BOOK Second Period of the Hannibalian War. FROM THE BATTLE OF CANNE TO THE REVOLUTION IN SYRACUSE, 216-215 B.C. Unvarying success bad accompanied Hannibal from the first moment of his setting foot in Italy, and had risen Position of higher and higher until it culminated in the crowning vicHannibal tory at Cannæ. From this time the vigour of Hannibal's in Italy. attack relaxes; its force seems spent. The war continues, but it is changed in character; it is spread over a greater space; its unity and dramatic interest are gone. For Hannibal those difficulties begin which are inseparable from a campaign in a foreign country at a great distance from the native resources. His subsequent career in Italy is not marked by triumphs on the colossal scale of the victories at the Trebia, the Thrasymenus, and Cannæ. He remains indeed the terror of the Romans, and scatters or crushes on every occasion the legions that venture to oppose him in the field, but, in spite of the insurrection of many of the Roman allies and of the undaunted spirit of the Carthaginian government, it becomes now more and more apparent that the resources of Rome are superior to those of her enemies. Gradually she rises from her fall. Slowly she recovers strength and confidence. Yielding on no point, she keeps up vigorously the defensive against Hannibal, whilst she passes to the offensive in the other theatres of war, in Spain, Sicily, and finally in Africa; and, having thoroughly reduced and weakened the strength of her adversary, she deals a last and decisive blow against Hannibal himself. The Unfortunately we lose after the battle of Cannæ the histories of most valuable witness, on whom we have chiefly relied Polybius. for the earlier events of the war. Of the great historical work of Polybius only the first five books are preserved entire, while of the remaining thirty-five we have only VIII. SECOND PERIOD, 216-215 B.C. detached fragments, valuable indeed, but calculated more CHAP. to make us feel the greatness of the loss than to satisfy our curiosity. Polybius has almost the authority of a contemporary writer, though the Hannibalian war was ended when he was still a child. He wrote when the memory of these events was fresh, and information could easily be obtained—when exaggerations and lies, such as are found in later writers, had not yet ventured into publicity or found credence. He was conscientious in sifting evidence, in consulting documents, and visiting the scenes of the events which he narrates. As a Greek writing on Roman affairs, he was free from that national vanity which in Roman annalists is often very offensive. Though he admires Rome and Roman institutions, he brings to bear upon his judgment the enlightenment of a man trained in all the knowledge of Greece, and of a statesman and a soldier experienced in the management of public affairs. He is indeed not free from errors and faults. His intimate friendship with some of the houses of the Roman nobility biassed his judgment in favour of the aristocratic government, and his connexion with Scipio Emilianus made him, willingly or unconsciously, the panegyrist of the members of that family. He is guilty of occasional oversights, omissions, or errors, some of which we have noticed; but, taking him for all in all, he is one of our truest guides in the history of the ancient world, and we cannot sufficiently regret the loss of the greater part of his work. Fortunately the third decade of Livy, which gives a connected account of the Hannibalian war, is preserved, and we find in the fragments of Dion Cassius, Diodorus, and Appian, and in the abridgment of Zonaras, as well as in some other later extracts, occasional opportunities for completing our knowledge. But it cannot be denied that, with some exceptions, the history of the war flags after the battle of Cannæ. The figure of Hannibal, the most interesting of all the actors in that great drama, retires more into the background. We know for certain that he was as great in the years of comparative, or apparent, inactivity as in the time which BOOK IV. Religious ceremonies at Rome. ended with the triumph at Canna; but we cannot follow him into the recesses of southern Italy, nor watch his ceaseless labours in organising the means and laying the plans for carrying on the war in Italy, Sicily, Spain, Greece, Gaul, and in all the seas. We know that he was ever at work, ready at all times to pounce upon any Roman army that ventured too near him, terrible as ever to his enemies, full of resources, unyielding in the face of multiplied difficulties, and unconquered in battle, until the command of his country summoned him from Italy to Africa. But of the details of these exploits we have a very inadequate knowledge, partly because no history of the war written on the Carthaginian side has been preserved,' and partly because the full narrative of Polybius is lost. The disaster of Cannæ, it appears, had long been foretold, but the warnings of the friendly deity had been cast to the winds. More than that, the Roman people had been guilty of a great offence. The altar of Vesta had been desecrated. Two of her virgins had broken the vow of chastity. It is true they had grievously atoned for their sin: one had died a voluntary death, the other had suffered the severe punishment which the sacred law imposed. She was entombed in her grave alive, and left there to perish; the wretch who had seduced her was scourged to death in the public market by the chief pontiff.2 But the conscience of the people was not at ease. A complete purification and an act of atonement seemed required to relieve the feeling of guilt and to regain the favour of the outraged deity. Accordingly an embassy was sent to Greece to consult the oracle of Apollo at Delphi. The chief of this embassy was Fabius Pictor, the first writer who composed a continuous history of Rome from the foundation of the city to his own time. But even before the reply of the Greek god could be received, something 1 Sosilos' work, tà πepl 'Avvíßav, is lost. Comp. Polybius, iii. 20. 