Livius and the captives in long procession to the Temple of Bellona, in the Campus Martius. Here they were received by the Senate and people in festal array. Livius appeared in the triumphal car drawn by four white horses, attended by his army. Nero rode on horseback beside him unaccompanied by the partners of his victory, for the battle had been fought in the district of his Colleague. Yet all men turned their eyes on the Patrician Consul, and the acclamations of the crowd showed to whom belonged the true honours of the triumph. Notwithstanding these honours, Nero (strange to say) was never again employed during the war; and it was not till Neros became heirs of the Empire of Augustus that poets sang of the debt which Rome owed to that name. A star was appearing in the west, which soon eclipsed the brightness of Nero's fame. The remaining period of the war will be little more than a history of the deeds of Scipio. i "Quid debeas, o Roma, Neronibus, Testis Metaurum flumen et Hasdrubal CHAPTER XXXIV. SECOND PUNIC WAR: FOURTH AND LAST PERIOD (206—202 B.C.). § 1. Young P. Scipio elected Proconsul for Spain. § 2. Character of Scipio. §3. He resolves to surprise New Carthage. § 4. Site of New Carthage: its capture. § 5. His humane and politic conduct: he refuses to be king. § 6. Movements of Hasdrubal Barca. § 7. Great battle near the Guadalquivir: Romans masters of all Spain except Gades. § 8. Scipio's designs upon Africa. § 9. He crosses over to hold conference with Syphax, King of Western Numidia: Treaty. § 10. Revolt of Spanish Cities. $11. Mutiny quelled. § 12. Mago loses Gades. § 13. Scipio returns home: is elected Consul, and sent to Sicily with permission to invade Africa. § 14. Adventures of Masinissa. § 15. Attempts made at home to thwart Scipio, triumphantly repelled. § 16. Restoration of confidence and credit at Rome. § 17. Scipio lands in Africa. § 18. Besieges Utica, and destroys Carthaginian army by a treacherous artifice. § 19. Defeats a second army: advances to Tunis. § 20. Masinissa made King of all Numidia: death of Sophonisba. § 21. The Carthaginians recall Hannibal and Mago, and send to treat for Peace at Rome. § 22. Peace refused: death of Fabius. § 23. Hannibal lands at Leptis and advances to Zama: Scipio moves to the same point: Conference. § 24. Battle of Zama. § 25. Zama and Waterloo. § 26. Conditions of Peace. § 27. Hannibal becomes chief of Carthage. § 28. Triumph of Scipio. § 1. THE History of the War in Spain has been left almost unnoticed, since the Defeat and Death of the two Scipios in 212 or 211. It is now time to return to that country; for the issue of the war between Rome and Hannibal was in reality determined on Spanish soil. After the disasters of that campaign, the Senate determined to despatch reinforcements without delay; and the officer appointed to take the temporary command was C. Claudius Nero, the future hero of the Metaurus. Nero succeeded in restoring Roman dominion in the district north of the Ebro; but the Senate resolved to call upon the People to elect a Proconsul for Spain at the Great Comitia. This was an unusual course, and was due no doubt to the peculiar exigencies of the The policy of continuing the Spanish War was manifest; but the risk of failure was so great, that the Senate thought fit case. to throw the responsibility upon the People. It was announced therefore that Candidates for the Proconsulate were to present themselves in the Campus Martius. But when the day came, no Candidate appeared. Men looked at one another in blank dismay. It seemed that none of the soldiers of the Republic dared to undertake so great and hazardous an enterprise; when, to the surprise and admiration of all, P. Cornelius Scipio, son and nephew of the slain Proconsuls, arose and offered himself to the suffrages of the People. He was barely twenty-six years of age but his name and character were well known; and though he had hitherto held no office higher than that of Edile, he was elected by acclamation. § 2. Scipio presents in almost all respects a striking contrast to the men who had hitherto conducted the affairs of Rome in the Second Punic War. They were far advanced in years, cautious and distrustful; he was in the prime of youth, enterprising and self-confident. They had been trained in all the severity of the old Roman discipline; he is said to have been dissolute in early years, and was still thought to affect too much the easy laxity of Grecian manners. They were strictly obedient to the letter of the law; he was accustomed from his very youth to put himself above the laws and customs of Rome. They always acted as the faithful ministers of the Senate; he very soon showed that the Senate must be content to follow his policy, rather than guide it. They, however gentle to their countrymen, were to foreigners harsh, arrogant, and cruel; he treated foreigners with a humanity and courteousness that made his name better loved in Spain than in Italy. Yet in some respects he was a true Roman. Notwithstanding the excesses charged upon his youth, he had long learnt to control his passions absolutely, and to submit every desire to his own views of duty. Notwithstanding the grace