought to Rome, no one would give them an audience of the senate.” All hope of appearing before the senate, and deprecating their decision, being then cut off, the levies were completed in the twelve colonies without difficulty, as the number of their youth had increased during their long exemption from service.
[19] 16. Another affair, likewise, which had been passed over in silence for an almost equally long period, was laid before the senate by Marcus Valerius Laevinus; who said, “that equity required that the monies which had been contributed by private individuals, when he and Marcus Claudius were consuls, should now at length be repaid. Nor ought any one to feel surprised that a case, where the public faith was pledged, should have engaged his attention in an especial manner; for, besides that the matter appertained, in some degree, peculiarly to the consul of that year in which the money was contributed, he was himself the author of the measure, as the treasury was drained, and the people unable to pay the taxes.” This suggestion was well received by the senate, and, bidding the consuls to propose the question, they decreed, “that this money should be paid by three instalments; that the present consuls should make the first payment immediately, and the third and fifth consuls, from that time, the two remaining.”
[19] After this, all their other cares gave place to one alone when the sufferings of the Locrians, of which they had been ignorant up to that day, were made known by the arrival of their ambassadors. Nor was it the villany of Pleminius so much as the partiality or negligence of Scipio in that affair, which excited the resentment of the people. While the consuls were sitting in the comitium, ten ambassadors of the Locrians, covered with filth, and in mourning, and extending branches of olive, the badges of suppliants, according to the Grecian custom, prostrated themselves on the ground before the tribunal, with loud lamentations. In answer to the inquiry of the consuls, they said, “that they were Locrians, who had suffered such things at the hands of Pleminius the lieutenant-general, and the Roman soldiers, as the Roman people would not wish even the Carthaginians to experience. They requested that they would allow them to appear before the senate, and complain of their sufferings.”
[19] 17. An audience having been granted, the eldest of them thus spoke: “I know, conscript fathers, that the importance you will attach to the complaints we make before you must depend, in a very great degree, upon your accurately knowing the manner in which Locri was betrayed to Hannibal, and placed again under your dominion after the expulsion of his garrison. Inasmuch as if the guilt of defection does not rest upon the public, and it is made apparent that our restoration to your dominion was effected, not only in concurrence with our wishes, but by our own co-operation and valour, you will be the more indignant that such atrocious and shameful injuries should have been inflicted upon good and faithful allies by your lieutenant-general and soldiers. But I think it proper that the subject of our changing sides, in both instances, should be deferred to another time, on two accounts: first, that it may be discussed in the presence of Publius Scipio, who retook Locri, and who witnessed all our acts, both good and bad; and secondly, because, whatever we are, we ought not to have suffered what we have. We cannot conceal, conscript fathers, that when we had a Carthaginian garrison in our citadel we were exposed to many sufferings, of a shocking and shameful kind, from Hamilcar, the captain of the garrison, and the Numidians and Africans. But what are they compared with what we endure this day? I request, conscript fathers, that you will hear without offence what I am reluctant to mention. All mankind are now in a state of anxious suspense, whether they are to see you or the Carthaginians lords of the world. If an estimate is to be formed of the Roman and Carthaginian governments from what we Locrians have suffered from the Carthaginians on the one hand, or on the other, from what we are suffering, at the present time especially, from your garrison; there is no one who would not wish the Carthaginians to be his masters rather than the Romans. And yet observe what are the feelings which the Locrians have entertained towards you. When we were suffering injuries of much less magnitude from the Carthaginians, we fled for protection to your general; now we are suffering more than hostile indignities from your garrison, we have carried our complaints to no others than yourselves. Conscript fathers! either you will consider our forlorn condition or there is no other resource left us for which we can even pray to the immortal gods. Quintus Pleminius, the lieutenant-general, was sent with a body of troops to recover Locri from the Carthaginians, and was left there in command of the same as a garrison. In this your lieutenant-general there is neither any thing of a man, conscript fathers, but the figure and outward appearance, (for the extremity of our misery prompts me to speak freely,) nor of a Roman citizen, but the attire and dress, and the sound of the Latin language. He is a pest and savage monster, such as are fabled to have beset the strait by which we are separated from Sicily, for the destruction of mariners. And yet if he had been content to be the only person to vent his villany, his lust, and rapacity upon your allies, that one gulf, deep as it was, we would however have filled up by our patience. But the case is, he has made every one of your centurions and soldiers a Pleminius, so indiscriminately has he willed that licentiousness and wickedness should be practised. All plunder, spoil, beat, wound, and slay; all defile matrons, virgins, and free-born youths torn from the embraces of their parents. Our city is captured daily, plundered daily. Day and night, every place indiscriminately rings with the lamentations of women and children, seized and carried away. Any one, acquainted with our sufferings, might be astonished how it is that we are capable of bearing them, or that the authors of them are not yet satiated with inflicting such enormous cruelties. Neither am I able to go through with them, nor is it worth your while to listen to the particulars of our sufferings. I will embrace them all in a general description. I declare that there is not a house or a man at Locri exempt from injury. I say that there cannot be found any species of villany, lust, or rapacity which has not been exercised on every one capable of being the object of them. It would be difficult to determine in which case the city was visited with the more horrible calamity, whether when it was captured by an enemy, or when a sanguinary tyrant crushed it by violence and arms. Every evil, conscript fathers, which captured cities suffer, we have suffered, and do now as much as ever suffer. All the enormities which the most cruel and savage tyrants are wont to perpetrate upon their oppressed subjects, Pleminius has perpetrated upon ourselves, our children, and our wives.
[19] 18. “There is one circumstance, however, in complaining of which particularly we may be allowed to yield to our deeply-rooted sense of religion, and indulge a hope that you will listen to it; and, if it shall seem good to you, conscript fathers, free your state from the guilt of irreligious conduct. For we have seen with how great solemnity you not only worship your own deities, but entertain even those of foreign countries. We have a fane dedicated to Proserpine, of the sanctity of which temple I imagine some accounts must have reached you, during the war with Pyrrhus; who, when sailing by Locri, on his return from Sicily, among other horrid enormities which he committed against our state, on account of our fidelity towards you, plundered also the treasures of Proserpine, which had never been touched up to that day; and then, putting the money on board his ships, proceeded on his journey himself by land. What, therefore, was the result, conscript fathers? The next day his fleet was shattered by a most hideous tempest, and all the ships which carried the sacred money were thrown on our shores. That most insolent king, convinced by this so great disaster that there were gods, ordered all the money to be collected and restored to the treasures of the goddess. However, he never met with any success afterwards; but, after being driven out of Italy, he died an ignoble and dishonourable death, having incautiously entered Argos by night. Though your lieutenant-general and military tribune had heard of these, and a thousand other circumstances, which were related not for the purpose of creating increased reverence, but frequently experienced by ourselves and our ancestors, through the special interposition of the goddess, they had, nevertheless, the audacity to apply their sacrilegious hands to those hallowed treasures, and pollute themselves, their own families, and your soldiers, with the impious booty. Through whom we implore you, conscript fathers, by your honour, not to perform any thing in Italy or in Africa, until you have expiated their guilty deed, lest they should atone for the crime they have committed, not with their own blood only, but by some disaster affecting their country. Although, even now, conscript fathers, the resentment of the goddess does not tarry either towards your generals or your soldiers. Already have they several times engaged each other in pitched battles, one party headed by Pleminius, and the other by the two military tribunes. Never did they employ their weapons with more fury against the Carthaginians than when encountering each other; and they would have afforded Hannibal an opportunity of retaking Locri, had not Scipio, whom we called in, come in time to prevent it. But, by Hercules, is it that the soldiers are impelled by frenzy, and that the influence of the goddess has not shown itself in punishing the generals themselves? Nay, herein her interposition was manifested in the most conspicuous manner. The tribunes were beaten with rods by the lieutenant-general. Then the lieutenant-general, treacherously seized by the tribunes, besides being mangled in every part of his body, had his nose and ears cut off, and was left for dead. Then, recovering from his wounds, he threw the tribunes into chains; beat them, tortured them with every species of degrading punishment, and put them to death in a cruel manner, forbidding them to be buried. Such atonements has the goddess exacted from the despoilers of her temple; nor will she cease to pursue them, with every species of vengeance, till the sacred money shall have been replaced in the treasury. Formerly, our ancestors, during a grievous war with the Crotonians, because the temple was without the town, were desirous of removing the money into it; but a voice was heard from the shrine, during the night, commanding them to hold off their hands, for the goddess would defend her own temple. As they were deterred, by religious awe, from removing the treasures thence, they were desirous of surrounding the temple with a wall. The walls were raised to a considerable height, when they suddenly fell down in ruins. But, both now, and frequently on other occasions, the goddess has either defended her own habitation and temple, or has exacted heavy expiations from those who had violated it. Our injuries she cannot avenge, nor can any but yourselves avenge them, conscript fathers. To you, and to your honour, we fly, as suppliants. It makes no difference to us whether you suffer Locri to be subject to that lieutenant-general and that garrison, or whether you deliver us up for punishment to incensed Hannibal and the Carthaginians. We do not request that you should at once believe us respecting one who is absent, and when the cause has not been heard. Let him come; let him hear our charges in person, and refute them himself. If there is any enormity one man can commit against another which he has not committed upon us we do not refuse to suffer all the same cruelties over again, if it is possible we can endure them, and let him be acquitted of all guilt towards gods and men.”
[19] 19. When the ambassadors had thus spoken, and Quintus Fabius had asked them whether they had carried those complaints to Publius Scipio, they answered, “that deputies were sent to him, but he was occupied with the preparations for the war, and had either already crossed over into Africa, or was about to do so within a few days. That they had experienced how highly the lieutenant-general was in favour with the general, when, after hearing the cause between him and the tribunes, he threw the tribunes into chains, while he left the lieutenant-general, who was equally or more guilty, in possession of the same power as before.” The ambassadors, having been directed to withdraw from the senate-house, not only Pleminius, but even Scipio, was severely inveighed against by the principal men; but, above all, by Quintus Fabius, who endeavoured to show, “that he was born for the corruption of military discipline. It was thus,” he said, “that in Spain he almost lost more men in consequence of mutiny than the war. That, after the manner of foreigners and kings, he indulged the licentiousness of the soldiers, and then punished them with cruelty.” He then followed up his speech by a resolution equally harsh: that “it was his opinion, that Pleminius should be conveyed to Rome in chains, and in chains plead his cause; and, if the complaints of the Locrians were founded in truth, that he should be put to death in prison, and his effects confiscated. That Publius Scipio should be recalled, for having quitted his province without the permission of the senate; and that the plebeian tribunes should be applied to, to propose to the people the abrogation of his command. That the senate should reply to the Locrians, when brought before them, that the injuries which they complained of having received were neither approved of by the senate nor the people of Rome. That they should be acknowledged as worthy men, allies, and friends; that their children, their wives, and whatsoever else had been taken from them, should be restored; that the sum of money which had been taken from the treasures of Proserpine should be collected, and twice the amount placed in the treasury. That an expiatory sacred rite should be celebrated, first referring it to the college of pontiffs, to determine what atonements should be made, to what gods, and with what victims, in consequence of the sacred treasures’ having been removed and violated. That the soldiers at Locri should be all transported into Sicily, and four cohorts of the allies of the Latin confederacy taken to Locri for a garrison.” The votes could not be entirely collected that day in consequence of the warm feeling excited for and against Scipio. Besides the atrocious conduct of Pleminius, and the calamities of the Locrians, much was said about the dress of the general himself, as being not only not Roman, but even unsoldierlike. It was said, that “he walked about in the gymnasium in a cloak and slippers, and that he gave his time to light books and the palaestra. That his whole staff were enjoying the delights which Syracuse afforded, with the same indolence and effeminacy. That Carthage and Hannibal had dropped out of his memory; that the whole army, corrupted by indulgence, like that at Sucro in Spain, or that now at Locri, was more to be feared by its allies than by its enemies.”
[19] 20. Though these charges, partly true, and partly containing a mixture of truth and falsehood, and therefore, probably, were urged with vehemence; the opinion, however, of Quintus Metellus prevailed, who, agreeing with Maximus on other points, differed from him in the case of Scipio. “For how inconsistent would it be,” said he, “that the person whom the state a little while ago selected as their general, though a very young man, for the recovery of Spain; whom, after he had taken Spain out of the hands of their enemies, they elected their consul, for the purpose of putting an end to the Punic war; whom they marked out with the most confident anticipation as the person who would draw Hannibal out of Italy, and subdue Africa; how inconsistent would it be, that this man, like another Pleminius, condemned in a manner without a hearing, should suddenly be recalled from his province! when the Locrians asserted that the wicked acts which had been committed against them were done not even in the presence of Scipio, and no other charge could be brought against him, than that he spared the lieutenant-general, either from good nature or respect. He thought it advisable, that Marcus Pomponius the praetor, to whose lot the province of Sicily had fallen, should go to his province within the next three days; that the consuls should select out of the senate ten deputies, whomsoever they thought proper, and send them with the praetor, together with two tribunes of the people, and an aedile. That the praetor, assisted by this council, should take cognizance of the affair. If those acts of which the Locrians complained were committed at the command or with the concurrence of Scipio, that they should command him to quit the province. If Publius Scipio had already crossed over into Africa, that the tribunes of the people and the aedile, with two of the deputies, whom the praetor should judge most fit for it, should proceed into Africa; the tribunes and the aedile to bring Scipio back from thence, and the deputies to take the command of the army until a new general had come to it. But if Marcus Pomponius and the ten deputies should discover that those acts had been committed neither with the orders nor concurrence of Publius Scipio, that Scipio should then remain with the army and carry on the war as he had proposed.” A decree of the senate having passed to this effect, application was made to the tribunes of the people to arrange among themselves, or determine by lot, which two should go with the praetor and the deputies. The advice of the college of pontiffs was taken on the subject of the expiations to be made, on account of the treasures in the temple of Proserpine, at Locri, having been touched, violated, and carried out of it. The tribunes of the people, who went with the praetor and ten deputies, were Marcus Claudius Marcellus and Marcus Cincius Alimentus. To these a plebeian aedile was given, whom, if Scipio, whether he was still in Sicily or had now crossed over into Africa, should refuse to obey the orders of the praetor, the tribunes might direct to apprehend him, and bring him home in right of their most sacred authority. The plan was, to go to Locri before they went to Messana.
[19] 21. With regard to Pleminius, there are two different accounts. Some relate that, having heard what measures had been adopted at Rome, as he was going into exile to Naples, he accidentally fell in with Quintus Metellus, one of the deputies, by whom he was forcibly conveyed back to Rhegium. Others say, that Scipio himself sent a lieutenant-general with thirty of the most distinguished of the cavalry to throw Quintus Pleminius into chains, and with him the principal movers of the mutiny. All these, whether by the orders of Scipio before, or of the praetor now, were delivered over to the Rhegians to be kept in custody. The praetor and the deputies going to Locri, gave their attention first to the affair relating to religion, agreeably to their instructions; for, collecting all the sacred money, whether in the possession of Pleminius or the soldiers, they replaced it in the treasury, together with that which they had brought with them, and performed an expiatory sacred rite. The praetor then, summoning the soldiers to an assembly, ordered them to march out of the city, and pitched a camp in the plain, issuing an edict which threatened severe punishment to any soldier who either had remained behind in the city, or had carried out with him what did not belong to him. He gave permission to the Locrians to seize whatever each of them identified as his property, and demand restitution to be made of any thing which was concealed. Above all, he was resolved that the free persons should be restored to the Locrians without delay. That the man who did not restore them should be visited with no light punishment. He then held an assembly of the Locrians, and told them, that “the people and senate of Rome restored to them their liberty and their laws. That if any one was desirous of bringing charges against Pleminius, or any one else, he should follow them to Rhegium. If they were desirous of complaining, in the name of their state, of Publius Scipio, as having ordered and approved of the nefarious acts which had been committed at Locri against gods and men, that they should send deputies to Messana, where, with the assistance of his council, he would hear them.” The Locrians returned thanks to the praetor and deputies, and to the senate and people of Rome, and said that they would go and bring their charge against Pleminius. That Scipio, though he had evinced too little sympathy in the injuries inflicted on their state, was such a man as they would rather have their friend than their enemy; that they were convinced that the many and horrid acts which had been committed were done neither by the orders nor with the approval of Publius Scipio; that he had either placed too much confidence in Pleminius, or too little in them; that the natural disposition of some men was such, that they rather were unwilling that crimes should be committed, than had sufficient resolution to punish them when committed. Both the praetor and his council were relieved from a burden of no ordinary weight in not having to take cognizance of charges against Scipio. Pleminius, and as many as thirty-two persons with him, they condemned and sent in chains to Rome. They then proceeded to Scipio, that they might carry to Rome a statement attested by their own observation relative to the facts which had been so generally talked of, concerning the dress and indolent habits of the general, and the relaxation of military discipline.
[19] 22. While they were on their way to Syracuse, Scipio prepared to clear himself, not by words but facts. He ordered all his troops to assemble there, and the fleet to be got in readiness, as though a battle had been to be fought that day with the Carthaginians, by sea and land. On the day of their arrival he entertained them hospitably, and on the next day presented to their view his land and naval forces, not only drawn up in order, but the former performing evolutions, while the fleet in the harbour itself also exhibited a mock naval fight. The praetor and the deputies were then conducted round to view the armouries, the granaries, and other preparations for the war. And so great was the admiration excited in them of each particular, and of the whole together, that they firmly believed, that under the conduct of that general, and with that army, the Carthaginians would be vanquished, or by none other. They bid him, with the blessing of the gods, cross over, and, as soon as possible, realize to the Roman people the hopes they conceived on that day when all the centuries concurred in naming him first consul. Thus they set out on their return in the highest spirits, as though they were about to carry to Rome tidings of a victory, and not of a grand preparation for war. Pleminius, and those who were implicated in the same guilt with him, when they arrived at Rome, were thrown immediately into prison. At first, when brought before the people by the tribunes, they found no place in their compassion, as their minds were previously engrossed by the sufferings of the Locrians; but afterwards, being repeatedly brought before them, and the hatred with which they were regarded subsiding, their resentment was softened. Besides, the mutilated appearance of Pleminius, and their recollections of the absent Scipio, operated in gaining them favour with the people. Pleminius, however, died in prison, before the people had come to a determination respecting him. Clodius Licinius, in the third book of his Roman history, relates, that this Pleminius, during the celebration of the votive games, which Africanus, in his second consulate, exhibited at Rome, made an attempt, by means of certain persons whom he had corrupted by bribes, to set fire to the city in several places, that he might have an opportunity of breaking out of prison, and making his escape; and that afterwards, the wicked plot having been discovered, he was consigned to the Tullian dungeon, according to a decree of the senate. The case of Scipio was considered no where but in the senate; where all the deputies and tribunes, bestowing the highest commendations on the fleet, the army, and the general, induced the senate to vote that he should cross over into Africa as soon as possible; and that permission should be given him to select himself, out of those armies which were in Sicily, those forces which he would carry with him into Africa, and those which he would leave for the protection of the province.
[19] 23. While the Romans were thus employed, the Carthaginians, on their part, though they had passed an anxious winter, earnestly inquiring what was going on, and terrified at the arrival of every messenger, with watch-towers placed on every promontory, had gained a point of no small importance for the defence of Africa, in adding to their allies king Syphax, in reliance on whom chiefly they believed the Romans would cross over into Africa. Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo, not only formed a connexion of hospitality with the before-named king, when Scipio and Hasdrubal happened to come to him at the same time out of Spain, but mention had also been slightly made of an affinity to take place between them, by the king’s marrying the daughter of Hasdrubal. Hasdrubal, who had gone for the purpose of completing this business, and fixing a time for the nuptials, for the virgin was now marriageable, perceiving that the king was inflamed with desire, for the Numidians are, beyond all the other barbarians, violently addicted to love, sent for the virgin from Carthage, and hastened the nuptials. Among the other proofs of joy felt upon the occasion, and in order that a public connexion might be added to this private one, an oath was taken in confirmation of an alliance between the Carthaginian people and the king, and faith reciprocally pledged that they would have the same friends and enemies. But Hasdrubal, recollecting both the alliance which had been entered into by the king and Scipio, and how inconstant and changeable were the minds of the barbarians, was afraid that, if Scipio were to invade Africa, that marriage would prove but a slight bond of union, he therefore took advantage of the Numidian while under the influence of the first transports of love, and calling to his aid the caresses of the bride, prevailed upon him to send ambassadors into Sicily to Scipio, and by them to warn him “not to cross over into Africa in reliance upon his former promises. That he was united to the Carthaginians both by a marriage with a Carthaginian citizen, the daughter of Hasdrubal, whom he saw entertained at his house, and likewise by a public treaty. That his first wish was that the Romans would carry on the war with the Carthaginians at a distance from Africa, as they had hitherto done, lest he should be compelled to interfere with their disputes, and join one of the two contending parties, renouncing his alliance with the other. If Scipio should not keep away from Africa, and should advance his army to Carthage, it would be incumbent upon him to fight for the land of Africa, which gave him birth, and for the country of his spouse, for her parent, and household gods.”
