The History of Rome; Books Nine to Twenty Six - Titus Livius
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9. On the day he crossed the Vulturnus, Hannibal pitched his camp at a
small distance from the river. The next day, passing by Cales, he
reached the Sidicinian territory, and having spent a day there in
devastating the country, he led his troops along the Latin way through
the territory of Suessa, Allifae, and Casinum. Under the walls of
Casinum he remained encamped for two days, ravaging the country all
around; thence passing by Interamna and Aquinum, he came into the
Fregellan territory, to the river Liris, where he found the bridge
broken down by the Fregellans in order to impede his progress. Fulvius
also was detained at the Vulturnus, in consequence of Hannibal's
having burnt the ships, and the difficulty he had in procuring rafts
to convey his troops across that river from the great scarcity of
materials. The army having been conveyed across by rafts, the
remainder of the march of Fulvius was uninterrupted, a liberal supply
of provisions having been prepared for him, not only in all the towns,
but also on the sides of the road; while his men, who were all
activity, exhorted each other to quicken their pace, remembering that
they were going to defend their country. A messenger from Fregella,
who had travelled a day and a night without intermission, arriving at
Rome, caused the greatest consternation; and the whole city was thrown
into a state of alarm by the running up and down of persons who made
vague additions to what they heard, and thus increased the confusion
which the original intelligence created. The lamentations of women
were not only heard from private houses, but the matrons from every
quarter, rushing into the public streets, ran up and down around the
shrines of the gods, sweeping the altars with their dishevelled hair,
throwing themselves upon their knees and stretching their uplifted
hands to heaven and the gods, imploring them to rescue the city of
Rome out of the hands of their enemies, and preserve the Roman mothers
and their children from harm. The senate sat in the forum near the
magistrates, in case they should wish to consult them. Some were
receiving orders and departing to their own department of duty; others
were offering themselves wherever there might be occasion for their
aid. Troops were posted in the citadel, in the Capitol, upon the walls
around the city, and also on the Alban mount, and the fort of Aesula.
During this confusion, intelligence was brought that Quintus Fulvius,
the proconsul, had set out from Capua with an army; when the senate
decreed that Quintus Fulvius should have equal authority with the
consuls, lest on entering the city his power should cease. Hannibal,
having most destructively ravaged the Fregellan territory, on account
of the bridge having been broken down, came into the territory of the
Lavici, passing through those of Frusino, Ferentinum, and Anagnia;
thence passing through Algidum he directed his course to Tusculum; but
not being received within the walls, he went down to the right below
Tusculum to Gabii; and marching his army down thence into the
territory of the Pupinian tribe, he pitched his camp eight miles from
the city. The nearer the enemy came, the greater was the number of
fugitives slain by the Numidians who preceded him, and the greater the
number of prisoners made of every rank and age.
10. During this confusion, Fulvius Flaccus entered the city with his
troops through the Capuan gate, passed through the midst of the city,
and through Carinae, to Esquiliae; and going out thence, pitched his
camp between the Esquiline and Colline gates. The plebeian aediles
brought a supply of provisions there. The consuls and the senate came
to the camp, and a consultation was held on the state of the republic.
