The History of Rome; Books Nine to Twenty Six - Titus Livius
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53. But to no one did it appear more important and just than to the
consul himself. He was transported with joy "that he had conquered
with that part of the forces with which the other consul had been
defeated; that the spirits of the soldiers were restored and revived;
that there was no one, except his colleague, who would wish an
engagement delayed; and that he, suffering more from disease of mind
than body, shuddered, through recollection of his wound, at arms and
battle. But others ought not to sink into decrepitude together with a
sick man. For why should there be any longer protraction or waste of
time? What third consul, what other army did they wait for? The camp
of the Carthaginians was in Italy, and almost in sight of the city. It
was not Sicily and Sardinia, which had been taken from them when
vanquished, nor Spain on this side of the Iberus, that was their
object, but that the Romans should be driven from the land of their
fathers, and the soil in which they were born. How deeply," he
continued, "would our fathers groan, who were wont to wage war around
the walls of Carthage, if they should see us their offspring, two
consuls and two consular armies, trembling within our camps in the
heart of Italy, while a Carthaginian had made himself master of all
the country between the Alps and the Apennine!" Such discourses did he
hold while sitting beside his sick colleague, and also at the
head-quarters, almost in the manner of an harangue. The approaching
period of the elections also stimulated him, lest the war should be
protracted till the new consuls were chosen, and the opportunity of
turning all the glory to himself, while his colleague lay sick. He
orders the soldiers, therefore, Cornelius in vain attempting to
dissuade him, to get ready for an immediate engagement. Hannibal, as
he saw what conduct would be best for the enemy, had scarce at first
any hope that the consuls would do any thing rashly or imprudently,
but when he discovered that the disposition of the one, first known
from report, and afterwards from experience, was ardent and impetuous,
and believed that it had been rendered still more impetuous by the
successful engagement with his predatory troops, he did not doubt that
an opportunity of action was near at hand. He was anxious and watchful
not to omit this opportunity, while the troops of the enemy were raw,
while his wound rendered the better of the two commanders useless, and
while the spirits of the Gauls were fresh; of whom he knew that a
great number would follow him with the greater reluctance the farther
they were drawn away from home. When, for these and similar reasons,
he hoped that an engagement was near and desired to make the attack
himself, if there should be any delay; and when the Gauls, who were
the safer spies to ascertain what he wished, as they served in both
camps, had brought intelligence that the Romans were prepared for
battle, the Carthaginian began to look about for a place for an
ambuscade.
54. Between the armies was a rivulet, bordered on each side with very
high banks, and covered around with marshy plants, and with the
brushwood and brambles with which uncultivated places are generally
overspread; and when, riding around it, he had, with his own eyes,
thoroughly reconnoitred a place which was sufficient to afford a
covert even for cavalry, he said to Mago his brother: "This will be
the place which you must occupy. Choose out of all the infantry and
cavalry a hundred men of each, with whom come to me at the first
watch. Now is the time to refresh their bodies." The council was thus
dismissed, and in a little time Mago came forward with his chosen men.
"I see," said Hannibal, "the strength of the men; but that you may be
strong not only in resolution, but also in number, pick out each from
the troops and companies nine men like yourselves: Mago will show you
the place where you are to lie in ambush. You will have an enemy who
is blind to these arts of war." A thousand horse and a thousand foot,
under the command of Mago, having been thus sent off, Hannibal orders
the Numidian cavalry to ride up, after crossing the river Trebia by
break of day, to the gates of the enemy, and to draw them out to a
battle by discharging their javelins at the guards; and then, when the
fight was commenced, by retiring slowly to decoy them across the
river. These instructions were given to the Numidians: to the other
leaders of the infantry and cavalry it was commanded that they should
order all their men to dine; and then, under arms and with their
horses equipped, to await the signal. Sempronius, eager for the
contest, led out, on the first tumult raised by the Numidians, all the
cavalry, being full of confidence in that part of the forces; then six
thousand infantry, and lastly all his army, to the place already
determined in his plan. It happened to be the winter season and a
snowy day, in the region which lies between the Alps and the Apennine,
and excessively cold by the proximity of rivers and marshes: besides,
there was no heat in the bodies of the men and horses thus hastily led
out without having first taken food, or employed any means to keep off
the cold; and the nearer they approached to the blasts from the river,
a keener degree of cold blew upon them. But when, in pursuit of the
flying Numidians, they entered the water, (and it was swollen by rain
in the night as high as their breasts,) then in truth the bodies of
all, on landing, were so benumbed, that they were scarcely able to
hold their arms; and as the day advanced they began to grow faint,
both from fatigue and hunger.