[19] 24. The ambassadors, sent to Scipio by the king with these instructions, met him at Syracuse. Scipio, though disappointed in an affair which was of the greatest importance with regard to his operations in Africa, and in the sanguine expectations he had formed from it, sent the ambassadors back into Africa speedily, before their business was made known, giving them letters for the king, in which he warned him over and over again “not to violate the laws of hospitality which bound them together; the obligation of the alliance entered into with the Roman people; nor make light of justice, honour, their right hands pledged, and the gods the witnesses and arbitrators of compacts.” But, as the coming of the Numidians could not be concealed, for they lounged about the city, and had frequently appeared at the pavilion; and as, if nothing were said about the object of their visit, there was danger lest the truth, from the very circumstance of its being made a secret, should spontaneously spread the more; and, in consequence, the troops become alarmed lest they should have to wage war at once with the king and the Carthaginians, Scipio endeavoured to divert their attention from the truth by preoccupying their minds with false information; and, summoning his soldiers to an assembly, said, “that it was not expedient to delay any longer. That the kings, their allies, urged them to cross over into Africa with all speed. That Masinissa himself had before come to Laelius, complaining that time was consumed in delays, and that now Syphax sent ambassadors, expressing his astonishment on the same account, namely, what could be the cause of such long delay; and requesting either that the army would now at length be transported into Africa, or, if the plan was changed, that he might be informed so that he might himself take measures for the safety of himself and his dominions. Therefore, as every thing was now ready and prepared, and as the business admitted of no further delay, he was resolved, after having removed the fleet to Lilybaeum, and collected here all his forces of foot and horse, with the blessing of the gods to pass over into Africa the first day the ships could sail.” He sent a letter to Marcus Pomponius, directing him, if he thought proper, to come to Lilybaeum, that they might consult together as to what legions, in preference to any others, and how large a number of soldiers, they should convey into Africa; he also sent round to every part of the sea-coast, with directions that all the ships of burthen should be seized and collected at Lilybaeum. When all the soldiers and ships in Sicily were assembled at Lilybaeum, and neither the city could contain the multitude of men, nor the harbour the ships, so ardent was the desire possessed by all of passing over to Africa, that they did not appear as if going to wage war, but to reap the certain rewards of victory. Particularly those who remained of the soldiers who had fought at Cannae felt convinced that under Scipio, and no other general, they would be enabled, by exerting themselves in the cause of the state, to put an end to their ignominious service. Scipio was very far from feeling contempt for that description of soldiers, inasmuch as he knew that the defeat sustained at Cannae was not attributable to their cowardice, and that there were no soldiers in the Roman army who had served so long, or were so experienced not only in the various kinds of battles, but in assaulting towns also. The legions which had fought at Cannae were the fifth and sixth. After declaring that he would take these with him into Africa, he inspected them man by man; and leaving those whom he considered unfit for service, he substituted for them those whom he had brought from Sicily, filling up those legions so that each might contain six thousand two hundred infantry and three hundred horse. The horse and foot of the allies, of the Latin confederacy, he also chose out of the army of Cannae.
[19] 25. There is a wide difference among historians as to the number of men transported into Africa. In some I find ten thousand infantry and two hundred horse; in others, sixteen thousand infantry and sixteen hundred horse. In others, again, I find it stated that thirty-five thousand infantry and cavalry were put on board the fleet, making the number more than one half greater. Some have not added an account of the number; among whom, as the matter is doubtful, I should rather have myself ranked. Caelius, though he abstains from specifying the number, increases the impression of their multitude indefinitely. He says, that birds fell to the ground from the shout of the soldiers, and that so great a multitude went on board the fleet, that it seemed as if there was not a man left in Italy or Sicily. Scipio took upon himself the care of seeing that the soldiers embarked orderly and without confusion. The seamen, who were made to embark first, Caius Laelius, the admiral of the fleet, kept in order on board the ships. The task of the putting on board the provisions was assigned to Marcus Pomponius, the praetor. Food for forty-five days, of which enough for fifteen was cooked, was put on board. When they were all embarked, he sent boats round with directions that the pilots and masters, with two soldiers from each ship, should assemble in the forum to receive orders. After they had assembled, he first asked them whether they had put on board water for the men and cattle, sufficient to last as many days as the corn would. When they answered that there was water on board sufficient for five and forty days’ consumption, he then charged the soldiers that, conducting themselves submissively, and keeping quiet, they would not make any noise or disturb the mariners in the execution of their duties. He informed them, that he himself and Lucius Scipio in the right wing, with twenty ships of war, and Caius Laelius, admiral of the fleet, together with Marcus Porcius Cato, who was then quaestor, with the same number of ships of war in the left wing, would protect the transports. That the ships of war should carry each a single light, the transports two each. That in the ship of the commander-in-chief there would be three lights as a distinction by night. He desired the pilots to make for Emporia, where the land is remarkably fertile; and on that account the district abounds with plenty of every thing, and the barbarous inhabitants are unwarlike, which is usually the case where the soil is rich. It was supposed that they might, therefore, be overpowered before assistance could be brought them from Carthage. After these commands were delivered, they were ordered to return to their ships, and the next day, with the blessing of the gods, on the signal being given, to set sail.
[19] 26. Many Roman fleets had set sail from Sicily, and from that very harbour. But not only during this war, nor is that surprising, (for most of the fleets went out for the purpose of getting plunder,) but even in any former war, never did a fleet on setting out exhibit so grand a spectacle. And yet, if the estimate is to be formed with reference to the magnitude of the fleet, it must be owned that two consuls with their armies had passed from thence before, and there were almost as many ships of war in those fleets as the transports with which Scipio was crossing. For, besides fifty men of war, he conveyed his army over in four hundred transports. But what made the Romans consider one war as more formidable than the other, the second than the first, was, that it was carried on in Italy, and that so many armies had been destroyed, and their commanders slain. The general, Scipio, also, who enjoyed the highest degree of renown, partly from his brave achievements, and partly from a peculiar felicity of fortune, which conducted him to the acquisition of boundless glory, attracted extraordinary regard. At the same time, the very project of passing over into the enemy’s country, which had not been formed by any general before during that war, had made him an object of admiration; for he had commonly declared, that he passed over with the object of drawing Hannibal out of Italy, of removing the seat of war into Africa, and terminating it there. A crowd of persons of every description had assembled in the harbour to view the spectacle; not only the inhabitants of Lilybaeum, but all the deputies from Sicily, who had come together out of compliment to witness the departure of Scipio, and had followed Marcus Pomponius, the praetor of the province. Besides these, the legions which were to be left in Sicily had come forth to do honour to their comrades on the occasion; and not only did the fleet form a grand sight to those who viewed it from the land, but the shore also, crowded as it was all around, afforded the same to those who were sailing away.
[19] 27. As soon as day appeared, silence having been obtained by a herald, Scipio thus spoke from the ship of the commander-in-chief: “Ye gods and goddesses who preside over the seas and lands, I pray and entreat you, that whatever things have been, are now, or shall be performed during my command, may turn out prosperously to myself, the state, and commons of Rome, to the allies and the Latin confederacy, and to all who follow my party and that of the Roman people, my command and auspices, by land, by sea, and on rivers. That you would lend your favourable aid to all those measures, and promote them happily. That you would bring these and me again to our homes, safe and unhurt; victorious over our vanquished enemies, decorated with spoils, loaded with booty, and triumphant. That you would grant us the opportunity of taking revenge upon our adversaries and foes, and put it in the power of myself and the Roman people to make the Carthaginian state feel those signal severities which they endeavoured to inflict upon our state.” After these prayers, he threw the raw entrails of a victim into the sea, according to custom, and, with the sound of a trumpet, gave the signal for sailing. Setting out with a favourable wind, which blew pretty strong, they were soon borne away out of sight of the land; and in the afternoon a mist came over them, so that they could with difficulty prevent the ships from running foul of each other. The wind abated when they got into the open sea. The following night the same haziness prevailed; but when the sun rose it was dispelled, and the wind blew stronger. They were now within sight of land, and, not long after, the pilot observed to Scipio, that “Africa was not more than five miles off; that he could discern the promontory of Mercury, and that if he gave orders to direct their course thither, the whole fleet would presently be in harbour.” Scipio, when the land was in sight, after praying that his seeing Africa might be for the good of the state and himself, gave orders to make for another place of landing, lower down. They were borne along by the same wind; but a mist, arising nearly about the same time as on the preceding day, hid the land from them; and the wind fell as the mist grew more dense. Afterwards, the night coming on increased the confusion in every respect; they therefore cast anchor, lest the ships should either run foul of each other, or be driven on shore. At daybreak the wind, rising in the same quarter, dispelled the mist and discovered the whole coast of Africa. Scipio asked what was the name of the nearest promontory, and, on being told that it was called the cape of Pulcher, he observed, “the omen pleases me, direct your course to it.” To this place the fleet ran down, and all the troops were landed. I have adopted the accounts given by a great many Greek and Latin authors, who state that the voyage was prosperous, and unattended with any cause of alarm or confusion. Caelius alone, except that he does not state that the ships were sunk in the waves, says that they were exposed to all the terrors of the heavens and the sea, and that at last the fleet was driven by tempest from Africa to the island Aegimurus, from which, with great difficulty, they got into the right course; and that, the ships almost foundering, the soldiers, without orders from their general, got into boats, just as if they had suffered shipwreck, and escaped to land without arms, and in the utmost disorder.
[19] 28. The troops being landed, the Romans marked out their camp on the nearest rising grounds. By this time, not only the parts bordering on the sea were filled with consternation and alarm, first in consequence of the fleet being seen, and afterwards from the bustle of landing, but they had extended to the cities also. For not only multitudes of men, mixed with crowds of women and children, had filled up all the roads in every direction, but the rustics also drove away their cattle before them, so that you would say that Africa was being suddenly deserted. In the cities, indeed, they occasioned much greater terror than they felt themselves. At Carthage, particularly, the tumult was almost as great as if it had been captured. For since the time of Marcus Atilius Regulus and Lucius Manlius, which was almost fifty years ago, the Carthaginians had seen no Roman armament, with the exception of fleets sent for plundering, from which troops had made descents upon the lands bordering on the sea, and after carrying away every thing which chance threw in their way, had always returned to their ships before their noise had collected the peasantry. For this reason the hurry and consternation in the city was, on the present occasion, the greater. And, by Hercules, they had neither an efficient army at home, nor a general, whom they could oppose to their enemy. Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo, was by far the first man in their state in respect of birth, fame, opulence, and, at that time, also by reason of an affinity with the king. But they recollected that he had been routed in several battles and driven out of Spain by this very Scipio; and that therefore, as a general, he was no more a match for the general of the enemy than their tumultuary army was for that of the Romans. Therefore they shouted to arms, as if Scipio were coming immediately to attack the city; the gates were hastily closed, armed men placed upon the walls, guards and outposts stationed in different places, and the following night was spent in watching. The next day, five hundred horsemen, sent to the coast to reconnoitre and interrupt the enemy while landing, fell in with the advanced guards of the Romans; for by this time Scipio, having sent his fleet to Utica, had proceeded a short distance from the sea, and occupied the nearest heights. He had also placed outposts of cavalry in proper situations, and sent troops through the country to plunder.
[19] 29. These, engaging the body of Carthaginian horse, slew a few of them in the fight, and the greater part of them as they pursued them when they were flying; among whom was Hanno, their captain, a young man of distinction. Scipio not only devastated the lands in the country round him, but also took a very wealthy city of the Africans which lay nearest to him; where, besides other things which were immediately put on board the transports and sent into Sicily, eight thousand free persons and slaves were captured. But the most gratifying circumstance to the Romans was, the arrival of Masinissa just at the commencement of their operations. Some say that he came with not more than two hundred horse, but most authors say with a body of two thousand cavalry. But, as this man was by far the greatest king of his age, and rendered most essential service to the Romans, it seems worth while to digress a little, to give a full account of the great vicissitudes of fortune he experienced in the loss and recovery of his father’s kingdom. While he was serving in Spain in the cause of the Carthaginians, his father, named Gala, died. The kingdom, according to the custom of the Numidians, came to Oesalces, the brother of the late king, who was very aged. Not long after, Oesalces also dying, the elder of his two sons, named Capusa, the other being quite a boy, succeeded to his father’s kingdom. But, as he occupied the throne more by right of descent than from the esteem in which he was held among his countrymen, or the power he possessed, there stood forth a person named Mezetulus, not unrelated by blood to the kings, of a family which had always been hostile to them, and had continually contested the right to the throne with those who then occupied it, with various success. This man, having roused his countrymen to arms, over whom he possessed a great influence, from the hatred felt towards the kings, openly pitched his camp, and compelled the king to come into the field and fight for the throne. Capusa, with many of his nobles, falling in the action, the whole nation of the Massylians came under the dominion and rule of Mezetulus. He abstained, however, from assuming the title of king; and, contenting himself with the modest appellation of protector, gave the name of king to the boy Lacumaces, a surviving branch of the royal stock. In the hope of an alliance with the Carthaginians, he formed a matrimonial connexion with a noble Carthaginian lady, daughter of Hannibal’s sister, who had been lately married to the king Oesalces; and, sending ambassadors for that purpose, renewed an old connexion of hospitality with Syphax, taking all these measures with a view to obtain assistance against Masinissa.
[19] 30. Masinissa, hearing of the death of his uncle, and afterwards that his cousin-german was slain, passed over out of Spain into Mauritania. Bocchar was king of the Moors at that time. Applying to him as a suppliant, he succeeded, by means of the most humble entreaties, in obtaining from him four thousand Moors to escort him on his march, since he could not procure his co-operation in the war. With these, after sending a messenger before him to his own and his father’s friends, he arrived on the frontiers of the kingdom, when about five hundred Numidians came to join him. Having, therefore, sent back the Moors to their king, as had been agreed, though the numbers which joined him were much less than he had anticipated, not being such as to inspire him with sufficient confidence for so great an attempt, yet, concluding that by action, and by making some effort, he should collect sufficient strength to enable him to effect something, he threw himself in the way of the young king Lacumaces, at Thapsus, as he was going to Syphax. The troops which attended him having fled back to the town in consternation, Masinissa took it at the first assault. Of the royal party, some who surrendered themselves he received, others he slew while attempting resistance. The greater part, with the young king himself, escaped during the confusion and came to Syphax, to whom they intended to go at first. The fame of this success, in the commencement of his operations, though of no great magnitude, brought the Numidians over to the cause of Masinissa; and the veteran soldiers of Gala flocked to his standard from all quarters, from the country and the towns, inviting the youth to come and recover his paternal dominions. Mezetulus had somewhat the advantage in the number of his soldiers, for he had himself both the army with which he had conquered Capusa, and also some troops who had submitted to him after the king was slain; and the young king Lacumaces had brought him very large succours from Syphax. Mezetulus had fifteen thousand infantry, and ten thousand cavalry. With these Masinissa engaged in battle, though he had by no means so many horse or foot. The valour, however, of the veteran troops, and the skill of the general, who had been exercised in the war between the Romans and Carthaginians, prevailed. The young king, with the protector and a small body of Massylians, escaped into the territories of the Carthaginians. Masinissa thus recovered his paternal dominions; but, as he saw that there still remained a struggle considerably more arduous with Syphax, he thought it advisable to come to a reconciliation with his cousin-german. Having, therefore sent persons to give the young king hopes, that if he put himself under the protection of Masinissa, he would be held in the same honour by him as Oesalces had formerly been by Gala; and to promise Mezetulus, in addition to impunity, a faithful restitution of all his property; as both of them preferred a moderate share of fortune at home to exile, he brought them over to his side, notwithstanding the Carthaginians studiously exerted every means to prevent it.
[19] 31. It happened that Hasdrubal was with Syphax at the time these things were taking place. He told the Numidian, who considered that it could make very little difference to him whether the government of the Massylians was in the hands of Lacumaces or Masinissa, that “he was very much mistaken if he supposed that Masinissa would be content with the same power which his father Gala or his uncle Oesalces enjoyed. That he possessed a much greater degree of spirit, and a more enterprising turn of mind, than had ever existed in any one of that race. That he had frequently, when in Spain, exhibited proofs to his allies, as well as to his enemies, of such valour as was rarely found among men. That both Syphax and the Carthaginians, unless they smothered that rising flame, would soon find themselves enveloped in a vast conflagration, when they could not help themselves. That as yet his strength was feeble, and such as might easily be broken, while he was trying to keep together a kingdom, which was not yet firmly cemented.” By continually urging and goading him on, he succeeded in inducing him to lead an army to the frontiers of the Massylians, and to pitch his camp in a country for which he had not only disputed verbally, but had fought battles with Gala, as though it had been his own by uncontested right. He alleged, that “if any one should attempt to dislodge him, which was what he most wanted, he would have an opportunity of fighting; but, if the ground were given up to him through fear, he must march into the heart of the kingdom. That the Massylians would either submit to his authority without a contest, or would be inferior to him in arms.” Syphax, impelled by these arguments, made war on Masinissa, and, in the first engagement, routed and put him to flight. Masinissa, with a few horsemen, effected his escape from the field to a mountain called by the natives Balbus. Several families, with their tents and cattle, which form their wealth, followed the king; the rest of the Massylian people submitted to Syphax. The mountain, which the exiles had seized, had plenty of grass and water; and, as it was well adapted for feeding cattle, afforded an abundant supply of food for men who live upon flesh and milk. From this place they infested all the surrounding country; at first with nightly and clandestine incursions, but afterwards with open depredations. The lands of the Carthaginians suffered the severest devastation, because there was not only a greater quantity of booty there than among the Numidians, but their plunder would be safer. And now they did it with so much boldness and defiance, that, carrying their booty down to the sea, they sold it to merchants, who brought their ships to land for that very purpose; while a greater number of Carthaginians were slain and made prisoners, than frequently happens in a regular war. The Carthaginians complained bitterly of these occurrences to Syphax, and urged him strongly to follow up this remnant of the war, though he was himself highly incensed at them. But he considered it hardly suitable to the dignity of a king to pursue a vagabond robber through the mountains.
[19] 32. Bocchar, one of the king’s generals, an enterprising and active officer, was chosen for this service. Four thousand infantry and two thousand cavalry were assigned him; and having been loaded with promises of immense rewards if he brought back the head of Masinissa, or if, which would be a source of incalculable joy, he took him alive; he unexpectedly attacked his party while dispersed and carelessly employed, and after cutting off an immense quantity of cattle and men from the troops which guarded them, drove Masinissa himself with a small body of attendants to the summit of the mountain. On this, considering the business as in a manner settled, he not only sent the booty of cattle and the prisoners he had made to the king, but also sent back a part of his forces, as being considerably more than were necessary to accomplish what remained of the war; and then pursuing Masinissa, who had come down from the top of the mountain with not more than five hundred foot and two hundred horse, shut him up in a narrow valley, both the entrances of which he blocked up. Here great slaughter was made of the Massylians. Masinissa, with not more than fifty horsemen, disengaged himself from the defile by passing through steep descents of the mountains, which were not known to his pursuers. Bocchar, however, followed close upon him, and overtaking him in the open plains near Clupea, so effectually surrounded him, that he slew every one of his attendants except four horsemen. These, together with Masinissa himself, who was wounded, he let slip, in a manner, out of his hands during the confusion. The fugitives were in sight, and a body of horse, dispersed over the whole plain, pursued the five horsemen of the enemy, some of them pushing off in an oblique direction, in order to meet them. The fugitives met with a very broad river, into which they unhesitatingly plunged their horses, as they were pressed by greater danger from behind, and carried away by the current were borne along obliquely. Two of them having sunk in the rapid eddy in the sight of the enemy, Masinissa himself was supposed to have perished; but he with the two remaining had emerged among the bushes on the farther bank. Here Bocchar stopped his pursuit, as he neither had courage to enter the river, nor believed that he now had any one to pursue. Upon this he returned to the king, with the false account of the death of Masinissa. Messengers were despatched to Carthage to convey this most joyful event, and all Africa rang with the news of Masinissa’s death; but the minds of men were variously affected by it. Masinissa, while curing his wound by the application of herbs, was supported for several days in a secret cave by what the two horsemen procured by plunder. As soon as it was cicatrized, and he thought himself able to bear the motion, with extraordinary resolution he set out to recover his kingdom; and collecting not more than forty horsemen during his progress, when he arrived among the Massylians, where he now made himself known, he produced such a sensation among them, both by reason of their former regard for him, and also from the unhoped-for joy they experienced at seeing him safe whom they supposed to have perished, that within a few days six thousand armed foot and four thousand horse came and joined him; and now he not only was in possession of his paternal dominions, but was also laying waste the lands of the states in alliance with the Carthaginians, and the frontiers of the Massylians, the dominions of Syphax. Then, having provoked Syphax to war, he took up a position between Cirta and Hippo, on the tops of mountains which were conveniently situated for all his purposes.
