Ancient Rome: An Introductory History (25 page)

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One battle that Scipio won deserves notice because it gave rise to an important word in Latin. The story goes that after defeating the Carthaginians in one battle, Scipio set free ten thousand Spaniards whom he had taken captive. To honor Scipio and show their respect and gratitude, the Spaniards began calling him
rex
(king); Scipio knew that under no circumstances could he allow himself to be called king (recall that the early Romans had driven out their kings to establish the republic), yet he wanted the peoples he defeated to have some term of respect and honor for him. He thanked them for the honor, but asked them to call him
imperator
instead; from then on,
imperator
became the word used to honor victorious generals, and an army would not honor its general (
dux
) with the title
imperator
(conquering general) until he had won a major battle.

Rome Regains Momentum: "Victoria Uti Nescis"

The Romans had a little bit of luck in the middle of all the catastrophes. When Hannibal's friends were congratulating him at Cannae, Maharbal, Hannibal's commander of cavalry, urged him to attack Rome immediately. He said, "Hannibal, so you may understand the significance of this battle, let me tell you this: on the fifth day, you'll be enjoying a victory feast on the Capitol. Come after me; I'll go first with the cavalry, so that I will arrive before they even know that I'm coming" (Livy XXII.51.2).

Hannibal replied that he needed some time to think about it. "Hannibal, you know how to win a battle, but you don't know how to use your victory [victoria uti nescis]," Maharbal replied. Hannibal missed his great opportunity; the Romans later believed that his indecision saved Rome.

By dogged persistence and unflinching courage the Romans regained the upper hand. Hannibal was in hostile territory, which made it difficult for him to get supplies for his army and cavalry. The Italians were not deserting from the Romans to his side as he thought they would. He could not besiege Rome, for he needed always to be moving, simply to secure food and supplies for his soldiers and horses, and in any case he lacked siege equipment. He was losing men through many small battles with the Romans and

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from the ravages of disease and hunger. He and his troops spent the winter of 216
B.C.
in Capua, where they lost their fighting edge and discipline; so changed was Hannibal's army after the winter spent in that decadent city that one Roman general, Marcellus, called Capua "Hannibal's Cannae." (Imagine an army bivouacked in the French Quarter of New Orleans for the winter. How sharp would the soldiers be, come March?) Eventually Rome regained Capua, Tarentum, and Sicily. When Hannibal at last marched to the gates of Rome and waited for the battle to begin, he learned through a prisoner that the land on which he had pitched camp was sold that day in Rome, with no reduction in price.

The Romans regained the momentum partly through the successes of their general M. Claudius Marcellus (the winner of the
spolia opima
; see chapter 13). He had the caution of Fabius, but combined with a greater boldness; the Romans called Fabius the Shield of Rome, but to Marcellus they gave the nickname Sword of Rome. After Capua revolted to Hannibal's side, Marcellus prevented Hannibal from attacking another large Campanian city, Nola.

In 214, when Sicily revolted from Rome, Marcellus was sent to reconquer the island. He attacked Syracuse by land and sea, but was foiled by its most brilliant citizen, the famous geometrician Archimedes. It was Archimedes who figured out the principle of the lever, saying, "Give me a place on which to stand, and I will move the Earth." He also discovered the principle of displacement of water, which caused him to exclaim, "Eureka!" (I have found it!). Archimedes used his great knowledge to build various engines to defend his city. Some of his devices threw quantities of rocks at the Roman army, killing soldiers and throwing the army into confusion. Another device was a huge beam, hanging out from the city walls over the sea, where the Roman navy was attacking. Some beams dropped great weights on the Roman ships, sinking them, while others, with iron claws at the end, simply picked up the Roman ships and hauled them out of the water; the beam then either released the suspended ship, allowing it to fall into the water, or else was swung around, dashing the ship against the rocks.

Marcellus was forced simply to starve Syracuse into giving up. While besieging Syracuse, he also reconquered the rest of the island. He finally took Syracuse in 211. Archimedes was killed by

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a Roman soldier; according to the story, the soldier commanded Archimedes to accompany him to Marcellus, but Archimedes refused to move until he had finished the problem he was working on. Enraged, the soldier killed him.

After reconquering Sicily, Marcellus returned to Italy, and from 210 to 208 he kept Hannibal's activities under control. Hannibal tried many times to lure Marcellus into a trap, but Marcellus was his match in wits. Under Marcellus' leadership the Roman army inflicted many small losses on Hannibal, killing thousands of his soldiers and reestablishing morale in the Roman army. Marcellus was killed in 208
B.C.
, while on reconnaisance.

In Spain too the pendulum had swung to the Romans' side. Scipio had been so successful in conquering Spain for Rome that the Carthaginian government abandoned its hope of a Carthaginian empire in Spain and ordered Hasdrubal, Hannibal's brother who led the Carthaginian forces in Spain, to take his armies to Hannibal in Italy. Hasdrubal started his march.

The Battle at Metaurus

The Romans and the Italians were alarmed by the news that Hasdrubal was approaching Italy; his army was as large as Hannibal's, and his own reputation only slightly less than his brother's. One consul, Marcus Livius, had been assigned to northern Italy to intercept Hasdrubal; the other consul, G. Claudius Nero, had been assigned to southern Italy to check Hannibal's progress. After an engagement with Hannibal's troops, in which the Romans inflicted heavy losses upon the Carthaginians, Nero decided to leave half of his army with a praetor to guard Hannibal, while he with the other half would secretly slip away at night to lend help to Livius and his troops. He and his soldiers then marched 400 kilometers in seven days, to join Livius in the north. Both Carthaginians had been fooled: Hannibal thought an entire consular army was still dogging him, and since Livius and Nero shared the same camp, Hasdrubal did not knowuntil it was too latethat the Roman forces facing him had been augmented by six thousand soldiers.

