History of Rome, Vol III by Titus Livius

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31. In answer to these things the Roman general spoke nearly to the
following effect: "I was aware that it was in consequence of the
expectation of your arrival, that the Carthaginians violated the
existing faith of the truce and broke off all hope of a peace. Nor,
indeed, do you conceal the fact; inasmuch as you artfully withdraw
from the former conditions of peace every concession except what
relates to those things which have for a long time been in our own
power. But as it is your object, that your countrymen should be
sensible how great a burden they are relieved from by your means, so
it is incumbent upon me to endeavour that they may not receive, as
the reward of their perfidy, the concessions which they formerly
stipulated, by expunging them now from the conditions of the peace.
Though you do not deserve to be allowed the same conditions as before,
you now request even to be benefited by your treachery. Neither did
our fathers first make war respecting Sicily, nor did we respecting
Spain. In the former case the danger which threatened our allies the
Mamertines, and in the present the destruction of Saguntum, girded
us with just and pious arms. That you were the aggressors, both you
yourselves confess, and the gods are witnesses, who determined
the issue of the former war, and who are now determining and will
determine the issue of the present according to right and justice. As
to myself, I am not forgetful of the instability of human affairs,
but consider the influence of fortune, and am well aware that all
our measures are liable to a thousand casualties. But as I should
acknowledge that my conduct would savour of insolence and oppression,
if I rejected you on your coming in person to solicit peace, before
I crossed over into Africa, you voluntarily retiring from Italy, and
after you had embarked your troops; so now, when I have dragged you
into Africa almost by manual force, notwithstanding your resistance
and evasions, I am not bound to treat you with any respect. Wherefore,
if in addition to those stipulations on which it was considered that a
peace would at that time have been agreed upon, and what they are you
are informed, a compensation is proposed for having seized our ships,
together with their stores, during a truce, and for the violence
offered to our ambassadors, I shall then have matter to lay before my
council. But if these things also appear oppressive, prepare for war,
since you could not brook the conditions of peace." Thus, without
effecting an accommodation, when they had returned from the conference
to their armies, they informed them that words had been bandied to no
purpose, that the question must be decided by arms, and that they must
accept that fortune which the gods assigned them.

32. When they had arrived at their camps, they both issued orders that
their soldiers should get their arms in readiness, and prepare their
minds for the final contest; in which, if fortune should favour them,
they would continue victorious, not for a single day, but for ever.
"Before to-morrow night," they said, "they would know whether Rome or
Carthage should give laws to the world; and that neither Africa nor
Italy, but the whole world, would be the prize of victory. That the
dangers which threatened those who had the misfortune to be defeated,
were proportioned to the rewards of the victors." For the Romans had
not any place of refuge in an unknown and foreign land, and immediate
destruction seemed to await Carthage, if the troops which formed
her last reliance were defeated. To this important contest, the
day following, two generals, by far the most renowned of any, and
belonging to two of the most powerful nations in the world, advanced,
either to crown or overthrow, on that day, the many honours they had
previously acquired. Their minds, therefore, were agitated with the
opposite feelings of hope and fear; and while they contemplated at
one time their own troops, at another those of their enemy, estimating
their powers more by sight than by reason, they saw in them at once
the grounds for joy and grief. Those circumstances which did not occur
to the troops themselves spontaneously, their generals suggested by
their admonitions and exhortations. The Carthaginian recounted his
achievements in the land of Italy during sixteen years the many Roman
generals and armies annihilated, reminding each individually of the
honours he had acquired as he came to any soldier who had obtained
distinction in any of his battles. Scipio referred to Spain, the
recent battles in Africa and the enemy's own confession, that they
could not through fear but solicit peace, nor could they, through
their inveterate perfidy, abide by it. In addition to this he gave
what turn he pleased to his conference with Hannibal, which was held
in private, and was therefore open to misrepresentation. He augured
success that the gods had exhibited the same omens to them on going
out to battle on the present occasion, as they had to their fathers
when they fought at the islands Aegates. He told them that the
termination of the war, and their hardships, had arrived; that they
had within their grasp the spoils of Carthage, and the power of
returning home to their country, their parents, their children, their
wives, and their household gods. He delivered these observations with
a body so erect, and with a countenance so full of exultation, that
one would have supposed that he had already conquered. He then drew up
his troops, posting the hastati in front, the principes behind them,
and closing his rear line with the triarii.

