History of Rome, Vol III
by
Titus Livius
Part 5 out of 11
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.
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. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
BOOK XXXI.
_Renewal of the war with Philip, king of Macedon. Successes
of Publius Sulpicius, consul, who had the conduct of that war.
The Abydenians, besieged by Philip, put themselves to death,
together with their wives and children. Lucius Furius,
praetor, defeats the Insubrian Gauls who had revolted; and
Hamilcar, who stirred up the insurrection, is slain, with
thirty-five thousand men. Further operations of Sulpicius,
Attalus, and the Rhodians against Philip_.
1. It is delightful even to me to have come to the end of the Punic war,
as if I myself had borne a share of the toil and danger. For though
it by no means becomes a person, who has ventured to promise an entire
history of all the Roman affairs, to be fatigued by any particular
parts of so extensive a work; yet when I reflect that sixty-three
years (for so many there are from the first Punic war to the end of
the second) have occupied as many of my volumes, as the four hundred
and eighty-seven years, from the building of the city to the consulate
of Appius Claudius, who first made war on the Carthaginians, I plainly
perceive that, like those who, tempted by the shallows near the shore,
walk into the sea, the farther I advance, I am carried, as it were,
into a greater depth and abyss; and that my work almost increases on
my hands which seemed to be diminished by the completion of each of
its earlier portions. The peace with Carthage was quickly followed by
a war with Macedonia: a war, not to be compared to the former, indeed,
either in danger, or in the abilities of the commander, or the valour
of the soldiers; but almost more remarkable with regard to the renown
of their former kings, the ancient fame of that nation, and the vast
extent of their empire, in which they had formerly comprehended a
large part of Europe, and the greater part of Asia. The contest with
Philip, which had begun about ten years before, had been intermitted
for the three last years; the Aetolians having been the occasion both
of the war and the peace. The entreaties of the Athenians whom, having
ravaged their lands, Philip had driven into their city, excited the
Romans to a renewal of the war, left, as they were, disengaged by
the Carthaginian peace, and incensed against him as well for his
treacherous negotiation of peace with the Aetolians and the other
allies in that region, as on account of the auxiliaries sent by him
with money into Africa to Hannibal and the Carthaginians.
2. About the same time, ambassadors arrived both from king Attalus,
and from the Rhodians, with information that the Macedonian was
tampering with the states of Asia. To these embassies an answer was
given, that the senate would give attention to the affairs of Asia.
The determination with regard to the making war on him, was left open
to the consuls, who were then in their provinces. In the mean time,
three ambassadors were sent to Ptolemy, king of Egypt, namely,
Caius Claudius Nero, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, and Publius
Sempronius Tuditanus, to announce their conquest of Hannibal and the
Carthaginians; to give thanks to the king for his faithful adherence
to his engagements in the time of their distress, when even the
nearest allies of the Romans abandoned them; and to request that if,
compelled by ill treatment, they should undertake a war with Philip,
he would preserve his former disposition towards the Roman people. In
Gaul, about this time, the consul, Publius Aelius, having heard that,
before his arrival, the Boians had made inroads on the territories
of the allies, levied two occasional legions on account of this
disturbance; and adding to them four cohorts from his own army,
ordered Caius Oppius, the praefect, to march with this tumultuary
band through Umbria, (which is called the Sappinian district,) and to
invade the territories of the Boians. He himself led his own troops
thither openly, over the intervening mountains. Oppius, on entering
the same, for some time committed depredations with tolerable success
and safety. But afterwards, having pitched on a place near a fort
called Mutilum, convenient enough for cutting down the corn, (for
the crops were now ripe,) and setting out without having reconnoitred
around, and without establishing armed posts of sufficient strength
to protect those who were unarmed and intent on their work, he was
suddenly surrounded, together with his foragers, by an unexpected
invasion of the Gauls. On this, panic and flight seized even on those
who were furnished with weapons. Seven thousand men, dispersed through
the corn fields, were put to the sword, among whom was the commander
himself, Caius Oppius. The rest were driven by terror into the camp;
from whence, in consequence of a resolution of the soldiers, they set
out on the following night, without any particular commander; and,
leaving behind a great part of their baggage, made their way, through
woods almost impassable, to the consul, who returned to Rome without
having performed any thing in his province worth notice, except
that he ravaged the lands of the Boians, and made a treaty with the
Ingaunian Ligurians.
3. The first time he assembled the senate, it was unanimously ordered
that he should propose no other business before that which related to
Philip and the complaints of the allies. It was immediately taken into
consideration, and a numerous senate decreed, that Publius Aelius,
consul, should send such person as he might think proper, vested with
command, to receive the fleet which Cneius Octavius was bringing home
from Sicily, and pass over to Macedonia. Accordingly Marcus Valerius
Laevinus, propraetor, was sent; and, receiving thirty-eight ships from
Cneius Octavius, near Vibo, he sailed to Macedonia, where, when
Marcus Aurelius, the ambassador, had come to him and informed him what
numerous forces and what large fleets the king had prepared, and
how he was arousing the inhabitants to arms, partly by visiting them
himself and partly by ambassadors, not only through all the cities of
the continent, but even in the islands, (Laevinus was convinced) that
the war ought to be undertaken by the Romans with greater vigour;
lest, if they were dilatory, Philip might attempt that which had
been formerly undertaken by Pyrrhus, who possessed not such large
dominions. He therefore desired Aurelius to convey this intelligence
by letter to the consuls and to the senate.
