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[1] Cn. Seruilius et C. Seruilius consules—sextus decimus is annus belli Punici erat—cum de re publica belloque et prouinciis ad senatum rettulissent, censuerunt patres ut consules inter se compararent sortirenturue uter Bruttios aduersus Hannibalem, uter Etruriam ac Ligures prouinciam haberet: cui Bruttii euenissent exercitum a P. Sempronio acciperet; P. Sempronius—ei quoque enim pro consule imperium in annum prorogabatur—P. Licinio succederet; is Romam reuerteretur, bello quoque bonus habitus ad cetera, quibus nemo ea tempestate instructior ciuis habebatur, congestis omnibus humanis ab natura fortunaque bonis. nobilis idem ac diues erat; forma uiribusque corporis excellebat; facundissimus habebatur, seu causa oranda, seu in senatu et apud populum suadendi ac dissuadendi locus esset; iuris pontificii peritissimus; super haec bellicae quoque laudis consulatus compotem fecerat. quod in Bruttiis prouincia, idem in Etruria ac Liguribus decretum: M. Cornelius nouo consuli tradere exercitum iussus, ipse prorogato imperio Galliam prouinciam obtinere cum legionibus iis quas <L.> Scribonius priore anno habuisset.
[1] The consuls Gnaeus Servilius and Gaius Servilius—the sixteenth year of the Punic War it was—when they had reported to the senate concerning the commonwealth, the war, and the provinces, the Fathers decreed that the consuls should arrange between themselves or cast lots as to which should have the Bruttians against Hannibal, and which the province of Etruria and the Ligurians: to whom the Bruttians should have fallen, he was to receive the army from Publius Sempronius; Publius Sempronius—for to him also his imperium as proconsul was being prolonged for a year—was to be succeeded by Publius Licinius; he was to return to Rome, esteemed good in war too, and in other matters as well, in which at that time no citizen was held better equipped, all human goods having been heaped upon him by nature and by fortune. He was both noble and rich; he excelled in beauty and in the strength of his body; he was held most facund, whether a case had to be pled, or there was occasion in the senate and before the people for urging or dissuading; a most skilled expert in pontifical law; beyond these things, his consulship too had made him a partaker of military renown. As was decreed in the Bruttian province, so the same was decreed in Etruria and among the Ligurians: Marcus Cornelius, ordered to hand over the army to the new consul, was himself, his imperium prorogued, to hold the province of Gaul with those legions which L. Scribonius had had in the previous year.
then they drew lots for the provinces: to Caepio fell the Bruttii, to [Servilius] Geminus Etruria. then the praetors’ provinces were cast into the lot. the urban jurisdiction Paetus Aelius drew; Sardinia, P. Lentulus; Sicily, P. Villius; Ariminum with two legions—under Sp. Lucretius those had been—Quinctilius Varus drew.
and Lucretius’s imperium was prorogued, that he might re-edify the town of Genua, razed by Mago the Punic. P. Scipio’s imperium was prorogued not by a limit of time, but by the terminus of the business—until the war should be brought to an end in Africa; and it was decreed that a supplication be held, because he had crossed over into the province of Africa, in order that this measure might be salutary to the Roman people and to the leader himself and the army.
[2] In Siciliam tria milia militum sunt scripta [et] quia quod roboris ea prouincia habuerat in Africam transuectum fuerat; et quia ne qua classis ex Africa traiceret quadraginta nauibus custodiri placuerat Siciliae maritimam oram, tredecim nouas naues Uillius secum in Siciliam duxit, ceterae in Sicilia ueteres refectae. huic classi M. Pomponius prioris anni praetor prorogato imperio praepositus nouos milites ex Italia aduectos in naues imposuit. parem nauium numerum Cn. Octauio praetori item prioris anni cum pari iure imperii ad tuendam Sardiniae oram patres decreuerunt; Lentulus praetor duo milia militum dare in naues iussus.
[2] Into Sicily three thousand soldiers were enrolled, [and] because what strength that province had had had been transported across into Africa; and because, so that no fleet might cross from Africa, it had been resolved that the maritime shore of Sicily be guarded with forty ships, Uillius led with him into Sicily thirteen new ships; the rest, old, were repaired in Sicily. Over this fleet M. Pomponius, praetor of the previous year, with his imperium prolonged, was set in command; he placed the new soldiers brought from Italy on the ships. The Fathers decreed an equal number of ships to Cn. Octavius, praetor likewise of the previous year, with equal right of imperium, for guarding the shore of Sardinia; Lentulus the praetor was ordered to give two thousand soldiers onto the ships.
and the coast of Italy, because it was uncertain where the Carthaginians would send a fleet, and they seemed likely to target whatever was stripped of garrisons, was given for protection to M. Marcius, praetor of the previous year, with an equal number of ships. Three thousand soldiers for that fleet the consuls enrolled by decree of the senate, and two urban legions for the uncertainties of war. The Spains, with the armies and the imperium, were decreed to their former commanders, L. Lentulus and L. Manlius Acidinus.
Praetores in prouincias ire iussi: consulibus imperatum ut priusquam ab urbe proficiscerentur ludos magnos facerent quos T. Manlius Torquatus dictator in quintum annum uouisset si eodem statu res publica staret. et nouas religiones excitabant in animis hominum prodigia ex pluribus locis nuntiata. aurum in Capitolio corui non lacerasse tantum rostris crediti sed etiam edisse; mures Antii coronam auream adrosere; circa Capuam omnem agrum locustarum uis ingens, ita ut unde aduenissent parum constaret, compleuit; eculeus Reate cum quinque pedibus natus; Anagniae sparsi primum ignes in caelo, dein fax ingens arsit; Frusinone arcus solem tenui linea amplexus est, circulum deinde ipsum maior solis orbis extrinsecus inclusit; Arpini terra campestri agro in ingentem sinum consedit; consulum alteri primam hostiam immolanti caput iocineris defuit.
The praetors were ordered to go into their provinces; the consuls were commanded, before they set out from the city, to celebrate the Great Games which T. Manlius Torquatus, dictator, had vowed for the fifth year, if the republic should stand in the same condition. And prodigies reported from several places were arousing new religious scruples in the minds of men. In the Capitol the crows were believed not only to have torn the gold with their beaks but even to have eaten it; at Antium mice gnawed a golden crown; around Capua an immense force of locusts, such that whence they had come was scarcely established, filled the whole countryside; at Reate a foal was born with five feet; at Anagnia fires were first scattered in the sky, then a huge torch blazed; at Frusino an arc embraced the sun with a thin line, then a greater orb enclosed from outside the circle itself of the sun; at Arpinum the ground in the level field subsided into a vast bay; for one of the consuls, as he was immolating the first victim, the head of the liver was lacking.
[3] His transactis consules praetoresque in prouincias profecti; omnibus tamen, uelut eam sortitis, Africae cura erat, seu quia ibi summam rerum bellique uerti cernebant seu ut Scipioni gratificarentur, in quem tum omnis uersa ciuitas erat. itaque non ex Sardinia tantum, sicut ante dictum est, sed ex Sicilia quoque et Hispania uestimenta frumentumque, et arma etiam ex Sicilia et omne genus commeatus eo portabantur. nec Scipio ullo tempore hiemis belli opera remiserat, quae multa simul undique eum circumstabant.
[3] With these things transacted, the consuls and praetors set out to the provinces; yet for all, as if they had drawn that lot, the care was Africa, either because they perceived that the sum of affairs and of the war was turning there, or in order to gratify Scipio, upon whom at that time the whole citizenry was turned. And so not from Sardinia only, as was said before, but from Sicily also and Spain, garments and grain, and arms even from Sicily, and every kind of provisions were being carried thither. Nor had Scipio at any time of winter relaxed the works of war, which, many at once from every side, pressed upon him.
He was besieging Utica; the camp was in Hasdrubal’s sight; the Carthaginians had launched their ships; they had a fleet prepared and arrayed to intercept supplies. Amid these things he had not even let slip from his mind the care of reconciling Syphax, if perchance now a satiety of love for his wife, from much abundance, had seized him. From Syphax there was being reported rather conditions of peace with the Carthaginians—that the Romans withdraw from Africa, the Carthaginians from Italy—than, if there were war, any hope that he would defect.—These things, through messengers, I should rather believe were transacted—and so the greater part of the authorities maintain—than that Syphax himself, as Valerius Antias records, came into the Roman camp for a conference.
—at first the Roman commander scarcely admitted those conditions to his ears; afterward, in order that there might be a plausible cause for his men’s going to and fro into the enemy’s camp, he began to refuse those same proposals more softly and to create hope that, with the matter being agitated more and more back and forth, it would come to an agreement. The winter-quarters of the Carthaginians, heaped together at random from material out of the fields and constructed, were almost entirely wooden. The Numidians especially had roofs woven of reed, and the greater part were thatched, scattered everywhere with no order; some, as if without command, having seized sites at will, were living even outside the ditch and the rampart.
[4] Cum legatis quos mitteret ad Syphacem calonum loco primos ordines spectatae uirtutis atque prudentiae seruili habitu mittebat, qui dum in conloquio legati essent uagi per castra alius alia aditus exitusque omnes, situm formamque et uniuersorum castrorum et partium, qua Poeni qua Numidae haberent, quantum interualli inter Hasdrubalis ac regia castra esset, specularentur moremque simul noscerent stationum uigiliarumque, nocte an interdiu opportuniores insidianti essent; et inter crebra conloquia alii atque alii de industria quo pluribus omnia nota essent mittebantur. cum saepius agitata res certiorem spem pacis in dies et Syphaci et Carthaginiensibus per eum faceret, legati Romani uetitos se reuerti ad imperatorem aiunt nisi certum responsum detur: proinde, seu ipsi staret iam sententia, <promeret sententiam>, seu consulendus Hasdrubal et Carthaginienses essent, consuleret; tempus esse aut pacem componi aut bellum nauiter geri. dum consulitur Hasdrubal ab Syphace, ab Hasdrubale Carthaginienses, et speculatores omnia uisendi et Scipio ad comparanda ea quae in rem erant tempus habuit; et ex mentione ac spe pacis neglegentia, ut fit, apud Poenos Numidamque orta cauendi ne quid hostile interim paterentur.
[4] Along with the legates whom he would send to Syphax, he was dispatching men of the first ranks, of approved virtus and prudence, in the guise of slaves, in the place of camp-servants; who, while the legates were in conference, should wander through the camps, one this way, another that, reconnoitering all the approaches and exits, the site and the form both of the whole camp and its parts, where the Carthaginians and where the Numidae held position, what interval there was between Hasdrubal’s and the royal camp, and at the same time learning the manner of the pickets and watches, whether they were more opportune to one lying in ambush by night or by day; and amid frequent conferences others and yet others were sent on purpose, in order that to as many as possible everything might be known. When the matter, often agitated, through him was day by day making a more certain hope of peace both for Syphax and for the Carthaginians, the Roman legates say that they are forbidden to return to the commander unless a definite response be given: accordingly, whether his own judgment now stood, <let him declare his opinion>, or if Hasdrubal and the Carthaginians had to be consulted, let him consult; it was time either for peace to be composed or for the war to be vigorously prosecuted. While Hasdrubal is consulted by Syphax, and the Carthaginians by Hasdrubal, both the scouts had time for seeing everything and Scipio had time for preparing those things which were to the purpose; and from the mention and hope of peace, negligence, as happens, arose among the Carthaginians and the Numidian in taking care lest in the meantime they should suffer anything hostile.
at length the answer was reported back, with certain inequitable terms opportunistically added, because the Roman seemed too eager for peace, which very opportunely furnished Scipio, who wished to remove the armistice, a pretext; and when the king’s envoy had said he would refer it to the council, on the next day he reported that, with himself alone pressing in vain, peace had pleased no one else; let him therefore announce that there was no other hope of peace than that, the Carthaginians being abandoned, Syphax be with the Romans. thus he removes the armistice so that he might execute his undertakings with free good faith; and with the ships launched—and now it was the beginning of spring—he loads the engines and artillery, as though he were going to attack Utica from the sea, and he sends 2,000 soldiers to seize the hill above Utica which he had previously held, both to divert the enemy’s minds from what he was preparing to the concern of another matter, and lest, when he himself had set out to Syphax and Hasdrubal, any sally from the city and an assault upon his camp, left with a light garrison, should be made.
[5] His praeparatis aduocatoque consilio et dicere exploratoribus iussis quae comperta adferrent Masinissaque, cui omnia hostium nota erant, postremo ipse quid pararet in proximam noctem proponit; tribunis edicit ut ubi praetorio dimisso signa concinuissent extemplo educerent castris legiones. ita ut imperauerat signa sub occasum solis efferri sunt coepta; ad primam ferme uigiliam agmen explicauerunt; media nocte—septem enim milia itineris erant—modico gradu ad castra hostium peruentum est. ibi Scipio partem copiarum Laelio Masinissamque ac Numidas attribuit et castra Syphacis inuadere ignesque conicere iubet.
[5] With these things prepared and a council summoned, and the scouts ordered to say what they had discovered and to bring it in, and Masinissa, to whom all the enemy’s matters were known, finally he himself set forth what he was preparing for the coming night; he enjoins the tribunes that, when after the praetorium was dismissed the signals had sounded in concert, they should at once lead the legions out from the camp. Thus as he had commanded, the standards began to be carried out toward sunset; by about the first watch they drew out the column; at midnight—for there were seven miles of march—they reached the enemy’s camp at a moderate pace. There Scipio assigns part of the forces to Laelius and to Masinissa and the Numidians and bids them assault Syphax’s camp and cast in fires.
then, having drawn aside Laelius and Masinissa each separately, he adjured them that, as much as night subtracts from providence, so much they should make up by diligence and care: that he himself would assault Hasdrubal and the Punic camp; but he would not begin before he had caught sight of fire in the royal camp. nor was that matter long delayed; for as soon as the fire, thrown onto the first huts, took hold, immediately, embracing the nearest ones each in turn in an unbroken succession, it scattered itself everywhere through the whole camp. and indeed a panic arose as great as must needs be in a nocturnal conflagration poured so widely abroad; but, thinking it to be a chance fire, not a hostile and bellic one, unarmed, they rushed out to extinguish the blaze and fell upon enemies who were armed, especially upon the Numidians, who, through Masinissa’s knowledge of the royal camp, had been posted in suitable places at the outlets of the roads.
[6] Relucentem flammam primo uigiles Carthaginiensium, deinde excitati alii nocturno tumultu cum conspexissent, ab eodem errore credere et ipsi sua sponte incendium ortum; et clamor inter caedem et uolnera sublatus an ex trepidatione nocturna esset confusis sensum ueri adimebat. igitur pro se quisque inermes, ut quibus nihil hostile suspectum esset, omnibus portis, qua cuique proximum erat, ea modo quae restinguendo igni forent portantes in agmen Romanum ruebant. quibus caesis omnibus praeterquam hostili odio etiam ne quis nuntius refugeret, extemplo Scipio neglectas ut in tali tumultu portas inuadit; ignibusque in proxima tecta coniectis effusa flamma primo uelut sparsa pluribus locis reluxit, dein per continua serpens uno repente omnia incendio hausit.
[6] The relucent flame, first the Carthaginians’ watchmen, then others roused by the nocturnal tumult, when they had caught sight of it, believed from the same error that the fire had arisen of its own accord; and the clamor raised amid slaughter and wounds—whether it was from nocturnal trepidation—robbed them, their sense of the true being confounded, of discernment. Therefore each man for himself, unarmed, as men to whom nothing hostile was suspected, by all the gates, wherever was nearest for each, carrying only those things that would be for extinguishing the fire, were rushing headlong into the Roman column. All of these were cut down, not only from hostile hatred but also lest any messenger should flee back; forthwith Scipio, as the gates were neglected in such a tumult, assaults them; and fires having been cast into the nearest roofs, the outpoured flame at first, as if scattered in several places, relucent blazed out again, then, creeping through the continuous buildings, suddenly consumed everything in a single conflagration.
Scorched men and foul pack-animals, first by flight and then by the carnage, were choking the approaches of the gates. Those whom the fire had not crushed were consumed by the sword, and the two camps were destroyed in a single disaster. Nevertheless, both commanders, and out of so many thousands of armed men two thousand infantry and five hundred cavalry, half-armed— a great part wounded and blasted by the conflagration—escaped.
About 40,000 men were cut down or consumed by the flames; over 5,000 were taken prisoner, many of them Carthaginian nobles, 11 senators; 174 military standards, and over 2,700 Numidian horses; 6 elephants were captured, 8 were destroyed by iron and fire. A great quantity of arms was taken; all these the commander, having consecrated to Vulcan, burned.
[7] Hasdrubal ex fuga cum paucis Afrorum urbem proximam petierat, eoque omnes qui supererant uestigia ducis sequentes se contulerant; metu deinde ne dederetur Scipioni urbe excessit. mox eodem patentibus portis Romani accepti, nec quicquam hostile, quia uoluntate concesserant in dicionem, factum. duae subinde urbes captae direptaeque.
[7] Hasdrubal, in flight, with a few Africans had sought the nearest city, and thither all who survived, following the leader’s footsteps, had betaken themselves; then, from fear lest it be surrendered to Scipio, he departed from the city. Soon the Romans were received there, the gates standing open, and nothing hostile was done, because they had of their own will conceded into dominion. Two cities thereafter were captured and plundered.
That booty, and what had been snatched from the fire when the camp was burned, was granted to the soldiery. Syphax took up position in a fortified place at a distance of about eight miles from there; Hasdrubal hastened to Carthage, lest anything be determined more mildly through fear from the recent calamity. And so great a terror was brought at first that, with Utica abandoned, they believed Scipio would forthwith besiege Carthage.
therefore they called the senate and the suffetes, which among them was as it were a consular imperium. there it was contested by three proposals; one decreed envoys to Scipio concerning peace, another was recalling Hannibal to defend the fatherland from a ruinous war, the third was for Roman constancy in adverse circumstances; it judged that the army must be repaired and that Syphax must be exhorted not to desist from the war. this proposal prevailed because Hasdrubal was present, and all of the Barcine faction preferred war.
thence a levy began to be held in the city and in the fields, and legates were sent to Syphax, urging with utmost effort that he too should restore the war, since his wife, no longer as before by blandishments—quite potent with a lover’s mind—but by prayers and pity had prevailed, full of tears adjuring him not to betray her father and her fatherland, and not to allow Carthage to be consumed by the same flames with which the camps had conflagrated. The legates also brought hope opportunely offered: four thousand Celtiberians, around a city by the name Obba, hired in Spain by their recruiters, men of excellent youth, had met them; and Hasdrubal would be present before long with a force by no means contemptible. Therefore he not only replied kindly to the legates, but even showed a multitude of rustic Numidians to whom during those same days he had given arms and horses, and he affirms that he will rouse all the youth from the realm: he knows the disaster was received by fire, not by battle; he is the one inferior in war who is conquered in arms.
