Scipio Africanus

by B. h. Liddell Hart

  On the arrival of Lælius in Rome, amid uproarious scenes of jubilation, the Senate had decided that he should remain there until the Carthaginians’ envoys arrived. With the envoys of Masinissa mutual congratulations were exchanged, and the Senate not only confirmed him in the title of King conferred by Scipio, but presented him by proxy with further presents of honour and the military trappings usually provided for a consul. They also acceded to his request to release their Numidian captives, a politic step by which he hoped to strengthen his hold on his countrymen.

  When the envoys from Carthage arrived, they addressed the Senate in terms similar to those they had used to Scipio, putting the whole blame on Hannibal, and arguing that so far as Carthage was concerned the peace which closed the First Punic War remained unbroken. This being so they craved to continue the same peace terms. A debate followed in the Senate, which revealed a wide conflict of opinion, some advocating that no decision should be taken without the advice of Scipio, others that the war should at once be renewed, as Hannibal’s departure suggested that the request for peace was a subterfuge. Lælius, called on for his opinion, said that Scipio had grounded his hopes of effecting a peace on the assurance that Hannibal and Mago would not be recalled from Italy. The Senate failed to come to a definite decision, and the debate was adjourned, though it would appear from Polybius that it was renewed later, and a settlement reached.

  Meanwhile, however, the war had already restarted in Africa by a violation of the truce. While the embassy was on its way to Rome, fresh reinforcements and stores had been sent from Sardinia and Sicily to Scipio. The former arrived safely, but the convoy of two hundred transports from Sicily encountered a freshening gale when almost within sight of Africa, and though the warships struggled into harbour, the transports were blown towards Carthage; the greater part to the island of Ægimurus—thirty miles distant at the mouth of the Bay of Carthage,—and the rest were driven on to the shore near the city. The sight caused great popular excitement, the people clamouring that such immense booty should not be missed. At a hasty assembly, into which the mob penetrated, it was agreed that Hasdrubal should cross over to Ægimurus with a fleet and seize the transports. After they had been brought in, those that had been driven ashore near Carthage were refloated and brought into harbour.

  Directly Scipio heard of this breach of the truce he despatched three envoys to Carthage to take up the question of this incident, and also to inform the Carthaginians that the Roman people had ratified the treaty; for despatches had just arrived for Scipio with this news. The envoys, after a strong speech of protest, delivered the message that while“ the Romans would be justified in inflicting punishment, they entreated them in the name of the common fortune of mankind not to push the matter to an issue, but rather let their folly afford a proof of the generosity of the Romans.” The envoys then retired for the Senate to debate. Resentment at the bold language of the envoys, reluctance to give up the ships and their supplies, new confidence from Hannibal’s imminent help, combined to turn the scales against the peace party. It was decided simply to dismiss the envoys without a reply. The latter, who had barely escaped from mob violence on arrival, requested an escort on their return journey, and two triremes were assigned them. This fact gave some of the leaders of the war party an idea whereby to detonate a fresh explosion which should make the breach irreparable. They sent to Hasdrubal, whose fleet was then anchored off the coast near Utica, to have some ships lying in wait near the Roman camp to attack and sink the envoys’ ship. Under orders, the commanders of the escort quitted the Roman quinquereme when within sight of the Roman camp. Before it could make the harbour it was attacked by three Carthaginian quadriremes despatched for the purpose. The attempt to board her was beaten off, but the crew, or rather the survivors, only saved themselves by running the ship ashore.

  This dastardly action drove Scipio to renew operations for the final trial of strength. An immediate move direct on Carthage was impossible, for this would have meant a long siege, and to settle down to siege operations in face of the imminent arrival of Hannibal, who might menace his rear and cut his communications, would have been madness. Nor was his own situation pleasant, for not only had he suffered the heavy loss of the supplies and reinforcements from Sicily, but Masinissa was absent with his own and part of the Roman force—ten cohorts. Immediately on the conclusion of the provisional treaty Masinissa had set out for Numidia to recover his own kingdom, and, with the assistance of the Romans, add that of Syphax to it.