It was resolved that the consuls should encamp in the neighbourhood of
the Colline and Esquiline gates; that Caius Calpurnius, the city
praetor, should have the command of the Capitol and the citadel; and
that a full senate should be continually assembled in the forum, in
case it should be necessary to consult them amidst such sudden
emergencies. Meanwhile, Hannibal advanced his camp to the Anio, three
miles from the city, and fixing his position there, he advanced with
two thousand horse from the Colline gate as far as the temple of
Hercules, and riding up, took as near a view as he could of the walls
and site of the city. Flaccus, indignant that he should do this so
freely, and so much at his ease, sent out a party of cavalry, with
orders to displace and drive back to their camp the cavalry of the
enemy. After the fight had begun, the consuls ordered the Numidian
deserters who were on the Aventine, to the number of twelve hundred,
to march through the midst of the city to the Esquiliae, judging that
no troops were better calculated to fight among the hollows, the
garden walls, and tombs, or in the enclosed roads which were on all
sides. But some persons, seeing them from the citadel and Capitol as
they filed off on horseback down the Publician hill, cried out that
the Aventine was taken. This circumstance occasioned such confusion
and terror, that if the Carthaginian camp had not been without the
city, the whole multitude, such was their alarm, would have rushed
out. They then fled for refuge into their houses and upon the roofs,
where they threw stones and weapons on their own soldiers as they
passed along the streets, taking them for enemies. Nor could the
tumult be repressed, or the mistake explained, as the streets were
thronged with crowds of rustics and cattle, which the sudden alarm had
driven into the city. The battle between the cavalry was successful,
and the enemy were driven away; and as it was necessary to repress the
tumults which were arising in several quarters without any cause, it
was resolved that all who had been dictators, consuls, or censors,
should be invested with authority till such time as the enemy had
retired from the walls. During the remainder of the day and the
following night, several tumults arose without any foundation, and
were repressed.
11. The next day Hannibal, crossing the Anio, drew out all his forces
in order of battle; nor did Flaccus and the consuls decline to fight.
When the troops on both sides were drawn up to try the issue of a
battle, in which Rome was to be the prize of the victors, a violent
shower of rain mingled with hail created such disorder in both the
lines, that the troops, scarcely able to hold their arms, retired to
their camps, less through fear of the enemy than of any thing else. On
the following day, likewise, a similar tempest separated the armies
marshalled on the same ground; but after they had retired to their
camps the weather became wonderfully serene and tranquil. The
Carthaginians considered this circumstance as a Divine interposition,
and it is reported that Hannibal was heard to say, "That sometimes he
wanted the will to make himself master of Rome, at other times the
opportunity." Two other circumstances also, one inconsiderable, the
other important, diminished his hopes. The important one was, that
while he lay with his armed troops near the walls of the city, he was
informed that troops had marched out of it with colours flying, as a
reinforcement for Spain; that of less importance was, that he was
informed by one of his prisoners, that the very ground on which his
camp stood was sold at this very time, without any diminution in its
price. Indeed, so great an insult and indignity did it appear to him
that a purchaser should be found at Rome for the very soil which he
held and possessed by right of conquest, that he immediately called a
crier, and ordered that the silversmiths' shops, which at that time
stood around the Roman forum, should be put up for sale. Induced by
these circumstances he retired to the river Tutia, six miles from the
city, whence he proceeded to the grove of Feronia, where was a temple
at that time celebrated for its riches. The Capenatians and other
states in the neighbourhood, by bringing here their first-fruits and
other offerings according to their abilities, kept it decorated with
abundance of gold and silver. Of all these offerings the temple was
now despoiled. After the departure of Hannibal, vast heaps of brass
were found there, as the soldiers, from a religious feeling, had
thrown in pieces of uncoined brass. The spoliation of this temple is
undoubted by historians; but Caelius asserts, that Hannibal, in his
progress to Rome, turned out of his way to it from Eretum. According
to him his route commenced with Amiternum, Caetilii, and Reate. He
came from Campania into Samnium, and thence into Pelignia; then
passing the town Sulmio, he entered the territory of the Marrucini;
thence through the Alban territory he came to that of the Marsi, from
which he came to Amiternum and the village of Foruli. Nor is this
diversity of opinion a proof that the traces of so great an army could
be confounded in the lapse of so brief a period. That he went that way
is evident. The only question is, whether he took this route to the
city, or returned by it from the city into Campania?