4. Towards the end of this year the senate, taking into consideration
the lands to be given to the veteran soldiers, who, under the conduct
and auspices of Publius Scipio, had finished the war in Africa,
decreed that Marcus Tunius, praetor of the city, should, if he thought
proper, appoint ten commissioners to survey, and distribute among
them, that part of the Samnite and Apulian lands which was the
property of the Roman people. For this purpose were appointed, Publius
Servilius, Quintus Caecilius Metellus, Caius and Marcus Servilius,
both surnamed Geminus, Lucius and Aulus Hostilius Cato, Publius
Villius Tappulus, Marcus Fulvius Flaccus, Publius Aelius Paetus, and
Quintus Flaminius. At the same time, Publius Aelius presiding at the
election of consuls, Publius Sulpicius Galba and Caius Aurelius Cotta
were elected. Then were chosen praetors, Quintus Minucius Rufus,
Lucius Furius Purpureo, Quintus Fulvius Gillo, Cneius Sergius Plancus.
The Roman stage-games were exhibited, in a sumptuous and elegant
manner, by the curule aediles, Lucius Valerius Flaccus, and Lucius
Quintius Flaminius, and repeated for two days; and a vast quantity of
corn, which Scipio had sent from Africa, was distributed by them to
the people, with strict impartiality and general satisfaction, at the
rate of four _asses_ a peck. The plebeian games were thrice repeated
entire by the plebeian aediles, Lucius Apustius Fullo, and Quintus
Minucius Rufus; the latter of whom was, from the aedileship, elected
praetor. There was also a feast of Jove on occasion of the games.
5. In the year five hundred and fifty-two from the building of the
city, Publius Sulpicius Galba and Caius Aurelius being consuls, within
a few months after the conclusion of the peace with the Carthaginians,
the war was entered upon against king Philip. This was the first
business introduced by the consul, Publius Sulpicius, on the ides of
March, the day on which, in those times, the consulship commenced; and
the senate decreed, that the consul should perform sacrifices with
the greater victims, to such gods as they should judge proper, with
prayers to this purpose,--that "the business which the senate and
people of Rome had then under deliberation, concerning the state, and
the entering on a new war, might issue prosperously and happily to the
Roman people, the allies, and the Latin confederacy;" and that, after
the sacrifices and prayers, they should consult the senate on the
state of public affairs, and the provinces. At this time, very
opportunely for exciting their minds to war, the letters were brought
from Marcus Aurelius, the ambassador, and Marcus Valerius Laevinus,
propraetor. A fresh embassy, likewise, arrived from the Athenians, to
acquaint them that the king was approaching their frontiers, and that
in a short time, not only their lands, but their city also, must fall
into his hands, unless they received aid from the Romans. When the
consuls had made their report, that the sacrifices had been duly
performed, and that the gods had accepted their prayers; that the
aruspices had declared that the entrails showed good omens, and that
enlargement of territory, victory, and triumph were portended; the
letters of Valerius and Aurelius were read, and audience given to the
ambassadors of the Athenians. After which, a decree of the senate was
passed, that thanks should be given to their allies, because, though
long solicited, they had not, even when in fear of a siege, renounced
their fidelity. With regard to sending assistance to them, they
resolved, that an answer should be given as soon as the consuls should
have cast lots for the provinces; and when the consul to whose lot
Macedonia fell should have proposed to the people, that war should be
declared against Philip, king of the Macedonians.
6. The province of Macedonia fell by lot to Publius Sulpicius; and he
proposed to the people to declare, "that they chose and ordered,
that on account of the injuries and hostilities committed against
the allies of the Roman people, war should be proclaimed against king
Philip, and the Macedonians under his government." The province of
Italy fell to the lot of the other consul, Aurelius. The praetors then
cast lots: to Cneius Sergius Plancus fell the city jurisdiction; to
Quintus Fulvius Gillo, Sicily; to Quintus Minucius Rufus, Bruttium;
and to Lucius Furius Purpureo, Gaul. At the first meeting of the
people, the proposal concerning the Macedonian war was rejected by
almost all the tribes. This was done partly spontaneously, as the
people were wearied by the length and severity of the late war, and
disgusted with toils and dangers; and partly by Quintus Baebius,
tribune of the people, who, pursuing the old practice of criminating
the patricians, charged them with multiplying wars one after another,
so that the people could never enjoy peace. This proceeding the
patricians with difficulty brooked, and the tribune was severely
reprehended in the senate; where each severally urged the consul
to call a new assembly, for passing the proposal; to rebuke the
backwardness of the people; and to prove to them how much loss and
disgrace the delay of this war would occasion.