  When the truce was broken, Scipio sent urgent and repeated messages to Masinissa, telling him to raise as strong a force as possible and rejoin him with all speed. Then, having taken measures for the security of his fleet, he deputed the command of the Roman base to his legate Bæbius, and started on a march up the valley of the Bagradas, aiming to isolate Carthage, and by cutting off all supplies and reinforcements from the interior undermine its strength as a preliminary to its direct subjugation—the principle of security once more. On his march, he no longer consented to receive the submission of towns which offered to surrender, but took them all by assault, and sold the inhabitants as slaves—to show his anger and impress the moral of the Carthaginians’ violation of the treaty.

  During this“ approach” march—for such it was in fact if not in semblance—the envoys returning from Rome reached the naval camp. Bæbius at once despatched the Roman envoys to Scipio, but detained the Carthaginians, who, hearing of what had befallen, were naturally distressed as to their own fate. But Scipio, to his credit, refused to avenge on them the maltreatment of his own envoys. “For, aware as he was of the value attached by his own nation to keeping faith with ambassadors, he took into consideration not so much the deserts of the Carthaginians as the duty of the Romans. Therefore restraining his own anger and the bitter resentment he felt, he did his best to preserve ‘the glorious record of our fathers,’ as the saying is.” He sent orders to Bæbius to treat the Carthaginian envoys with all courtesy and send them home. “The consequence was that he humiliated all the people of Carthage and Hannibal himself, by thus requiting in ampler measure their baseness by his generosity.” (Polybius.)

  In this act Scipio revealed his understanding of the ethical object in war, and of its value. Chivalry governed by reason is an asset both in war and in view of its sequel—peace. Sensible chivalry should not be confounded with the quixotism of declining to use a strategical or tactical advantage, of discarding the supreme moral weapon of surprise, of treating war as if it were a match on the tennis court—such quixotism as is typified by the burlesque of Fontenoy, “Gentlemen of France, fire first.” This is merely stupid. So also is the traditional tendency to regard the use of a new weapon as “hitting below the belt,” regardless of whether it is inhuman or not in comparison with existing weapons. So the Germans called the use of tanks an atrocity, and so did we term gas—so also the mediaeval knight spoke of firearms when they came to interfere with his safe slaughter of unarmoured peasants. Yet the proportion of combatants slain in any battle decreased as much when firearms superseded the battleaxe and sword as when gas came to replace shell and the bullet. This antagonism to new weapons is mere conservatism, not chivalry.

  But chivalry, as in this example of Scipio’s, is both rational and far-sighted, for it endows the side which shows it with a sense of superiority, and the side which falls short with a sense of inferiority. The advantage in the moral sphere reacts on the physical.

  If this chivalrous act of Scipio’s was partly the fruit of such psychological calculation, it was clearly in accord also with his natural character, for his attitude earlier in Spain shows that it was no single theatrical gesture. Just as in war we cannot separate the moral from the mental or physical spheres, so also in assessing character. We cannot separate the nobility of Scipio’s moral conduct, throughout his career, from the transcendent clearness of his mental vision—they blended to form not only a great general but a great man.

  Some time before this, p
robably during the episode which broke the truce, Hannibal had landed at Leptis—in what to-day is the Gulf of Hammamet—with twenty-four thousand men, and had moved to Hadrumetum. Stopping here 6 to refresh his troops, he sent an urgent appeal to the Numidian chief Tychæus, who “ was thought to have the best cavalry in Africa,” to join him in saving the situation. He sought to play on the fears of Tychæus, who was a relative of Syphax, by the argument that if the Romans won he would risk losing his dominion, and his life too, through Masinissa’s greed of power. As a result, Tychæus responded, and came with a body of two thousand horse. This was a welcome accession, for Hannibal had lost his old superiority in cavalry, his masterweapon. In addition Hannibal could expect, and shortly received, the twelve thousand troops of Mago’s force from Liguria, composed of Gauls who had shown their fine quality in the last battle before the recall; also a large body of new levies raised in Africa, whose quality would be less assuring. Further—according to Livy,—four thousand Macedonians had recently come to the aid of Carthage, sent by King Philip.

  Let this force once reach Carthage and be able to base its operations on such a fortress, and source of reinforcement, and the situation would turn strongly in favour of Hannibal. In contrast, Scipio had been robbed of the bulk of his supplies and reinforcements, he was isolated on hostile soil, part of his force was detached with Masinissa, and the strength the latter could recruit was still uncertain.