[8] Scipionem, uelut iam debellato quod ad Syphacem Carthaginiensesque attineret, Uticae oppugnandae intentum iamque machinas admouentem muris auertit fama redintegrati belli; modicisque praesidiis ad speciem modo obsidionis terra marique relictis ipse cum robore exercitus ire ad hostes pergit. primo in tumulo quattuor milia ferme distante ab castris regiis consedit; postero die cum equitatu in Magnos—ita uocant—campos subiectos ei tumulo degressus, succedendo ad stationes hostium lacessendoque leuibus proeliis diem absumpsit. et per insequens biduum tumultuosis hinc atque illinc excursionibus in uicem nihil dictu satis dignum fecerunt: quarto die in aciem utrimque descensum est.
[8] Scipio, as if what concerned Syphax and the Carthaginians had already been completely fought out, intent on assaulting Utica and already bringing up engines to the walls, was diverted by the report of the war renewed; and, leaving small garrisons by land and sea for the mere show of a siege, he himself with the strength of the army proceeds to march against the enemy. At first he encamped on a hill about four miles distant from the royal camp; on the next day, having descended with the cavalry into the Great—so they call them—plains lying beneath that hill, by moving up to the enemy’s outposts and provoking with light skirmishes he spent the day. And during the following two days, with tumultuous excursions here and there in turn, they did nothing sufficiently worthy of mention: on the fourth day both sides came down into line of battle.
The Roman placed the principes behind the first standards of the hastati, and stationed the triarii in reserve; he opposed the Italian cavalry on the right wing, and on the left the Numidians and Masinissa. Syphax and Hasdrubal, with the Numidians posted against the Italian cavalry and the Carthaginians placed opposite Masinissa, assigned the Celtiberians to the middle of the battle-line against the standards of the legions. Thus arrayed, they ran together in conflict.
At the first onset both wings at once—the Numidians and the Carthaginians—were routed; for neither did the Numidians, the greater part rustic, withstand the Roman cavalry, nor did the Carthaginians, themselves raw soldiery, withstand Masinissa, terrible with a recent victory superadded to all else. The battle-line of the Celtiberians, stripped of its wings on both sides, stood its ground, because neither in flight did any safety show itself in unknown places, nor was there any hope of pardon from Scipio, whom—though well deserving of them and of their race—they had come into Africa to assail with mercenary arms. Therefore, with enemies hemming them in on every side, falling one upon another, they were dying obstinately; and, with all turned upon them, Syphax and Hasdrubal forestalled the pursuers and gained some time for flight.
[9] Postero die Scipio Laelium Masinissamque cum omni Romano et Numidico equitatu expeditisque militum ad persequendos Syphacem atque Hasdrubalem mittit; ipse cum robore exercitus urbes circa, quae omnes Carthaginiensium dicionis erant, partim spe, partim metu, partim ui subigit. Carthagini erat quidem ingens terror, et circumferentem arma Scipionem omnibus finitimis raptim perdomitis ipsam Carthaginem repente adgressurum credebant. itaque et muri reficiebantur propugnaculisque armabantur, et pro se quisque quae diutinae obsidionis tolerandae sunt ex agris conuehit.
[9] On the following day Scipio sends Laelius and Masinissa with all the Roman and Numidian cavalry and with the light-armed troops to pursue Syphax and Hasdrubal; he himself, with the strength of the army, subjugates the surrounding cities, which were all under the dominion of the Carthaginians, partly by hope, partly by fear, partly by force. At Carthage there was indeed immense terror, and they believed that Scipio, carrying arms around, with all the neighboring peoples swiftly and thoroughly subdued, would suddenly attack Carthage itself. And so the walls were being repaired and were being armed with battlements, and each man for himself conveys in from the fields the things required for enduring a long siege.
there is rare mention of peace, more frequent of legates to be sent to summon Hannibal; the greatest part order the fleet, which had been prepared to receive supplies, to be sent to crush the station of ships at Utica acting incautiously; perhaps they would even overpower the naval camp, left with a light garrison. Toward this plan they incline most; nevertheless they judge that legates must be sent to Hannibal: for even if the affair be conducted most successfully by the fleet, the siege at Utica would be lightened only in some part: for the defense of Carthage itself, no commander other than Hannibal and no army other than Hannibal’s remained. Therefore on the following day the ships were launched, and at the same time the legates set out into Italy; and everything, with Fortune spurring them on, was being driven forward in haste, and each man reckoned that, in whatever he had delayed, the safety of all had been betrayed by himself.
Scipio, leading an army now heavy with the spoils of many cities, the captives and other booty having been sent to the old camp by Utica, now intent upon Carthage, seizes Tunes—about 15 miles from Carthage—left behind through the flight of its guards, a place secure both by works and by its own nature, and one which both can be seen from Carthage and itself can afford a prospect both toward the city and toward the sea that surrounds the city.
[10] inde cum maxime uallum Romani iacerent, conspecta classis hostium est Uticam ab Carthagine petens. igitur omisso opere pronuntiatum iter signaque raptim ferri sunt coepta ne naues in terram et ad obsidionem uersae ac minime nauali proelio aptae opprimerentur: qui enim restitissent agili et nautico instrumento aptae et armatae classi naues tormenta machinasque portantes et aut in onerariarum usum uersae aut ita adpulsae muris ut pro aggere ac pontibus praebere adscensum possent? itaque Scipio, postquam eo uentum est, contra quam in nauali certamine solet rostratis quae praesidio aliis esse poterant in postremam aciem receptis prope terram, onerariarum quadruplicem ordinem pro muro aduersus hostem opposuit, easque ipsas, ne in tumultu pugnae turbari ordines possent, malis antennisque de naue in nauem traiectis ac ualidis funibus uelut uno inter se uinculo inligatis comprendit, tabulasque superinstrauit ut peruium in totum nauium ordinem esset, et sub ipsis pontibus interualla fecit qua procurrere speculatoriae naues in hostem ac tuto recipi possent.
[10] thence, just when the Romans were casting the rampart, the enemy’s fleet was sighted making for Utica from Carthage. therefore, the work being abandoned, the march was proclaimed and the standards began to be borne in haste, lest the ships, turned toward the land and toward siege-work and least suited for a naval battle, be overwhelmed: for how would ships carrying engines and machines, and either converted to the use of transports or brought up to the walls in such a way that they could offer ascent in place of an embankment and bridges, have withstood a fleet agile and fitted out and armed with nautical equipment? accordingly Scipio, after it came to that point, contrary to what is customary in a naval contest, having withdrawn into the rear line, near the land, the beaked ships which could be a protection to the others, set in front against the enemy a quadruple line of transports as a wall; and these very ships, lest in the tumult of the fight the ranks might be thrown into disorder, he bound together by masts and yards carried from ship to ship and by stout ropes, as though with one single bond among them, and he overlaid planks above so that there might be a thoroughfare along the entire line of ships, and beneath these very bridges he made intervals by which scouting ships could run out against the enemy and be received back in safety.
With these things swiftly equipped for the exigency of the time, about one thousand selected defenders are put aboard the transports; an enormous supply of weapons, especially missiles, is heaped up so that they might suffice even for a long contest. Thus prepared and intent, they awaited the arrival of the enemy.
Carthaginienses, qui, si maturassent, omnia permixta turba trepidantium primo impetu oppressissent, perculsi terrestribus cladibus atque inde ne mari quidem ubi ipsi plus poterant satis fidentes, die segni nauigatione absumpto sub occasum solis in portum—Rusucmona Afri uocant— classem adpulere. postero die sub ortum solis instruxere ab alto naues uelut ad iustum proelium nauale et tamquam exituris contra Romanis. cum diu stetissent postquam nihil moueri ab hostibus uiderunt, tum demum onerarias adgrediuntur.
The Carthaginians—who, if they had made haste, would have overwhelmed everything, with the crowd of the panic‑stricken all in confusion, at the first onset—struck down by terrestrial disasters and, from that, not even at sea, where they themselves had more power, sufficiently confident, with the day consumed by sluggish navigation, toward sunset brought their fleet into a harbor—the Africans call it Rusucmona. On the next day at sunrise they drew up their ships out from the deep as for a regular naval battle, and as though the Romans were going to come out against them. When they had stood for a long time, after they saw nothing moving on the enemy’s side, then at last they attack the transports.
the affair was least like a naval combat; it most nearly had the appearance of ships assaulting walls. By their height the transports somewhat surpassed; from the rostrate ships the Carthaginians were sending most of their missiles in vain, since, with an upturned cast, they were hurling into a higher position; the stroke delivered from above out of the transports was heavier and, by its very weight, more well-poised. The scout ships and other light craft, which ran out through the intervals beneath the boarded-over bridges, were at first themselves overwhelmed merely by the impetus and magnitude of the rostrate vessels; then they were disadvantageous also to the defenders, because, mingled with the enemy’s ships, they often forced them to hold back their missiles from fear lest, with an ambiguous strike, they should fall upon their own men.
at last bars fitted with an iron hook—the soldier calls them “harpagones”—began to be cast from the Carthaginian ships onto the Roman ones. Since they could cut neither the devices themselves nor the chains by which, hanging, they were being flung on, whenever a rostrate ship, checked as it backed, would drag a transport clinging by the hook, you might see the cables by which it had been fastened to others torn apart, a different series at the same time of several ships being hauled along. By this method above all, all the bridges were torn to pieces [indeed], and scarcely any space for leaping over into the second line of ships was granted to the defenders.
about sixty transports, hauled off by their sterns, were taken to Carthage. The joy was greater than the situation warranted, but all the more welcome because, amid continual disasters and tears, a single, however small, unexpected joy had shone forth, together with this: that it appeared the Roman fleet had been not far from destruction, had there not been delay on the part of the commanders of their ships and had Scipio not come to succor in time.
[11] Per eosdem forte dies cum Laelius et Masinissa quinto decimo ferme die in Numidiam peruenissent, Maesulii, regnum paternum Masinissae, laeti ut ad regem diu desideratum concessere. Syphax pulsis inde praefectis praesidiisque suis uetere se continebat regno, neutiquam quieturus stimulabat aegrum amore uxor socerque, et ita uiris equisque abundabat ut subiectae oculis regni per multos florentis annos uires etiam minus barbaro atque impotenti animo spiritus possent facere. igitur omnibus qui bello apti erant in unum coactis equos arma tela diuidit; equites in turmas, pedites in cohortes, sicut quondam ab Romanis centurionibus didicerat, distribuit.
[11] About those same days, when Laelius and Masinissa had reached Numidia on about the fifteenth day, the Maesulians—the paternal realm of Masinissa—gladly went over to the long-desired king. Syphax, his prefects and garrisons having been driven out from there, kept himself within his old kingdom, by no means likely to be quiet; his wife and father-in-law, he sick with love, spurred him on, and he abounded so in men and horses that the forces of a kingdom flourishing for many years, set before his eyes, could put spirit even into a mind less barbarous and unbridled. Accordingly, having gathered into one all who were fit for war, he distributed horses, arms, and missiles; he organized the cavalry into squadrons, the infantry into cohorts, as he had once learned from Roman centurions.
with an army no smaller than that which he had before, but almost entirely new and undisciplined, he goes on to the enemy. And, the camp having been pitched nearby, at first a few horsemen, observing from safety, advance from the stations; then, driven back by javelins, they run back to their own. Thence excursions are made in turn, and when indignation inflamed the routed, more would come up—which is the irritant of equestrian contests, when either hope aggregates their men to the victors or anger to the beaten.
Ita tum a paucis proelio accenso omnem utrimque postremo equitatum certaminis studium effudit. ac dum sincerum equestre proelium erat, multitudo Masaesuliorum ingentia agmina Syphace emittente sustineri uix poterat; deinde ut pedes Romanus repentino per turmas suis uiam dantes intercursu stabilem aciem fecit absterruitque effuse inuehentem sese hostem, primo barbari segnius permittere equos, dein stare ac prope turbari nouo genere pugnae, postremo non pediti solum cedere sed ne equitem quidem sustinere, peditis praesidio audentem. iam signa quoque legionum adpropinquabant.
Thus then, with the battle kindled by a few, at last the whole cavalry on both sides poured out zeal for contest. And while it was a sincere (pure) equestrian battle, the multitude of the Masaesulians, Syphax sending out huge columns, could scarcely be held; then, when the Roman infantry, by a sudden dash, as their own men gave a way through the squadrons, made a stable battle line and scared off the enemy charging in headlong, at first the barbarians began to let their horses go more sluggishly, then to halt and be almost thrown into disorder by the new kind of fighting, and finally not only to give way to the foot-soldier but not even to sustain the horseman, who was daring by the protection of the infantry. Already the standards of the legions were also drawing near.
[12] Ibi Syphax dum obequitat hostium turmis si pudore, si periculo suo fugam sistere posset, equo grauiter icto effusus opprimitur capiturque et uiuus, laetum ante omnes Masinissae praebiturus spectaculum, ad Laelium pertrahitur. caedes in eo proelio minor quam uictoria fuit quia equestri tantummodo proelio certatum fuerat: non plus quinque milia occisa, minus dimidium eius hominum captum est impetu in castra facto quo perculsa rege amisso multitudo se contulerat.
[12] There Syphax, while he was riding alongside the enemy’s squadrons to see whether by shame, or by peril to himself, he could halt their flight, when his horse was grievously struck, was thrown, overpowered, and taken alive, and—destined to afford a joyful spectacle before all to Masinissa—he was hauled to Laelius. The slaughter in that battle was less than the victory, because the contest had been a cavalry engagement only: no more than 5,000 were slain; less than half that number of men were captured, when an attack was made upon the camp to which the multitude, panic-stricken at the loss of their king, had betaken themselves.
Cirta caput regni Syphacis erat; eoque ex fuga ingens hominum se contulerat uis. Masinissa sibi quidem dicere nihil esse in praesentia pulchrius quam uictorem reciperatum tanto post interuallo patrium inuisere regnum, sed tam secundis quam aduersis rebus non dari spatium ad cessandum; si se Laelius cum equitatu uinctoque Syphace Cirtam praecedere sinat, trepida omnia metu se oppressurum; Laelium cum peditibus subsequi modicis itineribus posse. adsentiente Laelio praegressus Cirtam euocari ad conloquium principes Cirtensium iubet.
Cirta was the head of Syphax’s kingdom; and to that place from the rout a huge force of men had betaken themselves. Masinissa said, indeed, that for himself nothing at the present was more beautiful than, as a victor, to visit the paternal kingdom recovered after so long an interval; but that in prosperous affairs as in adverse no space is given for idling; if Laelius would allow him, with the cavalry and with Syphax in bonds, to precede to Cirta, he would oppress everything, panic‑stricken with fear; Laelius could follow with the infantry by moderate marches. Laelius assenting, having gone on ahead to Cirta he orders the chief men of the Cirtans to be called out to a colloquy.
but among those ignorant of the king’s downfall, neither by declaring what had been done nor by threats nor by persuasion did he prevail until the king, in bonds, was presented to view. then, at so foul a spectacle, a lamentation arose, and in part, through fear, the walls were deserted; in part, by a sudden consensus of those seeking favor with the victor, the gates were thrown open. and Masinissa, having posted a guard around the gates and at the strategic points of the ramparts, so that no outlet for flight might lie open to anyone, rides at a gallop to seize the royal residence.
Intranti uestibulum in ipso limine Sophoniba, uxor Syphacis, filia Hasdrubalis Poeni, occurrit; et cum in medio agmine armatorum Masinissam insignem cum armis tum cetero habitu conspexisset, regem esse, id quod erat, rata genibus aduoluta eius 'omnia quidem ut possis' inquit 'in nobis di dederunt uirtusque et felicitas tua; sed si captiuae apud dominum uitae necisque suae uocem supplicem mittere licet, si genua, si uictricem attingere dextram, precor quaesoque per maiestatem regiam, in qua paulo ante nos quoque fuimus, per gentis Numidarum nomen, quod tibi cum Syphace commune fuit, per huiusce regiae deos, qui te melioribus ominibus accipiant quam Syphacem hinc miserunt, hanc ueniam supplici des ut ipse quodcumque fert animus de captiua tua statuas neque me in cuiusquam Romani superbum et crudele arbitrium uenire sinas. si nihil aliud quam Syphacis uxor fuissem, tamen Numidae atque in eadem mecum Africa geniti quam alienigenae et externi fidem experiri mallem: quid Carthaginiensi ab Romano, quid filiae Hasdrubalis timendum sit uides. si nulla re alia potes, morte me ut uindices ab Romanorum arbitrio oro obtestorque.' forma erat insignis et florentissima aetas.
As he entered the vestibule, on the very threshold Sophoniba, wife of Syphax, daughter of Hasdrubal the Carthaginian, met him; and when, in the midst of the column of armed men, she had caught sight of Masinissa, distinguished both by his arms and by his general bearing, thinking him to be the king—which he was—she fell at his knees and said: “The gods indeed, and your valor and felicity, have given you power to do all things with us; but if it is permitted for a captive to send to her lord a suppliant voice about her life and death, if it is permitted to touch the knees, to touch the victorious right hand, I pray and beseech you by royal majesty, in which a little before we too were, by the name of the nation of the Numidians, which you held in common with Syphax, by the gods of this palace, who may receive you with better omens than they sent Syphax hence, grant this indulgence to a suppliant: that you yourself decide whatever your spirit prompts concerning your captive, and do not allow me to come into the proud and cruel authority of any Roman. If I were nothing else than the wife of Syphax, yet I would rather try the good faith of a Numidian and one begotten in the same Africa with me than of aliens and foreigners: what a Carthaginian has to fear from a Roman, what the daughter of Hasdrubal must fear, you see. If you can do it in no other way, I beg and adjure that by death you vindicate me from the authority of the Romans.” Her beauty was remarkable, and her age in fullest bloom.
accordingly, when, now embracing his knees, now his right hand, she was demanding a pledge to this effect—that she not be handed over to any Roman—and when her speech was already closer to blandishments than to prayers, the victor’s spirit slipped not only into mercy, but, as the race of the Numidians is headlong into Venus, the victor was captured by love for the captive. his right hand having been given for what was being sought—for the binding of good faith—he withdrew into the palace. then he set himself to reconsider with himself how he might make good the faith of his promise.
