Complete Works of Eutropius

by Eutropius

  XIX

  In the year following, Valerius Marcus and Otacilius being consuls, great deeds were achieved by the Romans in Sicily. The Tauromenitani, Catanians, and fifty cities more, were received into alliance. In the third year the war against Hiero in Sicily was brought to an end. He, with all the Syracusan nobility, prevailed upon the Romans to grant them peace, paying down two hundred talents of silver. The Africans were defeated in Sicily, and a triumph over them granted at Rome a second time.

  20

  Quinto anno Punici belli, quod contra Afros gerebatur, primum Romani C. Duillio et Cn. Cornelio Asina consulibus in mari dimicaverunt paratis navibus rostratis, quas Liburnas vocant. Consul Cornelius fraude deceptus est. Duillius commisso proelio Carthaginiensium ducem vicit, triginta et unam naves cepit, quattuordecim mersit, septem milia hostium cepit, tria milia occidit. Neque ulla victoria Romanis gratior fuit, quod invicti terra iam etiam mari plurimum possent. C. Aquilio Floro L. Scipione consulibus Scipio Corsicam et Sardiniam vastavit, multa milia inde captivorum adduxit, triumphum egit.

  XX

  In the fifth year of the Punic war, which was carried on against the Africans, the Romans first fought by sea, in the consulate of Caius Duilius and Cnaeus Cornelius Asina, having provided themselves with vessels armed with beaks, which they term Liburnian galleys. The consul Cornelius fell a victim to treachery.12 Duilius, joining battle, defeated the commander of the Carthaginians, took thirty-one of their ships, sunk fourteen, took seven thousand of the enemy prisoners, and slew three thousand; nor was there ever a victory more gratifying to the Romans, for they were now not only invincible by land, but eminently powerful at sea.

  In the consulship of Caius Aquilius Florus and Lucius Scipio, Scipio laid waste Corsica and Sardinia, carried away several thousand captives from thence, and obtained a triumph.

  21

  L. Manlio Vulsone M. Atilio Regulo consulibus bellum in Africam translatum est. Contra Hamilcarem, Carthaginiensium ducem, in mari pugnatum victusque est. Nam perditis sexaginta quattuor navibus retro se recepit. Romani viginti duas amiserunt. Sed cum in Africam transissent, primam Clypeam, Africae civitatem, in deditionem acceperunt. Consules usque ad Carthaginem processerunt multisque castellis vastatis Manlius victor Romam rediit et viginti septem milia captivorum reduxit, Atilius Regulus in Africa remansit. Is contra Afros aciem instruxit. Contra tres Carthaginiensium duces dimicans victor fuit, decem et octo milia hostium cecidit, quinque milia cum decem et octo elephantis cepit, septuaginta quattuor civitates in fidem accepit. Tum victi Carthaginienses pacem a Romanis petiverunt. Quam cum Regulus nollet nisi durissimis condicionibus dare, Afri auxilium a Lacedaemoniis petiverunt. Et duce Xanthippo, qui a Lacedaemoniis missus fuerat, Romanorum dux Regulus victus est ultima pernicie. Nam duo milia tantum ex omni Romano exercitu refugerunt, quingenti cum imperatore Regulo capti sunt, triginta milia occisa, Regulus ipse in catenas coniectus.

  XXI

  When Lucius Manlius Vulso and Marcus Attilius Regulus were consuls, war was carried over into Africa against Hamilcar the general of the Carthaginians. A naval engagement was fought, and the Carthaginian utterly defeated, for he retired with the loss of sixty four of his ships. The Romans lost only twenty-two; and, having then crossed over into Africa, they compelled Clypea, the first city at which they arrived in Africa, to surrender. The consuls then advanced as far as Carthage; and, having laid waste many places, Manlius returned victorious to Rome, and brought with him twenty-seven thousand prisoners. Attilius Regulus remained in Africa. He drew up his army against the Africans; and, fighting at the same time against three Carthaginian generals, came off victorious, killed eighteen thousand of the enemy, took five thousand prisoners, with eighteen elephants, and received seventy-four cities into alliance. The vanquished Carthaginians then sued to the Romans for peace, which Regulus refusing to grant, except upon the hardest conditions, the Africans sought aid from the Lacedaemonians, and, under a leader named Xantippus, who had been sent them by the Lacedaemonians, Regulus, the Roman general, was overthrown with a desperate slaughter; for two thousand men only escaped of all the Roman army; five hundred, with their commander Regulus, were taken prisoners, thirty thousand slain, and Regulus himself thrown into prison.

