The Rise of Rome (Penguin Classics)

by Plutarch

  After both sides had been heard and the Syracusans, according to the usual custom, had withdrawn, Marcellus handed over the presidency of the senate to his colleague, left the chamber with his accusers and stood outside the doors. His appearance remained perfectly normal and showed not a trace of apprehension for the verdict nor of anger against the Syracusans: he simply waited with the utmost serenity and self-control to hear the outcome of the case. When the votes had been cast and he was declared not guilty, the Syracusans threw themselves at his feet. They implored him with tears in their eyes to put away his anger against the delegates before him and to take pity on the rest of the city, which never forgets a kindness and would henceforth be eternally grateful to him. Marcellus was moved by this appeal: he pardoned the envoys, and thereafter became a constant benefactor113 to their city. He had already restored to them their freedom, the right to be governed by their own laws and what remained of their property, and these concessions were confirmed by the senate. In return, the people conferred many of their highest honours upon him, and in particular they passed a law that whenever Marcellus or any of his descendants should land in Sicily, the Syracusans should wear garlands and offer sacrifices to the gods.114

  24. Soon after this he again took the field against Hannibal. Ever since the defeat at Cannae, the other consuls and generals had relied almost without exception upon the strategy of avoiding an engagement at all costs, and certainly none had had the courage to risk a pitched battle with the enemy. Marcellus, however, chose precisely the opposite course, because he was convinced that, long before the period allowed for wearing down Hannibal’s strength had elapsed, Italy herself would have bled to death. He believed too that Fabius, by constantly insisting upon safety at all costs, was pursuing the wrong method to heal his country’s affliction: the danger was that Rome was already drooping under her burdens, and that if they continued to wait as he proposed, the end of the war might well coincide with her total collapse. Fabius, as he saw it, was like one of those timid physicians who shrink from applying drastic remedies and imagine that a disease has subsided, when it is really the patient’s powers of resistance which have been exhausted.

  Accordingly, his first move was to regain control of the principal Samnite cities115 which had revolted. There he found large sums of money and stocks of grain, and he also captured the Carthaginian detachments amounting to 3,000 soldiers whom Hannibal had stationed to defend them. Next, after Hannibal had defeated and killed the proconsul Gnaeus Fulvius116 in Apulia, together with eleven military tribunes, and had cut to pieces the greater part of his army, Marcellus sent letters to Rome telling the citizens to take heart, since he was already on the march and would see to it that Hannibal’s triumph was short lived. Livy remarks that when these letters were read they did not do much to reassure the Romans, but rather increased their alarm.117 They reflected that the risk which lay ahead of them was even greater than the defeat they had just suffered, in proportion as Marcellus was a better general than Fulvius.

  However, Marcellus, according to his promise, at once marched after Hannibal and made contact with him in Lucania. There he found him entrenched in a strong position on high ground near the city of Numistro,118 and so he encamped in the plain. On the following day, Marcellus was the first to draw up his troops in battle order, and a great battle ensued which, although desperately contested, remained indecisive. The fighting began at nine o’clock in the morning and was only broken off with difficulty after nightfall. But at daybreak Marcellus once more led out his army, formed up his men amid the heaps of dead and challenged Hannibal to fight again to decide the victory. This time Hannibal declined battle, whereupon Marcellus, after stripping the enemy’s dead and burying his own, continued to pursue the Carthaginians.

  He won the highest admiration for his skill in this campaign, because although Hannibal repeatedly set ambushes for him, Marcellus escaped every one and had the better of their skirmishing encounters. For this reason, when the time for the consular elections approached, the senate decided that it was advisable to summon the other consul from Sicily rather than to recall Marcellus at the moment when he was grappling with Hannibal. When the consul arrived, the senate instructed him to declare Quintus Fulvius dictator.119 The reason for this procedure was that a dictator cannot be chosen either by the people or by the senate. Instead, one of the consuls or praetors appears before the assembled people and nominates the man whom he himself has selected. This is the derivation of the word dictator, for the verb dicere in Latin signifies to name or declare.120 Some writers, however, maintain that the dictator is so called because he does not put any question to the vote or to a show of hands, but issues his decrees and pronouncements on his own authority and according to his own judgement, and it is noteworthy that the orders of magistrates, which the Greeks call ordinances, are called by the Romans edicta.121

  25. However, when Marcellus’ colleague arrived from Sicily, he wished to nominate a candidate other than Fulvius as dictator, and in order to avoid being forced to act against his own judgement he sailed back to Sicily by night. In this situation Quintus Fulvius was nominated as dictator by the people, and the senate wrote to Marcellus requesting him to support this measure. He did so, proclaimed Quintus Fulvius dictator, and in this way confirmed the people’s choice, while he himself was appointed proconsul for the following year.122 Then, after conferring with Fabius Maximus,123 it was agreed that while Fabius should besiege Tarentum, Marcellus should follow Hannibal closely, divert his attention and prevent him from making any move to relieve the city. Accordingly, he set out and came up with the Carthaginians at Canusium.

