The Rise of Rome: The Making of the World's Greatest Empire (66 page)

15
  
To me the bonniest square miles
Ibid., 13–16. Hymettus is a mountain range in Attica famous for its bees. Venafrum is a plain in central Italy crossed by the river Volturnus, where olive trees flourished.

16
  
army of more than thirty thousand men
Strabo 6 3 4.

17
  
Later, because of their prosperity
Ibid.

18
  
offered their services as neutral mediators
Livy 9 14 1.

19
  
Postumius was invited
The episode that follows was recorded in Dio 9 39 3–10 and Dio of H 19 5 and 6.

20
  
“This time they did not laugh”
App Samn 7 3.

21
  
a famous anecdote of Plutarch’s
Plut Pyr 14 2–7.

22
  
Archaeologists have discovered some of the tablets
This paragraph is indebted to E. S. Roberts, “The Oracle Inscriptions Discovered at Dodona,”
Journal of Hellenic Studies
, vol. 1, 1880.

23
  
“Lord Zeus, Dodonean, Pelasgian Zeus”
Hom Il 16 233ff.

24
  
During the great war
Paus 8 11 12. According to Peter Levi, “Sicily” is probably one of the small hills above Syngrou Street, on the way to the Piraeus.

25
  
“construe the advice according to his wishes”
Dio 9 40 6.

26
  
Those issued under Pyrrhus’s aegis
See CAH 7 pt. 2, pp. 4636.

27
  
By this time the elephants were boxed up
Arr 5 17.

28
  
Pyrrhus jumped up
Plut Pyr 15 3–4.

29
  
“the mass of people were incapable”
Ibid., 16 2.

30
  
“they fought out their country’s battles”
Ibid., 16 2.

31
  
King Pyrrhus to Laevinus, Greeting
Dio of H 19 9–10. Whether Dio is quoting from the original correspondence or making it up, the sense of the exchange is historical.

32
  
“The discipline of these barbarians”
Plut Pyr 16 5.

33
  
Granicus
The accounts are contradictory. The best hypothesis has Alexander send his army to cross the river Granicus uncontested downstream at night, surprising the Persians in the morning. See Green,
Alexander of Macedon
, Appendix.

34
  
“Another victory like this”
Plut Pyr 219.

35
  
“King Pyrrhus and the Epirotes”
CAH 7 pt. 2, pp. 468–69.

36
  
“He is like a player with dice”
Plut Pyr 26 2. The speaker was Antigonus Gonatas, the king of Macedonia.

37
  
“After being cut to pieces”
Zon (Dio) 8 4.

38
  
“I commend you, Pyrrhus”
Ibid.

39
  
“His words have won me”
Plut Pyr 14 2.

40
  
Cineas brought with him
Ibid.

41
  
fashionable women’s dress
Zon (Dio) 8 4.

42
  
The terms he proposed
App Samn 10 1.

43
  
“Up to this time, I have regarded”
Plut Pyr 19 1.

44
  
“council of many kings”
Ibid., 19 5.

45
  
“ready speaker”
Cic Brut 14 55.

46
  
archaeologists unearthed a stone box
For this paragraph, see CAH 7 pt. 2 pp.471–72.

47
  
He had lost a great part of the forces
Plut Pyr 21 10.

48
  
Whichever party may need help
Polyb 3 25 3–5.

49
  
Punic
Carthaginian. Latinization of
phoinix
, the Greek word for Carthaginian.

50
  
Wheeling round he pushed through
Plut Pyr 24 3.

51
  
“Many roads to death”
Ibid., 31 2.

52
  
with their purple costumes
Plut Pyr 8 1. For “the poise of his neck,” see Plut Alex 4 1.

53
  
“My friends, what a wrestling ring”
Plut Pyr 23 6.

11. All at Sea

Livy is still absent. Polybius, most accurate of ancient writers of Roman history, arrives in force. Cassius Dio, Diodorus, and Appian assist. An inscription describes Hanno’s travels. The Bible throws light on Punic religion.

  
1
  
the fleet sailed out
The account of Hanno’s journey is given in full in Warmington, pp. 7 4–6. (Müller, K. [1965]:
Geographi graeci minores
. 1 1–14). The inscription, on which Hanno’s dispatch was recorded and which has now disappeared, was translated from Punic into Greek. Scholars have disagreed about its authenticity, but the story it tells is internally consistent and fits the geography. Since the dispatch was made public, it is reasonable to assume that some details were altered or omitted to deceive any potential rivals, especially in the earlier parts.

  
2
  
western limits of the known world
Pind 4 69.

  
3
  
They unload their goods
Her 4 196.

  
4
  
lack of water and blazingly hot weather
Arr Ind 43 11–13.

  
5
  
Thirty-five days had elapsed
Ibid.

  
6
  
an Egyptian Pharaoh with a penchant
Her 4 42

  
7
  
quoted by a fourth-century
A.D
.
Latin author
Avienus in his geographical poem,
Ora Maritima
(“Sea Coasts”), pp. 114–29, 380–89, 404–15.