12. With regard to Capua, Hannibal did not evince such obstinate
perseverance in raising the siege of it as the Romans did in pressing
it; for quitting Lucania, he came into the Bruttian territory, and
marched to the strait and Rhegium with such rapidity, that he was very
near taking the place by surprise, in consequence of the suddenness of
his arrival. Though the siege had been urged with undiminished vigour
during his absence, yet Capua felt the return of Flaccus; and
astonishment was excited that Hannibal had not returned with him.
Afterwards they learnt, by conversations, that they were abandoned and
deserted, and that the Carthaginians had given up all hopes of
retaining Capua. In addition to this a proclamation was made by the
proconsul, agreeably to a decree of the senate, and published among
the enemy, that any Campanian citizen who came over before a stated
day should be indemnified. No one, however, came over, as they were
held together by fear more than fidelity; for the crimes they had
committed during their revolt were too great to admit of pardon. As
none of them passed over to the enemy, consulting their own individual
interest, so no measure of safety was taken with regard to the general
body. The nobility had deserted the state, nor could they be induced
to meet in the senate, while the office of chief magistrate was filled
by a man who had not derived honour to himself from his office, but
stripped the office of its influence and authority by his own
unworthiness. Now none of the nobles made their appearance even in the
forum, or any public place, but shut themselves up in their houses, in
daily expectation of the downfall of their city, and their own
destruction together. The chief responsibility in every thing devolved
upon Bostar and Hanno, the praefects of the Punic garrison, who were
anxious on account of their own danger, and not that of their allies.
They addressed a letter to Hannibal, in terms, not only of freedom,
but severity, charging him with "delivering, not only Capua into the
hands of the enemy, but with treacherously abandoning themselves also,
and their troops, to every species of torture;" they told him "he had
gone off to the Bruttians, in order to get out of the way, as it were,
lest Capua should be taken before his eyes; while, by Hercules, the
Romans, on the contrary, could not be drawn off from the siege of
Capua, even by an attack upon their city. So much more constant were
the Romans in their enmity than the Carthaginians in their friendship.
If he would return to Capua and direct the whole operations of the war
to that point, that both themselves and the Campanians would be
prepared for a sally. That they had crossed the Alps not to carry on a
war with the people of Rhegium nor Tarentum. That where the Roman
legions were, there the armies of the Carthaginians ought to be. Thus
it was that victories had been gained at Cannae and Trasimenus; by
uniting, by pitching their camp close to that of the enemy, by trying
their fortune." A letter to this effect was given to some Numidians
who had already engaged to render their services for a stated reward.
These men came into the camp to Flaccus under pretence of being
deserters, with the intention of quitting it by seizing an
opportunity, and the famine, which had so long existed at Capua,
afforded a pretext for desertion which no one could suspect. But a
Campanian woman, the paramour of one of the deserters, unexpectedly
entered the camp, and informed the Roman general that the Numidians
had come over according to a preconcerted plan of treachery, and were
the bearers of letters to Hannibal; that she was prepared to convict
one of the party of that fact, as he had discovered it to her. On
being brought forward, he at first pretended, with considerable
pertinacity, that he did not know the woman; but afterwards, gradually
succumbing to the force of truth, when he saw the instruments of
torture called for and preparing, he confessed that it was so. The
letters were produced, and a discovery was made of an additional fact,
before concealed, that other Numidians were strolling about in the
Roman camp, under pretence of being deserters. Above seventy of these
were arrested, and, with the late deserters, scourged with rods; and
after their hands had been cut off, were driven back to Capua. The
sight of so severe a punishment broke the spirit of the Campanians.
13. The people, rushing in crowds to the senate-house, compelled
Lesius to assemble a senate, and openly threatened the nobles, who had
now for a long time absented themselves from the public deliberations,
that unless they attended the meeting of the senate, they would go
round to their houses and drag them all before the public by force.