Since he could not unravel this, he borrows from love a temerarious and impudent counsel; he suddenly orders nuptials to be prepared for that very day, so that he might leave nothing entire for Laelius or for Scipio himself to deliberate upon, as about a captive who would now already be wedded to Masinissa. The nuptials having been done, Laelius arrives thereafter, and he so little dissembled his disapproval of the deed that at first he even attempted, together with Syphax and the other captives, to send her, dragged down from the
[13] Syphacem in castra adduci cum esset nuntiatum, omnis uelut ad spectaculum triumphi multitudo effusa est. praecedebat ipse uinctus; sequebatur grex nobilium Numidarum. tum quantum quisque plurimum poterat magnitudini Syphacis famaeque gentis uictoriam suam augendo addebat: illum esse regem cuius tantum maiestati duo potentissimi in terris tribuerint populi Romanus Carthaginiensisque ut Scipio imperator suus ad amicitiam eius petendam relicta prouincia Hispania exercituque duabus quinqueremibus in Africam nauigauerit, Hasdrubal Poenorum imperator non ipse modo ad eum in regnum uenerit sed etiam filiam ei nuptum dederit.
[13] When it was announced that Syphax was being led into the camp, the whole multitude poured out as if to the spectacle of a triumph. He himself went before, bound; there followed a band of noble Numidians. Then each man, as much as he most could, by magnifying the greatness of Syphax and the fame of the nation, added to his own victory: that this was the king to whose majesty the two most powerful peoples on earth, the Roman and the Carthaginian, had paid so much deference that Scipio, their general, to seek his friendship, had sailed to Africa with two quinqueremes, leaving the province of Spain and his army; that Hasdrubal, the commander of the Punic people, had not only come to him into his kingdom, but had also given him his daughter in marriage.
that he had at one time in his power two commanders, the Carthaginian and the Roman. Just as each side had sought peace from the immortal gods by immolating victims, so from him on both sides alike amity was sought. Already he had possessed such resources that he reduced Masinissa, driven from his kingdom, to this: that his life was shrouded under a rumor of death and by the lairs of wild beasts, living in the woods by rapine.
His sermonibus circumstantium celebratus rex in praetorium ad Scipionem est perductus. mouit et Scipionem cum fortuna pristina uiri praesenti fortunae conlata, tum recordatio hospitii dextraeque datae et foederis publice ac priuatim iuncti. eadem haec et Syphaci animum dederunt in adloquendo uictore.
Celebrated by the speeches of those standing around, the king was conducted into the praetorium to Scipio. It moved Scipio as well—both the man’s former fortune compared with his present fortune, and the recollection of hospitality and of the right hand given, and of the treaty joined both publicly and privately. These same things also gave Syphax courage in addressing the victor.
for when Scipio asked what he had meant—he who had not only refused the Roman partnership but had moreover brought war unprovoked—then he confessed that he had indeed sinned and been insane, but not only then when he had taken up arms against the Roman people; that had been the outcome of his frenzy, not the beginning; he had been mad then, had then cast out of his soul all private guest-friendships and public treaties, when he received a Carthaginian matron into his house. By those nuptial torches his royal house had been set ablaze; that Fury and pestilence by every blandishment had turned aside and alienated his mind, nor had she rested until with her own hands she had put upon him impious arms against a host and friend. Ruined and shattered though he was, yet in his miseries this was a solace to him: that into the house and household gods of the man most inimical to him of all men he sees that the same pest and Fury have passed.
[14] Haec non hostili modo odio sed amoris etiam stimulis amatam apud aemulum cernens cum dixisset, non mediocri cura Scipionis animum pepulit; et fidem criminibus raptae prope inter arma nuptiae neque consulto neque exspectato Laelio faciebant tamque praeceps festinatio ut quo die captam hostem uidisset eodem matrimonio iunctam acciperet et ad penates hostis sui nuptiale sacrum conficeret. et eo foediora haec uidebantur Scipioni quod ipsum in Hispania iuuenem nullius forma pepulerat captiuae. haec secum uolutanti Laelius ac Masinissa superuenerunt.
[14] After he had said this, perceiving that she was loved by the rival not only by hostile hate but even by the goads of love, he struck Scipio’s mind with no moderate concern; and the nuptials, almost amid arms, with Laelius neither consulted nor awaited, were giving credence to the charges of the seized woman, and the haste was so headlong that on the very day he had seen the enemy taken captive he received her joined in marriage, and at his enemy’s household gods he completed the nuptial sacred rite. And these things seemed the more foul to Scipio because, when he himself was a young man in Spain, the beauty of no captive woman had moved him. While he was turning these things over with himself, Laelius and Masinissa came upon him.
when he had welcomed them both together with a kindly countenance and had celebrated them with exceptional praises in a crowded praetorium, he led Masinissa aside into private and addresses him thus: 'I suppose, Masinissa, that, looking upon some good qualities in me, you first in Spain came to join friendship with me, and afterward in Africa committed yourself and all your hopes to my good faith. And yet, of those virtues on account of which I may have seemed to you worth seeking, there is none in which I have gloried as much as in temperance and the continence of desires. This too, Masinissa, I would wish you to have added to your other outstanding virtues.'
It is not, it is not—believe me—so much danger to our age from armed enemies as from pleasures surrounding us on every side. He who has with his temperance reined them in and tamed them has won for himself a much greater honor and a greater victory than we have with Syphax conquered. What you did vigorously and bravely in my absence I have gladly both recounted and remember; as for the rest, I would rather that you yourself reckon them with yourself than blush with me saying them.
Syphax was defeated and captured under the auspices of the Roman People. Therefore he himself, his consort, the kingdom, land, towns, the men who inhabit them—whatever, in fine, belonged to Syphax—are the booty of the Roman People; and the king and his wife, even if she were not a citizen of Carthage, even if we did not behold her father as commander of the enemy, ought to be sent to Rome, and the judgment and arbitration of the Senate and People of Rome ought to be concerning her who is said to have alienated from us a king our ally and to have driven him headlong into arms. Master your spirit; beware that you do not disfigure many good things by one vice, and that you do not spoil the favor for so many merits by a fault greater than the cause of the fault.'
[15] Masinissae haec audienti non rubor solum suffusus sed lacrimae etiam obortae; et cum se quidem in potestate futurum imperatoris dixisset orassetque eum ut quantum res sineret fidei suae temere obstrictae consuleret—promisisse enim se in nullius potestatem eam traditurum—ex praetorio in tabernaculum suum confusus concessit. ibi arbitris remotis cum crebro suspiritu et gemitu, quod facile ab circumstantibus tabernaculum exaudiri posset, aliquantum temporis consumpsisset, ingenti ad postremum edito gemitu fidum e seruis unum uocat, sub cuius custodia regio more ad incerta fortunae uenenum erat, et mixtum in poculo ferre ad Sophonibam iubet ac simul nuntiare Masinissam libenter primam ei fidem praestaturum fuisse quam uir uxori debuerit: quoniam eius arbitrium qui possint adimant, secundam fidem praestare ne uiua in potestatem Romanorum ueniat. memor patris imperatoris patriaeque et duorum regum quibus nupta fuisset, sibi ipsa consuleret.
[15] As Masinissa was hearing these things, not only was a blush suffused over him, but tears also welled up; and when he said that he for his part would be in the power of the commander and had begged him to consider, so far as the matter allowed, his faith rashly pledged—for he had promised that he would hand her over into the power of no one—he withdrew in confusion from the praetorium to his own tent. There, the witnesses having been removed, after he had spent some time with frequent sighing and groaning, which could easily be heard by those standing around the tent, at last, with a huge groan uttered, he calls one trusty slave, under whose guard, in royal fashion, there was poison for the uncertainties of fortune, and he orders him to carry it, mixed in a cup, to Sophoniba and at the same time to announce that Masinissa would gladly have rendered to her the first fidelity which a husband owes to a wife: since those who have the power take away his discretion, he renders the second pledge—that she not, alive, come into the power of the Romans. Mindful of her father, the general, her fatherland, and of the two kings to whom she had been wed, let her take counsel for herself.
Hunc nuntium ac simul uenenum ferens minister cum ad Sophonibam uenisset, 'accipio' inquit 'nuptiale munus, neque ingratum, si nihil maius uir uxori praestare potuit. hoc tamen nuntia, melius me morituram fuisse si non in funere meo nupsissem.' non locuta est ferocius quam acceptum poculum nullo trepidationis signo dato impauide hausit. quod ubi nuntiatum est Scipioni, ne quid aeger animi ferox iuuenis grauius consuleret accitum eum extemplo nunc solatur, nunc quod temeritatem temeritate alia luerit tristioremque rem quam necesse fuerit fecerit leniter castigat.
The attendant, bearing this message and the poison at the same time, when he had come to Sophoniba, said, “I accept the nuptial gift, and not ungratefully, if the husband could render nothing greater to the wife. Yet announce this: I would have died better if I had not married at my own funeral.” She did not speak more fiercely than—having received the cup, giving no sign of trepidation—she undauntedly drained it. When this was reported to Scipio, lest the high‑spirited young man, sick at heart, resolve upon anything more severe, he was summoned straightway; now he consoles him, now he gently reproves him because he has paid rashness with another rashness and has made the matter sadder than was necessary.
On the next day, in order to turn his mind away from the present agitation, he mounted the tribunal and ordered an assembly to be called. There he, first styling Masinissa king and adorning him with exceptional praises, bestows a golden crown, a golden patera, a curule chair and an ivory staff, a toga picta and a palmata tunic. He adds honor in words: that among the Romans nothing is more magnificent than a triumph, nor for those triumphing is there a more ample adornment than that with which the Roman people deems Masinissa, alone of all foreigners, worthy.
[16] Scipio C. Laelio cum Syphace aliisque captiuis Romam misso, cum quibus et Masinissae legati profecti sunt, ipse ad Tyneta rursus castra refert et quae munimenta incohauerat permunit. Carthaginienses non breui solum sed prope uano gaudio ab satis prospera in praesens oppugnatione classis perfusi, post famam capti Syphacis in quo plus prope quam in Hasdrubale atque exercitu suo spei reposuerant perculsi, iam nullo auctore belli ultra audito oratores ad pacem petendam mittunt triginta seniorum principes; id erat sanctius apud illos consilium maximaque ad ipsum senatum regendum uis. qui ubi in castra Romana et in praetorium peruenerunt more adulantium—accepto, credo, ritu ex ea regione ex qua oriundi erant—procubuerunt.
[16] Scipio, with Gaius Laelius—who was sent to Rome with Syphax and other captives, with whom also envoys of Masinissa set out—himself carries the camp back again to Tyneta and thoroughly fortifies the defenses he had begun. The Carthaginians, suffused not only with brief but with almost empty joy from the at-present quite prosperous assault of the fleet, when the report came of Syphax taken—on whom they had placed almost more hope than on Hasdrubal and their own army—were struck; and with no advocate of further war now being listened to, they send envoys to seek peace, thirty chief men of the elders; that was among them the more sacred council and the greatest power for governing the senate itself. When they came to the Roman camp and to the praetorium, in the manner of flatterers—a rite, I believe, adopted from that region whence they had their origin—they fell prostrate.
their speech was consonant with such abject adulation, not of men purging their fault but of men transferring the inception of the blame onto Hannibal and the supporters of his power. They were seeking pardon for the city, twice now overthrown by the rashness of its citizens, to be unharmed again by the benefaction of its enemies; that the Roman people sought dominion from conquered enemies, not destruction; they were prepared to serve obediently—let him command what he would.
Scipio et uenisse ea spe in Africam se ait, et spem suam prospero belli euentu auctam, uictoriam se non pacem domum reportaturum esse; tamen cum uictoriam prope in manibus habeat, pacem non abnuere, ut omnes gentes sciant populum Romanum et suscipere iuste bella et finire. leges pacis se has dicere: captiuos et perfugas et fugitiuos restituant; exercitus ex Italia et Gallia deducant; Hispania abstineant; insulis omnibus quae inter Italiam atque Africam sint decedant; naues longas praeter uiginti omnes tradant, tritici quingenta, hordei trecenta milia modium.—pecuniae summam quantam imperauerit parum conuenit; alibi quinque milia talentum, alibi quinque milia pondo argenti, alibi duplex stipendium militibus imperatum inuenio.—'his condicionibus' inquit 'placeatne pax triduum ad consultandum dabitur. si placuerit, mecum indutias facite, Romam ad senatum mittite legatos.' ita dimissi Carthaginienses nullas recusandas condiciones pacis cum censuissent quippe qui moram temporis quaererent dum Hannibal in Africam traiceret, legatos alios ad Scipionem ut indutias facerent, alios Romam ad pacem petendam mittunt ducentes paucos in speciem captiuos perfugasque et fugitiuos quo impetrabilior pax esset.
Scipio says that he has come into Africa with this hope, and that his hope has been augmented by the prosperous event of the war, that he will carry home victory, not peace; nevertheless, though he has victory almost in his hands, he does not refuse peace, so that all nations may know that the Roman People both undertake wars justly and bring them to an end. He states these laws of peace: they shall restore captives and defectors and fugitives; they shall withdraw their armies from Italy and Gaul; they shall abstain from Spain; they shall depart from all the islands which are between Italy and Africa; they shall hand over all long ships except 20; of wheat 500,000, of barley 300,000 modii.—As to what sum of money he imposed, the accounts do not sufficiently agree; in one place I find 5,000 talents, elsewhere 5,000 pounds of silver, elsewhere a double stipend imposed upon the soldiers.—‘On these conditions,’ he says, ‘whether the peace is pleasing, three days will be given for consultation. If it shall be pleasing, make a truce with me; send envoys to Rome to the Senate.’ Thus dismissed, the Carthaginians—since they judged that no conditions of peace were to be refused, seeing that they were seeking a delay of time while Hannibal should cross into Africa—send some envoys to Scipio to make a truce, others to Rome to seek peace, leading a few captives and defectors and fugitives for show, in order that peace might be more readily obtained.
[17] Multis ante diebus Laelius cum Syphace primoribusque Numidarum captiuis Romam uenit quaeque in Africa gesta essent omnia ordine exposuit patribus ingenti hominum et in praesens laetitia et in futurum spe. consulti inde patres regem in custodiam Albam mittendum censuerunt, Laelium retinendum donec legati Carthaginienses uenirent. supplicatio in quadriduum decreta est.
[17] Many days earlier Laelius came to Rome with Syphax and the captured leading men of the Numidians, and he set forth in order to the Fathers all that had been done in Africa, with immense joy among men for the present and hope for the future. Then, the Fathers having been consulted, they resolved that the king be sent in custody to Alba, and that Laelius be kept until the Carthaginian envoys should come. A public supplication for four days was decreed.
P. Aelius, the praetor, the senate having been dismissed and an assembly then summoned, ascended the rostra with C. Laelius. There, indeed, on hearing that the armies of the Carthaginians had been routed, that a king of mighty name had been vanquished and captured, that all Numidia had been traversed by an excellent victory, they could not keep their joy in silence, but with shouts and with whatever other ways the multitude is wont to signify immoderate rejoicing. And so the praetor immediately proclaimed that the aeditui should open all the sacred shrines throughout the whole city, and that power be given to the people to go around and salute the gods and render thanks throughout the whole day.
Postero die legatos Masinissae in senatum introduxit. gratulati primum senatui sunt quod P. Scipio prospere res in Africa gessisset; deinde gratias egerunt quod Masinissam non appellasset modo regem sed fecisset restituendo in paternum regnum, in quo post Syphacem sublatum si ita patribus uisum esset sine metu et certamine esset regnaturus, dein conlaudatum pro contione amplissimis decorasset donis, quibus ne indignus esset et dedisse operam Masinissam et porro daturum esse. petere ut regium nomen ceteraque Scipionis beneficia et munera senatus decreto confirmaret; et, nisi molestum esset, illud quoque petere Masinissam, ut Numidas captiuos qui Romae in custodia essent remitterent; id sibi amplum apud populares futurum esse.
On the following day he introduced the envoys of Masinissa into the senate. First they offered congratulations to the senate because Publius Scipio had managed affairs prosperously in Africa; then they gave thanks because he had not only called Masinissa king but had made him so by restoring him to his paternal kingdom, in which, after Syphax had been removed, if it so seemed good to the Fathers, he was to reign without fear and contest; next, because, after praising him before the assembly, he had adorned him with the most ample gifts—of which Masinissa had taken pains not to be unworthy and would continue to do so hereafter. They asked that the royal title and the other benefactions and gifts of Scipio be confirmed by decree of the senate; and, unless it were troublesome, Masinissa also asked this besides: that they send back the Numidian captives who were in custody at Rome; that would be of great weight for him among his compatriots.
to this it was answered to the envoys that, for the deeds successfully accomplished in Africa, they shared a common congratulation with the king; that Scipio seemed to have done rightly and in due form in calling him king, and that whatever else he had done that would be pleasing to Masinissa, the Fathers approved and praised. They also decreed the gifts which the envoys should carry to the king: two purple military cloaks (sagula) with single golden brooches (fibulae) and tunics with the broad stripe (latus clavus), two horses adorned with trappings (phalerae), two sets of cavalry arms with cuirasses, and tents and military furnishings (supellectile) of the kind it was the custom to furnish to a consul. The praetor was ordered to send these to the king: to the envoys, gifts of not less than five thousand apiece; to their companions, one thousand <singulorum> of bronze coin; and two sets of clothing for each envoy, single sets for the companions and the Numidians, who, released from custody, were to be returned to the king; in addition, free lodgings and sumptuous accommodations were decreed to the envoys.