  
8
  
“I will stop the music of your songs”
Ezek 26:13–14.

  
9
  
“transformed from Tyrians into Africans”
Dio Chrys 25 7.

10
  
“If you have bought land”
Col Re Rust 1 1 10.

11
  
often cited by Greek and Latin authors
Especially Col Re Rust.

12
  
“getting bees from the carcass”
Ibid. 9.14.6.

13
  
By comparison, Rome’s walls
See Dyson, p. 18.

14
  
Beyond [the wall], the city rose in tiers
Flaubert, p. 44.

15
  
On the island was built
App Pun 96.

16
  
[They] are a hard and gloomy people
Plut Mor 7990.

17
  
“so that no one could sacrifice his son”
2 Kings 23:10 (
Good News Bible
).

18
  
“They have built altars for Baal”
Jer 19:5.

19
  
In their anxiety to make amends
Dio Sic 20 14 4–6.

20
  
parents saved their own infants
Plut Mor 171 C-D.

21
  
“It was to the lady Tanit”
CIS i 5507.

22
  
“an excellent form of government”
Arist Pol 2 8.

23
  
“Carthage would not have maintained an empire”
Cic Rep 1 frag 3.

24
  
They followed up this action
Polyb 1 7 3–4.

25
  
“pity for those at risk”
Dio Sic 23 1 4.

26
  
“they would prove the most vexatious”
Polyb 1 10 6.

27
  
“for want of judgment and courage”
Ibid., 1 11 5.

28
  
“The truth is otherwise”
Dio fragment 11 43.

29
  
Two men rowed with each of the top two oars
Possible alternative arrangements were five men rowing with one oar or three men to an upper and two to a lower oar.

30
  
It was not a question
Dio fragment 1 20 12.

31
  
A Punic quinquereme
Some have questioned this story, arguing that Rome could have borrowed the naval skills of the Tarentines. But it would seem that they did not have quinqueremes (if they had, surely they would have lent them to Rome with their other ships). Carthaginian ships were recognized as being the best afloat.

32
  
[The trainers] placed the men
Dio fragment 1 21 2. 227
perhaps by stoning
Oros 4 4 8.

33
  
They locked him in a dark and deep dungeon
Aul Gell 7 4 3. The historian was Quintus Aelius Tubero, either father or son. Polybius does not mention the story of the return to Rome, which surely he would have done if it had taken place, and so it has been discredited. As for Regulus’s torture, this may have been confected to justify his widow’s alleged torture of two Carthaginian POWs. See CAH 7, pt. 2, p. 556.

34
  
“Let them drink”
Suet Tib 2 2 2.

35
  
“If only my brother were alive”
Suet Tib 2 4.

36
  
“It is perfectly proper to assist”
App Sic (Constantine Porphyrogenitus,
The Embassies:
1).

37
  
In the end the contest was left drawn
Polyb 1 58 5–6.

38
  
“Even though my country submits”
Corn Nep Ham 1 5.

39
  
“the longest, the most continuous”
Polyb 1 63 4.

12. “Hannibal at the Gates!”

Polybius is the main and most reliable source, with Livy telling much the same story, but his is more highly colored. Cautious use is made of Dio, Diodorus Siculus, and Appian.

  
1
  
“I was nine years old”
Polyb 3 11 5–7. In the original, this passage appears in indirect speech.

  
2
“Hannibal ad portas” Cic Fin 4 9 22.

  
3
  
became besotted with an attractive young aristocrat
Corn Nep Ham 3 2.

  
4
  
charges of maladministration
App Han 2 2.

  
5
  
“inflicted on him all kinds of torture”
Polyb 1 88 6.

  
6
  
A child tore his ear
Flaubert, pp. 245–46.

  
7
  
“It is impossible to discover”
Polyb 3 2 8 1.

  
8
  
Later on after the conclusion
Dio Sic 25 8.

  
9
  
labor force of forty thousand slaves
See Miles, pp. 219–20.

10
  
an embassy to Hamilcar
Dio 12 48.

11
  
“fast asleep”
Polyb 2 13 7.

12
  
Reckless in courting danger
Livy 21 4 5–8.

13
  
notorious among his fellow citizens
Polyb 9 26 11.

14
  
“We will not overlook this breach”
Ibid., 3 15 7.

15
  
driven by starvation to cannibalism
Aug Civ 3 20.

16
  
When the women watched the slaughter
App Span 12.

17
  
The senior member of the delegation
Polyb 3 33 2–4.

18
  
Twenty years had passed
It is an oddity of history that the Second Punic War began after the same interval as that between the First and Second World Wars of the twentieth century and that, like the Germans, the Carthaginians felt that they had not been truly defeated, had been forced to pay excessive reparations, and had unfairly forfeited sovereign territory.

19
  
ninety thousand infantry and twelve thousand cavalry
All the numbers in this paragraph come from the usually numerically conservative Polybius (Polybius 3 35).

20
  
A legendary personality
This section is indebted to Miles, pp. 241–55.

21
  
He saw a vast monstrous wild beast
Cic Div 1 24 49.