No More Learning

We may form some idea of the views and counsels that would prevail in Carthage from the impression produced in certain circles by York's capitulation. All "respectable men," it was said, disapproved an attack made "without orders"; there was talk of disavowal, of surrendering the daring officer. But whether it was that dread of the army and of the multitude nearer home outweighed in the Carthaginian council the fear of Rome; or that they perceived the
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chap, iv HAMILCAR AND HANNIBAL
247
impossibility of retracing such a step once taken ; or that
the mere vis inertiae prevented any definite action, they resolved at length to resolve on nothing and, if not to wage
war, to let it nevertheless be waged. Saguntum defended itself, as only Spanish towns know how to conduct defence :
had the Romans showed but a tithe of the energy of their clients, and not trifled away their time during the eight months' siege of Saguntum in the paltry warfare with Illyrian brigands, they might, masters as they were of the
sea and of places suitable for landing, have spared them selves the disgrace of failing to grant the protection which they had promised, and might perhaps have given a different turn to the war. But they delayed, and the town
was at length taken by storm. When Hannibal sent the spoil for distribution to Carthage, patriotism and zeal for
war were roused in the hearts of many who had hitherto
felt nothing of the kind, and the distribution cut off all prospect of coming to terms with Rome. Accordingly, when after the destruction of Saguntum a Roman embassy appeared at Carthage and demanded the surrender of the general and of the gerusiasts present in the camp, and when the Roman spokesman, interrupting an attempt at justification, broke off the discussion and, gathering up his robe, declared that he held in it peace and war and that
the gerusia might choose between them, the gerusiasts mustered courage to reply that they left it to the choice of
the Roman ; and when he offered war, they accepted it (in
the spring of 536). 218.
Hannibal, who had lost a whole year through the Prepai»- obstinate resistance of the Saguntines, had as usual retired "? ",? for the winter of 535-6 to Cartagena, to make all his Italy, preparations on the one hand for the attack of Italy, on 219"218, the other for the defence of Spain and Africa ; for, as he,
like his father and his brother-in-law, held the supreme command in both countries, it devolved upon him to take
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measures also for the protection of his native land The whole mass of his forces amounted to about 120,000 infantry and 16,000 cavalry; he had also 58 elephants, 32 quinqueremes manned, and 18 not manned, besides the elephants and vessels remaining at the capital. Excepting a few Ligurians among the light troops, there were no mercenaries in this Carthaginian army ; the troops, with the exception of some Phoenician squadrons, consisted mainly of the Carthaginian subjects called out for service —Libyans and Spaniards. To insure the fidelity of the latter the general, who knew the men with whom he had to deal, gave them as a proof of his confidence a general leave of absence for the whole winter; while, not sharing the narrow-minded exclusiveness of Phoenician patriotism, he promised to the Libyans on his oath the citizenship of Carthage, should they return to Africa victorious. This mass of troops however was only destined in part for the
to Italy. Some 20,000 men were sent to Africa, the smaller portion of them proceeding to the capital and the Phoenician territory proper, the majority to the western point of Africa. For the protection of Spain
13,000 infantry, 2500 cavalry, and nearly the half of the elephants were left behind, in addition to the fleet stationed there; the chief command and the government of Spain were entrusted to Hannibal's younger brother Hasdrubal. The immediate territory of Carthage was comparatively weakly garrisoned, because the capital afforded in case of need sufficient resources; in like manner a moderate number of infantry sufficed for the present in Spain, where new levies could be procured with ease, whereas a compara tively large proportion of the arms specially African— horses and elephants—was retained there. The chief care was bestowed in securing the communications between
expedition
and Africa: with that view the fleet remained in Spain, and western Africa was guarded by a very strong
Spain
chap, iv HAMILCAR AND HANNIBAL
349
body of troops. The fidelity of the troops was secured not only by hostages collected from the Spanish communities and detained in the stronghold of Saguntum, but by the removal of the soldiers from the districts where they were raised to other quarters : the east African militia were moved chiefly to Spain, the Spanish to Western Africa, the West African to Carthage. Adequate provision was thus made for defence. As to offensive measures, a squadron of 20 quinqueremes with 1000 soldiers on board was to sail from Carthage for the west coast of Italy and to pillage and second of 25 sail was, possible, to re-establish itself at Lilybaeum; Hannibal believed that he might count upon the government making this moderate amount of exertion. With the main army he determined person to invade Italy; as was beyond doubt part of the original plan of Hamilcar. decisive attack on Rome was only possible in Italy, as similar attack on Carthage was only possible kn Libya; as certainly as Rome meant to begin her next campaign with the latter, so certainly ought Carthage not to confine herself at the outset either to any secondary object of operations, such as Sicily, or to mere defence — defeat would in any case involve equal destruction, but victory would not yield equal fruit.
But how could Italy be attacked He might succeed Nethod of in reaching the peninsula sea or by land; but the altac project was to be no mere desperate adventure, but
military expedition with strategic aim, nearer basis for
its operations was requisite than Spain or Africa. Hannibal could not rely for support on fleet and fortified harbour, for Rome was now mistress of the sea. As little did the territory of the Italian confederacy present any tenable basis. If in very different times, and in spite of Hellenic sympathies, had withstood the shock of Pyrrhus, was not to be expected that would now fall to pieces on the appearance of the Phoenician general; an invading army
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HAMILCAR AND HANNIBAL book lit
would without doubt be crushed between the network of
Roman fortresses and the firmly-consolidated confederacy. The land of the Ligurians and Celts alone could be to Hannibal, what Poland was to Napoleon in his very similar Russian campaigns. These tribes still smarting under their scarcely ended struggle for independence, alien in race from the Italians, and feeling their very existence endangered by the chain of Roman fortresses and highways whose first coils were even now being fastened around them, could not but recognize their deliverers in the Phoe nician army (which numbered in its ranks numerous Spanish Celts), and would serve as a first support for it to fall back upon—a source whence it might draw supplies and recruits. Already formal treaties were concluded with
the Boii and the Insubres, by which they bound themselves to send guides to meet the Carthaginian army, to procure for it a good reception from the cognate tribes and supplies along its route, and to rise against the Romans as soon as it should set foot on Italian ground. In fine, the relations of Rome with the east led the Carthaginians to this same quarter. Macedonia, which by the victory of Sellasia had re-established its sovereignty in the Peloponnesus, was in strained relations with Rome; Demetrius of Pharos, who had exchanged the Roman alliance for that of Macedonia and had been dispossessed by the Romans, lived as an exile at the Macedonian court, and the latter had refused the demand which the Romans made for his surrender. If it was possible to combine the armies from the Guadal
quivir and the Karasu anywhere against the common foe, it could only be done on the Po. Thus everything directed Hannibal to Northern Italy ; and that the eyes of his father had already been turned to that quarter, is shown by the reconnoitring party of Carthaginians, whom the Romans to their great surprise encountered in Liguria
SSO. in 524.
chap, IV HAMILCAR AND HANNIBAL
251
The reason for Hannibal's preference of the land route to that by sea is less obvious ; for that neither the mari time supremacy of the Romans nor their league with Massilia could have prevented a landing at Genoa, is evident, and was shown by the sequel. Our authorities fail to furnish us with several of the elements, on which a satisfactory answer to this question would depend, and which cannot be supplied by conjecture. Hannibal had to choose between two evils. Instead of exposing himself to the unknown and less calculable contingencies of a sea voyage and of naval war, it must have seemed to him the better course to accept the assurances, which beyond doubt were seriously meant, of the Boii and Insubres, and the more so that, even if the army should land at Genoa, it would still have mountains to cross ; he could hardly know exactly, how much smaller are the difficulties presented by the Apennines at Genoa than by the main chain of the Alps. At any rate the route which he took was the primitive Celtic route, by which many much larger hordes had crossed the Alps : the ally and deliverer of the Celtic nation might without temerity venture to traverse it
So Hannibal collected the troops, destined for the Departure grand army, in Cartagena at the beginning of the favour- Hannibal able season; there were 90,000 infantry and 12,000
cavalry, of whom about two-thirds were Africans and a
third Spaniards. The 37 elephants which they took with
them were probably destined rather to make an impression
on the Gauls than for serious warfare. Hannibal's infantry
no longer needed, like that led by Xanthippus, to shelter
itself behind a screen of elephants, and the general had too
much sagacity to employ otherwise than sparingly and with
caution that two-edged weapon, which had as often occasioned the defeat of its own as of the enemy's army.
With this force the general set out in the spring of 536 218. from Cartagena towards the Ebro. He so far informed
252
HAMILCAR AND HANNIBAL book hi
Position of Rome.
his soldiers as to the measures which he had taken, particu larly as to the connections he had entered into with the Celts and the resources and object of the expedition, that even the common soldier, whose military instincts length ened war had developed, felt the clear perception and the steady hand of his leader, and followed him with implicit confidence to the unknown and distant land; and the fervid address, in which he laid before them the position of their country and the demands of the Romans, the slavery certainly reserved for their dear native land, and the disgrace of the imputation that they could surrender their beloved general and his staff, kindled a soldierly and patriotic ardour in the hearts of all.
