VIII. FOURTH PERIOD, B.C. known to Hannibal that a part at least of the blockading CHAP. army of Capua had been withdrawn, and was now opposed to him. Perhaps he hoped that his plan had succeeded. If he could draw the Romans from their fortified position 212-211 under the walls of Rome, and beat them, and then return to Capua, it was possible that the Capuans, if they had not yet broken through the Roman lines, would now, in conjunction with his army, repeat a combined attack upon the Roman forces left to continue the blockade, and it was not likely that this time such an attack would fail. In a few days, therefore, he left the immediate neighbourhood of Rome, marching in a north-easterly direction into the country of the Sabines, then to the south-east through the land of the Marsians and Pelignians, to return to Campania by a circuitous route.' He marked his road with flames and devastation. The Roman consuls, as he had expected, followed him, trying in vain to protect the land of their most faithful allies. After a march of five days, Hannibal was informed that the Romans had not relinquished the blockade of Capua, and that only a more authenticated than this legend is the statement that, whilst Hannibal was before the gates of Rome, a reinforcement was sent (Livy, xxvi. 11), or was to be sent (Zonaras, ix. 6), to Spain; and the anecdote that the field where the hostile army was encamped was sold for its full value. If it was added that Hannibal, on hearing this, was so vexed that, out of bravado, he caused the booths of the money-changers in the Roman forum to be put up to auction in his camp, we can only express our surprise and regret that any Roman writer could think Hannibal capable of such childish and impotent spite. The story of the dispatch of auxiliaries for Spain, which is undoubtedly fictitious, shows how proud the Romans were of the alleged fact, that, in spite of Hannibal's advance, they needed no great military force for the defence of the capital. This circumstance throws some doubts on the statement that Fulvius marched with only 16,000 men from Capua for the relief of Rome. No other writer besides Livy mentions it, and we are consequently without the means of testing his trustworthiness by other, independent evidence. But it is not at all improbable that the number was made to appear so small to bring out more forcibly the self-reliance of the Romans. Livy himself gives expression to this sentiment of pride in the words which he attributes to Fabius Maximus (c. 8), for the purpose of dissuading the dispatch of any troops from Capua. If we are entitled to infer that a larger portion of the blockading army really marched from Capua to Rome, we should come to the conclusion that Hannibal's caleulation was less faulty than it seems to have been. 'Livy, xxvi. 11. IV. BOOK portion of their army had left Campania. Suddenly he turned round upon the pursuing Romans, attacked them in the night, stormed their camp, and routed them completely. But his plan was nevertheless thwarted. He found out, like Pyrrhus, that he was fighting with the Hydra; the Roman lines round Capua were sufficiently defended; and seeing that there was no prospect of success if he attempted to storm them, he turned aside and left Capua to her fate. By forced marches he hastened through southern Italy, and appeared unexpectedly before Rhegium. But he was foiled in the attempt to surprise this town, and the only result gained was an abundance of booty and prisoners, which rewarded his soldiers for the unusual fatigues they had undergone. Fall of Capua. The fate of Capua was now sealed. The besieged made one more attempt to call Hannibal to their rescue; but the Numidian who had undertaken to deliver the dangerous message was discovered in the Roman camp, and driven back into the town with his hands cut off. The leaders of the revolt now foresaw what they would have to expect. After the Capuan senate had formally resolved to surrender the town, about thirty of the noblest senators assembled in the house of Vibius Virrius for a last solemn banquet, and took farewell of one another, resolved not to survive the ruin of their country. They all swallowed poison and lay down to die. When the gates were thrown open to admit the victorious army, they were beyond the reach of Roman revenge. The other senators of Capua relied on the generosity of Rome. It is probable that all who were conscious of guilt had sought death, and that the survivors were not directly implicated in causing the defection of Capua. In all such revolutions there is a wide difference between leaders 1 Livy (xxvi. 12) relates that the Roman senate once more offered pardon to the people of Capua if they would now surrender. This statement, unless it is simply a repetition of a previous one, was invented by the annalists to set forth the magnanimity of the Romans and the perversity of the Capuans. Nobody can credit it who knows the true character of the Roman people and government. and followers. No doubt many of the latter had no choice but to swim with the stream, and among them there must have been many parents or relatives of the young Capuan knights who had either taken no part at all in the revolt, or had gone over to the Romans in the course of the war. Such men were justified in hoping for mercy. But Q. Fulvius thirsted for blood, and Roman policy demanded a terrific example. The Capuan senators were therefore sent in chains partly to Cales, partly to Teanum. In the course of the night, Fulvius broke up with a detachment of cavalry and reached Teanum before dawn. He caused twenty-eight prisoners to be scourged and beheaded before his eyes. Without delay he hastened to Cales, and ordered twenty-five more to be put to death. The awful rapidity with which he went through the work of the executioner, without even the shadow of discrimination or trial, shows that his heart was in it. It is said