Silius Italicus' Punica: Rome's War with Hannibal 1138291455, 9781138291454

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SILIUS ITALICUS’ PUNICA

This book offers, in one volume, a modern English translation of all seventeen books of Silius Italicus’ Punica. Composed in the first century CE, this epic tells the story of the Second Punic War between Rome and Hannibal’s Carthage (218–202 BCE). It is not only a crucial text for students of Flavian literature, but also an important source for anyone studying early Imperial perspectives on the Roman Republic. The translation is clear and comprehensible, while also offering an accurate representation of the Latin text. Augmented by a scholarly introduction, extensive notes, glossary, and a comprehensive bibliography (included in the introduction), this volume makes the text accessible and relevant for students and scholars alike. Antony Augoustakis is a Professor of Classics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. He is the author of Statius, Thebaid 8 (2016), Motherhood and the Other: Fashioning Female Power in Flavian Epic (2010), as well as several edited volumes. He is the editor of The Classical Journal. Neil W. Bernstein is a Professor in the Department of Classics and World Religions at Ohio University, USA, where he has taught since 2004. He is the author of Seneca: Hercules Furens (2017); Silius Italicus: Punica 2 (2017); Ethics, Identity, and Community in Later Roman Declamation (2013); and In the Image of the Ancestors: Narratives of Kinship in Flavian Epic (2008).

SILIUS ITALICUS’ PUNICA Rome’s War with Hannibal

Antony Augoustakis and Neil W. Bernstein

First published 2021 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2021 Antony Augoustakis and Neil W. Bernstein The right of Antony Augoustakis and Neil W. Bernstein to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record has been requested for this book ISBN: 978-1-138-29145-4 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-26539-1 (ebk) Typeset in Sabon LT Std by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.

CONTENT S

Introduction

1



PUNICA 1

8



PUNICA 2

25



PUNICA 3

42



PUNICA 4

59



PUNICA 5

79



PUNICA 6

95



PUNICA 7

111



PUNICA 8

129



PUNICA 9

145



PUNICA 10

160



PUNICA 11

176



PUNICA 12

191



PUNICA 13

210



PUNICA 14

232

v

CONTENTS



PUNICA 15

249



PUNICA 16

268



PUNICA 17

284

Glossary

300

vi

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Silius Italicus’ life and career As with most Roman poets, we know relatively little about the life of Tiberius Catius Asconius Silius Italicus. We infer that he was born between 25 and 29 CE from the one securely datable event of his early career, the consulship that he held in the year 68 CE. His contemporaries, the poet Martial and the imperial bureaucrat Pliny the Younger, inform us about Silius’ forensic career. Silius was active as an advocate, probably in the last years of the emperor Claudius’ reign (41–54 CE). He served as a prosecutor under the emperor Nero (54–68 CE) and was appointed as consul in 68 CE, the final year of Nero’s reign. Upon Nero’s death in the summer of that year, a civil war broke out between various aspirants to the throne, which culminated in the accession of the emperor Vespasian early in 70 CE. Historians conventionally refer to this eighteen-month conflict as the “Year of the Four Emperors.” As a consul, the highest office in the imperial state after the emperor, Silius must have had an important role in the war, but we can only catch glimpses of it. The Roman historian Tacitus (Histories 3.65) mentions his role as a witness in the secret negotiations between Vitellius, one of the warlords who briefly seized the throne in 69 CE, and Flavius Sabinus, Vespasian’s brother. Vespasian’s victory established the 25-year Flavian dynasty; he reigned until his death in 79 CE, followed by his sons Titus (79–81 CE) and Domitian (81–96 CE). We can infer that Silius enjoyed a successful career under Vespasian. The emperor appointed Silius to the governorship of Asia Minor (77/78 CE), modern-day Western Turkey, one of the wealthiest and most important provinces of the Roman Empire, where an inscription is preserved with his name. Pliny the Elder (Letters 3.7) records the poet’s death some time between 101 and 106 CE. In Letter 3.7, Pliny the Younger provides a sketch of Silius’ life, especially his withdrawal from public affairs at some point between 78 and 80 CE, when he devoted himself to poetic pursuits. Silius’ poem on the Second Punic War (218–202 BCE) had earned him a literary reputation by the time Martial published the fourth book of his Epigrams around 88 CE. Silius 1

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hosted gatherings where part of his poem was recited, a common practice among Roman elites at the time. Of his two sons, Lucius Silius Decianus was consul in 94 CE, while we also hear about his younger son Severus’ death at a young age. At some point later in life, Silius withdrew to his villa in Campania (perhaps in 95–96 CE), where he was famous as an art collector and devotee of Virgil, celebrating the great poet’s life and especially the poet’s tomb. In particular, Pliny says that Silius “was a great connoisseur; indeed, he was criticized for buying too much. He owned several houses in the same district, but lost interest in the older ones in his enthusiasm for the newer ones. In each of them he had quantities of books, statues, and portrait busts, and these were more to him than possessions—they became objects of his devotion, particularly in the case of Virgil, whose birthday he celebrated with more solemnity than his own, and at Naples especially, where he would visit Virgil’s tomb as if it were a temple.” Pliny also comments on Silius’ style saying that “he took great pains over his verses, more than inspiration (maiore cura quam ingenio).” It was at the dawn of the second century CE that Silius decided to end his life by abstaining from food after long suffering from an incurable disease (possibly cancer). Silius was one of the four major poets active in the Flavian dynasty whose work survives to us. Other authors of epic poems included Valerius Flaccus, author of a poem on Jason and the Argonauts, and Statius, author of the Thebaid, the story of the war at Thebes. The satirical poet Martial frequently mentions his patron Silius in his Epigrams (4.16, 6.64, 7.63, 8.66, 9.86, 11.48, and 11.50). Further Reading: Augoustakis (2010, 3–6), Littlewood (2011, xv–xix), Littlewood (2017, xii–xvi), Bernstein (2017, xiii–xv).

Structure of the Punica When Silius began composing his poem remains uncertain, as is the date of his withdrawal from public affairs. It is plausible to assume that the whole project took several years to complete; he may have begun after 80/81 CE and worked over the next fifteen or more years. We can also surmise that Silius composed the poem sequentially, while also revising parts or whole books during the process. We cannot know with certainty whether Silius finished his poem just after Domitian’s death in 96/97 CE, but scholars (like Marks) point out that the poem belongs to the period of the Flavian regime, not to that of Domitian’s successors Nerva (96–98 CE) and Trajan (98–117 CE). Old age or illness may have forced Silius to quit and thus leave the Punica unfinished in seventeen books, in contrast to the eighteen books of the first Roman historical epic, the Annales of the poet Ennius (c. 239–169 BCE). Several proposed schemes have divided the books into groups of two, three, six, and so on, but none are particularly compelling. 2

INTRODUCTION

The poem opens with an introduction to the causes of the war and Hannibal’s siege of Saguntum (Books 1–2) in 218 BCE. In Book 3, the Carthaginian general crosses the Pyrenees and the Alps, before inflicting major catastrophes in northern Italy at the Ticinus and the Trebia rivers (Book 4) and Lake Trasimene (Book 5) in 217 BCE. In Book 6, a digression narrates Regulus’ exploits in Africa and Rome during the First Punic War (264–241 BCE), before transitioning to Fabius’ assumption of the ­dictatorship at the end of the book and Hannibal’s destruction of a temple at Liternum. Book 7 is dedicated to Fabius and his delaying tactics, which manage to forestall further Roman defeats. In the central Books 8, 9, and 10, the greatest battle of the Roman world takes place at Cannae (216 BCE). Silius then relates the battle’s aftermath and Scipio’s prevention of some aristocratic Romans’ efforts to flee the country. Book 11 marks the decline of the Carthaginian army, as Hannibal spends time in Capua and succumbs to the city’s luxury. In Book 12, Hannibal attacks cities in Campania, then launches a futile attack against Rome. The supreme god Jupiter saves the city and pushes the Carthaginians away. The Romans capture Capua in Book 13 (211 BCE), and Scipio travels to the Underworld where he meets illustrious Romans of the past and future, including the ghosts of his parents. Marcellus’ Sicilian campaign occupies Book 14 (212 BCE). In Book 15, Scipio leads a successful Spanish campaign (209 BCE), and the Roman army conquers the army of Hannibal’s brother Hasdrubal (207 BCE). In Book 16, Hannibal’s decline is evident through various defeats, and Scipio celebrates funeral games for his deceased father and uncle in Spain. Finally, Book 17 narrates Hannibal’s withdrawal from Italy and the decisive battle at Zama (202 BCE) that ends the war. Further Reading: Marks (2005, 287–88), Augoustakis (2010, 6–10).

Sources Pliny’s obituary for Silius emphasized his deep knowledge of literature. The Punica reflects the poet’s wide reading, not only of poetry, but also of history, philosophy, geography, and ethnography. Silius engages deeply with the Latin epic tradition, adapting the classics such as Ennius’ Annales, Virgil’s Aeneid, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses, as well as more recent work such as Lucan’s Civil War. He also responds to the poems of his contemporaries, Valerius Flaccus’ Argonautica and Statius’ Thebaid and Achilleid. Above all, the Punica is an epicization of history, combining historical narrative with elements of mythological epic. The Punica’s historical narrative reflects Silius’ use of prose historiography. An important section of Livy’s comprehensive history of Rome, From the Foundation of the City books 21–30, is Silius’ most important prose source. Livy provided the narrative framework for Silius’ poem, covering major events such as the siege of Saguntum and the series of defeats from the Ticinus to Cannae in detail. He used other historiographical sources 3

INTRODUCTION

as well, such as the early Roman annalist Valerius Antias, whose work no longer survives to us but is reflected in the Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus. Valerius Maximus’ collection of anecdotes, Memorable Deeds and Sayings (written in the 30s CE), provided the poet with moralizing material related to the Punic Wars. Silius also employed Polybius’ Histories, a Greek narrative of the Punic Wars, in addition to Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War, a narrative that exhibits certain similarities and provides the opportunity for comparison to Roman affairs. Silius departs on several occasions, however, from the historiographical record. For example, he invents a son for Hannibal in order to give him dynastic aspirations, and compresses events that are fully narrated by Livy. The second half of the Punica shows particular compression, as the narrative hastens to reach the conclusive battle of Zama and Scipio’s triumph at Rome. The example of Virgil’s Aeneid stands behind many of Silius’ narrative choices, from the oath Hannibal takes at Dido’s temple in Carthage in Book 1 to the final storm at sea in Book 17 that brings him back to Africa; Jupiter’s prophecy regarding the future of the Roman empire in Book 3; and Scipio’s epic descent to the Underworld in Book 13. Hannibal has often been associated with Virgil’s Turnus, Aeneas’ opponent, while Scipio is often linked to Aeneas, Virgil’s hero in the Aeneid. We should notice, however, that both heroes combine traits of both Aeneas and Turnus, as well as their Homeric counterparts, Achilles and Hector. At the same time, Lucan’s protagonists, Julius Caesar, Pompey, and Cato, also provided models for Hannibal and Scipio in the Punica, as the poet alludes to all these literary figures in various episodes. And finally, Silius did not write in a vacuum, but in dialogue with his contemporaries Valerius Flaccus and Statius. Further Reading: Ahl, Davis, and Pomeroy (1986), Ganiban (2010), Gibson (2010), Pomeroy (2010), Marks (2010), Littlewood (2011, xix–lxii), Littlewood (2017, xvi–xxiv), Bernstein (2017, xv–xix, xxxvii–xli).

Heroes In the Punica, there are several characters that are given prominence during the course of the long poem. Hannibal and Scipio emerge as the most important characters, the leaders of the two armies that finally face off at Zama. But Fabius, Paulus, and Marcellus are equally significant for the development of the war in Books 7, 10, and 14. In contrast to the Aeneid, where Aeneas is the sole protagonist and rarely absent from the narrative, the Punica multiplies its central figures: from Hannibal who takes center stage from the very beginning, to Fabius who keeps the Romans protected with his delaying method, to Paulus who dies heroically at Cannae despite his warnings not to give battle, and lastly to Scipio, who grows older and matures as a general by the end of the poem. Hannibal initiates the action of most of the books, from his capture of Saguntum (1–2), to the crossing 4

INTRODUCTION

of the Alps (3), to the many defeats he inflicts on the Romans (4, 5, 8–10), to his campaigns in Campania and against Rome (11–12). Scipio eventually emerges as the final conqueror of Carthage as Hannibal’s strength fades. The focus of the narrative narrows to the struggle between these two leaders over world domination. Heroism receives a complex treatment in the Punica. It is not made clear whether Hannibal is an anti-hero, or a tragic hero who has no chance of winning in the face of the Roman Empire’s fated victory. Scipio is equally enigmatic: he is an exemplary figure of heroism and leadership, but his absolute rule by the poem’s end prefigures Roman autocracy. Through his story set in the middle Republic, Silius sketches the history of Roman imperial rule that began with Augustus’ victory at Actium in 31 BCE. Other prominent leaders such as Fabius or Marcellus lack the necessary stature to triumph over the Carthaginians. When confronted by the Carthaginian threat, the Romans at first do not display the appropriate leadership to defeat their enemies. Rather, they are plagued by indecision, internal conflict in the Senate, dirty politics in the Forum, and demagoguery, as exemplified by characters such as Flaminius and Varro. The crushing defeat of the Roman army at Cannae is, therefore, a pivotal moment for Roman identity. Without it, the rise of Scipio and the transition to one-man rule would not have been possible. That is why Silius places the battle in the center of his work, even though it occurred early in the war. Further Reading: Marks (2005), Dominik (2010), Fucecchi (2010), Ganiban (2010), Tipping (2010), Chaudhuri (2014), Stocks (2014).

The text of the poem and our translation Silius’ work was popular throughout antiquity; adaptations and imitations of the Punica appear in Latin poetry through the sixth century CE. At some time in the Middle Ages, however, the Punica suffered the fate of many other Latin classics. Knowledge of the poem was lost until 1417, when the scholar Poggio Bracciolini rediscovered a manuscript in St. Gallen, Switzerland. He made a copy, from where all subsequent manuscripts and printed editions of the poem ultimately derive. We have used the standard edition of the Latin text by Joseph Delz and noted the few occasions on which we have chosen a different reading. Our translation is aimed at English-speaking undergraduate readers. Silius writes in the standard poetic meter of classical epic poetry, a sixbeat line called the dactylic hexameter. We have chosen to render the poem in prose, as most contemporary readers will still find a long narrative poem in English to be an unfamiliar form. We have further assumed that readers have not yet studied the Latin language or Roman culture. Where possible, we explain some matters in the text of the translation. For example, where Silius has simply written “Mars,” we have written “Mars the war god.” 5

INTRODUCTION

Like other Roman poets, Silius uses a wide variety of names for the empire’s peoples. He refers to the Romans as Rutulians, Oenotrians, Romulus’ people, etc.; and to the Carthaginians as Phoenicians, Libyans, Cadmus’ people, etc. The names are beautiful in themselves, and their varied uses are highly effective as poetry. The poet activates different mythological associations in appropriate contexts and makes a war that took place in historical reality seem to take place in the time of gods and heroes. We have assumed, however, that first-time readers will find the plethora of names confusing, and so have reduced them to Romans and Carthaginians. Further Reading: Delz (1987), Augoustakis (2014).

Acknowledgments and dedication Neil Bernstein was primarily responsible for Books 1–2, 4–5, and 7–11, while Antony Augoustakis for 3, 6, 12–17, the Introduction, and Notes. We have both read and edited each other’s work carefully. This has been a collaborative process from the beginning, and an extremely enjoyable one from which we both have learned much about history and poetry. Miranda Christy, Clayton Schroer, and Rachel Thomas provided invaluable assistance with the Glossary and editing. Neil Coffee, Michael Dewar, Kyle Gervais, Micaela Janan, Raymond Marks, and Claire Stocks kindly read portions of the translation and offered many helpful comments and suggestions. We would like to thank Amy Davis-Poynter and Elizabeth Risch and their team at Routledge for their support of the project. Neil Bernstein dedicates this book in loving memory of his father, Leonard S. Bernstein (1941–2016). He also expresses the deepest gratitude to his family, Danielle Bernstein, Yi-Ting Wang, Hannah Wang Bernstein, and Isabelle Miranda Wang Bernstein, who have cheerfully supported yet another book. Antony Augoustakis would like to thank his family for the continuous support of yet another Flavian book.

Bibliography for further reading Ahl, F., Davis, M. A., and Pomeroy, A. (1986). “Silius Italicus.” Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt 2.32.4: 2492–2561. Augoustakis, A. (2010). Brill’s Companion to Silius Italicus. Leiden. Augoustakis, A. (2014). “Silius Italicus.” Oxford Bibliographies in Classics, http:// www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195389661/obo9780195389661-0163.xml, accessed 02 July 2020. Bernstein, N. (2017). Silius Italicus, Punica 2. Oxford. Chaudhuri, P. (2014). The War with God: Theomachy in Roman Imperial Poetry. New York. Delz, J. (1987). Silius Italicus, Punica. Stuttgart. Dominik, W. J. (2010). “The Reception of Silius Italicus in Modern Scholarship.” In Augoustakis (2010): 425–447.

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Fucecchi, M. (2010). “The Shield and the Sword: Q. Fabius Maximus and M. Claudius Marcellus as Models of Heroism in Silius’ Punica.” In Augoustakis (2010): 219–239. Ganiban, R. (2010). “Virgil’s Dido and the Heroism of Hannibal in Silius’ Punica.” In Augoustakis (2010): 73–98. Gibson, B. (2010). “Silius Italicus: A Consular Historian.” In Augoustakis (2010) 47–72. Littlewood, R. J. (2011). A Commentary on Silius Italicus’ Punica 7. Oxford. Littlewood, R. J. (2017). A Commentary on Silius Italicus’ Punica 10. Oxford. Marks, R. (2005). From Republic to Empire: Scipio Africanus in the Punica of Silius Italicus. Frankfurt. Marks, R. (2010). “Silius and Lucan.” In Augoustakis (2010) 127–53. Pomeroy, A. (2010). “To Silius through Livy and his Predecessors.” In Augoustakis (2010) 27–46. Stocks, C. (2014). The Roman Hannibal: Remembering the Enemy in Silius Italicus’ Punica. Liverpool. Tipping, B. (2010). Exemplary Epic: Silius Italicus’ Punica. Oxford.

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Introduction to the poem [1] I begin to sing of the arms by which the glory of Aeneas’* descendants raised itself to heaven and fierce Carthage endured Roman rule. Let me recall, Muse,* the excellence of ancient Italy’s labors; how great and how many the men that Rome created for war, when the Carthaginians, Cadmus’* race, betrayed the holy treaty and entered a contest over rule.1 In which citadel would Fortune at last set the head of the world? For a long time that was in question. [8] In three sinister wars, the Carthaginian rulers smashed the treaty sworn before Jupiter and the senators’ agreements. Three times the criminal sword persuaded them to rupture and defile the settled peace. But in the second war, the two peoples worked in turn to end and destroy each other. Those to whom victory would be given were closer to danger. The Roman leader unbarred the Carthaginian citadels. The Punic ramparts lay siege to the Palatine hill,* but Rome’s walls defended her safety.2 Permit me to lay open the causes of such anger, the hatred preserved with eternal zeal, the weapons handed down to descendants, and to disclose divine plans. And now I shall seek the beginnings of such great turmoil. [21] Dido* once fled across the sea from her brother Pygmalion’s* land, a kingdom polluted by his crime. She was thrust to Libya’s* fated shore.3 She paid a price for a site to settle and placed new walls where she had

1 Silius returns repeatedly to the theme of Carthage’s violation of treaties with Rome. Like other Latin poets, he draws on a mythological narrative in which the Carthaginians are descendants of the Phoenician royal house, including king Agenor and his sons Cadmus and Phoenix. See the Introduction. 2 Silius refers to two events of the Second Punic War: Scipio Africanus’ victory at Zama (202 BCE) that prompted the Carthaginian surrender, narrated in Book 17; and Hannibal’s opportunity to attack Rome after the battle of Cannae (216 BCE), narrated in Book 12. 3 Silius uses the mythological story of Carthage’s founding by Dido, as made famous in Virgil’s Aeneid. Dido and a group of refugees fled to North Africa, where they founded Carthage after being permitted to purchase as much land as they could surround with strips of a bull’s hide.

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been permitted to encircle the beach with strips of a bull’s hide. Here Juno* wanted to found an eternal race from these exiles, in preference to Argos,* in preference even to the palace most welcome to her at Agamemnon’s* Mycene* (thus the ancient generations believed). But then she saw great Rome lift its head higher than other cities and even send its ships across the seas to bring the victorious Roman battle-standards through the whole world. Juno feared encroaching danger and goaded the Carthaginians’ hearts with madness for war. But the first war crushed their attempt, and the Sicilian waters shattered their undertaking.4 And yet Juno took up renewed arms and tried once more. One leader, Hannibal,* provided all for her as she troubled the earth and prepared to roil the sea.

Hannibal’s youth [38] And now warlike Hannibal took on all of the goddess’ anger. Juno dared to set him alone against fate. She rejoiced in the bloodthirsty man and was not ignorant of the destruction soon coming in a savage whirlwind against the Latin kingdom. “The Trojan exile Aeneas spurned me,” she said. “He brought into Latium* Troy* and the Penates,* the household gods that already were captured twice. The conqueror founded a kingdom at Lavinium* for the Trojans. Let him have done this—so long as the banks of the River Ticinus* shall not have room for the Roman corpses. The River Trebia* shall flow backward through the Celtic* countryside. Blocked by men’s weapons and bodies, it shall become a river Simois* from Trojan blood for me.5 Lake Trasimene* shall shrink back in fear at its own pools, disturbed from great carnage. So long as I shall look down on high at the battlefield of Cannae,* Italy’s grave, and the Iapygian* plains drowned in Roman blood. The River Aufidus,* doubtful of its course, its banks drawn together, shall hardly be able to break its way through to the Adriatic* shores as it passes through men’s shields and helmets and slashed limbs.”6 The goddess said these words and fired up young Hannibal for warlike deeds. [56] Hannibal’s spirit was eager for conflict and hostile to good faith. He was outstanding in cunning, but he strayed far from the right. When armed, he disdained the gods, he was evil in his courage, and he despised peacetime honors. Thirst for human blood burned deep within his marrow, and in addition he was flourishing in the bloom of youth. He longed to erase the defeat at the Aegates Islands,* his ancestors’ disgrace, and to drown the

4 The Roman defeat of the Carthaginian navy in March 241 BCE at the Aegates Islands, off Sicily, marked the end of the First Punic War. 5 As Silius draws on the mythological tradition that the Romans are the descendants of the Trojans, he describes their defeat at the River Trebia as the spilling of Trojan blood. 6 Juno here briefly catalogs the series of Roman defeats at the beginning of the Second Punic War, culminating in the massive loss at Cannae in 216 BCE.

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treaty in the Sicilian seas. Juno gave him this plan and exercised his heart with hope of praise. Even then, he penetrated the Roman Capitol* in his nightly visions or headed with rapid marching across the highest Alps.* Also, his slaves at the door to his room often feared his troubled sleep and his fierce voice in the night’s deep silence. They found the man covered in much sweat, fighting future battles and waging imaginary wars. [70] When Hannibal was a boy, his father Hamilcar’s* madness added fury against Italy’s borders and Saturn’s* lands. Hamilcar descended from the race of ancient Barcas* of Tyre* and counted his distant ancestors from the god Ba’al.* When widowed Dido had fled from enslaved Tyre, this young man Barcas, a descendant of Ba’al, had avoided the dire tyrant’s impious arms and had joined himself in all of her misfortunes. Hamilcar had a noble lineage, and his hand was famous in war. As Hannibal first learned to speak and his tongue could make distinct sounds, his father, skilled at nourishing madness, sowed the idea of war with the Romans in the boy’s breast. [81] There was a temple in the middle of the city consecrated to the ghost of Dido, the founder of Carthage. The Carthaginians worshipped it with ancestral reverence. Pines and yew trees set around hid it away in rough shadows and blocked the light of the sky. As they said, the queen had once set herself free of mortal anxieties in this place. Statues stood there in gloomy marble: Dido’s ancestor Ba’al and the entire series of Ba’al’s descendants; Agenor,* the glory of the race; and Phoenix* who gave an enduring name to his land Phoenicia. Dido herself sat there, forever united with her husband Sychaeus* at last. The Trojan sword lay before her feet.7 A hundred altars stood in a row to the sky gods and to the powerful Underworld. [93] Here came the Massylian* priestess, her hair loosened, dressed in hellish clothing. She called upon Proserpina,* the goddess of Enna,* and the River Acheron.* The earth roared, and terrifying hisses shot forth through the shadows. Fires lit by no one blazed up on the altars. Then the ghosts, called up by the priestess’ magic spell, flew through the void. The marble face of Dido’s statue sweated. At his father’s command, Hannibal came here to the innermost temple. Hamilcar examined his son’s face and bearing as he entered. The boy did not turn pale at the priestess’ wild rage, nor at the temple’s dreadful rites, nor at the threshold sprinkled with gore, nor at the flames that sprung up at the door hinge’s creaking. [104] Hannibal’s father stroked his son’s head and kissed him and roused his spirit with exhortation and filled him with these words: “The Trojans’ reborn race is oppressing Cadmus’ Carthaginian descendants with an unfair treaty. If the Fates* have denied me the chance to remove this disgrace from our country with my own hand, then may you, my son, wish this as your own glory. Come on now, plan a war that will bring destruction to the

7 Dido committed suicide with her Trojan lover Aeneas’ sword.

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Romans. Let Tuscany’s* young men already fear your origins, and as you grow may Latin mothers refuse to bring forth their children.” [113] Hamilcar spurred on the boy with these goads and added an oath that was not gentle to say: “When I’m old enough, I’ll pursue the Romans on land and sea, and I’ll repeat the fate of Troy. The gods shall not block me, nor the treaty that holds back war, nor the high Alps, nor the Tarpeian Rock.* I swear to this intention by the divinity of our god Mars,* and by your ghost, queen Dido.” [119] Then they sacrificed a black animal to the three-form goddess Hecate.* The priestess quickly opened the panting corpse in search of the gods’ responses, and she consulted the soul as it fled in death from the entrails that she had hurriedly exposed. And when she entered the gods’ minds, which she had sought following her ancient art’s tradition, she spoke at last as follows: [125] “I see the plains of Aetolian* Diomedes*8 widely strewn with soldiers and the lakes seething with Trojan blood. What a mass of cliffs rises far away toward the stars! Your camps hang in midair on its heights! And already your ranks are rushing down from the crags. Terrified cities burn, and the land stretched beneath the western sky is alight with Carthaginian fires. Behold, the River Po* runs with blood. Marcellus,* who was third to bring the rich spoils in triumph to Jupiter the Thunder God,9 lies on top of arms and men, his face grim. Alas, what a wild tempest bristles with sudden clouds, and fiery ether flashes as the sky splits apart! The gods are planning great things. High heaven’s kingdom thunders, and I see Jupiter in arms.” [137] Juno forbade her to know any more about upcoming fate, and the animal’s entrails suddenly fell silent. The setbacks and long efforts lay hidden. So Hamilcar left his plan for war concealed in his secretive breast and made for Cadiz* and the Rock of Gibraltar,* the furthest point for human beings. The Carthaginian leader fell in a fierce battle, as he brought African battle-standards to the Pillars of Hercules.*

Hasdrubal* crucifies king Tagus* and is murdered in turn by Tagus’ loyal slave [144] Meanwhile, the reins of power were handed down to Hasdrubal. He harassed with evil rage the kingdoms where the sun sets and the Iberian people and the men who lived by the River Baetis.* This commander had a grim spirit, his anger could not be soothed, and savagery was the outcome 8 In Apulia, where the Carthaginians inflicted a severe defeat on the Romans at the battle of Cannae in 216 BCE. 9 When a Roman general killed the enemy leader in single combat, he could dedicate the armor as “rich spoils” to Jupiter Feretrius at Rome as part of a triumphal procession. In 222 BCE, Marcellus killed Viridomarus, chief of the Insubrian Gauls, and thereby became the third and last person in Roman history to dedicate the rich spoils.

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of his reign. The madman was bitter in his love of bloodshed and thought it an honor to be feared. He was unwilling to satisfy his rage with the usual punishments. He crucified king Tagus, who was from an ancient lineage, excellent at speaking, and respected for his courageous deeds. Hasdrubal, heedless of gods and men, nailed10 the king to a tall tree without funeral rites and displayed him triumphantly to the grief-stricken people. [155] Throughout the caves and riverbanks, the Spanish nymphs mourned for Tagus, who took his name from the gold-bearing stream Tagus.* He would not have preferred the Maeonian* stream, nor the River Pactolus’* Lydian* waters, nor the plain which is washed by flowing gold and turns yellow as the River Hermus’* sands cover it. He was the first to enter handto-hand combat and the last to put aside battle. When he spurred his swift horse, sitting high with the reins let loose, a sword could not halt the man, nor a spear from a distance. Everyone recognized Tagus’ golden armor as he flew triumphantly onward through both the Roman and Carthaginian ranks. [165] After Tagus’ slave saw him hanging from the dire cross, deformed in death, he secretly seized his master’s favorite sword. Swiftly, he burst into the court and dealt wounds again and again to Hasdrubal’s merciless breast. But the Carthaginians, on fire with anger and disturbed by grief, a people made happy by savage deeds, rushed to bring the torture instruments. The fires did not cease, nor the glowing metal, nor blows everywhere that sliced the slave’s lacerated body with countless assaults, nor the torturer’s hands. They poured destruction deep within his marrow and flames shone in the middle of his wounds. It was cruel to see and to tell about. The art of savagery stretched his limbs, extending them as far as the tortures commanded. His heated bones smoked as his limbs were liquefied after all the blood vessels burst. Yet the slave’s mind remained untouched: he overcame the suffering and laughed at it as if he were an onlooker. He reproached the torturers whose effort had exhausted them and loudly demanded a cross like his master’s.

Hannibal assumes supreme command of the Carthaginian forces [182] In the middle of this pitiable revenge, a punishment that the victim scorned, the army was fearful at the loss of its commander, Hasdrubal. They demanded Hannibal with one voice and keen eagerness. He represented an image of his father’s valor that kindled their enthusiasm for him. So did the story that spread among the people of the war that he had sworn against the Romans. So did his youth ripe for daring and the passion for war that did him honor, as well as his mind armed with stratagems and his inborn talent for speaking.

10 We read suffixum as opposed to Delz’s reading suffossum.

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[189] The Libyan peoples were first to hail Hannibal as commander by acclamation, and soon after the Pyreneans* and the warlike Spanish did likewise. Straightaway fierce self-assurance arose in Hannibal’s mind as such a vast expanse of land and sea yielded to his authority. Africa lies tortured beneath the burning constellation Cancer,* seething with south winds sent by king Aeolus* and the Sun god’s torch. It is either a huge flank of Asia or the third part of the world. The Nile,* the Lagid* dynasty’s river, marks its boundary on the side of rosy dawn as it pushes back the swollen sea from its seven mouths. But where a gentler climate sees the Great and Little Bear constellations,* the Straits of Gibraltar divide the lands at the Pillars of Hercules. From neighboring heights, Africa looks at the plains of Europe separated from itself. [200] Further than this, the Ocean blocks Africa, and Atlas,* who will always bear heaven upon his bent head, does not permit his name to extend further. His head in the clouds, Atlas holds up the stars, and his lofty neck forever supports heaven’s framework. His beard is white with frost, and pine woods cover his forehead in enormous shadow. The winds sweep across his hollow temples, and foaming rivers rush across his cloudy grimace. The high seas also wear away the twin cliffs that form his flanks. A steaming whirlpool covers over the Sun’s flaming chariot when the tired Titan* submerges his panting horses in the Ocean. [211] But where Africa stretches into wasteland, it bears serpents and seethes in abundant venom. It is fertile where a temperate climate benefits the rich fields. Neither Ceres’* Enna* in Sicily nor Egypt’s farmers can outdo it. Here and there the Numidians exult, a people who do not know the bridle. As if at play, they rapidly guide their horses with a switch between the ears that is inferior in no respect to the bit. This land is the nurse of wars and warlike men, yet it does not trust in the bare sword without deceit. [220] Spanish cohorts filled Hannibal’s other camp, auxiliaries acquired as the prizes of Hamilcar’s European victories. Here the warhorses’ neighing filled the fields, there upright steeds rushed pressed against their battle yokes. The axle does not run hotter in Olympic chariot races. The Spanish people value life at little and hurry on death very easily. For when they outlive the vigorous years of youth, they become impatient with living and refuse to get acquainted with old age. The means of death is in their hands. Every metal is found here: the veins of electrum shine pale from their double source, and the rough earth nourishes iron’s dark progeny. But a god tried to hide these causes of crime. The greedy Asturians dive into the torn earth’s deepest bowels and the unfortunate men return the same color as the gold they have dug. Here the Durius* and the Tagus Rivers compete with the Pactolus and the river11 that turns glittering sands over the Grovians,* bringing Lethe’s*

11 The River Lima in Portugal.

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hellish oblivion to the peoples. The land is not unsuitable for Ceres’ grain nor unfit for Bacchus’* grapevine, and no other land boasts more about Minerva’s* olive tree. [239] After these people yielded to the Carthaginian tyrant and gave him the reins of state, he guided them using his father’s statecraft. At one time Hannibal overturned their Senate’s decrees with arms, at another time with bribery. He was the first to undertake hard work, the first foot soldier to seize the path forward, and the first to take part if fortification work was required. He was no laggard either in the other matters which excite praise. He denied his body sleep and passed the night on watch in arms, at other times sprawled upon the ground. Standing out in his battle cloak, he competed with the tough companies from the Libyan ranks. The leader rode high up before his mighty columns to push forward his command. [250] Hannibal took furious rainstorms and the sky’s ruin upon his bare head. The Punic troops watched, and the terrified Asturians trembled, as Hannibal passed by on his startled horse, ignoring Jupiter hurling or thunderbolts mingling in the clouds or gusts of wind shook loose fires from the sky. Nor could Sirius,* the burning Dog Star, fatigue him, though he was worn out from the marching column’s dust. When fiery rays cracked the scorching earth, and the glowing sun’s midday heat baked the sky, Hannibal thought it unmanly to recline in the moist shade. He trained his thirst and turned his back when he saw a spring. He seized the reins and broke in battle horses that threw their riders; he loved his deadly arm’s reputation. At an uncharted river, he swam past resounding boulders and urged on his comrades from the other side. He was the first to stand atop a conquered city wall’s rampart. Whenever the swift fighter engaged in fierce combat on the battlefield, wherever he spread his steel, a wide path on the plain turned red. And so Hannibal pushed against fate, and he was resolved to break the treaty with the Romans, when he got the opportunity. Meanwhile, he was glad to involve Rome in his war, and he struck at the Capitol from the farthest lands.

Hannibal attacks the city of Saguntum* in eastern Spain [271] Hannibal’s war trumpets first roiled the gates of Saguntum. The hero first undertook this war out of desire for a greater war. Not far from the beach, walls built by Hercules* rose up on a gently sloping cliff. Zacynthus,* who was buried there, consecrated the high peak with his noble name. He had been returning to Thebes as Hercules’ companion in the ranks. They had killed Geryon,* and Zacynthus exalted that deed to the sky. For that monster had three souls, three armed right hands on his bodies, and he bore three heads on his necks. The earth saw no other man for whom one death

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was not able to make an end. The Fates, harsh sisters, had cut his threads twice before and were twisting the third. The rejoicing conqueror Hercules was displaying his spoils and calling his captive flocks to water in the midday heat. But then Zacynthus trod on a serpent whose poison the sun had heated. Its swelling jaws burst as it gave the Inachian* man a lethal wound and laid him out on the Spanish ground. [288] Soon after fleeing, settlers came to Saguntum, led by the south wind. They originated from the island of Zakynthos, which was surrounded by Greek waters and had once enlarged Laertes’* kingdom. Young men from Daunia* who lacked a place to settle next strengthened these humble beginnings. Ardea* sent them, which had once been abundant with a large population and ruled by great-hearted heroes, but it was now only a name.12 The Saguntine people had preserved their liberty and their ancestors’ glory with a treaty that denied the Carthaginians rule over their city. [296] The Carthaginian commander Hannibal broke the treaty and advanced his camps that burned for war. His columns shook the broad fields. Tossing back his head, the savage leader circled the city walls on his panting horse and surveyed the fearful buildings. Long since he had ordered the Saguntines to open their gates and yield to his fortifications. Treaties were far away for besieged people like them, Italy was far away, and there was no hope of pardon for the defeated. The senators’ decrees, their rights, loyalty, and the gods themselves were now all in Hannibal’s hands. [304] Hannibal, the bitter aggressor, swiftly confirmed his words by hurling a javelin and striking Caicus, who stood in arms before the walls, making empty threats. He collapsed in the middle of the armies as the missile passed through his guts. He returned the heated spear to the conqueror as he fell in death, limbs sprawled, from the steep rampart. Shouting mightily, the Carthaginians followed their leader’s example and covered the walls in a dark cloud of spears. The vast numbers did not conceal outstanding courage, but each man displayed his face to his leader as if he undertook the war all by himself. One man fired shots nonstop from his Balearic* sling. Twirling the light thong three times high around his head, he sent the missile into the air and entrusted it to the winds. Another man’s strong arm hurled shrieking boulders, and another launched spears from a light thong. [319] The commander Hannibal stood out before them all in his father Hamilcar’s armor. Now he hurled firebrands smoking with pitchy flame, and he eagerly rushed to attack, now with a club, now with a javelin, now with rocks. He aimed arrows dipped in poison from his bow, doubly dangerous missiles, as he taunted the enemy with his quiver’s trickery. He was like a Dacian* on the Getic* country’s arms-bearing shores who is glad to

12 The reading of the Latin phrase here is uncertain, and it is possible that a line is missing from the original text.

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hone his arrows in his homeland’s poison and shoot them without warning on the banks of the two-named River Danube.* [327] It was Hannibal’s concern to girdle the hill with a line of towers and encircle the city with numerous fortifications. Alas for Loyalty, a goddess to the people of old, but now known only to the world by name! The tough young men of Saguntum stood ready. They saw Hannibal snatch away their possibility of escape and his rampart shut them in their city walls. But they thought death for Saguntum worthy of Rome, that is, to die keeping their loyalty intact. So now they directed all their force more keenly. They drew back the Greek ballista’s groaning ropes and hurled forth huge boulders. Changing its mighty load of missiles, the same weapon shot out an ironclad ash tree and broke up the middle of the enemy ranks. Uproar resounded on both sides. The battle lines joined in a great struggle, as if encircling Rome itself with fortifications, and above it all they called out: [340] “So many thousands of us, people born under arms: now do we stand among a captured enemy? Does not this beginning, this omen cause shame? Look at our commander’s fine courage and his first sacrificial offerings. Are we getting ready to fill Italy with such rumors, to send advance notice of such battles?” [345] Their inflamed minds rejoiced, as if their marrows had absorbed Hannibal’s message, and they grew excited; the wars to come spurred them on. The squads invaded the rampart and lost their hands, cut off as they were thrown down from the walls. A lofty fortification rose up to place clusters of fighters in the city from above. The phalarica* that typically took many hands to aim armed the besieged defenders and held the enemy off from the gates. This missile was a terrible thing to see: a tree trunk chosen from the snowy Pyrenees’ lofty summits. Its enormous point brought such destruction that city walls could scarcely withstand it, while the rest of it smoked, smeared in thick pitch and daubed with dark sulfur. The phalarica rushed like a thunderbolt from the citadel’s high walls. Its quivering flame cut a furrow through the air, like a meteor’s fiery torch whose bloody trail dazzles the eyes as it runs from sky to earth. This weapon’s swift blows often hurled the warriors’ burning limbs through the air, as Hannibal looked on in amazement. It stuck in the side of a vast siege tower with tornado impact and sent fire deep within, consuming the wooden platforms. Burning ruin crushed together men and their arms. [365] At last, the Carthaginians pressed their arms together in a tight tortoise formation13 and advanced beneath the fortification. They lay open the collapsing city through a hidden breach in the undermined walls. As they overcame the rampart, Hercules’ laborious work collapsed with a terrible noise. Mighty boulders sent an enormous roar up to heaven as they broke

13 Roman infantry commonly formed the “tortoise” (testudo), a shield wall, as a defensive measure in combat.

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free. Just so when a mass of cliffs shears off from the sky-high ridges of the lofty Alps, the mountain splits into resounding fragments. Even then the undermined earthwork would have risen again in piles, and the collapsed fortification would have blocked the invaders’ advance, had not the ranks pushed forward immediately from one side and another to fight in the middle of the ruin.

Murrus enters combat [376] Murrus leapt out before all the others in the first bloom of youth, an outstanding warrior of Rutulian* blood. This same man was also a Greek thanks to his Saguntine mother, and from both parents he mixed descent from Dulichium* and Italy. As the Carthaginian Aradus called to his comrades with a mighty yell, Murrus saw the daring man’s movement from far off. He stopped him with his spear where his body was exposed between his breastplate and helmet. Murrus pushed down fallen Aradus with his spear and urged him on with his voice as he stood over him: “Deceitful Carthaginian, here you lie in death. For sure, you were going to be the first to mount the Roman Capitol in triumph. Such great presumption in your wish! Now bring your war to the supreme god of the River Styx.*” [386] Fired up now, Murrus hurled his spear and fixed it in […]’s14 groin, as he came against him. He trod on the man’s face as he choked in death. “Your road to Rome’s walls is this way, you fearsome troop of soldiers,” Murrus said. “This is the way you must go to where you are all hurrying.” [391] Soon after he dashed around Hiberus’ weapons, as he set to the battle once more. Murrus snatched away his shield and wounded his exposed flank. Hiberus had been rich in fields, rich in flocks; since fame was denied to him, he had waged wars against wild beasts with bow and spear. Alas! He would have been happy in the wilds and praised for his life in their shade, had he kept his arrows in his country’s woods. Ladmus pitied Hiberus and came against Murrus, intent on wounding him. Laughing at him fiercely, Murrus said: “You’ll tell Hamilcar’s ghost about my fighting hand. After it kills the rank and file, it’ll give you Hannibal as your companion.” And rising up, he struck the crested helmet’s bronze deeply with his sword. He shattered the crackling bones through the protective cover itself. [403] Then he killed Chremes, whose uncut locks overshadowed and hedged his forehead and whose hair imitated a bristly cap. Then he killed Masulis and Karthalo who was still flourishing for battle, tough in his old age, who did not fear to soothe pregnant lionesses. Then he killed Bagrada,* who had engraved an urn representing his river on his shield, and Hiempsal the Nasamonian* who plundered the vast Syrtes* sandbars,

14 The text reads Hiberi, “of Hiberus,” but this name must be an interpolation as Murrus goes on to attack Hiberus at line 391.

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who dared to capture wrecked ships in the surf. As one, they all fell to Murrus’ hand, and his rage destroyed them. Athyr died as well, who knew how to disarm snakes of their dire poison. His touch put dangerous watersnakes to sleep, and he used the horn-snake to test children of doubtful parentage. You, Iarbas the Garamantian,* dweller in prophetic groves, you also fell in death. You were known by the horns on your helmet bent back across the temples.15 Alas! In vain, you blamed lying Jupiter and the lots that often predicted your return. [418] And now the rampart had swelled as bodies piled up. The ruins seethed, drenched with dark slaughter. Now Murrus shouted eagerly, calling Hannibal to a duel. He was just like a thundering wild boar flushed out by barking Spartan* hounds, which has lost the safety of the woods thanks to the hunters’ onrush. The bristles stand erect on its shaggy back, and its mouth grinds bloody foam as it joins in its final battle. Even now it turns its two tusks, twin fires, against the hunting spears. [426] But in another part of the battlefield, a band of young men had broken out unexpectedly from the gates. Hannibal mixed with both ranks as if no hand or weapon could bring force or death against him. He raged here and there and swung the sword which aged Temisus from the Hesperides’* shore had made recently for him over an enchanted fire. Powerful with spells, Temisus trusted in his magical voice to make the steel harden. Hannibal was as mighty as Mars in the land of the Thracian Bistonians.* The god rushes far and wide in his warlike chariot and brandishes his weapons to repulse the Titans’* cohort. His horses’ panting and his chariot axle’s screeching direct the blazing battle. [437] And already Hannibal had sent down to the shades Hostus and red-haired Pholus and huge Metiscus, Lygdus, and Durius together and blond Galaesus, and the twins Chromis and Gyas. No one was better known than Daunus for moving audiences with a pleasing voice and shaping their thoughts through speech-making. Nor was there a wiser guardian of the laws. Daunus mixed bitter words in with his attack: “What madness inherited from your father led you here, Carthaginian? These are not Sidonian* buildings constructed by a woman’s hand or purchased for a price. This shore was not given to exiles and its sands were not measured out.16 You see the gods’ foundations and Roman treaties.” [448] But as Daunus hurled such boasts over the whole battlefield, Hannibal seized him with a mighty effort. He tore him amid the spears from the middle of a throng of men, bound his hands behind his back, and handed him over for deliberate anger’s punishment. He chided his own troops and ordered the battle standards to be brought forward. Full of rage, Hannibal showed them the way through the very piles of corpses and the

15 The Libyan god Ba’al Hammon was often represented with horns on his temples. 16 A reference to the foundation of Carthage; see n. 3 above.

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massacre of the dead. He called every man out by name. Never yielding, he showed them the city still standing as their prize to be plundered. [456] But some fearful soldiers brought Hannibal the news that an unlucky fight raged in a different part of the battlefield and that favoring gods had given this day’s victory to Murrus. Out of his mind, Hannibal left behind his mighty undertaking and rushed swiftly in a maddened sprint. The sparkling crests atop his helmet threatened death as they shook. In the same way, a comet’s fiery tail strikes fear into savage kings as it spreads bloody flame.17 Its dark torch sends forth ruddy-colored beams throughout the heavens. The glittering star threatens the lands with their demise, as its baleful light scintillates. [465] Weapons yielded their way to Hannibal’s headlong rush, as did the men and their battle standards. Both lines were fearful. His spear’s fiery point sent forth a dire light, and his shield boss shone far and wide. Just so sailors’ chilled hearts tremble when the Aegean Sea* rises up to the heavens. All along the shore, the mighty roaring of the northwest wind piles the ocean wave high on to the land. From far off the wind sounds, swelling with its blasts, and arched waves cover the terrified Cyclades Islands.* [473] Nothing held back Hannibal, not the unceasing missile fire from the walls, not the firebrands smoking in front of his face, not the boulders skillfully hurled by the ballistae.18 As soon as he saw Murrus’ shining helmet and his bloodstained armor, gleaming golden in the sun, he called out in rage: “Look at the man who would hold back the Carthaginian state and its great undertakings: Murrus, the delayer of war with the Romans! I’ll make it so that you may know already what your worthless treaties can do—even your precious Ebro River.* Take your holy faith and carefully guarded rights away with you and leave the cheated gods to me.” [482] “I’ve longed for you, and you’re finally here,” Murrus replied. “My mind long asked for battle with you and burned with the hope of claiming your head. Take the owed rewards of fraud with you and look for Italy deep beneath the earth. My right hand gives you the long road to the borders of Trojan Italy and the snowy Pyrenees and the Alps.” [488] As Murrus spoke, Hannibal saw his enemy coming toward him and trusted in the broken ground. He seized an enormous boulder from the shattered rampart and hurled it down at Murrus’ face as he struggled upward. The stone rushed downward, powered by the blow, and Murrus crouched as this tough fragment of the wall struck him. Then shame entered his mind. His self-conscious courage did not fail him, though he was pressed in a tough spot. He struggled forward, gnashing his teeth, and with weary effort he climbed over the forbidding rocks against his enemy.

17 Tyrants supposedly feared comets because they were thought to foretell a change in rule. 18 The ballistae were siege engines used to throw stones and other missiles.

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[496] But Hannibal drew closer and his radiance shone near him. He brought his massive bulk to bear. It was as if the eager ranks of Carthaginians surrounded Murrus and shut him in, and all the soldiers of Hannibal’s camp oppressed the fearful man. Then the sight of his mighty enemy clouded Murrus’ eyes. It seemed to him that a thousand hands and a dense crop of swords flashed all at once and countless crests nodded on Hannibal’s helmet. [502] Both battle lines cried out, as if fire flashed through all of Saguntum. Fearful Murrus dragged his limbs that were weakened as death drew close, and he uttered his final prayers: “Hercules, founder of our city, on our land we tend your holy footsteps. Turn away this threatening storm of battle, if my hand is not lazy as it defends your walls.” [508] As the suppliant prayed and raised his eyes to heaven, Hannibal said: “Hercules, god of Tiryns,* see if it will not be far more just to aid my undertakings. Unconquered Hercules, if my rival courage does not displease you, then you will recognize that I am not different from you in your early years. Bring your friendly divine presence and remember that you sacked Troy first. Be present and favor me, as I destroy the descendants of the Trojan race.” Thus the Carthaginian spoke, as he drove home his sword, pressed on by rage till the hilt stopped it. He drew out the weapon, and the fallen man’s blood drenched his fearsome armor.

Hannibal is wounded [518] Straightaway the Saguntine youth ran forward, shocked by the great warrior’s fall. They denied the arrogant victor, Hannibal, the chance to strip the renowned arms from Murrus’ body. A band of men came together, growing as they called to one another in turn, and advanced as a cohesive mass. On one side, their stones resounded against Hannibal’s helmet, while on the other, their spears against his bronze shield. The Saguntines attacked with stakes; eagerly they aimed lead shots and launched them. They shore the plumes from Hannibal’s helmet and tore apart the glory of his crests that nodded amid the slaughter. [526] Now huge sweat flowed over Hannibal’s dripping limbs and missiles stuck bristling in the scales of his corselet. Nor did he have pause or cover to change his position under the blows. His knees faltered, and his exhausted shoulders released their burden. Then steam billowed incessantly from his dry mouth as he panted. Shattered by his effort, he drew breath in deeply. They heard his groans and roaring that broke against his helmet. His mind mastered the obstacles. Hannibal rejoiced that his courage shone amid the tough circumstances and that he weighed his risks against the rewards of glory. [535] Here, amid the dense clouds, a sudden lightning bolt split the sky and shook the earth as it burst forth. Father Jupiter thundered twice above the fighting with redoubled lightning. Then through the clouds amid 20

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a dark whirlwind, a javelin avenging the unjust war came whirring, and its well-aimed point lodged in Hannibal’s opposing thigh. You, Tarpeian* cliffs, rock inhabited by the gods, and Trojan altars, flames lit by king Laomedon,* shining always on the Vestal Virgins’* altar—alas, how much the gods promised you with that missile’s deceptive image! If the javelin had pushed deeper into this madman Hannibal, then the Alps would remain barred to mortal man, and the Allia River* would not now yield to Lake Trasimene’s waves.19 [548] But from a peak of the high Pyrenees, Juno was watching Hannibal’s zealous beginnings and first enthusiasm for war. As she saw the spear being hurled and making the wound, she threw a dark cloud around herself and flew through the air. She tore the powerful spear from Hannibal’s hard bone. He covered the blood pouring over his limbs with his shield. Slowly dragging his footsteps little by little and alternating them with doubtful effort, he turned aside and yielded the rampart.

The Saguntines rebuild the rampart and choose envoys to send to Rome [556] At last, night buried land and sea in welcome shadow and ended battle by taking away the light. But the Saguntines’ tough minds remained awake: they replaced the rampart, the work of a night. Extreme danger sharpened the besieged people. Their final effort of courage grew more violent in their shattered circumstances. Boys and weak old men on one side, eager women on the other, all competed to bring aid to this pitiable labor in this time of uncertainty. Soldiers with dripping wounds carried stones. And now the senators and prominent elders were concerned for their obligations. They came together in a hurry and chose representatives. They begged their ambassadors and exhorted them to aid the city’s exhausted situation and bring back safety and to implore the Romans for arms in their final misfortune: [568] “Go swiftly, let oars and sails thrust your ship forward, while Hannibal, the wounded beast, is shut in his camp. It’s time to use this break from battle and head through danger toward fame. Go swiftly, lament our loyalty and collapsing city walls. Bring back a better fate for our ancient homeland. This is the sum of your orders: come back while Saguntum still stands.” And so the envoys hurried their steps to the nearest beach and fled across the foamy seas with swelling sails. [576] The dewy dawn, Tithonus’* wife, was expelling sleep. The sun’s ruddy steeds were panting at the high mountains with their first whinnies and were shaking their rosy bridles. And now the young men atop the

19 The Roman defeat at Trasimene in June 217 BCE, narrated in Punica 5, surpassed the disaster at the Allia River when a Gallic army destroyed a Roman one in 390 BCE.

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completed rampart pointed from the walls and showed that the defenses built overnight had closed the city. All action was suspended, the unhappy soldiers relaxed the siege, and zeal for fighting declined. Their concerns turned toward their leader, Hannibal, at such a crucial moment.

The Saguntine envoys travel to Rome [584] Meanwhile, as the Saguntines were carried over the far-flung seas, Hercules’ hills began to stand out from the ocean horizon. Monaco’s* cloudy rocks appeared on their cliffs. The Thracian* north wind alone held these crags, a harsh kingdom. Always freezing, at one time the wind strikes the seas, at another its shrieking wings pound the Alps themselves. But where it spreads across the land from the icy Bear constellation, then no other wind dares to rise in opposition. The north wind turns the seas in rapid vortices, as breaking waves pant and heaped-up whirlpools bury mountains. Now as it flies, it raises the Rhine* and the Rhône* Rivers to the clouds. [595] After the Saguntines evaded the wind’s dire fury, they sadly pondered their various misfortunes in war and on the sea. They spoke of the doubtful outcome of their affairs: “O my homeland, Loyalty’s famous dwelling, where now is your fate? Do your holy citadels still remain on the hills, or (alas, gods!) is ash only left from such a great name? Bring gentle breezes and arouse favoring winds, if the Carthaginians’ fires don’t yet mock our temples’ roofs and the Roman fleets can aid us.” They cried out such laments day and night, until their ship arrived on the Laurentine* shore of Latium. There Father Tiber’s* tawny stream flows down to the sea, its waves made richer by its tributary, the Anio.* From there, they entered the walls of Rome, their city’s kin.

The Roman senators receive the Saguntine envoys. Sicoris addresses the Roman Senate [609] The consul called together a revered council of senators, exalted in their pious poverty, who gained their names from military triumphs. The Senate’s courage equaled the gods’. Their spirited deeds and holy desire for justice raised up these men. Their hair was shaggy, and they neglected their banquet tables. They brought no lazy hands from the curved plow to the sword hilt. They lived easily with little and they did not lack wealth in their spirits. Often they returned in their triumphal chariots to small homesteads. [617] Captive chariots, the glory of war, hung on the holy doors and in the Senate house’s threshold. So did armor seized from enemy commanders and savage war axes, pierced shields, bloodstained missiles, and the bars of city gates. Here you could have seen the First Punic War: the Aegates Islands and ships’ beaks taken from a fleet scattered across the sea, testifying that Africa had been sunk in the ocean. Here were the Gallic Senones’* helmets 22

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and the wicked sword, the judge of measured gold, and arms from the Gauls put to flight from the citadel.20 Here was Camillus’* triumphal procession as he returned from exile. Here was the spoil of Pyrrhus,* descendant of Achilles, his standards from Epirus,* and the Ligurians’* bristling helmets, crude shields taken from the Spanish peoples, and the Alpine tribes’ long spears.21 [630] The envoys’ dishevelment made clear the horrid fighting and destruction. The image of Saguntum itself, making its final pleas, seemed to stand present before their eyes. Then elderly Sicoris began to speak sadly: “Holy race of Romans, famous for your loyalty! The people you defeat rightly confess that you were born for the sword, engendered by the god Mars. Don’t think that we have come over the sea for some trivial matter. We’ve seen our homeland besieged and our city walls trembling. We’ve seen Hannibal, born from crazy waves or beasts’ couplings. I beg you, gods, hold him off far from these walls of Rome. Confine the young man’s fateful hand to war with us! How immense his body as he hurls resounding javelins! How mightily he surges in his armor! He crossed the Pyrenees, spurned the Ebro River, and roused the Rock of Gibraltar. He moved to battle the people sunk in the Syrtes’ sandbar and looked for bigger city walls to conquer. Every Iberian and all of fierce Gaul formed his swift squadrons. Every thirsty African from the hot southern region looms over us.”22 [646] “The foamy waves surging in the middle of the sea will break on your cities, if you are lazy about stopping them. Or do you think that when he conquers Saguntum, dictating terms will be Hannibal’s only reward for such an uprising, and his sword’s destruction of the treaty as he rushes into the war that he swore to undertake? Come quickly, men, and put out this emerging flame, so that anxieties do not come back later after his danger has grown. If you had no fear that our city, the war’s seed, was not already overthrown and smoking, would you disdain extending a kinsman’s hand to your own Saguntum? I beg you, by the origins of the Rutulian race, which you have long honored, and Laurentum’s household gods, and the symbols of your mother city, Troy. Save the lives of dutiful men! Our ancestors were forced to leave behind the walls of Ardea, built by Acrisius’* daughter Danaë,* for Hercules’ towers in Saguntum.” [662] “You considered it a mark of honor to have assisted Messina* against the weapons of Hiero,* the tyrant of Syracuse. You also thought it worthy of your Trojan ancestors to have protected Capua’s* city walls

20 The Gallic Senones under Brennus demanded reparations payments in gold after the Roman defeat at the Allia in 390 BCE. Brennus arrogantly threw his sword on the scale crying “Woe to the conquered.” 21 Silius catalogs a series of Roman victories over various Ligurian, Spanish, and Alpine tribes in the First Punic War. 22 Delz has transposed lines 656–7 to here.

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by thrusting back the Samnites’* strength. Numicus’* springs and hidden pools, I swear by you that I am a former inhabitant of king Daunus’* territory. When Ardea, too prosperous for its own good, sent forth young men, I brought the name of Laurentum beyond the Pyrenees. I carried my ancestor Turnus’* holy relics and house and shrine. Why do you look down on me as limbs torn and cut off from your body? Why should our blood pay for the treaty?”

The Roman Senate debates going to war with Carthage [672] At last the envoys’ palms dropped, as Sicoris’ voice broke off. It was miserable to see their ragged clothing. They lay their dirty bodies flat on the ground. Then the Roman senators took counsel and argued about their concerns. Lentulus,* as if he saw Saguntum’s buildings burning, demanded that Hannibal be surrendered for punishment. He ordered that a swift war should burn Carthage’s territory if it refused. [679] But Fabius’* cautious mind spied into the future. He was not happy with doubtful circumstances, and he rarely urged provoking war. He was better at conducting war by keeping his sword sheathed. He thought that matters concerning such enormous decisions ought first to be evaluated: whether Hannibal had taken up arms from madness, or whether the Carthaginian senators had voted to advance their battle-standards. They should send men who would report what they found out. Meditating upon the coming war, Fabius poured it forth from the depths of his heart, foreseeing it like a prophet. Just so an elderly helmsman in his tall ship often sees from the stars that the northwest wind will come into his sails, and long before that pulls in the sheets from the top of the mast. But tears and grief mixed with anger pushed all the senators to hurry on hidden fate. The Senate chose envoys to approach Hannibal. If he remained in arms, deaf to the treaty, then the envoys would turn their course for Carthage’s citadels. They would not delay in declaring war against men who had forgotten the gods.

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The Roman envoys travel to Saguntum to order Hannibal to lift the siege, but are forced to depart for Carthage [1] Carried over the dark blue waves, the Roman ship was already bringing back the magnanimous Senate’s severe orders and the first men among the Fathers. Fabius, descendant of Tirynthian Hercules, was calling to mind his three hundred ancestors.1 Mars’ whirlwind destroyed them in a single day, when Fortune unfavorable to the undertaking stained the River Cremera’s* banks with patrician blood. His companion, Publicola, mighty Volesus’* Spartan descendant, shared the anxieties of an equal office. This man’s famous name evoked care for the people, and he headed the Roman Fasti* thanks to his consul forefather.2 [11] The news was brought to Hannibal that these men had furled their sails and entered port. They brought Senate decrees which sought a peace too late for a war already underway and likewise the punishment for the leader enumerated in the treaty. Swiftly Hannibal ordered armed companies all along the beach to display their threatening battle-standards and freshly drenched shields and weapons ruddy with slaughter. He called out to them that now there was no occasion for words, and that all resounded with the Tuscan trumpet’s blast3 and dying men’s groans. While the Romans had the opportunity, they should return over the sea and they should not hurry to include themselves among the besieged. It was well-known what is permitted to weapons smoking with slaughter, how much anger is able to accomplish, what the sword in motion dares. Thrust in this way from the

1 Three hundred and six members of the Fabian clan were defeated at the Cremera River in 477 BCE. 2 Silius associates the Publicola (elsewhere called P. Valerius Flaccus) who accompanies Fabius on the embassy to Hannibal with his legendary ancestor, one of the first consuls of the Roman Republic in 509 BCE. Volesus’ Sabine origins connect him with Sparta, where the Sabines were imagined to originate. 3 The war trumpet was an Etruscan invention.

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inhospitable shores by the leader’s command, the envoys turned their oars and made for the Carthaginian Senate. [25] Here the Punic commander, shaking his fist at the ship as it spread its sails on the deep, said: “It’s my head, by Jupiter! My head this ship looks to bring across the sea. Alas! Oh, blind minds and hearts swollen by success! The impious land seeks to punish Hannibal in arms! Don’t ask for me—I’ll be there! You’ll have your chance with me before you expect it. You’ll fear for your own gates and hearths, Rome, you who now are defending household gods. You can try once more to climb the Tarpeian cliffs and jagged rocks and retreat into your high citadel, but no amount of gold will ransom your lives once you are captured.”4 [36] These words inflamed his men’s spirits and added madness to arms. Straightaway clouds of missiles buried the sky, and the towers resounded under a thick hail of stones. Desire led them on to wage war before the eyes of the fleeing ship, while the vessel could still view the walls of Saguntum. Moreover, the leader Hannibal himself, marked out by his bared wound, demanded promised vengeance from his maddened troops. Repeating his complaints, his raving mouth cried out: [44] “We are being summoned, my comrades! Fabius displays the chains from his ship, and the dominating Senate’s anger calls us. If you are weary of this undertaking, or we are at fault in starting the war, quickly call back the Roman ship from the sea. I offer no delay! Look, shackle my hands and surrender me for torture. For why should I refuse to endure slavery— descended as I am from eastern Ba’al, surrounded by so many Libyan, so many Spanish peoples? No, rather let the Romans dominate the peoples forever and savagely spread their rule through the ages. Let us tremble instead at those men’s commands and nods.” The troops heaved groans and turned the grim omens against Aeneas’ descendants and their cries stirred up rage.

The Amazonian warrior Asbyte kills numerous Saguntines, including Mopsus and his sons [56] Asbyte had dared to come into war with the Romans under Marmarican* battle-standards amid unbelted Libyans and bilingual peoples. She was the descendant of Garamantian Iarbas,* who was born from Ba’al Hammon. He ruled widely with his scepter and authority Phorcynian Medusa’s* caves and the Macae* from Cinyps* and Battus’* descendants burning in the cruel sun. The Nasamonians of his homeland and everparched Barce* obeyed him, as did the Autololes’* groves and the deceptive Syrtes’ shores and the lightly armed Gaetulians* riding without reins. Iarbas had also married a nymph of Lake Tritonis.* Queen Asbyte took

4 The reference is to the Gauls’ capture of Rome; see note 20 in Book 1.

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her descent from him and claimed Jupiter as her ancestor, and a prophetic grove recalled her name.5 [68] Lacking experience of men and accustomed to an empty bedroom, Asbyte had defended her early years by hunting in the woods. She had never softened her hands with wool baskets nor working the spindle. She loved the forests and goddess Dictynna* and spurring on her panting steed with her foot and mercilessly laying beasts low. Just so the Thracian women traverse Mount Rhodope* and Mount Pangaeum’s* groves high on the rocky cliffs. The virgin band wearies out the Hebrus River* with their running. They spurn the Ciconians* and Getes and Rhesus’* descendants and the Bistonians with moon-shaped shields. [77] And so Asbyte stood out in her ancestral dress. The Hesperides’ golden gift tied back her flowing hair, and her right side was bared for fierce combat. A moon-shaped Thermodontian* shield covered her left, shining where she had protected herself for battle. Her chariot’s smoking axle shook as it swiftly raced. Two-horse chariots carried some of her companions, the rest were on horseback. Some who had already endured Venus’ unions of love surrounded the queen, but virgins packed the troop more tightly. Before the battle-line, Asbyte displayed horses chosen from herds throughout her homeland’s far-dispersed huts. As she arced across the field, she launched her whizzing missiles through the air toward the nearby height and landed them at the top of the citadel. [89] Mopsus could not bear her spears attacking the fortifications again and again, and so from the high walls the old man sent his Gortynian* arrows flying from his resounding bowstring. He aimed lethal wounds with winged steel through the clear air. Mopsus was a Cretan* who came from the Curetes’* bronze-clashing caves. When he was a young boy, his feathered arrows habitually stirred up Dicte’s* forests. He often brought wandering birds down from the sky. Far away from the field, his wounding halted the stag as it fled the hunter’s nets. The unexpected blow dropped the unaware beast even before the bow ceased twanging. Gortyn then boasted more justly of no other archer’s quiver, even when in competition with eastern arrows.6 [102] But poor in resources though he was, Mopsus refused to stretch out his living by hunting; straitened circumstances forced him across the sea. Fate led him to enter wretched Saguntum as a guest without honor, his wife Meroë and his children in tow. Their father’s quivers and arrows hung from his sons’ shoulders, as well as the winged steel, king Minos’* missiles. Mopsus stood between the young men and poured close-packed arrows from his Cretan bow into the Massylian battle-line.

5 The “prophetic grove” refers to the oracle of Ammon at the Siwa Oasis in Egypt. See also note 15 in Book 1. 6 The Parthians, enemies on Rome’s eastern border, were famous for their skill at archery.

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[110] Now Mopsus had struck down Garamus and bold Thyrus and Gisco, who was rushing together with unlucky Bagas. He struck down Lixus, whose cheeks were still boyish and who did not deserve to meet an arrow so unerring. Mopsus carried on the fight from his full quiver. Then aiming both his gaze and his missiles at virgin Asbyte’s face, Mopsus made unwelcome prayers to the Jupiter he had left behind.7 For as Nasamonian Harpe saw Mopsus aim the fatal bow, she blocked the far-off ambush by interposing her body and thus forestalled death from the flying arrow. As she called out, the arrow passed through her gaping mouth. Her sisters were the first to see the steel as it protruded from behind. But raging at her friend’s fall, virgin Asbyte lifted her collapsing limbs. With her tears, she wetted Harpe’s eyes, which were already swimming with little light left. [123] Gathering all the force of her grief, Asbyte hurled a lethal spear at the walls. The flying spear’s swift blow pierced Dorylas’ shoulder. He had already brought together his bow’s horns, and the arrow filled the drawn bowstring’s gap. He was trying to loose his thumb and send the steel into the wind. Then he spun down headlong from the wall’s high ramparts on to his unexpected wound. His arrows poured out from the overturned quiver next to his falling limbs. Standing close by, armed with the same weapons, his brother Icarus called out and prepared to avenge his brother’s lamentable fate. But as he hurriedly drew an arrow for battle, Hannibal anticipated him and knocked him dead with a rock like a tornado. Icarus’ sluggish limbs collapsed with a chilly shudder, and his failing hand returned the arrows to their quiver. [138] But upon the twin deaths of his sons, father Mopsus snatched up his bow and aimed it three times, raging with grief. Three times his right hand faltered and sorrow took away his well-known skills. Alas! Now too late he regretted leaving his sweet home. Eagerly he snatched up the stone which had felled Icarus. Then the old man felt his age and knew that he beat his breast in vain. To hold back such grief through death (his right hand was no help), he hurled himself headlong from the huge tower’s top. Fallen prone, he spread his dying limbs over his son’s corpse.

Theron, the priest of Hercules, kills Asbyte and falls in turn to Hannibal [148] As the immigrant from Gortyn fell in a foreign war, Theron had already roused the soldiers and attempted new deeds. He was the keeper of Hercules’ temple and the altar’s priest. He had sent forth an unexpected column of soldiers upon the Carthaginians; unbarring the gate, he stirred up fierce battles. But he did not have a spear in his hand, nor a helmet on his

7 Jupiter was traditionally raised in Crete. By abandoning his Cretan homeland, Mopsus has symbolically left Jupiter behind.

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head. He trusted rather in his broad shoulders and his youthful bulk, and in no need of a sword his club devastated the enemy ranks. A lion’s skin, spoils worn on his head, lifted a terrible grin from its lofty peak.8 This same Theron bore a hundred serpents upon his shield and Lerna’s* monster, the Hydra* redoubling as its snakes were sliced. [160] In his rush to the beach, Theron had driven headlong before him Juba and Juba’s father, Thapsus, and Micipsa, famous for his grandfather’s name, and Saces the Moor, pushed back from the walls and straggling in their flight. Theron’s fighting hand alone made the waters seethe. He was not satisfied with Idus’ death nor Marmarican Cothon’s demise, nor with slaughtering Rothus nor Jugurtha. He sought Asbyte’s chariot in his prayers and the shining defense she carried on her left, the bright shield set with gems. He directed his attention against the warlike virgin. [169] When the queen saw him rushing against her with his gory weapon, she turned her horses aside. Wheeling left, she cut across the field in a deceptive loop. Turning her chariot away from Theron, she rushed like a bird, winding across the battlefield. She carried herself out of sight and, spurring her horse, swifter than the east wind she trailed a dusty cloud across the field. Her chariot’s shrieking wheel trampled down the opposing ranks far and wide. Virgin Asbyte poured close-packed spears against the fearful warriors. [177] Here fell Lycus and Thamyris and Eurydamas, a noble name. He was the descendant of a famous ancestor’s stock, that Eurydamas who once dared (alas, the madman!) to hope for Ithacan Ulysses’ proud marriage-chamber and bed.9 He had spread around the tale that Ulysses had drowned at sea. But Penelope’s* chaste art deceived Eurydamas, namely the tricky warp of her loom that she so often wound back. In return for making up his death, the Ithacan caused the boaster’s real death, and his marriage torches changed into funereal ones.10 Numidian Asbyte’s right hand destroyed Eurydamas, the man’s final descendant, on the Spanish fields. The chariot’s dark axle roared over him and held its course through his shattered bones. [188] And already virgin Asbyte was back at hand. When she saw Theron engaged in battle, she aimed her savage axe at the middle of his forehead. She straightaway vowed the superb spoil and the Herculean trophies to you, goddess Dictynna. Theron, no sluggard, hoping for great praise, rose up against the horses themselves and thrust the tawny lion’s shaggy face straight at the fearful animals. The menacing grin, a new fright, terrified the horses, who tossed off the chariot and threw back its load. Then

8 Theron’s club and the lion skin resemble the outfit characteristically worn by Hercules, the god whom he serves. 9 In Homer’s Odyssey, Penelope’s aggressive suitor is named Eurymachus. Silius’ Eurydamas is either his descendant with a different name, or Silius has confused the two names. 10 The torch is the traditional symbol of the Roman wedding, but was also carried at funerals.

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leaping forward, Theron seized Asbyte as she tried to flee the battle and smashed the club between her twin temples. He spattered fragments of brain over the steaming chariot wheels amid shattered bones and reins tangled by the horses’ dread. Hurrying to display his kill, he snatched up her axe and cut off the virgin’s head, thrown down from the chariot. Nor did he yet set aside his rage. He fixed the head high on his spear as a sight to see. He ordered the troops to display it before the Punic ranks and to turn the chariot quickly back to the city walls. [206] Such was the battle that Theron was giving, blind to his fate. The gods’ favor was abandoning him, and his death was near. For Hannibal approached, his entire face displaying fury and threats. His raging mind grieved to see Asbyte slain and her mounted head, an unspeakable trophy. His shield’s bronze boss shone brightly. His armor rang as his limbs moved swiftly and thundered death from a distance. Suddenly the troops were struck with terror and turned to escape to the walls in fearful flight. [215] Just so the evening star leads the birds on their light wings from their feeding to their familiar nests through the twilight shadows. Or just so the swarms of bees, scattered amid the flowers on Mount Hymettus* in Athens, hurry in fear of a rain cloud to their sweet honeycombs and caves in the fragrant bark, weighed down with honey. Gathered together in closepacked flight, they join in raucous buzzing at the threshold. Fear hurried on the astonished Saguntines and they rushed on blindly. Alas for the sky’s pleasant light! Did they really fear with such dread the fate assigned to every person at birth, the death bound to return to them? They condemned their own plan, and they groaned at bursting forth from their gate and safe bulwark. [226] Theron barely held back the troops, now with his hand, now with shouting and threats: “Stand fast, men! This enemy is mine. A great combat’s glory—stand fast!—is coming for me. With this my right hand, I will drive off the Carthaginians from Saguntum’s walls and buildings. All you have to do is endure the sight, my men! Or if keen fear (alas, how disgraceful!) rushes you all into the city, then bar the doors against me only.” [233] But while the Saguntines trembled, anxious for their state and despairing for their safety, Hannibal came headlong in rapid flight against the walls. He resolved to invade the city and its opened walls first, putting aside slaughter and delaying the battle. As Theron, the zealous guardian of Hercules’ altar, saw this, he flashed forth and hurrying in fear he forestalled the enemy. Rage swelled more violently in Hannibal, the tyrant pledged to Dido: “You, good gate-keeper of the city, pay your punishment to us for now,” he said, “so your death may lay open your walls.” [242] Nor did anger let him speak further. He whirled his flashing blade; but first Theron, the young Daunian, brandished his club and threw it at him with great force. Hannibal’s armor groaned raucously, crashing 30

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heavily as it was struck. The knotty club’s weight resounded deeply as it smashed against the hollow bronze. But stripped of his weapon and betrayed by his unsuccessful blow, Theron quickly pressed his limbs into rapid flight and traversed the length of the walls as he fled on his swift feet. Hannibal the victor fiercely pursued, hurling reproaches at his fleeing back. [251] The women of Saguntum cried out. Their voices mixed with lamentation sounded forth from the wall’s high summit. Now they called on him by his familiar name, now they wanted, too late, to be able to open the gates for the exhausted warrior. As they urged Theron on, terror shook the women’s hearts at the thought of letting the mighty enemy inside the walls along with him. [256] Hannibal struck his exhausted opponent with his shield; he leaped on him as he collapsed, and showed him the city watching him from the walls. “Go on,” he said, “and console wretched Asbyte with your death following on hers.” Saying this, he buried his deadly blade in the neck of a man eager to lose his life. The winner happily drove off the horses, queen Asbyte’s spoils, snatched from beneath the walls themselves. A column of terrified men had used them to bar the gate’s entry way. Hannibal flew on his chariot through the cheering camp. [264] Then a raging troop of Numidians hurried to perform the grievous duty of Asbyte’s burial. They conferred a tomb’s honor and seized Theron’s body, carrying it three times around her ashes. Then they threw the warrior’s lethal club and his terrifying lion-skin into the flames. Once they had burned his face and cheeks, they left his mutilated corpse to the Spanish birds.

Hanno* debates with Gestar* in the Carthaginian Senate regarding Hannibal’s assault on Saguntum [270] Meanwhile the Carthaginians who held greatest power took counsel regarding the war and the message that they should send the Roman people. They feared the envoys’ menacing approach. On the one hand, the treaty and good faith and the gods called as witnesses and their ancestors’ sworn agreements moved them. On the other hand, the people’s love for the young Hannibal who dared great deeds also moved them. It suited them to hope for a better outcome of the war. [276] But Hanno was long since Hannibal’s enemy: their families hated each other, to the extent that he railed in this way against the people’s enthusiasm for Hannibal and their heedless favor: “Indeed all these matters, Fathers, restrain my voice in fear, for the rage of the men who threaten me can’t hold itself back. I won’t stop in any event. Though their weapons bring death close, I will call the gods as witnesses and vow to Heaven what the safety of our state and fatherland demands in its final hour. Nor only now, as besieged Saguntum burns at last, does Hanno sing these warnings as a 31

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belated prophet. I have already laid bare my anxious breast. I warned you not to feed Hannibal’s deadly head with battles and camps, and while life lasts, I shall warn you.” [288] “I recognize his inborn poison and his father’s arrogance. I am like the helmsman who watches the starry sky’s constellations and unerringly predicts for the wretched sailors the sea’s oncoming rage and the northwest wind’s approaching gusts. Hannibal seated himself on the throne and grabbed the reins of power. And so, arms are wrecking the treaty and all that is right, arms are shaking cities. From far away, Aeneas’ descendants direct their thoughts against our walls, and the peace is broken up. His father’s ghost and his inherited madness spur on the young man, as do the funeral rites and the African priestess and the gods turned against his faithless head that broke the treaty.11 Now blinded by the smoke of newly gained power, is he assaulting foreign citadels or Hercules’ buildings? So let him pay for this with his own punishment and not mix our city’s fate with his. Now, Carthage—at this very moment, I say—he is attacking your walls and besieging you in arms.” [304] “We have already bathed Etna’s valleys with our courageous blood, and hiring Spartan mercenaries hardly let us carry on the war.12 We filled up Scylla’s* caverns with wrecked fleets, and we watched ships caught by the retreating waters and Charybdis* spitting back twisted rowing-benches from her whirlpool. Oh, madman! Oh, your heart that knows no gods! Look at the Aegates Islands and Libya’s limbs floating far away! Where are you rushing to seek a famous name for yourself from your country’s destruction? I’m sure the huge Alps will subside once they see the young man’s arms. I’m sure the Apennines’* snowy masses, lifting peaks as high as the Alps, will subside as well.” [315] “But pretend you get a battlefield, braggart. Do you think the Roman people have merely mortal courage, or that fire and steel fatigue them? You won’t see a struggle with the Greeks of Neritos.* Roman soldiers grow up in the camps, and their helmets scrape cheeks not yet marked with tawny down. Nor do they enjoy old age’s peace. Their old men, blood drained in long service, stand amid the front-line battle-standards and mock death. I myself have seen Roman troops, their bodies pierced, snatching missiles from their wounds and hurling them back. I have seen these men’s courage and heroic deaths as well as their glory’s madness. If you hold back from war, Carthage, and don’t hand yourself over to your future conquerors, alas! from how much blood will Hanno have saved you!”

11 For Hannibal’s oath, see Book 1, lines 70–143. 12 Hanno recalls events of the First Punic War. The Carthaginians were involved in several land engagements with the Romans in Sicily. The Carthaginians also hired mercenaries under the Spartan general Xanthippus, who succeeded in capturing and defeating the Roman commander Marcus Atilius Regulus, as recounted in Book 6.

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[327] Gestar could not bear this. Long since he had been bitterly cooking his savage anger and had twice tried to cause a disturbance and interrupt the speaker in mid-sentence. He replied: “Oh, by the gods! Is a Roman soldier sitting in the Libyan council and Carthaginian Senate? Is it only that the man hasn’t yet armed himself? Because in other respects this enemy isn’t hiding. Now he threatens redoubled Alps and Apennines, now the Sicilian straits and the waves of Scylla’s shore. He isn’t far off from fearing the Roman ghosts and shades. He piles on such ballyhoo for these men’s deaths and wounds, and he exalts their race to the stars. They’re mortal, believe me, though they crush his frigid heart with shameful fear. We’ve taken on a mortal enemy.” [340] “I myself saw Regulus,* the hope and trust of Hector’s* race, tight chains binding both hands behind his back, dragged into the prison’s shadows as the crowd cheered. I saw him hanging high on a tree, looking across at Italy from his tall cross.13 Nor indeed do boyish faces under leather caps nor cheeks pressed prematurely into helmets frighten me. We’re not so sluggish by nature ourselves. Look how many underage Libyan troops compete in the struggle and ride into combat bareback! Look at the commander Hannibal himself: when his tender mouth first uttered a cry, already he swore war and battle-trumpets and to burn the Trojan race with flames. He fought his father’s battles in his spirit. So let the Alps rise to the skies, let the Apennines lift crags flashing with stars, and through the rocks and snows. I will say it—just so even empty boasting may goad Hanno’s bilious mind—Hannibal is the sort of man to open a path through the sky. It’s shameful to despair of paths trodden by Hercules and to fear glory already achieved.” [358] “But Hanno piles on Libya’s defeat and the first war’s conflagration, and he forbids us to endure struggles once more in liberty’s name. Let him put aside his swells of fear and, unwarlike woman that he is, keep his sobbing spirit inside his house’s walls. For our part, we will go against the enemy. We’ve resolved to push our masters far from the Byrsa,* founded by the Tyrians, even if Jupiter is unfair to us. But if the Fates resist us, and Mars has departed from a Carthage already doomed, I would rather die than hand you over, my famous homeland, to be a slave forever. I will see the Underworld as a free man. For what is Fabius ordering, by the gods! ‘Shed your armor right now and come down from Saguntum’s captured citadel. Next, let your hand-picked band of soldiers burn up heaps of shields, set fire to the ships, and hold off from the entire sea.’ Oh gods, if Carthage has never deserved to suffer such things, keep this unspeakable shame far from us and keep our leader’s hands free!”

13 This version of Regulus’ death by crucifixion differs from the better-known story told in Book 6, where he is said to die in an ingenious torture machine that prevents him from sleeping.

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[374] Then as Gestar sat down, by the Fathers’ custom there was an opportunity to offer a proposal. Here Hanno urged that the goods seized in battle be quickly returned and added Hannibal as the treaty’s original violator. Then astonished indeed, as if the enemy were breaking into their temple, the Fathers leaped up and prayed to the god to turn this omen against Latium. But after Fabius realized that their unruly breasts and faithless minds were inclining toward war, he no longer was able to master his exasperation. He quickly demanded a council and announced to the assembled Fathers that he carried war and peace in the fold of his toga. He ordered them to speak their opinion and not to deceive him with ambiguous words. The fierce Senate refused neither choice. As if he were pouring out arms and battle-lines enclosed in his bosom, Fabius said: “Take a war disastrous for Libya with an outcome similar to the previous one”—and shook loose his toga.14 Then Fabius, messenger of battle, headed once more for his homeland’s citadels.

Hannibal receives arms, including a shield decorated with scenes from Carthage’s history [391] But while these matters were transpiring in fugitive Dido’s state, Hannibal swiftly cut down the peoples whose loyalty wavered weakly in an uncertain war. Loaded down with plunder, the Punic commander had called back his troops to Saguntum’s walls. See now, the Ocean peoples were bringing gifts to the leader: a shield flashing with grim brilliance, the work of the Galician* region; a helmet topped with fluttering crests, whose snowy feathers shook and nodded tremulously at the polished cone’s peak; a sword; and a single spear deadly to many thousands. In addition, a corselet woven from three layers of golden rings, a covering no missile could pierce. Hannibal surveyed these gifts, perfected from bronze and hard steel and drenched with gold, the wealth of the River Tagus. He exulted as his happy eyes picked out the details one by one, and he rejoiced in his kingdom’s origins. [406] Dido was building Carthage’s first citadel, and the young men had docked the fleet and were busy on the work.15 Some enclosed the port with earthworks, while Bitias, revered for his age and justice, assigned houses and buildings to others. They displayed a war-horse’s head discovered in the excavated earth. People were shouting as they hailed the omen. Amid these sights, Aeneas could be seen cast up from the sea, deprived of his

14 Livy portrays Fabius in this famous gesture of pouring out war from the folds of his toga (From the Foundation of the City 21.18.13–14). 15 This passage of Hannibal’s shield narrates scenes from Virgil’s Aeneid Books 1 and 4: the building of Carthage, Dido’s rescue of Aeneas from a shipwreck, their lovemaking in a cave, his departure, and her suicide.

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fleet and followers, supplicating Dido with his right hand. The unfortunate queen was eagerly watching him, her face already friendly and her expression serene. [416] Next the Galician craftsmen’s hands had made the cave and the lovers’ secret union. Shouting and dogs’ barking rose up to the sky, and the hunters startled by the sudden storm concealed themselves behind the net-handlers in the woods. Not far off, the fleet of Aeneas’ people was covering the sea. The shore was already deserted, and Dido was calling the Trojans back to no effect. Wounded Dido herself, standing on an enormous pyre, was entrusting wars of revenge to future Carthaginians. The Trojan prince was watching the burning pyre from the middle of the sea and unfurling his sails to the mighty Fates. [426] In another part of the shield, Hannibal as a suppliant at the hellish altars was pouring a libation of magical blood along with the Stygian priestess.16 He was swearing war with Aeneas’ descendants from his earliest youth. But old Hamilcar exulted on the Sicilian fields. You would think that he was breathing and fighting panting battles. There was zeal in his eyes, and his image threatened savagely. A Spartan cohort, encrusted in relief, also filled the left side of the shield. Xanthippus* from Leda’s* Amyclae* was coming in triumph, leading the rejoicing company. Next to him hung Regulus, grim glory, in a representation of his punishment. He offered Saguntum a mighty example of loyalty. [437] But the scene around the shield was more pleasant.17 Engraved huts were shining, and troops of wild beasts stirred up by hunting. Not far away, a black Moor’s* shaggy sister, her skin scorched, soothed lionesses accustomed to her native speech. The herdsman wandered freely in the fields, and his herd entered the forest, confined within no boundary. As was his homeland’s custom, the herd’s Punic guardian took everything along with him: his spears, his barking Cretan dog, his tent, kindling for the fire in veins of flint, and the pipe that his bullocks knew well. Saguntum rising up loomed on its high cliff. Numberless peoples and tight-packed battle lines of struggling men surrounded the city and assaulted it with quivering spears. On the furthest edges of the shield, the River Ebro pooled, its winding curves shutting in the huge disc. Hannibal was trespassing across its banks, breaking the treaty, and calling the Punic people to war with the Romans. [453] Such a gift exalted Hannibal. He shook the new armor as he fitted it to his broad shoulders. Head held aloft, he announced: “Oh, woe! You will

16 This passage of Hannibal’s shield narrates scenes from Carthage’s past: his experience as a child at the temple swearing an oath (as told in Book 1); his father Hamilcar’s Sicilian campaign in the First Punic War, which featured the capture of Eryx in 244 BCE and the subsequent campaign against the Roman position at Drepanon; and Xanthippus’ campaign against Regulus in the First Punic War. 17 The next scene on the shield is pastoral, while the last scenes describe the siege of Saguntum and Hannibal’s breaking of the war treaty by crossing the Ebro River.

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sweat with so much Roman blood, my armor! What punishments you will pay to me, Curia,* judge of war!”

The Saguntines suffer from plague and famine due to the siege. Hercules pities them and pleads with the goddess Loyalty* to save them [457] And now the enemy shut within the walls was weakening. Passing time gnawed at the city while the exhausted Saguntines awaited their allies’ forces and battle-standards. At last they turned their eyes away from the useless sea. They cursed the deceptive shores and saw their end close at hand. A plague long since permeating their marrows rested inside them and roasted the helpless people from deep within. Hunger concealed for a long while secretly ate away their innards hardening wretchedly with slow disease and parched their dried-up, bloodless veins. And now their eyes retreated back from their wasted cheeks, as their limbs had been eaten away. Their bones protruded, disgusting to see, scarcely joined to palpitating blood vessels and covered only by lurid skin. The Saguntines made the moist night’s dew and the damp earth the consolation for their suffering. In vain they squeezed sap from dry wood, a fruitless labor. There was nothing they were ashamed to violate. Their rabid stomachs’ hunger led them to eat unfamiliar food. They loosened the covers of their shields and left them bare as they gnawed on the straps. [475] Hercules of Tiryns looking down from lofty Heaven wept in vain at the shattered city’s misfortune. Fear and his mighty father’s instructions held him back from going against his savage stepmother Juno’s decrees. So, concealing his undertaking, he approached the threshold of holy Loyalty and tested out her secret thoughts. As it happened, at that time in a distant part of the sky, the goddess, happy in her mysteries, was intently considering the gods’ mighty cares. Hercules, Nemea’s* pacifier, addressed her with great respect: [484] “You were born before Jupiter, glory of gods and men, and neither earth nor sea know peace without you. You are Justice’s consort and the quiet divinity in people’s hearts. Goddess, how can you witness unmoved your Saguntum’s dire destruction, and look upon the city suffering so many punishments for you? The people are dying in your name. Mothers mastered by hunger call upon you alone, as do men’s sad mouths, and the little ones’ first utterances sound your name. Bring help from the sky and give them the power to rise up from their shattered state.” [493] Thus spoke Alcmena’s* son Hercules. Virgin Loyalty replied: “Indeed I see this. Not for nothing are my treaties broken, and the day that avenges such dire ambitions stands fixed long since. But the race of mankind, fertile in crime, led me to hurry away from the polluted earth and occupy this seat and Jupiter’s dwelling. I left behind wicked kingdoms, as frightened as they are terrifying, and madness for gold and rewards not 36

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small for crime. On top of this, there were people with horrifying ways, living on plunder like beasts; all glory dissipated in self-indulgence and all sense of shame buried in deep darkness. They worship force, the sword takes for itself the place of justice, and virtue yields to scandal. Come, look at the peoples: not one of them is innocent.18 Sharing the blame keeps the peace.” [507] “But it is your concern that the walls your hand founded should preserve valor worthy of you, that their end be memorable, and that these exhausted people should not surrender their corpses to the Carthaginians. This is the only thing that the Fates and the order of future events now permit. So I shall extend their deaths’ glory and pass it on to coming ages. I myself shall follow their praiseworthy souls down to the shadows.” [513] Then the austere virgin Loyalty, burning with zeal, rushed down from the light upper sky and made for Saguntum which was struggling with its fate. She invaded minds and traversed breasts that knew her well and sent her divine power into their spirits. Then spreading within their marrows, she embraced them and inspired them with burning love of herself. The Saguntines wanted their arms, and they made feeble attempts at battle. They had strength they had not hoped for. The goddess’ sweet honor and a holy death for the virgin’s sake flowed back within them. The thought traveled silently through the exhausted people’s cheering hearts to endure suffering even worse than death and to try the beasts’ savage repasts and to add crime to their tables. But chaste Loyalty forbade them to prolong their lives polluted by crime and to beat back their hunger with their peers’ limbs.19

Juno sees Loyalty among the Saguntines and summons the Fury Tisiphone* [526] As it happened, Saturn’s daughter Juno was coming to the Libyan camp. As soon as she saw Loyalty in the citadel of the race she hated, she rebuked the virgin’s maddened effort to stir up war. Rage made her step frantic. She hurried to summon dark Tisiphone, who was whipping the shades deep below. Stretching out her palms, Juno said: “Daughter of night, push down these walls by force and lay low this fierce people with their own hands. Juno orders you. I myself will watch your efforts and your impact from a cloud close by. Use the weapons that trouble the gods and highest Jupiter, the ones you use to move Acheron.* Use your flames, your enormous

18 The goddess Loyalty (Fides) is conflated here with Astraea, the goddess of justice, who abandoned Earth once crime and war made people wicked. 19 Silius refers indirectly to the tradition that the Saguntines had engaged in cannibalism during the siege.

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serpents, and your hissing that makes Cerberus* shut his terrified mouths. And the spuming poisons mixed with venom, whatever crimes, whatever punishments and rage you cook in your fertile breast, hurry to heap them up against the Rutulian Saguntines and send all Saguntum down to Hell. Let this be Loyalty’s reward for slipping down through the air.” [543] And so firing her up with her speech, the goddess roused the savage Fury and hurled her against the walls with her own hand. The mountain suddenly trembled around, and the waves boomed deeper along the shore. Many serpents rising from her head hissed and the rough scales flashed around their swelling necks. Death marched on, a huge leer laying bare its hollow gullet, and gaped at the doomed people. Then Grief and Lamentation, chest black-and-blue, and Woe and Sadness accompanied it, and all the Punishments were there.20 Cerberus, the tearful court’s unsleeping door-keeper, sounded forth from his three throats. [553] Straightaway the changeable monster Tisiphone mimicked Tiburna’s appearance and immediately took on her walk and the sound of her speech. Bereaved of her husband Murrus, Tiburna was lamenting war’s emptying of her bed-chamber and savage Mars’ whirlwind. She had a famous ancestry and took her family name from Daunus’ blood. Taking on similar features and tearing loose her hair, the wild Fury rushed into the middle of the gathering. Ripping her cheeks in grief, she said: [560] “What end will there be? We have given enough to Loyalty and to our ancestors. I myself saw my bloodied husband Murrus, I myself saw him. His mangled corpse terrified my sleep as it sounded forth dire prophecies: ‘My wife, rescue yourself from this pitiable city’s downfall. If the Carthaginians’ victory has left no lands for us, Tiburna, then flee to my shades. Our household gods have fallen, we Rutulian Saguntines have died, and the Punic sword holds all.’ My mind recoils, and his image still has not left my eyes.” [569] “Will I see your buildings no more after this, Saguntum? You were lucky, Murrus, lucky to die while your homeland still stood. But after war’s defeat and the vast sea’s dangers, victorious Carthage will see us led as slaves to serve Sidonian mothers. When my final night comes at last, I shall lie as a captive in Libya’s bosom. But as for you, young men, your conscious valor has precluded the possibility of being captured. Death for you is a mighty weapon against bitter ends. Use your own hands to take your mothers away from slavery. The steep road brings virtue. Go forward and be the first to seize a glory not well-known nor easy for all.” [580] After driving her listeners to frenzy with these appeals, next the Fury made her way to the tomb that Hercules had built on the mountain’s highest peak to be viewed by sailors from the sea and had graced the ashes with welcome honor. Horrible! A dark blue snake, its rough

20 These allegorical figures often accompany gods and heroes in Greco-Roman epic.

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scales flecked with gold, was roused and burst forth from its dwelling below. Bloody flame flashed from its fiery eyes, and its tongue flickered in its hissing mouth. The snake wound through the fearful crowds in the middle of the city and slipped hurriedly from the high walls. Just like an exile, it headed for the nearby shore and plunged headlong into the sea’s foamy waves.