The Roman state was in a plight, such as may occur even in firmly-established and sagacious aristocracies. The Romans knew doubtless what they wished to accomplish, and they took various steps ; but nothing was done rightly or at the right time. They might long ago have been masters of the gates of the Alps and have settled matters with the Celts ; the latter were still formidable, and the former were open. They might either have had friendship
C41. with Carthage, had they honourably kept the peace of 513, or, had they not been disposed for peace, they might long ago have conquered Carthage : the peace was practically broken by the seizure of Sardinia, and they allowed the power of Carthage to recover itself undisturbed for twenty
There was no great difficulty in maintaining peace with Macedonia ; but they had forfeited her friendship for a trifling gain. There must have been a lack of some leading statesman to take a connected and commanding view of the position of affairs ; on all hands either too little was done, or too much. Now the war began at a time and at a place which they had allowed the enemy to determine ; and, with all their well-founded conviction of military superiority, they were perplexed as to the object to be
years.
chat. IT HAMILCAR AND HANNIBAL
253
aimed at and the course to be followed in their first opera- Their tions. They had at their disposal more than half a million j^ for of serviceable soldiers ; the Roman cavalry alone was less the war. good, and relatively less numerous, than the Carthaginian,
the former constituting about a tenth, the latter an eighth,
of the whole number of troops taking the field. None of
the states affected by the war had any fleet corresponding
to the Roman fleet of 220 quinqueremes, which had just returned from the Adriatic to the western sea. The
natural and proper application of this crushing superiority
of force was self-evident. It had been long settled that
the war ought to be opened with a landing in Africa. The subsequent turn taken by events had compelled the
Romans to embrace in their scheme of the war a simultane
ous landing in Spain, chiefly to prevent the Spanish army
from appearing before the walls of Carthage. In accord
ance with this plan they ought above all, when the war had
been practically opened by Hannibal's attack on Saguntum
in the beginning of 535, to have thrown a Roman army 219. into Spain before the town fell; but they neglected the
dictates of interest no less than of honour. For eight
months Saguntum held out in vain : when the town passed
into other hands, Rome had not even equipped her arma
ment for landing in Spain. The country, however, between
the Ebro and the Pyrenees was still free, and its tribes were
not only the natural allies of the Romans, but had also, like
the Saguntines, received from Roman emissaries promises
of speedy assistance. Catalonia may be reached by sea
from Italy in not much longer time than from Cartagena by
and : had the Romans started, like the Phoenicians, in April, after the formal declaration of war that had taken place in the interval, Hannibal might have encountered the Roman legions on the line of the Ebro.
At length, certainly, the greater part of the army and of the fleet was got ready for the expedition to Africa, and
Hannibal Ebro
the second consul Publius Cornelius Scipio was ordered to tne Ebro; but he took time, and when an insurrection broke out on the Po, he allowed the army that was ready for embarkation to be employed there, and formed new legions for the Spanish expedition. So although Hannibal encountered on the Ebro very vehement resistance, it pro ceeded only from the natives ; and, as under circumstances time was still more precious to him than the blood of his men, he surmounted the opposition after some months with the loss of a fourth part of his army, and reached the line of the Pyrenees. That the Spanish allies of Rome would be sacrificed a second time by that delay might have been as certainly foreseen, as the delay itself might have been easily avoided; but probably even the
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HAMILCAR AND HANNIBAL book iii
existing
Hannibal
Arrived at the Pyrenees, Hannibal sent home a portion of bis troops ; a measure which he had resolved on from the first with the view of showing to the soldiers how confident their general was of success, and of checking the
818. expedition to Italy itself, which in the spring of 536 must not have been anticipated in Rome, would have been averted by the timely appearance of the Romans in Spain. Hannibal had by no means the intention of sacrificing his Spanish " kingdom," and throwing himself like a desperado on Italy. The time which he had spent in the siege of Saguntum and in the reduction of Catalonia, and the con siderable corps which he left behind for the occupation of the newly-won territory between the Ebro and the Pyrenees, sufficiently show that, had a Roman army disputed the posses sion of Spain with him, he would not have been content to withdraw from it ; and —which was the main point —had the Romans been able to delay his departure from Spain for but a few weeks, winter would have closed the passes of the Alps before Hannibal reached them, and the African expedition would have departed without hindrance for its destination.
chap, IV HAMILCAR AND HANNIBAL
355
feeling that his enterprise was one of those from which there is no return home. With an army of 50,000 infantry and 9000 cavalry, entirely veteran soldiers, he crossed the Pyrenees without difficulty, and then took the coast route by Narbonne and Nimes through the Celtic territory, which was opened to the army partly by the connections previously formed, partly by Carthaginian gold, partly by arms. It was not till it arrived in the end of July at the Rhone opposite Avignon, that a serious resistance appeared to await it The consul Scipio, who on his voyage to Spain had landed at Massilia (about the end of June), had there been informed that he had come too late and that Hannibal had crossed not only the Ebro but the Pyrenees. On receiving these accounts, which appear to have first opened the eyes of the Romans to the course and the object of
Hannibal, the consul had temporarily given up his expedition to Spain, and had resolved in connection with
the Celtic tribes of that region, who were under the influence of the Massiliots and thereby under that of Rome,
to receive the Phoenicians on the Rhone, and to obstruct Passage their passage of the river and their march into Italy, Fortunately for Hannibal, opposite to the point at which he
meant to cross, there lay at the moment only the general levy of the Celts, while the consul himself with his army of 22,000 infantry and 2000 horse was still in Massilia, four days' march farther down the stream. The messengers of the Gallic levy hastened to inform him. It was the
object of Hannibal to convey his army with its numerous cavalry and elephants across the rapid stream under the eyes of the enemy, and before the arrival of Scipio ; and he possessed not a single boat Immediately by his directions all the boats belonging to the numerous navigators of the Rhone in the neighbourhood were bought up at any price, and the deficiency of boats was supplied by rafts made from felled trees; and in fact the whole numerous army
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HAMILCAR AND HANNIBAL book III
could be conveyed over in one day. While this was being done, a strong division under Hanno, son of Bomilcar, pro ceeded by forced marches up the stream till they reached a suitable point for crossing, which they found undefended, situated two short days' march above Avignon. Here they crossed the river on hastily constructed rafts, with the view
of then moving down on the left bank and taking the Gauls, who were barring the passage of the main army, in the rear. On the morning of the fifth day after they had reached the Rhone, and of the third after Hanno's departure, the smoke-signals of the division that had been detached rose up on the opposite bank and gave to Hannibal the anxiously awaited summons for the crossing. Just as the Gauls, seeing that the enemy's fleet of boats began to move, were hastening to occupy the bank, their camp behind them suddenly burst into flames. Surprised and divided, they were unable either to withstand the attack or to resist the passage, and they dispersed in hasty flight
Scipio meanwhile held councils of war in Massilia as to the proper mode of occupying the ferries of the Rhone, and was not induced to move even by the urgent messages that came from the leaders of the Celts. He distrusted their accounts, and he contented himself with detaching a weak Roman cavalry division to reconnoitre on the left bank of the Rhone. This detachment found the whole enemy's army already transported to that bank, and occupied in bringing over the elephants which alone remained on the right bank of the stream; and, after it had warmly engaged some Carthaginian squadrons in the district of Avignon, merely for the purpose of enabling it to complete its reconnaissance —the first encounter of the Romans and Phoenicians in this war—it hastily returned to report at
head-quarters. Scipio now started in the utmost haste with all his troops for Avignon; but, when he arrived
chap, iv HAMILCAR AND HANNIBAL
257
there, even the Carthaginian cavalry that had been left behind to cover the passage of the elephants had already taken its departure three days ago, and nothing remained for the consul but to return with weary troops and little credit to Massilia, and to revile the " cowardly flight " of the Punic leader. Thus the Romans had for the third time through pure negligence abandoned their allies and an important line of defence ; and not only so, but by passing after this first blunder from mistaken slackness to mistaken haste, and by still attempting without any prospect of success to do what might have been done with so much certainty a few days before, they let the real means of repairing their error pass out of their hands. When once Hannibal was in the Celtic territory on the Roman side of the Rhone, he could no longer be prevented from reaching the Alps ; but if Scipio had at the first accounts proceeded with his whole army to Italy—the Po might have been reached by way of Genoa in seven days —and had united with his corps the weak divisions in the valley of the Po, he might have at least prepared a formidable reception for the
But not only did he lose precious time in the march to Avignon, but, capable as otherwise he was, he wanted either the political courage or the military sagacity to change the destination of his corps as the change of circumstances required. He sent the main body under his brother Gnaeus to Spain, and returned himself with a few men to Pisae.
