Scipio Africanus
Page 19
Attila was called the “ scourge of the world,” and with a difference only in degree most of the great captains, from Hannibal to Napoleon, have had no higher objective conception than to thrash their enemies, or at best their country’s enemies, into submission. Thus this fallacy paved the way for a reaction equally short-sighted, which led Green, in his ‘ History of the English People,’ to write : “ It is a reproach of historians that they have turned history into a mere history of the butchery of men by their fellow-men,” and to follow this up by the absurd declaration that “ war plays a small part in the real story of European nations.” So arose a very large modern school of historians who sought, irrationally, to write history without mentioning, let alone studying, war. To ignore the influence of war as a world-force is to divorce history from science, and to turn it into a fairy tale. The grand strategy of Scipio is a signpost pointing the true path of historical study. Scipio could administer military beatings at least as effectively and brilliantly as any other of the greater captains, but he saw beyond the beating to its object. His genius revealed to him that peace and war are the two wheels on which the world runs, and he supplied a pole or axle which should link and control the two to ensure an onward and co-ordinated progress. Scipio’s claim to eternal fame is that he was the staff, not the whip, of Rome and of the world.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
AFTER due reflection and discussion with others, I have decided not to litter the actual pages of the book with footnote references, but to list the various historical sources in this bibliographical appendix. The modern fashion tends to treat an historical study as a literary card-index rather than as a book to be read, and in many instances this tendency is carried so far that the footnotes swamp the text. Experience suggests that even the barest footnote reference is a distraction to the reader’s eye, and momentarily dams the flow of the narrative through his mind. For this reason I have omitted references from the actual pages except where they could be woven into the text, and if some readers hold that I err in this decision, I can at least plead that I do so in good company.
The ancient sources—all of which, except Polybius, require to be treated with critical caution—have been :—Polybius, X. 2-20, 34-40 ; XI. 20-33 ; XIV. 1-10 ; XV. 1-19 ; XVI. 23 ; XXI. 4-25 ; XXIII. 14.
Livy, XXI.-XXII., XXV.-XXXIX.
Appian, Punica, Hisp., Hann., Syr.
Aulus Gellius, IV. 18.
Cornelius Nepos, XXXI.-XXXII.; Cato; Hannibal.
Plutarch, Cato ; Æmilius Paullus; Tib. Gracchus.
Valerius Maximus, III. 7.
1 The ædileship was normally the first rung of the ladder to the higher magistracy. Its functions were those of a civic “Home Office ”—the care of the city and the enforcement of the by-laws, the supervision of the markets and of prices and measures, the superintendence and organisation of the public games.
2 The Roman day began at sunrise.
3 The Roman day began at sunrise.
4 ‘Paris, or the Future of War,’ by Captain B. H. Liddell Hart. 1925.
5 ‘The Foundations of the Science of War,’ by Colonel J. F. C. Fuller. 1926.
6 Livy says for a few days only, and Polybius is obscure on the point, but the known factors suggest a longer stay, because of the inevitable time required for the arrival of Tychæus’s cavalry, and the junction with him of the other Carthaginian forces.
7 Two thousand years later this is still the unshakable dogma of orthodox military opinion, despite the hard lessons of 1914-18, when the armies battered out their brains against the enemy’s strongest bulwark.
8 While this is a Roman version of Hannibal’s speech, the comments ascribed to him are justified by the peace terms, and it is unlikely that the Romans would give him undue credit for a pacific influence.
9 Polybius’s version is, “having not only submitted to the bridle, but allowed the rider to mount ”—and while less graphic it sounds more to the point, and more probable.
10 ‘Reformation of War,’ by J. F. C. Fuller.
Copyright © 1926 by B. H. Liddell Hart
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