The Saguntines build a communal pyre and kill one another in a collective suicide [592] Then indeed the Saguntines’ minds were shaken, just as if their ancestors’ ghosts were fleeing from their betrayed dwellings, and the shades refused to hide on captured ground. Hope for safety had worn them out, and they cursed the thought of food. The Fury, who was added to their midst, led them on. In cruel circumstances, the gods’ mercilessness did not seem worse than enduring death’s delays to the end. Stunned, they hurried to break off life, and the light felt burdensome. [599] A pyre built eagerly, its mass reaching up to the stars, stood in the middle of the city. The Saguntines hauled and dragged the wealth of long peace and the prizes won by their fighting hands: robes embroidered by mothers in Galician gold; the arms their forefathers brought from Zakynthos near Dulichium; and the Penates carried over from the Rutulians’ ancient city. They threw shields on to the pyre together with their unlucky swords, whatever remained for these conquered people. They dug out war treasures buried deep in earth, and they were glad to give to the final flames what would have become plunder for the arrogant conqueror. [609] After the deadly Fury saw them heap these up, she shook a torch dipped in Phlegethon’s* fiery waves and hid the gods above in hellish smoke. Then the Saguntines embarked upon a deed noble throughout the whole world, which unfortunate glory preserves eternally for unconquered people. Exasperated by the hesitant parents, Tisiphone pushed on the hilt first of all and triumphantly forced in the resisting sword. Her hellish whip resounded dreadfully twice and thrice. The Saguntines stained their unwilling hands with their relatives’ blood. They were stunned by the unspeakable deed, perpetrated with unwilling minds, and they wept at the crime they committed. [619] One man, mad with anger and enraged by disaster and a life that had suffered the worst, turned sidelong glances at his mother’s breasts. Another man snatched up an axe and aimed it at his beloved wife’s neck. His limbs paralyzed in astonishment, he reproached himself and cursed his madness’ unfinished deed and hurled the axe away. But he was not permitted to escape: the Fury whipped him, and her mouth hissed dark terror. And so all affection for his marriage chamber rushed away from the husband’s mind, the sweet bridal couch disappeared, and instead came forgetfulness 39

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of the marriage-torch.21 One man, straining with all his force, hurled his wretched body on to the flames, where a smoldering coil of fire, pitchy with smoke, swelled up thickly in a black tornado. [632] Unlucky Tymbrenus, you raged with sinister devotion in the middle of the gathering. And while you were hurrying to take your father’s death out of the Carthaginians’ hands, you mutilated a face that mirrored yours, defiling limbs most similar. You also fell in your prime of life, Eurymedon who passed for your brother and Lycormas who passed for your brother, twins identical in all respects. It had been a sweet task for their mother to stop and hesitate over her children’s faces and try to assign the right names. And now a sword fixed in your throat had released you from all fault, Eurymedon. His aged mother lamented, out of her mind from suffering, being deceived by what she saw. She called out: “Where are you rushing off to? Turn that sword here on me, Lycormas.” But look! at that moment Lycormas had pierced his own throat with his sword. But his mother called out with a great sob, deceived by the similar marks of the twins’ appearance: “Eurymedon, what is this madness?” The mother tried to call back her dead children, switching their names. Finally driving the steel between her own trembling breasts, she collapsed in ignorance on children as yet indistinguishable. [650] Who could master his tears as he related the city’s dire downfall and the praiseworthy monstrosities and Loyalty’s punishments and dutiful relatives’ grim fates? Hardly would the Carthaginian camp, an enemy that knows no pity, have held back from weeping. A city long inhabited by Loyalty that recalled its walls’ founder in heaven was collapsing. Amid the Carthaginian race’s treacherous missiles and its own people’s savage deeds, the unjust gods neglected Saguntum. Sword and fire raged, and wherever fire was lacking, there was the place for crime. The pyre lifted a cloud of black smoke to the stars high above. The citadel left intact in prior wars burned on the steep mountain’s high peak, from which the inhabitants were used to seeing the Punic camp and the beach and all Saguntum. The gods’ dwellings were burning. The sea shone with the flame’s reflection, and the fires quivered on the tremulous water. [665] Look! amid the madness of slaughter, wretched Tiburna’s right hand was armed with her husband’s shining sword. She shook a burning torch in her left. The fierce woman’s disheveled hair stood up, her shoulders were bare, and she displayed breasts bruised by her lamentation. She advanced over corpses to Murrus’ burial mound. It was just as when the father of Hell’s court thunders dreadfully, and his royal anger drives the ghosts wild. The Fury Allecto* standing before the god’s throne and fearful seat does service for Tartarus’* supreme god and administers

21 See note 10 in book 2.

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punishments.22 Weeping Tiburna placed on the burial mound her husband’s arms which had been recently rescued amid much bloodshed. Praying to her husband’s ghost to accept her, she applied her burning torch to the pyre. Then seizing death, she said: “Look, best of husbands, I’m bringing these weapons down to the ghosts for you in person.” And so she took a blow from the sword and collapsed on the arms, attacking the flames with her gaping mouth. [681] A crowd of half-burned cadavers, luckless in their death, lay everywhere with no distinction, corpses thrown together. Just as when a lion has at last succeeded in invading a sheepfold, his throat dry and his hunger driving him on, roaring, his jaws gaping wide, he devours the unwarlike herd. Belched-up blood pours widely from his yawning mouth in streams. He broods on the dark heaps of his half-eaten slaughter, or gnashing his teeth with panting roars he stalks around the piles of wounded prey. The animals lie scattered far and wide, as does the Molossian* guard dog, the shepherd cohort, and the overseer of the herd and stable. All the huts are dashed to pieces, their roofs destroyed. The Carthaginians broke into a citadel emptied out by so much devastation. Then, her task at last complete, the Fury returned to the shades with Juno’s praise. Exulting in pride, she drove a huge crowd along with her to Tartarus below. [696] But you, celestial souls, whom no age will equal, glory of the world, praiseworthy crowd, go to Elysium* and bring honor to the virtuous dwellings of the dutiful. But as for Hannibal, to whom indeed unfair victory gave a famous name—hear, o peoples, and do not break peace treaties nor put loyalty second to rule!—the man will wander through the whole world as a drifting exile, thrust out from his homeland’s shores. Fearful Carthage will see him turn his back in flight. Often startled from sleep by the Saguntines’ ghosts, Hannibal will want to die by his own hand. But the once unconquerable warrior will be denied the steel and will carry his limbs disfigured by livid poison to the Styx’s waves.23

22 Tartarus’ supreme god is Dis or Pluto, the king of the Underworld. 23 The conclusion briefly relates the events of Hannibal’s career after the Second Punic War: his role as a military advisor to various monarchs and his suicide from poison while resident at Prusias’ court in Bithynia in 183/2 BCE.

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Bostar* is sent to Africa to consult Jupiter Hammon’s* oracle, while Hannibal visits the Temple of Hercules at Cadiz, witnessing the ebb and flow of the Atlantic [1] After the Carthaginians broke the treaty and sacked the walls of faithful Saguntum—with the father of the gods on its side—victorious Hannibal immediately decided to visit the lands and peoples placed at the limit of the world’s end, especially Cadiz, a city known to the Carthaginians and closely related to them. And he also decided to consult the wisdom of prophets and their foresight regarding power. Bostar was to set sail over the sea and consult the future of Hannibal’s enterprise. From long ago, people preserved an ancient belief regarding Hammon’s shrine: the horned god is sitting on high among the thirsty Garamantians, competing in reputation with Cirrha’s caves.* And from this prophetic grove, the god reveals what is in store in the future. From Hammon’s oracle, Hannibal was seeking an omen for his undertakings and to know future outcomes before they take place and the war’s changing fortune. [14] Then he came to worship the altar of the club-bearing god, with loads of gifts he had captured after his victory, half-burned from the citadel of smoking Saguntum.1 People believe—and it is a trustworthy tradition— that the temple’s timber has lasted since it was originally built, and has only known the hands of the men who put it in place. And so, people are happy to believe that the god himself sits in the temple and pushes away decay from his shrine. Those who are allowed and have the honor of going into the inner part of the temple, forbid any women from coming into the shrine; and they take care of stopping the bristly swine from crossing the threshold.

1 The Phoenician god Melqart was identified as Hercules by the Romans, and his temple at Cadiz was a particularly ancient and wealthy place of worship.

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[23] Before the altar everyone wears the same clothes: they cover their bodies in linen, and on their heads they wear a band of Egyptian flax. It is their custom to offer incense with no belt on their tunic and according to their parents’ law to make their sacrificial robe distinct with a broad stripe. They wear no shoes, their hair is shorn, and they keep their bed chaste; the fire at the heart of the altar never dies. But the fact that there is no divine effigy or other familiar statues fills the place with authority and godly fear. [32] On the doors of the temple there was a depiction of Hercules’ labors. The Lernean Hydra was lying dead with her snaky heads cut off. The strangled head of the lion of Cleonae* was carved there with his jaws open wide. And the guard of the Styx was terrifying the shades with his barking, when he was first taken away from the everlasting cave, disdaining to accept the chains. Megaera* was afraid she was going to be chained too. Next to these images were the Thracian horses,* Erymanthus’* pestilence, and the antlers of the brazen-footed stag that were surpassing the branches of the high trees. And the offspring of the Libyan land, not an easy enemy to conquer while he was relying on his mother Earth,2 as well as the Centaurs* with their hybrid bodies, an ugly race that Hercules lay low. And the River Acarnania,* with one horn less on his brow,3 was depicted here. Among these pictures Mount Oeta* was resplendent with sacred fire, as the huge flames seized the god’s great soul and bore it to the stars. [45] After he filled his eyes with these images of the god’s accomplishments, then Hannibal saw an admirable sight: all of a sudden, with a mass of the rising deep, the sea was thrown over the land, making the shores disappear and pour the water to flood the plains. For, when Nereus* discharges himself from his blue caves and from the deep bottom churns up Neptune’s* seas, the tide bursts forth and overflows; the Ocean* opens up his hidden springs and rushes on with torrential waters. This is when the waters, as if moved from deep inside by a savage trident, fight to impose the swollen sea upon the land. Soon afterwards the water returns to where it was and, by drawing back the tide, it drops to normal levels; then with the waters gone, the ship is left deserted on the plain, and the sailors lying on their benches wait for the water to return. This is the kingdom of wandering Cymothoe,* as the moon controls the sea’s efforts: it is the moon that brings the tide back and forth by driving its chariot through the blue sky; Tethys* follows with ebb and flow. The Carthaginian general quickly looked at this phenomenon, for he was wearied down by many troubles.

2 Antaeus was a giant living in Libya, drawing strength from his native soil. He could not be overcome, only by Hercules. 3 In a contest with Heracles, the Acarnanian River Acheloüs lost a horn.

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Hannibal sends his wife, Imilce,* and baby son to safety [62] The first anxiety to trouble him was how to remove his wife and still nursing son from the war. He and his wife were first joined by marriage bonds as youths, and his wife had filled Hannibal with memories and was holding tight on to him with love. The baby boy had not yet celebrated a year of life, having been born during the siege of Saguntum. When the general decided to send them to safety, away from the war theater, he said: “Oh, my son, hope of Carthage with the high walls, I pray that you become a huge fear for Aeneas’ descendants and a greater glory than your own father. May you make a name for yourself and surpass your grandfather as a warrior. Already sick with fear, Rome takes account of your years, years that will bring tears to the Roman mothers. [74] A huge toil rises up in these lands, unless my instinct of foreboding is playing tricks with my mind. I recognize my father’s image on your face and his threatening eyes under your fierce brow and your strong cries and the beginning of a wrath like my own. If by chance a god puts an end to such great undertakings of mine and abruptly stops by death the beginning of my accomplishments, then, you, my wife, make sure to preserve our son as a pledge of war, and when he is able to speak, lead him through my experiences in childhood: may he touch Dido’s altar with his childish hands and may he swear war against Rome on his father’s ashes.4 Then when he becomes an adolescent and is much stronger and mature, he should leap up to war and trample upon the treaties; and as victor he should avenge my death with a tomb in my honor on the Capitoline citadel. [87] But you, whose loyalty toward me I respect, you, who await great results from such a child’s blessed glory, depart from the dangers of uncertain war and leave behind you such difficult hardships. The rocks barred by snow and the crags that reach up to the sky await me; Hercules’ sweat and toils, while his stepmother was in awe, and the Alps, a labor harder than war itself, await me. But if Fortune should overturn its promised support of me and turn against my undertakings, then I would wish you to enjoy a long life into old age. You deserve to extend your life through the Fate’s threads, with no rush, for longer than what I’ve been allowed.” [97] So he spoke. And then Imilce spoke in turn. She was from the blood of Castalius from Cirrha. Her city, Castulo,* named after Castalius’ mother, still keeps the name of Apollo’s priest. And so Imilce had an ancestry from divine origins: at the time when Bacchus was taming the Iberian peoples by shaking the western world with his thyrsus and his armed Maenads,* Milichus was born from a lusty Satyr* and the nymph Myrice. He was the king of his native land far and wide, bearing horns on his forehead like his

4 For this scene, see Book 1, lines 81ff.

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father. Imilce drew her origins and illustrious race from Milichus: her name was slightly changed from his by a corruption of the barbaric tongue. [108] Then she spoke as follows, tears gently flowing down her eyes: “You’ve forgotten that my safety depends on yours, and now you deny me the chance to accompany you as a partner to your undertakings? Does our contract, do our first joys as spouses make you think that I, your wife, will not be able to climb the snowy mountains with you? Never doubt a woman’s strength! No toil ever conquers virtuous love. But if you look at me only on account of my sex and you have decided to leave me behind, I for once yield to your decision, and I’m not going to delay destiny. I pray that the god may give his assent to what you are preparing to do. Go and be blessed, go under the gods’ favor and with my positive prayers. And remember to keep in mind your wife and son, whom you leave behind, in the midst of battle and blazing weapons. Of course, I do not fear the Romans or their spears and fires. And I don’t dread any man who shall try to fight you alone5 as much as I fear you: you rush on passionately against the swords themselves, subjecting your life to the spears. And when you win, no feat of courage satisfies you; for you alone glory knows no boundary, since you believe that it is a dishonorable death for warriors to die during peace. Fear seizes my limbs. But you, father of wars, pity us and avert evil; save this man from the attacks of the Romans.” [127] And now the couple had gone forth and stood on the edge of the shore. The ship was pushed forward, as the sailors were hanging from the mast, and they were slowly fitting the sails to the wind’s moves. Then Hannibal rushed to alleviate his wife’s fears and to soothe her worrying mind from the anxieties that were terrifying her. And so, he began: “Spare me the bad omens and your tears, most faithful wife. The end of life for each of us is fixed in peace or war, as the first day also brings one’s last. Only a few men receive the gift of having their name remembered by others in eternity, those whose mind is of fire, whom the father has predestined for the ethereal shores of heaven. Should I endure Roman rule and slavery for Carthage’s citadels? The souls of the dead spur me on, and my father who comes in the darkness of night to nag me. Before my eyes I see the altars and the terrible ritual. And the brevity of life that is always changing forbids me from delaying any further. [142] Shall I sit idle so that only Carthage may have known my name and the rest of the world would ignore who I am? Should I abandon the heights of glory out of fear of death? But truly how short is the distance between a life spent in silence and death! And yet, don’t fear my reckless passion for praise. I too honor life, and as a hero I rejoice in the thought of old age, when I get to celebrate my many accomplishments after a long life. But great prizes of the war I undertook await you too, provided that the gods

5 Delz has transposed lines 125 to here.

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be favorable: the whole Tiber, the Trojans and their wives, rich in gold, will be enslaved to you.” [152] While they were saying these things and were crying privately, the helmsman, confident that the sea was ready for them, stood on the stern of the ship and called on Imilce as she was tarrying. She was snatched away, torn from her husband’s embrace. Her face was fixed on him nonstop, and she kept looking at the shore, until the ship was swiftly seized by the waters, erasing sight of the coastline, as the land kept receding in the background.

Hannibal has a dream from Mercury [158] But the Carthaginian prepared to forget the love for his family by focusing on the war, and quickly he returned to Cadiz’s walls. He traversed and surveyed the walls carefully, and finally such exhausting toil defeated his hardened strength. And he was given the chance to rest in sleep his warlike mind. [163] Then the all-powerful father of the gods planned to test the Roman people through disasters and to raise the fame of hard wars to the stars and to revive their ancient toils. He hastened Hannibal’s plans along and terrified the man’s restful sleep. He sent a fearsome vision to break Hannibal’s slumber. And now Mercury, the god of Cyllene,* gliding down on his wings through the moist darkness of night, brings his father’s orders to Hannibal. [170] Without delay, the god approached the young general as he was resting his limbs in careless sleep and attacked him with bitter reproach: “Ruler of Libya, it is a shame for a general to spend the whole night sleeping. War depends on the vigilance of the leader. Now you’ll see ships poured all over the sea, ready to attack, and the Latin youth flying over the whole ocean, while you are slow and delaying on Iberian soil. Tell me, is it glorious enough that Greek Saguntum fell with such an effort, is this a feat of courage? Come on! If you still have in your heart anything left for daring enterprises, move your nimble limbs and follow my call. I forbid you from looking back. This is the warning of the father of the gods, until I place you as conqueror over the lofty walls of Rome.” [183] And now Hannibal dreamed that Mercury was laying his hands on him and was dragging him, full of joy and in fast pace, toward Saturn’s kingdom, Italy. Then there was a sudden thud around him. Terrifying hisses vibrated throughout the air, coming from harsh tongues, behind his back. A great fear disturbed Hannibal, and he forgot the advice of the gods in this state of panic, turning his eyes to look back. And look! a black snake was seizing the woods and the trunks of the trees from the ridges with his enormous embrace; he was dragging crags through pathless tracks and was hissing in a deadly spin. Just as when the Serpent* constellation with its coils goes through the Great and Little Bear,* stars of unequal size, binding both stars together. With an enormous opening of its jaws, the Serpent divides 46

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the stars; raising its head, it reaches up to the high stormy mountains. The ferocity of the sky as it was split in half duplicated the sound and stirred up a storm, rain mixed with hail. [198] This sign terrified Hannibal; it was not real sleep, it was not the power of deep night, since the god had mixed light and darkness with his caduceus* that makes darkness disappear. Hannibal kept asking what type of pestilence this was and sought to know in what direction the snake would bear those limbs that were weighing down lands or which people it would devour with his open jaw. Mercury, born in its cold caves, replied: “You see the wars you wished for. Great fights follow you, the destruction of forests, a furious tempest as the sky is moved. Manslaughter and the Trojan race’s great ruin follow you, as well as a fate full of tears. Just as the serpent destroys the forests with his scaly back and wets with foaming poison the lands far and wide, likewise you’ll tame nature and run down the Alps; and you’ll wrap Italy in hapless war. You’ll similarly smash and annihilate their towns, uprooting them with their walls razed to the ground.” [214] Mercury and sleep abandoned Hannibal as he was vexed by this vision. An icy cold sweat ran through his limbs, as Hannibal pondered and reconsidered the promises presented in the night dream with a joyous trepidation. In light of this favorable omen, he gave thanks to the father of the gods and Mars. And above all he offered Mercury, his adviser, a snowwhite bull at his altars for what he had done for Hannibal. Immediately he ordered the soldiers to move the standards forward. Then a sudden shout shook the camp up, a camp so discordant in terms of the languages spoken.

Catalogue of Hannibal’s Allies [222] Calliope,* bring forth to fame the people who were stirred up by the Carthaginian’s terrible undertaking and joined the expedition against the Romans. Tell me which cities of the indomitable Iberians Libya had armed and which troops had gathered on the African shores: the Carthaginians were daring to seek the reins of world affairs and switch world domination to their side. No other storm caused by fierce winds was ever more savage. Nor did the dreadful Trojan war that swept away6 a thousand ships roar more fiercely terrifying the alarmed world.7 [231] First among the nations, the Tyrian youth brought forth their standards from Carthage. Their limbs were light, having been denied the proud glory of a tall body. But they learned quickly how to deceive, always quick in weaving secret tricks. They carried rough shields, and they were waging

6 We read raptis here. 7 The reference here is to the Trojan War and the thousand ships launched.

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war with short swords. Their feet were naked, unaccustomed, as they were, to girt themselves with a belt; they used to wear a red dress and were skilled in hiding the flow of blood during battle.8 Gleaming purple distinguished their leader, Mago,* Hannibal’s brother, as he rose higher above all others, driving his chariot and causing a pleasing uproar. He was imitating his brother in arms. [241] Next to the Carthaginian troops came Utica,* pouring forth its soldiers. Utica was an ancient city, built before Carthage’s old citadel, Byrsa. Then came Aspis,* which fortified its shores with a Sicilian wall; her leader, Sychaeus, drew attention to himself: he was the offspring of Hasdrubal,* full of vain pride on account of his maternal lineage. His uncle Hannibal’s name always came out of his mouth with special pride. [249] Then came the soldiers from the sea town of Berenice and the men of Barce, a dry city with parched springs, whose men were armed with a rounded-off long spike. Likewise, Cyrene stirred up Battus’ descendants to arms, men of little loyalty, offspring from Pelops’* lineage. Ilertes led them, once praised by old Hamilcar. He was lively in terms of planning, but slow in war. [256] Then came the Carthaginian populations from Sabratha and Phoenician Leptis, and Oea, mixing the Sicilian colonists with Africans. And the River Lixus sent the soldiers of Tingis from its swift waters. Then came the cities of Vaga and Hippo, a city loved by kings of old, and Ruspina, which guards herself from afar against unequal tides. Zama* also came and Thapsus, richer now by Roman blood.9 Antaeus led all these many people, huge in body and weapons, keeping in name and deeds the reputation of his ancestor, whom Hercules conquered. He raised his tall stature above the troops. [265] The Ethiopians also came, a race well-known to the Nile. They cut loadstones: they alone have this privilege of mining steel without the use of tools from the nearby rocks. Next to them came the burned Nubians, bearing witness of the unrelenting sun’s marks on their bodies. They have no bronze helmet, no breastplate of stiff iron; they do not bend bows. Their custom is to protect their foreheads by layers of linen and to fortify their sides with it; they also shoot spears with poisonous juice, disgracing iron by dipping it in poison. Then for the first time the Macae from the River Cinyps learned to set up tents like the Phoenicians. Their faces wear filthy beards, and shaggy boar’s hide covers their shoulders; crooked, barbed spears arm their hands. The Adyrmachidae, on the other hand, carry Spanish shields of various colors and swords artfully shaped like sickles; they also wear greaves on their left knee. These people, however, had a rough livelihood and unhealthy sustenance, because their sad meals were

8 The Carthaginians wear blood-red garments in battle in order to conceal bloodshed. 9 During the civil war, Cato committed suicide in the city of Thapsus in 46 BCE.

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cooked in the hot sand. Also the Massylians brought their shiny standards, coming from the groves of the Hesperides, the farthest lands of the earth. Fierce Bocchus was their general, whose hair fell down from his head in curls. He had seen the sacred forests on the shore growing green with gold among the leaves. [287] The Gaetulians also came, exchanging their huts for Hannibal’s camp. They were accustomed to mixing with the herds of beasts and to speaking with untamable lions, soothing their anger. They had no permanent houses, since they lived in wagons. Their custom was to move through the fields and carry their household gods around. A thousand wing-footed troops came from these, rushing to the camp: their horses were swifter than the wind, taught how to obey the stick. They were like the persistent Spartan dogs hunting in the thick bushes and barking as they ramble or like the Umbrian dogs who are keen scented and drive the beasts from their mountain-path: the swift deer rush their herds far and wide, struck by fear. Acherras was the leader of these troops, Asbyte’s brother whom Theron recently slew, a man with a grim and disturbed face. [300] The Marmaridae, a crowd of healers, came next, their arms producing a clashing noise. Snakes respond to their incantations, forgetting their venom; by the touch of these people the horned serpents calm down. Then came the Baniurae,* tough young men, poor in steel and happy to harden their spear points in a modest fire. They were greedily mixing their wild shouts with fierce speech. Likewise the Autololes joined Hannibal’s army, a fiery race with swift feet: they run so fast that horses and rapid rivers yield to their nimbleness. They compete with birds: as soon as they seize the plain with their flying, you would in vain try to find their foot tracks. Among the troops were seen also the people who feed on the juice from the famous tree, the sweet berries of the lotus, a tree too hospitable to strangers.10 [312] The Garamantes were also there, who dread the dipsads, the furious snakes that produce boiling poison in the vast sands of the desert. Rumor has it that when Perseus* slew the Gorgon Medusa and seized her face, her dreadful blood was poured over Libya; that is why the land overflows with Medusa’s snakes. Choaspes was the leader for thousands of soldiers, a man tested in war, born on Meninx,* the Ithacan island. He always armed his thunderous right hand with a javelin, a famous missile. The Nasamonians, people of the water, gathered here as well, bold in attacking shipwrecks in the deep and taking booty from the sea. Here gathered also those who live in the deep pools of Lake Tritonis. From these waters the virgin warrior Minerva was born and first anointed Libya with her invention, olive oil.

10 A reference to Ulysses’ companions who ate from the lotus tree and forgot their homeland forever.

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[325] Furthermore, the whole West joined Hannibal’s army, even the remote peoples. Above all others, the Cantabrians,* unconquerable by cold, heat, or hunger. They were able to bear the palm of victory from every hardship. When they grow old, these people have an admirable desire to stop their years of inactivity by poison, long before fate decides so and therefore not to endure life without war. For their only reason for existing is so that they can fight, and they hate life in peace. [332] The Asturians came next, Astyr’s descendants, who was the unfortunate arm-bearer of eastern Memnon*; Astyr had fled away from his native land to a different part of the world. The Asturians have small horses, without reputation in battle. But either these horses assemble without shaking the rider on their back, or during peace they are swift in dragging a car with their yielding neck. Cydnus was their leader, passionate in traversing the Pyrenees hunting or fighting war with Moorish javelins. [340] Those Celts who were associated with the Iberians also joined the army. They consider glory to fall in battle and a crime to burn the body of such a soldier: they believe that should a hungry vulture devour the dead limbs, the soul would be returned to heaven and the gods. [344] Rich Gallicia sent her youths, shrewd as they were in the art of divination from the entrails, the flight of birds, and the fire from heaven.11 Now they are muttering barbaric incantations in their native tongues, now they are beating the soil in alternate dance; they were happy to beat their shields to the sound of music. This is how they repose and have fun, a kind of sacred pleasure. The women work and take care of everything else: men consider it a sluggish task to sow seeds in the fields or turn the earth by pressing the plow through. Whatever is not to be done through tough war, the Gallician wives, who are never idle, perform. Viriathus was the leader of these men and of the Lusitanians,* whom he drafted from remote forests. He was of prime age, soon to become12 a famous man to bring havoc to the Romans. [357] The Cerretani, once Hercules’ army, and the Vascones, unaccustomed to wearing helmets, did not delay joining Hannibal’s cause. Likewise, Ilerda* joined, a city that afterwards experienced Roman fury, and the Concanians, who display their savagery comes from the Massagetae,* their ancestors, since they satisfy themselves by bleeding their horses. And Phoenician Ebusus and the Arbaci rose in arms, who take a fighting position with small or slender javelins. The Balearic Islands also joined, men who wage war by means of slings and by flying lead bullets; their originator was Tlepolemus,* their city of origin, Lindos.* And the Gravii, a corruption of the name Graii, who came from Oene and Aetolian Tyde.*

11 That is, lightning. 12 Delz marks this passage as problematic, but the meaning is clear.

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[368] New Carthage* sent her men, founded from ancient Teucer*; Emporiae, a colony of Massilia,* and vine-bearing Tarraco,* producer of wine second only to Italian, sent their youths. Among these troops, the Sedetanian cohort became prominent on account of the bright light reflection of their cuirasses; they came from Sucro’s icy waters and from Saetabis, their mother city with the high citadel: Saetabis, a city that arrogantly dismisses Arabian fabrics and compares their products to Egyptian linen. Mandonius commanded these people and Caeso, famous tamer of horses; they set up their camps with joint labor. [378] In the open field Balarus was reviewing the squadrons of the Vettones.* In that land, when calm spring warms the winds, the herd of mares stand still and mate in secret, conceiving offspring in an inexplicable manner from a fertile breeze.13 But their stock does not live long, as old age comes too quickly, lasting seven years at the latest in the stables. [384] Uxama’s people, which is a city with Sarmatian* walls, were not parading through with such light-footed horses; from there came horses not easily broken by age, strong and rough, fierce to endure reins or obey the command of their masters. Their leader was Rhyndacus, armed with a hunting spear; their helmets were fearsome with the open jaws of beasts. They spend their time hunting or according to the custom of their ancestors, by violent thefts. [391] Castulo, the city from Mount Parnassus,* is prominent above others with their standards, and so is Hispalis, famous in the Ocean and for its alternating tides. And also Nebrissa, who moves at Bacchus’ thyrsus; this is the place which nimble Satyrs inhabited and nocturnal Maenads, who wear the sacred fawnskin and Bacchus’ other symbols.14 Carteia sent to war Argathonicus’ descendants: he was their ancestral king, most rich in the whole world, waging war for a period of three hundred years. Tartessus* joined the forces, who knows Phoebus’ stables, and Munda,* soon to bear for Italy the toils at Pharsalus.* Gold-haired Phorcys led these men and his peer Arauricus, a warrior harsh for the corn-bearing shores. They were born in Baetis’ fertile banks, whose sides the branches of olive trees keep shaded. [406] The Carthaginian leader swiftly moved these troops through the plains that were now made black by the dust. He reviewed the shining standards of the troops, as far as one could see, proceeding triumphally. He was dragging a shadow over a long stretch of land. Just like, when Neptune glides over the sea with his chariot and controlled horses and seeks the remote Tethys, where Apollo goes to sleep, the whole chorus of the Nereids* comes out of their caves; in a usual swimming competition the nymphs fasten their white arms over the clear sea.

13 Silius follows an ancient belief that horses may be impregnated by the winds. 14 The reading here is uncertain.

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Hannibal crosses the Pyrenees [415] So, having upset world peace, the Carthaginian was now after the leafy peaks of the Pyrenees. From their rainy citadel on top, this mountain chain overlooks far and wide the Iberians and the Celts, separing these two peoples and serving as an eternal boundary between these two great lands. The Pyrenees took their name from Pyrene, a virgin maiden, Bebryx’s daughter, a girl who fell victim to Hercules, her father’s guest. When Hercules came to Geryon’s wide fields as part of his labors, he was overtaken by wine in Bebryx’s savage court and robbed Pyrene of her virginity, leaving her to be pitied because of her beauty. If it is right to believe this, the god was the cause of Pyrene’s death. For she gave birth to a snake from her womb and endured in terror her father’s anger. Immediately she left her sweet home in panic. Then she spent her days in lonely caves, mourning that fatal night with Hercules: she was narrating to the dark woods the man’s empty promises. She was lamenting her rapist’s ungrateful love and was stretching her hands, calling for her guest’s arms; then the beasts tore her to pieces. When the hero from Tiryns was returning victorious, he poured tears over Pyrene’s torn limbs, and out of his mind he grew pale when he found the beloved girl’s face. And the top of the trees trembled in the mountain ridges, struck by Hercules’ lament. In mournful cry, he was repeating Pyrene’s name, and all the crags and the beasts’ lairs echoed the name back. Then he placed Pyrene’s torn limbs in a tomb, giving her the last rites in tears. And this honor will never stop, as the mountains took the grievous name for all ages to come.

Hannibal crossing the Rhône and the Alps, an extremely difficult labor [442] And now Hannibal was marching through hills and groves, dense in fir trees, and he crossed the boundaries of the Pyrenees. From then on, he fiercely and violently pillaged his way through the inhospitable fields of the Volcae* and rushed his soldiers to reach the menacing shores of the swollen Rhône. This river rises from the Alpine tops and their snowy cliffs; it then flows into the land of the Celts, forming a huge body of water, cutting through the plains with a foamy gulf and quickly rushing into the sea in rapid motion into a broad estuary. When mixed in, the Arar* increases the Rhône’s strength, even though the former’s waters seem standing still and quiet. The Rhône embraces the reluctant Arar with its rapid waters and mixes it into the sea but does not allow it to carry its original name when it flows through the fields to the neighboring shore.15 [455] The soldiers entered the river eagerly, since it was hostile to bridges; some protected their weapons by holding their head and shoulders high,

15 When mixed in with the Rhône, the two become one.

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while others tried to stop the river’s force by competing to hold forth their strong arms. They fastened the horses and led them across by river boats; and the terror created by the Libyan elephants did not delay the crossing. For they discovered how they could span the water with rafts, cover the planks tied together by flinging earth on them, and take the boats into deep water slowly loosening the cables from the heights of the bank. Terrified by the trumpeting incursion of the herd of elephants, the Rhône recoiled from the beasts’ dusky bulk and turned its waters back, letting out menacing sounds from the sandy depths. [466] Now the army moved through the land of the Tricastini,* now they marched through the fields of the Vocontii* without difficulty. Here the Druentia,* violent with trunks of trees and rocks, destroyed the Carthaginian’s happy path. The river comes down from the Alps with a roar, turning in its path the uprooted ash trees and chunks eroded and broken off from the mountain. The river is borne downward with its waves which sound like barking; it changes its deceitful shoals, as it moves its course. The footmen cannot trust this river, nor is it fair to the broad ships. And then as it was overflowing with fresh rain, it snatched many armed soldiers up and twisted them in a foaming whirlpool, drowning their disfigured and torn bodies in its depths. [477] But now the sight of the Alps at hand removed from the scared soldiers’ mind any memory of their past labors. White snow confined and covered everything in everlasting hail, ice that had been there for ages. The steep front of the sky-high mountain is stiff; the congealed frost never melts by the sun’s flames. Such as when a chasm into Tartarus’ pale reign opens up from the upper world into the lowest shades below and the pools of the black lake, so high through the breezes does the earth rise and hinder the sky by its shade. [487] There is never spring here, no enjoyment of summer. Only ugly winter dwells on these awful ridges and guards this seat in perpetuity. This winter draws black clouds from everywhere here and storms mixed with hail. Now all breezes and winds placed their furious kingdom on this Alpine home. One becomes dizzy staring at these high rocks, as the mountains disappear in the clouds. Mount Athos* added on to Taurus,* Rhodope joined with Mimas,* Ossa* with Pelion,* Orthys* with Haemus*—all these mountains yield to the loftiness of the Alps. Hercules first approached these heights, previously untried. The gods saw him cutting through the clouds and breaking through the tall mountains; they saw him taming with great force the rocks that had been unstained from the beginning of the world. [500] But the soldiers delayed their progress hesitating to proceed any further. They felt as if they were going to bring their arms over the world into sacred territory, while nature was forbidding it, and as if they were fighting the gods themselves. By contrast, their leader was not shaken by the Alps or fear of the place. Instead he tried to cheer up the men’s hearts, discouraged as 53

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they were by the adversities. He prodded them on and revived their strength with these words: “After the glory of war and battles, are you not ashamed to grow tired of the gods’ favor and of success and to turn your backs to snowy mountains or to languish and surrender your weapons before these cliffs? Now, I say now, comrades, believe that you climb Rome’s powerful walls and Jupiter’s highest summit. This is the toil that will hand over to us in chains Italy and the Tiber.” [512] There was no further delay; by promising riches, he set the army in motion and raised them up the hill. And he declared that they were now leaving behind the known tracks of great Hercules, moving into rough places, as the troops were passing through a path of their own. He broke through passages that were not accessible before, and he first rose above the highest of places, calling his cohorts from the highest rock. Then, where frozen ice was making the ascent harder, and the slippery path on the snowy hill was becoming very tricky for the soldiers, Hannibal conquered the resisting ice with his steel. The snow yielded and opened up swallowing up the men, and from the very top an avalanche covered the troops with its wet force. [523] Meanwhile, dreadful northwest wind formed the snow into balls, carrying the snow on its black wings against the men’s faces. Or again, a huge, harsh storm seized and stripped the men from their weapons, throwing them up high all around through the clouds, with its whirling blast. And the more they climbed up the ridge and were strained to get through, the more their hardships increased. The heights above them opened up, and another peak materialized before the exhausted soldiers. Nor was there any pleasure in looking back at labors accomplished by the sweat of their brows. The sight of level ground smote them with such great fear. And the view of frozen whiteness oppressed their gaze as far as one was possible to see. Like when a sailor leaves behind his beloved land, and the empty sails on a tranquil mast find no winds, in the middle of the sea he looks out over the endless expanse of water; and, tired from looking at the deep, he refreshes his eyes by looking up to the sky. [540] And now, added to the disaster and the inhospitable places, semi-feral creatures poked hair stiff with filth and savage faces stained with ancient grime out of the rocks. Pouring out of hollowed-out pumice caves, this Alpine band attacked the Carthaginian soldiers. With their usual strength and speed, accustomed as they were to roaming around the mountains through thorns and snow as well as places accessible to no one else, these beasts surrounded and attacked the enemy. Here much blood stained the snow, turning it from white to red; there the ice, otherwise unconquerable, began to melt slowly and to thaw by the blood. And while the horses stamped the ground with their hard hooves, they got stuck, as their hooves were caught boring through the ice. Nor was falling down the only problem: they left behind limbs severed from the ice, and the harsh cold amputated their broken arms and legs. Having spent twelve days and as many cruel nights through suffering, they rested on the long-desired summit of the Alps. And they set up their camp on the top of precipitous cliffs. 54

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Venus complains to her father, Jupiter, about Hannibal Jupiter utters a divine prophecy regarding the future awaiting the Romans all the way down to Domitian* [557] But fear shook Venus’ mind, since the situation at hand could go either way. She came to talk to her father and, sad as she was, gave vent to her complaints: “What end to punishment or what limit to death, I beg you, will there be for Aeneas’ descendants? And when will you give them the right to settle after they crossed both lands and sea? Why does the Carthaginian get ready to push our descendants away from a city that was given to them by you? He placed Libya onto the Alps and threatens our empire with annihilation. Now Rome fears Saguntum’s fate. Where shall we bring Troy’s last ashes and sacred remains or Assaracus’* gods and Vesta’s* secret rites? Father, give us a place to lie safe. Wasn’t it enough to wander around the globe seeking a place of exile? Should we seek again Troy, now that Rome will be captured?” [570] Venus spoke these words. And her father replied to her in turn with the following: “Push away your fears, you who were born on Cythera.* Don’t let the Carthaginian race’s efforts disturb you. The Romans, your blood, hold and will hold for a long time the Tarpeian citadel. I’m getting ready to test Mars’ men with this ordeal and to make them suffer in war. This race of people used to be hard in steel and used to tame any toil happily, but slowly they got unaccustomed to their ancestors’ ancient honor. And this people, our own blood, who never spared their blood in pursuit of praise, always thirsting for fame, now sit idly and spend their days in obscurity, going through life without glory and in silence. Their virtue grows old slowly vanquished by the sweet poison of inactivity. This is a work of great magnitude and must be earned by much labor, namely to seek to rule alone over so many people in the world. [584] And eventually there will come a time when Rome will be greater than her misfortunes and will rule the world. Because of their labor, this war will raise to heaven worthy names, such as Paulus,* Fabius, and Marcellus, who is my favorite because of the rich spoils.16 These men will bear for Latium a great empire through wounds and suffering, which their descendants will not be able to uproot on account of luxury or their disposition, however greatly it may change. And already a man is born who will bring the Carthaginian back to his fatherland and will kick him out of Latium; he will make Hannibal put his arms down before the walls of his own Carthage.17 From then on, my daughter, there will be a long rule through the ages by your people. [594] After that, heavenly virtue will raise itself to the stars from the town of Cures*: a warlike race, born and bred in olive-bearing Sabine* land,

16 See note 9 in Book 1. 17 That is, Scipio Africanus.

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will exalt the sacred Julians’ name. Of those, the father will endure to conquer Thyle*18 and first will drag the Roman troops into the Caledonian* groves. He will restrain the Rhine to its banks, and indefatigable he will rule the Africans. In his old age, he will tame in war palm-bearing Judaea.* He won’t go down to River Styx when he dies and to kingdoms bereft of light; but he will hold a seat among the gods and will enjoy divine honors among us. [603] Then his son, preeminent in his great strength of mind, will receive the task of leading his fatherland and will be borne up high, raising his head as high as his power. When still young, he will complete the wild wars of the Jewish race. [607] But you, Germanicus,* will surpass your father’s and brother’s deeds, you who as a youth were greatly feared by the gold-haired Batavians.* Nor should the Tarpeian hill’s fire scare you:19 you’ll be saved from the sacrilegious destruction to rule the earth, because a long fellowship in our world awaits you. To him the youths from the Ganges* will at some point surrender their unstrung bows, and the Bactrians* will show him their empty quivers.20 From the north he will lead his chariot through the city and will celebrate a triumph for his victory in the east, with Bacchus yielding his place to him. The same man will restrain the Danube to its seat among the Sarmatians as a conqueror, a river who denied to bear Roman standards. [618] In addition, he will surpass with his voice all of Romulus’* descendants talented in eloquence. To him the Muses will bring their sacred gifts: he will be better in music than him who made the Hebrus River stop and Mount Rhodope come to him;21 he will sing more wonderfully than Phoebus Apollo. He will build a golden Capitol on the Tarpeian Rock, where, you see, our old plane stands, and he will join the top of my temple to the sky. Then, son of gods and father of gods to be, rule the lands blessed with paternal sway. The house of heaven will receive you in old age, and Romulus Quirinus* will yield his throne to you, as your father and brother place you in their midst: and the temple of your starry son will gleam next to you.22”

Hannibal’s crossing is complete [630] While Jupiter prophesied the sequence of future events, the Carthaginian leader descended the steep heights. He was trying with uncertain effort to make his march more firmly, as the army was gliding down through pathless slopes and was pressing on wet territory. No battles or

18 We read durabit. 19 Domitian survived the fire that burned down the Capitol. 20 Especially the Parthians were renowned archers. 21 That is, Orpheus. 22 Domitian’s son died as a baby.

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enemies were stopping them, but rather what was lying ahead, threatening and rugged, rocks facing cliffs. They stood surrounded and were worn out by the delay and harshness of the crossing. Nor did they have a chance to rest their sluggish bodies with sleep. They added nights to their efforts and hurried with force to carry wood on their shoulders and ash-trees taken from the cliffs. When they had stripped bare the parts of the mountain most dense with trees, they piled up the logs. The rock melted out circled by voracious fires.23 Soon the crumbling, weighty mass was attacked by swords and giving a groan became undone, opening the way to the kingdom of old Latinus for the exhausted soldiers. Having crossed the untrodden Alps with such casualties, finally Hannibal pitched camp on the plains of the Taurini.*

Bostar returns from Jupiter Hammon’s oracle and recounts the god’s prophecy [647] Meanwhile, joyful Bostar brought back Jupiter’s prophecy from the oracle, crossing the sands of the Garamantes, and he was rousing up Hannibal’s heart, as if he had seen the Thunder god himself: “Belus’ greatest son, you whose right hand prevents your country’s citadels from slavery, we have gone into the Libyan altars. The Syrtes, which moistens the stars, brought us to the gods; a land more violent than sea almost swallowed us. The parched plains stretch out to the end of the sky from the middle of the earth. Nature denies a mound in this huge space, except when the whirlwind builds one by twisting hollow clouds full of sand. Or as if the African wind broke from its custody and ravaged the lands, and the northwest wind scattered the sea over the sky; both winds fiercely invaded the plain that could hold their battle and in turn piled up mountains of heaped sand. [662] We observed the stars and crossed this expanse. Then the day confused our journey. The Little Bear, which is most trustworthy for the Carthaginian sailors, was a guide for us travelers, as we wandered around this plain full of sand and always saw us surrounded in the middle of the desert. But when in exhaustion we entered horn-bearing Jupiter Hammon’s groves and woody kingdoms and his shining temple, our host, Arisbas, welcomed us and escorted us into his house. Next to the shrine, there stood an awesome and marvelous spring, which is warm in the morning and the evening but cools off when the sun ascends Olympus* in the middle of the day. At night that spring again boils under the night’s shadows. [673] Then that old man showed us that the place was filled with the god’s power, the soil was rich without being plowed. Full of joy, he said: ‘Bostar, worship with prayer the shades of this grove, these rooftops that are entwined with the sky, and the woods where Jupiter Hammon walked.

23 Livy narrates Hannibal’s plan to set fire to logs in order to heat the rocks below to a high temperature and then split them with vinegar (From the Foundation of the City 21.37.1–3).

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For who has not heard the world-famous story that the gift of the god, twin doves, sat on the bosom of Hebe?24 Of those two doves one flew out and reached the lands of Chaonia,* and there she fills with prophetic words Dodona’s* oak. The other dove flew over the Carpathian* sea through the breezes and reached into Libya on her wings that resembled the color25 of the dark Africans; she sat on this temple. Here where you now see the altar and dark groves, the dove chose the flock leader (an astonishing thing to say) and stood in the middle of the horns of this wooly sheep, uttering responses for the people of Marmarica. Soon a grove sprung up all of a sudden and woods with ancient oaks. From the first day these oaks grew as you see them now touch the sky. From this ancient superstition, the tree holds divine sway and is worshipped by the warm altars.’ [692] And while we were admiring all these sights, abruptly a frightening thud struck the doors and flew them open; a greater light suddenly hurt our eyes. A priest stood before the altars dressed in a shiny snow-white gown, and the people struggled to rush toward him. Then when I uttered the message commissioned to me to convey, behold! all of a sudden the god entered the prophet. The trees clashed, and we heard a high-pitched, deafening murmur throughout the grove. [699] And a voice, louder than what was known, burst now through the air: ‘Libyans, you march toward Latium and you prepare to rouse Assaracus’ offspring with war. I see a difficult undertaking: I see fierce Mars now climb on his chariot: the furious horses breathe out a dark fire on Hesperia’s* side; the reins drip in much blood. You ask to know the outcome of the battles and the fated end, and you angrily give sails to your famous exploits. Invade the Iapygian plain, the Aetolian leader’s place. You will magnify your Carthaginian ancestors and will leave behind to no one else than you to penetrate deeper into the entrails of the Roman populace. It’ll be so until the Romans are defeated and shaken with fear hearing your name. The Roman youths will never put this fear aside, as long as Hannibal is alive and breathes the air of this world.’” Bostar was carrying such happy prophecies and filled the Carthaginian men with the desire of upcoming battle.

24 The text is problematic here. According to Servius (On Aeneid 3.466), Jupiter gave to his daughter Hebe two doves, one of whom flew to Dodona, the other to Libya. 25 The text is problematic here but the meaning is clear: the dove had dark wings.

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The Romans prepare for war with Hannibal [1] Rumor spread through Italy’s troubled cities: cloudy mountains and crags that threatened the sky had taken the Punic yoke, and the Carthaginians had come through the trackless expanse. Hannibal had come down boasting of deeds equal to Hercules’ labors. Criminal Rumor1 seizes on dire upheavals and grows as she passes. Swifter than the winged southeast wind, her terrifying tales shake astonished cities. Fear was apt to feed the people’s chatter in the absence of events and built on what they heard. They went hurriedly into war’s bitter anxieties. [10] Mars god of war suddenly noised through all Italy and stirred up arms and men. The Romans renewed their javelins, rubbing off the rust to impart savage splendor to the iron. They refurbished the crest’s snow-white brightness on the helmets they had stored away. They tied new thongs to help their spears, and reforged axes to make them new again. They fit together impenetrable barriers for their sides, breastplates that could withstand many fighting hands and leave wounds without effect. [18] Some men practiced the bow, others broke in their panting horses, leading them in circles with the whip. They sharpened their swords with the whetstone. Nor indeed did they delay in bringing aid to the walls which tottered from age. They carried stones and refitted caved-in towers that had been erected in a distant past. Then they loaded up weapons in the citadels, and the men competed to bring beams and trusty barriers for the city gates from the forests. [25] They surrounded the cities with ditches. Fear, no lazy master, hurried on all these labors. But there was terror in the vast countryside. People left their homes behind. Stunned men carried their wretched mothers on their shoulders and hurried along elderly fathers who were counting their final 1 The Roman poets imagined the allegorical figure of Rumor as a creature that grew as she moved. Virgil depicts her as a winged creature with an eye, ear, and tongue under each feather.

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days of life. Their wives came ahead of them, their hair loosened, and in right and left hand they dragged little children who accompanied them in an unequal line. So the crowds traveled, and they passed along their fears, nor did they look for the rumor’s originator. [33] Hannibal’s massive undertakings frightened the senators, as did the war’s inception, and the crossing of the Alps’ cliffs cheated their hopes. Yet they turned tough minds against the bitter challenges and raised up great courage. It pleased them to head through the dangers to glory and to earn memorable names with their fighting hands, the kind that Fortune never offers in prosperous circumstances.

Hannibal and the elder Scipio* rally their troops [39] Inside a safe rampart, Hannibal tended to troops who were tired from their march. Much cold had weakened their strength. As a form of consolation, he showed the rejoicing soldiers that the path to Rome lay through the fields and that the city was in striking distance. But he did not allow any halt in his own conduct of state affairs and war plans: he was the only one who could not endure inactivity. Once in the days of old, armed tribes had invaded Italy’s shores and blessed habitations.2 The Gallic warband had given rise to fear. Soon Tarpeian Father Jupiter and the besieged Romans got to know sacrilegious wars. Hannibal enticed the Gauls with gifts and flattered their vain spirits and the people’s unstable morals, uniting their forces to his. [51] While he did that, the consul Scipio crossed with his swift fleet and returned from the coast of Massilia. The great leaders had completed different labors on land and sea. Closer dangers were joining them in camp, and the beginnings of a great clash were at hand. Fortune had removed the delays as the consul gathered his forces and moved camp. The troops were fired up as they saw the enemy and demanded the signal to rage. Tyrian Hannibal’s great voice resounded through the numerous ranks: Spain far away had been conquered,3 the Pyreneans and the Rhône’s fierce inhabitants had not rejected his commands, and Rutulian Saguntum was in flames. They had forced their path through the Celts’ territory. Punic troops under arms had gone where Hercules had labored just to set foot. Their cavalry passing over the heights had taunted the cliffs, and the horses’ whinnying had resounded through the Alps. [67] On the other side, the consul Scipio called his men to the noble contest: “Soldiers, you have an enemy whom the snowy cliffs have shattered and frostbitten. They can barely drag their torpid limbs. Come

2 Referring to the Gallic invasion of Rome in 390 BCE, led by Brennus (see Glossary). 3 The text is problematic in this line. Watt suggests quaecumque rigantur Hibero, “the regions watered by the Ebro River.”

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now, look, they have crossed the sacred mountains and vast cliffs; just let them learn how much higher our rampart is than Hercules’ citadel at Saguntum. Let them learn which is greater: climbing hills or smashing your formations. Let them boast in vain of their famous deeds: the Alps will block where they have to go when they are beaten in the great fight and come rushing back. The gods have driven them here, leading them over the heights, so their blood may stain Italy’s borders and an enemy land may bury their bones. It would please me to know whether a new and different Carthage is sending us this war now, or whether it’s the same one that lies sunk beneath the water at the Aegates Islands, drowned in the vast ocean.”

The armies meet at the River Ticinus* in northern Italy. Jupiter sends an omen of Scipio Africanus’ future greatness [81] The Elder Scipio spoke these words and turned his battle line to the River Ticinus’ waves. The clear river preserves blue waters. Its pools know no disturbance in its wavy channel. The fresh stream slowly draws shining liquid. You would hardly believe that it is moving, so gently does its bright current lead out waters that encourage sleep from its shadowed banks, while birds compete in shrill song. [88] And now light appeared as the shadows fled at night’s end, and sleep had completed its appointed hours. The consul made ready to explore the place and the nearby hill’s layout and the battlefield’s nature. Hannibal had an equal desire and similar concerns in his breast. And so they went forth accompanied by swift cavalry detachments. Clouds of stirred-up dust told them the enemy was on the move. The earth groaned as noisy hoofbeats came nearer and nearer. The horses’ piercing whinnies outdid the battle horns. Each leader hurriedly called out: “Arms, men! Seize your arms, men!” Both had swift courage, desire for glory, and the same madness for battle and combat. [101] Without any delay, as much of the battlefield separated them from blows as a javelin covers when it is shot forth from its thong. Suddenly out of a clear sky without a single cloud, an augury turned their eyes and minds to the heavens.4 A hawk heading from the middle of the sun’s meridian violently harassed the doves, birds loved by Venus and held in honor by Dione.* Now with its talons, now with its beak, now with its wings’ hard blows, the vicious bird savagely wounded and killed fifteen of the doves. Nor was there an end or satiation, but its eagerness for new blood increased. It pursued a dove who was already terrified by the earlier slaughter and was uncertain where to flee on its flagging wings. At last Jupiter’s eagle,

4 Bird omens are typical scenes of a Greco–Roman epic.

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coming from the rising sun, forced the hawk to turn tail back toward the thin clouds. Then the eagle turned triumphantly and flew happily toward the Roman battle standards, where the Younger Scipio,* the commander’s son, was brandishing noble weapons with his boyish arms. Twice and three times the eagle made a noise, as its beak struck Scipio’s shining helmet’s plume before it returned to the heavens. [120] It was Liger’s art to know the gods’ warnings and to reveal the future from the birds’ instructions. He called out: “Carthaginian, like this daring hawk you will cut down the Roman youth for sixteen years within Italy’s boundaries. You will carry off much plunder along with your bloodshed. But hold back your threats: look, Jupiter’s arms-bearer, the eagle, denies you Daunus’ kingdoms. I recognize you, greatest of the gods. Be present, Father, and confirm your bird’s omen. For unless the eagle is lying about the gods and its flight is in vain, boy, this fate is in store for you after Libya is defeated. Your name will be greater than Carthage.” [131] On the other side, Bogus5 sang out happy omens to Carthaginian Hannibal. According to him, the hawk was lucky, and the doves slaughtered in the cloud portended destruction for Aeneas’ descendants, Venus’ Roman race. Then he was the first to hurl his spear at the enemy to accompany his words, as if the god persuaded him and as if he were aware of fate. The spear flew far over the open battlefield’s empty space. It would have lost its force thanks to the distance, if Catus had not let loose his horse’s reins. He had driven the horse’s head to meet it as he sought to pluck the glory of the first combat. Falling already and losing its momentum, the spear found the wound it sought. It took its place and stood fixed between Catus’ temples, in the forehead that he had presented.

Crixus the Boian* commander leads the first assault and kills numerous Romans [143] The battle lines rushed together. There was a great uproar across the battlefield as all reined back their horses, holding them high; then they sent them forth. The horses reared into the air and went forward. They flew through the open spaces like a swift tornado, and their light tread hardly marked the top layer of dust. Before all others, Crixus, leader of the Boians, rammed a swift detachment of cavalry into the front lines. The Gauls’ huge limbs blocked the Romans. Crixus swelled with pride in his claim of descent from his forefather Brennus.* Among his honors, he included the Capitol’s capture. The crazed man bore on his shield an image in gold of the Celts ransoming the Roman captives on the Tarpeian mount’s holy peak. A golden torque shone on the man’s milk-white neck. His clothes were striped with

5 The name does not have connotations of falseness in Latin or Punic.

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gold, his bracelets were stiff gold, and his helmet with its waving crest was made of the same metal. [157] In the forefront, the massive onslaught pushed back a phalanx from Camerinum* and laid them low. Thick waves of Boians rushed through their close-packed arms. The criminal Senones, allied troops, crowded together. They collided with the horses’ breasts and collapsed all over the field. The fields swam, saturated from vast quantities of men’s and horses’ blood. The ground absorbed the warbands’ sliding footsteps. Blows from heavy hooves brought death to the wounded. As they flew around the field, they spread a dew of dark gore across the earth and drenched the wretched men’s faces with their own blood. [167] In death, young Tyrrhenus, your dark blood first daubed arrogant Pelorus’ victorious spear. Your trumpet was inspiring men’s minds and firing them up for battle. Your song readied them anew for combat. The barbarian’s javelin stuck in your laboring throat, and a lethal wound closed off your raucous cry. But from lips already silenced in death, your mouth poured forth a final sound that wandered through your curved trumpet. [175] Crixus killed Picens and Laurus, but he did not strike both from a distance. He killed Laurus with his sword, and his smooth spear, picked on the River Po’s banks, brought death to Picens. He made for the wasteland and planned to escape by wheeling to the left. The horrid spear struck his thigh and landed in his flying horse’s laboring guts, causing a double death. Crixus laid Venulus low, yanking back his bleeding neck, as well as rushing Farfarus with his hot spear. He killed you, Tullus, raised by cold Lake Velinus.* You would have been Italy’s outstanding glory and memorable name, if Fate had given you time or the Carthaginians had abided by the treaty. Then Crixus killed Remulus and men whose names were once famous in war: the Magii from Tibur,* Mataurus from Hispella, and Clanius who was hesitantly plotting to inflict wounds with his spear. [189] There was no room for the Carthaginians to engage in war or combat; instead, Celtic madness filled the entire battlefield. No one hurled his javelin in vain, but every weapon lodged in a body. Here Quirinius dared monstrous deeds among the fearful warriors. He did not know how to flee, and in adverse circumstances it pleased his unconquerable mind to take death in the chest. His spearpoint spurred his horse to fury and his arms launched javelins, to see if he could open a path and slaughter his way with his sword to the Gallic king. Certain of his death, he sought with every effort the glory which he would be unable to perceive. [198] Teutalus collapsed from a ruptured groin and shook the earth under his vast weight. Sarmens fell: he had vowed, if he returned as a victor, to dedicate to Mars Gradivus* his blond hair and locks which vied with gold, a tawny knot under his helmet. But the Fates dragged him by his unshorn hair to the shades below, even as he vowed promises that no 63

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one heard. Steaming gore flowed over his white limbs and reddened the drenched ground. [206] Being struck by a spear did not slow Ligaunus down. He rushed forward and swung his sword against his enemy. Ligaunus rose up to strike him where the supple nerves connect the arm to the shoulder. This wound cut off the right hand, which hung a little in death from the loosened reins. It tried to control the bridle, quivering with trembling effort, obliviously imitating a hand that guides the reins in the customary way. Then Vosegus cut off the man’s head as he turned away and carried off his helmet, holding it by its crest with the dead man’s head still contained inside. He saluted his gods with his native shout. [216] While the Gallic people made this slaughter on the battlefield, the consul Scipio hurriedly summoned his troops from camp and hurled them into battle. He rushed first against the enemy, riding high on a gleaming white horse. He led with him youth chosen from all over rich Italy: the Marsians* and men of Cora and Laurentum’s glory, the Sabine javelineers, the men of Tuder* who worship Mars Gradivus on his high peak, and the Faliscans* who are dressed in their native linen. Scipio led the men who live by the River Anio’s quiet stream, Tibur’s fruitful orchards, under walls built by Hercules. The Hernician* rocks and cloudy Cassinum’s* fields sent forth men who had been toughened in cold streams. The sons of the ruling land went forth to war, a band of youth condemned by the gods never to come home again. [230] The consul Scipio turned his horse to the middle of the whirlpool of combat that was devouring the battle lines. Enraged by the slaughter of his troops, he sacrificed these men as offerings to the dead: Labarus, Padus, Caunus, Breucus who barely collapsed after many wounds, and Larus who rolled his eyes as if from a Gorgon’s face. Warlike Leponticus also fell in a grim fate. The fierce warrior threw his body in the consul’s way and seized the reins. Tall as he was, on foot his face drew level with the consul sitting on his horse. A heavy sword struck the middle of his forehead and his head fell, separated from his shoulders. [239] But Batus struggled crazily against Scipio’s horse and blocked his attacks with his shield. A blow from the horse laid him out on the tawny sand, and pounding hooves smashed his face into anonymity. The Roman leader raged through the troubled battlefield, like the north wind when it overcomes the whole Icarian Sea and raises the waters up from its lowest bed. The wind scatters the sailors and throws them over the vast depths as it shatters their fleets and drowns all the Cyclades islands in foaming water. [248] Crixus’ hopes were slender, and he had little expectation of survival. He armed his mind with contempt for death. Bloody foam shone in his bristling beard, white saliva in his crazed grin, and his hair stiffened as dust poured in. He attacked Tarius, who was fighting next to the consul Scipio, and his savage arms thundered around the man. Tarius rolled to the 64

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ground as a spear that carried his final doom thrust him prone on his horse’s shoulders. The frightened horse dragged him, as his limbs tangled up in the bridle’s encircling girdle. His blood left a long trail as it sprinkled the field, and his spear marked trembling paths in the dust. The consul Scipio praised the young man for his death and readied to avenge his outstanding spirit. Then a dire voice sounded through the air, and Scipio heard from the shouting that Crixus was coming, a face he did not recognize. His anger surged up more violently, as he drew near, and he fixed his gaze on the body of the enemy he wanted to kill. [264] Then Scipio stirred up his horse by patting its neck, an honor the horse welcomed, and said: “Garganus, we will soon go after the ranks and lesser warriors. The gods are calling us to greater things. Do you see how mightily Crixus proceeds? Now as a reward I will give you his saddle covering that shines with Phoenician brightness,6 a barbarian’s honor. And I will also offer you tawny reins as a gift.” He said this and shouted loudly to call Crixus into combat and demanded a duel on a clear field. His enemy did not draw back and an equal rage had fired him up. The cavalry drew back on one side and the other as they were ordered and gave the men space. They stood ready to fight in the middle of the battlefield. [275] Crixus was mighty as the Giant Mimas,* son of Earth, who moved his battle standards in the Phlegraean Fields* and terrified Heaven with his arms. He roared from his half-wild breast and horrendous shouting lofted his rage: “Did no one survive from your burned and captured city to tell you what kind of fighting hands we, Brennus’ people, carry to war? Look now and learn,” he said. At the same moment, he threw a shaft tough with knots and fire-hardened strength, the kind that would shake city gates. It resounded tremendously and flew over his nearby opponent. Crixus did not think in his excessive cast to observe the space that remained between them on the battlefield. [286] Scipio the consul replied: “Remember to report this to your ancestor Brennus and the other ghosts: how far from the Tarpeian hill you fell, and that you were not permitted to view the Capitol on its sacred mount.” Then he made an effort worthy of his enormous opponent, and the thong helped his spear along its smooth flight. It flew through the outside of the many-layered linen corselet and the covering knit from sinews. The whole of the spear’s point passed deep into Crixus’ chest. He pitched forward and stretched out on the fields in a massive collapse. The earth groaned as his mighty arms struck it. Just the same way on the Tyrrhenian shore, a tall pier built from stone makes a massive noise as it is dropped into the sea, to battle

6 The purple dye on the saddle covering, produced in antiquity in Phoenicia, is imagined to shine bright as fire.

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the storms and violent waves beneath.7 The ocean god Nereus roars, and the blue waves split by the impact receive the smashed mountain of stone beneath their angry waters. [300] Having lost their leader, the Celts trusted to their own feet to flee. So much hope and zeal had depended on that one man’s life. Just so a hunter on the height of Mount Picanus* stirs up beasts’ dense lairs and sends dark destruction here and there through the close-packed burrows, along the trackless thickets. A pitchy cyclone swirls upward little by little as the fire collects its hidden strength and flame. It hurls out clouds of thick smoke and darkens them in obscurity. Soon fire suddenly shines all over the mountain. A noise rises up, the animals flee, as do the birds, and the heifers are scared far off in the low valley.

After the Gauls flee, Hannibal and his brother Mago* lead an assault [311] Mago saw the Gallic bands turn tail. He realized that their first effort, which is the only one this people can make, had been in vain. He called his own troops and his homeland’s cavalry into battle. From all directions, men rushed to him, using no reins for their horses, bare of bridles. At one moment, the Italians turned their horses and headed for the rear; at another, fear carried back the Carthaginian cavalry. Either these men curved to the right in crescent-moon turns, or the others twisted left to form a wing. As they alternated course, they wound massed coils and unwound them as they gave ground in skillful retreat. In the same manner, when discord sets the winds against one another, the north wind and the southeast wind lead the sea back and forth. Their alternating gusts carry a mass of the deep now this way and now that way. [324] Hannibal rushed up, shining in gold and purple, with Fear and Terror and Madness around him.8 He held forth his Galician shield’s shining circle and great light struck the fields. Hope and courage collapsed, and any shame at turning tail in flight receded from the Romans’ minds. Nor did they care about honorable deaths; rather, they resolved to flee and longed for chasms to open in the earth. In the same way, the whole herd empties from the fields and seeks safe hiding places when a Caucasian tigress ventures forth from her mountain cave. Her crazed expression terrifies them. She wanders around the deserted valleys in triumph and slowly draws back her lips to bare her teeth, as if already

7 Roman engineers built harbor piers or building foundations by sinking concrete pillars into the sea. 8 These are allegorical figures; see note 20 in Book 2.

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gnawing bodies in front of her. She opens her monstrous jaws and plans her slaughter. [337] Metabus could not escape Hannibal, nor could taller Ufens, although one had winged feet and his horse carried the other with reins let loose. For a javelin’s shining point sent Metabus to the shades below. A sword severed Ufens’ hamstrings and dispatched him as he collapsed. It took away his feet’s glory along with his blood. And now Hannibal had sent Sthenius and Larus to death, as well as Collinus. He was from the chilly region where Lake Fucinus* had raised him in its green cavern and allowed him to swim across its waters. [346] A hurled spear made Massicus his companion in death. He was born on holy Mount Massicus’* vine-growing peak. The Liris River’s* waters raised him. Its quiet spring conceals its course: no rainfall can alter the river as its sparkling waters graze silent banks. The rage for slaughter intensified, and there were scarcely enough missiles for their madness. Shields grated on conjoined shields, feet pushed on feet, and crests waving on helmets struck enemy foreheads with trembling exertion.

Combat between the three sons of the Spartan commander Xanthippus and three Italian brothers from Aricia* [355] Three brothers, triplets, gave fierce battle before the front lines. During the First Punic War, Carthaginian Barce’s fruitful womb had given birth to them for Xanthippus who came from Leda’s Amyclae.* Old stories puffed up their hearts: Greek history, their father the commander, Amyclae’s noble name, and Spartan chains thrown around Regulus’s neck.9 They burned to prove their descent in war and the Spartan identity of their father through their deeds. Also, when the war was finished at last, they longed to see Taygetus’* cold mountains, to swim in their father’s River Eurotas,* and to see Lycurgus’* laws and rituals. But the gods and three Italian brothers, the same number as they, forbade them to enter Sparta. Merciless Aricia*10 had sent them as their opponents from Egeria’s* deep groves, equals in age and determination. But Clotho,* the harsh Fate, did not permit them to see Diana’s lakes and altar. [370] Eumachus, Critias, and Xanthippus, who was happy to bear his father’s name, marched together as the whirlwind of combat pushed them against the enemy. They were like lions who make furious war against one another. Their hoarse roaring fills the rough desert and scattered huts. All the Moors flee headlong into the concealed cliffs and trackless boulders. Libyan

9 See note on 2.343 regarding Xanthippus’ capture of Regulus during the First Punic War. 10 According to legend, the priest of Arician Diana gained his office by killing his predecessor in single combat.

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women hold their children at their dripping breasts to stifle their cries. The lions’ roars are dire, cracked bones resound in their bloody mouths, and their limbs fight on fiercely even as jaws bite them. [380] The Egerian youths did no differently. Keen Virbius leapt forth on one side, Capys on the other, and Albanus in similar arms. Critias sank down a little and struck Albanus, puncturing his stomach. All his guts fell out pitiably all of a sudden and filled up his shield. Then Eumachus killed Capys: but he held on to his shield with all his effort as if it were joined to his limbs. The wicked sword nevertheless cut his left hand off, wounding him where he grabbed the shield. The unlucky hand did not give up gripping the shield and stuck to the collapsing armor. [390] Virbius’ two brothers had been killed and the final chance at victory remained for him. He pretended to head away with fearful steps. Xanthippus fell to his sword, Eumachus to his unyielding spear, and their double deaths made the combat equal at last. Then sword points in turn pierced the breasts of the surviving men, bringing the fight to an end as lives were lost in turn. Happy are the deaths which loving duty has added to the shades below! The coming ages will wish for brothers like these. A remembering era will celebrate their eternal glory, if only our songs are able to usher in a future day and see our later-born descendants, and Apollo does not grudge me fame.

Scipio the consul rallies his troops but is wounded and saved by his son [401] But Scipio the consul held firm the troops who were wavering all over the battlefield, so long as his voice held out. “Where are you carrying the battle standards? What fear has taken you out of yourselves? If the chance to stand in the first ranks and charge to the front of the battle seems horrible to you, then stand behind me, men, banish your fear, and only look on. The warriors you are running from were born to conquered parents. What hope will we have if defeated? Will we head for the Alps? Believe now that Rome itself, bearing walls and towers upon its head, now extends its palms in supplication to you. I see our children kidnapped throughout the city, the slaughter of our parents, and the blood extinguishing the Vestals’ flame. Hold off this crime!” [412] There was massed shouting after Scipio spoke. Thick dust blocked his throat. His left hand took up the reins, his right took his weapons, and he opposed his broad chest to the enemy. He drew his sword and threatened first himself, then his fearful men if they did not stand fast with him. [417] As Jupiter, father of the gods, watched the battle lines from high Olympus, the remarkable consul’s risks touched his mind. He called his son Mars Gradivus to him and spoke thus as a father: “The great-hearted hero’s labor frightens me, my son. It is no doubt his last, unless you take up arms. Seize him away! He is burning for combat and slaughter’s sweetness has 68

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made him forget himself. Stop the Libyan commander, for criminal Hannibal seeks more in the consul’s single death than in the whole destruction of the fallen. Do you see meanwhile the boy who already thrusts his tender fighting hand to battle?11 He strives to outdo his youthful years with deeds and thinks growing up for the war will take a long time. Be his leader for his beginnings in combat. As his teacher, let him dare great things, and let him first succeed at saving his father’s life.” [430] Thus spoke Jupiter, the Maker of all things, and Mars called his chariot to battle from Odrysian* Thrace. Then he took up his shield that spread the dark lightning’s fires and a helmet not easy for any of the gods to wear, as well as a breastplate that the Cyclopes* had sweated over with much effort. He shook a spear in the air that war with the Titans had sated with blood.12 His chariot filled the battlefield. An army of Rage and the Furies and bloody Death’s countless faces went as one with him. Bellona* labored to guide his reins, and her dark whip spurred his chariot. A horrible storm came down from the vast sky and wrapped the earth, hurling dark masses and turbid clouds. Italy, Saturn’s home, trembled and shook at the god’s coming. The River Ticinus left its banks and headed back to its source as it heard the chariot. [445] Garamantian youths had ringed the Italian leader Scipio with their spears. They readied to make a new gift of the consul’s stripped armor and head dripping blood still for the Carthaginian king. Scipio stood fast, determined not to yield to Fortune, and hurled back the spears with keen effort. His kills made him grow fiercer. And now his limbs were dripping, soaked with his own and the enemy’s blood, and the crests had fallen from his helmet. The Garamantians hurried around him in a tight circle, jabbing their spears closer. One aimed a javelin with a savage point and hurled it at him. [454] Scipio’s son saw the weapon lodge in his father’s body. His cheeks wetted, paleness suddenly seized him as he trembled, and his cry burst forth to the stars. Twice he had attempted to die before his father by turning his hand against himself. Twice Mars had turned his anger against the Carthaginians. The fearless boy rushed through the enemies and the weapons and matched Mars Gradivus pace for pace. The enemy formations yielded to him straightaway and a wide path suddenly appeared on the battlefield. [462] Young Scipio mowed down the ranks, protected by Mars’ divine shield. He laid out the man who had thrown the spear at his father atop the weapons and corpses. He sacrificed many souls, desired expiatory offerings, before his father’s eyes. Then he quickly tore the spear out of his father’s tough bones and carried him away on his neck and stood forth with his

11 Referring to the consul Scipio’s son, the future Scipio Africanus. 12 See note to 1.435 on the gods’ war with the Titans.

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father resting on his shoulders. The astonished forces held back their weapons at such a sight. The bitter Libyans yielded their places to him and all the Spanish withdrew far and wide. Scipio’s youth and his outstandingly dutiful love caused astonished silence throughout the battlefield. [472] Then Mars spoke from his high chariot: “You will raze Carthage’s towers and compel the Carthaginians to observe the treaty. Yet no day as great as this will dawn for you in your long life, dear boy. Hail! Bravo for your holy nature, Jupiter’s true son! And greater deeds still await you, but better deeds cannot be given.” Then Mars rushed back to heaven’s clouds as the sun completed its circuit over the land. Darkness shut the tired armies in their camps.

The consul Scipio moves his troops from the River Ticinus to the River Trebia and joins forces with the consul Gracchus* [480] The moon sent down her chariot and ended the night. She breathed on her brother the Sun’s chariot, and rosy flames shot up amid the blue waves on the eastern waters. The consul Scipio feared the grim fields and the flat expanse that benefitted the Carthaginians. So he sought the River Trebia and its hills. And now the days rushed by in swift marching and hard work. As the Carthaginians approached the River Po’s swift waves, the Romans loosened the supports for the bridge which had let their force cross. The shattered bridge floated in the middle of the river. The Carthaginians passed through the byways in a winding circuit. They were looking for shallows and gentle approaches and a still place in the current. Meanwhile, they seized alder trees from nearby groves and fashioned a river fleet which would carry their forces. [493] By then the consul Gracchus was there to meet them, summoned from Sicilian Pelorus,* a long way over the deep. He held the ground near the River Trebia. The great man came from a famous and courageous family. Wax masks of many of his ancestors gloried with renowned titles from wars and domestic accomplishments.13 [498] The Carthaginians were ready. They pitched camp in the grass across the river. For success in their campaign urged on their spirits, and Hannibal their leader also exhorted them: “What third consul does Rome still have? What other Sicily remains in reserve? Look, all the Latin forces and descendants of Daunus have come together. Let Italy’s leaders strike treaties with me now and demand their laws and agreements! But you, Scipio, were given back your life amid Mars’ weapons. Wretched soul, may you live on in this way, and may you give this glory to your son once

13 Romans from politically powerful families displayed wax masks in their houses that represented their ancestors who had held senior political offices.

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more. You must not be allowed to fall in battle when the Fates call you at the end of your life. It is my part to die fighting.” Hannibal spoke thus, all fired up. Then without resting, he sent formations of Massylians armed with light spears right up to the Roman camps to provoke the enemy and call them out. [512] Nor did the Latin soldiers think it right to entrust their safety to their ramparts or for the enemy’s spears to strike at their shut gates. They burst forth as the rampart opened. The consul Gracchus flew out before the others, in no way unworthy of his ancestors. The breeze fluttered the crests adorning his Auruncan* helmet. A blood-red cloak, the consul’s ancestral glory, gleamed on his shoulders. Looking back on his ranks, he shouted mightily to call them forth, where a crowd of opposing fighters packed in dense formations. He broke a path through them and rushed across the field. He was just like a torrential river falling headlong from lofty Mount Pindus’* height. It rushes noisily into the fields and shears off the mountain’s side and tears it away with an enormous crash. Here and there it drags the herds in its path, along with monstrous beasts and woods, and its foaming wave resounds in the rocky valleys. [525] Even if the glory of Homer’s Maeonian tongue were to return to me and father Apollo were to give me the power to pour forth a hundred voices, I could not tell of so much slaughter, how many men the great consul’s fighting hand killed, or the Carthaginians’ mad rage. Carthaginian Hannibal killed Murranus, and Italian Gracchus killed Phalantus. Both victims were combat veterans experienced in war, and each commander laid out his man before the other’s face. Mount Axur’s* windy peak had sent Murranus to battle, while holy Lake Tritonis’ white depths had sent you, Phalantus. [534] Cupencus was deprived of part of his vision, and one eye was sufficient for him in war. Wickedly he hurled his spear as the consul Gracchus first shone forth in his conspicuous cloak. The spear fixed trembling on the shield’s outermost edge. Gracchus seethed with anger and replied: “Wicked man, lose whatever sight remains in your fierce face and shines from your wounded brow.” As Gracchus spoke thus, he threw the spear, hurling it straight, and sent the whole point through the man’s dire eye. [542] Nor did Hannibal, Hamilcar’s son, rage any less with his fighting hand. Unlucky Varenus in his snow-white armor fell to him. Varenus from Mevania* plowed rich Fulginiae’s* fertile field, and the River Clitumnus’* cold stream watered his gleaming bulls in his open pastures. But the gods were grim, and in vain he had raised a huge bull with unrequited care as a sacrifice for the Tarpeian Thunderer Jupiter. Swift Spaniards advanced, and swifter Moors rushed on. Roman javelins on this side, shafts of Libyan cornel-wood on the other competed to cover the sky in a dense cloud. Whizzing missiles covered as much of the level field as lay before the riverbank, nor was there space for the close-packed men to fall in death. 71

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[554] Allius came from Argyripa* in king Daunus’ territory. He hunted with crude spears, and his Iapygian horse pressed across the field. As he was carried into the middle of the enemy, he hurled Apulian* darts with unerring aim. His breastplate made from Samnite bear hide bristled, and an aged boar’s tusks shielded his helmet. Mago on one side and fierce Maharbal on the other both saw him stirring up combat, as if he were wandering through lairs in the lonely forest or pursuing beasts on Mount Garganus.* [563] They were like bears impelled by hunger who attack a fearful bull from separate cliffs in a double assault. Rage does not let them take only part of the prey. No differently did keen Allius fall as javelins pierced him from both sides. A Moorish yew spear went shrieking through both sides of him. Then missiles resounded as they met in the middle of his heart, and it was uncertain which spear claimed his death. And now the battle standards were scattered through the Roman ranks. Wretched to tell, the Carthaginians drove the tottering Romans to the riverbank and competed to drown the fearful men in the current.

The River Trebia fights back [573] Then the River Trebia’s unlucky currents began a new war against the exhausted men. It stirred up its waves at Juno’s request. The subsiding land swallowed up the fleeing men’s bodies. Its treacherous vortex of soil sucked up the deceived men. They could not struggle free and tear themselves out of the sticky mud. Their feet were buried deep and the tenacious mud held them bound as they tried to walk forward. The loosened riverbank entwined them, or an unforeseen obstacle pitched them into the swamp. Now they rose, one over another, through the slippery mud. They struggled with the putrid turf as each man seized a way for himself over the inescapable riverbank. They slipped and fell and pressed one another down as they collapsed. [585] One man, a fast swimmer, was even now ready to grasp at the safe bank. Tall though he was, his fingertips struggled to hold on to the grass. As he emerged from the clear waves, a whizzing spear fixed him hanging from the riverbank. Another man had lost his javelin: he grabbed his enemy in his arms and held him back as he struggled with him in the shallows and died along with him. Death had a thousand faces at one and the same time. Ligus died in the fields, but his face fell forward into the river, and he drank the bloody water in long gulps. Pretty Hirpinus had hardly swum at last from midstream. He was screaming to his comrades for a helping hand, but the swift current carried him away. A keen horse inflicted many wounds on him and drowned him, exhausted as he was, under the waters. [598] Disaster increased as a troop of elephants with towers on their backs suddenly appeared through the waves. They rushed headlong through the water like crags collapsing when they shear off from a 72

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mountain. Their chests pushed the River Trebia forward, which feared them as unknown, and they brooded over the foaming channel. Challenges tested the Romans, and fearless courage struggled toward glory on a tough path through the harsh trials. For Fibrenus could not bear to die a dishonored death or one bereft of fame. “I will be seen!” he said. “Fortune, you will not bury my death under the water. I will find out whether there is something on earth which a Roman sword cannot master or an Etruscan spear cannot pierce.” [610] Then rising up, Fibrenus hurled his savage spear. It came to rest in an elephant’s right eye and remained in the wound. The beast trumpeted horribly as it met the spear’s penetrating blow. Blood poured forth as it lifted its wounded forehead and its rider fell off as it turned tail. Then indeed the Romans dared to hope for a kill, and they attacked with javelins and densely packed arrows. Wounds from the grim spears hit all over the elephant’s immense shoulders and the length of its sides. Many lances stood fixed in its dark back and rear, and the elephant’s impacted body shook an enormous forest of missiles. As the long battle used up the spears, the elephant fell at last, and its collapsing bulk closed off the river.

Scipio distinguishes himself in battle [622] Look! though his wound slowed and delayed his limbs, implacable Scipio entered the river from the opposing bank. He slaughtered numberless enemies. Fallen men’s bodies covered the River Trebia, as did their shields and helmets. There was barely water left to be seen. Scipio’s spear laid out Mazaeus, his sword felled Gestar,14 and then Thelgon from Cyrene,* descended from Peloponnesian Greeks. He snatched a javelin from the swift river and hurled it at Thelgon. The whole length of the spear’s tapered iron point went through his gaping mouth. The shaft struck his teeth and made them rattle in his wounded face. Nor did Thelgon find quiet in death: the River Trebia handed his swollen limbs on to the River Po, and the Po gave them to the ocean waves. You fell also, Thapsus, and were denied a tomb after your death. How did the Hesperides’* dwellings help you or the groves where the goddesses look after the tawny branches of the gold-bearing tree?15 [637] Now the River Trebia swelled and rose up from its lowest pools. Ferociously it propelled its whole flow and hurled forward all its force. Its waves raged from resounding whirlpools, and a roaring new flood followed on. The Elder Scipio’s anger blazed up more violently as he sensed this, and he said: “O Trebia, you traitor, great and well-deserved are the penalties

14 Not the same man as the Carthaginian senator who speaks in Punica 2.327ff. 15 Silius makes a pun on the name Thapsus, which is etymologically related to the Greek word for “burial.” Thapsus may have grown up near the Hesperides’* grove, but did not enjoy immortality.

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you will pay to me. I will cut you into channels and spread you through the Gallic fields. I will take the name of river away from you. Wherever your source opens, I will block it, nor will you be allowed to touch any banks or flow into the River Po. You wretch, what is this madness that suddenly made you a Carthaginian river?” [649] As Scipio shouted this, a rising heap of water thrust him back, and the curving waves pushed down his shoulders. The Roman leader stood tall and set his bulk against the incoming waves. His shield held back the rushing river. A foamy flood at his back soaked the top of his helmet’s crest, shrieking like a thunderstorm. The river god pulled away the earth and prohibited him from crossing the waters and from setting down a firm footstep. The rocks were struck and resounded raucously far and wide. The god called the waves out to fight for their father, and the river lost sight of its banks. [659] Then the god of the River Trebia, his wet hair bound up in blue– green weeds, raised his head and cried out: “Are you threatening an arrogant punishment on top of what you have already done? To remove Trebia’s name, you enemy of my kingdom? How many corpses killed by your hand am I carrying? The helmets and shields of the men you slaughtered have blocked my path, and I have left my course. You see how my deep pools run red with slaughter and how they flow backward. Put a limit on your fighting hand or attack the battlefields nearby.” [667] Vulcan god of fire, with Venus beside him, watched these events from a high hill, shrouded in a black cloud’s darkness. Scipio raised his hands and complained to heaven: “Gods of my country, under whose auspices stands Trojan Rome, did you save me just now from such great battle to die in this kind of death? Did it seem unworthy to you for a brave man’s hand to cut down my life? Send me back to the dangers, my son, send me back to the enemy! Let a soldier hurry on the kind of death which I would approve for my homeland and my brother, Gnaeus.”16 [675] Then Venus groaned as she was struck by his words, and she directed her unconquerable husband Vulcan’s consuming strength against the river. Fire dispersed over the banks and sent flames in all directions. Eagerly it devastated the shade trees that the river had nurtured for many years. The whole forest burned, and fire let loose in the high groves crackled victoriously as it spread. And now the fir tree’s needles burned, now the pines and the alders, now the poplar had only its trunk left. It sent the birds used to living on its branches off into the sky. Voracious flame sucked up the water deep at the river bottom. Blood dried out on the river banks, impelled by the fierce heat. The bristling earth cracked wide open. A chasm yawned where the earth split, and ashes piled high on the water.

16 Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus* was campaigning in Spain at the time.

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[690] Father Po wondered why his eternal course suddenly stopped. A sad chorus of nymphs filled his inmost caverns, wailing in astonishment. The Po tried three times to lift his singed head, but Vulcan hurled his torch at him, and sunk him beneath the smoking waters. Three times the reeds caught fire and left the god’s hair uncovered. Then at last the Po’s voice was heard, and his prayers were granted. He was permitted to keep to his former banks. The Elder Scipio finally called his tired cohorts away from the River Trebia. Gracchus accompanied him to a fortified hilltop. But Hannibal honored the river with great respect. He set up turf altars to its waves that had allied with him. Alas! He did not know how much greater were the plans that the gods had set in motion and what grief Lake Trasimene was making ready for Italy.

The consul Gaius Flaminius* assumes command. Hannibal leads his troops over the Apennine mountain range to Lake Trasimene [704] Flaminius had recently harassed the Boians with his forces. The man had won an easy form of military glory by smashing a people whose hearts were light and who knew no cunning. But it was not the same challenge to compete with Hannibal the Carthaginian tyrant. Flaminius was born under unlucky omens to bring forth deadly losses to the city. Juno readied him as a leader for the exhausted Roman state, one who was fit for the coming disaster. [711] On the first day that he took up office, he seized the helm to rule the state and the military camps yielded to his nod. It was just as if a man ignorant of the sea, who has never learned the skill of seafaring, should take command of an unfortunate vessel. He is at the winds’ mercy and leaves the ship to be tossed around by every breeze. The sea carries the wandering ship on to the rocks even as the helmsman’s hand guides it. Just so the army snatched up its weapons and rushed headlong to the Etruscan peoples and Cortona,* the city founded long ago by ancient Corythus.* Settlers from Maeonia joined through their ancestors’ blood and mixed their lines of descent with the Italians.17 [722] The god did not delay in warning African Hannibal, so he could know these plans and achieve great glory. Sleep had buried all things and granted forgetfulness of wretched anxieties. Juno transformed her appearance to the divinity of neighboring Lake Trasimene. Poplar branches circled the hair on her wet forehead. Her voice could not be rejected as she invaded Hannibal’s peace and goaded his heart with pressing concerns:

17 The Etruscans were thought to come from Maeonia,* also known as Lydia.*

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[729] “O Hannibal, lucky in your fame, and a name Latium weeps over! If Fortune had created you for Italy, you would have come to join the great gods. Why do we hold back Fate? Push aside delay! The luck of being greatly favored lasts only a short time. Blood will flow for you from Italy’s body, as much as you vowed when you swore war with the Romans to your father. You will satiate your father’s ghost with slaughter. You will pay due honor to me without worry. For I am Lake Trasimene of the shadowy pools. People from Mount Tmolus* live on the high hills that surround me.” [739] These warnings led Hannibal on. The divine presence made his young soldiers rejoice. Straightaway he rushed them headlong through the Apennine Mountains’* sky-high defenses. The mountains’ pine-covered top blended into the sky. Ice bristled on its peak amid slippery rocks. Deep snow had buried the trees, and a crown white with close-packed frost rose to the stars from the high summit. Hannibal ordered his men to proceed. Their earlier glory would seem to be blotted out and dissipated, if they halted for any mountains after the Alps. They ascended the cloud-capped peaks along jagged boulders. Nor did their labor cease or soften once they had conquered the mountain range. The plains were flooded and there was no path through the fields. The muddy swamp overflowed as water poured from the melting ice. [751] Hannibal kept his head uncovered amid such an inhospitable environment, and the savage weather lashed it. His infected eye dripped over his mouth and cheeks.18 Unconcerned, he turned away the doctors, thinking any danger was a good price for buying the desired occasion to fight. He did not try to preserve any honor for his face if it meant he would lose his path forward. Nor did he hesitate to offer his other limbs as the price of battle, if victory demanded it. He thought he had eyesight enough if in victory he saw the way to the Capitol which he sought and the way to strike at his Italian enemy up close. After suffering through such fierce challenges from the landscape, the Carthaginians came at last to the lake they hoped for. Here in the subsequent combat, Hannibal would exact numerous punishments to compensate for his lost eye.

Hanno demands Hannibal’s son for sacrifice. Imilce protests. Hannibal promises Roman captives instead [763] Behold! senators sent from Carthage were there. The reason for their journey was not insignificant, nor did they bring joyful news. There was a custom among the people founded by Dido the refugee to

18 Hannibal lost the sight of one eye during this journey. See Livy, From the Foundation of the City 22.2.10–11.

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ask favor from the gods through human sacrifice.19 Cursed even to say, they put their little children on the smoking altars. Each year, the urn chose pitiable fates by lot, in imitation of Diana’s sacrificial rites in king Thoas’* Tauris.*20 Hanno, who had long been Hannibal’s enemy, had demanded his son for this fate through the gods’ lots in accordance with the custom. The envoys felt immediate fear of the armed commander’s anger. The image of Hannibal returning in vengeance stood vast before their eyes. [774] Hannibal’s wife Imilce sharpened their fear. She fouled her cheeks and tore at her hair, filling the city with grief-stricken shouting. She was just like a Maenad* at Bacchus’ biennial festival, who traverses the Pangaean cliffs in a frenzy and pants out the wine-god shut within her breast. And so, as if a torch had set her on fire, Imilce called out among the Carthaginian matrons: [779] “Oh my husband, in whatever corner of the world you are making war, bring your battle standards back here! There is a more violent enemy here, there is a closer enemy here! Perhaps even now, under Rome’s very walls, you may be fearlessly taking whizzing javelins on your shield. Whirling a savage torch, you may be hurling fire on the Tarpeian Rock’s buildings. Yet meanwhile the first heir to your house, your only child, alas! he is being kidnapped in the very bosom of his country to the hellish altars. Go on now, devastate Italian homes with your sword and work your way through the Alps’ forbidden paths. Go on, violate the treaties sworn before all the gods. In this way Carthage pays you back and even now offers you such honors.” [791] “Besides, what kind of piety is this to splash the temple with human blood? Alas! Not to know the gods’ true nature is the first cause of crime for wretched mortals. Go on now, pray for just rewards with pious incense and turn aside at last from fierce slaughter’s rites. Divinity is a gentle thing and similar to man. I pray that it may be enough to see heifers slaughtered before the altars. But if you are fixed and resolved on the idea that the gods want unspeakable offerings—then kill me to fulfill your vows, me, the woman who gave birth to the boy. How will it help to deprive Carthage of breeding like my son’s? So that we may weep all the more for the defeat at the Aegates Islands and the Carthaginian kingdom may be sunk in the deep, if once the bloody lot should snatch away my husband’s great courage?” [803] The hesitant senators already had various fears of Hannibal and the gods. Imilce’s words guided them to be careful. They left it to Hannibal to decide whether to reject the lot or to obey as an honor for the gods. Then

19 A reference to the Carthaginian practice of mlk, or child sacrifice. 20 The goddess Diana (Greek Artemis) was imagined to receive human sacrifice from the nonGreek inhabitants of Tauris.*

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Imilce indeed was scarcely in her right mind. She trembled with dread as she feared her heroic husband’s pitiless heart. [808] As Hannibal eagerly heard of these events, he replied thus: “Hannibal has been made equal to the gods! What return may I make that would not fall short of such an honor? What worthy reward could I find, mother Carthage? I will bear arms night and day, and I will make it so Italian Romulus sends many high-born victims to your temples. But my boy’s life will be saved, as heir to my arms and my war. O my son, you are my hope and the Carthaginian state’s one salvation under threat from Rome. Remember to fight with Aeneas’ descendants on land and sea, while life remains to you. Go on and devote yourself to my labor: the Alps lie open to you. You also, gods of my country, whose altars we honor with slaughter, who rejoice to be worshipped amid mothers’ fears: turn pleased expressions my way and grant me full attention. For I am preparing offerings for you and constructing greater altars.” [823] “You, Mago, take your position on the mountain peak opposite. You, Choaspes, head nearer to those hills on the left. Sychaeus, lead your troops through the shadows to the narrows and the mountain passes. But I will survey you speedily, Lake Trasimene, with my ranging forces and I will look for war offerings to the gods. For they clearly promise no small rewards, my men, and you will bring them back to your native city to be seen by all.”

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Hannibal’s forces prepare an ambush at Lake Trasimene [1] The Carthaginian leader’s concealed forces had occupied the Etrurian hills. Amid the night’s deep silences, hidden soldiers invested the forest’s winding paths. On the left side, Lake Trasimene’s mighty whirlpool overflowed like a slow-moving ocean. A lot of mud dirtied the neighboring fields far and wide. In ancient times Arnus, the son of the god Faunus,* had ruled its waters. Now, as the days turned past, it retained the name of Thrasymennus. His father Tyrrhenus, Mount Tmolus’ glory, was from Lydia.* Tyrrhenus had once brought the young men of Maeonia* to the Latin shores that lay far across the sea and he had given names to these lands. He had been the first to show the people the war-trumpet’s unknown sound, and he broke battle’s unheroic silence. His aspirations were not modest, and he raised his child for a greater future. [15] But the nymph Agylle burned for the boy and cast off her chaste modesty. Indeed, Thrasymennus’ beauty could compete with the gods’. She seized him from the bank and sent him down to her pool. Boys in youth’s first flower captured her unsteady mind. Cupid’s* arrow did not heat her up slowly. The Naiads* cared for Thrasymennus deep within the green grotto, consoling him as he trembled at their embraces in their watery kingdom. The lake took its name as a wedding gift, and its waters far and wide are called Thrasymennus1 in recollection of their lascivious marriage. [24] And now dewy night’s chariot was grazing the dark turning post, nor had Tithonus’ wife, Aurora the Dawn, yet emerged from her bedchamber. She shone as she stood on the threshold, at the time when travelers would think more that night was departing rather than that day was beginning. The consul Flaminius was hurrying along dangerous paths, traveling before the very battle-standards. The whole cavalry rushed along mixed in with the infantry. The light troops were not formed up in separate maniples and the

1 The lake’s name in Latin is Trasimenus, or Trasimene in English.

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footsoldiers were part of the mass. The crowd of camp followers, useless in battle, filled everything with a foreboding uproar. They headed into battle like fugitives. [34] Furthermore, the lake itself spewed forth a dense cloud of obscuring darkness. It concealed every vantage point far and wide from these wretches. The sky was gloomy amid the pitch-black clouds, and a covering of dark night pressed on it. The Carthaginians’ ambush was not evident. They sat hidden with their swords tucked away and did not block any lines of approach for the hurrying Romans. As if the lake lay wide open in quiet peace, they allowed the Romans to enter its shore that remained unguarded—and would soon be inescapable. For their path to deception lay tightly hemmed in under narrow passes. Those shut in would face twin destruction: the cliffs were on one side, while on the other the lake’s barrier pressed against them. On the mountain’s shadowy peak, the Carthaginians readied a hostile advance. They would strike at the Romans as they fled. [47] The Carthaginians were no different from a clever fisherman on the glassy waves as he weaves a light net from vines. He opens the net’s mouth wide, but he ties it more carefully within. In the middle of its belly, he narrows it little by little to a point, and fastens the narrowed ends. As he draws the fish from the water, the trick of the tightened opening stops them from exiting, though they had found the entrance easy.

