The Ghosts of Cannae: Hannibal and the Darkest Hour of the Roman Republic (46 page)

7.
Polybius, 10.9.3.

8.
Ibid., 10.7.5. Mago’s location “on this side of the Pillars of Hercules,” according to Polybius, is confusing and may have been a copyist’s error.

9.
Polybius, 10.8.4–9.

10.
Ibid., 10.11.5–8.

11.
Ibid., 10.14–15, 1–2.

12.
Polybius’s description of the sack of New Carthage is frequently used as a typical example of Roman behavior in such circumstances, a sequential process beginning with indiscriminate slaughter. Polybius, 10.15.5–8, says “They do this I think to inspire terror, so that when towns are taken by the Romans one may often see not only the corpses of human beings, but dogs cut in half and the dismembered limbs of other animals…. After this, upon the signal being given, the massacre ceased and they began pillaging.” Polybius then goes on to describe a very methodical and orderly process by which loot was accumulated and distributed equally to the legionaries. (10.15.4–16). Adam Ziolkowski “Urbs Direpta, Or How the Romans Sacked Cities,” in John Rich and Graham Shipley, eds.,
War and Society in the Roman World
(London: Routledge, 1995), pp. 69–91, argues that the process was likely to have been a lot less orderly, with soldiers grabbing any goods they could get, and raping those citizens they didn’t kill.

13.
Polybius, 10.17.6–14.

14.
Livy, 26.51.1–2.

15.
Polybius, 10.19.1–6; Livy, 26.50.

16.
Polybius, 10.20.1–4.

17.
Lazenby,
Hannibal’s War, p
. 140.

18.
Livy, 26.51.10; Polybius 10.35.6–8.

19.
Polybius, 10.37.4–5.

20.
Goldsworthy,
The Punic Wars, p
. 277; Lazenby,
Hannibal’s War, p
. 141.

21.
Scullard,
Scipio Africanus
, pp. 73–4.

22.
Ibid., p. 74.

23.
Livy, 27.19.1–3.

24.
Ibid., 27.19.8–12.

25.
Lazenby,
Hannibal’s War, p
. 142.

26.
Plutarch, Marcellus, 9.

27.
Livy, 27.9.1.

28.
Ibid., 27.10.10.

29.
Ibid., 27.12.1–3.

30.
Ibid., 27.12–14.

31.
Ibid., 27.16.12–16.

32.
Lancel,
Hannibal, p
. 143; Livy, 27.16.8.

33.
Plutarch, Marcellus, 27; Scullard,
Roman Politics
, pp. 20–1; Lazenby,
Hannibal’s War
, pp. 176–7.

34.
It is probably telling that, despite Fabius Maximus’s success at Tarentum, for the year 208 his imperium was not renewed.

35.
See Livy, 27.26–7, and Polybius, 10.32.1–6.

36.
Polybius, 10.32.7.

37.
Lazenby,
Hannibal’s War
, p. 179.

38.
Ibid., p. 178; Livy, 27.24.

39.
Livy, 27.36.1–4, 27.39.1–2, 27.39.5–11.

40.
Silius Italicus, 15.513–21.

41.
Lazenby,
Hannibal’s War, p
. 180.

42.
Livy, 27.34–35.

43.
Ibid., 27.39.11–14; Lancel,
Hannibal, p
. 146; Goldsworthy,
The Punic Wars, p
. 239.

44.
Livy, 27.46.6; Lazenby,
Hannibal’s War, p
. 184.

45.
Lazenby,
Hannibal’s War, p
. 183.

46.
Livy, 27.43.1–12.

47.
Dodge,
Hannibal
, pp. 547–8.

48.
Livy, 27.44.9.

49.
Polybius, 11.1.1.

50.
Livy, 27.46.1–4.

51.
Ibid., 27.46.7ff.

52.
Ibid., 27.47.1–5.

53.
Ibid., 27.47.10–11; Dodge,
Hannibal, p
. 551.

54.
Ovid,
Fasti
, 6.770.

55.
Scullard,
A History of the Roman World
, note 6, p. 502; Walbank,
A Historical Commentary on Polybius
, vol. 2, p. 270.

