precocious nuisance, an infant prodigy, because, at the age of nine, he
expressed a desire to accompany his father to the wars; though there is
scarcely an infant of those tender years who, if asked "whether he would
like to go with his papa," would not answer "yes," as a matter of
course, without having the slightest notion where he might be going to.
Young Hannibal is said to have learned the art of war in the camp, and
to have gone into arms before he could be considered fairly out of them.
Before leaving Carthage, his father administered to him a soldier's
oath, and the boy swore like a trooper that he would be Rome's
implacable enemy.
[Illustration: _Hannibal, whilst even yet a child, swears eternal hatred
to the Romans._]
On succeeding to the command in Spain, he was twenty-six years old--a
proof that promotion had been very rapid in his case; and, although
merit may have had something to do with his rise, there can be little
doubt that he owed much to interest. Adopting the policy of his
predecessor, he attempted to engrave his name in the hearts of the
Spaniards by the agency of the sword; and he may be said to have
literally thrust himself upon them, though they were often bored to
death by his too pointed attentions. All the South of Spain was under
his thumb, with the exception of Saguntum, which had hitherto slipped
through his fingers. He proceeded, therefore, to take it immediately in
hand, when the Saguntines sent for assistance to Rome, whose Senate
resolved unanimously that Hannibal could not attack the place; but when
a copy of the resolution reached him, he had already begun besieging the
city. He sent word to the ambassadors who brought the intelligence out,
that they would display a sad want of intelligence if they ventured to
come too near to him; and, as he had no time to go to them, they had
better retire. Acting upon his suggestion, they repaired to Carthage,
where they demanded that Hannibal should be given up; and there being
some hesitation among the Carthaginian Senate, Q. Fabius, one of the
Roman ambassadors, made a fold in his toga as if he had some mystery
wrapped up in it. "Here," he exclaimed, "is either peace or war,
whichever you prefer;" to which the Senate, in a spirit rather
military than civil, replied, "Whichever you think proper." Fabius,
throwing back his toga, and assuming an imposing attitude, exclaimed,
"Then I offer you war;" when the Punic Senators, taking up his last
word, raised through the senate-house a shout of "War," which, vibrating
through every pillar, was conveyed by every post, and echo sent back an
immediate answer.
[Illustration: His Excellency Q. Fabius offering Peace or War to the
Carthaginian Senate.]
This was a declaration of that Second Punic War, for which Hannibal
began to prepare when Saguntum, after having held out for eight months,
was starved into submission. Though rich in the precious metals, and
particularly in silver, the Saguntines experienced the bitter truth,
that to be born with a silver spoon in one's mouth, is but an empty
gratification, after all, when the spoon has nothing in it. Hannibal
sacked the city, and converted into baggage all the loose silver he
could find, which he kept in hand for the purpose of glutting the
avarice of his troops, whose valour depended materially on other
people's metal.
The battle of Saguntum was signalised by the introduction of a weapon
called the Falarica, which was in one respect a species of firearm,--for
its point was covered with flaming pitch and tow, that, when pitched
with effect, carried fire into the ranks of an enemy. It was, perhaps,
fortunate, that inventive ingenuity had not gone very far among a people
who seemed only disposed to throw away the little they possessed of it,
in the form of destructive missiles.
FOOTNOTES:
[45] Diod. 5.
[46] Aretæus de Morb. diut. Cur. i.
[47] The first public exhibition of the kind at Rome took place B.C.
244, at the funeral of the father of Marcus and Decius Brutus; but the
Ædiles carried out the idea on what they considered a grand scale, and
immense numbers of gladiators were sacrificed for the "amusement" of the
people.
[48] It may be hinted to the student that the Dying Gladiator in the
Museum at Rome is no gladiator, but a Gaul; and the collar round his
neck, supposed to be a mark of disgrace, is, in fact, the Torques, a
symbol of honour. The sculpture is Greek, and belongs to a period of Art
long previous to the introduction of gladiatorial displays.
CHAPTER THE SEVENTEENTH.
THE SECOND PUNIC WAR.
