Punic Wars

When Scipio was returning with Phameas the army went out to meet him and welcomed him as in a triumph. Manilius was overjoyed, and as he after this no longer considered his return disgraceful or thought that Hasdrubal would pursue him after such a stroke, he moved away for want of provisions on the seventeenth instead of the fifteenth day of the expedition. They must have three days more of suffering in their return; therefore Scipio, taking Phameas and Gulussa and their horse, together with some of the Italian cavalry, hastened to the plain called Great Barathrum and returned to the army by night laden with a great quantity of spoils and provisions. Manilius, learning that his successor, Calpurnius Piso, was coming, sent Scipio to Rome with Phameas. The army conducted Scipio to the ship with acclamations and prayed that he might return to Africa as consul, because they thought that he alone could take Carthage, for the opinion had sprung up among them, as by divine inspiration, that only Scipio would take Carthage. Many of them wrote to this effect to their relatives in Rome. The Senate lauded Scipio and bestowed on Phameas a purple robe with gold clasps, a horse with gold trappings, a complete suit of armor, and 10,000 drachmas of silver money. They also gave him 100 minas of silver plate and a tent completely furnished, and told him that he might expect more if he would coöperate with them to the end of the war. He promised to do so and set sail for the Roman camp in Africa.

In the early spring Calpurnius Piso, the new consul, arrived, and with him Lucius Mancinus as admiral of the fleet, but they did not attack either the Carthaginians or Hasdrubal. Marching against the neighboring towns they made an attempt on Aspis by land and sea, and were repulsed. Piso took another town near by and destroyed it, the inhabitants accusing him of attacking them in violation of a treaty. He then moved against Hippagreta, a large city, with walls, citadel, harbor, and dockyards handsomely built by Agathocles, the tyrant of Sicily. Being situated between Carthage and Utica it intercepted the Roman supply-ships and was growing rich thereby. Calpurnius thought to punish them and deprive them of their gains at the same time, but he besieged them the whole summer and accomplished nothing. Twice the inhabitants made sallies, with the aid of the Carthaginians, and burned the Roman engines. The consul, being foiled, returned to Utica and went into winter quarters.

The Carthaginians, finding themselves and the army of Hasdrubal unharmed, and that they had worsted Piso in the fighting around Hippagreta, and their forces being augmented by 800 horse, who had deserted from Gulussa, under Bithya, a Numidian chief; seeing also that Micipsa and Mastanabal, the sons of Masinissa, were always promising arms and money to the Romans, but always delaying and waiting to see what would happen, plucked up their spirits and roamed through Africa without fear, fortifying the country, and making abusive speeches in the town assemblies against the Romans. In proof of their cowardice they pointed to the two victories at Nepheris and the more recent one at Hippagreta, and to Carthage itself, which the enemy had not been able to take although it was unarmed and poorly defended. They sent to Micipsa and Mastanabal and to the free Moors asking their aid, and showing them that they, as well as Carthage, were in danger of subjection to the Romans. They sent messengers to Macedonia to the supposed son of Perseus, who was at war with the Romans, exhorting him to carry on the war with vigor and promising that Carthage would furnish him money and ships. Being now armed they considered nothing too small to be worth attention, and they gained in confidence, courage, and preparation from day to day. Hasdrubal, who commanded in the country and who had twice got the better of Manilius, was in high spirits also. Aspiring to the command in the city, which was held by another Hasdrubal, a nephew of Gulussa, he accused the latter of an intention to betray Carthage to Gulussa. This accusation being brought forward in the assembly, and the accused being at a loss to answer the unexpected charge, they fell upon him and beat him to death with the benches.

When the ill success of Piso and the preparation of the Carthaginians were reported at Rome, the people were chagrined and anxious, as the war was growing larger and more irreconcilable, and coming nearer every day. There could be no expectation of peace since they had been the first to break faith. Remembering the exploits of Scipio while he was a military tribune not long before, and comparing them with the present blunders and recalling the letters written to them by friends and relatives from the army on that subject, there was presently an intense desire that he should be sent to Carthage as consul. The election was drawing near and Scipio was a candidate for the ædileship, for the laws did not permit him to hold the consulship as yet, on account of his youth; yet the people elected him consul. This was illegal, and when the consuls showed them the law they became importunate and urged all the more, exclaiming that by the laws handed down from Tullius and Romulus the people were the judges of the elections, and that, of the laws pertaining thereto, they could set aside or confirm whichever they pleased. Finally one of the tribunes of the people declared that he would take from the consuls the power of holding an election unless they yielded to the people in this matter. Then the Senate allowed the tribunes to repeal this law, and after one year they reënacted it. In like manner the Lacedemonians, when they were obliged to relieve from disgrace those who had surrendered at Pylus,[*](This refers to the capture of 292 Spartan hoplites on the island of Sphacteria by the Athenians in the seventh year of the Peloponnesian war, B.C.425.) said, "Let the laws sleep to-day." Thus Scipio, while seeking the ædileship, was chosen consul. When his colleague, Drusus, proposed to him to cast lots to see which should have Africa as his province, one of the tribunes put the question of the command of that army to the people, and they chose Scipio. They also allowed him to take as many soldiers by conscription as had been lost in the war, and as many volunteers as he could enlist among the allies, and for this purpose to send to the allied kings and states letters written in the name of the Roman people, according to his own discretion. In this way he obtained assistance from them. [*](Y.R. 607)