Soon after the landing Scipio established his head-quarters at Uticae; Hanno the Carthaginian general being posted at Saleca, 15 miles distant: and it is implied that it was now the summer seasonf. The next event was the victory over Hannos, followed by the capture of Saleca; but how long after the landing is not stated. Some interval however is supposed; and it might have amounted to several days: particularly under so cautious a commander of the Romans as Scipio, after first setting foot on hostile ground, and as yet untried. On the day of this victory too the fleet returned from Sicilyh to which it had been despatched soon after the landing in Africa, with the booty first taken on that occasioni: and to go to Sicily and to come back again thence, even without delay, would require eight or ten days' time at least. After this there was an expedition into the interior of the country, which lasted six daysk. On the seventh Scipio returned to his camp, and prepared to lay siege to Utica; and when that siege had now been going on forty days, Syphax arrived with his forces and took post not far from Utica: which circumstance together with the advanced season of the year induced Scipio to turn the siege into a blockade, and to intrench himself on the promontory within his own lines for the winter: Jam enim hiems instabat1. And here Livy closes his account of the first year's proceedings in Africa. We have then only forty-seven days actually specified. But these were reckoned from the second arrival of the fleet with fresh supplies: and when we consider that Scipio took with him 45 days' supplies at first, we shall conclude it to be extremely probable that those 47 days are to be reckoned from the close of these 45 days; and that both the mission of the fleet to Sicily and its return to Africa again were purposely so ordered that these fresh supplies for the army should come in just as the first were about to fail. On this principle the entire duration of the campaign, from the date of the departure from Sicily to the time of the arrival of Livy, xxix. 28. 34. Cf. Appian, viii. 14. Lucan, Pharsalia, iv. 585.656660. f Cf. Livy, xxix. 28. g Livy, xxix. 34, 35. h Ibid. 35. i Ibid. 29. k Ibid. 35. Cf. Appian, viii. 14-16, 1 Livy, xxix. 35: cf. xxx. 3. Appian, viii. 16. Zonaras, ix. 12. Syphax and of Scipio's going into winter quarters, may be estimated as nearly as possible at 45 +47 or 92 days. And since it is clearly supposed that their termination coincided with the extremum auctumni, the only question will be what is to be understood by the extremum auctumni? whether the autumnal equinox merely, or the beginning of winter? at least of that period of the year which was ordinarily so called in these times? In our opinion, this latter only could have been meant by it. The autumnal equinox merely never could have been styled the extremum auctumni. The beginning of the winter on the other hand, properly so called, must have been the end of the autumn; and the beginning of winter, in the ordinary sense of the phrase at this period of antiquity, was that season of the natural year whlch coincided with the Пλelάowv dúois; the cosmical setting of the Pleiads. We shall have occasion to shew that B. C. 47, when Julius Cæsar and the partizans of Pompey were warring with each other in the same part of Africa, the date of this natural phenomenon for those latitudes was reckoned to be about November 12 or 13: and it could not have been more than a day earlier, for the same latitude, B. C. 203. Let us assume then that Livy's extremum auctumni in this instance was reckoned from November 12. Ninety-two days before that date take us back to August 12; as the most probable date of the commencement of all these proceedings, that of the departure from Sicily. If now we turn to our Roman calendar of this year we find that this date of August 12 that year was falling on September 15 Roman; and from September 15 Roman to October 31 Roman, there would be just 45 days. It was a rule of the military service among the Romans, that the soldiers should go on no expedition with less than half a month's supplies; Ferre plus dimidiati mensis cibariam. Scipio was acting agreeably to this rule in the present instance; only, for the special reasons of the case, as he was preparing to invade Africa, he extended it to a month and a half, instead of half a month merely*. We thus account in a very natural man* It is observable (Livy xxix. 25) that, of these 45 days' provisions, m Cicero, Tusculanæ, ii. 16, 37. ner for his taking with him 45 days' supplies. They were intended to last from the middle of the month in which he was setting out (September Roman) to the end of the next, (October.) Moreover it appears from Livy that corn harvest was still going on in Africa, when he arrived"; and that might actually be the case on and after August 14. The moon too B. C. 203 was new on August 2; and therefore August 12, the date of the departure from Sicily, was the lunar eleventh; a very favourable time of the lunar month for setting out: when Scipio might calculate upon light by night as well as by day; and at the ordinary rate of the passage to Africa from Sicily, (three or four days and nights) might expect to reach his destination about the full of the moon. The most remarkable coincidence however about these dates is this; that October 31 Roman this year, the 45th day