We have now arrived at the great historical drama of the Second Punic
War, which some authorities have divided into five acts; the principal
part being undertaken by Hannibal, and the scenery being laid in Italy,
Spain, Sicily, and Africa. The first act opens with the passage of
Hannibal over the Alps, which forms one of the most remarkable passages
in the life of that renowned soldier. In the second act we arrive at the
taking of Capua; and in the third, we see Hannibal on the look-out for
reinforcements, which never arrive from his brother Hasdrubal. The
fourth act brings us to Italy, from which the Carthaginian commander
makes a forced exit; and for the last act of all, the scene is changed
to Africa, when the curtain and 20,000 Carthaginians fall together.
Hannibal having resolved on the part he was about to play, called
together those who were to act with him in the stirring scenes in which
he intended to figure. His company consisted of 90,000 foot, 12,000
horse, and an unrivalled stud of 37 elephants. With this troop he
crossed the Pyrenees, by means of slopes, which nature had kindly
provided, instead of platforms. The first incident of importance which
happened on the way, was a mutiny among those, who, when they arrived at
the foot of the mountain, protested against being brought to such a
pass; and Hannibal wisely sent the discontented back, that the
insubordination might go no further. Forty thousand foot retraced their
steps, and 3000 horse backed out, on the opportunity being offered them.
With the rest of his army, he reached the banks of the "arrowy Rhone,"
which he found particularly arrowy when he made an effort to cross; for
he did so under a shower of darts from the Gauls, who thus pointedly
objected to his progress. The hostility manifested towards the invaders
was not simply on account of their appetite for conquest, but their
appetite for food was productive of a most inconvenient scarcity. To
provide every day for 60,000 soldiers was difficult enough, but there
was something awful in the idea of the daily dinner-party being
increased by 9000 hungry horses, and nearly 40 healthy elephants. The
passage of the Rhone was a matter of considerable difficulty; for the
horses stood plunging on the banks of the river, instead of plunging
boldly into it. The elephants were still less tractable, and were, after
much trouble, pushed or persuaded on to a raft, covered with earth and
bushes, to make it resemble dry land; but it no sooner began to move,
than the unwieldy animals felt themselves and their confidence seriously
shaken. This caused them to crowd together to the edge; and, while
taking this one-sided view of their position, they turned the matter
over so completely, that they all fell in with one another, and most of
them came to the same conclusion. Continuing his journey, Hannibal
arrived at the bottom of the Alps, and, coming to the foot of St.
Bernard, he extracted from the foot all the corn he could lay his hands
upon. The weather was, unfortunately, so severe that the cold nearly
broke his army up into shivers; while provisions were so scarce that at
one time there seemed to be no chance of anything to eat but ice, and
though the air was thoroughly gelid, it was impossible to live on it.
Tradition tells us, that when Hannibal came to this point of his journey
he found two brothers in the middle of a fight for a crown; but what was
the country to which the crown belonged, or whether the article was a
mere bauble that had been picked up in the road, or whether the crown
was a sum of money representing the stake for which the brothers fought,
we have no means of determining. The combatants, at all events, agreed
that Hannibal should arbitrate between them; when, adopting the
principle of "Age before honesty," he adjudged the article in dispute to
the elder of the litigants. The decision did not involve any very
remarkable acuteness on the part of the umpire, who seems simply to have
sided with the big brother against the little one. The successful
claimant was so delighted with the judgment delivered in his favour,
that he placed a large stock of clothes, for the army, at the disposal
of Hannibal. Some fearful misfits arose from this neglect of the
wholesome maxim, "Measures, not men," for there was not a man whose
measure could have been properly taken.
It was now time to undertake the ascent of the Alps, and to commence
operations on a scale so grand, that all former experience in scaling a
height, was little better than useless. Many of the soldiers at the
sight of the mountains, instead of rising with the occasion, sunk with
it into a fainting state; and others objected to venture into the snow,
on the ground that they did not understand the drift of it. Hannibal
represented the whole affair as a mere nothing; and added, that the
passage over the Alps was not such very up-hill work after all, for that
men, women, and even children, had often been quite up to the work he
now proposed to cut out for his army. "Soldiers!" he exclaimed, "you
have no choice, except between certain famine on one side of the Alps,
or fertile plains, which you may see plainly enough in your mind's eye,
on the other." Hannibal having made this brief speech, was rewarded with
loud cheers; the army followed him, and proceeding to the passes, he
found them lined with Gauls; but he tore the lining out in the most
merciless fashion.