2 Livy xxii. 57: L. Cantilius, scriba pontificis, qui cum Floronia stuprum fecerat, a pontifice maximo eo usque virgis in comitio casus erat, ut inter verbera expiraret.' VIII. SECOND PERIOD, B.C. Drain of the war on the popu lation of Italy. had to be done to calm the apprehensions of the public, CHAP. and to set at rest their religious terrors. The Romans had national prophecies, preserved like the Sibylline books, with which they were often confounded.' These books of 216-215 fate were now consulted, and they revealed the pleasure of a barbarous deity, which again claimed, as during the last Gallic war nine years before, to be appeased by human sacrifices. A Greek man and a Greek woman, a Gaul and a Gaulish woman were again buried alive. By such cruel practices the leading men at Rome showed that they were not prevented by the influence of Greek civilisation and enlightenment from working on the abject superstition of the multitude, and from adding to their material strength and patriotic devotion by religious fanaticism. The superiority of Rome over Carthage lay chiefly in the vast military population of Italy, which in one way or another was subject to the republic and available for the purposes of war. At the time of the last enumeration, which took place in 225 B.C. on the occasion of the threatened Gaulish attack, the number of men capable of bearing arms is said to have amounted to nearly 800,000, and in all probability that statement fell short of the actual number.2 Here was a source of power that seemed inexhaustible. Nevertheless the war had hardly lasted two years before a difficulty was felt to fill up the gaps which bloody battles had made in the Roman ranks. Since the engagement on the Ticinus the Romans must have lost in Italy alone 120,000 men, actually slain or taken prisoners, without reckoning those who succumbed to disease and the fatigues and privations of the prolonged campaigns. This loss was felt most severely by the Roman citizens; for these were kept by Hannibal in captivity whilst the prisoners of the allies were discharged. Whether the latter were enrolled again, we The Sibylline books were of Greek origin, but similar in character to the native libri fatales,' on which they were, in a manner, engrafted, and with which they formed one body of prophetic writings, in the keeping of the decemviri (afterwards quindecimviri) sacris faciundis. See vol. i. p. 80. 2 See the Appendix on the population of Italy, at the end of this volume. BOOK IV. are not informed. At any rate a corresponding number of men was spared for the necessary domestic labour, for agriculture and the various trades; and consequently the allies who remained faithful to Rome could more easily replace the dead, although they also had already reached that point of exhaustion where war begins to undermine, not only the public welfare, but society itself in the first conditions of its existence. Men capable of bearing arms are, in other words, men capable of working; and it is upon work that civil society and every political community is finally based. If, therefore, only one-tenth of the labour strength of Italy was consumed in two years, and if another tenth was needed for carrying on the war, we may form an idea of the fearful disorganisation which was rapidly spreading over Italy, of the check to every sort of productive industry at a time when the state, deprived of so many of its most valuable citizens, was obliged to raise its demands in proportion, and to exact more and more sacrifices from the survivors. The prevalence of slavery alone explains how it was possible to take away every fifth man from peaceful occupations and employ him in military service. The institution of slavery, though incompatible by its very nature with the moral or even the material progress of man, and though always a social and political evil of the worst kind, has at certain times been of great temporary advantage; for, by relieving the free citizens to a great extent from the labour necessary for existence, it has set them free to devote themselves either to intellectual pursuits, to the cultivation of science and of art, or to war. We have no direct testimony of the extent to which slave-labour was employed in Italy at the time of the second Punic war; but we have certain indications to show that, if not everywhere in Italy, at least among the Romans, and in all the larger towns, the number of slaves was very considerable.' The noble Romans were, even in the field, accompanied by slaves, who served as grooms, or carriers of baggage (calones).—Livy, xxii. 58. Paullus Diaconus, s. v. calones, p. 62. Servius ad Virg. Æn. vi. 1. |