Corvinus the seer warns Flaminius, but he ignores the omens [53] Meanwhile, Fate’s whirlwind had driven the consul Flaminius out of his mind. He ordered the battle-standards to be brought forward quickly. The Sun’s horses raised their flaming chariot from the ocean and spread forth day. And now the sun had renewed its circle and dispersed the clouds. Little by little the darkness flowed away and dissolved into calm brightness over the earth. Then the sacred chickens were consulted, an ancient augury customary to the Latin peoples, when the Romans readied for war and tested the gods’ intentions regarding the outcome.2 As if aware in advance of the Romans’ grief, the chickens refused to eat and fled from their food in mourning. Nor did the sacrificial bull at the altars stop bellowing sadly with a raucous noise. It left the altars behind, still carrying the axe stuck uncertainly in its neck.3

2 Roman augurs would observe how chickens fed in order to determine the gods’ intentions. See Cicero, On Divination 1.27–28. 3 A willing animal was considered important to a sacrifice, while one that fought back was considered a bad omen.

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[66] As the soldiers hastened to tear up the battle-standards scattered on the rampart, ugly gore leapt forth from the ground and burst into their torn faces as they struggled. From her bloody bosom, Mother Earth herself offered the wretched men dark proofs of the future slaughter. In addition to these omens, Jupiter shook earth and sea with his thunder. He hurled thunderbolts seized from the Cyclopes’* forges at Lake Trasimene’s Etruscan waters. Struck by fire from the sky, the lake’s open pools smoked, and flames burned on its waves. Alas, the warnings were in vain. The prodigies failed to delay the Fates. Alas, the gods were not sufficient to contest destiny! [77] Corvinus* had a famous name and was outstanding in his speech. The image of a raven, Apollo’s bird, sat on his tawny helmet and gave notice of his ancestor’s combat. He was filled with divine inspiration, and his fear frightened the soldiers. He mixed warnings with his prayers and spoke the following words: “By the Trojan flames and the Tarpeian Rock, by our city’s walls, consul Flaminius, and by our children, our pledges of family, held in suspense regarding our battle’s outcome—I pray for you to yield to the gods and await a fortunate time for battle. The same gods will give the field and the day for fighting. Only do not think it unworthy of you to wait for them to show their favor. When the hour shines forth that brings bloody slaughter to Africa, then the battle-standards will come to you without needing a hand to tear them. The chickens will be happy to eat without fear, and the gentle earth will not vomit forth blood.” [92] “Outstanding in war as you are, does it escape you how much evil Fortune could do in this place? The enemy sits facing us with an opposing line, but around us the wooded cliffs threaten an ambush. There is no escape path open on the left through the lake’s waters, and a narrow path winds through the mountain passes. If it is in your heart to initiate combat and fight against this treachery, Servilius* will be here meanwhile swiftly in arms. He has equal authority and the same force of legions. War must be fought with cunning. A leader’s fighting hand brings lesser glory.” [101] As Corvinus said these things, here and there the leading men added words of entreaty. Each man was divided—now fearing the gods regarding Flaminius, now beseeching Flaminius not to continue striving against the gods. The commander’s anger was kindled and surged up more bitterly than before. Flaminius raged as he heard that Servilius’ allied force would be there. [107] “Was it in this way that you saw me,” Flaminius said, “rushing into war with the Boians?4 A fearful mob, so great a plague, fell upon us then. Once more the Romans feared for the Tarpeian Rock. What mighty spirits, what bodies my hand laid low at that time! An angry Earth bore them, and

4 Flaminius had defeated the Boians in his earlier consulship. See Glossary.

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one wound hardly made them give up their lives! Their huge limbs lie across the plain, and their great bones now press down the fields. Of course, why not let Servilius join his latecoming forces to my praise, so I can’t conquer except by sharing my triumph! Should I rest quiet, content with part of the glory?” [117] “To be sure, the gods are warning me. Don’t imagine that the gods are anything like you, Corvinus—you who tremble at the war trumpet’s sound. Here is my sword, and it is mighty enough as an augur against the enemy. What an armed hand offers is a beautiful omen and worthy of a Latin soldier. Is it your settled opinion, Corvinus, that your consul should keep himself shut in this motionless earthwork? Should the Carthaginians now occupy Arretium’s* high walls, should they overthrow Cortona’s citadel? From there should they attack Clusium*, and then at last head on their way unharmed right up to Rome’s walls? Empty superstition is an ugly thing when under arms. Courage is the only goddess in the breasts of fighting men. Armies of ghosts surround me in the dark night: the young men who roll unburied into the Trebia’s whirlpool and the Po’s waters.”

Flaminius rallies his troops [130] Without delay, right in the middle of the assembly, under the very battle-standards, Flaminius put on his armor for the last time. No one could beg him to stop. His helmet was reinforced with bronze and a seal’s tawny hide. A triple crest rose up on its peak and spread plumes of Suevian* hair. It displayed the image of Scylla twisting shattered oars, as she attacked the ships, with savage hounds gaping at her belly. Flaminius had cut this noble spoil undamaged from the head of Gergenus, king of the Gallic Boians. The proud conqueror had fitted the honor to himself and worn it in all his combats. Next he put on his cuirass, whose scales, fitted together with curved hooks, were made from crude iron mixed with gold. [142] Then Flaminius took up his shield, once decorated with Celtic blood spilled in combat. It portrayed the image of a she-wolf under a damp cave, licking the limbs of an infant as if it were her own offspring. She was nurturing Romulus,* the mighty descendant of the Trojan king Assaracus,* for heaven. Next Flaminius strapped his sword on his side and took his spear in hand. His fierce horse awaited him, struggling with its dripping bridle, a Caucasian tiger’s striped pelt covering its back. Then Flaminius mounted his horse and rode where the narrow path allowed him. Now he approached one group of soldiers after another. He filled their spirits with this exhortation: [151] “It is your task, your glory, to bring the Carthaginian leader’s head fixed on a pike so that parents throughout the city may see it. This one head will be enough for all. Let each man recall his own bitter incitement: ‘My brother, alas, my brother lies on the River Ticinus’ dark banks!’—‘But my unburied son measures the Po’s deep pools!’ Each man has experienced his 82

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own loss. But if there is one among you who has no rage from personal grief, indeed let him take enormous provocation from the common store. Let the shattered Alps and Saguntum, a city that suffered the unspeakable, goad his breast to mighty anger. It was a crime for the Carthaginians to cross the forbidden Ebro River: now they are going to touch the River Tiber! While the augur delays us and the haruspex questions the entrails in vain,5 it only remains for the enemy to place their camp on the Tarpeian Rock.” [164] Frenzied Flaminius spoke thus and saw amid thousands of tightly massed soldiers a warrior fitting on dark crests. “It is your special duty, Orfitus,” Flaminius said, “to strive to be the man who will carry the richest spoils high on a bloodstained litter to willing Jupiter.6 Why should any other hand obtain this glory?” Next he rode on, and after he heard a voice well-known in battle, he said: “Your warlike shouting, Murranus,” he said, “makes you known from a distance. Already I see you raging in Carthaginian slaughter. How much glory comes to you! But I beg you, loosen up these tight places with your sword and throw them open.” [175] Then Flaminius recognized Aequanus, born on Mount Soracte.* His body and weapons were outstanding. There was a custom in his ancestral homeland, where dutiful Apollo god of the bow rejoices as he is worshipped by igniting piles of straw. The custom was to carry entrails happily three times through the fire that does no harm. “May your feet always remain unharmed as you tread Apollo’s ashes,” Flaminius said. “May you triumph over the smoke as you bring the ritual gifts to appeased Apollo’s altars. Just so, Aequanus, take on a frenzy worthy of your deeds and your combat skill. If you were my companion in rage and slaughter, I would not hesitate to break through the middle of the Marmarican phalanx or smash up the masses of African squadrons.” [186] Flaminius was unable to tolerate warnings or words that held off battle any further. Then the signal resounded from the fatal war trumpet, a sound that the Romans would long mourn. The tuba split the air with terrifying shrieks. Alas for grief, alas for tears which do not come too late even after so many centuries! I am frightened as if evil were hanging over us even now, as if the Carthaginian commander were calling his men to arms.

The battle begins and rages intensely [192] Asturians and Libyans and Balearics, vicious with their twisted slingshots, broke forth from their hiding places in the hills. So did many Macae, Garamantians, and Numidians. Then came the Cantabrians,* who were quicker than any other people to put their hands up for sale in battle and

5 The haruspices were Etruscan diviners, some of whom inspected the animal’s entrails (a ritual called extispicy) to predict the future. 6 See note 9 in Book 1.

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try out war for hire. The Vascones* disdained helmets. On one side the ridges, on another the lake, on another armed men’s united voices pressed the Romans. The ring of Carthaginian soldiers spread throughout the hills shouted out the signal for battle. [201] The gods turned their faces away and yielded place to a greater fate, not of their own choosing. Mars himself was astonished at Hannibal the African tyrant’s fortune. Venus tore her hair loose and wept. Apollo was carried to Delos,* where his mournful lyre consoled his sad grief. Only Juno, her heart merciless, sat on Mount Apenninus’ peak to await the dire slaughter. [208] The Picentine* cohorts first saw the battle lines scattered as if from a breaking storm. They saw Hannibal rushing forward and attacked of their own accord. These young men were roused to fury and sought compensation for their impending deaths by overcoming the champion. They were free of fear, as if the light of the sky had already been snatched from them. They sent men to the Underworld as expiatory sacrifices to their own ghosts. They hurled a cloud of javelins against the Carthaginians with unanimous effort and united daring. The enemy was pushed back and lowered their shields, weighed down by the curved javelins fixed in them.7 Keener for this, each of the Carthaginians exhorted the others in turn, and the savage leader Hannibal’s presence spurred them on. They pushed forward and pressed their breasts against those of the enemy. [220] Bellona the war goddess herself, shaking her torch, wandered through the middle of the ranks. Much blood spattered her golden hair. Fatal shrieking resounded from the hellish goddess’ dark breast. The battle horn’s deadly song made a hissing noise that drove men’s crazed minds into combat. Challenges fostered rage in the Romans, as did the raw incentive to throw away their hope of safety as their fortune collapsed. Favoring gods and smiling Victory’s happy face sharpened the Carthaginian side, which enjoyed Mars’ goodwill. [229] Carried away by the beautiful love of killing, Lateranus had followed his fighting hand and penetrated into the middle of the enemy. He was too eager for combat and bloodshed. Lentulus,8 who was flourishing at the same youthful age, saw him amid dangerous throngs of soldiers, provoking fate with strength unequal for the fight. He hurried up with keen endeavor, and swifter than a spear he struck at merciless Baga, who was aiming a blow at Lateranus’ back as he fought nearby. Lentulus added himself as a companion in hard misfortune. Then the spirited fighters combined their arms. Their twin fronts sparkled and glittered, as similar crests shone on their lofty heads.

7 This detail is anachronistic; javelins (pila) with a curved point are not attested before the era of Julius Caesar (100–44 BCE). 8 A soldier, not the same as the senator in Book 1, lines 672ff.

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[240] By chance, Syrticus came against them. For who would dare to meet them in arms, unless the gods had condemned him to the Stygian night of those dwelling in the lowest depths? Syrticus wielded a club he had broken off as he ran down from the high mountain. Eagerly shaking the knotty branch’s weight, he burned in vain with desire to kill both men. [246] “Here you do not see the Aegates Islands, you young men,” Syrticus said, “nor shores hostile to sailors. The sea will not give luck to the battle, stirred by sudden storms and not by fighting. You won once on the ocean. But learn what a Libyan fighter is like in the middle of dry land! Yield your rule to a better man.” As he joined taunts with fighting, he struck at Lateranus with the broken tree’s threatening weight. [253] Lentulus raved at him in fury: “Lake Trasimene will climb the high hills more quickly than this dutiful man’s blood will drip from that branch.” Crouching down, he gouged at the man’s groin and lifted him up with the impact. Hot blood from Syrticus’ dark lung spurted forth through his gaping entrails. [258] Nor was fury any less savage in another part of the battlefield as hands burned for mutual slaughter. Tall Iertes cut down Nerius. You, noble Volunx, wealthy landowner, you fell to Rullus. Neither the weight of precious metal shut deep in your treasure chests, nor your royal palace that once shone with your homeland’s ivory, nor the villages owned by you alone were any help to you. What help do possessions give us? Why do the peoples of the earth never extinguish their thirst for gold? Charon,* Tartarus’ boatman, now carries him naked on his ferry, the man whom Fortune just now cherished and stuffed with heaped-up wealth and richest gifts.

Appius wounds Hannibal’s brother Mago, and dies in the attempt [268] Nearby warlike Appius in his youthful daring lay the battlefield open with slaughter. He sought glory where the greatest courage was needed and no one possessed the strength to aspire to it. Atlas came against him, Atlas from the Iberian coast. In vain he tilled the sand far off at the edge of the world. He aimed his spear at Appius’ face, and its tip tasted the youth’s noble blood, lightly scratching the outermost skin. Appius thundered threateningly, and his violent eyes burned with a new frenzy. He raged and struck like lightning the whole crowd of soldiers who blocked his way. The dripping blood from the wound concealed under his helmet ennobled his warlike limbs. [279] Then you would have seen Atlas trembling and trying to hide himself among his companions. He was like a deer who trembles when a Hyrcanian* tiger attacks, or a terrified dove who draws in its wings when it sees a hawk in the clouds. In the same way a rabbit dives for the bushes if it senses an eagle hovering in the clear sky. Appius’ swift sword struck at Atlas’ face. Then he sliced Atlas’ neck and hand flashing with its sword. Success made him fiercer as he changed his target to the next victim. 85

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[287] Isalces from the River Cinyps stood before him, carrying a shining axe into battle. The wretched man wanted to go to war in the hope of winning glory under the eyes of his father-in-law Mago. He was proud of his Carthaginian fiancée and arrogant because of the futile promise of marriage after the war with Rome was over. Fierce Appius directed his violent rage against him. As Isalces attempted to aim his heavy axe at his forehead, Appius rose up higher and struck a blow on his helmet. But his fragile sword shattered upon its strong impact with the helmet’s Cinyphian bronze. Isalces had equally bad luck: to no purpose his uncertain blow struck off Appius’ shield boss. Then Appius, panting, ripped a stone from the ground that he would never have been able to lift, if savage anger had not given him strength. He threw it at Isalces, who then collapsed and fell on his back. The weight of the stone pressed on him and crushed his broken bones. [302] Isalces’ father-in-law Mago was stirring up battle in a nearby part of the field. He saw Isalces fall and quickly rushed over. Tears poured out from under his helmet as he groaned. The recent betrothal to his daughter and the grandchildren he had hoped for fired up his spirit. And now Mago was on the spot, surveying Appius’ shield and enormous limbs with a glance. The light that shone up close from the front of Appius’ glittering helmet slowed his savage anger a little. Just so a lion rushing down headlong from a dark cave crouches down in the field. He draws his limbs in under him when he sees a grim bull’s horns nearby, even though long hunger pushes him on. The fierce lion marvels now at the muscles rising up from the bull’s lofty neck, now at the savage eyes under its shaggy forehead. He sees the bull readying for battle and its hooves spreading the dust as it practices for fighting. [316] Here Appius spoke first as he aimed his javelin: “If you have any sense of duty, father-in-law, don’t desert the agreement you struck. Keep your son-in-law company.” Then the swift spear passed through Mago’s shield and the bronze armor’s barrier and lodged in his left arm. Libyan Mago said nothing in reply. Instead, he angrily aimed his spear, his great brother’s memorable gift. Hannibal had taken it in triumph as he cut down Durius beneath Saguntum’s walls.9 He had given it to his brother to carry into battle as a noble token of their famous combat. [325] As grief helped on Mago’s effort, the mighty javelin passed through Appius’ armor and through his face and struck a lethal blow. Appius’ hands fell bloodless upon his wound as he tried to tear out the steel. Appius, a famous name, lay dead on the Etruscan plains, a great part of Italy’s loss. Lake Trasimene trembled and drew in its waters to avoid the corpse. Appius’ bloody mouth closed on the weapon as he died, and he mumbled to the spear as he bit down on it.

9 For the killing of Durius, see Book 1.

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[333] Mamercus had no better fate. Every enemy punished and wounded his whole body. He cut down a standard-bearer and carried off his bloodstained battle-standard with great effort through the enemy lines, where a deadly band of Lusitanians* were rousing combat. The unlucky man called back his own side’s fearful standards. Mamercus’ arrogant daring fired up and enraged a cohort. All at once, they hurled the javelins that they had in hand, as well as whatever the ground supplied them. It was hard to walk for all the scattered missiles. They pierced Mamercus’ bones, and many of the spears found no place left in his body to strike. [344] Meanwhile, Hannibal the African commander rushed up, enraged by his brother Mago’s wound and troubled as he saw the blood. Out of his mind, he demanded of Mago and his companions whether the spear’s tip or its whole weight remained in his side. He saw that fear of death remained far away and that the situation was not grave enough to warrant fright. He covered Mago with his own shield and seized him headlong out of the battle line, settling him in camp, safe from battle’s whirlwind. [351] Then Hannibal swiftly called upon aged Synalus’ medical art and skill. Synalus excelled all others at anointing wounds with herbal juices. He used enchantment to draw steel weapons from the body and induced sleep by applying a snake to the wound. His name was celebrated through the cities and shores of the Egyptian Syrtes. Father Hammon, god of the Garamantians, himself once had given Synalus’ ancient ancestor knowledge of how to heal animal bites and serious combat wounds with his medicine. When he lay dying, he taught these heavenly gifts to his son, and his son passed down his father’s art as an honor for his descendants. At the end of this line, Synalus followed his own father and won no lesser fame. He cleverly increased the Garamantians’ discoveries through his study. He also honored his ancient ancestor, Hammon’s companion, with many statues. [366] Synalus tied his robes tightly around him, as is the doctor’s custom. Then his gentle hand swiftly applied his ancestor’s medicine. He soothed the wound, using water to clean off the blood. Mago meditated on the killing and spoliation of his slaughtered enemy Appius. His words removed the anxieties from his brother Hannibal’s breast, as Mago tried to lighten his calamity with words of praise: “Have no fear, brother. You can bring no greater medicine to my misfortune than this: my spear has struck Appius, and he lies among the ghosts. Even if I lose my life, I have accomplished enough. I will follow my enemy happily to the shades.”

Flaminius leads an assault while Hannibal is absent from the battlefield [376] These events turned the troubled commanders away from the battlefield and confined them behind the fortifications. Watching from a high mound, the consul Flaminius saw Hannibal leaving the battle line and 87

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concealing himself, a dark cloud of war, in the camp. Straightaway, his mind disturbed, Flaminius attacked the frightened wedges of gloomy enemy soldiers. Sudden fear loosened the lines and thinned them out. Then in a fierce voice he demanded his horse and rushed into the fighting in the middle of the valley. [384] It was just as when Jupiter sends a torrential downpour with resounding hail upon the earth. Now his thunderbolt strikes the high Alps, at another time the Ceraunian* mountains whose peaks touch the sky. Earth and sea and sky all tremble at once. Tartarus itself shakes as the earth moves. No differently did unforeseen devastation fall upon the Carthaginians, astonished at the unexpected whirlwind assault. Freezing horror spread through the wretched men’s bones as they saw the consul Flaminius. [392] Flaminius went straight through the middle of them and opened up a wide path, his sword breaking up the thickest gatherings. Shouting in various languages brought war’s madness up to the gods and struck the stars. It was just as when Father Ocean and savage Tethys* strike the Pillars of Hercules. The twisted sea piles barking waves on the mountains’ eroded guts. The crags groan. Tartessus, far distant across the broad earth, hears the waves shatter on the cliffs, as does Lixus* separated by a broad channel. [401] Bogus fell before all, deceived by a javelin coming through the silent air. He had been the first Carthaginian to throw a swift spear at the Romans at the unlucky Ticinus River.10 The birds’ meaningless signs had deceived him, and he believed that his destiny was a long life and a crowd of grandchildren. But augury grants no one the right to push back the Fates’ limits. His bloody eyes looked up to heaven as he fell amid the spears. In the midst of dying, he demanded his promised span of old age from the gods. [410] Bagasus was not permitted to exult nor to deprive Libo of life in Flaminius the consul’s sight without punishment. Libo was the glory of a line of ancestors who had won laurel wreaths,11 and he flourished in spirited youth. But the Massylian’s sword sliced his head from his adolescent cheeks. The barbarian fighter snuffed out his flourishing years in a hurried killing. Yet in death’s final moment, Libo did not beg Flaminius in vain. Straightaway Flaminius sliced Bagasus’ head from his neck. He was pleased to punish the former combat’s winner with this fierce example and to repeat the killing that Bagasus had demonstrated. [420] What divine power, o Muses, could unroll so many deaths in fitting words? Who could bring worthy lament in song to such exalted dead? These young men in the prime of life competed for the glory of dying and

10 See earlier in Book 4, lines 81ff. 11 Roman generals wore laurel wreaths when celebrating military triumphs.

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performed raw deeds on death’s threshold, raging as missiles stuck in their breasts. Enemies died in turn in vast clashes. There was no space for despoiling the corpses or to direct attention to plunder. Love of slaughter pushed Flaminius on, while Mago’s wound held his brother Hannibal shut in camp. He rushed and laid men low, now with spears, now with the sword. At one time the consul could be seen on his horse amid thousands of warriors. At another time, he fought fiercely on foot before the Eagles and battle-standards. Bloody rivers flowed in the unholy valley. The hills and hollow rocks echoed the arms’ sounds and the horses’ panting. [434] Othrys from Marmarica disrupted the battlefield. He brought limbs stronger than human into battle. The lines turned back in fear upon seeing his gigantic body’s size. His broad shoulders raised his massive head above both armies. Shaggy hair made his forehead threatening and his beard, similar to his hair, overshadowed his mouth. Fearsome tangles roughened his hairy chest and it was covered in thick bristles like a wild beast’s. No one dared to challenge the man and engage him in close combat. [443] Othrys went from the line through the open field like a beast, safe from missile attack. He turned his crazed expression and roared at the backs of the fleeing soldiers. At last a Gortynian arrow, its feathers silent, pierced his fierce eye and turned the man aside. As Othrys ran back to his line, the consul Flaminius hurled a javelin at his back. It broke through his ribs, which were bare of any covering, and the tip showed through his shaggy breast. Othrys quickly tried to pull it out where he saw the steel growing from the shining tip. His blood poured out abundantly all over. Then he fell in death and pressed the spear into his wound. His breath poured forth over the nearby field and scattered the dust in a cloud that dispersed in the air.

The Carthaginian Sychaeus fights and dies [457] No lesser battle raged meanwhile among the hills and scattered forests. Varied fighting blazed on the steeps and the rocks and the bushes dripping with slaughter. Sychaeus brought death to fearful men and was the cause of murder and bitter carnage. His spear struck Murranus from far off. When war was silent, no other man struck Orpheus’* lyre more sweetly with the pick than Murranus. He fell in the great wood and in death itself he sought his ancestral mountains, Aequana12 fertile with vines and gentle Surrentum with its healthful Zephyr wind. [467] Sychaeus had added Tauranus as another companion in death for this wretch and rejoiced as a winner in the fierce fight’s grim novelty. Tauranus had headed into the deep woods, following the other stragglers. He leaned against an ancient elm tree’s trunk to protect his back from blows.

12 Otherwise unknown.

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In vain he called to his remaining companions with his final utterance. A Carthaginian spear quickly passed through the young man’s pierced limbs to stick in the wood on the other side of him. [475] What anger did the gods have against you, men? Or what did your unlucky minds fear? Why did you leave battle behind and seek the tree branches’ help? No wonder that fear is not a good counselor in tight circumstances. Their bitter death proved through its outcome that this was a plan made in disgraceful fear. An ancient ash tree stretched its lofty branches into the sky. It stuck its shady head steeply above the great woods into the high clouds. It would have been equal in itself to a grove if it had stood on the open plain. Its leafy trunk’s dark shadow covered the earth far and wide. Next to it was an oak tree of equal size that had worked through a long age to bring its white top beneath the stars. Its wide trunk spread leaves diffusely, and its foliage overshadowed the high mountain’s peak. [489] Here came a cohort from Enna, which Arethusa’s* king had sent from Sicily, the three-cornered island. They did not know how to defend against dishonor by dying, and excessive fear had warped their minds. They rushed up the tree in turn, and their unstable weight pushed down the nodding branches. Soon one after another struggled to rest in a safe place. Some were shaken out of the tree, for it was untrustworthy with age. A rotting fragment of the branches deceived them. Other men hung frightened from the high top amid the missiles. [498] Sychaeus rushed to destroy all his afflicted enemies in a single death. At once he changed his weapons, putting down his shield and snatching up a bronze axe. His companions joined him and struck the tree with repeated blows. The tree gave a huge cracking sound and groaned as it succumbed. The unlucky crowd of Roman soldiers swayed as the Carthaginians struck the trunk. Just so the west wind’s gale shakes the ancient groves and tosses birds and shakes their nests. They can hardly cling on to the foliage on the tree’s trembling peak. Numerous blows of the axe conquered the tree in the end. The inhospitable oak crashed down, an unlucky refuge for the wretched soldiers. The widespread collapse crushed the men’s limbs. [510] Then destruction took on another form. Torches set alight a nearby ash tree and wrapped it in devouring flame. Vulcan the fire god spread over the dry wood amid the leaves. The flames twisted choking fireballs in savage arcs that scorched the treetops. And meanwhile the Carthaginians did not cease hurling weapons. Men fell weeping from the tree, their bodies half burned, and grabbed on to the flaming branches. [517] Look! the consul Flaminius was there amid the warriors’ pitiable contests. He turned his anger and destruction upon Sychaeus. It was doubtful who would win such a great combat. So young Sychaeus took the initiative and tried his spear to determine the outcome first. The point lightly impacted the middle of the shield’s bronze face, but the opposing layer of wicker prevented it from passing through. The consul was not 90

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ready to trust in hurling a spear for the outcome of the killing he desired. So he struck at Sychaeus’ flank with his sword, and the crude leather shield did not slow his attack. The unlucky man collapsed, and his bloody mouth bit the earth as he breathed his last. Then Stygian cold poured over his limbs, and he accepted death as it spread into his innards, shutting his eyes for the long sleep. [530] Mars the war god involved himself in varied misfortunes and alternated these grim events. Mago had left camp by now. He and Hannibal hurriedly urged on the battle standards in a hasty rush. They wanted to restart their halted opportunity for slaughtering men and make it up with much blood. A mass of men went forward, raising a cloud of dust in a dark cyclone. The battlefield itself appeared to rise as they kicked up the sands. A storm whirled all around Hannibal, its gusts like waves, wherever he turned his tread and directed his steps. Darkness covered the high mountains. [540] Fontanus fell, hit in the thigh. So did Buta, struck in his melodious throat. The spear pierced his back as it pushed through the wound. Sad Fregellae* mourned this man, rich in noble ancestors. Anagnia,* his home town, wept for the other. Though you did not dare the same, Laevinus, your luck was no different. For you did not try to run against Hannibal the Carthaginian general, but you chose Ithemon, ruler of the Autololes, for an equal combat. Laevinus cut his knees and was stripping his armor. A heavy ash spear shattered his ribs in a merciless whirlwind. The blow toppled his limbs, and he suddenly collapsed and fell on his prostrate enemy. [551] A cohort from Teanum Sidicinum* was also present. Viriasius had a thousand men under arms. No one was better than him at setting up camps or lashing together rafts or smashing walls with the tough battering ram or sending improvised bridgework against towers under siege. Hannibal saw him exulting in his fierce courage. For Arauricus had lost faith in his light arms and turned tail, his wound speeding him on. This fired Hannibal up to rage, and he was keener for a glorious duel. He thought it worthy to come against the fierce man in hand-to-hand combat. As Viriasius drew his spear from Arauricus’ corpse, Hannibal rushed up and wounded him in the chest. “Whoever you are, you should be praised for your deeds. No other fighting hand than mine is fit to lay you low. Bring your death’s glory to the shades below. If you had not had Italian origins, I would have given you your life and sent you away.” [565] Next Hannibal attacked Fadus and old Labicus, whom Hamilcar had once faced in Sicily and had given a famous name from that renowned combat. Disregarding his years and forgetting his old age, Labicus went under arms with savage intent. He was evergreen in his battle fury, but his useless blows betrayed his age that was anemic in war. In the same way, a feeble fire crackles on an empty stalk and produces a weak flame with no force. [573] The Carthaginian general learned who his proud opponent was from his father Hamilcar’s arms-bearer. “Here and now,” he said, “you will 91

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pay back the first war’s battles. Famous Hamilcar drags you to the dead by my hand.” Then he hefted a javelin beside his ear and hurled it. He pierced Labicus as he staggered on the wound. Blood fouled Labicus’ white hair as he pulled out the spear, and death ended his long labors. Hannibal likewise cut down Herminius in his first combat. His predatory fish hooks were accustomed to emptying Lake Trasimene’s pools. He used to cast his line over the still waters and bring food home for his aged father. [585] Meanwhile, lamenting Carthaginians carried Sychaeus lying lifeless on his armor and brought his body into the camp. When the commander Hannibal saw them rushing and calling out in sadness, his foreboding grief struck at his heart. “What’s the reason for your grief, fellow soldiers?” he asked. “Whom has the gods’ anger snatched from us? You burned, Sychaeus, with glory’s sweetness and with too great love for your first combat. The dark day didn’t pluck you away to a hurried death, did it?” [592] As Hannibal gave a groan, the bearers’ tears confirmed his thought. The mourners told him the killer’s name. Hannibal said: “I see a Trojan spear’s beautiful wound in the front of his chest.13 You go to the dead worthy of Carthage, worthy of Hasdrubal. Your mother, best of women, will not mourn you as one dissimilar to your ancestors. My father Hamilcar will not avoid you as a degenerate coward when he sees you in Styx’s shadows. But let Flaminius, the cause of such sad grief, lessen my mourning through his death. Victory over him will accompany your funeral procession. Too late, criminal Rome will wish to pay much for that spear not to have violated my Sychaeus’ body.” [603] Fuming vapor rushed from Hannibal’s mouth as he spoke these words. Anger drove forth breathless roaring from his chest. Just so, water shut in a cauldron on the fire rages and overflows when much heat scorches its ripples. Then Hannibal rushed headlong into the middle of the battle and called out Flaminius alone, taunting him. Flaminius entered combat no slower than he spoke. Fighting began to rise up closer to them.

An earthquake makes the Roman soldiers flee, while Flaminius stays and fights to his death [610] Both men stood joined on the battlefield, when suddenly the rocks sent forth a crash. Horrible! The hills suddenly moved, and the topmost peaks trembled all over the ridge.14 The pine woods nodded on top of the mountain, and the shattered crags crashed down on the battle lines. The

13 The Romans regarded wounds sustained to the front as honorable. A wound to the back would imply that the soldier had fled in battle. 14 An earthquake occurred during the battle at Lake Trasimene. See Livy, From the Foundation of the City 22.5; Pliny, Natural History 2.200.

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earth bellowed as its caverns shook and convulsed deep below; vast gaps broke open. An enormous chasm, its jaws gaping, revealed the Styx’s shadows far and wide. The ghosts deep below were terrified of the daylight from their past lives. Dark water rose up to the high peaks, and a strange downpour, shaken from its traditional seat, drenched the Etruscan woods. The same destruction and dire plague laid low and bore off whole peoples and great kings’ cities. Rivers flowed backward and fought with the mountains, and the sea shot back its waves. The Appennine Fauns* left their mountains and fled to the lakeshore. [627] Alas for war’s madness! The soldiers still fought, tossed around on the tottering ground. They hurled trembling spears against the enemy even as they collapsed on the receding earth. At last the Italian youth lost their heads and were pushed back. They turned in straggling flight to the lakeshore and tumbled into the water. The shaken earth’s disaster had happened to separate the consul Flaminius from his troops. He reproached their fleeing backs: [633] “What’s left for runaways, oh! what, I beg you? Look! you are leading Hannibal right up to Rome’s walls. You are giving him torches and steel to use against Jupiter the Thunder God’s Tarpeian temple. Stand fast, soldiers, and learn keen fighting from me. Or if fighting is denied us, learn to die. Flaminius will give no cowardly example to future generations. May no Libyan or Cantabrian ever see a consul’s back! But if you have such great desire and madness for fleeing, then alone, I alone will swallow all the weapons in my breast. As my soul escapes through the air in death, I will call your hands back to battle.” [644] As Flaminius said these things, he went forth to meet the closepacked enemy. Ducarius, fierce in mind and expression, rushed up to him. The keen warrior bore the name of his clan. His barbarian mind kept ancient grievances, since Flaminius had routed the Boians, his homeland’s forces. As Ducarius recognized the proud conqueror’s features, he said: “Are you the Boians’ greatest terror? With this spear, I want to know whether blood flows out of such a body’s wounds. Don’t have any regrets, my countrymen, in offering this man’s head to the souls of the brave dead. This is the man who led our defeated ancestors, driving them before his chariot, to the lofty Capitoline hill. The hour of revenge calls!” [655] Then missiles hurled simultaneously from all directions overwhelmed Flaminius. A cloud of arms rushing through the air struck him and left no man able to boast that Flaminius had fallen at his hand. There was no further fighting once the consul was killed. The first of the young men formed a close-packed line for battle’s unlucky conflict. They were angry at the gods and their own fighting hands; they thought it worse than death to see the Carthaginians victorious. Swiftly they all rushed to hurl over the consul’s corpse limbs prostrate from the huge combat and weapons and bodies and hands bloody from a battle that had gone against them. And so they packed in and covered the man in a heap of slaughter like a burial mound. 93

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[666] Slaughter was spread through the waters and the woods and through the valley that ran deep with blood. Hannibal and his brother rode through the middle of the throngs of murdered youth. “What wounds you see, what deaths!” Hannibal said. “Every hand clutches a weapon. The soldiers lie armed, keeping their fighting posts in death. Look, my troops, look at these passings! Threats remain on their brows and anger stands out on their faces. I’m afraid that the Fates have decided a future empire for this fertile land which creates great-spirited heroes with such mighty natures. They will conquer the world even in defeats like these.” Hannibal said this and yielded to night. As the sun withdrew, shadows poured in and gave an end to murder.

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The aftermath of the battle at Lake Trasimene [1] Now on the eastern waters the Sun was yoking his horses which he had let loose at night on Tartessus’ shores. First new daylight came to the land of the Chinese who went back to their work on fleeces in their silk-bearing groves.1 But an ugly sight lay before everyone’s eyes now: the result of frenzied war became clearer. Weapons and men together lay there, mixed in with horses and the hands that still clung to the slain enemy’s wounds. Scattered everywhere were shields, plumes, beheaded corpses, swords broken on tough bones. And one could not miss seeing half-dead men who were in vain seeking light in the sky. Also gore foamed on the lake, and bodies were flowing on the water’s surface, forever denied burial. [14] But Italian bravery had not completely perished in this adversity. From a huge pile of pitiable bodies, Bruttius raised his head with difficulty. He displayed the wounds he took in the unfair battle and dragged his truncated limbs through the carnage; but his muscles were failing him. He was of moderate means, not of an illustrious lineage or eloquence, but fierce in battle. And no other man from the Volscians ever acquired more glory in virtuous death than he. He had joined the army as a young man, when his beard was hardly visible on his cheeks. Passionate Flaminius tested him, back when he enjoyed the favor of the gods and had conquered the Celtic armies in war.2 [25] Subsequently Bruttius won honor and the position to guard the Eagle standard, the sacred bird, in every battle; and this distinction caused his death. He was certain that he was about to die, but could not stop the Carthaginians from capturing the Eagle. Seeing that Fate was against him and the battle would end in great loss and destruction, he was getting ready to bury and entrust the bird to the earth. But an unexpected spear defeated Bruttius, and he threw his languishing limbs over the battle standard,

1 The Romans thought that silk grew on trees. 2 See note 4 in Book 5.

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covering it with his dying body. And then he saw again life’s light returning from the Stygian night and death’s sleep. He raised himself leaning on a spear he took from a nearby corpse. Mustering strength for this last task, he dug the earth with his sword, as it was stagnant from the pool of blood and therefore easy to dig. He worshipped the buried effigy of the unlucky Eagle and made level the dirt on top of it with his fainting hands. The exhausted man’s last breath then fled into thin air and sent a heroic soul to Tartarus. [41] Next to Bruttius, one could see courage’s venerable rage that deserves to claim for itself a song. Laevinus, from high Privernum,* illustrious with the Latian vine-staff’s3 distinction, was lying dead over Tyres the Nasamonian’s dead body. He had no spear, no sword. Fortune had taken away his weapons in battle. Yet his suffering procured a weapon for an unarmed fight. His bloody mouth waged war, and his teeth served his rage in the place of iron. Now he bit and mangled Tyres’ nose and stained his eyes with blood. Next he defiled Tyres’ head by cutting off the ears, and he ate the forehead in awful ways, overfilling his mouth with blood. And Laevinus was not sated, until life departed from his mouth, as he was chewing. Black death took hold of his full jaws. [54] While desperate acts of bravery displayed such awful spectacles, in the meantime the wounded soldiers fled. Various predicaments tortured them as they drove in secret in the dark woods through pathless places, heavily wounded and crossing deserted fields at night. Every sound or gust of air or birds flying on their light wings terrified them. They could neither sleep nor rest their minds: in their panic, now fierce Mago drove them on, now lofty Hannibal with his harsh spear.

Serranus,* son of Regulus, meets his father’s companion, Marus [62] Serranus, an illustrious name, was your offspring, Regulus, you whose fame always grows by the passage of time and who will be remembered as the man who preserved loyalty with the treacherous Carthaginians. In the prime of his youth, alas, Serranus entered the Punic wars under his father’s auspices. Now he was returning wounded to his pitiable mother and his sweet home under ill fortune. He had hardly any companions left, no one who would help him with his heavy wounds. Leaning on his broken spear and rescued by the dark night’s assistance, he followed back roads and made his way silently to Perusia’s* fields. And exhausted he knocked on a small house’s door to find by chance whatever he could. [73] Then Marus quickly moved his body from bed. He was his father’s famous old soldier and had served with Regulus in battle with distinct

3 Centurions carried staffs made from vine-wood.

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reputation. Marus came to the door, holding up a torch that he had kindled from his poor hearth, where he worshipped Vesta the goddess of the household. And he recognized Serranus’ face, sick with heavy wounds, his steps collapsing, a lamentable sight as he leaned on the truncated spear. Marus had already heard the deadly battle’s stories and was distressed. [81] Marus said: “How heinous is what I see! I’ve lived too long and must bear more and more calamities now! Greatest of leaders, Regulus, your captive gaze terrified Carthage’s citadel, a crime and reproach to Jupiter the Thunder God. I saw you die and swallowed my grief, grief not even the Carthaginian homes’ destruction could uproot from my heart. Gods, where are you again? Did Regulus give his chest to the sword and unfaithful Carthage cut down such a famous house’s rising son?” [89] Then Marus placed Serranus’ sick body on his bed. He had war experience and knew well what medicine to bring. First he cleaned the wounds with water and then soothed them with potions. Afterwards he bound up the wounds, applied soft wool to wrap them,4 and calmed the numb limbs. Next, the old man took care of satisfying the exhausted man’ thirst and making him regain his strength with a modest meal. After he completed these tasks quickly, sleep at last performed its duty and poured gentle rest over Serranus’ limbs. The day had not yet broken when Marus was up, forgetting his old age. He used his expertise to heal Serranus’ inflamed wound, providing pleasing coldness with anxious devotion. [101] Then young Serranus raised his sad face to the stars. Groaning and weeping, he said: “Father Jupiter, if you have not yet in hatred condemned the Roman houses and Romulus’ scepter to destruction, look at the Italians’ pitiable situation as our country is crumbling. Show a merciful eye at last to Roman disasters. We lost the Alps, and afterwards there has been no moderation to our adversities. The Ticinus and Po Rivers are dark with corpses, as well as the Trebia River, made famous by Carthaginian victory, and Arnus’* lamentable land. But why do I mention these? Behold, how much more powerful and heavier this calamity is! I saw Lake Trasimene’s waves increase with slaughter and a mass of killed men. I saw Flaminius fall amid the spears. I swear by the spirits of the dead, my divinities, that I then sought death through enemy slaughter. It would have been a death befitting the nobility of my father’s punishment, except that the sad Fates denied me such end, as it had once also done to my father.” [117] As Serranus was adding more complaints, Marus the older man tried to soothe his pain saying: “Strongest of youths, let’s bear whatever hard or adverse situation like your father. By divine law time’s hasty wheel revolves through various happenings in life’s steep path. You have plenty of great proofs in your house, which is celebrated through the whole world.

4 Often applied to wounds. See Pliny, Natural History 29.30ff.

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That famous hero, inferior to no divinity, that great father of yours, provided exceptional glory by enduring adversity. And he did not divest himself of any virtue before his spirit left his fighting limbs. [127] I had barely grown to be old enough, when the first beard marked Regulus’ cheeks in his youth. I followed him as a companion, and we spent all our years as partners. Then the gods decided to destroy the Italian race’s light, the man in whose illustrious hand nourishing Loyalty had made an abode, holding his mind fast in her embrace. He gave me this sword, worth of greatest honor and on account of virtue, and these reins which you now see blackened by smoke—and yet they still have a silvery gleam. After such gifts, there was no one but Marus, to prefer as a horseman. But Regulus’ spear surpasses all my other distinctions. It is worth knowing the reasons why I pour libations to it, as you see.”

Marus narrates the story of Regulus’ killing of the Bagrada snake [140] “The boisterous Bagrada River with its slow course makes furrows on dry sand. No other African river can beat it as it extends its slimy waters far and wide and embraces the open fields with flood streams. In search of water, we settled down upon this river’s banks, happy because in these savage lands the earth does not provide much water. Nearby there was a motionless, dark grove with pale shady trees that did not let any sunlight inside. A gross vapor was coming out of there, giving out a horrible stench in the air. There was a dreadful dwelling place inside, a huge subterranean opening in a winding cave, with no light, just ominous darkness. [151] Horrible memories return to my heart! A deadly monster inhabited this deadly bank and hellish grove, born from the earth’s wrath. Humankind had barely seen anything like it before, a snake over 350 feet long. Its belly full of poison, this dragon satisfied its huge stomach’s gluttony by catching lions by the water. It also caught flocks that went to the stream under the sun’s scorching heat or birds which the awful stench and the terrible smell in the air attracted from the sky. On the ground lay half-eaten bones, which the snake had thrown up in the dark cave, exasperated and satisfied by the awful food. At that time, the dragon was trying to soothe the fire that the hot food had caused in its belly in the fast stream’s foaming waters. It had not yet sunk its whole body in the river, and already its head was resting on the edge of the opposite bank. [166] I was walking unaware of this awful pestilence, accompanied by Aquinus from the Apennines and Avens from Umbria. We were curious to know the forest and explore the quiet place further. And now a silent dread penetrated our bodies as we approached, and a mysterious chill froze our limbs. And yet we decide to enter and pray to the nymphs and the unknown river’s god. Very scared, we then dared to entrust our steps to the mysterious grove. 98

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[174] Behold! from the threshold and the cave’s very entrance a deadly tornado and a hurricane harsher than the mad east wind broke forth. A storm broke out, rushing out from the vast hollow and twisting a hurricane with a sound hissing like Cerberus.* Terrified by this disaster, we looked at one another. The ground resounded, the earth moved, the cave collapsed, and we thought the dead would come forth. The Giants* once sought to reach heaven armed with such serpents. A similar snake exhausted Hercules in Lerna’s waters, and such was the serpent that guarded Juno’s g­ olden-leaved branches.5 This snake was like these: raising his gleaming head, it burst through the earth and pushed it out to the stars, spraying poisonous6 saliva to the clouds and polluting the heaven by opening its jaws. [188] We fled in fear, panting and trying in vain to shout. But the snake’s hisses filled the whole grove and made us weak. Avens acted stupidly, blinded by this sudden dread; the Fates were leading him on. He hid himself in an ancient oak’s huge trunk, trying to deceive the unspeakable monster. I can barely believe this myself: with its huge coils, the snake plucked the massively tall tree, tearing it away from deep below and completely uprooting it. The snake caught Avens as he was trembling and calling out one last time to his friends. With a gulp it swallowed Avens down its dark throat and buried him in its disgusting stomach—I saw this as I looked back. Unlucky Aquinus entrusted his fate to the river and the rushing stream; and now he was swimming fast in an effort to flee. The snake attacked him in the middle of the tide and brought the corpse back to the bank to make a feast. Alas, what a terrible way to die! [204] So then I was the only one allowed to escape this dreadful and destructive monster. As fast as my distraught mind would let me, I picked up pace and explained everything to our leader. Regulus groaned, pitying the young men’s painful death. He was fiery in battle, in war, in combat, and against the enemies, and boiled with desire to dare great things. He ordered the soldiers to seize their arms, and quickly sent the cavalry to the field, men tested in battle. He charged on, prodding the fast horse on with his boots’ spurs. A group of soldiers armed with shields quickly followed the command: they brought heavy catapults, those used to besiege city walls, and the phalarica usually employed to destroy high towers. The horses’ hooves thundered around the deadly cave, prancing about the grassy field in their turmoil. The serpent got excited from all neighing and slid out of the cave, hissing a deadly discharge out of its fiery mouth. A dreadful fire thundered from the snake’s eyes, and its erected mane rose taller than the grove and the highest trees. Its three-pronged tongue darted and flickered, moving up through the ether to lick the sky.

5 The Bagrada dragon is here compared to the Lernaean Hydra and the snake that guarded the apples of the Hesperides. 6 We read pigram here with Watt.

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[224] But as soon as the trumpets resounded, the snake was frightened and perked up its huge head. It gathered the rest of its body in a circle under its chest, winding in coils and sitting on its rear. Then it tumbled down into destructive war, loosening the coiled circles quickly and straightening up its body. The whole mass shot forward and in no time approached those who had been separated far away. All the horses were startled by the snake and started panting. They no longer endured the soft bridles and breathed out fire from their nostrils. The monster’s neck swelled as it rose high about the crowd and turned its head in both directions. Then swiftly in anger it grabbed up some fearful men, tossing them up high and in turn rejoicing in crushing them under its huge weight. Afterwards it swallowed the dark gore from the broken bones, and with blood running down its face it left the limbs half-eaten, switching its open mouth to another enemy. [239] Now the soldiers started retreating, and the victorious snake kept attacking the troops from a distance with its pestilential breath. Then Regulus quickly compelled the soldiers back to the battle with these words: “Do we, Italian youths, turn our back to a serpent, and do we admit that Italy is not up to par with Libyan snakes? Did its breath conquer us in our weakness, and our courage fled and vanished as soon as we saw its jaws? Then I shall go alone eagerly and alone I shall be able to set myself against this monster.” Fearlessly shouting such words, Regulus’ thundering arm twisted his flying spear through the air. With a steady gyration, the weapon pierced the enemy’s forehead and sat vibrating on the serpent’s head. The creature was passionately rushing against the spear and so helped the weapon’s job. [252] A shout went up to the stars, and the soldiers raised their voices to reach the heavenly abode. Immediately the earthborn monster went mad with anger. It was unwilling to turn back but was new to feeling pain, having never in its long life experienced steel; that was the first time. Provoked by pain, the snake would have retaliated quickly and successfully, if Regulus’ skillful leadership had not frustrated the monster’s imminent onset as he maneuvered his horse. The snake then followed the horse’s circles by bending his supple neck, but Regulus quickly escaped again by twisting the reins with his left hand. [261] And I, Marus, was not a simple spectator in this situation, languishing and doing nothing. My spear was the second to penetrate the monster’s body. Then the snake used its three-pronged tongue’s tip to lick the back of the horse, who was long since tired of this game. I cast my spear, and quickly I turned the awful serpent’s attention to combat against myself. The band of soldiers followed my example and eagerly hurled their darts together to distract the monster’s anger in several directions. Finally, a wall catapult restrained the snake with a blow. Then at last we broke its strength with a spine injury so it could no longer supply the necessary energy to stand up and raise its head to the sky, as before. The soldiers pressed on more 100

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forcefully. And now the phalarica penetrated and sank deep into its stomach, as two swift arrows blinded its eyes. Now the huge wound’s black cave spat out gory blood out of the snake’s jaws, and spears and poles stuck its tail’s end to the ground.7 Nevertheless, the serpent’s mouth kept threatening us, even though it was exhausted, until the engines sent out a beam with a great, hissing sound to crush his head. The snake now stretched himself at length along the bank and finally breathed out into the air a black cloud of the venom coming out from its mouth. [283] A groan burst from the sad river, and the deep waters let out a roar far and wide. All of a sudden both the grove and the cave and the banks together with the woods howled in lamentation. Alas, by how much death did we soon pay for this dreadful battle! How much punishment did we suffer to repay for such anger! Nor did the pious prophets remain silent, saying that our hands had violated the Naiads’ sacred servant, the sisters whom the Bagrada River nourishes in its warm waters. And they warned us of the dangers to come later. Then, Serranus, your father gave me that spear, a glory to me and a prize for the second wound. This is the one that first tasted the sacred serpent’s blood.”

Marus now narrates Regulus’ capture in Africa and his heroic refusal to be exchanged as war prisoner in Rome [294] Serranus’ face and eyes were now wet with tears, when he spoke in the middle of the Marus’ speech: “If this general had lived on to our times, Trebia’s inauspicious banks would not have filled with blood nor would you, Lake Trasimene, hold so many famous men in your depths.” [299] Then the older man continued: “While still alive, Regulus made the Carthaginians pay a great punishment in blood and atonement for his death. For Africa was deserted of men, and its resources were dwindling. It stretched its hands as a suppliant for help, when in this evil time brave Sparta sent Xanthippus as a leader to the Carthaginians.8 The man had no stature; his body was lacking in beauty and indicated no particular rank. But even in his small frame there was vigor, an admirable quality. He was lively and fit and with his strength he could conquer much bigger men. When it came to conducting war and combining trickery in battle and easily enduring hardship while leading his life in a hostile place, Xanthippus could hardly be considered inferior to that guy Hannibal, who is now considered the most skillful warrior. Mount Taygetus, so dire for us, I wish you had not hardened this man so much on the Eurotas River’s shady banks! I 7 The reading here is problematic; maybe it is best to assume ingestis to complete the meaning of the line: “with spears and poles piled on top.” 8 Xanthippus’ intervention in the First Punic War has already been mentioned in Book 2, lines 426ff.

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would have seen Dido the Carthaginian woman’s walls destroyed, or certainly I would not have lamented and grieved for my general’s terrible fate. No death or fire will delete his predicament from my heart, but I will rather bring this down to Tartarus with me. [316] We engaged in battle on the field, and war was raging most fiercely on land. Every soul was full of martial zeal. Here Regulus in the middle of his soldiers performed memorable deeds, as he opened the field with his sword, charging on into the danger, dealing his enemies lethal wounds that did not need to be repeated. It was just like when a whirlwind, together with the hissing south winds, turns and twists a dark mass and from this pitchy cloud threatens impending destruction equally to earth and sea. Everyone is scared, the farmers and the shepherds from the woody mountains and the sailors who furl their sails at sea. But the Greek Xanthippus was weaving a deceitful plan: he hid his comrades in hollow rocks and suddenly changed the route, feigning fear and pretending to withdraw quickly. He was like a shepherd who attends to his flocks’ safety and uses tethered ewes’ bleating at night to lead wolves into a pit, which he has lightly concealed with leaves. [332] The pursuit of glory, which kindles an honest mind, snatched and dragged Regulus, as did his mistaken trust in fickle war. He did not look back at his comrades or his companions’ group or the arms of those following, but now alone he kept on out of insane desire for combat. Then suddenly a packed group of Spartans surrounded him, coming out of the rocky hiding places. As Regulus was fixated on fighting, a savage band of warriors attacked him from behind. O dire day for Latium, one to be remembered on the calendar! Mars, this was your disgrace! Your right-hand man, born for your city’s benefit, was condemned to the sad fate of becoming a war prisoner. I will never stop crying. A Carthaginian prison saw you, Regulus! You, Carthage, seemed to the gods so great to deserve this triumph! What punishment will follow the Spartans that is severe enough for having stained themselves with this type of war? [345] But the fathers of the Carthaginian Senate deliberated to take an oath from Regulus and to send him to Rome to negotiate peace. They were saying that they would release our leader in return for their soldiers who were captured in battle and imprisoned. Without delay, the ship was pushed out of the dock and was now ready at the shore. The sailors cut wood from the forests to make oars or fir trees to replace the rowers’ old banks. Some fitted the twisted cords, others had the task of putting the sails on the high mast, and others prepared the heavy, curved anchor and placed it on the prow. Cothon, before all others, the boat’s captain and an expert in sea matters, prepared the ship and rudder. The three-pronged beak’s shiny brass glimmered and was reflected on the sea waters. They also brought weapons and various other items, a help in time of need against the rough seas. Midship, on the edge, stood the man whose role was to synchronize the sailors’ alternating strokes, to set the oars’ cadence, and, when the blades were drawn together, to make the sea reverberate rhythmically. 102

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Regulus is sent to Rome but does not change his mind, even after his wife Marcia* begs him to stay [364] After the sailors finished their work, departure time had come. The ship was fitted out, and the winds allowed for sailing. Everyone rushed to the shore, mothers, the young ones, and the elderly. Fortune dragged Regulus through the gathered crowd so hostile faces could see him. His face serene, he met their eyes, just as when with his fleet he first put in to the Carthaginian shores as a commander.9 I was his companion, and he hardly objected: he embarked in sadness, and I added myself to this predicament as his partner. He thought that to fight the difficulties at hand—his squalor, the meager meals, the hard bed—was more important than to defeat the enemy. And he considered not so great a thing to escape adversity by caution than to endure and tame it. Though I had known his fierce loyalty well from the past, I still had one hope. If in our misery we could reach Rome’s walls and his house, I hoped the man’s heart could be moved and your cries would certainly soften it. I hid the fear in my heart and believed that Regulus would weep and would have a reaction similar to mine in this misfortune. [383] When finally we glided into the Tiber, our land’s river, I was observing the leader’s face and the eyes that were betraying his feelings. I never stopped looking at him. If you believe me, child, I saw him keep one and the same face in the midst of all labors, one and the same face even in his fatherland as he had in savage Carthage, and one and the same face at the time of his punishment. From all cities, all of Italy came to meet the captive man; the crowds overflowed the plain, and even the neighboring hills were filled up. The Tiber roared from its high banks. Even the Carthaginian leaders themselves tried to persuade him to change into his country’s clothes, offering him the honor of wearing the toga.10 [394] Regulus stood unmoved among so many groans, even though the Senate was in tears, and the crowd of mothers and youths were in deep pain. The consul stretched his right hand from the bank and gave a friendly welcome. At first he was happy to see Regulus walk on this fatherland’s soil again. Regulus took a step back, advising the consul to move back and not to violate the highest office.11 Surrounded by a crowd of arrogant Carthaginians and dressed in prisoner’s clothes, he kept walking. And so he made people hate heaven and the gods. [403] Behold Marcia, hauling her two sons, miserable because of her husband’s excessive virtue! She was tearing her squalid hair and her clothes in grief. Do you remember that day? Maybe you forgot it, since you were 9 In 256 BCE. 10 As war prisoner, Regulus refuses to wear the toga, keeping instead his Carthaginian clothes on. 11 That is by touching him.

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very young. And after she saw him with a defiled appearance as well as in Carthaginian attire, Marcia let out loud shrieks and fainted, as death’s paleness seized her cold limbs. If there is any reverence among the gods, may they grant you, Carthage, to see the Sidonian mothers in such a state. Regulus spoke to me in a quiet tone and ordered me to hold back your and his wife’s embrace. He was clearly impenetrable to grief, never bowing his neck to pain.” [415] With a deep sigh and with tears streaming from his eyes at this point the young man Serranus interrupted Marus, saying: “Great father, you who are more venerable to us than the divinity that sits on the Tarpeian citadel! If I have the right to express my pious complaint, why did you deny to my mother and myself this consolation or this honor to touch your sacred face and enjoy kisses from your mouth? Why was I not allowed to hold your hand in mine? How much lighter would these wounds have been, venerable father, if we had had the opportunity to carry to the shades below your embraces, forever held in my heart. But, Marus, unless my memory does not serve (for then I was quite young), his stature was greater than human. His shaggy hair was coming down from his white head to his huge shoulders, covering them up. And on his face with its unkempt hair one could discern fearsome dignity and venerable authority. I’ve never seen anything like this since.” [430] Then Marus stopped Serranus from worsening the condition of his wounds with his complaints and began again, saying: “Why did he bypass his own house and enter the hated lodging and hospitality of the Carthaginians?12 In his small house were hanging the shield and the chariots and the well-known javelins, the proofs of great victories. These items were tempting his eyes to look at, as his wife was shouting at the threshold: ‘Where are you walking off to? This is not the Carthaginian prison, Regulus, which you flee. Our chaste house preserves our marital bed’s traces and the household gods: it has been inviolate, without reproach. I ask: how have I dishonored it? Once and twice I bore you offspring, with the Senate and the country rejoicing. This is your house! Look back! From here holding the high office of the consulship, with your shoulders gleaming in purple, you saw the Roman lictors* march forth with the fasces.* From here you used to go to war, and here you used to bring back the captured arms and as a victor to hang them on the doorposts with me. I don’t seek your embrace or a union under the sacred torch of marriage. Stop denying your country’s home and consider it sacred to pass one night with your children.’ [450] Amidst such cries, Regulus followed the Carthaginians into their abode and crossed the threshold, escaping from these complaints. Scarcely had the bright day lit up on the highest Mount Oeta, the monument of Hercules’ funeral pyre, when the consul gave an order to summon the

12 This lodging would have been on the Campus Martius.

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Carthaginians to a meeting. Then we saw him cross the Curia’s* threshold. Regulus himself calmly told me what the Senate discussed and what his words were that the senators heard in sorrow for the last time. As soon as he entered, they strove with their voices and gestures to make him sit on his accustomed seat and known place. He declined and rejected the usual seat’s honor. But the senators poured around him from everywhere trying to hold his hand and pleaded with him to return to their country such a famous leader as himself. They said he could be ransomed by prisoner exchange. Then, they said, the hand which chains had bound, would rightly set fire on to the Carthaginian citadel. [466] Regulus raised his hands and eyes together toward heaven and said: ‘Jupiter, giver of justice and righteousness, you who govern everything, and you divine Loyalty, no less divine to me, and Carthage’s goddess Juno, all of you I called as my witnesses to the oath I took that I would come back. If I can speak in a manner worthy of my position and safeguard Latium’s hearths by these words,’ he said, ‘I’ll go to Carthage without delay, keeping my word that I’d return and keeping the agreement for punishment intact. So stop honoring me to the detriment of our state. I’ve lost my vitality after so many wars for so many years. Even now my strength dwindles in chains and after long imprisonment, a captive in my old age.13 [476] That man, Regulus, once was, but is no more. While he was young, he never stayed away from war’s tough duty: you stare at a name with a bloodless body. But Carthage, that deceitful place, knows well how much of me is left and prepares to receive captive men, young and fierce in war, in exchange for someone as old as me. Stand fast against this trick! Let these people, who are cunning and happy to deceive, learn how much is still left to you, Rome, even though I am in captivity. And there shall be no peace agreement, except for one according to our ancestors’ principles. The Carthaginians are asking, and they gave me this message to convey, that we agree to suspend the war with equal treaties for both nations and to write down conditions beneficial to both. But I’d rather enter the Stygian* kingdom than see the Romans strike such a pact.’ [490] He said these things, and now he gave himself up to the Carthaginians’ anger. Nor did the Senate reject these serious and trustworthy warnings. They sent the Carthaginian delegation back. They hastened to return to their country, angry by the rejection and threatening the prisoner. The Roman people followed the senators, as the field resounded with laments and grief. At times they wanted to call him back and with their justified pain to seize and keep him. [497] But when his wife saw him rushing to enter the boat, alarmed as she was and as if suddenly standing at his funeral, she raised a trembling voice, running quickly to the waters: ‘Take me, Carthaginians, together with

13 Regulus returned to Rome in 250 BCE; he was captured in 255 BCE.

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him and punish me, kill me. This alone, husband, I ask of you in the name of the children I bore you: allow me to bear and endure whatever punishment on land, sea or sky. I did not send the Spartan leader Xanthippus to war, nor have I placed my shackles around your neck. Why do you flee me in my misery to go to Carthage? Take with you both this child of yours and me. Perhaps we’ll bend Carthage’s ferocious rage or if the hostile city shuts her ears, then the same end will await you, me, and yours all together. Or, if you’ve decided to cut your life short, let’s die in our country. Here I am, the last companion before your death.’ [512] In the midst of these words, they loosened the ship from the moorings, and slowly it began to move and recede from the shore. Then indeed the miserable woman, maddened by grief, shouted, stretching her exhausted hands to the shore: ‘Behold the man who boasts to preserve loyalty for Libya and its abominable people! Unfaithful man, where is the agreement you made with me on our wedding day when you promised me loyalty?’ These last words then penetrated his ears. The oars were beating the waters and prevented the rest from being heard. [521] Then quickly we sailed down the River Tiber to the shores of the open sea and sailed through the ocean and the endless open waters in our hollow ship. We cut through the huge waves on this curved vessel. Fearing a mocking death in Carthage, I was praying that the ocean’s fierce power would crush the ship and that the east wind’s wanton fury would break the ship on the rocks into pieces. This would have been a common death for everybody. But the mild west wind’s moderate breeze brought us to the place of punishment and gave us up to the Carthaginians’ fury. [529] I had the bad luck to see Regulus’ punishment, and they sent me back to the city to narrate it, a heavy price for my release. And now I won’t attempt to explain to you the Carthaginian race’s rituals, since they resemble those of angry beasts. People around the world never saw a greater example of virtue than the one displayed by your venerable father. I am ashamed to add complaints about the tortures that I saw him endure, while keeping his countenance peaceful. And you, dear boy, don’t stop moulding yourself to be such noble blood’s worthy offspring. Suppress the tears that now arise. [539] A frame was constructed, and the boards on all sides were armed from the outside with blades of equal length. They artfully arranged dense rows of projecting and piercing iron spikes. By this structure, they denied Regulus any sleep. He was unable to rest as time progressed since, wherever he turned or bent his body, the spikes pierced him through. Stop crying, young man: his endurance surpassed all his other triumphs. Regulus’ glory will flourish for a long time, as long as chaste Loyalty holds a seat in heaven and on earth. O famous leader, there will be a day, when younger generations will shudder to hear what misfortunes you trampled on.” Marus said this and with sorrowful attentiveness tended Serranus’ wounds once again. 106

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People in the city learn about the defeat at Lake Trasimene and begin to panic [552] In the meantime, Rumor14 had dipped her swift wings in Lake Trasimene’s bloody waters and poured gore all over them. She was now spreading a mix of true and false stories through the city. Memories returned in people’s terrified minds of the defeat at the Allia* River and the Gauls capturing the citadel. Grief-producing Fear broke loose of any restraint, and this dread increased the feeling of disaster. Some quickly rushed to the walls. A terrible voice circulated that the enemy was at hand; people threw stakes and javelins in vain. And the women, tearing their white hair, swept the gods’ high temples and disturbed the divine too late as they prayed about their own men’s fate. [562] Day and night lost any sense of quiet. The scattered crowd lay around the gates shrieking from pain, and the mob waited to see the returning soldiers’ long line. They hung from the mouth of those saying something, nor did they trust for sure in the good news they received, but they delayed the men by asking again and again. Others posed a question by facial motions, without words, while they feared to hear the answer to their question. On that side you could hear wailings, when someone received the news of heavy loss. On this side, there was fear, if people said they did not know or if the messenger hesitated and did not have an answer. And when they now clearly saw those returning, they poured out in anxiety and joy, kissing their very wounds and exhausting the gods with prayers. [574] Among these fearful people, Marus was accompanying Serranus with remarkable attentiveness. And then Marcia, who for a long time had not left her house and avoided the crowd after her husband’s death, was rushing to mourn as she had done in the past. Suddenly she was disturbed by recognizing Marus and said: “My famously loyal husband’s well-known companion, you bring this one back to me at least. Is this a light wound? Or has the harsh iron penetrated deeply to my entrails? Whatever this means, I’m grateful, gods, as long as Carthage doesn’t take him away bound in chains or tries again his father’s monstrous punishment. Son, how many times did I pray that you would not bring your father’s rage and spirit to battle and that your warlike father’s stern glory would not spur you on to fight. I paid too harsh a price in my long life. Gods, if ever you fought against us, now please spare me.”

The Senate appoints Fabius as leader. Hannibal’s forces move to Campania* [589] And now, as if the awful defeat’s cloud had dispersed, the senators turned their attention to how they could aid the failing state. They contended

14 For this creature’s personification, see Book 4, lines 1ff.

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for war duties. And fear was pushed aside on account of the heavy danger at hand. The greatest undertaking was to appoint a leader of the army who would undertake to restore Latium and assume the massive task of the crumbling state’s restoration, since the country was facing destruction. This was Jupiter’s care, namely to help the devastated country and to prolong the Italian empire’s existence. For he rose and saw from his Alban* citadel the Carthaginians and Hannibal puffed up on account of their victories. Hannibal was preparing to bring his victorious standards into Rome’s walls. [600] Then shaking his head Jupiter said: “Never, young man, will Jupiter give you the right to cross Rome’s gates and step inside. It’s enough that I allowed you to fill Tuscany’s valleys with slaughter, and overflow the river banks with Latin blood. I forbid you from approaching the Tarpeian hill and from hoping to get a hold of Rome’s walls.” Then four times he hurled lightning and thunder from his hand, and the whole Etruscan land was lit up. Rolling a black cloud through the air, he parted the sky in an instant over the Carthaginian troops. [609] And it was not enough to turn Hannibal away. Jupiter’s great divine power inspired the Romans with the idea to entrust Romulus’ seat and command to Fabius as the leader to save the state. After he saw that war powers were delegated to him, Jupiter said: “Envy never conquered this man or popular glory with its enticing poison. No one can trick him, as he is not subject to desire for plunder or other such things. He has experience in warfare and is capable to handle praise and disaster with a calm mind. He has a talent equally for war and peace.” So the gods’ father spoke and took himself back to the stars. [619] Jupiter praised this man, Fabius, and no one surpassed him in cautious war. He was especially happy upon return to count the number of youths as he had taken to battle and brought back safe. No one else spared his own self or his beloved son more fiercely than he did his soldiers, and no one was sadder to see his people’s blood spilled in war. And Fabius himself, stained in enemy blood, came back as conqueror to a camp full of soldiers. His ancestry was illustrious, and his origins were drawn from the gods. [628] For when Hercules of Tiryns was returning once from the distant shores of Spain, he victoriously led the three-headed monster Geryon’s miraculously captured cows, quite a legendary spectacle, to where now Rome’s walls shine in glory. The story goes that then the Arcadian man Evander, a poor people’s leader, was building the Palatine hill’s foundations in the middle of deserted brambles. The divine guest seduced the royal maiden, and she bore Fabius, a happy outcome to this tragedy. So the Arcadian mother blended her genes with the god’s to give birth to great offspring and welcome Hercules’ descendants. This house armed 300 Fabii against the enemy, all leaving the same threshold.15 Fabius surpassed their most beautiful deeds

15 See note 1 in Book 2.

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by the art of delaying16 and by matching the general Hannibal himself. So great were you then, Carthaginian man! [641] While the defeated Romans were getting ready for a new war, Hannibal, disturbed by Jupiter and having left behind his hope of hammering Rome’s walls, sought the Umbrian hills and fields. On the highest mountain-top hangs Tuder, sloping down on the hill side. Here Mevania stretches over the wide fields and breathes forth motionless mists, providing in this place pastures for huge bulls, gifts for Jupiter.17 Then Hannibal progressed to the Picentine olive orchards, rich in plunder. The soldiers moved their devastating standards from place to place wherever they would find spoils, until mild Campania delayed their pestilential course and welcomed the war in her undefended embrace.

Hannibal visits the temple at Liternum* and burns it down [653] The Carthaginian general visited marshy Liternum’s temple and buildings. Here he surveyed on the porticoes all paintings, splendid with various pictures, the reminders from the First Punic War, which their ancestors had waged. Here there was a long line of notable events depicted. First with his fierce face Regulus was talking the Romans into waging war, a war he should have rejected, if the man knew what fate awaited him. Next Appius Claudius Caudex* was standing, first to declare war against the Carthaginians in accordance with the ancestral rituals.18 Garlanded in laurels, he was leading a well-earned triumph for his victories over the Carthaginians. Then the watery glory and naval trophy, a column was rising in white marble bearing the rostra.* Duilius* was dedicating this as spoil and gift to the war god Mars, for sinking first the Carthaginian fleet in the deep. He was honored at night; a bright torch and a temple flute player was accompanying him after dinner, as he returned decorated to his chaste home in the happy song’s sound. [670] Hannibal also saw the final rites for the dead citizen: having conquered Sardinia,* Lucius Cornelius Scipio was celebrating the Carthaginian general Hannon’s funeral.19 Then he saw the Roman youths rush through the routed troops on the African shores. Wearing his gleaming plume, Regulus was pressing on their backs: the Autololes, the Numidians, the Moors, those who live near Jupiter Hammon’s shrine, and the Garamantians laid down their weapons and were surrendering their cities. The slow Bagrada River was foaming on the sandy plain with the snake’s filth. The serpent

16 Fabius was named Cunctator (“Delayer”). 17 See Book 4, lines 542ff. 18 The fetial priests ritually declared war. 19 In 259 BCE.

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was fighting the menacing armies, waging war with the leader himself. Furthermore, a treacherous band was throwing overboard the Spartan general Xanthippus, and while he was calling the divinities in vain, he was drowning. Xanthippus paid a late punishment to Regulus by dying as he deserved at sea. [684] They added to the painting the twin Aegates islands, rising from the middle of the sea. You could discern lying around the ship pieces and the Carthaginians poured out on the water trying to float. Lutatius,* sea conqueror, was victoriously driving the captive ships with a favorable wind to the shore. In the midst of these scenes, from all the depictions on the paintings, Hamilcar, Hannibal’s father,20 in chains in a long line of prisoners drew the whole crowd’s attention upon himself. But there one could see the goddess Peace’s face, the treaty’s polluted altars, Jupiter’s mockery, and the Romans dictating terms and conditions. The Africans were bristling at the bare axes over their frightened neck.21 Together they were asking for pardon with suppliant hands, swearing an oath they would not keep. Dione was joyfully looking at this spectacle from Mount Eryx’s top. [698] After he surveyed all this with a hostile face, Hannibal the Carthaginian laughed, and, out of an anger he had been fostering for a while, he proclaimed this: “Carthage, you’ll get to portray in our temples my right hand’s deeds, more important than these. Give me Saguntum to see, destroyed in fire and sword. Let fathers pierce through their sons’ bodies. The small space will not be able to hold the Alps I tamed. Let the victorious Garamantians and Numidians jump through the high mountains with their horses. You shall add Ticinus’ banks foaming with blood, as well as our Trebia and the Tuscan Trasimene’s shores, covered in corpses. Let Flaminius rush with his huge body and arms. Let Scipio the consul flee, with blood dripping from his body, and let him be carried to his friends on his son’s shoulders. Display these to the Carthaginian people, and I will give you still greater things to show. Carthage, you’ll depict Rome burning by the Carthaginian torches and Jupiter thrown down from the Tarpeian Rock. Meanwhile, you young men, you who performed for me such great things, go quickly and, as is fitting, destroy these monuments, burn them down, and reduce them to ashes.”

20 Hamilcar was watching the battle from Mount Eryx. He was not among the prisoners, as Silius hyperbolically suggests here. 21 The axes of the fasces symbolize Roman power over the defeated Carthaginians.

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The Romans appoint Fabius as Dictator.* Hannibal interrogates Cilnius, one of his prisoners of war, and learns the story of the deaths of the 300 Fabii [1] Meanwhile Fabius was the Romans’ one hope in fearful circumstances. He rushed to arm Rome’s allies and an Italy weak from its wounds. The warrior’s old age flourished for hardship’s challenges. Already he was moving his forces against the enemy, but his superhuman mind did not consider the javelins, the swords, or the tough horses. He went alone against so many thousands of Carthaginians and their unconquered leader Hannibal, against so many ranks, and he took upon himself the burden of all the weapons and soldiers. [9] If aged Fabius had not possessed holy strength and determination to resist by delaying1 the Fortune that favored his enemies, the Roman name would have passed through its final years. Fabius set a limit to the gods’ favor for the Carthaginian side, and he declared an end for Libya’s victories amid their successful campaign. Using gentle restraint, he deceived Hannibal, puffed up as he was from Italian victories. Greatest of leaders! You saved Troy’s kingdom from falling a second time and Latium’s unstable state and our ancestors’ efforts. You preserved Carmentis’* wealth and Evander’s kingdom. Come now, rise up and place your holy head in the heaven you have earned. [20] Fabius had been chosen as Dictator, and new names were now in power. Hannibal considered that the Latins had suddenly changed their leadership for no vain purpose. He wanted to know what Fabius’ fortunes were like, what glory he had won. Why was Fabius the final anchor for the exhausted Romans? Did Rome think him Hannibal’s equal after so many storms of war? Hannibal worried about Fabius’ age, which lacked passion and was not open to deception.

1 See Book 6, lines 589ff.

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[27] Straightaway, Hannibal summoned a man from his band of Roman captives and interrogated him about Fabius’ ancestry, his character, and his accomplishments in war. Cilnius, the captive, had a famous name. He had been born in Arretium in the Etruscan territory. An unlucky moment had led the young man to the River Ticinus’ banks. He had fallen when his rushing horse had been wounded, and he had offered his neck to the Carthaginian chains. Eager to die and make an end to his sufferings, Cilnius said: [34] “You don’t have to deal with Flaminius, nor are Gracchus’ exuberant battle plans in hand. Fabius is a descendant of Hercules. If the Fates had given birth to him in your country, Hannibal, you would see Carthage’s citadel rule the world. I will not lead you through his accomplishments one by one in a long series. You will know the Fabii from one battle, and this will be enough.2 The people of Veii* violated the peace treaty and refused to accept the Roman yoke. War came near, and battle raged at Rome’s gates. The consul roused the people to arms. He forbade a draft; instead the Fabian clan, descended from Hercules, filled up a private camp. Marvelous to tell, an army of patricians from a single clan marched with conjoined arms. Three hundred leaders sprang forth. You would have appointed any one of them without worry as commander to conduct a war. [48] But there was a dire omen as they went forth. The threshold of the Criminal Gate* trembled resoundingly, its sound harsh and menacing. Divine Hercules’ Greatest Altar* groaned. The Fabii attacked the enemy, and their keen courage did not permit them to be counted. Their kills were greater than their army’s size. Often packed together in a mass, often spread here and there through the wilderness, they endured battle’s reversals. No one was second to another in courage. Their equal achievement all earned them the right to lead three hundred triumphs* to Tarpeian Jupiter’s temple. [57] Alas for deceptive hope and hearts that forget that whatever mortal man gains is perishable! This troop of heroes thought it shameful for the people to wage war while the Fabian clan remained intact. Suddenly they were surrounded by enemy arms, and they fell together thanks to the gods’ jealousy. Yet there is no reason why you should rejoice because they were killed. Enough remain to handle you and Libya. One man will fight against you with three hundred hands. Fabius’ limbs are so full of life, his effort is full of forethought, and he conceals his cunning in careful silence. You’re now at the hot-blooded age, but you will not spur your warhorse’s flanks into battle more quickly than him or tear at its cheeks with the bit.” [69] After Cilnius spoke, Hannibal saw that he was eager for death. “You’re provoking my anger in vain, crazy man,” he said. “You’re trying to escape a prisoner’s fetters in death. But you must live. A tight chain will hold your neck tight.” So spoke young Hannibal, puffed up by favoring gods and daring deeds.

2 For the 300 Fabii, see note 1 in Book 2.

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At Rome, fearful mothers dedicate gifts to the gods. Hannibal tries to draw Fabius into battle [74] Meanwhile concern for the gods hurried the Roman senators and young women to the altars. The matrons’ eyes were wet and their faces sad. A chorus of women went forward in a long line. They dedicated a robe to Juno and spoke the vows they had formed in mind: [78] “Come here, o queen of the gods! We pray to you as a chaste people, all with respected names, a crowd of Roman women. We bring you a beautiful and reverent gift that our hands sewed with the needle and embroidered in gold. This will be your covering, goddess, so long as mothers’ fears subside. If you will grant our land the power to repel the African cloud, you will have a shining crown, variegated with every kind of gem pressed into gold.” They also honored Minerva with fitting gifts, as well as Phoebus Apollo and the armed god Mars and Dione, ancestor of the Romans. Indeed such reverence for the gods springs up when events are frightening, but altars rarely smoke in prosperous times. [90] While Rome decreed the traditional honors for its temples, Fabius led his cautious army forward. While appearing to be lazy, he had shut off all paths for his enemy and Fortune through the art of war. He did not permit his men to depart from the battle standards into combat. He taught them obedience, the greatest honor, the power by which you, Roman, lifted your empire’s head to the stars. But the Carthaginians’ hopes were raised, when they first saw the Roman battle standards from far off on the high mountains and the troops gleaming in new armor. Hannibal burned with Fortune’s favor. The fact that the battle lines were not yet arrayed appeared to be the only delay to victory. [100] “March forth!” Hannibal cried. “Go quickly, rush to the gates, push back the ramparts with your chests. However much of the battlefield separates us, only that much remains between the enemy and the Underworld ghosts. They called up exhausted old men to war. It’s dishonorable to fight with them. Whoever you see here is a leftover, condemned as useless when the war began. Look, where are the Gracchi now or the thunderbolts of the Scipio clan?3 They have been thrust out of Italy and will not give up their fearful flight before terror carries them to the Ocean and the world’s edges. Both of them wander in exile now, quaking at my name, and holding to the Ebro River’s banks. There is a reason why killing Flaminius increased my glory and why I am pleased to include the name of this man who was fierce in battle among my accomplishments. But how many years would my sword take away from this Fabius? And yet he dares to oppose me. Let him dare! I will make it so he is never seen in arms again.”

3 Scipio the Elder and his brother, commonly called “thunderbolts” since the poet Ennius.*

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[116] Hannibal screamed these words and hurried his troops swiftly along their path. Mounted on his horse, sometimes he shook his hand to call out the enemy, sometimes he abused them with his voice. Now from far off he hurled a javelin triumphantly and mimed the future combat. Hannibal was just like Thetis’* son Achilles,* who wore armor made by Vulcan on the Trojan battlefield. The images on Achilles’ shield embraced land and sky and his mother’s sea and the whole world. [123] High on the lofty ridge’s peak, Fabius sat and watched Hannibal’s ineffectual anger. Through his skill at delaying, he mastered Hannibal’s proud heart and blunted his threats by putting off the battle. He was just like a shepherd who barricades his stables on a dark night. He shuts the flock in the sheepfold and goes to sleep without fear. A fierce pack of starving wolves rages and howls savage threats. Their bites shake the resisting barriers. [131] Hannibal’s plan had failed. He moved his troops and picked his way through the Apulian fields, marching slowly. Sometimes he camped concealed in a hidden valley, looking for the chance to rush anyone following him and then surround them in an unexpected ambush. At other times, he got ready to raid at night, when darkness hid his unseen path and pretended to retreat and simulated fear. He also swiftly deserted his camp and displayed plunder left behind, inviting the enemy in as if giving it away. [139] Hannibal was just like the River Maeander* in the land of Maeonia, as it wanders here and there and turns its curving channel back upon itself. None of Hannibal’s plans lacked a trick: he tried every stratagem at once and mixed them up and sharpened his intention for various undertakings. It was just like when water reflects a bright sunbeam: light wavers through the room, quivering as the reflection moves, and a flickering shadow plays on the coffered ceiling. [146] And now Hannibal complained to himself as he raged with anger and grief: “If this man had been first to bring his weapons against me, would the River Trebia and Lake Trasimene have any famous names now? Would any Italians be mourning? Would Phaethon’s* River Po never have changed color and mixed bloody waves with the sea? Fabius has discovered a new way to conquer as he holds himself back and wears us out by sitting idle. Look how often, as if he were going to meet us in battle, his reason unmasks my tricks and undoes my deceptions!” [154] So Hannibal spoke to himself, when the trumpet split the night in the middle of sleeping time. As the quiet was broken, the third watch, chosen for unpleasant guard duty, went to arms.4 Hannibal changed course, and leaving Daunus’s land behind, went back to devastate Campania, a territory already familiar with him. After he entered Falernus’s fertile fields, a rich land that never deceives a planter, he threw hostile firebrands on the fruitful vines.

4 The third watch began at midnight.

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The narrator digresses to talk about the origins of Falernian* wine [162] Although great undertakings call me, Bacchus, it is not right to pass over your honors in silence. You shall be commemorated, giver of the holy liquid. Vines fat with nectar give no other wine the right to put its name before the Falernian vintage. In a better time, when people did not yet know war, aged Falernus plowed Mount Massicus’s slopes. Leaves with their green shadows did not yet cover the grapes on the bare fields. Nor did people know yet how to make soothing drinks of the wine god’s juice. Instead they used to quench their thirst in springs of pure water. [171] A lucky footstep, a lucky hour brought Bacchus to be Falernus’ guest as he traveled toward Gibraltar’s shores where the daylight ends. Nor was the heaven-dwelling god reluctant to enter the meager household and the humble buildings’ threshold. The smoky doorposts received the willing god, as did the table placed right in front of the stove in the manner of a poorer age. Falernus the happy host had not sensed that a god had come to his home. Yet following his ancestors’ custom, he ran around with eager zeal and made his old age hurry up until he had put a celebratory feast on the table. First he placed fruits in pure baskets, next he quickly grabbed vegetables dripping with water from his well-irrigated gardens. Then milk and honeycombs gave the dinner sweetness. Reverent Falernus served Ceres’ gift of grains, and animal blood did not pollute his table. He picked out the first portion from each dish as honor to the hearth goddess Vesta, roasting his offerings in the middle of the fire. [186] You were charmed by the old man’s care, Bacchus, and you did not let your drink go missing. Marvelous to tell! The beechwood cups suddenly foamed with grape juice, a reward for the poor man’s hospitality. Unmixed5 red wine flowed in Falernus’ cheap milking pail. Sweet liquor dripped from fragrant grapes in a hollow oak bowl. “Look!” Bacchus said. “Take these gifts that you don’t yet understand. One day they will spread the name of Falernus the vine-tender.” [193] The god did not conceal himself any longer. Ivy tendrils wreathed his forehead that shone with purple radiance. His hair poured over his neck, and a wine jug hung from his right hand. A grape vine fell from his flourishing thyrsus and clothed the festive table in Mount Nysa’s* leaves. It was not easy, Falernus, to stand fast against the joyful drink. After he refilled your cup, your tottering feet and stuttering tongue made the god laugh. As your head became dizzy, you tried to give worthy thanks and credit to father Bacchus, but your words were hardly understandable. Eventually

5 The Greeks and Romans typically made strong wine and mixed it with water for ordinary drinking.

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the god Sleep closed your struggling eyes, Sleep joined with Bacchus as his companion. [205] When at first light the Sun’s chariot that Phaethon had once driven dispersed the dew, vineyards full of grapes flowered widely on Mount Massicus’ slopes. The mountain marveled at its foliage and grape clusters that shone in the sun. Honor came to the mountain, and from that time forward wealthy Tmolus and cups of ambrosial juice from Ariusia in Chios and proud Methymna in Lesbos6 yielded to Falernus’ wine-vats.

Fabius restrains his troops from attacking Hannibal [212] At that time fierce Hannibal was devastating and assaulting this land. It provoked the commander that his army’s swords were unbloodied and that Fabius was toying with him. And now the Roman camps had dangerous desires and a perverse longing for fighting arose in them. They were readying to rush down headlong from the mountain. [217] Grant him fame, Muse, grant fame to Fabius, the man who was permitted to conquer both the enemy’s camp and his own and to master two sides’ madness. “If the senators had thought I had a fiery heart and a hasty spirit,” Fabius said, “if they thought it was easy to disturb my mind through shouting, they would not have entrusted me with Rome’s last chance and with control of a much-mourned war. I have long since weighed my opinion on the war, and it stands fast. I will fight to save unwilling men who hurry on their final doom. Thanks to Fabius, none of you will be allowed to die. Are you tired of living? Is your desire to be the last of the Roman name? Is it frustrating that at such a time no place has become well-known from a new disaster or the crash of a famous collapse? Then we must call Flaminius back from his dark home in the Underworld. He would have long since hurried to give the signal and auspices for defeat.7 Do you not yet see the danger and that our fate is near? One more victory is enough for the Carthaginians to conquer us. [234] Stand fast, my men, and listen carefully to your leader! When a time of our choosing demands our fighting hands, then let these fierce words be equal to the deed. It’s not, believe me, it’s not a difficult task to plunge into battle. In one hour, we could open the gates and spill everyone out on the battlefield. The great thing is to come back from fighting the enemy. This great gift is given only to those whom Jupiter gazes upon kindly as they march forth. Hannibal leans on his luck and trusts in a favoring wind as he guides his ship. It will be profitable for us to delay until the breeze slackens and the wind abandons the rising gulf and holds back its gale.

6 The Greek islands of Chios and Lesbos were famous for their wine. 7 See Book 5, lines 610ff.

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[244] No Fortune favors anyone with an eternal embrace. How much tighter are the Carthaginians’ supplies now, and how much fame have they lost from not fighting! Yet among my other achievements, it may not be to my discredit that the man who just now… But may it be better for me to be sparing with my words.8 Now you are demanding battle ranks and combat and an enemy? By the gods, may you always have such confidence! Meanwhile, shut out the chance of greater danger, and set me alone, I ask you, me alone against the whole war.” [253] These words broke the troops’ madness and quieted their raging arms. It was just as when Neptune raises his calm head above the troubled waves. The king looks over the whole ocean, and the whole ocean sees him. The savage winds give up their fierce roaring, and no longer move the wings on their foreheads.9 Then little by little peace spreads over the tranquil seas and slow-moving waves shine on the quiet shore.

Fabius traps Hannibal, who escapes by tying firebrands on the horns of cattle [260] Through cunning awareness, Hannibal sensed Fabius’ doings, and he infected the Romans’ minds with deceitful poison. Fabius owned an ancestral estate nearby, only a few acres, and he did not need many plows to till it. Mount Massicus added a renowned name to the grapes he raised on its soil. It pleased Hannibal to work treachery here and spread reasons for dissent throughout the Roman camp. He spared Fabius’ land from fire and sword and gave a suspicious peace to the place through a hostile trick, as if he were making war under a clandestine agreement with Fabius. [268] Fabius had understood this trick: the Dictator saw how the Carthaginians’ plots raged. But amid swords and battle horns, he had no time to worry about jealousy over his spared estate or to defend against rumor’s bite by giving uncertain battle. Hannibal crept around and often dragged his camps here and there to no purpose and kept looking for a chance at battle. Fabius spread out his forces and shut Hannibal in at a crossroads where woody ridges and hills with rocky peaks rose up.10 On one side, the Laestrygonians’* rocky cliffs pressed against Hannibal’s back. On the other side was the squalid Liternum marsh with its watery mud. This area did not need swords or soldiers: rather, constraining hunger pressed on those shut in the deceptive place and was going to exact wretched Saguntum’s punishments. The end was at hand for Carthage’s war. [282] Sleep had buried all things on land and in the deep sea’s waters. The day’s work was put aside, and the world enjoyed the peace given to

8 Fabius stops mid-sentence rather than arrogantly asserting that Hannibal could be defeated. 9 The winds were imagined to have wings on their foreheads. 10 The Volturnus plain between Aquae Sinuessanae and Liternum.

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mortals at night. But Hannibal’s heart burned with anxiety. Wakeful fears did not permit him to drink in sleep-giving night’s gifts. He rose from his bed and threw a tawny lionskin around himself. He slept on this instead of a heaped-up couch when sprawled on the grass in the field. [290] Then Hannibal strode swiftly to his brother Mago’s nearby tent. Mago upheld the family tradition of warrior ritual: he lay his body down to rest on a bed of bull’s hide and soothed his cares in sleep. The man’s spear stood at his side, fixed in the ground not far away, and his fearsome helmet hung from the spear’s point. His shield and breastplate, sword and bow, and Balearic sling all rested on the ground around him. Nearby was a chosen band, young men who had been tested in war. Mago’s horse still wore a saddle on its back as it munched the grass. [300] As Hannibal entered, his footsteps disrupted Mago’s light sleep. “Hey!” Mago cried as his hands went to his weapons. “What sleepless anxiety torments you, brother, tired as you are?” Mago had risen already and kicked his soldiers sprawled on the turf to call them back to camp duties. [305] Hannibal the Libyan commander replied: “Fabius makes my nights wretched, Fabius drives me to anxieties. That old man is the only one, alas, to block my fate even as it dashes forward. You see how a ring of armed men encloses us, and encircling soldiers surround us and shut us in. But come now, we’re in a tight spot. Look here at what I’ve thought up. [311] Herds of cattle plundered throughout the wide fields in war’s customary manner, following after us. I will order the soldiers to tie dry branches on their horns and bundles of light twigs on their foreheads. When we set them on fire and spread the flame, pain will goad the cattle to dash here and there. Their necks will toss stray fire all over the hills. The new fear will terrify the Roman sentries, and they will slacken their hostile guard and fear greater danger in the night. If you are in accord with these plans, let’s gird ourselves for action, as our extreme circumstances deny any delay.” [321] Then together they made for the tents. Mighty Maraxes’ shield propped up his neck, as he lay amid horses, men, and spoils that his hand had captured, still dripping blood. By chance he made a dire cry, as if he were madly engaged in combat in his sleep. Fired up as he was, his trembling hand looked for his armor and his familiar sword on the bed. Mago shook Maraxes out of his warlike sleep, striking him with his spear’s point, saying to him: [329] “Bravest of leaders, hold back your battle rage in the dark and put off combat for the day. Now we must use the night for treachery and secret flight and safe refuge. My brother is preparing to tie dry branches on the cattle’s horns and send them burning into the wide woods. That way, the troops opposing us may unbar their gates, and we may uproot our camp from siege. Let’s break out, and let this trick persuade Fabius not to compete with us in cunning.” 118

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[337] Young Maraxes did not hesitate for an instant: the bold plan delighted him. They rushed to Acherras’ tent. He had little rest and a minimum of slumber, nor was he known to sleep the length of the night. He had been up all night caring for his fierce horse, soothing the tired animal with gentle handling and tending to its mouth where the bit had torn it. Meanwhile, his men fixed their spears, wiped dried blood from their swords, and sharpened the points to make them more effective in battle. [345] Hannibal, Mago, and the others made clear what the occasion and their position’s bad luck required, as well as what they were planning. They encouraged Acherras, no lazy servant of their undertakings, to join them. The order rushed through the camp: eagerly they indicated what had to be hurried along. Each leader directed his own troops. Keen fear pressed on the anxious men and keyed them up to rush out and leave camp, while silence and night’s deeper shadows concealed them. [351] The Carthaginians placed the brushwood in the consuming fire and flames sprang up on the cattle’s high horns. The cattle shook their heads in pain as the fire worsened and helped the flames grow denser. A peak of flame overcame the smoke and burst through. Fire’s dark torment drove the crazed cattle panting through hills and thickets, through the high mountain’s rocky crags. The maddened cattle struggled in vain to moo as fire blocked up their nostrils. [360] The fire’s devastation wandered over the ridges and valleys. The evil never stopped, and fire shone on the nearby beaches. A sailor who plows the ocean, his eyes fixed on the sky in the calm night, sees as many stars from the middle of the waves. A shepherd dwelling on the peak of Mount Garganus sees as many fires when smoky flames burn the Calabrian* forests to make the pastureland fertile. [367] Leaping flames suddenly appeared on the high mountains and terrified the men whose lot it was then to stand guard duty. They believed that the fires had spread without anyone setting them and were feeding unchecked beneath the hills. They wondered amid their fear whether lightning had fallen from the sky, flung from all-powerful Jupiter’s great hand. Or had unseen caverns ruptured, and the unfortunate earth poured out heaped-up flames ignited by sulfur? And now the Romans had all retreated, and Hannibal’s troops swiftly occupied the road’s narrows. The Carthaginians broke forth exulting into the open fields.

Fabius returns to Rome to inaugurate the Roman Games. He leaves his army under the control of Minucius, his Master of Horse [377] Ever on the alert, the Dictator Fabius had made it this far through his art of leadership. The result was that after the battles at the Trebia River and the deep Tuscan Lake Trasimene it was enough for Hannibal just to 119

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escape Fabius and Roman spears. Indeed, Fabius would have pushed hard on Hannibal’s footsteps after ejecting him from his camp. Yet holy rituals called him to offer veneration to his country’s gods.11 As he turned back for Rome, he addressed young Minucius. Custom commanded Fabius to turn over to him the battle standards and the highest command in war and the foremost reins of state. He shaped Minucius with these words and influenced him with these warnings: [386] “If Fortune has not yet taught you, Minucius, to think caution best from the example of my deeds, then words will not be able to lead you to true glory and shield you from dishonor. You have seen Hannibal shut in. No help came from soldiers, cavalry, or legions stuffed with close-packed maniples.* I swear to you, I alone shut him in, nor will I hesitate to do so hereafter. Allow me to offer the gods their ritual feast and bring them solemn honors. I’ll hand you over a Hannibal who has been confined again and again, either by high mountains or swift rivers—so long as you hold off from battle. [395] Believe me, I have been through this: I am not deceived. Until I return, our safety in wretched circumstances is to try nothing. Let many others have their glory, and let it please them to lay out their enemy with the sword—it is indeed an outstanding thing. But let Fabius’ triumph be to have saved your lives. I have entrusted to you full camps and soldiers untouched by wounds. Return them to me: that will be glory enough. [401] Soon you will see the Libyan lion leap at your rampart. Soon Hannibal will offer you plunder, soon he will turn his back on you (though looking back all the while) and stew his anger with treachery. I beg you, close up your camp and snatch all hope of combat from him. It is enough to have warned you. But if a man who is begging you cannot restrain your heart, then as Dictator I forbid you with a great and dutiful oath to take up arms.” So Fabius’ warnings fortified the camp as he took his leave and headed back to Rome.

The Nereids ask the sea god Proteus* to foretell the future [409] Look! a Carthaginian fleet’s prows cut past Caieta’s* shores in a favoring wind and the Laestrygonians’* bays and entered the open port. Many an oar made the whole sea foam. The commotion frightened the sea nymphs out of their caves’ glassy dwellings. They surfaced on the water and saw hostile ships taking possession of the shore. Then great fear struck the crowd of Nereids. In astonishment, they hurried to flow back to their

11 The Roman Games were celebrated in mid-September at Rome. As the Dictator, the highest ranking official, Fabius had to inaugurate the Games.

