Scipio Africanus (16 page)

The Carthaginian had eighty elephants, more than in any previous battle, and in order to terrify the enemy he placed them in front of his line. Supporting them, in the first line, were the Ligurian and Gallic mercenaries intermixed with Balearic and Moorish light troops. These were the troops with whom Mago had sailed home, about twelve thousand in number, and it is a common historical mistake to regard the whole force as composed of light troops.

In the second line Hannibal placed the Carthaginian and African levies as well as the Macedonian force, their combined strength probably exceeding that of the first line. Finally Hannibal's own troops formed the third line, held back more than two hundred yards distant from the others, in order evidently to keep it as an intact reserve, and lessen the risk of it becoming entangled in the mêlée before the commander intended. On the wings Hannibal disposed his cavalry, the Numidian allies on the left and the Carthaginian horse on the right. His total force was probably in excess of fifty thousand, perhaps fifty-five thousand. The Roman strength is less certain, but if we assume that each of Scipio's two legions was duplicated by an equal body of Italian allies, and add Masinissa's
ten thousand, the complete strength would be about thirty-six thousand if the legions were at full strength. It was probably less, because some wastage must have occurred during the earlier operations since quitting his base.

The First Phase.
—The battle opened, after preliminary skirmishing between the Numidian horse, with Hannibal's orders to the drivers of the elephants to charge the Roman line. Scipio promptly trumped his opponent's ace, by a tremendous blare of trumpets and cornets along the whole line. The strident clamour so startled and terrified the elephants that many of them at once turned tail and rushed back on their own troops. This was especially the case on the left wing, where they threw the Numidians, Hannibal's best cavalry wing, into disorder just as they were advancing to the attack. Masinissa seized this golden opportunity to launch a counter-stroke, which inevitably overthrew the disorganised opponents. With Masinissa in hot pursuit, they were driven from the field, and so left the Carthaginian left wing exposed.

The remainder of the elephants wrought much havoc among Scipio's
velites,
caught by their charge in front of the Roman line. But the foresight that had provided the “ lanes ” and laid down the method of withdrawal was justified by
its results. For the elephants took the line of least resistance, penetrating into the lanes rather than face the firm-knit ranks of the heavy infantry maniples. Once in these lanes the
velites
who had retired into the lateral passages, between the lines, bombarded them with darts from both sides. Their reception was far too warm for them to linger when the door of escape was held wide open. While some of the elephants rushed right through, harmlessly, and out to the open in rear of the Roman army, others were driven back out of the lanes and fled towards the Carthaginian right wing. Here the Roman cavalry received them with a shower of javelins, while the Carthaginian cavalry could not follow suit, so that the elephants naturally trended towards the least unpleasant side. “ It was at this moment that Lælius, availing himself of the disturbance created by the elephants, charged the Carthaginian cavalry and forced them to headlong flight. He pressed the pursuit closely, as likewise did Masinissa.” Both Hannibal's flanks were thus stripped bare. The decisive manœuvre of Cannæ was repeated, but reversed.

Scipio was certainly an artist in tactical “ boomerangs,” as at Ilipa so now at Zama his foresight and art turned the enemy's best weapon back upon themselves. How decisive might have been the charge of the elephants is shown
by the havoc they wrought at the outset among the
velites.

