The History of Rome

Hannibal's character. In violation of a treaty, he passes the Iberus. Besieges Saguntum, and at length takes it. The Romans send ambassadors to Carthage; declare war. Hannibal crosses the Pyrenees; makes his way through Gaul; then crosses the Alps; defeats the Romans at the Ticinus. The Romans again defeated at the Trebia. Cneius Cornelius Scipio defeats the Carthaginians in Spain, and takes Hanno, their general, prisoner.

1. I MAY be permitted to premise at this division of my work, what most historians have professed at the beginning of their whole undertaking; that I am about to relate the most memorable of all wars that were ever waged: the war which the Carthaginians, under the conduct of Hannibal, maintained with the Roman people. For never did any states and nations more efficient in their resources engage in contest, nor had they themselves at any other period so great a degree of power and energy. They brought into action, too, no arts of war unknown to each other, but those which had been tried in the first Punic war; and so various was the fortune of the conflict, and so doubtful the victory, that they who conquered were more exposed to danger. The hatred with which they fought also was almost greater than their resources; the Romans being indignant that the conquered aggressively took up arms against their victors; the Carthaginians, because they considered that in their subjection it had been lorded over them with haughtiness and avarice. There is besides a story, that Hannibal, when about nine years old, while 1 Thucydides seems to be specially referred to

he boyishly coaxed his father Hamilcar that he might be taken to Spain (at the time when the African war was completed, and he was employed in sacrificing previously to transporting his army thither), was conducted to the altar, and, having laid his hand on the offerings, was bound by an oath to prove himself, as soon as he could, an enemy to the Roman people. The loss of Sicily and Sardinia grieved the high spirit of Hamilcar: for he deemed that Sicily had been given up through a premature despair of their affairs, and that Sardinia, during the disturbances in Africa, had been treacherously taken by the Romans, while, in addition, the payment of a tribute had been imposed.

2. Being disturbed with these anxieties, he so conducted himself for five years in the African war, which commenced shortly after the peace with Rome, and then through nine years employed in augmenting the Carthaginian empire in Spain, that it was obvious that he was revolving in his mind a greater war than he was then engaged in; and that if he had lived longer, the Carthaginians under Hamilcar would have carried the war into Italy, which, under the command of Hannibal, they afterwards did. The timely death of Hamilcar and the youth of Hannibal occasioned its delay. Hasdrubal, intervening between the father and the son, held the command for about eight years. He was first endeared to Hamilcar, as they say, on account of his youthful beauty, and then adopted by him, when advanced in age, as his son-in-law, on account of his eminent abilities; and, because he was his son-in-law, he obtained the supreme authority, against the wishes of the nobles, by the influence of the Barcine faction,' which was very powerful with the military and the populace. Prosecuting his designs rather by stratagem than force, by entertaining the princes, and by means of the friendship of their leaders gaining the favor of unknown nations, he aggrandized the Carthaginian power more than by arms and battles. Yet peace proved no greater security to himself. A barbarian, in resentment of his master's having been put to

1 The Barcine faction derived its name from Hamilcar, who was surnamed Barca. Hanno appears to have been at the head of the opposite party.

« Indietro Continua »

Libri

The History of Rome, Volume 2