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familiar homes, where the Teleboans’* kingdom rises far off from the middle of the waves and the pumice caverns. [419] Enormous Proteus* hid away in the jagged cave. The prophet shut out the foamy blue waves far and wide by blocking them with boulders. He knew well enough the matters at hand and the nymphs’ fears. He played at transforming himself into various shapes, scaring them in a serpent’s form with dark scales that emitted horrifying hisses. He changed his body into a fierce lion and roared. [426] After that, Proteus said: “Tell me, what is your reason for coming? What fear has suddenly spread over your face? Why do you desire to know the future?” In response, Cymodoce, oldest of the Italian nymphs, said: “You know why we are afraid, prophet. What do the Carthaginian fleets that seized our shores portend for us? Is it the gods’ will for Roman rule to migrate to Africa? Or will Carthaginian sailors soon control these ports? Will we be forced to flee from our ancestral homes to inhabit Mount Atlas’ and Gibraltar’s furthest caves?” [435] Then Proteus the ambiguous prophet began to unfold the story’s beginnings, seeking them far back in the past, and revealed the future. “Once the Trojan shepherd Paris sat on Phrygian Mount Ida.*12 He called his cattle on his clear reed pipe as they wandered through the brushy wasteland back to their dewy pastures. At his leisure, he heard of a divine beauty contest. Cupid was eager to make it to the contest on time and drove his mother Venus’ chariot drawn by white swans. A little quiver hung from his shoulder and his golden bow shone bright. He nodded at his mother and stopped her from worrying by showing her that he carried a quiver full of arrows. Another Cupid combed the hair on her snow-white forehead, while a third tied up her purple dress. [448] Venus sighed from her rosy mouth and spoke to her elegant sons: “Look! a day is at hand that will be a most trustworthy witness to your dutifulness. Who would dare to believe that this is happening when you are still alive? Venus is competing in beauty and appearance; what further indignity now remains? If I’ve given all my arrows daubed with sweet poison to my little sons; if your grandfather Jupiter, who establishes laws for heaven and earth, becomes your suppliant when you wish—so let our victory over Minerva take palms from Judaea* back to my Cyprus,* and my one hundred altars on Paphos* burn for my victory over Juno.” [458] As Venus goddess of Cythera gave these orders to the winged Cupids, the whole grove resounded when Minerva marched in. The warlike maiden had put down her aegis shield and combed her hair that she typically rolled up in her helmet. Her gaze serene, she was learning to be peaceful, and she swiftly brought her holy steps to the appointed grove.

12 Proteus tells the nymphs the story of the Judgment of Paris (the “Trojan shepherd”) that gave rise to the Trojan War and Aeneas’ flight to Italy.

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From the other side, Saturn’s daughter Juno entered the wood as ordered. Afterward she would bear to her brother’s bed the Trojan shepherd Paris’ judgment and his disdain on Mount Ida. Last of all, laughing Venus came, her shining face radiant. All around, the groves and the caves with their leafy ridges drank deep within the fragrant odor from her holy head. Nor was Paris the judge able to remain seated, but his eyes drooped, dazzled by the goddess’ brilliant gleam. He was afraid to appear hesitant. But the defeated goddesses brought fierce war across the sea and cut down Troy along with its judge. [474] Then dutiful Aeneas, tossed about on land and sea, planted the Trojan household gods in the land of Italy. While whales shall swim in the sea, while the stars shall shine in the sky, while the sun shall rise from the Indian shore, here there shall be rule and no limits on rule through the ages. But you, my daughters, while Fate’s thread runs unchangeably, shun Adriatic Saso’s unlucky sands.13 The swollen Aufidus River will mix its bloody waves in the sea and thrust its ruddy tide into the deep. Diomedes’ Aetolian ghosts will fight once more with the Trojans on a battlefield condemned beforehand in the gods’ prophecies. Carthaginian missiles will soon shake Romulus’ walls, and the Metaurus River will soon be renowned for the great slaughter of Hannibal’s brother Hasdrubal’s army. [487] Then Scipio the hero, engendered in secrecy, will avenge the killing of his father and uncle.14 The same man will avenge both. Then he will fill Dido’s shore with flame and tear away Hannibal from scorching Italy’s guts. Scipio will defeat him in his own land. Carthage will yield her arms to him, Africa its name. He will give rise to the man who will persist and finish the third war15 and will bring Libya’s ashes in victory to the Capitol.”

Minucius ignores Fabius’ warning and attacks Hannibal [494] While the prophet Proteus unrolled the gods’ secrets in his cave, Minucius, the Master of Horse, the war’s new commander, had emptied Fabius’ warnings from his mind. He headed in a rush against the enemy. Hannibal was at hand to feed and nourish this shameful madness. Sometimes he pretended to retreat, so a small loss would entice Minucius to a greater

13 Proteus refers to the battlefield of Cannae, where the Romans would suffer their worst defeat of the war. The island of Saso is some distance from Cannae, but apparently close enough for the enigmatic prophet. 14 Proteus describes the events of Book 13 and following: Scipio Africanus’ rise to command after the death of his father and uncle; the battle at the Metaurus River where Hasdrubal is killed; and Scipio’s invasion of Africa. 15 That is, Scipio Aemilianus* will defeat and destroy Carthage in the Third Punic War in 146 BCE.

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battle. In the same way, a fisherman calls fish out from their watery hiding places by scattering food over deep pools. When he sees one swimming lightly just below the water’s surface, he captures it in his curving net and hauls it to shore. [504] Rumor was raging that the enemy had been turned aside and the Carthaginians had found safety by escaping. An end to disaster would be promised if the Romans were allowed to defeat them. But Roman courage was lacking its orders, they said, and punishments were in reserve for them if they won. Already the leader was going to close up the camp and order the swords to be returned to their sheaths. That way the soldiers would have to give justification for using their arms and clear themselves for conquering the enemy. The crowd was saying these things. Saturn’s daughter Juno also prodded envy’s goads into the senators’ minds and the people’s ears. And so the Senate made a decree that was unworthy of the public trust and very welcome to the Carthaginians. They would soon pay for these mistakes with no small danger. [515] The troops were divided, and Fabius’ command was made equal with Minucius, his Master of Horse. The old man was free from anger, and he ignored the outcry. He was afraid that his thoughtless country would suffer a great punishment for its deep error. He privately thought over many of these issues as he returned from the city. Once the troops’ allied strength had been divided, Fabius set up his battle standards nearby on a neighboring ridge. High on his lofty lookout, he kept watch on the Roman camp no less than the Carthaginian. Minucius broke up the rampart without delay. In his madness, he burned with love of destroying and perishing, both at the same time. [525] Hannibal on one side saw Minucius swiftly leaving camp, and Fabius saw it on the other. Their minds lit up suddenly at the same time with thoughtful concern. Fabius the Roman rushed to tell his troops to seize their weapons and hold themselves back inside the rampart’s defense. The Carthaginian leader hurled all his forces into battle and his voice urged the ranks forward: “Seize the occasion for combat, soldiers, while the Dictator is away. Look! the god is offering us the battle on a level field which for so long we could not dream of. Since we’ve been given this opportunity, men, rub the long-accumulated dirt off your swords. Drench your rusty blades in much blood.” [536] But Fabius the Delayer meditated on these events from the rampart’s fortification. His eyes surveyed the field, and he mourned that Rome would learn from such danger what Fabius meant. His son was under arms in the same company. “That criminal will pay a fitting penalty,” Fabius’ son said to his father. “Thanks to a thoughtless vote, Minucius seized our fasces and rushed into this crisis. Look at this, you crazy Tribes!16 Oh, for the

16 The Roman electorate was divided in voting tribes. The tribes had recently voted on the decision to give power to Minucius.

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slippery Rostra and the Forum that rejoices in arrogant men! Now let those cowards divide war’s duties in equal authority and vote for the sun to yield to the night. They will pay a great cost for madness’ error and for offending my father.” [547] Then old Fabius shook his spear and his tears began to flow: “Young man, you must wash out such harsh words in the Carthaginians’ blood. Will I allow a Roman citizen to be killed before our faces and fighting hands? Or will I allow the Carthaginians to conquer while I look on? They made a lesser man equal to me, but is not their fault forgiven if these thoughts are in my heart? Now take this from your aged father, son, don’t doubt it, and keep it eternally fixed in your heart: it is an unspeakable crime to be angry at your country. Mortal men take no more disgusting fault to the ghosts below. [557] Thus our ancestors have taught us. What a man you were, Camillus, how great you were, when you entered the Capitol in your chariot from exile, thrust from your home and without a country! How many Gauls you cut down, how many enemy hands you condemned to die! If Camillus’ decision had not been peaceful and his mind had not been impervious to anger, Aeneas’ Roman kingdom would have changed the land it ruled. You, Rome, would not now be standing at the world’s summit. Oh my son, lay down your anger on my behalf. Let’s bring our shared arms, and let’s hurry to offer help.” And already the battle trumpets resounded at the same time from both sides. The men collided together as they eagerly advanced.

Fabius sends his troops into battle to rescue Minucius [567] Fabius the Dictator’s hand was first to smash the gate’s barrier and its high doorposts and rush his way into battle. The Thracian north wind and the African southwest wind that can lift the Syrtes sandbars do not start battle with a greater effort than his, even when they push against one another and engage in raging combat. Each wind tears the sea apart and rolls his own part of it to a different shore. The sea torn this way and that follows the roaring gale, and its waves crash like thunder. No honor, not the conquest of Africa or the collapse of Carthage, could contribute as much glory to Fabius as this injustice, born from envy. For the man had overcome all hardships at once and had conquered fear, Hannibal, anger, envy, rumor, and Fortune all together. [580] Hannibal trembled in anger as he saw Fabius’ troops rush rapidly down from the high rampart. He groaned as his presumptuous hope of the Romans’ certain destruction suddenly collapsed. Indeed, a thick circle of soldiers had surrounded Minucius’ battle line and was about to hurl javelins from all directions to wipe out the shut-in men. Thanks to his wretched assault, Minucius had already entered the River Styx and the Underworld’s eternal shadows in his own mind—for he was ashamed to hope for Fabius and his assistance. 124

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[588] But then old Fabius surrounded the combat with a double pincer, and an outer ring blocked off the Carthaginian rear. Encircling the Carthaginians’ outer lines, he now held shut in the men who had just shut in the Roman line. Tirynthian Hercules made his descendant Fabius rise up greater in arms and appear greater. His helmet’s high crests shone, and it was marvelous how mighty strength suddenly flowed into his swift limbs. He hurled spears, and a cloud of missiles pushed back the opposing enemies. He was just like Nestor* the king of Pylos in his second generation of combat, when he was no longer young but had not yet entered upon old age.17 [598] And then Fabius, rushing onward, killed Thuris and Butes and Naris and Arses and Mahalces who trusted his hand against him. Mahalces had an outstanding reputation and a name his spear had earned. Then Fabius laid out Garadus and longhaired Adherbes and Thulis, whose head towered above both armies and who could reach the high rampart’s topmost pinnacles. Fabius killed these men from a distance. His sword struck Sapharus and Monaesus and Morinus whose trumpet’s screeching stirred up the combat. A deadly blow struck Morinus’ right cheek. Blood from the wound in his transfixed cheek ran down through his trumpet and flowed out as his final cry pushed it along. [609] Next to him, Nasamonian Idmon fell to a javelin. He slipped on the hot blood and tried in vain to dodge the slippery mess on his unsteady feet. Fabius’ horse smacked into him and knocked him down. Fabius violently pushed down his spear and nailed Idmon to the earth as he fearfully tried to lift his wounded body from the ground. He left his weapon in his kill. The cornel-wood shaft stuck in the earth, trembling as the dying man thrashed. Fixed to the battlefield, it kept to the corpse as it was ordered to do. [617] Fabius’ praiseworthy example fired up the young Roman men. A Sulla and a Crassus and Furnius joined with Metellus, as did Torquatus who was better at fighting.18 They rushed into battle, wanting Fabius to see them, even if they had to buy that opportunity with death. Wretched Bibulus quickly retreated and pulled himself out of the way as he moved to the rear to avoid a huge stone that was hurled at him. He slipped on his comrades’ corpses and took a spear in his flank, where the brooch had loosened its grip on his cuirass after many blows had damaged it. A spear that by chance had been sticking out of a corpse ran deeply into his guts. Alas for this death’s bad luck! Bibulus had fled past the Garamantians’ missiles and the Marmarican troops, just so he could fall to a motionless spear and be laid out by a weapon that had not been thrown to wound him. He spun

17 Nestor was traditionally represented as living through three generations. 18 These are names of men from illustrious Roman families, whose ancestors or descendants played central roles in Roman history.

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lifeless to the ground, and a sudden paleness ruined his face, so lovely in its youthfulness. His arms slipped away from him as his limbs relaxed and dark sleep spread over his eyes. [634] Cleadas, a descendant of Cadmus, had come to war from Tyrian Sidon. Roused up by the prayers of his city’s Carthaginian descendants, he brought allied troops to aid them. He swelled with pride in his force of quiver-bearing eastern archers. Many a gem shone here and there on his golden helmet and golden collar. He was like Lucifer* the morning star, renewed in ocean’s waves, whom Venus welcomes with praise as he competes with greater stars.19 Cleadas wore royal purple,20 as did his horse, and through the whole battle line the deeply dyed purple flashed against his bronze Phoenician armor. [643] Brutus was eager for a fight and yearned to cut down a man with such a famous name. Cleadas toyed with him in various ways, now wheeling to the left, now curving his horse rightward off the path in swift circles. He shot winged arrows to his rear in the Parthian* manner as he pulled away from battle.21 Nor was his hand blameworthy: but sad to tell, his arrow pierced Brutus’ arms-bearer Casca in the middle of his chin and stuck there. The point aimed upward and cut a sidelong wound. The heated steel moved into the man’s wet palate. [652] His friend Casca’s dire fate troubled Brutus. His enemy Cleadas was greatly daring as he scattered his savage arrows to wound while pretending to flee. Brutus no longer rushed after him by charging on his horse. Instead he fiercely committed all the anger in his heart to his spear and sent the weapon flying from the thong. The point pierced Cleadas’ upper chest where his collar hung loose and its row of pendants left it bare. He had been aiming his bow when the spear struck him: as he collapsed, his dying left hand let go of the bow, his right hand the arrow. [661] But Carmelus, the glory of Apollo’s Mount Soracte, did not find such grim luck in combat as he fought. For he had already dyed his sword in the blood of Bagrada, chief and leader of the Nubian* people. And Zeusis had already fallen to him: Zeusis was the untamed offspring of Phalantus of Amyclae, whom a Phoenician mother had born to the famous Spartan. Hampsicus feared the same fate. He did not trust in combat against such a swift enemy, nor in running away. Fear had persuaded the wretched man to crawl through the thorn bushes and climb to the top of a nearby oak and hide himself in its deep shade. The branches trembled as his weight pressed them down.

19 The ancients knew that the Morning (Lucifer) and Evening Star (Hesperus) were the same, but sometimes spoke of it as separate from the planet Venus. 20 The Phoenicians and Carthaginians were famous producers of purple dye from murex, the purple fish. 21 Parthian horsemen characteristically shot arrows as they simulated retreat in battle.

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[672] As Hampsicus begged at length for his life and changed position by jumping among the high branches, Carmelus ran him through with his long spear. Carmelus was like a bird-hunter who empties the groves with a rod coated with birdlime. Little by little, he silently strives to touch the lofty tops of a high grove of trees by adding a measure to his rod. He follows the soaring bird as the stick grows longer.22 Hampsicus’ life poured out and his drained limbs hung from the curving branch as his blood dripped down from on high. [680] And now the Italians fought ferociously against men who were wavering and retreating. Then suddenly Tunger the Moor burst forward, terrifying armor surrounding his intimidating bulk. The man’s limbs were black and dark horses carried his lofty chariot. His stratagem caused a novel form of terror. His whole chariot was the same color as his horses’ dark backs. And he had not stopped from adding matching dark feathers to his helmet’s upright crest. He wore black clothing, as Dis* the king of eternal night once did, as he drove his chariot black with Stygian darkness, when he abducted the virgin Proserpina from Enna and fled to his bedchamber deep below the earth. [691] At that time the first fuzz was spreading over Cato’s* cheeks. Tusculum’s walls on the ridge of Circe’s* mountain, once ruled by Laertes’ grandson Telegonus,* had borne this glorious man. He saw the Latins were slowed and halting their advance as their front line was disrupted. He fearlessly drove his hesitating horse with the iron spur and freely let the reins go slack. The horse refused to meet Tunger face to face and trembled as his empty shadow scared him. Then Cato leapt swiftly into combat from his horse’s lofty back. He set his foot on Tunger’s winged chariot and jumped onto its rear as the man sped away. The reins and goads suddenly fell. The unlucky Moor grew pale, his blood draining from his face, and trembled at the sword above his neck. Cato cut off his head with his sword and carried it fixed on his spear. [705] Meanwhile in savage combat, the fierce Dictator Fabius broke through a knot of panting men and slaughtered them. He caught sight of the commander Minucius, a wretched spectacle, exhausted from his wounds, collapsing as he bled profusely, and praying shamefully for death. Tears flowed down Fabius’ cheeks as he covered the frightened man with his shield and spurred on his son. “Bravest of sons,” Fabius said, “let’s push away this disgrace. Let’s pay Hannibal a worthy reward for his gentle treatment in not spreading any fire on our fields.”23 [713] Then young Fabius rejoiced in his father’s combat skill and encouragement. His sword broke up the encircling Carthaginian ranks and laid open the battlefield, until Hannibal yielded the plain. It was just like when

22 Roman bird hunters used extended rods, with tips smeared in birdlime to trap the prey. 23 Fabius speaks ironically: Hannibal’s decision to spare his estate brought Fabius unpopularity.

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one of Mars’ wolves, his hunger goading him on, seizes a lamb when the shepherd turns his back. He holds the trembling animal tight in his jaws. Then if the shepherd hears the bleating and rushes to confront the wolf, it fears for itself and spits out its prey, still breathing, from its jaws. The wolf flees away in misery, its guts still empty. [723] Then at last the hellish shadows receded, which the dark Carthaginian storm had poured upon the Romans.24 Fighting hands weakened, and men denied that they merited their rescue. Diseased minds swam at the sudden gift. They were like people who lay trapped in a building’s collapse. When their limbs are suddenly dug out and the dark night recedes, they squint and are fearful to use their sight to recognize the sun. [730] Having completed these achievements, elderly Fabius rejoiced as he counted the soldiers. He headed back to the hills and the camp behind the safe rampart. Look! the youth, reborn even in the midst of death, raised a shout to the stars. They proceeded in a long line, hailing Fabius in turn as their glory and Fabius as their salvation. Shouting loudly, they called him their father. [736] Before this, Minucius had moved to a separate camp when the troops had been divided. Now he said: “Oh holy father, if it is right for a man who has been recalled to the honor of living to make an honest complaint: why did you allow me to divide the camps and the troops? Why did you endure giving me the weapons which you alone are able to command? I fell defeated thanks to this responsibility, and I saw the Underworld’s eternal shadows amid much blood. Bring the rescued Eagles and battle standards here quickly. Here is our country, and the city walls stand firm in this one man Fabius’ heart. You can give up your tricks at last, Hannibal, and your well-known deception. Now you must fight your war against Fabius alone.” [746] When he had said this, men hurried to raise a thousand altars from green turf, a sight worthy of veneration. No man was allowed to touch the feast or Bacchus’ welcome gift of wine before he had made many prayers to Fabius and poured a ritual libation to him at the table.

24 We accept Holford-Strevens’ conjecture Teucris.

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Juno calls upon Dido’s sister, now the Italian goddess Anna Perenna,* to inspire Hannibal [1] Fabius had been the first to let the Romans see the Carthaginians put to flight. The Roman camps called him their only parent; Hannibal called him his only enemy, as he raged, unable to bear the delay. He had to wait for Fabius to die, just so he would have a chance at battle, and he longed for the Fates’ help in the war. But Hannibal’s hope for Latin bloodshed was in vain while this old man still breathed. [8] And now the Roman soldiers were united indeed. The battle-standards had been brought together and Fabius’ command was indivisible. As Hannibal had to contend again with Fabius alone, greater anxieties plucked at his sick mind once more. The Carthaginian soldiers were in need of everything. Fabius had slowed down the battle’s feverish pace and achieved many successes through his stratagem of sitting tight. Although he had not yet produced an end to battle and combat, he had already defeated his enemy in war. [16] Indeed, the Celts were looking back toward their homes. Although they are fierce at first, they have a variable spirit. They are a boastful people and change their minds easily. They lamented that they were fighting in a war without any bloodshed, something they were not used to. Though they thirsted for combat, their hands were dry of blood and weakening. On top of all this, misfortune at home and public hatred increased Hannibal’s suffering. Hanno1 opposed his undertaking and would not permit the senators to send him any more help from Carthage or aid him with any resources. [25] These anxieties tore at Hannibal and made him fear that his command was coming to an end. But Juno foresaw the battle of Cannae and the future excited her. She called him back to hope for combat and to his maddened vows. She also called Anna Perenna up from Laurentum’s pools. Juno entreated her and filled her mind with persuasive exhortations:

1 See Book 2, lines 270ff.

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[30] “Young Hannibal is in trouble, goddess,” Juno said. “He is your relative and bears a famous name as your ancestor Belus’ descendent. Come now, hold back his anxieties’ crazy swells. Get rid of Fabius who troubles him so. He is the only delay to subjugating the Latins, and already he is stripping off his armor. Hannibal must fight against Varro,* and he must engage in battle with Varro’s help. Let him move his ranks into combat and not miss Fate’s chance. I myself will be there. Let him head immediately to the Iapygian battlefield. The bad luck of the Trebia River and Lake Trasimene will follow him there.” [39] Then Anna, the goddess who dwelled near holy groves dedicated to Aeneas the native Jupiter,2 said: “I have no right to delay in fulfilling your instructions. I ask only that I be allowed to regain my former homeland’s favor and fulfill my sister’s mighty commands, even though the Latins include my divinity among their ritual honors.”

The story of Anna Perenna, Dido’s sister [44] Why do the Italians call upon a Carthaginian deity in their temples and worship Dido’s sister in Aeneas’ kingdom? The reason lies deep in the past. Remote antiquity, sunk in deep darkness, shrouds it in the byways of time. But I shall recall the story from its beginnings, summarizing it within the constrained boundaries of my storytelling, and I shall unroll these ancient matters briefly.3 [50] After her Trojan guest Aeneas deserted Dido and broke her hopes, she went crazy and hurried to build a dark pyre in the middle of her bedchamber. Then, resolved to die, she seized the sword, the fatal gift of her exiled husband. Iarbas, the man she had spurned for marriage, imposed himself upon her kingdom. And her sister Anna fled from Dido’s pyre while it was still burning. While Iarbas the Numidian tyrant was terrifying everyone far and wide, who would bring help in her needy circumstances? [57] At that time, as it happened, Battus nurtured Cyrene under his gentle rule. He was kind and wept easily at human misfortunes. As he saw Anna supplicate him, he trembled at the downfalls of monarchs, and he extended his hand. And she remained in his palace while the reapers gathered in two harvests of golden grain, but she was not able to use Battus’ help any longer than that. For he informed wretched Anna that her brother Pygmalion was already bringing destruction across the water against her. And so Anna went across the sea, hateful to the gods and hating herself, because she had not joined her sister as a companion in death. At last, miserable to tell, a fateful

2 The Romans worshiped the deified Aeneas as Jupiter Indiges, “the native Jupiter.” 3 Silius’ narrative of Anna summarizes the events of Virgil’s Aeneid Book 4, and then provides a sequel in which Anna flees first to Cyrene and then to Italy to become a native goddess.

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hurricane tossed her around and tore up her ship’s sails, casting her up on Laurentum’s shores. [69] Anna, the shipwreck victim from Sidon, was scared of the Latin land. She knew nothing of its sky or the country or the people who lived there. Look! Aeneas, accompanied by holy Julus,* had already taken possession of his kingdom. Anna recognized his face. She was full of fear as she fixed her gaze upon the ground, and at last she collapsed at weeping Julus’ knees. Aeneas raised up Anna and led her gently by the hand within his palace. The honor of his hospitality allayed her fear of misfortune and her enemies. Then Aeneas asked with grieving concern to learn about unlucky Dido’s death. Anna drew out her story amid profuse lamentation and added flattering words for this occasion:4 [81] “Son of a goddess, you alone were the reason that my sister Dido lived and ruled. Her death and that pyre were witness to this fact. Alas! Why did not the same death happen to me at that time? After the wretched woman lost the opportunity to see your face, she sat sometimes on the beach, other times she stood up. My unfortunate sister followed the winds with her gaze. In a loud shout, she called out your name Aeneas! She prayed that you would permit her to join you as the only companion in your ship. Soon after, deranged and breathing hard, she rushed back into her bedroom and stopped still, trembling suddenly, and she was afraid to touch the holy bed. [91] Then, at one moment, the crazy woman would fondle radiant Julus’ divine statue in her embrace.5 At another, she would suddenly turn herself and focus completely on the image of your features. She complained to you, and she hoped that you would send back a reply. Her love never gave up hope. Then she left behind her palace, her home, and madly visited the port again, to see if any winds had carried you back as the breezes changed. A wicked and deceptive light-mindedness even pushed her to resort to the Massylian people’s magic arts.6 Alas for the prophets’ accursed errors! While they were summoning night’s gods and promising cures for her new anxieties, what an unspeakable crime I witnessed in my delusion! She heaped up on the dark pyre all her souvenirs of you and your gifts that brought her no good.” [104] Then Aeneas spoke in turn as he recalled his sweet love: “I swear by this land, that you have often heard about in my prayers, and I swear by gentle Julus’ head that you and your sister love: at that time, I left your kingdom sick at heart and gazing back. Nor would I have left Dido’s bedchamber, had not Mercury god of Cyllene made mighty threats and placed me on my ship with his own hand and sped the fleet over the deep ocean with swift east winds. But why—alas for the late

4 Anna had just cause to hate the man who had driven her sister to suicide in the Aeneid. 5 Statues of Julus and Aeneas kept in Dido’s chamber. 6 For the Massylian magic arts, see the priestess’ ritual in Book 1, lines 93ff.

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warning!—why at such a time did you allow her love to rage wild, without any guard?” [114] Anna could hardly get out a breathless murmur amid her sobs. Her lips trembling, she replied: “As it happened, I was preparing a new sacrifice for Jupiter’s dark brother Dis, for whom the Underworld, the third kingdom,7 toils, and to his shadowy bedroom’s companion Proserpina. Through this my sister, unlucky in her love, hoped to relieve her sick mind and fearful heart. I hauled dark sheep in myself and hurried to expiate the vision I had. For dire horror had filled my sleep. Three times Sychaeus had shouted, calling his Dido three times. Exultantly he had shown his pleased face. I expelled these scenes from my mind, and in the light I prayed to the heaven-dwelling gods to make my visions favorable. I purified myself in a stream of living water.8 [126] Meanwhile, Dido rushed to the shore, running quickly, and pressed kisses twice and three times on the silent sand, where you had once stood. Then she cherished your footprints all along the beach, embracing them to her chest, just as bereaved mothers press their children’s ashes to their breasts. Then she undid her hair and rushed swiftly, running rapidly to the high pyre that she had earlier built up into a massive structure. From its top, she could view the entire sea and the whole city of Carthage. Here she dressed in Trojan clothing and put on a pearl necklace. The unlucky woman drank in the memories of that day on which she had first seen these gifts of yours. She called back to her mind the banquet celebrating your arrival and how you related Troy’s long sufferings in order, while she remained awake all night. Out of her mind, she turned her gaze toward the port as she wept. [140] ‘Gods of the long night,’ Dido said, ‘my impending death is already making your divine power greater for me. Be present, I pray, and peacefully receive my soul that has been defeated by love. As Aeneas’ wife, as Venus’ daughter-in-law, I avenged my husband Sychaeus.9

Lines 144–224 are likely not by Silius Italicus but by a later imitator [144] I saw my Carthage’s citadel built, and now the ghost of my mighty self will descend to your kingdom. By chance, a man I once knew in sweet love is waiting for me, eager to care for me the same as he did before.’

7 Jupiter and his brothers cast lots for control of the world. Jupiter received the first kingdom of Olympus, Neptune the second of the Ocean, and Dis the third of the Underworld. 8 Running water was imagined to serve as purification after ill-omened dreams. 9 Lines 144–223 appear for the first time in the 1523 Aldine edition of the poem (therefore called “Aldine Addition”) and are considered an interpolation to complete Anna Perenna’s narrative.

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[148] Dido said these things as she drove the sword into the middle of her chest—the sword she had asked for as a token of Trojan Aeneas’ love. Her attendants saw this and ran through the halls weeping bitterly. Great mourning resounded through the palace. Wretched me, I heard all this, and my sister’s dire fate terrified me. My hands tore at my face, and I ran crazily for the royal apartments. I struggled to make my way up the high steps. Three times I tried to throw myself on the dire sword, and three times I fell back in a whirl on my sister’s lifeless body. Already rumor was spreading through the neighboring towns: savage Iarbas and the Numidian chiefs were readying war. Then I came to Cyrene where the Fates drove me. From there, the seas’ violence thrust me on your shores.” [160] Aeneas the Trojan leader had been moved. He adopted a gentle spirit and quiet mind toward wretched Anna. She pushed all grief and all anxiety out of her heart, and no longer did she seem like a refugee in the Trojan palace. Dark night had buried all things on earth and the wide ocean’s waters in quiet sleep. Most miserable Dido’s grim face appeared in her sister’s dream and poured forth this speech: [168] “Can you indulge in a long rest in this palace, sister? Alas, you are far too carefree! Don’t you see what deception is aimed at you, what dangers encircle you? Don’t you yet know that the Trojan land’s offspring are unlucky for our people and our country? No peace will remain between Aeneas’ descendants and the Carthaginians, so long as the sky will whirl the rapidly turning stars and the moon will spread her brother the sun’s light over the earth. [176] Come now, rise up: already untrustworthy Lavinia* works secret plots and meditates dire crime in her heart. Don’t think that these are lies that your dream is inventing. Meanwhile, not far from here, the Numicus River flows down from a little spring, and its gentle stream winds through the valleys. Rush down there, sister, and grab a safe harbor. The joyful nymphs will receive you in their holy river, and the Italians will worship you forever as a goddess in their land.” Thus Phoenician Dido spoke and vanished into thin air. [185] Anna was startled from sleep, terrified by this new vision. Fear spread cold sweat through her whole body. Then, just as she was, a thin robe covering her, she leapt out of bed and exited through the low window. She ran through the open fields on swift feet, until (as the story goes) the Numicus River received her in its sandy lap and hid her in its glassy caverns. [192] The sun had risen, and its rays had filled the whole earth. Aeneas’ people found that Carthaginian Anna was not in her bedchamber. They shouted loudly as they wandered through the Rutulian territory, following her clear footprints up to the nearby river bank. The river held back the flow of its waters from the sea as they gazed at one another in astonishment. Then they saw Anna sitting among the blue nymphs in the lowest depths. She greeted the Trojans peacefully. From that time forward, her festival is 133

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celebrated in the first days of the year, and all Italy worships her as an honored divinity.

Anna Perenna fulfills Juno’s orders and rouses Hannibal to battle [202] After Juno daughter of Saturn called on Anna to join the grim wars with the Italians, she made for the upper air in her swift chariot. At last she would drink the Roman blood that she desired. Goddess Anna readied to serve goddess Juno. Unseen by all, she visited the Libyan people’s great leader. At that time, Hannibal had happened to distance himself from all men’s gatherings to turn over the uncertain outcomes of events and war in his mind. He sighed anxiously while remaining on the alert. The goddess Anna consoled his anxieties with friendly words: [210] “Oh bravest Carthaginian king, why do you take on such grief and let your anxieties weaken you any longer? All the gods’ anger against you stands soothed, all their favor has returned to the Carthaginians. Hey! Come on now, break off your lazy delay, rush your Marmarican troops into battle. The Roman fasces* have changed hands. Now Fabius, Tirynthian Hercules’ heroic descendent, has laid down war and weapons, thanks to the Senate’s foolish decree. You must fight with a second Flaminius.10 [219] Have no doubt: the highest Thunderer’s wife Juno has sent me to you. I am worshiped for all time as a divinity on the Italian shores, and I was born from your ancestor Belus’ lineage. Let there be no delay: seize war’s thunderbolts and attack swiftly where high Mount Garganus descends to the Iapygian fields.11 The site is not far away: guide your battle standards there.”

Silius Italicus’ narrative resumes here [225] Anna said these words and lifted her watery face back into the clouds. This token of promised praise rejuvenated the leader Hannibal. He replied to Anna: “Nymph, glory of our race, no divinity is more holy for me than yours. Bring me luck and follow up your offer. When I have won the battle, I shall set up your statue in a marble temple in Carthage’s citadel. I shall also dedicate a similar statue of your sister Dido next to yours as a double honor.” [232] After Hannibal, swollen with pride, said this, he spurred on his rejoicing comrades: “Oh my soldiers, you who bring death to Latium, put aside your heavy anxieties and the slow torment of staying put! We have appeased divine anger: the gods are returning to our side. I announce that

10 The consul Varro. 11 The interpolation ends here and Silius’ narrative resumes.

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from this point wicked Fabius’ command has come to an end. The fasces have changed along with the consul. Now let each man bring me his fighting hands, along with those great deeds you used to promise while you were shut out from combat. Look, our homeland’s goddess promises greater things than we have yet done. Tear loose the battle standards! As the goddess leads us, let us make for the battlefield that Diomedes’ name has made unlucky for the Trojans.”12

Gaius Terentius Varro* is elected consul. He insists on attacking Hannibal. Fabius warns Paulus about the danger posed by Varro [242] While the Carthaginians headed to Arpi,* their breasts inspired for battle, Varro relied on the consul’s purple robe, a gift he had snatched from the people. He raged from the Rostra. He hurried to make an opportunity for a mighty disaster and to bring death to the city. Varro came from a family without a reputation, and his ancestors’ names were unknown, yet his shameless tongue quivered nonstop in his melodious mouth. This was how he increased his wealth and seized property for himself on a large scale, as he catered to the lowest of the crowd and barked at the Senate. So high did his head rise in the city shaken by war that he tipped the scales of power and became the sole decider of fate. Latium would be ashamed to be saved by a winner such as this. [253] Thoughtless voting had added this disgrace to the Fasti, amid the Fabii and the Scipios, names sacred to Mars, and Marcellus who brought the greatest spoils to Jupiter. Electoral bribery led to Cannae, the deadly evil, and the Campus Martius* proved more destructive than Diomedes’ battlefield at Cannae. The same Varro would stir up mobs and knew how to kindle hatred. He was unworthy of his toga. Yet he was useless at the art of war and inexperienced at conducting battle. And he was not famous for any deed with the sword. He hoped to achieve a fighting man’s glory with his tongue and to stir up wars from the Rostra. And so he was keen to blame Fabius for delay and hurled impudent words against the senators in a speech before the crowd: [265] “You have supreme rule,” Varro said. “As your consul, I ask for your guidance and your chosen style of warfare. Should I remain encamped or should I wander around the mountains, while the Garamantians and the Moors with skins burned black share Italy with me? Or should I use the sword that you’ve strapped on me? Hear, oh good Dictator, what the Roman people who descend from Mars demand: they order us to thrust back the Libyans and to relieve Rome of its enemies. Are they in any hurry? They have already endured much, and a third year of war is now draining

12 Cannae.

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them with mournful disasters. So go, men, seize your weapons. A little journey is the only delay to your triumph. The day which first shows the enemy will free you from the senators’ domination and the Carthaginian war. Go eagerly, and I will lead Hannibal through the city, a Latin chain bound around his neck, while Fabius looks on.” [278] After this abuse, Varro fired up the army and brought them through the gates. He pushed aside the delays, just like an untrained charioteer who lets loose the reins entirely when the barrier is removed at the races. He leans forward, feet unsteady with fear, whipping the horses wildly, unable to control them as they drag him along. The axle smokes as he accelerates too fast, and the tangled reins slide as the chariot loses direction. [284] The voting at the Campus Martius had given Paulus equal authority and command over the army. He saw the state collapsing, as the threatening consul Varro sunk it and plunged it to the bottom. But the disturbed crowd’s anger shifted quickly. The scar marked in Paulus’ mind restrained the frustration surging in his sick breast. As a young man, Paulus had once subjugated the Illyrian coast.13 Envy’s dark mouth had barked at the conqueror and thrown him to the unfair winds. From this point on, he feared and respected the harsh citizens. His family name, however, rose up to the gods and touched high heaven through a line of great ancestors. Amulius,* the founder of the Aemilian clan, granted him the right to trace his ancestry back to Assaracus king of Troy, and from Assaracus back to Jupiter himself. Nor would anyone who had seen him in arms deny this ancestry. [297] Fabius said to Paulus as he made his way to the camp: “My voice shall break forth unwillingly from my chest. You are mistaken, Paulus, if you think your greatest battles will be with Carthaginian Hannibal. Dire combats for Italy and a worse enemy await you in your own camp. Else I have learned to no purpose to foretell misfortune through many a battle. Alas, this old age frustrates and wearies me, if I will remain to endure the ruin I foresee! I heard Varro promise that he would join combat with Hannibal the same hour that he saw him—Hannibal, a commander who has been so lucky in war. How far are we now from the final defeat, Paulus, if the fiery Carthaginian heard what the consul said? [308] I believe Hannibal’s ranks now stand ready to meet him on the broad field, and he waits to strike at another Flaminius. Crazy Varro, what great men you will call forth to fight! You should know your army straight off, by the gods, you should know the battlefield, you should find out the enemies’ ways in advance by drawing them out. Varro, you will not cunningly investigate your enemy’s supplies, the character of the battlefield, and the style of fighting. You will not see Fortune standing above every weapon.

13 In 219 BCE.

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[316] Paulus, keep an attitude that does not stray from the correct path. If one man is allowed to afflict a homeland, why should one man be forbidden to save it? The vicious Libyan commander already lacks an adequate supply of food. His allies’ loyalty is slackening and their eagerness for war has been blunted. Here no hospitable house welcomes them with shelter for a fellow countryman, no trustworthy cities take them within their walls and renew their forces with young recruits. Hardly a third of the men that came from the tough river Ebro remain. Stand fast and slowly learn to love the expedients of cautious warfare. If meanwhile some inspiration encourages you and the god gives you the nod, then head quickly to the favorable event.” [327] Paulus the consul briefly replied to him with a sad expression: “Your sense of duty will remain with me, unconquerable Fabius, and I will bring your cast of mind against the Carthaginians. Nor do I fail to understand that delay is our only viable strategy. Hannibal grew weak and saw the war crash to a halt when you employed this plan. But what anger do the gods have against us? One consul has been given to Italy, as I think, another to the Carthaginians. Varro is dragging everything down with him. The crazy man fears that Rome might collapse under a different consul. A fellow consul picked from the Carthaginian senate would not wish such savage punishment. [336] No horse could carry this deranged Varro against the enemy fast enough. He grieves that the night’s shadows come in and slow his path. He proceeds arrogantly, his troops’ swords all but drawn, in case any delay pushes back combat while blades are being drawn from the sheath. Tarpeian Rock and temple of Jupiter, my relative by blood, which I left still standing in their own citadel; my fortunate country’s walls—wherever safety’s greatest need will call me, I swear I will disdain danger and go there. But if the camps will be deaf to my warnings and enter combat, then I will not delay you further, children, nor the beloved house descended from Assaracus’ Trojan race. Wounded Rome will not see Paulus return home the same as Varro.”

The catalog of Roman forces [349] In such a way, both commanders then made for their camps, disturbed in their opposing thoughts. But Hannibal had already made camp in the fields that Fate had foretold, and he reserved the Aetolian plains of Cannae for battle. At no other time did a greater force of foot soldiers and cavalry in arms shake Italy’s land. They feared the end was indeed at hand for the Roman people and the city of Rome. They had no hope of fighting in another battle after this one. [346] Rutulians descended from Faunus, a holy troop, entered battle along with Sicilian allies. The Rutulians guard Daunus’ kingdom and rejoice in their home at Laurentum and Numicus’ spring. These are the people whom Castrum* sent forth, as well as Ardea, once formidable to the 137

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Trojans.14 Also Lanuvium,* where Juno’s temple sits on the side of a steep ridge, and Collatia,* which reared chaste Brutus.* Men also came who love Diana’s merciless grove in Aricia, who love the Tuscan River Tiber’s mouth, and those who cherish the goddess Cybele’s* cult image in the warm Almo River. Next came Catillus’ Tibur, and Praeneste* consecrated to Fortune on holy ridges, and Antemna, founded before ancient Crustumium, and the people of Labicum skilled in plowing. [367] Those men also came who drank the Tiber’s waters, scepter-wielding Rome’s river; those who dwell on the River Anio’s banks, who water their crops from the cold Simbruvius River* and master the fields of the Aequi* with rakes. Scaurus was their commander, then in his youthful years, but already his nascent courage gave signs for future ages.15 These men were not accustomed to brandishing spears on the battlefield, nor was it their custom to fill their quivers with feathered arrows. They preferred javelins and easily handled swords with short blades. They clad their heads in bronze helmets, and their crests rose above the battle lines. [376] Moreover Setia* sent forth men whose wine is set aside for Bacchus’ own table, as did Velitrae* from its sparsely populated valley. Men came from Cora and from Signia whose wine foams with harsh must. They came from the Pomptine marshes’ disease-ridden sedge, where Satura’s cloudy swamp pools and the turbid Ufens River drives waters dark with filth through the squalid fields and muddies the streams. Scaevola led these men. His ancestry was exalted, nor was his fighting hand unworthy of his forebears. A praiseworthy image of dire glory was engraved on his shield. Fires burned on the altars, and Mucius Scaevola* stood in the middle of the Etruscan camp. He had turned his anger upon himself,16 and his courage flared in the picture. Porsenna* was shown fleeing from Mucius’ burning hand. He was struck by this sight and ended the war at this man’s direction.17 [390] Sulla led the men who scraped Circe’s slopes and Axur’s craggy peak and the Hernican rocks by pressing the plow through. He also led those who furrowed rich Anagnia’s crumbly soil and the companies summoned from Ferentinum and Privernum. The youth of Sora joined them, their weapons gleaming, as did the youth of Scaptia and the crowd from Fabrateria. Nor were the people of Atina absent: they came down from their snowy mountain. Men of Suessa, worn down in earlier wars, and those of Frusino, hardly unwarlike, came from the tough plow. The uncivilized men of Arpinum* came, who dwelled beside the sulfurous Liris River that mixes

14 Turnus from Ardea fought against Trojan Aeneas. 15 Members of the Aurelian and Aemilian clans named Scaurus became prominent in the centuries after the Second Punic War. 16 See Glossary and Livy, From the Foundation of the City 2.12, for the story. 17 The Latin text of this sentence is extremely corrupt. The translation follows the proposed restoration printed by Duff.

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its waters in the River Fibrenus, and glides in silent currents to the sea. They roused up the youth of Venafrum and Lirenatum, joining together allied arms, and drained the forces of mighty Aquinum. [404] Tullius rushed bronze-clad squadrons into formation. His line of descent was royal: his blood derived from high King Tullus.* What noble character this young man had, and what a great citizen he would give to the Italian people in the ages to come! His descendant Cicero will be heard beyond the Ganges River, beyond the Indians. His voice will fill the world and his tongue’s thunderbolt will hold back mad war. Thereafter he will leave no hope to any successor of equaling his glory in eloquence. [412] Look! Nero* from Clausus’* Spartan blood exulted amid the foremost men. None could imitate his swift daring. With him came a cohort from Amiternum and one from Casperia,* a town that took its name from one of similar name in Bactria. He led cohorts from Foruli and Reate devoted to the Great Mother of the Gods,* as did those from Nursia that dwell among the snows and those from Tetricus’ cliffs. Each man carried a spear as his glory and a shield fashioned in a circular shape, plumes on his helmet and armor on his left thigh. They rejoiced as they marched: some sang hymns to Sancus,* their people’s founder, others spoke your praises, Sabus.* You were the first to call after your own name the Sabine people who ruled widely. [424] Curio roused up the descendants of the Picentine region. He bristled in scale armor and a horsehair crest. How great a part of the war he was! The soldiers came packed more closely than waves on a heaving sea that whiten as the tide breaks. Their war band was swifter than when thousands of Amazon* warrior maidens drill their battle lines in formation, armed with crescent-shaped shields. The land resounds, as does the Amazons’ Thermodon River. Here you could see men who fed from craggy Numana’s fields, who sacrificed at seaside Cupra’s altars, and who guarded Truentum’s towers and river. Under the flashing sunlight, the battle line’s shields reflected blood-red light from far off back to the clouds. [436] Ancona* was there, no worse than Phoenicia or Libya in dyeing wool purple, as was Hadria watered by the Vomanus River and shaggy Asculum’s merciless standard-bearers. Father Picus* had once founded this city. His descent from the great god Saturn made his name memorable. Circe’s magic compelled him to lose his form and fly through the air. She spread saffron-colored glory over his feathers as he fled from her. Tradition teaches us that the Pelasgians* once possessed this land. Their king was Asus, who gave his name to the river and called the people Asili after himself. [446] Moreover the country-dwelling Umbrians came from their mountain caves and fortified the camps with no lesser strength. The Aesis and Sapis Rivers wash over these men, as does the Metaurus* that twists its swift waves over the boulders in resounding eddies. The Clitumnus River washes the mighty sacrificial bull, drenching it in its holy stream. The Nar’s white waves hurry into the Tiber, as do the Tinia’s obscure waters and the Clasis, the Rubicon,* and the River Sena* named for the Senones. But 139

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Father Tiber’s mighty stream flows through the middle of these people and brushes their walls and brings his banks close to them. [456] Also the towns of Arna, Mevania with its fertile fields, Hispellum and Narnia leaning on a hard mountainside amid the rocks and Iguvium whose moist fogs were once hazardous, and Fulginia lying unwalled in open fields. The men of these towns are brave: the Amerians and Camertes praised both for their plows and their arms, the men of Sassina rich in milk cows, and Tuder’s people who do not stint when they worship Mars god of war. Their commander Piso led men who sneered at death. This young man’s face and clothes were lovely, but his wise heart equaled an old man’s, and his cunning transcended his years. He shone in his decorated arms before the first line of soldiers, just as a fiery gem shines in a Parthian monarch’s golden necklace.18 [468] And now a legion filled out with Etruscan maniples gazed at their commander, Galba who had a famous name. Minos and Pasiphae* who tricked the bull were the founders of his line. Illustrious descendants followed from them in sequence.19 Caere* sent chosen men, as did Cortona, proud Tarchon’s house, and the ancient Graviscae. So did Alsium, the shore that Argive Halaesus* loved, and Fregenae surrounded by infertile fields. Faesula which interprets the thunderbolt’s holy prongs was there.20 Clusium’s people terrified the Roman walls in times before, when in vain great King Porsenna ordered the expelled Tarquins* to rule once more at Rome. [480] Then came the men whom Luna sent from its snow-white marble quarries. Luna was famous for its port: there was no broader one than this that held countless ships and enclosed the sea. Also Vetulonia, once the Etruscan people’s glory. This city was the first to give Rome the custom of preceding the consul with twelve fasces, joined with an equal number of axes that caused silent terror. It also conferred the honor of ivory on the high curule chair and was the first to put a stripe of Tyrian purple dye on the toga. The same city showed how to kindle battles with the bronze trumpet. A cohort from Nepete mixed with these, as did the Faliscan Aequi, and those who live at Flavina’s hearths, and those who dwell by the Sabatian pools and Lake Ciminius, who inhabit Sutrium’s buildings not far off and Mount Soracte sacred to Apollo. They carry twin javelins, and a helmet made from wild rawhide is enough to arm their heads. They scorn Lycian bows in favor of spears. [495] These troops knew how to fight. But the Marsian youth knew how to fight hand-to-hand as well as how to charm snakes to sleep and to cure snakebites with herbs and enchantments. They say that Angitia,* daughter of Aeetes, was the first to demonstrate the use of poisonous herbs, to master

18 Eastern kings, like the Parthians here, are often portrayed in luxurious attire. 19 A reference to the emperor Galba, who briefly reigned during the civil war of 68–69 BCE. 20 Etruscan diviners were famous for interpreting phenomena, such as lightning and thunder as here.

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venomous snakes with the touch, to shake the moon down from the sky,21 to stop the river’s flow with a cry and to lay mountainsides bare by summoning the woods. But Marsyas,* a more fearful immigrant, gave his name to this people when he fled across the ocean from Phrygian Crenae. Apollo’s lyre conquered his Phrygian pipe in a music contest. Marruvium is the capital city of this region, which commemorates ancient Marrus’ name. Further inland sits Alba on well-watered fields; it compensates for lack of grain with orchard fruits. The other strongholds are not well-known and their peoples have no names, but their number makes them powerful. Keen Paelignians* joined up and brought cohorts from cold Sulmo.* [511] Nor did the soldiers from Sidicinum, which Cales founded, yield in eagerness for blood. As the story goes, Calais was no mean founder of this city. Orithyia,* who had been abducted by Boreas* the wandering north wind, raised him in Thracian caves. No lighter than them in war, the young men of the Vestini increased the ranks. Hunting animals made them tough. Their flocks graze on Fiscellus’ peaks, and flourishing Pinna and the pastures of Aveia that grow back quickly. Also Marrucina, whose youth rival the Frentani, brought the people of Corfinium and great Teate. All used the pike in battle, all were practiced in bringing birds down from the high sky with the slingshot. Skins of bears killed on the hunt covered their chests. [524] From its whole expanse, Campania gave men to war who were rich in resources and nobility. The Oscans* waited in nearby dwellings for the coming of their commanders. So did the warm Sinuessa* and Vulturnus River* with its resounding waves, Amyclae which silence destroyed, Fundi and Caieta once ruled by king Lamus;* Antiphates’* palace at Formiae, hemmed in by the waves; swampy Liternum with its marshes and Cumae* whose Sibyl* was once aware of fate. There were Nuceria* and Mount Gaurus*; Puteoli* led men forth from its port; there was Greek Naples* with numerous soldiers and Nola* that would block Hannibal;22 Allifae and Acerrae* that the Clanius River always despised. [536] You would also have seen the Sarrastian people and all of gentle Sarnus’ forces. There were chosen men from the Phlegraean Fields, bays rich with volcanic sulfur, and Cape Misenum, and Ithacan Baiae,* scorching from the giant’s mouth.23 Prochytae was there, as was Inarime* that received the burning giant Typhoeus;* ancient Telo’s* rocky island, Calatia with its small walls, Surrentum and Abella poor in fields for grain. Capua was among the first (alas!), unaware of how to preserve a moderate path in prosperous circumstances and soon to perish from its depraved arrogance.24

21 Greeks and Romans traditionally believed that witches could cast spells to draw down the moon. 22 See Book 12, lines 158ff. 23 The poet refers to the burial of the Giants under south Italian and Sicilian volcanoes. 24 In Books 11 and 13.

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[546] Scipio the Younger trained these Campanians for war, and they were happy with their leader. He had given the men javelins and protected their chests with steel. When at home, following the customs of their ancestors, they carried lighter weapons, untipped cornel-wood spears hardened in the fire. They wielded clubs and axes for use in their own fields. Amid them, Scipio gave great signs of his coming glory. He brandished stakes, he leapt over trenches, he swam clad in his breastplate and broke through the waves. So great were his displays of courage before his troops. Often he spurred a horse with a swift kick to its flanks and ran on foot to overtake it as it sped through the open fields. Often the same Scipio stood tall and hurled a rock or spear the length of the camp. His brow was warlike, his long hair was loose in front, nor was it any shorter at the back. Though his expression was gentle, his eyes burned bright, and those who saw him felt a welcome jolt of fear. [562] The Samnites were there as well. They had not yet shifted their support to the Carthaginians, yet their ancient anger against the Romans had not cleared.25 There were those who farmed Batulum and Nucrae, who hunted in the woods of Bovianum or clung to the Caudine Forks.* Rufrae sent men, as did Aesernia, and little-known Herdonia from its untended fields. The Bruttians,* no lesser in courage, came together with the youths roused from the ridges of Lucania.* The young men of the Hirpini bristled with spears and wore shaggy animal hides. They lived by hunting and dwelled in the forests and quenched their thirst in the rivers. Hard work granted them sleep. [573] The Calabrians joined forces, and the Sallentine cohorts as well, and Brundisium’s* people where the land of Italy ends. A legion was entrusted to daring Cethegus and followed his orders. He reviewed these allied forces and troops who had not yet been divided into maniples.26 Now soldiers appeared from Leucosia’s cliffs; from Paestum which Picentia sent forth; and Cerillae soon drained in war with the Carthaginians. Now the men nourished by Silarus’ waters came: the story goes that branches dipped in this river take on the hardness of stones. Cethegus praised fighting Salerno’s weapons, their swords curved like sickles, and the power of the untrimmed clubs which Buxentia’s youth wielded in their fighting hands. Cethegus rejoiced atop his headstrong horse, his shoulder bare in his clan’s manner.27 He trained his youthful strength by wheeling his horse with the bit in its tough mouth. [588] You also, peoples of the Po, were decimated and emptied of men. None of the gods heeded your prayers at that time, and yet you rushed into a battle that you would lose. Placentia shaken in war competed with Mutina, Mantua* competed with Cremona as it sent forth youth to war. Mantua was the house of the Muses which Hesiod’s* song raised to the

25 The Samnites sided with the Carthaginians after Cannae. 26 A tactical army unit, later replaced by the cohort. 27 Members of the Cethegi clan did not wear a tunic under their togas, which left their arms bare.

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stars and which rivaled Homer’s lyre.* Also Verona, encircled by the Athesis River, and Faventia expert in nourishing the pine trees that crowned its fields in every direction. Vercellae, Pollentia that raised dark fleeces, and the ancient house of Ocnus that once aided the Trojans in their war with the Italians. Bononia on the little Rhenus River, and the men who cut through marshy Ravenna’s still pools, their heavy oars moving slowly through the muddy waves. Then a force of Trojan descent, originating of old from the Euganean land, the refugee Antenor’s* holy shores. Aquileia came as well with Venetian arms. Then the swift Ligurians and the Bagenni spread amid the rocks sent their tough descendants to become Hannibal’s glory. [607] Brutus went with greatest loyalty as commander to these many peoples, and he fired them up with encouragement against the enemy they now knew well. The man had a cheerful dignity and a genial gravity of mind and virtue without harshness. He did not admire unwelcome praise for severity or a clouded brow, nor did he seek a reputation by living life at ill-omened extremes.28 [613] Sicilian Aetna’s* faithful ruler29 had contributed three thousand men, expert archers in war. Ilva did not contribute quite so many, but had armed men who were happy to gird on swords made from their native iron which fed wars. Whoever saw so many forces gathered at once would have forgiven Varro, no matter how eager he was to give battle. Leander’s* Hellespont* once saw a thousand ships with such a great army seething on Troy’s shore when mighty Mycene invaded.

Evil omens appear as the Romans arrive at Cannae [622] As they came to Cannae, the remains of an ancient city, they stuck their ill-omened battle standards on the dire rampart. The gods did not stop foretelling the upcoming defeat even as such great disaster was already impending for these wretched men. To the troops’ astonishment, javelins suddenly30 burst into flame, and the high pinnacles collapsed all along the rampart. Mount Garganus collapsed and laid low the forests on its swaying peak. The Aufidus River panted and groaned in its deepest gulfs. The Ceraunian mountains were aflame and terrified fearful sailors far distant on the great sea. Calabrian Sipontum’s people were suddenly plunged into darkness, and they looked for the border between territory and shoreline as the light was snuffed out. [634] A multitude of owls besieged the borders of the Roman camp. Dense clouds of bees never stopped wrapping themselves around the Eagles, to the

28 This fictitious character evokes the later Marcus Junius Brutus (85–42 BCE), who murdered Julius Caesar in 44 BCE. 29 That is, King Hiero II of Syracuse. 30 Reading per subitum with Duff rather than per sudum with Delz.

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standard-bearers’ consternation. More than one comet, the overthrower of kingdoms,31 flashed doom from its gleaming hairy trail. In the quiet night, rabid beasts also broke into the camp and the rampart. They seized a watchman before the very faces of the fearful men and scattered his limbs over the neighboring fields. [641] Visions of terror also played in the Romans’ sleep. The ghosts of the Gauls appeared to break forth from their tombs.32 Torn from deep within the earth, the Tarpeian Rock shook three and four times. A river of dark blood dripped in Jupiter’s temples. Tears flowed abundantly from the ancient statue of Father Romulus Quirinus. The River Allia ran larger and overflowed its terrifying banks. The Alps did not remain in place, nor did the Apennines stand fast by night or day between their vast ravines. Comets coming into Latium from the direction of Africa shimmered in the middle of the sky. A horrifying crash shattered heaven, and Jupiter the Thunder God revealed his features. Vesuvius* thundered as well, hurling fires like Aetna’s from its crags. Phlegra’s peak touched the fearful stars as it hurled boulders into the clouds. [656] Look! amid the other soldiers, there was one who could foretell the war, both in his astonished expression and his senses. He filled the camp with wild cries and gasped at the impending disaster: “Spare us, cruel gods! The fields already have no room for the heaps of corpses. I see the Carthaginian commander flying through the close-packed ranks, driving his swift chariot over the men’s weapons and limbs and battle standards. The gale rages with insane whirlwinds and thrusts the battle in our eyes and faces. [664] Servilius forgets to protect his life and falls. He steered clear of your shores in vain, Lake Trasimene. Where are you fleeing to, Varro? By Jupiter! A stone’s impact lays out Paulus, the final hope for us exhausted men. The battle at the Trebia River yields to this destruction. Look, they build a bridge from the bodies of the fallen, and the smoking Aufidus River throws back the bodies. The victorious elephants triumph on the field. A Carthaginian carries the consul’s axes as if following our custom, and a lictor carries bloodstained fasces. A procession heads for Carthage in triumph over Italy. Oh woe! Gods, do you compel us to see even this? Victorious Carthage measures the Latins’ destruction by piling up the gold rings torn from our nobles’ left hands.”

31 See note 17 in Book 1. 32 See note 20 in Book 1.

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Conflict arises between the consuls before the battle of Cannae. Varro urges an immediate attack, and Paulus tries to dissuade him [1] These portents troubled Latium. In vain throughout Italy, the gods put forth the signs of the future disaster. Varro the consul passed the night without sleeping, just as if the omens of the upcoming battle had been lucky and fortunate. In the dark, he brandished his weapon in his hand. Now he rebuked Paulus for his inactivity. At another time, though it was still night, he wanted to sound the shrill battle trumpets and war horns. Hannibal had no less eagerness to hurry on the contest. They broke out from the rampart as unlucky Fortune pushed them onward, and war-bands began the combat. The Macae had scattered all over the neighboring fields to plunder the grain. They poured forth a cloud of winged missiles. Before the others, Mancinus rejoiced to enter combat and to be the first to wet his spears with enemy blood. He fell, and a great number of young men fell as well. Nor would Varro have held back his troops (though Paulus blamed the sacrificial animals’ entrails and the gods’ opposing omens), if the luck of alternating command which ruled the camps had not denied him the choice of giving battle, eager as he was to meet his fate. Yet this alternation was unable to give more than a single day to the thousands who would die. Paulus wept as they returned to the camps. He saw without doubt that command would pass tomorrow to a man who was out of his mind. The lives of his soldiers had been saved in vain from slaughter. [23] Rage unbalanced Varro the new leader, and he opposed the delay caused by the deferred battle. “Is this the way, Paulus,” he said, “is this how you repay thanks and the price of saving your head?1 Do the people deserve such rewards, those who rescued you from the laws and the urn that made dire threats?2 No, they should straight away hand over to the enemy the

1 For accusations made against Paulus, see Glossary and Book 8, lines 284ff. 2 Roman juries voted by placing their decisions in an urn.

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swords that you called back from battle! Order them to hand over their weapons, or seize them yourself from the soldiers’ fighting hands. But you soldiers, I saw your eyes and faces were wet with tears when the consul ordered you to turn your backs and retreat. Don’t wait for the customary signal for beginning combat. Each man should seize the way for himself as his own leader, as soon as the Sun begins to spread its first rays over Mount Garganus’ peak. I myself will quickly throw open the gates. Rush swiftly and get back this lost day.” Thus Varro, disturbed in his mind, set the sick troops on fire with deadly passion for combat. [38] But Paulus was no longer the same, either in his thoughts or his expression. He was like a man who stands after the battle on the field strewn with dead soldiers. He saw the future evil coming before his face, as if he were a mother who gapes stunned as her hope for her son’s life is taken from her. With her final embraces, she pointlessly cherishes his limbs, still warm. “By the walls of Rome,” Paulus said, “that has been so often stricken, by these innocent souls whom night already enshrouds in Stygian darkness, spare us! Don’t go to meet destruction. Until the gods’ rage passes and Fortune uses up its anger, it is enough if the new soldiers merely learn to endure Hannibal’s name and aren’t cold with fear when they see the enemy. When his forces are heard in nearby fields, don’t you see how quickly the blood leaves their pale bodies, how their weapons drop before the battle trumpets? Yet you think Fabius is a delayer and weak in battle: as many men as he led under these battle-standards that you blame, they still wield their weapons. But those whom Flaminius… but gods, turn aside terrible omens! But if your spirit resists our warnings and entreaties, open your ears to the god Apollo. Long ago the Sibyl of Cumae sang of these events throughout the world. Back in the age of our ancestors, she foresaw you and your madness and spread it to the lands. And now, I sing of fate before you as a second prophet, nor is my prediction hard to decipher. Unless you halt your battle-standards tomorrow, you will confirm the words of Apollo’s Sibyl with our blood. After this, these fields will not be named by Greek Diomedes, but they will be famous for you, the consul, if you persist.” As Paulus said these things, tears sprung up in his burning eyes.

Solymus accidentally kills his father Satricus and commits suicide. He writes a warning to Varro in his own blood [66] In addition, a criminal mistake polluted that night. Satricus had endured slavery on the Libyan shores after Xanthippus had captured him. Soon after, amid other offerings, he was given as a gift to the king of the Autololes, out of respect for his courage. He had left behind his house at Sulmo and twin sons at their mother’s breast, Mancinus and Solymus; the latter had a Trojan name. For Satricus was Trojan in his origin and descent from a Phrygian ancestor, who had followed Aeneas’ scepter and founded a city with famous 146

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walls and called it Solymos after himself. Soon Italian settlers crowded in and little by little it became Sulmo as its name shortened. [77] But now Satricus had come to Italy with the king of the Autololes and his barbarian band. The king did not disdain using him as an interpreter, to know the meaning of Latin speech in Gaetulian if he had the need. After Satricus was given the chance to see the buildings of Paelignia again and hope for his ancestral home, he called on the night as an aid to his endeavor and slipped secretly out of the brutal camp. But the man fled without his gear. For he avoided taking a shield that would give away his plan, and he made for home without a weapon in his hand. And so he searched the corpses sprawled on the battlefield and the spoils. He girded himself with Mancinus’ cast-off armor. And now his fear was lighter. But it was his son, laid low a little before this by an enemy Maca, whose limbs he stripped, whose spoils he carried from his bloodless corpse. [90] Look! at the coming of night and the beginning of sleep, Satricus’ other son, Solymus, made his way across the Roman rampart as a watchman. While he alternated the watches assigned by lot at the gate, he looked for his brother Mancinus’ corpse laid out amid the scattered dead. He yearned to bury the wretched man secretly in the ground. He had not hurried far along his path, when he saw an enemy coming, heading in arms from the Carthaginian rampart. Unexpected luck gave him a sudden opportunity: he concealed himself, hiding away his limbs in Aetolian Thoas’ tomb.3 Then he saw that no armed soldiers followed close behind, and that the man had made his way unaccompanied through the shadows. He leapt up from the tomb and hurled his javelin unerringly at his father’s bare back. Satricus thought that a Tyrian force had followed him and that a Carthaginian had wounded him. He looked around fearfully for the originator of the unseen blow. Then Solymus the victor ran with youthful strength and came to the spot. He recognized the armor as grim light shone from it. As the moon illuminated it from far off, his brother’s shield boss revealed itself before his eyes, and it gleamed close at hand. On fire with sudden anger, the young man cried out: [111] “As far as I’m concerned, Satricus, let me not be your son, born in Sulmo, nor let me be your brother, Mancinus. Let me confess myself to be an unworthy descendant of Trojan Solymus, if this man is allowed to escape my hands unpunished. Would you carry my brother’s noble spoil before my very eyes and treacherously bear away my Paelignian house’s glorious armor while I still breathe? Dear mother Acca, I will bring you these gifts as comfort for your mourning, so that you may set them for all time in your son’s grave.” [119] Solymus called out these words and rushed with his sword drawn. But already the spears and arms had dropped out of Satricus’ hands as he heard the names of his homeland and sons and wife and weapons. Cold

3 Thoas was an Aetolian king that colonized Bruttium in Italy.

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horror stupefied his senses and his limbs. Then a pitiable voice poured out from his half dead mouth: [124] “Spare your fighting hand, I beg you, not so that I may live on (for it would be criminal to want to enjoy my life), but so that you don’t condemn your own hands, my son, with my blood. I was a captive of Carthage, now returned for the first time to my homeland’s shores: I myself am Satricus, of the line of Solymus. My son, there is no crime on your part whatsoever. I was a Carthaginian when you eagerly hurled a spear at me. Indeed, I slipped out of that bitter camp and I was hurrying back to you and my dear wife’s face. I stole this shield from my dead son. But now you, the only one left to me, bring back these blameless weapons to your brother’s grave. [134] Yet let your first concern, son, be to bring the warning to the commander Paulus: he should strive to prolong the war and deny battle to the Carthaginian. Hannibal exults in the gods’ augury and hopes for immense slaughter when the battle line draws near. I beg you, hold back raging Varro: for the rumor is that he is the one pushing the battle-standards forward. This will have been a great enough consolation at my wretched life’s end: to have taken concern for my own people. Now, my son, give your final kisses to the father you found and lost at the same time.” [143] Satricus said this and took off his helmet. His trembling arms aimed for his frozen son’s neck. He feared for the stunned young man. He worked hard to find words to soothe his son’s shame at the wound he had inflicted and to exculpate his weapon: “Who witnessed our doings, who was present and aware of them? Did not the night bury the error in its dark shadow? Why are you frightened? Son, rather give me your breast to embrace. I myself, your father, forgive your hand, and I pray that you may use that hand to close my eyes at my labor’s end.” [151] But the wretched young man sighed from the deepest part of his breast. He did not reply in words or in the exchange of conversation. He did not make a sound. Rather, he hurried to stop the flow of dark blood. Swiftly he tore his clothing to tie up the deep wound, crying as he did so. At last wretched complaints broke out amid his groaning: [157] “Has fortune in such a way led you back into your homeland for us, father? Has criminal fortune restored you to your son and your son to his father in this way? You were three and four times lucky, my brother: the Fates took away your opportunity to recognize our father. Look! But I, spared by the Carthaginians, recognize my father even as I wound him. Fortune, if you had given me doubtful signs of my unfortunate descent, at least this would have been a consolation for my crime. But the hostile gods won’t have the choice to hide my sufferings any longer.” [166] While Solymus, out of his mind, made these complaints, his aged father had lost his blood and let out his life into the empty air. Then the young man lifted his grieving face to the stars: “Polluted hands,” he said, “and Moon, witness of my unspeakable crime, you who lighted the night to guide 148

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my weapons into my father’s body! No further will these eyes and damned vision violate you.”4 As he spoke thus, at the same moment his sword dug into his chest. He sustained the dark wound and signed his father’s orders on the shield with his dripping blood: Varro, avoid the combat! Then he hung the shield from his javelin’s tip and collapsed on his lamented parent’s limbs.

Hannibal promises his troops rewards and sends them into battle [178] The gods sent such omens of the coming battle to the Italians. Little by little the shadows withdrew, and the night that witnessed this crime yielded to the rosy dawn.5 The Carthaginian and the Roman commanders roused their men to arms, each according to his own custom. A day began for the Carthaginians such as never dawned in any age. “You have no need of words to encourage you,” Hannibal said. “You have completed a journey that began at the Pillars of Hercules, and you conquered your way to the Iapygian fields. Brave Saguntum is no more. The Alps have yielded to you. The noble Po himself, father of Italian waters, flows in a captive channel. Slaughtered men have overwhelmed the Trebia River, and Flaminius’ tomb presses upon the shores of Etruscan Lake Trasimene. Bones gleam far and wide on the battlefields, and no plows dig them up. Yet a day is dawning brighter than these deeds and ready to bring more blood. Let this be great enough glory for me as a reward for my warfare, enough and indeed more than enough. The other rewards for conquest may fall to you. Whatever Rome has carried off from the wealthy Ebro River, whatever glories it has from triumphs in Sicily—even if it has stored away something taken from the African shores— it will fall to your swords, and we will not cast lots to apportion it. Take home whatever your fighting hand brings you. I ask for no rewards from the spoil as your leader. The Roman plunderer despoiled the conquered world through so many centuries for you to take advantage now. [202] If you have a Phoenician family name that you can trace back to its origins in Tyre, I will allow you to choose your preferred fields from the rewards: whether Laurentum’s territory farmed by Trojan colonists pleases you, or Byzacium’s fields6 where grain sprouts a hundredfold are dearer to your heart. I will offer in addition the banks which the golden Tiber River’s waves water, where you may pasture captured flocks far and wide. My allies of foreign blood, who carry the Carthaginian Byrsa’s battle-standards: if you bring back your fighting hand bloodied with Italian slaughter, you may become a citizen of Carthage from that point on. Don’t let Mount Garganus or Apulia’s shores deceive you: you are standing before

4 Solymus believes that he pollutes heaven and earth because of his murder of his father. 5 The battle took place on the 2nd of August 216 BCE. 6 In North Africa.

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Rome’s walls. Though the city lies far off in the distance away from our battle, today here is where it falls. I call you to no further battle beyond this, soldiers. Make your way straight from the battle line to the Capitol.” [217] After Hannibal said these things, they threw down the rampart’s defenses and rushed over the ditches’ barrier. He fit the battle line’s order at the landscape’s suggestion to the river’s curving banks. The barbarian Nasamonian warriors stood on the left wing, ready for battle, together with the Marmaricans, who had enormous limbs. Then came the grim Moors and Garamantians and Macae and the Massylian ranks and the Adyrmachidae, a people happy to live by the sword. Along with them came the people who dwell by the River Nile, whose bodies are black from the extreme sun. Nealces had been appointed as the head and ruler of these troops. But Mago led on the right side, where the Aufidus River bends and twists its waves and its curving stream wanders around the banks. There came light-armed peoples from the ferocious Pyrenees, who enlarged the forces stationed by the river amid an uproar in various languages. Shield-bearing youths shone forth: Cantabrians before all others, the Vascones who left their heads bare, Balearic islanders who fought their battles by whirling lead slingshot, and the men who dwelled by the Baetis River. [234] Hannibal himself, high on his horse, commanded the middle battle line, which he had strengthened with soldiers from his native land along with Celtic troops drenched often in the Po River. But where the river’s flowing waves curved backward and did not guard the formations with any fortification, elephants carried turrets and barricades on their dark backs. They wavered like a mobile rampart and raised high walls up to the sky. It was left to the Numidians to circle swiftly and head down wandering paths and seethe over the whole battlefield. The Carthaginian commander fired up his troops and conferred strength upon them and spurred them on insatiably, urging on each man with memory of his own deeds. He boasted that he recognized from whose hand the rush of a whirring javelin came from. He promised his men that he would not miss being an eyewitness of any of their accomplishments.

Varro urges his troops to ignore Solymus’ warning and attack [249] Meanwhile, Varro had taken his legions out of the rampart and set in motion the beginnings of destruction. On his pale waves, Charon the ferryman of the ghosts threw open places for the arriving dead. The front ranks stood fast as Solymus’ writing in blood on the hanging shield forbade them to advance. The omen transfixed them, and they were stupefied. Next to them was a terrible sight: the pitiable bodies lay in an embrace, and the son had placed his hand to cover the lethal wound in his father’s breast. The soldiers’ tears flowed, and grief for Mancinus returned at seeing his dead brother. Then the grim omen moved them as well, as did the corpses’ similar features. 150

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[260] Quickly they revealed the mistake and the pitiable deed to their commander Varro, as well as the shield whose message forbade the combat. His spirit on fire, Varro said: “Bring these omens to Paulus! His effeminate breast is full of fear, and this man’s hand drenched in an unspeakable killing will move him. Perhaps when the Furies demanded the punishment, he wrote this criminal verse in his father’s blood as he died.” [267] Then Varro swiftly assigned the responsibilities for the battle in a threatening tone. Where savage Nealces commanded a line of fierce peoples, he set himself in opposition along with the Marsian soldiers and the Samnites’ battle-standards and the Apulians. But in the middle of the battlefield (for he saw Hannibal the Carthaginian leader standing in this part of it), he ordered Servilius to meet his advancing arms and to bring the Picentines and the Umbrians with him. Paulus had charge of the rest of the battle on the right wing. Furthermore, it was Scipio’s task to go against sneak attacks by the swift Numidian force. He was ordered to spread the fight wherever the enemy squads divided in cunning trickery for an encirclement. [278] And now the battle lines drew near one another. Much uncertain noise passed through the troubled ranks as men rushed nimbly forward, horses whinnied from heated mouths, and arms clashed. It was just as when the winds first begin their combats on the seas. The waves on the gulf bring forth pent-up fury and gusts that will drench the stars. They emit menacing sounds over the rocks that they uproot from the sea floor and rip from their caves. They twist the gasping ocean into a frothing whirlpool.

The gods join the combat [287] Nor indeed in such a vicious whirlwind of fate did this struggle remain only on the earth. Crazy Discord entered heaven and forced the gods to war. Mars and Apollo his companion fought on one side, and Neptune master of the swelling ocean, Venus out of her mind with grief, Vesta and Hercules enraged by the slaughter at captured Saguntum. Along with them came honored Cybele and the native Italian gods and Faunus and Quirinus the ancestor of the Roman people, as well as Pollux* who shared his soul in alternation with his brother Castor.* Against them, Saturn’s daughter Juno buckled a sword on her side, and Minerva, born from the Libyan Lake Tritonis, and the Carthaginians’ native god Hammon, his horns curving over his temples.7 There was a great crowd of lesser gods as well. The nourishing earth trembled at their weight and their footsteps as they came on. Some of them parted company and occupied the nearby mountains, others took their place in a deep cloud. The descent to the battle emptied out heaven. [304] An enormous clamor rose up to the vacated stars. Cries like these once poured forth to the sky from the army of earth-born Giants on the

7 See note 15 in Book 1.

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Phlegraean Fields. Jupiter the Maker of time used a voice like that when he demanded new thunderbolts from the Cyclopes, as he saw the mountains heaped up and the great-spirited Giants attacking his celestial kingdom. [310] Nor indeed was there any spear thrown first in such a clash. A roaring cloud of spears poured forth at the same moment as they competed in rage. On one side and the other, spirits that longed for blood fell in the crossfire. A great part of the warriors fell before their crazed hands could draw their swords. Eager men stood atop the very bodies of their comrades and trod on them as they still groaned. The Libyan onslaught could not thrust or turn aside the Roman youth, nor could the Carthaginian forces be pushed from their fixed ranks, any more than if the impact of the sea’s waves were to begin to tear Gibraltar from its seat. [321] Blows lacked the space to connect, and the tight-packed men did not have room to fall when they died. Bristling helmets flashed as they struck opposing helmets, shields battered other shields and weakened them, and swords shattered upon swords. Foot trod on foot and man on man. Blood covered the ground so it could not be seen. The javelins thrown in the air made a deep looming night that took away the sky and the stars. Those whom Fortune had allowed to stand in the second rank fought in combat with the lengthy lance’s blow and the elongated javelin, just as if they would stir up the front lines. And then the people behind them, in the ranks without glory, competed by hurling their missiles to equal the fighting of those ahead of them. Shouting led the battle onward. Soldiers who did not have the chance at the combat they so desired harassed the enemy with vicious insults. No kind of weapon was lacking. Some fighters used clubs to stir up the fight, others burning pine branches, some the heavy javelin, still others used rocks and slingshots and swift spears. Meanwhile, shrieking arrows shot through the clouds and the phalarica which the walls themselves feared. [340] Goddess Muses whose rites I tend, should I hope that my mortal voice could reveal this whole day for successive ages? Are you giving me so much confidence in my tongue, that I may sound forth Cannae from my one mouth alone? If my glory pleases you and you do not turn me aside from my great undertaking, call here all your songs and father8 Apollo. Indeed, Roman, if only you would afterward endure prosperity with courage as great as when you endured adversity! I beg that this may be suffering enough, and the gods may not be pleased to test whether Troy’s descendants could withstand another war like this. And as you worry about your fate, Rome, put aside your tears, I pray, and honor the wounds that shall always bring you glory. For at no time will you be greater than this, Rome. Soon amid prosperity you will endure such collapse that you will uphold your name solely with the reputation from your defeats.9

8 “Father” is used as an honorific title of the god Apollo. 9 In later Roman thought, the Punic Wars marked the beginning of Roman decline.

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[354] And already amid her varied changes, Fortune had alternated the men’s circumstances and duped their battle fury with uncertain results. Battle blazed in equal force as hope hung for a long time in the middle between the two peoples. It was just like when gentle breezes tug on the green stalks and the wind pushes on ears of grain that have not yet ripened. The whole crop moves here and there and sways back and forth, shining as it curves gently in alternate directions. At last Nealces charged, shouting keenly, and his barbarian forces broke up and shattered the Roman line. The wedge formations were loosened, and the swift enemy rushed in through the openings against the fearful men. Then a torrent of blood flowed out from battle’s dark whirlwind. No corpse fell under a single spear. Even as the Roman warriors feared wounds to the back, they took savage deathblows in the chest and shielded their deaths from disgrace.

Scaevola and Marius die in combat [370] Scaevola stood among the first in the middle of the combat. He always loved bitter challenge, and he was equal to any danger. Amid such slaughter he did not want to live; rather he wanted a death worthy of his ancestor and to die in his name.10 After he saw that the Romans’ circumstances were shattered and destruction was increasing, he said: [375] “Whatever is left of this short life, let’s extend its fame. For courage is a useless name, unless our deaths should be honorable enough by enduring through time.” He spoke thus and gathered himself in a mighty rush and plunged into the middle of the fight, where Nealces was clearing a path with his swift fighting hand. [380] Here Scaevola attacked Caralis with his sword. Caralis was exulting and wishing to fix as a trophy on a high tree trunk the armor that he had seized from the man he had slain. In anger Scaevola pierced him with his sword right up to the hilt. He fell forward, collapsing, and bit the hostile earth, stifling death’s sufferings on the ground. Neither could Gabar nor Siccha hold back raging Scaevola, though they joined hands to cooperate in acts of courage. Even as he stood fast, keen Gabar lost his right hand as it was cut off in the combat. Great grief overwhelmed Siccha as he hurried in vain to bring help. He trod unawares on Gabar’s sword and tripped. Too late, he condemned his bare foot, and he lay in death thanks to his dying friend’s hand. As Scaevola’s rage increased, in the end it drew lightning-fast Nealces’ fatal weapons. On fire, he leapt forth, and the great fame of his opponent’s name prodded him to the reward for killing him. Then he seized a rock torn from a crag which a torrent had brought down from the high mountains. In a frenzy, he hurled it at Scaevola’s face. His teeth rattled as the mass struck his cheek and tore off his face. Blood thickened with grisly

10 See note 16 in Book 8 and Glossary.

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brains flowed through his nostrils. His gory eyes flowed down from his shattered sockets and disfigured forehead. [401] Marius11 was laid low as he attempted to help his soulmate Caper. He was afraid to live on if his friend died. The two men had been born on the same day. They had the same homeland and poverty was their common inheritance from their fathers. These young men, born in holy Praeneste, had combined their youthful pursuits and farmed adjacent fields. Both wanted and avoided the same things, and their minds were conjoined for life. A rich partnership came from their poor circumstances. They fell together, and from all their vows Fortune granted this one: death together in battle. Their conqueror Symaethus gained honor from their two sets of arms.

Scipio takes the battlefield and faces Hannibal [411] But the Carthaginians were not permitted to rejoice for long in such a gift from fate. Scipio was there in menacing terror. He pitied the cohort that was turning its backs in flight. Varro was there too, the source of all this evil, and light-haired Curio, and Brutus descended from the first consul.12 Trusting in these men, the Roman line would have regained the lost battlefield with a new effort, if Hannibal the Carthaginian leader had not suddenly rushed in and reined back the hurrying ranks. As he saw Varro far off amid the fighting, his lictor rushing around him in a red cloak,13 he said: “I recognize his entourage and insignia. Flaminius before him was just like this.” Then the thundering of his enormous shield announced his keen anger, fired up as he was. [424] Alas, wretched Varro! Your death would have equaled Paulus’, if the gods’ anger had not taken from you the chance to fall by Hannibal’s hand. How often you will complain to the gods, Varro, that you escaped the Carthaginian’s sword! For Scipio rushed forward rapidly and swiftly brought safety in the face of death. He turned the danger on himself and turned it away from Varro.14 Though the honor of the rich spoil had been taken from him,15 Hannibal was not ashamed to change combat for a greater enemy. Now that a duel was offered to him at last, he wanted to demand recompense for Scipio’s father, who had been snatched from him at the river Ticinus.16 These men, raised on opposite sides of the world, stood against one another. The earth had never seen any other such men come together. These men were equal in combat and fighting skill, but the Latin

11 This Marius evokes the later consul and enemy of Sulla, Gaius Marius. 12 For this Brutus, see note 28 in Book 8. 13 Lictors used to wear this red cloak in war. 14 We accept Shackleton Bailey’s emendation excepta in sese. 15 See note 9 in Book 1 on the “rich spoils.” 16 See Book 4, line 81ff.

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leader Scipio was superior in other respects, and his sense of duty and loyalty was greater.

The gods Mars and Minerva join the combat until Jupiter sends Iris* to prevent them [438] Mars feared for Scipio, Tritonian Minerva for Hannibal. Troubled at heart, they leapt from their hollow cloud to the battlefield. At the coming of the gods, both battle lines trembled for their fearless leaders. Dark fire flashed widely from the Gorgon Medusa’s mouth wherever Minerva turned her chest. The horrifying snakes on the aegis emitted hisses. Eyes shone blood-red so that you might think a double comet was flashing. From the tip of her helmet, a huge whirlwind twisted rolling flames to the stars. But Mars waved his spear and pushed the air forward. He covered the battlefield with his shield. His breastplate, the Cyclopes’ gift, poured forth the fires of Mount Aetna. The tawny crest rising from his helmet struck the upper air. [451] The leaders were intent on their duel, each measuring at close quarters how much he would dare to do in turn. Yet they sensed that the gods had come bearing arms. Each man was happy that the gods were observing him and increased the anger in his spirit. And already Minerva’s hand had turned aside from Hannibal’s chest a spear thrown with a strong cast. The fierce goddess’ example taught Mars Gradivus to offer help. Straightaway he offered young Scipio a sword forged in Mount Aetna for his combats and ordered him to attempt greater deeds. [460] Then violent virgin Minerva burned deep within, and suddenly her face filled with fire. Her eyes twisted sideways, and her angry face was more frightening than Medusa’s. She shook the aegis and all the snakes stretched forth their huge limbs. At her rage’s initial blows, Mars himself drew back little by little from the duel. Here the goddess made a swift effort and tore off part of the nearby mountain. In a rage, she hurled the boulder bristling with crags at Mars. Saso Island’s shoreline17 trembled, and it feared the sounds carried over a long distance. [470] But these battles did not deceive the king of the gods. He quickly sent down Iris girded in cloud to hold back this excessive violence. Jupiter spoke thus: “Go, goddess, and slip down swiftly to the land of Italy. Tell Minerva to calm her harsh anger at her brother nor to hope to change the Fates’ fixed laws. Say also: unless you stop (for I recognize her fiery mind’s disease and swells), unless you hold back your rage, you will know how much my bristling thunderbolts outdo your aegis.” [479] Minerva, the virgin from Lake Tritonis, hesitated after she heard these words. For a long time, she was not certain whether she should yield to

17 See note 13 in Book 7.

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her father’s arms. “Let us leave the battlefield,” she said. “But if I, Minerva, am pushed back, will he turn aside Fate and prevent seeing from high heaven the fields of Mount Garganus burning with slaughter?” After she said this, she caught up Hannibal in a hollow cloud and brought him to a different part of the battle. Then she left the earth.

The wind Vulturnus* attacks the Romans at Juno’s command [486] As the goddess departed and returned to the sky, fierce Mars Gradivus called back the Romans’ spirits. Concealed in mist, with his own mighty hand he restored them to the bitter fight from where they had scattered over the plain. The Italians turned around their battle-standards and reversed their fear, beginning the slaughter anew. Aeolus was the keeper set over the winds, and by his authority a jail holds the storms shut in. The east and the north and the west and the south winds obey him as they rush through the sky. In response to Juno’s entreaty (she offered him no small promises),18 he let loose into the combat the wind Vulturnus who rules the Aetolian fields. This deadly avenger pleased Juno’s anger. Vulturnus plunged himself in Aetna’s burning abyss and gathered flames and showed forth his fiery face. Then he flew out with a horrifying shriek and blew over the Daunian kingdoms of south Italy, carrying with him a dark cloud of thick-packed dust. The winds took away sight and voice and hands. Sad to say! Vulturnus shot burning masses from his sandy whirlwind into the Italians’ faces and rejoiced as he fought the ranks with the rage that had been commanded. [504] Then soldiers were laid out on the earth in a mass of ruin, as were their weapons and battle horns. Every lance flew backward as it met the wind, and its useless blow fell behind the Romans’ backs. These same gusts of wind aided the Carthaginians’ weapons. The whirlwind helped along their missiles, just as if they had been hurled from a thong, and the shrieking wind pushed forward the Carthaginians’ spears. Next thick dust clogged the soldiers’ throats. They mourned deaths without honor as their windpipes shut. Vulturnus himself buried his tawny head in dark dust and poured much sand in his hair. At one moment, his shrieking wings turned the Romans and pushed them from the back. At another moment, his noisy gale came straight on against their foreheads. He shook his weapons and hissed from a gaping mouth. Sometimes the Romans were intent on combat and already were thrusting their swords toward their enemy’s neck. Vulturnus turned aside the effort and the blow and ripped the fighting hand right out of the very wound. Nor was it enough for him to defile the Italian

18 Silius recapitulates a scene from Virgil Aeneid 1, in which Juno offers Aeolus a

bribe to start a storm to drown Aeneas.

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cohorts here and there. He spewed forth winds mixed with roaring at Mars. Twice the hurricane shook the topmost crest of the god’s helmet. [524] The wind god’s fury waged war against the Roman ranks and kindled Mars to anger. Meanwhile, virgin Minerva accompanied by Juno addressed father Jupiter: “See how great the waves are that Mars Gradivus sends against the Punic camps! See how great the slaughter that fills him as he rages! I ask you, now does it not please you for Iris to come down to earth? I am not here to destroy the Trojans. Let Rome rule with my pledge of security. I have placed a site for the Palladium* in this city. Though I would not destroy them, yet I refuse to let Hannibal, the light of Libya that nursed me, be pushed from life in his flourishing youth and for such great beginnings to be snuffed out.” [535] Here Juno took up the argument and spoke in anger from her long struggle: “Let the world know indeed how powerful Jupiter’s mighty rule is. Let them know how much power, my husband, you can set against all the gods. Break up the citadel of Carthage with your burning thunderbolt. We beg you for nothing. Make a vast chasm in the earth and plunge the Carthaginian ranks into Tartarus’ waters, or drown them in the sea.” [542] From his gentle mouth Jupiter spoke in reply: “You are fighting against the Fates and pushing sick hope. Oh my daughter, you are eagerly bringing hostile arms against the man who will smash the Carthaginians and gain the name ‘Africanus’ from these people and bring the Libyan victory laurels to the Capitol. And the man, my wife, the very man to whom you are giving courage and honor—I am singing Fate—Hannibal will turn his arms from the Italian people. The turning point of this conflict is not far off. The day and hour will come on which Hannibal will wish he had never crossed the Alps.” [551] He spoke and quickly sent Iris down from Olympus to call back Mars and order him to withdraw from combat. Mars did not struggle against the prohibition. He went shrieking into the high clouds, even though the battle horns and trumpets and wounds and blood and arms and yells all pleased him. The battlefield lay open at last, free of the gods’ conflicts and relieved of Mars. Hannibal rushed from the furthest point of the field, where he had slowly retreated from the gods’ combat. He gave a mighty shout and drew on the cavalry and infantry and the massive elephants with towers on their backs and the straining ballistae. Anger flashed in his bloodstained cheeks when he recognized Minucius, who was harassing the light-armed troops with his sword. [563] “Look!” Hannibal said. “What Furies or what god has led you against the enemy, Minucius? Do you dare to trust yourself once more against me? Where is Fabius now, the father you got by fighting me? You fool, it should have been enough for you to escape my hands the first time.” And then a spear shot from the catapult accompanied his arrogant words. It pierced Minucius’ chest, and its blow stopped the words that he was getting ready in reply. 157

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The Carthaginians send their elephants into combat and terrify the Romans [570] Nor was raging with swords enough. Hannibal called up the elephants’ dark bulk and set these monsters against the Italian youth. He rode his horse before them and ordered the Moors to goad the elephants harder with their spears. They guided them into battle and rushed the herd of Libyan beasts forward. The warlike animals trumpeted deafeningly, as they hurried their pace and steady wounding forced them to move. Towers perched on their dark backs, armed with men and torches and spears. From far above a bitter hailstorm of stones poured down on the Roman soldiers. Here and there, from their mobile rampart on high, the Libyans poured down a cloud of spears. A long palisade of white tusks stood close-packed in ranks.19 Spears shone close at hand where they had been fastened to the ivory tusks. Their points jutted forth from the tusks’ curved cones. [584] Here amid the fearful Romans, an elephant thrust its wicked tusk through Ufens’ armor and limbs. It carried him off screaming as it trampled down the ranks. Tadius’ death was no lighter. Little by little the tusk’s fierce point penetrated where the breastplate’s multiple layers of linen concealed his side. It bore the man aloft and his shield resounded. Yet the new danger’s terror did not shake the Roman’s courage. He used his position close to the elephant’s forehead as a chance for glory. He struck the elephant’s eyes with his swift sword. The serious wound enraged the beast. It reared toward the sky and shook off its tower, throwing it behind as it raised its legs and turned its bulk. A pitiable sight: the men and weapons and blinded elephant all collapsed at one time in a jumbled heap. [599] Varro the Roman commander ordered his men to hurl burning firebrands against the warlike beasts and to fill the towers, which the elephants carried, with sulfur from smoky torches. They did not delay in responding to his order. The elephants’ backs shone as the flames heaped up. The noisy wind fed the consuming fire and spread it through their armaments. It was just as when a shepherd on Mount Pindus or Rhodope tosses firebrands and the flames roam eagerly through the woods. The leafy ridges catch fire, and Vulcan’s blaze shines forth as it leaps suddenly throughout the high cliffs. The elephants went out of their minds as the glowing pitch scorched their bodies. They forced a ragged path through the ranks. No one had the courage to get close to them and fight. They only dared to strike from far off with spears and arrows. The beasts did not tolerate being burned or the heat scorching their massive bodies. They tossed the fires this way and that and fed them, until at last they threw themselves headlong in the nearby stream’s pools. The thin water deceived the elephants. They rushed along the plains beside the still brook, carrying the fire still blazing forth from

19 Lances are attached to the elephant tusks to form a palisade.

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the long banks. Then at last they sunk themselves in a deep pool that could receive their bulk. [620] But where battle was possible, the Roman youth surrounded Moorish elephants that had not yet been set on fire. They attacked them from a distance, now with javelins, at other times with stones and winged slingshots. They were like men who attack fortified castles on high places and besiege towers. Mincius dared deeds worthy of a man, worthy of favoring Fortune. He raised his fighting hand and went against the elephant at close range, unlucky in his daring. But the monster trumpeted and poured forth a fiery panting breath. The beast’s trunk seized the man in a bitter trap and twisted him in its dire coil. It hurled the wretched man high in the air and, sad to say, it crushed Mincius’ limbs by smashing them on the ground. [632] Amid these disasters, Paulus caught sight of Varro in arms and rebuked him: “Why don’t we go hand-to-hand against Hannibal the Carthaginian leader? We promised Rome we would make him stand before your triumphal chariot, his neck bound in chains. Alas for my country, alas for the criminal plebs and their wretched support! In such hard, evil luck they will never tell which man they would more have prayed not to be born: Varro or Hannibal.” [639] As Paulus said these things, Hannibal pressed the Romans who were fleeing headlong. Before the consul’s eyes he hurled all his army’s spears into the rushing men’s backs. One struck the consul’s helmet and shook his armor. This made bitter Paulus fiercer as he rushed into the middle of the enemy. [644] Then indeed Varro’s mind was shaken, as Paulus was separated from him and fought on a remote part of the field. He turned his horse and wheeled about. “My country, you are paying your punishment,” he said. “You called Varro to battle while Fabius was still alive. What conflict was this in your mind or with fate? Is this a hidden deception by the Fates? Long before now I wanted to take my own life and break off all things. But I don’t know which god held back my sword and spared me for worse things. Shall I live and bring back my shattered fasces, spattered with my men’s blood, back to the people? Shall I allow my face to be seen in the angry cities? Hannibal himself could not wish for something more savage than this. Shall I flee battle and return to see you, Rome?” As he complained still further, the enemy drove him on, their spears jabbing nearer. He loosed the reins, and his horse galloped away.

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Paulus enters combat [1] Paulus saw the fight growing worse against him. He was like a wild animal ringed round by spears, which jumps of its own accord against the steel and amid its wounds, draws the enemy toward it. Paulus attacked right in the middle of the packs of men and thrust himself into danger, attracting death from every sword. He gave a horrifying shout: “Stand fast, I beg you, and bravely take the steel in your chests. Bring unwounded backs to the dead, men. Nothing else remains except glory in our deaths. Paulus will be your same leader as you go down to your resting places below.” [10] Then Paulus went swifter than the Thracian north wind. He was faster than the winged arrows which the Parthians send back in the combat as they flee.1 He headed against the enemy where Cato was stirring up the battle. The young man did not care how young he was: his mind was full of the war god Mars. The light-armed Vascones and the Cantabrians who shot repeated arrows were pressing on young Cato. Paulus snatched him away from the lethal weapons. They drew back fearfully and took their steps to the rear. [18] Just so a joyful hunter tracks a deer in a distant valley. He chases the tired beast in close pursuit and even now hopes to touch it with his hand. If a fierce lion suddenly heads forth from an opposite cave and stands before their eyes, gnashing its teeth, at one and the same moment his color and blood and weapons unequal to the danger all desert the soldier. No concern for the prey he hoped for remains in the hunter’s breast. Now Paulus pressed his sword at close quarters against men who stood against him, at other times he pursued with missiles fearful men who turned their backs in shameful terror. He was delighted to rage, go berserk, and ennoble his labors. A huge crowd of men whose names are unknown fell to this one man. If a second Paulus had been given to the Roman forces, Cannae would have lost its infamous name.