33. He did not draw up his cohorts in close order, but each before
their respective standards; placing the companies at some distance
from each other, so as to leave a space through which the elephants of
the enemy passing might not at all break their ranks. Laelius, whom he
had employed before as lieutenant-general, but this year as quaestor,
by special appointment, according to a decree of the senate, he posted
with the Italian cavalry in the left wing, Masinissa and the Numidians
in the right. The open spaces between the companies of those in the
van he filled with velites, which then formed the Roman light-armed
troops, with an injunction, that on the charge of the elephants they
should either retire behind the files, which extended in a right line,
or, running to the right and left and placing themselves by the side
of those in the van, afford a passage by which the elephants might
rush in between weapons on both sides. Hannibal, in order to terrify
the enemy, drew up his elephants in front, and he had eighty of
them, being more than he had ever had in any battle; behind these his
Ligurian and Gallic auxiliaries, with Balearians and Moors intermixed.
In the second line he placed the Carthaginians, Africans, and a legion
of Macedonians; then, leaving a moderate interval, he formed a reserve
of Italian troops, consisting principally of Bruttians, more of
whom had followed him on his departure from Italy by compulsion and
necessity than by choice. His cavalry also he placed in the wings, the
Carthaginian occupying the right, the Numidian the left. Various were
the means of exhortation employed in an army consisting of a mixture
of so many different kinds of men; men differing in language, customs
laws, arms, dress, and appearance, and in the motives for serving.
To the auxiliaries, the prospect both of their present pay, and many
times more from the spoils, was held out. The Gauls were stimulated
by their peculiar and inherent animosity against the Romans. To the
Ligurians the hope was held out of enjoying the fertile plains of
Italy, and quitting their rugged mountains, if victorious. The Moors
and Numidians were terrified with subjection to the government of
Masinissa, which he would exercise with despotic severity. Different
grounds of hope and fear were represented to different persons. The
view of the Carthaginians was directed to the walls of their city,
their household gods, the sepulchres of their ancestors, their
children and parents, and their trembling wives; they were told, that
either the destruction of their city and slavery or the empire of the
world awaited them; that there was nothing intermediate which they
could hope for or fear. While the general was thus busily employed
among the Carthaginians, and the captains of the respective nations
among their countrymen, most of them employing interpreters among
troops intermixed with those of different nations, the trumpets and
cornets of the Romans sounded; and such a clamour arose, that the
elephants, especially those in the left wing, turned round upon their
own party, the Moors and Numidians. Masinissa had no difficulty in
increasing the alarm of the terrified enemy, and deprived them of the
aid of their cavalry in that wing. A few, however, of the beasts which
were driven against the enemy, and were not turned back through fear,
made great havoc among the ranks of the velites, though not without
receiving many wounds themselves; for when the velites, retiring to
the companies, had made way for the elephants, that they might not be
trampled down, they discharged their darts at them, exposed as they
were to wounds on both sides, those in the van also keeping up a
continual discharge of javelins; until, driven out of the Roman line
by the weapons which fell upon them from all quarters, these elephants
also put to flight even the cavalry of the Carthaginians posted in
their right wing. Laelius, when he saw the enemy in disorder, struck
additional terror into them in their confusion.