and affability of his manner, he preserved a loftiness of deportment which kept men * He was seventeen at the skirmish on the Ticinus (Polyb. x. 3). When he went to Spain he was in his twenty-seventh year (id., x. 6). He cannot therefore have set out till the end of 210 or the beginning of 209. Livy's chronology is hardly to be reconciled with the statements of Polybius. But the Greek Historian, as the intimate friend of the younger Scipio, possesses indisputable authority on all points touching the personal history of Africanus. at a certain distance from him. Few shared his intimacy; but where he gave his confidence, as to his friend C. Lælius, that confidence was complete and unreserved. One point in his character calls for particular attention, the Religiousness of his life. Never, from his first appearance in public, had he been known to undertake any enterprise without first resorting to the Great Temple on the Capitol, and remaining there for hours absorbed in devotion. There have been those who have represented this conduct as merely assumed to blind and influence the people. But such was not the belief of those who knew him best; and to think that Scipio was a mere hypocrite, is a monstrous belief. In the times of the Second Punic War, religious feelings were strong in the hearts of the people, though the popular belief in prodigies and the popular mode of deprecating the divine wrath were gross and barbarous. The Religion of Scipio might not be consistent; yet, on the whole, it would be unjust to doubt that he, like others of his own time, acted in reliance on the support of Higher Powers. In this lies the secret of his character. That self-confidence, which prompted him to shrink from no responsibility, led him also to neglect the laws of his country, when they seemed to oppose what he thought just or necessary. Every incident in his youth shows this confidence. Not to insist on the doubtful story of his saving his father's life, when he was yet a boy, we have seen him a Tribune of the Legions at the age of twenty, assisting to rally the broken remains of the army of Cannæ, and barring the Secession of the young Nobles after that disastrous day. Three years later we find him offering himself Candidate for the Curule Edileship; and when it was objected that he was yet too young for the office, promptly answering, "If the People vote for me, that will make me old enough." And now, after the death of his Father and Uncle in Spain, we see him modestly waiting till it was clear that no experienced commander would claim the dangerous honour of succeeding them, and then bravely offering himself to the acceptance of the People. § 3. Scipio arrived in Spain late in the summer of 210, or perhaps not till the spring of 209. He landed at Emporiæ, with his friend Lælius and his elder brother Lucius, who accom panied him as Legates, and M. Junius Silanus, who was to command as Proprætor in the place of Nero. He found that the three Generals commanding the Carthaginians in Spain, Hasdrubal and Mago, brothers of Hannibal, and Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo, were at discord with each other. Their forces lay scattered over a wide extent of country from Gades to Celtiberia; and there seems to have been no disposition to act on the offensive against the Romans. Scipio, taking advantage of these circumstances, determined to strike a blow which, if successful, would confirm the enthusiastic feelings of the Roman People towards him, and would mark that a General had arisen who would not rest content with the timid discretion of the Fabian policy. No less a place than New Carthage itself, the Capital of Carthaginian Spain, was the object he had in view. He heard that it was defended by a garrison of 1000 men only, and that none of the Carthaginian armies lay near it. By a bold stroke it might be possible to surprise it. His purpose was revealed to none save Lælius, who sailed in command of the fleet, while Scipio himself led his army across the Ebro, and arrived in an incredibly short time under the walls of the city.b § 4. New Carthage lay on a hilly peninsula jutting out into a fine bay, which forms the harbour. On the land side its walls were covered by a marsh or lagoon, which was overflowed by the sea, so that the place was only approachable by a narrow neck of land between the lagoon and the harbour. On this neck of land Scipio took up his position, entrenching himself in rear, but leaving the front of his camp open towards the city. No time was to be lost; and next morning he gave orders to assault the walls. He addressed his soldiers, and assured them of success; Neptune, he said, had appeared to him in a dream, and promised to fight with the Romans. The men advanced gallantly to the escalade, confident in their young General. But the walls were high and strong; the garrison made a stout defence; and before noon Scipio called off his soldiers. But b Polybius says in seven days (x. 9). The distance in a straight line is not less than 230 miles, so that this march would rival the march of Nero into Umbria. We must suppose that the baggage and engines were sent with the fleet. VOL. I. 2 D |