The History of Rome; Books Nine to Twenty Six - Titus Livius
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43. When he had dismissed the soldiers, thus affected after viewing
several pairs of combatants, having then summoned an assembly, he is
said to have addressed them in these terms: "If, soldiers, you shall
by and by, in judging of your own fortune, preserve the same feelings
which you experienced a little before in the example of the fate of
others, we have already conquered; for neither was that merely a
spectacle, but as it were a certain representation of your condition.
And I know not whether fortune has not thrown around you still
stronger chains and more urgent necessities than around your captives.
On the right and left two seas enclose you, without your possessing a
single ship even for escape. The river Po around you, the Po larger
and more impetuous than the Rhone, the Alps behind, scarcely passed by
you when fresh and vigorous, hem you in. Here, soldiers, where you
have first met the enemy, you must conquer or die; and the same
fortune which has imposed the necessity of fighting, holds out to you,
if victorious, rewards, than which men are not wont to desire greater,
even from the immortal gods. If we were only about to recover by our
valour Sicily and Sardinia, wrested from our fathers, the recompence
would be sufficiently ample; but whatever, acquired and amassed by so
many triumphs, the Romans possess, all, with its masters themselves,
will become yours. To gain this rich reward, hasten, then, and seize
your arms with the favour of the gods. Long enough in pursuing cattle
among the desert mountains of Lusitania [Footnote: The ancient name
of Portugal.] and Celtiberia, you have seen no emolument from so many
toils and dangers: it is time to make rich and profitable campaigns,
and to gain the great reward of your labours, after having
accomplished such a length of journey over so many mountains and
rivers, and so many nations in arms. Here fortune has granted you the
termination of your labours; here she will bestow a reward worthy of
the service you have undergone. Nor, in proportion as the war is great
in name, ought you to consider that the victory will be difficult. A
despised enemy has often maintained a sanguinary contest, and renowned
states and kings been conquered by a very slight effort. For, setting
aside only the splendour of the Roman name, what remains in which they
can be compared to you? To pass over in silence your service for
twenty years, distinguished by such valour and success you have made
your way to this place from the pillars of Hercules, [Footnote:
Calpe, a mountain or rather rock in Spain, and Abyla in Africa, fabled
to have been placed by Hercules as marks of his most distant voyage,
are now well known as Gibraltar and Ceuta.] from the ocean, and the
remotest limits of the world advancing victorious through so many of
the fiercest nations of Gaul and Spain: you will fight with a raw
army, which this very summer was beaten, conquered, and surrounded by
the Gauls, as yet unknown to its general, and ignorant of him. Shall I
compare myself, almost born, and certainly bred in the tent of my
father, that most illustrious commander, myself the subjugator of
Spain and Gaul, the conqueror too not only of the Alpine nations, but
what is much more, of the Alps themselves, with this six months'
general, the deserter of his army? To whom, if any one, having taken
away their standards, should show to-day the Carthaginians and Romans,
I am sure that he would not know of which army he was consul. I do not
regard it, soldiers, as of small account, that there is not a man
among you before whose eyes I have not often achieved some military
exploit; and to whom, in like manner, I the spectator and witness of
his valour, could not recount his own gallant deeds, particularized by
time and place. With soldiers who have a thousand times received my
praises and gifts, I, who was the pupil of you all before I became
your commander, will march out in battle-array against those who are
unknown to and ignorant of each other."
