СНАР. VIII. SECOND PERIOD, B.C. passed by any Italian state. No city not included in the Roman tribes appeared so intimately connected with Rome as Capua. The Romans and the Capuans had become one people more completely than the Romans and 216-215 the Latins. The Capuan knights possessed the full Roman franchise, and the rest of the people of Capua enjoyed the civil rights of Romans exclusive only of the political rights. The Capuans fought in the Roman legions side by side with the inhabitants of the thirty-five tribes. A great number of Romans had settled in Capua, and the prominent families of this town were connected by marriage with the highest nobility of Rome. These Capuan nobles had a double motive for remaining faithful to Rome. Through the decision of the Roman senate they had in the great Latin war (338 B.C.') obtained political power in Capua and the enjoyment of an annual revenue which the people of Capua were made to pay to them. A Roman prefect resided in Capua to decide civil disputes in which Roman citizens were concerned; but in every other respect the Capuans were free from interference with their local self-government. They had their own senate and their national chief magistrate, called Meddix. Under the dominion of Rome the town had probably lost little of her former importance and prosperity, and she was considered now, as she had been a century before, a worthy rival of Rome. But it was precisely this greatness and prosperity which fostered in the people of Capua the feeling of jealousy and impatience of Roman superiority. A position which smaller towns might accept without feeling humbled could not fail to offend the pride of a people which looked upon itself as not inferior even to the people of Rome. The plebeians of Capua, in other words the vast majority of the population, had been grievously wronged and exasperated by the measure of the Roman senate which had deprived Capua of her domain or public land, and had in consequence imposed a tax for the support of the Capuan nobility. The See vol. i. p. 373. Disposi tion of the plebeians of Capua towards Hannibal. BOOK IV. Revolt of Atella, and Calatia. natural opposition between the two classes of citizens, which we find in every Italian community, had through this measure been embittered by a peculiar feeling of injustice on the popular side, and by the slavish attachment of the nobles to their foreign friends and supporters. It was not Hannibal's appearance in Italy that first produced this division in Capua. But the discontent which had been growing for years, had hitherto been kept down by the irresistible power of Rome. Now, as it seemed, the hour of deliverance was at hand. Soon after the battle of the lake Thrasymenus in the preceding year, when Hannibal for the first time appeared in Campania, he had tried to detach Capua from the Roman alliance. Some Capuan prisoners of war whom he had set free, had promised to bring about an insurrection in their native city; but the plan had failed.' Another decisive victory over the Romans was wanted to inspire the national and popular party in Capua with sufficient courage for so bold a step as the throwing off of their allegiance. Such a victory had been gained at Cannæ; and the revolution in Capua was one of its first and most valuable fruits.2 3 The Capuan nobility was neither strong enough to suppress the popular movement in favour of Hannibal, nor honest and firm enough to retire from the government and to leave the town after the Carthaginian party had gained the ascendency. Only a few men remained faithful to Rome, foremost among whom was Decius Magius. The majority of the senate of Capua allowed themselves to be intimidated by Pacuvius Calavius, one of their number, and hoped by joining the Carthaginians to save their prerogatives and their position. Soon after the battle of Cannæ they despatched an embassy to Hannibal and concluded a treaty of friendship and alliance with Carthage, which guaranteed their entire independence, and especially an immunity from the obligation of military service and other burthens. As the prize of their joint victory over 1 See above, p. 220. Livy, xxiii. 2-10. Zonaras, ix. 2. Livy, xxiii. 2. 2 Livy, xxiii. 7: Legati ad Hannibalem venerunt pacemque cum eo con CHAP. VIII. SECOND PERIOD, B.C. Rome they hoped that the dominion over Italy would fall to their share. In order to cut off every chance of a reconciliation with Rome, and to convince their new ally of their unconditional attachment, the Capuan populace 216-215 seized the Roman citizens who happened to be residing among them, shut them up in one of the public baths, and killed them with hot vapour. Three hundred Roman prisoners were delivered into the keeping of the Capuans by Hannibal as a security for the safety of an equal number of Capuan horsemen who were serving with the Roman army in Sicily. The example of Capua was followed voluntarily or on compulsion by Atella and Calatia, two neighbouring Italian cities. All the other numerous towns of Campania, especially the Greek community of Neapolis and the old city of Cuma (once, like Neapolis, a Greek settlement, but now entirely Italian), remained faithful to Rome. This was due to the influence of the nobility, while the popular party evinced