from September 15 Roman, fell on September 26: and September 25 at this time was the date of the mean autumnal equinox for any meridian in Africa; September 27, or even, as it might be reckoned, September 26, was that of the true. It was most probably this coincidence which determined Scipio to take with him 45 days' supplies exactly; and which brought back his fleet a second time with fresh supplies apparently on the very day of the equinox itself, September 25 or 26. It is with the utmost propriety too that 47 days, reckoned from September 25 exclusive, might be supposed to have extended to the extremum auctumni November 11, reckoned inclusively. We are of opinion therefore that the actual date of the departure from Sicily on this African expedition in all probability was xvi Kalendas Octobres* U. C. 551 Varr. August 12 15 days' provisions were cocta: that is already dressed ready for use. These were the dimidiati mensis cibaria properly so called: and it is a curious coincidence that, if he was setting sail on the 15th September Roman, they were calculated to last just one day more than half that month. *It is observable too that, in fixing on this day for setting sail, Scipio was avoiding the dies postriduanus, xvii Kalendas Octobres, September 14 n xxix. 36. B. C. 203; that of the landing in Africa was xiv Kalendas Octobres, August 14: the length of the first campaign in Africa was 92 days; and the date of the commencement of the blockade of Utica for the winter was xiv Kalendas Januarias, December 18 Roman, (December this year having 30 days, and not 29 merely,) November 12. SECTION II.-Irregular Calendar, Cycle i. 7. 356 days. U. C. 552 Varr. 551 Cap. 549 Polyb. B. C. 203–202. Ti. Claudius Nero M. Servilius (Pulex) Geminus. Kalendæ Januariæ Nov. 25 B. C. 203. Nundinal Char. 4. i. On the chronology of the second year's campaign, that of B. C. 202. Date of the surprise of the camp of Syphax and of that of the Carthaginians. As the accounts of Polybius come in after the first year of the proceedings in Africa, we shall assume these as the text of our review of the chronology of those of the second year; or of such parts of them as are calculated to illustrate the calendar: making use of Livy's also, or of any others which are available for our purpose, along with them. The first event of this second year was the attack made by Scipio by night on the camp of Syphax and that of Hasdrubalo. This attempt was preceded by negotiations between him and SyphaxP: which led to no result but that of suggesting to Scipio the first idea of the attempt. Polybius dates the beginning of these negotiations while it was still the winter season9; the close, 'Etteidǹ tà μèv tîs capivîs ☎pas vñéþaшev dŋ: Livy too when Jam veris principium erats. These intimations for such a climate as that of Carthage can scarcely be understood of a later time in the natural year Roman; a day no doubt already proscribed as ater and religiosus for any such enterprize as this, whether either of the other two dies postriduani yet was so or not. See Diss. v. ch. iii. sect. iv. i. 480. than the beginning of March: though Livy himself calls the quarters of the Carthaginians at this very time their hibernaculat; as if it was still winter in Africa. Now the camps of the Carthaginians and of Syphax respectively were ten stades asunder from each other, and sixty stades distant from the lines of Scipio". The most significant circumstance in the account of the attempt is consequently this; That having this distance to march Scipio set out "Apr ληγούσης τῆς πρώτης φυλακής", or, as Livy describes the time, Ad primam ferme vigiliam; and so proportioned the rate of his march as to arrive at his destination Περὶ τὴν τρίτην Ovλakǹv λýyovoav, or according to Livy, Media nocte: having consequently spent six hours on the road, and marched at the rate of one of our miles an hour. It is clear that he had an object in view in so doing; and that could be nothing except that so he might reach the enemy's camp at a certain time, and not before it. It appears further that from the time of his arrival there the night was darky; but not sooner. Now if we may assume that this attempt was made soon after the beginning of March; the date of the true vernal equinox at this time being March 25, soon after midnight, the first watch of the night would expire about 8.30 P. M. of our time, and the third about 2.30 A. M. As the moon, at 7 or 8 days old, sets about midnight; at 9 or 10 days old it commonly sets about two hours after midnight. We may perceive then in these circumstances a very significant intimation that the time chosen by Scipio for this attempt must have been when there was a moon nine or ten days old; which would give light until after midnight for a march of this kind, but might be expected to set towards the end of the third watch of the night, when Scipio proposed to come upon the enemy*. * In the circumstances of this attempt of Scipio's B. C. 202, there is a remarkable resemblance to those which are recorded of Aratus' on Sicyon, B. C. 251 which we may some time or other have occasion to explain in illustration of the Sicyonian calendar. That attempt was made on the : t xxx. 3, 4: cf. Appian, viii. 26. He too dates the attempt in the winter; but the same winter as that of the siege of Utica: cf. 16. u Polybius, xiv. 4. § 1: 1. § 14. cit. w Ibid. 3. § 5: 4. § 1, 2, 3. |