1 See note 21 in Book 7.

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[31] At last the front line collapsed in disorder. The wing turned and did not hold off from flight. Labienus and Ocres were knocked down, as was Opiter, men whom Setia had sent from its ridges planted with vines. Rocky Cingulum* had sent Labienus from its high walls. The Carthaginian soldiers caused their savage deaths all at once, though their manner differed. For Labienus died as a spear penetrated his guts. The brothers fell as one was cut in the shoulder, the other in the back of the knee. You fell, Maecenas, when a Tyrian dart struck you above the groin. Your name was honored in Etruria and once was endowed with rule over the Etruscans.2

Juno appears to Paulus and Hannibal in disguise [42] Paulus threw away his love for life. He was swept into the middle of combat as he hunted for Hannibal. Only one fate seemed bitter to him: if he fell and the Carthaginian leader survived. Paulus’ effort frightened Juno. Such a storm and rage would not have been in vain if he had met Hannibal in single combat. She transformed herself to resemble fearful Metellus.* “Consul, Latium’s sole hope,” Juno said, “why do you emptily rage to no purpose when Fate has denied you support? Aeneas’ Roman kingdom still stands if Paulus survives. If it goes otherwise, then you drag Italy down with you. Are you readying to go against that arrogant young Hannibal, Paulus, and cut the head from our troubled state? Now Hannibal is so successful in combat that he dares to fight with Jupiter the Thunder God himself. And already Varro has turned his reins and fled—for I saw him turn his horse— and he is saving himself for better things. Let Fate have its space. While you have the chance, snatch away from death your soul that is greater than ours. You will take on this combat soon.” [59] Hearing this, Paulus the consul sighed: “Why I am looking for death in arms? Is this not a good enough reason—that my ears endured Metellus advocating such monstrous ideas? Go on, you crazy man, go on and run off. I beg the gods that you don’t take any of the enemy’s weapons in your back. I pray for you to escape untouched and unharmed and enter Rome’s walls along with Varro. You great coward! Do you think I am worthy of life on such terms and unworthy of a beautiful death? Indeed Hannibal permits this, Hannibal who could now enter combat against Jupiter himself. Oh, how you have declined from your forefathers’ great courage. When else would I prefer to fight a duel? What other man would I prefer to match myself against rather than one who will give me a name for the ages, whether he wins or loses?” [72] Paulus made this rebuke and was swept into the middle of the enemy. Acherras was heading back to his people’s close formation. He stole his way

2 This is an ancestor of Gaius Cilnius Maecenas (c. 70–8 BCE), the patron of poets in the Augustan period who was reputed to have regal ancestry.

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amid the dense ranks, through the men’s close-packed limbs and the weapons pressed against their shields. Paulus was better on his feet. He chased after Acherras and cut him down. He was just like a Belgian dog who chases hidden boars. His nose to the ground, he craftily tracks the beast’s wandering through the pathless woods. His nose silently pushes after the boars’ traces, and he surveys woods that the hunters’ nets cannot reach. The dog does not stop following the scent he caught until he uncovers the den hidden in the dense thicket. [83] But Jupiter’s wife Juno saw it was useless to turn aside Paulus with words. The consul would not stop his anger. She changed her appearance once more into Gelesta the Moor. She called unaware Hannibal away from the fierce combat: “Eternal glory of Carthage! Bring your weapons here, bring your fighting hand here to those who beg for your help. The consul Varro makes horrible warfare by the stagnant river bank. No greater glory could come from killing any other enemy.” She spoke thus and rushed young Hannibal into a different combat.

Hannibal kills Crista and his six sons [92] A warrior named Crista was harassing the Carthaginian youth on the riverbank. His six sons joined their arms around the old man. His estate was poor, but his family was well-known in Tuder. He was a famous warrior among the Umbrian people. Through his deeds and his slaughter, Crista taught his armed cohort of sons to fight in combat. As their tough teacher led them, this united phalanx sated itself by killing men. Their countless blows had laid low an elephant along with its tower. They pursued it with firebrands and happily watched the beast’s burning collapse. [102] Then a helmet suddenly flashed, and shimmering crests trembled from its higher peak. Old Crista was not slow to react, for he recognized Hannibal by his radiance. The father willingly rushed his squad of sons into the savage combat. He ordered them to hurl their weapons here and there and not to fear the flames that poured from Hannibal’s fierce mouth or those that blazed from his helmet. In the same way a mother eagle, great Jupiter’s arms-bearer, uses the sun’s beams to test her offspring’s legitimacy. Anxiously she raises in her nest chicks worthy of carrying the thunderbolt. She watches as they turn their gaze to the sun’s face.3 Crista’s swift spear flew through the middle of the air …4 in order to give his sons proof of his combat skills. Its point did not pierce deeply into the multiple layers of Hannibal’s golden shield. Its weak blow betrayed Crista’s old age as it hung there.

3 The mother eagle was supposed to test her offspring’s legitimacy by making them look directly in the sun. 4 Delz has marked a lacuna in the text at this point.

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[116] Hannibal asked him: “What madness pushed your hand to this futile blow, bloodless as it is from old age? Your trembling spear barely bit into my shield’s outermost covering of Galician gold. Look, I’m giving your weapon back to you. Your renowned band of sons will learn better how to fight from me.” He spoke thus and pierced the wretched old man’s chest with his own spear. [122] Horrifying! Six javelins came flying against him from the young men’s hands. Equal efforts sent forth spears. It was just as when a Moorish hunter tracks a mother lioness in Libya and traps her in a cave. Her frenzied whelps attack him and attempt useless combat against him with teeth that have not yet grown tough enough. Hannibal’s shield devoured the spears. The Carthaginian commander readied himself against their weapons. He sustained the driving spears’ resounding blows. He panted in anger and refused to believe he had done enough amid such wounding and so much slaughter. He had to kill all these sons and add their corpses to their father’s, cutting off the wretched household and its line of descent. [134] Then Hannibal addressed Abaris his arms-bearer. This man fired up battle as one with him in anger and joined him as his companion in every deed. “Hand me my spears! This mass of men is attacking my shield. They are asking to be sent down to livid Avernus’ Underworld waters. Now they will have their reward for their stupid devotion to their father.” [139] Hannibal said this and ran his javelin through Lucas, the oldest of the brothers. The young man tottered as the point pushed through. His face tilted upward as he fell against his brothers’ arms. Volso’s hand hurried to tear away the deadly steel. Hannibal laid him low by thrusting a javelin, which he had found by chance in a heap of corpses, through his helmet into his nostrils. Next Vesulus slipped in his brothers’ hot blood. Hannibal cut him down with his swift sword. Alas for barbarian courage! He took his helmet, still filled with Vesulus’ severed head, and threw it like a missile weapon at the fleeing men’s backs. A rock struck Telesinus and pierced him to the marrow where his spine met his limbs. He fell and saw his brother Quercens’s body collapse. A slingshot flying far through the air had stunned him, while Telesinus breathed out his last into the air and closed his hesitating eyes. [154] Grief and flight and fear all together had exhausted Perusinus. Yet still full of anger, he pushed on and carried his unsure body across the battlefield. Hannibal pierced him with a stake above his groin and laid him out. Abaris his arms-bearer had seized the stake from the back of a collapsed Libyan elephant and offered it to him. Hannibal pressed Perusinus violently with the fire-hardened oak wood. Perusinus had tried prayers to allay his savage anger, but deadly heat immediately filled his mouth, and his breath sent fire down into his lungs. [163] At last Crista fell with all his family, a name long famous among the Umbrian people. It was just as when lightning hits a tall ash tree or an oak, whose origin was known to our forefathers, smokes when Jupiter strikes it. 163

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Flames and sulfur from the sky devastate its branches hallowed through the ages. At last it topples forward, defeated by the god, and its massive trunk covers all its offspring as it collapses on them. [170] While Hannibal worked these deeds beside the Aufidus River, Paulus had already avenged his impending death with numerous kills. He waged war amid thousands of fighters as if he were the victor. Mighty Phorcys from the caves of Hercules’ Gibraltar lay in death. The Gorgon Medusa’s head was engraved upon his shield. His family traced its origins back to this grim goddess. He blocked Paulus and arrogantly recalled the ancient names of his ancestors from the monstrous line of Medusa who turned people to stone. He attacked Paulus violently, aiming at his left flank. Paulus grabbed his helmet’s high crest and dragged him. He threw Phorcys down and pressed on him. He thrust his sword and stabbed him where his swordbelt curved around his lower back and guarded his hips. Phorcys vomited up a hot river of blood, spewing it over his guts where they hung open. And so the inhabitant of the Atlantic coast fell on the Aetolian fields. [185] Swift terror amid this slaughter: the Carthaginians rose up and attacked the Roman rear and stirred up an unexpected combat by turning their assault. They were skilled in deception. The Carthaginian commander had trained these men in this very combat trick. They armed themselves with a scheme and surrendered themselves as if they had fled the Carthaginian camp.5 Then a battle line readied for slaughter in its whole spirit attacked, rushing the Romans from the rear. These men did not lack javelins or swords: they ripped the steel from the slaughter and the spears from the corpses. [194] From far off, Galba saw the enemy seize the battle standard and carry it away. Defeat was not able to remove his love of courage. Laboring with his whole body’s effort, he followed the victorious Carthaginian and attacked him with a lethal blow. He seized the prize from the slaughtered enemy and tore it away. His dying hand slowly let the standard go. Amorgus hurriedly ran up and pierced him with his sword. Galba fell, and death made his great daring unsuccessful.

The wind Vulturnus assaults the Romans. Paulus the consul is fatally wounded [202] Amid these combats, it was as if savage Enyo* the war goddess had not yet sated her grim rage. The wind Vulturnus spun the battlefield,6 raising clouds of dust and whirling burning sand. And already the mightily shrieking wind had pushed the resisting men over a great distance to the edges of

5 This strategy is recorded also in Livy, From the Foundation of the City 22.48.1–3. 6 See also Book 9, lines 486ff.

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the battlefield. It trapped them against the hollowed river bank and plunged them in the swelling current. Here was the end for you, unlucky Curio, and here the Aufidus River kept your life’s term in silent death. For Curio, raging in his soul, had tried to hold back the overwhelmed ranks. He had labored to stop them by blocking them with his body. The massive force of rushing men pushed him headlong into the river. The troubled waters gulped him down and spun him in a whirlpool. He lay on the Adriatic beach, without renown in death. [215] Paulus the consul was mighty at enduring evils and did not know how to bow his neck to Fortune. He set his face against the conquering enemies and rushed against their arms. He had a warlike passion for perishing in battle, and his trust in death alone was giving him courage. Then Viriatus, the great-spirited ruler of a Spanish territory, hurled his spears right beside him. Before raging Paulus’ eyes, he cut down a Roman adversary who was tired of the contest. Alas for grief, alas for tears! The best part of war, Servilius, the best part after Paulus, fell to the barbarian’s blow. As he fell, his one death added great resentment to Cannae. [225] Paulus the consul could not endure his bitter grief. The crazy wind’s opposing force disarmed him and dust blocked the light. Yet he fiercely broke through the dirty cloud of packed sand and marched forward. Viriatus7 was beating on his shield and roaring barbarian chants in the Spanish fashion. Paulus attacked him and struck a blow to his vitals through his left breast. That was his final deed of slaughter. He was not permitted to add his hand to further battle. Nor was Paulus left to you, Rome, for you to use thereafter in such great battles. [235] An unseen hand hurled a massive stone of vast weight. It struck Paulus in the face and drove his shattered helmet’s bronze into his bones and filled his face with blood. He stepped backward and rested his tottering limbs on a nearby rock, and he panted as his wound gushed. His bloody face looked terrible as he sat down on his shield. In the same way, an enormous lion takes the steel at last in his chest after shaking off the lighter spears. He endures the weapons and stands trembling in the middle of the arena. A wave of blood drips from his crest and mouth and nostrils as he emits weaker roars. He spews foaming blood from his gaping mouth. [247] Then the Carthaginians attacked in earnest. Hannibal the commander himself advanced on a swift horse. He followed where the wind led, where his men’s treacherous swords, the horses, the fierce elephants’ warlike tusks all led him. Javelins had overwhelmed Piso. As he saw Hannibal the Libyan leader riding over the corpses, he leaned on a spear and used the upturned point to pierce the horse’s guts. In vain, he tried to attack Hannibal

7 See also note 12 in Book 3.

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where he had fallen. Hannibal hurriedly got to his feet, even though the horse had pitched him forward as its legs collapsed and it fell. [256] Hannibal said: “Are the Italian ghosts coming to life again and waging war after dying? Don’t they rest even in death?” Thus he spoke, and rising on high thrust the whole of his sword into Piso as he tried to lift his weak body.

Paulus orders Lentulus to instruct the Romans to close the gates against Hannibal [260] Look! a Cretan arrow wounded Lentulus’ foot. He loosed his horse’s reins and departed the battlefield. Then he saw Paulus sitting on a crag and dripping blood all over the rocks. His expression was grim as he began to slip toward the Underworld. Lentulus abandoned his plan, and he was ashamed of running away. Then Rome seemed to him to burn and bloody Hannibal already seemed to stand before the city gates. Then at first the Aetolian battlefield of Cannae was before his eyes, drinking up Latium’s blood. [267] “What’s left to us, at last?” Lentulus asked. “Why shouldn’t tomorrow’s dawn bring the Carthaginians to the city, Paulus, if you desert the ship amid such storms? I swear to the heaven-dwelling gods, you must steer us through cruel war’s losses and remain alive in such a storm. Else against your will, Paulus (my grief speaks these bitter words), you will harm us worse than Varro. You are the sole hope for our exhausted affairs. Take my horse, I ask you. I myself will lift your weak limbs on my shoulders and I will place you safely on its back.” [276] As Lentulus said this, Paulus the consul spat out the blood that dripped from his wounded face. “Hail to your ancestral courage!” he replied. “Our hopes are not slim indeed when such hearts remain for Romulus’ Roman kingdom. As much as your wound allows you, goad your horse with your spurs and head out quickly from here. I beg you, tell them to shut the city gates. This enemy plague will rush to Rome’s walls. Let the reins of state be handed over to Fabius. Madness has fought against our warnings. My life is over. What else remains, except to show the blind mob that Paulus knows how to die? Or should I be carried into the city, wasted by my wounds? How much would Hannibal wish to pay to see us turning our backs? Paulus’ heart is not like this, nor will I join the dead as such a pathetic ghost. I am the one who …8 But, weak as I am, Lentulus, why am I delaying you with my empty complaining? Go on now and hurry. Use the tip of your spear to stir up your tired horse.” [291] Then Lentulus made for the city, bringing his great orders. Nor did Paulus allow what life remained to him to go unavenged. Just so a tigress

8 Paulus does not finish his sentence.

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yields to a fatal wound at last and hurls her body forward and struggles with death. She throws open her weakened mouth for useless bites and licks the hunters’ spears with the tip of her tongue, though her jaws are no longer powerful enough for her anger. Iertes was brandishing his spear, certain he would kill Paulus, exulting as he marched closer. Paulus rose and stabbed him unexpectedly with his sword. Then he looked around for Hannibal the Carthaginian leader, eager to lay down his life fighting against that man’s hand. [303] But the Numidians and Garamantians and Celts and Moors and Asturians together threw their missiles from all directions and conquered him. This was the end for Paulus. His lofty heart and mighty hand lay dead. You would perhaps compare him to Fabius if command in war had been given to him alone. His beautiful death added glory to Rome and sent the man’s name among the stars. [309] After Paulus the consul fell, so did the Italians’ hope and courage. Savage arms laid low the army as if its head had been struck off. Victorious Africa raged over the entire battlefield. Here the Picentine ranks fell, the warlike Umbrians, there the Sicilian youth and the Hernician squadrons. The battle standards lay here and there. The ferocious Samnites and the Sarrastian people and the Marsian cohorts carried them off. Shields and helmets were pierced, swords were useless. Impact had shattered the bucklers’ protection, and fierce horses’ foam-covered reins had been torn away from their mouths. [319] The bloody Aufidus River thrust its swollen waves on to the fields and returned corpses to its banks in a rage. In the same way, an Egyptian boat appears like an island in the vast sea. The cloudy east wind smashes it against the cliffs. The boat spreads shipwreck everywhere as it covers the waters. Crossbeams and masts along with the torn sail and the ornaments from the stern all float in the ocean’s waves. The wretched sailors spit back the water.

Juno sends a dream to delay Hannibal from marching on Rome [326] Hannibal had completed the day’s long contests and savage slaughters. Dusk deprived his rage of the daylight that brought glory. Then at last he let warfare go and finally spared his own men amid the massacre. But his mind remained awake with concerns and could not bear night’s quiet. Amid such gifts from the gods, this one fact alone goaded him: he had not yet entered Romulus’ gates. The following day pleased him. He resolved to bring drawn swords quickly to Rome, while the slaughter was hot and his troops were covered in carnage. And already he would attack Rome’s gates with his hand and its walls with fire and join the burning of the Tarpeian Rock to Cannae. [337] Hannibal’s undertaking troubled Jupiter’s wife, the daughter of Saturn. Juno was aware of Jupiter’s anger and Latium’s fate. She got ready 167

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to put a brake on the young man’s heedless zeal and avid hopes for his futile wish. So she stirred up the god Sleep who ruled over the quiet shadows. With this servant’s aid, she had often mastered her brother Jupiter’s unwilling eyes and laid them to rest. [343] Juno smiled at Sleep and said: “I am not calling you for greater deeds, god Sleep, nor am I demanding that you give me Jupiter beaten by your soft wings. You don’t have to close the thousand eyes of Argus,* guardian of Io* the Inachian cow, who spurned your divinity. You don’t have to defeat him with deep darkness. I ask you to send new dreams to Hannibal the Carthaginian leader, so he won’t wish now to see Rome’s walls that are forbidden to him. Olympus’ ruler Jupiter will never allow him to enter them.” [351] Sleep quickly fulfilled his orders. The winged god carried drugged poppies in a curved horn through the shadows. When he slipped through the silence, he looked first for the tent of Hannibal, the young warrior of the Barca clan. Then he shook his sleep-inducing wings over Hannibal’s slumping head and dripped quiet into his eyes and touched his temples with Lethe’s wand. Wild dreams worked on Hannibal’s frenzied mind. He saw himself already ringing the Tiber River with many soldiers and scoffing at Rome as he stood at its walls. Jupiter himself shone on the Tarpeian Rock’s peak, raising up his hands to hurl burning thunderbolts. Sulfur smoked widely over the fields. The blue Anio River’s cold waves trembled. Thick fires flashed terrifyingly again and again before his eyes. [365] Then a voice came through the air: “Young man, you took great enough glory from Cannae. Halt your advance. For you shall not be allowed to break through Rome’s holy walls, Carthaginian, any more than to invade my heaven.” After Sleep completed Juno’s orders, he left Hannibal astonished by the vision and fearing greater conflicts. Nor did the daylight purge the terrible image from his mind. [372] Amid these imaginary upheavals and disturbances of Hannibal’s sleep, Mago announced that in the night the Romans had surrendered their camps along with the surviving troops. A long line of soldiers brought plunder. Mago promised Hannibal joyful feasts on the Tarpeian Rock when the fifth night had passed and brought day to the earth. Hannibal concealed the gods’ warnings and locked away his fear. He used his wounds as his excuse and the fierce contest that had exhausted his strength, as well as the danger of trusting too much in success. [380] Hannibal cast down young Mago’s hope, just as if he had ordered him to turn back from Rome’s very walls and withdraw his battle standards. “So our great effort has not defeated Rome, as even Rome itself believes, but only Varro?” Mago said. “What fate makes you abandon such a favorable gift of war and hold your country back? Let the cavalry charge with me. By my head I swear it: you will receive Rome’s Trojan walls and gates lying open for you without a fight.” Mago shouted these words at his cautious brother, who did not believe them. 168

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Survivors of the battle regroup at Canusium.* Scipio prevents some from fleeing Italy [388] Meanwhile, the Roman soldiers regrouped inside Canusium’s walls and began to shut the deserters inside the neighboring rampart. Alas for their dishonored appearance in sinister circumstances! The men had no Eagles and no battle standards, no consul’s high authority, no lictors carrying axes. They were wounded and sick with fear, as if a great ruin had smashed them. Their weak limbs labored to support their bodies. Often there was sudden shouting, and often they fixed their gaze on the ground in silence. Many had lost their shields and their left sides were bare. Fierce fighters lacked swords. Every knight was wounded. They ripped the proud crest’s glory from their helmets and cursed battle’s honors. [400] Meanwhile, many spears had pierced the Romans’ breastplates. Moorish arrows hung where they had stuck in their cuirasses. They called out all the while for their comrades in sad lamentation. Here they mourned Galba, here Piso, and Curio who did not deserve his inactive death, as well as Scaevola weighty in war. Here and there they grieved for these men, but they groaned all together for Paulus’ dire fate as if for their own father. They remembered how he never ceased from foretelling truthful predictions of evil or from trying to hold back Varro’s intentions. So often, in vain, he had tried to turn aside this day from the city. And what a fighting hand this man had! [409] Anxiety for the future oppressed some of them. They hurried to dig ditches around the walls, or they fortified the approaches to the gates as their supplies permitted. They arranged fire-hardened stakes in the form of a deer’s antlers where the field offered level entry to the enemy.9 The hidden points were a concealed weapon against the horses’ hooves. [415] Look! on top of the disaster and the unhealable wound, criminal fear and a greater Fury attacked the war’s remnants and the bodies that the Carthaginians had not destroyed. Some survivors were making ready to change their skies and to flee across the ocean from the Carthaginian swords and Punic arms and Hannibal. Metellus was the war leader of those gathered for exile. He was from a line with a great name.10 He was leading soldiers that had no heart for combat and degenerate hands for shameful plans. He looked for lands situated in another part of the world, where they might hide themselves, where no Carthaginian names or news of their abandoned country might penetrate. [426] Scipio’s mind caught on fire as he heard about these matters. He was as great as he had been when he stood fighting in fierce combat on the

9 Antler-like stakes called cervi (“deer”) were used to stop an enemy charge. 10 The manuscript reading is corrupt here, and Delz suspects that several words may have dropped out.

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battlefield against Hannibal the Carthaginian commander. He swiftly seized his sword, broke down the door, and went in towering where these men were cooking up shameful evil and deadly plans for Latium. Then he drew his sword and brandished it before the frightened men’s faces, threatening them with his voice. [432] “Father Jupiter, you who dwell in the Tarpeian temple,” Scipio said, “your second home after the sky; and Juno, Saturn’s daughter, not yet changed from evil against Rome’s Trojan descendants; and you, virgin Minerva, whose aegis makes your chest deadly, girded with the Gorgon Medusa’s fury; and you local gods—look! Of my own accord, I swear an oath by your divine powers and by my great-spirited father’s head. He is a divinity second to none for me. I will never abandon Lavinium’s kingdom, nor will I allow anyone to abandon it, while life remains to me. [441] Look! swear quickly to the gods, Metellus, that even if Libyan torches burn Rome’s walls, you will never dare to make your way to any other lands. If you do not swear to this, then here is Hannibal in arms, the man you fear, whose terror disrupts your sleep. You will die, nor would killing any Carthaginian bring me greater glory.” These threats disrupted their conspiracy. They bound their souls to the country as Scipio had ordered. They swore the oath to the gods as he dictated and cleansed their hearts from fault.

Hannibal surveys the battlefield. Cinna, a Roman deserter, tells Hannibal the story of Cloelia’s* heroic exploit [449] The Romans’ minds were troubled as they did these things. Meanwhile, Hannibal surveyed the battlefield and reviewed his savage hand’s grim deeds and ran over the combats in his mind’s eye. He showed the fierce Carthaginians the sweet spectacles as a huge throng of men packed around him. [454] Cloelius lay amid the slaughter, javelins piercing his breast. With a final groan, already failing, he breathed his half-dead soul into the air. He struggled with weakening effort to lift his languid face on his tottering neck. His horse recognized him and pricked up its ears. It gave a sharp whinny and hurled Bagaesus to the ground. At that time, it was carrying this Carthaginian to battle in the ranks on its captive back. Then the horse accelerated into a swift gallop over the slippery ground thick with standing blood. It flew over corpses ruined by death and stood before its fallen master’s face. [464] Then the horse inclined its neck and lowered its shoulders, bending its knees according to its training. The horse offered its back for Cloelius to mount and worried about him with love for him alone. No man was luckier than this soldier to ride proudly on this keen horse, whether he was carried swiftly as he lay sprawled across it, or whether 170

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he stood on its bare back as it hurriedly led him rushing at a swift gallop into battle. [472] Hannibal unrestrainedly admired the horse that displayed feeling in its breast similar to a person’s. He asked who that young man was who fought against sinister death, what his name and family were. As he did so, he gave Cloelius a shortcut to death. Here Cinna answered him. He had believed in defeat and turned his arms over to the Carthaginians. At that time he accompanied triumphant Hannibal. [478] “Bravest leader,” Cinna said, “this man’s origins are not unworthy for your ears to hear. Once this Rome was under the rule of kings, though now it refuses the reins of Libyan power. It was under the rule of kings once! But it became angered at Tarquinius Superbus’ throne and drove out his royal domination. Straightaway the house of Clusium made mighty war against them. Perhaps you have heard of Porsenna, perhaps of Horatius Cocles,* and the Etruscan invasion? Porsenna girded himself with Tuscan wealth and Etruscan forces. He strove through war to place the expelled kings back on their throne. They made numerous assaults in vain. The tyrant occupied the Janiculum* hill and oppressed the city. Soon the Romans agreed upon peace and restrained their hatred. They put war aside through a treaty and gave hostages to oblige adherence. [490] But the Romans’ hearts did not know how to soften, by the gods! And the Italians were ready to suffer any hardship for glory. Cloelia had not yet completed the first twelve years of her girlhood.11 She was one of the Laurentine girls who had been handed over, amid a troop of young women, as a pledge of peace. I keep silent regarding men’s deeds. Cloelia paid no heed to king Porsenna or the treaty, to her youth or to the river. She swam without fear across the marveling Tiber River, her young arms breaking through the waves. If Nature had changed her sex, perhaps Porsenna would not have been allowed to return to the Etruscan shores. But so that I don’t go on any longer—this is the young man’s family origin and his name, memorable thanks to the famous maiden.”

Hannibal buries Paulus with honors [503] While Cinna unfolded this story, suddenly shouting broke out nearby to their left. Amid the men’s weapons and torn corpses all mixed together in a heap, they pulled Paulus’ body from the middle of the pile of fallen soldiers. Alas, how he looked: how dissimilar from the man whose javelins had just now thrown the Carthaginian ranks into disorder; or as he had been when he had overturned the Illyrian kingdom and thrown their tyrant

11 See Livy, From the Foundation of the City 2.13.6, for the story of Cloelia.

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in chains!12 Dark dust dirtied his white hair, and dried blood was stuck to his beard. Rocks whirled from the catapult had smashed his teeth, and he was wounded all over his whole body. [513] Hannibal the Carthaginian leader’s joy was doubled when he saw this. “Run away, Varro!” he cried. “Run away and live on so long as Paulus lies dead. Let the consul tell the whole story of Cannae to the senators and to inactive Fabius and the people. I would grant you the chance to flee once more, Varro; if you have such desire for life, I would grant you this. But this man Paulus’ heart was brave and worthy to face me as his enemy. It blazed with no little strength. Let him be acclaimed with a final funeral ceremony and the honor of a tomb. Paulus, how great you are as you lie in death! As just one man, you are a greater cause of happiness for me than so many thousands of dead. When my fate will call me, I pray for such a death for myself while Carthage stands safe.” [523] Hannibal spoke thus and ordered his men to consign his comrades’ bodies to the earth when the next day’s dawn would blush red from her open bedchamber. He directed them to heap up piles of weapons, and he ordered them to burn them for Mars the war god. Then, though they were exhausted, the soldiers hurried through the duties that they had been commanded. The ranks spread out and toppled over the nearby groves. The closely spaced trees13 resounded on the leafy ridges as the axe struck. Here strong arms cut and split the ash and the white poplar with tall foliage, here the holm-oak planted in the time of our forefathers. They felled the Italian oak and the pine that loves the shore and the sad cypress, funereal glory used for tombs. Then at last they strove to heap up the funeral pyres, a sad duty and a useless gift for those who have been taken from us. [536] At last Phoebus the Sun plunged his panting horses in Tartessus’ waters, and the Moon rushing in a circle from the sky’s peak drew on night whose black darkness concealed everything. Then the reins of the Sun, Phaethon’s father, shone with the first fires of day, and color returned to the lands. The soldiers brought fire, and they burned the corpses dripping with gore on the enemy territory. [543] Horrid fear of the uncertain outcome entered the Carthaginians’ minds. Silent terror wandered through their innermost hearts. What if war’s unfair chances soon brought them to lie in this hostile resting place? But a mountain of arms heaped in a massive pile rose up to the stars as a holy offering to Mars, the god who is powerful in war. Hannibal the commander himself raised aloft a pine torch and crowned it with flame and summoned Mars the war god with his vows: “Hannibal the victor

12 See also note 13 in Book 8 for Paulus’ victory over the Illyrians; their ruler was Demetrius of Pharus. 13 We accept Delz’s conjecture arta.

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over the Roman name immolates these first fruits of the combat and offerings of a prosperous war. This crowd of soldiers packed close around me dedicates chosen arms to you, Father Mars, you who have not been deaf to my vows.” [555] Then Hannibal hurled the torch and consuming fire devastated the burning pile. Smoke burst into the air, and bright light from the top of the pyre bathed the fields. From there, he went swiftly to the tomb and the funeral offerings made to Paulus. He boasted of the honor shown to his enemy in death. His men built the pyre high and made a soft bier from the green grass. In addition, they brought gifts as honor for the dead: a sword hated by those who had met it and a shield. These were once a terror and a proud symbol; now they were shattered. They also brought the fasces and the lictor’s axes captured in war. Paulus’ wife and children were not there, nor the crowd of relatives closely connected to him by blood. Nor did the ancestors’ ancient wax masks14 go before his high bier, as was the custom, and give honor to his funeral procession. [568] For Paulus, who had been stripped of all his gear, having Hannibal as his sole eulogist was glory enough now. Hannibal sighed as he threw a robe over Paulus that shone with rich purple dye and a cloak woven with gold. He spoke these words as final honor to Paulus: “Go, glory of Italy, where it is right for souls proud in deeds and courage to go. Your outstanding death has granted you glory. Fortune still turns our labors and commands us to be ignorant of future outcomes.” The Carthaginian commander said these things, and Paulus’ exulting soul swiftly rose into the heavens as the flames crackled all around him.

The defeat prompts an extraordinary reaction at Rome [578] Then Rumor’s growing noise headed up to the stars. Already it had penetrated sea and land and Rome first of all. The Romans lost trust in their walls. To have placed trust in the citadel alone was enough for the frightened people. There were not enough young men, and Italy’s name stood empty without a body. They thought the enemy was passing them over with contempt because they had not yet broken through the gates. It seemed to the Romans that the buildings were already burning, the shrines were being plundered, their children were being slaughtered unspeakably before their faces, and the seven hills were smoldering. They grieved two hundred curule magistrates, laid low in slaughter on a single day. Exhausted Rome’s walls tottered, bereft of sixty thousand young men.15 And these disasters had occurred after the battles at the Trebia

14 See note 13 in Book 4. 15 According to Livy, From the Foundation of the City 22.49.15, nearly 50,000 men died.

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River and at Tuscan Lake Trasimene’s deep waters. Nor was the number of allies who had been killed any lesser. [592] But in any event the dutiful crowd of surviving senators indeed entered into their offices by lot. Fabius swiftly surveyed all these matters and called out to the astonished men: “Trust me, there is no reason left for delay. Let us hurry, so the enemy’s effort to enter our fortified walls will be in vain. Sitting still nourishes harsh Fortune among terrified people, and adverse circumstances increase in fear. Go quickly, young men, seize your weapons from the temples. Hurry and strip your atriums bare and fit out the shields that you captured in combat. We are enough to defend our country, if fear takes nothing away from our number for battle. We should be afraid of horrible devastation on the open battlefield. But naked Moors agile at leaping will never smash our walls.” [605] While Fabius sharpened their minds that had slipped into fear, a wandering rumor spread through the city walls that Varro had arrived. Hidden agitation filled their hearts. It was no different than when a shattered vessel’s captain survives by chance and he swims alone from the sea to his homeland’s shores.16 In uncertainty, people hesitate over whether to stretch out their hands or to deny them to the man as he is tossed about. They hate the lone captain’s very survival when he has lost his ship. What a disgrace remained for Varro, who dared to approach the gates and who came as a dire omen to the fearful Romans! [615] Fabius soothed these complaints and taught them that it was disgraceful to rage at disasters. He held the crowd off from their anger. For it was not the part of men who listed Mars the war god among their people to be smashed by adversity. Nor should they be unable to hide their grief, nor look for solace for their pain in punishing Varro. If indeed they would permit Fabius to chastise them: the day on which he saw Varro depart for the camp had dawned more sadly for him than the day on which he saw him return without weapons. [623] The people’s threats settled down at these words, and their hearts suddenly shifted. Now they pitied Varro’s fate, now they thought that the joy of killing both consuls had been snatched from Hannibal. And so the whole crowd poured forth in a long line of well-wishers. They testified that they believed he had acted with a noble mind. He had trusted in his ancestors and proud scepter and had not despaired in Rome, the city of Laomedon’s Trojan descendants. [630] Varro the consul was no less unhappy in his guilt, and great shame troubled him. He wept as he guided his tottering steps to the walls. He was chagrined to raise his downcast face and look at his country and recall his grief. But then the Senate and the Roman people presented themselves to him upon his return. Each person seemed to demand back his children and

16 We accept Damsté’s conjecture patriis.

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brothers rather than to congratulate him. Grieving mothers appeared ready to go and tear open the consul’s face. For this reason, his lictors were silent as they accompanied him into the city. He spurned his office that the gods had condemned. [640] But Fabius and the senators put their grief far behind them and hurried to their concerns. They swiftly armed slaves chosen for their youth and did not bar them from the camps. They put the country’s safety before their shame. They were determined to use any man’s hand whatsoever to lead Aeneas’ Roman kingdom back to the Fates’ laws. They would put arms even into the slaves’ hands for their citadel and ruling scepters and honor of liberty. They stripped the purple-bordered togas from their young sons’ bodies and girded them with unfamiliar armor. Boys’ faces were shut into helmets, and their parents ordered them to come of age by slaughtering the enemy. [650] People begged them to ransom the prisoners of war for a little gold. Many thousands beseeched them to do this. The senators persisted in abandoning the prisoners to Hannibal, who was astonished. For an armed man to let himself be captured already went beyond every crime and fault. They imposed the following penalty on those convicted of turning their backs in desertion: they would serve far off on the Sicilian shores until the enemy retreated from Latium. This was Rome at that time. If it stood decreed by the Fates that morals would change after you fell, Carthage, then would that you were still standing!

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After the Roman defeat at Cannae, numerous Italian peoples turn to the Carthaginian side, especially the powerful city of Capua [1] Come now, I shall tell of the peoples which the remarkable defeat on the Iapygian battlefield at Cannae turned toward Libya and the Carthaginian camps. When Fortune totters, no loyalty stands long for mortal men anywhere. They rushed to join hands openly with Hannibal who had violated the peace treaty. Alas! Too easily they lost faith in the Romans’ exhausted state. The fierce Samnites, more savage than the other peoples, had stored their long-preserved anger and renewed their hatred for the occasion.1 Soon the fickle Bruttians joined them, who would weigh out their deeds too late with shame,2 and soon after the deceptive Apulians who shifted their arms. Then came the vain people of Hirpinum,3 who had not learned to be at peace and who had no worthwhile reason to break their loyalty. It was as if a dreadful contagion of foul disease had spread through all these peoples. [14] And now as fear overcame right, Atella* and Calatia4 sent their cohorts into the Carthaginian camps. Then high-spirited foolishness loosened the Roman yoke over Tarentum founded by Phalantus.* High Croton* opened friendly gates and taught the Thespiads’* descendants to bend their necks to the Africans and obey the barbarians’ orders. The same madness had the Locrians* in their grip. Where Greater Greece5 preserves Argive walls and the deep Ionian Sea* washes the curving shore, the coast with its shallows followed Carthage’s prosperous situation and fortunes in war. Its peoples fearfully vowed their warfare to the Tyrian war god. And indeed

1 See note 25 in Book 8. 2 The Bruttians were the last to surrender to the Romans. 3 See Book 8, lines 562ff. 4 See Book 8, lines 536ff. 5 Magna Graecia is the name used for the wide area of Greek colonies in southern Italy and Sicily.

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the Celts, the Po River’s most arrogant inhabitants, brooded on the wrongs done them by the Italians. Long accustomed to anger at the Romans, they hurried to join as allies with all their might. [28] But it would have been right for the Celts, right for the Boian peoples to bring impious war once more. Who would believe that the same madness that pleased the Senonian Gauls also pleased Capua? That walls that had been Trojan from their founding allied with the Numidians’ barbaric tyrant Hannibal only now that the times had changed? Luxury and laziness were nourished through mad times, and now their shame was all used up in sinning. What honor they had left, they disgracefully paid only to riches. These crimes wounded a people gaping with idleness and a town loosed from laws. In addition, violent arrogance led them to their destruction. They did not lack resources for their vices. [38] No people of Italy had a larger supply of gold and silver. For sure Fortune favored the Capuans at that time. Men wore robes imbued in toxic Phoenician dyes. They had royal feasts in the middle of the day, and sunrise caught them partying. Every kind of stain dirtied their lives. At that time, the senators were vicious to the people, the people rejoiced in their hatred of the Senate, and sedition smashed together dissonant hearts. But meanwhile the old men, even more polluted, increased the youth’s headstrong crimes. There were men with lowly ancestry, defiled by their contemptible origins, who hoped for their own advancement. They were the first to demand rule and control of their perishing country. Slaughter once customarily enlivened their parties. The dire spectacle of men fighting with swords occupied their banquets. Often dying men splashed much blood on their tables, over their very cups. [55] Pacuvius* cunningly went after these men and turned their sick minds more keenly to the Carthaginians. His name was well-known for crime. He urged them to demand what he was certain Rome would never give under any circumstances—and he did not want it even if they gave it— half of the highest power and a shared consulship with alternating fasces.6 If the Romans should refuse to let a Capuan partner sit in the curule chair, to see equal honor and partnered axes, then Hannibal, an avenger for their rebuff, stood before their very eyes and faces. And so a chosen troop swiftly brought their message to Rome.

The Capuan embassy demands concessions from the Roman Senate, which forcefully refuses them [65] Virrius* headed the embassy up. His powers of speech excelled all others. But his family was obscure, and his madness was second to none. He poured forth his crazy people’s impious demands in the mighty Senate, the

6 The Capuans demand that one of the consuls in Rome be from their city.

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Fathers’ gathering. He barely got through all the Capuan demands before his arrogant words set their ears on fire. A bitter roar poured out from the entire council, a conjoined scream of refusal. Then each senator wore himself out rebuking Virrius, and the contest of voices shook the Curia. [73] Here noble Torquatus whose severe brow was the equal of his ancestors7 spoke: “Alas! Have you been bold enough to enter Romulus’ walls and bring such words from Capua? Carthage and Hannibal have not dared to bring their arms against our walls even after their victory at Cannae. Has it never come to your ears that the Latins begged for similar rights on the Tarpeian Rock? The man whose arrogant mouth made the demands at the time was pushed back, not with words, not by a voice, but by a vigorous hand. They threw him headlong over the temple’s threshold; such a great commotion thrust forth his body. Jupiter watched as he struck the savage rock and expiated his grim words, atoning in death for his impious speech. Behold! I am the descendant of the man who thrust the Latin envoy from Jupiter the Thunderer’s seat, the consul who defended the Capitol with his bare hands.” [87] Torquatus was enraged and thrust his fists in the Capuans’ faces, making ready to repeat his ancestor’s deeds. As Fabius saw him growing still more savage and ready for greater action, he gnashed his teeth and broke in: “Oh! You people utterly lack shame! Look, this consul’s seat is vacant: the war’s whirlwind has emptied it. Who among you, I ask, are you readying to put into it? Who are you giving us in place? Did your lot come up first, Virrius, and your Senate granted it? Is it speeding you on here before others? Does a purple robe make you equal to our first consul Brutus? Go, crazy man, go where you are heading. Let faithless Carthage give you its fasces.” [97] Marcellus was unable to hold back his rage any further and groaned in the middle of Fabius’ heated speech. He cried out fiercely in his thundering anger: “Oh Varro, the storm of war has left you far too dazed! What sluggish patience has a grip on your mind? In the end, what is it, that you as consul can put up with these men’s maddened hallucinations! Why have you not driven these madmen headlong from the Senate’s threshold to the city gates long before now? Why won’t you force these half-men to learn what a consul’s authority is, created according to our tradition? Youth who have never been sober and who shall die soon! I warn you, get out of Rome quickly. As is only fair, an armed commander will give the reply you are entitled to before your own walls.” [109] Here all the senators rose together and assaulted the Capuans with a huge shout. The Campanian youth hurriedly retreated outdoors. Hannibal’s name excitedly spun out of Virrius’ mouth in his anger at such a rebuff.

7 His ancestor Titus Manlius Torquatus Imperiosus, consul in 340 BCE, refused a similar demand made by the Latins. See Livy, From the Foundation of the City 8.5–6.

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The forethought in Fulvius’* mind was promising him future glory and the image of captured Capua was already before his eyes.8 “Not even if you led Hannibal leader of Carthage to Rome in triumph,” Fulvius said, “his neck bound in your chains, would you be permitted after this to enter Romulus Quirinus’ holy seat. Head quickly, I beg you, where your sick mind is calling you.” Then the Capuans hurried along and carried home the grim Senate’s fierce replies mixed with threats. [122] Omnipotent Jupiter, does it please you that Fate should lie hidden in such darkness? One day a happier age will come, when dutiful Rome will rejoice in a Campanian consul. Rome will bring back safely of its own accord the fasces that war and fighting long denied to the Capuans’ greathearted descendants. This punishment for their arrogant ancestors will nevertheless persist: Capua will not send its people to the Roman suffrage before Carthage does.9

The Capuans enthusiastically welcome in Hannibal. Decius, the Roman loyalist, opposes them [129] After Virrius related the Senate’s words and deeds, he trickily mixed lies and truth and foretold bloody war’s fatal signs to the troubled Capuans. The raging youth demanded arms, arms and Hannibal. The crowd rushed in all directions and called the Carthaginians into their houses. They celebrated Hannibal the Carthaginian youth’s mighty deeds: how he smashed the Alps as a sharer in Hercules’ glory and crossed ridges close to the gods’ homes on his way; how he conquered the Po, closing off the waters by stuffing them with corpses; how the same conqueror defiled the Etruscan waters with Roman blood; how he consigned the Trebia River’s banks to fame and gave them an eternal name; and how he sent Paulus and Flaminius, the first men of the state, down to the shades in battle. [143] In addition to these deeds, the Capuans recounted Saguntum which he cut down in his first battle; and the Pyrenees’ ridges and the Ebro River; and the holy duty to his father, the war he vowed to Hamilcar in boyhood years. This one man Hannibal had slain so many commanders in combat, his battle ranks scattered so many more, and no weapons had touched him as he stood amid the fighting. Thanks to the gods’ gift, they would be given the chance to join their hands with this man and unite in an alliance. Indeed, should Capua endure the Roman people’s contempt after they had been bled dry? Or the Romans’ empty arrogance and the domination of a city that denied them the fasces and equal rights, as if they were slaves? Of course,

8 See Book 13 for Quintus Fulvius Flaccus’ eventual recapture of Capua. 9 Carthage became a Roman colony in 122 BCE, and Capua was given citizen rights after the Social War in 90 BCE.

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Varro’s title of consul should be considered all the more important: his purple robe shone all the brighter as he fled. [155] Shouting out such insults, the Capuans got ready to send young men chosen by lot who would negotiate a treaty with the Carthaginians. But at that time Decius* was Capua’s sole glory. He put unconquerable fortitude in his chest. He was admitted to the middle of the gathering, nor was any time allowed for delay. Decius said: “Citizens, are you going to violate your ancestors’ agreements and welcome Hannibal in hospitality, whose head was condemned on the altars for violating the treaty? What huge forgetfulness of right! Keeping faith in adverse circumstances is a great matter and found in great peoples and men. Now it is time to enter battle on the Romans’ behalf, now it is time to move the ranks and battle standards, while their situation is fearful and their wounds call out for medicine. This is the occasion for duty: when prosperous circumstances end and harsh Fortune calls for help. For cherishing happy times does not bring glory at all to a great soul. [169] Come here now, be present! I know their spirits are like the gods’ and great evils never constrict their breasts. Believe me, they can take Cannae and Lake Trasimene’s waters and Paulus’ unforgettable death. These are the men whose hands threw down the enemy that was settled within your walls and rescued Capua from the Samnites’ arrogant commands.10 These are the men who banished your fear and gave you your rights and ended the war on behalf of the Sidicini. Which allies are you fleeing, which ones are you adding? [177] I am a man of Trojan blood. My forefather Capys,* relative of great Julus, left me sacred relics and names traced back to Jupiter. Should I pitch my tent mixed in with a Marmarican nursling amid the half-human Nasamonians and the savage Garamantians whose customs are like the beasts’? Should I put up with a leader whose sword now stands in place of treaties and justice and whose only praises stem from bloodshed? Right and wrong are not so mixed up for Decius that he should wish for such things. Grudging Nature has armed me with no greater good than this: that death’s gate lies open, and I have the power to depart from an unfair life.” [189] Decius hurled these words in vain into averse ears. Meanwhile, a selected embassy joined in a treaty with Hannibal. Already a large cohort of Autololes were present with their disturbing uproar. Hannibal had sent them out before him. The commander himself moved his battle standards hurriedly across the fields in a long column. And Decius said: “Now is the hour, men, now is the time. Be present, while an avenging hand works a deed worthy of Capua under my leadership. Let the barbarian youth fall! Each man should eagerly seize this glory for himself. If the enemy prepares to

10 In 343 BCE, the Sidicini and the Capuans appealed to Rome to ward off the Samnites.

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advance upon us, offer him gates blocked with corpses and use your swords to purge our crime. In the end, only bloodshed will cleanse minds that crime has stained.” [201] While Decius pointlessly said these things unwelcome to all, Hannibal heard of the man’s bitterness and ferocious undertaking. He was standing before the walls, his heart packed full of great anger. He ordered picked men to speed severe Decius hurriedly into the camp. Decius bristled with courage, and his breast was armed with loyalty and desire for right. His unterrified mind was greater than Capua, and he stood fast like an unconquerable bulwark. His face turned grim at Hannibal’s menacing commands, and he even assailed him with bitter words. Hannibal the Carthaginian leader saw him spurning so many men under arms and their battle standards. He abused him with a great shout: [212] “After Paulus, after Flaminius, alas!” Hannibal said. “I am matched up against crazy Decius. He wants to fight with me for the fame of a glorious death. Come, my commanders, swiftly snatch up the battle standards. It pleases me to learn if Capua the Campanian city will remain open to me if Decius forbids—I for whom the Alps lay open as I started a new war, the Alps which pushed stones against the sky and were trodden before only by a god.” Blood suffused Hannibal’s face, and flames rose in his fierce eyes. Then he grimaced and foamed at the mouth. Gasping from deep within his panting throat, he gave forth a dire roar. The whole Senate accompanied him as he proceeded through the city. The crowd rushed to see the leader’s face as he poured out all his rage and storms of anger. [225] So too the approaching dangers had kindled Decius’ mind. He saw the time was at hand when an unarmed man would outdo Hannibal the unconquerable leader’s fame. He did not hide in flight, nor shut himself up in his house. Instead he remained a free man, his fearless face relaxed, as if Hannibal had never pushed into his city. Horrible! A knot of men rushing with savage arms grabbed young Decius and made him stand at Hannibal’s feet where he sat high on his throne. The conqueror thundered from above, attacking Decius with ferocious words: [234] “Oh, you crazy man,” Hannibal said, “were you readying all by yourself to prop up collapsing Rome and call it back from death? Look at the man who would seize the gods’ great gifts from me. Indeed, they saved me from death, just so I could be conquered by sedentary Decius, unwarlike Decius. No woman born on the shores of our Carthage, founded by Agenor, would yield to this man. Why should I put up with matters beneath me? Come, soldiers, tie up this great-spirited man in the chains he deserves.” Hannibal had said these things, nor had his rebukes yet come to an end. He was carried away like a lion who leaps on cattle’s high necks. In his victory, he roars tremendously from anger. He digs his claws in and gnaws at the panting bullock’s neck as he hangs there. [247] But as the soldiers bound him in chains, Decius said: “Tie the chains on quicker! It’s fitting for Hannibal to enter Capua this way. I am paying 181

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the price of our unfortunate treaty with the Romans. In this way indeed Decius falls as a worthy sacrifice. Nor would it be right to slaughter oxen to placate you: you are only happy with human blood. Look at our joined hands! Look at our treaty! You have not yet entered the Capuan Senate house nor the temples’ doors, Hannibal: already the prison opens at your bitter command. Go on now and add similar deeds to such great beginnings. The report will come to me in the Underworld shadows below that you were defeated and fell in Capua’s ruins.” Decius was not given a further chance to speak. They threw a dark hood over his head and dragged him off, still fierce, before his people’s faces.

Hannibal and his soldiers relax at a banquet in Capua. Pacuvius dissuades his son from murdering Hannibal [259] Straight away Hannibal the conqueror rejoiced, his breast at last at peace. He happily turned a calm gaze on the city’s buildings and temples, which were well worth the sight. He learned about their details: who founded the walls, how mighty their youth were in arms, how many talents of silver and bronze were available for war; and then what kind of cavalry they had, and next how large the force of footsoldiers was. The Capuans showed him their high Capitol11 and told him about the Stellatian fields12 and their favorable harvests. [267] And now Phoebus the Sun was guiding the day to its ending, down from the sky with his tired horses. Hesperus the evening star little by little was darkening the Sun’s chariot with shadow as it hurried toward the ocean. The Capuans began to feast according to their custom. They celebrated banquets on tables piled up for a king throughout the rejoicing city. They honored Hannibal himself with divine cult and holy ritual, seating him on high on a prominent couch covered in much purple and shining far and wide. More than one crowd of slaves served him. Some had the task of laying out the dishes, others lit the hearths, others brought the drinking cups in turn. Handpicked slaves served the food. [277] Rough masses of ancient carved gold shone on the dining table. Flames banished the night, and the high palace resounded with the feasting men’s noises.13 The Carthaginian soldiers were unused to richly laid tables and gaped in wonder. Their marveling eyes drank in arrogant luxury’s unfamiliar appearance. Hannibal ate in silence and condemned the fact that they gave such honor to banqueting. Such an army of slaves tended to a meal that could have been easily supplied. Eventually he tamed his hunger, and Bacchus’ gift of wine loosened his severe mind. Then at last

11 Capua had a Capitol like Rome, but it does not date before 26 CE. 12 Of uncertain location in Campania. 13 We read madentum, as suggested by Delz.

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happiness returned to his brow, and he put aside the heavier cares from his breast. [288] Teuthras,* born in Cumae, played on the Euboean* lyre. His songs soothed ears that the savage war trumpet’s merciless roar had deafened in combat. For he sang of Jupiter and his happy love affairs conducted in secret and the bed of Atlas’ daughter Electra.* She gave birth to Dardanus, a worthy descendant of the gods, who in turn gave Jupiter the Thunderer a grandson, Erichthonius,* born from a mighty stock. From him came Tros,* next came Ilus,* then Assaracus in a long line of descent. Then he told how Capys, no lesser than they in his fame or combat skill, first gave his name to the city’s walls. The Carthaginian youth and the Campanian soldiers celebrated together with applause. Before all others, Hannibal the commander poured a libation in honor of Capys’ name from his drinking cup in an exalted ritual. The rest of the gathering followed him and poured Bacchus’ drink on the tables following custom. They burned with wine. The Carthaginians turned to relaxing in pleasures. [303] Meanwhile—for you, young man, are not worthy to be left in silence!14 I shall not willingly pass over your attempts or deny fame to your endeavors. Though you did not complete them, they were nevertheless characteristic of a great nature. One mind, that of Pacuvius’ son, remained untouched by strong wine. No poison had robbed its glory through intoxication. In his silent breast, he pondered the feat of attacking and killing Hannibal. Such a holy desire was even more admirable: he was Pacuvius’ son, yet he had condemned his father’s tricks. [312] A banquet of varied foods loaded Pacuvius down. His step was slow as he left the hall. Pacuvius’ son followed behind him. He had the opportunity to lay open his thoughts to his father and unfold his new aspiration. As they left, an unoccupied place lay open at the back of the building. “Hear plans worthy of Capua and ourselves,” Pacuvius’ son said, as he moved aside his toga and lay bare his armed flank. [318] “With this sword,” Pacuvius’ son continued, “I am preparing to end the war and bring the Carthaginian leader’s severed head to Jupiter the Thunderer in victory. Here is the sword that will make sacred once more the treaties that we have defiled through our deception. If your old age is unable to endure such sights and trembles at undertakings that are too great for your declining years, then withdraw to your safe house and leave me to my own intentions. You think Hannibal is the greatest, and you make him equal to the gods. Oh, how much greater the name of your son will be than the Carthaginian!” [327] Terrible fire launched from the young man’s mouth and his soul was already waging war. Already his aged father’s weak ears could hardly bear

14 Silius does not name Pacuvius’ son. Livy, From the Foundation of the City 23.8.7, gives his name as Perolla.

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the weight of such an undertaking. Pacuvius collapsed trembling on the spot and fixed kiss after fearful kiss on his son’s feet. “By what remains of my life,” he said, “by a parent’s rights, by your safety which is more important than mine, my son, stop your endeavors, I beg you! May I not see blood polluting my hospitality and cups filled with bloody gore and tables overturned in a contested fight. [337] Can you stand against that man Hannibal, whom neither battle lines nor walls nor cities can endure? Can you stand against the thunderbolts he hurls from his head, when his brow is near you and his eye flashes with shimmering fire? What if he sees your sword and sends forth that dire shout that overturns ranks of soldiers on the battlefield? He deceives you because you think he is unarmed at the banquet table. But an eternal majesty acquired in so many battles, through so much slaughter, arms this leader. If you put your face close to his, you will be amazed. Cannae and the Trebia River will stand before your eyes, as will the tombs of Lake Trasimene and Paulus’ mighty ghost. What now? Will his comrades’ hands fail him on such an occasion, or those of the men reclining next to him? Leave off, I beg you, and stop desiring something you are unable to come out of alive and victorious. Or do Decius’ grim chains not teach you to settle your mind?” [351] As Pacuvius said these things, he saw his son burning with love of greater fame and deaf to fear. The father said: “I ask nothing further. Guide your steps back to the banquet. Let’s hurry. You must not attack the Carthaginian youths’ breasts as they defend their king. Instead, try out your hand on my neck here. If you are readying to attack Hannibal, you must thrust your sword through my guts. Don’t disdain my slow old age! I will put my limbs in the way. Through my own death, I will snatch away the sword that you would not let me wrench out of your hand.” [360] Then tears poured over Pacuvius’ face. Thanks to the gods’ care, Hannibal was saved for great Scipio’s arms. Nor did Fate hand him over to be killed by a foreign hand. Pacuvius’ son was very beautiful in his anger and well worthy of becoming the doer of a memorable deed. How much glory he lost when he put aside his endeavor, when merely desiring to do it brought him such honor! Then they hurried to return to the banquet, and calm expressions disguised their grief, until sleep broke up the men’s happy gathering.

Venus sends the Cupids to weaken Hannibal’s troops. The bard Teuthras sings to the Carthaginians about the power of music [369] The next day’s dawn was preparing to send forth Phaethon’s horses. Already the Sun’s swift chariot shone below the wavetops. But young Hannibal, great Hamilcar’s son, had long since been grappling with tough 184

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anxieties. He ordered fierce Mago to go as a messenger to Carthage’s citadel and bring news of his commander’s deeds to the senators. He chose spoils and captive slaves’ bodies and arms seized from men in bloody combat, offerings to the gods for a prosperous war. He sent Decius, his other concern, to the Libyan shore. Alas! He would have been imprisoned there till Hannibal returned to exercise his anger at leisure. But from on high Jupiter pitied young Decius, who was not worthy of such punishment. He diverted him to Cyrene, Battus’ ancient city. Here Ptolemy* held a scepter inherited from Alexander the Great. He rescued Decius from the threats of the Carthaginians who were transporting him. He loosened the chains from his neck.15 And soon after the land that had saved Decius’ life received his undisturbed bones in a quiet tomb. [385] Meanwhile, Venus did not overlook the desirable opportunity of crushing the Carthaginians’ minds in unseen destruction. Amid their happy times, she used luxury to control their demanding hearts. She ordered her sons, the Cupids, to shoot deceptive arrows here and there and send silent flames into their chests. Then sweetly laughing at her children, Venus said: “Let hostile Juno go and be led on by her fortunate circumstances. Let her despise us—no wonder, for what are we? Her hand is powerful, her arms are powerful. We shoot small arrows little by little from a child’s bow, and no blood comes from our wounds. [395] But come, my crowd of children, I pray you, now is the time! Stand by me and burn the Carthaginian youth with your silent missiles. Embraces and much wine and sleep must conquer these battle ranks which the sword could not smash, nor fires, nor Mars the war god who let loose his reins. Let Hannibal drink in luxury as it slips into his guts. Let him not feel ashamed to sleep propped up on a high couch with embroidered tapestries. Let him not resist suffusing his hair with Eastern perfume.16 Let that man who bragged that he caught his sleep under the winter sky now prefer to spend his nights indoors. Let him end his custom of eating through a helmet while he sits on a swift horse. Let him learn to give his peaceful day over to drink. Then at last let him enjoy the lyre when he’s soaking drunk after a banquet. Let him lazily sleep through the night, or let him stay up all night under my divine power of love.” [410] The lascivious troop of Cupids applauded after Venus said this. They rushed down from high heaven on their snowy wings. The Moorish youth felt the inflaming arrows. Their breasts grew hot as the missiles poured over them. Once more they wanted Bacchus’ gifts of wine and banquets and wine-moistened songs sung to the Pierian Muses’ lyre. The keen war horse no longer sweated on the open field. They did not tire out their bare arms hurling lances through the air. Drinks warmed on the fire soothed limbs

15 Only according to Silius. This would have been Ptolemy IV Philopator. 16 A sign of effeminacy for the Romans.

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already softened by sleep. These wretched luxuries destroyed their bristling courage. [420] Tricky Cupid even breathed on the commander Hannibal himself. He renewed the banquet tables once more with feasting and sought the willing Capuans’ hospitality again. Hannibal degenerated little by little. He put off his father’s arts of war as Cupid’s hidden arrow poisoned his mind. Already he was calling Capua a second homeland and a second Carthage held in equal honor. Alluring vices shook his mind which had remained thus far untouched by favoring Fortune. [427] There was no limit to luxury for the Campanians, nor of life sunk in pleasures. They piled it on, competing in the theater’s various scenic arts and using games to distinguish their feasts. Just so the Phrygian flute resounds constantly in Memphis* on the Nile, as playfully as in Canopus* named after the Spartan helmsman.17 As Hannibal rejoiced, Teuthras first among all poured a sweet song into his ears, now with his voice, now with his lyre’s plectrum. He saw Libya’s leader marveling at the strings resounding under his thumb. So little by little, Teuthras began to sing the Greek lyre’s lofty praises. His voice moved in tune with the instrument as he sang, a voice that could outdo the dying swan’s farewell to life. From the many songs he knew, Teuthras picked out the gentlest one for the banquet: [440] “Once upon a time,” Teuthras sang, “the Argive people—it is marvelous to tell!—heard the fortunate lyre made from the tortoise shell move stones and place eager rocks on the walls. The lyre built walls around Thebes* under Amphion’s* plectrum. Stones climbed of their own accord on to the fortifications he placed. He ordered towers to rise up to a great height as he sang. Another lyre stilled the disturbed ocean with its music. It held back the seals and cycled Proteus18 through all his transformations and carried Arion* on the dolphin’s watery back. [449] Chiron* shaped the minds of heroes and great Achilles’ breast as he sang on Mount Pelion’s cliffs. The centaur loved the lyre: as he struck its strings, he could hold back the sea’s anger or the grim Underworld. For he sang of Chaos,* the dark starless mass that once existed before the day arose, and of a world without light. Then he sang how the god cut the clear sea’s waters and put the earth’s globe in the middle of its framework. He gave the gods high Olympus to dwell in and showed the world father Saturn’s chaste age.19 [459] But Orpheus was heard by both the gods above and the shades below. The strings which he struck by the Thracian River Strymon* shone

17 Canopus was the helmsman of the Spartan king Menelaus, and gave his name to the Egyptian city where he died. We read pariter as suggested by Thilo, followed by Duff. 18 See Book 7, lines 409ff. 19 The Golden Age.

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among the stars in the heaven that they earned.20 Even his mother Calliope, whom the whole troop of Muses attended, marveled as he sang. Neither Mount Pangaeum’s cliffs nor Mars’ Mount Haemus stood still, nor did furthest Thrace as he played these sounds. The wild animals came along with the woods, the rivers came along with the mountains. The bird forgot its sweet nest and stopped its flight, and captivated it hung motionless in the air. And again, the Argonauts’* ship refused to enter the sea and waters which it had not yet known while on land. Orpheus played his lyre and the alluring song led the sea right up to the holy ship’s stern. [472] With his lyre, Orpheus the Thracian bard placated the Underworld’s pale kingdom and the Acheron River resounding with flames. He fixed Sisyphus’* rolling stone in place. Oh you dire Ciconian mothers with your Getic madness, and Mount Rhodope condemned by the gods!21 The Hebrus River carried his severed head toward the ocean, and both of its banks followed. Then also, when the swift waves carried his head cut clean off his neck, the whales exulted over the whole sea and flashed suddenly out of the waves at his sound.” So Teuthras, friend of the Pierian Muses, weakened with his Castalian* song the men’s breasts that war had hardened.

Mago reports the victory at Cannae to the Carthaginian Senate. Hanno asks once more to sue for peace with the Romans, as he did earlier during the siege of Saguntum [483] Meanwhile, calm winds had already brought Mago to Africa. The ship crowned with laurel entered the port it sought. Captive weapons on the high prow shone from far off on the sea. The sailors’ shouting, rising far off from the open sea, had long since filled the resounding shores. They struck their breasts as they drew back the oars. At the same moment the broken sea foamed under a hundred blows. The crowd ran hurriedly into the middle of the waves to participate in the rejoicing. Elated by the favor they had been shown, the people zealously celebrated their unexpected happiness with tremendous applause. They made Hannibal an equal with the gods. [494] On all sides mothers rejoiced, as did the younger crowd, their children whom they instructed to celebrate. The elders together with the people and the senators paid respect to Hannibal by sacrificing oxen, as if honoring one of the gods. In this way, Mago entered his country in the fame of his brother’s glory, and the gates thronged with overjoyed people.

20 Orpheus’ lyre became the constellation Lyra. 21 The Thracian mothers were considered barbaric, as was all of Thrace (with Mount Rhodope). They were jealous of Orpheus and killed him in madness.

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Then the Senate rushed out, and the court packed around him in a large throng of the Fathers. Then Mago honored the gods in his forefathers’ ancient manner. [502] “I announce an outstanding victory in war,” Mago said. “We have shattered the resources upon which the land of Italy supported itself. I myself was no small part of these labors. The gods favored our prayers as we fought. There is a place which the glory of Diomedes the Aetolian king ennobles, which Daunus once possessed in the ancient ages gone by. The Aufidus River surrounds the moist fields with its swift eddies, and its flooding pools cut off the farmland. And then, the river strikes the Adriatic waves and makes a great crashing as it pushes the yielding sea back into the deep. Here Varro and Paulus, a great name amid the Latins, were the leaders to whom power over the Roman state had been entrusted. Hardly had dawn pushed away the black night’s darkness when they invaded the battlefield. Their arms flashed far and wide and kindled the rising dawn’s light. [516] On the other side, we moved our battle standards quickly from the camp. For keen rage for the fight that he desired led on my brother Hannibal. The earth trembled, and Olympus roared as it was struck. Here Hannibal the commander covered the river and the fields in slaughtered men. The earth never bore a greater leader in battle than this man. I saw Italy routed in a savage whirlwind at the sound of his fighting and turning tail through the fields from him alone. I saw how cowardly Varro threw away his arms and rushed off on a swift horse. And I even saw you, great-spirited Paulus, your body pierced by missiles, falling amid the slaughter of your comrades. [527] This day with its massive carnage avenged the Aegates Islands and the treaty that enslaved us. It would not please me to desire more than what the favoring god has given us at this time. If another day like this should return, then you alone, Carthage, would be the head of all peoples, and every land would worship you. These are the witnesses to the slaughter. It is the custom for high-ranking Roman men to wear these illustrious symbols on their left hands.”22 [533] Then Mago caused shining golden rings to be poured out before the admiring people’s faces. They stood out in a large heap and gave credibility to his words. Here Mago resumed his speech: “It remains now to overthrow Rome from its lowest foundation, undermine it, and level it to the ground. Let’s make an effort. Renew our forces that have been exhausted by so many adversities. Let generous pay from the treasury be made available to the mercenaries whom we contracted for the war. Already we are lacking our elephants, a grim terror to the Italians, and our food supplies are flagging.”

22 See Book 8, lines 664ff.

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[542] Mago turned a fierce glare at Hanno23 as he said these things. Bitter jealousy at Hannibal’s increasing glory had long since driven on corrupt Hanno. Mago said: “Now have we proven our fighting hands and our endeavors? Now is it right for me not to be enslaved to a Roman colonist? Or does it please you to hand over Hannibal once more? Envy’s venom blackens your heart, which overflows with dark poison. It should change at last when entreated by so many titles and so many triumphs. Unlucky Hanno! Look at the fighting hand, look at Hannibal’s hand which you would have given to the Romans to torture. It has filled the shores and rivers and pools and wide fields with blood.” Mago said these things, and the crowd’s unconcealed favor nourished his courage. [554] Anger and jealousy together goaded Hanno as he replied to him: “For my part, I don’t wonder at such rebukes from this crazy young man. His mind is swelled up. You would quickly recognize his brother’s heart and his meaningless tongue’s poison. He should not believe that I have changed my thoughts and held off for empty reasons. Now we must plead for peace. Now we must put aside our weapons that we incriminated by breaking the treaty. Beware of this deadly war. I am the originator of this idea. [561] I ask you to weigh up what Hannibal would bring us. There is nothing else left for us to decide. He asks for arms, men, gold, fleets, food, and war elephants. I would not have given more than this if I had been defeated. We have drenched the Italian plains with Roman blood, and Latium lies dead on the battlefield. So, good conqueror Hannibal, allow me at last to set aside my anxieties. Permit me to sit at peace in my own homeland. Don’t allow ravaging war’s expenses to drain my household store, so often emptied before now. [570] Now, look, I say now—and I pray that my prophecy is false and that a meaningless omen is tricking my mind—the deadly day is not far off. I have come to know the Romans’ fierce hearts, and I see how disaster gives rise to anger in them. I fear you, Cannae, I fear you. Put down our battle standards. Come on now, make an effort to negotiate peace. The Romans will not grant it. Believe me, their grief will create a greater destruction for us than the one they have already suffered. They will offer us a peace treaty more quickly in victory than in defeat. [578] But Mago’s arrogant mouth trumpets such deeds and spews a foamy whirlwind of words over ignorant men’s ears. Come now, say, that brother of yours who is equal in arms to Mars Gradivus: throughout the ages, the earth has never created a leader like him in war. Why then has he not seen the walls of Romulus’ city? For sure, let’s snatch from their mothers’ laps boys not yet capable of handling heavier arms and send them against the enemy. Let’s craft a thousand bronze-clad ships at your command, and let’s hunt every elephant in Libya’s territory. That way Hannibal may extend his

23 See Book 2, line 270.

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long command and his years under arms and draw out his reign right up to the time of his death. [590] Indeed, the plot that surrounds us isn’t hidden. Don’t strip your sweet homes bare. Set a limit to these powerful men’s camps and resources. Peace is the best of things that have been given to men to know. One peace is more effective than countless triumphs. Peace is a powerful means of guarding our safety and making citizens equal. Let’s call back peace at last into Carthage’s citadel. Let our reputation for treachery leave Dido’s city. If such lust for war holds you and you stand fast in not returning the swords to your country that asks for them, then I urge you not to feed Hannibal’s madness and for Mago to bring his brother my words.” [601] Hanno was about to add more, for his speech had not yet satisfied his rage. But the uproar of men who opposed him interrupted. “You may be angry at Hannibal, Libya’s glory, whom none can defeat in arms,” they said. “Should we then desert the conqueror when he is at the very finish line and not bring him assistance and resources? Should we hold back the scepters he has already won just for one man’s jealousy?” Then they eagerly voted to bestow what war’s needs demanded. Under Mago’s witness, they boasted of their favor for the absent commander. Soon after they agreed to send the same resources to the armies in Spain. Meanwhile, Hanno’s evil envy detracted from Hannibal’s immortal deeds and did not permit help to increase the commander’s glory.

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Hannibal leaves Capua and attacks Campanian cities [1] Now harsh Winter1 hid his frozen face in the earth, his temples swollen with rain and his brow surrounded with clouds from the south wind gales. Health-giving spring softened the fields with gentle west winds and warm peaceful weather. The Carthaginian general Hannibal left Capua and shook the neighboring places far and wide, dispatching terror in advance of the march. Just so a snake hides during winter, while the Thracian mountains grow still by the north wind’s breath. Finally its coils slither out from its secret bed, shining forth as new, when the weather gives it confidence. Its mouth perks up and breathes out venom. But when the Libyan’s standards shone on the fields, everything was deserted because of fear. The people shut themselves behind fortifications, driven by fear and scared for their safety, waiting for the enemy and not trusting even in their own walls. [15] But Hannibal did not have the same strength then as before, when he had brought arms that penetrated through the Alps and opened up the way, or when he took hold of the River Trebia and stained the Etruscan Trasimene’s waves with Italian blood. Soft luxury and wine had drenched the soldiers’ limbs. They were moving sluggishly, dulled by sleep. They were accustomed to spending cold nights burdened by their heavy breastplates under a hostile sky, and often treated their tents with contempt when wintry rains poured down hail. Not even at night would they put off their shields, swords, quivers, or lances. In the place of limbs they had their weapons. Now their helmets became a heavy burden, and the weight of their light shields seemed heavier; they threw their spears making no hissing sound. [27] Mild Naples first felt Hannibal’s effort to restore battle. This city was not rich in resources or rejected for its vigor. But its ports drew the general who wanted safe anchorage for the ships coming there from Carthage. Now there are soft rituals in the city and leisure hospitable to the Muses and a life free from heavier worries. One of the Sirens,* Achelous’* daughter

1 Winter is here personified.

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Parthenope,2 gave her name to the city, an event worth remembering. The Siren’s song ruled for a long time in these waters. She sang unfortunate songs and lured the miserable sailors across the waves to their sweet demise. [37] Because the sea surrounded the front of the city, Hannibal attacked the walls from behind, but even with such force he could not break through any path. He failed hugely in his daring attack and his attempt to assault the barred gates with a battering ram. The victor of Cannae stood before the Greek fortifications, accomplishing nothing. And the outcome justified his cautious deliberation to stop from going against Rome’s Tarpeian citadel after he covered Daunus’ fields with pools of blood. [45] “Look!” Hannibal said. “You, soldiers, talked about me as someone who is slow-moving and does not know how to increase his efforts after victory, because I did not allow to you to climb Rome’s walls just now straight after the battle at Cannae. Enter this city, which a group of Greeks defends, and make in this place the banquet you promised on Jupiter the Thunderer’s seat.” He tossed these words at them. [50] Hannibal was worried about his future reputation. In case he would abandon his planned undertaking already from the first city, he was ready to dare anything and sharpened his weapons with deceit. But all of a sudden, fire started coming down from the walls and the rampart’s whole circuit, and javelins began flying unexpectedly through the air. It was not unlike when Jupiter’s tawny eagle hides her young on a rock’s top, if a snake reaches that summit with its silent crawl and terrifies them in proximity with its jaws. Then the mother flies in circles around the nest, threatening the enemy with her beak and talons that she uses to bear Jupiter’s thunderbolts. [60] Finally, exhausted as he was, Hannibal conceived the idea to turn to Cumae’s neighboring port. He wanted to challenge his luck by a change of place and to cause turmoil in order to prevent any damage in his reputation. But Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus* was the city’s guardian, a better protection than the walls themselves. And he kept the enemy away, not allowing him to settle by the gates for a second time or once again to hope for an entrance. [66] At a loss and discouraged, Hannibal surveyed the place and examined everything all around, riding his swift horse. And he began exhorting his men once again through praise: “Good grief!” he said. “What is the limit that makes you stand before Greek cities, soldiers, having forgotten your own accomplishments? Is there going to be an end? No doubt, a mass greater than the Alps lies before us, and I order you to climb rocks that touch the sky. Even if a similar but different land lay before us and if other rocks unexpectedly sprang before our eyes all the way up to the stars, would you not go there and rising up high bear your arms under my leadership?

2 Naples was also called Parthenope.

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[75] Alas! Do Cumae’s ramparts hold you back as you stand agape? Do I see Gracchus scarcely in danger, a man who doesn’t dare to move outside the gates? Wouldn’t people consider your deeds a mere coincidence, whatever your toil has accomplished so far? I beseech you in the Etrucan lake’s name, when the gods showed their favor to you, in Trebia’s name and Saguntum’s ashes, show yourselves now worthy of your reputation. Bring Cannae back into your hearts!”

Hannibal tours various Campanian sites and learns about their history [83] So the Carthaginian general was trying to rouse the soldiers’ hearts, as luxury had relaxed them and successes had worn them out. He was trying to firm up their minds with words. And here while surveying an approach to the city, on the citadel’s ridge he saw a shiny temple. Virrius, Capua’s heartless leader, expanded on its history: “What you stare at is not of the present age. Greater hands built it. The story goes that when he feared the Cretan king Minos’ rule, Daedalus* found a way to depart from that land without leaving any trace in the whole world, though the king followed him. He dared to raise himself up by means of alien wings to the ethereal breezes and to show humankind how to fly. He poised his hanging body in the middle of the clouds and scared the gods by becoming a new kind of bird. He even taught his son Icarus* to follow the birds’ ways under the false pretense of having feathered wings. And he saw his son fall when his wings’ oars became loose and his unfortunate plume struck the stormy waters. And while Daedalus allowed time to grieve his sudden loss, he moved his hands toward his chest and (alas!) in his ignorance he kept his flight going, guided though he was by pain. Here in return for his wandering trip, in the clouds he built a temple to Apollo out of piety and took off his daring wings.” [104] Virrius said this story. But Hannibal was counting the days they were spending inactive and without fighting, and he was ashamed of this lack of action. He groaned at the adverse situation and looking back at the town he tried to capture in vain, he prepared to satisfy his anger in Puteoli. Here also both the sea and the walls’ rocky mass, as well as the labor of those defending the city, stood on the way of his daring enterprise. And while slow toil held his allies back trying to break through tough and blocked roads, Hannibal himself looked at the nearby lakes and also the region’s strange sights. [113] The Capuan leaders were there: one informed Hannibal where warm Baiae got its name from and showed that a companion of Odysseus’ ship gave his name to the springs. Another one told him that Lake Lucrinus* once had the name Cocytus.* He mentioned Hercules’ path in the middle of the sea waters, when he divided the waters after conquering the Spanish 193

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herd.3 Another man showed him Lake Avernus, once upon a time called Styx by the people, one of the most famous mild waters now that its name changed. Formerly Avernus had a scary grove, a horrifying place because of the pitchy shade. The birds feared the place, as it spouted forth deadly poison spread to the sky. It was held sacred among the sites for its infernal religion, and it possessed sinister prestige. There is a marsh nearby, and the story is that it opens the way to Acheron’s waters. It unseals its dark entrances through a stagnant pool of water and reveals the horrific clefts in the earth, disturbing the dead here and there with a strange light. Then they told Hannibal that nearby lay the Cimmerians’* homes, pressed by clouds under dark shadows, and the deep night of Tartarus’ city. [133] Next they showed him the Phlegraean Fields that are always misty in sulfur and fire and boiling pitch. Exhaling black vapors, the earth heaves as it is long heated and burning to its depths. It is hot and produces deadly blasts into the air. Vulcan god of fire is in labor and makes dreadful hissing noises from the trembling caves. At times he tries to burst forth from the hollow dwelling or exit into the sea and bellows with a funereal, threatening sound. He tears and eats the earth’s guts, and he makes the mountains corrode and shake with noise. They say that the Giants, whom Hercules powerfully defeated, make the earth piled upon them shake. Their panting breaths burn the fields far and wide. The gods in the sky grow pale from fear whenever the Giants threaten to break forth from the structure imposed upon them. They showed Hannibal Prochyte,* the island that received Mimas as its lot. At the distance Inarime appears which keeps buried underneath Iapetus,* fiery with a black smoke and vomiting flames from his rebellious mouth. If he ever could escape, he would again wish to resume the war against Jupiter and the gods. [152] They showed Hannibal Mount Vesuvius’ ridges: on the top of the mountain, fire consumes the rocks; the volcano is broken with destruction all around and rivals Mount Aetna’s deadly effects in terms of lava. Similarly he saw Misenum* which preserves its name from the Trojan buried here and on the shore nearby Bauli,* built by Hercules. Hannibal marveled at the sea’s threats and the land’s labors.

Hannibal moves against Nola, but Marcellus blocks him [158] After he had visited these sites, Hannibal returned to Puteoli’s4 high walls and destroyed Mt. Gaurus’ heights which were flourishing with

3 For the story of Geryon and Hercules, see Book 1, lines 271ff. Hercules is thought here to divide sea from land around Lake Lucrinus. 4 Though the manuscript reading is uncertain, it is safe to assume the reference here is to the city of Puteoli.

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Bacchus’ abundant vines. From there he moved his troops quickly to Nola, a Chalcidian* colony. The city sits on a plain, surrounded by a circle of towers which guard access to the plain from the high ramparts. But Marcellus brought aid and help to Nola. He would not assign troops to the wall defense, but he would do so himself with his right hand. And he saw from afar the Carthaginian soldiers’ cloud approach across the plain, thrusting themselves to the walls. [166] Marcellus shouted and seized first his weapons saying: “The bloody enemy is at hand, seize your arms, men, your arms!” The young soldiers surrounded him quickly, and as was the custom they put on his head his blood-red helmet as he was roaring. His voice resounded then, and quickly he went around arranging the troops: “You, Nero,5 will guard the right gate’s entrance. You, Tullius, illustrious glory of the Volsci,6 turn the cohorts and Lirenatum’s standards to the left gate. But at my order, quietly open the gates, exit with a unexpected force, and throw a cloud of missiles on to the plain. I myself will be carried in your midst, and the squadrons of the horsemen will follow suit, when the gates are opened.” Marcellus said these, and now the Carthaginians were trying to destroy the gates and to breach the neglected walls with ladders. [181] The war trumpets’ sound was heard everywhere, as were the men’s shouts and the horses’ neighing. At the same time, cornets and horns filled the air with their hoarse sound. The weapons rang as the furious soldiers were shaking them up with their bodies. With the gates thrown open, the troops rushed to march out like a terrible plague and poured into the plain like an unexpected river. Just so a violent river breaks the fortifications and flows out, as the north wind thrusts the sea and pushes it against the rocks, or as the winds escape from their prison and invade the lands. [189] As he saw this torrent of arms, the Libyan general Hannibal lost hope in his men and could not stay strong. The Roman leader Marcellus pressed hard on the Carthaginian who was thunderstruck. He rode his horse in front and applied himself to stabbing his spear through the fleeing soldiers’ backs. He now harassed his men with these words: “Go on, advance. The god favors us! This is our time! This is the way to Capua’s walls!” Now he turned to the enemy and said: “Wait, where are you fleeing? I don’t harass your soldiers’ backs, Libyan leader, but you. Stop! There’s a battlefield here and weapons and a battle at hand. I am willing to dismiss the troops from slaughter. Let’s fight alone. I, Marcellus, challenge you to battle.” So the Roman leader spoke, and the youth of the Barca clan was prodded on by honor and the prize this dangerous enterprise would bring. , [201] But Juno did not see this with a favorable eye. And as Hannibal rushed to his doom, she stopped him from this undertaking. He tried to stop

5 Gaius Claudius Nero, see Book 8, lines 412ff and Glossary. 6 See Book 8, lines 404ff.

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and rally his scared men: “Have we left from Capua’s embrace and the sinister homes in such a state? Stop, wretched men! The glory you accomplished has turned to shame now. Nothing remains for you to trust today if you turn your backs, believe me. You deserve that all of Italy assault you. This is what you’ve achieved through harsh battles: if you are routed, there remains no hope of peace and life.” He dominated the trumpets’ sound with his shouting’s strength. And his voice’s vigor penetrated with force the soldiers’ ears, though they were rendered deaf by the noise. [212] Young and brave Pedianus7 was waging war amid the Patavian ranks. He came from Trojan stock and ancestry from Antenor’s family. His reputation was weighty as his family, the pride of the sacred River Timavus,* a name dear to the Euganean lands. Father Po, and the Venetian people one after another, and the people who rejoice in Aponus’* spring, said that no one was equal to him, whether he was waging war or cultivated the Muses peacefully and preferred the calm life of learning, soothing his problems with the Greek lyre. No other youth was better known to Mars the god of war or to Phoebus the god of music. [223] With the reins let loose, Pedianus was pursuing the Carthaginian soldiers, when he recognized the helmet and also the famous spoils taken from Paulus’ body. A boy was wearing these, happy in the Roman general’s big gift. His name was Cinyps, and he was Hannibal’s favorite. No one was more beautiful than him or had a more radiant face than his. Such is the gleam of ivory, always new, which Tibur’s breeze maintains,8 or the stone that originates from the Indian Ocean’s waters* and shines as a miraculously white ornament on an ear.9 [232] When Pedianus saw Cinyps’ recognizable plumes and famous helmet in the rearguard, it was as if Paulus’ image had emerged before his eyes all of a sudden from the Underworld and demanded back the weapons he had lost. Then Pedianus attacked him in rage: “Will you carry the sacred head’s cover, most unworthy man, the spoils which your leader bore committing a crime and arousing the gods’ anger? Behold Paulus!” He then called on Paulus’ spirit to watch and thrust his spear penetrating into the fleeing man’s ribs. Then he jumped from his horse and with his right hand seized the great consul’s helmet and insignia. He stripped Cinyps of his armor as he was still watching. In death, his beauty disappeared. His ambrosial hair was let down loose, his head was wounded and fell on his snow-white throat, as his neck drooped.10 And a dark color took over

7 Imagined as the ancestor of Quintus Asconius Pedianus, a Roman literary figure of the first century CE. 8 The ancients believed that in Tibur (Tivoli) ivory never turns yellow (probably because of the sulfurous waters nearby). 9 Pearls. 10 Lines 245–6 were transposed here in Delz’s edition.

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his white limbs, devastating his beauty’s dignity. Just as when Lucifer the morning star returns from the ocean and having refreshed its splendor displays itself to Venus;11 but if a sudden cloud comes over it, it grows dim and shrinks in the darkness, hiding its languishing light. Pedianus himself was astonished when he seized the helmet and saw Cinyps’ naked face and restrained his rage. [253] Then he brought the helmet back amid his fellow-soldiers’ cheers. He spurred on his fierce horse, as it was intensely biting on the foam-covered reins and making them bloody. Marcellus kept on fighting wildly, when he encountered Pedianus, as the battle was raging on rapidly. He recognized Pedianus’ glorious deed and said: “Bravo, Antenor’s great son! Bravo for your virtue, worthy of your family! Now let us seek to get the Libyan leader’s armor itself, that is all that remains.” And hot as he was, he threw his awesome javelin, making a terrifying noise. And he would have achieved his wish, except that Gestar’s body thrown in front of the spear withheld its powerful attack. And since he was next to the Carthaginian general and protected him with his armor, the heavy spear, thirsty for blood, pierced through him, not Hannibal. So it carried through Marcellus’ threat but resulted in the wrong person’s death. Quickly Hannibal rode off, disturbed by this close call with death, and furiously seized his course back to the camp. [268] And the Carthaginian army was no longer stopped from fleeing: they rushed in disorder and turned their arms heading to safety. The Romans pursued their enemies with spears, and each man satisfied his overdue anger and desire for slaughter, competing to show to the avenging gods their bloodied swords. This was the first day that showed that Hannibal could be held back on the battlefield, a thing that no one dared to believe the gods would grant. The Romans captured chariots, men, and elephants, seizing from living soldiers their armor and taking it away, happy to see Hannibal’s back at their spear’s point. Then they compared Marcellus to Mars the war god in glory: he proceeded with a triumphant retinue, greater than when he brought the rich spoils to Jupiter the Thunder God.12 [281] Then since he could hardly keep the enemy away from the rampart, raging Hannibal said: “When shall I wash off this stain and by how much enemy blood? Could Rome see my back? Greatest of the gods, you deemed me worthy of such a shameful defeat after the River Trebia? And you young men, who have been invincible for a long time, now, woe, you are defeated not in battle but by Capua’s riches. You, not I, became degenerate, on account of your deeds, not mine, and turned your victorious standards to flight before the Romans. I retreated because of you! When I called you

11 See also Book 7, lines 634ff. 12 See note 9 in Book 1.

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to fight, I saw you retreating in fear in the same way as you would flee an Italian leader. What is left of your old martial spirit, since you are able to retreat even though I call you back to action?” The Carthaginian hurled such taunts at them. But the Roman troops took themselves back inside Nola’s walls, carrying the spoils and distinguishing themselves with their shouts.

People in Rome rejoice and offer their means to help the state [295] Rome was used for a long time by now to hearing about her people’s disasters and was never invigorated by any successes. When the victorious battle’s news reached the city, the people cheered up, raised aloft by this divine gift. First of all, those youths who were reluctant to fight or refused to enlist by hiding, while the war was raging, received punishment for evading their tasks. Then they identified and purged from the nation those people who devised a trick and broke the pact made with the Carthaginians, led on by their desire to live.13 Metellus was punished for his proposed plan to leave the country, a criminal mistake.14 Such was the men’s spirit at this time. [306] And the women also equaled their men in courage and asked for a share in praise. Each matron zealously brought forth the ancient embellishments from their heads and hands, took off their necks their necklaces, and rushed to help the war. Nor did the men mind taking second place in glory in such a difficult time. They were indeed happy to yield their place for a deed that would become famous in the future. Then the mighty Senate followed. In great competition with one another, they amassed private wealth and put it in the middle. People were happy to strip their homes and keep nothing stashed away to use when the situation would improve. And the common and nameless people also contributed. In this way, using her whole body and all her limbs, Rome began to raise her head again toward the stars.

Envoys return from Delphi* and report Apollo’s oracle [320] The delegates brought back the oracle’s response from Parnasian Delphi and gave hope to the hopeless people.15 For they said they had

13 War prisoners at Cannae were supposed to return to Hannibal if an exchange was not made, but some broke this pact. See Livy, From the Foundation of the City 22.58.8 and 22.61.4. 14 See Book 10, lines 415ff. 15 The delegation was sent after Cannae, led by Fabius Pictor. See Livy, From the Foundation of the City 22.57.5 and 23.11.1.

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received a positive message from the shrine. The cave resounded with a sacred voice; possessed by the god Phoebus’ priestess uttered this: “Venus’ people, let go of your hearts’ heavy fear. You have experienced the worst part of the harsh war that awaited you. Lighter toil and danger with no destruction remains. Only bring prayer and supplication to the gods and make sacrifices of warm blood on the altars. And don’t turn your backs to woes. There will be Mars Gradivus and the Delian prophet himself who will avert the dangers at hand. Apollo is known for always diminishing the Trojans’ sufferings. But above all, let, before all others, Jupiter’s hundred altars smoke in festivity, and let victims be slaughtered by a hundred knives. He will forcefully lead the war’s fierce cloud and the difficult storms against Libya. You will see yourselves that he will shake his aegis in battle when the world is in turmoil.” [337] And, when the envoys brought to the city this announcement from Mount Parnassus’ caves and people heard the god’s message with their own ears, they eagerly climbed the Capitoline citadel and prostrated themselves to Jupiter. They honored his shrine with blood. Then they sang a paean* and prayed that the oracle be truthful.

The Romans wage war on the island of Sardinia. Among the warriors is the famous poet Ennius [342] Meanwhile Torquatus, an older general, attacked with Roman soldiers the island of Sardinia, a place where he had fought before. For, boasting ancestry from Troy, Hampsagoras* had called in the Carthaginians to renew war on the island. He had a fair son, Hostus, who was unworthy of such a father. Hampsagoras relied on his son’s radiant youth, since he was against peace and was hoping to revive his powerless old age that was devoted to barbaric customs. When Hostus saw that Torquatus quickly brought the troops and standards in a rush to Sardinia and was eagerly ready to fight, he profited from knowing the secret places and traps of the island and fled through pathless woods. He followed shortcuts prepared for escape and hid in a wooded valley under the shade of trees. [355] The ocean surrounds the island with its noisy waves and becomes narrower to a point by the sea that shuts it in. It comprises irregularly shaped lands like a naked foot. The Greek colonists called it before Ichnusa.16 Soon afterwards Sardus,* confident in his noble descent from Libyan Hercules, changed the land’s name after his own. Even Trojans came here and placed their homes, scattered over the sea and forced to flee after Troy’s destruction. And you, Iolaus,* gave the island no small glory, bringing a group

16 Meaning “foot” in Greek.

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of Thespiads on ships from the fatherland.17 There is a legend that when Actaeon* paid a lamentable price by being cut up in pieces for having looked at Diana in a fountain, Aristaeus* his father, distraught by the evil’s monstrosity, fled through the seas and came to the Sardinian bays. They also say his mother, Cyrene, pointed these new shores out for him. [370] The land is clean from snake venom, but its climate is bad, and many swamps mar it. The side that faces Italy is dry with rocky ridges that keep off the waters as they crush on the cliffs far and wide. Inland the colorless fields burn with excessive heat, when the south winds are steamy under the zodiac sign of Cancer. Ceres’ well-disposed favor makes the rest of the island fertile. [376] Hostus kept frequently tricking Torquatus by taking advantage of the land’s geography and the pathless woods, as he waited for the Carthaginian forces and the Iberian allies to come help the battle. And after they put in with their boats and increased his high spirits, there was no further delay: he came out of hiding. The opposing armies stood ready, eager to face off and engage at close quarters. Hurling their fast spears from a distance, they seized the middle of the open field, and finally they used their expert swords, their most trusted weapon. Then an awful carnage took place, they killed and were killed on both sides, and they took their last breath from the harsh sword’s tip. [387] I would not hope, however, to narrate here the innumerable deaths and so many terrible deeds in a manner worthy of such great topic. Nor would I try to match the passion of the fighters with my words. But, you, Calliope, give inspiration to my work so that a man’s deeds that few people know18 may be handed down to future generations and we consecrate to this great bard his due honor. Ennius* descended from the ancient king Messapus* and was fighting in the front line. He decorated his right hand with the glorious Latin vine-staff.19 The Calabrians sent him to fight, a rough race. Old Rudiae* was his birth place. Now Rudiae is well-known from its scion’s memorable name. As the Thracian singer Orpheus once left his lyre aside and hurled Thracian arrows, when Cyzicus* attacked in war the hostile Argo,* so Ennius had distinguished himself by fighting in the beginning of battle and killing many men. And his hand’s passion increased by the slaughter. [403] Hostus flew against Ennius. Hoping that he would become eternally famous if he could kill such a dangerous man, Hostus weighed and hurled his spear against Ennius with all his strength. Sitting on a cloud, Apollo laughed at the undertaking’s futile effort and let the spear go away into the air. And he added these words: “You nourished hopes, young

17 The Sardinian tribe Iolenses explains Silius’ ethnographic remark. 18 Ennius fought in Sardinia in 205–4 BCE, but Silius transposes his service by about 10 years. 19 See note 3 in Book 6.

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man, that are too arrogant!20 This man is sacred and under the tutelage of the great sisters, the Muses, a poet worthy of Apollo. He first will sing in his famous verses the Italian wars and will raise the generals to the sky. He will teach Mount Helicon to resound in Latin poetry. Nor will he be second to the honor and fame of the old man of Ascra.*”21 So Phoebus spoke, and an avenging spear ran through Hostus’ temples. Upon the young man’s death, his men retreated, scattered in the fields, and turning their backs the troops fled also. Then his father, hearing his son’s death, was distraught in rage, crying in a manner that was hideous and barbaric. And he stabbed his own gasping chest, following his son’s footsteps down to the Underworld.

Hannibal destroys cities in the region and uses a trick in Tarentum [420] But the Carthaginian general was broken by Marcellus and severely beaten in the fierce battle. He abandoned the battlefield and turned his troops against a less powerful city, miserable Acerrae. Then, when he destroyed the city with fire and sword, by no means softer or restrained in his anger, he attacked Nuceria and leveled its walls to the ground. After this, he fought long against the unequal forces of Casalinum’s defendants, until he sacked the city with difficulty and by a ruse. But he exchanged the besieged citizens’ life in return for gold. And now pouring his troops over the Apulian fields, he turned his rage wherever either plunder or anger called. Petilia* was smoking with its houses destroyed and burned, unlucky in its loyalty and second to pitiable Saguntum. But once the city had boasted that it preserved Hercules’ quiver.22 [434] Tarentum had also switched allegiance and sided with the Tyrian efforts, and the Carthaginians had entered the gates. But a close-packed group of Romans was guarding the city’s illustrious citadel out of confidence in its location. Hannibal came up with a wondrous plan. The Tarentine fleet stayed at the port hidden away. For the sea flows in through the rocks by means of a narrow path; and floods by a wide opening the plain with waters separated from the open sea.23 Since the citadel was placed over the harbor, the ships were shut in and could not sail out. Therefore, Hannibal used a trick to bring them out of the sea barrier, by having them carried on the opposite side through dry land. Slippery supports were put under the wooden wagons. Their wheels glided forward over recently slain bullocks’

20 The text is problematic here but the meaning is clear. 21 That is, Hesiod. In the opening of the Annales, Ennius was inspired by Hesiod’s meeting with the Muses. 22 Founded by Philoctetes, Hercules’ companion and inheritor of his quiver and arms. 23 Forming an inner harbor.