[19] 33. Syphax, considering this an affair of too great importance to be managed by one of his generals, sent a part of his army with his son Vermina, a youth, with orders to march his troops round and attack the enemy in the rear, while he engaged their attention in front. Vermina set out by night, as he was to fall upon the enemy unawares; but Syphax decamped in the day-time and marched openly, intending to fight a pitched battle. When it was thought that sufficient time had elapsed for those who were sent round to have reached their destination, Syphax himself, relying upon his numbers and on the ambuscade prepared on the enemy’s rear, led his troops up the mountain which lay before him, by a gentle acclivity which led towards the enemy. Masinissa, relying chiefly on the great superiority he would have over his opponents in respect of the ground, on his part also formed his troops. The battle was furious, and for a long time doubtful; Masinissa having the advantage in point of situation and the courage of his troops, and Syphax in respect of his numbers, which were much the greater of the two. His numerous troops, which were divided, some of them pressing upon the enemy in front, while others surrounded them on the rear, gave Syphax a decisive victory; and, enclosed as they were in front and rear, the enemy had not even a way to escape. Accordingly, all their troops, both horse and foot, were slain and made prisoners, except about two hundred horsemen, which Masinissa having collected round him in a compact body, and divided into three squadrons, ordered to force their way through, first naming a place where they were to meet after being separated in their flight. Masinissa himself escaped through the midst of the enemy’s weapons in the quarter to which he had directed his course; two of the squadrons were unable to extricate themselves; one of them surrendered to the enemy through fear, the other, taking a more obstinate resistance, was overwhelmed with weapons and annihilated. Vermina followed Masinissa, treading almost in his steps; but he eluded him by continually turning out of one road into another, till at length he obliged him, wearied with the hopeless task, to desist from the pursuit, and arrived at the Lesser Syrtis with sixty horsemen. Here, in the country lying between the Carthaginian Emporia and the nation of the Garamantians, he passed all the time till the coming of Caius Laelius and the Roman fleet into Africa, with the proud consciousness of having made every exertion to recover his paternal dominions. These are the circumstances which incline me to the opinion, that afterwards also, when Masinissa came to Scipio, he brought with him a smallish rather than a large body of cavalry to succour him; for the large number would seem to suit only with the condition of a reigning king, while the small number corresponds with the circumstances of an exile.
[19] 34. The Carthaginians having lost a detachment of cavalry together with the commander, got together another body by means of a new levy, and gave the command of it to Hanno son of Hamilcar. They frequently sent for Hasdrubal and Syphax by letters and messengers, and lastly even by ambassadors, ordering Hasdrubal to bring assistance to his almost besieged country, and imploring Syphax to bring relief to Carthage, nay to all Africa. At that time Scipio had his camp about five miles from the city of Utica, having removed it from the sea, where he had continued encamped for a few days near the fleet. Hanno, having received the body of horse, which was far from being strong enough, not only to attack the enemy, but even to protect the country from devastation, made it his first business to augment the number of his cavalry by pressing; and though he did not despise the men of other nations, he enlisted principally from the Numidians, who are by far the first horsemen in Africa. He had now as many as four thousand horsemen, when he took possession of a town named Salera, about fifteen miles from the Roman camp. When Scipio was told of this, he said, “What! cavalry lodging in houses during the summer! Let them be even more in number while they have such a leader.” Concluding that the more dilatory they were in their operations, the more active he ought to be, he sent Masinissa forward with the cavalry, directing him to ride up to the gates of the enemy and draw them out to battle; and when their whole force had poured out and pressed upon him with such impetuosity in the contest that they could not easily be withstood, then to retire by degrees, and he would himself come up and join in the battle in time. Waiting only till he thought he had allowed sufficient time for the advanced party to draw out the enemy, he followed with the Roman cavalry, proceeding without being seen, as he was covered by some rising grounds, which lay very conveniently between him and the enemy, round the windings of the road. Masinissa, according to the plan laid down, at one time as if menacingthe enemy, at another as if he had been afraid, either rode up to the gates, or else by retiring when his counterfeited fears had inspired them with courage, tempted them to pursue him with inconsiderate ardour. They had not as yet all gone out, and the general was wearying himself with various occupations, compelling some who were oppressed with sleep and wine to take arms and bridle their horses, and preventing others from running out at all the gates in scattered parties and in disorder, without keeping their ranks or following their standards. At first, those who incautiously rushed out were overpowered by Masinissa; but then a greater number pouring out of the gate at once in a dense body, placed the contest on an equal footing; and at last the whole of their cavalry coming up and joining in the battle, they could now no longer be withstood. Masinissa, however, did not receive their charge in hasty flight, but retired slowly, until he drew them to the rising grounds which covered the Roman cavalry. The Roman cavalry then rising up, their own strength unimpaired and their horses fresh, spread themselves round Hanno and the Africans, fatigued with the fight and the pursuit, and Masinissa, suddenly turning his horses round, came back to the battle. About a thousand who formed the first line and could not easily retreat, together with Hanno their general, were surrounded and slain. The victors pursuing the rest through a space of three miles, as they fled with the most violent haste, being terrified, principally on account of the death of their leader, either took or slew as many as two thousand horsemen more. It appeared that there were not less than two hundred Carthaginian horsemen among them, some of whom were distinguished by birth and fortune.
[19] 35. It happened that the same day on which these events occurred, the ships which had carried the plunder to Sicily returned with provisions, as if divining that they came to take another cargo of booty. All the writers do not vouch for the fact that two generals of the Carthaginians bearing the same name were slain in the battles of the cavalry; fearing, I believe, lest the same circumstance related twice should lead them into error. Caelius, indeed, and Valerius, make mention of a Hanno also who was made prisoner. Scipio rewarded his officers and horsemen according to the service they had respectively rendered, but he presented Masinissa above all the rest with distinguished gifts. Leaving a strong garrison at Salera, he set out with the rest of his army; and having not only devastated the country wherever he marched, but taken some cities and towns, thus spreading the terrors of war far and wide, he returned to his camp on the seventh day after he set out, bringing with him an immense quantity of men and cattle, and booty of every description, and sent away his ships again loaded with the spoils of the enemy. Then giving up all expeditions of a minor kind, and predatory excursions, he directed the whole force of the war to the siege of Utica, that he might make it for the time to come, if he took it, a position from which he might set out for the execution of the rest of his designs. At one and the same time his marines attacked the city from the fleet in that part which is washed by the sea, and the land forces were brought up from a rising ground which almost immediately overhung the walls. He had also brought with him engines and machines which had been conveyed from Sicily with the stores, and fresh ones were made in the armoury, in which he had for that purpose employed a number of artificers skilled in such works. The people of Utica, thus beset on all sides with so formidable a force, placed all their hopes in the Carthaginians, and the Carthaginians in the chance there was that Hasdrubal could induce Syphax to take arms. But all their movements were made too slowly for the anxiety felt by those who were in want of assistance. Hasdrubal, though he had by levies, conducted with the utmost diligence, made up as many as thirty thousand infantry and three thousand horse, yet dared not move nearer to the enemy before the arrival of Syphax. Syphax came with fifty thousand foot and ten thousand horse, and, immediately decamping from Carthage, took up a position not far from Utica and the Roman works. Their arrival produced, however, this effect, that Scipio, who had been besieging Utica for forty days, during which he had tried every expedient without effect, left the place without accomplishing his object; and as the winter was now fast approaching, fortified a camp for the winter upon a promontory, which being attached to the continent by a narrow isthmus, stretched out a considerable way into the sea. He included his naval camp also within one and the same rampart. The camp for the legions being stationed on the middle of the isthmus, the ships, which were drawn on land, and the mariners occupied the northern shore, the cavalry a valley on the south inclining towards the other shore. Such were the transactions in Africa up to the close of autumn.
[19] 36. Besides the corn collected from all parts of the surrounding country by plunder, and the provisions imported from Italy and Sicily, Cneius Octavius, propraetor, brought a vast quantity out of Sardinia from Tiberius Claudius the praetor, whose province Sardinia was; and not only were the granaries already built filled, but new ones were erected. The army wanted clothing, and Octavius was instructed to consult with the praetor in order to ascertain if any could be procured and sent out of that province. This business was also diligently attended to. One thousand two hundred gowns and twelve thousand tunics were in a short time sent. During the summer in which these operations were carried on in Africa, Publius Sempronius, the consul, who had the province of Bruttium, fought an irregular kind of battle with Hannibal in the Crotonian territory while actually on march; they fought with their troops drawn more in order of march than of battle. The Romans were driven back, and as many as twelve hundred of the army of the consul were slain in this affair, which was more a tumult than a battle. They returned in confusion to their camp. The enemy, however, dared not assault it. But, during the silence of the following night, the consul marched away, and having sent a messenger before him to Publius Licinius, the proconsul, to bring up his legions, united his forces with his. Thus two generals and two armies returned to Hannibal. Nor did either party delay to fight, as the forces of the consul were doubled, and the Carthaginian was inspirited by recent victory. Sempronius led his legions into the front line; those of Licinius were placed in reserve. The consul, in the beginning of the battle, vowed a temple to Fortuna Primigenia if he routed the enemy that day, and he obtained the object of that vow. The Carthaginians were routed and put to flight; above four thousand armed men were slain, a little under three hundred taken alive, with forty horses and eleven military standards. Hannibal, dispirited by this adverse battle, led his troops away to Croton. At the same time, in another part of Italy, Etruria, almost the whole of which had espoused the interest of Mago, and had conceived hopes of effecting a revolution through his means, was kept in subjection by the consul Marcus Cornelius, not so much by the force of his arms as the terror of his judicial proceedings. In the trials he had instituted there, in conformity with the decree of the senate, he had shown the utmost impartiality; and many of the Tuscan nobles, who had either themselves gone, or had sent others to Mago respecting the revolt of their states, at first standing their trials, were condemned; but afterwards others, who, from a consciousness of guilt, had gone into voluntary exile, were condemned in their absence, and by thus withdrawing left their effects only, which were liable to confiscation, as a pledge for their punishment.
[19] 37. While the consuls were thus engaged in different quarters, in the mean time, at Rome, the censors, Marcus Livius and Caius Claudius, called over the senate roll. Quintus Fabius was again chosen chief of the senate; seven were stigmatized, of whom there was not one who had sat in the curule chair. They inquired into the business relating to the repair of public edifices with diligence and the most scrupulous exactness. They set by contract the making of a road out of the ox market to the temple of Venus, with public seats on each side of it, and a temple to be built in the palatium for the great mother. They established also a new tax out of the price of salt. Salt, both at Rome, and throughout all Italy, was sold at the sixth part of an as. They contracted for the supply of it at Rome at the same price, at a higher price in the country towns and markets, and at different prices in different places. They felt well convinced that this tax was invented by one of the censors, out of resentment to the people because he had formerly been condemned by an unjust sentence, and that in fixing the price of salt, those tribes had been most burdened by whose means he had been condemned. Hence Livius derived the surname of Salinator. The closing of the lustrum was later than usual, because the censors sent persons through the provinces, that a report might be made of the number of Roman citizens in each of the armies. Including these, the number of persons returned in the census was two hundred and fourteen thousand. Caius Claudius Nero closed the lustrum. They then received a census of the twelve colonies, which had never been done before, the censors of the colonies themselves presenting it, in order that there might appear registers among the public records, stating the extent of their resources, both in respect of furnishing soldiers and money. The review of the knights then began to be made, and it happened that both the censors had a horse at the public expense. When they came to the Pollian tribe, in which was the name of Marcus Livius, and the herald hesitated to cite the censor himself, Nero said, “Cite Marcus Livius;” and whether it was that he was actuated by the remains of an old enmity, or that he felt a ridiculous pride in this ill-timed display of severity, he ordered Marcus Livius to sell his horse, because he had been condemned by the sentence of the people. In like manner, when they came to the Narnian tribe, and the name of his colleague, Marcus Livius ordered Caius Claudius to sell his horse, for two reasons; one, because he had given false evidence against him; the other, because he had not been sincere in his reconciliation with him. Thus a disgraceful contest arose, in which each endeavoured to asperse the character of the other, though not without detriment to his own. On the expiration of the office, when Caius Claudius had taken the oath respecting the observance of the laws, and had gone up into the treasury, he gave the name of his colleague among the names of those whom he left disfranchised. Afterwards, Marcus Livius came into the treasury, and excepting only the Maecian tribe, which had neither condemned him nor made him consul or censor when condemned, left all the Roman people, four and thirty tribes, disfranchised, because they had both condemned him when innocent, and when condemned had made him consul and censor; and therefore could not deny that they had been guilty of a crime, either once in his condemnation, or twice at the elections. He said that the disfranchisement of Caius Claudius would be included in that of the thirty-four tribes, but that if he were in possession of a precedent for leaving the same person disfranchised twice he would have left his name particularly among the disfranchised. This contest between censors, endeavouring to brand each other, was highly improper, while the correction applied to the inconstancy of the people was suitable to the office of a censor, and worthy of the strict discipline of the times. As the censors were labouring under odium, Cneius Babius, tribune of the people, thinking this a favourable opportunity of advancing himself at their expense, summoned them both to trial before the people. This proceeding was quashed by the unanimous voice of the senate, lest in future this office of censor should become subject to the caprice of the people.
[19] 38. The same summer Clampetia in Bruttium was taken by the consul by storm. Consentia and Pandosia, with some other inconsiderable states, submitted voluntarily. As the time for the elections was now drawing near, it was thought best that Cornelius should be summoned to Rome from Etruria, as there was no war there. He elected, as consuls, Cneius Servilius Caepio and Caius Servilius Geminus. The election of praetors was then held. The persons elected were, Publius Cornelius Lentulus, Publius Quinctilius Varus, Publius Aelius Paetus, and Publius Villius Tappulus. The last two were plebeian aediles when elected praetors. The elections finished, the consul returned into Etruria to his army. The priests who died this year, and those who were put in their places, were Tiberius Veturius Philo, flamen of Mars, elected and inaugurated in the room of Marcus Aemilius Regillus, who died the year before: in the room of Marcus Pomponius Matho, augur and decemvir, were elected Marcus Aurelius Cotta, decemvir, and Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, augur, being then a very young man; an instance of very rare occurrence in the disposal of the priests’ offices in those times. Golden four-horsed chariots were placed this year in the Capitol by the curule aediles, Caius Livius and Marcus Servilius Geminus. The Roman games were repeated during two days. During two days also the plebeian games were repeated by the aediles, Publius Aelius and Publius Villius. There was likewise a feast of Jupiter on occasion of the games.
[19] * * * * *

## Book XXX

[20] Translated by William A. McDevitte
[20] Scipio, aided by Masinissa, defeats the Carthaginians, Syphax and Hasdrubal, in several battles. Syphax taken by Laelius and Masinissa. Masinissa espouses Sophonisba, the wife of Syphax, Hasdrubal’s daughter; being reproved by Scipio, he sends her poison, with which she puts an end to her life. The Carthaginians, reduced to great extremity by Scipio’s repeated victories, call Hannibal home from Italy; he holds a conference with Scipio on the subject of peace, and is again defeated by him in battle. The Carthaginians sue for peace, which is granted them. Masinissa reinstated in his kingdom. Scipio returns to Rome; his splendid triumph; is surnamed Africanus.
[20] * * * * *
[20] 1. Cneius Servilius and Caius Servilius Geminus, the consuls in the sixteenth year of the Punic war, having consulted the senate respecting the state, the war, and the provinces, they decreed that the consuls should arrange between themselves, or draw lots, which of them should have the province of Bruttium, to act against Hannibal, and which that of Etruria and Liguria; that the consul to whose lot Bruttium fell should receive the army from Publius Sempronius; that Publius Sempronius, who was continued in command as proconsul for a year, should succeed Publius Licinius, who was to return to Rome. In addition to the other qualifications with which he was adorned in a degree surpassed by no citizen of that time, for in him were accumulated all the perfections of nature and fortune, Licinius was also esteemed eminent in war. He was at once a man of noble family and great wealth; possessing a fine person and great bodily strength. He was considered an orator of the highest order, both in respect of judicial eloquence, and also when engaged in promoting or opposing any measure in the senate, or before the people. He was also accurately skilled in the pontifical law. In addition to all these recommendations, the consulship enabled him to acquire military glory. The senate adopted the same course in the decree with respect to the province of Etruria and Liguria as had been observed with regard to Bruttium. Marcus Cornelius was ordered to deliver his army to the new consul, and with continued command to hold himself the province of Gaul, with those legions which the praetor Lucius Scribonius had commanded the former year. The consuls then cast lots for their provinces: Bruttium fell to the lot of Caepio, Etruria to the lot of Servilius Geminus. The provinces of the praetors were then put to the lot. Paetus Aelius obtained the city jurisdiction; Publius Lentulus, Sardinia; Publius Villius, Sicily; Quinctilius Varus, Ariminum, with two legions which had served under Lucretius Spurius. Lucretius also was continued in command that he might complete the building of the town of Genoa, which had been destroyed by Mago the Carthaginian. Publius Scipio was continued in command for a period not limited in point of time, but the object he had to achieve, namely, till the war in Africa had been brought to a termination; and a decree was passed, ordering a supplication to be made that the circumstance of his crossing over into Africa might be beneficial to the Roman people, the general himself, and his army.
[20] 2. Three thousand men were enlisted for Sicily, and lest any fleet should go thither from Africa, as all the efficient troops that province had possessed had been transported into Africa, it was resolved that the sea-coast of that island should be guarded with forty ships. Villius took with him into Sicily thirteen ships, the rest consisted of the old ones, which were repaired. Marcus Pomponius, the praetor of the former year, who was continued in command, having been placed at the head of this fleet, put on board the fresh soldiers brought from Italy. The senate assigned by a decree an equal number of ships to Cneius Octavius, who was also a praetor of the former year, with a similar privilege of command, for the protection of the coast of Sardinia. Lentulus the praetor was ordered to furnish two thousand soldiers to put on board it. The protection of the coast of Italy was assigned to Marcus Marcius, a praetor of the former year, with the same number of ships; for it was uncertain to what quarter the Carthaginians would send a fleet, though it was supposed that they would attack any quarter which was destitute of defence. The consuls, in conformity with a decree of the senate, enlisted three thousand soldiers for this fleet, and two city legions with a view to the hazards of war. The Spains were assigned to the former generals, Lucius Lentulus and Lucius Manlius Acidinus, who were continued in command, and retained their former armies. The operations of the war on the part of the Romans this year were carried on with twenty legions in all, and one hundred and sixty ships of war. The praetors were ordered to proceed to their provinces. Directions were given to the consuls, that before they left the city they should celebrate the great games which Titus Manlius Torquatus, when dictator, had vowed to exhibited in the fifth year, if the condition of the state remained unaltered. Accounts of prodigies brought from several places excited fresh superstitious fears in the minds of men. It was believed that crows had not only torn with their beaks some gold in the Capitol, but had even eaten it. At Antium mice gnawed a golden crown. An immense quantity of locusts filled the whole country around Capua, nor could it be made appear satisfactorily whence they came. At Reate a foal was produced with five feet. At Anagnia at first scattered fires appeared in the sky, afterwards a vast meteor blazed forth. At Frusino a circle surrounded the sun with a thin line, which was itself afterwards included within the sun’s disc which extended beyond it. At Arpinum the earth sank into an immense gulf, in a place where the ground was level. When one of the consuls was immolating the first victim, the head of the liver was wanting. These prodigies were expiated with victims of the larger kind. The college of pontiffs gave out to what gods sacrifice was to be made.