[18] Eadem aestate qua haec decreta Romae et in Africa gesta sunt P. Quinctilius Uarus praetor et M. Cornelius proconsul in agro Insubrum Gallorum cum Magone Poeno signis conlatis pugnarunt. praetoris legiones in prima acie fuerunt: Cornelius suas in subsidiis tenuit, ipse ad prima signa equo aduectus; proque duobus cornibus praetor ac proconsul milites ad inferenda in hostes signa summa ui hortabantur. postquam nihil commouebant, tum Quinctilius Cornelio: 'lentior, ut uides, fit pugna, et induratur praeter spem resistendo hostium timor, ac ne uertat in audaciam periculum est.
[18] In the same summer in which these things were decreed at Rome and done in Africa, P. Quinctilius Varus, praetor, and M. Cornelius, proconsul, fought with Mago the Carthaginian in the territory of the Insubrian Gauls in a pitched battle. The praetor’s legions were in the front line; Cornelius kept his in the reserves, he himself having ridden on horseback to the foremost standards; and before the two wings the praetor and the proconsul were urging the soldiers with the utmost force to bring the standards against the enemy. After they were effecting nothing, then Quinctilius said to Cornelius: 'The battle, as you see, is becoming slower, and the enemy’s fear is being hardened beyond expectation by their resistance, and there is a danger lest it turn into audacity.'
we must rouse up an equestrian tempest if we wish to throw them into confusion and move them from their standing. therefore either you sustain the battle at the foremost standards, and I will lead the horse into the fight; or I will conduct the matter here in the front line, and you send against the enemy the cavalry of the four legions.' with the praetor accepting whichever part of the duty the proconsul would prefer, Quinctilius the praetor, with his son—whose praenomen was Marcus—a brisk youth, goes to the cavalry and, having ordered them to mount their horses, suddenly launches them upon the enemy. the equestrian tumult was increased by a shout added from the legions, nor would the enemy’s battle-line have stood fast had not Mago, at the first movement of the horsemen, straightway brought into the battle the elephants that were ready; at whose screeching, smell, and sight the horses, terrified, made the equestrian aid vain.
And although, when the affair was in close mêlée, where he could use the spear-point and at hand-to-hand the sword, the Roman horseman was of greater robustness, yet with their horses carried off far away in panic the Numidians were hurling javelins better from a distance. At the same time the 12th legion of infantry, for the most part cut down, held its place more from shame than from strength; nor would it have held longer, had not the 13th legion, brought up from the reserves into the front line, taken over the doubtful battle. Mago also from the reserves set the Gauls against the intact legion.
with these routed in no great contest, the hastati of the Eleventh Legion massed themselves and charged the elephants, which were by now also throwing the infantry battle-line into disorder; against them, when they had hurled their pila into the packed bodies, with scarcely any cast sent in vain, they turned them all back into their own line; four, weighed down with wounds, collapsed. Then for the first time the enemy’s line was shaken, and at the same moment all the cavalry, when they saw the elephants turned back, were let loose to augment the panic and the tumult. But so long as Mago stood before the standards, while step by step they withdrew, they preserved their ranks and the tenor of the fight; after they saw him, his thigh transfixed, falling and being carried from the battle almost bloodless, straightway all turned to flight.
about 5,000 of the enemy were cut down that day, and 22 military standards were captured. nor was the victory bloodless for the Romans; 2,300 of the praetor’s army—by far the greater part from the 12th legion—were lost; and, in addition, two military tribunes, M. Cosconius and M. Maevius. of the 13th legion also, which had been present in the latter part of the battle, C. Helvius, a military tribune, fell while restoring the fight; and about 22 illustrious horsemen, crushed by the elephants, perished along with several centurions. and the contest would have lasted longer, had not victory been conceded by the wounding of the leader.
[19] Mago proximae silentio noctis profectus quantum pati uiae per uolnus poterat itineribus extentis ad mare in Ligures Ingaunos peruenit. ibi eum legati ab Carthagine paucis ante diebus in sinum Gallicum adpulsis nauibus adierunt, iubentes primo quoque tempore in Africam traicere; id et fratrem eius Hannibalem—nam ad eum quoque isse legatos eadem iubentes—facturum; non in eo esse Carthaginiensium res ut Galliam atque Italiam armis obtineant. Mago non imperio modo senatus periculoque patriae motus sed metuens etiam ne uictor hostis moranti instaret Liguresque ipsi relinqui Italiam a Poenis cernentes ad eos quorum mox in potestate futuri essent deficerent, simul sperans leniorem in nauigatione quam in uia iactationem uolneris fore et curationi omnia commodiora, impositis copiis in naues profectus uixdum superata Sardinia ex uolnere moritur.
[19] Mago, setting out in the near silence of night, with his marches extended, covered as much distance as his wound allowed and reached the sea among the Ligurian Ingauni. There envoys from Carthage, whose ships had touched at the Gallic Gulf a few days earlier, came to him, ordering him to cross into Africa at the earliest opportunity; his brother Hannibal too would do this—for envoys had gone to him as well with the same orders; the condition of Carthaginian affairs was not such that they could hold Gaul and Italy by arms. Mago, moved not only by the command of the senate and the peril of the fatherland but also fearing lest, if he delayed, the victorious enemy press upon him, and that the Ligurians themselves, seeing Italy abandoned by the Carthaginians, might defect to those in whose power they would soon be, and at the same time hoping that the tossing of his wound would be gentler in sailing than on the road and that everything would be more convenient for treatment, put his troops aboard the ships and set out; with Sardinia scarcely passed, he dies of the wound.
Consul C. Seruilius, nulla memorabili re in prouincia Etruria Galliaque—nam eo quoque processerat—gesta, patre C. Seruilio et C. Lutatio ex seruitute post sextum decimum annum receptis qui ad uicum Tannetum a Boiis capti fuerant, hinc patre hinc Catulo lateri circumdatis priuato magis quam publico decore insignis Romam rediit. latum ad populum est ne C. Seruilio fraudi esset quod patre qui sella curuli sedisset uiuo, cum id ignoraret, tribunus plebis atque aedilis plebis fuisset contra quam sanctum legibus erat. hac rogatione perlata in prouinciam rediit.
The consul Gaius Servilius, with nothing memorable accomplished in the province of Etruria and in Gaul—for he had advanced thither as well—having his father Gaius Servilius and Gaius Lutatius recovered from servitude after the sixteenth year, who had been captured by the Boii at the village of Tannetum, with on one side his father, on the other Catulus, arranged at his flank, returned to Rome distinguished by private rather than public decor. A bill was brought before the people that it should not be to the prejudice of Gaius Servilius that, with his father who had sat in the curule chair being alive—when he was unaware of it—he had been tribune of the plebs and aedile of the plebs, contrary to what had been sanctioned by the laws. With this rogation carried, he returned to his province.
Ad Cn. Seruilium consulem, qui in Bruttiis erat, Consentia Aufugum Bergae Baesidiae Ocriculum Lymphaeum Argentanum Clampetia multique alii ignobiles populi senescere Punicum bellum cernentes defecere. idem consul cum Hannibale in agro Crotoniensi acie conflixit. obscura eius pugnae fama est.
To Gnaeus Servilius the consul, who was in Bruttium, Consentia, Aufugum, Bergae, Baesidiae, Ocriculum, Lymphaeum, Argentanum, Clampetia, and many other undistinguished peoples, seeing the Punic War grow old, defected. The same consul engaged with Hannibal in pitched battle in the Crotonian territory. The report of that battle is obscure.
Valerius Antias says that five thousand of the enemy were slain—a matter so great that it was either shamelessly fabricated or negligently passed over. Certainly nothing further of consequence in Italy was done by Hannibal. For to him likewise there came legates from Carthage, recalling him to Africa, by chance in the same days on which they came to Mago.
[20] Frendens gemensque ac uix lacrimis temperans dicitur legatorum uerba audisse. postquam edita sunt mandata, 'iam non perplexe' inquit 'sed palam reuocant qui uetando supplementum et pecuniam mitti iam pridem retrahebant. uicit ergo Hannibalem non populus Romanus totiens caesus fugatusque sed senatus Carthaginiensis obtrectatione atque inuidia; neque hac deformitate reditus mei tam P. Scipio exsultabit atque efferet sese quam Hanno qui domum nostram quando alia re non potuit ruina Carthaginis oppressit.'
[20] Gnashing and groaning and scarcely restraining his tears, he is said to have listened to the envoys’ words. After the mandates were set forth, “Now not ambiguously,” he says, “but openly they recall me, they who, by forbidding that reinforcements and money be sent, had long since been drawing me back. Therefore Hannibal has been conquered not by the Roman people, so often cut down and routed, but by the Carthaginian senate through detraction and envy; nor at this disfigurement of my return will P. Scipio so much exult and exalt himself as Hanno, who, since he could not by any other means, has crushed our house by the ruin of Carthage.”
Iam hoc ipsum praesagiens animo praeparauerat ante naues. itaque inutili militum turba praesidii specie in oppida Bruttii agri quae pauca metu magis quam fide continebantur dimissa, quod roboris in exercitu erat in Africam transuexit, multis Italici generis, quia in Africam secuturos abnuentes concesserant in Iunonis Laciniae delubrum inuiolatum ad eam diem, in templo ipso foede interfectis. raro quemquam alium patriam exsilii causa relinquentem tam maestum abisse ferunt quam Hannibalem hostium terra excedentem; respexisse saepe Italiae litora, et deos hominesque accusantem in se quoque ac suum ipsius caput exsecratum quod non cruentum ab Cannensi uictoria militem Romam duxisset; Scipionem ire ad Carthaginem ausum qui consul hostem Poenum in Italia non uidisset: se, centum milibus armatorum ad Trasumennum ad Cannas caesis, circa Casilinum Cumasque et Nolam consenuisse.
Already foreboding this very thing in his mind, he had previously prepared the ships. And so, the useless crowd of soldiers, under the appearance of a garrison, was dismissed into the towns of the Bruttian land, which were held rather by fear than by faith; whatever was the strength in the army he transported into Africa, many of the Italian race—because, refusing to follow into Africa, they had withdrawn into the sanctuary of Juno Lacinia, inviolate to that day—being foully slain in the temple itself. They relate that rarely has anyone else leaving his homeland for the cause of exile departed so mournfully as Hannibal, as he withdrew from the land of the enemy; that he often looked back at the shores of Italy, and, accusing gods and men, even cursed himself and his own head because he had not led his soldier, blood-stained from the victory of Cannae, against Rome; that Scipio had dared to go to Carthage, he who as consul had not seen the Punic enemy in Italy; while he himself, after a hundred thousand armed men had been cut down at Trasimene and at Cannae, had grown old around Casilinum and Cumae and Nola.
[21] Romam per eosdem dies et Magonem et Hannibalem profectos allatum est. cuius duplicis gratulationis minuit laetitiam et quod parum duces in retinendis iis, cum id mandatum ab senatu esset, aut animi aut uirium habuisse uidebantur et quod solliciti erant omni belli mole in unum exercitum ducemque inclinata quo euasura esset res. per eosdem dies legati Saguntini uenerunt comprensos cum pecunia adducentes Carthaginienses qui ad conducenda auxilia in Hispaniam traiecissent.
[21] In those same days it was reported to Rome that both Mago and Hannibal had set out. The joy of this double congratulation was diminished both because the commanders seemed to have had too little either spirit or strength for detaining them, although that had been ordered by the senate, and because they were anxious as to how the matter would turn out, with the whole mass of the war having inclined upon one army and one leader. In those same days Saguntine envoys came, bringing in custody, along with the money, Carthaginians who had crossed over into Spain to hire auxiliaries.
Mentio deinde ab senioribus facta est segnius homines bona quam mala sentire; transitu in Italiam Hannibalis quantum terroris pauorisque esset meminisse; quas deinde clades, quos luctus incidisse. uisa castra hostium e muris urbis; quae uota singulorum uniuersorumque fuisse. quotiens in conciliis uoces manus ad caelum porrigentium auditas en unquam ille dies futurus esset quo uacuam hostibus Italiam bona pace florentem uisuri essent.
Then mention was made by the elders that men sense good things more sluggishly than bad; at Hannibal’s transit into Italy, to remember how much terror and fear there had been; what disasters thereafter, what griefs had fallen. The enemy’s camp had been seen from the walls of the city; what vows of individuals and of all together there had been. How often in councils voices were heard of those stretching their hands to heaven—lo, would that day ever come when they should see Italy empty of enemies, flourishing in good peace.
that the gods had granted this at last, only in the 16th year, and that there was no one who judged that thanks ought to be given to the gods; so far are men from kindly receiving even favor as it arrives, much less being sufficiently mindful of what has passed. Then from every part of the curia a shout was raised that P. Aelius the praetor should bring the matter before the house; and it was decreed that for five days there should be supplication around all the pulvinaria, and that 120 greater victims be immolated.
Iam dimisso Laelio legatisque Masinissae cum Carthaginiensium legatos de pace ad senatum uenientes Puteolis uisos inde terra uenturos allatum esset, reuocari C. Laelium placuit ut coram eo de pace ageretur. Q. Fuluius Gillo legatus Scipionis Carthaginienses Romam adduxit; quibus uetitis ingredi urbem hospitium in uilla publica, senatus ad aedem Bellonae datus est.
Now, after Laelius had been dismissed along with the envoys of Masinissa, when it had been reported that the envoys of the Carthaginians, coming to the senate about peace, had been seen at Puteoli and would come thence by land, it was resolved that Gaius Laelius be recalled so that negotiation about peace might be conducted in his presence. Quintus Fulvius Gillo, Scipio’s legate, brought the Carthaginians to Rome; and, since they were forbidden to enter the city, lodging was provided for them in the Public Villa, and the senate was convened at the Temple of Bellona.
[22] Orationem eandem ferme quam apud Scipionem habuerunt, culpam omnem belli a publico consilio in Hannibalem uertentes: eum iniussu senatus non Alpes modo sed Hiberum quoque transgressum, nec Romanis solum sed ante etiam Saguntinis priuato consilio bellum intulisse; senatui ac populo Carthaginiensi, si quis uere aestimet, foedus ad eam diem inuiolatum esse cum Romanis; itaque nihil aliud sibi mandatum esse uti peterent quam ut in ea pace quae postremo cum C. Lutatio facta esset manere liceret. cum more tradito [a] patribus potestatem interrogandi, si quis quid uellet, legatos praetor fecisset, senioresque qui foederibus interfuerant alia alii interrogarent, nec meminisse se per aetatem—etenim omnes ferme iuuenes erant— dicerent legati, conclamatum ex omni parte curiae est Punica fraude electos qui ueterem pacem repeterent cuius ipsi non meminissent.
[22] Almost the same oration as they had delivered to Scipio, transferring all the blame of the war from the public council onto Hannibal: that he, without the senate’s order, had crossed not only the Alps but also the Ebro, and by his private counsel had brought war not only upon the Romans but even earlier upon the Saguntines; that, if anyone should judge truly, the treaty down to that day had remained inviolated between the senate and people of Carthage and the Romans; and so nothing else had been enjoined upon them to request than that it be permitted to remain in that peace which had lastly been made with Gaius Lutatius. When, by traditional custom [a], the praetor had given to the fathers the power of questioning the envoys, if anyone wished, and the elders who had been present at the treaties were each asking different things, and the envoys said that they did not remember by reason of their age—for in fact almost all were young men—there was a shout from every part of the curia that by a Punic fraud men had been chosen to demand back the old peace, of which they themselves had no memory.
[23] Emotis deinde curia legatis sententiae interrogari coeptae. M. Liuius C. Seruilium consulem qui propior esset arcessendum ut coram eo de pace ageretur censebat; cum de re maiore quam quanta ea esset consultatio incidere non posset, non uideri sibi absente consulum altero ambobusue eam rem agi satis ex dignitate populi Romani esse. Q. Metellus, qui triennio ante consul dictatorque fuerat: cum P. Scipio caedendo exercitus agros populando in eam necessitatem hostes compulisset ut supplices pacem peterent, et nemo omnium uerius existimare posset qua mente ea pax peteretur quam qui ante portas Carthaginis bellum gereret, nullius alterius consilio quam Scipionis accipiendam abnuendamue pacem esse.
[23] Then, after the envoys had been removed from the Curia, opinions began to be asked. M. Livius judged that C. Servilius, the consul who was nearer, should be summoned, so that in his presence the matter of peace might be transacted; since no deliberation could occur about a matter greater than this was, it did not seem to him, with one or both of the consuls absent, that that affair was being conducted sufficiently in keeping with the dignity of the Roman people. Q. Metellus, who three years before had been consul and dictator: since P. Scipio, by cutting down armies and ravaging fields, had driven the enemies into such necessity that, as suppliants, they asked for peace, and no one of all could more truly estimate with what mind that peace was sought than he who was waging war before the gates of Carthage, the peace should be accepted or refused on the counsel of no one other than Scipio.
M. Valerius Laevinus, who had been consul twice, was arguing that not legates but spies had come, and that they must be ordered to depart from Italy and guards be sent with them as far as their ships, and that a letter should be written to Scipio not to relax the war. Laelius and Fulvius added that Scipio had placed his hope of peace on this: if Hannibal and Mago were not recalled from Italy; otherwise the Carthaginians would simulate everything, awaiting those leaders and their armies; then, though forgetful of the recent treaties and of all the gods, they would wage war. All the more the vote went with Laevinus’s proposal.
[24] Per eos dies Cn. Seruilius consul, haud dubius quin pacatae Italiae penes se gloria esset, uelut pulsum ab se Hannibalem persequens, in Siciliam, inde in Africam transiturus, traiecit. quod ubi Romae uolgatum est, primo censuerant patres ut praetor scriberet consuli senatum aequum censere in Italiam reuerti eum; dein, cum praetor spreturum eum litteras suas diceret, dictator ad id ipsum creatus P. Sulpicius pro iure maioris imperii consulem in Italiam reuocauit. reliquum anni cum M. Seruilio magistro equitum circumeundis in Italia urbibus quae bello alienatae fuerant noscendisque singularum causis consumpsit.