55. In the mean time the soldiers of Hannibal, fires having been
kindled before the tents, and oil sent through the companies to soften
their limbs, and their food having been taken at leisure, as soon as
it was announced that the enemy had passed the river, seized their
arms with vigour of mind and body, and advanced to the battle.
Hannibal placed before the standards the Baliares and the light-armed
troops, to the amount of nearly eight thousand men; then the
heavier-armed infantry, the chief of his power and strength: on the
wings he posted ten thousand horse, and on their extremities stationed
the elephants divided into two parts. The consul placed on the flanks
of his infantry the cavalry, recalled by the signal for retreat, as in
their irregular pursuit of the enemy they were checked, while
unprepared, by the Numidians suddenly turning upon them. There were of
infantry eighteen thousand Romans, twenty thousand allies of the Latin
name, besides the auxiliary forces of the Cenomani, the only Gallic
nation that had remained faithful: with these forces they engaged the
enemy. The battle was commenced by the Baliares; whom when the legions
resisted with superior force, the light-armed troops were hastily
drawn off to the wings; which movement caused the Roman cavalry to be
immediately overpowered: for when their four thousand already with
difficulty withstood by themselves ten thousand of the enemy, the
wearied, against men for the most part fresh, they were overwhelmed in
addition by a cloud as it were of javelins, discharged by the
Baliares; and the elephants besides, which held a prominent position
at the extremities of the wings, (the horses being greatly terrified
not only at their appearance, but their unusual smell,) occasioned
flight to a wide extent. The battle between the infantry was equal
rather in courage than strength; for the Carthaginian brought the
latter entire to the action, having a little before refreshed
themselves, while, on the contrary, the bodies of the Romans,
suffering from fasting and fatigue, and stiff with cold, were quite
benumbed. They would have made a stand, however, by dint of courage,
if they had only had to fight with the infantry. But both the
Baliares, having beaten off the cavalry, poured darts on their flanks,
and the elephants had already penetrated to the centre of the line of
the infantry; while Mago and the Numidians, as soon as the army had
passed their place of ambush without observing them, starting up on
their rear, occasioned great disorder and alarm. Nevertheless, amid so
many surrounding dangers, the line for some time remained unbroken,
and, most contrary to the expectation of all, against the elephants.
These the light infantry, posted for the purpose, turned back by
throwing their spears; and following them up when turned, pierced them
under the tail, where they received the wounds in the softest skin.
56. Hannibal ordered the elephants, thus thrown into disorder, and
almost driven by their terror against their own party, to be led away
from the centre of the line to its extremity against the auxiliary
Gauls on the left wing. In an instant they occasioned unequivocal
flight; and a new alarm was added to the Romans when they saw their
auxiliaries routed. About ten thousand men, therefore, as they now
were fighting in a circle, the others being unable to escape, broke
through the middle of the line of the Africans, which was supported by
the Gallic auxiliaries, with immense slaughter of the enemy: and since
they neither could return to the camp, being shut out by the river,
nor, on account of the heavy rain, satisfactorily determine in what
part they should assist their friends, they proceeded by the direct
road to Placentia. After this several irruptions were made in all
directions; and those who sought the river were either swallowed up in
its eddies, or whilst they hesitated to enter it were cut off by the
enemy. Some, who had been scattered abroad through the country in
their flight, by following the traces of the retreating army, arrived
at Placentia; others, the fear of the enemy inspired with boldness to
enter the river, having crossed it, reached the camp. The rain mixed
with snow, and the intolerable severity of the cold, destroyed many
men and beasts of burden, and almost all the elephants. The river
Trebia was the termination of the Carthaginians' pursuit of the enemy;
and they returned to the camp so benumbed with cold, that they could
scarcely feel joy for the victory. On the following night, therefore,
though the guard of the camp and the principal part of the soldiers
that remained passed the Trebia on rafts, they either did not perceive
it, on account of the beating of the rain, or being unable to bestir
themselves, through their fatigue and wounds, pretended that they did
not perceive it; and the Carthaginians remaining quiet, the army was
silently led by the consul Scipio to Placentia, thence transported
across the Po to Cremona, lest one colony should be too much burdened
by the winter quarters of two armies.