The Second Phase.
—In the meantime the infantry of both armies had “slowly and in imposing array advanced on each other,” except that Hannibal kept his own troops back in their original position. Raising the Roman war-cry on one side, polyglot shouts on the other—this vocal discord was a moral drawback,—the lines met. At first the Gauls and Ligurians had the balance of advantage, through their personal skill in skirmishing and more rapid movement. But the Roman line remained unbroken, and the weight of their compact formation pushed the enemy back despite losses. Another factor told, for while the leading Romans were encouraged by the shouts from the rear lines, coming on to back them up, Hannibal's second line—the Carthaginians—failed to support the Gauls, but hung back in order to keep their ranks firm. Forced steadily back, and feeling they had been left in the lurch by their own side, the Gauls turned about and fled. When they tried to seek shelter in the second line, they were repulsed by the Carthaginians, who, with apparently sound yet perhaps unwise military instinct, deemed it essential to avoid any disarray which might enable the Romans to penetrate their line. Exasperated and now
demoralised, many of the Gauls tried to force an opening in the Carthaginian ranks, but the latter showed that their courage was not deficient and drove them off. In a short time the relics of the first line had dispersed completely, or disappeared round the flanks of the second line. The latter confirmed their fighting quality by thrusting back the Roman first line—the
hastati
—also. In this they were helped by a human obstacle, the ground encumbered with corpses and slippery with blood, which disordered the ranks of the attacking Romans. Even the
principes
had begun to waver when they saw the first line driven back so decisively, but their officers rallied them and led them forward in the nick of time to restore the situation. This reinforcement was decisive. Hemmed in, because the Roman formation produced a longer frontage and so overlapped the Carthaginian line, the latter was steadily cut to pieces. The survivors fled back on the relatively distant third line, but Hannibal continued his policy of refusing to allow the fugitives to mix with and disturb an ordered line. He ordered the foremost ranks of his “ Old Guard ” to lower their spears as a barrier against them, and they were forced to retreat towards the flanks and the open ground beyond.

The Third Phase.—
The curtain now rose on
what was practically a fresh battle. The Romans “ had penetrated to their real antagonists, men equal to them in the nature of their arms, in their experience of war, in the fame of their achievements....” Livy's tribute is borne out by the fierceness and the for long uncertain issue of the subsequent conflict, which gives the lie to those who pretend that Hannibal's “ Old Guard ” was but a shadow of its former power in the days of Trasimene and Cannæ.

The Romans had the moral advantage of having routed two successive lines, as well as the cavalry and elephants, but they had now to face a compact and fresh body of twenty-four thousand veterans, under the direct inspiration of Hannibal. And no man in history has shown a more dynamic personality in infusing his own determination in his troops.

The Romans, too, had at last a numerical advantage, not large, however—Polybius says that the forces were “ nearly equal in numbers,” —and in reality still less than it appeared. For, while all Hannibal's third line were fresh, on Scipio's side only the
triarii
had not been engaged, and these represented but half the strength of the
hastati
or
principes.
Further, the
velites
had been so badly mauled that they had to be relegated to the reserve, and the cavalry were off the field, engaged in the pursuit.
Thus it is improbable that Scipio had at his disposal for this final blow more than eighteen or twenty thousand infantry, less the casualties these had already suffered.