[24] During those days Gnaeus Servilius, consul, in no doubt that the glory of a pacified Italy was his, as though pursuing Hannibal driven off by himself, crossed over into Sicily, intending from there to pass into Africa. When this was bruited about at Rome, at first the Fathers decreed that the praetor should write to the consul that the senate deemed it fair that he return to Italy; then, since the praetor said he would spurn his letters, a dictator, Publius Sulpicius, was created for that very purpose, and by the right of the greater imperium he recalled the consul to Italy. He spent the remainder of the year with Marcus Servilius, master of horse, in going around the cities in Italy which had been alienated by the war and in learning the causes of each.
Per indutiarum tempus ex Sardinia a P. Lentulo praetore centum onerariae naues cum commeatu uiginti rostratarum praesidio, et ab hoste et ab tempestatibus mari tuto, in Africam transmiserunt. Cn. Octauio ducentis onerariis triginta longis nauibus ex Sicilia traicienti non eadem fortuna fuit. in conspectum ferme Africae prospero cursu uectum primo destituit uentus, deinde uersus in Africum turbauit ac passim naues disiecit.
During the time of the armistice, from Sardinia, with P. Lentulus as praetor, one hundred cargo ships with supplies, under the protection of twenty beaked warships, and with the sea safe both from the enemy and from storms, were sent across into Africa. To Cn. Octavius, crossing from Sicily with two hundred cargo ships and thirty long ships, the fortune was not the same. Carried on a favorable course almost into sight of Africa, first the wind failed him; then, turning into the Africus (southwest wind), it threw them into confusion and scattered the ships everywhere.
he himself, with the rostrate ships, having struggled through the adverse billows by the immense toil of the oarsmen, reached the Promontory of Apollo: the greatest part of the transports to the island Aegimurus—this closes off from the deep the bay in which Carthage is situated, almost thirty miles from the city—, others were borne toward the city itself to the Hot Waters. all things were in the sight of Carthage. and so from the whole city there was a running-together into the forum; the magistrates to call the senate: the people to roar in the vestibule of the curia lest so great a prey be lost from their eyes and hands.
when some were opposing the pledge of the peace that had been sought, others the pledge of the truce—since the day had not yet expired—, with the council of the Senate and People almost commingled, it was agreed that Hasdrubal should carry across to Aegimurum a fleet of fifty ships, and from there collect the Roman ships scattered along the shores and ports. The cargo-ships, deserted by the flight of the sailors, first from Aegimurum, then from the Aquae, were dragged to Carthage by their sterns.
[25] Nondum ab Roma reuerterant legati neque sciebatur quae senatus Romani de bello aut pace sententia esset, necdum indutiarum dies exierat; eo indigniorem iniuriam ratus Scipio ab iis qui petissent pacem et indutias et spem pacis et fidem indutiarum uiolatam esse, legatos Carthaginem L. Baebium L. Sergium L. Fabium extemplo misit. qui cum multitudinis concursu prope uiolati essent nec reditum tutiorem futurum cernerent, petierunt a magistratibus quorum auxilio uis prohibita erat ut naues mitterent quae se prosequerentur. datae triremes duae cum ad Bagradam flumen peruenissent unde castra Romana conspiciebantur Carthaginem rediere.
[25] The envoys had not yet returned from Rome, nor was it known what the opinion of the Roman senate was concerning war or peace, nor had the days of the truce yet expired; deeming it a more outrageous injury that by those who had sought peace and a truce both the hope of peace and the good faith of the truce had been violated, Scipio forthwith sent envoys to Carthage—L. Baebius, L. Sergius, L. Fabius. When they had been nearly assaulted by the concourse of the multitude and saw that their return would not be safer, they asked the magistrates, by whose aid the violence had been checked, to send ships to escort them. Two triremes were provided; when they had reached the river Bagradas, whence the Roman camp was in view, they returned to Carthage.
the Punic fleet was holding station at Utica. from it three quadriremes—either after a messenger had been secretly sent from Carthage that this be done, or with Hasdrubal, who commanded the fleet, daring the deed without public complicity—suddenly attacked from the deep a Roman quinquereme that was rounding the promontory. but they could neither strike it with the ram, as it slipped past beneath with speed, nor could the armed men leap from the lower vessels onto the higher ship; and it was splendidly defended so long as missiles were supplied.
and with their missiles now failing, no other resource could have protected her than the proximity of the land and the multitude poured out from the camp onto the shore. For when they had driven her, urged by oars with the greatest impetus they could, into the land, with only the loss of the ship incurred they themselves escaped unharmed. Thus, with crime piled upon crime and the truce without doubt broken, Laelius and Fulvius from Rome arrived together with the Carthaginian envoys.
to which Scipio, although not only the good faith of the truce had been violated by the Carthaginians but even the law of nations in the persons of the legates, nevertheless said that he would do nothing toward them unworthy either of the institutions of the Roman people or of his own customs; after dismissing the legates, he prepared for war.
Hannibali iam terrae adpropinquanti iussus e nauticis unus escendere in malum ut specularetur quam tenerent regionem cum dixisset sepulcrum dirutum proram spectare, abominatus praeteruehi iusso gubernatore ad Leptim adpulit classem atque ibi copias exposuit.
Hannibal, now approaching land, when one of the sailors had been ordered to climb up the mast to reconnoiter what region they were holding, and had said that a ruined sepulchre faced the prow, abominating to sail past, the helmsman having been ordered, brought the fleet in to Leptis and there put his forces ashore.
[26] Haec eo anno in Africa gesta; insequentia excedunt in eum annum quo M. Seruilius Geminus, qui tum magister equitum erat, et Ti. Claudius Nero consules facti sunt. ceterum exitus superioris anni cum legati sociarum urbium ex Graecia questi essent uastatos agros ab regiis praesidiis profectosque in Macedoniam legatos ad res repetendas non admissos ad Philippum regem, simul nuntiassent quattuor milia militum cum Sopatro duce traiecta in Africam dici ut essent Carthaginiensibus praesidio et pecuniae aliquantum una missum, legatos ad regem qui haec aduersus foedus facta uideri patribus nuntiarent mittendos censuit senatus. missi C. Terentius Uarro C. Mamilius M. Aurelius; iis tres quinqueremes datae.
[26] These things were done in Africa in that year; the subsequent events carry over into the year in which M. Servilius Geminus, who then was master of the horse, and Tiberius Claudius Nero were made consuls. Moreover, at the close of the previous year, when envoys of the allied cities from Greece had complained that their fields had been ravaged by royal garrisons and that envoys sent into Macedonia to demand restitution had not been admitted to King Philip, and at the same time had reported that four thousand soldiers under the leader Sopater had been ferried across into Africa—said to be so that they might be a protection for the Carthaginians—and that some amount of money had been sent along together, the senate resolved that envoys should be sent to the king to announce that these acts seemed to the Fathers to have been done against the treaty. Gaius Terentius Varro, Gaius Mamilius, and Marcus Aurelius were sent; to them three quinqueremes were given.
Annus insignis incendio ingenti, quo cliuus Publicius ad solum exustus est, et aquarum magnitudine, sed annonae uilitate fuit, praeterquam quod pace omnis Italia erat aperta, etiam quod magnam uim frumenti ex Hispania missam M. Ualerius Falto et M. Fabius Buteo aediles curules quaternis aeris uicatim populo discripserunt.
The year was notable for a huge conflagration, by which the Clivus Publicius was burned down to the ground, and for the magnitude of the waters; yet it was marked by the cheapness of the grain-supply, not only because all Italy was open in peace, but also because a great quantity of grain sent from Hispania was distributed by the curule aediles M. Valerius Falto and M. Fabius Buteo to the people, ward by ward, at four asses.
eodem anno Q. Fabius Maximus moritur, exactae aetatis si quidem uerum est augurem duos et sexaginta annos fuisse, quod quidam auctores sunt. uir certe fuit dignus tanto cognomine uel si nouum ab eo inciperet. superauit paternos honores, auitos aequauit.
in the same year Q. Fabius Maximus dies, of a completed span of life, if indeed it is true that he was augur for sixty-two years, as certain authors assert. He was certainly a man worthy of so great a cognomen, even if it were to begin anew from him. He surpassed his paternal honors; he equaled his ancestral ones.
by more victories and greater battles his grandsire Rullus was distinguished; but one enemy, Hannibal, can equal all. yet he was regarded as more cautious than prompt; and just as you might doubt whether he was a “delayer” by nature, or because such a course was apt for the war that was then being waged, so nothing is more certain than that one man, by delaying, restored the commonwealth to us, as Ennius says. as augur in his place his son Q. Fabius Maximus was inaugurated; in the same man’s place as pontifex—for he held two priesthoods—Ser.
whether the elections of that year were held by Gaius Servilius, the consul, or—because affairs in Etruria detained him, as he was conducting investigations, by decree of the senate, concerning conspiracies of the leading men—by the dictator named by him, Publius Sulpicius, different authors make uncertain.
[27] Principio insequenti anni M. Seruilius et Ti. Claudius senatu in Capitolium uocato de prouinciis rettulerunt. Italiam atque Africam in sortem conici, Africam ambo cupientes, uolebant; ceterum Q. Metello maxime adnitente neque negata neque data est Africa. consules iussi cum tribunis plebis agere ut, si iis uideretur, populum rogarent quem uellet in Africa bellum gerere.
[27] At the beginning of the next year, M. Servilius and Ti. Claudius, the senate having been summoned to the Capitol, reported concerning the provinces. They wished Italy and Africa to be cast into the lot, both desiring Africa; however, with Q. Metellus especially pressing, Africa was neither denied nor granted. The consuls were ordered to deal with the tribunes of the plebs, that, if it seemed good to them, they should ask the people whom they wished to conduct the war in Africa.
All the tribes ordered P. Scipio. None the less the consuls cast the province of Africa— for so the senate had decreed— into the lot. To Ti. Claudius Africa fell, that he should carry across to Africa a fleet of 50 ships, all quinqueremes, and that he should be commander with equal imperium with P. Scipio: M. Servilius drew Etruria by lot.
In the same province the imperium of C. Servilius too was prorogued, if it should have pleased the senate that the consul remain at the city. The praetors: M. Sextius drew Gaul, with the provision that P. Quinctilius Varus hand over to him the two legions and the province; C. Livius drew Bruttium with the two legions which P. Sempronius, proconsul, had commanded the previous year; Cn. Tremelius drew Sicily, to receive from P. Villius Tappulus, praetor of the previous year, the province and two legions. Villius, as propraetor, was to protect the coast of Sicily with twenty long ships and one thousand soldiers; M. Pomponius, with the remaining twenty ships, was to carry back to Rome one thousand five hundred soldiers. The urban jurisdiction fell to C. Aurelius Cotta.
for the rest, the commands were prorogued in such a way that each man retained the provinces and armies he was holding. In that year the empire was defended by no more than sixteen legions. And, that with the gods placated they might begin and conduct everything, the games which, when M. Claudius Marcellus and T. Quinctius were consuls, T. Manlius, dictator, had vowed—and the greater victims—if for a five-year period the republic had remained in the same condition, were to be celebrated by the consuls before they set out for war.
[28] Inter haec simul spes simul cura in dies crescebat nec satis certum constare apud animos poterat utrum gaudio dignius esset Hannibalem post sextum decimum annum ex Italia decedentem uacuam possessionem eius reliquisse populo Romano, an magis metuendum quod incolumi exercitu in Africam transisset: locum nimirum non periculum mutatum; cuius tantae dimicationis uatem qui nuper decessisset Q. Fabium haud frustra canere solitum grauiorem in sua terra futurum hostem Hannibalem quam in aliena fuisset. nec Scipioni aut cum Syphace inconditae barbariae rege, cui Statorius semilixa ducere exercitus solitus sit, aut cum socero eius Hasdrubale fugacissimo duce rem futuram, aut <cum> tumultuariis exercitibus ex agrestium semermi turba subito conlectis, sed cum Hannibale, prope nato in praetorio patris fortissimi ducis, alito atque educato inter arma, puero quondam milite, uixdum iuuene imperatore, qui senex uincendo factus Hispanias Gallias Italiam ab Alpibus ad fretum monumentis ingentium rerum complesset. ducere exercitum aequalem stipendiis suis, duratum omnium rerum patientia quas uix fides fiat homines passos, perfusum miliens cruore Romano, exuuias non militum tantum sed etiam imperatorum portantem.
[28] Meanwhile both hope and care at once were growing day by day, nor could it be made sufficiently certain in men’s minds whether it were more worthy of joy that Hannibal, departing from Italy after the 16th year, had left the empty possession of it to the Roman people, or rather more to be feared that, with his army unscathed, he had crossed into Africa: assuredly the place, not the peril, was changed; and that the seer of so great a trial, Quintus Fabius, who had lately departed, had not in vain been wont to chant that Hannibal would be a heavier enemy on his own soil than he had been on another’s. Nor would Scipio have a matter either with Syphax, a king of unformed barbarity, under whom Statorius, a camp‑servant, was wont to lead armies, nor with his father‑in‑law Hasdrubal, the most flight‑prone commander, nor with tumultuary armies suddenly gathered from a half‑armed mob of rustics; but with Hannibal—well‑nigh born in the praetorium of his most valiant father, nourished and brought up among arms, once as a boy a soldier, scarcely a young man a general; who, made old by conquering, had filled Spain, Gaul, and Italy from the Alps to the Strait with monuments of mighty deeds. He led an army equal to himself in years of service, hardened by endurance of every kind, such as one can scarcely credit men to have borne, drenched a thousand times in Roman blood, and carrying spoils not only of soldiers but even of generals.
many would confront Scipio in the battle line—men who had with their own hand slain Roman praetors, imperators, and consuls, distinguished by mural and vallary crowns, who had ranged through captured Roman camps and captured cities. there were not today so many fasces for the magistrates of the Roman people as Hannibal could bear before him, taken as trophies from the slaughter of imperators. by stirring up these terrors in their minds they themselves were increasing their cares and fears, also because, since they had grown accustomed for several years to carry on the war before their eyes in one and then another part of Italy, with a slow hope toward no near end of bringing it to a conclusion, Scipio and Hannibal had raised everyone’s spirits, as though the leaders were prepared for a final contest.
Even for those who had immense confidence in Scipio and a hope of victory, the more near and imminent it hung upon their minds, the more intent grew their anxieties. Not unlike was the disposition of the Carthaginians, who now, looking at Hannibal and the magnitude of his deeds, regretted that they had sought peace; now again, when they looked back on their being twice defeated in pitched battle, on Syphax captured, on themselves driven from Spain, driven from Italy, and on all these things accomplished by the virtue and counsel of Scipio alone, they shuddered at him as a fated leader born for their destruction.
[29] Iam Hadrumetum peruenerat Hannibal; unde, ad reficiendum ex iactatione maritima militem paucis diebus sumptis, excitus pauidis nuntiis omnia circa Carthaginem obtineri armis adferentium magnis itineribus Zamam contendit.—Zama quinque dierum iter ab Carthagine abest.— inde praemissi speculatores cum excepti ab custodibus Romanis deducti ad Scipionem essent, traditos eos tribuno militum, iussosque omisso metu uisere omnia, per castra qua uellent circumduci iussit; percontatusque satin per commodum omnia explorassent, datis qui prosequerentur retro ad Hannibalem dimisit. Hannibal nihil quidem eorum quae nuntiabantur—nam et Masinissam cum sex milibus peditum quattuor equitum uenisse eo ipso forte die adferebant—laeto animo audiuit, maxime hostis fiducia, quae non de nihilo profecto concepta esset, perculsus. itaque quamquam et ipse causa belli erat et aduentu suo turbauerat et pactas indutias et spem foederum, tamen si integer quam si uictus peteret pacem aequiora impetrari posse ratus, nuntium ad Scipionem misit ut conloquendi secum potestatem faceret.—id utrum sua sponte fecerit an publico consilio, neutrum cur adfirmem habeo.
[29] By now Hannibal had reached Hadrumetum; from there, after taking a few days to refurbish the soldiery from the tossing of the sea, roused by timid reports bringing word that everything around Carthage was being held by arms, he hastened by great (forced) marches to Zama.—Zama is a five days’ march distant from Carthage.—Then, when the scouts sent ahead had been seized by Roman guards and brought to Scipio, he ordered them handed over to a military tribune, and, having bade them set aside fear and inspect everything, he ordered them to be led around through the camp wherever they wished; and having inquired whether they had explored everything sufficiently and conveniently, he assigned men to escort them and sent them back to Hannibal. Hannibal, indeed, heard none of the things that were being reported—with a glad spirit—for they were also bringing word that Masinissa had come, by chance on that very day, with 6,000 foot and 4,000 horse—being most of all struck by the enemy’s confidence, which surely had not been conceived out of nothing. And so, although he himself was the cause of the war and by his arrival had disturbed both the agreed truces and the hope of treaties, yet thinking that, if he should seek peace while still intact rather than as conquered, more equitable terms could be obtained, he sent a messenger to Scipio to grant him the power of conferring with him.—Whether he did this of his own accord or by public counsel, I have no reason to affirm either.
Ceterum Scipio cum conloquium haud abnuisset, ambo ex composito duces castra protulerunt ut coire ex propinquo possent. Scipio haud procul Naraggara urbe cum ad cetera loco opportuno tum quod aquatio intra teli coniectum erat consedit. Hannibal tumulum a quattuor milibus inde, tutum commodumque alioqui nisi quod longinquae aquationis erat, cepit.
However, since Scipio had not refused a colloquy, the two commanders, by pre-arrangement, advanced their camps so that they might be able to meet at close quarters. Scipio encamped not far from the city of Naraggara, in a position advantageous in other respects and also because the watering-place was within missile range. Hannibal seized a hill four miles from there, otherwise safe and convenient, except that the watering was at a long distance.
[30] Summotis pari spatio armatis, cum singulis interpretibus congressi sunt, non suae modo aetatis maximi duces sed omnis ante se memoriae omnium gentium cuilibet regum imperatorumue pares. paulisper alter alterius conspectu, admiratione mutua prope attoniti, conticuere; tum Hannibal prior: 'si hoc ita fato datum erat ut qui primus bellum intuli populo Romano, quique totiens prope in manibus uictoriam habui, is ultro ad pacem petendam uenirem, laetor te mihi sorte potissimum datum a quo peterem. tibi quoque inter multa egregia non in ultimis laudum hoc fuerit Hannibalem cui tot de Romanis ducibus uictoriam di dedissent tibi cessisse, teque huic bello uestris prius quam nostris cladibus insigni finem imposuisse.
