25 We are told, too, that words were uttered Ibid., 5 22 6.
26 “How sad, ancient Veii!” The poet was Sextus Propertius. See Carmina 4 10 27 30.
27 “Calamity of unprecedented magnitude” Livy 5 37 1.
28 [They] had no knowledge of the refinements Polyb 2 17 8–12.
29 were usually tall This paragraph draws on Dio Sic 5 28 and 32.
30 A foolish story is told If there is any truth in this, it could be that the Celts were invited to intervene in some internal quarrel in Clusium.
31 about ten thousand Romans faced thirty thousand Celts Scullard, p. 103.
32 a rout with high casualties Livy exaggerates the disaster for dramatic effect. From what followed, it seems clear that much of the army must have managed to escape.
33 Livy describes what happened next Livy 5 39–49. He overdoes the damage caused by the Celts.
34 a strange ritual called devotio For this interpretation see Ogilvie, p. 725. Also Livy 5 41.
35 Many public and private records Livy 6 1.
36 It was the geese that saved them Ibid., 5 47.
37 Juno’s sacred geese Juno had no special interest in geese. The birds were probably those kept in the auguraculum, or space for augury, on the Capitol, where the mood of the gods was divined from the way the birds ate their food. See Ogilvie, p. 734; the story is “the authentic stuff of history.” 131 Insult was added Livy 5 48 9.
38 barbarians may have gone, but not forever See Oakley 1, pp. 360–65 for a discussion of “Gallic attacks on Rome between the Allia and Sentinum.” 132 king of the Visigoths, the fearsome Alaric Alaric captured Rome in A.D. 410.
39 “at that moment an invasion” Polyb 2 18 3.
40 All work was hurried Livy 5 55. The story may be an ancient urban myth, invented to explain the haphazard layout of Rome’s drains.
41 work began in 378 Ibid., 6 32.
42 “giving the beholder the impression” Dio of H 4 13 4.
9. Under the Yoke
Livy is the main source, with contributions by Cassius Dio, Cicero, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus.
1 the Caudine Forks The opening section of this chapter discusses the clades Caudiana, the Caudine catastrophe, which is recounted in Livy 9 1.
2 The Consuls, pretty much half-naked Ibid., 9 6 1–2.
3 “You are never without a reason” Ibid., 9 11 6–7.
4 far from being grateful to the Samnites Dio 8 36 21.
5 speaks of a foedus Cic Invent 2 91–94.
6 in 319, a Roman general is recorded CAH 7, pt. 2, p. 371.
7 “It is not inevitable” Dio 8 36 21.
8 Some fifty-three patrician clans Grant, p. 61.
9 “Very well,” shouted Sextius Livy 6 35 8.
10 tribunes aborted the elections Roman historians, including Livy, reported a five-year vacation of magistrates. This is most unlikely, and was probably proposed to correlate the disjunction between traditional dates in the early Republic and the accurate dates from the middle Republic onward.
11 reserved for patricians The praetorship was opened to plebeians in 337.
12 “Camillus, conqueror of the Veian people” Ovid 1 641–44.
13 “the liberty of the Roman People” Livy 8 28 1. Livy claims that nexum was abolished, but he was probably overstating the case.
14 “Every man is the maker” Sall Epist ad Caesarem senem, I.1.2. Napoleon famously made the same point when he was considering a candidate for the post of maréchal of France: “A-t-il de la chance?”
15 his famous censorship of 312 See Livy 9 29 and Dio Sic 20 36.
16 In my opinion, the three most magnificent works Dio of H 3 67 5.
17 resolutions of the Plebeian Council Livy 8 12 15–17 writes that Quintus Publilius Philo passed such a law about the concilium plebis, but it seems more likely that Publilius recognized the validity of concilium resolutions, provided they received patrum auctoritas—that is, senatorial approval—and that the full measure was taken in 287. See Oakley 2, pp. 524–27.
18 “Our own commonwealth was based” Cic Rep 2 1 2.
19 “not by abstract reasoning” Polyb 6 10 13.
20 Titus Manlius Livy 8 7 tells the story.
21 Janus, Jupiter, father Mars, Quirinus Livy 8 9 6–8. It is uncertain whether this is an accurate citation of the ritual text, or invented by Livy. However, it would certainly have looked convincing to his readers, familiar as they were with the many ceremonies that framed their lives.
22 Did these episodes take place? See CAH 7 2, p. 362.
23 the borders of Latium “Old” Latium, smaller than today’s Lazio.