Hannibal, who after the passage of the Rhone had Hannibal's in a great assembly of the army explained to his troops the Ef5". ? 6 of object of his expedition, and had brought forward the
Celtic chief Magilus himself, who had arrived from the
valley of the Po, to address the army through an inter
preter, meanwhile continued his march to the passes
of the Alps without obstruction. Which of these passes
he should choose, could not be at once determined either
by the shortness of the route or by the disposition of the
enemy.
vol. 11
49
258
HAMILCAR AND HANNIBAL book iii
inhabitants, although he had no time to lose either in circuitous routes or in combat He had necessarily to select a route which should be practicable for his baggage, his numerous cavalry, and his elephants, and in which an army could procure sufficient means of subsistence either by friendship or by force; for, although Hannibal had made preparations to convey provisions after him on beasts of burden, these could only meet for a few days the wants of an army which still, notwithstanding its great losses, amounted to nearly 50,000 men. Leaving out of view the coast route, which Hannibal abstained from taking not because the Romans barred but because would have led him away from his destination, there were only two routes of note leading across the Alps from Gaul to Italy in ancient times the pass of the Cottian Alps (Mont Genevre) leading into the territory of the Taurini (by Susa or Fenestrelles to Turin), and that of the Graian Alps (the Little St Bernard) leading into the territory of the Salassi (to Aosta and Ivrea). The former route the shorter but, after leaving the valley of the Rhone, passes by the impracticable and unfruitful river-valleys of the Drac, the Romanche, and the upper Durance, through difficult and poor mountain country, and requires at least a seven or eight days' mountain march. A military road was first constructed there by Pompeius, to furnish shorter communication between the provinces of Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul.
The route the Little St Bernard somewhat longer but after crossing the first Alpine wall that forms the eastern boundary of the Rhone valley, keeps by the valley of the upper Isere, which stretches from Grenoble way of
was not till the middle ages that the route by Mont Cenis became military road. The eastern passes, such as that over the Poenine Alps or the Great St Bernard —which, moreover, was only converted into a military road by Caesar and Augustus —are, of course, in this case out of
the question.
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chap, iv HAMILCAR AND HANNIBAL
859
Chambe"ry up to the very foot of the Little St Bernard or, in other words, of the chain of the higher Alps, and is the broadest, most fertile and most populous of all the Alpine valleys. Moreover, the pass of the Little St. Bernard, while not the lowest of all the natural passes of the Alps, is by far the easiest ; although no artificial road was constructed there, an Austrian corps with artillery crossed the Alps by that route in 181 5. And lastly this route, which only leads over two mountain ridges, has been from the earliest times the great military route from the Celtic to the Italian terri tory. The Carthaginian army had thus in fact no choice. It was a fortunate coincidence, but not a motive influencing the decision of Hannibal, that the Celtic tribes allied with him in Italy inhabited the country up to the Little St Bernard, while the route by Mont Genevre would have brought him at first into the territory of the Taurini, who were from ancient times at feud with the Insubres.
So the Carthaginian army marched in the first instance up the Rhone towards the valley of the upper Isere, not, as might be presumed, by the nearest route up the left bank of the lower Isere from Valence to Grenoble, but through the "island" of the Allobroges, the rich, and even then thickly peopled, low ground, which is enclosed on the north and west by the Rhone, on the south by the Isere, and on the east by the Alps. The reason of this movement was, that the nearest route would have led them through an impracticable and poor mountain -country, while the
" island " was level and extremely fertile, and was separated by but a single mountain-wall from the valley of the upper Isere. The march along the Rhone into, and across, the u island " to the foot of the Alpine wall was accomplished in sixteen days : it presented little difficulty, and in the " island " itself Hannibal dexterously availed himself of a feud that had broken out between two chieftains of the
Allobroges
to attach to his interests one of the most im
s6o HAMILCAR AND HANNIBAL book iii
portant of the chiefs, who not only escorted the Cartha ginians through the whole plain, but also supplied them with provisions, and furnished the soldiers with arms, clothing, and shoes. But the expedition narrowly escaped destruction at the crossing of the first Alpine chain, which rises precipitously like a wall, and over which only a single available path leads (over the Mont du Chat, near the hamlet Chevelu). The population of the Allobroges had strongly occupied the pass. Hannibal learned the state of matters early enough to avoid a surprise, and encamped at the foot, until after sunset the Celts dispersed to the houses of the nearest town ; he then seized the pass in the night Thus the summit was gained ; but on the extremely steep path, which leads down from the summit to the lake of Bourget, the mules and horses slipped and fell. The assaults, which at suitable points were made by the Celts upon the army in march, were very annoying, not so much of themselves as byreason of the turmoil which they occasioned;
and when Hannibal with his light troops threw himself from above on the Allobroges, these were chased doubtless without difficulty and with heavy loss down the mountain, but the confusion, in the train especially, was further increased by the noise of the combat So, when after much loss he arrived in the plain, Hannibal immediately attacked the nearest town, to chastise and terrify the bar barians, and at the same time to repair as far as possible
his loss in sumpter animals and horses. After a day's repose in the pleasant valley of Chambe'ry the army con tinued its march up the Isere, without being detained either by want of supplies or by attacks so long as the valley continued broad and fertile. It was only when on the fourth day they entered the territory of the Ceutrones (the modern Tarantaise) where the valley gradually contracts, that they had again greater occasion to be on their guard. The Ceutrones received the army at the boundary of their
chap, iv HAMILCAR AND HANNIBAL 361
(somewhere about Conflans) with branches and garlands, furnished cattle for slaughter, guides, and hostages; and the Carthaginians marched through their territory as through a friendly land. When, however, the troops had reached the very foot of the Alps, at the point where the path leaves the Isere, and winds by a narrow and difficult defile along the brook Reclus up to the summit of the St Bernard, all at once the militia of the Ceutrones appeared partly in the rear of the army, partly on the crests of the rocks enclosing the pass on the right and left, in the hope of cutting off the train and baggage. But Hannibal, whose unerring tact had seen in all those advances made by the Ceutrones nothing but the design of procuring at once immunity for their territory and a rich spoil, had in expect ation of such an attack sent forward the baggage and cavalry, and covered the march with all his infantry. By this means he frustrated the design of the enemy, although
he could not prevent them from moving along the mountain slopes parallel to the march of the infantry, and inflicting very considerable loss by hurling or rolling down stones. At the " white stone " (still called la roche blanche), a high isolated chalk cliff standing at the foot of the St. Bernard and commanding the ascent to Hannibal encamped with his infantry, to cover the march of the horses and sumpter animals laboriously climbing upward throughout the whole night and amidst continual and very bloody conflicts he at length on the following day reached the summit of the pass.
There, on the sheltered table-land which spreads to the extent of two and half miles round little lake, the source of the Doria, he allowed the army to rest Despondency had begun to seize the minds of the soldiers. The paths that were becoming ever more difficult, the provisions fail ing, the marching through defiles exposed to the constant attacks of foes whom they could not reach, the sorely
thinned ranks, the hopeless situation of the stragglers and
country
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the wounded, the object which appeared chimerical to all save the enthusiastic leader and his immediate staff — all these things began to tell even on the African and Spanish veterans. But the confidence of the general remained ever the same; numerous stragglers rejoined the ranks; the friendly Gauls were near ; the watershed was reached, and the view of the descending path, so gladdening to the mountain-pilgrim, opened up : after a brief repose they prepared with renewed courage for the last and most difficult undertaking, —the downward march. In it the army was not materially annoyed by the enemy ; but the advanced season —it was already the beginning of September —occasioned troubles in the descent, equal to those which had been occasioned in the ascent by the attacks of the adjoining tribes. On the steep and slippery mountain- slope along the Doria, where the recently -fallen snow had concealed and obliterated the paths, men and animals went astray and slipped, and were precipitated into the chasms. In fact, towards the end of the first day's march they reached a portion of the path about 200 paces in length, on which avalanches are constantly descending from the precipices of the Cramont that overhang and where in cold summers snow lies throughout the year. The infantry passed over; but the horses and elephants were unable to cross the smooth masses of ice, on which there lay but thin covering of freshly-fallen snow, and the general encamped above the difficult spot with the baggage, the cavalry, and the elephants. On the following day the horsemen, by zealous exertion in entrenching, prepared a path for horses and beasts of burden but was not until after further labour of three days with constant reliefs, that the half-famished elephants could at length be con ducted over. In this way the whole army was after delay of four days once more united and after further three days' march through the valley of the Doria, which was ever
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chap, iv HAMILCAR AND HANNIBAL
363
widening and displaying greater fertility, and whose inhabit ants the Salassi, clients of the Insubres, hailed in the Car thaginians their allies and deliverers, the army arrived about the middle of September in the plain of Ivrea, where the exhausted troops were quartered in the villages, that by good nourishment and a fortnight's repose they might recruit from their unparalleled hardships. Had the Romans placed a corps, as they might have done, of 30,000 men thoroughly fresh and ready for action somewhere near Turin, and immediately forced on a battle, the prospects of Hannibal's great plan would have been very dubious ; fortunately for him, once more, they were not where they should have been, and they did not disturb the troops of the enemy in the repose which was so greatly needed. 1
1 The much-discussed questions of topography, connected with this celebrated expedition, may be regarded as cleared up and substantially solved by the masterly investigations of Messrs. Wickham and Cramer. Respecting the chronological questions, which likewise present difficulties, a few remarks may be exceptionally allowed to have a place here.