The fear of this procured the magistrate a full senate. Here, while
the rest contended for sending ambassadors to the Roman generals,
Vibius Virrius, who had been the instigator of the revolt from the
Romans, on being asked his opinion, observed, that "those persons who
spoke of sending ambassadors, and of peace, and a surrender, did not
bear in mind either what they would do if they had the Romans in their
power, or what they themselves must expect to suffer. What! do you
think," says he, "that your surrender will be like that in which
formerly we placed ourselves and every thing belonging to us at the
disposal of the Romans, in order that we might obtain assistance from
them against the Samnites? Have you already forgotten at what a
juncture we revolted from the Romans, and what were their
circumstances? Have you forgotten how at the time of the revolt we put
to death, with torture and indignity, their garrison, which might have
been sent out? How often, and with determined hostility, we have
sallied out against them when besieging us, and assaulted their camp?
How we invited Hannibal to come and cut them off? And how most
recently we sent him hence to lay siege to Rome? But come, retrace on
the other hand what they have done in hostility towards us, that you
may learn therefrom what you have to hope for. When a foreign enemy
was in Italy, and that enemy Hannibal; when the flame of war was
kindled in every quarter; disregarding every other object,
disregarding even Hannibal himself, they sent two consuls with two
consular armies to lay siege to Capua. This is the second year, that,
surrounded with lines and shut up within our walls, they consume us by
famine, having suffered in like manner with ourselves the extremest
dangers and the severest hardships, having frequently had their troops
slain near their rampart and trenches, and at last having been almost
deprived of their camp. But I pass over these matters. It has been
usual, even from of old, to suffer dangers and hardships in besieging
an enemy's city. The following is a proof of their animosity and
bitter hatred. Hannibal assaulted their camp with an immense force of
horse and foot, and took a part of it. By so great a danger they were
not in the least diverted from the siege. Crossing the Vulturnus, he
laid waste the territory of Cales with fire. Such calamities inflicted
upon their allies had no effect in calling them off. He ordered his
troops to march in hostile array to the very city of Rome. They
despised the tempest which threatened them in this case also. Crossing
the Anio, he pitched his camp three miles from the city, and lastly,
came up to the very walls and gates. He gave them to understand that
he would take their city from them, unless they gave up Capua. But
they did not give it up. Wild beasts, impelled by headlong fury and
rage, you may divert from their object to bring assistance to those
belonging to them, if you attempt to approach their dens and their
young. The Romans could not be diverted from Capua by the blockade of
Rome, by their wives and children, whose lamentations could almost be
heard from this place, by their altars, their hearths, the temples of
their gods, and the sepulchres of their ancestors profaned and
violated. So great was their avidity to bring us to punishment, so
insatiable their thirst for drinking our blood. Nor, perhaps, without
reason. We too would have done the same had the opportunity been
afforded us. Since, however, the gods have thought proper to determine
it otherwise, though I ought not to shrink from death, while I am
free, while I am master of myself, I have it in my power, by a death
not only honourable but mild, to escape the tortures and indignities
which the enemy hope to inflict upon me. I will not see Appius
Claudius and Quintus Fulvius in the pride and insolence of victory,
nor will I be dragged in chains through Rome as a spectacle in a
triumph, that afterwards in a dungeon, or tied to a stake, after my
back has been lacerated with stripes, I may place my neck under a
Roman axe. I will neither see my native city demolished and burnt, nor
the matrons, virgins, and free-born youths of Campania dragged to
constupration. Alba, from which they themselves derived their origin,
they demolished from her foundations, that there might remain no trace
of their rise and extraction, much less can I believe they will spare
Capua, towards which they bear a more rancorous hatred than towards
Carthage. For such of you, therefore, as have a mind to yield to fate,
before they behold such horrors, a banquet is furnished and prepared
at my house. When satiated with wine and food, the same cup which
shall have been given to me shall be handed round to them. That potion
will rescue our bodies from torture, our minds from insult, our eyes
and ears from seeing and hearing all those cruelties and indignities
which await the vanquished. There will be persons in readiness who
will throw our lifeless bodies upon a large pile kindled in the
court-yard of the house. This is the only free and honourable way to
death. Our very enemies will admire our courage, and Hannibal will
learn that those whom he deserted and betrayed were brave allies."