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hides and led the ships, which were built for the ocean, through the grass. And now carried through hills and thickets to the shore, the fleet was again put into the sea without the oarsmen’s help.

Hannibal moves back toward Capua which is now besieged by the Romans. He is blocked and decides to turn against Rome [449] As Hannibal carried ships by an unorthodox way and terrified the seas, news filled him with passionate anxiety. While he was away desiring to capture Tarentum’s Spartan people and first furrowed the fields with beaks of ships, the Romans besieged Capua’s walls. They broke down the gates’ bolts, and for the wretched citizens a whole new war started again. Fierce as he was, Hannibal interrupted his undertaking. Shame and anger together gave him wings, as he flew over the surrounding territories in an incredibly fast pace. He carried himself to the battle with eagerness and threats. Just like if a tigress loses her cubs and leaps up quickly, she surveys in a few hours all of Caucasus* in her grief and flies over the River Ganges with a winged leap, until with a thunder-like speed she finds her offspring’s footprints and satisfies her rage on the captured enemy. [463] With a few soldiers, Centenius quickly opposed Hannibal, foolishly daring and careless in danger. But this was a small glory for Hannibal. For Centenius was charged with the honor of the centurion’s Latin vinestaff and had collected country people quickly and half-armed men to oppose the enemy, men who were to be killed. Twice seven thousand met their death (and this army did not stop Hannibal). Fulvius,24 a man more skilled than anyone else in the sword and of illustrious stock, led twice seven thousand fully armed men. But with the same violence and speed, Hannibal victoriously made his way through the slain bodies and did not allow for any delay in his progress. Only wishing to acquire fame and a name for his meek personality, he stopped to grant the last rites of a funeral, though this death was a happy one. For while he sought a dialogue and to secure the allegiance of the treacherous Lucanian people, Gracchus was slain by his treacherous host (an unspeakable deed!) and was murdered ambushed by hidden guile. The Libyan general Hannibal tried to seize the praise of burying him. [479] But when they found out that the Carthaginian was heading back to Capua’s walls, the Romans did not stand in their place waiting. Both consuls rushed there in speed. Nola brought all its force, and Fabius the Younger* carried quickly his men from Arpi. From one side, Nero and from the other swift Silanus* day and night pushed the cohorts, leading them to instant battle. They came from everywhere to Capua, and it was decided

24 That is, Gnaeus Fulvius Flaccus.*

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to pitch all Roman generals against the one young leader. Fierce Hannibal himself camped on Tifata, a hill that is nearer Capua’s walls, and from there looked at the city below. And then he realized that he was surrounded by so many armies, fortifying his allied city’s gates. Together the Romans denied him the possibility to enter Capua or to the Capuans to break forth. This development troubled him: now he thought of breaking the collected troops opposing him with the sword, now he conceived of a plan different from what he had begun. He sought a trick to remove so many thousands from the blocked gates and to open up the surrounded walls. [496] Hannibal had such thoughts and was worn out by such cares in his heart: “Troubled mind, where do you call me to go? Should I resume my dangerous enterprise, though I am disadvantaged by the place’s geography? Will I turn my back as Capua is watching? Or sitting on the top of the neighboring mountain, should I endure to see my allies’ houses to be destroyed before my eyes? Fabius and his Master of Horse did not see me this anxious when I victoriously escaped the hills surrounded by soldiers and pushed the cattle scattered through the fields to spread fire from their burning horns.25 I haven’t let go of all my tricks yet: if I am no longer able to defend Capua, I’ll be allowed to besiege Rome.”

Hannibal marches against Rome [507] After he decided that he liked this plan and made up his mind, Hannibal did not wait for the Sun to bring forth his fire-breathing horses from the ocean. With his voice and gestures, he pushed his men to formation and explained the vast undertaking: “Go on, conquer with your courage all labors, soldiers. And speed up as much as human pace can allow by rising up high. You seek Rome. This is the path that the Alps and Cannae opened up for you. Come on, dash your shields’ boss against the Trojan walls and pay them back for destroying Capua. Capua’s fall was the price to pay so you may see the Palatine hill and Jupiter leaving his Tarpeian seat to migrate elsewhere.” [518] Goaded on, they sped up their march. Rome rang in their ears, Rome stood before their eyes. They believed that this enterprise was better timed because of the general’s clever acts than if he had led them to Rome from Cannae’s plains, fatal to the Romans. By boat they swiftly crossed Vulturnus’ stream. And the rearguard burned the boats down and left them behind to delay the Romans. Then the maniples marched quickly, passing through Sidicinum’s meadows and Thracian Cales, your place, Orithyia, named after your son.26 Then they destroyed Allifae’s fields, dear to Bacchus, and Casinum’s land inhabited by nymphs. Soon after the army quickly

25 See Book 7, lines 260ff. 26 See Book 8, lines 511ff.

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traversed neighboring Aquinum and Fregellae, where a Giant is buried and sends up smoke.27 [530] Then in speed they moved through high ridges, where Frusino’s warrior men cling to hard cliffs28 and where Anagnia rises on a swelling ridge, fertile with Ceres’ crops. And now finally they entered Labicum’s fields and lands. They left behind Telegonus’ walls in Tusculum battered by the ram, an unworthy delay amid such big enterprise.29 And idyllic Mount Algidus* did not stop them nor the neighboring houses at Gabii,* Juno’s favorite city. Hannibal rushed with crazy speed headlong where the cold Anio’s sulfurous waves crawl to the River Tiber, its father, slowly gliding without noise.

Panic spreads in Rome [541] Here raging Hannibal set up his standards and measured out his camp. His horses made the banks shake. The shattered waters terrified Ilia* first who hid herself in her husband’s sacred cave, and all the nymphs fled the deep sea. And the Latin mothers wandered distraught here and there in a fury, as if no walls were still standing. Before their eyes stood the lacerated men’s ghosts that met their death at the deadly Trebia and Ticinus’ streams. Paulus and Gracchus, covered in blood, and also Flaminius wandered before the wretched people’s faces. The crowd blocked the streets. With fierce countenance, the Senate stood high and fearsome in their wrath, taming the citizens’ panic. And yet, at times tears broke forth from under the helmets, tears shed silently. What threats did Fortune bring? Who did the gods have in mind? The youths were scattered through the high ramparts and thought in their hearts that it had come to this, that Rome now considered it enough just to defend her walls.

Hannibal gets ready to attack, but Fulvius rushes back to Rome inspiring people with his courage [558] The Carthaginian general Hannibal barely conceded his exhausted troops a full night’s sleep. Meanwhile he stayed awake; he could not easily fall asleep since he believed that whatever time sleep stole away from humans was lost to life. He donned his radiant armor and ordered the Numidian soldiers to rush forward. Then he rode his horse without reins around Rome’s walls, creating terror on account of the cavalry’s sound. Now he looked for an entrance, now he struck the closed gates with his hostile spear and enjoyed the citizens’ fear. At times motionless he stood on the high hills and penetrated the city with his eyes, learning about places and their

27 Unknown story, maybe he was named Fregellus. 28 See Book 8, lines 390ff. 29 See Book 7, lines 691ff.

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history. And he would have surveyed with his eyes everything and would have breached into all parts just by looking, except that Fulvius returned to the city like a storm, without leaving behind entirely Capua’s siege. Then finally Hannibal turned his soldiers back to the camp in triumph, having feasted his eyes by having seen Rome. [574] And then the night was pushed out of the sky, and the sea grew red from the first daylight, as Aurora the dawn started her toil anew. Now Hannibal let his squadrons out from the demolished rampart and spoke as loud as he could: “In the name of your many glorious deeds and your hands sanctified in blood, comrades, go out and perform equally glorious feats. And dare to fight as much as Rome fears. Annihilate this remaining obstacle, and nothing will stay in the whole world to conquer. Let the origins of the people of Mars not delay you. You’ll seize a city already taken by thousands of Gallic Senones.30 They are accustomed to being captured. Perhaps the senators await you on their high curule chairs, in their ancestors’ example, preparing for a glorious death and demise.” [587] Hannibal said this. But the Romans on the opposite camp did not require a leader’s words or any advice. Their mothers prodded them on vigorously and their sons and their beloved parents’ crying faces, who stretched out their pleading hands toward heaven. The mothers displayed their babies and excited their men’s hearts, rousing them with the infants’ cries. They also kissed their husbands’ armed hands. The men wanted to go and in dense packs oppose the enemy with their chests in the place of walls. They looked back at their beloveds and choked down their tears. But when the gates were unbolted and opened and the army marched forth moving their weapons, lamentation went up to the sky through the high walls mixed in with groans and prayers. The disheveled mothers roamed around in mourning, baring their breasts. Fulvius went in front of the army and said: “Who doesn’t know that Hannibal came to our homes not of his own accord? He fled Capua’s gates.” As he tried to add more, a terrifying thunder with a loud roar from the sky scared them, and a storm came down unexpectedly from the clouds.

Jupiter sends a storm and stops Hannibal who repeatedly defies the divine signs [605] Returning from the land of the Ethiopians, when he saw the Carthaginian threaten to approach Romulus’ ramparts, Jupiter quickly called the gods and ordered them to defend the Trojan houses and each one to take their place on the seven hills. He himself high up on the Tarpeian top stirred up all his weapons at the same time, the winds, the clouds, the raging hail, the thunderbolts, the lightning, and the dark storms. He shook

30 See note 20 in Book 1.

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the poles making them tremble, and darkness overtook the sky. Night’s dark cover embraced the lands. As the enemies approached, the storm blocked their eyes, hiding Rome. [615] Lightning fell from the clouds on to the squadrons and maintained a roaring crash. Fire hissed against their limbs. From this side the south wind, from that the north, from the other the African southwest wind with its black wings, all stirred up war, inasmuch as they could satisfy angry Jupiter’s spirit and rage. Rain poured down like an army, mixed in with a pitch-black whirlwind and dark storm that enveloped all the plains around with its foaming waters. The ruler of the gods himself, lofty from the highest hill top, raised the thunderbolts with his right hand and weighed them. Then he hurled them against the shield of the Carthaginian general who was not going to retreat. The spear point melted, and Hannibal’s sword liquefied, as if dipped in a furnace. [627] But, even though his weapons burned down, the Carthaginian leader tried to stop his comrades by pointing out that fire from the sky came down without a specific target and that meaningless noises mixed up with the winds. Finally after his soldiers experienced the disaster and heaven’s collapse, since Hannibal could see no enemy in the storm, he ordered to retreat31 and take the standards back to the camp. He now revived his grief and anger: “Rome, you will certainly owe to the winds and stormy weather that you gained one more day. But tomorrow’s light will not save you from me, even if Jupiter himself comes down to earth.” [636] While he gnashed his teeth saying this, behold! clear weather flashed forth in the quiet sky, and now the upper air shone clear and fresh as the clouds were scattered. The Romans felt the god’s presence. They put their weapons aside and stretched their hands to the Capitol, decorating the hill’s temples with festive laurels. Then they turned their gaze toward Jupiter’s face, which had been soaked beforehand in much sweat. But now they saw that his countenance was happy: “Grant us, highest god, grant us, Father, to see the Libyan general fall in battle by your sacred spear. By no other hand is it possible for him to die.” [646] They prayed this way and then remained silent, after Hesperus the evening star had concealed the lands under a dark shade. The Sun raised his red light and hid the night away, giving back to mortals their usual daily business. Hannibal was there, and barely did the Roman youths contain themselves in the camp. Swords were not yet drawn, and there was only as much space between the fighting troops as a cast spear can cover. Then the sky’s bright light became blurred all of a sudden, with dense darkness approaching. Daylight disappeared, as Jupiter was preparing for war once again. The winds returned with a force, and a thick mass of rainy clouds began to rage again, as the south wind whirled it around. Jupiter thundered

31 The text has been variously emended here, and we read conversa with Telg Kortmann.

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in a way that makes Mount Rhodope, Taurus, Pindus, and Atlas shudder. The Underworld’s lakes heard him, and buried in deep darkness Typhoeus recognized heaven’s wars. The south wind attacked and twisted a pitch-dark cloud with much hail, making Hannibal turn around as he was delaying and in vain threatening the Romans. The wind finally forced him to enter his camp. [664] And when Hannibal laid down his arms and contained himself within the rampart, the face of heaven cleared up in happiness and peace. You would think that such a meek Thunder God did not possess thunderbolts nor that lightning shook the peaceful sky. Hannibal persisted and positively promised the soldiers that the sky’s rage32 would never again come against them. He said that their native courage should immediately return to their hands. They should not believe that it was unlawful for the Carthaginians to destroy Rome. For where did then at last “invincible” Jupiter hide his thunders, when the Carthaginians swords lay low the soldiers on Cannae’s Aetolian fields? Where were they when Etruscan Trasimene’s waters were filled by the blood of men? [674] Hannibal added: “If the king of the gods should fight for Rome’s walls, hurling down so many spears from Mount Olympus, why does he hesitate to strike me down as I bear arms against him in such great upheaval? Do we retreat and flee in front of winds and storms? Please let your mind and vigor return, with which you decided to enter another war, though the treaties and agreements of our ancestors forbade it.” In this manner he tried to kindle their hearts, until the Sun loosened the horses’ foaming reins. And the night did not put him at rest. His rage returned with daylight. Again he called the fearful soldiers to battle, and with a terrible din he clashed on his shield, making a threatening33 imitation of thunder from the sky.

Juno intervenes and shows Hannibal that his mission is impossible. She stops his attack once and for all [686] But then Hannibal heard that the Roman Senate so trusted in divine assistance and had sent auxiliary forces to the shores of the River Baetis. The army had marched out from Rome’s walls at night. He was enraged and became more violent, roaring that the besieged Romans were spending their time at leisure, so free of anxiety from Hannibal. And now as he was approaching the wall, Jupiter addressed Juno, who was worrying sick, and soothed her by offering advice: “My dear wife and sister, won’t you ever restrain the Carthaginian youth, a man so endlessly fierce? He was able to destroy Saguntum, to top the Alps, to impose

32 We read Lefebvre’s emendation caeli rabiem. 33 We read Bauer’s emendation minis.

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fetters on the sacred River Po, to stain the lakes. Will he even prepare to break through our own homes, our own citadel? Stop the man! For, as you see, he now seeks fire, and with torches already lit he is ready to imitate my thunderbolts.” [701] Juno thanked him for his words. Disturbed, she flew down through the air and grabbed the young man’s hand saying: “Where are you rushing, madman? You undertake war greater than allowed for a mortal to bear.” Juno spoke and removed the cloud of darkness, revealing herself in her real appearance: “You don’t deal now with Trojan settlers or people from Laurentum. Come and behold, for I shall remove the cloud from your eyes for a little while and shall give you the opportunity to see all things. Look over there, where the mountain peak rises high to the sky, the Palatine hill, named by the Arcadian king Evander.34 Apollo holds this place, as he bends his bow—his full quiver rattles—and he prepares for war. And where the Aventine hill’s* lofty mass rises over the other hills, don’t you see how Latona’s* maiden daughter Diana brandishes the torches she has kindled in Phlegethon’s depths and eagerly thrusts forth her bare arms for battle? [716] And on the other side, see how in his fierce panoply Mars the war god has already filled with his presence the plain named after him.35 From one side Janus,* from the other Quirinus, each god from his own hill,36 both come forth to war. But look how powerful Jupiter brandishes his aegis, until it vomits forth storms and fire, and by what great bursts of flame he furiously nourishes his anger. Turn your face here and dare to look at the Thunder God: you realize what storms, what mighty bolts obey his nod, when he shakes his head! What fire flashes from his eyes! Yield at last to the gods and stop fighting like a Giant.” With these words she spoke, and as Hannibal was in awe before the gods’ faces and fiery limbs, she removed him from his undertaking, a man unable to be taught neither peace nor moderation. So she restored peace to earth and heaven. [729] Hannibal ordered the standards to be pulled and removed from the camp. He departed, constantly looking back and threatening that he would return. Immediately in the sky the sun became brighter, and the quivering blue glittered in the sunlight. But when the Romans saw from the walls at a distance that the standards were pulled up and that the Carthaginian general had retreated, they exchanged looks in silence. And they conveyed by gestures what they did not dare to believe, since great fear still clung to their hearts. They supposed that Hannibal did not mean to depart and that this was a trick and an ambush, an instance

34 See Book 6, lines 628ff. 35 The Campus Martius. 36 The Janiculum and Quirinal hills, respectively.

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of Carthaginian treachery. So saying nothing the mothers covered their babies with kisses, until marching out the Carthaginian army disappeared from sight, in this way releasing the Romans from their suspicions and making their fears vanish. [741] Then indeed from all directions the Romans began to flock to the temple on the Capitoline hill. They exchanged embraces and united their voices. They proclaimed the Tarpeian Jupiter’s triumph and decked his shrine with garlands. Next they threw open all the gates, and from everywhere cheerful people came rushing down, seeking joys that had long been beyond their hopes. Some looked at the place where the Carthaginian leader had set up his tents. Others stared at where Hannibal had stood on his high seat calling and addressing his troops. Still others looked at where the warlike Asturians, where the fierce Garamantians and the harsh people near Jupiter Hammon’s shrine had stayed. Now the Romans bathed their bodies in the river’s running waters. Now they set up altars to the nymphs that inhabit the River Anio. Then they returned to the festive city, having cleansed the walls.

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Hannibal withdraws to the Tutia* River and urges his men to fight back [1] Hannibal followed a slow path as he retreated. The Roman houses’ roofs were barely gone from his sight, when the Carthaginian leader turned his grim eyes to the city and readied to go back. He set up camp at the Tutia, a stream unknown to many and without any particular significance. The Tutia has no banks to hurt the fields and moves its small body of water, flowing quietly into the Tiber’s Tuscan waves. Here now Hannibal scolded the allied leaders, blaming the defeat at times on the gods’ orders, at times on himself: [8] “Tell me, men, you who once made Trasimene’s Lydian waters rise high with slaughter and the Apulian land shake with your weapons’ thunder. To what shores do you now move your standards like men almost dead? What sword, what spear has entered your chest at last? If lofty mother Carthage was now standing before your eyes, crowned with towers,1 what reasons would you give her for retreating, having no wounds to show? ‘I’m running away from storms, oh my country, and from rain mixed with hail and thunder.’ Push this feminine weakness far away from yourselves, people of Tyre, that you don’t know how to fight a battle except when the weather is good or the air clear.” [19] Everyone was terrified of the gods: their weapons still smelled of thunderbolts and angry Jupiter’s battle was still before their eyes. Nevertheless, their strength endured to pursue whatever command. The soldiers’ desire to bring back the standards grew slowly and spread through all ranks. As when a pebble breaks the water that stands still, it forms small circles at first throw, shaking the surface that trembles as the motion increases. Then it multiplies the concentric circles in the pond, until at last one small circle extends its edges to reach both banks with its wide curve.

1 Ancient cities are often represented in art with a crown of towers.

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A Roman defector, Dasius, tells Hannibal that the Palladium* protects Rome. Hannibal plunders Feronia’s* temple and moves away to Bruttium [30] But Dasius, Argyripa’s shameful glory, opposed Hannibal. He was a man of noble blood and derived his lineage from the Aetolian leader Diomedes, Oeneus’ son. Therefore, he was famous and rich, but had no loyalty. He attached himself as an ally to cunning Hannibal, not trusting Roman rule. This Dasius, turning in his head his ancestors’ tradition, said: “When the soldiers shook Troy with a long war and battle came to a bloodless standstill before the walls, Calchas* gave an explanation. The bravest hero, Diomedes, often used to narrate this to his father-in-law Daunus, when they were drinking, and Daunus would ask what he recalled from memory. Calchas said to the Greeks that Troy would never yield to Spartan arms2 nor would Leda’s daughter Helen return to Sparta, unless they took care to remove the warrior maiden’s statue from its seat in the citadel’s temple where it was guarded. For the gods had decided that they wouldn’t allow anyone to sack a city which this image occupied. [47] Then my ancestor, Tydeus’* son, together with Ulysses, made his way to the citadel as advised and killed with his hands the guards at the temple’s very entrance. He carried away the heavenly Palladium, and so he opened up Troy in a way that was evil for our destiny. For when he founded the city on Italian land, feeling bad for his crime, he prepared to placate the Phrygian deity through worship and to appease Troy’s household gods. Then he built a huge temple on the highest citadel, an unpleasing seat for Trojan Minerva. [56] In the middle of sleep and deep rest, the Tritonian maiden3 revealed herself and threatened him: ‘Tydeus’ son, Diomedes, you are committing an act unworthy of the honor of such glorious statue: I am destined neither for Mount Garganus nor Daunus’ land. Seek the man who is now first founding a better Troy’s walls in Laurentum’s fields.4 Bring here his ancestors’ fillets and chaste guardian statue.’ In fear, he heeded the warning and left for Saturn’s kingdoms. [64] Now the victorious Trojan, Aeneas, was rebuilding Troy in Lavinium and hung the Trojan arms in the Laurentian grove. But when Diomedes came to the Tiber’s Tuscan waters and pitched his glittering camp on its banks, Priam’ descendants were shaken in fear. Then Tydeus’ son displayed the signs of peace on his right hand, the silvery olive branch. In this manner, he began speaking amid the Trojans’ whispers: ‘Put aside, Anchises’* son, Aeneas, past memories, anger, and fear. Whatever blood and sweat we shed

2 Of Menelaus, Helen’s husband. 3 See Book 3, lines 312ff. 4 That is, Aeneas.

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at the Trojan Rivers Xanthus* and Simois and the Scaean gate’s* threshold, we cannot assume responsibility. The gods and the harsh sisters5 pushed us. Come now, why do we not spend whatever time we have left in this life under better auspices? Let’s join our right hands without any weapons. Behold! she will be our witness!’ He asked for forgiveness and showed Trojan Minerva to the fearful people on the ship’s stern. She killed the Gauls who dared to break through Rome’s walls and sent back to their country’s altars not even one single man from so many thousands.”6 [82] This story broke Hannibal. He ordered his men to pull up the standards, and the troops were happy to leave as they had desired. They went into the territory, where rich Feronia before all others is worshipped in a grove and the sacred River Capenas wets Flavina’s fields. Rumor had it that untouched from the early years the temple’s resources had grown, since gifts from all over were brought there and accumulated during its long history. Gold was left there over centuries, guarded by fear alone. The Carthaginians were excited in their greedy, barbaric hearts to seize such plunder and armed their souls with contempt for the gods. Then Hannibal decided to march far away, where the Bruttians furrow with plows their fields that stretch to Sicily’s straits.

The Roman siege of Capua resumes. Fulvius sacrifices Capua’s sacred hind to Diana [94] Hannibal headed in distress toward Rhegium’s* shores, when victorious Fulvius, who had removed the enemy from his region’s borders, brought bad news to the Campanian walls and Capua’s besieged people. He prepared the last blow for the city’s miserable people. Then laying hold of men here and there, whoever had a reputation in war, he said: “Push away this shameful past with your hands. Why is treacherous Capua, another Carthage to our city, still standing, since it broke treaties, sent Hannibal against Rome’s gates, and sought the right to elect one of the consuls?7 Why does Capua stand passively waiting on the ramparts for Hannibal and his Libyan cohorts to come?” [104] He followed these words with action. First he forced his men to raise high wooden towers, by which he could climb to the top of the walls. Next he insisted on binding together beams with iron bonds to break the tall gate posts and destroy the resisting bars. Here they built a mound fortified on the sides with criss-cross planks. There they raised a mantlet loaded with armed men and protected by a roof.8 And when everything that his experience advised him to do was completed to satisfaction, he gave the signal to 5 The Fates. 6 See note 20 in Book 1. 7 See Book 11, lines 65ff. 8 A mobile roofed shelter to protect soldiers from an attack.

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the soldiers and commanded them to climb eagerly the walls with ladders and fill the city with fearsome panic. Then suddenly an omen favorable to their efforts appeared. [115] There was a doe, rarely seen on earth in such beautiful color, whose whiteness surpassed both snow and swans. When Capys marked the city walls with a furrow, the small animal’s grateful love softened him. He nurtured the doe, this gift from the countryside, and by bringing her up gave her human feelings. So she abandoned her wild manners and became tame. She would approach the table and was even happy to receive her master’s caress. She was accustomed to having the matrons comb her mane with a gold comb and to refreshing her whiteness in the river’s waters. Now the doe had become the divinity of the place. They believed her to be Diana’s devotee and offered her incense as they would to the gods. She was full of life and energy and blessed in her old age to have lived a flourishing life for so many years, centuries old as the houses the Trojans had built. But now an end had come to her long life. For an attack by ravenous wolves disturbed her; they had entered the city in the darkness of night, a bad omen for the war. The doe left the city quickly in fear and in panic sought the fields that lay close to the walls. In competition, the young soldiers caught it and rejoiced, while their leader, Fulvius, sacrificed it to you, goddess. For this is the most pleasing offering to you. And he prayed: “Latona’s daughter, Diana, may you assist my undertaking.”

The warriors Taurea and Claudius duel [138] Then eager and trusting in the goddess, he moved the soldiers to surround the city under siege. And where the walls were bending in a curve, he situated a packed crowd of soldiers as fortification and surrounded the area with armed men as if encircling it for hunting. While the Capuans were scared, with his helmet’s plume up high Taurea* came out of the gate on his sturdy horse which was panting and foaming. He was the warrior whom the Carthaginian general entrusted to surpass with his spear the Autololes and the Moors. He mastered his horse with force, as it was restless and unwilling to stand still at the trumpets’ sound. When he saw that he was within earshot of the enemy, he shouted in close proximity to Claudius who was brilliant in the art of war and won fame in a thousand battles: “If he trusts his right hand,” he said, “let Claudius present himself alone to this field and enter into combat against me.” [153] This reached the Roman warrior’s ears, but he delayed until his general would decide on the contest and give permission to do so. For it was forbidden for soldiers to enter battle of their own accord, something that could earn them capital punishment. When Fulvius gave his permission to accept the challenge, Claudius broke forth shouting, carried on his horse out in the open field. He raised a wave of dust forming a cloud. Taurea did not condescend to use the help of a thong nor was he pleased to throw the 213

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javelin using a knotted strap to add force. He brandished his spear with his arm alone. Then his furious anger twisted the weapon into the air. [163] But the Roman soldier, Claudius, did not have the same mindset: he scanned and looked all over his enemy’s body to find out which way the sword would inflict the deadliest wound. Now he brandished the spear, now he stopped and made fake threats. Then he struck Taurea’s shield in the center, but the iron point did not hit its desired target. So he quickly unsheathed his sword. Now Taurea moved away his flying horse with iron spurs, fleeing imminent death. But the Roman was nimbler to catch the fleeing man’s back quickly and fully galloped pressing hard upon the retreating opponent. Fear brought the defeated Taurea inside the gates. And so did the winner Claudius out of anger and glory and desire for blood that was deservedly his. The bystanders could hardly believe their eyes and senses, when they saw the enemy break into their homes, accompanied by no soldiers. Claudius fearlessly led the horse through the city center, while the citizens trembled. And he escaped to his own army from the opposite gate.

The Romans assault Capua, but night prevents them from taking the city after a victorious battle [179] Then the soldiers’ hearts were kindled with equal passion and effort to attack the walls and enter and destroy Capua. Both their arms and torches flashed. A shower of stones descended from the sky, and the spears reached the top of the ramparts. No one found it easy to excel in audacious bravery. Their anger made their right hands equally active. Cretan arrows flew through the air and fell in the middle of the city. Fulvius was happy that there was no need for urging or advising the soldiers any further: each one undertook their tasks. When he saw their eagerness to fight and realized that each leader guided his own fortune,9 he rushed quickly to the gate and sought out dangers that would bring great fame. [191] Three brothers of equal age guarded the gate with their bodies. Each had a chosen group of a hundred soldiers stationed together to keep watch. One of the brothers, Numitor, stood out on account of his beauty; the other, Laurens, in running and the speed of his feet; the third, Taburnus, in his bodily mass. But they did not have the same weapons: this one was admirable in his bow; the other in brandishing his spear and fighting war with a poisoned tip since he did not rely on a simple sword; the third armed his torches with fire and sulfur. Just like once on the Atlantic shore, tradition holds, the furious, huge monster Geryon had three bodies and three hands to fight, which held various arms: one had savage fire, while the other

9 The Latin phrase is problematic here, but the meaning is fairly clear: the soldiers are in command of the fighting, and Fulvius can now also join them in battle.

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hurled arrows backward, and the third twisted a strong spear. And in one shot the monster inflicted three different wounds. [206] Then the consul saw that the brothers’ various weapons diversified the battle. He witnessed the slaughter around the city gate, whose posts the attackers’ blood had stained. He hurled his spear wielding it in rage with all his strength. Made of Italian yew, the spear cut through the air bearing miserable destruction and transfixed Numitor’s side in the lower stomach, which he had exposed while he hurled arrows with his hands extending the bow. [213] But Virrius was not satisfied to wage war enclosed in his space, a man not experienced in war but rather boisterous and daring. He then broke forth with reckless ardor like a mad man, opening up the gate to the plain and exposing the wretched population to the victorious Romans’ fury. Scipio rushed against the enemy and insatiably cut down the soldiers he met. [219] Calenus had been nurtured on the shady hill Tifata. He was fierce in daring, nor was his spirit inferior because of his huge stature. He often used to lie in wait for lions, he would enter a fight without a helmet, he would compete against bullocks, and he would force down to earth a savage and hostile bull’s horns. And he would be puffed up because of his rough deeds. While Virrius threw people out headlong from the city, this Calenus came out into the plain without a breastplate, either because he scorned protection or to avoid a delay. He felt light and was pressing on the enemies as they fled breathless on account of their armor’s weight. So he scattered them around in defeat. [229] And now he had pierced Veliternus through the stomach. Then he uprooted a rock from the ground and struck Marius, a man accustomed to competing in sham equestrian warfare with Scipio, who was of the same age. Pitiable Marius implored his friend to come to help, breathing out his last with a groan, when a rock blocked his open mouth. Scipio grieved, but his grief doubled his strength. As he shed tears, at the same time he hurled his whizzing spear, hastening to offer his dead friend a desired consolation, that is, to see his enemy die. The spear flew through the man’s chest, like a bird cutting through the clear sky, and destroyed Calenus’ huge body. Such is a Liburnian ship’s10 strength on the deep sea’s surface, when in unison the rowers strike the water with the oars and draw them back to their chests. The ship moves on faster than the winds and a single stroke of the blades propels it further than its own length. [244] Volesus lay his arms down quickly to reach the walls without any weight. He pursued Ascanius who was flying through the open field. Volesus immediately cut his head off with his sword, leaving it before Ascanius’ feet. The truncated body followed running with the same speed as before and collapsed further away. There was no hope for the besieged to defend the unbarred walls. They turned their steps backward and (a

10 A type of fast bireme originating in Dalmatia.

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horrible thing to say!) shut out their comrades who were begging to be taken back, until the hinges turned and the bolts were twisted shut. This fortification came too late. The Romans pressed on harder and harder and exhausted the besieged Capuans. And the quick troops would have broken down and opened up the gates, except that the dark night had enveloped the lands in a black fold.

Virrius and his comrades commit suicide at night in Capua [256] But the darkness did not grant the same respite to both armies. On the Roman side, there was sleep free from fear, such as victory knows. But either on account of the mothers’ sad shrieks or frightened by the fearful senators’ groans, Capua begged for an end to their torments and a finale to their labors. The Senate, leader and organizer of the perfidy, was at a loss. [262] Virrius had already pushed out of his chest any care for living and told the senators that there was no expectation for relief from Hannibal: “I was hoping to rule Italy, and I made a pact that, if god and Fortune were favorable to the Punic army, Trojan Quirinus’ kingdom would migrate to Capua. I sent soldiers to conquer Rome’s walls and the Tarpeian citadel. And I had the courage to ask that one of the two consuls could bear equal fasces from among our people. It’s enough to have lived so far. While it’s still dark, let anyone seek my dinner and food, whoever has liberty as their heart’s eternal companion down to Acheron’s waters. Let the flow of wine through his limbs overtake his mind, and let everyone soothe death’s sting. Then let him drink a medicine for defeat and disarm Fate with peaceful poison.” He said this and returned to his house with a group of followers. [277] In the center of his house a pyre was built and rose high with much oak wood, a common place of hospitality for the lost souls. Nor did grief and fear stop driving the people mad. Now, too late, Decius came to mind, and his fine virtue that harsh exile had punished.11 From up high, sacred Loyalty looked down and troubled the men’s treacherous hearts. An anonymous voice followed, spread everywhere in the air: “Mortals, don’t break the treaty with brutal iron, but preserve chaste Loyalty. She is more powerful than kings’ dazzling purple. If someone rejoices in breaking the agreed treaties when in danger and betrays his ally’s fragile hopes, neither household nor his wife nor his life will abide except for grief and tears. Loyalty, whom he disrespected and violated, will always persecute him in distress over land and sea, day and night.” [291] Hidden in a cloud, a shameless Fury attended all meetings, partook in every meal, and reclined on every couch to enjoy dinner. She herself handed to each man drinks foaming with Stygian poison and administered

11 See Book 11, lines 155ff.

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freely punishment and death. In the meantime, Virrius gave time for the poison to penetrate his body and clung to his companions’ embrace, those who shared his fate. He climbed on to the pyre and ordered them to light the fire at once.

The Romans enter the city but are stopped from killing the Capuans by the god Pan.* The city is plundered, and Taurea commits suicide [299] Darkness was approaching its appointed end, and the conqueror was rushing in the city. And now the Campanian youths saw Milo standing on the walls and calling his comrades on. The awe-struck citizens opened the gates, and those who lacked the courage to avoid punishment by death, sought the enemy camp with trembling steps. Confessing madness, the city lay open and unbolted the homes stained by the Carthaginian guests. The matrons and children came in groups, together with the grieving senators, and the common people, a crowd none pitied. The soldiers stood leaning on their javelins and looked at all men, ignorant of how to bear joy and sorrow. At times their beards stretching down to their chests swept the soil. At other times they defiled their white hair in dust and poured out into the thin air effeminate ululations with unbecoming tears and shameful pleas. [314] And while the soldiers were amazed at such feeble acts and in their fierceness waited for the signal to raze the walls to the ground, behold! a sudden awe struck their hearts with a silent sensation: divine inspiration calmed their harsh intentions to set everything on fire, to turn the temples into ashes in a single conflagration. A gentle divinity entered their inmost hearts, penetrating their bodies slowly. Seen by no one, this god advised each of them that Capys had laid the foundations of this arrogant city in antiquity. He instructed them that it would be useful to leave the houses to be inhabited in the fields’ huge expanse. Slowly their passionate hearts’ anger abated, and their resolve was softened and weakened. [326] Pan* had been sent by Jupiter who wanted Capua’s Trojan homes to be preserved. Pan always seems to hang in the air: his hoof’s tip scarcely leaves any prints on the soil it touches. His right hand plays with a Tegean* goat skin leash; its tail deals fertile lashes at cross-roads during the festivities.12 A sharp pine cone dresses his hair and darkens his temple, and small horns grow on his pink forehead. His ears are pointed, and a shaggy beard falls down to the bottom of his chin. The god has a shepherd’s stick, and a doe’s soft skin covers his left side. There is no rock that is too steep or inhospitable for Pan, on which he could not bring his hoof over an untrodden

12 During the festival of the Lupercalia in mid-February. The lashes signified fertility.

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precipice, balancing his body as if he were flying. At times he also turns around to look at his back where a shaggy tail grows, and he laughs at it. And he extends his hand to his brow to prevent the scorching sun and surveys the pastures with his shaded gaze. [343] After he carried out Jupiter’s orders and calmed the evil rage by soothing the frenzied soldiers’ hearts, he flew back and returned to Arcadia’s forests to visit his beloved Mount Maenalus.* There he played on his shrill pipe a sweet song resounding far and wide from the sacred mountain, driving all the flocks with his melody. [348] Their leader Fulvius prevented them from setting the gates on fire but ordered them to leave the walls standing, a merciful behavior on his part. The Roman legion buried their swords back in their sheaths and put the torches away. They carried rich plunder out from the gods’ temples and the shiny golden houses, and all means that supported a comfortable life and the goods that were the reason they perished: w ­ omanish clothes from men’s bodies, tables sought from distant lands, and cups with Eastern gems that provoked opulence. There was no shortage of silver, chased masses of wrought gold for feasts. Then there were long lines of prisoners everywhere, as well as money taken from the houses, enough to support a long war, and countless flocks of servants who had waited at the banquets. [361] Then Fulvius put a stop to the plundering of houses. The trumpet called the soldiers back to order, and he sat up high on a lofty seat. As a trustworthy supporter of their great deeds, he said: “Milo, born in Lanuvium, whom Juno the Protectress13 gives to us, receive as victor Mars Gradivus’ honor: circle your forehead with the mural crown’s towers.”14 Then he summoned those Capuan leaders who were guilty and deserved to pay the penalty first. And he justly beheaded them for the crimes they committed. [369] Here, in his unrelenting bravery (for I could not conceal a glorious deed performed even by an enemy), Taurea said with a loud shout: “Will you go unpunished for taking the life of someone greater than you with the sword? And will my most brave head fall before your unworthy feet, severed by a lictor who received an order to do so? May god never grant this to us!” Then he looked at Fulvius with a threatening face and eagerly drove his battle sword through his chest with a frenzied grin. To him Fulvius replied: “Take with you in death your falling country. Mars the war god will judge separately each one’s courage and bravery. If you had thought it shameful to endure justice, you could have met death in battle.”

13 Worshiped as such in Lanuvium. 14 See note 1 above. This gold crown was bestowed to the man who first climbed the walls of the enemy city.

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Scipio’s father and uncle die in Spain, and Scipio decides to descend to the Underworld [381] While Capua thus paid much blood as the price for its inauspicious crime, in the meantime cruel Fortune, mixing joy with sorrow, had taken away from this world the two Scipios in Spain—the great glory of their country and now a great source of sorrow.15 Scipio the Younger happened to be staying then in Puteoli, returning to his home there after the end of the war. There he learned the sad news of his kinsmen’s untimely death. Although he was not used to yielding to misfortunes, he violently tore his clothes, beating his chest. And his companions could not hold him back, nor any shame for his rank and military career. His sense of piety caused this rage against the unfavorable gods. He refused any consolation for his grief. And now he spent all his days lamenting. He recalled to his mind’s view his father’s and uncle’s faces and eyes. [395] Therefore, he set out to consult the shades of the dead and to talk to his people’s spirits so that he could soothe such great grief. The lake in the vicinity encouraged him to do so, where Acheron’s stagnant waters mark the squalid entrance to Avernus. Scipio’s mind desired to know immediately what the future holds.

Scipio visits the Sibyl’s abode who instructs him regarding the required preparations. Scipio encounters the unburied general Appius’ shade and explains different burial customs from around the world [400] So young Scipio went to the Cymaean* Sibyl, whose name was then Autonoe. She held the sacred tripods and cave on Phoebus Apollo’s authority. He explained his saddened heart’s resolve, asking to see his father’s and uncle’s faces. The prophetess did not delay long and said: “It is customary to slay for the dead at their graves black sheep as appeasement before daylight and to drain the blood from the slaughtered animals’ necks, while they are still breathing, to flow into the dug earth. Then the Underworld’s pale kingdom will send its people to you. A greater prophetess will sing to you the rest of the things you seek. For I will bring out an oracle I sought from Elysium and give you the opportunity to see in the middle of sacrifice the shade of the ancient Sibyl who prophesies Phoebus’ will. Come now, go, when the dewy night bends past the middle of her course. Purify yourself and take to neighboring Avernus’ opening the appeasements I mentioned for Dis, the implacable god of the dead. Take with you also honey and pure wine.” [417] This advice and the priestess’ name who promised to help bolstered Scipio’s eagerness. He prepared the prescribed sacrifice for his nocturnal

15 Publius Cornelius Scipio the Elder and his brother Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus.

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undertaking. Then, when night progressed and reached the appointed hour and when the darkness that had passed was equal to that which was yet to come, Scipio rose from his bed and proceeded to the frightening entrance of the gate to Tartarus. The prophetess was hiding herself deep inside that place and had fulfilled her promises, sitting at the Stygian cave. [424] Then she led the young man to the place where the earth starts to part and the cave hateful to heaven reveals itself; the crevice’s open mouth heaves and spits out Cocytus’ awful swamp. Here Autonoe urged Scipio to dig with his sword a trench in the soil quickly and directed him to kill the animals in due order, while she uttered an unintelligible incantation breathing heavily. Before all others, a black bull was slain to the Underworld’s hidden king Pluto, then a chaste heifer to Enna’s goddess Proserpina, and afterwards chosen sheep with wooly fleeces fell for you, Allecto, and to you, Megaera, the fury who is never joyful. They poured honey, wine, and milk over the victims as a tribute. [435] Autonoe exclaimed: “Stand firm, young man, and endure the face which rises from the whole Underworld: I see Tartarus approaching and the third kingdom standing before our eyes.16 Behold! various shapes rush toward us, and all humans who have been born and died since Chaos. Now you will see17 them all, the Cyclopes, Scylla, and the Thracian land’s horses who fed on men’s limbs.18 Make sure to keep your gaze steady, and fearlessly unsheathe and hold your sword. Until the chaste Sibyl’s shade advances, keep away any spirits who rush to drink the blood. In the meantime, look at the unburied shade that brings his steps quickly trying to engage you in conversation. He has the opportunity to speak in his usual voice without touching the blood until black fire consumes his body.” [449] The unexpected sight of the shade disturbed Scipio, who said: “Greatest leader, what kind of disaster snatched you from your exhausted country, at a time when horrible wars demand men like you? For Appius*19 would not yield to someone else’s hand or craft. Ten times has daylight returned since I saw you, when I came back from Capua, tending your wounds. You were sad because you couldn’t go to the siege of Capua’s walls because of your injuries and you were deprived of war glory.” [457] The general Appius repied: “Yesterday finally took away the Sun’s pleasing horses from me on my deathbed and sent me forever down to the black waters. But while my family seeks futile rituals and the people’s solemn customs, they are slow in taking care of my body and delay to put it on the pyre, since they would like to bring it far to my father’s tomb and bury me there. I entreat you in the name of our rival deeds in battle, stop

16 See note 7 in Book 8. 17 We follow the manuscript reading videbis. 18 See Book 3, lines 32ff. 19 That is, Appius Claudius Pulcher.

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the drugs which preserve my body from rotting and give me, as I wander around, the chance to enter Acheron’s gate as soon as possible.” [466] Then the young man Scipio replied: “Oh noblest scion of Clausus’20 ancient family, no other care shall I prioritize, although big troubles exhaust me. For among all peoples, these customs are varied, as each follows different practices for burying the dead and disposing of their ashes. In Spain, as they say, there is an ancient custom: a foul vulture consumes the dead bodies. When a king dies in Hyrcania, it is authorized to give the body to the dogs. In Egypt, after the funeral they enclose the dead bodies standing in a perfumed coffin made of rock, and they do not keep the bloodless ghost away from the meals.21 The peoples of Pontus* have an established custom of emptying human skulls by extracting the brain and preserving it in drugs for centuries. Did you know the Garamantes dig a hole and place the dead naked in the sand? Or that the Nasamonians on the Libyan shores order to bury the lifeless bodies in the savage sea? But the Celts rejoice in framing with gold the bones of an empty skull and to use them at dinners as drinking cups. The Athenians have decreed that those who died in battle fighting for their country be burned on common pyres. And in Scythia* the dead are fastened on tree trunks and are left to rot in putrid decay: slow time functions as burial.”

Autonoe departs. The ancient Sibyl prophesies about Scipio’s future and also describes the Underworld [488] While they conversed, the Sibyl’s shade approached, and Autonoe said: “Put an end to this dialogue. This is the priestess who produces the truth, to whom so much is revealed that the god Apollo himself would deny knowing more. The time has come for me to depart together with your band of followers and place the sacrificial victims upon the flames.” [494] But when the ancient lady from Cumae, full of mysteries, touched with her mouth and tasted the sacrificial blood, she stared at the young hero’s exquisite glory and said: “While I enjoyed the light of day, my voice strongly resounded in Cumae’s cave for the people. Then I sang about you together with the centuries and future deeds of the Romans. But your people didn’t pay worthy attention to my utterings: for your ancestors didn’t display any skill in collecting or preserving our sayings. But come, child, since you want to find out, learn now your destiny and the Roman future that depends on yours. For I see that you hurry to seek from this place a prophecy regarding your life and to reach and see your father’s and uncle’s souls. [507] Entrusted with command for war before the appropriate age, you will victoriously avenge your father upon the warlike Iberians. And by the

20 See Book 8, lines 412ff. 21 The mummies were kept at the dining rooms.

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sword you will cut short the Carthaginians’ joy. When you have conquered New Carthage22 on Iberian soil, you will rejoice that this omen is sent for the war. Then you will be appointed in greater command, nor will Jupiter stop watching over you before he moves all war to Africa and lead himself the Carthaginian general there for you to defeat. The unjust city is to be ashamed, because after these accomplishments she will separate you from your country and home.”23 So spoke the prophetess and turned her step toward the black lake. [517] Then Scipio said: “Whatever hard lot of life is given to me, I’ll fight against it, as long as my heart is free of any crime. But I ask you, famous virgin, since your life’s purpose was to help human labor, stay your step a little longer and enumerate for me the ghosts of the dead and the Underworld’s dreadful kingdom.” [523] And she agreed but said: “You open up a kingdom that is not to be desired to see. Here countless people from the past inhabit darkness and fly through shadows. This is one home for everyone. In the middle there is a great expanse of space that is void. Here death, common to all, brings everything that the earth, sea, and fiery air produced from the very beginning of the world’s creation. Everything comes down here, and the motionless plain receives them, whoever has died or is yet to be. [531] Ten gates encircle this kingdom: one of which admits the warriors, who are born to war’s harsh lot. The other, those who legislated and set the famous laws’ foundation for their people, establishing the first cities with walls. The third, the countrymen, Ceres’ most righteous crowd who come to the shades below unharmed by fraud’s poison. Then come those who discovered the fine arts and a way to cultivate a civilized life, composing for their patron Apollo songs which he cannot despise. The next gate admits those whom the winds and terrible storms swallowed up; this is the one called ‘the gate of shipwreck.’ The one next to it opens wide for those who are oppressed and confess they are guilty, having committed a crime: Rhadamanthus* awaits them at the very entrance and punishes insubstantial death. [545] The seventh gate opens up for the bands of women, where chaste Proserpina cultivates the dewy groves. Next is the passage for the groups of babies and for the virgins whose wedding torches turned into a funeral and for the crowds who died at the life’s threshold; this gate is known for wailing. Then a gate shines, separated from the rest and radiating with darkness dispersed. It leads through the shady threshold of a sequestered path to the Elysian fields. There, not in the Underworld’s kingdom or under the sky’s axis but beyond the ocean and close to its sacred spring, the crowd of pious people drink of Lethe’s waters and forget everything. Then the last gate,

22 That is, New Carthage. See Book 15, lines 200ff. 23 The Sibyl prophesies Scipio’s exile to Liternum in 187 BCE.

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shiny with gold, already feels light’s honor and glows as if the moon’s heavenly body were near it. From here the souls return to the light of heaven, having forgotten the Underworld, and return to bodies after they have spent five thousand years here. Everywhere pale Death opens its black jaws and wanders around all the gates, passing back and forth. [562] Next there is a stationary chasm filled with water in a huge space without substance, a slimy pool. Here the savage Phlegethon’s overflowing waters scorch the banks far and wide and produce a panting whirlwind of fire, twisting burning rocks. On the other side, fast and scorching Cocytus rages in a whirlpool of dark blood and rushes down in a foaming stream. But the Styx rolls its muddy waters through sulfurous fumes, terrible because of its pitchy flow; this swamp always accepts the great gods’ and Jupiter’s oaths. More terrible than these, Acheron seethes with gore and clotted poison. It noisily vomits icy sand, and its black stream flows slowly along the swamps. Cerberus’ many mouths drink this pus. These are also Tisiphone’s drinks, and Megaera satisfies her thirst here but cannot extinguish her rage with any drink. Last of all the river of tears24 breaks forth with its spring before the king’s court and the inexorable threshold’s entrance. [579] What a great cohort of every kind of monster lives in these atria, keeping guard and terrifying the shades with various rumbling! On this side, devouring Grief and Thinness, a companion added to evil disease, and Sadness, fed by weeping, and Paleness, as well as Worries and Tricks and Old Age that always complains. And on the other side, Jealousy that strangles its own neck with both hands, and an ugly evil and prone to crime, Poverty and Error with its treacherous step and Discord that rejoices in mixing up sea and sky.25 Briareus* sits at the Underworld king Dis’ door, accustomed to opening it with his one hundred hands, as well as the Sphinx,* stained with blood on her maiden mouth, and Scylla and the fierce Centaurs and the shadows of Giants. Cerberus goes back and forth in Tartarus with his broken bonds, a beast that neither Allecto herself nor Megaera, full of rage, dare to approach, while a thousand chains subdue him and he barks and twines his serpentine tail around his loins. [595] At the right, a huge yew-tree extends its top and branches full of leaves, irrigated by Cocytus’ waters. Here evil birds build their nests: the vulture who eats carcasses, a lot of owls, the screech-owl that spatters her wings with blood, and the Harpies.* They all cling to the leaves in packs; the tree resounds with their terrible cries. [601] Among these shapes, Avernian Juno’s26 husband, Dis , sits on a high mound and tries the kings’ crimes. They stand in chains before the judge

24 Silius adds a fifth river, otherwise unattested. 25 All these personified deities are imagined to live in the Underworld. 26 That is, Proserpina.

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and belatedly regret their guilt. The Furies and all kinds of Penalties roam about. How they wished they never had the scepters’ fancy power! The souls that suffered under their harsh rule unworthily and unfairly while alive now mock them. And what they could not say aloud in life, now finally they can express in complaint. Then one of them is bound in hard chains on a rock,27 but another rolls a rock against a high mountain,28 while this one is tamed by Megaera’s serpentine scourge in eternity.29 Such punishments await deadly tyrants. But now it is time for you to get to know your mother’s face, whose shadow comes first in quick pace.”

Scipio meets his mother [615] Now Pomponia stood near. She became pregnant through Jupiter’s secret love. For when Venus realized that Carthaginian wars were to come against Latium, she tried to make sure to anticipate Juno’s machinations. And she entered slowly her father’s chest and turned him on with passion. If she had not made such provisions, a Carthaginian maiden would now light the Trojan altars. So, when blood was tasted and the Sibyl prompted them, permitting to get to know each other’s face, first the young man Scipio said this: “Dear mother, sacred to me like divinity, I would have asked to enter the Stygian darkness even through death so that I could see you! What a fate I had to lose you: the day, when I was born, snatched you from me and plucked you without glory to your funeral.” [628] His mother answered: “My death had no suffering, son. When I was released from the heavenly weight giving birth to you, the god Mercury, born on Mount Cyllene, with a soft hand led me to Elysium’s shore following Jupiter’s command. And by divine dispensation he gave me the same abode where Hercules’ great mother lives, where Leda dwells. But now come, son, finally learn now of your parentage, as I am permitted to reveal to you, so that you do not fear any war or hesitate to raise yourself to the sky through your deeds. When I was tired and happened to sleep alone in the middle of the day seeking repose, suddenly an embrace bound my limbs. It was not the one I was accustomed to and familiar with, that is, when my husband approached me. Then in bright light, although sleep filled my languid eyes, I saw, believe me, Jupiter. And the god’s changed shape didn’t deceive me, because he turned into a scaly snake and dragged his coils in huge curves and a circle. But after giving birth, I was no longer allowed to continue living. Alas, how much I grieved, since my life departed before I could let you know these things!” Hearing this, Scipio eagerly sought to hug his mother, but he pursued the shade three times in vain through the emptiness. And Pomponia’s ghost evaded him.

27 Prometheus. 28 Sisyphus. 29 Possibly Tantalus.

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Scipio meets his father and uncle [650] The ghosts of a harmonious pair, his father together with his uncle, followed. Scipio rushed through the darkness, seeking in vain to kiss them and attempting to catch spirits that were like fleeting smoke or clouds. “Which god, dear father, took you away from us in hatred against Latium, you on whom Italy’s kingdom leaned? Alas! But why was there such a moment that I was so harsh as to be away from you? I would have opposed my chest and have sacrificed my life to save you. What groans have all Italians everywhere expressed for your deaths! On the grass of the Campus Martius, the Senate decreed that a twin tomb be raised in your honor.” [661] They did not allow him to say more but they began to speak as he was still speaking. First his father’s spirit said this: “Virtus is indeed its own most decorous reward. Yet to the dead it comes as a sweet honor, when their life’s glory endures among the living and when oblivion doesn’t wear away praise. But come, say, ornament of my house, how much you are burdened by the war. Alas, how much terror enters my heart, as I recall how fierce you are when you go to war to meet great dangers! My bravest son, I ask you in the name of the cause of our death, be moderate in your fury for battle. Let your own house provide enough proof for you! [671] The eighth summer30 was threshing the dry crops from the rattling stalks, since the year when my brother and I had trampled on the Spanish land and had defeated31 and subjected it all under Roman rule. We gave walls to miserable Saguntum and rebuilt its houses. We gave them freedom to drink from the River Baetis under no enemy’s threat. Three and four times we made Hannibal’s invincible brother Hasdrubal retreat. Oh the loyalty of barbarians, always stained by treason! When I victoriously pursued Hasdrubal, who was consumed by disasters, suddenly the Spanish cohorts broke the ranks and left their standards. This was a crowd of mercenaries that Hasdrubal had brought under the power of his African gold.32 Then having many more forces, the enemies surrounded us with a dense crowd, as our allied soldiers had abandoned us. We didn’t spend that last day without heroism or unavenged, son, and we gloriously met death.” [687] Then his brother took over recounting his death: “After these last events, in these dire straits, I chose to seek a high tower’s protection and fought the last battle there. They kept throwing smoking torches and widespread fires and a thousand firebrands. I don’t complain against the gods about how I died. My body was burned and placed in no small tomb, and I kept my armor in death. But grief now holds me that Spain may have yielded to the attacking Carthaginians after the disaster of our twin deaths.” 30 In 211 BCE. 31 We read devicta. 32 The Latin text is uncertain here, but the meaning is clear: Hasdrubal had bought these soldiers with money.

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[696] The young man replied disturbed as he was and sobbing: “Gods, I ask you to make Carthage pay a penalty worthy of such awful daring. But Marcius* now checks the Pyrenees’ fierce people, a man proven in battle in your army. He received the defeated army and succeeded you in battle. Rumor has it that he even routed the Carthaginians in battle and so atoned your slaughter.” The two generals were happy to hear this news and returned to the pleasant places of the pious. Scipio followed them with his eyes and worshipped them as they left.

Scipio meets Paulus and other prominent Romans [705] And now came Paulus, hardly recognizable in the deep darkness. He drank the blood and spoke these words: “Light of the Italians, I witnessed your martial deeds, much greater than a single man can accomplish! Who forced you to descend to darkness and visit these kingdoms where, once humans enter, they stay forever?” Scipio replied to him as follows: “Warlike general, how much the city lamented your death for a long time! How you almost dragged with you the falling Roman houses to the Stygian darkness! Then the Carthaginian enemy built a tomb for you and sought praise by bestowing this honor.” And when Paulus in tears heard the story of his funeral by Hannibal his enemy, now Flaminius came to stand before their eyes, now Gracchus and with a sad face Servilius, who died at Cannae.33 Scipio longed to address these men and talk to them, but the desire to see the ancient men’s shades urged him on. [721] Then Scipio saw Brutus, an ancient name, famous because of his harsh axe.34 After him, he saw Camillus, equal to the gods because of his glory, and then Curius* who was never a friend to gold. The Sibyl explained the faces of those coming and revealed their names. “The blind man35 rejected fraudulent peace and threw Pyrrhus out from the gate’s threshold. This one36 withstood the king who rushed to the River Tiber’s banks and alone kept him out from returning as king, while the bridge behind him was destroyed. If you would like to see the man who dictated the treaty after the First Punic War, this is he, Lutatius, famous and victorious with his fleet in a sea battle.37 If you desire to see Hamilcar’s savage shade, here he is, look afar, the one whose brow preserves his angry rage, not letting go even in death. If you have it in your heart to engage him in conversation, allow him to speak after he tastes blood.”

33 See Book 5, lines 610ff. (Flaminius), Book 10, lines 215ff. (Servilius), and Book 12, lines 463ff. (Gracchus). 34 He executed his own sons for treason. See Livy, From the Foundation of the City 2.5.5. 35 That is, Appius Claudius Caecus.* 36 That is, Horatius Cocles. See Book 10, lines 478ff. 37 See Book 6, lines 684ff.

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Scipio meets Hamilcar [736] And when Scipio gave permission and the shade satisfied his thirst, Scipio spoke first and disparaged him with an unkind countenance: “Treacherous one, Hannibal’s father, are treaties so meaningless for you? Was this the agreement when you were captured on the Sicilian shore? Your son wages war against all of Latium and against all treaties. He came down the Alps having struggled and broken the barriers. The Romans are burning in this war against the barbarians, and dead bodies obstruct the rivers that now flow backward.” The Carthaginian then replied: “He had just begun his tenth year, when he decided to wage war against Rome at my bidding.38 And he cannot commit perjury to the gods in whose name he took an oath before his father. But if he now devastates the Romans by fire and strives to overturn the Trojan affairs, I salute your piety, Hannibal, my true son, your sacred loyalty. May he restore the glory I lost.” Then he left quickly with his head held high and his shade seemed to be taller as he departed.

Scipio meets the Decemvirs* and Alexander the Great [752] Then the prophetess showed Scipio those who under arms gave laws to the people that demanded them in arms and first introduced legislation for the Romans sought from the Piraeus’ shores.* Scipio rejoiced and could not fill his eyes by staring at these men and would address them all. But the prophetess admonished him that the crowds were endless: “How many thousands, young man, do you believe have come down to the Underworld from the whole world, while you survey only a few with your gaze? At any given time, a torrent full of shades is driven here, and Charon leads groups of people in his spacious boat. And that insatiable vessel is not enough to hold them.” [762] Thereupon, pointing to a young man, the priestess spoke these words: “This is the famous man, who roamed all over the earth and victoriously moved his standards in every journey. He penetrated into Bactria and the Dahae.* He drank the Ganges and bound the Niphates River* with a Macedonian bridge. He is the one whose own city stands on the sacred Nile.”39 The Roman then addressed him as follows: “Oh Jupiter Hammon’s most true offspring! Since your undisputed fame eclipses that of all other commanders, and since my heart is inflamed by a similar thirst for glory, tell me, which way led you to your proud eminence and the highest pinnacle of achievement?” And Alexander replied: “Cunning and caution in war are dishonorable for a commander. You shall conclude your

38 Hannibal was nine years old when he took the oath. See Book 1, lines 70ff. 39 That is, Alexandria.

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campaign by daring. Valor without action never rises triumphant to the stars. Speed up the time of accomplishing great things. Dark death hovers over the head of a man of action.” So he spoke and left. Next Croesus’* ghost flew by, a man very rich while alive, but death had set him on the same level as the poor.

Scipio sees Homer and other heroes [778] And at this point the young man saw a figure moving along the Elysian path, whose hair extended over his shining neck and was duly bound up by a purple fillet. “Say, maiden, who is this?” Scipio asked. “For his sacred forehead shines with a distinguishing light, while many souls follow him and escort him with cries of wonder and delight. What a countenance! If he were not in the Stygian darkness, I would have certainly avowed that he is one of the gods.” “You are not mistaken,” Hecate’s wise associate replied. “Deservedly does he appear divine, for no small a divinity dwelt in his mighty chest. His poetry embraced earth and sea, the sky and the Underworld. He rivaled the Muses in song and Apollo in glory. He revealed to mortals in detail this whole region also, before he ever saw it.40 And what is more, he raised to the stars your ancestral city Troy’s fame.” [792] With joyful eyes, Scipio surveyed the ghost and said: “If fate would now allow that this poet could sing of the Roman achievements for the world to hear, how much deeper an impression these same deeds would make upon posterity, with Homer testifying to them! You, Achilles, were fortunate, since such a poet displayed you to the world! Your heroism was made greater by the poet’s song.” [798] But when Scipio asked who were those approaching in such a big and joyous crowd, he found out they were the shades of heroes and of older ghosts. He marveled at invincible Achilles and great Hector and admired Ajax’s pace and Nestor’s venerable face. He happily saw Atreus’* two sons and Ithacan Ulysses whose cunning equaled Achilles’ heroism.41 He also saw Leda’s son Castor’s shade, about to live again; Pollux was enjoying his time in the upper world, alternating with his brother.

Scipio sees famous women [806] But suddenly Lavinia attracted his gaze when the Sibyl pointed her out. For the maiden priestess advised him that it was time to get to know the women’s shades, because the dawn’s nourishing light would call him back to the upper world, in case he delayed. She said: “This is Venus’ happy daughterin-law. She bound the Trojans with the Latins in alliance in a long line of

40 Reference to the Underworld’s description in Odyssey Book 11. 41 That is, Odysseus.

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offspring. Do you wish to see the wife of Mars’ son Romulus Quirinus? Look at Hersilia.* When at one point the neighboring people rejected the shaggy grooms, she was raped by a shepherd husband and entered his hut, happily lying on a bed supported by straw and recalling her kinsmen from the battle.42 [816] Look, Carmentis comes closer. She was Evander’s mother43 and touched upon your toils in her prophecies. Would you also look at Tanaquil’s* face? Her chaste heart was also strong in prophecy, and she foretold her husband’s coming kingship, recognizing the favorable gods from birds’ flight.44 Behold Latium’s glory of chastity: Lucretia,* famous for her death, brings forward a face and eyes fixed on the earth.45 Alas, Rome, it was not granted to you to keep this praise for long, a glory which you ought to have preferred. Look at Verginia* next to her, whose bloodied breast preserves her wound, sad testament by the sword of her shame defended by her father: she praises her father’s right hand in the terrible wound.46 This is she, who overcame the River Tiber and the Etruscan wars, having not yet experienced a man, Cloelia, who scorned her own sex, a woman such that Rome shall wish her sons would marry.”47 [831] A sudden sight now disturbed Scipio who asked what the cause of the punishment was and who the criminal shades were. Then the Sibyl said: “This is Tullia* whose chariot broke her father’s body as she stood over his quivering face, reining back the horses.48 She will never suffer enough punishment as she swims in burning Phlegethon. The river’s quick stream erupts from black furnaces and spews forth burning rocks from its depths, throwing at her face hot stones. This one, however, is Tarpeia,* whose guts are ripped apart by a bird’s beak. (Listen to the sound that the flapping wings of Jupiter’s arms-bearer make when he returns to feast.) She is the maiden who betrayed the citadel to the enemies, an unspeakable evil, in return for gold she loved so much. She opened up the gate to the Sabines* having made a pact with them.49 Do you see that woman next to her? (For no light crimes are punished here.) Hungry Orthus* barks at her with his jaws, he who once was the Iberian flock’s fierce guard. And he seeks to bite her and eviscerates her with his stained claws. But even this punishment is not equal to her

42 The Sabine women, including Hersilia, were raped by the Romans and intervened to negotiate peace between the two people, remaining in Rome as wives. See Livy, From the Foundation of the City 1.9–13. 43 See Book 7, lines 7ff. 44 See Livy, From the Foundation of the City 1.34. 45 See Livy, From the Foundation of the City 1.57. 46 See Livy, From the Foundation of the City 3.44–48. 47 See Book 10, lines 449ff. 48 See Livy, From the Foundation of the City 1.48. 49 See Livy, From the Foundation of the City 1.11.

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crime: she polluted Vesta’s sacred rites by abandoning her virginity, even though she was a priestess.50 But it is enough to have seen these.”

Scipio sees leaders of the late Republic and Hannibal’s future [850] Soon after she said: “I am about to recount for you now at the end a few ghosts, who drink oblivion, of those who will follow.51 And then it will be time for me to return to the darkness. Here is Marius:* not many days remain now before he goes back to the light of life. From small origins, he will come to you as consul in long-term power. Nor can Sulla* delay what is decreed or drink long from the river of sleep. The light of life calls him too, and no god can change fate. He will seize supreme power first, but the glory of his crime is that he alone will return it. And no one will exist in that rank who will want himself to be Sulla’s imitator. [861] That head, whose shaggy hair covers up the brow, is Pompey Magnus,* glorious and pleasing to the populace. That one is the gods’ offspring, he who rises his star-bearing head52 high, Trojan Caesar,* who has as his ancestor Julus Ascanius. How much of an upheaval these two will cause for land and sea, when they leave this place and break forth finally to the upper world! Alas, wretched, how many times will you fight in the whole world! Nor will you as victor pay a lighter penalty than the defeated.” [868] Then the young man Scipio replied in tears: “I lament that the future holds such hardships for Roman affairs. But if there is no mercy once one dies and in death itself he continues to suffer deserved punishments, in what waters of Phlegethon will the Carthaginian leader pay his crime of perfidy or what appropriate bird’s bite will tear apart his limbs as they regrow eternally?” [874] The prophetess exclaimed: “Have no fear. The rest of his life won’t follow without punishment. His bones won’t find rest in his country. For when, broken and out of resources, he will endure defeat after the great battle’s contest and will be forced to beg for his life shamefully, again he will want to restore war with the Seleucid* armies.53 And condemned for treason, he will abandon his faithful wife and sweet baby son. He will leave Carthage’s citadel and will roam about the seas on a ship as exile. [882] From there he will visit Mount Taurus’ rocky tops in Cilicia. Oh dear! How much easier for humans to endure servitude, cold, heat, exile, sea, than to be able to die! After the Italian wars, a slave to the Syrian king Antiochus* and cheated of his desire to wage war against Rome, he will

50 Reference to a contemporary Vestal Virgin who was put to death by Domitian. 51 We read sequentum with Van der Keur. 52 Reference to the belief that Caesar became a comet after his murder. 53 In 196–5 BCE, Hannibal unsuccessfully allied with the Seleucid armies.

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set sail uncertain as to where to go, until he will be brought helpless to Prusias’ shores.* There he will endure another slavery and a hiding place, a gift from the king, spending his life without war. Then the Romans will put pressure and ask for their enemy to be released to them; Hannibal will drink poison quickly and secretly and finally release the world from a long fear.” [895] The prophetess said these things and returned to the Underworld’s hollow shadows. Then the young man Scipio returned happy to his comrades at the harbor.

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The poet now begins to narrate Marcellus’ Sicilian campaign [1] Muses, goddesses of Mount Helicon’s, bend your song now to Ortygia’s* sea and the Sicilian shore’s cities. This is now your gift’s laborious task, to approach the Romans’ Italian kingdom and Sicily’s harbors, or to survey Macedons’ homes and Greece’s fields, or to dip your wandering feet in the Sardinian sea, or the huts once inhabited by the Carthaginians and to visit the world’s end when the day comes to a close. In such a way war waged in scattered lands requires our attention.1 Therefore, come, let us follow the trumpets where warfare takes us.

Sicily’s history, topography, and geography [11] Trinacria,* the island of the three promontories, forms a big part of the Italian domain. Sicily lies there since Neptune’s sea trident pushed it, receiving the sea when the south wind besieged it and the waves battered it. For long ago, through an unseen whirlpool’s violence, the sea mysteriously dashed itself upon the torn earth’s bowels and cut it through, breaking forth through the fields in full flood and uprooting and displacing cities and people alike. From that time the swift sea god Nereus preserves the two lands’ separation, and his savage flow forbids the divided places to come together again. But the story goes that the space which keeps the lands separate transmits the dogs’ barking (so narrow is the sea) and the birds’ morning songs from one side to the other. [23] The soil has many good qualities: in places it returns more money than invested to the plow; in other places the olive trees shade the mountains. It produces great wine, and it nourishes quick horses to withstand the war trumpets.2 Hybla’s honey rivals Athenian beeswax.* Here you will

1 The Second Punic War requires the poet’s attention to different parts of the world, from Italy and neighboring islands to Greece, North Africa, and Spain. 2 Sicilian horses were famous for war.

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admire the medicinal springs with mysterious sulfur, here you will worship the famous poets worthy of Phoebus Apollo and the Muses, whose songs resound in the sacred forests and Mount Helicon’s Syracusan* muse.3 The people have ready tongues. And also when they fight wars, they usually decorate their ports with the trophies from the sea battles. [33] After Antiphates’4 cruel rule and the Cyclopes’ reign, the Sicans* first plowed the virgin soil. The Pyrenees sent these people who brought their name from their country’s river and gave it to the land that had no name. Afterward young Ligurians conquered the kingdom by war, and their leader Siculus* changed the name of the island. Nor did colonists from Crete* disgrace the island: Minos led them from Crete’s 100 cities seeking to punish Daedalus in an unfortunate battle.5 Minos was then killed by terrible treachery, ambushed by Cocalus’* daughters, and went to the Underworld to serve the shades forever as their judge. The Cretan crowd was exhausted from war and settled on the Sicilian shores. [45] Trojan Acestes and Trojan Helymus mixed in the Phrygian people with the locals, building walls for the group of young people following them and giving their names to the cities for posterity. Nor do Zancle’s walls have an obscure name, which Saturn’s hand gave them after he put down his sickle.6 But there is no other glory more beautiful in Sicily than the city7 built from Sisyphus’ Isthmus, very famous before all others for its Corinthian* settlers. Here Arethusa receives her beloved Alpheus in a fishy pond, bearing the sacred wreath’s symbols.8 [55] But Vulcan, the unkind god of fire, loves the Sicilian caves. For vast underground furnaces feed the island Lipari,* which spews out sulfurous smoke from its hollow mountain. And from cliffs that shake Aetna vomits the groans of fire it keeps inside, imitating the rage of the sea. And day and night the volcano is always restless and thunders with a noise from hidden commotion. As if from Phlegethon’s black pond a river of flames flows out and in a pitchy storm spins the half-burnt rocks from its molten caverns. But even though on the inside it is seething with a huge whirlpool of fires and it generates them nonstop from underneath and pushes them out in a flow, yet (a miraculous thing to say) the mountain top remains white with ice that coexists with fire. The burning rocks stand still from the perpetual frost. Winter is persistent on the high mountain, and a dark ash covers the hot snow.

3 Many famous poets came from Sicily and Syracuse: Stesichorus, Empedocles, Epicharmus, and Theocritus. 4 See Book 8, lines 524ff. 5 See Book 12, lines 83ff. 6 Messana, also called Zancle, after Uranus’ castration by Saturn with a sickle, which he then threw on this Sicilian city. 7 That is, Syracuse. 8 Since the river united with Arethusa from the Peloponnese under water to Sicily, the victors’ wreathes from the Olympic Games were said to resurface in the Syracusan fountain.

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[70] Should I mention the land where Aeolus rules and the winds’ abode and the prison that holds them? Here Pachynus* stretches far toward the Peloponnese, and its cliffs resonate under the Ionian Sea’s blows. Noble Lilybaeum* faces opposite Africa and the raging northwest winds and sees Scorpio’s* pincers sink down. High Pelorus raises itself with a mountain of sand, where the third part of the island on the opposite side verges toward Italy protruding its back to the sea.

Hiero II is succeeded by his grandson Hieronymus* who allies with the Carthaginians [79] Hiero was for a long time a mild and kindly ruler of these lands. He handled his people in serene power and stirred the populace’s hearts with no fear. He was uneasy to invalidate a treaty agreed by the altars and had preserved an inviolate alliance with Rome for many years. But when fate made him fragile in old age, his doomed scepter passed on to his young grandson, Hieronymus, and the peaceful court received a rebellious ruler as king. For not yet sixteen years old, the king was blinded by his high throne’s power and could not endure the weight of kingship, trusting exceedingly in transient affairs. [91] And so in a short time, what was known as right and wrong became confused, and the distinction disappeared. The king put no value on shame. His maternal descent from Pyrrhus stimulated disastrous rage due to his prideful lineage from Achilles, a hero memorialized by songs for eternity. Therefore, he suddenly desired to support the Carthaginians’ undertakings. There was no delay in the crime: now he made a new treaty with the agreement that the Carthaginian conqueror Hannibal could withdraw to Sicily. But retribution was standing by, and the Fury denied him a tomb on the land which he had just now agreed not to let his ally see. For the conspirators were uneasy about enduring the young man’s harsh pride and his desire for bloody luxury and his combination of shameful and terrible deeds. Rage and fear agitated them to murder him. And there was no moderation to violence: they killed women as well, and seized his innocent sisters and killed them with the sword. New freedom raged in arms and threw off the yoke. A part of them wanted to side with the Carthaginian camp, some with the Romans whom they knew well. And there was no shortage of maddened men who wanted to join neither alliance.

Marcellus prepares for war [110] Such was the commotion on Sicily, with the affairs of the state in uncertainty after the king’s death. Marcellus was holding high office; for the third time the consulship renewed the Roman fasces for him.9 He put the

9 In 214 BCE.

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fleet on the Sicilian shores. Then Marcellus was informed about everything, the tyrant’s death and the people’s ambivalent intentions, the number of the Carthaginian troops and places they controlled, which people would remain on the Roman side, how Syracuse would behave arrogantly and would stubbornly keep its gates closed. With an enflamed heart, Marcellus turned his attention to fighting and quickly spread in all surrounding areas the war’s pestilence. Likewise, the north wind, when it flies down headlong from Mount Rhodope’s top and with the tenth10 wave pushes the sea on land, it pursues with a crash the massive waters spewed out from the ocean and rages with hissing wings.

The first battle is fought at Leontini* [125] The first battle devastated the fields of Leontini, a city once inhabited by the savage Laestrygonians.11 The Roman general Marcellus pressed on, since he thought that to delay conquering the Greek troops was the same as defeat. He rushed through the battlefield (you would think men were fighting women) and made the plains that Ceres loved rich with blood. Enemies lay dead everywhere. Quick battle made it impossible for them to evade death by running away. For the general anticipated their action and killed with his sword whoever thought retreat promised safety. “Go, mow down this weak group and strike them low with the sword,” Marcellus exclaimed urging the tarrying soldiers with his shield’s boss. [136] “These passive young men stand before you, a mediocre glory for us conquering them, since they know how to endure soft contests of wrestling under the shade with listless effort and rejoice to shine with olive oil.12 This is the only praise given to us, if you conquer the enemies as you see them.” The whole army heard their leader and rushed on. And the only thing left they knew was to compete among themselves as to who would be first and excel in the rich spoils.13 In this way Euboean Euripus’* waves crush against Caphereus’* rocks in a rage, and the Propontis’* narrow mouth spews out the resounding sea rather violently. Nor does the sea seethe or rush on in greater uproar, when it crushes against the Pillars of Hercules where the sun sets. [148] In the middle of such battle, however, a noble deed of clemency excelled in reputation. A Tuscan soldier (named Asilus), once captured at Lake Trasimene, had become slave to Beryas and was performing easy service under his master’s kind commands. He returned to his native land,

10 The tenth wave was considered the strongest. 11 See Book 7, lines 268ff. 12 The common practice of oiling the body in the Greek gymnasium, which was looked down upon by the Romans. 13 See note 9 in Book 1.

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sponsored by his favorable master. Now he went back to military service and tried to avenge his former mishap in the Sicilian war. And while he fought fiercely in the middle of the field, he came across Beryas, whom Carthaginians had sent to form an alliance with the king of Syracuse and was waging war on the Syracusan side. His face was enclosed behind the bronze helmet’s protection. Asilus attacked the young man with the sword and threw him down on the sand as he retreated in fear and had lost his balance. But the wretched man Beryas heard his conqueror’s voice. And, as if bringing back his life from the Underworld in terror and uncertainty, he broke his treacherous helmet’s chain and prayed for his life, preparing to add more words. [165] But frightened by the sudden appearance of Beryas’ face, which he recognized as familiar, Tuscan Asilus stopped his arm and sword. Groaning as tears streamed spontaneously down his cheeks, he said: “Please, don’t ask for your life as a suppliant, in doubt whether I shall grant it. It is righteous to save my enemy. A man is by much the best in war, he whose first and last task is to guard loyalty even in battle. You first gave me the chance to escape death, saving me from the enemy, before I saved you. If my hand doesn’t grant you to escape in the middle of fire and sword, I would by no means deny that I am worthy of the disasters I experienced and again deserve to suffer worse.” So he spoke and willingly raised Beryas up, repaying him for the gift of life with the same one.

Marcellus moves to Syracuse. Silius provides a catalog of the Syracusan, Roman, and Carthaginian allies [178] Then Marcellus finished his first victorious battle on the Sicilian shores and turned his winning army to Syracuse’s walls, marching without causing or creating problems. Then he surrounded the city’s stronghold with his troops. But his desire for war had subsided: he wished to calm the citizens’ blind hearts by this warning and to uproot their rage. But if they were to reject him and think that it was a sign of fear to prefer a temperate approach, he would maintain and not relax the siege.14 On the contrary, he was very focused and vigilant but cautious in his use of arms, undisturbed, formulating carefully and secretly a plan to surprise the enemy. Just so the white swan swims in the River Po’s calm waters or the River Cayster’s* and lets the motionless body underneath the current, rowing with its feet in the silent waves. [192] In the meantime, while the besieged were feeling ambivalent, various peoples and cities were organized and brought allied arms. Messana is situated near the shore, barely detached and separated from mainland Italy, a city memorable for its Oscan ancestry.15 Next came Catania*, situated very

14 The Latin phrase is corrupt here, but the meaning is clear enough. 15 The Mamertines of Messana were of Oscan origin.

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near burning Typhoeus16 and once most famous for having born the pious brothers.17 And Camarina,* a city the Fates did not allow to be moved.18 Then came daring Hybla with its bee-hives that produce nectar, which competes with Mount Hymettus, and Selinus* with its palm trees, as well as Mylae,* once a safe port, but now an untrustworthy refuge for shipwrecks on its deserted shore. [203] Likewise tall Mount Eryx and Centuripae from its high top, and Entella, fertile in abundant vines, Entella, a dear name to Trojan Acestes.19 And Thapsos was there and Acrae from its icy cliffs. Bands of men from Agyrium came in flocks and from Tyndaris proud of the twin Spartans.20 High Acragas* seized an army of one thousand horses and filled the air with their neighs, raising a dusty cloud to the sky. Their leader was Grosphus, whose engraved shield depicted a fierce bull, memorial of an old punishment. When men’s bodies were roasted over a fire underneath the bull, their groans transformed into bellows; one would believe that these were voices of real flocks driven from the stalls. But this was not left unpunished; for the inventor21 of this dire contrivance himself bellowed sadly in his own bull as he died. [218] Gela* also came, taking its name from its river. Halaesa came and Palaea where men who commit perjury are punished with sudden death.22 And Trojan Acesta came and the River Acis,* who seeks the sea through Mount Aetna’s confines and washes the pleasing Nereid Galatea* with his sweet water. Once he competed with Polyphemus* for a woman the Cyclops desired. While he fled the anger of shepherd Polyphemus’ violent heart, he was transformed into a stream of water and escaped his enemy, mixing his victorious waters with Galatea’s. [227] There came those who drink from the resounding waters of the Rivers Hypsa and Alabis and from clear Achates’ shiny stream. In addition, there came those who live by the wandering Chrysa’s fountains and Hipparis’ scanty waters and Pantagias, which is easy to cross because of its slender stream, and those who live by swift Symaethus’ yellow waters. Thermae’s shores armed their men, a city endowed with poetic talent from ancient times, where the River Himera* merges into the Aeolian Sea.* For the river’s waters split up in two banks and seek the west as quickly as the east. And the Nebrodes* Mountains feed the separated twin waters, a mountain richer in shade than any other on Sicily.

16 In Mount Aetna. 17 Amphinomus and Anapias famously tried to save their parents during Aetna’s eruption and escaped the lava. 18 An oracle did not allow for the city’s move because of an unhealthy swamp. The enemies, however, took the city. 19 See above line 45. 20 Castor and Pollux, sons of Tyndareus and Leda. 21 That is, Phalaris, Acragas’ tyrant. 22 Because of sulfurous swamps.

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[238] Steep Enna sent men consecrated at the gods’ groves. There is a cave here, opening a huge gap in the earth, revealing a dark route to the Underworld through a shadowy path. From this pathway a strange wedding procession came to the unknown shore. Here the Stygian ruler once, stimulated by Cupid, dared to approach the light of day. Leaving behind sad Acheron brought his chariot through empty space to the earth above, a place he was not allowed to enter. Then he hastily seized Enna’s virgin Proserpina and turned his horses, surprised as they were to see the sky and scared of daylight, back toward the Underworld. And he buried his plunder amid the shades below. [248] Petraea and Callipolis sought Roman leadership and alliance, as well as Engyon of the stony fields, together with Hadranum and Ergetium. And Melite,* proud of its woolen webs, and Calacte with the fishy shore; and Cephaloedium,* whose beach dreads the whales from the stormy seas that feed in the blue waters. And those men came from Tauromenium* who see from their city the whirlpool Charybdis swallowing the ships it seizes and throwing them up again to the stars. These cities favored Latium and the Roman standards. [257] The rest of the Sicilian cities followed Carthage’s wishes. Agathyrna and Trogilos, blown by the south winds, gave a thousand men, and Phacelina, the seat of Taurian Diana,23 also gave a thousand men. Panhormos* came with triple the number, a rich city, whether you follow beasts in the woods or sweep the sea with nets or wish to hunt birds in the sky. Herbesos and Naulocha did not sit idle in this war, nor did Morgentia with its leafy fields abstain from the traitorous battle. Amastra came accompanied by Menae and Tisse of a humble reputation. And also came Netum and Mutyce and watery Orethus’ youths. Drepane and Helorus of the resounding waters came to help the Carthaginians, as well as Triocala which was soon afterward destroyed in the servile war.24 Fierce Arbela joined and high Ietas and Tabas skilled in battle and small Cossyra. Mazare, a city not much bigger, joined their allies’ daring. And Gaulum, an island to behold in the calm seas, when it sounds with the halcyons’ song as its still waters bear the birds’ floating nests.25 [277] The famous city of Syracuse itself filled its spacious walls with groups of soldiers and every type of arms. The leaders instigated the plebs with fury, who were easily influenced and pleased by turmoil. They offered empty talk: an enemy had never entered their walls and four citadels; their ancestors had seen how the city, whose harbor made it impregnable, had cast a shadow over the Greek victory at Salamis* and its eastern trophies. Three hundred triremes were destroyed in one wreck before their eyes, and

23 See Book 4, lines 763ff. 24 In 104 BCE. 25 Halcyons breed during calm days in mid-winter.

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Athens sank unavenged to the bottom of the sea, even though they boasted of the destruction of the bow-bearing king.26 Two brothers born in Carthage of a Carthaginian mother set the crowds on fire.27 But their Sicilian father was exiled from Syracuse* for a crime and brought them up in Africa. From the two origins of their parents they mixed Carthaginian treachery with Sicilian frivolity.

Marcellus attacks Syracuse. The Syracusans use Archimedes’ various war engines [292] Marcellus saw all this, and, when he realized that the rebellion seemed beyond remedy and a war was rising from the enemy, he called on the Sicilian gods and their rivers and lakes and Arethusa’s spring as witness that he entered war unwillingly. He had avoided taking up arms of his own accord for a long time, but the enemy forced him to go to war. He attacked the walls with a huge whirlwind of spears and his army thundered against the city. A similar rage seized them all at the same time. They contended as to who would attack first. [300] A prominent tower with many floors rose to the stars, as tall as ten stories, which Greek Archimedes had constructed using many a tree from the woods. From there, the Syracusans were throwing lighted torches and casting down rocks, competing to pour out destructive boiling pitch. From afar Cimber tossed a fire brand aiming at the tower and transfixed his destructive javelin on its side. The wind’s force fed the fire and caused destruction to spread through the tower’s innermost parts, ascending in triumph through the high structure’s many rising floors. The fire quickly enveloped the crackling wood in flames. And then a huge cloud of smoke came forth to the sky as the victorious fire licked the wavering top. The structure was filled with smoke and a cloud of pitchy darkness, nor was it possible for anyone to escape. The tower was destroyed and turned into ashes as if hit by quick lightning. [316] On the opposite side, the wretched ships met with a similar fortune at sea. For when the Romans approached the houses and the city, where the harbor splashes its tranquil waters against the walls, an unexpected instrument of destruction struck fear by a new kind of trick. A carpenter had made a rafter smooth, scraping off its knots on all sides, and made it similar to a ship’s mast. This beam bore an iron-clawed grappling hook at its extremity. When it was thrown down from the high ramparts, it could catch the warriors with its iron claws, toss them up in the air, and, when drawn back, bring them into the middle of the city.

26 Athens conquered the Persians and Xerxes at the Battle of Salamis in 480 BCE, only to lose the Sicilian expedition in 413 BCE. 27 According to Livy, their names were Hippocrates and Epicydes.

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[325] And that powerful engine did not catch men only. But often this war rafter caught triremes too, when from above it would drive the steel’s steadfast bite and strike the ship. And when the iron claws were fixed on the ship’s wood nearby and would raise the vessel up high, the sight was pitiable. The chains were artfully relaxed all of a sudden, throwing the vessel down into the sea headlong with such a massive force that the waves would swallow the whole ship and the soldiers up. [333] In addition to these traps, the wall provided narrow openings, skillfully hollowed out. From there it was safe to throw javelins as the high wall protected the shooters. And also such device was free of danger, since the narrow opening would not allow the arrows thrown by the enemy to come back in. Greek astuteness and tricks more powerful than weapons were a stumbling block for Marcellus and his threats on land and sea. A mighty war enterprise stood still before Syracuse’s walls. [341] Archimedes was the Syracusans’ immortal glory, the most capable genius before all others in his land. He had very few resources, but he knew the secrets of heaven and earth. He knew how the new rising Sun would bring rain when its rays were obscured and gloomy. He knew whether the earth is fixed and hangs in space in an unstable equilibrium. He knew why the sea is poured around this globe in a fixed system and surrounds us with waves. He also knew the changes of the sea and moon and by what law father Ocean pours out his tide. It is not a vain belief that people thought he had counted the whole world’s sands. They say too that he had moved ships and carried great stone buildings up a height, dragged by women’s hands.28

The two sides fight a sea battle [353] While Archimedes exhausted the Roman general and his army with these tricks, a hundred Carthaginian ships spread their sails and crossed the sea to bring help, cutting through the deep blue with their beaks. The Syracusan youth were suddenly cheered up into hoping for victory and joined their naval forces, leaving the harbor. And the Roman soldiers on the opposite side did not hesitate to put their arms to the rowing and quickly dug through the sea. They merged their oars in water and churned up the sea. The rhythmical rowing beat the sea surface and turned it white. They furrowed the waters, stirring up a white foam far and wide in the ocean. They jumped in at the same time with equal zeal, and Neptune’s kingdom became fearful on account of this new kind of storm. [364] Then the sound of voices filled up the sea, and the soldiers’ shouts reechoed in the rocks. And now the warriors spread over the empty space and encircled the open waters with their wings ready for battle, closing the wet plain in a naval ring. And the enemy’s fleet similarly rushed on in a

28 Perhaps a type of lever easily operated by anyone.

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crescent formation, blocking the waters with a moon-like ring. There was no delay: the terrifying trumpets resounded with a fearsome ring, and their melody echoed at a distance over the empty sea. The sea god Triton* awoke in the ocean and was astonished at a sound that competed with his twisted conch shell. [375] The soldiers scarcely remembered that they were fighting at sea. They were ready to make huge effort in pressing on to battle. And they placed their feet on the vessels’ very edge, faltering, and twisting their missiles. The sea space between the two fleets was full of thrown javelins. And the breathless rowers made the ships rise high, their black trail cutting through the foaming blue waters. [381] Some ships had their sides and oars wiped away by the impact of other vessels hitting them. Other ships hit with their beaks through the enemy boat’s bowels but were held back by the same wound they inflicted. In the middle of the ships there was one that was taller and awe-inspiring to behold, greater than any other that had ever left Libya’s docks in all time. This ship was beating the waters with a remarkable number of four hundred oars. It took pride in its sail which could take in the rapid north wind and collect all wind gusts with the ends of its yards. This ship moved slowly, as if it would enter the waters pushed by oars alone. The Roman soldiers’ vessels rushed forward, agile and light, experienced in listening to the steersman’s command. [394] When Himilco*29 saw them coming to batter his side from the left and beheld their prow following the order to attack, he quickly invoked the sea gods. He stretched a feathered arrow placing it on the string. When he calculated the enemy target with his eyes and showed a path to the arrow, he released his two arms and followed the missile with his gaze, accompanying it through the air into the wound. And the arrow transfixed a helmsman’s hand as he sat on the ship’s rudder. The hand could no longer steer the ship, left dead upon the guiding tiller. When the sailors ran up to aid, as if the ship were captured, behold! another arrow from the same string fell in the middle of their group with the same result. It transfixed Taurus, hitting him as he tried to undertake the orphaned task of steering. [408] A ship from Cumae came to the attack, led by Corbulo and full of select young men from Stabiae’s* shores. Venus who had a temple near Cumae30 was the tall ship’s protecting divinity. But there was a ship that was fighting nearby and was exposed to the shower of javelins coming down from the sky. It collapsed and sank in the middle of the waters and divided the sea in two. The foamy sea filled the men’s mouths with water as they kept shouting. Their hands floated on the surface as they were dragged to the bottom, still fighting in vain against the waves. Then emboldened by

29 Livy reports the admiral was Bomilcar (From the Foundation of the City 25.27.2). 30 Venus Pompeiana, worshipped near Stabiae.

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rage, Corbulo leapt through the sea with a big jump and reached the tower’s floor. (For two triremes were joined with iron clamps and had brought along a wooden tower.) He brandished a fire torch of split pine wood from the tower’s heights. From there he eagerly cast black fire fed with pitch against the Carthaginian ship’s wooden ornaments, and the south wind reinforced his throw. [423] The fiery pestilence spread and entered everywhere, scattering through all decks. On the top banks the men were scared and left the oars. For in such a difficult situation the rumor of destruction had not yet reached the lower ones. But the quick conflagration spread by means of torches fat in resin and with its conquering fires made a loud noise in the ship’s hull. Where the Roman firebrands had not brought in destruction yet and the smoke was less strong, dreadful Himilco resisted with a hail of stones and tried to prevent the ship’s fate. Here pitiable Cydnus, wounded by Lycchaeus, fell in the sea, hit by a wall stone on the benches slippery with blood, while he brandished a fire torch in the air. The fire brand made a hissing sound in the burning sea. A horrible stench polluted the surrounding air. [436] Then fierce Sabratha twisted his quick spear, having worshipped the ship’s deity. (The deity protecting the Libyan ship was Hammon, sitting there with his horn-bearing brow and looking at the sea.)31 Sabratha said: “Bring help in this difficult situation, father, prophet of the Garamantians, and give me the strength to throw against the Italians javelins that do not miss their mark.” In the midst of such words, his spear came with a trembling flight and transfixed Telon’s face, who was an inhabitant of the sea. [444] Now at the threshold of death, the Carthaginians pressed on no less vigorously since they retreated heading to gather at the ship’s part that was still untouched by fire. But with lightning course the conflagration devastated all places nearby, and the inevitable fire wrapped up the whole ship as it was caught by the victorious flames. First Himilco, half-burnt, with the help of a rope slid in the water, where the fire’s Stygian force had not yet intensified. And there allied ships took him away. [452] Wretched Bato’s subsequent death deprived the deserted ship of its helmsman. He was skillful and good in fighting the rough sea and surviving storms. He knew in advance what the following day’s north or south winds would require. And the Little Bear constellation could not deceive his vigilant face, although its course is difficult to predict. Since there was no way out of this disaster, he said: “Receive, Hammon, my blood, as a spectator of this unjust slaughter.” He drove his sword into his chest, and his hand received his blood, which flowed abundantly on the god’s sacred horns.

31 See Book 3, lines 662ff.

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[462] Among these men was Daphnis, taking his name from an ancient lineage. He was ill-fated since he decided to leave the groves and switch homes with the treacherous sea. But what great a name his clan’s founder had achieved among shepherds! The Sicilian Muses loved Daphnis.* Favorable Phoebus had given him the Castalian pipe’s gift and ordered the happy flocks in the meadows and the fields to hasten to Daphnis and the rivers to be silent, if ever Daphnis lay on the grass and sang. When he would play a song on his seven-reed pipe and soothed the woods, never at the same time would the Siren sing her customary songs at sea. Scylla’s dogs were silent. Black Charybdis stood still. And the happy Cyclops softened32 his melody on the cliffs. The fire swallowed Daphnis’ descendant and the beloved name. [477] Look! cruel Ornytos kept swimming using the smoking benches and created a prolonged death for himself in the sea. He was like Oileus’* son,33 who tamed the rising waters with his elbows on fire when Minerva threw a thunderbolt. Sciron from Marmarica was transfixed by the ship’s sharp point, while he lifted himself up. Part of his body was under water, part above: he was carried all over the sea, dead on the stiff beak, a pitiable sight. [485] Ships on both sides sped up and hit the rowers’ faces spattering them with the oars’ bloody dew. The Roman general himself was carried on a ship with six banks of oars. With strong rowing it overcame the winds. While Lilaeus tried to stop the ship with his hands, an axe cut down his fierce limbs. The swift ship carried his palms stuck on the planks. [492] Sicilian benches carried Podaetus from Aeolia. Although he had not yet grown out of boyhood, either the unfavorable gods dragged his eager heart to war or his desire for glory and battle. He was not mature enough. This boy applied painted weapons on his white shoulders and rejoiced in disturbing the sea with his tall ship, called Chimaera*. Equipped with better oars and arrows, he was enjoying a triumph over the Roman and Carthaginian ships. And already he had sunk in the water the tower-bearing ship called Nessus. Alas for the inexperienced young man, how ill-advised was his pursuit of new glory in battle! He asked the gods imprudently for the plume from general Marcellus’ fierce helmet and for his spoils, but he soon received a lethal wound from a spear cast in response. Alas what a youth! Whether he would throw the shiny discus high under the stars or would rise over the clouds with his javelin or would bear his swift feet as if barely touching the sand or would leap and cross an impossible space of measured ground: all these labors suited him. By all means there was enough distinction in safe undertakings, enough glory. Why did you seek greater accomplishments, boy? When the javelin pushed him to slide under water,

32 We read lenivit here. 33 That is, Locrian Ajax who raped Cassandra and was punished by Minerva.

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barring his shipwrecked bones from a tomb in Syracuse, the seas mourned him, the Cyclopian rocks34 mourned him and Cyane* and Anapus* and Ortygian Arethusa. [516] On another side, two ships clashed, Perseus (commanded by Tiberinus) and the Io, on which Carthaginian Crantor was carried. The two ships stood bound and ready for battle, both sides tied with iron clamps thrown on the decks. They did not fight with javelins or by throwing arrows at a distance, but they mingled in battle as if on land, close by and with the sword. Where the first slaughter opened and provided a path, the Romans broke through. But one man of huge stature urged his comrades to break the chains and iron fetters, preparing to let loose the hostile ship and carry off those in it and put the sea between them and their people. That man was Polyphemus: he was nourished in Mount Aetna’s caves, and he therefore loved his name of ancient ferocity. When he was little, a she-wolf had nursed him. He was a man of high stature, a terrifying mass, his mind was fierce, there was always rage on his face and in his heart a Cyclopian desire to kill. He had relaxed the chains with his body’s weight and had pushed the ship, merging the oars in water. And he would have led the ship away, except that quick Laronius hurled his spear and swiftly transfixed him with a hard plank as he tried to rise up. Even in death, he did not stop what he had begun. He drew the useless oar over the sea surface as his dying hand kept on doing its accustomed gestures. [539] The astonished Carthaginians formed a wedge and gathered on the one side that was free from enemies. Then suddenly the ship’s hollow yielded to the weight and let the sea in, sinking in the waves. The men’s shields and helmets and the arrows with their useless points and the guardian deities floated. One man without steel fought with a piece of broken wood and armed himself again for war with a fragment from the shipwreck. Another man fired up with evil desire hastened to spoil the ship of its oars, with no distinction at times pulling off and hurling the sailors’ benches. They did not spare the ship’s helm or prow, which was broken off to toss and wound, and floating weapons were taken from the sea. [550] The sea penetrated the gaping wounds. And soon the water was expelled from the men’s panting souls and returned to the sea. There were those who caught the enemies in their tight embrace and sank them into the sea, crushing them with no weapons present by their own death. Those who came back to the surface increased in violent determination and decided to use the waves instead of iron. A bloody whirlpool span and swallowed the corpses. Here a crash, there groans, deaths, flight, the oars’ din, and the beaks loudly clashing. The battle invaded the sea and made it boil. Exhausted by adversity, Himilco retreated in quick flight to the African shores, escaping from the enemy on a small ship.