When Hannibal reached the summit of the St. Bernard, "the peaks were already beginning to be thickly covered with snow" (Pol. iii. 54) , snow lay on the route (Pol. iii. 55), perhaps for the most part snow not freshly fallen, but proceeding from the fall of avalanches. At the St. Bernard winter begins about Michaelmas, and the falling of snow in September ; when the Englishmen already mentioned crossed the mountain at the end of August, they found almost no snow on their road, but the slopes on both sides were covered with it. Hannibal thus appears to have arrived at the pass in the beginning of September ; which is quite com patible with the statement that he arrived there "when the winter was already approaching" — for awdirretv -rip Tijs irXtidoos Sijir (Pol. iii. 54) does not mean anything more than this, least of all, the day of the heliacal setting of the Pleiades (about 26th October) ; comp. Ideler,
Chronol. i. 241.
IfHannibal reached Italy nine days later, and therefore about the
middle of September, there is room for the events that occurred from that time up to the battle of the Trebia towards the end of December (wepi X«/<ep<v&; rpoirAj, PoL iii. 72), and in particular for the transporting of the army destined for Africa from Lilybaeum to Placentia. This hypo thesis further suits the statement that the day of departure was announced at an assembly of the army inrb TV iapirty Upav (Pol. iii. 34), and there fore towards the end of March, and that the march lasted five (or, accord ing to App. vii. 4, six) months. If Hannibal was thus at the St. Bernard in the beginning of September, he must have reached the Rhone at the beginning of August — for he spent thirty days in making his way from the Rhone thither — and in that case it is evident that Scipio, who embarked at
Results.
The object was attained, but at a heavy cost Of the 50,000 veteran infantry and the 9000 cavalry, which the army had numbered at the crossing of the Pyrenees, more than half had been sacrificed in the conflicts, the marches, and the passages of the rivers. Hannibal now, according
to his own statement, numbered not more than 20,000 infantry—of whom three-fifths were Libyans and two-fifths Spaniards — and 6000 cavalry, part of them doubtless dismounted: the comparatively small loss of the latter proclaimed the excellence of the Numidian cavalry no less than the consideration of the general in making a sparing use of troops so select. A march of 526 miles or about 33 moderate days' marching —the continuance and termina tion of which were disturbed by no special misfortunes on a great scale that could not be anticipated, but were, on the other hand, rendered possible only by incalculable pieces of good fortune and still more incalculable blunders of the enemy, and which yet not only cost such sacrifices, but so fatigued and demoralized the army, that it needed a pro longed rest in order to be again ready for action — is a military operation of doubtful value, and it may be ques tioned whether Hannibal himself regarded it as successful. Only in so speaking we may not pronounce an absolute censure on the general : we see well the defects of the plan of operations pursued by him, but we cannot determine whether he was in a position to foresee them — his route lay through an unknown land of barbarians —or whether any other plan, such as that of taking the coast road or of embarking at Cartagena or at Carthage, would have exposed him to fewer dangers. The cautious and masterly execution of the plan in its details at any rate deserves our admiration, and to whatever causes the result may have
the beginning of summer (Pol. iii. 41) and so at latest by the commence ment of June, must have spent much time on the voyage or remained for a considerable period in singular inaction at Massilia.
264
HAMILCAR AND HANNIBAL book in
CHAP. IV HAMILCAR AND HANNIBAL
265
been due—whether it was due mainly to the favour of fortune, or mainly to the skill of the general — the grand idea of Hamilcar, that of taking up the conflict with Rome in Italy, was now realized. It was his genius that projected this expedition ; and as the task of Stein and Scharnhorst was more difficult and nobler than that of York and Blucher, so the unerring tact of historical tradition has always dwelt on the last link in the great chain of pre paratory steps, the passage of the Alps, with a greater admiration than on the battles of the Trasimene lake and of the plain of Cannae.
a66 THE WAR UNDER HANNIBAL BOOK. Ill
CHAPTER V
THE WAR UNDER HANNIBAL TO THE BATTLE OF CANNAE
Hannibal The appearance of the Carthaginian army on the Roman
and the
Italian
Celts. and disconcerted the Roman plan of war. Of the two
side of the Alps changed all at once the situation of affairs,
principal armies of the Romans, one had landed in Spain and was already engaged with the enemy there : it was no longer possible to recall it The second, which was destined for Africa under the command of the consul Tiberius Sempronius, was fortunately still in Sicily : in this instance Roman delay for once proved useful. Of the two Carthaginian squadrons destined for Italy and Sicily, the first was dispersed by a storm, and some of its vessels were captured by the Syracusans near Messana; the second had endeavoured in vain to surprise Lilybaeum, and had thereafter been defeated in a naval engagement off that port. But the continuance of the enemy's squadrons in the Italian waters was so inconvenient, that the consul determined, before crossing to Africa, to occupy the small islands around Sicily, and to drive away the Carthaginian fleet operating against Italy. The summer
passed away in the conquest of Melita, in the chase after the enemy's squadron, which he expected to find at the Lipari islands while it had made a descent near Vibo
and pillaged the Bruttian coast, and, lastly, in gaining information as to a suitable spot for landing on
(Monteleone)
chap, v TO THE BATTLE OF CANNAE
267
the coast of Africa ; so that the army and fleet were still at Lilybaeum, when orders arrived from the senate that they should return with all possible speed for the defence of their homes.
In this way, while the two great Roman armies, each in itself equal in numbers to that of Hannibal, remained at
a great distance from the valley of the Po, the Romans
were quite unprepared for an attack in that quarter. No doubt a Roman army was there, in consequence of an insurrection that had broken out among the Celts even before the arrival of the Carthaginian army. The founding
of the two Roman strongholds of Placentia and Cremona,
each of which received 6000 colonists, and more especially
the preparations for the founding of Mutina in the territory
of the Boii, had already in the spring of 536 driven the 218. Boii to revolt before the time concerted with Hannibal ;
and the Insubres had immediately joined them. The colonists already settled in the territory of Mutina, sud denly attacked, took refuge in the town. The praetor Lucius Manlius, who held the chief command at Ariminum, hastened with his single legion to relieve the blockaded colonists; but he was surprised in the woods, and no course was left to him after sustaining great loss but to establish himself upon a hill and to submit to a siege there
on the part of the Boii, till a second legion sent from Rome under the praetor Lucius Atilius succeeded in re lieving army and town, and in suppressing for the moment
the Gaulish insurrection. This premature rising of the
Boii on the one hand, by delaying the departure of Scipio
for Spain, essentially promoted the plans of Hannibal; on
the other hand, but for its occurrence he would have found
the valley of the Po entirely unoccupied, except the fortresses. But the Roman corps, whose two severely thinned legions did not number 20,000 soldiers, had enough to do to keep the Celts in check, and did not
Sdplo in tke valley ofthe Po.
Conflict on the Ticmo.
a68 THE WAR UNDER HANNIBAL book III
think of occupying the passes of the Alps. The Romans only learned that the passes were threatened, when in August the consul Publius Scipio returned without his army from Massilia to Italy, and perhaps even then they gave little heed to the matter, because, forsooth, the foolhardy attempt would be frustrated by the Alps alone. Thus at the decisive hour and on the decisive spot there was not even a Roman outpost Hannibal had full time to rest his army, to capture after a three days' siege the capital of the Taurini which closed its gates against him, and to induce or terrify into alliance with him all the Ligurian and Celtic communi ties in the upper basin of the Po, before Scipio, who had taken the command in the Po valley, encountered him.