[20] 3. After these matters were finished, the consuls and praetors set out for their provinces. All, however, made Africa the great object of their concern, as though it had been allotted to them; whether it was because they saw that the welfare of the state and the issue of the war turned upon the operations there, or that they might oblige Scipio, on whom the whole state was then intent. Accordingly, not only from Sardinia, as has been before mentioned, but from Sicily also and Spain, clothing and corn, and from Sicily arms also, together with every kind of stores, were conveyed thither. Nor did Scipio at any time during the winter relax in any of the various military operations in which he was engaged on all sides. He continued the siege of Utica. His camp was within sight of Hasdrubal. The Carthaginians had launched their ships, and had a fleet prepared and equipped to intercept his supplies. Amid these occupations he had not even lost sight of his endeavours to regain the friendship of Syphax, whose passion for his bride he thought might now perhaps have become satiated from unlimited enjoyment. From Syphax he received terms of peace with the Carthaginians, with proposals that the Romans should evacuate Africa, and the Carthaginians Italy, rather than any ground of hope that he would desert their cause if the war proceeded. For my part I am of opinion, and in this I am countenanced by the majority of writers, that these negotiations were carried on through messengers, rather than that Syphax himself came to the Roman camp to hold a conference, as Antias Valerius relates. At first the Roman general scarcely allowed these terms to be mentioned, but afterwards, in order that there might exist a plausible pretext for his emissaries to go frequently into the camp of the enemy, he rejected these same terms in a more qualified manner, holding out a hope that they might eventually come to an agreement by agitating the question on both sides. The winter huts of the Carthaginians, which were constructed from materials hastily collected out of the fields, were almost entirely of wood. The Numidians, particularly, lay for the most part in huts formed of interwoven reeds, and covered with mats, dispersed up and down without any regard to order; while some of them, having chosen the situations for their tents without waiting for orders, lay even without the trench and rampart. These circumstances having been reported to Scipio, gave him hopes that he might have an opportunity of burning the enemy’s camp.
[20] 4. In company with the ambassadors whom he sent to Syphax, he also sent some centurions of the first rank, of tried valour and prudence, dressed as servants, in lieu of soldiers’ drudges; in order that, while the ambassadors were engaged in conference, they might ramble through the camp, one in one direction and another in another, and thus observe all the approaches and outlets, the situation and form both of the camp in general and of its parts; where the Carthaginians lay, where the Numidians, and what was the distance between the camp of Hasdrubal and that of the king; and that they might at the same time acquaint themselves with their customary mode of stationing outposts and watches, and learn whether they were more open to stratagem by night or by day. During the frequent conferences which were held, several different persons were purposely sent, in order that every circumstance might be known to a greater number. When the more frequent agitation of the matter had given to Syphax a daily increasing hope of peace, and to the Carthaginians through him, the Roman ambassadors at length declared that they were forbidden to return to their general unless a decisive answer was given, and that, therefore, if his own determination was now fixed, he should declare it, or if Hasdrubal and the Carthaginians were to be consulted, he should consult them. That it was time either that an accommodation should be settled or the war vigorously prosecuted. While Hasdrubal was consulted by Syphax, and the Carthaginians by Hasdrubal, the spies had time to inspect every thing, and Scipio to get together what was necessary for the accomplishment of his project. In consequence of the mention and prospect of a peace, neglect arose among the Carthaginians and Numidians, as is usually the case, to take precautions in the mean time that they might not suffer an attack of the enemy. At length an answer was returned; and as the Romans appeared excessively eager for peace, advantage was taken of that circumstance to add certain unreasonable conditions, which afforded Scipio a very seasonable pretext for putting an end to the truce according to his wishes; and telling the king’s messenger that he would refer the matter to his council, he answered him the next day. He said, that while he alone had in vain endeavoured to restore peace, no one else had desired it. That he must, therefore, carry word back that Syphax must hope for peace on no other condition than his abandonment of the Carthaginians. Thus he put an end to the truce, in order that he might be free to execute his designs without breaking his faith; and, launching his ships, for it was now the beginning of spring, he put on board machines and engines, with the purpose of assaulting Utica from the sea. He also sent two thousand men to seize the eminence which commanded that place, and which he had before occupied, at once with the view of turning the attention of the enemy from the design he was endeavouring to effect to another object of concern, and to prevent any sally or attack which might be made from the city upon his camp, which would be left with a slight force to protect it, while he himself went against Syphax and Hasdrubal.
[20] 5. Having made these preparations, he called a council and after ordering the spies to give an account of the discoveries they had made, and requesting Masinissa, who was acquainted with every circumstance relating to the enemy, to state what he knew, lastly, he himself laid before the council the plan proposed for the following night. He gave directions to the tribunes, that when, after the breaking up of the council, the trumpets had sounded, they should immediately march the legions out of the camp. Agreeably to his commands, the standards began to be carried out about sun-set. About the first watch they formed the troops in marching order. At midnight, for it was seven miles’ march, they came up at a moderate pace to the camp of the enemy. Here Scipio assigned a part of his forces, together with Masinissa and the Numidians, to Laelius, ordering them to fall upon the camp of Syphax, and throw fire upon it. Then taking each of the commanders, Masinissa and Laelius, aside, he implored them separately to make up by diligence and care for the absence of that foresight which the night rendered it impossible to exercise. He said, that he should himself attack Hasdrubal and the Carthaginian camp; but that he should not begin till he saw the fire in that of the king. Nor did this delay him long; for when the fire thrown upon the nearest huts had taken effect, immediately communicating with all those which were within the shortest distance, and those connected with them in regular succession, it spread itself throughout the whole camp. The confusion and alarm which took place, in consequence of so widely extended a fire breaking out during the night, were as great as might naturally be expected; but as they concluded that it was the effect of chance, and not produced by the enemy, or connected with the war, they rushed out in a disorderly manner, without their arms, to extinguish the flames, and fell in with armed enemies, particularly the Numidians, who on account of their knowledge of the king’s camp were placed by Masinissa in convenient places at the openings of the passes. Many perished in the flames in their beds while half asleep; and many, tumbling over one another in their haste to escape, were trampled to death in the narrow passages of the gates.
[20] 6. When first the Carthaginian sentinels, and afterwards the rest, roused by the terrifying effects of a tumult by night, beheld the light emitted from the flames, they also, labouring under the same delusion, imagined that the fire had originated from accidental causes; while the shout raised amidst the slaughter and wounds, being of a confused kind, prevented their distinguishing whether it was occasioned by the trepidation of an alarm by night. Accordingly, rushing out one and all at every gate, each man taking the nearest road, without their arms, as not suspecting any hostile attack, and carrying with them only such things as might be useful in extinguishing the flames, they fell upon the Roman troops. After all these had been slain, not only with the animosity of enemies, but also that no one might escape as a messenger, Scipio immediately attacked the gates, which were unguarded in consequence of the confusion; and, having thrown fire upon the nearest huts, at first the flames blazed forth with great fury, in several places at once, in consequence of the fire having been applied to different parts, but afterwards extending themselves along the contiguous huts, they suddenly enveloped the whole camp in one general conflagration. Men and cattle scorched with the flames blocked up the passages of the gates, first in a terrible rush to escape, and afterwards with their prostrate bodies. Those who got out of the way of the fire were cut off by the sword, and the two camps were involved in one common destruction. The two generals, however, and out of so many thousand troops only two thousand foot and five hundred horsemen, escaped, half armed, a great many of them being wounded and scorched. Forty thousand men were either slain or destroyed by the flames, and above five thousand captured. Among the captured were many Carthaginian nobles, eleven senators, with a hundred and seventy-four military standards, above two thousand seven hundred Numidian horses, and six elephants. Eight elephants were destroyed either by fire or sword, and a great quantity of arms taken. All the latter the general dedicated to Vulcan and burnt.
[20] 7. Hasdrubal, in his flight, had made for the nearest city of the Africans, accompanied by a few attendants; and hither all those who survived, following the footsteps of their general had betaken themselves. But afterwards, fearing lest he should be given up to Scipio, he quitted that city. Soon after the Romans were received there with open gates; nor was any act of hostility committed, because the inhabitants had surrendered voluntarily. Shortly after, two other cities were captured and plundered. The booty found there, together with what had been rescued from the camps when burning, and from the flames, was given up to the soldiers. Syphax took up a position in a fortified place about eight miles off. Hasdrubal hastened to Carthage, lest the apprehensions occasioned by the recent disaster should lead to any timorous measures. So great was the consternation created there on the first receipt of the news, that it was fully anticipated that Scipio, suspending his operations against Utica, would immediately lay siege to Carthage. The suffetes, therefore, who form with them an authority similar to the consular, summoned the senate, when the three following opinions were given. The first proposed, that a decree should be passed to the effect, that ambassadors should be sent to Scipio to treat of peace; the second, that Hannibal should be recalled to defend his country from a war which threatened its annihilation; the third breathed the spirit of Roman constancy under adversity; it recommended that the losses of the army should be repaired, and that Syphax should be exhorted not to abandon the war. The latter opinion prevailed, because it was that which Hasdrubal, who was present, and all the members of the Barcine faction, preferred. After this, the levy commenced in the city and country, and ambassadors were despatched to Syphax, who was himself employing every effort to restore the war; for his wife had prevailed upon him, not, as heretofore, by caresses, powerful as they are in influencing the mind of a lover, but by prayers and appeals to his compassion, imploring him, with streaming eyes, not to betray her father and her country, nor suffer Carthage to be consumed by the same flames which had reduced the camps to ashes. In addition to this, the ambassadors informed him of a circumstance which had occurred very seasonably to raise their hopes; that they had met with four thousand Celtiberians in the neighbourhood of a city named Abba, a fine body of young men who had been enlisted by their recruiting officers in Spain; and that Hasdrubal would very soon arrive with a body of troops by no means contemptible. Accordingly, he not only returned a kind answer to the ambassadors, but also showed them a multitude of Numidian rustics, whom he had lately furnished with arms and horses; and at the same time assured them that he would call out all the youth in his kingdom. He said, he well knew that the loss sustained had been occasioned by fire, and not by battle, and that he was inferior to his adversary in war who was overcome by force of arms. Such was the answer given to the ambassadors; and, after a few days, Hasdrubal and Syphax again united their forces. This army consisted of about thirty-five thousand fighting men.
[20] 8. Scipio, considering that Syphax and the Carthaginians could make no further efforts, gave his whole attention to the siege of Utica, and was now bringing up his engines to the walls, when he was diverted from his purpose by a report of the renewal of the war; and, leaving small forces merely to keep up the appearance of a siege by sea and land, he set out himself with the main strength of his army to meet the enemy. At first he took up his position on an eminence about five miles distant from the king’s camp. The next day, coming down with his cavalry into a place called the great plains, which lay at the foot of that eminence, he spent the day in advancing up to the outposts of the enemy, and provoking them by skirmishing attacks. During the ensuing two days, irregular excursions were made by both sides alternately, but nothing worthy of notice was achieved. On the fourth day, both sides came down in battle-array. The Romans placed their principes behind the spearmen, which latter formed the front line, and the triarii they stationed in reserve; the Italian cavalry they opposed to the enemy in the right wing, the Numidians and Masinissa on the left. Syphax and Hasdrubal, placing the Numidians against the Italian cavalry, and the Carthaginians opposite to Masinissa, received the Celtiberians into the centre of their line, to face the Roman legions. Thus arranged, they then commenced the encounter. At the first charge, both the wings, the Numidians and Carthaginians, were together driven from their ground; for neither could the Numidians, who consisted principally of rustics, sustain the shock of the Roman cavalry, nor the Carthaginians, who were also raw soldiers, withstand Masinissa, who, in addition to other circumstances, was rendered formidable by his recent victory. The Celtiberian line, though stript of the support of both the wings, stood their ground; for neither did any hope of safety by flight present itself, as they were ignorant of the country, nor could they expect pardon from Scipio, against whom, though he had deserved well both of them and their nation, they had come into Africa to fight for hire. Surrounded therefore, on all sides by the enemy, they died with obstinate resolution, falling one upon another; and, while the attention of all was turned upon them, Syphax and Hasdrubal gained a considerable space of time to effect their escape. The victors, fatigued with the slaughter, which had continued for a greater length of time than the battle, were interrupted by the night.
[20] 9. The next day Scipio sent Laelius and Masinissa, with all the Roman and Numidian cavalry, and the light infantry, to pursue Syphax and Hasdrubal. He himself, with the main strength of the army, reduced the neighbouring towns, which were all subject to the Carthaginians, some by holding out hopes to them, some by threats, and others by force. At Carthage, indeed, the consternation was extreme; and it was fully anticipated there, that Scipio, who was carrying his arms to the different places around, would, after having rapidly subdued all the neighbouring parts, suddenly attack Carthage itself. Their walls were repaired and protected with outworks; and every man individually exerted himself to the utmost in collecting from the country the requisites for holding out against a protracted siege. Mention was seldom made of peace, but not so seldom of sending deputies to recall Hannibal. The majority of them urged that the fleet, which had been equipped to intercept the convoys of the enemy, should be sent to surprise the ships stationed near Utica, which were lying in an unguarded state. It was also urged that they might perhaps overpower the naval camp, which was left under the protection of a trifling force. They chiefly inclined to the latter plan, though they thought, nevertheless, that deputies should be sent to Hannibal; for should the operations of the fleet succeed in the highest degree, the siege of Utica would be partially raised, but they had no general remaining but Hannibal, and no army but his which could defend Carthage itself. The ships were therefore launched the following day, and, at the same time, the deputies set out for Italy; and, their position stimulating them, every thing was done with the greatest expedition; each man considering, that the safety of all was betrayed in whatever degree he remitted his own individual exertions. Scipio, who drew after him an army now encumbered with the spoils of many cities, sent his prisoners, and other booty, to his old camp at Utica, and, as his views were now fixed on Carthage, he seized on Tunes, which was abandoned in consequence of the flight of the garrison. This city is about fifteen miles distant from Carthage, being a place secured both by works, and also by its own natural position; it may be seen from Carthage, and itself affords a prospect both of that city and of the sea which washes it.
[20] 10. From this place the Romans, while diligently employed in raising a rampart, descried the fleet of the enemy, on its way to Utica from Carthage. Desisting from their work, therefore, orders for marching were given, and the troops began to move with the utmost haste, lest the ships which were turned towards the land, and occupied with the siege, and which were far from being in a condition for a naval battle, should be surprised and overpowered. For how could ships, carrying engines and machines, and either converted to the purposes of transports, or brought up to the walls so as to afford the means of mounting up, in lieu of a mound and bridges, resist a fleet, with nothing to impede its movements, furnished with every kind of naval implement, and prepared for action. Scipio, therefore, contrary to his usual practice in naval engagements, drew the ships of war, which might have been employed in defending the rest, into the rear, and formed them into a line near the land; opposing to the enemy a row of transports, four deep, to serve as a wall; and, lest these same transports should be thrown into disorder during the confusion of the battle, he bound them together by placing masts and yard-arms across them, from one vessel to the other; and, by means of strong ropes, fastened them together, as it were, by one uninterrupted bond. He also laid planks upon them, so as to form a free passage along the line, leaving spaces under these bridges of communication by which the vessels of observation might run out towards the enemy, and retreat with safety. Having hastily made these arrangements as well as the time would permit, he put on board the transports about a thousand picked men, to keep off the enemy, with a very large store of weapons, particularly missiles, that they might hold out, however long the contest lasted. Thus prepared, and on the watch, they waited the approach of the enemy. The Carthaginians, who, if they had made haste would, on the first assault, have surprised their adversaries while every thing was in a state of confusion, from the hurry and bustle attending the preparations, were so dismayed at their losses by land, and thereby had lost so much confidence even in their strength by sea, in which they had the advantage, that, after consuming the day, in consequence of the slow rate at which they sailed, about sun-set they put in to a harbour which the Africans call Ruscino. The following day, at sun-rise, they drew up their ships towards the open sea, as for a regular naval battle, and with the expectation that the Romans would come out to engage them. After they had continued stationary for some time, and saw that no movement was made on the part of the enemy, then, at length, they attacked the transports. The affair bore no resemblance to a naval fight, but rather had the appearance of ships attacking walls. The transports had considerably the advantage in respect of height; and as the Carthaginians had to throw their weapons upward, against a mark which was above them, most of them failed of taking effect; while the weapons thrown from the transports from above fell with increased force, and derived additional impetus from their very weight. The vessels of observation, and even the lighter kind of barks, which went out through the spaces left under the flooring, which formed a communication between the ships, were at first run down by the mere momentum and bulk of the ships of war; and afterwards they proved a hindrance to the troops appointed to keep the enemy off; for as they mixed with the ships of the enemy, they were frequently under the necessity of withholding their weapons for fear, by a misdirected effort, they should fall on their friends. At length, beams with iron hooks at their ends, called harpoons, began to be thrown from the Carthaginian upon the Roman ships; and, as they could not cut the harpoons themselves, nor the chains suspended by which they were thrown upon their ships, as each of the ships of war of the enemy, being pulled back, drew with it a transport, connected with it by a harpoon, you might see the fastenings by which the transports were joined together rent asunder, and in another part a series of many vessels dragged away together. In this manner chiefly were all the bridges of communication torn to pieces, and scarcely had the troops who fought in front time to leap to the second line of ships. About six transports were towed away to Carthage, where the joy felt was greater than the occasion warranted; but their delight was increased from the reflection, that, in the midst of so many successive disasters and woes, one event, however trifling, which afforded matter of joy, had unexpectedly occurred; besides which, it was manifest that the Roman fleet would have been well nigh annihilated, had not their own commanders been wanting in diligence, and had not Scipio come up to its assistance in time.
[20] 11. It happened about the same time, that Laelius and Masinissa having arrived in Numidia after a march of about fifteen days, the Massylians, Masinissa’s hereditary kingdom, placed themselves under the protection of their king with the greatest joy, as they had long wished him among them. After the commanders and garrisons of Syphax had been expelled from thence, that prince kept himself within the limits of his original dominions, but without any intention of remaining quiet. Subdued by the power of love, he was spurred on by his wife and father-in-law; and he possessed such an abundance of men and horses, that a review of the resources of his kingdom, which had flourished for so many years, was calculated to infuse spirit into a mind even less barbarous and impetuous than his. Wherefore, collecting together all who were fit for service, he distributed among them horses, armour, and weapons. He divided his horsemen into troops, and his infantry into cohorts, as he had formerly learnt from the Roman centurions. With an army not less than that which he had before, but almost entirely raw and undisciplined, he set out to meet the enemy, and pitched his camp at a short distance from them. At first a few horsemen advanced cautiously from the outposts to reconnoitre, and being compelled to retire, from a discharge of javelins, they ran back to their friends. Then skirmishing parties were sent out from both sides, and the vanquished, fired with indignation, returned to the encounter with increased numbers. This is the usual incitement of battles between cavalry, when the victors are joined by more of their party from hope, and the vanquished from resentment. Thus, on the present occasion, the action commencing with a few, at last the whole body of the cavalry on both sides poured out to join in it from the zeal excited by the contest. While the cavalry only were engaged, it was scarcely possible to withstand the numbers of the Masaesylians, which Syphax sent out in immense bodies. But afterwards, when the Roman infantry, suddenly coming up between the troops of horse which made way for them, gave stability to their line, and checked the enemy, who were charging furiously, at first the barbarians slackened their speed, then halted, and were in a manner confounded at this novel kind of battle. At length, they not only retired before the infantry, but were unable to sustain the shock even of the cavalry, who had assumed courage from the support of the infantry. By this time the legions also were approaching; when, indeed, the Masaesylians not only dared not await their first charge, but could not bear even the sight of the standards and arms; so powerful was either the recollection of their former defeats, or their present fears.