34 In Mount Aetna.

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[562] Finally, both Greeks and Carthaginians left the sea battle. And now the ships were captured and carried by chain to the shore in a long line. Others stood burning in the sea. The fire blazed in the glowing waters and made the surface shake with a quivering reflection. At sea the well-known ship called Cyane burned and the winged Siren. The Europa* caught on fire, named after the woman Jupiter carried, transformed into a white bull, and crossed the waves grasping his horn. And the Nereid, named after the sea goddess who lets her hair down and guides the curved dolphins at sea with her wet bridle. The sea-wandering Python* was burning, and the horn-bearing Hammon, and the ship that carried Carthaginian Dido’s face, moving in the waters with six banks of oars. The Anapus was dragged in chains to its familiar shores and the Pegasus,* bearing to the sky its wings born from Medusa’s blood. And those ships bearing Libya’s and Triton’s figures were taken in captivity. And the one named from tall and rocky Mount Aetna was also captured, where Enceladus’ pyre is located, the giant who is still breathing. And finally the one called Sidon from Cadmus’ city was taken.

A plague breaks out in Syracuse claiming many lives [580] There would have been no delay, and Marcellus would have been allowed to burst any time now through the city’s walls, as the Syracusans were terrified by this defeat, and to lead his eagles against the gods’ temples. But sore pestilence and cruel plague unexpectedly infected the air, caused by divine anger and the naval battle, and robbed the wretched Romans of their triumph. The golden-haired god Sun filled the air with boiling heat and covered Cyane’s waters with Cocytus’ deadly stench. This spring opens up spreading far and wide into a stagnant marsh. The heat also marred and burned up with swift lightning flames the autumnal harvest, a season prosperous with copious gifts. [590] The thick air was smoky and dark with vapors. The earth was hot, and its surface was parched, yielding no food, and no shade for the sick, while a gloomy mist was sent forth in the pitch-black sky. The dogs were the first to feel the disease’s violence. Next the birds fell from the black clouds, their wings failing for lack of strength. Then the beasts of the woods were laid low. Soon the infernal plague spread further and depopulated the camp, devouring the soldiers. Their tongues dried up, and cold sweat issued from their internal organs and poured down their shivering bodies. The nourishment of the swallowed food refused to go down the dry throat.35 A hard cough shook their lungs, and the breath of the thirsting sufferers came out from their panting mouths as hot as fire. Their sunken eyes could scarcely endure the burden of daylight, and their noses fell in. They would spit out

35 We follow Watt’s emendation of line 600 to siccas haustorum.

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matter mixed with blood, while skin covered the bones of a body wasted away. [606] Alas, so much pain! A warrior famous in his glorious weapons was carried off by an ignoble death. Noble trophies earned in many a fight were cast on a funeral pyre. The disease had overcome the art of healing itself. The ashes of the dead were heaped up and formed a great pile. Far and wide, everywhere lay still corpses abandoned and unburied, as people were afraid to come in contact with the infected limbs. The infernal plague grew by feeding on men and spread further. It shattered the Syracusan walls with mourning as great as the dismal suffering it also caused at the Carthaginian camp. Divine wrath fell with equal and balanced destruction and was shared by both sides. The same image of death abided everywhere.

Marcellus attacks Syracuse one final time [618] And yet, the cruel force of evil did not break the Roman men, while their leader was intact, and Marcellus’ safety recompensed the disaster in the middle of heaps of dead. Therefore, as soon as the severe star Sirius curbed the deadly heat and the greedy pestilence diminished deadly contagion, finally Marcellus armed his soldiers who were snatched from the attacking disease, having ritually cleansed the ranks. Just so as when the deep sea is restored as soon as the south wind subsides, the fisherman enters the water pushing his boat in. [627] The Romans eagerly stood around the standards and breathed happily hearing the trumpets’ sound. They attacked the enemy. And if the Fates decided so, they were pleased to be able to die in the battle by the sword. They pitied their comrades who perished in a shameful manner like animals on their deadly beds by cruel fate. They looked at their tombs and grave mounds without any honors, and they preferred even to rest in no tomb rather than let the disease defeat them. The general first seized the standards against the high walls. They hid their faces thinned by sickness and emaciated behind their helmets. And the helmets covered the soldiers’ dreadful paleness so that the enemy could not conceive of hope. A quick host of soldiers attacked the shattered walls, rushing forward in close packs. The troops’ single assault took so many homes impenetrable to war and so many forts.

Syracuse is a city of riches, but Marcellus spares the city [641] In the whole world that the Sun god crosses, no other city could have been equal to Syracuse then. So many shrines, so many harbors within the walls! Add to these the markets and the theaters raised up on lofty columns, 246

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as well as the piers competing with the sea. Also add to these the numerous towering houses in a long line which equaled whole fields in terms of space. And how about the sacred groves enclosed in a far-stretching distance with long porticoes for the young men’s competitions? How about so many radiant buildings decorated with the captured ships’ beaks? And the weapons hung in honor of the gods, either those lost by the Athenian enemies36 or those captured and carried from Africa? [652] Here was the building decorated with Agathocles’* trophies, there Hiero’s peaceful wealth.37 Here was also found the creation of craftsmen from sacred antiquity. In that age there were never more glorious paintings created. They did not want … bronze.38 And the tawny gold embroideries represented living men’s faces in the woof and could compete with those that Babylon* makes with the shuttle; or they could rival those that Tyre creates, happy with embroidered purple, and those made in Attalus’* palace,39 which is decorated artfully with the needle, or Memphis’ woven drapes. Also here were also shiny goblets of silver, whose beauty was sought from mixing in precious stones, as well as the gods’ statues that preserved the divinity by the artist’s genius. In addition, one could find here pearls, the Indian Ocean’s gifts, and silk, the wool40 combed from tree branches that veils women’s faces. [665] The Roman general Marcellus took hold of such homes and resources. Then from up high on a mound he looked down at the city that was full of fear from the trumpets’ ring. Marcellus’ nod would make the decision whether the royal walls would stand or the following day’s rising sun would see them destroyed. He groaned from the burden of such heavy duty and was horrified that so much was in his power. Quickly he revoked the soldiers’ rage and ordered the houses to remain standing, allowing the gods to be worshipped and inhabit at their ancient temples. So instead of plunder, he spared the conquered. And Victory was content and clapped her wings polluted by no blood. You too must be remembered, defender of your country, Archimedes, whom the Roman general mourned: you kept thinking about your forms over the sand and your mind was not disturbed by such disaster striking you.41 [679] But the remaining crowd relaxed and rejoiced: the conquered were as happy as the victors. Marcellus competed with the gods in his temper and built the city by preserving it. Therefore, it remains in the ages and will

36 See note 26 above. 37 That is, Hiero II. 38 Line 656 is corrupt and variously emended. It probably involves a comparison between Syracusan bronze, which was considered of high quality, and Corinthian. 39 That is, Attalus III. 40 Silk. See Book 6, lines 1ff. 41 Archimedes was killed by a Roman soldier as he was trying to solve one of his problems. Marcellus honored him.

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remain as a remarkable trophy, giving the opportunity to get to know our former generals’ charisma. [684] People would be blessed, if, as once was the custom in war, now also our peace would leave the cities untouched! But if it were not for the care of the man, who has now given peace to the world,42 to stop the limitless frenzy of plundering everything, greedy rapaciousness would have stripped naked both lands and sea.

42 That is, Domitian, who tried to limit the governors’ greed.

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Senate tries to dissuade Scipio from launching a Spanish campaign [1] But a new worry preoccupied the Roman Senate: who would undertake the war in Spain, where people were restless after such disasters? Both Scipios, two courageous brothers tested in war, lay dead1 at the arrogant enemy’s hands. Therefore, the fear arose that the Iberian land would yield under Carthaginian rule and its neighbors would scare it with war.2 In sorrow, the senators, an anxious crowd, were looking for a remedy, after their rule over Spain had collapsed. They prayed to the gods for a leader who would dare to take over the decimated army. [10] As young Scipio wished to appease his father’s and uncle’s souls, his relatives’ crowd deterred him. They were dismayed in their sad mourning and took his young age into consideration. Should he seek this land of evil omens, he should have to fight in the middle of his own kinsmen’s tombs against an enemy who had broken two leaders’ armies, destroyed their plans, and would burn on account of his success in war. Nor was it easy to plan for a big enterprise while still so young and to ask for the army’s command at such an early age.

Virtue and Pleasure visit Scipio offering him different life paths. Scipio chooses Virtue [18] Young Scipio turned these worrisome thoughts in his head, sitting under a lush bay-tree’s shadow behind his house. Then suddenly gliding through the breezes on his right and left stood Virtue on this side and her enemy, Pleasure, on that side. These were figures much greater than humans.3 Pleasure’s head breathed Persian perfume, poured over her ambrosial hair, and she wore a

1 That is, Scipio the Elder and his brother. See Book 13, lines 650ff. 2 From Africa, nearer to Spain than Rome. 3 Personified goddesses, corresponding to the Greek deities that offered Hercules a similar dilemma.

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shiny dress, embroidered with Tyrian purple in tawny gold. A hairpin’s help embellished her brow, and her voluptuous eyes constantly cast fires with lively motion. Virtue’s dress was not the same: her forehead was rough and never shifting with decorated hair. Her face was steady, and she was closer to a man in her face and gait. She displayed happy modesty and was tall, while her shoulders gleamed with her snow-white robe’s threads. [32] Then, trusting in her promises, Pleasure spoke first: “What madness is this, boy, to spend your youth in war? You deserve better. Did you forget Cannae and Lake Trasimene, worse than the Styx, or the River Po? At long last, to what end should you provoke fate by fighting battles? Do you prepare to assail Atlas’ kingdom and the Carthaginian homes? I warn you: stop competing in dangerous situations and offer your head against battle storms. Unless you abandon her cult, Virtue will order you to fly through the middle of battle and fire. That wasteful woman sent to the Underworld’s Stygian waters your father and uncle, Paulus, and the two Decii,* father and son. Before their eyes she presented an epitaph for their ashes and a memorable name for their tombs and shades that could not feel what they had accomplished anyway. [46] But if you should follow me, boy, you will not spend your life’s allotment on a difficult path. The war trumpets will never interrupt your sleep or wake you up in fear. You won’t experience northern cold or mad Cancer’s heat or a table set on bloody ground. You won’t endure harsh thirst or swallow dust under your helmet or experience hardship during war.4 A serene day will pass by and calm hours, and you will be afforded the opportunity to hope for old age in comfortable living. How many things have the gods themselves created for humans’ happy use, how many sweet joys they have handed out! And they themselves, their minds calm, enjoy tranquility at ease, an example of peaceful life for humans. [59] I am she who joined Venus to Anchises at the River Simois’ waters; from that union your race’s ancestor was born. I am she who often turned the gods’ father at times into a bird’s form, at other times into a fierce horned bull. Listen to my words. Life passes by mortals, nor is there a chance to be born twice. Time flies, and Tartarus’ torrent snatches you, denying the opportunity to carry with you to the Underworld anything that has pleased your heart. Who is there who has not lamented too late at the time of death to have wasted their life?” [68] After she finished her words, she fell silent, and Virtue said: “Into what sort of tricks and darkness of life do you entice the youth in the bloom of his age, the man whom the gods have gifted with reason and a great mind’s heavenly origins? As much as the gods excel higher than humans, so much higher do humans excel than animals. For Nature herself has made humans lesser gods over the earth. But by a fixed pact she has condemned

4 We read partique in Marte labores.

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degenerate souls to Avernus’ darkness. And yet, for those who have preserved from birth their heavenly elements, the door of heaven lies open. [78] Should I mention Amphitryon’s son, Hercules, who tamed everything? Or Bacchus whose chariot tigers led through Caucasus’ region, when he brought victorious standards from capturing the east, after subduing the Chinese and the Indians? Should I mention the brothers, Leda’s sons, for whom the sailors sigh when in great danger or your own Romulus Quirinus? You see, don’t you, how the gods raised human bodies high to the sky and made their faces look upward, when the animals and the birds and the beasts everywhere crawl on their slow and ugly bellies? The human race is born for glory, if they are capable to profit from the divine gifts, and is blessed in the pursuit of glory. [89] Come here, just look, I shall not take long, how Rome, once unequal to threatening Fidena* and happy to grow in Asylum’s space, raised herself and grew thanks to her own efforts. Look at the cities which luxury has overturned, how they once were flourishing far and wide! For sure, Pleasure, neither the gods’ wrath nor the enemies’ spears hurt as much as you alone do once you descend upon human hearts. Your companions are filthy Inebriation, Luxury, and Bad Reputation, always flying around you with dark wings.5 My companions are Honor and Praise, as well as Glory with her happy face and Splendor and white Victory, the same color as her wings. Triumph, girded with laurels, leads me to the stars. [101] I have a chaste house, and my household gods dwell on a steep mountain, where a high road leads from a rocky path. At first rough toil is involved: it’s not my habit to deceive you. The person who wants to enter must strive. They ought not to consider the goods which untrustworthy Fortune can give or take away. Soon you will see from a high altitude the human race beneath you. It remains for you to experience the opposite of what charming Pleasure promises. Lying on a hard bed under the stars, you will endure sleepless nights and will tame cold and hunger. Also you will cultivate justice and whatever you strive to attain, you will consider the gods witnesses of your deeds. [113] Then, whenever your country’s dangerous situations demand it, you will first bear arms against the enemy. First you will raise yourself against their walls, and iron or gold won’t conquer your heart. Therefore, I won’t give you clothes stained with Carthaginian purple or an aromatic perfume’s gift, inappropriate for men, but I will make you conquer with your hand the person who now exhausts your empire in harsh battle. And I will make you deposit on Jupiter’s lap a proud wreath of laurels after you destroy the Carthaginians.” [121] After Virtue uttered these prophecies from her sacred heart, she persuaded the young man Scipio, happy as he was with these examples. He

5 A list of personified deities follows.

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approved of what he had heard with a nod. But Pleasure was indignant and did not hold back saying: “I won’t delay you further then. There will come a time, it will come at some point, when Rome will be subdued, serve my power with great zeal, and pay respect to me alone.” So she rose to the dark clouds, shaking her head.

An omen shows Jupiter’s consent to Scipio’s command. Scipio sails to Spain and has a night vision of his father’s ghost [129] Now the young man Scipio, his heart full of Virtue’s advice, came up with a huge undertaking. He burned with desire for the virtuous task he was ordered to do. He sought the high Rostra, and asked for a doubtful war’s heavy duty, though no one wanted any more cruel battles. Everyone’s spirits rose: some believed that they could see in him his father’s eyes revived, some others his uncle’s fierce face. And yet, even though they were encouraged, nevertheless a silent fear crept into their hearts as they worried about the danger ahead. Anxious they weighed the war’s huge task and were distressed as they reckoned the young man’s years. [137] And while the crowd considered these with various discussions, behold! a snake appeared to be born among the clouds crosswise in the sky, gleaming with golden rough spots and radiating through the air in a furrow of fire. And it glided in the resounding sky toward heaven-bearing Atlas’ shore. Father Jupiter added to the omen twice and thrice flashing thunder. And he suddenly flung his crashing lightning far and wide, shaking the world. Then indeed the Romans ordered Scipio to seize arms and greeted the omen falling on their knees. They said he should go to the place where it was clear the gods were taking him and where his father Jupiter’s sign showed the path. [149] Eagerly they collected themselves as comrades in war and assistants to the situation, asking Scipio if they could join themselves to the tough labors. They considered service in the same army great glory. Then they launched the new fleet into the blue sea. All Italy accompanied him and crossed over to Iberia. Like when the northwest wind causes terrible battle at sea, it raises the arching waters up high over the Isthmus and rushes with foamy waves through the groaning rocks, mixing up the Ionian and Aegean Seas. [157] Scipio was prominently tall in his armor, and standing on the stern’s edge he said: “Divine master of the trident, Neptune, on whose deep waters we are about to go, if I’m doing the right thing, give me, father, the chance to hasten with my fleet and don’t refuse to help my labors. I carry dutiful war over the sea.” A light wind then blew with a favorable breeze and pushed the sails. [164] And now the fast ships passed the Italian coast where the blue Tyrrhenian Sea splashes, and their speedy prows left behind the Ligurian 252

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shores. Then from the deep sea, they looked at the soaring Alps where land breaks into sky. They saw Massilia’s walls which Greek colonists built. Arrogant tribes surrounded the Massilians and their barbaric neighbors’ savage rituals terrified them. Yet they retained their ancient Greek home’s character, manners, and dress, a peaceful city amid warlike surroundings. Then the Roman general passed by the curving coastline. A high hill with woods on top appeared, and the Pyrenean forests disappeared in the clouds. Then they passed Emporiae, whose crowd’s ancient origin was Greek. And afterward they put in Tarraco, a place hospitable to vines. In an enclosed area, the ships were safe, and they put aside the sea’s toil and fear. [179] A most peaceful night followed granting sleep similar to death. Scipio saw his father’s figure standing before him. And Scipio was terrified by his father’s appearance who advised him as follows: “My son, my son, once upon a time you became your father’s salvation and then your parent’s glory after my death: you must destroy this terrible land, the mother of wars. With cautious bravery, you must tame the African leaders, who have become arrogant on account of slaughter and now keep their armies in three different camps.6 If you decide to fight in battle but they call their armies to war on all sides, who will be able to withhold those men’s attack with their three armies? Stay away from uncertain enterprises but be active and devise a better plan. There is a city, named New Carthage, once founded by ancient Teucer. Carthaginian inhabitants hold its walls. Like Carthage in Libya, it is a capital city, and here too it is a memorable capital city in Iberia. No other can compete in resources of gold or its harbor or lofty site, as it is endowed with fertile fields and amazing productivity in forging weapons. Son, invade this city since the leaders are away. No battle will yield so much fame or plunder.”

Scipio takes New Carthage [200] His father showed Scipio these things and urgently advised him, when the young man woke up and the vision slipped away and disappeared. Scipio rose and addressed the divinities inhabiting the infernal groves and his kinsmen’s souls as a suppliant saying: “Be my leaders in war and lead me to the city you showed me! I’ll be your avenger, and glorious in shiny Carthaginian purple I’ll send sacrificial offerings after I conquer the Iberians. And I’ll organize the competition of sacred games over your tomb.” He went out first and accelerated his course, carrying his quick troops at high speed and wearying the fields in their passing. Likewise, when a horse jumps forth headlong from its starting-place at Pisa,* it marches victorious not only before other horses, but also, an astonishing thing to say, before the horses

6 Those were Hasdrubal, Gisgo’s son, camped near the Tagus; Mago, Hannibal’s brother, in the Baetis; and Hasdrubal, Hannibal’s brother, near Saguntum.

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in its own chariot. Hardly anyone can follow the flying chariot’s course with their eyes. [214] And now the seventh day was rising with the Sun god’s light, slowly revealing New Carthage’s citadel as the army drew near. And the rooftops grew taller as the soldiers approached. But Laelius* arrived by sea at the hour Scipio had appointed for the fleet to approach the city walls, and he lined up the ships to surround New Carthage from the rear. Nature’s support amply helped the city, as its high walls rose from the surrounding sea. A small island encloses the bay’s narrow entrance, on the side where the sun sprinkles the earth from his birthplace in the east. But on the other side where it faces Phoebus’ late chariot when the sun sets, the city drives out stagnant water on a gently sloping plain, increasing and diminishing by the tide’s coming and going. And in front of this lagoon the city stands high upon a ridge facing the cold north and descends toward the sea beneath, protecting the walls from both tides. [230] As if carrying victorious standards over a level plain, the bold soldiers competed to ascend the city heights. Aris was the city leader. For his part, he had fortified New Carthage combining closely the defense works with the place’s elevated position. The nature of the ground was fighting in his favor. Those attacking from above made minimal effort: they knocked the Romans off balance and hurled them down, scattered on the plain to die, their bodies mangled. [237] But then the sea waters turned to the opposite flow, and the tide fled rolling quickly into the sea. And where just now the tall ships had furrowed the sea, from this place they were given the opportunity by the sea gods to run on foot successfully. From this spot without noise the fearless Roman leader tried to approach. And he led the soldiers in haste from the ships; so the infantry flew against the walls through the water. From there they accelerated quickly from behind, where Aris, trusting in the sea, had left the city unprotected without soldiers. Then the Carthaginian prostrated himself on the ground, a miserable sight, and gave his neck to be bound in chains, surrendering the unarmed citizenry. The rising god Sun, as he was climbing up, saw this city fortified with a camp; and he saw the same city captured, faster than he dipped the chariot in the western waters. [251] Dawn came and expelled darkness from the lands. First, they set up altars: a bull fell, tall sacrificial victim to Neptune and another one to Jupiter the Thunder God. Then the soldiers received their gifts according to merit: prizes, earned by blood, rewarded their virtue. One soldier’s heart shone with a medal. This one surrounded his warlike chest with a golden bracelet. That one was proudly resplendent with the mural crown’s honor.7 Before others, Laelius, whose service and ancestry was illustrious, received

7 See note 1 in Book 13.

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thirty oxen and was given as gift a glorious title for his victory at sea, in addition to the arms taken from the Carthaginian general. Then spears and war banners were given to each according to merit and the first fruits of plunder. [263] After the praises of men and gods were completed, they reviewed the captured wealth and divided up the plunder. This gold was given to the senators, that amount of money to war and god Mars, the other for the gifts of allied kings, and that before all others to the gods’ temples. The rest was given to the soldiers for their worthwhile effort. In addition, Scipio summoned a Spanish tribe’s ruler, who had a bride, famous for her beauty, and whom he loved very much with all passion. Scipio rejoiced and triumphed in giving her back to him who was happy to receive the unpolluted virgin as a gift. [272] Then free of cares, they set up a feast on the shore nearby and celebrated a banquet with festivities. Laelius spoke: “Venerable leader, bravo, bravo for your modesty and restraint! Let other great heroes’ glory and praise yield to you, virtue celebrated in song. The Mycenean leader Agamemnon, who dragged a thousand ships over the waters, and Achilles, who joined the Thessalian army with the Argive, violated the allied pact on account of a love for a woman. And no tent stood on the Trojan plain empty of captive women. But you preserved the barbarian virgin with more respect than was shown Phoebus’ virgin, Cassandra*.” They joined in conversation with these and similar words, until night, dressed in her black robe, brought in her dark horses and made men fall asleep.

Philip of Macedon attacks Greek cities and declares war against the Romans but capitulates [286] In the meantime, Macedonian ships suddenly attacked the land of Aetolia which was now boiling in upheaval with their kingdom. And nearby Acarnania joined forces then with the enemy. The new war’s cause was the pact allying the Carthaginian forces with King Philip* against the Romans. Philip was from an illustrious clan and ancestry of old kings, boastful of royalty from his ancestors, Pyrrhus and Achilles. He terrified the city of Oricus with night assaults, and he fiercely attacked in arms along the shore where the Illyrians live in small, nameless cities. He put to sea and now invaded the fields of the Phaeacians* and Thesprotians,* and he wandered over Epirus in vain with futile enterprises. [299] Now Philip displayed his standards on Anactorium’s coast and carried out quick incursions in the Ambracian* bay and Oplae’s shores. He furrowed Leucas’* warm sea with his oars and quickly glanced at Phoebus’ temple at Actium.* He did not spare Ithaca’s harbor, Laertes’ kingdom, and inaccessible Same and the rocks of Cephallenia,* resounding with the foamy waves, as well as Neritos with its rocky fields. He even rejoiced especially in visiting Pelops’ abode and Achaea’s* cities. And he entered Calydon,* a 255

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city that Diana hated, and Oeneus’ house,8 the Curetes’* abode. Here he promised the Greeks his own war against Italy. [310] Then Philip wandered over Corinth and Patrae* and royal Pleuron,* as well as twin-peaked Mount Parnasus and Phoebus’ prophetic rocks.9 He was often called back in war in his own country, when the Sarmatians at times harassed his kingdom of Macedon or when at times the Dolopians’* bitter force inundated his fields. And yet he would not easily desist from his vain enterprise. He carried war’s shadow around the Greek shores, until stripped of power now at sea, now on land, he lost the hope he had placed in the Carthaginians. And as a suppliant he agreed to peace with the Romans and did not decline to accept laws imposed on his kingdom.

Fabius captures Tarentum [320] Then Spartan Tarentum’s fate increased both Roman power and glory. For finally old Fabius conquered the perfidious city; this was the cautious general’s last victory in war.10 Now also his skill accomplished a safe victory, since the city was taken without bloodshed. For when it was discovered that the man who guarded the Carthaginian standards was passionately in love with a woman, Fabius then quietly devised a plan that befit his calm composure. That woman’s brother (for he was in the Roman camp) was compelled to go to his sister and win her womanly heart with great promises, to get the Carthaginian soldier to open up and hand over the gate. Fabius accomplished his desired outcome by overcoming the Carthaginian, and he surrounded and entered the unprotected city at night.

Marcellus and Crispinus die in battle in Apulia. Hannibal gives Marcellus a burial [334] But then they received the news that at the same time Marcellus had died, meeting his end on the battlefield. Who could then doubt that Phoebus drove his horses away from the Roman capital? Marcellus was a great general; his heart was possessed by the fierce war god Mars Gradivus and by no means ever wavered terrified in front of danger. Alas, how famous was this death going to make Hannibal! The person Carthage feared lay dead on the field. Perhaps if a god had granted him a little bit more time, he would have taken away from Scipio the fame of concluding this war. [343] At the time they waged war in Daunus’ fields in Apulia. A hill was separating the Carthaginian from the Roman camp. And Crispinus,* a

8 Diana was offended and punished Calydon with a pestilential boar who was killed by Meleager, Oeneus’ son. 9 In Delphi. 10 In 210 BCE.

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companion in Marcellus’ mission and an ally of the highest rank, also conducted the operations with him. To him Marcellus said: “My heart desires to survey the forests nearby and to place men on the hill that divides us, so that the Carthaginian cannot try to get there first secretly and occupy the spot. If you wish, Crispinus, I would like you to share in the enterprise. There is never lack of plans when the two of us think together.” When this was settled, then all were eager to mount their fiery horses. [353] When Marcellus saw his son, happy at the prospect of battle, putting on his armor, he said: “You surpass my vigor with your admirable zest. May your premature eagerness for war be crowned with success. When your age did not permit you yet to fight, with what desire did I see you staring at battle in Sicilian Syracuse! Here, my pride, here, join your father’s side and under my leadership learn the art of war which is new to you.” Then hugging his son, he asked for a few things: “Greatest god, please make it so that I can bear on these shoulders of mine the rich spoils11 to you from the Carthaginian general.” He said no more, when Jupiter poured from the clear sky a bloody dew and dark drops of blood stained the unlucky weapons. [366] Scarcely had he finished his words, when the Romans entered the deadly hill’s narrow paths. Then the Numidians, a nimble group, invaded them with their javelins, rushing like a stormy cloud, as their dark hiding place pushed their groups out armed for war. After Marcellus realized he was surrounded and he owed the gods nothing more, he craved to bring with him to the Underworld a glorious death’s fame. At times he rose to his full stature on the spear he twisted at a distance; at times he raged with his sword in close combat. Perhaps he would have escaped the quick battle’s cruel straits, except that a javelin came through and pierced his son’s limbs in the front. Then the father’s hands trembled, and he released and dropped his ill-omened weapons from his paralyzed hands because of grief. An enemy’s spear transfixed his naked chest, and his chin’s imprint marked the grass as he fell. [381] But when in the middle of fierce battle the Carthaginian leader Hannibal saw the spear piercing his enemy’s chest, he shouted mightily: “Carthage, now stop fearing Roman rule. The deadly general, the pillar of Roman power, lies low! But let the man who was so similar to me not enter to the shades undistinguished. A magnanimous heart such as mine is free from envy.” Immediately they built a tomb’s altar, reached high to the sky. They brought huge tree trunks from the woods. You could believe that Hannibal himself had died. Then the funeral cortege followed: incense and offerings, the fasces and Marcellus’ shield. Hannibal lit the torch saying: “We’ve obtained eternal glory, we deprived Rome of Marcellus. Finally, the Italian race may wish to put down their arms. You, soldiers, go and bring the

11 See note 9 in Book 1.

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last rites to the proud soul giving his ashes the final duties of burial. I’ll never deny you, Rome, this privilege.” The other consul’s fate was exactly the same in war: his horse brought him back dying to the Roman camp.

Hasdrubal celebrates a Carthaginian festival in Spain as Scipio attacks the enemy camp. Hasdrubal flees and crosses the Alps [399] Such things happened in Italy. But the battle’s outcome in Spain was not the same. New Carthage’s quick conquest and sack surprised everyone far and wide and terrified the people. The Carthaginian generals12 had only one hope, namely to unite their allied forces. They saw that the young Roman general Scipio had begun under great auspices, as if he were carrying in his arms his father’s thunderbolts. They saw the city, fortified on the top of a high mountain and cliffs, captured in less than a day with heaps of slain men. The famous warrior Hannibal, they thought, had taken a whole year in Spain to conquer Saguntum, a city not equal in men or fertility of resources. [410] Hasdrubal, proud of his brother Hannibal’s great deeds, was preparing for war near Scipio. He set up his camp next to rocky woods. His power consisted of the Cantabrians mixed with rebellious Africans and of the Asturians who are faster than the swift Moors. And the general had so much authority in Spain, as much terror Hannibal had on Italian soil. It happened that the ancient, solemn festival day for the Carthaginians was celebrated, on which they had begun to build the new city with huts, when they founded lofty Carthage’s walls.13 And the general, eager to celebrate his race’s origins, kept the holiday having wreathed the standards, in an effort to please the gods. [421] A shiny cloak hung down his shoulders, his brother’s gift, which the Sicilian king14 had sent among other things when making a close pact with the Carthaginians; it was a remarkable piece worn by Sicilian kings. On the cloak the eagle was depicted kidnapping the boy, Ganymede,* to the sky through the clouds on its golden wings and balancing its flight. Next to this image there was a huge cave, which the needle had made on purple, the Cyclopes’ house. Here Polyphemus reclined and with his deadly mouth tasted bodies dripping in blood. All around lay bones, broken and ejected from his jaws. Polyphemus himself was seeking Ulysses’ drinks with his hand extended and mixed with wine the blood he vomited. [433] The Carthaginian general, conspicuous on account of the Sicilian garment’s art, was seeking the gods’ peace at the grassy altars. Behold, in the

12 See note 6 above. 13 Carthage is imagined to celebrate a similar festival of the city’s foundation as Rome did. 14 That is, Hieronymus. See Book 14, lines 79ff.

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middle of the crowd, a messenger rode on his horse and brought news that the Romans were approaching. Everyone was disturbed, and the festival was stopped unfinished. They left the altars in the middle of sacrifice. They enclosed themselves behind fortifications and began the fight, once rosy dawn sent its faint light from the sky. [441] Bold Sabbura received Scipio’s hissing spear, and the two armies were moved as if before an omen. The Roman general shouted: “Sacred ghosts, the first sacrifice lies for you on the field. Come on, soldiers, rush on to the battle and slaughter, as you used to when the two generals were still alive.” And as he said these words, they began to fight. Laenas killed Myconus, Latinus Cirta, Maro Thysdrus, Catiline cut down Nealces who had defiled his own sister’s bedroom. Fierce Nasidius faced and killed Cartalo, the Libyan sand’s ruler. [451] And Pyrene’s land trembled seeing you, Laelius, Italy’s great glory, in the middle of the Carthaginians and raging beyond belief. To Laelius bountiful nature gave everything, and no god denied him this. When he spoke at the forum and opened his sweet mouth, he was equal to honey-mouthed Nestor, the old man from Pylos. When the Senate deliberated and asked for a man’s voice to speak at the Curia, he led the senators’ hearts as if by song. When the tuba’s sad sound unexpectedly would strike the ears on the battlefield, the same man would rush on to the battle line with such zeal that he gave the impression he was born only for war. He did not want to do anything in life without praise. [463] Then Laelius overcame Gala who waged war having survived because of a trick: his mother had saved him once from Carthage’s sacrificial fire by hiding his birth.15 But no joy can last when the gods are deceived. Then he sent to the shades below Alabis, Murrus, and Draces; Draces was praying for his life until the end with a woman’s voice. Laelius cut his throat with his sword in the middle of his words and prayers. Draces’ voice lasted even when his neck was severed. [471] But the Carthaginian general did not display the same zeal in battle. He sought hiding places in the leafy hill through inaccessible rocks. His men’s slaughter and terrible destruction did not move him. He fled and was now looking at the Alps, the great prize of his flight. The signal went around secretly: the battle should be stopped in the hills, and the Carthaginians should scatter and go into the woods; whoever should escape, would seek the Pyrenees’ high top and peak. [478] Then Hasdrubal first, having taken his honorable armor off and hiding with a Spanish shield, went away to the mountains and willingly left the wandering army. The Roman soldiers carried their victorious standards into the deserted camp. (No other captured city offered more plunder.) And so the looting delayed the soldiers’ wrath from slaughter, as the

15 For the custom, see Book 4, lines 763ff.

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Carthaginian leader Hasdrubal had foreseen. Just so when a beaver is caught in a river’s water, he plucks off part of his groin, the cause of his predicament, and swims far away, while his enemy is busy with the plunder.16 The indefatigable Carthaginian hid afterward in the dark shades, trusting in the rocky woods. The Romans sought again greater battles and an enemy they were more certain they could conquer. They fixed a shield on the Pyrenees’ peak with this inscription: Victorious Scipio Dedicates To Mars Gradivus Hasdrubal’s Spoils. [493] In the meantime, Hasdrubal was free of fear across the high mountains, and he armed the people in Bebryx’s kingdom. He was generous in paying the soldiers and ready to spend for war what he had saved by war. He increased the courage of his fierce people by sending in advance masses of silver and gold which he had gained from mines far away that produce metals.17 So a mercenary army filled the new camp with eager soldiers, people who rejoice drinking from the River Rhone and whose fields are crossed by the River Arar’s most sluggish waters. [502] With winter coming to an end, the weather had now begun to be mild. Then Hasdrubal started to march quickly through the Gallic fields. And he admired the Alps which his brother had tamed, the high pathless mountains. He sought Hercules’ footsteps and compared his brother’s path to a divine enterprise. [507] When Hasdrubal reached the top and settled on Hannibal’s camp, he said: “What walls does Rome raise higher, I ask, what walls, which could stand unharmed after my brother conquered these boundaries? I pray that his great and glorious enterprise be successful. And may no sinister god envy us for having come all the way to the stars.” Then with a speedy army he eagerly marched on a lofty line, where the slopes showed safe passage from up high. Not even the beginning of the war caused so much disturbance and fear. Now people said that a second Hannibal was coming. Now they said that the two camps from here and there were coming together and that two generals, fed on Italian blood and prosperous battles, were joining forces and doubling their battle lines. The enemy would come very quickly, they said, against the walls and would see still clinging on Rome’s gates the spears that the hands of Dido’s descendant had recently cast.

The personified Land of Italy appears to Claudius Nero at night. He organizes the army and marches on [522] Very angry at these developments, the Land of Italy uttered these words to herself: “Oh gods! The Carthaginian race in their rage treat me with contempt and humiliate me who once gave permission to Saturn to

16 Beavers’ testicles were hunted for use of their medicinal oil. 17 In Spain.

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settle on my shores and be king when he feared his son’s scepter. This is the tenth summer passing now since I have been torn apart. The young man, who has only the gods still to fight, wages war against me having seized arms from the world’s farthest parts. And full of vigor, he stained the Alps and descended against my fields. How many bodies of slain men have I covered, deformed as I am by so many of my dead nurslings! [532] No trees of mine flourish with abundant olives. Crops don’t get to grow before they are cut down quickly by the sword. The roofs of our houses are destroyed and razed to the ground into my lap and ruin my kingdom by their collapse. Shall I endure him also, who now hurls himself on my devastated shores, seeking to burn up what is left from this pitiable war? Then the wandering African could plough my fields, and the Libyans could sow seeds in the Roman furrows, unless I bury in one tomb all armies that freely move on my wide plains.” [541] While the Land of Italy turned these things over in her mind, and while the dark night covered the chambers of men and gods in sleep, straight away she sought Claudius Nero’s camp, a man of Spartan origin.18 Behind his grassy rampart, Nero was then observing Hannibal who kept his army in the Lucanian border. Here the figure of the Italian Land approached the young man saying: “Glory of the family of the Clausi and Rome’s greatest hope, now that Marcellus is dead, Nero, wake up and rise from sleep. If you wish to add more years to your country’s life, you must dare something great, which the victors would fear to have attempted, even after having pushed the enemy away from the walls. The Carthaginian Hannibal has inundated the fields with his shiny arms, where the River Sena has preserved for centuries a name given to it by the Gauls. If you don’t take your swift squadrons quickly to war, you’ll come as a late aid to Rome after the city has been destroyed. Come, rise, speed up. I have condemned the open fields in the region of the River Metaurus to become the tombs for the Carthaginian bones.” She said this and left, and as she was leaving, she seemed to drag behind her the fearful general and to push the soldiers out the open gates. [560] With his heart set on fire, Claudius woke up disturbed and stretching his two hands to the stars, he prayed to the Land and Night and the stars scattered in the sky and to the leader of his path, the Moon, under her silent light. Then he chose soldiers worthy of such an enterprise. His march passed through the region where Larinum’s inhabitants live by the Adriatic Sea, where the Marrucini, people hard in war, dwell, and where the Frentani are, who are never unfaithful toward their allies. And Nero also passed by the place where the Praetutian youths cultivate the wine-bearing fields, a happy labor. Nero flew by these territories faster than wings and thunderbolts and winter floods and Parthian arrows. Each man urged himself on: “Come,

18 See Book 8, lines 412ff.

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proceed, the uncertain gods have placed upon your feet Italy’s safety and whether Rome should stand or fall.” They shouted and rushed on. The general was eager to lead in front of the army, a sort of exhortation. In an effort to catch up with his pace, the soldiers accelerated their march and without any exhaustion they advanced day and night.

Rome is in panic. Nero joins Marcus Livius Salinator’s forces [577] But at Rome, when they heard that the sinister war’s evils grew so much, everyone was full of fear and complained that Nero was too hopeful and that by one disaster they could be deprived of all remaining life. They said that they had no weapons, no gold, no men, no blood left to pour out. So, this man would fight Hasdrubal, who was not able to be enough to face Hannibal alone in war? Very soon, they thought, should Hannibal find out that the Roman army left their camp and changed route, he would again cling to Rome’s gates. Hasdrubal came, they claimed, to contend with his haughty brother as to who would acquire the greatest glory, that is, to destroy the city. [587] So the Senate grumbled deep in their hearts. And in the meantime, with the greatest zeal the senators thought of how to preserve their dignity, pondering by what possible means they would escape menacing slavery and avoid the gods’ adversity. In the middle of these laments, in the dead of the dark night, Nero entered the camp which Marcus Livius Salinator had set up next to fierce Hasdrubal; the camp was sheltered by a rampart. Livius was once a soldier and experienced in waging war. He was an illustrious general and had flourished as such in young age. Soon afterward an accusation from the unjust mob harmed his reputation, and he retired for some unfortunate time in the countryside’s solitude. But since the war’s deadly weight and the dangerous crisis at hand asked for a leader, he was recalled to the army and put aside his resentment, forgiving his country on account of the great number of slain leaders.

Hasdrubal’s soldiers are deceived and confused at night. The battle at Metaurus begins [601] But it did not escape Hasdrubal’s notice that a fresh army had arrived, even though the night’s darkness had covered up the deceit. He suspected the traces of dust seen on the shields and the horses’ and men’s thin bodies, the sign of a fast march. In addition, the trumpet’s clear sound twice revealed two armies joining under two generals’ commands. But if his brother were still alive, he thought, how then was it possible for the consuls to unite their combined forces? The only method remaining was to delay and protract war until the truth was revealed. Overwhelmed by fear, he did not postpone his decision to flee. 262

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[612] Night, the mother of sleep, had cleansed human hearts from care, and the darkness created a terrible silence. Hasdrubal tiptoed out of the camp and ordered his army to creep out with a noiseless march. The night happened to be moonless, and the Carthaginian soldiers accelerated their speed through the fields, avoiding making any noise. But Mother Earth could not be deceived since she was trampled by such commotion. She entangled their tracks in a blind path, and with the help of darkness she took them around and around to a narrow place, making them retrace their steps. For where the river twists the curving banks with a winding course and flows back over a stony terrain to meet its own channel higher up, there in vain effort the men kept going around in a small circle, making no progress. The darkness no longer helped them after they lost their way. [626] The light of day came and revealed their flight. The Romans opened their camp’s gates, and the fierce crowd of cavalry rushed out. And the whole camp was covered far and wide by this storm of iron. They had not yet engaged in hand-to-hand battle, and already the spears were sent out, tasting blood. On this side, Cretan arrows flew, ordered to stop the fleeing Carthaginians. On that side with a fatal twist the spears brought death upon each man they hit. The enemies gave up all thought of fleeing and drew up their line by force, turning their hopes to battle. [635] The Carthaginian general Hasdrubal was in the middle, for he saw the dire situation, high on his tall horse’s back. He stretched out his hands and shouted: “In the name of the glory you have won in the earth’s farthest parts, in the name of my brother’s accomplishments, let’s prove that Hannibal’s brother has arrived. Fortune works to teach Latium a lesson in defeat and show what an army of soldiers has now turned against Italy, one that has tamed the Iberian land and was accustomed to fighting at the Pillars of Hercules. And perhaps my brother himself could come to this very battle. I beg you, hasten to produce a show worthy of the man, with the ground full of corpses. Whoever leader could be feared in war, they now lie dead by my brother’s hand. Now the only hope, that guy Livius, old and broken by his punishment and seclusion, is offered to you as a condemned man. Come now, I ask you, kill the general, who is ashamed to fight my brother. Give an end to his shameful old age.” [652] But Nero responded: “Soldiers, why do you hesitate to end this great war’s struggles? You have accomplished glory by your march, a huge feat, soldiers. Now add to it your right hand’s difficult undertakings. Alas! You left your camp and robbed it of its strength for no good reason, unless victory compensates for this deed. Be the first to seize praise. It will be remembered that your arrival made the enemy fall.” [658] On another side, Livius, distinguished by his white hair when he took off his helmet, said: “Here, young men, here look at me rushing into battle and enter the space I open up with my sword. And finally close up with the iron the Alps, mountains that offered to the Carthaginian attackers too much of a passage. Because if we don’t defeat the army in quick battle, 263

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and Hannibal, Carthage’s thunder, should come suddenly, which god could save each one of us from the infernal shades?” Then he put his helmet on and confirmed his terrible words with his sword, as he fought fiercely, covering up his old age. He spread death around the field wherever the army was the thickest, laying low the enemy with the spears he cast. The Macae fled him in fear, and the savage Autololes and the Rhone’s youths with their uncut hair followed. [672] Nabis came from Hammon’s prophetic sands and was waging war in a frenzy, unaware of fate, as if a god were helping him. And in his vanity he had arrogantly promised to hang the Italian spoils at his fatherland’s temple. His blue mantle decorated with Garamantian gems was flashy, just as the stars’ scattered lights shine in the sky. And he had adorned his helmet with gems and his shield with gold. His helmet had horns19 with a fillet hanging down, showing heaven’s wrath and respect toward the gods. He had a bow and quiver with arrows dipped in asps’ venom, and he waged war armed with poison. [683] In addition, sitting as it was the custom on the horse’s back, he bore with his knee a weighty Sarmatian spear and drove through the battlefield downward against his enemies. Then too he triumphantly carried before the consul’s eyes Sabellus, whose body was transfixed by the spear, with a great shout through the field, singing Hammon’s name in victory. The old general Livius could not bear his anger and such boasting in the barbarian’s heart. And he twisted his spear taking with one shot the victor’s life and plunder, now himself becoming the conqueror. [692] Hasdrubal came to the spot quickly, after he heard with sadness the soldiers’ cry as Nabis fell. And from behind he calibrated his spear through Arabus’ bones as the latter tried to seize from dead Nabis his jeweled clothes ­as plunder and the weapons stiff with gold. Miserable Arabus had now seized the clothes with both hands and tried to get them quickly, stripping Nabis’ quivering limbs: he fell over and returned to the dead the sacred clothes and gold embroidery, collapsing over the enemy he tried to despoil. [700] Then Canthus cut down Rutilus: Canthus was the lord of the desert, where the unconquerable Philaeni* gave their famous name, and Rutilus was rich in flocks; in his high pens, a thousand sheep bleated. And Rutilus himself lived an easygoing life, at times accustomed to stopping excessive heat for his sheep by the cold river, at other times used to shearing the shiny, snow-white fleeces as he sat happy on the grass; or when the flocks would return to the pen from pasture, he used to watch the young sheep as they recognized their mothers in the sheep-folds. Rutilus died betrayed when his shield’s bronze was pierced, and too late he lamented having left his paternal sheep-folds. [711] The Italian soldiers attacked and pressed on with greater force, like a torrent, like a storm, like bright thunder’s flame, like the sea flees the

19 See also the priest Iarbas at Book 1, lines 403ff.

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north wind, like the hollow clouds speed up when the east wind mixes up the sky with the sea. The Gallic cohorts were stationed in the first line under their standards, men of great stature. An unexpected and violent attack in a wedge formation breached their ranks. The Gauls were exhausted by the meandering march and were breathless, as they could not take the heat or the prolonged toil. Fear, inherent in their race, also made them withdraw. [719] The Roman soldiers attacked them with their spears from behind, and they followed them in pursuit with their weapons, trying to prevent their flight. Thyrmis fell by a single wound, Rhodanus by more than one. An arrow wounded Morinus and a spear struck him as he fell from the saddle. Livius pressed on those retreating, with all reins let loose, fierce on his horse, as he drove into the troops of those withdrawing. [726] Then he cut off fleeing Mosa’s neck as it towered aloft. The head hit the earth with the helmet’s weight dropping from up high, while the horse disturbed dragged the sitting body into the battle. Then Cato,20 for he was also vigorously fighting in the middle of the battlefield, said: “If only, when we lost the Alps, in the beginning of the war, this man had opposed the Carthaginian young man Hannibal! Alas! What a talent was robbed from Rome, and how many deaths did the dirty politics on the Campus Martius give as a gift to the Carthaginians!”

The battle turns in the Romans’ favor. Hasdrubal rallies his soldiers, but the Roman troops defeat the Carthaginians [735] And now the troops gave ground, and all the Gauls panicked with fear, while Carthage’s Fortune was on the verge of collapse: victory had turned her wings toward the Romans. As if renewed with the first youth’s flower, the consul Livius was standing tall in triumph and seemed to grow bigger and bigger. Behold! the Carthaginian general Hasdrubal entered the field, dragging with him a troop of soldiers white with dust. He brandished his lance in his arm and shouted: “Hold your flight. To what enemy do you yield? Aren’t you ashamed? A guy in declining old age drives our army away. Now, I ask you, my right arm grows weak to handle weapons, and you have grown tired of me? Belus is my race’s ancestor, Dido of Sidon is my relative, and Hamilcar, counted above all among the warriors, is my father. And I have a brother to whom mountains, lakes, fields, and rivers yield. Great Carthage believes me to be second to Hannibal. On the River Baetis’ shores the people who have endured my wars consider me equal to my brother.” [752] While he recounted these, he was pushed into the middle of the enemy line and threw his spear with a quick effort when he saw the consul with his shiny new weapons. The spear fell on the border of the bronze

20 That is, Cato the Elder. See Book 7, lines 691ff.

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shield and breastplate, grazing with little success the shoulder’s top and minimally affecting the body it had sought to wound. It was not dipped in much blood, but it promised vain joy to the Carthaginian’s wishes. [759] The Romans were upset, their spirits shaken by the horrific sight. Then the consul reprimanded the effort saying: “You could believe my body was harmed by a woman’s nails in a futile skirmish or that I was hit by a boy’s hands. Go on, men, teach them how many wounds the Roman hands are accustomed to inflict.” Then indeed a huge shower of spears was discharged, and this dense shadow conquered sunlight. [766] And now the men’s bodies lay thrown scattered on the ground by mutual slaughter. The corpses fell in the water and were heaped up growing into a bridge at the bank. As when the goddess Dictynna exhausts the thick groves with hunting and shows to her happy mother the spectacle, having stirred up Mount Pindus’ woods or having surveyed Mount Maenalus. (The whole crowd of her companions the Naiads rush on with full quivers, as the bow-cases that bear arrows produce a hissing noise.) Then the wild animals lie struck on the rocks or their own lairs, through the valleys and the rivers and the caves green with moss, a massive slaughter. Her mother Latona rejoices on the mountain top surveying with her eyes the satisfying plunder.

Hasdrubal dies and is beheaded by Nero. His head is displayed to Hannibal [778] Before all others Nero heard about his senior colleague’s wound. He fiercely broke through a path in the middle of the battlefield. Seeing the ambivalent battle on both sides said: “What still remains for the Italians to suffer? If you don’t conquer this enemy, will you conquer Hannibal?” Quickly he rushed on to the middle in wild speed. And when he saw the Carthaginian general raging in the van, he was like a sea beast, which for a long time has been tossing in the sterile deep in order to find food. When from afar in extreme hunger it sees prey, it seethes and looks for the food that swims near the surface, finally swallowing a great quantity of water mixed up with fish. Nero did not delay using his spear with these words: “You won’t escape me any further. The Pyrenees’ pathless woods won’t deceive me, nor will you cheat me with vain promises, as once on Iberian land you were caught in a trap but escaped my hand by the tricky treaty’s lie.”21 [794] He said this and cast his spear. The throw was not in vain. For the tip of the point was aimed at the far side and struck the mark. Then he attacked Hasdrubal with his unsheathed sword without fear. And he pressed with his shield’s boss on the fallen man’s quivering limbs saying: “If

21 In 211 BCE, when Nero was praetor. Hasdrubal pretended he was going to negotiate but escaped the trap.

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by chance you want me to bring your brother a message in your death, we will bring it.” The Carthaginian replied: “I am not terrified at all by death. Enjoy your victory, as long as there is a quick avenger for my ghost. If you are ready to relate to my brother my last words, I give you this message: let him conquer and burn the Capitoline and mix your bones and mine with Jupiter’s ashes.” As he wished to add more and raged in anger before death, Nero transfixed him with his sword and cut the perfidious head in victory. With their general dead, the troops were laid low, no longer trusting in a favorable outcome. [809] Now dark night took away the light of day and sun, when the Roman soldiers regained their strength with moderate food and sleep. And before the following day’s dawn, by the path they had used, they brought their victorious standards back to the camp which was closed out of fear. Then Nero bore the slain general’s head on top of his spear saying: “Hannibal, by your brother’s head we have paid you back for Cannae and the Trebia and Trasimene’s shores. Go, double up your perfidious wars and summon two armies to help you. This is the reward that awaits the soldiers if they wish to cross the Alps to join you.” [819] The Carthaginian suppressed his tears and bore this adversity with a steadfastness that lessened its impact. He murmured under his breath that in due time he would send his brother’s ghost a worthy sacrifice. Then, having removed his camp far away, he concealed this disaster by staying quiet and by avoiding any risks of battle.

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Hannibal’s army is now in Bruttium [1] The land of Bruttium received Hannibal who was now mourning his own and his country’s disasters. Enclosed behind his ramparts, he cooked up a plan to renew warfare, which he had for some time placed aside. He was just like a bull whose stalls have been taken away and has been deprived of the lordship over his herd. He hides away in a forest and prepares for a fight, lurking in the woodlands away from everyone. His fierce bellows scare the woods, and he rushes over steep rocks, destroying the trees, and his angry horns attack the cliffs in his rage. All the shepherds tremble in fear as they look down from the high rocks to see the bull setting up new battles. [11] But Hannibal’s strength would have destroyed Latium, if other assistance in the war had been present. He was forced to restrain his high spirit, to stand still, and to be paralyzed in idleness, since the Carthaginian people’s vicious jealousy opposed his plans, denying him any new resources. Nevertheless, everyone dreaded Hannibal because of his strength, as he inspired fear because of his many victories. His accomplishments kept him safe from all attacks, like a sacred head. Hannibal’s name was enough to compensate for the lack of weapons, resources in the camps, and fresh recruits. However much weakened their situation might have been, respect for the general kept many of the troops’ spirits loyal, even though they spoke so many different languages and were separated on account of their different barbaric customs.

Mago sails off to Libya. Hanno brings reinforcements but is defeated by Scipio [22] But Mars god of war did not behave favorably only for the Romans in Italy. The Carthaginians were finally driven off from Spain and its fields rich in gold. Now stripped bare of his camp and driven by fear, Mago was dispatched to Libya on quick sails. [28] And behold! hardly content with the favor she had bestowed on Scipio, Fortune nurtured another glory for the Roman general. For Hanno 268

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was roused to action and arrived bringing barbarian troops with clashing shields. And he stirred up the indigenous Iberians, but it was too late. And he had the skills, the cunning, and the valor in war, except that he ran into Scipio.1 The Roman general surpassed all these qualities with his greater might, as much as the moon surpasses the stars, but sunlight surpasses the moon itself, or as Atlas exceeds all other mountains, as the Nile other rivers, as father Ocean conquers the rest of the seas. [38] The Roman leader attacked Hanno as he was setting up camp. (For from the dark sky the evening had started to pour an unfavorable shadow over Hanno’s hasty efforts.) The sudden attack everywhere knocked down the rampart’s unfinished fortifications they had just started. The clods’ heavy weight covered the fallen men, and the turf formed a sort of tomb for them. [44] Scarcely would you find a man whose virtue deserves to be known by posterity and is worthy of mention, except for one. Cantabrian Larus, even without weapons, could inspire fear on account of his frame’s huge size. As is the custom of his nation, he fought battles like a wild beast, axe in hand. Even as he saw the troops around him defeated and scattered, his fellow countrymen annihilated, he alone filled the places of the slain. If a foe stood nearby, he was happy and satisfied to wound the enemy’s forehead. Or if called to fight on the left side, he hurled his spear round to accomplish a sidelong blow. And when a fierce enemy, sure of victory, came to attack him from behind, he was skillful in throwing the axe backward. Larus was a formidable warrior from all sides. [59] Lucius Scipio,* the invincible general’s brother, threw his spear at Larus with great force and cut off the plume decorating his leather cap. For the spear aimed too high, and Larus raised his axe to divert it far away. But as the huge weapon menacingly approached him, the young Iberian sprang up with a great shout and cast his barbarous axe. The armies trembled, and the spear’s weight struck the shield’s boss and made it resound in the air. Of course, revenge followed. For Larus’ right hand recovered from the strike when Scipio’s sword lopped it off. The hand died upon its favorite weapon. [68] When this bulwark fell, without delay the miserable troops fled together, scattered in the fields. But this was not a battle scene, but rather a sad spectacle of punishment, the fallen on this side, the routed on the other. Through the middle of the crowd, look, Hanno was dragged with his hands bound behind his back. In his captivity, he was begging for life in bondage (alas, the sweet light of heaven!). The Roman general said to him: “Behold, these are the people who seek the whole world’s dominion, to whom the toga and warlike Quirinus’ sacred nation should yield! If it is so easy to enslave you, why do you make war time and again?”

1 Silius transfers this victory from Silanus to Scipio. See Livy, From the Foundation of the City 28.2.1.

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Hasdrubal, Gisgo’s son, is also defeated by Scipio and flees [78] In the meantime, a cavalry scout brought the message that Hasdrubal, unaware of the Carthaginian disaster, hastened to join arms with his countrymen. Scipio quickly dragged his men to face him. When he saw that the battle he had hoped for was at hand, he rejoiced that the Carthaginian troops were coming at full speed to meet their deaths. Looking up to the sky, he said: “I ask you for nothing more today, immortal gods! It is enough that you brought forward these fugitives to fight. The rest is in our hands, men. I ask you, take your vows and hasten forward. Look, here my father, here my uncle call upon our rage. Oh you twin divinities of war, my own protectors, lead us on, come to help us! I follow. You’ll witness now slaughter worthy of your name, unless my intuition deceives me. For when will there be an end finally to the war on Spanish soil? Will that day ever come when I see you, Carthage, tremble at my weapons’ sound and at my army’s approach?” [94] Scipio spoke, and with a shrill noise the trumpets made a loud hoarse sound. The stars roared with the wild cries. The armies joined in battle. The sword and the men’s savage strife reaped so many in this battle, as many as the ocean’s violence seizes; as many whole crews as north and pitiless south winds drown under the swollen waves; or when Sirius lights deadly fires and sizzles the panting earth with harsh heat. No earth chasm could equal the loss of men in this battle. Nor would the beasts’ terrible rage cause so much slaughter in their savage lairs. Now the plain and the valleys dripped with blood, the spear points were blunted. Africans and warlike Iberians fell alike. [107] Nevertheless, where Hasdrubal was fighting brandishing his spear, there remained a group of men, weakened, with their weapons pierced. And they continued to fight. Nor would that day and the spirited resistance have ended the fight, except that an arrow slipped through Hasdrubal’s protective corslet and hurt his body with a modest wound. This persuaded him to flee. He left the battlefield on his swift horse and went into hiding, until at nightfall he rode off along the shore to Tartessus’ port.

The Numidian king, Masinissa,* receives an omen from the gods and switches sides to support Scipio and the Romans [115] The Numidians’ ruler, Masinissa, was close to the Carthaginian leader, helping him in battle. Soon after, however, he became famous for his alliance with a long treaty and devotion to Aeneas’ descendants. Late at night exhausted from the tough flight, he was enjoying sleep, when suddenly a fiery, bright tongue flashed on his head. The fire seemed to envelop his curly 270

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hair in harmless flames and to pour itself over his shaggy forehead.2 His slaves ran over to him, and with cold water they hurried to put out the fire as it crawled around his head. [124] But his aged mother knew in advance the gods’ omens and said: “Be it so, divine inhabitants of heaven! Favorably ratify your portents. Let this light last on this head forever. And you, my son, don’t fear such happy divine portents or the sacred fire around your temples. It promises treaties with the Roman people, and it will give you a bigger kingdom than your father’s, adding your name to Latium’s destiny.” So spoke the prophetess, and such bright omens moved the young man’s heart. In addition, the Carthaginians had given him no rewards for his courage, and Hannibal himself was becoming increasingly weak in battle. [135] Aurora the dawn cleared the dark sky’s clouds. She had just tinged red the Pleiades’ faces, Atlas’ daughters, when Masinissa went to the Roman camp, which was still hostile to the Numidians. After he entered the rampart, the Roman general Scipio received him kindly. King Masinissa began with these words: “Roman leader, the gods’ advice and my sacred mother’s prediction and your virtue, most pleasing to the gods, led me to you of my own will, after I separated myself from the Carthaginians. If I appeared often in the past to oppose your thunderbolts with force, now I bring to you, son of Jupiter the Thunder God, a worthy alliance. It was no idle fickleness of my uncertain mind or my changeable heart that forced me to come to you. I don’t seek a successful battle’s hope or prize. I flee from treachery and those people who have always been unfaithful. Since you ended the battle after the Pillars of Hercules, now invade the war’s very source with me. The man who has been Italy’s master for ten years now and moves ladders to Rome’s walls, must be dragged to Africa by fire and sword.” [154] So spoke the Numidian leader. Then Scipio grasped his right hand with his own and said: “If you think my race is glorious in battle, it is even more glorious in its loyalty. Dismiss from your heart these hypocritical allies. Then a great prize awaits you, Masinissa, for your glorious virtue. And Scipio will be conquered in military valor much sooner than in his feeling of gratitude. Time will take care of the rest which you propose, namely that we move the war’s fire to Africa. It is not that I haven’t thought about these things myself. On the contrary, Carthage harasses my thoughts.” [163] Then he gave gifts to young Masinissa, a beautifully embroidered cloak and a horse overlaid with a purple saddle, the one which he had taken from Mago when he won the battle against him; Scipio had singled out this horse for its vigor. Then Scipio also gave Masinissa Hasdrubal’s bowl, which the Carthaginian used to make libations at the gods’ altars, and the crested helmet. When the allied king’s treaty was confirmed, Scipio immediately turned his thoughts to how he could now overturn Carthage’s fortresses.

2 Aeneas’ son, Julus Ascanius, received a similar omen in Virgil’s Aeneid Book 2.682–4.

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Scipio and Hasdrubal meet at Syphax’s* court. Syphax offers to broker peace. A bad omen marks the alliance with the Romans [170] On the Massylian shores, there was a very rich ruler, Syphax. He was a man with some good qualities. He ruled innumerable nations and those who lived at the sea’s farthest shores. He controlled a vast stretch of land, horses and elephants, who caused terror in war, and also a number of select soldiers. There was no one who could surpass him in ivory or pure gold, and no one dyed more fleece purple in Gaetulian cauldrons. [177] Scipio was eager to have Syphax join his forces, considering especially the trouble if the king were to turn to the Carthaginians. The Roman general ordered the ships to put to sea, and in his mind he now engaged in war in Africa. When they arrived and the ships put to port, Hasdrubal, Gisgo’s son, who had fled in fear along the neighboring shores, was already there seeking a new alliance in his distressed situation. He tried to bring the Massylian army over to the Carthaginians. [184] Syphax was informed that at the same time the two nations’ leaders had come to his kingdom. These nations strove with such might and were engaged in destructive war as to who would be the world power. Elevated in his heart, Syphax ordered the two leaders to be summoned kindly in his palace and was very proud that such honor had been conferred on his kingdom. [189] Then he joyfully moved his eyes over the two men and addressed the Roman general first, saying this: “Most beautiful Roman, how delighted I am to welcome and look at you! How happy I am to recall your father’s face, Scipio! Your appearance reminds me of him. For I remember that when I came to visit Herculean Cadiz and Erythia’s shores and to study the miraculous ocean with its spectacular tides,3 I held the two great generals on the nearby River Baetis in great admiration. [198] Then the two men brought me gifts picked from the spoils: w ­ eapons, horse reins, which we had never before known in my kingdom, and bows, which we are accustomed to4 considering superior to our javelins. They also gave me experienced masters to train my scattered troops according to your ways of warfare. But when in return I gave them gifts of gold, which we have in abundance in my kingdom, and of white ivory, they did not accept despite my prayers. Each one got only one sword, which a carved ivory sheath enclosed. [208] So, come, think it fit to enter5 my home in joy. And since my fortune also brings the Libyan general here across the sea, listen with a

3 See Book 3, lines 45ff. 4 We read Delz’s proposed emendation consuerunt. 5 We read Delz’s proposed emendation adi et nostros dignare.

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fair mind to what I’ll say. And you all, who rule Tyrian Carthage’s towers, including you, Hasdrubal, turn your ears and thoughts to the following, please. Who can ignore the storm that destroys the Italian people in burning battle and threatens Latium with utter destruction? And who cannot see how now the cruel Sicilian soil, now the Iberian coast have absorbed Carthaginian blood for ten years? So why don’t you stop the savage battles at last and willingly put aside the fighting? Remember to control yourselves within your respective African and Italian territories. Syphax will not be an unseemly peacemaker and mediator for both of you if you become allies.” [221] Scipio allowed him to say nothing else and explained to Syphax the Roman people’s tradition and the Senate’s authority. He asked the king to abandon hope in his futile plan, explaining that only the Senate could decide these matters. This was his way of persuading Syphax. They spent the remaining part of the day in banquets and drinking. And after the feasting was over, they gave their bodies to sleep and released at night the tough bonds of state affairs. [229] Now Aurora the dawn came forth from her threshold, bearing a new day, as the sun’s horses left their stables ready to enter under their master’s yoke. The Sun god had not yet mounted his chariot, but the sea was already red from the flames that would soon burst forth. Scipio raised his body from bed and with a calm countenance he headed to the Massylian king’s house. Syphax was feeding lion cubs and taming their rage and anger, as is the country’s custom. Then he also petted with his hand their tawny necks and manes and without fear he touched their wild mouths as they were playing. [239] When he was informed that the Roman general had arrived, he put on his mantle and in his left hand carried his ancient kingdom’s scepter. He put a white band around his forehead, and he girded his sword on his flank according to the custom. Then he called Scipio in. The king, carrying his scepter, and the host sat in a secret abode of the palace, equally honored. [245] Then first began Scipio, the Iberian land’s pacifier: “Syphax, revered king, it was my greatest priority to come to your kingdom in haste, after I conquered the nations of the Pyrenees. And the sea that separates us did not delay me. I don’t ask difficult or dishonorable things for your kingdom: join your heart in unanimity with the Romans and come as a comrade to our success. The Massylian people and your land that extends to the Syrtes, and your ancestral power on the wide fields would not offer you more glory than would Roman bravery, accompanied by steadfast loyalty, and the Roman people’s honors. Need I say more? Obviously, there is not one of the gods that favors the person who would harm the Roman armies.” [258] Massylian Syphax received these words with joy and consented, embracing the man and saying: “Let us ratify the favorable omens, and let 273

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the gods be present for these common wishes. Let us call upon the hornheaded Hammon6 and Tarpeian Jupiter.” Immediately they built and raised altars of turf, and the sacrificial victim was standing by the axe ready nearby. Then unexpectedly the bull jumped up, breaking the bonds and leaving the altar. The animal filled the place far and wide with its bellowing, disturbing everyone. Its hoarse roars and unstoppable panting spread terror in the court. The band, an ancestral decoration, fell from Syphax’s brow without any touch and bared his temples. The gods gave such bad signs to the kingdom soon to fall. Serious ill omens of a cruel destiny were there. There would be a time when he, who now asked humbly for a treaty of alliance, would lead as victor to Jupiter the Thunder God’s temple this king, broken in war and torn from his throne.

Scipio returns to Spain, where he is offered the kingship, but rejects it. He proposes to organize funeral games for his father and uncle [275] Having finished these matters, Scipio went to the harbor and set the ships to favorable wind, returning to the familiar land of Spain. Eagerly the Spanish nations came to him and the various people of the conquered Pyrenees. They all agreed: unanimously they called and saluted Scipio as king. Of course, they had only known this to be the highest honor they could give to someone for his valor. But Scipio serenely rejected this offering, an honor unworthy of a Roman man. And he then turned to educating the people according to Roman customs, namely how Rome refused to put up with kingship. [284] Thereupon, he turned his attention to one matter, which remained, now that there was no enemy left. He called a meeting for the Romans and the people of the Baetis and the Tagus Rivers. And in the middle of the crowd he said these words: “The gods’ favorable will granted me that the African nation, driven off from this part of the world, would die on this battlefield or as exiles would seek their country’s sand, leaving behind the western world. Therefore, now it is my resolve to celebrate on your land my kinsmen’s burial mounds and to give to their ghosts the peace they demand. Share these feelings with me and listen to my request. When the sun renews its course on the sky for the seventh time, let all come and compete for a fine wreath’s prize, all who are valiant in arms and sword, those who are strong in the skill of driving horse chariots, those who hope to win in foot races and are eager to thrust javelins against the winds. I’ll give worthy prizes from the Carthaginian plunder’s famous spoils, nor will anyone leave without experiencing my generosity.” With such gifts and desire of praise he kindled the crowd.

6 See note 15 in Book 1.

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[302] Now the appointed day had come, and the plain resounded with the huge crowd’s gathering. The Roman general Scipio with tears in his eyes led a semblance of a funeral pomp, according to custom. All Spanish men, all Roman soldiers brought offerings and placed them on the burning pyres. Scipio himself, now holding offerings filled with milk and Bacchus’ sacred liquid, sprinkled the altars with fragrant flowers. Then he invoked the souls of the dead to come up and sang his relatives’ praises in lament, paying homage to their noble deeds.

The funeral games begin with the chariot race in four teams [312] Then he returned to the circus and began the first proposed contest, a speedy horse race. Though the starting gate was not yet fully open, the fickle crowd of supporters rose in waves with roar and enthusiasm, and they looked through the doors with their eyes and observed the threshold from which the horses would come out.7 [317] Now the signal was given, and the bars creaked, as the first horse’s hoof barely flashed into full view. A furious storm of shouts rose to the sky. Like the competitors, the spectators bent forward, and each one followed with their gaze the chariot they favored, and they loudly talked to the flying horses. The spectators’ enthusiasm shook up the circus, and there was no one who did not burn with desire. The supporters pressed on giving advice, and their shouts led the horses. A cloud of yellow dust rose from the earth to the air and covered with thick darkness the horses’ track and prohibited the charioteers’ work. One went wild in his eagerness for a horse full of passion, another for the driver. Support of their country kindled some, an ancient breed’s noble name excited others. Some were exhausted with joy for a new horse that bore the yoke and hope for a gratifying outcome. Others were pleased by seasoned old age and a horse tested by experience. [333] Lampon, a Gallician horse, flew ahead of all others, and his chariot sped through the air. He galloped through the huge space, faster than the winds behind his back. They all yelled and roared with applause, believing that their wish was partly fulfilled as the horse was so much ahead of the course. But those who thought as experts and had a profound knowledge of the circus, were worried that the charioteer spent all his stamina in the game’s first part. And they kept disparaging him from a distance with futile complaints that he had exhausted the horses with immoderate effort: “Where do you rush with so much force, Cyrnus?” (For Cyrnus was the driver.) “Drop the whip! Be wise, tighten the reins!” Alas, the driver did not heed the advice! He proceeded without worrying about his horses and forgot how much ground remained to complete the course.

7 The text is uncertain here, but the meaning is clear enough.

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[346] Second came the Asturian Panchates, only a chariot distance apart from the first, but no more. His white forehead glowed brightly, a mark of its origin, and his legs were likewise white, an ancestral mark. Panchates was a high-spirited horse. His limbs were not tall, in a beautiful but small body. Nevertheless, the horse was so fast that it seemed as if he had wings, running through the racetrack in contempt for reins. You would think that he grew as tall as the sky, his limbs increasing in size. Panchates’ driver was Hiberus, radiant in African purple. [355] The third contestant was the horse Caucasus, running side by side with Pelorus. Caucasus was rough and did not like people caressing and patting his neck. He rather rejoiced to chew and champ, biting the iron until his mouth foamed with blood. Pelorus on the other hand was better in obeying the reins and never swerved to throw the chariot off court. But being on the inside Pelorus would graze the turning post with the chariot’s left wheel, distinguished as he was by a big neck and a rich mane that was flowing on his neck. Strange to say, but Pelorus had no father. His mother Harpe conceived Pelorus from the west wind’s spring breeze8 and brought him up on the Vettones’ plains. Noble Durius drove this chariot on the track. Caucasus trusted in his driver of old, Atlas. Aetolian Tyde sent him to war, the city built by wandering Diomedes. People said that Caucasus was of the stock of Trojan horses, which Tydeus’ victorious son, Diomedes, had boldly taken away from Aeneas at River Simois’ waters.9 [372] When almost half the contest was completed, they accelerated over the course. Fiery Panchates strove to catch up with the first team of horses and seemed to rise higher, as the horse was about any time now to surpass the lead chariot from behind. Panchates curved his back legs and used his forefeet to strike and shake the Gallician horse’s axle. Atlas came last, but Durius also moved slowly and, therefore, was last too. You would think that they competed in peace side by side as if they belonged in the same team. [381] Now Hiberus, who was second, realized that Gallician Cyrnus’ strength was flagging, that the fast chariot did not leap as fast as before, and that the horses fumed with sweat from the violent force and constant flogging. And then, as when a sudden storm rushes down from the high mountain, Hiberus suddenly stretched himself forth to the horses’ neck and hung over their tall heads. He instigated Panchates, who was ablaze since he was second in the race. And he accompanied these words with further whips: “Asturian horse, will anyone else in this track competition steal the prize from you? Rise up, fly, glide through the plain, fast as you are with your usual wings. Exhausted and panting, Lampon vanishes. And as he is agape, there is no strength left in that horse, which would propel him to the finish line.”

8 See also note 13 in Book 3. 9 An episode recounted in Homer’s Iliad Book 5.

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[393] When Hiberus finished, the horse Panchates rose up, as though then for the first time he had seized the course from the starting point and left Cyrnus behind. The driver Cyrnus struggled to oppose and catch up to Hiberus’ chariot by swerving. The sky echoed in uproar, and the spectators’ pitched voices struck the circus. In victory, Panchates marched through, raising his triumphant neck high through the air. Being up front, Panchates was also dragging behind his companion horses. [401] But the last was Atlas, as well as Durius, both of whom tried in turn some astute maneuvers. This time one sought to pass the other on the left, another time the second pressed on trying to get ahead on the right side. And they both failed miserably in what they attempted. Finally, trusting in his young age’s bloom, Durius blocked the chariot collaterally, leaning forward and letting the reins loose. This way he overthrew upside down Atlas’ chariot, who was weak on account of his old age, but who complained justly: “Where do you rush? What sort of mad competition is this? You are trying to kill me and my horses too!” While he shouted these words, he was thrown off head first, as the axle broke. And likewise, his horses collapsed on the ground, scattered in disorder, a pitiable sight. [413] With the racing course open, the victorious horse Pelorus shook the reins off and fled in the middle of the track, leaving Atlas behind as he tried to rise. It was not long before Pelorus caught up with Cyrnus’ exhausted chariot. With fast wheels, the horse flew quickly by him as well, while Cyrnus was tarrying, only to learn too late how to moderate his horses. The supporters’ shouts and encouragement pushed the chariot forward. And now Pelorus even rested his muzzle over Hiberus’ back and shoulders. The charioteer was awestruck as he felt hard pressed from the back and burned from the steam of the horse’s breath and foam. [423] Durius rushed forward on the plain and whipped his horses further to make them run faster, not without success: he seemed to close the gap, and from the right side he even caught up with the front chariot. He was then astonished by such a prospect and cried out: “Pelorus, it is now time to show that you descend from the west wind, your father. Let those horses who descend from insignificant stock learn that your lineage excels because of your divine origins. As a victor you’ll bring offerings and set up altars for your father.” And, had he not been betrayed by the great success and his fearful joy into letting the whip go, as he spoke, perhaps Durius would have consecrated an altar to the west wind, Pelorus’ father, as he had promised. But he was unlucky. And as if the victory crown had fallen off his head, he turned against himself in anger and tore from his chest the golden mantle he was wearing. He shed tears and cried out toward heaven in protest. With the whip dropped, the horses did not obey anymore. In vain the reins functioned in the place of a whip on the horses’ back. [440] In the meantime, the horse Panchates approached the turning point, confident of victory, and with head held high he sought the first prize. A light breeze tossed the horse’s mane in the air, spread over his neck and shoulders. 277

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Then Panchates raised his supple knees with a proud step and triumphed as the spectators shouted loudly. [445] They all equally received as a gift an engraved axe of solid silver, while the other prizes were of different type and distinction. The winner got a swift horse, Massylian Syphax’s gift, a very distinguished award. The second prize consisted of two cups overlaid with gold from the River Tagus, taken from the Tyrian spoils, which they had in abundance. A wild lion’s shaggy hide and a Carthaginian helmet bristling in plumes were given as the third prize. Even though old Atlas had fallen down when his chariot collapsed, Scipio summoned him and gave him the final gift, pitying his age and ill-fortune. He received a young slave, together with a leather cap worn in Spain.

Seven contestants compete in the foot race [457] When this competition was over, Scipio called the men to the happy competition of a foot race and kindled their hearts by putting prizes before their eyes: “The winner will receive this helmet that Hasdrubal used to terrorize the Spanish armies. The second prize will be this sword, which my father took from killing Hiempsal.10 Whoever comes third will be consoled by a bull. The other contestants, whoever is fierce to compete, will depart with two spears, forged of metals produced here in Spain.” [465] Two illustrious boys, Tartessos and Hesperos, identified themselves as contestants, while the crowd cheered them on favorably. Their famous city, Cadiz, sent them, the Phoenician colony. Soon after those two, Baeticus entered the competition, whose beard’s first down sprinkled his cheeks. Corduba gave the boy his name from the local river Baetis and happily supported Baeticus with great zeal.11 Then with his reddish hair and his body’s snow-white glow, Eurytus filled the whole spectators’ area with shouts. He was born and raised in Saetabis on a high hill; and his parents had come too, in fear, out of love for their son. Then came Lamus and Sicoris, warlike Ilerda’s offspring, and Theron. He drank of the river that flows under the name Lethe; this river grazes the banks with waters of forgetfulness. [478] Then the competitors raised themselves on tiptoe and pushed their chests forward. Their hearts were beating fast in agony and passion for the prize. They took their spots at the tuba’s sound and jumped through the breezes faster than arrows flying out of the string that thrusts them out. Support and cheers followed different contestants. The spectators hung on tiptoe, and out of breath they called by name each of the boys they supported. The heroic group of contestants moved along the track, leaving no footprints on the sand they passed over. All were young, and their faces were golden with beauty. All were fast and worthy of victory.

10 Nowhere else mentioned in the poem. 11 We read haud parvo certamine.

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[488] With half the course completed, Eurytus advanced and led the race first, only a few steps ahead, but first nevertheless. Brave Hesperos pressed on equally fast as Eurytus. With his toes he touched the footprints left from the frontrunner’s heel. It was sufficient for Eurytus that he was first. For Hesperos it was enough that he could hope he could be first. They intensified their efforts more fiercely, and their spirit’s strength led their bodies. The toil itself increased the boys’ beauty. [496] Look! though he was running with very little effort and was the last of the group, after he felt that he had mustered up enough courage, Theron poured out his energy reserves, rising up high, at an unexpected speed. And all of a sudden, he broke forth and left the winds behind him. You would think that he had Mercury’s feet and winged sandals, running through the ether. Now he left some behind and then others; the spectators were flabbergasted. And Theron, who once was last, was now third in order. He pressed fiercely on Hesperos’ track. And not only did Hesperos, Theron followed closely, but even Eurytus, the favorite for the first prize, trembled at how quickly Theron caught up. [507] In the fourth place was Tartessos. His efforts would really have been futile, if the first three had kept their current positions. He was following his brother, Hesperus, when Theron came between them. Impatiently then Theron rose above the plain like fire, and he flew by Hesperos who was full of rage. There was one rival remaining, and the finish line excited the eager contestants with passion, as they passed the turning point. For the short remainder of the race, each contestant mustered whatever strength was left in them from the labor and the fear that penetrated their hearts, while it was still allowed to hope. [516] They were now running breast to breast, rushing on side by side. And perhaps they would have deserved twin prizes, had they arrived at the finish line simultaneously. But having followed behind Theron, out of immense anger Hesperos got hold of and dragged Theron’s hair which spread over his white neck. With his competitor delayed, Eurytus sprinted on happy in victory, and winning he gloated with the prize. He received a gleaming helmet’s distinguished gift. The other contestants were offered the promised prizes, and a green wreath garlanded their unshorn hair, while each brandished two spears of local iron.

A gladiatorial contest follows where two brothers kill one another [527] Afterward a more serious contest began, as the men unsheathed their swords at close quarters and practiced as if engaging in cruel warfare. These men were certainly not guilty or responsible for a crime against someone’s life, but they competed in pairs with the sword as a display of their bravery and fierce spirit, desiring to win glory. This was a spectacle worthy of the Roman people, an imitation of usual hardship. Among them, there were two 279

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brothers. (What crime have the kings not tried yet? Or what crime is left that someone will not try for power?) With their hands armed, they entered a nefarious battle, fighting for the throne in front of a full audience. But the spectators condemned such craziness. [537] This was their people’s custom. The brothers sought their dead father’s throne, each risking his own life. They engaged in battle in such fury, appropriate for fighting over kingship. They both died carrying to the Underworld their hearts filled with much blood. They drove swords with equal force, burying them deep in each other’s chest. And they added last words to these savage wounds, hurling at each other curses as their wild spirit fled into the reluctant air. Nor did their souls allow peace. For when the joint fire on a single pyre consumed their bodies, an impious flame leapt up and divided them, refusing to allow the ashes to lie together. [549] The rest of the competitors received various gifts, according to each man’s virtue and strength. They carried off oxen trained to furrow the land with plows. Out of the African prisoners, others were given young men experienced in hunting and catching wild animals in their lairs. Likewise, the gifts included silver, distinguished clothing from the plunder and horses and plumes high on shining helmets. Everything was taken from the African spoils and plunder.

The last competition is the javelin throw [557] Then they sought glory in the javelin throw, the last competition in the games. They competed to cast their spears beyond the finish line. First was Burnus. He was of glorious ancestry, coming from the riverbanks rich in metals, where the River Tagus runs thick and yellow with golden sands. Second was Gagus, famous for beating the winds with his throw’s strength. Third was the hunter Aconteus, whose javelins were able to fly faster than nimble deer in flight. Then came Indibilis, happy for a long time to fight the Romans, but now their ally. And last was Ilerdes, accustomed to catching the wandering birds in the clouds by means of his spear, an equally good fighter. The first prize went to Burnus, who fastened his javelin right on the mark. His gift was a female slave, skilled in dyeing white wool in Gaetulian purple. Ilerdes was honored with the second prize, since he threw his javelin next to the mark, and he left with his prize, a young boy, whose fancy was to run and catch all kinds of deer. Aconteus took the third prize, two dogs whose barking could inspire fear in a boar.

Scipio’s spear grows into a tree [575] After the spectators gave a shout and applause to these winners, Lucius Scipio, Scipio’s brother, and Laelius, resplendent in purple, joyfully called the great names of the honored dead. At the same time they cast their spears. They desired to celebrate their kinsmen’s sacred ashes and to add 280

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this honor to the games. Even Scipio’s face expressed the joy he felt, when he rewarded the pious comrades with deserved gifts: his brother took away a breastplate inlaid with several layers of gold, and Laelius was given a pair of swift horses of Asturian stock. [584] Then Scipio rose up and hurled his victorious spear with great strength. In this manner, he showed that he honored the dead. The weapon sped through the plain flying, a marvelous thing to tell, and it stopped in the middle before everyone’s eyes, rooted on the ground it struck. Then all of a sudden leaves and tall branches started to grow, when an oak tree grew shedding its shade far and wide. The prophets foretold the future, commanding Scipio to aspire to greater things. The gods, they said, made this clear by showing such signs as prophecy.

Scipio returns to the city, where the Senate debates whether Scipio should transfer the war to Africa. Fabius opposes the idea, but Scipio ultimately wins [592] Subsequently, having driven all the Carthaginians off the Spanish shores, Scipio returned to Italy, his country’s and family’s avenger. Fame led his triumph. And Latium was not preoccupied with any other cares more fervently than to entrust the consulship’s supreme authority to the young man and give him Libya as his province.12 But the old senators were not of the same opinion: they were against uncertain war and opposed rushed action. With fearful caution, they were horrified of a huge disaster. [600] Then Scipio as consul, elevated by the dignity the great office conferred upon him, opened the debate in the Senate and asked that they give him the legal power to destroy Carthage. At the time, father Fabius opened his aged lips and started from the distant past, saying this: “Fulfilled as I am with life and honors, I would not indeed fear that someone like the consul Scipio, who has so much of life and glory still to experience, may suspect me of opposing his great enterprise from jealous motives. My excellent reputation speaks well enough on my behalf, and my accomplishments are so successful that they need no new praise. [609] But for as long as I live, it would be criminal for me to fail my country and to incriminate my conscience by being silent. Do you then intend to carry a fresh campaign to Africa? Is Italy perhaps free from the enemy, and is it not enough for us to defeat Hannibal? What greater prize are you seeking from the African shore? If it is glory’s goad that stimulates you, reap this field and crops then. Fortune has pitted against you a worthy adversary but for exploits nearer home. The Italian land would love to drink finally the savage commander’s blood. Where do you carry off your army and the standards? Your first task is to put out the fire burning right here in Italy.

12 In 205 BCE.

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You leave and abandon an exhausted population to the enemy, and as a traitor, you strip Rome’s seven hills of their defenders. [621] While you lay waste Syrtes’ barren sands, will this plague of man, Hannibal, not assault Rome’s walls, a place he already knows well, and invade Jupiter’s hill, empty of men and weapons? He would have paid any price to make you depart and abandon Rome! And when war’s thunderbolt strikes us, perhaps then we should recall you from Libya’s waters, just as recently Fulvius was summoned from Capua’s towers?13 Defeat him here at home and cleanse Italy from war, a land that has been mourning her dead for fifteen years now.14 Then you can go against the distant Garamantes, then triumph over the Nasamonians. But for now the dire situation in Italy prohibits such enterprises. [632] When your famous father, whose valor brought renown to your clan, was on his way as consul to the Ebro River’s banks, he recalled the army and as soon as possible threw himself voluntarily in Hannibal’s path, when the Carthaginian crossed the Alps and came against us in a menace.15 Do you, a consul, intend to leave behind a victorious enemy and by this trick—without a doubt!—tear the Carthaginian from our throats? [638] And if he then decides to stay here, without any fears, and, let’s say, he doesn’t follow you and your army to Africa, you will surely blame this on your short-sighted strategy, once Rome is taken. But suppose that in confusion he changes direction and follows your fleet’s sails: of course he’ll be the same Hannibal, the same man whose rampart you saw from Rome’s walls.”16 [645] Then the consul replied: “Once the two great generals met death together, at the time when Carthage conquered the whole Spanish land, placing it under her yoke. And no Fabius or anyone else, who had the same opinion as him, came to help, but I myself indeed in my youth faced the battle’s cloud and alone exposed myself to destruction, directing all perils on to myself. At the time, a group of old senators asserted that it was a mistake to trust a teenager with war, and this same prophet, Fabius, prophesied that the undertaking was imprudent. [654] I thank and praise the gods, who protect us as a Trojan race. That boy, Scipio, of untrustworthy age, a child who could not yet fight a war and was not yet ready to bear arms, he, unharmed, restored the Iberian lands for the Romans. He pushed back the Carthaginians, and he followed the sun’s last path toward Mount Atlas, expelling Africa’s name from the western world. And he didn’t bring back the standards from that land before17 he

13 See Book 12, lines 558ff. 14 A round number, instead of thirteen (218–205 BCE). 15 At the Ticinus. 16 Scipio’s presence and cowardice in Rome is nowhere else attested. 17 We read ante.

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saw the Sun god release his smoking chariot upon the waters on a shore that had become Roman. It is the same man who brought us alliances with kings. [663] Now one last toil remains to complete our deeds: Carthage! Jupiter the Maker of all things guides us toward this goal. Look, the old men tremble at the thought of Hannibal, or perhaps they lie and pretend they are anxious with fear to prevent me from claiming the honor of finally bringing about an end to our long destruction. For sure, now my hands are experienced in war, my strength has grown with age. [670] Don’t invent delays, but rather allow my lot, which the gods have prepared for me, to run its course in order to destroy the old defeats’ dishonor. Fabius’ cautiousness not to be defeated in war has earned him a beautiful glory. The Delayer has achieved everything for us by standing still. But neither Mago nor Hanno nor Gisgo’s son nor Hamilcar’s son would have fled before me, had we protracted the war in inaction behind a closed camp. Was not the Carthaginian boy, Hannibal, scarcely a young adult, capable of attacking the Roman people and Rome’s walls and the yellow Tiber with its sacred waters? Was he not able to consume Italy with a long war? Will we be reluctant to send our standards across to African soil and to shake the Carthaginian houses? [682] Free of danger, their wide shores lie open, and their opulent land stands sound with quiet peace. At long last, let Carthage be frightened, the one who was accustomed to being frightening. And let her make no mistake that we have enough arms, even though the Italian fields are not yet rid of Hannibal. I will lead him to his country’s burning houses, in fear and trembling too late, the man whom your caution and decisions indeed turned into an old man, the man who has now spent fifteen years shedding our blood far and wide. [691] Or will Rome continue to see upon her walls the Carthaginian man’s shameful traces, while Carthage will continue to be unharmed in safety and listen to our labors? Meanwhile will Carthage keep on waging war with open gates? If so, then let our fierce enemy assail our towers again with his Carthaginian battering-ram, if he does not hear first his own gods’ temples crackle with Roman flames.” [698] Such words kindled the senators. Fate was calling, and they agreed with the consul’s plan and gave him authority to carry the war across to Africa, praying that it be prosperous for Italy.

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The statue of the Great Mother of the Gods arrives in Rome and is received by Claudia Quinta* [1] So that the foreign enemy would depart from the Italian land, the Sibyl’s ancient oracles had prophesied that the Great Mother of the Gods had to be worshiped within Rome’s walls, after they sought the statue from her Phrygian seat. The man who would receive the imported deity was to be chosen from the whole Senate as the best man who lived in the present age. The oracle continued that this was a name better and greater than triumphs! [8] So Cybele was brought from Phrygia and transported on a Roman ship. And before everyone, Scipio Nasica* hastened to go meet the imported goddess, as all the senators yielded for him to pass by. He was the son of Scipio’s uncle. Scipio had been chosen to lead the African war then. Scipio Nasica was conspicuous for his many distinguished ancestors. At the time, he received the goddess, who arrived after a long trip, with his hands in the suppliant’s position. And standing high, he led the ship to the Tuscan River Tiber’s noisy mouth. Then women approached to give a hand and drag the tall ship through the river, tying it up with ropes. [18] All around the goddess’ lively brass instruments sounded with their hollow ring, and at the same time the sonorous cymbals contended with their hoarse beat. There was the eunuchs’ chorus,1 who worship the goddess on chaste Dindyma’s twin mountains, who are in bacchic ecstasy in Mount Dicte’s cave,2 and who know well the ridges of Mount Ida* and the silent groves. Amid this loud noise and prayers with joyful uproar, the sacred ship stopped, refusing to proceed even though the ropes kept pulling it forward. It stuck unexpectedly and remained immobile in the river’s stream. [26] Then the priest shouted loudly from the boat’s center: “Keep your polluted hands from touching the ropes! And I warn you, go away from here

1 The Galli, Cybele’s priests. 2 The Curetes are often confused with the Corybantes, Cybele’s followers.

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whoever is impure, go away! Don’t give a hand to this pure labor, while the goddess is still warning you! But if any of you is hearty, her conscience pure and clean, if any of you is present who knows well that her body has never been stained, let her approach to undertake the pious task, even alone.” [33] Here was Claudia, who descended from the ancient family of the Clausi,3 even though an unjust rumor had discredited her among the people. She turned her hands and eyes toward the ship and said: “Mother of the heavenly dwellers, you goddess who create all deities for us, whose offspring govern land and sea, the stars and the Underworld, according to the lots they’ve drawn.4 If my body has never been violated by any crime, come to me as my witness, goddess, and clear my reputation by allowing your ship to yield to me.” [41] Then she got hold of the rope without hesitation. The lions’ roar seemed to be heard all of sudden, and the goddess’ cymbals resounded louder through the air, even though no hand had beaten them. The ship was carried willingly (you would think the winds were pushing it on) and came before Claudia, who led it against the stream. Immediately a greater hope soothed everyone’s mind that finally an end to the war was coming, an end to the disaster.

Scipio sails past Sicily toward Africa [48] With brisk pace, Scipio himself left the land of Sicily5 and traversed the sea’s long distance, driving his ships forward. He had made a bull sacrifice to appease the sea god Neptune; the entrails were tossed on the blue waters to float there. Then the eagles, Jupiter’s arms-bearers, flew down from the gods’ abode through the clear sky and before everyone’s eyes began to show the way of the sea and to lead the fleet. Their cries gave a favorable omen. So the Romans followed the birds’ flight before them under the bright sky, as much as the watchers’ eyes could see clearly. Then they reached the treacherous Carthaginian land’s shores.

Syphax marries Sophonisba* and switches sides. Scipio defeats and destroys the king and his powers [59] As such a storm came her way, Africa had not been idle and had procured on her side king Syphax’s resources and Massylian arms, the famous king’s awesome might. For Syphax was both a source of hope for the Carthaginians and the Romans’ only fear. Accustomed to riding horses with no decorative coverlets, the Numidians had filled the plain as well as the

3 Ancient family whose ancestor was Attius Clausus. See Book 8, lines 412ff. 4 That is Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto. On the division of the world, see note 7 in Book 8. 5 Sicily was Scipio’s assigned province by the Senate.