7. The consul, having assembled the people in the field of Mars,
before he dismissed the centuries to the vote, required their
attention, and addressed them thus: "Citizens, you seem to me not to
understand that the question before you is not whether you choose to
have peace or war: for Philip, having already commenced hostilities
with a formidable force, both on land and sea, allows you not that
option. The question is, Whether you must transport your legions to
Macedonia, or admit the enemy into Italy? How important the difference
is, if you never experienced it before, you certainly did in the late
Punic war. For who entertains a doubt, but if, when the Saguntines
were besieged, and implored our protection, we had assisted them with
vigour, as our fathers did the Mamertines, we should have averted
the whole weight of the war upon Spain; which, by our dilatory
proceedings, we suffered to our extreme loss to fall upon Italy? Nor
does it admit a doubt, that we confined this same Philip in Macedonia,
(after he had entered into an engagement with Hannibal by ambassadors
and letters, to cross over into Italy,) by sending Laevinus with a
fleet to make war aggressively upon him. And what we did at that time,
when we had Hannibal to contend with in Italy, do we hesitate to do
now, after Hannibal has been expelled Italy, and the Carthaginians
subdued? Suppose that we allow the king to experience the same
inactivity on our part, while he is taking Athens, as we suffered
Hannibal to experience while he was taking Saguntum: it will not be in
the fifth month, as Hannibal came from Saguntum, but on the fifth day
after he sets sail from Corinth, that he will arrive in Italy. Perhaps
you may not consider Philip as equal to Hannibal; or the Macedonians
to the Carthaginians: certainly, however, you will allow him equal to
Pyrrhus. Equal, do I say? what a vast superiority has the one man over
the other, the one nation over the other! Epirus ever was, and is at
this day, deemed but an inconsiderable accession to the kingdom of
Macedonia. Philip has the entire Peloponnesus under his dominion; even
Argos itself, not more celebrated for its ancient glory than for the
death of Pyrrhus. Now compare our situation. How much more nourishing
was Italy, how much greater its strength, with so many commanders, so
many armies unimpaired, which the Punic war afterwards consumed, when
Pyrrhus attacked and shook it, and advanced victorious almost to the
Roman capital! and not the Tarentines only, and the inhabitants of
that tract of Italy which they call the greater Greece, whom you may
suppose to have been led by the similarity of language and name, but
the Lucanian, the Bruttian, and the Samnite revolted from us. Do you
believe that these would continue quiet and faithful, if Philip should
come over to Italy? They subsequently continued faithful, forsooth,
during the Punic war! Be assured those states will never fail to
revolt from us, except when there is no one to whom they can go over.
If you had been annoyed at passing into Africa, you would this day
have had Hannibal and the Carthaginians to contend with in Italy. Let
Macedonia, rather than Italy, be the seat of war. Let the cities and
lands of the enemy be wasted with fire and sword. We have already
found by experience, that our arms are more powerful and more
successful abroad than at home. Go to the vote with the blessing of
the gods; and what the senate have voted, do you ratify by your order.
This resolution is recommended to you, not only by your consul, but
even by the immortal gods themselves; who, when I offered sacrifice,
and prayed that the issue of this war might be happy and prosperous to
me and to the senate, to you and the allies and Latin confederates, to
our fleets and armies, portended all joyful and prosperous results."
8. After this speech of Sulpicius, being sent to give their votes,
they declared for the war as he had proposed. On which, in pursuance
of a decree of the senate, a supplication for three days was
proclaimed by the consuls; and prayers were offered to the gods at all
the shrines, that the war which the people had ordered against Philip
might turn out well and happily. The consul Sulpicius inquiring of the
heralds, whether they would direct the declaration of the war against
king Philip to be made to himself in person, or whether it would be
sufficient to publish it in the nearest garrison, within the frontiers
of his kingdom, they answered, that they would do rightly whichever
course they should adopt. The consul received authority from the
senate to send any person whom he thought proper, not being a senator,
as ambassador, to denounce war against the king. They then arranged
for the armies of the consuls and praetors. The consuls were ordered
to levy two legions, and to disband the veteran troops. Sulpicius,
to whom the management of this new and highly important war had been
decreed, was allowed permission to carry with him as many volunteers
as he could procure out of the army which Publius Scipio had brought
home from Africa; but he was not empowered to take with him any
veteran soldier against his will. They ordered that the consul should
give to the praetors, Lucius Furius Purpureo and Quintus Minucius
Rufus, five thousand of the allies of the Latin confederacy; with
which forces they should hold, one, the province of Gaul, the other,
Bruttium. Quintus Fulvius Gillo was ordered, in like manner, to select
out of the army which Publius Aelius, late consul, had commanded, such
as had been the shortest time in the service, until he also made up
five thousand of the allies and Latin confederates; that this was to
be the protection of the province of Sicily. To Marcus Valerius Falto,
who, during the former year, had held the province of Campania, as
praetor, the command was continued for a year; in order that he might
go over, as propraetor, to Sardinia, and choose out of the army there
five thousand of the allies of the Latin confederacy, who had served
the fewest campaigns. The consuls were at the same time ordered to
levy two legions for the city, which might be sent wherever occasions
should require; as there were many states in Italy infected with an
attachment to the Carthaginians, which they had formed during the war,
and, in consequence, swelling with resentment. The state was to employ
during that year six Roman legions.