  22

  M. Aemilio Paulo Ser. Fulvio Nobiliore consulibus ambo Romani consules ad Africam profecti sunt cum trecentarum navium classe. Primum Afros navali certamine superant. Aemilius consul centum et quattuor naves hostium demersit, triginta cum pugnatoribus cepit, quindecim milia hostium aut occidit aut cepit, militem suum ingenti praeda ditavit. Et subacta Africa tunc fuisset, nisi quod tanta fames erat, ut diutius exercitus expectare non posset. Consules cum victrici classe redeuntes circa Siciliam naufragium passi sunt. Et tanta tempestas fuit, ut ex quadringentis sexaginta quattuor navibus tantum octoginta servari potuerint; neque ullo tempore tanta maritima tempestas audita est. Romani tamen statim ducentas naves reparaverunt, neque in aliquo animus his infractus fuit.

  XXII

  In the consulship of Marcus Aemilius Paulus and Servius Fulvius Nobilior, both the Roman consuls set sail for Africa, with a fleet of three hundred ships. They first overcame the Africans in a sea-fight; Aemilius the consul sunk a hundred and four of the enemy’s ships, took thirty, with the soldiers in them, killed or took prisoners fifteen thousand of the enemy, and enriched his own army with much plunder; and Africa would then have been subdued, but that so great a famine took place that the army could not continue there any longer. The consuls, as they were returning with their victorious fleet, suffered shipwreck on the coast of Sicily, and so violent was the storm, that out of four hundred and sixty-four ships, eighty could scarcely be saved; nor was so great a tempest at sea ever heard of at any period. The Romans, notwithstanding, soon refitted two hundred ships, nor was their spirit at all broken by their loss.

  23

  Cn. Servilius Caepio C. Sempronius Blaesus consules cum ducentis sexaginta navibus ad Africam profecti sunt. Aliquot civitates ceperunt. Praedam ingentem reducentes naufragium passi sunt. Itaque cum continuae calamitates Romanis displicerent, decrevit senatus, ut a maritimis proeliis recederetur et tantum sexaginta naves ad praesidium Italiae salvae essent.

  XXIII

  Cnaeus Servilius Caepio and Caius Sempronius Blaesus, when consuls, set out for Africa with two hundred and sixty ships, and took several cities. As they were returning with a great booty, they suffered shipwreck; and, as these successive calamities annoyed the Romans, the senate in consequence decreed that wars by sea should be given up, and that only sixty ships should be kept for the defence of Italy.

  24

  L. Caecilio Metello C. Furio Placido consulibus Metellus in Sicilia Afrorum ducem cum centum triginta elephantis et magnis copiis venientem superavit, viginti milia hostium cecidit, sex et viginti elephantos cepit, reliquos errantes per Numidas, quos in auxilium habebat, collegit et Romam deduxit ingenti pompa, cum CXXX elephantorum numerus omnia itinera compleret. Post haec mala Carthaginienses Regulum ducem, quem ceperant, petiverunt, ut Romam proficisceretur et pacem a Romanis obtineret ac permutationem captivorum faceret.

  XXIV

  In the consulship of Lucius Caecilius Metellus and Caius Furius Pacilus, Metellus defeated a general of the Africans in Sicily, who came against him with a hundred and thirty elephants and a numerous army, slew twenty thousand of the enemy, took six and twenty elephants, collected the rest, which were dispersed, with the aid of the Numidians whom he had to assist him, and brought them to Rome in a vast procession, filling all the roads with elephants, to the number of a hundred and thirty.

  After these misfortunes, the Carthaginians entreated Regulus, the Roman general whom they had taken, to go to Rome, procure them peace from the Romans, and effect an exchange of prisoners.

  25

  Ille Romam cum venisset, inductus in senatum nihil quasi Romanus egit, dixitque se ex illa die, qua in potestatem Afrorum venisset, Romanum esse desisse. Itaque et uxorem a complexu removit et senatui suasit, ne pax cum Poenis fieret; illo
s enim fractos tot casibus spem nullam habere; se tanti non esse, ut tot milia captivorum propter unum se et senem et paucos, qui ex Romanis capti fuerant, redderentur. Itaque obtinuit. Nam Afros pacem petentes nullus admisit. Ipse Carthaginem rediit, offerentibusque Romanis, ut eum Romae tenerent, negavit se in ea urbe mansurum, in qua, postquam Afris servierat, dignitatem honesti civis habere non posset. Regressus igitur ad Africam omnibus suppliciis extinctus est.