On reaching the Valley of the Tarentaise, Hannibal was offered guides,
whom, however, he distrusted; and refusing, therefore, to be led away by
specious promises, he sent his baggage by way of experiment; intending,
when he heard of the safe arrival of his soldiers' trunks, to despatch
by the same route their entire body. When the elephants came within a
stone's throw of the Gauls, the latter hurled down rocks in vast masses
on the affrighted beasts, and snowballed them with the snow from the
loftiest part of the mountains. The assailants, however, completely
missed their aim, for Hannibal threw himself upon them, and succeeded in
completely crushing them.
[Illustration: Hannibal crossing the Alps.]
It was a fine October morning when the Carthaginian general set out to
cross the Alps by the road over the Little St. Bernard, and after a nine
days' march, which was at that time a nine days' wonder, he reached the
top of the mountain. The fatigue endured by Hannibal and his army cannot
be described, and the toils of the journey were aggravated by the
chance of their falling into the toils and snares of the enemy. Little
passed their lips in the shape of food, and very little passed their
lips in a contrary direction, for they were afraid to speak, lest their
words should disturb the impending avalanche. The way was rugged, save
where it was carpeted by the snow; but even where it was trodden hard
enough to serve as a sort of track or guide, they could scarcely trust
to it, for it gave them the slip every now and then in the most
unsatisfactory manner. On the tenth day they began their descent: and
they, perhaps, little thought at the moment that in quitting the top of
the Alps they were coming down to posterity. The two first days slid
away merrily enough over the ice and snow, but on the third they arrived
at a point where the ground had slipped out of its place, and left to
the enterprising travellers a far from eligible opening.
The shifting of the earth had, in fact, put them to the most perplexing
shifts, for the old road had perversely gone out of its way to baffle
the travellers, and lay at the distance of 1000 feet below them. As
Hannibal looked down upon the chasm, his spirits fell for a moment; but
he speedily rallied, and determined, rather than allow his army to
perish with cold, that he would make a way with them. Nature, however,
opposed him by means of a mass of rock; and as he and Nature were at
variance, he began to think how he could best split the difference. How
he made his way cannot be confidently stated, though several of the
learned,[49] who have gone deeply into the subject, have come out of it
in opposite directions; and the authorities cannot be said to clash, for
they are as wide apart as possible. Tradition, who never fails to take a
trenchant way of getting through a difficulty, settles the point at
once, by attributing to vinegar the success of Hannibal's scheme; but
the vinegar must have been sharp indeed to have cut asunder the rocks
which barred the progress of the illustrious traveller.
It is difficult, also, to conceive how he could have carried with him
the liquid in sufficient abundance to enable him to accomplish the
object he had in view, and we are inclined to the belief that it was by
continued assiduity, rather than by a mere acid, that the wondrous task
was effected. A good-sized cruet full of vinegar would produce no
impression on a common pebble, and when we imagine how many hogsheads
after hogsheads must have been necessary to moisten the rocks through
which Hannibal passed, it can only be the sheerest pig-headedness that
would still obstinately adhere to the supposition we have stated.
The passage of Hannibal over the Alps may be regarded literally as one
of the grandest passages in history. Though subsequent generals have, in
some degree, generalised the achievement, the special merit of it
belongs to the Carthaginian leader, whose superiority over his followers
consists in the fact that they did but find the way, while he might
have claimed the credit of making it. The exploit of Napoleon has been
compared to that of Hannibal, though the former, after all, did but
follow what had been, for two thousand years, a beaten track; the latter
being the individual who beat originally a track for himself, and
thoroughly vanquished every obstacle.
At length, after having nearly lost himself in the Alps, Hannibal found
himself, at the end of a journey of fifteen days, in the plain of Turin.