[20] 12. It was then that Syphax, while riding up to the troops of the enemy to try if, either by shame or by exposing his own person to danger, he could stop their flight, being thrown from his horse, which was severely wounded, was overpowered, and being made prisoner, was dragged alive into the presence of Laelius; a spectacle calculated to afford peculiar satisfaction to Masinissa. Cirta was the capital of the dominions of Syphax; to which a great number of men fled. The number of the slain in this battle was not so great as the victory was important, because the cavalry only had been engaged. Not more than five thousand were slain, and less than half that number were made prisoners in an attack upon the camp, to which the multitude, dismayed at the loss of their king, had fled. Masinissa declared that nothing could be more highly gratifying to him than, having gained this victory, to go now and visit his hereditary dominions, which he had regained after having been kept out of them so long a time; but it was not proper in prosperity any more than in adversity to lose any time. That if Laelius would allow him to go before him to Cirta with the cavalry and the captive Syphax, he should overpower the enemy while all was in a state of consternation and dismay; and that Laelius might follow with the infantry at a moderate rate. Laelius assenting, he advanced to Cirta, and ordered the principal inhabitants to be called out to a conference. But as they were not aware of what had befallen their king, he was unable to prevail upon them, either by laying before them what had passed, by threats, or by persuasion, until the king was presented to their view in chains. A general lamentation arose at this shocking exhibition, and while some deserted the walls in a panic, others, who sought to ingratiate themselves with the victor, suddenly came to an agreement to throw open the gates. Masinissa, having sent troops to keep guard near the gates, and at such parts of the wall as required it, that no one might have a passage out to escape by, galloped off to seize the palace. While entering the porch, Sophonisba, the wife of Syphax and daughter of Hasdrubal the Carthaginian, met him in the very threshold, and seeing Masinissa in the midst of the armed band, for he was distinguished both by his arms and also by his habiliments, she concluded, as was really the case, that he was the king; and, falling down at his knees, thus addressed him: “The gods, together with your own valour and good fortune, have given you the power of disposing of us as you please. But if a captive may be allowed to give utterance to the voice of supplication before him who is the sovereign arbiter of her life or death; if she may be permitted to touch his knees and his victorious right hand, I entreat and beseech, you by the majesty of royalty, which we also a short time ago possessed; by the name of the Numidian race, which was common to Syphax and yourself; by the guardian deities of this palace, (and O! may they receive you more auspiciously than they sent Syphax from it!) that you would indulge a suppliant by determining yourself whatever your inclination may suggest respecting your captive, and not suffer me to be placed at the haughty and merciless disposal of any Roman. Were I nothing more than the wife of Syphax, yet would I rather make trial of the honour of a Numidian, one born in Africa, the same country which gave me birth than of a foreigner and an alien. You know what a Carthaginian, what the daughter of Hasdrubal, has to fear from a Roman. If you cannot effect it by any other means, I beg and beseech you that you will by my death rescue me from the power of the Romans.” She was remarkably beautiful, and in the full bloom of youth. Accordingly, while she pressed his right hand, and only implored him to pledge himself that she should not be delivered up to any Roman, her language assuming the character of amorous blandishment rather than entreaty, the heart of the conqueror not only melted with compassion, but, as the Numidians are an excessively amorous race, he became the slave of his captive; and giving his right hand as a pledge for the performance of her request, withdrew into the palace. He then set upon reflecting in what manner he could make good his promise; and not being able to hit upon any expedient, his passion suggested to him an inconsiderate and barefaced alternative. He ordered that preparations should be instantly made for celebrating the nuptials that very day; in order that he might not leave it at all open to Laelius, or Scipio himself, to adopt any measure respecting her as a captive who had become the wife of Masinissa. After the nuptials were concluded, Laelius came up: and so far was he from dissembling his disapprobation of the proceeding, that at first he would even have had her dragged from the marriage bed and sent with Syphax and the rest of the captives to Scipio: but afterwards, having been prevailed upon by the entreaties of Masinissa, who begged of him to leave it to Scipio to decide which of the two kings should have his fortunes graced by the accession of Sophonisba he sent away Syphax and the prisoners; and, aided by Masinissa, employed himself in reducing the rest of the cities of Numidia, which were occupied by the king’s garrisons.
[20] 13. When it was announced that Syphax was being brought into the camp, the whole multitude poured out, as if to behold a triumphal pageant. The king himself walked first in chains, and a number of Numidian nobles followed. On this occasion every one strove to the utmost to increase the splendour of their victory, by magnifying the greatness of Syphax and the renown of his nation. “That was the king,” they said, “to whose dignity the two most powerful nations in the world the Roman and the Carthaginian, had paid so much deference, that their own general, Scipio, leaving his province of Spain and his army, sailed into Africa with only two quinqueremes to solicit his friendship; while Hasdrubal, the Carthaginian general, not only visited him in his dominions, but gave him his daughter in marriage. That he had in his power two commanders, one a Roman and the other a Carthaginian, at the same time. That as both the contending parties sought the favour of the immortal gods by the immolation of victims, so had they both equally solicited his friendship. That he had lately possessed such great power, that after expelling Masinissa from his kingdom, he reduced him to such a state, that his life was protected by a report of his death, and by concealment, while he supported himself in the woods on prey after the manner of wild beasts.” Thus signalized by the observations of the surrounding multitude, the king was brought into the pavilion before Scipio, who was moved by the former condition of the man compared with his present, and particularly by the recollection of their relation of hospitality, his right hand pledged, and the public and private connexion which had been formed between them. These same considerations inspired Syphax also with confidence in addressing the conqueror; for when Scipio asked what had been his object in not only renouncing his alliance with the Romans, but in making war against them without provocation, he fully admitted “that he had indeed done wrong, and acted like a madman; but not at that time only when he took up arms against the Roman people; that was the consummation of his frenzy, not its commencement. Then it was that he is mad; then it was that he banished from his mind all regard for private friendship and public treaties, when he received a Carthaginian wife into his house. It was by the flames kindled by those nuptial torches that his palace had been consumed. That fury and pest had by every kind of fascination engrossed his affections and obscured his reason; nor had she rested till she had with her own hands clad him with impious arms against his guest and friend. Yet ruined and fallen as he was, he derived some consolation in his misfortunes when he saw that that same pest and fury had been transferred to the dwelling and household gods of the man who was of all others his greatest enemy. That Masinissa was neither more prudent nor more firm than Syphax; but even more incautious by reason of his youth. Doubtless he had shown greater folly and want of self-control in marrying her than he himself had.”
[20] 14. These words, dictated not merely by the hatred naturally felt towards an enemy, but also by the anguish of jealousy, on seeing the object of his affections in the possession of his rival, affected the mind of Scipio with no ordinary degree of anxiety. His accusations against Masinissa derived credibility from the fact of the nuptials having, been celebrated in the most violent hurry, almost amid the clash of arms, without consulting or waiting for Laelius, and with such precipitate haste, that on the very day on which he saw the captive enemy he united himself with her in matrimony, and performed the nuptial rite in the presence of the household gods of his enemy. This conduct appeared the more heinous to Scipio, because when a very young man in Spain he had not allowed himself to be influenced by the beauty of any captive. While ruminating on these circumstances, Laelius and Masinissa came up. Without making any distinction between them he received them both with a cheerful countenance, and having bestowed upon them the highest commendations before a full assembly of his officers, he took Masinissa aside and thus addressed him: “I suppose, Masinissa, that it was because you saw in me some good qualities that you at first came to me when in Spain, for the purpose of forming a friendship with me, and that afterwards in Africa you committed yourself and all your hopes to my protection. But of all those virtues, on account of which I seemed to you worthy of your regard, there is not one in which I gloried so much as temperance and the control of my passions. I could wish that you also, Masinissa, had added this to your other distinguished qualities. There is not, believe me, there is not so much danger to be apprehended by persons at our time of life from armed foes, as from the pleasures which surround us on all sides. The man who by temperance has curbed and subdued his appetite for them, has acquired for himself much greater honour and a much more important victory than we now enjoy in the conquest of Syphax. I have mentioned with delight, and I remember with pleasure, the instances of fortitude and courage which you displayed in my absence. As to other matters, I would rather that you should reflect upon them in private, than that you should be put to the blush by my reciting them. Syphax was subdued and captured under the auspices of the Roman people; therefore he himself, his wife his kingdom, his territories, his towns and their inhabitants, in short, every thing which belonged to him, is the booty of the Roman people, and it was proper that the king himself and his consort, even though she had not been a citizen of Carthage, even though we did not see her father commanding the armies of our enemies, should be sent to Rome, and that the senate and people of Rome should judge and determine respecting her who is said to have alienated from us a king in alliance with us, and to have precipitated him into war with us. Subdue your passions. Beware how you deform many good qualities by one vice, and mar the credit of so many meritorious deeds by a degree of guilt more than proportioned to the value of its object.”
[20] 15. While Masinissa heard these observations, he not only became suffused with blushes, but burst into tears; and after declaring that he would submit to the discretion of the general, and imploring him that, as far as circumstances would permit, he would consider the obligation he had rashly imposed upon himself, for he had promised that he would not deliver her into the power of any one, he retired in confusion from the pavilion into his own tent. There, dismissing his attendants, he spent a considerable time amid frequent sighs and groans, which could be distinctly heard by those who stood around the tent. At last, heaving a deep groan, he called one of his servants in whom he confided, in whose custody poison was kept, according to the custom of kings, as a remedy against the unforeseen events of fortune, and ordered him to mix some in a cup and carry it to Sophonisba; at the same time informing her that Masinissa would gladly have fulfilled the first obligation which as a husband he owed to her his wife; but since those who had the power of doing so had deprived him of the exercise of that right, he now performed his second promise, that she should not come alive into the power of the Romans. That, mindful of her father the general, of her country, and of the two kings to whom she had been married, she would take such measures as she herself thought proper. When the servant came to Sophonisba bearing this message and the poison, she said, “I accept this nuptial present; nor is it an unwelcome one, if my husband can render me no better service. Tell him, however, that I should have died with greater satisfaction had I not married so near upon my death.” The spirit with which she spoke was equalled by the firmness with which she took and drained the chalice, without exhibiting any symptom of perturbation. When Scipio was informed of this event, fearful lest the high-spirited young man should in the distempered state of his mind adopt some desperate resolution, he immediately sent for him, and at one time endeavoured to solace him, at another gently rebuked him for expiating one act of temerity with another, and rendering the affair more tragical than was necessary. The next day, in order to divert his mind from his present affliction, he ascended his tribunal and ordered an assembly to be summoned, in which having first saluted Masinissa with the title of king, and distinguished him with the highest encomiums, he presented him with a golden goblet, a curule chair, an ivory sceptre, an embroidered gown, and a triumphal vest. He increased the honour by observing, that among the Romans there was nothing more magnificent than a triumph; and that those who triumphed were not arrayed with more splendid ornaments than those with which the Roman people considered Masinissa alone, of all foreigners, worthy. He then bestowed the highest commendations upon Laelius also, and presented him with a golden crown, and gave presents to the other military characters proportioned to their respective merits. By these honours the king’s mind was soothed, and encouraged to hope that he would speedily become master of all Numidia, now that Syphax was removed.
[20] 16. Scipio, having sent Caius Laelius with Syphax and the rest of the prisoners to Rome, with whom went also ambassadors from Masinissa, led his troops back again to Tunes, and completed the fortifications which he had before begun. The Carthaginians, who had experienced not only a short-lived but almost groundless joy, from their attack upon the fleet, which, under existing circumstances, was tolerably successful, were so dismayed at the account of the capture of Syphax, in whom they reposed almost greater confidence than in Hasdrubal and his army, that now listening no longer to any who advocated war, they sent thirty of their principal elders as deputies to solicit peace. With them the council of elders is held in the highest reverence, and has supreme power even to control the senate itself. When they came into the Roman camp and entered the pavilion, they prostrated themselves after the manner of those who pay profound adoration to kings, adopting the custom, I suppose, from the country from which they derived their origin. Their language corresponded with such abject humiliation, for they did not endeavour to deny their guilt, but charged Hannibal and the favourers of his violent measures with being the originators of it. They implored pardon for their state, which had been now twice brought to the brink of ruin by the temerity of its citizens, and would again owe its safety to the indulgence of its enemies. They said, the object the Roman people aimed at in the subjugation of their enemies was dominion, and not their destruction; that he might enjoin what he pleased upon them, as being prepared submissively to obey. Scipio replied, “that he had come into Africa with the hope, and that hope had been increased by the success he had experienced in his operations, that he should carry home victory and not terms of peace. Still, though he had victory in a manner within his grasp, he would not refuse all accommodation, that all the nations of the world may know that the Roman people both undertake and conclude wars with justice.” The terms of peace which he prescribed were these: “That they should restore the prisoners, deserters, and fugitives; withdraw their armies from Italy and Gaul; give up all claim to Spain; retire from all the islands between Italy and Africa; deliver up all their ships of war except twenty, and furnish five hundred thousand pecks of wheat, and three hundred thousand of barley.” Authors are not agreed as to the sum of money he demanded. In some I find five thousand talents; in others five thousand pounds’ weight of silver; in others, that double pay for the troops was required. “Three days,” he said, “shall be allowed to deliberate whether you accept of peace on these terms. If you do accept it, make a truce within me, and send deputies to Rome to the senate.” The Carthaginians being thus dismissed, as they thought it proper to accept of any conditions of peace, for their only object was to gain time for Hannibal to cross over into Africa, sent some ambassadors to Scipio to conclude a truce, and others to Rome to solicit peace; the latter taking with them a few prisoners, deserters, and fugitives, in order to facilitate the attainment of peace.
[20] 17. Laelius with Syphax and the principal Numidian prisoners arrived at Rome several days before, and laying before the senate all the transactions which had occurred in Africa in order, the greatest joy was felt for the present, and the most sanguine anticipations formed of the future. The sense of the senate being then taken upon the subject, they resolved that the king should be sent to Alba to be kept in custody, and that Laelius should be detained until the arrival of the Carthaginian ambassadors. A supplication for four days was decreed. The senate breaking up and an assembly of the people being then called, Publius Aelius the praetor accompanied by Caius Laelius, mounted the rostrum. There, on hearing that the armies of the Carthaginians had been routed, that a king of the greatest renown had been vanquished and made prisoner, that all Numidia had been overrun with brilliant success, the people were unable to refrain from expressing their delight, but manifested their transports by shouts and all the other means usually resorted to by the multitude. The praetor, therefore, immediately issued orders that the keepers should open all the temples throughout the city, and that the people should be allowed during the whole day to go round and make their adoration to the gods, and return their thanks. The next day he brought the ambassadors of Masinissa before the senate. They in the first place congratulated the senate on the successes of Scipio in Africa, and then thanked them, not only for having saluted him with the title of king, but for having made him one, by reinstating him in his paternal dominions, where, now that Syphax was removed, he would reign, if it was the pleasure of the senate, without fear or opposition. Next, for having bestowed upon him the highest commendations in the assembly, and decorated him with the most magnificent presents, of which Masinissa had endeavoured, and would in future endeavour, to render himself worthy. They requested that the senate would by a decree confirm the title of king with the other favours and benefits conferred by Scipio, and, if it were not troublesome, they said, that Masinissa further Requested that they would send home the Numidian captives who were detained at Rome; for that this boon would procure him the esteem and honour of his countrymen. On these points the senate replied to the ambassadors, “that they reciprocated the congratulations of the king on the successes in Africa. That Scipio was considered to have acted properly and regularly in saluting him with the title of king, and that the senate applauded and approved of every thing else he had done which was gratifying to Masinissa.” They appointed by a decree what presents the ambassadors should carry to the king; they were, two purple cloaks, each having a golden clasp, and each accompanied with vests and broad purple borders, two horses arrayed with trappings, two suits of equestrian armour with coats of mail, together with tents and other military apparatus such as those usually provided for a consul. These the praetor was directed to send for the king. The ambassadors were severally presented with not less than five thousand asses, their attendants with one thousand. Two suits of apparel were presented to each of the ambassadors, and one to each of their attendants and to the Numidians, who were discharged from custody and given back to the king. In addition to these, dwellings, reserved by the state for such purposes, grounds, and entertainment, were assigned to the ambassadors.
[20] 18. The same summer during which these decrees were passed at Rome, and these transactions took place in Africa, Publius Quinctilius Varus, the praetor, and Marcus Cornelius, the proconsul, fought a pitched battle with Mago the Carthaginian in the territories of the Insubrian Gauls. The legions of the praetor were in the first line; Cornelius kept his in reserve, riding forward into the front himself, and the praetor and proconsul, leading on the two wings, exhorted the soldiers to attack the enemy with the utmost vigour. Finding they produced no impression upon the enemy, Quinctilius said to Cornelius: “The battle, as you perceive, does not proceed with spirit, the enemy, having succeeded in their resistance beyond expectation, have become callous to fear, and there is danger lest it should be converted into boldness. We must stir up a tempest of cavalry if we wish to disorder and drive them from their ground; therefore, either do you sustain the fight in front, and I will lead the cavalry into the action; or else, I will act in the front line and you send out the cavalry of the four legions against the enemy.” The proconsul offering to take whichever part of the service the praetor pleased, Quinctilius the praetor, with his son, surnamed Marcus, a spirited youth, went off to the cavalry, and desiring them to mount, instantly led them to the charge. The confusion on occasioned by these was increased by a shout raised by the legions; nor would the line of the enemy have stood unbroken, had not Mago, as soon as he saw the cavalry in motion, immediately brought into the action his elephants, which he kept in readiness. The horses were so terrified at the snorting, the smell, and appearance of these animals, that the aid of the cavalry was rendered ineffectual. As the Roman horseman had the advantage in point of efficiency in a close fight, when he could use his javelin and sword hand to hand, so the Numidians had the advantage when throwing their darts from a distance upon enemies borne away from them by their terrified horses. At the same time the twelfth legion, though a great number of them were slain, maintained their ground through shame rather than a reliance on their strength; but they would not have continued to do so longer, had not the thirteenth legion, brought up into the front line from the reserve, taken up the doubtful conflict. Mago, also, bringing up the Gauls from his reserve, opposed them to the fresh legion. The Gauls being routed without any great effort, the spearmen of the eleventh legion formed themselves into a circular body and charged the elephants, which were now disordering the line of infantry; and as scarcely one of the javelins which they threw upon them failed of taking effect, as they were close together, they turned them all upon the line of their own party. Four of them fell overpowered with wounds. It was then that the front line of the enemy gave ground, the whole body of the Roman infantry at the same time rushing forward to increase the panic and confusion, on seeing the elephants turn their backs. As long as Mago stood in front, the troops stepped back slowly, preserving their ranks and not relaxing their ardour in fighting; but when they saw him falling, from a wound in his thigh, which was transfixed, and carried off the field almost lifeless, in an instant they all betook themselves to flight. As many as five thousand of the enemy were slain, and twenty-two military standards captured on that day. Nor did the Romans obtain a bloodless victory. Two thousand three hundred of the army of the praetor, by far the greater part of whom belonged to the twelfth legion, were lost. Two military tribunes, Marcus Cosconius and Marcus Maenius, of the same legion; and of the thirteenth legion also, which joined in the action at its close, Cneius Helvius, a military tribune, fell in restoring the fight; and about twenty-two distinguished horsemen, together with several centurions, were trampled upon and killed by the elephants. The contest would have continued longer, had not the enemy conceded the victory, in consequence of the wound of their general.
[20] 19. Mago, setting out during the silence of the succeeding night, and marching as far at a time as his wounds would allow him, reached the sea-coast in the territory of the Ingaunian Ligurians. Here ambassadors from Carthage, who had put into the Gallic bay a few days before, came to him with directions to cross over into Africa with all speed; informing him that his brother Hannibal, for to him also they said ambassadors had gone with similar directions, would do the same, for the affairs of the Carthaginians were not in a condition to admit of their occupying Gaul and Italy with armies. Mago, not only influenced by the command of the senate and the danger which threatened his country, but fearful also lest the victorious enemy should be upon him if he delayed, and lest the Ligurians themselves, seeing that the Carthaginians were leaving Italy, should pass over to those under whose power they were likely soon to be placed; at the same time hoping that his wound would be less irritated by the motion of sailing than marching, and that he would have greater facilities for the cure of it, put his troops on board and set sail. But he had scarcely cleared Sardinia when he died of his wound. Several also of his ships, which had been dispersed in the main sea, were captured by the Roman fleet which lay near Sardinia. Such were the transactions by sea and land in that part of Italy which is adjacent to the Alps. The consul, Caius Servilius, without having performed any memorable achievement in Etruria, his province, and in Gaul, for he had advanced thither also, but having rescued from slavery, which they had endured for now the sixteenth year, his father, Caius Servilius, and his uncle, Caius Lutatius, who had been taken by the Boians at the village of Tanetum, returned to Rome with his father on one side of him and his uncle on the other, distinguished, by family, rather than by public, honours. It was proposed to the people, that Caius Servilius should be indemnified for having filled the offices of plebeian tribune and plebeian aedile contrary to what was established by the laws, while his father, who had sat in the curule chair, was still alive, he being ignorant of that circumstance. This proposition having been carried, he returned to his province. The towns Consentia, Uffugum, Vergae, Besidiae, Hetriculum, Sypheum, Argentanum, Clampetia, and many other inconsiderable states, perceiving that the Carthaginian cause was declining, went over to Cneius Servilius the consul in Bruttium. The same consul fought a battle with Hannibal, in the territory of Croto. The accounts of this battle are not clear. Valerius Antias states that five thousand men were slain. But this is an event of such magnitude, that either it must be an impudent fiction, or negligently omitted. It is certain that nothing further was done by Hannibal in Italy; for ambassadors from Carthage, recalling him into Africa, came to him, as it happened, at the same time that they came to Mago.