14. More of those who heard this speech of Virrius approved of the
proposal contained in it, than had strength of mind to execute what
they approved. The greater part of the senate being not without hopes
that the Romans, whose clemency they had frequently had proof of in
many wars, would be exorable by them also, decreed and sent
ambassadors to surrender Capua to the Romans. About twenty-seven
senators, following Vibius Virrius to his home, partook of the banquet
with him; and after having, as far as they could, withdrawn their
minds, by means of wine, from the perception of the impending evil,
all took the poison. They then rose from the banquet, after giving
each other their right hands, and taking a last embrace, mingling
their tears for their own and their country's fate; some of them
remained, that they might be burned upon the same pile, and the rest
retired to their homes. Their veins being filled in consequence of
what they had eaten, and the wine they drank, rendered the poison less
efficacious in expediting death; and accordingly, though the greater
part of them languished the whole of that night and part of the
following day, all of them, however, breathed their last before the
gates were opened to the enemy. The following day the gate of Jupiter,
which faced the Roman camp, was opened by order of the proconsul, when
one legion and two squadrons of allies marched in at it, under the
command of Caius Fulvius, lieutenant-general. When he had taken care
that all the arms and weapons to be found in Capua should be brought
to him; having placed guards at all the gates to prevent any one's
going or being sent out, he seized the Carthaginian garrison, and
ordered the Campanian senators to go into the camp to the Roman
generals. On their arrival they were all immediately thrown into
chains, and ordered to lay before the quaestor an account of all the
gold and silver they had. There were seventy pounds of gold, and three
thousand two hundred of silver. Twenty-five of the senators were sent
to Cales, to be kept in custody, and twenty-eight to Teanum; these
being the persons by whose advice principally it appeared that the
revolt from the Romans had taken place.
15. Fulvius and Claudius were far from being agreed as to the
punishment of the Campanian senators. Claudius was disposed to grant
their prayer for pardon, but Fulvius was more inclined to severity.
Appius, therefore, was for referring the entire disposal of the
question to the Roman senate. He thought it right also, that the
fathers should have the opportunity of asking them whether any of the
Latin confederates, or of the municipal towns, had taken part in these
designs, and whether they had derived any assistance from them in the
war. Fulvius, on the contrary, urged that they ought by no means to
run the hazard of having the minds of faithful allies harassed by
doubtful accusations, and subjected to informers who never cared at
all what they did or what they said. For this reason he said that he
should prevent and put a stop to any such inquiry. After this
conversation they separated; Appius not doubting but that his
colleague, though he expressed himself so warmly, would, nevertheless,
wait for a letter from Rome, in an affair of such magnitude. But
Fulvius, fearing that his designs would be frustrated by that very
means, dismissed his council, and commanded the military tribunes and
the praefects of the allies to give notice to two thousand chosen
horsemen to be in readiness at the third trumpet. Setting out for
Teanum with this body of cavalry, he entered the gate at break of day,
and proceeded direct to the forum; and a number of people having
flocked together at the first entrance of the horsemen, he ordered the
Sidicinian magistrate to be summoned; when he desired him to bring
forth the Campanians whom he had in custody. These were all
accordingly brought forth, scourged, and beheaded. He then proceeded
at full speed to Cales; where, when he had taken his seat on the
tribunal, and while the Campanians, who had been brought forth, were
being bound to the stake, an express arrived from Rome, and delivered
to him a letter from Caius Calpurnius, the praetor, and a decree of
the senate. A murmur immediately pervaded the whole assembly,
beginning at the tribunal, that the entire question respecting the
Campanians was referred to the decision of the fathers, and Fulvius,
suspecting this to be the case, took the letter, and without opening
it put it into his bosom, and then commanded the crier to order the
lictor to do his duty. Thus punishment was inflicted on those also who
were at Cales. The letter was then read, together with the decree of
the senate, when it was too late to prevent the business which was
already executed, and which had been accelerated by every means to
prevent its being obstructed. When Fulvius was now rising from his
seat, Jubellius Taurea, a Campanian making his way through the middle
of the city and the crowd, called upon him by name, and when Flaccus,
who wondered greatly what he could want, had resumed his seat, he
said, "Order me also to be put to death, that you may be able to
boast, that a much braver man than yourself has been put to death by
you." Fulvius at first said, that the man could not certainly be in
his senses, then, that he was restrained by a decree of the senate,
even though he might wish it, when Jubellius exclaimed "Since, after
the capture of my country, and the loss of my relations and friends,
after having killed, with my own hand, my wife and children to prevent
their suffering any indignity, I am not allowed even to die in the
same manner as these my countrymen, let a rescue be sought in courage
from this hated existence." So saying, he thrust a sword, which he had
concealed under his garment, right through his breast, and fell
lifeless at the general's feet.
