The Rise of Rome (Penguin Classics)

by Plutarch

  20. Flaminius refused to open them … private citizen: Flaminius’ action was not illegal nor did it technically violate ritual procedures (he was not responsible for his religious jeopardy until he was made aware of it, which is possibly why he avoided reading the senate’s letters, and his success in battle demonstrated the gods’ unwillingness to punish him or Rome). It is by no means clear that he or his colleague abdicated, a version of events that perhaps originates in a later and very hostile literary tradition. Although his behaviour attracted disapprobation from some quarters, he was elected censor in 220.

  21. Tiberius Sempronius: Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, consul in 177 and 163; Tiberius’ botched augury occurred during his second consulship.

  22. Scipio Nasica … Gaius Marcius: Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica, who was again consul in 155, and Gaius Marcius Figulus, who was again consul in 156.

  23. Whenever a consul … begin … observations afresh: In crafting his explanation, Plutarch has misunderstood the technical augural term tabernaculum capere (literally, ‘to take possession of a tent or hut’), which actually refers to a ritual action that was a part of the taking of auspices. Tiberius’ error actually lay elsewhere: after taking auspices in the Campus Martius, he re-entered the city, crossing its religious boundary (the pomerium), which vitiated his initial auspices; when he returned to conduct the election, he forgot to take auspices again (Cicero, On the Nature of the Gods 2.11). For a detailed discussion of this procedure, see J. Linderski, ANRW 2.16 (1986), pp. 2159–64.

  24. Cornelius Cethegus: Marcus Cornelius Cethegus, consul in 204. He was a flamen (see below) but of which god is unknown.

  25. Quintus Sulpicius: Apart from his removal from a flaminate, nothing further is known of him.

  26. flamines: Special priests devoted to a single deity. There were three major flamines (the flamen Dialis, flamen Martialis and flamen Quirinalis, devoted to Jupiter, Mars and Quirinus respectively); there were also twelve minor flamines. The apex, a special piece of pointed headwear (‘peaked cap’), was a distinctive part of their official dress. Cf. Numa 7.

  27. Minucius the dictator: The dictator was actually Quintus Fabius Maximus, probably in 221, though the date is uncertain. The squeaking of a shrew-mouse was a common omen (Pliny, Natural History 8.233).

  28. Gaius Flaminius: This is the consul of 223, whose victory over the Insubrians was mentioned above.

  29. interreges: In the absence of consuls to conduct elections, the patricians in the senate selected one of their own to serve, for five days, as interrex. The first interrex chose his successor, who then held elections (or, if that was for some reason impossible, selected yet another interrex), until new consuls were elected. In this instance, however, an interregnum was apparently unnecessary because Flaminius and his colleague did not abdicate before the end of their consular year (note 20).

  30. Marcellus … Gnaeus Cornelius: Marcellus and Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio were consuls in 222 and not replacement consuls in 223.

  31. Marcellus stirred up the people’s indignation … continue the war: So Polybius 2.34.1.

  32. a peace was made … stirred up the Insubrians: This is not in Polybius, and its obvious purpose is to justify the Romans’ continuation of hostilities.

  33. Acerrae: Modern Pizzighettone.

  34. Britomartus: At Livy, Summary of Book 20, he is named Viridomarus. Nothing further is known about him.

  35. Clastidium: Modern Casteggio.

  36. Romans always turn in this way … worship to the gods: Cf. Numa 14 and Camillus 5.

  37. Jupiter Feretrius: See chs. 7 and 8 below and Romulus, note 74.

  38. I am the third Roman commander to do this: See ch. 8 below.

  39. Mediolanum: Modern Milan.

  40. Romulus … spoils of Acron of Caenina: See Romulus 16.

  41. Cornelius Cossus … spoils of Tolumnius: The year in which Aulus Cornelius Cossus was consul was controversial in antiquity, but 428 seems likeliest. He slew Lars Tolumnius, king of Veii.

  42. Greek … absorbed into Latin: Plutarch refers elsewhere to the early Roman use of Greek (Romulus 15 and Numa 7).

  43. spolia opima: Plutarch also discusses the institution and etymology of spolia opima (‘the first and finest of spoils’) at Romulus 16. On Marcellus’ deployment of this institution for his own glorification, see Flower, Classical Antiquity 19, pp. 34–64.

  44. Numa Pompilius … commentaries: The sacred books of Numa are described at Numa 22.

  45. asses: An as was a bronze coin of modest value.

  46. thank-offering: The Romans also sent a thank-offering to Delphi at Camillus 8.