44. "On whatever side I turn my eyes I see nothing but what is full of
courage and energy; a veteran infantry; calvary, both those with and
those without the bridle, composed of the most gallant nations, you
our most faithful and valiant allies, you Carthaginians, who are about
to fight as well for the sake of your country as from the justest
resentment. We are the assailants in the war, and descend into Italy
with hostile standards, about to engage so much more boldly and
bravely than the foe, as the confidence and courage of the assailant
are greater than those of him who is defensive. Besides suffering,
injury and indignity inflame and excite our minds: they first demanded
me your leader for punishment, and then all of you who had laid siege
to Saguntum; and had we been given up they would have visited us with
the severest tortures. That most cruel and haughty nation considers
every thing its own, and at its own disposal; it thinks it right that
it should regulate with whom we are to have war, with whom peace: it
circumscribes and shuts us up by the boundaries of mountains and
rivers, which we must not pass; and then does not adhere to those
boundaries which it appointed. Pass not the Iberus; have nothing to do
with the Saguntines. Saguntum is on the Iberus; you must not move a
step in any direction. Is it a small thing that you take away my most
ancient provinces Sicily and Sardinia? will you take Spain also? and
should I withdraw thence, you will cross over into Africa--will cross,
did I say? they have sent the two consuls of this year one to Africa,
the other to Spain: there is nothing left to us in any quarter, except
what we can assert to ourselves by arms. Those may be cowards and
dastards who have something to look back upon; whom, flying through
safe and unmolested roads, their own lands and their own country will
receive: there is a necessity for you to be brave; and since all
between victory and death is broken off from you by inevitable
despair, either to conquer, or, if fortune should waver, to meet death
rather in battle than flight. If this be well fixed and determined in
the minds of you all, I will repeat, you have already conquered: no
stronger incentive to victory has been given to man by the immortal
gods."
45. When the minds of the soldiers on both sides had been animated to
the contest by these exhortations, the Romans throw a bridge over the
Ticinus, and, for the sake of defending the bridge, erect a fort on
it. The Carthaginian, while the Romans were engaged in this work,
sends Maharbal with a squadron of five hundred Numidian horse, to lay
waste the territories of the allies of the Roman people. He orders
that the Gauls should be spared as much as possible, and the minds of
their chiefs be instigated to a revolt. When the bridge was finished,
the Roman army being led across into the territory of the Insubrians,
took up its station five miles from Victumviae. At this place Hannibal
lay encamped; and having quickly recalled Maharbal and the cavalry,
when he perceived that a battle was approaching, thinking that in
exhorting the soldiers enough could never be spoken or addressed by
way of admonition, he announces to them, when summoned to an assembly,
stated rewards, in expectation of which they might fight. He promised,
"that he would give them land in Italy, Africa, Spain, where each man
might choose, exempt from all burdens to the person who received it,
and to his children: if any one preferred money to land, he would
satisfy him in silver; if any of the allies wished to become citizens
of Carthage, he would grant them permission; if others chose rather to
return home, he would lend his endeavours that they should not wish
the situation of any one of their countrymen exchanged for their own."
To the slaves also who followed their masters he promised freedom, and
that he would give two slaves in place of each of them to their
masters. And that they might know that these promises were certain,
holding in his left hand a lamb, and in his right a flint, having
prayed to Jupiter and the other gods, that, if he was false to his
word, they would thus slay him as he slew the lamb; after the prayer
he broke the skull of the sheep with the stone. Then in truth all,
receiving as it were the gods as sureties, each for the fulfilment of
his own hopes, and thinking that the only delay in obtaining the
object of their wishes arose from their not yet being engaged, with
one mind and one voice demanded the battle.
46. By no means so great an alacrity prevailed among the Romans, who,
in addition to other causes, were also alarmed by recent prodigies;
for both a wolf had entered the camp, and having torn those who met
him, had escaped unhurt; and a swarm of bees had settled on a tree
overhanging the general's tent. After these prodigies were expiated,
Scipio having set out with his cavalry and light-armed spearmen
towards the camp of the enemy, to observe from a near point their
forces, how numerous, and of what description they were, falls in with
Hannibal, who had himself also advanced with his cavalry to explore
the circumjacent country: neither at first perceived the other, but
the dust arising from the trampling of so many men and horses soon
gave the signal of approaching enemies. Both armies halted, and were
preparing themselves for battle. Scipio places his spearmen and Gallic
cavalry in front; the Romans and what force of allies he had with him,
in reserve. Hannibal receives the horsemen who rode with the rein in
the centre, and strengthens his wings with Numidians. When the shout
was scarcely raised, the spearmen fled among the reserve to the second
line: there was then a contest of the cavalry, for some time doubtful;
but afterwards, on account of the foot soldiers, who were
intermingled, causing confusion among the horses, many of the riders
falling off from their horses, or leaping down where they saw their
friends surrounded and hard pressed, the battle for the most part came
to be fought on foot; until the Numidians, who were in the wings,
having made a small circuit, showed themselves on the rear. That alarm
dismayed the Romans, and the wound of the consul, and the danger to
his life, warded off by the interposition of his son, then just
arriving at the age of puberty, augmented their fears. This youth will
be found to be the same to whom the glory of finishing this war
belongs, and to whom the name of Africanus was given, on account of
his splendid victory over Hannibal and the Carthaginians. The flight,
however, of the spearmen, whom the Numidians attacked first, was the
most disorderly. The rest of the cavalry, in a close body, protecting,
not only with their arms, but also with their bodies, the consul, whom
they had received into the midst of them, brought him back to the camp
without any where giving way in disorder or precipitation. Coelius
attributes the honour of saving the consul to a slave, by nation a
Ligurian. I indeed should rather wish that the account about the son
was true, which also most authors have transmitted, and the report of
which has generally obtained credit.