9. In the midst of the preparations for war, ambassadors came from
king Ptolemy, who delivered a message; that "the Athenians had
petitioned the king for aid against Philip; but that although they
were their common allies, yet the king would not, except with the
sanction of the Roman people, send either fleet or army into Greece,
for the purpose of defending or attacking any person. That he would
either remain quiet in his kingdom, if the Romans were at leisure to
protect their allies; or, if more agreeable to them to be at rest,
would himself send such aid as might easily secure Athens against
Philip." Thanks were returned to the king by the senate, and this
answer: that "it was the intention of the Roman people to protect
their allies; that if they should have occasion for any assistance
towards carrying on the war, they would acquaint the king; and that
they were fully sensible, that the resources of his kingdom were the
sure and faithful support of their own state." Presents were then,
by order of the senate, sent to the ambassadors, of five thousand
_asses_[1] to each. While the consuls were engaged in the levy,
and preparing what was necessary for the war, the people, prone to
religious observances, especially at the beginning of new wars, after
supplications had been already performed, and prayers offered up at
all the shrines, lest any thing should be omitted that had ever been
practised, ordered, that the consul who was to have the province of
Macedonia should vow games and a present to Jove. Licinius, the chief
pontiff, occasioned some delay to this public vow, alleging, that "it
ought not to be fulfilled from promiscuous funds. For as the sum to
be named should not be applied to the uses of the war, it should be
immediately set apart, and not to be intermixed with other money; and
that, unless this were done, the vow could not be properly performed."
Although the objection and the author of it were influential, yet the
consul was ordered to consult the college of pontiffs, whether a
vow could be undertaken at an indeterminate expense? The pontiffs
determined, that it could; and that it would be even more in order to
do it in that way. The consul, therefore, repeating after the chief
pontiff, made the vow in the same words in which those made for five
years of safety used to be expressed; only that he engaged to perform
the games, and make the offerings, at such expense as the senate
should direct by their vote, at the time when the vow was performed.
Before this, the great games so often vowed, were constantly rated at
a certain expense: these first at an unspecified amount.
[Footnote 1: 16l. 2s. 1d.]
10. While every one's attention was turned to the Macedonian war, and
at a time when people apprehended nothing less, a sudden account was
brought of an inroad of the Gauls. The Insubrians, Caenomanians,
and Boians, having been joined by the Salyans, Ilvatians, and other
Ligurian states, and putting themselves under the command of Hamilcar,
a Carthaginian, who, having been in the army of Hasdrubal, had
remained in those parts, had fallen upon Placentia; and, after
plundering the city, and, in their rage, burning a great part of it,
leaving scarcely two thousand men among the flames and ruins, passed
the Po, and advanced to plunder Cremona. The news of the calamity
which had fallen on a city in their neighbourhood, having reached
thither, the inhabitants had time to shut their gates, and place
guards on the walls, that they might, at least, be besieged before
they were taken, and send messengers to the Roman praetor. Lucius
Furius Purpureo, who had then the command of the province, had, in
pursuance of the decree of the senate, disbanded the army, excepting
five thousand of the allies and Latin confederacy; and had remained,
with these troops, in the nearest district of the province about
Ariminum. He immediately informed the senate, by letter, in what
confusion the province was. That, "of the two colonies which had
escaped in the dreadful storm of the Punic war, one was taken and
sacked by the present enemy, and the other besieged. Nor was his
army capable of affording sufficient protection to the distressed
colonists, unless he chose to expose five thousand allies to be
slaughtered by forty thousand invaders (for so many there were in
arms); and by such a loss, on his side, to augment the courage of the
enemy, already elated on having destroyed one Roman colony."