  47. Hiero: Hiero II (reigned c. 271–215), see Introduction.

  48. Hannibal … invaded Italy: In 218.

  49. Marcellus … in command of a fleet: As praetor (for the second time) in 216.

  50. defeat at Cannae: In 216 Hannibal inflicted a crushing defeat on the armies commanded by both consuls at Cannae in southeast Italy. It was, at that time, the worst loss ever suffered by the Romans. Plutarch offers an account of this battle at Fabius Maximus 14–17.

  51. Canusium: Modern Canosa.

  52. Fabius Maximus: Quintus Fabius Maximus is the subject of Fabius Maximus.

  53. both as consuls together: Fabius Maximus and Marcellus were consuls together only in 214.

  54. pedagogue: A slave who attended his master’s children on walks, especially to and from school, and kept his wards out of trouble. At Fabius Maximus 5, Fabius is mocked by his soldiers as Hannibal’s pedagogue.

  55. Poseidonius says … inflicted them on him: Plutarch also cites Poseidonius at Fabius Maximus 19. Only Plutarch cites Poseidonius for this observation, although Marcellus and Fabius are contrasted elsewhere (Livy 24.9.7–11; Cicero, The Republic 5.10). The original Poseidonian context is unknown, which is true for all fragments of Poseidonius dealing with either Fabius or Marcellus; see Kidd, Posidonius, vol. 2, pp. 896–902.

  56. Neapolis … Nola: Neapolis (modern Naples), and Nola, a city located to the east of Naples, were by this period under Roman domination, but Hannibal’s presence in Italy gave each an opportunity, unwelcome to Rome, for independence. Marcellus was active in this part of Italy, especially in Nola, in 215 and 214.

  57. the senate: Plutarch means the senate of Nola (this is made clear in the parallel narrative in Livy: e.g. 23.14).

  58. Bandius: Plutarch calls him this, but in Livy (23.14–16) he is Lucius Bantius.

  59. Aemilius Paullus: Lucius Aemilius Paullus was consul for the second time in 216, when he fell in the fighting at Cannae.

  60. Livy … confirms … they had suffered: The reference is to Livy 23.16.

  61. one of the consuls was killed: Lucius Postumius Albinus, consul in 215.

  62. Marcellus … voluntarily resigned his office: Marcellus behaves correctly, and, as is the normal practice, this consulship counts to his credit. Fabius Maximus was elected consul in Marcellus’ place.

  63. the following year: In 214.

  64. Hieronymus: Hiero died in 215. He was succeeded by his young grandson Hieronymus – here described as tyrant rather than king – who was only fifteen years old. He was persuaded by his advisers to transfer the city’s loyalty to Hannibal and, after a very brief reign, was assassinated.

  65. Appius Claudius: Appius Claudius Pulcher, praetor in 215 and later consul in 212. He continued, as propraetor (see General Introduction VI), under Marcellus’ command in 214 and 213.

  66. Hippocrates, a general of the Syracusans: The Syracusan government, after the assassination of Hieronymous, was directed by an executive board of generals (strategoi), annual magistrates elected by the people. On Hippocrates see Introduction.

  67. captured the city: Marcellus took Leontini (modern Lentini) in late 214.

  68. all the deserters … put to death: Livy (24.30.6) mentions the execution of 2,000 Roman deserters.

  69. siege-engine … eight galleys lashed together: Polybius 8.6 (who is vaguely followed at L
ivy 24.34) has a different account of Marcellus’ siege-engines: there, Marcellus deploys four sets of dual galleys lashed to one another, each set bearing its own siege-engine.

  70. Eudoxus … Archytas: Eudoxus of Cnidus (c. 390–c. 340), distinguished philosopher, mathematician, geographer and (especially) astronomer. Archytas of Tarentum (d. c. 350), Pythagorean philosopher and mathematician and regarded as the father of mechanics, not least owing to his solution to the problem of doubling the cube (see following note).

  71. solve the problem … geometrical figures: Plutarch has in mind the problem, important in ancient mathematics, of doubling the cube, that is, for any cube with a given volume, to articulate mathematically the dimensions of a cube with double that volume. The problem of doubling the cube is equivalent to that of finding two mean proportionals between a given line segment and a line segment of twice the length: if a and b are two straight lines, such that b is twice the length of a, and if x and y are the two mean proportionals (that is, if a:x = x:y = y:b), then x is the length of the side of a cube which has twice the volume of the cube for which a is the length of its side. Plutarch recurs to this celebrated problem at Moralia 386e, 579b and 718e–f. On this problem, its significance and solutions see C. A. Huffman, Archytas of Tarentum: Pythagorean, Philosopher and Mathematician King (2005), pp. 342–401.