  XXV

  Regulus, on arriving at Rome, and being conducted into the senate, would do nothing in the character of a Roman, declaring that, “from the day when he fell into the hands of the Africans, he had ceased to be a Roman.” For this reason he both repelled his wife from embracing him, and gave his advice to the Romans, that “peace should not be made with the Carthaginians; for that they, dispirited by so many losses, had no hope left; and that, with respect to himself, he was not of such importance, that so many thousand captives should be restored on his account alone, old as he was, and for the sake of the few Romans who had been taken prisoners.” He accordingly carried his point, for no one would listen to the Carthaginians, when they applied for peace. He himself returned to Carthage, telling the Romans, when they offered to detain him at Rome, that he would not stay in a city, in which, after living in captivity among the Africans, it was impossible for him to retain the dignity of an honourable citizen. Returning therefore to Africa, he was put to death with torture of every description,

  26

  P. Claudio Pulchro L. Iunio consulibus Claudius contra auspicia pugnavit et a Carthaginiensibus victus est. Nam ex ducentis et viginti navibus cum triginta fugit, nonaginta cum pugnatoribus captae sunt, demersae ceterae. Alius quoque consul naufragio classem amisit, exercitum tamen salvum habuit, quia vicina litora erant.

  XXVI

  When Publius Claudius Pulcher and Caius Junius were consuls, Claudius fought in opposition to the auspices. and was defeated by the Carthaginians; for, out of two hundred and twenty ships, he escaped with only thirty; ninety, together with their men, were taken, the rest sunk, and twenty thousand men made prisoners. The other consul also lost his fleet by shipwreck, but was able to save his troops, as the shore was close at hand.

  27

  C. Lutatio Catulo A. Postumio Albino consulibus, anno belli Punici vicesimo et tertio Catulo bellum contra Afros commissum est. Profectus est cum trecentis navibus in Siciliam; Afri contra ipsum quadringentas paraverunt. Numquam in mari tantis copiis pugnatum est. Lutatius Catulus navem aeger ascendit; vulneratus enim in pugna superiore fuerat. Contra Lilybaeum, civitatem Siciliae, pugnatum est ingenti virtute Romanorum. Nam LXIII Carthaginiensium naves captae sunt, CXXV demersae, XXXII milia hostium capta, XIII milia occisa, infinitum auri, argenti, praedae in potestatem Romanorum redactum. Ex classe Romana XII naves demersae. Pugnatum est VI Idus Martias. Statim pacem Carthaginienses petiverunt tributaque est his pax. Captivi Romanorum, qui tenebantur a Carthaginiensibus, redditi sunt. Etiam Carthaginienses petiverunt, ut redimi eos captivos liceret, quos ex Afris Romani tenebant. Senatus iussit sine pretio eos dari, qui in publica custodia essent; qui autem a privatis tenerentur, ut pretio dominis reddito Carthaginem redirent atque id pretium ex fisco magis quam a Carthaginiensibus solveretur.

  XXVII

  In the consulate of Caius Lutatius Catulus and Aulus Posthumius Albinus, in the twenty-third year of the Punic war, the conduct of the war against the Africans was committed to Catulus. He set sail for Sicily with three hundred ships. The Africans fitted out four hundred against him. Lutatius Catulus embarked in an infirm state of health, having been wounded in a previous battle. An encounter took place opposite Lilybaeum, a city of Sicily, with the greatest valour on the part of the Romans, for seventy-three of the Carthaginian ships were taken, and a hundred and twenty-five sunk; thirty-two thousand of the enemy were made prisoners, and thirteen thousand slain; and a vast sum in gold and silver fell into the hands of the Romans. Of the Roman fleet twelve ships were sunk The battle was fought on the 10th of March. The Carthaginians immediately sued for peace, and peace was granted them. The Roman prisoners who were in the hands of the Carthaginians were restored; the Carthaginians also requested permission to redeem such of the Africans as the Romans kept in captivity. The senate decided that those who were state prisoners should be restored without ransom; but that those who were in the hands of private persons should return to Carthage on the payment of a sum to their owners; and that such payment should be made from the public treasury, rather than by the Carthaginians.

  28

  Q. Lutatius A. Manlius consules creati bellum Faliscis intulerunt, quae civitas Italiae opulenta quondam fuit. Quod ambo consules intra sex dies, quam venerant, transegerunt XV milibus hostium caesis, ceteris pace concessa, agro tamen ex medietate sublato.

  XXVIII

  Quintus Lutatius and Aulius Manlius, being created consuls, made war upon the Falisci, formerly a powerful people of Italy, which war the consuls in conjunction brought to a termination within six days after they took the field; fifteen thousand of the enemy were slain, and peace was granted to the rest, but half their land was taken from them.