47. This was the first battle with Hannibal; from which it clearly
appeared that the Carthaginian was superior in cavalry; and on that
account, that open plains, such as lie between the Po and the Alps,
were not suited to the Romans for carrying on the war. On the
following night, therefore, the soldiers being ordered to prepare
their baggage in silence, the camp broke up from the Ticinus, and they
hastened to the Po, in order that the rafts by which the consul had
formed a bridge over the river, being not yet loosened, he might lead
his forces across without disturbance or pursuit of the enemy. They
arrived at Placentia before Hannibal had ascertained that they had set
out from the Ticinus. He took, however, six hundred of those who
loitered on the farther bank, who were slowly unfastening the raft;
but he was not able to pass the bridge, as the whole raft floated down
the stream as soon as the ends were unfastened. Coelius relates that
Mago, with the cavalry and Spanish infantry, immediately swam the
river; and that Hannibal himself led the army across by fords higher
up the Po, the elephants being opposed to the stream in a line to
break the force of the current. These accounts can scarcely gain
credit with those who are acquainted with that river; for it is
neither probable that the cavalry could bear up against the great
violence of the stream, without losing their arms or horses, even
supposing that inflated bags of leather had transported all the
Spaniards; and the fords of the Po, by which an army encumbered with
baggage could pass, must have been sought by a circuit of many days'
march. Those authors are more credited by me, who relate that in the
course of two days a place was with difficulty found fit for forming a
bridge of rafts across the river, and that by this way the light-armed
Spanish cavalry was sent forward with Mago. Whilst Hannibal, delaying
beside the river to give audience to the embassies of the Gauls,
conveys over the heavy-armed forces of infantry, in the mean time
Mago and the cavalry proceed towards the enemy at Placentia one day's
journey after crossing the river. Hannibal, a few days after,
fortified his camp six miles from Placentia, and on the following day,
having drawn up his line of battle in sight of the enemy, gave them an
opportunity of fighting.
48. On the following night a slaughter was made in the Roman camp by
the auxiliary Gauls, which appeared greater from the tumult than it
proved in reality. Two thousand infantry and two hundred horse, having
killed the guards at the gates, desert to Hannibal; whom the
Carthaginians having addressed kindly, and excited by the hope of
great rewards, sent each to several states to gain over the minds of
their countrymen. Scipio, thinking that that slaughter was a signal
for the revolt of all the Gauls, and that, contaminated with the guilt
of that affair, they would rush to arms as if a frenzy had been sent
among them, though he was still suffering severely from his wound, yet
setting out for the river Trebia at the fourth watch of the following
night with his army in silence, he removes his camp to higher ground
and hills more embarrassing to the cavalry. He escaped observation
less than at the Ticinus: and Hannibal, having despatched first the
Numidians and then all the cavalry, would have thrown the rear at
least into great confusion, had not the Numidians, through anxiety for
booty, turned aside into the deserted Roman camp. There whilst,
closely examining every part of the camp, they waste time, with no
sufficient reward for the delay, the enemy escaped out of their hands;
and when they saw the Romans already across the Trebia, and measuring
out their camp, they kill a few of the loiterers intercepted on that
side of the river. Scipio being unable to endure any longer the
irritation of his wound, caused by the roughness of the road, and
thinking that he ought to wait for his colleague, (for he had now
heard that he was recalled from Sicily,) fortified a space of chosen
ground, which, adjoining the river, seemed safest for a stationary
camp. When Hannibal had encamped not far from thence, being as much
elated with the victory of his cavalry, as anxious on account of the
scarcity which every day assailed him more severely, marching as he
did through the territory of the enemy, and supplies being no where
provided, he sends to the village of Clastidium, where the Romans had
collected a great stock of corn. There, whilst they were preparing for
an assault, a hope of the town being betrayed to them was held out:
Dasius, a Brundusian, the governor of the garrison, having been
corrupted for four hundred pieces of gold, (no great bribe truly,)
Clastidium is surrendered to Hannibal. It served as a granary for the
Carthaginians while they lay at the Trebia. No cruelty was used
towards the prisoners of the surrendered garrison, in order that a
character for clemency might be acquired at the commencement of his
proceedings.
