27 This was a correct judgment Flaminius’s contemporaries were unkind to him, and classical historians perhaps exaggerated his failings. There is no good reason, though, for rejecting the charge of impatience. It explains his actions.
28 The Consul’s death was the beginning Livy 21 6.
29 “Magna pugna victi sumus” Ibid., 22 7.
30 because of his gentle and solemn personality Plut Fab 1 3.
31 he had read a lot “for a Roman” Cic Sen 12.
32 “because he had not despaired of the Republic” Livy 22 61 14.
13. The Bird Without a Tail
Livy and Polybius follow the Second Punic War to its close. The latter is especially useful on Rome’s military organization.
1 Unus homo nobis cunctando Cic Off 1, 24, 84.
2 He threw a spear over the wall Plin Nat Hist 34 32.
3 he looked down on the city Plut Mar 19 1.
4 he looted so many paintings Ibid., 21 5.
5 “The Tarentines can keep their gods” Livy 27 16 8.
6 the Senate was unable to make up its mind Ibid., 26 18 3.
7 “If the People want to make me aedile” Ibid., 25 2 6.
8 Polybius was a friend of the Scipios Polyb 10 2 5.
9 “I am happy to be spoken of as kingly” Ibid., 10 40 6.
10 Hasdrubal’s army was already drawn up Livy 27 47.
11 When fortune had deprived him Polyb 11 2 9–10.
12 “Now, at last, I see plainly the fate” Livy 27 51 12.
13 “it had an enclosure surrounded by dense woodland” Ibid., 24 3. The discussion of the Temple of Juno was informed by Jaeger.
14 If we can believe Cicero Cic Div 1 24 48.
15 pro-Carthaginian original source From Hannibal’s personal historian, Silenus, via Coelius Antipater.
16 some Italian soldiers in the Punic army refused Livy 30 20 6.
17 You must pardon me Polyb 15 19 5–7.
18 the Republic’s military dispositions Ibid., 6 19–42.
19 “When we consider this people’s almost obsessive concern” Ibid., 6 39 11.
20 a huge number of olive trees Aur Vic Caes 37 3. A late source, but consistent with the nature of Carthage’s economic renaissance.
21 He ordered a treasury official to appear Livy 33 46 1–7.
22 “We should be satisfied with having defeated him” Ibid., 33 47 5.
23 Scipio laughed and asked App Syr 10.
24 Scipio seems to have been in Carthage See Lancel, p. 195; Holleaux, pp. 75–98.
25 His only remaining option was suicide Plut Flam 20 4–6 (including Hannibal’s last words).
26 he took poison Aconite was the deadliest known toxin in the ancient world, and usually takes an hour to begin to take effect, although a large dose can be fatal almost immediately. The symptoms are unpleasant. It might not have been easy to obtain a large dose, and to be certain of its effect. Suicide by slave was the surer choice.
27 “like a bird who is too old to fly” Plut Flam 21 1.
14. Change and Decay
The sections of Polybius that cover this period have been lost, and Livy is the main source. Plautus and Terence evoke daily life in Rome.
1 a workshop of corruptions Livy 39 10 6–7.
2 There were more obscenities Ibid., 39 13 10–12.
3 An inscription has survived CIL i2 2, 581.
4 “no slur or disgrace” Livy 39 19 5.
5 “would jeer at their habits and customs” Ibid., 40 5 7.
6 “method of infecting people’s minds” and “Greek of humble origin” Ibid., 39 8 3–6.
7 moved by madness Cat 63 6–10. Catullus wrote in the first century, but he echoes what was believed and practised in the third.
8 Whenever a magistrate Plut Marc 5 1–2.
9 The image consists of a mask Polyb 6 53–54.
10 Rome was more than a space For a fuller account of urban living see Stambaugh, passim.
11 a tour of the Forum Plaut Curc 461ff.
12 “From virtue down to trash” This description of the Roman Forum is drawn from Plautus’s Curculio, pp. 462–86. In theory, both Plautus and Terence (see below) set their plays in Greek towns, but their urban descriptions are evidently Roman.
13 there was room, at a squeeze, Dyson, p. 49.
14 Most thoroughfares in the city were unpaved The paving of streets began in 174.
15 the title of street, or via Var Ling Lat 7 15.
16 “Do you know that arcade by the market?” Ter Ad 573–84.
17 “Why, just now in the Forum” Plaut Capt lines 4 78–84.
18 “It was not without reason” Var Rust 2 Preface 1.
19 “Take all this as true” CIL 11 600.