34. The Carthaginian line was deprived of the cavalry on both
sides, when the infantry, who were now not a match for the Romans in
confidence or strength, engaged. In addition to this there was one
circumstance, trifling in itself, but at the same time producing
important consequences in the action. On the part of the Romans the
shout was uniform, and on that account louder and more terrific; while
the voices of the enemy, consisting as they did of many nations of
different languages, were dissonant. The Romans used the stationary
kind of fight, pressing upon the enemy with their own weight and that
of their arms; but on the other side there was more of skirmishing
and rapid movement than force. Accordingly, on the first charge,
the Romans immediately drove back the line of their opponents; then
pushing them with their elbows and the bosses of their shields, and
pressing forward into the places from which they had pushed them,
they advanced a considerable space, as though there had been no one to
resist them, those who formed the rear urging forward those in
front when they perceived the line of the enemy giving way; which
circumstance itself gave great additional force in repelling them. On
the side of the enemy, the second line, consisting of the Africans and
Carthaginians, were so far from supporting the first line when giving
ground, that, on the contrary, they even retired, lest their enemy,
by slaying those who made a firm resistance, should penetrate to
themselves also. Accordingly, the auxiliaries suddenly turned their
backs, and facing about upon their own party, fled, some of them into
the second line, while others slew those who did not receive them into
their ranks, since before they did not support them, and now refused
to receive them. And now there were, in a manner, two contests going
on together, the Carthaginians being compelled to fight at once with
the enemy and with their own party. Not even then, however, did they
receive into their line the terrified and exasperated troops; but,
closing their ranks, drove them out of the scene of action to the
wings and the surrounding plain, lest they should mingle these
soldiers, terrified with defeat and wounds, with that part of their
line which was firm and fresh. But such a heap of men and arms had
filled the space in which the auxiliaries a little while ago had
stood, that it was almost more difficult to pass through it than
through a close line of troops. The spearmen, therefore, who formed
the front line, pursuing the enemy as each could find a way through
the heap of arms and men, and streams of blood, threw into complete
disorder the battalions and companies. The standards also of the
principes had begun to waver when they saw the line before them driven
from their ground. Scipio, perceiving this, promptly ordered the
signal to be given for the spearmen to retreat, and, having taken his
wounded into the rear, brought the principes and triarii to the wings,
in order that the line of spearmen in the centre might be more strong
and secure. Thus a fresh and renewed battle commenced, inasmuch as
they had penetrated to their real antagonists, men equal to them in
the nature of their arms, in their experience in war, in the fame of
their achievements, and the greatness of their hopes and fears. But
the Romans were superior both in numbers and courage, for they had now
routed both the cavalry and the elephants, and having already defeated
the front line, were fighting against the second.

35. Laelius and Masinissa, who had pursued the routed cavalry through
a considerable space, returning very opportunely, charged the rear of
the enemy's line. This attack of the cavalry at length routed them.
Many of them, being surrounded, were slain in the field; and many,
dispersed in flight through the open plain around, were slain on
all hands, as the cavalry were in possession of every part. Of the
Carthaginians and their allies, above twenty thousand were slain on
that day; about an equal number were captured, with a hundred and
thirty-three military standards, and eleven elephants. Of the victors
as many as two thousand fell. Hannibal, slipping off during the
confusion, with a few horsemen came to Adrumetum, not quitting the
field till he had tried every expedient both in the battle and before
the engagement; having, according to the admission of Scipio, and
every one skilled in military science, acquired the fame of having
marshalled his troops on that day with singular judgment. He placed
his elephants in the front, in order that their desultory attack, and
insupportable violence, might prevent the Romans from following their
standards, and preserving their ranks, on which they placed their
principal dependence. Then he posted his auxiliaries before the line
of Carthaginians, in order that men who were made up of the refuse of
all nations and who were not bound by honour but by gain, might not
have any retreat open to them in case they fled; at the same time that
the first ardour and impetuosity might be exhausted upon them, and,
if they could render no other service, that the weapons of the enemy
might be blunted in wounding them. Next he placed the Carthaginian
and African soldiers, on whom he placed all his hopes, in order that,
being equal to the enemy in every other respect, they might have the
advantage of them, inasmuch as, being fresh and unimpaired in strength
themselves, they would fight with those who were fatigued and wounded.
The Italians he removed into the rear, separating them also by an
intervening space, as he knew not, with certainty, whether they were
friends or enemies. Hannibal, after performing this as it were his
last work of valour, fled to Adrumetum, whence, having been summoned
to Carthage, he returned thither in the six and thirtieth year after
he had left it when a boy; and confessed in the senate-house that he
was defeated, not only in the battle, but in the war, and that there
was no hope of safety in any thing but in obtaining peace.