  Although Hannibal constantly shifted his camp and avoided a battle, Marcellus never lost contact with him, and at last attacked him when he had encamped, and by harassing him with skirmishers succeeded in drawing him out of his entrenchments. Hannibal advanced and Marcellus received his attack, but nightfall put an end to the fighting. The next morning Marcellus again took to the field, and formed up his troops in battle order. At this, Hannibal, in great anxiety, called the Carthaginians together and appealed to them to fight as they had never done before. ‘You see’, he told them, ‘that even after all the great victories we have won, we shall not be able to breathe in peace, or enjoy the leisure we have earned by our superiority in arms, until we have driven this fellow away.’

  After this the two armies met, and during the fighting Marcellus seems to have made an ill-judged manoeuvre which cost him the battle. He found his right wing hard pressed and ordered one of his legions to advance to the front to support it, but this change of formation threw his ranks into confusion and allowed the enemy to carry off the victory, the Romans losing 2,700 men. Marcellus then withdrew his troops into his fortified camp, called them together and reprimanded them, telling them that he could see many Roman weapons and bodies, but not a single Roman worthy of the name. They asked his pardon, whereupon he said that he could not give this when they had been driven off the field, but only after they had made themselves masters of it. However, he assured them that he would fight again on the next day, so that the first news to reach Rome would be of their victory, not of their rout. As he dismissed the troops, he gave orders that the cohorts which had been defeated should be issued with rations of barley instead of wheat. His words made so deep an impression that, although many of his soldiers had suffered painful and dangerous wounds in the fighting, it is said that every man in the army felt Marcellus’ reproaches more keenly than his own hurts.

  26. At daybreak Marcellus had the scarlet tunic hung out, which is the usual signal for offering battle. At their own request, the disgraced units were posted in the front of the line, and the military tribunes led out the rest of the army and deployed it in battle order. When Hannibal learned this, he exclaimed, ‘Hercules, what do we do with a man who refuses to accept either good fortune or bad? This is the only general who gives his enemy no rest when he is victorious, nor takes any himself when he is defeated. We sha
ll never have done with fighting him, it seems, because he attacks out of confidence when he is winning, and out of shame when he is beaten.’ Then the two armies engaged, and when Hannibal saw that the issue was evenly balanced, he gave orders for his elephants to be brought up to the front and launched against the Roman line. The shock of their charge broke up the formation of the front ranks and caused great disorder, but one of the military tribunes snatched up a standard, and, facing the elephants, struck the leading beast with the iron spike and forced it to wheel about. The elephant collided with the animal immediately behind, and threw it and the rest of the column into confusion.

  Marcellus saw this and at once ordered his cavalry to charge at full speed into the struggling mass, so as to increase the enemy’s disorder. The cavalry made a brilliant charge and pursued the retreating Carthaginians, cutting them down until they reached their own camp, but it was the plunging of their dying and wounded elephants which caused the greatest slaughter among the enemy. More than 8,000 Carthaginians are said to have lost their lives, while of the Roman force 3,000 were killed, and almost all the survivors wounded. It was this fact which allowed Hannibal to break camp during the night and put a long distance between himself and the Romans. Marcellus was unable to pursue him because of the large numbers of his own wounded, and he later withdrew at a leisurely pace into Campania and spent the summer at Sinuessa,124 allowing his soldiers to regain their strength.

  27. Hannibal, on the other hand, now that he had disengaged himself from Marcellus, felt confident enough to let his troops roam as freely as if they were disbanded, and he sent them raiding, plundering and burning throughout the length and breadth of Italy. Meanwhile, Marcellus had fallen into disfavour at Rome, and his enemies persuaded Publicius Bibulus,125 one of the tribunes of the people – a clever speaker and a violent party politician – to bring an accusation against him. This man frequently harangued the assembly, and tried to persuade them to hand over the command of Marcellus’ army to another general. ‘Marcellus’, he said, ‘exchanged a few passes with the enemy, but now he has left the wrestling school and retired to the hot baths to refresh himself.’

  When he heard of this, Marcellus put his legates in charge of the army and travelled to Rome to answer the slanders brought against him and defend his good name. There he found that an indictment based on these calumnies had already been drawn up.126 A day was appointed for the trial, and after the people had assembled in the Circus Flaminius, Bibulus rose and delivered his impeachment. Marcellus’ own defence was short and simple, but a number of the most prominent and distinguished Romans paid glowing tributes to his generalship and upheld his actions in the most outspoken terms. They reminded the people that if they condemned Marcellus for cowardice, they would prove themselves to be far worse judges of character than Hannibal, for Marcellus was the one general whom the Carthaginian always sought to avoid, in fact he employed every trick he knew to elude him – so as to engage the others. These speeches had such an effect that Bibulus’ hopes were completely frustrated, and in the end Marcellus was not only acquitted of the charges against him, but was actually elected consul for the fifth time.127