The battle at the river Metaurus, in 207, avenged Cannae for the Romans. Hasdrubal was killed in the battle, his army annihilated,

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and an immense amount of gold and silver taken; Hannibal would not receive reinforcements now. The Roman populace was hysterical with joy, for the Romans had won their first major engagement against the Carthaginians in Italy; every shrine and temple in the city was garlanded with flowers and wreaths. Nero returned to his army in southern Italy and had Hasdrubal's head thrown in front of the outposts of Hannibal's camp, to be taken to Hannibal.

Scipio Carries the War to Africa

While briefing the Senate on affairs in Spain, Scipio brought up the idea of invading Africa; his reasons were, first, to punish the Africans and cause them to suffer, for Italy had been the battleground long enough; second, and more important, to force the Carthaginians to recall Hannibal to Africa to defend Carthage. The wisdom of his proposal was not apparent to all the senators; it was vigorously opposed by Q. Fabius Maximus, who argued that Scipio and the soldiers should stay in Italy to eliminate the real and present danger of Hannibal.

In spite of opposition, Scipio received the Senate's grudging approval, but he was not given permission to enlist new soldiers, and the Senate supplied him with only thirty-five warships for his expedition. Scipio sought volunteers and contributions of war materials, and the Italians responded: Seven thousand soldiers immediately volunteered, eagerly joined by the twelve thousand survivors of Cannae, who were still desperate for an opportunity to regain their honor, and more allies joined them as well. Contributions of various war materialsiron, cloth for sails, timber for ships, wheatpoured in. When Scipio landed in Africa the next year, he was joined by Masinissa (Rome's ally from Numidia), and the army numbered approximately thirty-five thousand soldiers. Scipio and Masinissa ravaged the countryside.

Hasdrubal (not Hannibal's brother, who had been killed) and his ally Syphax from Numidia encamped a few miles from the Romans. Scipio, using Hannibal-like tactics, first played a deadly trick on Syphax: Scipio had sent some centurions, disguised as slaves, along with his envoys in the customary attempts at

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negotiating peace before a battle; Scipio learned from his spies that the buildings in Syphax' camp were made of reeds. This gave Scipio an idea, and he took his officers aside, explained the plan, and made it clear that everything had to go just right.

Laelius, Scipio's good friend and lieutenant, went forth first that night, and soon afterwards Scipio left with other soldiers and stopped not far from Syphax' camp. Scipio then saw that Laelius had succeeded in his mission: Syphax' camp was on fire. When the whole camp was ablaze, Scipio and his men rushed forward, massacring the men who ran out to escape the flames. Hasdrubal's men too rushed from their camp to help put out the fire; they too were butchered (but not in such great numbers). They never suspected that the fire had been set deliberately. The Carthaginians lost approximately forty thousand men. The Carthaginian government was then forced to recall Hannibal from Italy so he could defend Carthage.

Hannibal with difficulty escaped from Italythe Romans were doing their utmost to destroy his armyand returned to Carthage. He faced Scipio at Zama in 202
B.C.
Masinissa and his cavalry ran the Carthaginian cavalry off the battlefield, and the Roman light-armed troops so scared the elephants that they rampaged and turned on the Carthaginian troops. The Roman infantry then engaged the Carthaginians in a hard-fought battle; with the battle undecided, Masinissa and his cavalry returned, surrounding the Carthaginians and cutting them down. Hannibal escaped the Roman soldiers and forced his government to sue for peace.

The terms of the treaty allowed the Carthaginians a fleet of only ten ships, forbade them to wage war without Rome's consent, forced them to pay a war indemnity of ten thousand talents of silver, and barred them from keeping war elephants.

Rome was now a world power, having conquered its sole rival in the western Mediterranean. It had made allies in Africa, to help in the defeat of Carthage, and thus held Carthage in its grip. Further, it had conquered much of Spain and parts of southern Gaul, to disrupt Hannibal's supply lines; these areas soon became the provinces of Hispania and Gallia Cisalpina. Since King Philip V of Macedon had made a treaty with Hannibal during the war, and might have delivered some assistance to him, Rome soon found

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itself in wars with Macedon, which involved Rome in affairs Hellenic. Rome's relations with Greece and the East led to the conquest of Asia Minor. The defeat of Carthage launched Rome into world prominence, from which position it would not fall for more than seven hundred years.

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Chapter 15
Rome Encounters the East

After defeating Hannibal and Carthage, and in the process becoming masters of the western Mediterranean, the Romans wanted peace and quiet, but with security. Instead, they became involved in the political troubles of the eastern Mediterranean, which threatened not only their recent conquests, but also their very existence. The politics of the kingdoms of the eastern Mediterranean are somewhat complicated; some background information will be helpful.

The Hellenistic East

Alexander the Great, king of Macedon, during his short life (356-323
B.C.
) had united the Greeks in an invasion of the Persian Empire. Supposedly, the reason was to get revenge for the Persians' invasion of Greece and destruction of its houses and temples in 491-479, but the real reason was economic. The young men of Greece, seeing no future at home, found work as mercenaries in the army of the Persian king, Darius III, thus strengthening Greece's mortal enemy while weakening Greece itself.

After crossing the Hellespont (present-day Dardanelles, the narrow strait that separates Asia from Europe) in 334, Alexander and his army marched along the western coast of Asia Minor (modem Turkey), defeating Darius in two separate battles, at Granicus and Issus. Alexander and his army then continued marching south though Syria, Palestine, and Israel, and entered Egypt. There Alexander founded a city off the westernmost tributary of the Nile, and named it Alexandria. Then he continued east in pursuit of

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