Scipio, who, with an army considerably smaller and very
weak in cavalry, had the difficult task of preventing the -
advance of the superior force of the enemy and of repress ing the movements of insurrection which everywhere were spreading among the Celts, had crossed the Po presumably at Placentia, and marched up the river to meet the enemy, while Hannibal after the capture of Turin marched down- wards to relieve the Insubres and Boil In the plain between the Ticino and the Sesia, not far from Vercelli, the Roman cavalry, which had advanced with the light infantry to make a reconnaissance in force, encountered the Punic cavalry sent out for the like purpose, both led by the generals in person. Scipio accepted battle when offered, notwithstanding the superiority of the enemy ; but his light infantry, which was placed in front of the cavalry, dispersed before the charge of the heavy cavalry of the enemy, and while the latter engaged the masses of the Roman horsemen in front, the light Numidian cavalry,
after having pushed aside the broken ranks of the enemy's infantry, took the Roman horsemen in flank and rear. This decided the combat The loss of the Romans was very considerable. The consul himself, who made up as a
chap, v TO THE BATTLE OF CANNAE
369
soldier for his deficiencies as a general, received a danger ous wound, and owed his safety entirely to the devotion of his son of seventeen, who, courageously dashing into the ranks of the enemy, compelled his squadron to follow him and rescued his father. Scipio, enlightened by this combat as to the strength of the enemy, saw the error which he had committed in posting himself, with a weaker army, in the plain with his back to the river, and resolved to return *o the right bank of the Po under the eyes of his antagonist As the operations became contracted into a narrower space and his illusions regarding Roman invincibility departed, he recovered the use of his considerable military talents, which the adventurous boldness of his youthful opponent's plans had for a moment paralyzed. While Hannibal was preparing for a pitched battle, Scipio by a rapidly
and steadily executed march succeeded in reaching the right bank of the river which in an evil hour
he had abandoned, and broke down the bridge over the
Po behind his army ; the Roman detachment of 600 men
charged to cover the process of destruction were, however, intercepted and made prisoners. But as the upper course
of the river was in the hands of Hannibal, he could not be prevented from marching up the stream, crossing on a
bridge of boats, and in a few days confronting the Roman
army on the right bank. The latter had taken a position The
in the plain in front of Placentia; but the mutiny of a piac^^
Celtic division in the Roman camp, and the Gallic insur rection breaking out afresh all around, compelled the consul to evacuate the plain and to post himself on the hills behind the Trebia. This was accomplished without notable loss, because the Numidian horsemen sent in pursuit lost their time in plundering, and setting fire to, the abandoned camp. In this strong position, with his left wing resting on the Apennines, his right on the Po and the fortress of Placentia, and covered in front by the
projected
370
THE WAR UNDER HANNIBAL book iii
Trebia —no inconsiderable stream at that season — Scipio was unable to save the rich stores of Clastidium (Casteggio) from which in this position he was cut off by the army of the enemy ; nor was he able to avert the insurrectionary movement on the part of almost all the Gallic cantons, excepting the Cenomani who were friendly to Rome ; but he completely checked the progress of Hannibal, and compelled him to pitch his camp opposite to that of the Romans. Moreover, the position taken up by Scipio, and the circumstance of the Cenomani threatening the borders of the Insubres, hindered the main body of the Gallic insurgents from directly joining the enemy, and gave to the second Roman army, which meanwhile had arrived at Ariminum from Lilybaeum, the opportunity of reaching Placentia through the midst of the insurgent country without material hindrance, and of uniting itself with the army of the Po.
Scipio had thus solved his difficult task completely and
Battle on
the Trebia, brilliantly.
The Roman army, now close on 40,000 strong,
and though not a match for its antagonist in cavalry, at least equal in infantry, had simply to remain in its existing posi tion, in order to compel the enemy either to attempt in the winter season the passage of the river and an attack upon the camp, or to suspend his advance and to test the fickle temper of the Gauls by the burden of winter quarters. Clear, however, as this was, it was no less clear that it was now December, and that under the course proposed the victory might perhaps be gained by Rome, but would not be gained by the consul Tiberius Sempronius, who held the sole command in consequence of Scipio's wound, and whose year of office expired in a few months. Hannibal knew the man, and neglected no means of alluring him to
The Celtic villages that had remained faithful to the Romans were cruelly laid waste, and, when this brought on a conflict between the cavalry, Hannibal allowed his
fight.
«ap, v TO THE BATTLE OF CANNAE
271
opponents to boast of the victory. Soon thereafter on a raw rainy day a general engagement came on, unlooked for by the Romans. From the earliest hour of the morning the Roman light troops had been skirmishing with the light cavalry of the enemy ; the latter slowly retreated, and the Romans eagerly pursued it through the deeply swollen Trebia to follow up the advantage which they had gained. Suddenly the cavalry halted ; the Roman vanguard found itself face to face with the army of Hannibal drawn up for battle on a field chosen by himself; it was lost, unless the main body should cross the stream with all speed to its support. Hungry, weary, and wet, the Romans came on and hastened to form in order of battle, the cavalry, as
usual, on the wings, the infantry in the centre. The light troops, who formed the vanguard on both sides, began the combat : but the Romans had already almost exhausted their missiles against the cavalry, and immediately
gave way. In like manner the cavalry gave way on the wings, hard pressed by the elephants in front, and outflanked right and left by the far more numerous Carthaginian horse.
But the Roman infantry proved itself worthy of its name : at the beginning of the battle it fought with very decided superiority against the infantry of the enemy, and even when the repulse of the Roman horse allowed the enemy's cavalry and light-armed troops to turn their attacks against the Roman infantry, the latter, although ceasing to advance, obstinately maintained its ground. At this stage a select Carthaginian band of 1000 infantry, and as many horsemen, under the leadership of Mago, Hannibal's youngest brother, suddenly emerged from an ambush in the rear of the Roman army, and fell upon the densely entangled masses. The wings of the army and the rear ranks of the Roman centre were broken up and scattered by this attack, while the first division, 10,000 men strong, in compact array broke through the Carthaginian line, and made a passage for
*7a
THE WAR UNDER HANNIBAL book ill
itself obliquely through the midst of the enemy, inflicting great loss on the opposing infantry and more especially on the Gallic insurgents. This brave body, pursued but feebly, thus reached Placentia. The remaining mass was for the most part slaughtered by the elephants and light troops of the enemy in attempting to cross the river : only part of the cavalry and some divisions of infantry were able, by wading through the river, to gain the camp whither the Carthaginians did not follow them, and thus they too reached Placentia. 1 Few battles confer more honour on the Roman soldier than this on the Trebia, and few at the same time furnish graver impeachment of the general in command ; although the candid judge will not forget that a commandership-in-chief expiring on a definite day was an unmilitary institution, and that figs cannot be reaped from thistles. The victory came to be costly even to the victors. Although the loss in the battle fell chiefly on the Celtic
1 Polybius's account of the battle on the Trebia is quite clear. If Placentia lay on the right bank of the Trebia where it falls into the Po, and if the battle was fought on the left bank, while the Roman encamp ment was pitched upon the right —both of which points have been dis puted, but are nevertheless indisputable —the Roman soldiers must certainly have passed the Trebia in order to gain Placentia as well as to gain the camp. But those who crossed to the camp must have made their way through the disorganized portions of their own army and through the corps of the enemy that had gone round to their rear, and must then have crossed the river almost in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy. On the other hand the passage near Placentia was accomplished after the pursuit had slackened ; the corps was several miles distant from the field of battle, and had arrived within reach of a Roman fortress ; it may even have been the case, although it cannot be proved, that a bridge led over the Trebia at that point, and that the tile de pont on the other bank was occupied by the garrison of Placentia. It is evident that the first passage
was just as difficult as the second was easy, and therefore with good reason Polybius, military judge as he was, merely says of the corps of 10,000, that in close columns it cut its way to Placentia (iii. 74, 6), without mentioning the passage of the river which in this case was unattended with difficulty.
The erroneousness of the view of Livy , which transfers the Phoenician camp to the right, the Roman to the left bank of the Trebia, has lately been repeatedly pointed out. We may only further mention, that the site of Clastidium, near the modern Casteggio, has now been established by inscriptions (Orclli-Henzen, 5117).
chap, v TO THE BATTLE OF CANNAE
aj3
insurgents, yet a multitude of the veteran soldiers of
Hannibal died afterwards from diseases
that raw and wet winter day, and all the elephants perished except one.
The effect of this first victory of the invading army was, Hannibal that the national insurrection now spread and assumed ^J^^ shape without hindrance throughout the Celtic territory. Italy. The remains of the Roman army of the Po threw themselves
into the fortresses of Placentia and Cremona : completely
cut off from home, they were obliged to procure their
supplies by way of the river. The consul Tiberius Sempronius only escaped, as if by miracle, from being
taken prisoner, when with a weak escort of cavalry he went
to Rome on account of the elections. Hannibal, who
would not hazard the health of his troops by further
marches at that inclement season, bivouacked for the winter
where he was; and, as a serious attempt on the larger fortresses would have led to no result, contented himself
with annoying the enemy by attacks on the river-port of Placentia and other minor Roman positions. He employed
himself mainly in organizing the Gallic insurrection : more
than 60,000 foot soldiers and 4000 horsemen from the
Celts are said to have joined his army.
Military campaign of 537. The senate thought, and not unreason- ^ P[ai7.