  It is well to weigh these conditions, for they correct common but false historical impressions. At this moment the odds were with Hannibal, and the feeling in the rival capitals, as recorded by Livy and Polybius, is a true reflection of the fact.

  CHAPTER XI.

  ZAMA.

  EVEN at this critical juncture, jealousy of Scipio was rife in the Roman Senate. His backing, as all through, came from the people, not from his military rivals in the Senate. The consuls had done nothing to assist Scipio’s campaign through fixing Hannibal in Italy, save that Servilius advanced to the shore after Hannibal was safely away. But at the beginning of the year when the allocation of the various provinces was decided, according to custom, both consuls pressed for the province of Africa, eager to reap the fruits of Scipio’s success and thus earn glory cheaply. Metellus again tried to play the part of protecting deity. As a result the consuls were ordered to make application to the tribunes for the question to be put to the people to decide whom they wished to conduct the war in Africa. All the tribes thereupon nominated Scipio. Despite this emphatic popular verdict, the consuls drew lots for the province of Africa, having persuaded the Senate to make a decree to this effect. The lot fell to Tiberius Claudius, who was given an equal command with Scipio, and an armada of fifty quinqueremes for his expedition. Happily for Scipio, this jealousy-inspired move failed to prevent him putting the coping-stone on his own work, for Claudius was slow over his preparations, and when he eventually set out was caught in a storm and driven to Sardinia. Thus he never reached Africa.

  Soon, too, as news of the changed situation in Africa filtered through, Scipio’s detractors combined with the habitual pessimists in the distillation of gloom. They recalled that “ Quintus Fabius, recently deceased, who had foretold how arduous the contest would be, had been accustomed to predict that Hannibal would prove a more formidable enemy in his own country than he had been in a foreign one; and that Scipio would have to encounter not Syphax, a king of undisciplined barbarians...; nor his fatherin-law Hasdrubal, that most fugacious general” —a Fabian libel on a man of undaunted spirit; “nor tumultuary armies hastily collected out of a crowd of half-armed rustics, but Hannibal ... who, having grown old in victory, had filled Spain, Gaul, and Italy with monuments of his vast achievements; who commanded troops of equal length of service; troops hardened by superhuman endurance ; stained a thousand times with Roman blood....” The tension in Rome was increased by the past years of indecisive warfare, carried on languidly and apparently endless, whereas now Scipio and Hannibal had stimulated the minds of all as generals prepared for a final death-clinch.

  In Carthage the scales of public opinion appear to have been evenly balanced, on the one hand gaining confidence from Hannibal’s achievements and invincibility, on the other depressed by reflection on Scipio’s repeated victories, and on the fact that through his sole efforts they had lost their hold on Spain and Italy—as if he had been “ a general marked out by destiny, and born, for their destruction.”

  On the threshold of this final phase, the support, moral and material, given to Hannibal by his country seems to have been, on balance, more than that accorded to Scipio—one more nail in the coffin of a common historical error.

  His situation, already discussed, was one to test the moral fibre of a commander. Security lies often in calculated audacity, and an analysis of the military problems makes it highly probable that his march inland up the Bagradas valley was aimed, by its menace to the rich interior on which Carthage depended for supplies, to force Hannibal to push west to meet him instead of north to Carthage. By this clever move he threatened the economic base of Carthage and protected his own, also luring Hannibal away from his military base—Carthage.

  A complementary purpose was that this line of movement brought him progressively nearer to Numidia, shortening the distance which Masinissa would have to traverse with his expected reinforcement of strength. The more one studies and reflects on this manoeuvre, the more masterly does it appear as a subtly blended fulfilment of the principles of war.