49. While the war by land was at a stand beside the Trebia, in the
mean time operations went on by land and sea around Sicily and the
islands adjacent to Italy, both under Sempronius the consul, and
before his arrival. Twenty quinqueremes, with a thousand armed men,
having been sent by the Carthaginians to lay waste the coast of Italy,
nine reached the Liparae, eight the island of Vulcan, and three the
tide drove into the strait. On these being seen from Messana, twelve
ships sent out by Hiero king of Syracuse, who then happened to be at
Messana, waiting for the Roman consul, brought back into the port of
Messana the ships taken without any resistance. It was discovered from
the prisoners that, besides the twenty ships, to which fleet they
belonged, and which had been despatched against Italy, thirty-five
other quinqueremes were directing their course to Sicily, in order to
gain over their ancient allies: that their main object was to gain
possession of Lilybaeum, and they believed that that fleet had been
driven to the islands Aegates by the same storm by which they
themselves had been dispersed. The king writes these tidings,
according as they had been received, to Marcus Aemilius the praetor,
whose province Sicily was, and advises him to occupy Lilybaeum with a
strong garrison. Immediately the lieutenants, generals, and tribunes,
with the praetor, were despatched to the different states, in order
that they might keep their men on vigilant guard; above all things it
was commanded, that Lilybaeum should be secured: an edict having been
put forth that, in addition to such warlike preparations, the crews
should carry down to their ships dressed provisions for ten days, so
that no one when the signal was given might delay in embarking; and
that those who were stationed along the whole coast should look out
from their watch-towers for the approaching fleet of the enemy. The
Carthaginians, therefore, though they had purposely slackened the
course of their ships, so that they might reach Lilybaeum just before
daybreak, were descried before their arrival, because both the moon
shone all night, and they came with their sails set up. Immediately
the signal was given from the watch-towers, and the summons to arms
was shouted through the town, and they embarked in the ships: part of
the soldiers were left on the walls and at the stations of the gates,
and part went on board the fleet. The Carthaginians, because they
perceived that they would not have to do with an unprepared enemy,
kept back from the harbour till daylight, that interval being spent in
taking down their rigging and getting ready the fleet for action. When
the light appeared, they withdrew their fleet into the open sea, that
there might be room for the battle, and that the ships of the enemy
might have a free egress from the harbour. Nor did the Romans decline
the conflict, being emboldened both by the recollection of the
exploits they had performed near that very spot, and by the numbers
and valour of their soldiers.
50. When they had advanced into the open sea, the Romans wished to
come to close fight, and to make a trial of strength hand to hand. The
Carthaginians, on the contrary, eluded them, and sought to maintain
the fight by art, not by force, and to make it a battle of ships
rather than of men and arms: for though they had their fleet
abundantly supplied with mariners, yet it was deficient in soldiers;
and when a ship was grappled, a very unequal number of armed men
fought on board of it. When this was observed, their numbers increased
the courage of the Romans, and their inferiority of force diminished
that of the others. Seven Carthaginian ships were immediately
surrounded; the rest took to flight: one thousand seven hundred
soldiers and mariners were captured in the ships, and among them were
three noble Carthaginians. The Roman fleet returned without loss to
the harbour, only one ship being pierced, and even that also brought
back into port. After this engagement, before those at Messana were
aware of its occurrence, Titus Sempronius the consul arrived at
Messana. As he entered the strait, king Hiero led out a fleet fully
equipped to meet him; and having passed from the royal ship into that
of the general, he congratulated him on having arrived safe with his
army and fleet, and prayed that his expedition to Sicily might be
prosperous and successful. He then laid before him the state of the
island and the designs of the Carthaginians, and promised that with
the same spirit with which he had in his youth assisted the Romans
during the former war, he would now assist them in his old age; that
he would gratuitously furnish supplies of corn and clothing to the
legions and naval crews of the consul; adding, that great danger
threatened Lilybaeum and the maritime states, and that a change of
affairs would be acceptable to some of them. For these reasons it
appeared to the consul that he ought to make no delay, but to repair
to Lilybaeum with his fleet. The king and the royal squadron set out
along with him, and on their passage they heard that a battle had been
fought at Lilybaeum, and that the enemy's ships had been scattered and
taken.