11. This letter having been read they decreed, that the consul
Aurelius should order the army which he had appointed to assemble on a
certain day in Etruria, to attend him on the same day at Ariminum; and
should either go in person, if the public business would permit,
to suppress the tumult of the Gauls, or write to the praetor Lucius
Furius, that, as soon as the legions from Etruria came to him, he
should send five thousand of the allies to guard that place in the
mean time, and should himself proceed to relieve the colony from
the siege. They also determined, that ambassadors should be sent
to Carthage, and also into Numidia, to Masinissa: to Carthage, to
announce that "their countryman, Hamilcar, having been left in Gaul,
(either with a part of the army formerly commanded by Hasdrubal, or
with that of Mago--they did not with certainty know which,) was waging
war, contrary to the treaty. That he had excited the armies of the
Gauls and Ligurians to arms against the Roman people. That, if they
wished for peace, they must recall him, and give him up to the Roman
people." They were ordered at the same time to tell them, that "all
the deserters had not been sent back; that a great part of them were
said to appear openly in Carthage, who ought to be sought after, and
surrendered according to the treaty." Such was the message to the
Carthaginians. To Masinissa they were charged with congratulations, on
his "having not only recovered the kingdom of his father, but enlarged
it by the acquisition of the most flourishing parts of Syphax's
territories." They were ordered also to acquaint him, that "a war
had been undertaken against Philip, because he had given aid to the
Carthaginians, while, by the injuries which he offered to the allies
of the Roman people, he had obliged them to send fleets and armies
into Greece, while Italy was blazing with war; and that by thus making
them separate their forces, had been the principal cause of their
being so late passing over into Africa; and to request him to send
to that war supplies of Numidian horsemen." Ample presents were given
them to be carried to the king; vases of gold and silver, a purple
robe, and a tunic adorned with palms of purple, an ivory sceptre,
and a robe of state, with a curule chair. They were also directed to
assure him, that if he deemed any thing further requisite to confirm
and enlarge his kingdom, the Roman people, in return for his good
services, would exert their utmost zeal to effect it. At this time,
too, ambassadors from Vermina, son of Syphax, came to the senate
apologizing for his mistaken conduct, on account of his youth and want
of judgment, and throwing all the blame on the deceitful policy of the
Carthaginians: adding, "that as Masinissa had from an enemy become a
friend to the Romans, so Vermina would also use his best endeavours
that he should not be outdone in offices of friendship to the Roman
people either by Masinissa, or by any other; and requesting that he
might receive from the senate the title of king, friend, and ally."
The answer given to these ambassadors was, that "not only his father
Syphax, from a friend and ally, had on a sudden, without any reason,
become an enemy to the Roman people, but that he himself had made
his first essay of manhood in bearing arms against them. He must,
therefore, sue to the Roman people for peace, before he could expect
to be acknowledged king, ally, and friend; that it was the practice
of that people to bestow the honour of such title, in return for great
services performed by kings towards them; that the Roman ambassadors
would soon be in Africa, to whom the senate would give instructions to
regulate conditions of peace with Vermina, if he would leave the terms
of it entirely to the will of the Roman people; and that, if he wished
that any thing should be added, left out, or altered, he must make a
second application to the senate." The ambassadors sent to Africa
on those affairs, were Caius Terentius Varro, Publius Lucretius, and
Cneius Octavius, each of whom had a quinquereme assigned him.
12. A letter was then read in the senate, from Quintus Minucius, the
praetor, who held the province of Bruttium, that "the money had been
privately carried off by night out of the treasury of Proserpine
at Locri; and that there were no traces to those to whom the charge
applied." The senate was highly incensed at finding that the practice
of sacrilege continued, and that even the fate of Pleminius, an
example so recent and so conspicuous both of the guilt and of the
punishment, did not deter men from it. They ordered the consul, Cneius
Aurelius, to signify to the praetor in Bruttium, that "it was the
pleasure of the senate, that an inquiry be made concerning the robbery
of the treasury, according to the method used by Marcus Pomponius,
praetor, three years before; that the money which could be discovered
should be restored, that what was not found should be made up, and
that if he thought proper, atonements should be made for the purpose
of expiating the violation of the temple, in the manner formerly
prescribed by the pontiffs." At the same time, also, prodigies were
announced as having happened in many places. It was said, that in
Lucania the sky had been seen in a blaze; that at Privernum, in clear
weather, the sun had been of a red colour during a whole day; that at
Lanuvium, in the temple of Juno Sospita, a very loud noise had been
heard in the night. Besides, monstrous births of animals were related
to have occurred in many places: in the country of the Sabines, an
infant was born whose sex was doubtful; and another was found, sixteen
years old, of doubtful sex. At Frusino a lamb was born with a swine's
head; at Sinuessa, a pig with a human head; and in Lucania, in the
land belonging to the state, a foal with five feet. All these were
considered as horrid and abominable, and as if nature were straying to
strange productions. Above all, the people were particularly shocked
at the hermaphrodites, which were ordered to be immediately thrown
into the sea, as had been lately done with a production of the same
monstrous kind, in the consulate of Caius Claudius and Marcus Livius.
Notwithstanding they ordered the decemvirs to inspect the books in
regard of that prodigy; and the decemvirs, from the books, directed
the same religious ceremonies which had been performed on an occasion
of the same kind. They ordered, besides, a hymn to be sung through the
city by thrice nine virgins, and an offering to be made to imperial
Juno. The consul, Caius Aurelius, took care that all these matters
were performed according to the direction of the decemvirs. The hymn
was composed by Publius Licinius Tegula, as a similar one had been, in
the memory of their fathers, by Livius.