-l
•*
1 t. 11
position of Hannibal,
e1
means fraught with serious danger. Besides the coast-
garrsons, which were despatched to Sardinia, Sicily, and Tarentum, and the reinforcements which were sent to Spain, the two new consuls Gaius Flaminius and Gnaeus Servilius obtained only as many men as were necessary to restore the four legions to their full complement ; additions were made to the strength of the cavalry alone. The consuls had to protect the northern frontier, and stationed themselves accordingly on the two highways which led
VOL. II
50
engendered by
No extraordinary exertions were made in Rome for the ably, that, despite the lost battle, their position was by no
274
THE WAR UNDER HANNIBAL book in
from Rome to the north, the western of which at that time terminated at Arretium, and the eastern at Ariminum ; Gaius Flaminius occupied the former, Gnaeus Servilius the latter. There they ordered the troops from the fortresses on the Po to join them, probably by water, and awaited the commencement of the favourable season, when they proposed to occupy in the defensive the passes of the Apennines, and then, taking up the offensive, to descend into the valley of the Po and effect a junction somewhere near Placentia. But Hannibal by no means intended to defend the valley of the Po. He knew Rome better per haps than the Romans knew it themselves, and was very well aware how decidedly he was the weaker and continued to be so notwithstanding the brilliant battle on the Trebia; he knew too that his ultimate object, the humiliation of Rome, was not to be wrung from the unbending Roman pride either by terror or by surprise, but could only be
gained by the actual subjugation of the haughty city. It was clearly apparent that the Italian federation was in political solidity and in military resources infinitely superior to an adversary, who received only precarious and irregular support from home, and who in Italy was dependent for primary aid solely on the vacillating and capricious nation of the Celts; and that the Phoenician foot soldier was, notwithstanding all the pains taken by Hannibal, far in ferior in point of tactics to the legionary, had been completely proved by the defensive movements of Scipio and the brilliant retreat of the defeated infantry on the Trebia. From this conviction flowed the two fundamental principles which determined Hannibal's whole method of operations in Italy — viz. , that the war should be carried on, in somewhat adventurous fashion, with constant changes in the plan and in the theatre of operations ; and that its favourable issue could only be looked for as the result of political and not of military successes —of the
chap, v TO THE BATTLE OF CANNAE
and final breaking up of the Italian federation. That mode of carrying on the war was neces
sary, because the single element which Hannibal had to throw into the scale against so many disadvantages — his military genius — only told with its full weight, when he constantly foiled his opponents by unexpected combina tions ; he was undone, if the war became stationary. That aim was the aim dictated to him by right policy, because, mighty conqueror though he was in battle, he saw very clearly that on each occasion he vanquished the generals and not the city, and that after each new battle the Romans remained just as superior to the Carthaginians as he was personally superior to the Roman commanders. That Hannibal even at the height of his fortune never deceived himself on this point, is worthier of admiration than his most admired battles.
It was these motives, and not the entreaties of the Hannibal Gauls that he should spare their country —which would ^pen** not have influenced him — that induced Hannibal now to nine*, forsake, as it were, his newly acquired basis of operations
against Italy, and to transfer the scene of war to Italy itself. Before doing so he gave orders that all the prisoners should be brought before him. He ordered the Romans to be separated and loaded with chains as slaves —the statement that Hannibal put to death all the Romans capable of bearing arms, who here and elsewhere fell into his hands, is beyond doubt at least strongly exaggerated. On the other hand, all the Italian allies were released without ransom, and charged to report at home that Hannibal waged war not against Italy, but against Rome ; that he promised to every Italian community the restora tion of its ancient independence and its ancient boundaries ; and that the deliverer was about to follow those whom he had set free, bringing release and revenge. In fact, when the winter ended, he started from the valley of the Po to
gradual loosening
275
Flaminius.
search for a route through the difficult defiles of the Apennines. Gaius Flaminius, with the Etruscan army, was still for the moment at Arezzo, intending to move from that point towards Lucca in order to protect the vale of the Arno and the passes of the Apennines, so soon as the season should allow. But Hannibal anticipated him. The passage of the Apennines was accomplished without much difficulty, at a point as far west as possible or, in other words, as distant as possible from the enemy; but the marshy low grounds between the Serchio and the Arno were so flooded by the melting of the snow and the spring rains, that the army had to march four days in water, without finding any other dry spot for resting by night than was supplied by piling the baggage or by the sumpter animals that had fallen. The troops underwent unutterable sufferings, particularly the Gallic infantry, which marched behind the Carthaginians along tracks already rendered impassable : they murmured loudly and would undoubtedly have dispersed to a man, had not the Carthaginian cavalry under Mago, which brought up the rear, rendered flight impossible. The horses, assailed by a distemper in their hoofs, fell in heaps ; various diseases decimated the soldiers ; Hannibal himself lost an eye in consequence of ophthalmia.
But the object was attained. Hannibal encamped at Fiesole, while Gaius Flaminius was still waiting at Arezzo until the roads should become passable that he might blockade them. After the Roman defensive position had thus been turned, the best course for the consul, who might perhaps have been strong enough to defend the mountain
passes but certainly was unable now to face Hannibal in the open field, would have been to wait till the second army, which had now become completely superfluous at Ariminum, should arrive. He himself, however, judged otherwise. He was a political party leader, raised to
276
THE WAR UNDER HANNIBAL BOOK III
CHAT, v TO THE BATTLE OF CANNAE
277
distinction by his efforts to limit the power of the senate ;
at the government in consequence of the aristocratic intrigues concocted against him during his consulship; carried away, through a doubtless justifiable opposition to their beaten track of partisanship, into a scornful defiance of tradition and custom ; intoxicated at once by blind love of the common people and equally bitter hatred of the party of the nobles ; and, in addition
to all this, possessed with the fixed idea that he was a military genius. His campaign against the Insubres of 531, which to unprejudiced judges only showed that good 223. soldiers often repair the errors of bad generals 226), was regarded by him and by his adherents as an irrefragable proof that the Romans had only to put Gaius Flaminius at
the head of the army in order to make speedy end of Hannibal. Talk of this sort had procured for him his second consulship, and hopes of this sort had now brought
to his camp so great multitude of unarmed followers eager for spoil, that their number, according to the assurance of sober historians, exceeded that of the legion
aries. Hannibal based his plan in part on this circum stance. So far from attacking him, he marched past him,
and caused the country all around to be pillaged by the Celts who thoroughly understood plundering, and his numerous cavalry. The complaints and indignation of the multitude which had to submit to be plundered under the eyes of the hero who had promised to enrich them, and
the protestation of the enemy that they did not believe
him possessed of either the power or the resolution to undertake anything before the arrival of his colleague, could not but induce such man to display his genius for strategy, and to give sharp lesson to his inconsiderate
and haughty foe.
No plan was ever more successful. In haste, the consul followed the line of march of the enemy, who
indignant
a
a
a
by
a
(p.
Battle
passed by Arezzo and moved slowly through the rich valley of *^e Chiana towards Perugia. He overtook him in the district of Cortona, where Hannibal, accurately informed of his antagonist's march, had had full time to select his field of battle—a narrow deSle between two steep mountain walls, closed at its outlet by a high hill, and at its entrance by the Trasimene lake. With the flower of his infantry he barred the outlet ; the light troops and the cavalry placed themselves in concealment on either side. The Roman columns advanced without hesitation into the unoccupied pass; the thick morning mist concealed from them the position of the enemy. As the head of the Roman line approached the hill, Hannibal gave the signal for battle ; the cavalry,
behind the heights, closed the entrance of the pass, and at the same time the mist rolling away revealed the Phoenician arms everywhere along the crests on the right and left There was no battle ; it was a mere rout Those that remained outside of the defile were driven by the cavalry into the lake. The main body was annihilated in the pass itself almost without resistance, and most of them, including the consul himself, were cut down in the order of march. The head of the Roman column, formed of 6000 infantry, cut their way through the infantry of the enemy, and proved once more the irresistible might of the legions ; but, cut off from the rest of the army and without knowledge of its fate, they marched on at random, were surrounded on the following day, on a hill which they had occupied, by a corps of Carthaginian cavalry, and — as the capitulation, which promised them a free retreat, was rejected by Hannibal —were all treated as prisoners of war.
Trastaene lake.
878
THE WAR UNDER HANNIBAL book III
advancing
15,000 Romans had fallen, and as many were captured; in other words, the army was annihilated. The slight Carthaginian loss— 1500 men —again fell mainly upon the Gauls. 1 And, as if this were not enough,
immediately 1 The date of the battle, 23rd. June according to the uncorrected
chap, v TO THE BATTLE OF CANNAE
279
after the battle on the Trasimene lake, the cavalry of the army of Ariminum under Gaius Centenius, 4000 strong, which Gnaeus Servilius had sent forward for the temporary support of his colleague while he himself advanced by slow marches, was likewise surrounded by the Phoenician army, and partly slain, partly made prisoners. All Etruria was lost, and Hannibal might without hindrance march on Rome. The Romans prepared themselves for the worst ; they broke down the bridges over the Tiber, and nominated Quintus Fabius Maximus dictator to repair the walls and conduct the defence, for which an army of reserve was formed. At the same time two new legions were summoned under arms in the room of those annihilated, and the fleet,
which might become of importance in the event of a siege, was put in order.
But Hannibal was more farsighted than king Pyrrhus. Hannibal
He did not march on Rome ; nor even against Gnaeus Servilius, an able general, who had with the help of the fortresses on the northern road preserved his army hitherto uninjured, and would perhaps have kept his antagonist at bay. Once more a movement occurred which was quite unexpected. Hannibal marched past the fortress of Spoletium, which he attempted in vain to surprise, through Umbria, fearfully devastated the territory of Picenum which was covered all over with Roman farmhouses, and halted
on the shores of the Adriatic. The men and horses of his army had not yet recovered from the painful effects of their spring campaign ; here he rested for a considerable t'me to allow his army to recruit its strength in a pleasant district and at a fine season of the year, and to reorganize his Libyan infantry after the Roman mode, the means for
? . ? "*
calendar, must, according to the rectified calendar, fall somewhere In thaginlafi April, since Quintus Fabius resigned his dictatorship, after six months, army.
in the middle of autumn (Liv. xxii. 31, 7 ; 32, 1 ), and must therefore hare
entered upon it about the beginning of May. The confusion of the
calendar (p. 117) in Rome was even at this period very great.