  BOOK III

  Ptolemy, king of Egypt, declines the aid offered him by the Romans against Antiochus; Hiero, king of Sicily, comes to see the games at Rome, I. — War with the Ligurians; the Carthaginians think of resuming hostilities, but are pacified, II. — Peace throughout the dominions of Rome, III. — The Illyrian war, IV. — Disasters of the Gauls that invaded Italy, V. VI. — The second Punic war, VII.-XXIII.

  1

  Finito igitur Punico bello, quod per XXIII annos tractum est, Romani iam clarissima gloria noti legatos ad Ptolomaeum, Aegypti regem, miserunt auxilia promittentes, quia rex Syriae Antiochus bellum ei intulerat. Ille gratias Romanis egit, auxilia a Romanis non accepit. Iam enim fuerat pugna transacta. Eodem tempore potentissimus rex Siciliae Hiero Romam venit ad ludos spectandos et ducenta milia modiorum tritici populo donum exhibuit.

  I

  The Punic war being now ended, after having been protracted though three and twenty years, the Romans, who were now distinguished by transcendent glory, sent ambassadors to Ptolemy, king of Egypt, with offers of assistance; for Antiochus, king of Syria, had made war upon him. He returned thanks to the Romans, but declined their aid, the struggle being now over. About the same time. Hiero, the most powerful king of Sicily, visited Rome to witness the games, and distributed two hundred thousand modii of wheat among the people.

  2

  L. Cornelio Lentulo Fulvio Flacco consulibus, quibus Hiero Romam venerat, etiam contra Ligures intra Italiam bellum gestum est et de his triumphatum. Carthaginienses tamen bellum reparare temptabant, Sardinienses, qui ex condicione pacis Romanis parere debebant, ad rebellandum impellentes. Venit tamen Romam legatio Carthaginiensium et pacem impetravit.

  II

  In the consulship of Lucius Cornelius Lentulus and Fulvius Flaccus, in whose time Hiero came to Rome, war was carried on, within the limits of Italy, against the Ligurians, and a triumph obtained over them. The Carthaginians, too, at the same time, attempted to renew the war, soliciting the Sardinians, who, by an article of the peace, were bound to submit to the Romans, to rebel. A deputation, however, of the Carthaginians came to Rome, and obtained peace.

  3

  T. Manlio Torquato C. Atilio Bulco consulibus de Sardis triumphatum est, et pace omnibus locis facta Romani nullum bellum habuerunt, quod his post Romam conditam semel tantum Numa Pompilio regnante contigerat.

  III

  Under the consulate of Titus Manlius Torquatus and Caius Attilius Bulbus, a triumph was obtained over the Sardinians; and, peace being concluded on all sides, the Romans had now no war on their hands, a circumstance which had happened to them but once before since the building of the city, in the reign of Numa Pompilius.

  4

  L. Postumius Albinus Cn. Fulvius Centumalus consules bellum contra Illyrios gesserunt et multis civitatibus captis etiam reges in deditionem acceperunt. Ac tum primum ex Illyriis triumph
atum est.

  IV

  Lucius Posthumius Albinus and Cnaeus Fulvius Centumalus, when consuls, conducted a war against the Illyrians; and, having taken many of their towns, reduced their kings to a surrender, and it was then for the first time that a triumph was celebrated over the Illyrians.

  5

  L. Aemilio consule ingentes Gallorum copiae Alpes transierunt. Sed pro Romanis tota Italia consensit, traditumque est a Fabio historico, qui ei bello interfuit, DCCC milia hominum parata ad id bellum fuisse. Sed res per consulem tantum prospere gesta est. XL milia hostium interfecta sunt et triumphus Aemilio decretus.

  V

  When Lucius Aemilius was consul, a vast force of the Gauls crossed the Alps; but all Italy united in favour of the Romans; and it is recorded by Fabius the historian, who was present in that war, that there were eight hundred thousand men ready for the contest. Affairs, however, were brought to a successful termination by the consul alone; forty thousand of the enemy were killed, and a triumph decreed to Aemilius.

  6

  Aliquot deinde annis post contra Gallos intra Italiam pugnatum est, finitumque bellum M. Claudio Marcello et Cn. Cornelio Scipione consulibus. Tum Marcellus cum parva manu equitum dimicavit et regem Gallorum, Viridomarum nomine, manu sua occidit. Postea cum collega ingentes copias Gallorum peremit, Mediolanum expugnavit, grandem praedam Romam pertulit. Ac triumphans Marcellus spolia Galli stipiti inposita umeris suis vexit.