13. All religious scruples were fully removed by expiations; at Locri,
too, the affair of the sacrilege had been thoroughly investigated by
Quintus Minucius, and the money replaced in the treasury out of the
effects of the guilty. When the consuls wished to set out to their
provinces, a number of private persons, to whom the third payment
became due that year, of the money which they had lent to the public
in the consulate of Marcus Valerius and Marcus Claudius, applied to
the senate. The consuls, however, declared that the treasury being
scarcely sufficient for the exigencies of a new war, in which a great
fleet and great armies must be employed, there were no means of paying
them at present. The senate could not stand against them when they
complained, that "if the state intended to use, for the purpose of the
Macedonian war, the money which had been lent for the Punic war, as
one war constantly arose after another, what would be the issue,
but that, in return for their generosity, their property would be
confiscated as for some crime?" The demands of the private creditors
being equitable, and the state being in no capacity of discharging
the debt, they decreed a middle course between equity and convenience;
resolving that "whereas many of them mentioned that lands were
frequently exposed to sale, and that they themselves wished to become
purchasers, they should, therefore, have liberty to purchase any
belonging to the public, and which lay within fifty miles of the city.
That the consuls should make a valuation of these, and impose on each
acre one _as_, as an acknowledgment that the land was the property of
the public, in order that, when the people should become able to pay,
if any one chose rather to have the money than the land, he might
restore it." The private creditors accepted the terms with joy; and
that land was called Trientius and Tabulius, because it was given in
lieu of the third part of their money.
14. Publius Sulpicius, after making his vows in the Capitol, set
out robed from the city with his lictors, and arrived at Brundusium;
where, having formed into legions the veteran soldiers of the African
army who were willing to follow him, and chosen his ships out of
the fleet of the late consul, Cornelius, he crossed and arrived in
Macedonia the day after he had set sail from Brundusium. There he was
met by ambassadors from the Athenians, entreating him to relieve them
from the siege. Immediately, Caius Claudius Centho was despatched to
Athens, with twenty ships of war, and a thousand of land forces. For
it was not the king himself who carried on the siege of Athens; he
was at that time besieging Abydus, after having tried his strength
in naval contests against Attalus, and against the Rhodians,
without success in either engagement. But, besides the natural
presumptuousness of his temper, he acquired confidence from a treaty
which he had formed with Antiochus, king of Syria, in which they had
divided the wealth of Egypt between them; on which, on hearing of
the death of Ptolemy, they were both intent. The Athenians now had
entangled themselves in a war with Philip on too trifling an occasion,
and at a time when they retained nothing of their former condition but
their pride. During the celebration of the mysteries, two young men of
Acarnania, who were not initiated, unapprized of its being an offence
against religion, entered the temple of Ceres along with the rest of
the crowd: their discourse readily betrayed them, by their asking some
absurd questions; whereupon, being carried before the presidents of
the temple, although it was evident that they went in through mistake,
yet they were put to death, as if for a heinous crime. The Acarnanian
nation made complaint to Philip of this barbarous and hostile act, and
prevailed on him to grant them some aid of Macedonian soldiers, and
to allow them to make war on the Athenians. At first this army, after
ravaging the lands of Attica with fire and sword, retired to
Acarnania with booty of all kinds. This was the first provocation to
hostilities. The Athenians afterwards, on their side, entered into a
regular war, and proclaimed it by order of the state. For king Attalus
and the Rhodians, having come to Aegina in pursuit of Philip, who
was retiring to Macedonia, the king crossed over to Piraeus, for the
purpose of renewing and confirming his alliance with the Athenians. On
entering the city, the whole inhabitants received him, pouring forth
with their wives and children to meet him; the priests, with their
emblems of religion; and in a manner the gods themselves, called forth
from their abodes.
15. Immediately the people were summoned to an assembly, that the
king might treat with them in person on such subjects as he chose; but
afterwards it was judged more suitable to his dignity to explain his
sentiments in writing, than, being present, to be forced to blush,
either at the recital of his favours to the state, or at the
immoderate applause of the multitude, which would overwhelm his
modesty with acclamations and other signs of approbation. In the
letter which he sent, and which was read to the assembly, was
contained first, a recapitulation of his acts of kindness to the
state, as his ally; then, of the actions which he had performed
against Philip; and lastly, an exhortation to "enter immediately on
the war; while they had himself, the Rhodians, and the Romans also to
assist them;" not omitting to warn them that "if they were backward
now, they would hereafter wish in vain for the opportunity which
they neglected." They then gave audience to the ambassadors of the
Rhodians, to whom they were under a recent obligation for having
retaken, and sent home, four of their ships of war, which had been
lately seized by the Macedonians. War was determined upon against
Philip with universal consent. Unbounded honours were conferred on
king Attalus, and then on the Rhodians. At that time, mention was made
of adding a tribe, which they were to call Attalus, to the ten ancient
tribes; the Rhodian state was presented with a golden crown, as an
acknowledgment of its bravery, and the freedom of the city was given
to the inhabitants, in like manner as the Rhodians had formerly given
it to the Athenians. After this, king Attalus returned to his fleet at
Aegina. From Aegina, the Rhodians sailed to Cia, and thence to
Rhodes, through the islands, all of which they brought to join in
the alliance, except Andros, Paros, and Cythnus, which were held by
Macedonian garrisons. Attalus, having sent messengers to Aetolia, and
expecting ambassadors from thence, was detained at Aegina for some
time in a state of inaction; failing also in his endeavours to excite
the Aetolians to arms, for they were rejoiced at having made peace
with Philip on any terms. Had Attalus and the Rhodians pressed Philip
vigorously, they might have acquired the illustrious title of the
deliverers of Greece, but by suffering him to pass over again into
Hellespontus, and to strengthen himself by seizing the advantageous
posts in Greece, they increased the difficulties of the war, and
yielded up to the Romans the glory of having conducted and finished
it.