[30] With the armed men withdrawn at an equal distance, they met, each with a single interpreter—commanders the greatest not only of their own age, but, of all before them, of all nations, equals to any kings or generals. For a little while, at the sight of one another, almost thunderstruck by mutual admiration, they fell silent; then Hannibal first: 'If it was thus given by fate that I, who first brought war upon the Roman people, and who so often had victory almost in my hands, should of my own accord come to seek peace, I rejoice that you have been given me by lot above all men, from whom I might seek it. For you also, among many distinguished deeds, this will be no last among your praises: that Hannibal, to whom the gods had granted victory over so many Roman commanders, has yielded to you, and that you have set a limit to this war, marked by your disasters rather than ours.'
Fortune has produced this mockery of chance also: that, when your father was consul, I took up arms; that with that same man I first joined standards with a Roman commander; that I should come to his son unarmed to seek peace. It would indeed have been best if that disposition had been given by the gods to our fathers, that both you should be content with dominion over Italy and we with dominion over Africa; for neither are Sicily and Sardinia even for you prizes worthy enough for so many fleets, so many armies, so many most distinguished leaders lost; but things past can be blamed more than corrected. So greedily have we coveted what was another’s that we fought about what was our own, and not only was there war for us in Italy and for you in Africa; but both you saw the standards and arms of the enemy near your own gates and walls, and we from Carthage heard the roar of the Roman camps.
Therefore that which we would most abominate, and you would before all things opt for, is being treated of—peace, in your better fortune. We are the agents, we whose interest most it is that there be peace, and whose states will hold as ratified whatever we shall have transacted: we need only a spirit not abhorrent from counsels of quiet.
'Quod ad me attinet, iam aetas senem in patriam reuertentem unde puer profectus sum, iam secundae, iam aduersae res ita erudierunt ut rationem sequi quam fortunam malim: tuam et adulescentiam et perpetuam felicitatem, ferociora utraque quam quietis opus est consiliis, metuo. non temere incerta casuum reputat quem fortuna nunquam decepit. quod ego fui ad Trasumennum, ad Cannas, id tu hodie es. uixdum militari aetate imperio accepto omnia audacissime incipientem nusquam fefellit fortuna.
'As far as concerns me, now my age—an old man returning to my fatherland whence as a boy I set out—now favorable, now adverse circumstances have so educated me that I would prefer to follow reason rather than fortune: your youth and your perpetual felicity—I fear them both, each more fierce than counsels of quiet have need of. He upon whom Fortune has never deceived does not readily reckon the uncertainties of chance. What I was at Trasimene, at Cannae, that you are today. Hardly yet of military age, having received a command and beginning everything with the utmost audacity, Fortune has nowhere failed you.
having avenged the death of your father and your paternal uncle, you seized from the calamity of your house a distinguished glory of virtue and of exceptional piety; you recovered the lost Spains, with four Punic armies driven thence; created consul, when among the rest there was too little spirit for safeguarding Italy, you crossed over into Africa, with two armies here cut down, with two camps captured at the same hour and simultaneously burned, with Syphax, a most powerful king, taken, with so many cities of his kingdom, so many of our empire, snatched away, you have dragged me down, who for the 16th year had been clinging in the possession of Italy. a spirit can prefer victory to peace. I know high spirits, great rather than useful; and such fortune has at times shone upon me also.
If, in prosperous circumstances, the gods also gave a good mind, we would reckon not only the things that have happened but even those that could happen. That you may forget all others, I am myself sufficient proof for every contingency—you who but now saw me, with the camp pitched between the Anio and your city, bearing in the standards and now almost scaling the Roman walls; here you behold me bereft of two brothers, most brave men, most illustrious commanders, before the walls of a fatherland almost besieged—by whose aid I terrified your city, now pleading to avert those same things on behalf of my own.
'Maximae cuique fortunae minime credendum est. in bonis tuis rebus, nostris dubiis, tibi ampla ac speciosa danti est pax, nobis petentibus magis necessaria quam honesta. melior tutiorque est certa pax quam sperata uictoria; haec in tua, illa in deorum manu est.
'One should trust least in the highest fortune. In your good circumstances, in our doubtful ones, to you as the giver peace is ample and specious; to us as the seekers it is more necessary than honorable. A certain peace is better and safer than a hoped-for victory; the former is in your hand, the latter in the gods’ hand.
do not give the felicity of so many years into the peril of a single hour. set before your mind both your own forces and the force of Fortune and the common Mars of war; on both sides there will be iron, on both sides human bodies; nowhere do outcomes answer less than in war. not so much to that which, with peace granted, you can already have, if you win in battle, will you add of glory, as much as you will have <subtracted>, if anything adverse should occur.
at once the fortune of a single hour can overturn honors both achieved and hoped for. all things to be joined in peace are within your power, P. Cornelius: then that fortune will have to be had which the gods shall have given. among the few examples of felicity and virtue M. Atilius once would have been in this same land, if, as victor, he had given peace to our fathers when they were seeking it; but by not setting a limit to felicity nor restraining fortune as she was carrying herself extravagantly, the higher he was borne aloft, by so much the more foully he fell.
'It does indeed belong to him who grants, not to him who seeks, to dictate the conditions of peace; but perhaps we are not unworthy to mulct ourselves. We do not refuse that all the things on account of which the war was undertaken be yours—Sicily, Sardinia, Spain, whatever islands are contained in the whole sea between Africa and Italy; let us Carthaginians, confined to the shores of Africa, see you—since it has so pleased the gods—ruling with imperium over foreign lands by land and sea. I would not deny that, because the peace lately was not sought or awaited with very great sincerity, Punic faith is suspect to you: much depends, for maintaining the good faith of peace, on those by whom it is sought, Scipio—your senators too, as I hear, refused peace in some measure even for this reason, that there was too little dignity in the embassy. I, Hannibal, ask for peace—I who would not ask, unless I believed it useful—and for the same utility I will protect that for which I asked; and just as, since the war was begun by me, I took care that no one should repent of it so long as the gods themselves did not begin to begrudge us, so will I strive that no one repent of the peace brought about through me.'
[31] Aduersus haec imperator Romanus in hanc fere sententiam respondit: 'non me fallebat, Hannibal, aduentus tui spe Carthaginienses et praesentem indutiarum fidem et spem pacis turbasse; neque tu id sane dissimulas qui de condicionibus superioribus pacis omnia subtrahas praeter ea quae iam pridem in nostra potestate sunt. ceterum ut tibi curae est sentire ciues tuos quanto per te onere leuentur, sic mihi laborandum est ne quae tum pepigerunt hodie subtracta ex condicionibus pacis praemia perfidiae habeant. indigni quibus eadem pateat condicio, etiam ut prosit uobis fraus petitis.
[31] Against these things the Roman imperator replied to this effect: 'It did not escape me, Hannibal, that by the hope of your arrival the Carthaginians have disturbed both the present good faith of the armistice and the hope of peace; nor, indeed, do you disguise this, you who subtract from the earlier conditions of peace everything except those things which long since have been in our power. But as it is your concern to perceive how greatly your citizens are lightened of burden through you, so I must labor lest the things which they then stipulated, being today withdrawn from the conditions of peace, become rewards of perfidy. Unworthy that the same condition should be open to you, you even petition that fraud should be to your advantage.'
neither did our earlier fathers make war over Sicily nor did we over Spain; and then the peril of our allies the Mamertines, and now the destruction of Saguntum, put upon us pious and just arms. you were the aggressors—this you yourself confess—and the gods are witnesses, who gave the outcome of that war according to right and divine law, and of this one are giving and will give.
'Quod ad me attinet, et humanae infirmitatis memini et uim fortunae reputo et omnia quaecumque agimus subiecta esse mille casibus scio; ceterum quemadmodum superbe et uiolenter me faterer facere si priusquam in Africam traiecissem te tua uoluntate cedentem Italia et imposito in naues exercitu ipsum uenientem ad pacem petendam aspernarer, sic nunc cum prope manu conserta restitantem ac tergiuersantem in Africam attraxerim nulla sum tibi uerecundia obstrictus. proinde si quid ad ea in quae tum pax conuentura uidebatur, quasi multa nauium cum commeatu per indutias expugnatarum legatorumque uiolatorum, adicitur, est quod referam ad consilium: sin illa quoque grauia uidentur, bellum parate quoniam pacem pati non potuistis.' ita infecta pace ex conloquio ad suos cum se recepissent, frustra uerba temptata renuntiant: armis decernendum esse habendamque eam fortunam quam di dedissent.
'As for me, I both remember human infirmity and reckon the force of Fortune, and I know that all the things whatsoever we do are subject to a thousand contingencies; but just as I would confess I acted haughtily and violently if, before I had crossed into Africa, when you, of your own will, were withdrawing from Italy and, your army put aboard ships, you yourself were coming to seek peace, I had spurned you—so now, since I have dragged you into Africa, resisting and tergiversating, with the battle almost joined, I am bound to you by no shame. Accordingly, if anything is added to those terms on which peace then seemed likely to be agreed—as if many ships with convoy had been stormed during the truce and envoys violated—there is something I shall refer to the council; but if even those terms seem heavy, prepare for war, since you have not been able to endure peace.' Thus, the peace being left unaccomplished, when from the conference they had returned to their own, they report that words had been tried in vain: that the issue must be decided by arms, and that the fortune must be borne which the gods had given.
[32] In castra ut est uentum, pronuntiant ambo arma expedirent milites animosque ad supremum certamen, non in unum diem sed in perpetuum, si felicitas adesset, uictores. Roma an Carthago iura gentibus daret ante crastinam noctem scituros; neque enim Africam aut Italiam sed orbem terrarum uictoriae praemium fore; par periculum praemio quibus aduersa pugnae fortuna fuisset. nam neque Romanis effugium ullum patebat in aliena ignotaque terra, et Carthagini, supremo auxilio effuso, adesse uidebatur praesens excidium.
[32] When they came into camp, both proclaimed that the soldiers should ready their arms and their spirits for the supreme contest—victors not for one day but in perpetuity, if felicity were present. They would know before tomorrow’s night whether Rome or Carthage would give laws to the nations; for the prize of victory would be not Africa or Italy, but the orb of the world; equal would be the danger to the prize for those to whom the fortune of the fight should prove adverse. For to the Romans no escape lay open in a foreign and unknown land, and for Carthage, with the last aid poured out, present destruction seemed to be at hand.
To this crisis on the next day there advance the two by far most illustrious leaders of two most opulent peoples, the two most valiant armies, to heap up that day many honors previously won or to overthrow them. Therefore a double-edged hope and fear were mingling their minds; and as they gazed now on their own, now on the enemy’s battle-line, when they weighed the forces more with their eyes than with reason, joyful and sad prospects alike stood before them: what did not of itself occur to them, the commanders by reminding and exhorting supplied. The Punic leader recounted the deeds of sixteen years in the land of Italy, so many Roman commanders, so many armies cut down in slaughter, and, whenever he came to a soldier with the memory of some notable battle, he would recall to each his own honors; Scipio recalled the Spains and the recent battles in Africa and the confession of the enemy, that they had been unable not to seek peace because of fear nor to remain in it on account of perfidy implanted in their souls.
In addition, he twists the conference of Hannibal held in secret, and—freely inventing—he bends it as he wishes. He prophesies that the gods have portended to them, as they go forth into the battle line, the same auspices under which their fathers once fought at the Aegates Islands. The end of war and toil is at hand; the booty of Carthage is in their hands; a return home to their fatherland, to parents, children, wives, and the household gods, the Penates.
[33] Non confertas autem cohortes ante sua quamque signa instruebat sed manipulos aliquantum inter se distantes ut esset spatium qua elephanti hostium acti nihil ordines turbarent. Laelium, cuius ante legati, eo anno quaestoris extra sortem ex senatus consulto opera utebatur, cum Italico equitatu ab sinistro cornu, Masinissam Numidasque ab dextro opposuit. uias patentes inter manipulos antesignanorum uelitibus—ea tunc leuis armatura erat—compleuit, dato praecepto ut ad impetum elephantorum aut post directos refugerent ordines aut in dextram laeuamque discursu applicantes se antesignanis uiam qua inruerent in ancipitia tela beluis darent.
[33] He did not draw up packed cohorts before each their own standards, but maniples somewhat spaced apart from one another, so that there might be room where the enemy’s elephants, when driven forward, would not throw the ranks into confusion. He posted Laelius—whose services he had formerly used as legate, and in that year, by decree of the senate, as quaestor extra sortem—with the Italian cavalry on the left wing, and Masinissa and the Numidians on the right. The open lanes between the maniples of the front-rankers (antesignani) he filled with velites—that was then the light-armed—giving the order that, at the elephants’ charge, they should either fall back behind the formed ranks, or, by running to right and left and attaching themselves to the front-rankers, give the beasts a way along which they might rush into weapons threatening them on both sides.
Hannibal ad terrorem primos elephantos—octoginta autem erant, quot nulla unquam in acie ante habuerat— instruxit, deinde auxilia Ligurum Gallorumque, Baliaribus Maurisque admixtis: in secunda acie Carthaginienses Afrosque et Macedonum legionem: modico deinde interuallo relicto subsidiariam aciem Italicorum militum—Bruttii plerique erant, ui ac necessitate plures quam sua uoluntate decedentem ex Italia secuti—instruxit. equitatum et ipse circumdedit cornibus; dextrum Carthaginienses, sinistrum Numidae tenuerunt. uaria adhortatio erat in exercitu inter tot homines quibus non lingua, non mos, non lex, non arma, non uestitus habitusque, non causa militandi eadem esset.
Hannibal, for terror, arrayed the elephants first—there were eighty of them, moreover, as many as he had never before had in any battle-line— then the auxiliaries of Ligurians and Gauls, with Balearics and Moors mixed in: in the second line the Carthaginians and Africans and a legion of Macedonians: after leaving then a moderate interval he drew up a subsidiary battle-line of Italian soldiers—the greater part were Bruttians, who had followed him as he was departing from Italy more by force and necessity than by their own will. He too surrounded the wings with cavalry; the Carthaginians held the right, the Numidians the left. Varied exhortation was in the army among so many men for whom neither language, nor custom, nor law, nor arms, nor dress and appearance, nor the cause of soldiering was the same.
to the auxiliaries both immediate pay and pay multiplied from the booty is displayed: the Gauls are inflamed by their own and inbred hatred against the Romans: to the Ligurians, led down from the roughest mountains, the fertile fields of Italy are displayed, held out as a hope of victory: the Moors and Numidians are terrified by the unbridled future dominion of Masinissa: to some men one set of hopes and fears, to others another, are bandied about. To the Carthaginians the walls of the fatherland, the household gods, the tombs of their ancestors, children with their parents and fearful wives, and either destruction and slavery or empire over the whole world—with nothing middle either for fear or for hope—are displayed.
Cum maxime haec imperator apud Carthaginienses, duces suarum gentium inter populares, pleraque per interpretes inter immixtos alienigenis agerent, tubae cornuaque ab Romanis cecinerunt, tantusque clamor ortus ut elephanti in suos, sinistrum maxime cornu, uerterentur, Mauros ac Numidas. addidit facile Masinissa perculsis terrorem nudauitque ab ea parte aciem equestri auxilio. paucae tamen bestiarum intrepidae in hostem actae inter uelitum ordines cum multis suis uolneribus ingentem stragem edebant.
At the very moment when the commander among the Carthaginians, and the leaders of their nations among their commons, were conducting these matters—most of them through interpreters amid men intermixed with aliens—the trumpets and horns from the Romans blared, and so great a clamor arose that the elephants turned upon their own, especially upon the left wing, the Moors and the Numidians. Masinissa easily added terror to the stricken and bared the battle line on that side with cavalry support. A few, however, of the beasts, undaunted, driven against the enemy through the ranks of the velites, with many wounds of their own, were dealing out immense slaughter.
for the velites, springing back to the maniples, since they had made a path for the elephants so that they not be crushed, were hurling spears at them from both sides, now that they stood exposed to the blow on either flank; nor did the pila cease from the antesignani (front‑rankers), until, with missiles falling upon them from every side and driven out of the Roman battle‑line, these too on their own right wing turned to flight the very cavalry of the Carthaginians. Laelius, when he saw the enemy disordered, added terror to the stricken.
[34] Utrimque nudata equite erat Punica acies cum pedes concurrit, nec spe nec uiribus iam par. ad hoc dictu parua sed magna eadem in re gerenda momenta: congruens clamor ab Romanis eoque maior et terribilior, dissonae illis, ut gentium multarum discrepantibus linguis, uoces; pugna Romana stabilis et suo et armorum pondere incumbentium in hostem, concursatio et uelocitas illinc maior quam uis. igitur primo impetu extemplo mouere loco hostium aciem Romani.
[34] On both flanks the Punic battle-line was stripped of cavalry when the infantry engaged, and now it was not equal either in hope or in strength. In addition, things small to say but of great moment in the conduct of the same affair: a harmonious clamor from the Romans—and therefore greater and more terrible; from them, as of many nations with discrepant tongues, discordant voices. The Roman fighting was steady, bearing down upon the enemy with both their own weight and the weight of their arms; on that side it was more a rushing about and speed than force. Therefore, at the first onset the Romans straightway dislodged the enemy’s line from its position.
then the wing, pounding with their shield-bosses, upon those driven back, with a step brought in, advanced as if with no one resisting for a considerable space, the hindmost too pressing on the foremost once they sensed the line set in motion—which itself added great force for expelling the enemy. among the enemy, with the auxiliaries giving way, the second line, africans and carthaginians, so far from sustaining them that, on the contrary, lest the foe should reach them by hewing down the foremost who resisted stubbornly, they even fell back. therefore the auxiliaries suddenly turn their backs and, turning upon their own, partly seek refuge into the second line, partly, not being received, are cut down—both as a little before not aided and then shut out; and there were now almost two battles mingled together, since the carthaginians were compelled to join hands in combat at once with the enemy and with their own men.