57. Such terror on account of this disaster was carried to Rome, that
they believed that the enemy was already approaching the city with
hostile standards, and that they had neither hope nor aid by which
they might repel his attack from the gates and walls. One consul
having been defeated at the Ticinus, the other having been recalled
from Sicily, and now both consuls and their two consular armies having
been vanquished, what other commanders, what other legions were there
to be sent for? The consul Sempronius came to them whilst thus
dismayed, having passed at great risk through the cavalry of the
enemy, scattered in every direction in search of plunder, with
courage, rather than with any plan or hope of escaping, or of making
resistance if he should not escape it. Having held the assembly for
the election of the consuls, the only thing which was particularly
wanting at present, he returned to the winter quarters. Cneius
Servilius and Caius Flaminius were elected consuls. But not even the
winter quarters of the Romans were undisturbed, the Numidian horse
ranging at large, and where the ground was impracticable for these,
the Celtiberians and Lusitanians. All supplies, therefore, from every
quarter, were cut off, except such as the ships conveyed by the Po.
There was a magazine near Placentia, both fortified with great care
and secured by a strong garrison. In the hope of taking this fort,
Hannibal having set out with the cavalry and the light-armed horse,
and having attacked it by night, as he rested his main hope of
effecting his enterprise on keeping it concealed, did not escape the
notice of the guards. Such a clamour was immediately raised, that it
was heard even at Placentia. The consul; therefore, came up with the
cavalry about daybreak, having commanded the legions to follow in a
square band. In the mean time an engagement of cavalry commenced, in
which the enemy being dismayed because Hannibal retired wounded from
the fight, the fortress was admirably defended. After this, having
taken rest for a few days, and before his wound was hardly as yet
sufficiently healed, he sets out to lay siege to Victumviae. This
magazine had been fortified by the Romans in the Gallic war;
afterwards a mixture of inhabitants from the neighbouring states
around had made the place populous; and at this time the terror
created by the devastation of the enemy had driven together to it
numbers from the country. A multitude of this description, excited by
the report of the brave defence of the fortress near Placentia, having
snatched up their arms, went out to meet Hannibal. They engaged on the
road rather like armies in order of march than in line of battle; and
since on the one side there was nothing but a disorderly crowd, and on
the other a general confident in his soldiers, and soldiers in their
general, as many as thirty-five thousand men were routed by a few. On
the following day, a surrender having been made, they received a
garrison within their walls; and being ordered to deliver up their
arms, as soon as they had obeyed the command, a signal is suddenly
given to the victors to pillage the city, as if it had been taken by
storm; nor was any outrage, which in such cases is wont to appear to
writers worthy of relation, left unperpetrated; such a specimen of
every kind of lust, barbarity, and inhuman insolence was exhibited
towards that unhappy people. Such were the expeditions of Hannibal
during the winter.
58. For a short time after, while the cold continued intolerable, rest
was given to the soldiers; and having set out from his winter quarters
on the first and uncertain indications of spring, he leads them into
Etruria, intending to gain that nation to his side, like the Gauls and
Ligurians, either by force or favour. As he was crossing the
Apennines, so furious a storm attacked him, that it almost surpassed
the horrors of the Alps. When the rain and wind together were driven
directly against their faces, they at first halted, because their arms
must either be cast away, or striving to advance against the storm
they were whirled round by the hurricane, and dashed to the ground:
afterwards, when it now stopped their breath, nor suffered them to
respire, they sat down for a little, with their backs to the wind.
Then indeed the sky resounded with loud thunder, and the lightnings
flashed between its terrific peals; all, bereft of sight and hearing,
stood torpid with fear. At length, when the rain had spent itself, and
the fury of the wind was on that account the more increased, it seemed
necessary to pitch the camp in that very place where they had been
overtaken by the storm. But this was the beginning of their labours,
as it were, afresh; for neither could they spread out nor fix any
tent, nor did that which perchance had been put up remain, the wind
tearing through and sweeping every thing away: and soon after, when
the water raised aloft by the wind had been frozen above the cold
summits of the mountains, it poured down such a torrent of snowy hail,
that the men, casting away every thing, fell down upon their faces,
rather buried under than sheltered by their coverings; and so extreme
an intensity of cold succeeded, that when each wished to raise and
lift himself from that wretched heap of men and beasts of burden, he
was for a long time unable, because their sinews being stiffened by
the cold, they had great difficulty in bending their joints.