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outspread valleys and shores. Dense clouds of spears hurled through the air covered the sky. [67] Syphax had forgotten that he gave his right hand by an altar to ratify the alliance with the Romans, providing for them a banquet and hospitality to witness this pact. He broke divine law and trust at the same time, because he was transformed out of base love and now prepared for a wedding at the price of his kingdom. There was a virgin of exquisite beauty and noble lineage, Sophonisba, Hasdrubal’s daughter,6 whom Syphax received in his lofty wedding-chamber. It was as if he were on fire with love and were getting married then for the first time.7 The new son-in-law switched his allegiance to the Carthaginians, breaking his friendship with the Romans, and transferred his weapons as part of the dowry. [76] Nonetheless, the Roman general Scipio took care to warn Syphax and sent envoys to threaten him: Syphax should stay in his kingdom; he should think about the gods; he should keep the pact of hospitality. In addition, his Carthaginian wedding and new kinship would not help him at all in facing the Roman army. Truly, should Syphax, a fawning and easy husband, refuse, he would pay in blood the cost of his dedication and lustful passion for his new wife. [83] Such were the Roman general’s warnings, mixed with threats, but to no avail. For the wife had bound Syphax’s ear to the point that he was deaf to such advice. Therefore, Scipio was exasperated as his warnings were futile. He called his men to prepare for war using as his witnesses the chaste altars of an alliance that was now polluted. Without hesitation, he employed varied methods to plan for battle. He attacked Syphax’s camp, which was protected by reeds and marshy rushes, like the scattered huts the Moorish shepherds love. The night darkness helped Scipio’s stealthy attempt, and the soldiers spread fire with the silent night’s help, without being detected. Then all the fires united and began to spread destruction that devoured everything. The conflagration loudly fed on fertile materials. The bright flames quickly expanded and sent smoke up into the air with a flash. This pestilence went through the whole camp like a tornado, and the fire devoured its dry food with a gasping rustle. [96] Flames erupted from every house. Most men felt the flames before they saw it, as they were waking up, but they caught on fire as they called for help. The conflagration ran everywhere victoriously and destroyed men and weapons in its swift embrace. The pestilence overflowed, and the halfburned camp flew through the high clouds in white dust. With a huge leap, the fire dashed around the king’s own tent, widely crackling in a mournful way. The flames would have consumed the man, except that his guard,

6 This is Hasdrubal, Gisgo’s son. 7 Even though he was a widower.

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panicking at the destruction, woke him up and snatched him away from his bed, as he shouted for help. [109] But then the Massylian and Carthaginian leaders soon joined forces behind a common rampart, and fresh recruits were brought in from Syphax’s kingdom to ease the unfortunate night’s pain. Anger and shame, as well as his wife, a third kind of fire, inspired Syphax with wild courage. Grinding his teeth, the barbarian king uttered threats saying that his face was burned by the fire in the camp and that with no clothes and with difficulty he was saved from the enemy amid his terrorized troops. For, he kept saying, Syphax could be conquered by no one in clear daylight or in the sun’s face. [118] Such things he tossed about in a frenzy, but Atropos* shut down his pride and allowed him to say no more, as she hastened the end of this arrogant speaker’s thread of life. For then he sprang forth from the rampart, like a disordered river, which drags wood and rocks in its passing and runs through pathless places in force and extends the banks with its foaming waters. Likewise Syphax went before the army on his horse and drew the troops with his voice. On the opposite side was the brave Roman army, and the cavalry rushed on with their arms, when they saw the king from afar. And each man said to himself: “Do you see? Do you see how the Massylian general flies in front of the army seeking war? Help me, my right hand, to accomplish this glory. He disturbed the gods’ altars and broke our blameless general’s alliance. Let it be enough that he escaped the burning camp once.” So they thought to themselves as they raced to shoot their arrows. [133] The first spear flew and landed on the nostrils of Syphax’s horse which was breathing out fire. The animal reared up, its mouth bloody, beating the air with its forefeet raised. The fierce horse crashed down tossing its limbs all around, transfixed by the spear. And so it betrayed its rider to the enemy. The troops attacked and seized Syphax without wounding him with their spears, as he tried in vain to flee and raise his weakened body. Then they put chains and fetters on the man, a shameful sight. And they tightly chained his hands which once held a scepter, an example why never to trust in happiness for a long time. Syphax was thrown down from kingship’s heights and was taken as captive, the man who once had seen at his feet lands and kings and the open sea to the Ocean’s shores under his nod. [146] When the king’s resources were annihilated, the Carthaginian troops were cut down. And a man hated by the war god Mars and notorious for escaping, Hasdrubal,8 turned his back and fled quickly, since his bold moves failed.

8 That is, Hasdrubal, Gisgo’s son.

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Hannibal is recalled to Africa. After a dream, he decides to return home [149] Carthage was still standing, even though her limbs were truncated everywhere, relying on one man’s strength. Even in his absence, Hannibal supported the empire which was collapsing in such a crash. The desperate situation demanded that those exhausted and in need of assistance summon Hannibal back. The Carthaginians found him to be their refuge in fear, after they saw themselves deserted by the gods’ favor. Without delay, those who would convey his country’s message and recall him, sailed quickly through the salty sea. They warned that he should hasten, or he would see none of Carthage’s towers standing. [157] On the fourth day’s dawn, the ship landed on the Italian shores. Wild dreams disturbed Hannibal’s sleep. For when, exhausted from cares, he enjoyed sleep at night, he saw Flaminius and Gracchus and Paulus turning and rushing against him with their unsheathed swords. They threw him out of Italy. A whole army of those who died at Cannae and Lake Trasimene’s waters pushed him on to the sea. Hannibal in turn desired to flee and sought to escape to the Alps, hugging Italy’s soil with both arms, until a great force thrust him into the ocean and exposed him to be carried by the storms. [170] The envoys approached him in this condition, disturbed by the dream, to convey the message. They explained the extreme danger their country faced: how the Massylian army was defeated; how Libya’s ruler, Syphax, bore chains on his neck and was denied death, preserved to be part of an exceptional procession for Jupiter;9 how Carthage in distress was shaken by Hasdrubal’s several flights, the man who was now in power. They added that they had personally witnessed—a sad thing to say—when the two camps10 burned in the dead of night and when cursed flames kindled Africa. They continued that, while the Carthaginian lingered in Bruttium’s land, young Scipio, a man of lighting speed, threatened to destroy Hannibal’s country by dark fire and famous deeds. Hannibal would have no land which to return. After they finished telling of their country’s predicament and their fears, they poured tears and worshipped his right hand as if he were a god. [184] Hannibal heard the request with a fierce countenance fixed on the ground. And, sick in his heart, he weighed silently pondering whether Carthage was worth so much. Then he spoke as follows: “Oh, dreadful catastrophe for mortals! Oh, envy, you allow nothing ever to grow much or great praise to rise high! In the past, I was able to overturn and destroy Rome and to level it to the ground. I carried the captive people to slavery, and I imposed laws on Latium. Since the Carthaginians don’t want to approve money and weapons for their leader and to refresh with fresh recruits an

9 The triumphal procession to the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus in Rome. 10 Syphax’s and Hasdrubal’s.

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army exhausted by victories, and since Hanno likes the idea of depleting the army of food and provisions, all of Africa is entangled with fire and the Roman spears beat the Carthaginian walls. Hannibal is now his country’s glory, now he is his fatherland’s refuge. Now in my right hand lies the last hope. Let my standards and soldiers return home, as the senators decided. And we shall save Carthage’s walls as well as you, Hanno.” [201] When he thundered with such words, he pushed the tall ships from the shore, and with many groans he moved the fleet to the water. No one dared to attack from behind those retreating, no one dared to recall him. It seemed that the gods were helping the Romans, since the Carthaginian was departing willingly and finally ridding Italy of his presence. The Romans prayed for favorable winds, and they satisfied their gaze by looking at the shore that was now empty of the enemy. Just like when the south wind suppresses the wild gales and departs, leaving the sea to the travelers, the sailor in the meantime does not pray for a friendly breeze, satisfied that he got rid of the south wind. And he considers the sea’s quiet peace as good as an easy trip. [211] All the Carthaginian soldiers everywhere turned their eyes to the sea, but their leader Hannibal held his face intensely fixed on Italian soil in silence, while tears flowed down and wetted his cheeks. He frequently sighed, just as if he were leaving his own country and his sweet home and was being dragged into a grim place in exile.

Hannibal has second thoughts and prepares to return to Italy, when Neptune raises a storm. Venus asks him to spare Hannibal [218] But as the ships moved on at the winds’ impulse and the mountains slowly began to withdraw in the distance, Hannibal kept grinding his teeth in rage, since there was no more of Italy or Daunus’ land to see. He said: “Am I in my right mind? And am I now unworthy of this return, I who never removed myself from Italy? Would that Carthage burn, given into flames, and the Carthaginian name rather perish! Why? Was I in my right mind then when I didn’t bring the burning spears from Cannae to the Tarpeian temples and overthrow Jove from his throne? I could have spread fire on Rome’s seven hills, which were empty from the war, and I could have caused the arrogant nation the destruction and fate of their forefathers, the Trojans! Why do these cause me pain? Who stops me from invading now with the sword and from marching against Rome’s walls again? I’ll go and trace back the remains of my camps, where the track that I know well calls me. And I’ll return to the Anio River’s waters. Turn the prows toward Italy, divert the fleet’s course. I’ll make it so that Scipio is recalled to a besieged Rome.” [236] Neptune looked over from the sea at Hannibal who was on fire with such frenzy. The god saw that the ships turned toward the shore, 289

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and, shaking his blue hair, the father of the seas churned the ocean from the depths and moved the swollen water beyond the shores. Immediately he stirred up the winds and the rain and the storms from Aeolus’ rocky island and buried the sky in clouds. Then with his spear-like trident he set in motion his reign’s inner parts from deep below and struck the sea from east to west, disturbing the whole ocean. [244] The foamy sea rose up, and crashing waves shook all the rocks. First the south wind was lifted from its seat in the land of the Nasamonians, and its force took hold and laid bare the Syrtes. The north wind followed bearing part of the sea up high on its black wings. The dark east wind thundered with its opposing gusts and seized part of the water. Here the sky was rent and echoed in thunder, there it was lit with frequent flashes. The hostile pole fell on to the fleet. Fire, rain, storm, and the winds’ wrath conspired to impose deep darkness on the sea. [255] Look! the south wind twisted a gale and thrust it against the ship’s stern, making the yard bellow. (The ropes creaked and hissed with a horrible noise.) The storm dashed a wave, like a mountain, from the pitch dark deep on the Carthaginian leader’s terrified face. Rolling his eyes over heaven and sea, he shouted: “Oh brother, Hasdrubal, you are fortunate, since you died and were made equal to the gods! You died a glorious death by a brave man’s strong hand,11 while you were waging war. And the Fates allowed you to bite the Italian earth as you died. But as for me, I was not permitted to lose my life at the battleground of Cannae, where Paulus, where the other brave souls met their end. And when I brought fire against the Capitol, I was not allowed to descend to the Underworld by Tarpeian Jupiter’s thunderbolt.” [267] While he bemoaned such things, different winds drove a wave that crashed on both sides of his boat and held it fast under dark heaps of water, as if drowned by a cyclone. Soon after, boiling eddies of black sand pushed the boat up high, and it returned to the upper world and hung over the surface of the water above. The winds held the equilibrium. But by a cruel lot, the south wind seized two triremes, dashing them on the crags and terrible rocks, a miserable and sad sight. The prows creaked by the throw. Then the hull’s framework broke and made a thud as it was thrust on the sharp rock. [278] One could see different objects here: in the whole sea, among the soldiers’ weapons and helmets and the red plumes, powerful Capua’s treasures floated and Hannibal’s Italian plunder. He had kept it to parade at his triumph. Also here were the tripods and the gods’ tables and their images which the desperate Romans had worshipped in vain. [283] Then terrified by the raging sea’s condition, Venus addressed the ocean’s king, Neptune, with such words: “Father, enough with your rage for

11 Claudius Nero in Book 15, lines 778ff.

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now, enough with your threats that indicate greater things to come. I pray, spare the sea from further destruction, so that awful Carthage may not exalt that she gave birth to this man to be invincible in war. She may not boast that my people, Aeneas’ descendants, needed the waves and the whole sea to bring about Hannibal’s death.” [290] Venus said these words, and the swollen waters settled on the surface, pushing the Carthaginian troops forward before the enemy’s camp.12

Hannibal gives a speech to his troops in Africa [292] The Carthaginian leader, Hannibal, a veteran in war, was skilled at igniting the soldiers’ hearts with praise. With a fiery exhortation he inspired rage and fury in the men’s minds and flared their chests with glory’s desire: “You, soldier, brought me Flaminius’ head dripping in blood. I recognize your hand. You first rushed to stab great Paulus and bury your sword down to his very bones.13 You carried warlike Marcellus’ rich spoils.14 Dying Gracchus dyed your sword red.15 Look! these are the hands which struck you, martial Appius, dead by a spear thrown down from the rampart’s height, as you besieged lofty Capua’s walls.16 Behold! another courageous hand, which gave noble Fulvius more than one wound on his chest.17 Come here and stand in front row, soldier, you who killed the consul Crispinus in battle.18 Come and accompany me through the enemy lines, you who, I remember, most happy in your rage brought to me at Cannae the general Servilius’ face fixed on a pike.19 [309] You, strongest of the Carthaginian youths, I see your fiery eyes and fear-inspiring face no less than your sword itself. I saw you as such, when by the fierce Trebia River you bravely grasped your huge weapons and drowned a tribune in the water, as he struggled in vain.20 But you, who first at the waters of the Ticinus River dyed your sword with the blood of Scipio’s father,21 you finish what you started and bring me his son’s blood also! [317] Shall I fear the gods themselves, should they come to battle, when you, my troops, stand ready? I saw you trample down the ridges that reached

12 Given the abrupt ending of the storm scene, some scholars have posited a gap of unknown length here. But this remains a conjecture. 13 See Book 10, lines 303ff. 14 See note 9 in Book 1. And see Book 15, lines 334ff for Marcellus’ death. 15 See Book 12, lines 463ff. 16 See Book 13, lines 449ff. 17 See Book 12.469–72. Hannibal also defeated Gnaeus Fulvius Centumalus in 210 BCE in the same area as Gnaeus Fulvius Flaccus. Silius may be conflating the two here. See Livy, From the Foundation of the City 25.20–21 and 27.1. 18 See Book 15, lines 334ff. 19 See Book 10, lines 215ff. 20 Maybe the soldiers mentioned in Book 4.585–8. 21 See Book 4, lines 401ff.

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the sky as you flew through the high Alps. I saw your hands and swords burn down Cannae’s spacious battlefield. You won’t hesitate now, will you, you who first hurled your spear against Rome’s walls and were unwilling to come second in glory after me? Do I need to urge you on, who, when I withstood against the supreme god’s bolts and rain and thunder and rage, you commanded me to endure the noise and futile clouds and rushed on to attack the lofty Capitol? [328] Why shall I exhort you who destroyed Saguntum in a distinguished battle, you who became illustrious in the beginning of the war? Please, defend with your prowess past glory in a manner worthy of me and you. Trusting in you, an old man I now return by the gods’ favor and as a conqueror to my country which is struggling. It has been fifteen years since I’ve seen my home and my son and my faithful wife’s face. There is only this battle alone left for Africa and Italy to fight. At the end of this combat, today the world will receive its master.” Hannibal said these words. But when Scipio began to speak, the Roman soldiers did not endure to hear any words that would delay them. They sought the signal for battle.

Jupiter grants Juno’s wish to save Hannibal and reveals the war’s end [341] When the gods’ father saw his sister Juno watching these developments from afar on a heavenly cloud and discerned a violent gaze on her sad face, he said these words with a friendly intention: “What pain eats up your thoughts? Share it with me, wife. Maybe it is the Carthaginian leader’s predicament and anxiety for your city Carthage that distress you? But consider in your heart the Carthaginian frenzy for a minute. Please tell me, sister, what end will there be to the rebellious people who break treaties and bring war against the Roman race and an empire that has been dictated by the Fates? Carthage herself endured and underwent no more of miseries and toil than you undertook on behalf of the Carthaginian race in your efforts. You stirred up sea and land and sent the fierce young man against Latium. Rome’s walls trembled, and Hannibal has been the human race’s leader for sixteen years. It’s time to pacify the people. Now we’ve reached the end. The war’s door must be closed.” [357] Then Juno said in a submissive tone: “I didn’t sit on an overhanging cloud trying to change these things, for which there is an appointed day. Nor do I seek to renew battle or extend war. Since my influence on you has now waned and our love’s first passion is now gone, I ask you to give me what you are able to grant. I don’t ask you anything against the Fates’ threads. Let Hannibal leave the battlefield and flee from his enemy, as you please, and let Troy’s ashes rule over Carthage. I ask you this in the name of the mutual pledge of a twin bond, that is, as your sister and wife: please allow the brave Carthaginian to survive the dangerous battle, and don’t take his life or allow that he be brought as a captive in Roman chains. Also let my city’s walls 292

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stand, even though they may be severely damaged, when the Carthaginian name has perished, and let them preserve my worship.” [370] Juno said these words, and Jupiter replied to her briefly as follows: “I grant you the survival of lofty Carthage’s walls, as you wish. Let them stand because of your tears and prayers. But learn, wife, to what point it is allowed to grant your wishes. The city’s fate will not last long, since there will come a general with the same name,22 who will overturn the preserved citadel and destroy it to the roots. Also let Hannibal enjoy life, as you ask, by being snatched away from battle. He will want to stir stars and sea and fill the land with a returning army. I know that this man’s heart is bursting with war. But let this be the law of my gift to you: he shall not see Saturn’s kingdom after this battle, nor shall he seek to return to Italy ever again. Now take him away and save him from impending death, or you won’t be able to rescue him from the right hand of Romulus’ youthful descendant,23 if he joins in fierce battle on the wide plain.”

The battle at Zama begins. Hannibal and Scipio inflict many losses on both sides [385] While all-powerful Jupiter fixed the fates for the general and the city, the troops entered battle, and their shouts struck the stars. At no other time did the land see either people more violent or generals readier to compete and move their country’s armies. The price of the contest to be decided was high, namely everything the wide sky covers. The Carthaginian leader Hannibal came resplendent in purple, and his helmet’s ruddy crest with its nodding plumes raised his head very high. An awful terror preceded him on account of his great name, and his sword, well-known to the Romans, flashed. [395] On the other side, Scipio was radiant in fiery scarlet, displaying his terrifying shield, on which he had carved his father’s and uncle’s figures, as they were still breathing violent battle. And his lofty helmet spewed out a gigantic flame. In such might of weapons and men, everyone could hope for victory from the generals alone. Even more, as partiality and fear subdued most soldiers, they believed that, had Scipio been born in Africa, world power could have gone to Agenor’s descendants; had Hannibal been born on Italian soil, they had no doubt that all lands would have come under Italian rule. [406] The air was shaken at the speedy tornado of cast spears, and terrible darkness spread over the ether. Then the soldiers drew their swords, and the battle lines drew closer, as they came face to face. Their eyes burned

22 That is, Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus, Africanus’ grandson, will defeat Carthage in the Third Punic War in 146 BCE and raise the city to the ground. 23 That is, Scipio.

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with a dreadful fire. The crowd, who ignored the danger and moved forward to the middle, headlong with their spears first, was laid low. And the land drank its own people’s blood unwillingly. Hot-headed and impetuous because of his youth, Masinissa brought his mighty limbs against the Macedonians’ first ranks. And he flew around the plain with his men bearing winged javelins. Likewise, when they enter battle, Thyle’s24 inhabitants dye their bodies blue and surround the close-packed troops with chariots armed with sickles. [418] The Greek phalanx had thickened their lines according to their native custom and stood with spears joined together, impenetrable to weapons.25 Forgetting the agreement with the Romans, Philip26 had sent these troops to war supporting again Agenor’s shaken city after a treaty. The soldiers’ density was growing thin, as they were exhausted by many wounds. And the corpses were spread on the ground and opened free passages far and wide among the spears. A group of Roman soldiers broke in laying massive waste and put an end to Greek perjury. Rutilus slew Archemorus, Norbanus killed Teucer (both were sent to war very young by their mother Mantua). Warlike Calenus’ hand cut Samius down. And Selius killed Clytius from Pella,* who took pride in his native city’s name in vain. And yet, Pella’s glory was not at all capable of saving the pitiable man from Roman arms. [432] Fiercer than these men was Roman Laelius who laid waste on the forces from Bruttium.27 He harassed them with these words: “Was the Italian land so detestable for you that you had to flee over sea and crazy storms on Carthaginian boats? But to flee must have been enough. Why do you also seek to sprinkle foreign lands with Latin blood?” He spoke and prevented Silarus, who was thinking to hit him, by throwing his spear. The weapon flew and sat deep under Silarus’ throat, quickly putting an end to the path of his voice and life alike. Vergilius killed Caudinus, fierce Amanus killed Laus. Roman rage was kindled by the men’s familiar faces and their weapons’ appearance, as well as their tongue’s kindred sound. [444] When Hamilcar’s son, Hannibal, saw the soldiers exposing their backs in flight, he entered battle and turned them back with his might. He shouted: “Stay, do not betray our race!” Just so, in the Garamantians’ hot land the Egyptian snake raises its neck, full of venom, having been fed on the boiling sand, and spreads far and wide a shower of pestilence, sprinkling the clouds. [451] Immediately, Hannibal flew before Herius and stopped him, as he was preparing to strike with his hostile spear. Herius bore a noble name

24 Here it designates Britain, whose inhabitants are reported to tattoo their bodies in battle. 25 The Macedonian troops carried sarissas. 26 That is, Philip V. See Book 15, lines 286ff. 27 Parts of Bruttium had crossed with Hannibal from Italy to Africa.

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from his house in Marrucina and illustrious Teate. And Hannibal’s hand quickly drove the sword up to the hilt’s end on Herius’ body, as Herius tried a great deed and was puffed up by the glory of meeting the enemy. The wretched man, as he died, sought to see his young brother Pleminius. When Pleminius came, he was exasperated by his brother’s death and let his fierce sword shine before Hannibal’s eyes, asking for his brother back. He threatened Hannibal with a mighty shout. [460] To him Hannibal said: “If indeed you want me to return your brother, I don’t deny this to you. Only let our treaties stand, bring back Hasdrubal from the shades. Shall I ever put aside my bitter hatred against the Romans? Or shall I allow my heart to grow mild? Shall I spare a man born from Italian stock? Then, when I die, the hateful ghosts would push me off in the eternal abode, and my brother would keep his distance from me in the Underworld that will join us together.” So he spoke and with his shield’s whole weight he pushed Pleminius down, where the soil, wet from his brother’s blood, had become treacherous and slippery. He laid him low and killed him with the sword. Falling Pleminius stretched out his hands, hugging the dead Herius, and by joined death he soothed his pain. [472] Then the Libyan Hannibal entered the fray with a mixed crowd. And rushing on, he forced the enemy to turn and flee far off. As when lightning mixed with thunder terrifies the world, the might father Jupiter’s lofty house is shaken, all human races on earth are afraid. A terrible light flashes on their own faces, and in awe they believe that Jupiter himself is present and stands before each man, aiming his fire at them. [478] On the other side, it was as if war were fought on the battlefield only where Scipio engaged in ferocious battle routing the troops. Fierce fighting offered various strange forms of death. Here one soldier lay prostrate with a sword driven through him. Another groaned in tears as a rock broke his bones. And fear had thrown others down on their faces, a shameful sight. Some brave men had opposed their chests to the enemy. [486] Only the Roman general Scipio himself pressed on over heaps of corpses, just as the war god Mars at the icy Hebrus River stands erect and his chariot, melting the Getic snow with boiling blood, happy in the slaughter. The chariot’s warlike axle hisses under the weight and breaks through the ice which the north winds have created. And now with savage desire Scipio looked for and killed the bravest soldiers with his sword. The young soldiers who had been remarkable with famous massacres all over the world, now lay dead far and wide among spears. Those men who seized your walls, Saguntum, and started this nefarious war with wretched destruction; those who stained with blood your sacred waters, Trasimene, and the pools of Phaethon’s River Po; and those whom such confidence directed to go seize the throne and home of the gods’ king. They were slain in one death in close quarters. [500] Those men who lost their lives claimed that they desecrated the gods’ secrets and opened up for the first time the Alps, which were denied 295

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to human steps before. The whole army was filled with fear before Scipio, and out of breath they quickly rushed backward to flee. Just so when fire’s plague spreads in a city’s houses, and the swift wind fans the flames and, as if they had wings, casts them over the buildings, the scared crowd breaks forth. They are driven by sudden fear, as when there is alarm everywhere that the city is captured.

Scipio wants to face Hannibal in battle, but Juno creates a phantom Scipio to distract Hannibal away from the field [509] But then Scipio became sick of delaying by pursuing soldiers’ dispersed bands and by being slowed down through lighter fighting. And he finally decided to turn all his resources against the war’s cause and the author of evils. While Hannibal alone remained, even if the Romans set Carthage’s walls on fire and the whole Carthaginian army lay dead, there would be no success for Latium. By contrast, if Hannibal alone should fall, all the remaining men and weapons would be futile for the Carthaginians. Therefore, Scipio looked for Hannibal and rolled his eyes over the battlefield, looking intently for the leader. It was a pleasure for Scipio to move on to the final battle. He would wish to fight the man, while all Italy was watching. With a fierce shout he called from on high, chastising the enemy, as he looked for the supreme contest. [522] After Juno heard these words, afraid that they might reach the fearless Libyan leader’s ears, she constructed a phantom like the Roman general Scipio. She quickly raised it up with a shiny crest, adding the Roman general’s shield and plume. She put on the phantom’s shoulders a gloriously gleaming cloak and gave it the appearance of Scipio’s gait and the manner of the Roman general calling for battle. And she added prideful gestures to the bodiless phantom. Then she also gave to the phantom warrior a similarly insubstantial phantom image of a fake horse to be ridden quickly away from the battle in a mock fight. [532] So this fake Scipio that Juno created leapt forward before the Carthaginian general’s eyes and unprovoked brandished his weapons. Hannibal rejoiced to see Scipio before his face and finally hoped for a major, decisive victory. He quickly threw his agile body onto his horse’s back and cast against the enemy his spear which sped like a tornado. The fleeing phantom turned its back and left the field as if on wings, passing by the lines. Then indeed, like a winner in possession of his lofty wish, the Carthaginian bloodied his horse with the iron spur and furiously shook the loose reins: “Where do you flee? You’ve forgotten that you are retreating in my kingdom? There is no hiding place on African soil for you, Scipio!” [544] He said this and followed Scipio’s flight with his sword unsheathed, until the phantom led him deceptively to distant fields, far away from the battle ground. Then the fallacious image suddenly disappeared in the clouds. 296

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The leader thundered, saying: “Which god has hidden their divinity and plotted against me? And why does he hide beneath this apparition? Does my glory offend the gods so much? But you will never take me away or will truly save my enemy from me with these tricks, whoever god you are, who stand in favor of the Romans!” [553] Then when he furiously turned his swift horse’s reins and began to ride back to the battlefield, suddenly the massive horse collapsed in chills from a hidden illness. And by Juno’s plan, the horse’s last panting breath was let out in the clouds. Then truly Hannibal could not endure more and said: “This is another of your tricks, gods. You don’t deceive me. Would that the sea rocks had covered and drowned me, would that the ocean and the waves had devoured me! Was I preserved for such death? The soldiers to whom I gave the battle’s sign are being slaughtered. And even though I am not present, I hear their groans and voices and their words calling me, Hannibal. Which Underworld river will suffice to expiate my guilt?” He said these things, as he looked at his right hand and boiled with desire to die. [567] Then pitying the man, Juno transformed herself into a shepherd and suddenly set out from a shady forest, addressing him as he turned such an inglorious destiny in his head: “What reason in the world forced you to come near my forest with your weapons? You are surely heading to the savage battle where great Hannibal is defeating the Romans’ remaining army. If you are happy to go quickly, and if you like a good shortcut, I’ll take you there by a nearby path.” [575] Hannibal nodded and loaded the shepherd with a generous promise, saying that might Carthage’s senators would give a good reward, in addition to his own which was going to be no lighter. Juno took him in a circle, as Hannibal moved quickly and leapt forward passing by the neighboring places. So the goddess in disguise deceived him about the region and roads, and she preserved his life, even though Hannibal did not want it and was not grateful.

The Carthaginians are defeated, and Hannibal vows to seek revenge in the future [581] In the meantime, the Carthaginian troops were abandoned in fear: they could not see Hannibal anywhere, nor the fierce general’s well-known manner of combat. Some believed he had been killed by the sword, some others that he had yielded to the gods’ ill-will and forsaken the battle in despair. The Roman general assailed the soldiers and drove them all off the plain in flight. And now even Carthage’s own citadel trembled in agony. With her armies routed, all Africa was filled with terror and uncertainty. [588] Quickly retreating in disorder, the Carthaginian soldiers rushed away, directing their course in panic toward the most distant shores, as they scattered wandering as far as the land of Tartessus. Some sought the city 297

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of Battus, Cyrene, others the Egyptian River Nile. Just as when Vesuvius,28 defeated finally by some hidden force, vomits forth to the stars the fires it has fed for centuries, then Vulcan’s fiery plague spreads over sea and land. The Chinese in the far east see their silk-bearing groves glow white with ash from Italy—an extraordinary prodigy. [597] But Queen Juno at last made exhausted Hannibal sit down on a hill nearby, from where he had a clear view of the whole picture and could trace with his eyes every detail in the destructive battle. Just as he had once seen Mount Garganus’ field and Trebia’s marshes, Trasimene the Tuscan lake, and Phaethon’s River Po overflow with a pile of corpses, such was now the dreadful sight that opened before his eyes—sad to behold. Then Juno returned to her heavenly abode disturbed. [605] And now the enemy was approaching and drew near the hill, when the Carthaginian general Hannibal said in his heart: “Though the whole framework of heaven may break up and fall on this head of mine and though the earth may split open, Jupiter, you’ll never delete the memory of Cannae. You’ll first abandon your throne and kingdom, before the world could forget Hannibal’s name or deeds. Nor do I leave you, Rome, without fear upon hearing my name. I shall survive my country and live on in the hope of raising arms against you. For you are victorious just now in battle, but there are enemies remaining.29 I shall be satisfied, and more so, since the Roman mothers and the Italian land shall expect my return, as long as I am alive, and shall never know peace in their hearts.” Then he joined a band of fugitives who took him away. And he sought a safe hiding-place in the high mountains to the rear.30

The war ends, and Scipio celebrates his triumph in Rome [618] This was the end of the war. Right away and willingly the citadel of Carthage opened up for the Roman leader to enter. The excessive laws and weapons were taken away, conditions were engraved in writing. The arrogant wealth’s power was broken, and the elephants set down the towers they used to carry.31 The tall ships then were burned down, a harsh spectacle for the Carthaginians, and by this sudden destruction the sea was ablaze, and even Nereus the sea god was in fear at the glare.

28 A possible allusion to the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE. 29 The Latin is uncertain here, but the meaning is clear. Hannibal is perhaps referring to Philip V and Antiochus III. 30 Livy reports that Hannibal fled with a few cavalry to Hadrumetum (From the Foundation of the City 30.35.4), while he also refers to another version according to which Hannibal fled immediately to Antiochus (From the Foundation of the City 30.37.13). 31 The conditions were harsh for the Carthaginians: all elephants were surrendered, a sum of 10,000 talents had to be paid to Rome.

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[625] In possession of a glory that was to last for the ages to come, the Roman general Scipio first bore the name of the country he defeated.32 Unconcerned with the ruling, he returned to Rome by sea and was carried into his fatherland in an exalted triumph. Up front, Syphax sat on a bier and held his captive eyes down, and a golden chain kept his neck tight. On this side were Hanno and the noble Carthaginian youths, as well as the Macedonian leaders and the skin-burned Moors. Then followed the Nomads and the Garamantians, known for their sacred temple to Jupiter Hammon, when they scour the desert, as well as the people from the Syrtes, where shipwrecks always take place. [635] After them followed the image of Carthage stretching her bound hands to the stars and an effigy of the now pacified Spanish coast. Cadiz, the end of the world, and Gibraltar, once the last point of Hercules’ labors; and the Baetis River, accustomed to bathe the sun’s horses in its agreeable waters; and the Pyrenees, the wild generator of wars, now subjugating their leafy peaks; and the harsh Ebro River, when it dashes against the sea the tributaries it has brought down with it. [643] But no other image attracted more people’s minds and eyes than Hannibal’s as he left the field. Scipio himself stood on a chariot and was decorated in gold and purple. He displayed his warlike face to be seen by the Roman citizens. Just as when Bacchus came back from the perfumed Indians and brought chariots drawn by tigers and decorated with vine shoots. Or just as when, having conquered the massive Giants, Tirynthian Hercules marched in Phlegra’s fields, reaching for the sky. [651] Hail, unconquerable father! You are equal to Romulus Quirinus in glory and to Camillus in service! And indeed, Rome does not lie when she says that you come from divine stock, claiming you are the Tarpeian Thunder God’s offspring.

32 Scipio Africanus.

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GLOSSARY

Acarnania  District in northwestern Greece, where the Achelous River is located. Acerrae (Acerra)  Campanian town. Achaia  Region in northern Peloponnese. Achelous River  River in Acarnania. Acheron  The “river of suffering,” a mythical river considered to be at the edge of the Underworld. Achilles  Famous warrior of the Trojan war. Acis River  Near Mount Aetna. Once a man in love with Galatea. Acragas (Agrigento)  Sicilian city, famous for Greek temples. Actaeon  Theban who looked at Diana naked, was transformed into a stag as a punishment and eaten by his own hunting dogs. Actium  Promontory in Acarnania, with a famous temple to Apollo. Adriatic Sea  The eastern sea separating Italy from Greece. Aeetes  King of the Colchians, Medea’s father. Aegates Islands (Isole Egadi)  A series of five small islands near Sicily. Rome’s defeat of a Carthaginian fleet here in 241 BCE marked the end of the First Punic War. Aegean Sea  The part of the Mediterranean that surrounds Greece and the Cyclades islands. Aeneas  A Trojan exile, the mythical founder of the Roman race, and the central character of Virgil’s Aeneid. Aeolian Sea  North of Sicily where the Aeolian islands are located (like Lipari). Aeolus  The mythical king of the winds; he is regularly portrayed as keeping the winds imprisoned within a mountain. Aequi  People northeast of Rome. Aetna  Sicilian volcano. Aetolia  The original home of Diomedes in western Greece before he migrated to Italy. Silius regularly alludes to the battle of Cannae by referring to Aetolia. Agamemnon  The mythical king of Mycene and leader of the Greeks during the Trojan War.

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Agathocles  (360/1–289 BCE)  Tyrant and king of Syracuse, fought against the Carthaginians. Agenor  Mythical king of Phoenicia and ancestor of the Carthaginians; father of Cadmus and Phoenix. Ajax  Mythical hero in the Trojan war. Alban Mount  Near modern Castel Gandolfo, where Alba Longa was situated and Jupiter’s temple. Albula  Tiber River’s ancient name. Alcmena  Wife of Amphitryon, mother of Hercules by Jupiter. Alexander the Great  (356–323 BCE), Philip’s son, ruler of Macedon; conquered the east creating the Hellenistic empire. Was thought to be the offspring of Jupiter Hammon. Algidus  Mountain near Tusculum. Allecto  One of the three mythical Furies of the Underworld, snaky-haired demons who cause madness and violence. Allia River  A Gallic army inflicted a severe defeat on the Romans at the Allia River, a tributary of the Tiber, on 18 July 390 BCE. The Romans commemorated that day ever after as the “Allia Day,” the unluckiest day of the year. Almo River (Aquataccio)  River in Latium where Cybele’s statue was washed in March every year. Alps  The mountain range that separates Italy from the northern lands; Hannibal crosses the Alps in Book 3. Amazons  Warrior maidens living by the Thermodon River. Asbyte is described as one in Book 2. Ambracia  City in Greece near the homonymous gulf and Actium. Amphion  Son of Zeus and one of the mythical founders of Thebes; after receiving the lyre from Mercury, Amphion’s music caused rocks to move and form the city’s walls. Amphitryon  Husband of Alcmena, who gave birth to twins fathered by Jupiter (Hercules) and Amphitryon (Iphicles). Sometimes called Hercules’ father. Amulius  Uncle of Rhea Silvia, mother of Romulus and Remus. Having usurped the throne of Alba Longa from Rhea Silvia’s father Numitor, Amulius cast out the children. Romulus and Remus later return to kill Amulius and found Rome. Amyclae  Silius regularly refers to Sparta as Amyclae even though it is technically a city subject to Sparta. Home of the mercenary Xanthippus. Anagnia  Town of the Hernicians in the Sacco Valley. Anapus River (Anapo)  In Syracuse, Sicily. Anchises  Aeneas’ father. Ancona  Italian city on the Adriatic Sea. Angitia  Goddess of the Marsians, assimilated to Medea. Anio River  Tributary of the Tiber.

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Anna Perenna  Dido’s deified sister whose story is told at the beginning of Book 8. Her name (related to English “perennial”) alludes to her festival on March 15, which in archaic times Romans used to regard as the new year (see Ovid, Fasti 3.523–696). Antenor  Trojan companion of Aeneas, settled in Patavium which was previously inhabited by the native Euganeans. Antiochus III the Great (ca. 242–187 BCE)  Seleucid king who ruled the territory from Babylon to Antioch from (222–187 BCE.) Antiphates  King of the Laestrygonians. Apennines  Mountains in central Italy. Apollo  God of light, music, and prophecy. Aponus (Abano)  Spring near Patavium. Appius Claudius Caecus  In 280 BCE rejected peace offerings from Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, who invaded Italy. Appius Claudius Caudex  Consul in 264 BCE, defeated the Carthaginians at Syracuse in Sicily in the First Punic War. Appius Claudius Pulcher  Commander at the siege of Capua with Fulvius but died at or just after the siege ended. Scipio meets his shade in Book 13. Apulia  Region in southeastern Italy, where Cannae is located. Arar (Saône)  Gallic river. Ardea  Capital city of the Rutulians, alleged to have been founded by Danaë. Arethusa  A water nymph who escaped from the Greek river god Alpheus by transforming into a spring of fresh water, traveling under the sea and emerging in the Sicilian city of Syracuse. Argo  The ship of the Argonauts, who were led by Jason to retrieve the Golden Fleece from Colchis. Argos  City and region in the Peloponnese in Greece; a major cult site of Juno. The epithet is used as a synonym of “Greek.” Argus  Guardian of Io, endowed with many eyes (a hundred or a thousand) to keep watch. Argyripa or Arpi (Arpino)  A town in Apulia, south Italy, imagined to be founded by the Greek hero Diomedes. Aricia (Ariccia)  A town in Latium southeast of Rome, with a famous cult site of the goddess Diana. Arion  A Greek musician cast into the ocean by pirates but saved by dolphins who were enchanted by his music. Aristaeus  Actaeon’s father, son of Cyrene. Arnus (Arno)  A river feeding into Lake Trasimene. Arpi  See Argyripa. Arpinum (Arpino)  Southeast of Rome, homeland of Marius and Cicero. Arretium (Arezzo)  Etruscan city. Ascra  City in Boeotia, associated with the poet Hesiod. 302

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Aspis  A fortification in North Africa named after the Greek word for “shield” (aspis); the Romans called it Clupea, from Latin clipeus (also “shield”). Assaracus  A mythical king of Troy. Asturians  People in northern Spain. Asylum  The space created by Romulus on the Capitoline Hill to provide safety to refugees and exiles. Atella  Campanian city. Athos  Mountain in northern Greece. Atlas  Mythological figure imagined to bear the globe on his shoulders. The Atlas Mountains near Morocco are named after him. Atreus  Father of Agamemnon and Menelaus. Atropos  One of the mythical Fates. Attalus III  (ca. 170–133 BCE) King of Pergamum in Asia Minor. Thought to have invented gold embroidery. Aufidus River (Ofanto)  Runs by Cannae in South Italy. Aurora  The goddess of the dawn. Aurunca  An ancient mountain town in Campania, Italy. Autololes  A North African tribe who lived in what is now Morocco near the Atlas Mountains. Aventine hill  One of Rome’s seven hills, famous for its temple of Diana. Avernus  A body of water near modern Puteoli, imagined either as a lake or river. In mythology, the entrance to the Underworld. Axur (Anxur)  Modern Terracina, a town southeast of Rome. Ba’al Hammon  A Phoenician god associated by the Romans with Jupiter; Ba’al means “lord” (Latin dominus). The Latinized version of Ba’al, Belus, also appears in the Punica as the name of a mortal ancestor of Hannibal. Babylon  City in Mesopotamia celebrated for its embroideries. Bacchus  The god of wine; represented as wreathed with garlands and holding an ivy staff called thyrsus. Bactria  A large region from the Middle East to India. Baetis River (Guadalquivir)  The fifth longest river in the Iberian Peninsula. Bagrada River  A river near Utica in Tunisia. Site of a battle between Regulus* and a serpent, as narrated in Book 6. Baiae  Campanian city founded by Baius, one of Ulysses’ companions. Balearic Islands  An island chain off Spain that includes Maiorca, Minorca, Capraria, Menaria, Tiquadra, and Cunicularia. Baniurae  Tribe of northwestern Africa. Barcas  Apparently a Tyrian ancestor of Hannibal and origin of his family’s name (Barca). Silius probably confuses a nickname for Hamilcar (meaning “bright”) for a family name. Barce (Marj)  City in northeastern Libya. Batavians  Referring to the peoples of the modern Netherlands, also used to refer to the Germanic tribes. 303

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Battus  The founder of Cyrene (now Shahat) in Libya. Bauli (Bacoli)  Campanian coastal city. Bear  The Great and Little Bear (Ursa Major and Ursa Minor) are constellations in the northern sky. Bellona  The Roman goddess of war. Her name derives from the Latin word for “war” (bellum). Bistonians  The peoples living around present-day Lake Vistonida in Thrace in northern Greece. Boians  A Gallic people. Flaminius campaigned against them during his consulship of 223 BCE and won a triumph. Boreas  The personified north wind who raped Orithyia. Bostar  Carthaginian general. Brennus  Leader of the Gauls who stormed the Capitoline and captured and destroyed Rome in 390 BCE (or 387 BCE). Silius sometimes refers to the ransom of gold which Brennus demanded from the Romans. Briareus  One of the Hundred-handed monsters, guardians of the Titans in the Underworld. Brundisium (Brindisi)  Southern Italian city where the Via Appia ended. Bruttians  Inhabitants of the Calabria peninsula in southern Italy. L. Junius Brutus  Established the Republic after forcing out the last king, Tarquinius Superbus. One of Rome’s first two consuls in 509 BCE; he was famously forced to kill his two treasonous sons. Byrsa  The acropolis (citadel) of Carthage. The Greeks and Romans mistakenly understood the meaning as “bull hide,” because of the legend that Dido purchased the land with strips of a bull’s hide. According to another foundation legend (told in Book 2), the Carthaginians found a horse’s head on the site. Cadiz  The ancient Gades, a Phoenician colony, is a narrow slice of land surrounded by the Sea near Gibraltar. Cadmus  Son of Agenor and founder of Thebes. As a Phoenician, he is also imagined to be a mythical ancestor of the Carthaginian people who came from the Phoenician city, Tyre. Caduceus  Mercury’s wand by which he puts mortals to sleep or wakes them up. Caere (Cerveteri)  Etruscan city. Caieta  The wet-nurse of Aeneas; she is associated by Virgil and others with her putative gravesite at the shore named after her, modern Gaeta in between Naples and Rome. Calabria  Region in southern Italy, also called Messapia. Calchas  Greek seer during the Trojan War. Caledonia  Generally northern Britain. Calliope  In myth, one of the nine Muses, each of whom oversaw the creation of a distinct literary genre; they are often invoked by ancient poets. Calliope’s genre is epic poetry. Calydon  Aetolian city. 304

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Camarina  Sicilian city. Camerinum  Umbrian city, whose inhabitants were called Camertes. Marcus Furius Camillus  (446–365 BCE) Returned from exile to lead the recapture of Rome from the Gauls in 390 BCE. Also discouraged the Romans from relocating their capital to Veii. Campania  A coastal region of western Italy south of Rome, its cities and towns include Naples, Pompeii, and Liternum. Silius retired to this region as a hub of leisure and literary activity in the latter part of his life. Campus Martius  A region on the west bank of the Tiber near the center of modern Rome. In the time of the Second Punic War, this was an important voting space; in Silius’ (and the present) day, it came to be dominated by monumental architecture like the Pantheon and Mausoleum of Augustus. Cancer  A constellation and zodiac sign, rising in middle summer. Cannae  A village, modern Canne, in Apulia in southeastern Italy. Site of the greatest Roman defeat of the Second Punic War in August 216 BCE, narrated in Books 8–10. Canopus  City on the Nile River’s delta. Cantabrians  A people inhabiting the northwest coast of Spain. Canusium  City by the Aufidus River, 7 miles west of Cannae. Caphereus  Cape in Euboea infamous as the most dangerous place in the Aegean Sea for ships. Capitoline Hill  The Roman sacred hill, site of the temple to Jupiter Optimus Maximus. Capua  A city in Campania that sided with Carthage but was taken by Rome, as narrated in Books 11 and 13. The Romans rescued it in 343 BCE from the Samnites. Capys  Mythic founder of Capua, Assaracus’ son and Aeneas’ grandfather; according to other traditions, Aeneas’ companion who came to Italy. Carmentis  Evander’s mother. Carpathus  Island in southeastern Greece. Casalinum  City near Capua. Casperia  Sabine town whose name was thought to come from the Persian Caspiros. Cassandra  Virgin priestess daughter of Priam, taken by Agamemnon to Mycene. Cassinum (Cassino)  City in south Latium. Castalia  Spring in Delphi, considered sacred to the Muses and a source of inspiration. Castor  Brother of Pollux, sons of Leda, brothers of Helen. They alternate living in the Underworld and are imagined to share a single soul on alternate days. They protect sailors. Castrum  Castrum Inui was a harbor below the city of Ardea in Central Italy. Castulo  City in Spain near the Guadalquivir River. Catania  Sicilian city. 305

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Catillus  Founder of Tibur. Marcus Porcius Cato the Elder  Born in 234 BCE, portrayed as a young warrior in Book 7. He famously advocated for the destruction of Carthage until his death in 149. Caucasus  Mountain range between the Black and Caspian seas. Caudine Forks  Site of a Roman defeat in 321 BCE during the Second Samnite War, when the Roman army surrendered. Cayster River  Modern Küçük Menderes. River in Lydia famous for its swans. Celts  Generally used for people north of Italy through modern France and the border with Spain. Centaurs  Half-human, half-horse hybrid creatures. Cephallenia  Island in the Ionian Sea. Cephaloedium  Modern Cefalù, a city off the coast of Sicily. Ceraunian Mountains  A high mountain range on the coast of ancient Epirus in northwestern Greece. Cerberus  The mythical three-headed dog that guarded the entrance to the Underworld; in one of his labors, Hercules captures, chains, and drags Cerberus out of the Underworld. Ceres  The Roman goddess of fertility and the harvest, mother of Proserpina. Chalcis  City in Euboea that colonized southern Italy. Chaonia  Epirus in Greece. Chaos  Gaping void, before the world’s creation. Charon  The mythical ferryman who carries dead souls across the River Styx (or sometimes Acheron) in the Underworld. Charybdis  A mythical whirlpool associated with the Straits of Messana, off the coast of Sicily, and imagined to destroy ships; it is frequently paired with Scylla. Chimaera  A monstrous lion, snake, goat creature. Chiron  A mythical centaur and educator of many Greek heroes including Achilles. Ciconians  A Thracian tribe. Cimmerians  A nomadic people originating in southern Russia, associated by the Romans with Campania. Cingulum (Cingoli)  Umbrian town. Cinyps River (Wadi Ka’am)  A small river in Libya near a town of the same name. Circe  A mythological witch who in the Odyssey transforms Odysseus’ men into animals for a time. In some traditions which Silius follows, she is affiliated with Mount Circeii on the western coast of Italy. Cirrha  The port nearest of the oracle at Delphi in Greece; Silius often conflates the two. Claudia Quinta  She drags the Great Mother of the Gods’ ship up the Tiber in 204 BCE.

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Attius Clausus  Of Spartan descent, moved to Rome from Sabine territory and is the ancestor of the Claudian family. Cleonae  City in Nemea associated with the Nemean lion killed by Hercules. Clitumnus River (Clitunno)  A river in central Italy. Silius regularly associates the place with the white bulls traditionally sacrificed during Roman triumphs. Cloelia  A Roman girl given as hostage to the Etruscan King Porsenna, who besieged Rome to reinstate monarchy. Cloelia impressed Porsenna by escaping and swimming across the Tiber; when the Romans nonetheless returned her, Porsenna freed her and the other captives out of admiration. Clotho  One of the three mythical Fates. Clusium (Chiusi)  City in Etruria. Cocalus  Sicilian king, whose daughters killed Minos by pouring boiling water over him. Cocytus  River in the Underworld. Collatia  City east of Rome, extinct by Silius’ time. Corinth  Greek city in the Peloponnese. Cortona  City in Etruria, near Lake Trasimene. Corvinus  An augur who warns Flaminius about the dangers of fighting before the battle of Lake Trasimene in Book 5. His ancestor Marcus Valerius Messalla fought with a Gaul in 349 BCE and received help from a raven. His descendants accordingly took the cognomen “Raven” (Latin corvus). Corythus  According to Vergil, a son of Jupiter and the mythical founder of Cortona in the province of Arezzo, Italy. Cremera River  A small tributary of the Tiber where the people of Veii defeated 306 members of the Fabian clan in 477 BCE. Crete  The island in southern Greece, home to king Minos and the Minotaur. Criminal Gate (Latin Porta Scelerata)  Also called Porta Carmentalis. Named after the 300 Fabii had left from there to go fight and never returned. Titus Quinctius Crispinus  Consul in 208 BCE with Marcellus. Croesus  King of Lydia, famous for his wealth but also the instability of fortune. Croton (Crotone)  Greek colony in southern Italy. Cumae  Greek colony from Euboea, site of the Sibyl’s cave. Cupid  Son of Venus, god of love. Venus is usually surrounded by several Cupids as in Book 11. Cures  Ancient Sabine city, where Vespasian was born. Curetes  Cretans who concealed the infant Jupiter on Crete’s Mount Dicte by clashing their shields and cymbals, thereby protecting the young god from his father Saturn. They are often associated with the Great

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Mother of the Gods as her followers. The Curetes are also associated with Calydon. Curia  The Roman Senate house. Manlius Curius Dentatus  He refused Samnite money during the Third Samnite War (290 BCE). Cyane  Spring in Syracuse. Cybele  See Great Mother of the Gods. Cyclades Islands  The islands in the Aegean Sea. Cyclopes  The mythical craftsmen who made thunderbolts for Jupiter and tend the forge of the god Vulcan where he creates divine arms. Cyllene  The mythological birthplace of the god Mercury and a mountain in Arcadia in Greece. Cymothoe  A sea nymph. Cynthus  A mountain on the Isle of Delos. Cyprus  Island in the Mediterranean, cult site of Venus. Cyrene  City in north Africa. Cythera  Modern Kythira. Island off southern Peloponnese, birthplace of Venus. Cyzicus  A Mysian settlement in Balıkesir Province, Turkey. The king of Cyzicus, also named Cyzicus, received the Argonauts as friends at first but mistook them as enemies at night and fought against them, dying in battle. Dacia  The region around the Danube River, modern Romania. Daedalus  Mythical craftsman on Crete, who built the Minotaur’s labyrinth, and escaped Crete on artificial wings with his son, Icarus, who died at sea. He landed in Campania and built Apollo’s temple there. Dahae  Scythian nomads. Danaë  Daughter of Acrisius, king of Argos; she was exiled along with her son Perseus and was the mythical founder of Ardea. Danube River  The second-longest river in Europe, flowing through central and eastern Europe. Daphnis  Sicilian shepherd, inventor of pastoral poetry. Daunia  Sometimes a collective term for the Rutulians of Ardea and their descendants. At other times, a term referring to Apulia. Daunus  A mythical king of central Italy, father of the antagonist in Virgil’s Aeneid, Turnus. Or king in Apulia, whose daughter married Diomedes. Decemvirs  Legislated the Twelve Tables, Rome’s first law code, in 451–449 BCE, inspired by Athenian laws. Decii  Father and son, Publius Decius Mus, who died defending Rome in 340 and 295 BCE. Decius Magius  Capuan citizen who tried to dissuade his fellow citizens and side with the Romans. Delos  An island in the Cyclades, a major cult site and birthplace of the god Apollo. Delphi  Site of Apollo’s oracle in central Greece. Oracles were pronounced by the Pythian priestess. 308

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Dictator  In dire times, the Roman Senate could elect this special magistrate who was given temporary but absolute military authority with the help of his second in command, the magister equitum (“Commander of the Cavalry”). Dicte  The mountain on Crete where Jupiter was born and raised. Dictynna  A Cretan goddess of hunting, associated with Diana. Dido  The mythical founder of Carthage, featured in Virgil’s Aeneid 1–4. Originally she is said to have fled into exile from Tyre after her husband, Sychaeus, was killed. Dindyma  A mountain in Phrygia, where the Great Mother of the Gods was worshipped. The name in Greek means “twin.” Diomedes  Powerful Greek warrior in the Trojan War who nearly killed Aeneas. Through his association with Apulia (married king Daunus’ daughter), he is linked to the battle at Cannae. Dione  Another name for Venus. In other traditions, Dione is sometimes the mother of Venus. Dis  See Pluto. Dodona  A sanctuary and oracle of Zeus in Epirus; already in Homer a prophetic site, the god’s voice was heard and interpreted from the wind blowing through the region’s oak trees. Dolopians  People of Thessaly. Domitian  Last of the Flavian emperors (81–96 CE), son of Vespasian. Druentia (Durance)  River in southeastern France. Gaius Duilius  Consul in 260 BC and commander in a naval victory over a Carthaginian fleet near Sicily. Silius relates his triumph and other honors in Book 6. Dulichium  One of the islands ruled by Odysseus along with Zakynthos; Silius regularly conflates the two. Durius River (Duro)  Runs through north central Spain and Portugal. Ebro River  A river in Spain that marked the boundary line between Roman and Carthaginian forces in the treaty that concluded the end of the first Punic war in 241 BCE. Egeria  A nymph worshipped at Aricia, she was also associated with Diana and her nearby temple. Electra  Atlas’ daughter, impregnated by Jupiter, bore Dardanus. Elysium  The mythical site in the Underworld where virtuous people were rewarded. Enceladus  Giant buried under Mount Aetna. Enna  The site in Sicily where Ceres’ daughter Proserpina was abducted by Dis, god of the Underworld. Sometimes Silius also uses the word to refer to all of Sicily. Quintus Ennius  (239–169 BCE.) Famous Roman poet of Messapian origin, wrote the Annales, an epic poem which among other events narrated the Second Punic War. Enyo  War goddess like Bellona. 309

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Erichthonius  Dardanus’ descendant, ancestor of Assaracus. Erymanthus Mountain  In Arcadia in the Peloponnese, the place of the wild boar killed by Hercules. Erythia  Geryon’s island in Cadiz. Eryx (Erice)  Mountain in northwestern Sicily, where Venus was worshipped. Euboea  Greek island near Attica and Boeotia. Euripus  Strait between Euboea and Boeotia with strong currents. Europa  Phoenician princess and daughter of Agenor, abducted by Jupiter in the form of a bull to Crete. Eurotas River  The major river of Laconia near Sparta in Greece. Evander  Arcadian king who settled in the area that became Rome when Aeneas arrived. Fabiius the Younger  Son of Fabius Maximus. Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus  (283–203 BCE). One of the major Roman commanders in the Second Punic War. Consul many times throughout his life and dictator in 217 following the disaster at Lake Trasimene. He opposed Scipio’s invasion of Africa in 205. He was famous for his delaying tactics and celebrated throughout the Punica, especially in Book 7. Falernus  Region in Campania famous for its wine and villas. Faliscans  A people who lived north of Rome. Spoke a language close to Latin but had Etruscan alliances. Fasces  An axe bundled with branches; these were carried as a symbol of power by certain Roman magistrates in differing numbers according to the office’s rank. Fasti  The fasti consulares were yearly inscribed lists of events and Roman state officers, including the consuls and other senior magistrates. Fates (Latin Parcae)  Three goddesses that controlled humans’ destinies by determining the length and events of a lifespan by measuring out the “thread” of a life. Faunus  A local Italian god, sometimes identified with the Greek god Pan. Father of the Italian kings Arnus and Latinus. Used in the plural, Fauns, for forest deities. Feronia  Italian goddess worshipped in Capena near Rome. Fidena  Sabine city, enemy of Rome. Gaius Flaminius  (Consul 223 and 217 BCE). During his first consulship he led a campaign against the Gauls. Killed at the battle of Lake Trasimene in April 217 BCE narrated in Book 5. Fregellae  City near Rome in the Liris valley. Lake Fucinus  Large central Italian lake. Fulginiae  City in Umbria. Gnaeus Fulvius Flaccus  Brother of Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, praetor in 212 BCE, defeated by Hannibal at Herdonea. Quintus Fulvius Flaccus  He conquered Capua in his third consulship in 212 BCE. 310

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Furies  See Allecto, Megaera, Tisiphone. Gabii  City in Latium east of Rome with a famous cult of Juno. Gaetulians  A nomadic people inhabiting an area corresponding to Algeria and southern Tunisia. Galatea  Nereid, in love with Acis, turned him into a river. Gallicia  Region in northwest Spain. Ganges River  One of the major rivers of India. In Roman thought, often imagined as lying at the eastern edge of the world. Ganymedes  Young Trojan prince transported to Olympus to serve Jupiter. Garamantians  A North African people. Garganus (Gargano)  A mountain on a promontory in Apulia. Gaurus (Monte Barbaro)  Campanian mountain, famous for its vineyards and wine. Gela  Sicilian city. Germanicus  An epithet assumed by Germanicus after the victory over the Chatti in 83 CE. Geryon  A mythical Spanish monster with three bodies, whose cattle Hercules steals as one of his labors. Gestar  A fictional Carthaginian senator, invented by Silius to voice the pro-war position in the Carthaginian Senate. Getae  A Thracian people inhabiting northern Bulgaria and southern Romania. Giants  Often conflated with the Titans. Earth-born creatures, sought to fight the gods of Olympus. Gibraltar  See Pillars of Hercules. Gortyn  City on Crete, often used to refer to the whole island. Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus  Consul in 215 BCE, defended Cumae as narrated in Book 12, died. Tiberius Sempronius Longus Gracchus (260–210 BCE)  Consul with Scipio the Elder at the battle of the Trebia River in 218 BCE. Silius assigns him the cognomen Gracchus, which belonged to another branch of the Sempronian family, in order to evoke the family’s most famous members, the brothers Tiberius and Gaius Sempronius Gracchus. Gradivus  Epithet of Mars. Great Mother of the Gods (Magna Mater)  Also called Cybele. In 204 BCE, her statue was imported to Rome from Phrygia, the city of Pessinus, in Asia Minor, because according to the Sibyline Books she would ward off Hannibal. Her statue was washed in the Almo River every March. Her priests were eunuchs, called Galli. Greatest Altar (Latin Ara Maxima)  Dedicated to Hercules in the Forum Boarium at the site where he killed the monster Cacus. Grovians  People of northern Portugal. Haemus  A mountain in northern Thrace famous to the Romans for its height. Halaesus  Agamemnon’s companion who emigrated in Italy. Hamilcar Barca  (circa 275–229 BCE.) Father of Hannibal. Commander of the Carthaginian forces in the First Punic War. 311

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Hampsagoras  Sardinian ruler, called Hampsicora by Livy. Hannibal Barca  (247–183/2 BCE.) Commander of the Carthaginian forces in the Second Punic War (264–241 BCE). Hanno  A prominent Carthaginian senator who in the Punica opposes Hannibal and the Carthaginian war effort. Harpies  Demonic forces, represented as winged women. Hasdrubal  Three different Hasdrubals feature in the Punica. (i) Hasdrubal, son-in-law of Hamilcar appears in Book 1 (his son, Sychaeus, featured in Book 3). (ii) Hasdrubal, brother of Hannibal, featured in Books 13–15: he was left in control of Spain by Hannibal and died following the battle of the Metaurus (207 BCE). (iii) Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo and the father-in-law of Syphax, featured in Books 16–17: he died shortly before the battle at Zama. Hebrus River  A river in Thrace, the modern Marica in Bulgaria, the second longest river in the Balkans after the Danube. Hecate  A goddess of witchcraft and the Underworld, also called the “three-form goddess” because the Romans equated Diana, Hecate, and the Moon. Hector  The mythical champion of the Trojans in the Trojan War killed by Achilles. Helicon  A mountain in Central Greece, home of the Muses. Hellespont  Narrow strait dividing Europe from Asia near the city of Byzantium, modern Istanbul. Hercules  The famous Greek mythological hero who performed twelve labors, among them to bring back the cattle of the Spanish monster Geryon. Hermus River (Gediz Nehri)  River in Asia Minor empties into the Aegean Sea on the Gulf of Izmir. Hernicians  Italic tribe in Latium. Hersilia  Romulus Quirinus’ wife. Hesiod  One of the oldest Greek poets like Homer. He famously met the Muses and received inspiration from them. Hesperia  In general, western Europe. Hesperus was the name for the evening star. Hesperides  Goddesses imagined to live near the Atlas mountain range in northwest Africa; they guarded a grove with trees bearing golden apples. Hiero II  King of Syracuse (circa 308–216 BCE). During the First Punic War, he attacked Messana in 264 BCE and was repulsed by the Roman commander Appius Claudius Caudex. Grandfather of Hieronymus. Hieronymus  (231–214 BCE.) Briefly succeeded his grandfather Hiero II as king of Syracuse in 215 BCE until his overthrow by conspirators the following year. Himera River  River and city in Sicily, birthplace of the poet Stesichorus. Himilco  Carthaginian admiral in Silius, general of the land troops in Livy. 312

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Homer  Famous Greek epic poet, composer of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Horatius Cocles  With two companions held the Sublician bridge in Rome against Porsenna’s army until it was destroyed in 509 BCE; then swam back across the river. Hybla  Sicilian city famous for its honey. Hydra  A mythical monster with multiple heads killed by Hercules in southern Greece. Whenever one of its heads was cut off, it grew two new heads in its place. Hymettus  An Athenian mountain famous for his marble and honey. Hyrcania  Region bordering the Caspian sea. Iapetus  A Titan, Prometheus’ father, often associated with the Giants. Iapygia  A region of Apulia in southeast Italy; the region is associated with the battle of Cannae in the Punica. Iarbas  A mythical North African king who unsuccessfully sought to marry Dido in Virgil’s Aeneid. Icarus  Daedalus’ son, died falling into the sea during their escape from Crete. Ida  A mountain near Troy, it was here that Paris judged the goddesses Minerva, Juno, and Venus. It is also a place where the Great Mother of the Gods was worshipped. Ilerda  An Iberian city in modern Catalonia; Silius’ audience would have known it as the site of a major battle between Caesar and two leaders of Pompey’s army in 49 BCE. Ilia  Mother of Romulus and Remus, thrown to the Anio as punishment and transformed to the river god’s wife. Ilus  Dardanus’ descendant, ancestor of Assaracus. Imilce  Wife of Hannibal, a fictional character created by Silius. Inachian  Used in reference to the Inachus, the local god of a river in Argos. Silius uses the term either to point to Greece or to recall that Inachus was the father of Io. Inarime  Modern Ischia, off the coast of Naples in the Tyrrhenian Sea. Io  A nymph seduced by Jupiter and turned into a cow by Juno, then watched over by the monster Argus until the god Mercury set her free. Iolaus  Hercules’ companion; said to be a colonist on Sardinia. Ionian Sea  In western Greece, connected to the Adriatic Sea in the north, adjacent to the southern Italian peninsula. Iris  Goddess of the rainbow and messenger of the gods. Isthmus  Narrow piece of land between the Peloponnese and mainland Greece. Janiculum  Hill in Rome on the west bank of the Tiber River. Janus  Roman god with two faces. Judaea  Now part of modern Israel, a province conquered by Vespasian and Titus in 70 CE, described often as a place where palm trees grow. 313

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Julians  The descendants of Julius Caesar, ruling Rome from 31 BCE to 69 CE, known as Julio-Claudian emperors (Augustus, Tiberius, Gaius Caligula, Claudius, Nero). Julius Caesar (100–44 BCE)  Descendant of Julus Ascanius, murdered in 44 BCE and believed to become a god. Julus  Aeneas’ son, also called Ascanius. Juno  Supreme goddess of the Roman pantheon, sister and wife of Jupiter. She supports the Carthaginians against the Romans throughout the Punica. Worshipped in Lanuvium as Juno the Protectress. Jupiter  King of the gods in Roman mythology, as well as the brother and husband of Juno. He is often called the “Thunder God” because of his weapons, the thunderbolts. He is also revealed to be the father of Scipio Africanus in Book 13. Jupiter Hammon  The Egyptian god Amun, Ammon worshipped in the desert of Siwa in Libya, at the oracle dedicated to him. The Greeks identified him with Zeus and the Romans with Jupiter. Gaius Laelius (ca. 235–160 BCE)  Served in Spain as commander of the fleet under Scipio, then in Africa. Laertes  Father of the mythical hero Ulysses (Odysseus) and grandfather of Telegonus (the son of Ulysses and Circe). Laestrygonians  People-eating giants which appear already in Homer; Silius imagines them either to inhabit caves near Caieta (Book 7) or Leontini in Sicily (Book 14). Lagids  A Hellenistic kingdom in Egypt, ruled by the Ptolemaic Dynasty; the first dynast, Ptolemy Soter I, was one of Alexander the Great’s generals. His father was Lagus. Lamus  King of the Laestrygonians. Lanuvium  City in Latium, southeast of Rome, with a temple to Juno the Protectress. Laomedon  A mythical king of Troy. Latinus  King of Latium. Latium  The region surrounding the city of Rome, once upon a time ruled by king Latinus, when Aeneas and the Trojans arrive in Italy. Silius often uses it as a synonym for Italy. Latona  Mother of Apollo and Diana. Laurentum  A mythical capital city (for the Rutulians, according to Virgil) in early Latium; Silius uses the adjective “Laurentian” as a synonym for “Roman.” Lavinia  In Roman mythology, the daughter of Latinus and Amata, the wife of Aeneas, and the mother of Silvius. Lavinium  The city in Latium founded by the mythical Trojan exile Aeneas. Leander  Mythological figure who used to swim every night across the Hellespont to meet his lover, Hero. Leda  A mythical queen of Sparta, mother of the Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux, and Helen. Married to Tyndareus. 314

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Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus  A military tribune who fights at Cannae in Book 10. Lucius Cornelius Lentulus  (Consul 199 BCE). The Roman senator who takes part in the Senate debate in Book 1. Leontini (Lentini)  Sicilian city between Catania and Syracuse. Lerna  A lake in the Greek Argolid, home of the monstrous Hydra. Lethe  In Greek mythology, one of the five rivers of the Underworld, the river of forgetfulness. Leucas  Island in the Ionian Sea. Libya  Used by the Roman poets as a synonym for Africa. Lictors  They were in charge of carrying the fasces in front of magistrates. Liguria  A region of northern Italy. Lilybaeum  The western promontory of Sicily. Lindos  City on the Greek island of Rhodes. Lipari  One of the Aeolian islands off Sicily. Liris River (Liri)  One of the major rivers of central Italy. Liternum  A Latin colony north of Cumae, visited by Hannibal in Book 6; the eventual site of Scipio Africanus’ exile. Marcus Livius Salinator  Born in 254 BCE, became consul in 219 with Lucius Aemilius Paulus. Accused and convicted of embezzlement. As consul in 207, defeated Hasdrubal at Metaurus. Lixus  A river in modern Mauritania. Locrians  Inhabitants of Locri in southern Italy. Loyalty  Personified virgin goddess (Fides) that protects the Saguntine people. Lucania  Mountainous region in southern Italy. Lucifer  Morning star. Lucretia  A Roman princess raped by the king’s son Sextus Tarquinius, committed suicide to avenge her innocence. According to legend, Brutus’ effort to avenge her led to the expulsion of kings and establishment of the Roman Republic in 509 BCE. Lake Lucrinus  Lagoon between Puteoli and Baiae. Lusitania  A Roman province encompassing modern Portugal and a small part of Spain. Gaius Lutatius Catulus  Consul in 242 BCE; defeated the Carthaginians at the Aegates Islands. Lycurgus  Lawmaker of Sparta. Lydia  A region in modern Asia Minor; Silius regularly calls the Etruscans (an Italic people) Lydians as they were imagined to be immigrants from the region. Macae  A North African people. Maenad  An ecstatic female worshipper of the god Bacchus. Maenalus  Mountain in Arcadia in the Peloponnese. Maeonia  In the Punica, a synonym for Lydia in Western Turkey. 315

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Mago  A younger brother of Hannibal. Wounded at the battle of Lake Trasimene (Book 5). Reports the victory at Cannae to the Carthaginian Senate (Book 11). His death is reported in Book 14. Maharbal  Carthaginian cavalry general. Urged Hannibal to march on Rome directly after Cannae. Mantua (Mantova)  Northern Italian city, birthplace of the poet Virgil. Marcia  Regulus’ wife, invented by the poet. Lucius Marcius Septimus  He gathered the Roman armies in Spain after the death of the Elder Scipio and his brother in 211 BCE. Marcus Claudius Marcellus  (circa 268–208 BCE). Commander in the Second Punic War. Captured the Greek city of Syracuse, narrated in Book 14. Fatally ambushed by Hannibal’s forces in 208 BCE near Venusia. Elected consul five times. Gaius Marius (ca  157–86 BCE) Consul seven times, opponent of Sulla in the civil wars. Marmarica  The border region between Libya and Egypt, inhabited by the Marmaridae. Mars  The Roman god of war. Marsians  People of central Italy. Marsyas  From Phrygia, defeated by Apollo in a music contest and flayed alive. Masinissa (238–148 BCE)  King of Numidia. Allied with the Carthaginians till 206 BCE, when he switched sides to the Romans. Massagetae  Tribes that lived in Scythia, beyond the Caspian Sea. Massicus (Monte Massico)  A mountain in Caserta, Campania. In antiquity it was one of the premier vine growing regions of Italy. Massilia (Marseilles)  A city in southern France, an important port founded by Greeks colonists from Phocaea. Massylians  A Northwestern African people imagined to live near the garden of the Hesperides. Meander  River in Asia Minor. Medusa  One of the Gorgons killed by Perseus, whose head was covered in snakes and whose gaze could turn men to stone. Her father was Phorcys. Megaera  One of the three mythical Furies of the Underworld, snakyhaired demons who cause madness and violence. Melite  Modern Malta. Memnon  Mythical king of Ethiopia, participated in the Trojan War and was killed by Achilles. Memphis  Egyptian city designating the whole Egypt at times. Famous for its embroideries. Meninx  African island near the Syrtes, mythical place of the lotus eaters visited by Ulysses. Messana  A city on the northeast tip of Sicily (also called Zancle). Messapus  Calabrian hero originally from Boeotia, giving his name to the region. 316

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Metaurus River  A river in Umbria, site of the defeat and death of Hadrubal in 207 (Book 15). Lucius Caecilius Metellus  Tribune of the people in 213 BCE. After Cannae, he proposed abandoning Rome. Mevania (Bevagna)  A town in Perugia, Italy. Mimas  One of the mythical giants who tried to overthrow Jupiter and the other Olympian gods. He gave his name to a mountain in Ionia. Minerva  Goddess of the arts and crafts, daughter of Jupiter; her symbol is the olive tree and an owl. She is holding a shield (aegis). Minos  A mythical king of Crete. He is one of the judges in the Underworld. Marcus Minucius Rufus  Consul in 221 BCE and Fabius’ upstart cavalry commander portrayed prominently in Book 7. Misenum (Miseno)  Promontory in Campania, named after Aeneas’ companion who drowned nearby. Molossians  A tribe in Epirus, Greece, famous for its fierce hunting dogs. Monaco  In southern France. Hercules was worshipped there in antiquity. Moors  People of western Africa (Mauritania). Munda  A Spanish city where Caesar defeated Pompey’s sons in 45 BCE, after their father’s defeat at Pharsalus. Muses  The nine Muses were daughters of Zeus (Jupiter) and Mnemosyne and oversee the work of poets and artists. Called Pierian from their original home in Greece. Mycene  A city in the Peloponnese in Greece favored by Juno and ruled by Agamemnon, the leader of the Greeks in the Trojan War. Mylae (Milazzo)  The Sicilian town where Gaius Duilius defeated Carthaginean troops in 260 BCE. Naiads  Nymphs who inhabit rivers and lakes. Naples  Also Neapolis or Parthenope, major Greek colony in Campania. Nasamonians  A North African people. Nebrodes Mountains (Nebrodi)  Mountain chain in northeast Sicily. Nemea  In the Peloponnese. Home to the Nemean lion conquered by Hercules. Neptune  God of the ocean. Nereids  Sea nymphs, literally the “daughters of Nereus,” a sea god with the power of prophecy. Nereus  Sea god. Neritos  An island near Ithaca, imagined to be part of Ulysses’ kingdom. Silius uses Ithaca, Zakynthos, and Neritos interchangeably. Gaius Claudius Nero  Helped Marcellus at Nola in 214 BCE. As consul in 207 BCE he defeated Hasdrubal at the Metaurus. Nessus  A centaur. Nestor  King of Pylos in the Peloponnese, participated in the Trojan War and was famously wise having lived through many generations. New Carthage (Cartagena)  City in southeastern Spain, a Carthaginian base in the Second Punic War, captured by Scipio in 209 BCE. 317

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Nile River  Lengthy Egyptian river. The Greeks and Romans believed the river has seven mouths and an unknown origin. Niphates  River in Armenia. Nola  Campanian city founded by colonists from Chalcis. Nubia  Part of Ethiopia in Africa. Nuceria  Campanian town. Numicus  A mythical river of Latium near Ardea where Aeneas was said to have died/transformed into the god Aeneas Indiges and where Anna Perenna became a goddess. Numidians  A North African people near modern Algeria. Nysa  A fabled mountain in India where Bacchus was supposedly raised. Ocean  Sea god, often conflated with Nereus and Neptune. Odrysia  A region associated with Thrace, home of Mars and Diomedes. Oeneus  Father of Meleager in Calydon. Oeta  A mountain in central Greece, the site of Hercules’ death and deification. Oileus  Father of the Locrian Ajax (or Ajax the Lesser). Olympus  Mountain in central Greece, abode of the Olympian gods. Orithyia  Nymph raped by Boreas. Orpheus  The greatest singer of mythology, son of king Oeagrus of Thrace and the Muse Calliope. A prominent myth has him attempt to retrieve his love Eurydice from the Underworld using his music. He participated in the Argonautic expedition. He was killed by Thracian Maenads. Orthus  Two-headed dog guarding Geryon’s flocks. Orthys  Mountain in Thessaly. Ortygia  Island connected to the city of Syracuse. Oscans  Prehistoric inhabitants of southern Italy around Campania. Ossa  Mountain in Thessaly, used by the giants on top of other mountains such as Pelion to reach Olympus. Pachynus  The southeast promontory of Sicily. Pactolus River (Sart Çayı)  A tributary of the Hermus River. Pacuvius  Capuan senator who defected to the Carthaginians, as narrated in Book 11. Paean  Hymn to Apollo. Paelignians  People near the Adriatic Sea. Palatine hill  One of the seven hills of Rome. Site of pre-Roman Arcadian king Evander’s home (who came from Pallanteum) and eventually home of the imperial palace of Augustus and his successors, including the Flavians. Augustus also saw to the construction of a temple of Apollo. Palladium  Athena’s wooden statue, who protected Troy. By carrying it away, Ulysses and Diomedes allowed Troy to be sacked. The story of the Palladium’s transfer to Italy is told in Book 13. Pan  Arcadian god, half man and half goat, guardian of flocks; the pine tree is sacred to him. Pangaeum Mount  A mountain in northeastern Greece. Panhormos  Modern Palermo, Sicily. 318

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Paphos  City on Cyprus, worship site of Venus. Mount Parnassus  Closely associated with Delphi as the abode of the Muses and Apollo. Parthians  Rome’s chief rival power to the east in Silius’ day, they controlled a broad portion of the Middle East; famous for their archery. Pasiphae  Minos’ wife, fell in love with a bull and mated with him producing the Minotaur. Patrae  City in the Peloponnese. Lucius Aemilius Paulus  Consul in 219 and 216 BCE, the latter along with Gaius Terentius Varro during the battle of Cannae. His death is narrated in Book 10. In 219 he held the consulship with Marcus Livius Salinator. He was accused of embezzlement and forced into retirement until Cannae. Pegasus  Winged horse born from Medusa’s blood. Pelasgians  Mythical Greek populations that were thought to have colonized Italy and Tuscany in particular. Pelion  Mountain in Thessaly, piled by the giants on top of Mount Ossa to reach Olympus. Pella  Capital city of the Macedonian kingdom, birthplace of Alexander the Great. Pelops  Mythological Greek king who gave his name to the Peloponnese. Pelorus (Punta del Faro)  The northeast promontory of Sicily, site of the city of Messana. Penates  The household gods of Troy, which Aeneas brought to Italy. Penelope  Ulysses’ wife. Perseus  Son of Danae and mythical slayer of Medusa. Perusia (Perugia)  Etruscan city. Petilia  Town in Bruttium, founded by Philoctetes. Phaeacians  Inhabitants of Corfu. Phaethon  Son of the Sun god, borrowed his father’s chariot, flew too high up and was burned by the sun’s rays. He crashed in the Po River. Phalantus  Spartan colonist, founder of Tarentum. Phalarica  A long javelin, typically used as an incendiary weapon, launched from a siege engine. Pharsalus  The site in Greece where Caesar defeated Pompey in 48 BCE. Philaeni  Two brothers who died being buried alive to help Carthage in a dispute with Cyrene. Their place of death and burial was known as the “Altar of the Philaeni.” Philip V of Macedon (238–179 BCE)  His mother was the daughter of King Pyrrhus. A Carthaginian ally since 215 BCE, he sided with the Acarnanians against the Aetolians who Roman allies. He allied with the Romans in 205 BCE but abandoned this treaty and fought on Carthage’s side at Zama. Phlegethon  The “river of fire,” one of the mythical rivers of the Underworld. 319

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Phlegraean Fields  Meaning “Fields of Fire” in Greek. A volcanic region of Campania near Naples; the site of Hercules’ battle against the giants. Phoebus  A cult title of Apollo, especially in his identification with the sun. Phoenix  Son of Agenor. A mythical ancestor of the Carthaginian people. Picanus  A mountain in Apulia. Picentines  A people of central Italy allied with the Romans. Picus  Ancient Italian king, Saturn’s son. Punished by Circe and transformed into a woodpecker, picus, considered the ancestor of the Picentines. Pillars of Hercules  The ancients imagined that Hercules had set up the pillars at the Rock of Gibraltar and the Atlas mountains as the western boundary of the world. Pindus  A mountain range in northern Greece. Piraeus  Athens’ port. Pisa  In Elis in Greece where the Olympic Games took place. Pleuron  Aetolian city. Pluto  God of the Underworld, also called Dis. Po River  Also called Eridanus. The main northern Italian river that serves as natural boundary and entrance to the Italian peninsula. Pollux  Brother of Castor, sons of Jupiter and Leda, brothers of Helen. They alternate living in the Underworld and are imagined to share a single soul on alternate days. They protect sailors. Polyphemus  A Cyclops, in love with Galatea. Gnaeus Pompey Magnus (ca.  106–48 BCE) Julius Caesar’s opponent defeated in Pharsalus and beheaded in Egypt. Pomponia  Scipio the Younger’s mother, impregnated by Jupiter. Pontus  Black Sea. Porsenna  King of Clusium, who besieged Rome at the beginning of the republic in a vain attempt to reinstate the exiled King Tarquinius Superbus (509 BCE). The standard version of the story is that Porsenna was so impressed by the heroism of Romans that he gave up the siege and made peace with the Romans. Praeneste  An ancient city near Rome; housed a famous temple dedicated to the goddess Fortuna (“fortune, luck”). Priam  Mythical king of Troy, father of Hector. Privernum (Piperno Vecchio)  City in Latium. Prochyte (Procida)  Island of the Campanian coast. Propontis  Sea of Marmara, inner sea that connects the Aegean with the Black Sea. Proserpina  In myth, daughter of Jupiter and Ceres. She was abducted by Pluto while she was picking flowers in a field in Enna in Sicily and subsequently made queen of the Underworld. She is also called Avernian Juno, that is, Juno of the Underworld. Proteus  Sea god, capable of changing shape and predicting the future. Prusias (ca.  230–182 BCE). King of Bithynia, in whose court Hannibal will die. 320

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Ptolemies  Greek dynasty in Egypt; see Lagids. Puteoli  Campanian city. Pygmalion  Dido’s brother. He killed her husband Sychaeus and usurped his kingdom of Sidon and Tyre, prompting Dido’s flight to North Africa. Pylos  City in the Peloponnese where Nestor was king. Pyrenees  Mountain range that forms a border between France and Spain. Pyrrhus  (319–272 BCE.) King of Epirus in northwest Greece and an ancestor of Hieronymus. Led an invasion of Italy (280–275 BCE). Python  Dragon at Delphi, killed by Apollo. Qurinus  See Romulus. Red Sea  Inlet in the Indian Ocean between Africa and Asia. Marcus Atilius Regulus  (circa 307–250 BCE.) Commander in the First Punic War. Consul in 267 and 256 BCE. He was defeated and captured by the mercenary commander Xanthippus near Tunis in 255 BC. His torture as a captive was celebrated in Roman literature as an example of heroism. Rhadamanthus  Minos’ brother, became a judge in the Underworld. Rhegium  Calabrian city at the tip of Italy, across from Sicily. Rhesus  Mythological king of Thrace. Rhine River  The major river boundary between Germany and France. Rhodope  A Thracian mountain range in modern northwestern Greece and Bulgaria. Rhône River  Crosses France into the Alps. Romulus  The mythical founder of the city of Rome after killing his brother Remus. After his apotheosis he became the god Quirinus. Rostra  Originally the prow of a ship; eventually a speaker’s platform used variously for political or commemorative speeches. Rubicon River  Natural boundary between Umbria and Gallia Cisalpina, crossed by Caesar’s army in 49 BCE to begin the civil war. Rudiae  Calabrian city. Rutulians  A central Italian people; the central antagonists of the Trojans in Virgil’s Aeneid. In the Punica, they are Roman allies and described as ancestors of the Saguntines. Sabines  Italian people northeast of Rome. Sabus  The ancestor of the Sabines was believed to come from Sparta via Persia. Saguntum (Sagunto)  A city on the east coast of Spain, site of the first military conflict of the Second Punic War in 218 BCE. Salamis  Island off Attica, site of the Persian defeat by Athens in 480 BCE. Samnites  Chief antagonists of Rome in a series of wars in the fourth and third centuries BCE. They defect to the Carthaginian side following Cannae. Sancus  Sabine deity equal to Jupiter and Hercules. Worshipped on the Quirinal Hill. 321

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Sardinia  Island of the Tyrrhenian sea, site of battles narrated in Book 12; originally settled by Trojan refugees. Called Ichnusa by the Greeks because in its shape it resembles a foot with heels and toes. Sardus  Hercules’ son from Libya, giving his name to the island of Sardinia. Sarmatians  Nomadic tribes of Iranian origin, closely related to the Scythians. Saturn  Father of the Olympian gods (Kronos in Greek). In one mythological tradition, Saturn fled to Italy after being thrown out of Olympus by Jupiter. Associated with the Golden Age. He castrated his father with a sickle. Satyrs  Men with animal features and goat hooves, inhabitants of the wild forest, and extremely sexual beings. Scaean gate  Main gate in Troy. Mucius Scaevola  One of the Romans who resisted the Etruscan king Porsenna in 509 BCE. He impressed Porsenna by thrusting his right hand into a fire (therefore called Scaevola, “Lefty”) to show he was not afraid of pain. Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus  Brother of Scipio the Elder. Consul in 222 BCE. Campaigned in Spain during the Second Punic War and died there with his brother in 211 BCE. Lucius Cornelius Scipio Asiagenes  Scipio Africanus’ brother. Served in Spain (207–206), Sicily (205), and Africa (204–202) during the Second Punic War. Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus  Born 185/4 BCE. Adoptive grandson of Scipio Africanus, consul in 147 and 134. He routed and destroyed Carthage in his first consulship in 146. Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica  Son of Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus and cousin of Scipio Africanus. Received the status of the Great Mother of the Gods in Rome. Publius Cornelius Scipio the Elder  Consul in 218 BCE and died on campaign in Spain in 211 BCE. He was the father of Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus. Publius Cornelius Scipio the Younger (236-183 BCE)  His heroism is celebrated by Silius in the poem. Defeated Hannibal at Zama and received the name Africanus. Died in exile at Liternum in Campania. Scorpio  Constellation in the western sky with its pincers adjacent to Libra. Scylla  A mythical monster in the Straits of Messana, off the coast of Sicily, and frequently paired with Charybdis. She was represented as part maiden (in her upper torso) with dogs around her waist, and part sea-monster (in her lower torso). Scythia  Broad area to the north and east from the Danube to the Caucasus. Seleucids  Hellenistic kings in the Middle East after Alexander’s death. Selinus (Selinunte)  Sicilian city famous for its remaining Greek temples. Sena River  In Umbria. Senones  A Gallic people, led by Brennus. 322

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Serpent  Constellation (draco or serpens) in the northern sky in the shape of a snake. Serranus  Regulus’ son, a fictional character in the poem. Regulus’ son was consul in 227 BCE, therefore not a young warrior as in Book 6. The name was attached to members of Regulus’ Atilian gens. Gnaeus Servilius Geminus  Consul with Flaminius in 217 BCE. Killed at the battle of Cannae the following year. Setia (Sezze)  Volscian city, famous for its wine. Sibyl  Prophetess in Cumae predicting the future. In Book 13, Autonoe is the current Sibyl, but the ancient Sibyl guides Scipio through the Underworld. The Sibyl is Hecate’s and Apollo’s priestess. Sicans  First inhabitants of Sicily of Iberian origin. Siculus  Leader of the Sicels who conquered Sicily giving it a name. Sidon  A city in Phoenicia; the adjective “Sidonian” is used by Silius as a synonym of “Carthaginian.” Marcus Junius Silanus  Praetor in 212 BCE according to Silius. Simbruvius River  A swamp formed by the Anio River near the Tiber. Simois  The mythical river that flowed through the city of Troy. Sinuessa  Campanian city. Sirens  Female creatures that enticed sailors, including Ulysses in Homer, located by ancient authors near Sicily or near Naples. One of them, Parthenope, gave her name to the city of Naples. Sirius  Also known as the Dog Star that blazes during the summer months. Sisyphus  From Corinth, cheated death and was punished by rolling a large bolder up a hill forever and in vain, since it rolled back to the bottom again. Sophonisba  Numidian queen, daughter of Hasdrubal, Gisgo’s son, and Syphax’s wife. She poisoned herself in 203 BCE. Soracte  A mountain ridge in Rome. Sparta  City in the Peloponnese in Greece, famous enemy of Athens. Sphinx  Female monster that posed a riddle and devoured its victims. Stabiae (Castellamare di Stabia)  Campanian city near Pompeii. Strymon  A river in Thrace. Styx  The mythical river crossed by dead souls on their way to the Underworld. Suevians  A Germanic tribe. Lucius Cornelius Sulla (ca. 138–79 BCE)  Marius’ opponent in the civil wars. Sulmo (Sulmona)  Paelignian city, birthplace of the poet Ovid. Surrentum (Sorrento)  Campanian city. Sychaeus  Dido’s husband, king of Sidon and Tyre. Murdered by her brother Pygmalion. Syphax  Massylian ruler who allied with the Romans against the Carthaginians but switched sides because of his love for Sophonisba. Defeated by Scipio, and his camp was burned. Syracuse  City in Sicily, taken by Marcellus in Book 14. 323

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Syrtes  The present-day Gulf of Sidra (Sirte), north of Libya, and the Gulf of Gabès, north of Tunisia. In antiquity, sandbars on these waters made them dangerous to ships. Tagus River (Tajo)  The longest river on the Iberian peninsula. A major site for gold extraction in antiquity. Tanaquil  Wife of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, one of the kings in Rome. Predicted her husband’s kingship from an eagle’s flight. Tarentum (Taranto)  Spartan colony and harbor in southern Italy. Tarpeia  Bribed by the Sabines, she opened the Roman citadel to the enemy in exchange for gold. Tarpeian Rock  A cliff of the Capitoline hill in Rome that overlooks the Roman Forum. Tarquins  Line of kings in Rome. Tarquinius Superbus, the last one, was expelled by Brutus in 509 BCE. Tarraco  A city on the northeast Spain. Tartarus  The mythical site for punishment in the Underworld. Tartessus  A city at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River in southwestern Spain, believed to be the site where the Sun’s chariot spends the night. Taurini  Modern Turin in northern Italy. Tauris  A city in southern Crimea, home of a major cult site of the goddess Diana (Greek Artemis). Tauromenium  Modern Taormina. Taurus  Mountains in southern Asia Minor (Cilicia), modern Turkey. Taygetus  A mountain range in the Peloponnese near Sparta. Teanum Sidicinum (Teano)  Campanian city. Tegea  City in Arcadia. Teleboans  Kings of the island Capri, where Proteus had his cave. Telegonus  Ulysses’ son by the goddess Circe. Telo  King of the Teleboans on Capri. Tethys  A sea goddess, sister and wife of Ocean. Teucer  Mythological hero who was exiled from his native Salamis by his father Telamon when he returned from Troy without his brother Ajax. Teuthras  Capuan bard, entertains Hannibal in Book 11. Thebes  Greek city in Boeotia. Thermodon River (Terme)  A river in central northern Turkey associated with the Amazons. Thespiads  Descendants of Hercules and the daughters of king Thespios. Colonized Croton and Sardinia according to Silius. Thesprotians  People of Epirus in Greece. Thetis  Ocean goddess, Achilles’ mother. Thoas  The mythical king of Tauris in southern Crimea. Thrace  In northern Greece; it was considered a land of cold and snow (on Mount Rhodope), as well as home to uncivilized people. Thracian horses  The Thracian king Diomedes had a team of man-eating horses; Hercules fed the king himself to the animals. 324

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Thyle  Unknown location, possibly Iceland or Norway or the Shetland islands or Britain. Tiber River  The river that flows through the city of Rome. Tibur (Tivoli)  City northeast of Rome. Ticinus River (Ticino)  A tributary of the Po River in northern Italy. Site of a major Roman defeat in November 218 BCE, narrated in Book 4. Timavus River (Timavo)  Northern Italian river in the Adriatic Sea. Tiryns  A city in the Peloponnese in southern Greece, the traditional birthplace of the hero Hercules. Tisiphone  One of the three mythical Furies of the Underworld, snakyhaired demons who cause madness and violence. Titan  A synonym for the Sun god or Apollo whose chariot moves from east to west every day. Titania  Another name for the Moon. Titans  In myth, the Titans fought a series of battles (Titanomachy) against the Olympian gods but lost, yielding to the power of Jupiter and his family. Tithonus  The mythical husband of Aurora, the dawn. Titus  Son of Vespasian and second Flavian emperor (79–81 CE). Tlepolemus  Son of Hercules, founder of the city of Lindos on the island of Rhodes. Tmolus (Bozdağ)  Mountain in Lydia. Titus Manlius Torquatus  Consul in 235 and 224 BCE, subjugated Sardinia and defeated the Boians; fought the war on Sardinia in ­ Book 12. Trasimene (Trasimeno)  A lake in Umbria, south of the Po River and north of the Tiber River. Site of a major Roman defeat in April 217 BCE, narrated in Book 5. Trebia River (Trebbia)  A tributary of the Po River in northern Italy. Site of a major Roman defeat in December 218 BCE, narrated in Book 4. Tricastini  Transalpine Gallic tribe. Trinacria  Another name for Sicily because of the island’s three promontories. Triton  Sea god, Neptune’s offspring. Tritonis  A lake in southern Tunisia, believed to be the birthplace of the goddess Minerva. Tros  Dardanus’ descendant, ancestor of Assaracus and the Trojan name. Troy  The city in Asia Minor destroyed by the Greeks at the end of the Trojan War; Aeneas and other Trojans escape the burning city and wander in exile until they arrive in Italy. Tuder (Todi)  Umbrian town. Tullia  King Servius Tullius’ daughter who was killed by her husband. She drove the chariot over her father’s body. 325

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Tullus Attius  King of the Volscians. Turnus  A mythical warrior from Ardea, chief opponent of Aeneas in Virgil’s Aeneid. The Saguntines regard him as one of their ancestors. Tuscany  The region north of Latium, originally inhabited by the Etruscans (Tyrrhenians). Tusculum  City in Sabine territory. Tutia River  About six miles from Rome, though exact identification of the stream is not possible. Tyde  Spanish town founded by Diomedes in honor of his father, Tydeus. Tydeus  Diomedes’ father. Typhoeus  Monstrous giant buried by Jupiter under an island or a volcano. Tyre  A Phoenician city from where Dido fled to Carthage in North Africa. Tyrrhenian Sea  The part of the Mediterranean off the western coast of Italy. Ulysses or Odysseus  King of Ithaca and the nearby islands of Zakynthos, Dulichium, and Neritos. Umbria  Region in central Italy. Utica  City in North Africa, near Carthage. Gaius Terentius Varro  Praetor 218 BCE and consul 216 with Lucius Aemilius Pau(l)lus; he was a populist demagogue and the cause of the disaster at Cannae (Books 8–10). Vascones  A Spanish people, modern Basques. Veii  Etruscan city north of Rome. Velinus  Sabine river and lake. Velitrae (Veletri)  City in Latium. Venus  Goddess of love, mother of Aeneas and of the Roman race. Verginia  Early Roman heroine killed by her father to save her from enslavement by the consul Appius Claudius (450 BCE). Vespasian  The first Flavian emperor (69–79 CE), winner of the civil war of 69 CE, father of the emperors Titus and Domitian. Vesta  The Roman goddess of the hearth. She was thought of as a virgin and was honored by the six Vestal Virgins, who maintained sexual purity and were dedicated to guard the goddess’ sacred fire. Vesuvius  Volcano in Campania, erupted in 79 CE. Vettones  People in north-central Spain. Vibius Virrius  Capuan senator who defects to the Carthaginians as narrated in Book 11. Dies in Book 13. Vocontii  Transalpine Gallic tribe. Volcae  Gallic tribe. Volesus  An archaic form of the Roman name Valerius. Volscians  A people of ancient Italy. Vulcan  God of fire, smith of the gods. Vulturnum (Castel Volturno in Caserta)  Campanian city near the Vulturnus River. Vulturnus  A southeast wind that harms the Romans at Cannae. 326

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Xanthippus  A Spartan mercenary commander in the service of the Carthaginians during the First Punic War. Distinguished for his capture of the Roman commander Marcus Atilius Regulus. According to Appian (8.4), he died a violent death at sea at the hands of Carthaginians. Xanthus  River in Troy. Zacynthus  A mythical companion of the hero Hercules; founder of Saguntum. Zama  City in north Africa, the place of the final duel between Scipio and Hannibal at the end of the Second Punic War.

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