  It had the intended effect, for the Carthaginians sent urgent appeals to Hannibal to advance towards Scipio and bring him to battle, and although Hannibal replied that he would judge his own time, within a few days he marched west from Hadrumetum, and arrived by forced marches at Zama. He then sent out scouts to discover the Roman camp and its dispositions for defence—it lay some miles farther west. Three of the scouts, or spies, were captured, and when they were brought before Scipio he adopted a highly novel method of treatment. “Scipio was so far from punishing them, as is the usual practice, that on the contrary he ordered a tribune to attend them and point out clearly to them the exact arrangement of the camp. After this had been done he asked them if the officer had explained everything to their satisfaction. When they answered that he had done so, Scipio furnished them with provisions and an escort, and told them to report carefully to Hannibal what had happened to them” (Polybius). This superb insolence of Scipio’s was a shrewd blow at the moral objective, calculated to impress on Hannibal and his troops the utter confidence of the Romans, and correspondingly give rise to doubts among themselves. This effect must have been still further increased by the arrival next day of Masinissa with six thousand foot and four thousand horse. Livy makes their arrival coincide with the visit of the Carthaginian spies, and remarks that Hannibal received this information, like the rest, with no feelings of joy.

  The sequel to this incident of the scouts has a human interest of an unusual kind. “ On their return, Hannibal was so much struck with admiration of Scipio’s magnanimity and daring, that he conceived ... a strong desire to meet him and converse with him. Having decided on this he sent a herald saying that he desired to discuss the whole situation with him, and Scipio, on receiving the herald’s message, accepted and said that he would send to Hannibal, fixing a place and hour for the interview. He then broke up his camp and moved to a fresh site not far from the town of Narragara, his position being well chosen tactically, and having water”within a javelin’s throw.“ He then sent to Hannibal a message that he was now ready for the meeting. Hannibal also moved his camp forward to meet him, occupying a hill safe and convenient in every respect except that he was rather too far away from water, and his men suffered considerable hardship as a result. It looks as if Scipio had scored the first trick in the battle of wits between the rival captains! The second trick also, because he ensured a battle in the open plain, where his advantage in cavalry could gain its full value. He was ready to trump Hannibal’s master-card.

&nb
sp; On the following day both generals came out of their camps with a small armed escort, and then, leaving these behind at an equal distance, met each other alone, except that each was attended by one interpreter. Livy prefaces the account of the interview with the remark that here met “the greatest generals not only of their own times, but of any to be found in the records of preceding ages ...”—a verdict with which many students of military history will be inclined to agree, and even to extend the scope of the judgment another two thousand years.

  Hannibal first saluted Scipio and opened the conversation. The accounts of his speech, as of Scipio’s, must be regarded as only giving its general sense, and for this reason as also the slight divergences between the different authorities may best be paraphrased, except for some of the more striking phrases. Hannibal’s main point was the uncertainty of fortune—which, after so often having victory almost within his reach, now found him coming voluntarily to sue for peace. How strange, too, the coincidence that it should have been Scipio’s father whom he met in his first battle, and now he came to solicit peace from the son! “Would that neither the Romans had ever coveted possessions outside Italy, nor the Carthaginians outside Africa, for both had suffered grievously.” However, the past could not be mended, the future remained. Rome had seen the arms of an enemy at her very gates; now the turn of Carthage had come. Could they not come to terms, rather than fight it out to the bitter end “I myself am ready to do so, as I have learnt by actual experience how fickle Fortune is, and how by a slight turn of the scale either way she brings about changes of the greatest moment, as if she were sporting with little children. But I fear that you, Publius, both because you are very young, and because success has constantly attended you both in Spain and in Africa, and you have never up to now at least fallen into the counter-current of Fortune, will not be convinced by my words, however worthy of credit they may be.” Let Scipio take warning by Hannibal’s own example. “What I was at Trasimene and at Cannæ, that you are this day.” “And now here am I in Africa on the point of negotiating with you, a Roman, for the safety of myself and my country. Consider this, I beg you, and be not over-proud.” “... What man of sense, I ask, would rush into such danger as confronts you now?” The chance of a single hour might blot out all that Scipio had achieved —let him remember the fate of Regulus, from whom likewise the Carthaginians had sought peace on African soil. Hannibal then outlined his peace proposals—that Sicily, Sardinia, and Spain should be definitely given up to Rome, and Carthage confine her ambitions to Africa. In conclusion he said that if Scipio felt a natural doubt as to the sincerity of the proposals, after his recent experience, he should remember that these came from Hannibal himself, the real power, who would guarantee so to exert himself that no one should regret the peace. Hannibal later was to prove both his sincerity and the truth of this guarantee. But in the circumstances of the moment and of the past, Scipio had good ground for doubt.