20 Early in the morning, Cato went on foot Plut Cat Maj 3 1–2.
21 “it is from the farming class” Cat Agr intro 4.
22 He must not be a gadabout Ibid., 5 2, 4, and 5.
23 “Sell worn-out oxen” Cat Agr 2 7.
24 the origins of live performance Livy 7 2 3–13. Livy probably drew on Varro’s (lost) writings on theater. The explanation is plausible.
25 accustomed to hold a/Beano Virg Geo 2 384–88.
26 “mental relaxation should go together” Val Max 2 4 2.
27 When I first began to perform it Ter Hec Prologue 33ff.
28 “hacked to pieces with his bronze” Hom Il 23 175.
29 an extra ration of wine Cat Agr 57.
30 “natural simplicity of his men” and “boyish addiction” Plut Cat Maj 3 6–7.
31 “Anybody can see that the Republic” Polyb 31 25.
32 “[It was] her habit to appear” Ibid., 31 26 3–4.
33 One particular case that Cato exposed Plut Cat Maj 17. There are variations on this story, one being that the boy was a girl, another that the man killed was a condemned criminal rather than a distinguished Celt, a third that the prostitute requested the execution and, finally, that the deed was done by a lictor, not by the consul himself. However, in his account of the affair, Livy (39 42) claims to have read the speech Cato made about the affair, and there is no reason to doubt him. Cato’s version is likely to be the nearest to the truth.
34 Matters came to a head The surviving accounts of the Scipionic trials are confused. I follow what I hope is a plausible narrative.
35 “The Roman People are not entitled” Polyb 23 14 3 (Suid).
36 He left instructions As always, there are different stories. But Livy visited a tomb with a statue of Scipio at Liternum. Although another statue was erected on the family mausoleum at Rome, this was probably a memorial. It seems most likely that Liternum was Scipio’s last resting place. Whom else could the tomb there have belonged to?
15. The Gorgeous East
Livy and Polybius begin to fade. Plutarch’s lives of Cato and Aemilius Paulus are useful. We rely heavily on Appian for the fall of Carthage.
1 The Gorgeous East William Wordsworth, On the Extinction of the Venetian Republic.
2 “fetters of Greece” Polyb 18 11 5.
3 “Woe to you, oh land” Eccl 10:16. This Old Testament book may have been composed in about 200 B.C.
4 Consul and king met Livy 22 10, for the entire paragraph, including the consul’s retort.
5 The encounter took place in the open air Polyb 18 1–12. Also Livy 32 32–36. Other examples of similar conferences between enemies include the triumvirs’ negotiations in 43 B.C. on a river island near Bologna and Sextus Pompey’s encounter with Octavian and Mark Antony at Cape Misenum in 39 B.C.
6 “Flamininus has unshackled the foot” Plut Flam 10 2.
7 The Senate of Rome Polyb 18 46 5.
8 What had happened was so unexpected Ibid., 7.
9 Some ravens that happened to be flying Plut Flam 10 6.
10 “And I tell you that it is not the customs” App Syr 61.
11 I observed the powerful Heracles Hom Od 11 601–3.
12 The other gods are far away Ath 6 253 b-f. See Green, From
Alexander to Actium, p. 55.
13 “If he wishes us to take no interest” Livy 34 58 2.
14 A small town off the beaten track Ibid., 38 39 10.
15 He produced a forged letter Ibid., 40 23 4–9. Livy was certain that it was a forgery, and there are no good grounds for thinking otherwise.
16 his final illness was psychological Ibid., 40 56 8–9.
17 “a kind of speaking tool” Var Rust 1 17 1.
18 Day and night they wear out their bodies Dio Sic 5 38 1.
19 “I know of a slave who dreamed” Art 1 78. Cited in Toner, p. 71. Artemidorus lived in the second century, but he used material from earlier writers and his examples do not appear to be time-sensitive.
20 The Little Carthaginian Plaut Poen. The play is officially set in Aetolia, in northwestern Greece; as ever with Plautus, one cannot avoid the feeling that the characters resemble everyday Romans.
21 opening speech in the Punic language It is not quite certain whether Hanno speaks in proper Carthaginian Punic, a lost language, or in a comedy pastiche.
22 They carefully observed the country App Pun Wars 69.
23 a large and appetizing Punic fig Plut Cat Maj 27 1.
24 “Ceterum censeo” This famous sentence appears in various forms in Plut Cat Ma 27 (), Pliny NH 15 74, Florus 1 31 4, Aur Vic Vir ill 47.8.
25 “This is Carthage” Plut Mar 200 11.