that, before he had done, he received a sealed letter from Rome, which contained an order from the senate to postpone the punishment of the guilty, and to allow the senate to pronounce their sentence. Guessing the contents of the letter, Fulvius left it unopened until all his victims were dead. If this report is true, and if the Roman senate really intended to act with clemency, they still had ample opportunity, even after the hot haste with which Fulvius had slaked his thirst for revenge. But as the Roman senate, far from exhibiting a spirit of clemency, continued to treat prostrate Capua with exquisite harshness and cruelty, we feel it difficult to credit the report. CHAP. VIII. FOURTH PERIOD, 212-211 B.C. That Flaccus had carried out the intention of the Treatment of Capua Roman government is clear from the treatment of the by the Rotwo small Campanian towns, Atella and Calatia, which mans. had revolted, and were now reduced at the same time as Capua. The leading men of these two places were put to death. Three hundred of the chief citizens of Capua, 'Concerning their number, see Weissenborn's note to Livy xxvi. 16 BOOK Calatia, and Atella' were dragged to Rome, cast into prison, and left to die of starvation; others were distributed as prisoners over the Latin towns, where they all perished in a similar manner. The rest of the guilty, i.e. those who had themselves borne arms against Rome, or whose relations had so done, or who had discharged any public office since the breaking out of the revolt,2 were sold as slaves, with their wives and children. Those who were not guilty, i.e. those who at the time of the revolt had not been in Campania, or who had gone over to the Romans, or who had taken no active part in the insurrection, lost only their land and part of their movable property, but were left in the enjoyment of personal freedom, and received permission to settle within certain limits away from Campania. The towns of Capua, Atella, and Calatia, and the whole district belonging to them, became the property of the Roman people. The right of municipal self-government was withdrawn, and a prefect, annually sent from Rome, was intrusted with the administration of the district, which, instead of a free community, contained henceforth only a motley population of workmen, farmers of the public land and of the revenue, tradesmen, and other adventurers-a population destitute of all those hallowed associations and feelings of attachment to the soil which to the people of antiquity were the basis of patriotism and all civic virtues. The flourishing city of Capua, once the rival of Rome, was blotted out from among the list of Italian towns, and was henceforth let out by the Roman people like to a tenement or pelting farm.' We cannot, of course, expect to find among the men that fought against Hannibal that chivalrous spirit and generosity which in general characterise modern warfare. To what extent they acted in the spirit of their contemporaries we can judge most clearly from the manner in which the tender-hearted, humane Livy, two 1 According to Zonaras (ix. 6), the people of Atella left their town in a body (Tavonuel) and joined Hannibal. 2 Livy, xxvi. 34. CHAP. VIII. PERIOD, 212-211 B.C. centuries later, spoke of their proceedings. He calls them in every respect laudable. 'Severely and quickly,' he says, the most guilty were punished; the lower classes of FOURTH the people were dispersed without the hope of return; the innocent buildings and walls were preserved from fire and destruction; and, by the preservation of the most beautiful town of Campania, the feelings of the neighbouring peoples were spared, whilst at the same time the interests of the Roman people were consulted." of Capuans at Rome. The final decision of the fate of Capua, which we have Execution here related, did not follow immediately after the hurried punishment of those who were principally guilty. It was postponed to the year following, and by a decision of the popular assembly intrusted to the senate. Meanwhile Capua was occupied by a Roman garrison and strictly guarded. No one was allowed to leave the town without permission. Yet there were some Campanians at Rome; perhaps the three hundred who at the time of the revolt were serving as horsemen with the Roman legions in Sicily, and who, as a reward for their fidelity, had been received as Roman citizens. These unfortunate men also were now doomed to experience the adverse fate which 1 Livy, xxvi. 16: Ita ad Capuam res compositæ consilio ab omni parte laudabili: severe et celeriter in maxime noxios animadversum; multitudo civium dissipata in nullam spem reditus; non sævitum incendiis ruinisque in tecta innoxia murosque, et cum emolumento quæsita etiam apud socios lenitatis species, incolumitate urbis nobilissimæ opulentissimæque, cuius ruinis omnis Campania, omnes qui Campaniam circa accolunt populi ingemuissent.' Compare Valerius Maximus, iii. 8, 1. These sentiments scarcely come home to our feelings. What is the value of the incolumitas urbis,' which consists in the preservation of stones and timber, whilst the inhabitants were expelled, sold into slavery, or killed? Is it not a mockery of right, if Livy finds it meritorious and laudable that the houses and walls were spared, to the advantage of the Roman state? There is perhaps no greater contrast anywhere between antiquity and modern times than in the range of human sympathies and love. As every nation, and even every city, had formerly its own god and its own religion, there existed no moral and no religious obligation with regard to the members of other communities. It was only when mankind gradually rose to the conception of one God of the universe, and when Christianity taught us to love our enemies as ourselves, that men ceased to look with pleasure or indifference at the sufferings of men differing from them in race, language, or even geographical locality alone. |