36. Immediately after the battle, Scipio, having taken and plundered
the enemy's camp, returned to the sea and his ships, with an immense
booty, news having reached him that Publius Lentulus had arrived at
Utica with fifty men of war, and a hundred transports laden with every
kind of stores. Concluding that he ought to bring before Carthage
every thing which could increase the consternation already existing
there, after sending Laelius to Rome to report his victory, he ordered
Cneius Octavius to conduct the legions thither by land; and, setting
out himself from Utica with the fresh fleet of Lentulus, added to
his former one, made for the harbour of Carthage. When he had arrived
within a short distance, he was met by a Carthaginian ship decked with
fillets and branches of olive. There were ten deputies, the leading
men in the state, sent at the instance of Hannibal to solicit peace;
to whom, when they had come up to the stern of the general's ship,
holding out the badges of suppliants, entreating and imploring the
protection and compassion of Scipio, the only answer given was, that
they must come to Tunes, to which place he would move his camp. After
taking a view of the site of Carthage, not so much for the sake of
acquainting himself with it for any present object, as to dispirit
the enemy, he returned to Utica, having recalled Octavius to the
same place. As they were proceeding thence to Tunes, they received
intelligence that Vermina, the son of Syphax, with a greater number of
horse than foot, was coming to the assistance of the Carthaginians.
A part of his infantry, with all the cavalry, having attacked them on
their march on the first day of the Saturnalia, routed the Numidians
with little opposition; and as every way by which they could escape in
flight was blocked up, for the cavalry surrounded them on all sides,
fifteen thousand men were slain, twelve hundred were taken alive, with
fifteen hundred Numidian horses, and seventy-two military standards.
The prince himself fled from the field with a few attendants during
the confusion. The camp was then pitched near Tunes in the same place
as before, and thirty ambassadors came to Scipio from Carthage. These
behaved in a manner even more calculated to excite compassion than the
former, in proportion as their situation was more pressing; but
from the recollection of their recent perfidy, they were heard with
considerably less pity. In the council, though all were impelled by
just resentment to demolish Carthage, yet, when they reflected upon
the magnitude of the undertaking, and the length of time which would
be consumed in the siege of so well fortified and strong a city,
while Scipio himself was uneasy in consequence of the expectation of
a successor, who would come in for the glory of having terminated the
war, though it was accomplished already by the exertions and danger of
another, the minds of all were inclined to peace.

37. The next day the ambassadors being called in again, and with
many rebukes for their perfidy, warned that, instructed by so many
disasters, they would at length believe in the existence of the gods,
and the obligation of an oath, these conditions of the peace were
stated to them: "That they should enjoy their liberty and live under
their own laws; that they should possess such cities and territories
as they had enjoyed before the war, and with the same boundaries, and
that the Romans should on that day desist from devastation. That they
should restore to the Romans all deserters and fugitives, giving up
all their ships of war except ten triremes, with such tamed elephants
as they had, and that they should not tame any more. That they should
not carry on war in or out of Africa without the permission of the
Roman people. That they should make restitution to Masinissa, and
form a league with him. That they should furnish corn, and pay for the
auxiliaries until the ambassadors had returned from Rome. That they
should pay ten thousand talents of silver, in equal annual instalments
distributed over fifty years. That they should give a hundred
hostages, according to the pleasure of Scipio, not younger than
fourteen nor older than thirty. That he would grant them a truce on
condition that the transports, together with their cargoes, which had
been seized during the former truce, were restored. Otherwise they
would have no truce, nor any hope of a peace." When the ambassadors
who were ordered to bear these conditions home reported them in an
assembly, and Gisgo had stood forth to dissuade them from the
terms, and was being listened to by the multitude, who were at once
indisposed for peace and unfit for war, Hannibal, indignant that such
language should be held and listened to at such a juncture, laid
hold of Gisgo with his own hand, and dragged him from his elevated
position. This unusual sight in a free state having raised a murmur
among the people, the soldier, disconcerted at the liberties which the
citizens took, thus addressed them: "Having left you when nine years
old, I have returned after a lapse of thirty-six years. I flatter
myself I am well acquainted with the qualifications of a soldier,
having been instructed in them from my childhood, sometimes by my own
situation, and sometimes by that of my country. The privileges, the
laws, and customs of the city and the forum you ought to teach me."
Having thus apologized for his indiscretion, he discoursed largely
concerning the peace, showing how inoppressive the terms were, and how
necessary it was. The greatest difficulty was, that of the ships which
had been seized during the truce nothing was to be found except the
ships themselves: nor was it easy to collect the property, because
those who were charged with having it were opposed to the peace. It
was resolved that the ships should be restored, and that the men at
least should be looked up; and as to whatever else was missing, that
it should be left to Scipio to put a value upon it, and that the
Carthaginians should make compensation accordingly in money. There
are those who say that Hannibal went from the field of battle to the
sea-coast; whence he immediately sailed in a ship, which he had ready
for the purpose, to king Antiochus; and that when Scipio demanded
above every thing that Hannibal should be given up to him, answer was
made that Hannibal was not in Africa.