everywhere a strong desire to join the Carthaginian cause. resistance of Decius Hannibal. Among the great events which convulsed Italy at this The time our attention is arrested by the fate of a comparatively humble individual, because it permits us to catch a glimpse Magius to of the civil struggles and vicissitudes which the great war called forth in every Italian city, and because it throws an interesting and a favourable light on the character of Hannibal.' Decius Magius was the leader of the minority in the Capuan senate, which, remaining faithful to Rome, rejected all the offers of Hannibal, and even after the occupation of their town by a Punic garrison entertained the hope of recalling their countrymen to their allegiance, of overpowering and murdering the foreign troops, and restoring Capua to the Romans. He made no secret of his sentiments and his plans. When Hannibal sent for him into his camp, he refused to go, because, as a free citizen of dicionibus his fecerunt, ne quis imperator magistratusve Pœnorum ius ullum in civem Campanum haberet, neve civis Campanus invitus militaret munusve faceret; ut sure leges, sui magistratus Capuæ essent.' 'Livy, xxiii. 8-10. BOOK Story of Capua, he was not bound to obey the behests of a stranger. Hannibal might have employed force; but his object was to gain over as a friend, not to punish, so influential a man as Decius. When he made his public entry into Capua, the whole population poured out to meet him, eager to see face to face the man who had taken the Roman yoke from their shoulders. But Decius Magius kept aloof from the gaping crowd. He walked up and down on the market-place with his son and a few clients as if he had no concern in the general excitement. On the following day, when he was brought before Hannibal, he exhibited the same spirit of defiance, and tried even to rouse the people against the invaders. What would have been the fate of such a man, if he had thus defied a Roman general? Hannibal was satisfied with removing him from the place where his presence was likely to cause difficulties. He ordered him to be sent to Carthage to be kept there as a prisoner of war. But Decius Magius was spared the humiliation of living at the mercy of his hated enemies. The ship that was to take him to Carthage was driven by adverse winds to Cyrene. Hence he was brought to Egypt; and King Ptolemy Philopator, who was on friendly terms with Rome, allowed him to return to Italy. But where was he to go? His native town was in the hands of a hostile faction and of the national enemies, while Rome was carrying on a war of extermination against her. He remained an exile in a foreign land, and thus was spared the misery of witnessing the barbarous punishment which a few years later the ruthless hand of Rome inflicted on Capua. No man would have been more justified in deprecating this punishment, and more likely to mitigate it, if Roman justice could ever be tempered with mercy, than the man who had dared in the cause of Rome to defy the victorious Hannibal.' The two hostile parties which opposed each other in the Campanian towns had caused even members of the same families to be divided against each other. Pacuvius Cala CHAP. VIII. SECOND PERIOD, B.C. vius, the chief instigator of the revolt of Capua, had married a daughter of a noble Roman, Appius Claudius, and his son was a zealous adherent of the Roman cause. The father tried in vain to convince the youth that the star of 216-215 Rome had set, and that his native town of Capua could regain her ancient position and splendour only by a league with Carthage. Not even the countenance and the kind words of Hannibal himself, who at the father's request pardoned the errors of the son, could conciliate the sturdy young man. Invited with his father to dine in company with Hannibal, he remained sullen through the merriment of the banquet, and refused even to pledge Hannibal in a cup of wine, under the pretext of not feeling well. Towards evening, when Pacuvius left the dining room for a time, his son followed him, and drawing him aside into a garden at the back of the house, declared his intention of presently killing Hannibal and thus obtaining for his countrymen pardon for their great offence. In the utmost dismay, Pacuvius besought his son to give up this heinous scheme, and vowed to shield with his own body the man to whom he had sworn to be faithful, who had intrusted himself to the hospitality of Capua, and whose guests they were at this moment. In the struggle of conflicting duties filial piety prevailed. The youth cast away the dagger with which he had armed himself, and returned to the banquet to avert suspicion. Occupation of Nola by the prætor In Nola as in Capua the people were divided between a Roman and a Carthaginian party. The plebs was in favour of joining Hannibal, and it was with difficulty that Marcellus. the nobles delayed the decision, and thus gained time to inform the prætor Marcellus, who was then stationed at Casilinum, of the danger of a revolt. Marcellus immediately hastened to Nola, occupied the town with a strong garrison, and repulsed the Carthaginians, who, counting on the friendly disposition of the people of Nola, had come to take possession of the town. This lucky hit of Livy, xxiii. 14. |