The History of Rome, Vol. IV Livy The History of Rome, Vol. IV Table of Contents The History of Rome, Vol. IV..................................................................................................................................1 Livy................................................................................................................................................................1 Book 26. The Fate of Capua..........................................................................................................................1 Book 27. Scipio in Spain..............................................................................................................................32 Book 28. The Final Conquest of Spain........................................................................................................62 Book 29. Scipio in Africa............................................................................................................................92 Book 30. Close of the Hannibalic War......................................................................................................114 Book 31. Rome and Macedon....................................................................................................................138 Book 32. The Second Macedonian War....................................................................................................161 i The History of Rome, Vol. IV Livy Translated by Reverend Canon Roberts This page copyright © 2001 Blackmask Online. http://www.blackmask.com • Book 26. The Fate of Capua • Book 27. Scipio in Spain • Book 28. The Final Conquest of Spain • Book 29. Scipio in Africa • Book 30. Close of the Hannibalic War • Book 31. Rome and Macedon • Book 32. The Second Macedonian War Book 26. The Fate of Capua The new consuls, Cn, Fulvius Centimalus and P. Sulpicius Galba, entered upon office on the 15th of March, and at once convened a meeting of the senate in the Capitol to discuss questions of State, the conduct of the war and the distribution of the provinces and the armies. The retiring consuls−Q. Fulvius and Appius Claudius−retained their commands and were instructed to prosecute the siege of Capua unremittingly until they had effected its capture. The recovery of this city was the main concern of the Romans now. What determined them was not only the bitter resentment which its defection had evoked, a feeling which was never more justified in the case of any city, but also the certainty they felt that, as in its revolt it had drawn many communities with it, owing to its greatness and strength, so its recapture would create amongst these communities a feeling of respect for the power whose sovereignty they had formerly acknowledged. The praetors of the past year, M. Junius in Etruria and P. Sempronius in Gaul, had their commands extended and were each to retain the two legions they had. M. Marcellus was to act as proconsul and finish the war in Sicily with the army which he had. If he needed reinforcements he was to take them from the troops which P. Cornelius was commanding in Sicily, but none were to be selected from those who had been forbidden by the senate to take a furlough or return home before the end of the war. The province of Sicily was assigned to C. Sulpicius, and he was to take over the two legions which were with P. Cornelius; any reinforcements he needed were to be supplied from the army of Cn. Fulvius which had been so disgracefully routed and cut up the previous year in Apulia. The soldiers who had so disgraced themselves were placed under the same conditions with regard to length of service as the survivors of Cannae. As an additional brand of ignominy the men of both these armies were forbidden to winter in towns or to construct winter quarters for themselves within ten miles of any town. The two legions which Q. Mucius had commanded in Sardinia were given to L. Cornelius, and any additional force he might require was to be raised by the consuls. T. Otacilius and M. Valerius were ordered to cruise off the coasts of Sicily and Greece respectively with the fleets and soldiers they had previously commanded. The former had a hundred ships with two legions on board; the latter, fifty ships and one legion. The total strength of the Roman armies engaged on land and sea this year amounted to twenty−five legions. At the beginning of the year a despatch from L. Marcius was laid before the senate. The senators fully appreciated the successful way in which he had conducted his operations, but a good many of them were indignant at the honorific title he had assumed. The superscription of the letter was "The propraetor to the senate," though the imperium had not been conferred upon him by an order of the people nor with the sanction of the senate. An evil The History of Rome, Vol. IV 1 The History of Rome, Vol. IV precedent had been set, they said, when a commander was chosen by his army, and the solemn procedure at elections, after the auspices were duly taken, was transferred to camps and provinces far away from the magistrates and the laws, and left to the caprice of the soldiers. Some thought the senate ought to take the matter up, but it was thought better to adjourn the consideration of it until the horsemen who had brought the despatch had left the City. With regard to the food and clothing of the army, they ordered a reply to be sent to the effect that both these matters would be attended to by the senate. They refused, however, to allow the despatch to be addressed "To the propraetor L. Marcius," lest it should appear that the question which was to be discussed had been prejudged. After the messengers had been dismissed the consuls gave this question priority over everything else, and it was unanimously agreed that the tribunes should consult the plebs as soon as possible as to whom they wished to have sent to Spain with the imperium as commander−in−chief to take over the army which Cn. Scipio had commanded. The tribunes undertook to do so, and due notice of the question was given to the Assembly. But the citizens were preoccupied with a controversy of a very different nature. C. Sempronius Blaesus had fixed a day for bringing Cn. Fulvius to trial for losing his army in Apulia, and made a very bitter attack upon him beforehand in the Assembly. "Many commanders," he said, "have through rashness and inexperience led their armies into most dangerous positions, but Cn. Fulvius is the only one who has demoralised his army by every form of vice before betraying them. They may with perfect truth be said to have been destroyed before they saw the enemy; they owed their defeat to their own commander, not to Hannibal. "Now no man, when he is going to vote, takes sufficient trouble to find out what sort of a man it is to whom he is entrusting the supreme command of the army. Think of the difference between Tiberius Sempronius and Cn. Fulvius. Tiberius Sempronius had an army of slaves given to him, but in a short time, thanks to the discipline he maintained and the wise use he made of his authority, there was not a man amongst them who when he was in the field of battle gave a thought to his birth or his condition. Those men were a protection to our allies and a terror to our enemies. They snatched, as though from the very jaws of Hannibal, cities like Cumae and Beneventum and restored them to Rome. Cn. Fulvius, on the other hand, had an army of Roman citizens, born of respectable parents, brought up as free men, and he infected them with the vices of slaves, and made them such that they were insolent and riotous amongst our allies, weaklings and cowards in face of the enemy; they could not stand even the war−cry of the Carthaginians, let alone their charge. Good heavens! no wonder the soldiers gave ground, when their commander was the first to run away; the wonder is that any stood their ground and fell, and that all did not accompany Cn. Fulvius in his panic and flight. C. Flaminius, L. Paulus, L. Postumius, and the two Scipios, Cnaeus and Publius, all chose to fall in battle rather than desert their armies, when they were hemmed in by the foe. Cn. Fulvius came back to Rome as the all−but solitary herald of the annihilation of his army. After the army had fled from the field of Cannae it was deported to Sicily, not to return till the enemy had evacuated Italy, and a similar decree was recently passed in the case of Fulvius' legions. But, shame to relate, the commander himself remained unpunished after his flight from a battle brought on by his own headstrong folly; he is free to pass the rest of his life where he passed it in youth−in stews and brothels−whilst his soldiers, whose only fault is that they copied their commander, are practically sent into exile and have to undergo a service of disgrace. So unequal are the liberties enjoyed in Rome by the rich and the poor, the men of rank and the men of the people." In his defence Fulvius threw all the blame upon his men. They clamoured, he said, for battle, and he led them out, not at the moment, for it was late in the day, but on the following morning. Though they were drawn up on favourable ground, at an early hour they found either the terror of the enemy's name or the strength of his attack too much for them. When they were all flying in disorder he was swept away by the rush as Varro was at Cannae and as many other commanders have been at different times. What help would he have given to the republic by staying there alone? unless indeed his death would have warded off other national disasters. His failure was not due to lack of supplies, or to incautiously taking up a position on unfavourable ground; he had not been ambushed through insufficient reconnoitring; he had been beaten in a fair fight on an open field. Men's tempers, on whichever side they were, were beyond his control, a man's natural disposition made him either brave or cowardly.