  72. both mathematicians … mechanical means: We do not know how Eudoxus solved this problem. Contrary to Plutarch’s assertion here, Archytas solved it through pure geometry.

  73. Plato was indignant … purity of geometry: Plutarch is our only source for this, cf. Moralia 718e–f.

  74. Archimedes … a relative: Only Plutarch asserts this. Other sources claim that Archimedes’ origins were modest, e.g. Cicero, Tusculan Disputations 5.23.

  75. sambuca … musical instrument of that name: A triangular instrument with several strings. The siege-engine in combination with the ships supporting it resembled a triangle owing to its inclined ladder, designed to allow soldiers to storm a city’s steep walls.

  76. talents: An Attic talent weighed approximately 26 kilograms or 50 pounds.

  77. scorpions: The name given to Archimedes’ small arrow-firing catapults; see Walbank, Commentary, vol. 2, p. 75.

  78. Briareus: One of the so-called Hundred-Handers of Greek mythology, primordial monsters with a hundred arms and fifty heads.

  79. sambuca … in disgrace: Sambuca refers both to the instrument and its player, and that is the sense here: Archimedes, in this witticism, has contrived a kind of symposium – out of which he has driven Marcellus’ (objectionable) sambuca-player. Polybius (8.6.6) tells the joke more neatly because he does not wrap it in a clever reference to Greek mythology (possibly Plutarch’s own embroidery).

  80. would not deign … any writings on his mechanical discoveries: This is untrue, though perhaps Plutarch was unaware of Archimedes’ essays on mechanics; see E. J. Dijksterhuis, Archimedes (1938), pp. 21–9.

  81. cylinder enclosing a sphere … the contained: Archimedes discovered that the ratio between the two is 3 to 2. On Archimedes’ tomb and its significance, see Jaeger, Archimedes and the Roman Imagination, pp. 32–47.

  82. Megara: Megara Hyblaea, about 14 miles (22½ km) north of Syracuse, was founded by the Megarians (of the Greek mainland) in the eighth century BC.

  83. Acrillae: Modern Chiaramonte Gulfi.

  84. Some while afterwards: The siege of Syracuse lasted more than two years. Here Plutarch abruptly shifts to the conclusion of the campaign.

  85. Damippus: An envoy acting between Syracuse and King Philip V of Macedon, with whom the Romans were also at war (the First Macedonian War, 214–205). Because of that conflict the Romans hoped to win the goodwill of Sparta (Livy 25.23), hence the international significance of these negotiations, in which Plutarch has no real interest.

  86. Hexapyla: This was the great northern gate of Syracuse, through which one entered the region of the city known as Tyche (see following note).

  87. whole city … Tyche: Syracuse was a huge city composed of several quite large regions. Its original districts were Achradina and the island of Ortygia, but, as it expanded northwards, the city took in new districts called Tyche and Neapolis. See R. J. Evans, Syracuse in Antiquity: History and Topography (2009).

  88. Marcellus … wept: Cf. Camillus 5, with note 20.

  89. except … to the Roman treasury: Marcellus also preserved the property of Syracusans who had fought on the Roman side (Livy 25.31).

  90. Enna: A city in central Sicily (modern Enna), whose inhabitants were massacred by a Roman garrison during the war against Syracuse; according to Livy (24.37–9), whose account of the incident endeavours to be apologetic, the brutality of this action led other Sicilian cities to go over to the side of the Carthaginians.

  91. Engyium … the Mothers: Engyium was in central Sicily. Its cult of the Mothers is mentioned elsewhere (Diodorus 4.79.5–7; Cicero, Against Verres 2.4.97).

  92. Meriones: A Cretan warrior who fought with the Greeks at Troy; he figures prominently in Homer’s Iliad.

  93. this is the story … from Poseidonius: His tale seems to have had less to do with Marcellus than with Nicias, whose histrionics, as Kidd points out, are no less effective on the Roman than on his fellow-townsmen; see Kidd, Posidonius, vol. 2, pp. 898–9. Plutarch has put the story, and Poseidonius’ authority, to a new purpose here.

  94. the Romans recalled Marcellus … against Hannibal: This is a bit misleading. When elected consul for 210, Marcellus received Sicily as his consular province and his colleague received the war against Hannibal; owing to the Syracusans’ complaints about Marcellus (see below), they arranged an exchange (Livy 26.29).

  95. Epaminondas: On Epaminondas see General Introduction II.

  96. ‘a dancing-floor of Ares’: Also cited at Moralia 193e.