[20] 20. It is said that when Hannibal heard the message of the ambassadors he gnashed with his teeth, groaned, and scarcely refrained from shedding tears. After they had delivered the commands with which they were charged, he said: “Those who have for a long time been endeavouring to drag me home, by forbidding the sending of supplies and money to me, now recall me, not indirectly, but openly. Hannibal, therefore, hath been conquered, not by the Roman people, who have been so often slain and routed, but by the Carthaginian senate, through envy and detraction; nor will Publius Scipio exult and glory in this unseemly return so much as Hanno, who has crushed our family, since he could not effect it by any other means, by the ruins of Carthage.” Already had his mind entertained a presentiment of this event, and he had accordingly prepared ships beforehand. Having, therefore, sent a crowd of useless soldiers under pretence of garrisons into the towns in the Bruttian territory, a few of which continued their adherence to him, more through fear than attachment, he transported the strength of his army into Africa. Many natives of Italy who, refusing to follow him into Africa had retired to the shrine of Juno Lacinia, which had never been violated up to that day, were barbarously massacred in the very temple. It is related, that rarely any person leaving his country to go into exile exhibited deeper sorrow than Hannibal did on departing from the land of his enemies; that he frequently looked back upon the shores of Italy, and, arraigning both gods and men, cursed himself and his own head that he did not lead his troops, while reeking with blood from the victory at Cannae, to Rome. Scipio, who since his appointment to the office of consul had not looked at the Carthaginian enemy in Italy, had dared, he said, to go and attack Carthage, while he, after slaying a hundred thousand fighting men at Trasimenus and Cannae, had suffered his strength to wear away around Casilinum, Cumae, and Nola. Amid these reproaches and complaints he was borne away from his long occupation of Italy.
[20] 21. At the same time intelligence was brought to Rome that both Mago and Hannibal had taken their departure. But the delight occasioned by this twofold source of joy was diminished by the reflection that their commanders had wanted either spirit or strength sufficient to detain them, for they had been charged by the senate to do so; and also in consequence of the anxiety they felt for the issue of a contest, in which the whole weight of the war rested on the efforts of one general and his army. About the same time ambassadors from Saguntum arrived, bringing with them some Carthaginians who had crossed over into Spain for the purpose of hiring auxiliaries, having seized them and the money they had with them. They laid down in the vestibule of the senate-house two hundred and fifty pounds’ weight of gold, and eight hundred of silver. After the men had been received and thrown into prison, and the gold and silver returned, the ambassadors were thanked, and received, besides, presents and ships to convey them back into Spain. Some of the older senators then observed, that men were less powerfully affected by prosperity than adversity. That they themselves remembered what terror and consternation had been occasioned by the passage of Hannibal into Italy; what disasters and what lamentations had followed that event. When the camp of the enemy was seen from their walls, what vows were poured forth by each and all! How often, extending their hands to heaven, exclamations were heard in their assemblies. Oh! will that day ever arrive when we shall behold Italy cleared of her enemies and enjoying the blessings of peace! The gods, they said, had at length, in the sixteenth year, granted that favour and yet there was no one who proposed that thanks should be returned to them for it. That if men received a present blessing so ungratefully, they would not be very mindful of it when it was past. In consequence of this a general shout was raised from every part of the senate-house, that Publius Aelius the praetor, should lay the matter before the senate, and a decree was passed, that a supplication should be performed at all the shrines for the space of five days, and that a hundred and twenty victims of the larger sort should be immolated. Laelius and the ambassadors of Masinissa having been by this time dismissed, and intelligence having arrived that ambassadors of the Carthaginians, who were coming to the senate to treat about peace, had been seen at Puteoli, and would proceed thence by land, it was resolved, that Caius Laelius should be recalled, that the negotiations respecting the peace might take place in his presence. Quintus Fulvius Gillo, a lieutenant-general of Scipio, conducted the Carthaginians to Rome; and as they were forbidden to enter the city, they were lodged in a country-house belonging to the state, and admitted to an audience of the senate at the temple of Bellona.
[20] 22. They addressed the senate in nearly the same terms as they had employed before Scipio; laying the whole blame of the war upon Hannibal, and exculpating their state. They declared, that he had not only crossed the Alps, but the Iberus also, without the sanction of the senate; and that he had made war not only on the Romans, but previously on the Saguntines also, on his own individual responsibility. That, if the question were viewed in its proper light, it would be found that the league between the senate and people of Carthage and the Romans remained unbroken up to that day. Accordingly, all they had in charge to solicit was, that they might be allowed to continue in the enjoyment of that peace which was last entered into with the consul Caius Lutatius. When the praetor, according to the custom handed down from their ancestors, had given the fathers permission to ask the ambassadors any questions they might be pleased to put, and the older members who had been present at the making of the treaties had put some one question and others another, the ambassadors declared that they were not old enough to recollect, for they were nearly all of them young men. Upon this every part of the senate-house resounded with exclamations, that with Carthaginian knavery men had been chosen to solicit a renewal of the old peace who did not recollect its terms.
[20] 23. After this, the ambassadors having been removed out of the senate-house, the senators began to be asked their opinions. Marcus Livius recommended, that Caius Servilius, the consul nearest home, should be sent for, that he might be present at the proceedings relative to the peace; for as it was impossible that any subject of deliberation could occur of greater importance than the present, he did not see how it could be discussed, consistently with the dignity of the Roman people, in the absence of one or both of the consuls. Quintus Metellus, who three years before had been consul, and had filled the office of dictator, said that, since Publius Scipio, by destroying the armies and by devastating the lands of the enemy, had reduced them to such a state that they were compelled as supplicants to sue for peace; and as no one could estimate with more truth the intentions with which it was solicited, than he who was prosecuting the war before the gates of Carthage; the peace should be rejected or adopted on the advice of none other than Scipio. Marcus Valerius Laevinus, who had been twice consul, endeavoured to show that those who had come were spies, and not ambassadors; that they ought to be ordered to depart from Italy; that guards should be sent with them to their very ships, and that Scipio should be written to not to relax in prosecuting the war. Laelius and Fulvius added, that Scipio had grounded his hopes of effecting a peace on Hannibal and Mago not being recalled from Italy. He considered that the Carthaginians would practise every species of dissimulation, in expectation of the arrival of those generals and their armies, and then, forgetful of all treaties, however recent, and all gods, would proceed with the war. For these reasons they were the more disposed to adopt the opinion of Laevinus. The ambassadors were dismissed without having accomplished the peace, and almost without an answer.
[20] 24. About the same time Cneius Servilius, the consul, not doubting but that he should enjoy the glory of having restored Italy to a state of peace, pursued Hannibal, whom he considered had fled before him, and crossed over into Sicily, with the intention of proceeding thence into Africa. As soon as this became known at Rome, at first the fathers gave it as their opinion, that the praetor should inform the consul by letter that the senate thought it proper that he should return into Italy; but afterwards, the praetor declaiming that he would not heed his letter, Publius Sulpicius, who was created dictator for this very purpose, recalled the consul to Italy, in virtue of his superior authority. The remainder of the year he employed in conjunction with Marcus Servilius, his master of the horse, in going round to the cities of Italy, which had been alienated from the Romans during the war, and in taking cognizance of the cases of each. During the time of the truce, Lentulus the praetor sent over into Africa, from Sardinia, a hundred transports with stores, under a convoy of twenty ships of war, without meeting with any injury either from the enemy or storms. The same good fortune did not attend Cneius Octavius, while crossing over from Sicily with two hundred transports and thirty men of war. Having experienced a prosperous voyage until he arrived almost within sight of Africa, at first the wind dropped, but afterwards changing to the south-west, it dispersed his ships in every direction. He himself with the ships of war, having struggled through the opposing billows by the extraordinary exertions of his rowers, made the promontory of Apollo. The greater part of the transports were driven to Aegimurus, an island filling the mouth of the bay on which Carthage stands, and about thirty miles from the city; the rest were driven on shore directly opposite the city, near the warm baths. The whole occurrence was within sight of Carthage, and, accordingly, the people ran in crowds to the forum, from every part of the city. The magistrates summoned the senate, and the people were yelling in the vestibule of the senate-house, lest so great a booty should escape from their hands and their sight. Though some urged as an objection the obligation imposed upon them by having solicited peace, and others the restraint occasioned by the existence of a truce, the period of which had not yet expired, it was agreed in an assembly, made up almost of a mixture of the senate and people, that Hasdrubal should cross over to Aegimurus with fifty ships, and, proceeding thence, pick up the Roman ships scattered along the coasts and in the different ports. First the transports from Aegimurus, and then those from the baths, abandoned by the crews, were towed to Carthage.
[20] 25. The ambassadors had not as yet returned from Rome, nor was it known whether the Roman senate had pronounced in favour of peace or war; nor as yet had the period of the truce expired. Scipio, therefore, considering that the malignity of their offence was heightened by the fact, that, though they had solicited peace and a truce, they had cut off all hopes of the former and violated the latter, immediately despatched Lucius Baebius, Lucius Sergius, and Lucius Fabius, as ambassadors to Carthage. These, having narrowly escaped violence from the assembled multitude, and perceiving that they would be exposed to similar danger on their return, requested of the magistrates, by whose aid they had been protected from violence, to send ships to escort them. Two triremes were assigned them, which, when they had come to the river Bagradas, whence the Roman camp could be seen, returned to Carthage. The Carthaginian fleet was stationed at Utica, and from this three quadriremes were despatched, which suddenly attacked the Roman quinquereme from the main sea, while doubling the promontory, either owing to a message sent from Carthage that this should be done, or that Hasdrubal, who commanded the fleet, perpetrated the atrocity without public connivance. But neither could they strike it with their beaks from the rapidity with which it evaded them, nor could the fighting men board the higher from lower vessels. The quinquereme was gallantly defended as long as their weapons lasted; but these failing, and there being now nothing which could save them but the nearness of the land, and the multitude which had poured out from the camp upon the shore, they communicated a rapid motion to the vessel by means of their oars, and running her against the shore with all the force they could, they escaped themselves without injury, and only lost the vessel. Thus when the truce had been unequivocally violated by repeated acts of villany, Laelius and Fulvius arrived from Rome with the Carthaginian ambassadors. Scipio told them, that although the Carthaginians had not only broken their faith pledged in the truce, but had also violated the laws of nations in the persons of his ambassadors, yet he would not in their case do any thing unworthy of the maxims of the Roman people or his own principles; after saying which, he dismissed the ambassadors and prepared for war. When Hannibal was now drawing near land, one of the sailors, who was ordered to climb the mast to see what part of the country they were making, said the prow pointed toward a demolished sepulchre, when Hannibal, recognising the inauspicious omen, ordered the pilot to steer by that place, and putting in his fleet at Leptis, landed his forces there.
[20] 26. Such were the transactions in Africa this year. Those which followed extended themselves into that year in which Marcus Servilius Geminus, who was then master of the horse and Tiberius Claudius Nero were consuls. However, at the close of the former year, deputies from the allied states in Greece having arrived with complaints that their lands had been devastated by the king’s garrisons, and that their ambassadors, who had gone into Macedonia to demand restitution had not been admitted into the presence of Philip; and having also brought information that four thousand men were said to have been conveyed over into Africa, under the conduct of Sopater, to assist the Carthaginians, and that a considerable quantity of money had been sent with them; the senate resolved that ambassadors should be sent to the king to inform him that the fathers considered that these acts were contrary to the treaty. The persons sent were Caius Terentius Varro, Caius Mamilius, and Marcus Aurelius. Three quinqueremes were assigned to them. This year was rendered remarkable by a most extensive fire, by which the buildings on the Publician hill were burned to the ground, and by the greatness of the floods. But still provisions were cheap, not only because, as it was a time of peace, supplies could be obtained from every part of Italy, but also because Marcus Valerius Falto and Marcus Fabius Buteo, the curule aediles, distributed to the people, so much for each street, at the rate of four asses a bushel, a great quantity of corn which had been sent out of Spain. The same year died Quintus Fabius Maximus at an advanced age, if, indeed, it be true that he was augur sixty-two years, which some historians relate. He was a man unquestionably worthy of the high surname which he bore, even had it begun with him. He surpassed the honours of his father, and equalled those of his grandfather. His grandfather, Rullus, was distinguished by a greater number of victories and more important battles; but one antagonist like Hannibal is sufficient to counterbalance them all. He was esteemed rather cautious than spirited; and though it may be questioned whether he was naturally dilatory, or whether he adopted that kind of conduct because it was peculiarly suited to the war which he was carrying on, yet nothing can be more clear that he was that one man who by his delay retrieved our affairs, as Ennius says. Quintus Fabius Maximus, his son, was consecrated augur in his room. In the room of the same, for he held two priesthoods, Servius Sulpicius Galba was consecrated pontiff. The Roman games were repeated for one day, the plebeian were thrice repeated entire by the aediles, Marcus Sextius Sabinus and Cneius Tremellius Flaccus. Both these were elected praetors, and with them Caius Livius Salinator and Caius Aurelius Cotta. The difference in the accounts of historians renders it uncertain whether Caius Servilius the consul presided in the elections this year, or Publius Sulpicius, nominated dictator by him, because business detained him in Etruria; being engaged, according to a decree of the senate, in making inquisitions respecting the conspiracies of the principal inhabitants.
[20] 27. In the beginning of the following year, Marcus Servilius and Tiberius Claudius, having assembled the senate, consulted them respecting the provinces. As both were desirous of having Africa, they wished Italy and Africa to be disposed of by lots; but, principally in consequence of the exertions of Quintus Metellus, Africa was neither assigned to any one nor withheld. The consuls were ordered to make application to the tribunes of the people, to the effect, that, if they thought proper, they should put it to the people to decide whom they wished to conduct the war in Africa. All the tribes nominated Publius Scipio. Nevertheless, the consuls put the province of Africa to the lot, for so the senate had decreed. Africa fell to the lot of Tiberius Claudius, who was to cross over into Africa with a fleet of fifty ships, all quinqueremes, and have an equal command with Scipio. Marcus Servilius obtained Etruria. Caius Servilius was continued in command in the same province, in case the senate resolved that the consul should remain at the city. Of the praetors, Marcus Sextus obtained Gaul; which province, together with two legions, Publius Quinctilius Varus was to deliver to him; Caius Livius obtained Bruttium, with the two legions which Publius Sempronius, the proconsul, had commanded the former year; Cneius Tremellius had Sicily, and was to receive the province and two legions from Publius Villius Tappulus, a praetor of the former year; Villius, as propraetor, was to protect the coast of Sicily with twenty men of war, and a thousand soldiers; and Marcus Pomponius was to convey thence to Rome one thousand five hundred soldiers, with the remaining twenty ships. The city jurisdiction fell to Caius Aurelius Cotta; and the rest of the praetors were continued in command of the respective provinces and armies which they then had. Not more than sixteen legions were employed this year in the defence of the empire. And, that they might have the gods favourably disposed towards them in all their undertakings and proceedings, it was ordered that the consuls, before they set out to the war, should celebrate those games, and sacrifice those victims of the larger sort, which, in the consulate of Marcus Claudius Marcellus and Titus Quinctius, Titus Manlius, the dictator, had vowed, provided the commonwealth should continue in the same state for the next five years. The games were exhibited in the circus during four days, and the victims sacrificed to those deities to whom they had been vowed.
[20] 28. Meanwhile, hope and anxiety daily and simultaneously increased; nor could the minds of men be brought to any fixed conclusion, whether it was a fit subject for rejoicing, that Hannibal had now at length, after the sixteenth year, departed from Italy, and left the Romans in the unmolested possession of it, or whether they had not greater cause to fear, from his having transported his army in safety into Africa. They said that the scene of action certainly was changed, but not the danger. That Quintus Fabius, lately deceased, who had foretold how arduous the contest would be, was used to predict, not without good reason, that Hannibal would prove a more formidable enemy in his own country than he had been in a foreign one; and that Scipio would have to encounter not Syphax, a king of undisciplined barbarians, whose armies Statorius, a man little better than a soldier’s drudge, was used to lead; nor his father-in-law, Hasdrubal, that most fugacious general; nor tumultuary armies hastily collected out of a crowd of half-armed rustics, but Hannibal, born in a manner in the pavilion of his father, that bravest of generals, nurtured and educated in the midst of arms, who served as a soldier formerly, when a boy, and became a general when he had scarcely attained the age of manhood; who, having grown old in victory, had filled Spain, Gaul, and Italy, from the Alps to the strait, with monuments of his vast achievements; who commanded troops who had served as long as he had himself; troops hardened by the endurance of every species of suffering, such as it is scarcely credible that men could have supported; stained a thousand times with Roman blood, and bearing with them the spoils not only of soldiers but of generals. That many would meet the eyes of Scipio in battle who had with their own hands slain Roman praetors, generals, and consuls; many decorated with crowns, in reward for having scaled walls and crossed ramparts; many who had traversed the captured camps and cities of the Romans. That the magistrates of the Roman people had not then so many fasces as Hannibal could have carried before him, having taken them from generals whom he had slain. While their minds were harassed by these apprehensions, their anxiety and fears were further increased from the circumstance, that, whereas they had been accustomed to carry on war for several years, in different parts of Italy, and within their view, with languid hopes, and without the prospect of bringing it to a speedy termination, Scipio and Hannibal had stimulated the minds of all, as generals prepared for a final contest. Even those persons whose confidence in Scipio and hopes of victory were great, were affected with anxiety, increasing in proportion as they saw their completion approaching. The state of feeling among the Carthaginians was much the same; for, when they turned their eyes on Hannibal, and the greatness of his achievements, they repented having solicited peace; but when again they reflected that they had been twice defeated in a pitched battle, that Syphax had been made prisoner, that they had been driven out of Spain and Italy, and that all this had been effected by the valour and conduct of Scipio alone, they regarded him with horror, as a general marked out by destiny, and born, for their destruction.
[20] 29. Hannibal had by this time arrived at Adrumetum; from which place, after employing a few days there in refreshing his soldiers, who had suffered from the motion by sea, he proceeded by forced marches to Zama, roused by the alarming statements of messengers, who brought word, that all the country around Carthage was filled with armed troops. Zama is distant from Carthage a five days’ journey. Some spies, whom he sent out from this place, being intercepted by the Roman guard, and brought before Scipio, he directed that they should be handed over to the military tribunes, and after having been desired fearlessly to survey every thing, to be conducted through the camp wherever they chose; then, asking them whether they had examined every thing to their satisfaction, he assigned them an escort, and sent them back to Hannibal. Hannibal received none of the circumstances which were reported to him with feelings of joy; for they brought word that, as it happened, Masinissa had joined the enemy that very day, with six thousand infantry and four thousand horse; but he was principally dispirited by the confidence of his enemy, which, doubtless, was not conceived without some ground. Accordingly, though he himself was the originator of the war, and by his coming had upset the truce which had been entered into, and cut off all hopes of a treaty, yet concluding that more favourable terms might be obtained if he solicited peace while his strength was unimpaired, than when vanquished, he sent a message to Scipio, requesting permission to confer with him. I have no means of affirming whether he did this on his own spontaneous suggestion, or by the advice of his state. Valerius Antias says, that after having been beaten by Scipio in a battle, in which twelve thousand armed men were slain, and one thousand seven hundred made prisoners, he came himself with ten other deputies into the camp to Scipio. However, as Scipio did not decline the proposal for a conference, both the generals, by concert, brought their camps forward in order to facilitate their meeting by shortening the distance. Scipio took up his position not far from the city Naragara, in a situation convenient not only for other purposes, but also because there was a watering place within a dart’s throw. Hannibal took possession of an eminence four miles thence, safe and convenient in every respect, except that he had a long way to go for water. Here, in the intermediate space, a place was chosen, open to view from all sides, that there might be no opportunity for treachery.