38. After the ambassadors returned to Scipio, the quaestors were
ordered to give in an account, made out from the public registers,
of the public property which had been in the ships; and the owners
to make a return of the private property. For the amount of the value
twenty-five thousand pounds of silver were required to be paid down;
and a truce for three months was granted to the Carthaginians. It
was added, that during the time of the truce they should not
send ambassadors any where else than to Rome; and that, whatever
ambassadors came to Carthage, they should not dismiss them before
informing the Roman general who they were, and what they sought. With
the Carthaginian ambassadors, Lucius Veturius Philo, Marcus Marcius
Ralla, and Lucius Scipio, brother of the general, were sent to Rome.
At the time in which these events took place, the supplies sent from
Sicily and Sardinia produced such cheapness of provisions, that the
merchant gave up the corn to the mariners for their freight. At
Rome alarm was excited at the first intelligence of the renewal of
hostilities by the Carthaginians; and Tiberius Claudius was directed
to conduct the fleet with speed into Sicily, and cross over from that
place into Africa. The other consul, Marcus Servilius, was directed to
stay at the city until the state of affairs in Africa was ascertained.
Tiberius Claudius, the consul, proceeded slowly with every thing
connected with the equipment and sailing of the fleet, because the
senate had decided that it should be left to Scipio, rather than to
the consul, to determine the conditions on which the peace should be
granted. The accounts also of prodigies which arrived just at the time
of the news of the revival of the war, had occasioned great alarm.
At Cumae the orb of the sun seemed diminished, and a shower of stones
fell; and in the territory of Veliternum the earth sank in great
chasms, and trees were swallowed up in the cavities. At Aricia the
forum and the shops around it, at Frusino a wall in several places,
and a gate, were struck by lightning; and in the Palatium a shower of
stones fell. The latter prodigy, according to the custom handed down
by tradition, was expiated by a nine days' sacred rite; the rest
with victims of the larger sort. Amid these events an unusually great
rising of the waters was converted into a prodigy; for the Tiber
overflowed its banks to such a degree, that as the circus was under
water, the Apollinarian games were got up near the temple of Venus
Erycina, without the Colline gate. However, the weather suddenly
clearing up on the very day of the celebration, the procession, which
had begun to move at the Colline gate, was recalled and transferred to
the circus, on its being known that the water had retired thence. The
joy of the people and the attraction of the games were increased by
the restoration of this solemn spectacle to its proper scene.

39. The consul Claudius, having set out at length from the city,
was placed in the most imminent danger by a violent tempest, which
overtook him between the ports of Cosa and Laurentum. Having reached
Populonii, where he waited till the remainder of the tempest had
spent itself, he crossed over to the island Ilva. From Ilva he went to
Corsica, and from Corsica to Sardinia. Here, while sailing round the
Montes Insani, a tempest much more violent in itself, and in a more
dangerous situation, dispersed his fleet. Many of his ships were
shattered and stripped of their rigging, and some were wrecked. His
fleet thus weatherbeaten and shattered arrived at Carales, where the
winter came on while the ships were drawn on shore and refitted. The
year having elapsed, and no one proposing to continue him in command,
Tiberius Claudius brought back his fleet to Rome in a private
capacity. Marcus Servilius set out for his province, having nominated
Caius Servilius Geminus as dictator, that he might not be recalled to
the city to hold the elections. The dictator appointed Publius Aelius
Paetus master of the horse. It frequently happened, that the elections
could not be held on account of bad weather, though the days were
fixed for them; and, therefore, as the magistrates of the former year
retired from their offices on the day before the ides of March, and
fresh ones were not appointed to succeed them, the state was without
curule magistrates. Lucius Manlius Torquatus, a pontiff, died this
year. Caius Sulpicius Galba was elected in his room. The Roman games
were thrice repeated by the curule aediles, Lucius Licinius Lucullus
and Quintus Fulvius. Some scribes and runners belonging to the
aediles were found, on the testimony of an informer, to have privately
conveyed money out of the treasury, and were condemned, not without
disgrace to the aedile Lucullus. Publius Aelius Tubero and Lucius
Laetorius, plebeian aediles, on account of some informality in their
creation, abdicated their office, after having celebrated the games,
and the banquet on occasion of the games, in honour of Jupiter, and
after having placed in the Capitol three statues made out of silver
paid as fines. The dictator and master of the horse celebrated the
games in honour of Ceres, in conformity with a decree of the senate.