24 the extent of territory CAH 7 2, p. 367.
25 According to a modern calculation, CAH 7 2 353. Apparent precision masks clever guesswork.
26 If ever a landscape made its people See Salmon pp. 14–27 for a fuller description of Samnium.
27 about 450,000 persons Ibid.
28 They had their pubic hair shaved Ath 12 518b.
29 The Samnites have a splendid law Strabo 5 4 12.
30 the first-century poet Horace Hor Car 3 6 39–41.
31 invented by Oscans For the origins of gladiatorial contests, see Grant, Gladiators, pp. 19 and 55.
32 A short first war Some modern authorities have argued that this war never took place, but see Oakley vol. 2 pp. 307–11.
33 “Let us pitch camp facing each other” Livy 8 23 8–9.
34 greater number of troops contributed by the allies and the Latins Ibid., 10 26 14.
35 A female deer Livy 10 27 8–9.
36 “nearest run thing” Thomas Creevey, Creevey Papers, p. 236 (London: John Murray, 1903).
37 followed his father’s example Some modern opinion challenges the historicity of this devotio; however, there is abundant testimony for both of the Decius Mus devotiones, and it is beyond doubt that the younger Decius Mus fell at Sentinum. See Oakley 4, pp. 290–91.
38 They could carry on no longer Livy 10 31 15.
39 For an individual Roman soldier The paragraphs about the experience of battle are indebted to Randall Collins’s Violence, which summarizes much research about modern warfare. With caution, I have assumed that some basic findings can plausibly be applied to the emotions of a Roman legionary.
40 von Clausewitz’s fog of war Carl von Clausewitz, On War, Book 2, chap. 2, paragraph 24.
41 Battles often have a rhythm Collins, p. 40.
42 only a quarter of them actually attack Ibid., pp. 44ff., regarding fighting in the Second World War. 166 A paralysis of terror Ibid., p. 47.
43 about one-third of combatant soldiers Ibid., p. 69. The percentages are based on a review of photographic evidence of Second World War fighting.
44 “in ancient and mediaeval warfare” Ibid., p. 79.
45 The Romans look not so much Polyb 6 24 8–9. 167 its territory had grown See Oakley 4, p. 3.
46 twenty-five percent of all adult male citizens CAH 7 pt. 2, pp. 383ff.
10. The Adventurer
Arrian, Plutarch, and Quintus Curtius wrote lives of Alexander. Embedded inside the fanciful Greek Alexander Romance are quotations from the court day book covering the king’s last days. Plutarch is the main literary source for Pyrrhus.
1 What, exactly, was the matter is unknown Some time after his death, it was alleged that Alexander had been poisoned. This is unlikely, because he survived for nearly a fortnight after being taken ill, and the ancient world almost certainly did not have access to very slow poisons. Unexpected deaths from disease were often wrongly put down to foul play.
2 “There will be funeral ‘games’ ” Arr 7 26 3.
3 He would never have remained idle Arr 7 1 4.
4 “to strive, to seek, to find” The final line of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem Ulysses.
5 “The same wickedness” Cic Rep 3 14 24.
6 killed its aged king, Priam Readers will recall the Player’s speech in Hamlet act 2, scene 2, which describes the deed.
&nbs
p; 7 Alexander called to him in a dream Plut Pyr 11 2.
8 his appearance “conveyed terror” Ibid., 3 4–5.
9 sufferers from depression Ibid., 3 4–5.
10 the king wore a bone or ivory denture An alternative suggestion (see Champion, p. 19) is that Pyrrhus had fused teeth, but these usually come only in pairs and not as a complete row of teeth.
11 naturally brilliant Dio 9 40 3–4.
12 ate his heart away Hom Il 1 491f.
13 The city was “leafy” Hor Epist 1 16 11.
14 “mild winters” Hor Car 2 6 17–18.
15 To me the bonniest square miles Ibid., 13–16. Hymettus is a mountain range in Attica famous for its bees. Venafrum is a plain in central Italy crossed by the river Volturnus, where olive trees flourished.
16 army of more than thirty thousand men Strabo 6 3 4.
17 Later, because of their prosperity Ibid.
18 offered their services as neutral mediators Livy 9 14 1.
19 Postumius was invited The episode that follows was recorded in Dio 9 39 3–10 and Dio of H 19 5 and 6.
20 “This time they did not laugh” App Samn 7 3.
21 a famous anecdote of Plutarch’s Plut Pyr 14 2–7.