[20] 30. Their armed attendants having retired to an equal distance, they met, each attended by one interpreter, being the greatest generals not only of their own times, but of any to be found in the records of the times preceding them, and equal to any of the kings or generals of any nation whatever. When they came within sight of each other they remained silent for a short time, thunderstruck, as it were, with mutual admiration. At length Hannibal thus began: “Since fate hath so ordained it, that I, who was the first to wage war upon the Romans, and who have so often had victory almost within my reach, should voluntarily come to sue for peace, I rejoice that it is you, above all others, from whom it is my lot to solicit it. To you, also, amid the many distinguished events of your life, it will not be esteemed one of the least glorious, that Hannibal, to whom the gods had so often granted victory over the Roman generals, should have yielded to you; and that you should have put an end to this war, which has been rendered remarkable by your calamities before it was by ours. In this also fortune would seem to have exhibited a disposition to sport with events, for it was when your father was consul that I first took up arms; he was the first Roman general with whom I engaged in a pitched battle; and it is to his son that I now come unarmed to solicit peace. It were indeed most to have been desired, that the gods should have put such dispositions into the minds of our fathers, that you should have been content with the empire of Italy, and we with that of Africa: nor, indeed, even to you, are Sicily and Sardinia of sufficient value to compensate you for the loss of so many fleets, so many armies, so many and such distinguished generals. But what is past may be more easily censured than retrieved. In our attempts to acquire the possessions of others we have been compelled to fight for our own; and not only have you had a war in Italy, and we also in Africa, but you have beheld the standards and arms of your enemies almost in your gates and on your walls, and we now, from the walls of Carthage, distinctly hear the din of a Roman camp. What, therefore, we should most earnestly deprecate, and you should most devoutly wish for, is now the case: peace is proposed at a time when you have the advantage. We who negotiate it are the persons whom it most concerns to obtain it, and we are persons whose arrangements, be they what they will, our states will ratify. All we want is a disposition not averse from peaceful counsels. As far as relates to myself, time, (for I am returning to that country an old man which I left a boy,) and prosperity, and adversity, have so schooled me, that I am more inclined to follow reason than fortune. But I fear your youth and uninterrupted good fortune, both of which are apt to inspire a degree of confidence ill comporting with pacific counsels. Rarely does that man consider the uncertainty of events whom fortune hath never deceived. What I was at Trasimenus, and at Cannae, that you are this day. Invested with command when you had scarcely yet attained the military age, though all your enterprises were of the boldest description, in no instance has fortune deserted you. Avenging the death of your father and uncle, you have derived from the calamity of your house the high honour of distinguished valour and filial duty. You have recovered Spain, which had been lost, after driving thence four Carthaginian armies. When elected consul, though all others wanted courage to defend Italy, you crossed over into Africa; where having cut to pieces two armies, having at once captured and burnt two camps in the same hour; having made prisoner Syphax, a most powerful king, and seized so many towns of his dominions and so many of ours, you have dragged me from Italy, the possession of which I had firmly held for now sixteen years. Your mind, I say, may possibly be more disposed to conquest than peace. I know the spirits of your country aim rather at great than useful objects. On me, too, a similar fortune once shone. But if with prosperity the gods would also bestow upon us sound judgment, we should not only consider those things which have happened, but those also which may occur. Even if you should forget all others, I am myself a sufficient instance of every vicissitude of fortune. For me, whom a little while ago you saw advancing my standards to the walls of Rome, after pitching my camp between the Anio and your city, you now behold here, bereft of my two brothers, men of consummate bravery, and most renowned generals, standing before the walls of my native city, which is all but besieged, and deprecating, in behalf of my own city, those severities with which I terrified yours. In all cases, the most prosperous fortune is least to be depended upon. While your affairs are in a favourable and ours in a dubious state, you would derive honour and splendour from granting peace; while to us who solicit it, it would considered as necessary rather than honourable. A certain peace is better and safer than a victory in prospect; the former is at your own disposal, the latter depends upon the gods. Do not place at the hazard of a single hour the successes of so many years. When you consider your own strength, then also place before your view the power of fortune, and the fluctuating nature of war. On both sides there will be arms, on both sides human bodies. In nothing less than in war do events correspond (with men’s calculations). Should you be victorious in a battle, you will not add so much to that renown which you now have it in your power to acquire by granting peace, as you will detract from it should any adverse event befall you. The chance of a single hour may at once overturn the honours you have acquired and those you anticipate. Every thing is at your own disposal in adjusting a peace; but, in the other case, you must be content with that fortune which the gods shall impose upon you. Formerly, in this same country, Marcus Atilius would have formed one among the few instances of good fortune and valour, if, when victorious, he had granted a peace to our fathers when they requested it; but by not setting any bounds to his success, and not checking good fortune, which was elating him, he fell with a degree of ignominy proportioned to his elevation. It is indeed the right of him who grants, and not of him who solicits it, to dictate the terms of peace; but perhaps we may not be unworthy to impose upon ourselves the fine. We do not refuse that all those possessions on account of which the war was begun should be yours; Sicily, Sardinia, Spain, with all the islands lying in any part of the sea, between Africa and Italy. Let us Carthaginians, confined within the shores of Africa, behold you, since such is the pleasure of the gods, extending your empire over foreign nations, both by sea and land. I cannot deny that you have reason to suspect the Carthaginian faith, in consequence of their insincerity lately in soliciting a peace and while awaiting the decision. The sincerity with which a peace will be observed, depends much, Scipio, on the person by whom it is sought. Your senate, as I hear, refused to grant a peace in some measure because the deputies were deficient in respectability. It is I, Hannibal, who now solicit peace; who would neither ask for it unless I believed it expedient, nor will I fail to observe it for the same reason of expedience on account of which I have solicited it. And in the same manner as I, because the war was commenced by me, brought it to pass that no one regretted it till the gods began to regard me with displeasure; so will I also exert myself that no one may regret the peace procured by my means.”
[20] 31. In answer to these things the Roman general spoke nearly to the following effect: “I was aware that it was in consequence of the expectation of your arrival, that the Carthaginians violated the existing faith of the truce and broke off all hope of a peace. Nor, indeed, do you conceal the fact; inasmuch as you artfully withdraw from the former conditions of peace every concession except what relates to those things which have for a long time been in our own power. But as it is your object, that your countrymen should be sensible how great a burden they are relieved from by your means, so it is incumbent upon me to endeavour that they may not receive, as the reward of their perfidy, the concessions which they formerly stipulated, by expunging them now from the conditions of the peace. Though you do not deserve to be allowed the same conditions as before, you now request even to be benefited by your treachery. Neither did our fathers first make war respecting Sicily, nor did we respecting Spain. In the former case the danger which threatened our allies the Mamertines, and in the present the destruction of Saguntum, girded us with just and pious arms. That you were the aggressors, both you yourselves confess, and the gods are witnesses, who determined the issue of the former war, and who are now determining and will determine the issue of the present according to right and justice. As to myself, I am not forgetful of the instability of human affairs, but consider the influence of fortune, and am well aware that all our measures are liable to a thousand casualties. But as I should acknowledge that my conduct would savour of insolence and oppression, if I rejected you on your coming in person to solicit peace, before I crossed over into Africa, you voluntarily retiring from Italy, and after you had embarked your troops; so now, when I have dragged you into Africa almost by manual force, notwithstanding your resistance and evasions, I am not bound to treat you with any respect. Wherefore, if in addition to those stipulations on which it was considered that a peace would at that time have been agreed upon, and what they are you are informed, a compensation is proposed for having seized our ships, together with their stores, during a truce, and for the violence offered to our ambassadors, I shall then have matter to lay before my council. But if these things also appear oppressive, prepare for war, since you could not brook the conditions of peace.” Thus, without effecting an accommodation, when they had returned from the conference to their armies, they informed them that words had been bandied to no purpose, that the question must be decided by arms, and that they must accept that fortune which the gods assigned them.
[20] 32. When they had arrived at their camps, they both issued orders that their soldiers should get their arms in readiness, and prepare their minds for the final contest; in which, if fortune should favour them, they would continue victorious, not for a single day, but for ever. “Before to-morrow night,” they said, “they would know whether Rome or Carthage should give laws to the world; and that neither Africa nor Italy, but the whole world, would be the prize of victory. That the dangers which threatened those who had the misfortune to be defeated, were proportioned to the rewards of the victors.” For the Romans had not any place of refuge in an unknown and foreign land, and immediate destruction seemed to await Carthage, if the troops which formed her last reliance were defeated. To this important contest, the day following, two generals, by far the most renowned of any, and belonging to two of the most powerful nations in the world, advanced, either to crown or overthrow, on that day, the many honours they had previously acquired. Their minds, therefore, were agitated with the opposite feelings of hope and fear; and while they contemplated at one time their own troops, at another those of their enemy, estimating their powers more by sight than by reason, they saw in them at once the grounds for joy and grief. Those circumstances which did not occur to the troops themselves spontaneously, their generals suggested by their admonitions and exhortations. The Carthaginian recounted his achievements in the land of Italy during sixteen years the many Roman generals and armies annihilated, reminding each individually of the honours he had acquired as he came to any soldier who had obtained distinction in any of his battles. Scipio referred to Spain, the recent battles in Africa and the enemy’s own confession, that they could not through fear but solicit peace, nor could they, through their inveterate perfidy, abide by it. In addition to this he gave what turn he pleased to his conference with Hannibal, which was held in private, and was therefore open to misrepresentation. He augured success that the gods had exhibited the same omens to them on going out to battle on the present occasion, as they had to their fathers when they fought at the islands Aegates. He told them that the termination of the war, and their hardships, had arrived; that they had within their grasp the spoils of Carthage, and the power of returning home to their country, their parents, their children, their wives, and their household gods. He delivered these observations with a body so erect, and with a countenance so full of exultation, that one would have supposed that he had already conquered. He then drew up his troops, posting the hastati in front, the principes behind them, and closing his rear line with the triarii.
[20] 33. He did not draw up his cohorts in close order, but each before their respective standards; placing the companies at some distance from each other, so as to leave a space through which the elephants of the enemy passing might not at all break their ranks. Laelius, whom he had employed before as lieutenant-general, but this year as quaestor, by special appointment, according to a decree of the senate, he posted with the Italian cavalry in the left wing, Masinissa and the Numidians in the right. The open spaces between the companies of those in the van he filled with velites, which then formed the Roman light-armed troops, with an injunction, that on the charge of the elephants they should either retire behind the files, which extended in a right line, or, running to the right and left and placing themselves by the side of those in the van, afford a passage by which the elephants might rush in between weapons on both sides. Hannibal, in order to terrify the enemy, drew up his elephants in front, and he had eighty of them, being more than he had ever had in any battle; behind these his Ligurian and Gallic auxiliaries, with Balearians and Moors intermixed. In the second line he placed the Carthaginians, Africans, and a legion of Macedonians; then, leaving a moderate interval, he formed a reserve of Italian troops, consisting principally of Bruttians, more of whom had followed him on his departure from Italy by compulsion and necessity than by choice. His cavalry also he placed in the wings, the Carthaginian occupying the right, the Numidian the left. Various were the means of exhortation employed in an army consisting of a mixture of so many different kinds of men; men differing in language, customs laws, arms, dress, and appearance, and in the motives for serving. To the auxiliaries, the prospect both of their present pay, and many times more from the spoils, was held out. The Gauls were stimulated by their peculiar and inherent animosity against the Romans. To the Ligurians the hope was held out of enjoying the fertile plains of Italy, and quitting their rugged mountains, if victorious. The Moors and Numidians were terrified with subjection to the government of Masinissa, which he would exercise with despotic severity. Different grounds of hope and fear were represented to different persons. The view of the Carthaginians was directed to the walls of their city, their household gods, the sepulchres of their ancestors, their children and parents, and their trembling wives; they were told, that either the destruction of their city and slavery or the empire of the world awaited them; that there was nothing intermediate which they could hope for or fear. While the general was thus busily employed among the Carthaginians, and the captains of the respective nations among their countrymen, most of them employing interpreters among troops intermixed with those of different nations, the trumpets and cornets of the Romans sounded; and such a clamour arose, that the elephants, especially those in the left wing, turned round upon their own party, the Moors and Numidians. Masinissa had no difficulty in increasing the alarm of the terrified enemy, and deprived them of the aid of their cavalry in that wing. A few, however, of the beasts which were driven against the enemy, and were not turned back through fear, made great havoc among the ranks of the velites, though not without receiving many wounds themselves; for when the velites, retiring to the companies, had made way for the elephants, that they might not be trampled down, they discharged their darts at them, exposed as they were to wounds on both sides, those in the van also keeping up a continual discharge of javelins; until, driven out of the Roman line by the weapons which fell upon them from all quarters, these elephants also put to flight even the cavalry of the Carthaginians posted in their right wing. Laelius, when he saw the enemy in disorder, struck additional terror into them in their confusion.
[20] 34. The Carthaginian line was deprived of the cavalry on both sides, when the infantry, who were now not a match for the Romans in confidence or strength, engaged. In addition to this there was one circumstance, trifling in itself, but at the same time producing important consequences in the action. On the part of the Romans the shout was uniform, and on that account louder and more terrific; while the voices of the enemy, consisting as they did of many nations of different languages, were dissonant. The Romans used the stationary kind of fight, pressing upon the enemy with their own weight and that of their arms; but on the other side there was more of skirmishing and rapid movement than force. Accordingly, on the first charge, the Romans immediately drove back the line of their opponents; then pushing them with their elbows and the bosses of their shields, and pressing forward into the places from which they had pushed them, they advanced a considerable space, as though there had been no one to resist them, those who formed the rear urging forward those in front when they perceived the line of the enemy giving way; which circumstance itself gave great additional force in repelling them. On the side of the enemy, the second line, consisting of the Africans and Carthaginians, were so far from supporting the first line when giving ground, that, on the contrary, they even retired, lest their enemy, by slaying those who made a firm resistance, should penetrate to themselves also. Accordingly, the auxiliaries suddenly turned their backs, and facing about upon their own party, fled, some of them into the second line, while others slew those who did not receive them into their ranks, since before they did not support them, and now refused to receive them. And now there were, in a manner, two contests going on together, the Carthaginians being compelled to fight at once with the enemy and with their own party. Not even then, however, did they receive into their line the terrified and exasperated troops; but, closing their ranks, drove them out of the scene of action to the wings and the surrounding plain, lest they should mingle these soldiers, terrified with defeat and wounds, with that part of their line which was firm and fresh. But such a heap of men and arms had filled the space in which the auxiliaries a little while ago had stood, that it was almost more difficult to pass through it than through a close line of troops. The spearmen, therefore, who formed the front line, pursuing the enemy as each could find a way through the heap of arms and men, and streams of blood, threw into complete disorder the battalions and companies. The standards also of the principes had begun to waver when they saw the line before them driven from their ground. Scipio, perceiving this, promptly ordered the signal to be given for the spearmen to retreat, and, having taken his wounded into the rear, brought the principes and triarii to the wings, in order that the line of spearmen in the centre might be more strong and secure. Thus a fresh and renewed battle commenced, inasmuch as they had penetrated to their real antagonists, men equal to them in the nature of their arms, in their experience in war, in the fame of their achievements, and the greatness of their hopes and fears. But the Romans were superior both in numbers and courage, for they had now routed both the cavalry and the elephants, and having already defeated the front line, were fighting against the second.
[20] 35. Laelius and Masinissa, who had pursued the routed cavalry through a considerable space, returning very opportunely, charged the rear of the enemy’s line. This attack of the cavalry at length routed them. Many of them, being surrounded, were slain in the field; and many, dispersed in flight through the open plain around, were slain on all hands, as the cavalry were in possession of every part. Of the Carthaginians and their allies, above twenty thousand were slain on that day; about an equal number were captured, with a hundred and thirty-three military standards, and eleven elephants. Of the victors as many as two thousand fell. Hannibal, slipping off during the confusion, with a few horsemen came to Adrumetum, not quitting the field till he had tried every expedient both in the battle and before the engagement; having, according to the admission of Scipio, and every one skilled in military science, acquired the fame of having marshalled his troops on that day with singular judgment. He placed his elephants in the front, in order that their desultory attack, and insupportable violence, might prevent the Romans from following their standards, and preserving their ranks, on which they placed their principal dependence. Then he posted his auxiliaries before the line of Carthaginians, in order that men who were made up of the refuse of all nations and who were not bound by honour but by gain, might not have any retreat open to them in case they fled; at the same time that the first ardour and impetuosity might be exhausted upon them, and, if they could render no other service, that the weapons of the enemy might be blunted in wounding them. Next he placed the Carthaginian and African soldiers, on whom he placed all his hopes, in order that, being equal to the enemy in every other respect, they might have the advantage of them, inasmuch as, being fresh and unimpaired in strength themselves, they would fight with those who were fatigued and wounded. The Italians he removed into the rear, separating them also by an intervening space, as he knew not, with certainty, whether they were friends or enemies. Hannibal, after performing this as it were his last work of valour, fled to Adrumetum, whence, having been summoned to Carthage, he returned thither in the six and thirtieth year after he had left it when a boy; and confessed in the senate-house that he was defeated, not only in the battle, but in the war, and that there was no hope of safety in any thing but in obtaining peace.
[20] 36. Immediately after the battle, Scipio, having taken and plundered the enemy’s camp, returned to the sea and his ships, with an immense booty, news having reached him that Publius Lentulus had arrived at Utica with fifty men of war, and a hundred transports laden with every kind of stores. Concluding that he ought to bring before Carthage every thing which could increase the consternation already existing there, after sending Laelius to Rome to report his victory, he ordered Cneius Octavius to conduct the legions thither by land; and, setting out himself from Utica with the fresh fleet of Lentulus, added to his former one, made for the harbour of Carthage. When he had arrived within a short distance, he was met by a Carthaginian ship decked with fillets and branches of olive. There were ten deputies, the leading men in the state, sent at the instance of Hannibal to solicit peace; to whom, when they had come up to the stern of the general’s ship, holding out the badges of suppliants, entreating and imploring the protection and compassion of Scipio, the only answer given was, that they must come to Tunes, to which place he would move his camp. After taking a view of the site of Carthage, not so much for the sake of acquainting himself with it for any present object, as to dispirit the enemy, he returned to Utica, having recalled Octavius to the same place. As they were proceeding thence to Tunes, they received intelligence that Vermina, the son of Syphax, with a greater number of horse than foot, was coming to the assistance of the Carthaginians. A part of his infantry, with all the cavalry, having attacked them on their march on the first day of the Saturnalia, routed the Numidians with little opposition; and as every way by which they could escape in flight was blocked up, for the cavalry surrounded them on all sides, fifteen thousand men were slain, twelve hundred were taken alive, with fifteen hundred Numidian horses, and seventy-two military standards. The prince himself fled from the field with a few attendants during the confusion. The camp was then pitched near Tunes in the same place as before, and thirty ambassadors came to Scipio from Carthage. These behaved in a manner even more calculated to excite compassion than the former, in proportion as their situation was more pressing; but from the recollection of their recent perfidy, they were heard with considerably less pity. In the council, though all were impelled by just resentment to demolish Carthage, yet, when they reflected upon the magnitude of the undertaking, and the length of time which would be consumed in the siege of so well fortified and strong a city, while Scipio himself was uneasy in consequence of the expectation of a successor, who would come in for the glory of having terminated the war, though it was accomplished already by the exertions and danger of another, the minds of all were inclined to peace.