16. Philip acted with a spirit more becoming a king; for, though he
had found himself unequal to the forces of Attalus and the Rhodians,
yet he was not dismayed, even by the Roman war with which he was
threatened. Sending Philocles, one of his generals, with two thousand
foot and two hundred horse, to ravage the lands of the Athenians, he
gave the command of his fleet to Heraclides, to make for Maronea,
and marched thither himself by land, with two thousand foot lightly
equipped, and two hundred horse. Maronea he took at the first assault;
and afterwards, with a good deal of trouble, got possession of Aenus,
which was at last betrayed to him by Ganymede, the lieutenant of
Ptolemy. He then seized on other forts, Cypselus, Doriscos, and
Serrheus; and, advancing from thence to the Chersonesus, received
Elaeus and Alopeconnesus, which were surrendered by the inhabitants.
Callipolis also, and Madytos, were given up to him, with several
forts of but little consequence. The people of Abydus shut their gates
against him, not admitting the ambassadors. This siege detained Philip
a long time; and it might have been relieved, had not Attalus and the
Rhodians been dilatory. The king sent only three hundred men for a
garrison, and the Rhodians one quadrireme from their fleet, although
it was lying idle at Tenedos: and afterwards, when the besieged could
with difficulty hold out any longer, Attalus, going over in person,
did nothing more than show them some hope of relief being near, giving
no assistance to these his allies either by land or sea.
17. At first the people of Abydus, by means of engines placed along
the walls, not only prevented the approaches by land, but annoyed the
enemy's ships in their station. Afterwards a part of the wall being
thrown down, and the assailants having penetrated by mines to an inner
wall, which had been hastily raised to oppose their entrance, they
sent ambassadors to the king about the conditions of the surrender
of the city. They demanded permission to send away the Rhodian
quadrireme, with the crew, and the troops of Attalus in the garrison;
and that they themselves might depart from the city, each with
one suit of apparel. When Philip's answer afforded no hopes of
accommodation, unless they surrendered at discretion, this repudiation
of their embassy so exasperated them, at once through indignation and
despair, that, seized with the same kind of fury which had possessed
the Saguntines, they ordered all the matrons to be shut up in the
temple of Diana, and the free-born youths and virgins, and even the
infants with their nurses, in the place of exercise; the gold and
silver to be carried into the forum; their valuable garments to be put
on board the Rhodian ship, and another from Cyzicum, which lay in
the harbour; the priests and victims to be brought, and altars to be
erected in the midst. There they appointed a select number, who, as
soon as they should see the army of their friends cut off in defending
the breach, were instantly to slay their wives and children; to throw
into the sea the gold, silver, and apparel that was on board the
ships, and to set fire to the buildings, public and private: and to
the performance of this deed they were bound by an oath, the priests
repeating before them the verses of execration. Those who were of an
age capable of fighting then swore that they would not leave their
ranks alive unless victorious. These, regardful of the gods, (by whom
they had sworn,) maintained their ground with such obstinacy, that
although the night would soon have put a stop to the fight, yet the
king, terrified by their fury, first desisted from the fight. The
chief inhabitants, to whom the more shocking part of the plan had been
given in charge, seeing that few survived the battle, and that these
were exhausted by fatigue and wounds, sent the priests (having their
heads bound with the fillets of suppliants) at the dawn of the next
day to surrender the city to Philip.
18. Before the surrender, one of the Roman ambassadors, who had been
sent to Alexandria, Marcus Aemilius, being the youngest of them, on
the joint resolution of the three, on hearing of the present siege,
came to Philip, and complained of his having made war on Attalus and
the Rhodians; and particularly that he was then besieging Abydus; and
on Philip's saying that he had been forced into the war by Attalus and
the Rhodians commencing hostilities against him,--"Did the people of
Abydus, too," said he, "commence hostilities against you?" To him, who
was unaccustomed to hear truth, this language seemed too arrogant to
be used to a king, and he answered,--"Your youth, the beauty of your
form, and, above all, the name of Roman, render you too presumptuous.