22 Archaeologists have discovered some of the tablets This paragraph is indebted to E. S. Roberts, “The Oracle Inscriptions Discovered at Dodona,” Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. 1, 1880.
23 “Lord Zeus, Dodonean, Pelasgian Zeus” Hom Il 16 233ff.
24 During the great war Paus 8 11 12. According to Peter Levi, “Sicily” is probably one of the small hills above Syngrou Street, on the way to the Piraeus.
25 “construe the advice according to his wishes” Dio 9 40 6.
26 Those issued under Pyrrhus’s aegis See CAH 7 pt. 2, pp. 4636.
27 By this time the elephants were boxed up Arr 5 17.
28 Pyrrhus jumped up Plut Pyr 15 3–4.
29 “the mass of people were incapable” Ibid., 16 2.
30 “they fought out their country’s battles” Ibid., 16 2.
31 King Pyrrhus to Laevinus, Greeting Dio of H 19 9–10. Whether Dio is quoting from the original correspondence or making it up, the sense of the exchange is historical.
32 “The discipline of these barbarians” Plut Pyr 16 5.
33 Granicus The accounts are contradictory. The best hypothesis has Alexander send his army to cross the river Granicus uncontested downstream at night, surprising the Persians in the morning. See Green, Alexander of Macedon, Appendix.
34 “Another victory like this” Plut Pyr 219.
35 “King Pyrrhus and the Epirotes” CAH 7 pt. 2, pp. 468–69.
36 “He is like a player with dice” Plut Pyr 26 2. The speaker was Antigonus Gonatas, the king of Macedonia.
37 “After being cut to pieces” Zon (Dio) 8 4.
38 “I commend you, Pyrrhus” Ibid.
39 “His words have won me” Plut Pyr 14 2.
40 Cineas brought with him Ibid.
41 fashionable women’s dress Zon (Dio) 8 4.
42 The terms he proposed App Samn 10 1.
43 “Up to this time, I have regarded” Plut Pyr 19 1.
44 “council of many kings” Ibid., 19 5.
45 “ready speaker” Cic Brut 14 55.
46 archaeologists unearthed a stone box For this paragraph, see CAH 7 pt. 2 pp.471–72.
47 He had lost a great part of the forces Plut Pyr 21 10.
48 Whichever party may need help Polyb 3 25 3–5.
49 Punic Carthaginian. Latinization of phoinix, the Greek word for Carthaginian.
50 Wheeling round he pushed through Plut Pyr 24 3.
51 “Many roads to death” Ibid., 31 2.
52 with their purple costumes Plut Pyr 8 1. For “the poise of his neck,” see Plut Alex 4 1.
53 “My friends, what a wrestling ring” Plut Pyr 23 6.
11. All at Sea
Livy is still absent. Polybius, most accurate of ancient writers of Roman history, arrives in force. Cassius Dio, Diodorus, and Appian assist. An inscription describes Hanno’s travels. The Bible throws light on Punic religion.
1 the fleet sailed out The account of Hanno’s journey is given in full in Warmington, pp. 7 4–6. (Müller, K. [1965]: Geographi graeci minores. 1 1–14). The inscription, on which Hanno’s dispatch was recorded and which has now disappeared, was translated from Punic into Greek. Scholars have disagreed about its authenticity, but the story it tells is internally consistent and fits the geography. Since the dispatch was made public, it is reasonable to assume that some details were altered or omitted to deceive any potential rivals, especially in the earlier parts.
2 western limits of the known world Pind 4 69.
3 They unload their goods Her 4 196.
4 lack of water and blazingly hot weather Arr Ind 43 11–13.
5 Thirty-five days had elapsed Ibid.
6 an Egyptian Pharaoh with a penchant Her 4 42
7 quoted by a fourth-century A.D. Latin author Avienus in his geographical poem, Ora Maritima (“Sea Coasts”), pp. 114–29, 380–89, 404–15.
8 “I will stop the music of your songs” Ezek 26:13–14.
9 “transformed from Tyrians into Africans” Dio Chrys 25 7.
10 “If you have bought land” Col Re Rust 1 1 10.
11 often cited by Greek and Latin authors Especially Col Re Rust.
12 “getting bees from the carcass” Ibid. 9.14.6.
13 By comparison, Rome’s walls See Dyson, p. 18.
14 Beyond [the wall], the city rose in tiers Flaubert, p. 44.
15 On the island was built App Pun 96.
16 [They] are a hard and gloomy people Plut Mor 7990.