26 “It never pleases the Romans” Eutrop 4 16.
27 “just in case of emergencies” App Pun 74.
28 “You must make things right” and “You know perfectly well” Ibid., 75.
29 “well adapted for landing an army” Ibid.
30 Only he has wits Hom Od 10 495.
31 Scipio surveyed the scene App Pun 132. Appian says this comes from Polybius, who heard Scipio say it.
32 For in my heart and soul Homer, Il 6 448–49.
33 the day will come The day did indeed come. It was 24 August A.D. 410, when Alaric the Visigoth sacked Rome.
34 where Carthage once stood App Civ 1 24.
35 The Romans had behaved very badly This section is indebted to Miles, pp. 348–51.
36 lifted the entire episode from Naevius Macr 6 2 31.
37 “boys in frocks” Enn 8 270. Loeb reference numbers, for this and the following two citations. Skutsch, The Annals of Ennius, OUP; 1985.
38 “wicked haughty foes” Ibid., 282.
39 at last moderates her wrath Ibid., 293.
40 “Just as if we had nothing” Plut Cat Maj 9 2.
41 Greece was added to the province of Macedon Greece had to wait until the nineteenth century A.D. before it regained its full freedom.
42 “the kindest possible treatment” Dio Sic 32 4 4–5.
16. Blood Brothers
Appian, here admirably well informed, and Plutarch’s lives of Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus are the chief sources.
1 “always had Greeks and literary men” Plut G Grac 19 2.
2 simplex munditiis Hor Car 1 5 5. “Casually chic” comes from James Michie’s translation. 346 Once, she was entertaining Val Max 4 4 praef.
3 Cornelia was his reward. The story of Cornelia’s marriage to Gracchus has echoes of her son’s and may be unreliable.
4 a curious anecdote Plut Tib Grac 1 2–3.
5 “Keep up the good work” Cit. Balsdon, Life and Leisure, p. 119 (Porphyrio and Ps) Acron on Hor Sat 1 2 31f.
6 Cornelia’s granddaughter See Balsdon, Roman Women, p. 48.
7 She had greater skill in lyre-playing Sall Cat 25 1–5.
8 “gentle and sedate” Plut Tib Grac 2 2.
9 still known as Scipio Aemilianus’s mother-in-law Ibid., 8 5.
10 a faint echo of the Caudine Forks It may be that the Caudine Forks story was rewritten in the light of this latest debacle.
11 “a constant source of grief” Cic Har 43.
12 “Wild beasts” Plut Tib Grac 9 4.
13 pay him from his own resources Ibid., 10 5.
14 “Do not throw into chaos” App Civ 1 12.
15 the assembly-place I assume that this was in front of the Temple of Jupiter. See Richardson fig. 19, p. 69.
16 “Be quiet, please, citizens” CAH 9, p. 60.
17 “Since the Consul betrays the state” Plut Tib Grac 19 3.
18 “I will give you a single example” Aul Gell 10 3 5.
19 “I am the only man in the army” Plut G Grac 2 5.
20 “However much you try to defer your destiny” Cic Div 1 26 56.
21 “Apart from those who killed Tiberius” Corn Nep Fragment. Scholarly opinion inclines toward the genuineness of the fragmentary letters.
22 Cornelia made representations Plut G Grac 4 1–2.
23 “closely attended by a throng” Ibid., 6 4.
24 I suppose you imagine CAH 9, p. 83.
25 a visit to Carthage This is a little odd, for tribunes were not meant to cross the city boundary. Perhaps Gaius received some kind of special dispensation.
26 helped him recruit bodyguards Plut G Grac 13 2.
27 Gaius’s head was cut off Ibid., 17 4.
28 The Senate reacted to the brothers rather like a general I am indebted for this admirable simile to Andrew Lintott, CAH 9, p. 85.
29 No sword was ever brought into the assembly App Civ 1 2.
30 “She had many friends” Plut G Grac 19 2.
17. Triumph and Disaster
Plutarch’s lives of Marius and Sulla are important sources (also, to a lesser extent, those of Caesar, Cicero, and Pompey). Sallust is essential for the Jurgurthan War. Appian, assisted by Cassius Dio, carries along much of the main narrative. Keppie is valuable on military matters.
1 He may have been a blacksmith Aur Vic Caes 33. A late source, so we cannot be certain of the claim.
2 These proud men make a very big mistake Sall Hist 85 29–40. Gaius Sallustius Crispus, whom we know as Sallust, will have written up this speech; but if these are not Marius’s words, they well represent his embittered feelings.