However, my first desire is, that you would observe the treaties, and
continue in peace with me; but if you begin an attack, I am, on my
part, determined to prove that the kingdom and name of the Macedonians
is not less formidable in war than that of the Romans." Having
dismissed the ambassador in this manner, Philip got possession of the
gold and silver which had been thrown together in a heap, but lost his
booty with respect to prisoners: for such violent frenzy had seized
the multitude, that, on a sudden, taking up a persuasion that those
who had fallen in the battle had been treacherously sacrificed, and
upbraiding one another with perjury, especially the priests, who would
surrender alive to the enemy those persons whom they themselves had
devoted, they all at once ran different ways to put their wives and
children to death; and then they put an end to their own lives
by every possible method. The king, astonished at their madness,
restrained the violence of his soldiers, and said, "that he would
allow the people of Abydus three days to die in;" and, during this
space, the vanquished perpetrated more deeds of cruelty on themselves
than the enraged conquerors would have committed; nor did any one of
them come into his hands alive, except such as chains, or some other
insuperable restraint, forbade to die. Philip, leaving a garrison in
Abydus, returned to his kingdom; and, just when he had been encouraged
by the destruction of the people of Abydus to proceed in the war
against Rome, as Hannibal had been by the destruction of Saguntum, he
was met by couriers, with intelligence that the consul was already in
Epirus, and had drawn his land forces to Apollonia, and his fleet to
Corcyra, into winter quarters.
19. In the mean time, the ambassadors who had been sent into Africa,
on the affair of Hamilcar, the leader of the Gallic army, received
from the Carthaginians this answer: that "it was not in their power
to do more than to inflict on him the punishment of exile, and to
confiscate his effects; that they had delivered up all the deserters
and fugitives, whom, on a diligent inquiry, they had been able to
discover, and would send ambassadors to Rome, to satisfy the senate on
that head." They sent two hundred thousand measures of wheat to
Rome, and the same quantity to the army in Macedonia. From thence
the ambassadors proceeded into Numidia, to the king; delivered
to Masinissa the presents and the message according to their
instructions, and out of two thousand Numidian horsemen, which he
offered, accepted one thousand. Masinissa superintended in person
the embarkation of these, and sent them, with two hundred thousand
measures of wheat, and the same quantity of barley, into Macedonia.
Their third commission was with Vermina. He advanced to meet them as
far as the utmost limits of his kingdom, and left it to themselves to
prescribe such conditions of peace as they thought proper, declaring,
that "he should consider any peace with the Roman people as just and
advantageous." The terms were then settled, and he was ordered to send
ambassadors to Rome to procure a ratification of the treaty.
20. About the same time, Lucius Cornelius Lentulus, proconsul, came
home from Spain; and having laid before the senate an account of
his brave and successful conduct, during the course of many years,
demanded that he might be allowed to enter the city in triumph. The
senate gave their opinion that "his services were, indeed, deserving
of a triumph; but that they had no precedent left them by their
ancestors of any person enjoying a triumph, who had not performed the
service either of dictator, consul, or praetor; that he had held
the province of Spain in quality of proconsul, and not of consul, or
praetor." They determined, however, that he might enter the city in
ovation. Against this, Tiberius Sempronius Longus, tribune of the
people, protested, alleging, that such proceedings would be no more in
accordance with the custom of their ancestors, or with any precedent,
than the other; but, overcome at length by the unanimous desire of
the senate, the tribune withdrew his opposition, and Lucius Lentulus
entered the city in ovation. He carried to the treasury forty-four
thousand pounds weight of silver, and two thousand four hundred pounds
weight of gold. To each of the soldiers he distributed, of the spoil,
one hundred and twenty _asses_.[1]
[Footnote 1: 7s. 9d.]
21. The consular army had, by this time, been conducted from Arretium
to Ariminum, and the five thousand Latin confederates had crossed from
Gaul into Etruria. Lucius Furius, therefore, advanced from Ariminum,
by forced marches, against the Gauls, who were then besieging Cremona,
and pitched his camp at the distance of one mile and a half from the
enemy. Furius had an opportunity of performing a splendid exploit,
had he, without halting, led his troops directly to attack their camp;
scattered hither and thither, they were wandering through the country;
and the guard, which they had left, was not sufficiently strong; but
he was apprehensive that his men were too much fatigued by their hasty
march. The Gauls, recalled from the fields by the shouts of their
party, returned to the camp without seizing the booty within their
reach, and, next day, marched out to offer battle. The Roman did not
decline the combat, but had scarcely time to draw up his forces, so
rapidly did the enemy advance to the fight. The right brigade (for he
had the troops of the allies divided into brigades) was placed in the
first line, the two Roman legions in reserve. Marcus Furius was at the
head of the right brigade, Marcus Caecilius of the legions, and Lucius
Valerius Flaccus of the cavalry; these were all lieutenant-generals.
Two other lieutenant-generals, Cneius Laetorius and Publius Titinnius,
the praetor kept near himself, that, with their assistance, he might
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