Ceterum tanta strages hominum armorumque locum in quo steterant paulo ante auxiliares compleuerat ut prope difficilior transitus esset quam per confertos hostes fuerat. itaque qui primi erant, hastati, per cumulos corporum armorumque et tabem sanguinis qua quisque poterat sequentes hostem et signa et ordines confuderunt. principum quoque signa fluctuari coeperant uagam ante se cernendo aciem.
Moreover, so great a slaughter of men and of arms had filled the place where a little before the auxiliaries had stood, that the passage was almost more difficult than it had been through the close-packed enemies. And so those who were in the front, the Hastati, over heaps of bodies and armor and the slime of blood, each by whatever way he could while pursuing the enemy, threw both the standards and the ranks into confusion. The standards of the Principes too had begun to waver, as they beheld a wavering battle-line before them.
when Scipio saw this, he ordered the hastati to sound the retreat promptly, and with the wounded withdrawn into the rearmost battle line he leads the principes and triarii into the wings, so that the middle line of the hastati might be safer and steadier. thus a new battle arose afresh; for they had come to the true enemies, equal in the kind of arms, in the practice of soldiery, in the fame of achievements, and in the magnitude either of hope or of danger; but the Roman was superior both in number and in spirit, because already he had routed the cavalry, already the elephants, and now, with the first line driven back, he was fighting the second.
[35] In time Laelius and Masinissa, having pursued the routed horsemen for some distance, returning, charged into the rear line of the enemy. That cavalry impetus at last shattered the foe. Many, surrounded, were cut down in the line; many, scattered in flight over the open plain round about, with the cavalry holding everything, perished everywhere.
Hannibal cum paucis equitibus inter tumultum elapsus Hadrumetum perfugit, omnia et ante aciem et in proelio priusquam excederet pugna expertus, et confessione etiam Scipionis omniumque peritorum militiae illam laudem adeptus singulari arte aciem eo die instruxisse: elephantos in prima fronte quorum fortuitus impetus atque intolerabilis uis signa sequi et seruare ordines, in quo plurimum spei ponerent, Romanos prohiberent; deinde auxiliares ante Carthaginiensium aciem ne homines mixti ex conluuione omnium gentium, quos non fides teneret sed merces, liberum receptum fugae haberent, simul primum ardorem atque impetum hostium excipientes fatigarent ac, si nihil aliud, uolneribus suis ferrum hostile hebetarent; tum, ubi omnis spes esset, milites Carthaginienses Afrosque ut omnibus rebus aliis pares eo quod integri cum fessis ac sauciis pugnarent superiores essent; Italicos incertos socii an hostes essent in postremam aciem summotos, interuallo quoque diremptos. hoc edito uelut ultimo uirtutis opere, Hannibal cum Hadrumetum refugisset accitusque inde Carthaginem sexto ac tricensimo post anno quam puer inde profectus erat redisset, fassus in curia est non proelio modo se sed bello uictum, nec spem salutis alibi quam in pace impetranda esse.
Hannibal, having slipped away with a few cavalry amid the tumult, fled for refuge to Hadrumetum, having tried everything both before the battle-line and in the battle before he withdrew from the fight, and by the confession even of Scipio and of all expert in soldiery having gained this praise: that with singular art he drew up the line that day—placing the elephants in the very front, whose fortuitous onrush and intolerable force would prevent the Romans from following their standards and keeping their ranks, in which they put very much hope; then the auxiliaries before the Carthaginian line, lest men mixed from the confluence of all nations, whom not loyalty held but pay, should have a free resort to flight, and at the same time, by taking on the first ardor and impetus of the enemy, might wear them out and, if nothing else, blunt the hostile steel with their own wounds; then, when all the hope lay there, that the Carthaginian soldiers and the Africans, as in all other respects their equals, would be superior in this: that, being fresh, they fought against the weary and wounded; the Italians, uncertain whether they were allies or enemies, were removed to the rearmost line, separated also by an interval. This, put forth as it were the last work of valor, having fled back to Hadrumetum, and from there summoned to Carthage, he returned in the 36th year after he had set out thence as a boy, and confessed in the curia that he had been defeated not only in a battle but in the war, and that there was no hope of safety anywhere save in obtaining peace.
[36] Scipio confestim a proelio expugnatis hostium castris direptisque cum ingenti praeda ad mare ac naues rediit, nuntio allato P. Lentulum cum quinquaginta rostratis centum onerariis cum omni genere commeatus ad Uticam accessisse. admouendum igitur undique terrorem perculsae Carthagini ratus, misso Laelio Romam cum uictoriae nuntio, Cn. Octauium terrestri itinere ducere legiones Carthaginem iubet: ipse ad suam ueterem noua Lentuli classe adiuncta profectus ab Utica portum Carthaginis petit. haud procul aberat cum uelata infulis ramisque oleae Carthaginiensium occurrit nauis.
[36] Scipio, immediately after the battle, with the enemy’s camp stormed and plundered and with immense booty, returned to the sea and the ships, when a message was brought that Publius Lentulus had approached Utica with fifty beaked warships and a hundred transports with every kind of provisions. Therefore, thinking that terror must be brought to bear on all sides upon stricken Carthage, with Laelius sent to Rome with the news of victory, he orders Gnaeus Octavius to lead the legions by a land route to Carthage: he himself, having set out with his own old fleet, Lentulus’s new fleet added to it, from Utica makes for the harbor of Carthage. He was not far off when a ship of the Carthaginians, decked with fillets and olive-branches, met him.
There were ten legates, leading men of the state, sent at Hannibal’s instigation to seek peace. When they had come up to the stern of the flagship, holding out the fillets of suppliants and begging and imploring the good faith and mercy of Scipio, no other answer was given them than that they should come to Tunis: thither he would move his camp. He himself, to contemplate the site of Carthage, <borne forward into the harbor>, not so much for learning at the moment as for the purpose of depressing the enemy, returned to Utica, Octavius likewise being recalled.
Inde procedentibus ad Tynetem nuntius allatus Uerminam Syphacis filium cum equitibus pluribus quam peditibus uenire Carthaginiensibus auxilio. pars exercitus cum omni equitatu missa, Saturnalibus primis agmen adgressa, Numidas leui certamine fudit. exitu quoque fugae intercluso a parte omni circumdatis equitibus quindecim milia hominum caesa, mille et ducenti uiui capti, et equi Numidici mille et quingenti, signa militaria duo et septuaginta; regulus ipse inter tumultum cum paucis effugit.
From there, as they proceeded to Tynes, a message was brought that Vermina, the son of Syphax, was coming to the Carthaginians’ aid with more cavalry than infantry. A part of the army, sent with all the cavalry, attacked the column on the first day of the Saturnalia and routed the Numidians in a light engagement. With the outlet for flight also cut off on every side, cavalry having been posted around them, 15,000 men were slain; 1,200 were taken alive; and 1,500 Numidian horses and 72 military standards were captured; the prince himself escaped amid the tumult with a few.
Et illi quidem multo miserabilius quam ante quo magis cogebat fortuna egerunt; sed aliquanto minore cum misericordia ab recenti memoria perfidiae auditi sunt. in consilio quamquam iusta ira omnes ad delendam stimulabat Carthaginem, tamen cum et quanta res esset et quam longi temporis obsidio tam munitae et tam ualidae urbis reputarent, et ipsum Scipionem exspectatio successoris uenturi ad paratum uictoriae fructum, alterius labore ac periculo finiti belli famam, sollicitaret, ad pacem omnium animi uersi sunt.
And they indeed conducted themselves much more miserably than before, in proportion as Fortune compelled them the more; but they were listened to with somewhat less compassion, from the fresh memory of their perfidy. In council, although just wrath was goading all to destroy Carthage, yet when they reckoned both how great a matter it was and how long a time the siege of so fortified and so strong a city would take, and when Scipio himself was being enticed by the expectation of a successor about to come to the prepared fruit of victory—the fame of a war finished by another’s labor and peril—the minds of all were turned toward peace.
[37] Postero die reuocatis legatis et cum multa castigatione perfidiae monitis ut tot cladibus edocti tandem deos et ius iurandum esse crederent, condiciones pacis dictae ut liberi legibus suis uiuerent: quas urbes quosque agros quibusque finibus ante bellum tenuissent tenerent, populandique finem eo die Romanus faceret: perfugas fugitiuosque et captiuos omnes redderent Romanis, et naues rostratas praeter decem triremes traderent elephantosque quos haberent domitos, neque domarent alios: bellum neue in Africa neue extra Africam iniussu populi Romani gererent: Masinissae res redderent foedusque cum eo facerent: frumentum stipendiumque auxiliis donec ab Roma legati redissent praestarent: decem milia talentum argenti discripta pensionibus aequis in annos quinquaginta soluerent: obsides centum arbitratu Scipionis darent ne minores quattuordecim annis neu triginta maiores. indutias ita daturum, si per priores indutias naues onerariae captae quaeque fuissent in nauibus restituerentur; aliter nec indutias nec spem pacis ullam esse. has condiciones legati cum domum referre iussi in contione ederent et Gisgo ad dissuadendam pacem processisset audireturque a multitudine inquieta eadem et imbelli, indignatus Hannibal dici ea in tali tempore audirique arreptum Gisgonem manu sua ex superiore loco detraxit.
[37] On the next day, the envoys having been recalled and, with much chastisement of their perfidy, admonished that, taught at last by so many disasters, they should believe that there are gods and that an oath is binding, the conditions of peace were declared: that they should live free under their own laws: that the cities and the lands with the boundaries which they had held before the war they should hold, and that the Roman should make an end of ravaging on that day: that they should return to the Romans all deserters, runaways, and captives, and hand over their beaked ships except for ten triremes, and the elephants which they had already tamed, and not tame others: that they should wage no war either in Africa or outside Africa without the order of the Roman people: that they should restore Masinissa’s possessions and make a foedus with him: that they should furnish grain and pay for the auxiliaries until the envoys should return from Rome: that they should pay 10,000 talents of silver, apportioned in equal installments over 50 years: that they should give 100 hostages at Scipio’s discretion, neither younger than 14 years nor older than 30. He would grant a truce on this condition, if the cargo ships captured under the earlier truce, and whatever had been on the ships, were restored; otherwise there would be neither a truce nor any hope of peace. When the envoys, ordered to carry these terms home, were publishing them in a public assembly, and Gisgo had come forward to dissuade peace and was being listened to by the same restless and unwarlike multitude, Hannibal, indignant that such things should be said and heard at such a time, seized Gisgo with his own hand and dragged him down from a higher place.
When that spectacle, unwonted for a free commonwealth, had stirred a murmur of the people, the man of war, disconcerted by civic liberty, said: ‘At nine years of age I departed from you; after the thirty-sixth year I returned. The military arts, which fortune, now private now public, taught me from boyhood, I seem to know well; the rights of the city and the forum, the laws, the mores—you must teach me.’ His ignorance having been excused, he discoursed at length about peace, which was not iniquitous and was necessary. The most difficult thing of all was that, from the ships captured during the armistice, nothing was forthcoming except the ships themselves, nor was the inquiry easy, since those who were to be accused were adversaries to the peace.
It was decided that the ships be returned and that the persons at any rate be sought out; that the other things which were lacking be left to Scipio to be appraised, and that the Carthaginians thus discharge it with money.—There are those who hand down that Hannibal, from the battle-line, reached the sea, and from there, with a ship prepared, set out at once to King Antiochus, and that, when Scipio before all else demanded that Hannibal be handed over to him, the reply was that Hannibal was not in Africa.
[38] Postquam redierunt ad Scipionem legati, quae publica in nauibus fuerant ex publicis descripta rationibus quaestores, quae priuata, profiteri domini iussi; pro ea summa pecuniae uiginti quinque milia pondo argenti praesentia exacta; indutiaeque Carthaginiensibus datae in tres menses. additum ne per indutiarum tempus alio usquam quam Romam mitterent legatos et quicumque legati Carthaginem uenissent ne ante dimitterent eos quam Romanum imperatorem qui et quae petentes uenissent certiorem facerent. cum legatis Carthaginiensibus Romam missi L. Ueturius Philo et M. Marcius Ralla et L. Scipio imperatoris frater.
[38] After the envoys returned to Scipio, the quaestors registered from the public accounts whatever on the ships had been public property; the owners were ordered to declare what had been private. For that total, twenty-five thousand pounds of silver were exacted on the spot; and a truce was granted to the Carthaginians for three months. It was added that during the time of the truce they should send envoys nowhere else than to Rome, and that whatever envoys had come to Carthage they should not dismiss before they made the Roman commander informed who they were and what they had come seeking. Together with the Carthaginian envoys there were sent to Rome L. Ueturius Philo and M. Marcius Ralla and L. Scipio, the commander’s brother.
Romae ad nuntium primum rebellionis Carthaginiensium trepidatum fuerat iussusque erat Ti. Claudius mature classem in Siciliam ducere atque inde in Africam traicere, et alter consul M. Seruilius ad urbem morari donec quo statu res in Africa essent sciretur. segniter omnia in comparanda deducendaque classe ab Ti. Claudio consule facta erant quod patres de pace Scipionis potius arbitrium esse quibus legibus daretur quam consulis censuerant. prodigia quoque nuntiata sub ipsam famam rebellionis attulerant terrorem: Cumis solis orbis minui uisus et pluit lapideo imbri, et in Ueliterno agro terra ingentibus cauernis consedit arboresque in profundum haustae; Ariciae forum et circa tabernae, Frusinone murus aliquot locis et porta de caelo tacta; et in Palatio lapidibus pluit.
At Rome, at the first report of the Carthaginians’ rebellion, there had been alarm, and Ti. Claudius had been ordered to lead the fleet promptly to Sicily and from there to cross over into Africa, and the other consul, M. Servilius, to remain near the city until it should be known in what condition affairs were in Africa. All things in the preparing and leading out of the fleet had been done sluggishly by the consul Ti. Claudius, because the senators had judged that the arbitration of Scipio rather than of the consul should be the authority as to the terms on which the peace was to be granted. Portents also, reported at the very time of the rumor of the rebellion, had brought terror: at Cumae the disk of the sun seemed to be diminished and it rained with a stony shower; and in the Veliternan territory the earth settled with vast chasms and trees were swallowed down into the depth; at Aricia the forum and the shops around it, at Frusino the wall in several places and a gate were struck by lightning; and on the Palatine it rained stones.
That prodigy was expiated by a nine-day rite according to ancestral custom, and the rest by greater victims. Among these portents also an unusual magnitude of waters was turned into a matter of religion; for the Tiber so overflowed that, the circus being inundated, the Apollinarian Games were prepared outside the Colline Gate at the temple of Venus Erycina. However, on the very day of the games, when a sudden serenity arose, the procession, which had begun to be led toward the Colline Gate, was called back and led down into the circus when it was announced that the water had withdrawn from there; and the restoration of its own seat for the solemn spectacle added joy to the people and greater celebrity to the games.
[39] Claudium consulem profectum tandem ab urbe inter portus Cosanum Loretanumque atrox uis tempestatis adorta in metum ingentem adduxit. Populonium inde cum peruenisset stetissetque ibi dum reliquum tempestatis exsaeuiret, Iluam insulam et ab Ilua Corsicam, a Corsica in Sardiniam traiecit. ibi superantem Insanos montes multo et saeuior et infestioribus locis tempestas adorta disiecit classem.
[39] The consul Claudius, having at last set out from the city, between the Cosan and Loretan ports, was driven into immense fear by the onset of a grim force of storm. From there, when he had reached Populonium and had stood there until the remainder of the tempest had raged itself out, he crossed to the island of Ilva, and from Ilva to Corsica, from Corsica to Sardinia. There, as he was surmounting the Insani Mountains, a storm arising—both much more savage and in places more infested—scattered the fleet.
many ships were shaken and stripped of their armaments, some broken; thus the fleet, harried and torn, put in at Carales. there, while the ships, hauled ashore, were being repaired, winter overtook them and the season of the year ran its course; and with no one proroguing his imperium, as a private citizen Tiberius Claudius led the fleet back to Rome. Marcus Servilius, that he might not be recalled to the city for the sake of the elections, with a dictator named—Gaius Servilius Geminus—set out to his province; the dictator named Publius Aelius Paetus master of the horse.
often tempests prevented the comitia, once proclaimed, from being completed; and so, when on the day before the Ides of March the former magistrates had gone out of office and new ones had not been appointed in their place, the commonwealth was without curule magistrates. T. Manlius Torquatus, pontiff, died that year; in his place C. Sulpicius Galba was appointed. by L. Licinius Lucullus and Q. Fulvius, curule aediles, the Roman Games were renewed three times in their entirety.
the scribes and the aedilician viatores were convicted, on the information of an informer, of having secretly carried out money from the treasury, not without discredit to Lucullus the aedile. P. Aelius Tubero and L. Laetorius, plebeian aediles, created with a flaw, resigned the magistracy, after they had held the games and, for the sake of the games, made a banquet to Jupiter, and had set up on the Capitol three statues made from mulct-money silver. The Cerialia games were put on by the dictator and the master of horse by decree of the senate.
[40] Legati ex Africa Romani simul Carthaginiensesque cum uenissent Romam, senatus ad aedem Bellonae habitus est. ubi cum L. Ueturius Philo pugnatum cum Hannibale esse suprema Carthaginiensibus pugna finemque tandem lugubri bello impositum ingenti laetitia patrum exposuisset, adiecit Uerminam etiam Syphacis filium, quae parua bene gestae rei accessio erat, deuictum. in contionem inde prodire iussus gaudiumque id populo impertire.
[40] When legates from Africa, both Romans and Carthaginians, had come to Rome, the senate was held at the temple of Bellona. There L. Veturius Philo set forth that a battle had been fought with Hannibal—the final battle for the Carthaginians—and that at last an end had been imposed upon the lugubrious war, to the immense joy of the senators; he added that Vermina also, the son of Syphax—though this was a small accession to a well-accomplished affair—had been conquered. Then he was ordered to go forth into the assembly and impart that joy to the people.
then all the temples in the city were thrown open for thanksgiving, and supplications were decreed for three days. to the envoys of the Carthaginians and of King Philip—for these too had come—asking that the senate be granted to them, the reply, by order of the Fathers, from the dictator was that the new consuls would grant them an audience with the senate.