On mustering his army, he discovered that considerable reductions had
taken place in it; for the foot, which had stood at 50,000 when he
crossed the Rhone, had now dwindled to less than half the number. He had
lost 3000 horse, and his stock of elephants had materially
diminished--the few that remained having become so thin, that there was
a striking falling off in the material as well as the numbers of the
body. So little had his visit been expected, that the Romans were not
prepared for it; and Scipio, who ought to have been waiting at the foot
of the Alps, did not arrive at Pavia until Hannibal had had time to
recruit himself after his late fatigue. Here both armies met, and Scipio
gave battle; but Hannibal's cavalry gave it to him in a sense more
familiar than satisfactory. In the course of the engagement, the Roman
general received a wound, which wound him up to the highest pitch of
rage; and he would have exposed himself to certain death, if his son had
not valiantly rushed between him and the enemy.
The Romans now began to rate each other for having underrated the
strength of the foe; and Tib. Sempronius was recalled from Africa, where
he was wasting his time by wasting the coast in the most unprofitable
manner. Hannibal pitched his camp on the banks of the Trebia, where,
among the bushes, he found for his army a convenient ambush. Sempronius
had by this time joined Scipio, who was still a great invalid, and being
generally indisposed, was not at all disposed for battle. Sempronius, on
the other hand, thinking he should obtain all the glory that was to be
acquired, felt eager for the fight; and Hannibal, from the other side of
the river, assumed the most provoking attitude, in order to tempt the
Romans to come after him.
At length, some of the guards became so irritated, that they volunteered
into the cold-stream, and plunged into the icy river. There happened to
be at the moment a fall of snow, which was taken by the wind into the
faces of the soldiers, who, nevertheless, fought with bravery, though in
appearance they seemed to exhibit a mass of white feathers. The Romans,
though nearly frozen to death, were not only cool and collected, but
eagerly sought, in the hope of warming themselves, the heat of the
battle. They were, however, completely beaten, and retired to Placentia,
from which the Consuls, with much self-complacency, sent to Rome an
account of the battle, in which they attributed to the wind the blow
they had sustained, and, plausibly suggesting the ice as the cause of
their failure, they endeavoured to slip out of it.
Hannibal determined to pass the winter as quietly as he could, but he
appears, according to the authorities,[50] to have indulged in a little
masquerading, for the purpose of deceiving the Cisalpine Gauls, who more
than once conspired to kill him. He would frequently change his dress;
and he appears to have had a large assortment of wigs, in one or other
of which he was accustomed to disguise himself. Sometimes he would
appear in hair of the richest brown, and at other times it was of the
reddest dye; so that the people were puzzled to understand how the same
head could, on one day, appear covered with the luxuriant chestnut, and
on another day, disfigured with an untidy bunch of carrots. On one
occasion, when a conspiracy against him was ripe, he came to the council
with a limping gait, and thus saved himself from a much more serious
hobble.
[Illustration: Hannibal disguising himself.]
In the spring of the next year, the Consul, C. Flaminius, was sent to
Ariminum with an army, and Hannibal started for Etruria. This
expedition--if expedition is the proper term for an affair so extremely
slow--lasted three days and three nights; the soldiers proceeding
through marsh and morass, through thick and thin, to the end of their
journey. The Spaniards went first, who picked their way, followed by the
Gauls, who stuck in the mud, and were spurred on by the swords of the
Numidians, who followed. All the horses were knocked up, and Hannibal,
to whom all the glory of the march has been given, endured the least of
the fatigue, for, while the common soldiers were wading through the mud,
their chief was elevated on the back of the only surviving elephant.
