Ancient Rome: An Introductory History (24 page)

Page 106

assured. His criticism of Fabius intensified. The people of Rome, moreover, feeling more and more confident because Rome had suffered no recent catastrophes, urged the Senate to have the troops fight a set battle with Hannibal and his army. Finally, the Senate split the command between Fabius and Minucius. When the two commanders were discussing how they would manage one army, Fabius insisted that they split the army and that each be in full command of his half, rather than alternating days of command over the whole army. Thus, Fabius figured, Minucius would destroy only half the army if he made a mistake. The two split the army and cavalry, and even constructed different camps.

Fabius was right. Minucius was promptly led into a trap by Hannibal. Fabius, seeing Minucius' army in great danger of being destroyed, rescued the errant commander and his troops, and inflicted great losses upon Hannibal's forces. ("The cloud," Hannibal is reported to have said after the battle, "which has been accustomed to resting among the mountain peaks, has produced a gale and a terrific storm.") After the battle, Minucius returned to Fabius' camp, called him
pater
, and said, "Dictator, I owe my existence to my parents, to whom I just compared you by calling you father, but to you I owe my safety and the safety of all these men here. Therefore I now renounce the people's decision, which has brought me more distress than honor, and renounce my position, and return under your power and authority, and restore these standards and legions to you, so that it may be beneficial to these armies of yours and to me, the one who was saved, and to you, the one who saved" (Livy XXII.30.3-5).

The two men shook hands, and Fabius graciously allowed Minucius to remain his master of the horse. News of the event was brought to Rome, and Fabius' reputation rose higher than ever. Years later in his
Annales
, a poetical treatment of Roman history, the poet Ennius wrote of Fabius, "unus homo nobis cunctando restituit rem" (one man saved the state for us, by waiting).

When Fabius' dictatorship lapsed, the Romans elected as consuls L. Aemilius Paullus and G. Terentius Varro. Varro swore that he would beat Hannibal and his army on the first day that he saw them. His colleague, Paullus, preferred Fabian tactics. Since the two could not agree on strategy, they alternated their days of command.

Page 107

Disaster at Cannae

In 216
B.C.
Hannibal took up a position near the village of Cannae. The Romans had amassed an army of more than fifty thousand men, hoping to smother Hannibal's army of forty thousand. The Romans, now wary, made sure that there was no place in which Hannibal could conceal troops; nonetheless, Hannibal had other plans for defeating the Romans. On his day of command Varro led the army out to battle, without even consulting Paullus.

Hannibal placed the bulwark of his troops, his veteran Africans, in the rear center of his army and kept his first lines thin. Once the Romans had cut their way through Hannibal's thin front center, Hannibal's flanks closed in on the Romans. Now the tired Romans were not only surrounded but also facing Hannibal's toughest veterans, fresh from sitting out the morning's battle. The Romans were again crushed by Hannibal, losing more than forty-five thousand men, including the consul Paullus, who had advised against a battle with Hannibal, and the two consuls of the previous year. Varro survived; when he returned to Rome from the disaster at Cannae, throngs of citizens came out to meet him, and despite his responsibility for the disaster, they thanked him because "he had not lost hope for the republic."

Rome was in a panic. Not only had the Romans lost a hundred thousand men in the recent battles, but even some Italian allies were deserting Rome: Capua, a city not much inferior to Rome in wealth and population, was one Italian city that revolted. The Gauls in the north were taking Hannibal's side. Many of the Greeks in the south, including those of Tarentum, revolted. The Samnites sided with Hannibal. Sicily and its chief city Syracuse, ruled now by Hiero's grandson, also joined Hannibal. Nonetheless, most of Rome's Italian allies remained loyal, even though its power in Italy seemed to be collapsing. So desperate were the Romans that they performed a human sacrifice, killing two Gauls and two Greeks. Two Vestal Virgins were found to have broken their oaths of chastity and were punished with being buried alive; the man involved in the scandal turned out to be a minor official in the college of priests. He was beaten to death by the
pontifex maximus

Page 108

in a public assembly. Roman women were sweeping the pavements of the temples with their hair. The Romans declared a Ver Sacrum, or Sacred Spring, in which all first fruits of the season were dedicated to the gods. After consulting the Sibylline books, they instituted games in honor of Apollo. They dedicated to Jupiter a golden sculpture of a thunderbolt, weighing fifty pounds. To put an end to these expressions of panic, the consuls decided that women should be forbidden to appear out of doors, family mourning should be checked, and silence should be imposed everywhere. The government of Rome then bought eight thousand slaves from their owners and armed them; later, the Romans even opened their jails, with offers of freedom and forgiveness for the criminals and debtors, if they would join the army.

Despite the emergency in Rome, the Romans maintained their courage and discipline. The Senate decided not to pay the ransom for those soldiers held by Hannibal after Cannae, and even forbade the soldier's families to pay. Hannibal sent a group of Roman prisoners to beg the Senate to pay the ransom of the thousands of Romans whom he was holding prisoner; before letting them leave, he made them swear that they would return to his camp. One of the prisoners, while leaving Hannibal's camp, claimed that he had forgotten something in the camp and returned to get it; then he went to Rome to address the Senate. After addressing the Senate, he did not return to Hannibal's camp with the others, for he had already fulfilled his obligation of returning to the camp. When the Senate learned of his deceit, it had him arrested and taken in chains to Hannibal. Those soldiers who managed to escape Cannae with their lives were punished for bad soldiering by being sent to Sicily, where they spent most of the war, begging for an opportunity to redeem themselves and regain their honor.