56.
Livy, 27.48.8.

57.
Lazenby’s explanation
(Hannibal’s War
, pp. 188–90) of the course of the battle is lucid and logical.

58.
Polybius, 11.3.1.

59.
Ibid., 11.2.1; Livy, 27.49.3–4.

60.
Livy, 27.50.1; Lazenby, “Was Maharbal Right?” p. 40.

61.
Livy, 27.49.5–6.

62.
Lazenby,
Hannibal’s War, p
. 191.

63.
Polybius, 11.3.6.

64.
Livy, 27.51.12.

65.
Ibid., 28.1.4.

66.
Ibid., 28.2.12.

67.
Polybius, 11.20.2. Livy (28.12.13–14) places the Carthaginian numbers at fifty thousand infantry and forty-five hundred cavalry. Lazenby
(Hannibal’s War, p
. 145) argues convincingly that Scipio’s tactic of extending his wings indicates that he was outnumbered considerably in infantry.

68.
Goldsworthy,
The Punic Wars, p
. 279.

69.
Polybius, 11.21.1–5.

70.
Ibid., 11.22.1–5.

71.
Lazenby,
Hannibal’s War, p
. 146.

72.
Livy, 28.14.12–14, 28.15.3.

73.
Polybius, 11.22.11–23.2.

74.
Goldsworthy,
The Punic Wars, p
. 282.

75.
Scullard,
Scipio Africanus
, pp. 94–5; Goldsworthy,
The Punic Wars, pp
. 282–3; Lazenby,
Hannibal’s War, p
. 150.

76.
Polybius, 11.24.1.

77.
Goldsworthy,
The Punic Wars, p
. 283.

78.
Livy, 28.15.11; Polybius, 11.24.7–9.

79.
Livy, 28.16.6.

80.
Ibid., 28.16.15.

81.
Lancel,
Carthage
, pp. 396–7.

82.
Livy, 24.49.1–6; Lazenby,
Hannibal’s War, p
. 151.

83.
Livy, 28.17.13–16. An analogous situation occurred in A.D. 1914 during the early stages of World War I when German admiral von Spee’s squadron, featuring the two cruisers
Scharnhorst
and
Gneisenau
, sailed up to the Falkland Islands. There the Germans found anchored in Port Stanley harbor a much more powerful British fleet with two capital ships, the new dreadnought battle cruisers
Inflexible
and
Invincible
. Like in Scipio’s case, von Spee’s best bet was to close—in this case to fight before his adversaries could raise a head of steam and while they were still sitting ducks. Instead, the German tried to flee and was run down and annihilated.

84.
Lazenby,
Hannibal’s War
, p. 152.

85.
Livy, 28.22.2ff.

86.
Goldsworthy,
The Punic Wars
, p. 284.

87.
Lazenby,
Hannibal’s War, p
. 153.

88.
Livy, 28.25–29; Polybius, 11.25.30.

89.
Livy, 28.36.1–2.

90.
Ibid., 28.37.4

91.
Ibid., 28.38.5.

92.
Ibid., 28.40.3–42.22.

93.
Lancel,
Hannibal
, p. 162.

94.
Livy, 28.44.1–2.

95.
Goldsworthy,
The Punic Wars
, p. 286.

96.
Livy, 28.45.8.

97.
G. de Sanctis,
Storia dei Romani
(Florence, Italy: La Nuova Italia, 1968), vol. 3, 2, p. 645ff; M. Gelzer,
Kleine Schriften
(Wiesbaden, Germany: F. Steiner, 1964), vol. 3, p. 245ff; cited in Lazenby,
Hannibal’s War
, p. 195; Livy, 25.45.13; Appian, Lib 7.

CHAPTER IX: RESURRECTING THE GHOSTS

1.
Livy, 28.46.7–10; 28.46.13.

2.
Scullard
(Scipio Africanus
, fn 81, p. 266) argues that the story should probably be rejected since an almost identical story is told by Plutarch about Agesilaus (9). Nevertheless, it remains true that Livy (59 B.C.–A.D. 17) predated Plutarch (A.D. 46–120), so unless the story is based on an earlier tradition, it seems possible to accept it.

3.
Livy, 29.1.15.