3 “It very well expresses the harshness” Plut Mar 2 1.
4 “I can see that the cure” Ibid., 6 3.
5 Sulla loved literature and the arts This account of Sulla’s personal life, including the verse, is taken from Plut Sul 2.
6 Then there were the optimates This Latin word is found only in the plural; when using the singular, I adopt an Anglicized version of the word: optimate.
7 served in Spain under Scipio Sall 7–8.
8 “So you are going to abandon us” Plut Mar 8 3.
9 “God, this Roman bath” Ibid., 12 3.
10 Marius’s mules Plut Mar 13 1.
11 this took six days Ibid., 25 1.
12 “insofar as it was a law” Ibid., 29 4.
13 “He lacked the abilities others had” Plut Mar 32 1.
14 “No,” replied Drusus. “Build it” Plut Mor 800f.
15 The allies laid secret plans for an uprising The ensuing war is known as the Social War (from socius, the Latin for “ally”).
16 the devastation of the countryside Florus 2 6 11.
17 He rode off on a hunting trip This Robin Hood–like tale may be a legend.
18 “Either be greater than the Romans” Plut Mar 31.
19 “Sulpicius of all the orators” Cic Brut 203.
20 “The murders and civil disturbances” App Civ 1 55.
21 He imagined that he was the commander-in-chief Plut Mar 45 6.
22 According to Appian, ninety senators died Ibid., 1 103. Elsewhere, Appian gives the number as forty (App Civ 1 95).
23 He still kept company with women Plut Sul 36 1.
24 “This lad will stop anyone else” App Civ 1 104.
25 the most splendid of triumphs The details are largely drawn from App Mith 1 116–17, Plut Pom 45 and Plin Nat Hist 33 151 and 37 13–14.
26 Ships with brazen beaks captured App Mith 1 117.
18. Afterword
Cicero’s letters and his Republic and the Academics are the m
ain sources.
1 We were wandering Cic Acad 1 3 9.
2 “Like the learned men of old” Cic Fam 177 (9 2).
3 “excessive liberty leads” Cic Rep 1 68.
4 “winner of a greater laurel wreath” Plin Nat Hist 7 117.
5 The Republic, when it was handed down to us Cic Rep 5 2.
Sources
1 “The mere statement of a fact” Polyb 12 25b.
2 “the type of man” Cited in Cornell, p 2.
ALSO BY ANTHONY EVERITT
Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome
Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome’s Greatest Politician
Augustus: The Life of Rome’s First Emperor
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ANTHONY EVERITT, a sometime visiting professor in the visual and performing arts at Nottingham Trent University, has written extensively on European culture and is the author of Cicero, Augustus, and Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome. He has served as secretary general of the Arts Council of Great Britain. Everitt lives near Colchester, England’s first recorded town, founded by the Romans.
Copyright
Copyright © 2012 by Anthony Everitt
Maps copyright © 2012 by David Lindroth, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Random House, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
RANDOM HOUSE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to Penguin Group (UK) for permission to reprint approximately 1,202 words from The Rise of the Roman Empire by Polybius, translated by Ian Scott-Kilvert, selected with an introduction by F. W. Walbank (Penguin Classics, 1979), copyright © 1979 by Ian Scott-Kilvert; approximately 856 words from The Early History of Rome: Books I–V of The History of Rome from Its Foundation by Livy, translated by Aubrey de Sélincourt with an introduction by R. M. Ogilvie (Penguin Classics, 1960. Reprinted with a new introduction 1971), copyright © 1960 by the Estate of Aubrey de Sélincourt, introduction copyright © 1971 by R. M. Ogilvie; approximately 146 words from Rome and Italy: Books VI–X of The History of Rome from Its Foundation by Livy, translated and annotated by Betty Radice, introduction by R. M. Ogilvie (Penguin Classics, 1982), copyright © 1982 by Betty Radice, introduction copyright © 1982 by the Estate of R. M. Ogilvie; approximately 439 words from The War with Hannibal: Books XXI–XXX of The History of Rome from Its Foundation by Livy, translated by Aubrey de Sélincourt, edited with an introduction by Betty Radice (Penguin Classics, 1965), copyright © 1965 by the Estate of Aubrey de Sélincourt; approximately 137 words from Rome and the Mediterranean: Books XXXI–XLV of The History of Rome from Its Foundation by Livy, translated by Henry Bettenson, introduction by A. H. McDonald (Penguin Classics, 1976), copyright © 1976 by Henry Bettenson, introduction copyright © 1976 by A. H. McDonald. Reprinted by permission of Penguin Group (UK).
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