Reorgan-
l? "i£! Lof
War In ^wer
2&> THE WAR UNDER HANNIBAL book ni
which were furnished to him by the mass of Roman arms among the spoil. From this point, moreover, he resumed his long-interrupted communication with his native land, sending his messages of victory by water to Carthage. At length, when his army was sufficiently restored and had been adequately exercised in the use of the new arms, he broke up and marched slowly along the coast into southern Italy.
He had calculated correctly, when he chose this time for remodelling his infantry. The surprise of his antagon ists, who were in constant expectation of an attack on the capital, allowed him at least four weeks of undisturbed leisure for the execution of the unprecedentedly bold ex periment of changing completely his military system in the heart of a hostile country and with an army still compara tively small, and of attempting to oppose African legions to the invincible legions of Italy. But his hope that the con federacy would now begin to break up was not fulfilled. In this respect the Etruscans, who had carried on their last wars of independence mainly with Gallic mercenaries, were of less moment ; the flower of the confederacy, particularly in a military point of view, consisted —next to the Latins — of the Sabellian communities, and with good reason Hanni bal had now come into their neighbourhood. But one town after another closed its gates; not a single Italian community entered into alliance with the Phoenicians. This was a great, in fact an all-important, gain for the Romans. Nevertheless it was felt in the capital that it would be imprudent to put the fidelity of their allies to such a test, without a Roman army to keep the field. The dictator Quintus Fabius combined the two supplementary legions formed in Rome with the army of Ariminum, and when Hannibal marched past the Roman fortress of Luceria towards Arpi, the Roman standards appeared on his right flank at Aeca. Their leader, however, pursued a
chap, v TO THE BATTLE OF CANNAE »8i
course different from that of his predecessors. Quintus Fahfat Fabius was a man advanced in years, of a deliberation and firmness, which to not a few seemed procrastination and obstinacy. Zealous in his reverence for the good old
times, for the political omnipotence of the senate, and for the command of the burgomasters, he looked to a method ical prosecution of the war as — next to sacrifices and prayers — the means of saving the state. A political antagonist of Gaius Flaminius, and summoned to the head of affairs in virtue of the reaction against his foolish war- demagogism, Fabius departed for the camp just as firmly resolved to avoid a pitched battle at any price, as his predecessor had been determined at any price to fight one ; he was without doubt convinced that the first elements of strategy would forbid Hannibal to advance so long as the Roman army confronted him intact, and that accordingly it would not be difficult to weaken by petty conflicts and gradually to starve out the enemy's army, dependent as it was on foraging for its supplies.
Hannibal, well served by his spies in Rome and in the Roman army, immediately learned how matters stood, and, wt"? as usual, adjusted the plan of his campaign in accordance Apulia, with the individual character of the opposing leader. Pass
ing the Roman army, he marched over the Apennines into
the heart of Italy towards Beneventum, took the open town
of Telesia on the boundary between Samnium and Campania,
and thence turned against Capua, which as the most im portant of all the Italian cities dependent on Rome, and the
only one standing in some measure on a footing of equality
with had for that very reason felt more severely than any
other community the oppression of the Roman government
He had formed connections there, which led him to hope
that the Campanians might revolt from the Roman alliance
but in this hope he was disappointed. So, retracing his steps, he took the road to Apulia. During all this march
March to
;
it,
War in ApuU"-
28a THE WAR UNDER HANNIBAL book hi
of the Carthaginian army the dictator had followed along the heights, and had condemned his soldiers to the melancholy task of looking on with arms in their hands, while the Numidian cavalry plundered the faithful allies far and wide, and the villages over all the plain rose in flames. At length he opened up to the exasperated Roman army the eagerly-coveted opportunity of attacking the enemy. When Hannibal had begun his retreat, Fabius intercepted his route near Casilinum (the modern Capua), by strongly
garrisoning that town on the left bank of the Volturnus and occupying the heights that crowned the right bank with his main army, while a division of 4000 men encamped on the road itself that led along by the river. But Hannibal ordered his light-armed troops to climb the heights which rose immediately alongside of the road, and to drive before them a number of oxen with lighted faggots on their horns, so that it seemed as if the Carthaginian army were thus marching off during the night by torchlight The Roman division, which barred the road, imagining that they were evaded and that further covering of the road was super fluous, marched by a side movement to the same heights. Along the road thus left free Hannibal then retreated with the bulk of his army, without encountering the enemy ; next morning he without difficulty, but with severe loss to the Romans, disengaged and recalled his light troops. Hanni bal then continued his march unopposed in a north-easterly direction ; and by a widely-circuitous route, after traversing and laying under contribution the lands of the Hirpinians, Campanians, Samnites, Paelignians, and Frentanians with out resistance, he arrived with rich booty and a full chest once more in the region of Luceria, just as the harvest there was about to begin. Nowhere in his extensive march had he met with active opposition, but nowhere had he found allies. Clearly perceiving that no course remained for him but to take up winter quarters in the open field, he began
CHAP, v TO THE BATTLE OF CANNAE
S83
the difficult operation of collecting the winter
requisite for the army, by means of its own agency, from the fields of the enemy. For this purpose he had selected the broad and mostly flat district of northern Apulia, which furnished grain and grass in abundance, and which could be completely commanded by his excellent cavalry. An entrenched camp was constructed at Gerunium,
miles to the north of Luceria. Two-thirds of the army were daily despatched from it to bring in the stores, while Hannibal with the remainder took up a position to protect the camp and the detachments sent out
The master of the horse, Marcus Minucius, who held temporary command in the Roman camp during the absence of the dictator, deemed this a suitable opportunity for approaching the enemy more closely, and formed a camp in the territory of the Larinates ; where on the one hand by his mere presence he checked the sending out of detach ments and thereby hindered the provisioning of the enemy's army, and on the other hand, in a series of successful con flicts in which his troops encountered isolated Phoenician divisions and even Hannibal himself, drove the enemy from their advanced positions and compelled them to concentrate themselves at Gerunium. On the news of these successes, which of course lost nothing in the telling, the storm broL forth in the capital against Quintus Fabius. It was not altogether unwarranted. Prudent as it was on the part of Rome to abide by the defensive and to expect success mainly from the cutting off of the enemy's means of sub sistence, there was yet something strange in a system of defence and of starving out, under which the enemy had laid waste all central Italy without opposition beneath the eyes of a Roman army of equal numbers, and had provisioned themselves sufficiently for the winter by an organized method of foraging on the greatest scale. Publius Scipio, when he commanded on the Po, had not adopted
supplies
twenty-five
Fabius and M,nud,1,.
284
THE WAR UNDER HANNIBAL book hi
this view of a defensive attitude, and the attempt of his successor to imitate him at Casilinum had failed in such a way as to afford a copious fund of ridicule to the scoffers of the city. It was wonderful that the Italian communities had not wavered, when Hannibal so palpably showed them the superiority of the Phoenicians and the nullity of Roman aid; but how long could they be expected to bear the burden of a double war, and to allow themselves to be
plundered under the very eyes of the Roman troops and of their own contingents? Finally, it could not be alleged that the condition of the Roman army compelled the general to adopt this mode of warfare. It was composed, as regarded its core, of the capable legions of Ariminum, and, by their side, of militia called out, most of whom were likewise accustomed to service; and, far from being dis couraged by the last defeats, it was indignant " at the but little honourable task which its general, Hannibal's lackey," assigned to and demanded with loud voice to be led against the enemy. In the assemblies of the people the most violent invectives were directed against the obstinate old man. His political opponents, with the former praetor Gaius Terentius Varro at their head, laid hold of the quarrel—for the understanding of which we must not forget that the dictator was practically nominated
the senate, and the office was regarded as the palladium of the conservative party—and, in concert with the dis contented soldiers and the possessors of the plundered estates, they carried an unconstitutional and absurd resolu tion of the people conferring the dictatorship, which was destined to obviate the evils of divided command in times of danger, on Marcus Minucius,1 who had hitherto been the lieutenant of Quintus Fabius, in the same way as
The inscription of the gift devoted by the new dictator on account of his victory at Geranium to Hercules Victor — Hercolei sacrom M. Minuci(uj) C. dictator vovit —was found in the year 862 at Rome, near S. Lorenso.
f.
1
by
1
a
it, it
a
chap, v TO THE BATTLE OF CANNAE
385
on Fabius himself. Thus the Roman army, after its hazardous division into two separate corps had just been appropriately obviated, was once more divided ; and not only so, but the two sections were placed under leaders who notoriously followed quite opposite plans of war.
Quintus Fabius of course adhered more than ever to his methodical
inaction; Marcus Minucius, compelled to justify in the field of battle his title of dictator, made a hasty attack with inadequate forces, and would have been annihilated had not his colleague averted greater misfortune by the season able interposition of a fresh corps. This last turn of matters justified in some measure the system of passive resistance. But in reality Hannibal had completely attained in this campaign all that arms could attain : not a single material operation had been frustrated either by his impetuous or by his deliberate opponent ; and his foraging, though not unattended with difficulty, had yet been in the main so successful that the army passed the winter without complaint in the camp at Gerunium. It was not the Cunctator that saved Rome, but the compact structure of its confederacy and, not less perhaps, the national hatred with which the Phoenician hero was regarded on the part of Occidentals.