Comitia inde habita. creati consules Cn. Cornelius Lentulus P. Aelius Paetus, praetores M. Iunius Pennus, cui sors urbana euenit—M. Ualerius Falto Bruttios, M. Fabius Buteo Sardiniam, P. Aelius Tubero Siciliam est sortitus. de prouinciis consulum nihil ante placebat agi quam legati Philippi regis et Carthaginiensium auditi essent; belli finem alterius, alterius principium prospiciebant animis.
Then the comitia were held. The consuls elected were Cn. Cornelius Lentulus and P. Aelius Paetus; the praetors were M. Iunius Pennus, to whom the urban lot fell—M. Valerius Falto drew the Bruttii, M. Fabius Buteo Sardinia, P. Aelius Tubero Sicily. As to the provinces of the consuls, it did not please them to act on anything before the envoys of King Philip and of the Carthaginians had been heard; in their minds they were anticipating the end of one war, the beginning of another.
Cn. Lentulus consul cupiditate flagrabat prouinciae Africae, seu bellum foret facilem uictoriam, seu iam finiretur finiti tanti belli se consule gloriam petens. negare itaque prius quicquam agi passurum quam sibi prouincia Africa decreta esset, concedente collega, moderato uiro et prudenti, qui gloriae eius certamen cum Scipione, praeterquam quod iniquum esset, etiam impar futurum cernebat. Q. Minucius Thermus et M'. Acilius Glabrio tribuni plebis rem priore anno nequiquam temptatam ab Ti. Claudio consule Cn. Cornelium temptare aiebant: ex auctoritate patrum latum ad populum esse cuius uellent imperium in Africa esse; omnes quinque et triginta tribus P. Scipioni id imperium decreuisse.
Cn. Lentulus the consul was blazing with a desire for the province of Africa, whether there should be war—an easy victory—or whether it was now being brought to an end, seeking the glory that the finishing of so great a war should be in his consulship. He therefore declared that he would allow nothing to be done before the province of Africa was decreed to himself, his colleague conceding, a moderate and prudent man, who discerned that a contest for that glory with Scipio, besides being unfair, would also be unequal. Q. Minucius Thermus and M'. Acilius Glabrio, tribunes of the plebs, said that the measure which in the previous year had been tried in vain by Ti. Claudius the consul was being attempted by Cn. Cornelius: that, by the authority of the Fathers, it had been brought to the people to decide whose imperium they wished to be in Africa; that all the 35 tribes had decreed that imperium to P. Scipio.
After many contentions both in the senate and before the people, the matter was at last brought to this: that they should allow it to be entrusted to the senate. The fathers therefore, under oath—for so it had been agreed—decreed that the consuls should either arrange the provinces between themselves or draw lots for them: which should have Italy, which the fleet of fifty ships; to whom the fleet should fall, he should sail to Sicily; if peace with the Carthaginians could not be composed, he should carry across to Africa; the consul should conduct the affair by sea, Scipio on land with the same right of imperium as hitherto; if the terms of peace should be agreed, the tribunes of the plebs should ask the people whether they would order the consul or P. Scipio to grant peace, and whom they would order, if the army had to be brought home as victor from Africa, to transport it. If they should order that peace be given through P. Scipio and that the army be transported back by that same man, the consul was not to convey troops from Sicily into Africa.
[41] P. Scipioni cum exercitibus quos haberet in prouincia Africa prorogatum imperium. praetoribus M. Ualerio Faltoni duae legiones in Bruttiis quibus C. Liuius priore anno praefuerat decretae—P. Aelius [praetor] duas legiones in Sicilia ab Cn. Tremelio acciperet, legio una M. Fabio in Sardiniam quam P. Lentulus pro praetore habuisset decernitur. M. Seruilio prioris anni consuli cum suis duabus item legionibus in Etruria prorogatum imperium est.
[41] For P. Scipio, with the armies he had in the province of Africa, his imperium was prorogued. For the praetors, to M. Valerius Falto two legions in Bruttium, which C. Livius had commanded in the previous year, were decreed—P. Aelius [praetor] should receive two legions in Sicily from Cn. Tremelius; one legion is decreed to M. Fabius for Sardinia, which P. Lentulus had held as propraetor. For M. Servilius, consul of the previous year, his imperium likewise with his two legions was prorogued in Etruria.
As regards the Spains, L. Cornelius Lentulus and L. Manlius Acidinus had now for several years been there; that the consuls should confer with the tribunes so that, if it seemed good to them, they should ask the plebs whom they would order to have imperium in Spain; he was to enroll from the two armies into one legion the Roman soldiers, and into fifteen cohorts the allies of the Latin name, with which he should hold the province; L. Cornelius and L. Manlius should transport the veteran soldiers to Italy. For the consul a fleet of fifty ships was decreed out of the two fleets—of Cn. Octavius, which was in Africa, and of P. Villius, which was guarding the coast of Sicily—so that he might select whatever ships he wished. P. Scipio should have the forty long ships which he had had; and if he wished Cn. Octavius to command these, as he had commanded before, Octavius should have imperium as propraetor for that year; but if he put Laelius in charge, Octavius should depart for Rome and bring back the ships for which the consul had no use.
[42] Tum de legatis Philippi et Carthaginiensium actum. priores Macedonas introduci placuit; quorum uaria oratio fuit. partim purgantium quae questi erant missi ad regem ab Roma legati de populatione sociorum, partim ultro accusantium quidem et socios populi Romani sed multo infestius M. Aurelium, quem ex tribus ad se missis legatis dilectu habito substitisse et se bello lacessisse contra foedus et saepe cum praefectis suis signis conlatis pugnasse, <partim> postulantium ut Macedones duxque eorum Sopater, qui apud Hannibalem mercede militassent, tum capti in uinclis essent, sibi restituerentur.
[42] Then business was conducted concerning the envoys of Philip and of the Carthaginians. It was decided that the Macedonians be introduced first; and their speech was variegated: partly of those purging themselves of the matters about which envoys sent from Rome to the king had complained, concerning the depredation of the allies; partly of those, indeed, going so far as to accuse both the allies of the Roman people, but much more bitterly Marcus Aurelius—whom, out of the three envoys sent to them, after a levy had been held, they alleged had remained behind and had provoked them to war contrary to the treaty, and had often fought, with standards joined, with their prefects; <partim> of those demanding that the Macedonians and their leader Sopater, who had soldiered for pay with Hannibal, now captured and in chains, be restored to them.
In reply to these things M. Furius, sent for that very purpose by Aurelius from Macedonia, argued that Aurelius had been left behind lest the allies of the Roman people, wearied by ravagings, should defect to the king under force and injustice; that he had not gone beyond the boundaries of the allies; that he had taken pains that raiders should not cross into their fields with impunity. That Sopater was among the purple‑clad courtiers and kinsmen of the king; that he had been sent recently into Africa with four thousand Macedonians and money as aid to Hannibal and the Carthaginians. When questioned about these matters the Macedonians answered perplexedly, and by no means did they themselves receive a gentle reply: that the king was seeking war, and, if he went on, he would very soon find it; that the treaty had been violated by him in a twofold way—both because he had inflicted injustices upon the allies of the Roman people and had provoked them with war and arms, and because he had helped their enemies with auxiliaries and money.
and that P. Scipio appears to have acted rightly and in due order, and to be acting rightly, in that he keeps in chains as enemies those who, bearing arms against the Roman people, have been captured; and that M. Aurelius is acting in the interest of the commonwealth, and that it is pleasing to the senate that he defends the allies of the Roman people with arms, since by the right of the treaty he cannot do so.
Cum hoc tam tristi responso dimissis Macedonibus, legati Carthaginienses uocati. quorum aetatibus dignitatibusque conspectis—nam longe primi ciuitatis erant—tum pro se quisque dicere uere de pace agi. insignis tamen inter ceteros Hasdrubal erat—Haedum populares cognomine appellabant—, pacis semper auctor aduersusque factioni Barcinae.
With this so sad an answer, the Macedonians having been dismissed, the Carthaginian envoys were summoned. When their ages and dignities had been taken into view—for they were by far the foremost men of the state—then each, on his own behalf, declared that the matter was truly about peace. Distinguished, however, among the rest was Hasdrubal—their compatriots called him by the cognomen Haedus—always an advocate of peace and opposed to the Barcine faction.
then he had the more authority in transferring the blame of the war from the republic to the cupidity of a few. After he had used a varied oration—now purging accusations, now confessing certain things, lest pardon be the harder for those impudently denying certainties, now even admonishing the Conscript Fathers to use favorable circumstances modestly and moderately—if the Carthaginians had listened to him and to Hanno and had wished to use the opportunity, they would have given the conditions of peace which they were now seeking; rarely are good fortune and good mind given together to men; the Roman People is for this reason unconquered, that in prosperous circumstances it remembers to be wise and to take counsel; and, by Hercules, it would have been a wonder if it did otherwise; out of insolence, those for whom good fortune is new, powerless over their joy, rave: for the Roman People has joys from victory that are customary and almost now obsolete, and it has increased its imperium almost more by sparing the conquered than by conquering — the rest had a more pitiable speech, commemorating from how great resources to what point the affairs of the Carthaginians had fallen back: nothing remains to those who but lately held almost the circle of the lands by arms except the walls of Carthage; shut within these, they behold nothing of their own right either on land or sea; they would have the city itself and their Penates only on such a footing, if the Roman People should not wish to rage even against that also, beyond which there is nothing further. When it appeared that the Fathers were being bent by mercy, they report that one of the senators, hostile to the perfidy of the Carthaginians, cried out, by what gods they were going to strike a treaty, since those by whom it had previously been struck they had deceived.
[43] Inclinatis omnium ad pacem animis Cn. Lentulus consul, cui classis prouincia erat, senatus consulto intercessit. tum M'. Acilius et Q. Minucius tribuni plebis ad populum tulerunt uellent iuberentne senatum decernere ut cum Carthaginiensibus pax fieret; et quem eam pacem dare quemque ex Africa exercitum deportare iuberent. de pace 'uti rogas' omnes tribus iusserunt; pacem dare P. Scipionem, eundem exercitum deportare.
[43] With the minds of all inclined toward peace, Cn. Lentulus, the consul, to whom the fleet was the province, interposed his veto against the senatorial decree. Then M'. Acilius and Q. Minucius, tribunes of the plebs, brought before the people whether they wished and ordered that the senate decree that peace be made with the Carthaginians; and whom they would order to grant that peace, and whom to transport the army from Africa. Concerning peace, all the tribes ordered “as you ask”; to grant the peace, P. Scipio, and the same man to transport the army.
From this bill the senate decreed that Publius Scipio, in accordance with the judgment of the ten legates, should make peace with the Carthaginian people on whatever terms seemed good to him. Then the Carthaginians gave thanks to the fathers, and asked that they be allowed to enter the city and confer with their fellow citizens who, having been captured, were in public custody: that among these were partly their relatives and friends—noble men—partly those to whom they bore mandates from their kin. After these had been conferred with, when they again asked that the power be given them of ransoming from among them whomever they wished, they were ordered to produce the names; and when they produced about two hundred, a decree of the senate was passed that the Roman envoys should transport to Publius Cornelius in Africa two hundred of the captives whom the Carthaginians desired, and should announce to him that, if peace were agreed, he was to return them to the Carthaginians without price.
when the fetials were being ordered to go into Africa for the striking of a treaty, at their own request a senatorial decree was made in these words: that they should carry with them their own flint stones and their own vervains, so that, when the Roman praetor should command that they strike the treaty, they might ask the praetor for the sagmina.—that kind of herb, taken from the citadel, is accustomed to be given to the fetials.
Ita dimissi ab Roma Carthaginienses cum in Africam uenissent ad Scipionem, quibus ante dictum est legibus pacem fecerunt. naues longas elephantos perfugas fugitiuos captiuorum quattuor milia tradiderunt, inter quos Q. Terentius Culleo senator fuit. naues prouectas in altum incendi iussit; quingentas fuisse omnis generis quae remis agerentur quidam tradunt; quarum conspectum repente incendium tam lugubre fuisse Poenis quam si ipsa Carthago arderet.
Thus, dismissed from Rome, the Carthaginians, when they had come into Africa to Scipio, made peace on the terms that had been told to them before. They handed over long ships, elephants, defectors, fugitives, and four thousand captives, among whom was Q. Terentius Culleo, a senator. He ordered the ships, carried out into the deep, to be burned; some relate that there were five hundred of every kind, propelled by oars; and the sudden sight of their burning was as lugubrious to the Carthaginians as if Carthage itself were burning.
[44] Annis ante quadraginta pax cum Carthaginiensibus postremo facta erat, Q. Lutatio A. Manlio consulibus. bellum initum annis post tribus et uiginti, P. Cornelio Ti. Sempronio consulibus, finitum est septimo decimo anno, Cn. Cornelio P. Aelio consulibus. saepe postea ferunt Scipionem dixisse Ti. Claudi primum cupiditatem, deinde Cn. Corneli fuisse in mora quo minus id bellum exitio Carthaginis finiret.
[44] Forty years before, peace with the Carthaginians had at last been made, Q. Lutatius and A. Manlius being consuls. The war was begun twenty-three years later, P. Cornelius and Ti. Sempronius being consuls; it was finished in the seventeenth year, Cn. Cornelius and P. Aelius being consuls. They often report that afterward Scipio said that first the eagerness of Ti. Claudius, then that of Cn. Cornelius, had been a hindrance, to the effect that he did not finish that war with the destruction of Carthage.
Carthagini cum prima conlatio pecuniae diutino bello exhaustis difficilis uideretur, maestitiaque et fletus in curia esset, ridentem Hannibalem ferunt conspectum. cuius cum Hasdrubal Haedus risum increparet in publico fletu cum ipse lacrimarum causa esset, 'si, quemadmodum oris habitus cernitur oculis', inquit 'sic et animus intus cerni posset, facile uobis appareret non laeti sed prope amentis malis cordis hunc quem increpatis risum esse; qui tamen nequaquam adeo est intempestiuus quam uestrae istae absurdae atque abhorrentes lacrimae sunt. tunc flesse decuit cum adempta sunt nobis arma, incensae naues, interdictum externis bellis; illo enim uolnere concidimus.
When at Carthage the first contribution of money seemed difficult to those exhausted by the long war, and sadness and weeping were in the senate-house, they report that Hannibal was seen laughing. And when Hasdrubal Haedus reproached his laughter amid a public weeping, since he himself was the cause of the tears, he said: 'If, just as the aspect of the face is discerned by the eyes, so also the mind within could be seen, it would easily appear to you that this laughter which you reproach is not of a joyful man, but of one nearly insane from the ills of his heart; which, nevertheless, is by no means so untimely as are those absurd and abhorrent tears of yours. It was then fitting to weep, when our arms were taken from us, our ships burned, and foreign wars interdicted; for by that wound we collapsed.'
nor is there any reason why you should believe that provision has been made by the Romans for your leisure. no great commonwealth can rest long; if it has not an enemy outside, it finds one at home, just as very-strong bodies, though seen to be safe from external causes, are burdened by their own forces. but, to be sure, we feel from public evils only so much as pertains to private affairs, and among these nothing pricks more sharply than the loss of money.
and so, when the spoils were being stripped from conquered Carthage, when you saw her, now unarmed and naked, left abandoned among so many armed nations of Africa, no one groaned: now, because a tribute must be contributed from private property, you bewail it as at a public funeral. How I fear lest before long you may perceive that you have today wept at a very slight evil.' These things Hannibal said among the Carthaginians.
Scipio contione aduocata Masinissam ad regnum paternum Cirta oppido et ceteris urbibus agrisque quae ex regno Syphacis in populi Romani potestatem uenissent adiectis donauit. Cn. Octauium classem in Siciliam ductam Cn. Cornelio consuli tradere iussit, legatos Carthaginiensium Romam proficisci ut quae ab se ex decem legatorum sen tentia acta essent ea patrum auctoritate populique iussu confirmarentur.
Scipio, an assembly having been called, bestowed upon Masinissa the paternal kingdom, with the town of Cirta and the other cities and fields added which had come into the power of the Roman People from the kingdom of Syphax. He ordered Gnaeus Octavius to hand over to Gnaeus Cornelius, the consul, the fleet that had been led to Sicily, and the envoys of the Carthaginians to set out for Rome, in order that the things which had been done by him in accordance with the opinion of the ten legates might be confirmed by the authority of the Fathers and the order of the People.
[45] Pace terra marique parta, exercitu in naues imposito in Siciliam Lilybaeum traiecit. inde magna parte militum nauibus missa ipse per laetam pace non minus quam uictoria Italiam effusis non urbibus modo ad habendos honores sed agrestium etiam turba obsidente uias Romam peruenit triumphoque omnium clarissimo urbem est inuectus. argenti tulit in aerarium pondo centum uiginti tria milia.
[45] With peace secured on land and sea, having embarked the army onto ships he crossed to Sicily, to Lilybaeum. Thence, a great part of the soldiers having been sent by ship, he himself, through an Italy rejoicing in peace no less than in victory, with not only the cities pouring out to bestow honors but even a crowd of country-folk blocking the roads, arrived at Rome and was carried into the city in the most illustrious triumph of all. He brought into the treasury 123,000 pounds of silver.
From the booty he distributed to the soldiers four hundred asses apiece. Syphax was withdrawn by death from being a spectacle more to men than to the glory of the triumphant, having died at Tibur not very long before, whither he had been transferred from Alba. Yet his death was in view, because he was carried out with a public funeral.—Polybius, a by-no-means-to-be-despised author, records that this king was led in the triumph.—Quintus Terentius Culleo, with the pilleus set upon his head, followed Scipio as he triumphed, and thereafter in his whole life, as was fitting, he honored him as the author of his liberty.
Africanus’s cognomen—whether military favor or the popular breeze first celebrated it, or whether, just as the Felix of Sulla and the Magnus of Pompey in our fathers’ memory, it was begun from household adulation—I hold to be but little ascertained; surely he was the first commander to be ennobled by the name of a people conquered by himself; thereafter, by this example, men by no means equal in victory produced distinguished titles for their ancestral images and illustrious family cognomina.