51. The consul having dismissed Hiero with the royal fleet, and left
the praetor to defend the coast of Sicily, passed over himself from
Lilybaeum to the island Melita, which was held in possession by the
Carthaginians. On his arrival, Hamilcar, the son of Gisgo, the
commander of the garrison, with little less than two thousand
soldiers, together with the town and the island, are delivered up to
him: thence, after a few days, he returned to Lilybaeum, and the
prisoners taken, both by the consul and the praetor, excepting those
illustrious for their rank, were publicly sold. When the consul
considered that Sicily was sufficiently safe on that side, he crossed
over to the islands of Vulcan, because there was a report that the
Carthaginian fleet was stationed there: but not one of the enemy was
discovered about those islands. They had already, as it happened,
passed over to ravage the coast of Italy, and having laid waste the
territory of Vibo, were also threatening the city. The descent made by
the enemy on the Vibonensian territory is announced to the consul as
he was returning to Sicily: and letters were delivered to him which
had been sent by the senate, about the passage of Hannibal into Italy,
commanding him as soon as possible to bring assistance to his
colleague. Perplexed with having so many anxieties at once, he
immediately sent his army, embarked in the fleet, by the upper sea to
Ariminum; he assigned the defence of the territory of Vibo, and the
sea-coast of Italy, to Sextus Pomponius, his lieutenant-general, with
twenty-five ships of war: he made up a fleet of fifty ships for Marcus
Aemilius the praetor; and he himself, after the affairs of Sicily were
settled, sailing close along the coast of Italy with ten ships,
arrived at Ariminum, whence, setting out with his army for the river
Trebia, he joined his colleague.
52. Both the consuls and all the strength of Rome being now opposed to
Hannibal, made it sufficiently obvious that the Roman empire could
either be defended by those forces, or that there was no other hope
left. Yet the one consul being dispirited by the battle of the cavalry
and his own wound, wished operations to be deferred: the other having
his spirits unsubdued, and being therefore the more impetuous,
admitted no delay. The tract of country between the Trebia and the Po
was then inhabited by the Gauls, who, in this contest of two very
powerful states, by a doubtful neutrality, were evidently looking
forward to the favour of the conqueror. The Romans submitted to this
conduct of the Gauls with tolerable satisfaction, provided they did
not take any active part at all; but the Carthaginian bore it with
great discontent, giving out that he had come invited by the Gauls to
set them at liberty. On account of that resentment, and in order that
he might at the same time maintain his troops from the plunder, he
ordered two thousand foot and a thousand horse, chiefly Numidians,
with some Gauls intermixed, to lay waste all the country
straightforward as far as the banks of the Po. The Gauls, being in
want of assistance, though they had up to this time kept their
inclinations doubtful, are forced by the authors of the injury to turn
to some who would be their supporters; and having sent ambassadors to
the consul, they implore the aid of the Romans in behalf of a country
which was suffering for the too great fidelity of its inhabitants to
the Romans. Neither the cause nor the time of pleading it was
satisfactory to Cornelius; and the nation was suspected by him, both
on account of many treacherous actions, and though others might have
been forgotten through length of time, on account of the recent
perfidy of the Boii. Sempronius, on the contrary, thought that it
would be the strongest tie upon the fidelity of the allies, if those
were defended who first required support. Then, while his colleague
hesitated, he sends his own cavalry, with about a thousand spearmen on
foot in their company, to protect the Gallic territory beyond the
Trebia. These, when they had unexpectedly attacked the enemy while
scattered and disordered, and for the most part encumbered with booty,
caused great terror, slaughter, and flight, even as far as the camp
and outposts of the enemy; whence being repulsed by the numbers that
poured out, they again renewed the fight with the assistance of their
own party. Then pursuing and retreating in doubtful battle, though
they left it at last equal, yet the fame of the victory was more with
the Romans than the enemy.