Many stories of the Romans' courage and character explain how they were able to survive the war and eventually to conquer Hannibal. For example, the former dictator Q. Fabius Maximus was overseeing the election of new consuls for the year 214; the first tribe voted for Marcus Aemilius Regillus and Titus Otacilius Crassus, the latter of whom was the husband of Fabius' niece. Fabius objected to both decisions and asked the tribe to reconsider:

Page 109

Regillus was a priest and could not leave the city, while Otacilius had not seen enough action to be an excellent general.

''Citizens," Fabius said, "I urgently advise you to elect consuls today in the same spirit that you would if
you
were the ones standing in battle formation, armed and ready for battle: under whose leadership and control would
you
want to fight? Let your sons take their oaths to the same men you would want to, let them gather at those men's orders, and let them fight under such men's care and oversight. Remembering Lake Trasimene and Cannae is painful, but provides useful lessons for avoiding similar catastrophes in the future." (Livy XXIV.8.18-20)

The voters reconsidered their decision and elected as consuls Fabius himself (for the fourth time) and Marcus Marcellus (for the third time), both of whom had ample experience in battle. Later, in 210, Manlius Torquatus, although elected to the consulship, refused the honor because his eyes were too weak, and ordered the tribe to vote again.

Another example of the Romans' courage and character is the consuls' edict in 210 for citizens to pay more money for oarsmen in the fleet. The people were already heavily taxed to pay for the war, and many had little or no income, either because their farms had been destroyed by Hannibal's foragers or because the men were serving in the army. The people protested. The consul Laevinus summoned the Senate and said, "Just as it is necessary that the magistrates lead the Senate and the Senate lead the people, because we are more honorable, so it is necessary that there be a leader for enduring all things harsh and bitter. If you wish to impose some order on a person lower in rank, if you first impose it on yourself and your kin, you will have other people obeying you more readily" (Livy XXVI.36.1-3). He adjourned the Senate; the senators went home and then returned, bringing their gold, silver, and bronze. The knights learned of the senators' contributions and brought their wealth, too; and last, the common people likewise brought in theirs. The government had ample money for the ships' crews and was able to repay that loan from the citizens a few years later.

Page 110

The Scipios in Spain

The Romans at this time were also fighting in Spain, to deprive Hannibal of supplies and reinforcements coming from Spain and to prevent the great wealth of Spainmostly in metalsfrom falling into Carthaginian hands. The two Roman generals there, Gn. Cornelius Scipio and his brother P. Cornelius Scipio, had made use of arms and diplomacy to slowly detach the Spanish people from loyalty to Carthage. Unfortunately both Scipios were defeated and killed in two separate battles in 211. The Spanish then returned to supporting Carthage. The Romans elected the son of Gnaeus, Publius Cornelius Scipio (who as a boy had saved his father's life at Ticinus), to succeed the two dead generals, although he was only twenty-four years old. Publius Cornelius Scipio surpassed his relatives in fame and accomplishments.

After arriving in Spain in 210, Scipio did not dally. He immediately attacked and sacked the strongly fortified and wealthy city of New Carthage, the capital of Carthaginian Spain. He won an immense amount of loot that the Carthaginians had stored there and by his diplomacy won some allies as well: He let the citizens of New Carthage go free, retain their property, and live in their city. An example of his diplomacy involves a beautiful young woman whom his soldiers brought to him, perhaps so she could be his concubine; Scipio asked her her name, and where she was from. She told him that she was engaged to Allucius, the chief of a nearby tribe. Scipio sent for her family and fiancé; he handed the young woman over to her family unharmed, refused the ransom that they offered, and gave her and her fiancé the gift (a weight of solid gold) that her parents had begged him to take. The young man, in gratitude, returned to Scipio a few days later, accompanied by fourteen hundred cavalry, to serve in Scipio's army. As another example, Scipio learned that among the African prisoners from New Carthage was a boy of royal blood. The boy, who had been raised by his grandfather, had joined the cavalry to fight against the Romans, against the orders of his uncle Masinissa. Scipio gave the boy many giftsamong them a gold ringand an armed guard to escort him as far as he needed to go. Masinissa was the ousted king of the Numidians, whose help was invaluable to Scipio in later battles.

Other books

Pride by Robin Wasserman

Evil Deeds (Bob Danforth 1) by Joseph Badal

Stepbrother With Benefits 18 (Third Season) by Clark, Mia

As You Were by Kelli Jae Baeli

The Raven Mocker by Aiden James

Curse of the Ruins by Gary Paulsen

Chase the Dark by Annette Marie

Just Breathe by Allen, Heather

A Home for Jessa by Robin Delph

The Duchess War (The Brothers Sinister) by Milan, Courtney