Scipio Africanus Crushes Hannibal At Zama And Subjugates Carthage
Author: Livy
Scipio Africanus Crushes Hannibal At Zama And Subjugates Carthage B.C. 202
Introduction
Sprung from a colony of Tyre, Carthage, rounded about B.C. 800, rapidly
developed, through a wonderful system of colonization, into a dominating
power, her rule extending through Northwestern Africa and Western Europe. In
B.C. 509 Carthage made her first treaty with Rome. But the rivalry which grew
up between the two Powers developed into a stubborn contest for the empire of
the world, culminating in the three Punic wars. The first of these lasted
from B.C. 264 to 241; the second, from B.C. 218 to 201. In the interval
between these two wars Rome acquired the northern part of Italy, whence she
sent victorious armies against the barbarians in Gaul. Meanwhile, under
Hamilcar Barcar, the Carthaginians had effected the conquest of Southern
Spain, which they reduced to the condition of a dependency.
Hamilcar's greater son, Hannibal, was compelled by his father to swear
eternal enmity to Rome. Having established the Carthaginian empire in Spain,
at the age of twenty-six he took the Spanish city of Saguntum, an ally of
Rome, and this was the immediate cause of the Second Punic War, which the
Romans declared. The passage of the Alps by Hannibal is regarded as one of
the greatest military performances in history. He was welcomed by the Gauls
as a deliverer, and was soon operating in Northern Italy, his appearance there
being a complete surprise to the Romans. He won victories over them at the
rivers Ticinus and Trebia, B.C. 218; another in 217 at Lake Trasimenus; a
great triumph at Cannae in 216; took Capua in the same year, and wintered
there; in 212 captured Tarentum; marched against Rome in 211; and in 203 was
recalled to Africa.
In the mean time the Romans had decided to carry the war into Africa,
although in 215 they had beaten Hannibal, and in 211 had retaken Capua.
Publius Cornelius Scipio (Scipio Africanus Major) in B.C. 210-206 drove the
Carthaginians out of Spain. In 205 he was made consul, and the next year
invaded Africa. Landing on the coast, he was met by the forces of the
Numidian King, who became his allies against Carthage. In 203 he defeated
Syphax and Hasdrubal. Hannibal now having returned to Carthage, he took
command of the forces which she opposed to the Roman invaders, but in B.C. 202
suffered final overthrow at Zama, in the battle that ended the Second Punic
War. Livy's account of the closing scenes of that war, which here follows,
gives the reader a clear understanding of the sequence and conclusion of the
events related.
Scipio Africanus Crushes Hannibal At Zama And Subjugates Carthage
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 anyone 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 favorably disposed toward 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.
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 valor and conduct of Scipio alone, they regarded him with horror, as a
general marked out by destiny, and born for their destruction.
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 everything, to be conducted through the camp wherever they chose;
then, asking them whether they had examined everything 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 favorable 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.
Scipio took up his position not far from the city of 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.
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.
"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.
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. While your affairs are in a
favorable and ours in a dubious state, you would derive honor and splendor
from granting peace; while to us, who solicit it, it would be considered as
necessary rather than honorable.
"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."
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 endeavor 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 savor 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.
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 favor them, they would continue
victorious, not for a single day, but forever. "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 honors they had previously acquired.
Scipio drew up his troops, posting the hastati in front, the principles
behind them, and closing his rear line with the triarii. 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 clamor
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.
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.
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 everyone 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 honor
but by gain, might not have any retreat open to them in case they fled; at the
same time that the first ardor 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 valor, fled to Adrumetum, whence, having been
summoned to Carthage, he returned thither in the sixth 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 anything but in obtaining peace.
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 everything 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 harbor 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 Tunis, 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 Tunis, 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 Tunis 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.
The next day the ambassadors being called in again, and with many rebukes
of 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 everything
that Hannibal should be given up to him, answer was made that Hannibal was not
in Africa.
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 anywhere 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.
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. Publius Scipio was continued in
command in the province of Africa with the armies which he then had. The
Carthaginian ambassadors were called before the senate. 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
imprudently 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
anywhere 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.
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 burned. 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.
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 afterward 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 afterward, that first the ambition of Tiberius
Claudius, and afterward 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 burned, 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 toward 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.
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 honor, but crowds of rustics thronged the
roads. He arrived at Rome and entered the city in a triumph of unparalleled
splendor. 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 favor 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. Afterward, in imitation of his example, some, by no means his
equals in his victories, affixed splendid inscriptions on their statues and
gave honorable surnames to their families.