  28. As soon as he had taken up his office, he succeeded in bringing under control a dangerous situation in Etruria, where the people were on the verge of revolt, and he then visited and pacified the cities of the region. After this he wished to dedicate to Honour and to Valour128 a temple which he had built out of the spoils he had captured in Sicily, but this scheme was frustrated by the priests, who refused to agree to a single temple’s being occupied by two deities. Accordingly, Marcellus began to build another temple adjoining the first. Although vexed by the priests’ opposition, he also regarded it as an ominous sign. And indeed, that year was filled with prodigies129 which caused him anxiety. Several temples were struck by lightning and the gold offerings in the shrine of Jupiter were gnawed by mice. There were also reports that an ox had uttered human speech, and that a boy had been born with an elephant’s head; and, worse still, when various rites and sacrifices were performed to expiate these prodigies, the seers encountered unfavourable omens and therefore kept him in Rome, although he chafed at inaction and was fretting to be gone.

  For no man was ever so consumed by a single passion – to match himself against Hannibal in a decisive battle. His one dream by night, his single topic of discussion with his friends and colleagues and his sole prayer to the gods was that he might meet Hannibal fairly in the field. I truly believe that his heart’s desire would have been to have the two armies surrounded by a wall or a rampart where they would fight out the issue. And, but for the fact that he was already loaded with honours, and had given ample proof that in respect of good sense and maturity of judgement he could stand comparison with any general in history, I should have said that he had fallen a victim to a callow obsession for honour which was quite out of keeping with his years, for by the time that he entered upon his fifth consulship he had already passed the age of sixty.

  29. However, when at last the sacrifices and rites of purification recommended by the soothsayers had been performed, he took to the field with his colleague130 and set himself to harass Hannibal’s army in its camp between Bantia and Venusia,131 trying by every possible means to bring his opponent to battle. Hannibal refused to be drawn, but when he learned that the Romans had detached a force to attack the Epizephyrian Locrians,132 he laid an ambush in the hills near Petelia133 and killed 2,500 of their men. This action filled Marcellus with an overwhelming passion to get to grips with the enemy and he moved his forces still closer to Hannibal.

  Between the two camps there was a hill which appeared to offer a useful vantage point, and was thickly covered with trees and shrubs. Its slopes provided lookout posts which commanded a view of both camps, and streams could be seen flowing down the sides. The Romans were astonished that Hannibal, who had had the first choice of such a strong natural position, had not occupied it but had left it for the enemy. It appears that in fact he did consider it a good site for a camp, but an even better one for ambush, and it was for this purpose that he chose to use it. He concealed a force of javelin-throwers and spearmen among the woods and hollows, as he felt certain that the Romans would be allured to the place because of its obvious natural advantages, and in the event his calculations were exactly fulfilled. In their camp the Romans immediately began to talk about the necessity of occupying the place, and they enlarged on the advantages they would gain over their enemies by encamping on it, or at the very least by fortifying it.

  Accordingly, Marcellus decided to ride forward with a few horsemen and reconnoitre the site. But before doing this he sent for his soothsayer and offered up a sacrifice, and when the first victim had been killed, the soothsayer showed him that its liver had no head. When he sacrificed for the second time, the head of the liver turned out to be unusually large, while all the other indications appeared exceptionally auspicious, and this seemed to dispel the misgivings aroused by the first offering. However, the soothsayers declared that this sequence of events disturbed them even more, because when unusually forbidding or threatening omens are immediately followed by others which are exceptionally favourable, the unexpectedness of the change is in itself a matter for suspicion. But since, in Pindar’s words, ‘not fire, not walls of iron, can hinder fate’,134 Marcellus rode out, taking with him his colleague Crispinus, his son,135 who was a military tribune, and 220 horsemen in all. None of these, as it happened, was a Roman: they were all Etruscans, with the exception of forty men of Fregellae,136 who had given Marcellus many proofs of their loyalty and courage.

  On the crest of the hill, which was thickly wooded, the enemy had posted a lookout. He could not be seen by the Romans, but could observe every movement in their camp. This man signalled the approach of the reconnoitring party to the troops who were hiding in ambush, and they allowed Marcellus to ride close to them. Then all of a sudden they sprang to their feet, surrounded his party, flung their javelins, stabbed with
their spears, pursued those who ran away and fell upon those who stood their ground. These were the forty men of Fregellae, who, after the Etruscans had galloped off at the first onslaught, rallied round the two consuls and fought to defend them. Finally Crispinus, who had been hit by two javelins, wheeled his horse and fled, while Marcellus was run through the side with a broad-bladed spear, the Latin name for which is lancea. Then the few survivors among the Fregellans left Marcellus lying where he had fallen, rescued his son who had been wounded and made their escape back to the camp. In this skirmish there were hardly more than forty men killed, but five lictors and eighteen horsemen were taken prisoner and Crispinus died of his wounds a few days later. To have lost both their consuls in a single action was a disaster that had never before struck the Romans.