  97. ‘an arsenal of war’: Citing Xenophon, A History of My Times 3.4.17.

  98. ‘a sanctuary of Ares who revels in war’: Plutarch cites Pindar, Pythian Odes 2.1–2, dedicated to Hiero I. There is some irony in the fact that Pindar’s lines actually describe Syracuse.

  99. ‘Let us leave … these angry gods of theirs!’: See Fabius Maximus 22 (where Fabius does remove a giant statue of Hercules) and Moralia 195f.

  100. he paraded … gods: By stripping statues from temples and carrying them in his victory celebrations, Marcellus paraded gods along with his mortal captives.

  101. ‘rough … on great occasions noble’: From the lost tragedy Licymnius; see fr. 473 in C. Collard and M. Cropp, Euripides: Fragments, vol. 1 (2008).

  102. Fabius Maximus … Greek art: Plutarch revisits his comparison of Marcellus and Fabius at Fabius Maximus 22, where he explicitly commends Marcellus’ conduct at the fall of Syracuse and compliments his ‘extraordinary mildness and humanity’. The relationship between these two Lives has been closely examined by H. Beck in A. Barazanò, C. Bearzot and F. Landucci Gattinoni (eds.), Modelli eroici dall’antichità all cultura europea: alle radici della casa comune europea (2003), pp. 239–63.

  103. a third triumph: We know only of Marcellus’ triumph in 222 (ch. 8). Marcellus is again said to have celebrated three triumphs at Comparison Pelopids–Marcellus 3.

  104. Alban Mount … ovatio: On the technical matters associated with Marcellus’ ovation and his Alban triumph, see Introduction.

  105. flute … averse to … war: At Pelopidas 19 Plutarch underlines the association of the flute with Aphrodite and Harmony (her daughter by Ares). Aphrodite’s aversion to warfare is also discussed by Plutarch at Moralia 759e. The Roman goddess Venus, by contrast, was sometimes associated by the Romans with victory in war (e.g. in her guise as Venus Erycina during the Punic Wars, or in the late republic as Venus Victrix).

  106. euasmos … twisted by the Greeks … ovatio: The Greek word euasmos refers to the shout euae!, which is a part of the celebration of the god Dionysus, whereas Latin ovatio derives from ovare, meaning to shout or rejoice. The false etymology criticized here occurs
in Dion. Hal. 5.47.2, although Plutarch’s explanation is also incorrect.

  107. instructions laid down … a cock: Also noted at Moralia 238f.

  108. exploit … by means of … intelligence: At ch. 29 Hannibal will bring about Marcellus’ death by way of deception.

  109. fourth term as consul: In 210.

  110. his enemies: It is clear from Livy’s (very different) account of this episode that Marcellus was facing criticism from Marcus Cornelius Cethegus (consul in 204) and Titus Manlius Torquatus (consul for the first time in 235); see Livy 26.26 and 32.

  111. fellow-consul: Marcus Valerius Laevinus, who, in Livy’s account, was the one unavailable when the Sicilians first arrived.

  112. seating himself … in his curule chair … charges: Plutarch represents this matter as if it were a trial, thereby creating a parallel with Pelopidas’ trial at Pelopidas 25. In Livy (26.29–32), what is at issue is the formalization of Marcellus’ disposition of Syracuse after its defeat.

  113. constant benefactor: This is the first instance known to us of a Roman conqueror’s becoming the benefactor and patron of a community conquered by him, and the Claudii Marcelli continued in that role. Valerius Maximus (4.1.7) cites Marcellus’ behaviour here as an example of Roman moderation.

  114. garlands … sacrifices to the gods: Syracuse also commemorated its conquest by Rome in an annual festival in honour of Marcellus, the Marcellia (Cicero, Against Verres 2.4.151).

  115. principal Samnite cities: Salapia (modern Trinitapoli), Marmoreae and Meles (Livy 27.1).

  116. Gnaeus Fulvius: Consul in 211; his command in Apulia had been extended by the senate.

  117. when these letters were read … alarm: Livy (27.2) says simply that the Romans continued to fear for the future.

  118. Numistro: Modern Muro Lucano.

  119. Quintus Fulvius dictator: Quintus Fulvius Flaccus was consul for the first time in 237; he was to be appointed dictator in order to conduct the elections.

  120. derivation … declare: This is the etymology given by Cicero, The Republic 1.63, and Varro, On the Latin Language 5.81.

  121. This is the derivation … edicta: Both etymologies are also canvassed at Dion. Hal. 5.73.