17 “so that no one could sacrifice his son” 2 Kings 23:10 (Good News Bible).
18 “They have built altars for Baal” Jer 19:5.
19 In their anxiety to make amends Dio Sic 20 14 4–6.
20 parents saved their own infants Plut Mor 171 C-D.
21 “It was to the lady Tanit” CIS i 5507.
22 “an excellent form of government” Arist Pol 2 8.
23 “Carthage would not have maintained an empire” Cic Rep 1 frag 3.
24 They followed up this action Polyb 1 7 3–4.
25 “pity for those at risk” Dio Sic 23 1 4.
26 “they would prove the most vexatious” Polyb 1 10 6.
27 “for want of judgment and courage” Ibid., 1 11 5.
28 “The truth is otherwise” Dio fragment 11 43.
29 Two men rowed with each of the top two oars Possible alternative arrangements were five men rowing with one oar or three men to an upper and two to a lower oar.
30 It was not a question Dio fragment 1 20 12.
31 A Punic quinquereme Some have questioned this story, arguing that Rome could have borrowed the naval skills of the Tarentines. But it would seem that they did not have quinqueremes (if they had, surely they would have lent them to Rome with their other ships). Carthaginian ships were recognized as being the best afloat.
32 [The trainers] placed the men Dio fragment 1 21 2. 227 perhaps by stoning Oros 4 4 8.
33 They locked him in a dark and deep dungeon Aul Gell 7 4 3. The historian was Quintus Aelius Tubero, either father or son. Polybius does not mention the story of the return to Rome, which surely he would have done if it had taken place, and so it has been discredited. As for Regulus’s torture, this may have been confected to justify his widow’s alleged torture of two Carthaginian POWs. See CAH 7, pt. 2, p. 556.
34 “Let them drink” Suet Tib 2 2 2.
35 “If only my brother were alive” Suet Tib 2 4.
36 “It is perfectly proper to assist” App Sic (Constantine Porphyrogenitus, The Embassies: 1).
37 In the end the contest was left drawn Polyb 1 58 5–6.
38 “Even though my country submits” Corn Nep Ham 1 5.
39 “the longest, the most continuous” Polyb 1 63 4.
12. “Hannibal at the Gates!”
Polybius i
s the main and most reliable source, with Livy telling much the same story, but his is more highly colored. Cautious use is made of Dio, Diodorus Siculus, and Appian.
1 “I was nine years old” Polyb 3 11 5–7. In the original, this passage appears in indirect speech.
2 “Hannibal ad portas” Cic Fin 4 9 22.
3 became besotted with an attractive young aristocrat Corn Nep Ham 3 2.
4 charges of maladministration App Han 2 2.
5 “inflicted on him all kinds of torture” Polyb 1 88 6.
6 A child tore his ear Flaubert, pp. 245–46.
7 “It is impossible to discover” Polyb 3 2 8 1.
8 Later on after the conclusion Dio Sic 25 8.
9 labor force of forty thousand slaves See Miles, pp. 219–20.
10 an embassy to Hamilcar Dio 12 48.
11 “fast asleep” Polyb 2 13 7.
12 Reckless in courting danger Livy 21 4 5–8.
13 notorious among his fellow citizens Polyb 9 26 11.
14 “We will not overlook this breach” Ibid., 3 15 7.
15 driven by starvation to cannibalism Aug Civ 3 20.
16 When the women watched the slaughter App Span 12.
17 The senior member of the delegation Polyb 3 33 2–4.
18 Twenty years had passed It is an oddity of history that the Second Punic War began after the same interval as that between the First and Second World Wars of the twentieth century and that, like the Germans, the Carthaginians felt that they had not been truly defeated, had been forced to pay excessive reparations, and had unfairly forfeited sovereign territory.
19 ninety thousand infantry and twelve thousand cavalry All the numbers in this paragraph come from the usually numerically conservative Polybius (Polybius 3 35).
20 A legendary personality This section is indebted to Miles, pp. 241–55.
21 He saw a vast monstrous wild beast Cic Div 1 24 49.
22 He issued silver shekels CAH 8, p. 39.
23 It was necessary to cut through rock Livy 21 37.
24 “a kindlier region” Ibid.
25 Scipio had put his son in command Polyb 10 3 4–5.
26 A spring sacred to Hercules Livy 21 62 9 and 22 1 10.
The Rise of Rome Page 46