His next step is characteristic of the man—of his cool calculation even in the heart of a battle crisis. Confronted by this gigantic human wall—such the Carthaginians would appear in phalanx, —he sounds the recall to his leading troops, and it is a testimony to their discipline that they respond like a well-trained pack of hounds. Then in face of an enemy hardly more than a bow-shot distant he not only reorganises his troops but reconstructs his dispositions! His problem was this—against the first two enemy lines the Roman formation, shallower than the Carthaginian phalanx and with intervals, had occupied a wider frontage and so enabled him to overlap theirs. Now, against a body double the strength, his frontage was no longer, and perhaps less than Hannibal's. His appreciation evidently took in this factor, and with it two others. First, that in order to concentrate his missile shock power for the final effort it would be wise to make his line as solid as possible, and this could be done because there was no longer need or advantage for retaining intervals between the maniples. Second, that as his cavalry would be returning any moment, there
was no advantage in keeping the orthodox formation in depth and using the
principes
and
triarii
as a direct support and reinforcement to his front line. The blow should be as concentrated as possible in time and as wide as possible in striking force, rather than a series of efforts. We see him, therefore, making his
hastati
close up to form a compact centre without intervals. Then similarly he closes each half of his
principes
and
triarii
outwards, and advances them to extend the flank on either wing. The order from right to left of his now continuous line would thus be half the
triarii,
half the
principes,
the
hastati,
the other half of the
principes,
the other half of the
triarii.
He now once more overlaps the hostile front. To British readers this novel formation of Scipio's, inspired by a flash of genius in the middle of a momentous conflict, should have a special interest. For here is born the “ line ” which the Peninsular War and Waterloo have made immortal, here Scipio anticipated Wellington by two thousand years in revealing the truth that the long shallow line is the formation which allows of the greatest volume of fire, which fulfils the law of economy of force by bringing into play the nre—whether bullets or javelins—of the greatest possible proportion of the force. The role of Scipio's infantry in the final phase was to fix Hannibal's force
ready for the decisive manœuvre to be delivered by the cavalry. For this role violence and wideness of onslaught was more important than sustenance. Scipio made his redistribution deliberately and unhurriedly—the longer he could delay the final tussle the more time he gained for the return of his cavalry. It is not unlikely that Masinissa and Lælius pressed the pursuit rather too far, and so caused an unnecessary strain on the Roman infantry and on Scipio's plan. For Polybius tells us that when the rival infantries met “ the contest was for long doubtful, the men falling where they stood out of determination, until Masinissa and Lælius arrived providentially at the proper moment.” Their charge, in the enemy's rear, clinched the decision, and though most of Hannibal's men fought grimly to the end, they were cut down in their ranks. Of those who took to flight few escaped, nor did the earlier fugitives fare any better, for Scipio's cavalry swept the whole plain, and because of the wide expanse of level country, found no obstacle to their searching pursuit.

Polybius and Livy agree in putting the loss of the Carthaginians and their allies at twenty thousand slain and almost as many captured. On the other side, Polybius says that “ more than fifteen hundred Romans fell,” and Livy, that “ of the victors as many as two thousand
fell.” The discrepancy is explained by the word “ Romans,” for Livy's total clearly includes the allied troops. It is a common idea among historians that these figures are an underestimate, and that in ancient battles the tallies given always minimise the losses of the victor. Ardant du Picq, a profound and experienced thinker, has shown the fallacy of these cloistered historians. Even in battle to-day the defeated side suffers its heaviest loss after the issue is decided, in what is practically the massacre of unresisting or disorganised men. How much more must this disproportion have occurred when bullets, still less machine-guns, did not exist to take their initial toll of the victors. So long as formations remained unbroken the loss of life was relatively small, but when they were isolated or dissolved the massacre began.

“ Hannibal, slipping off during the confusion with a few horsemen, came to Hadrumetum, not quitting the field till he had tried every expedient both in the battle and before the engagement; having, according to the admission of Scipio, acquired the fame of having handled his troops on that day with singular judgment ” (Livy). Polybius's tribute is equally ungrudging: “ For, firstly, he had by his conference with Scipio attempted to end the dispute by himself alone; showing thus that while conscious of
his former successes he mistrusted Fortune, and was fully aware of the part that the unexpected plays in war. In the next place, when he offered battle, he so managed matters that it was impossible for any commander to make better dispositions for a contest against the Romans than Hannibal did on that occasion. The order of a Roman force in battle makes it very difficult to break through, for without any change it enables every man individually and in common with his fellows to present a front in any direction, the maniples which are nearest to the danger turning themselves by a single movement to face it. Their arms also give the men both protection and confidence, owing to the size of the shield and owing to the sword being strong enough to endure repeated blows.... But nevertheless to meet each of these assets Hannibal had shown supreme skill in adopting ... all such measures as were in his power and could reasonably be expected to succeed. For he had hastily collected that large number of elephants, and had placed them in front on the day of the battle in order to throw the enemy into confusion and break his ranks. He had placed the mercenaries in advance with the Carthaginians behind them, in order that the Romans before the final engagement might be fatigued by their exertions, and that their swords might lose their
edge ... and also in order to compel the Carthaginians thus hemmed in front and rear to stand fast and fight, in the words of Homer : ‘ That e'en the unwilling might be forced to fight.‘