Despite all its misfortunes, Roman pride stood no less New unshaken than the Roman symmachy. The donations paraSom
which were offered by king Hiero of Syracuse and the Greek cities in Italy for the next campaign — the war affected the latter less severely than the other Italian allies of Rome, for they sent no contingents to the land army— were declined with thanks; the chieftains of Illyria were informed that they could not be allowed to neglect pay ment of their tribute; and even the king of Macedonia was once more summoned to surrender Demetrius of Pharos. The majority of the senate, notwithstanding the
semblance of legitimation which recent events had given to the Fabian system of delay, had firmly resolved to depart
■ ■■■*
Pauiius
286 THE WAR UNDER HANNIBAL book hi
from a mode of war that was slowly but certainly ruining the state; if the popular dictator had failed in his more energetic method of warfare, they laid the blame of the failure, and not without reason, on the fact that they had adopted a half-measure and had given him too few troops. This error they determined to avoid and to equip an army, such as Rome had never sent out before—eight legions, each raised a fifth above the normal strength, and a
number of allies — enough to crush an who was not half so strong. Besides this, a legion under the praetor Lucius Postumius was destined
for the valley of the Po, in order, if possible, to draw off the Celts serving in the army of Hannibal to their homes. These resolutions were judicious ; everything depended on their coming to an equally judicious decision respecting the supreme command. The stiff carriage of Quintus
Fabius, and the attacks of the demagogues which it
had rendered the dictatorship and the senate generally more unpopular than ever : amongst the people, not without the connivance of their leaders, the foolish report circulated that the senate was intentionally pro longing the war. As, therefore, the nomination of a dictator was not to be thought of, the senate attempted to procure the election of suitable consuls ; but this only had the effect of thoroughly rousing suspicion and obstinacy. With difficulty the senate carried one of its candidates,
corresponding opponent
provoked,
Lucius Aemilius Paullus, who had with judgment con- 219. ducted the Illyrian war in 535 (p. 220); an immense majority of the citizens assigned to him as colleague the
candidate of the popular party, Gaius Terentius Varro, an incapable man, who was known only by his bitter opposition to the senate and more especially as the main author of the proposal to elect Marcus Minucius co-dictator, and who was recommended to the multitude solely by his humble birth and his coarse effrontery.
cha*. T TO THE BATTLE OF CANNAE
While these preparations for the next campaign were Battle at being made in Rome, the war had already recommenced Cannae- in Apulia. As soon as the season allowed him to leave
his winter quarters, Hannibal, determining as usual the
course of the war and assuming the offensive, set out from Gerunium in a southerly direction, and
Luceria crossed the Aufidus and took the citadel of
Cannae (between Canosa and Barletta) which commanded
the plain of Canusium, and had hitherto served the Romans as their chief magazine. The Roman
which, since Fabius had conformably to the constitution
resigned his dictatorship in the middle of autumn, was now
commanded by Gnaeus Servilius and Marcus Regulus, first
as consuls then as proconsuls, had been unable to avert a
loss which they could not but feel. On military as well as
on political grounds, it became more than ever necessary
to arrest the progress of Hannibal by a pitched battle. With definite orders to this effect from the senate, accord ingly, the two new commanders-in-chief, Paullus and Varro, arrived in Apulia in the beginning of the summer of 538. 219. With the four new legions and a corresponding contingent
of Italians which they brought up, the Roman army rose to 80,000 infantry, half burgesses, half allies, and 6000 cavalry, of whom one-third were burgesses and two-thirds allies; whereas Hannibal's army numbered 1 0,000 cavalry, but only about 40,000 infantry. Hannibal wished nothing so much as a battle, not merely for the general reasons which we have explained above, but specially because the wide Apulian plain allowed him to develop the whole
of his cavalry, and because the providing supplies for his numerous army would soon, in spite of that excellent cavalry, be rendered very difficult by the proximity of an enemy twice as strong and resting on a chain of fortresses. The leaders of the Roman forces also had, as we have said, made up their minds on the general
marching past
army
387
superiority
288 THE WAR UNDER HANNIBAL book ill
question of giving battle, and approached the enemy with that view ; but the more sagacious of them saw the position of Hannibal, and were disposed accordingly to wait in the first instance and simply to station themselves in the vicinity of the enemy, so as to compel him to retire and accept battle on a ground less favourable to him. Hannibal encamped at Cannae on the right bank of the Aufidus. Paullus pitched his camp on both banks of the stream, so that the main force came to be stationed on the left bank, but a strong corps took up a position on the right immedi ately opposite to the enemy, in order to impede his supplies and perhaps also to threaten Cannae. Hannibal, to whom it was all-important to strike a speedy blow, crossed the stream with the bulk of his troops, and offered battle on the left bank, which Paullus did not accept But such military pedantry was disapproved by the democratic consul—so much had been said about men taking the field not to stand guard, but to use their swords—and he gave orders accordingly to attack the enemy, wherever and whenever they found him. According to the old custom foolishly retained, the decisive voice in the council of war alternated between the commanders-in-chief day by day ; it was necessary therefore on the following day to submit, and to let the hero of the pavement have his way. On the left bank, where the wide plain offered full scope to the superior cavalry of the enemy, certainly even he would not fight ; but he determined to unite the whole Roman forces on the right bank, and there, taking up a position between the Carthaginian camp and Cannae and seriously threatening the latter, to offer battle. A division of 10,000 men was left behind in the principal Roman camp, charged to capture the Carthaginian encampment during the conflict and thus to intercept the retreat of the enemy's army across the river. The bulk of the Roman army, at early dawn on the and August according to the uncorrected, perhaps in
chap, v TO THE BATTLE OF CANNAE
389
June according to the correct, calendar, crossed the river which at this season was shallow and did not materially hamper the movements of the troops, and took up a position in line near the smaller Roman camp to the west ward of Cannae. The Carthaginian army followed and likewise crossed the stream, on which rested the right Roman as well as the left Carthaginian wing. The Roman cavalry was stationed on the wings : the weaker portion consisting of burgesses, led by Paullus, on the right next the river ; the stronger consisting of the allies, led by Varro, on the left towards the plain. In the centre was stationed the infantry in unusually deep files, under the command of the consul of the previous year Gnaeus Servilius. Opposite to this centre Hannibal arranged his infantry in the form of a crescent, so that the Celtic and Iberian troops in their national armour formed the advanced centre, and the Libyans, armed after the Roman fashion, formed the drawn- back wings on either side. On the side next the river the whole heavy cavalry under Hasdrubal was stationed, on the side towards the plain the light Numidian horse. After a short skirmish between the light troops the whole line was soon engaged. Where the light cavalry of the Carthaginians fought against the heavy cavalry of Varro, the conflict was prolonged, amidst constant charges of the Numidians, without decisive result In the centre, on the other hand, the legions completely overthrew the Spanish and Gallic troops that first encountered them ; eagerly the victors
pressed on and followed up their advantage. But mean while, on the right wing, fortune had turned against the Romans. Hannibal had merely sought to occupy the left cavalry wing of the enemy, that he might bring Hasdrubal with the whole regular cavalry to bear against the weaker right and to overthrow it first. After a brave resistance, the Roman horse gave way, and those that were not cut down were chased up the river and scattered in the plain ;
tol. n
51
39o
THE WAR UNDER HANNIBAL book hi
Paullus, wounded, rode to the centre to turn or, if not, to share the fate of the legions. These, in order the better to follow up the victory over the advanced infantry of the enemy, had changed their front disposition into a column of attack, which, in the shape of a wedge, penetrated the enemy's centre. In this position they were warmly assailed on both sides by the Libyan infantry wheeling inward upon them right and left, and a portion of them were compelled to halt in order to defend themselves against the flank attack ; by this means their advance was checked, and the mass of infantry, which was already too closely crowded, now had no longer room to develop itself at all. Mean while Hasdrubal, after having completed the defeat of the wing of Paullus, had collected and arranged his cavalry anew and led them behind the enemy's centre against the wing of Varro. His Italian cavalry, already sufficiently occupied with the Numidians, was rapidly scattered before the double attack, and Hasdrubal, leaving the pursuit of the fugitives to the Numidians, arranged his squadrons for the third time, to lead them against the rear of the Roman infantry. This last charge proved decisive. Flight was not possible, and quarter was not given. Never, perhaps, was an army of such size annihilated on the field of battle so completely, and with so little loss to its antagonist, as was the Roman army at Cannae. Hannibal had lost not quite 6000 men, and two-thirds of that loss fell upon the Celts, who sustained the first shock of the legions. On the other hand, of the 76,000 Romans who had taken their places in the line of battle 70,000 covered the field, amongst whom were the consul Lucius Paullus, the pro consul Gnaeus Servilius, two-thirds of the staff-officers, and eighty men of senatorial rank. The consul Gaius Varro was saved solely by his quick resolution and his good steed, reached Venusia, and was not ashamed to survive.