Afterwards, when, by continually moving themselves to and fro, they
succeeded in recovering the power of motion, and regained their
spirits, and fires began to be kindled in a few places, every helpless
man had recourse to the aid of others. They remained as if blockaded
for two days in that place. Many men and beasts of burden, and also
seven elephants, of those which had remained from the battle fought at
the Trebia, were destroyed.
59. Having descended from the Apennines, he moved his camp back
towards Placentia, and having proceeded as far as ten miles, took up
his station. On the following day he leads out twelve thousand
infantry and five thousand cavalry against the enemy. Nor did
Sempronius the consul (for he had now returned from Rome) decline the
engagement; and during that day three miles intervened between the two
camps. On the following day they fought with amazing courage and
various success. At the first onset the Roman power was so superior,
that they not only conquered the enemy in the regular battle, but
pursued them when driven back quite into their camp, and soon after
also assaulted it. Hannibal, having stationed a few to defend the
rampart and the gates, and having admitted the rest in close array
into the middle of the camp orders them to watch attentively the
signal for sallying out. It was now about the ninth hour of the day
when the Roman, having fatigued his soldiers to no purpose, after
there was no hope of gaining possession of the camp, gave the signal
for retreat; which when Hannibal heard, and saw that the attack was
slackened, and that they were retreating from the camp, instantly
having sent out the cavalry on the right and left against the enemy,
he himself in the middle with the main force of the infantry rushed
out from the camp. Seldom has there been a combat more furious, and
few would have been more remarkable for the loss on both sides, if the
day had suffered it to continue for a longer time. Night broke off the
battle when raging most from the determined spirit of the combatants.
The conflict therefore was more severe than the slaughter: and as it
was pretty much a drawn battle, they separated with equal loss. On
neither side fell more than six hundred infantry, and half that number
of cavalry. But the loss of the Romans was more severe than
proportionate to the number that fell, because several of equestrian
rank, and five tribunes of the soldiers, and three prefects of the
allies were slain. After this battle Hannibal retired to the territory
of the Ligurians, and Sempronius to Luca. Two Roman quaestors, Caius
Fulvius and Lucius Lucretius, who had been treacherously intercepted,
with two military tribunes and five of the equestrian order, mostly
sons of senators, are delivered up to Hannibal when coming among the
Ligurians, in order that he might feel more convinced that the peace
and alliance with them would be binding.
60. While these things are transacting in Italy, Cneius Cornelius
Scipio having been sent into Spain with a fleet and army, when,
setting out from the mouth of the Rhone, and sailing past the
Pyrenaean mountains, he had moored his fleet at Emporiae, having there
landed his army, and beginning with the Lacetani, he brought the whole
coast, as far as the river Iberus, under the Roman dominion, partly by
renewing the old, and partly by forming new alliances. The reputation
for clemency, acquired by these means, had influence not only with the
maritime states, but now also with the more savage tribes in the
inland and mountainous districts; nor was peace only effected with
them, but also an alliance of arms, and several fine cohorts of
auxiliaries were levied from their numbers. The country on this side
of the Iberus was the province of Hanno, whom Hannibal had left to
defend that region. He, therefore, judging that he ought to make
opposition, before every thing was alienated from him, having pitched
his camp in sight of the enemy, led out his forces in battle-array;
nor did it appear to the Roman, that the engagement ought to be
deferred, as he knew that he must fight with Hanno and Hasdrubal, and
wished rather to contend against each of them separately, than against
both together. The conflict did not prove one of great difficulty; six
thousand of the enemy were slain, and two thousand made prisoners,
together with the guard of the camp; for both the camp was stormed,
and the general himself, with several of the chief officers, taken;
and Scissis, a town near the camp, was also carried by assault. But
the spoil of this town consisted of things of small value, such as the
household furniture used by barbarians and slaves that were worth
little. The camp enriched the soldiers; almost all the valuable
effects, not only of that army which was conquered, but of that which
was serving with Hannibal in Italy, having been left on this side the
Pyrenees, that the baggage might not be cumbrous to those who conveyed
it.