16. Because not only what related to the punishment of the Campanians,
but most of the other particulars of this affair, were transacted
according to the judgment of Flaccus alone, some authors affirm that
Appius Claudius died about the time of the surrender of Capua, and
that this same Taurea neither came to Cales voluntarily nor died by
his own hand, but that while he was being tied to the stake among the
rest, Flaccus, who could not distinctly hear what he vociferated from
the noise which was made, ordered silence, when Taurea said the things
which have been before related "that he, a man of the greatest
courage, was being put to death by one who was by no means his equal
in respect to valour." That immediately on his saying this, the
herald, by command of the proconsul, pronounced this order. "Lictor,
apply the rods to this man of courage, and execute the law upon him
first." Some authors also relate, that he read the decree of the
senate before he beheaded them, but that as there was a clause in it,
to the effect, that if he thought proper he should refer the entire
question to the senate, he construed it that the decision as to what
was most for the interest of the state was left to himself. He
returned from Cales to Capua. Atella and Calatia surrendered
themselves, and were received. Here also the principal promoters of
the revolt were punished. Thus eighty principal members of the senate
were put to death, and about three hundred of the Campanian nobles
thrown into prison. The rest were distributed through the several
cities of the Latin confederacy, to be kept in custody, where they
perished in various ways. The rest of the Campanian citizens were
sold. The remaining subject of deliberation related to the city and
its territory. Some were of opinion that a city so eminently powerful,
so near, and so hostile, ought to be demolished. But immediate utility
prevailed, for on account of the land, which was evidently superior to
any in Italy from the variety and exuberance of its produce, the city
was preserved that it might become a settlement of husbandmen. For the
purpose of peopling the city, a number of sojourners, freed-men,
dealers, and artificers, were retained, but all the land and buildings
were made the property of the Roman state. It was resolved, however,
that Capua should only be inhabited and peopled as a city, that there
should be no body-politic, nor assembly of the senate or people, nor
magistrates. For it was thought that a multitude not possessing any
public council, without a ruling power, and unconnected by the
participation of any common rights, would be incapable of combination.
They resolved to send a praefect annually from Rome to administer
justice. Thus were matters adjusted at Capua, upon a plan in every
respect worthy of commendation. Punishment was inflicted upon the most
guilty with rigour and despatch, the populace dispersed beyond all
hope of return, no rage vented in fire and ruins upon the unoffending
houses and walls. Together also with advantage, a reputation for
clemency was obtained among the allies, by the preservation of a city
of the greatest celebrity and opulence, the demolition of which, all
Campania, and all the people dwelling in the neighbourhood of
Campania, would have bewailed, while their enemies were compelled to
admit the ability of the Romans to punish their faithless allies, and
how little assistance could be derived from Hannibal towards the
defence of those whom he had taken under his protection.