The advantages of a high position were, in this instance, strikingly
exemplified, for if Hannibal had moved in the humbler walks on this
occasion, the probability is, that he could not have walked at all; but
that, sinking in the marshes, he would have gone down--in a swamp--to
posterity. He, himself, lost the use of one of his eyes, though, indeed,
he exhibited throughout this disastrous affair an unusual amount of
shortsightedness. After reaching Fæsulæ, now Fiesole, near Florence, he
made for Rome, and Flaminius made after him as far as Cortona; but
Hannibal, turning sharp round the corner of the Lake Trasimenus; ran
unperceived up the heights, getting round to the rear of the Roman
general, who thought the foe was still in front of him. While Flaminius
was pressing forward, Hannibal and his forces fell upon him right and
left, as well as behind, and a fog coming on at the time added to the
perplexity of the Consul, by preventing him from seeing his danger. A
fight in a fog is one of the most dismal pictures that can be described,
if, indeed, it can be called a picture at all, when nothing can be seen,
and the whole is a mere daub, caused by a fearful brush between two
conflicting armies. Such was the fury of the fight, that it is said an
earthquake, which happened at the time, was unperceived by the
combatants; and, indeed, so shocking was the carnage, that a shock of
nature might have sunk by its side into comparative insignificance.
15,000 Romans were slain, and those who are always ready to prophecy
after an event, began to see clearly in certain omens that had happened
some time before, the cause of all that had lately happened.
A shower of stones had fallen at Picenum, but it does not appear whether
those who told the story of the stones had a hand in throwing them. In
Gaul a wolf had swallowed the sword of a sentinel; and in Cœre the
answers of the oracle were suddenly written in smaller characters--a
proof only that the oracle had got from text into round-hand--the
ordinary result of improved penmanship.
The battle had undoubtedly been fearful in its results, for Flaminius
himself was slain; and 15,000 Romans having been cut to pieces, were
thrown into a brook, which still bears the name of Sanguinetta, from its
being turned into the colour of blood, though the statement is too
extravagant to have the colour of probability. The horrors of the war
were great enough without the aid of exaggeration, and though the
instances of suffering were no doubt great, we are inclined to doubt the
story, that the Numidians went without their allowance of wine, in order
to wash the feet of their horses; for, though the animals might have
been unable to do without their hock, they could surely have dispensed
with their Falernian.
On the news of Hannibal's victory reaching Rome, the prætor announced
the distressing circumstance to a numerous meeting of the people, who,
in the absence of the Consul, took upon themselves to appoint a
dictator. Q. Fabius Maximus was chosen, and the mastership of the horse
was conferred on M. Minucius. Hannibal was expected at Rome, but, like a
wise general, he defeated general expectation, and proceeded to
Spoletum, a Roman colony, which he hoped would have held out great
advantages; but it held out with great spirit against him. Wishing to
avoid the inconvenience of a siege, and of sitting down before the city
with nothing but a marsh to sit down upon, he marched into Picenum,
which contained abundance of everything necessary for the support of his
army. His soldiers were afflicted at this time with a cutaneous disease,
and, though this annoyance was only skin-deep, he feared a general
breaking-out, if he had detained them against their will in an unhealthy
country. From Picenum he passed into Apulia; and though he was
disappointed in the hope that the inhabitants would join him, they were
too weak to resist, and he turned every Italian city into an Italian
warehouse for the supply of the comestibles he required. The dictator
Fabius followed at a short distance, but always taking the high ground,
by hovering about the hills and keeping the upper hand of Hannibal.
His intention was to proceed to Casinum, but by some stupid
misunderstanding, the general led the way to Casilinum, and the result
was, that Fabius got ahead of him. On the mistake being discovered by
Hannibal, he got 2000 oxen--but where he got them from does not exactly
appear--and, having procured several thousand bundles of wood, he tied
them to the horns of the animals. Having set the wood on fire, he turned
the oxen out among the Romans, whose quarters soon were thrown into the
sort of confusion prevalent in a London thoroughfare on a Smithfield
market-day. In order to inflame the oxen, their horns had been covered
over with pitch, which gave them an inclination to toss, and the poor
creatures were running about in all directions, under the influence of
fear and fury. Fabius is said to have mistaken the cattle for the
Carthaginians, and to have rushed forwards, sword in hand, resolved on
butchery. The Romans were thus drawn out of their favourable position,
and Hannibal slipped into it, leaving the bulls to decide by a toss-up,
if they pleased, the chances of victory over their aggressors. On the
mistake being discovered by Fabius, he backed out as well as he could,
and ventured on a few skirmishes, in which he met with some success, but
he continued his policy of trying to tire out the enemy.