61. Before any certain news of this disaster arrived, Hasdrubal,
having passed the Iberus with eight thousand foot and a thousand
horse, intending to meet the Romans on their first approach, after he
heard of the ruin of their affairs at Scissis, and the loss of the
camp, turned his route towards the sea. Not far from Tarraco, having
despatched his cavalry in various directions, he drove to their ships,
with great slaughter, and greater route, the soldiers belonging to the
fleet and the mariners, while scattered and wandering through the
fields (for it is usually the case that success produces negligence),
but not daring to remain longer in that quarter, lest he should be
surprised by Scipio, he withdrew to the other side of the Iberus. And
Scipio, having quickly brought up his army on the report of fresh
enemies, after punishing a few captains of ships and leaving a
moderate garrison at Tarraco, returned with his fleet to Emporiae. He
had scarcely departed, when Hasdrubal came up, and having instigated
to a revolt the state of the Ilergetes, which had given hostages to
Scipio, he lays waste, with the youth of that very people, the lands
of the faithful allies of the Romans. Scipio being thereupon roused
from his winter quarters, Hasdrubal again retires from in all the
country on this side the Iberus. Scipio, when with a hostile army he
had invaded the state of the Ilergetes, forsaken by the author of
their revolt, and having driven them all into Athanagia, which was the
capital of that nation laid siege to the city; and within a few days,
having imposed the delivery of more hostages than before, and also
fined the Ilergetes in a sum of money, he received them back into his
authority and dominion. He then proceeded against the Ausetani near
the Iberus, who were also the allies of the Carthaginians; and having
laid siege to their city, he cut off by an ambuscade the Lacetani,
while bringing assistance by night to their neighbours, having
attacked them at a small distance from the city, as they were
designing to enter it. As many as twelve thousand were slain; the
rest, nearly all without their arms, escaped home, by dispersing
through the country in every direction. Nor did any thing else but the
winter, which was unfavourable to the besiegers, secure the besieged.
The blockade continued for thirty days, during which the snow scarce
ever lay less deep than four feet; and it had covered to such a degree
the sheds and mantelets of the Romans, that it alone served as a
defence when fire was frequently thrown on them by the enemy. At last,
when Amusitus, their leader, had fled to Hasdrubal, they are
surrendered, on condition of paying twenty talents of silver. They
then returned into winter quarters at Tarraco.
62. At Rome during this winter many prodigies either occurred about the
city, or, as usually happens when the minds of men are once inclined
to superstition, many were reported and readily believed; among which
it was said that an infant of good family, only six months old, had
called out "Io triumphe" in the herb market: that in the cattle market
an ox had of his own accord ascended to the third story, and that
thence, being frightened by the noise of the inhabitants, had flung
himself down; that the appearance of ships had been brightly visible
in the sky, and that the temple of Hope in the herb market had been
struck by lightning; that the spear at Lanuvium had shaken itself;
that a crow had flown down into the temple of Juno and alighted on the
very couch; that in the territory of Amiternum figures resembling men
dressed in white raiment had been seen in several places at a
distance, but had not come close to any one; that in Picenum it had
rained stones; that at Caere the tablets for divination had been
lessened in size; and that in Gaul a wolf had snatched out the sword
from the scabbard of a soldier on guard, and carried it off. On
account of the other prodigies the decemvirs were ordered to consult
the books; but on account of its having rained stones in Picenum the
festival of nine days was proclaimed, and almost all the state was
occupied in expiating the rest, from time to time. First of all the
city was purified, and victims of the greater kind were sacrificed to
those gods to whom they were directed to be offered; and a gift of
forty pounds' weight of gold was carried to the temple of Juno at
Lanuvium; and the matrons dedicated a brazen statue to Juno on the
Aventine; and a lectisternium was ordered at Caere, where the tablets
for divination had diminished; and a supplication to Fortune at
Algidum; at Rome also a lectisternium was ordered to Youth, and a
supplication at the temple of Hercules, first by individuals named and
afterwards by the whole people at all the shrines; five greater
victims were offered to Genius; and Caius Atilius Serranus the praetor
was ordered to make certain vows if the republic should remain in the
same state for ten years. These things, thus expiated and vowed
according to the Sibylline books, relieved, in a great degree, the
public mind from superstitious fears.