[20] 37. The next day the ambassadors being called in again, and with many rebukes for their perfidy, warned that, instructed by so many disasters, they would at length believe in the existence of the gods, and the obligation of an oath, these conditions of the peace were stated to them: “That they should enjoy their liberty and live under their own laws; that they should possess such cities and territories as they had enjoyed before the war, and with the same boundaries, and that the Romans should on that day desist from devastation. That they should restore to the Romans all deserters and fugitives, giving up all their ships of war except ten triremes, with such tamed elephants as they had, and that they should not tame any more. That they should not carry on war in or out of Africa without the permission of the Roman people. That they should make restitution to Masinissa, and form a league with him. That they should furnish corn, and pay for the auxiliaries until the ambassadors had returned from Rome. That they should pay ten thousand talents of silver, in equal annual instalments distributed over fifty years. That they should give a hundred hostages, according to the pleasure of Scipio, not younger than fourteen nor older than thirty. That he would grant them a truce on condition that the transports, together with their cargoes, which had been seized during the former truce, were restored. Otherwise they would have no truce, nor any hope of a peace.” When the ambassadors who were ordered to bear these conditions home reported them in an assembly, and Gisgo had stood forth to dissuade them from the terms, and was being listened to by the multitude, who were at once indisposed for peace and unfit for war, Hannibal, indignant that such language should be held and listened to at such a juncture, laid hold of Gisgo with his own hand, and dragged him from his elevated position. This unusual sight in a free state having raised a murmur among the people, the soldier, disconcerted at the liberties which the citizens took, thus addressed them: “Having left you when nine years old, I have returned after a lapse of thirty-six years. I flatter myself I am well acquainted with the qualifications of a soldier, having been instructed in them from my childhood, sometimes by my own situation, and sometimes by that of my country. The privileges, the laws, and customs of the city and the forum you ought to teach me.” Having thus apologized for his indiscretion, he discoursed largely concerning the peace, showing how inoppressive the terms were, and how necessary it was. The greatest difficulty was, that of the ships which had been seized during the truce nothing was to be found except the ships themselves: nor was it easy to collect the property, because those who were charged with having it were opposed to the peace. It was resolved that the ships should be restored, and that the men at least should be looked up; and as to whatever else was missing, that it should be left to Scipio to put a value upon it, and that the Carthaginians should make compensation accordingly in money. There are those who say that Hannibal went from the field of battle to the sea-coast; whence he immediately sailed in a ship, which he had ready for the purpose, to king Antiochus; and that when Scipio demanded above every thing that Hannibal should be given up to him, answer was made that Hannibal was not in Africa.
[20] 38. After the ambassadors returned to Scipio, the quaestors were ordered to give in an account, made out from the public registers, of the public property which had been in the ships; and the owners to make a return of the private property. For the amount of the value twenty-five thousand pounds of silver were required to be paid down; and a truce for three months was granted to the Carthaginians. It was added, that during the time of the truce they should not send ambassadors any where else than to Rome; and that, whatever ambassadors came to Carthage, they should not dismiss them before informing the Roman general who they were, and what they sought. With the Carthaginian ambassadors, Lucius Veturius Philo, Marcus Marcius Ralla, and Lucius Scipio, brother of the general, were sent to Rome. At the time in which these events took place, the supplies sent from Sicily and Sardinia produced such cheapness of provisions, that the merchant gave up the corn to the mariners for their freight. At Rome alarm was excited at the first intelligence of the renewal of hostilities by the Carthaginians; and Tiberius Claudius was directed to conduct the fleet with speed into Sicily, and cross over from that place into Africa. The other consul, Marcus Servilius, was directed to stay at the city until the state of affairs in Africa was ascertained. Tiberius Claudius, the consul, proceeded slowly with every thing connected with the equipment and sailing of the fleet, because the senate had decided that it should be left to Scipio, rather than to the consul, to determine the conditions on which the peace should be granted. The accounts also of prodigies which arrived just at the time of the news of the revival of the war, had occasioned great alarm. At Cumae the orb of the sun seemed diminished, and a shower of stones fell; and in the territory of Veliternum the earth sank in great chasms, and trees were swallowed up in the cavities. At Aricia the forum and the shops around it, at Frusino a wall in several places, and a gate, were struck by lightning; and in the Palatium a shower of stones fell. The latter prodigy, according to the custom handed down by tradition, was expiated by a nine days’ sacred rite; the rest with victims of the larger sort. Amid these events an unusually great rising of the waters was converted into a prodigy; for the Tiber overflowed its banks to such a degree, that as the circus was under water, the Apollinarian games were got up near the temple of Venus Erycina, without the Colline gate. However, the weather suddenly clearing up on the very day of the celebration, the procession, which had begun to move at the Colline gate, was recalled and transferred to the circus, on its being known that the water had retired thence. The joy of the people and the attraction of the games were increased by the restoration of this solemn spectacle to its proper scene.
[20] 39. The consul Claudius, having set out at length from the city, was placed in the most imminent danger by a violent tempest, which overtook him between the ports of Cosa and Laurentum. Having reached Populonii, where he waited till the remainder of the tempest had spent itself, he crossed over to the island Ilva. From Ilva he went to Corsica, and from Corsica to Sardinia. Here, while sailing round the Montes Insani, a tempest much more violent in itself, and in a more dangerous situation, dispersed his fleet. Many of his ships were shattered and stripped of their rigging, and some were wrecked. His fleet thus weatherbeaten and shattered arrived at Carales, where the winter came on while the ships were drawn on shore and refitted. The year having elapsed, and no one proposing to continue him in command, Tiberius Claudius brought back his fleet to Rome in a private capacity. Marcus Servilius set out for his province, having nominated Caius Servilius Geminus as dictator, that he might not be recalled to the city to hold the elections. The dictator appointed Publius Aelius Paetus master of the horse. It frequently happened, that the elections could not be held on account of bad weather, though the days were fixed for them; and, therefore, as the magistrates of the former year retired from their offices on the day before the ides of March, and fresh ones were not appointed to succeed them, the state was without curule magistrates. Lucius Manlius Torquatus, a pontiff, died this year. Caius Sulpicius Galba was elected in his room. The Roman games were thrice repeated by the curule aediles, Lucius Licinius Lucullus and Quintus Fulvius. Some scribes and runners belonging to the aediles were found, on the testimony of an informer, to have privately conveyed money out of the treasury, and were condemned, not without disgrace to the aedile Lucullus. Publius Aelius Tubero and Lucius Laetorius, plebeian aediles, on account of some informality in their creation, abdicated their office, after having celebrated the games, and the banquet on occasion of the games, in honour of Jupiter, and after having placed in the Capitol three statues made out of silver paid as fines. The dictator and master of the horse celebrated the games in honour of Ceres, in conformity with a decree of the senate.
[20] 40. The Roman, together with the Carthaginian ambassadors, having arrived at Rome from Africa, the senate was assembled at the temple of Bellona; when Lucius Veturius Philo stated, to the great joy of the senate, that a battle had been fought with Hannibal, which was decisive of the fate of the Carthaginians, and that a period was at length put to that calamitous war. He added what formed a small accession to their successes, that Vermina, the son of Syphax, had been vanquished. He was then ordered to go forth to the public assembly, and impart the joyful tidings to the people. Then, a thanksgiving having been appointed, all the temples in the city were thrown open, and supplications for three days were decreed. The ambassadors of the Carthaginians, and those of king Philip, for they also had arrived, requesting an audience of the senate, answer was made by the dictator, by order of the fathers, that the new consuls would give them an audience. The elections were then held. The consuls elected were Cneius Cornelius Lentulus and Publius Aelius Paetus. The praetors elected were Marcus Junius Pennus, to whose lot the city jurisdiction fell, Marcus Valerius Falto, who received Bruttium, Marcus Fabius Buteo, who received Sardinia, and Publius Aelius Tubero, who received Sicily. It was the pleasure of the senate that nothing should be done respecting the provinces of the consuls, till the ambassadors of king Philip and the Carthaginians had been heard; for they foresaw the termination of one war and the commencement of another. Cneius Lentulus, the consul, was inflamed with a strong desire to have the province of Africa, looking forward to an easy victory if there was still war, or, if it was on the point of being concluded, to the glory of having it terminated in his consulate. He therefore refused to allow any business to be transacted before the province of Africa was assigned him; his colleague, who was a moderate and prudent man, giving up his claim to it, for he clearly saw that a contest with Scipio for that honour would be not only unjust but unequal. Quintus Minucius Thermus, and Manius Acilius Glabrio, tribunes of the people, said that Cneius Cornelius was endeavouring to effect the same object which had been attempted in vain by the consul Tiberius Claudius the former year. That, by the direction of the senate, it had been proposed to the people to decide whom they wished to have the command in Africa, and all the thirty-five tribes had concurred in assigning that command to Publius Scipio. After many discussions, both in the senate and popular assembly, it was at length determined to leave it to the senate. The fathers, therefore, on oath, for so it had been agreed, voted, that as to the provinces, the consuls should settle between themselves, or determine by lots, which of them should have Italy, and which a fleet of fifty ships. That he to whose lot the fleet fell should sail to Sicily, and if peace could not be concluded with the Carthaginians, that he should cross over into Africa. That the consul should act by sea, and Scipio by land, with the same right of command as heretofore. If an agreement should be come to, as to the terms of the peace, that then the plebeian tribunes should consult the commons as to whether they ordered the consul or Publius Scipio to grant the peace; and if the victorious army was to be brought home out of Africa, whom they ordered to bring it. That if they ordered that the peace should be granted by Publius Scipio, and that the army should be brought home likewise by him, then the consul should not pass out of Sicily into Africa. That the other consul, to whose lot Italy fell, should receive two legions from Marcus Sextius the praetor.
[20] 41. Publius Scipio was continued in command in the province of Africa, with the armies which he then had. To the praetor Marcus Valerius Falto the two legions in Bruttium, which Caius Livius had commanded the preceding year, were assigned. Publius Aelius, the praetor, was to receive two legions in Sicily from Cneius Tremellius. To Marcus Fabius was assigned one legion, which Publius Lentulus, propraetor, had commanded, to be employed in Sardinia; Marcus Servilius, the consul of the former year, was continued in command in Etruria, with his own two legions likewise. As to Spain, it appeared that Lucius Cornelius Lentulus and Lucius Manlius Acidinus had been there for now several years. It was resolved, therefore, that the consuls should make application to the plebeian tribunes to take the opinion of the people, if they thought proper, as to whom they ordered to have command in Spain; that the person so ordered should form one legion of Roman soldiers out of the two armies, and also fifteen cohorts of the allies of the Latin confederacy, with which he should occupy the province. That Lucius Cornelius Lentulus and Lucius Manlius Acidinus should convey the old soldiers into Italy. To Cornelius, the consul, was assigned a fleet of fifty ships formed out of the two fleets, one of which was under Cneius Octavius in Africa, the other employed in protecting the coast of Sicily, under Publius Villius. He was to select such ships as he pleased. That Publius Scipio should still have the forty ships of war which he before had, or if he wished that Cneius Octavius should command it, as he had commanded a fleet there before, that Octavius should be continued in command for a year as propraetor; but if he appointed Laelius to the command of it, Octavius should retire to Rome, and bring with him the ships which the consul did not want. To Marcus Fabius also ten men of war were assigned for Sardinia. The consuls were directed to enlist two city legions, so that the operations of the state might be carried on this year with fourteen legions, and one hundred men of war.
[20] 42. Then the business relating to the ambassadors of Philip and the Carthaginians was considered. It was resolved that the Macedonians should be brought before the senate first. Their address comprehended a variety of subjects, being employed partly in clearing themselves from the charges relative to the depredations committed against the allies, which the deputies sent to the king from Rome had brought against them; and partly in preferring accusations themselves against the allies of the Roman people, but particularly against Marcus Aurelius, whom they inveighed against with much greater acrimony; for they said that, being one of the three ambassadors sent to them, he had staid behind, and levying soldiers, had assailed them with hostilities contrary to the league, and frequently fought pitched battles with their prefects; and partly in preferring a request that the Macedonians and their general, Sopater, who had served in the army of Hannibal for hire, and having been made prisoners were kept in bondage, should be restored to them. In opposition to these things Marcus Furius, who had been sent from Macedonia for the express purpose by Aurelius, thus argued: he said, “that Aurelius, having been left behind, lest the allies of the Roman people, wearied by devastations and injuries, should revolt to the king, had not gone beyond the boundaries of the allies; but had taken measures to prevent plundering parties from crossing over into their lands with impunity. That Sopater was one of those who wore purple, and was related to the king; that he had been lately sent into Africa with four thousand Macedonians and a sum of money to assist Hannibal and the Carthaginians.” The Macedonians, on being interrogated on these points, proceeded to answer in a subtle and evasive manner; but without waiting for the conclusion of their reply they were told, “that the king was seeking occasion for war, and that if he persisted he would soon obtain his object. That the treaty had been doubly violated by him, both by offering insults to the allies of the Roman people, by assaulting them with hostilities and arms, and also by aiding their enemies with auxiliaries and money. That Publius Scipio was deemed to have acted properly and regularly in keeping in chains, as enemies, those who had been made prisoners while bearing arms against the Romans; and that Marcus Aurelius had consulted the interest of the state, and the senate were thankful to him for it, in protecting the allies of the Roman people by arms, since he could not do it by the obligation of the treaty.” The Macedonian ambassadors having been dismissed with this unpleasant answer, the Carthaginian ambassadors were called. On observing their ages and dignified appearance, for they were by far the first men of the state, all promptly declared their conviction, that now they were sincere in their desire to effect a peace. Hasdrubal, however, surnamed by his countrymen Haedus, who had invariably recommended peace, and was opposed to the Barcine faction, was regarded with greater interest than the rest. On these accounts the greater weight was attached to him when transferring the blame of the war from the state at large to the cupidity of a few. After a speech of varied character, in which he sometimes refuted the charges which had been brought, at other times admitted some, lest by impudently denying what was manifestly true their forgiveness might be the more difficult; and then, even admonishing the conscript fathers to be guided by the rules of decorum and moderation in their prosperity, he said, that if the Carthaginians had listened to himself and Hanno, and had been disposed to make a proper use of circumstances, they would themselves have dictated terms of peace, instead of begging it as they now did. That it rarely happened that good fortune and a sound judgment were bestowed upon men at the same time. That the Roman people were therefore invincible, because when successful they forgot not the maxims of wisdom and prudence; and indeed it would have been matter of astonishment did they act otherwise. That those persons to whom success was a new and uncommon thing, proceeded to a pitch of madness in their ungoverned transports in consequence of their not being accustomed to it. That to the Roman people the joy arising from victory was a matter of common occurrence, and was now almost become old-fashioned. That they had extended their empire more by sparing the vanquished than by conquering. The language employed by the others was of a nature more calculated to excite compassion; they represented from what a height of power the Carthaginian affairs had fallen. That nothing, besides the walls of Carthage, remained to those who a little time ago held almost the whole world in subjection by their arms; that, shut up within these, they could see nothing any where on sea or land which owned their authority. That they would retain possession of their city itself and their household gods only, in case the Roman people should refrain from venting their indignation upon these, which is all that remains for them to do. When it was manifest that the fathers were moved by compassion, it is said that one of the senators, violently incensed at the perfidy of the Carthaginians, immediately asked with a loud voice, by what gods they would swear in striking the league, since they had broken their faith with those by whom they swore in striking the former one? By those same, replied Hasdrubal, who have shown such determined hostility to the violators of treaties.
[20] 43. The minds of all being disposed to peace, Cneius Lentulus, whose province the fleet was, protested against the decree of the senate. Upon this, Manius Acilius and Quintus Minucius, tribunes of the people, put the question to the people, whether they willed and ordered that the senate should decree that peace should be made with the Carthaginians? whom they ordered to grant that peace, and whom to conduct the army out of Africa? All the tribes ordered respecting the peace according as the question had been put. That Publius Scipio should grant the peace, and that he also should conduct the army home. Agreeably to this order, the senate decreed that Publius Scipio, acting according to the opinion of the ten deputies, should make peace with the Carthaginian people on what terms he pleased. The Carthaginians then returned thanks to the senate, and requested that they might be allowed to enter the city and converse with their countrymen who had been made prisoners and were in custody of the state; observing, that some of them were their relations and friends, and men of rank, and some, persons to whom they were charged with messages from their relations. Having obtained these requests, they again asked permission to ransom such of them as they pleased; when they were desired to give in their names. Having given in a list of about two hundred, a decree of the senate was passed to the effect, that the Carthaginian ambassadors should be allowed to take away into Africa to Publius Cornelius Scipio two hundred of the Carthaginian prisoners, selecting whom they pleased; and that they should convey to him a message, that if the peace were concluded, he should restore them to the Carthaginians without ransom. The heralds being; ordered to go into Africa to strike the league, at their own desire the senate passed a decree that they should take with them flint stones of their own, and vervain of their own; that the Roman praetor should command them to strike the league, and that they should demand of him herbs. The description of herb usually given to the heralds is taken from the Capitol. Thus the Carthaginians, being allowed to depart from Rome, when they had gone into Africa to Scipio concluded the peace on the terms before mentioned. They delivered up their men-of-war, their elephants, deserters, fugitives, and four thousand prisoners, among whom was Quintus Terentius Culleo, a senator. The ships he ordered to be taken out into the main and burnt. Some say there were five hundred of every description of those which are worked with oars, and that the sudden sight of these, when burning, occasioned as deep a sensation of grief to the Carthaginians as if Carthage had been in flames. The measures adopted respecting the deserters were more severe than those respecting the fugitives. Those who were of the Latin confederacy were decapitated; the Romans were crucified.
[20] 44. The last peace with the Carthaginians was made forty years before this, in the consulate of Quintus Lutatius and Aulus Manlius. The war commenced twenty-three years afterwards, in the consulate of Publius Cornelius and Tiberius Sempronius. It was concluded in the seventeenth year, in the consulate of Cneius Cornelius and Publius Aelius Paetus. It is related that Scipio frequently said afterwards, that first the ambition of Tiberius Claudius, and afterwards of Cneius Cornelius, were the causes which prevented his terminating the war by the destruction of Carthage. The Carthaginians, finding difficulty in raising the first sum of money to be paid, as their finances were exhausted by a protracted war, and in consequence great lamentation and grief arising in the senate-house, it is said that Hannibal was observed laughing; and when Hasdrubal Haedus rebuked him for laughing amid the public grief, when he himself was the occasion of the tears which were shed, he said: “If, as the expression of the countenance is discerned by the sight, so the inward feelings of the mind could be distinguished, it would clearly appear to you that that laughter which you censure came from a heart not elated with joy, but frantic with misfortunes. And yet it is not so ill-timed as those absurd and inconsistent tears of yours. Then you ought to have wept, when our arms were taken from us, our ships burnt, and we were forbidden to engage in foreign wars, for that was the wound by which we fell. Nor is it just that you should suppose that the measures which the Romans have adopted towards you have been dictated by animosity. No great state can remain at rest long together. If it has no enemy abroad it finds one at home, in the same manner as over-robust bodies seem secure from external causes, but are encumbered with their own strength. So far, forsooth, we are affected with the public calamities as they reach our private affairs; nor is there any circumstance attending them which is felt more acutely than the loss of money. Accordingly, when the spoils were torn down from vanquished Carthage, when you beheld her left unarmed and defenceless amid so many armed nations of Africa, none heaved a sigh. Now, because a tribute is to be levied from private property, you lament with one accord, as though at the funeral of the state. How much do I dread lest you should soon be made sensible that you have shed tears this day for the lightest of your misfortunes!” Such were the sentiments which Hannibal delivered to the Carthaginians. Scipio, having summoned an assembly, presented Masinissa, in addition to his paternal dominions, with the town of Cirta, and the other cities and territories which had passed from the kingdom of Syphax into the possession of the Romans. He ordered Cneius Octavius to conduct the fleet to Sicily and deliver it to Cneius Cornelius the consul, and directed the Carthaginian ambassadors to go to Rome, that the arrangements he had made, with the advice of the ten deputies, might be ratified by the sanction of the fathers and the order of the people.
[20] 45. Peace having been established by sea and land, he embarked his troops and crossed over to Lilybaeum in Sicily; whence, having sent a great part of his soldiers by ships, he himself proceeded through Italy, which was rejoicing, not less on account of the peace than the victory; while not only the inhabitants of the cities poured out to show him honour, but crowds of rustics thronged the roads. He arrived at Rome and entered the city in a triumph of unparalleled splendour. He brought into the treasury one hundred and twenty-three thousand pounds of silver. He distributed to each of his soldiers four hundred asses out of the spoils. By the death of Syphax, which took place but a short time before at Tibur, whither he had been removed from Alba, a diminution was occasioned in the interest of the pageant rather than in the glory of him who triumphed. His death, however, was attended with circumstances which produced a strong sensation, for he was buried at the public expense. Polybius, an author by no means to be despised, asserts that this king was led in the triumph. Quintus Terentius Culleo followed Scipio in his triumph with a cap of liberty on his head, and during the remainder of his life treated him with the respect due to him as the author of his freedom. I have not been able to ascertain whether the partiality of the soldiers or the favour of the people fixed upon him the surname of Africanus, or whether in the same manner as Felix was applied to Sulla, and Magnus to Pompey, in the memory of our fathers, it originated in the flattery of his friends. He was, doubtless, the first general who was distinguished by a name derived from the nation which he had conquered. Afterwards, in imitation of his example, some, by no means his equals in his victories, affixed splendid inscriptions on their statues and gave honourable surnames to their families.
[20] 47. * * * * *