Livy

“ When wild beasts are mad with rage you can still divert their blind fury by approaching their lairs and young ones which they will hasten to defend. The Romans were not diverted from Capua by the prospect of their city being besieged, or by the terrified cries of their wives and children which could almost be heard here, or by the threatened desecration of their hearths and altars, of the shrines of their gods and the tombs of their ancestors. So eager are they to visit us with punishment, so greedily do they thirst for our blood. ”

“ Our houses have been burnt by the enemy, our slaves who tilled our fields have been appropriated by the State, first buying them for a few coppers to make soldiers of them, and now requisitioning them for seamen. Whatever silver or gold we had has been taken to pay the rowers and furnish the annual war-tax. No resort to force, no exercise of authority can compel us to give what we do not possess. Let the consuls sell our goods, then let them glut their rage on our bodies which are all we have left; nothing remains with which we can even ransom ourselves. ”

“ And what is more, we shall become masters, not only of a most wealthy and beautiful city, but also of a most commodious harbour, from which all that is requisite for the purposes of war, both by sea and land, will be supplied. Great as our gains will be, the deprivations which the enemy suffers will be still greater. Here is their stronghold, their granary, their treasure, their arsenal - everything is stored here. Here is their direct route from Africa. This is their only naval base between the Pyrenees and Gades; from this Africa threatens the whole of Spain. ”

“ The plebs were loud in their complaints about the way the war dragged on, the devastation of the land round the City wherever Hannibal and his army moved, the exhaustion of Italy by the constant levies, the almost annual destruction of their armies. And now the new consuls were both of them fond of war, far too enterprising and ambitious, quite capable, even in a time of peace and quiet, of getting up a war, and now that war was actually going on all the less likely to allow the citizens any respite or breathing space. ”

“ As men and ladders were crashing down in all directions and the spirits and courage of the enemy were rising with their success, the signal was sounded for retiring. This led the besieged to hope that they would not only gain a respite from their hard and wearisome struggle for the time being, but would also be safe for the future, as they believed that the city could not be taken by escalade and storm, whilst the construction of siege works would be a difficult matter and would allow time for succours to be sent. ”

“ They snatched, as though from the very jaws of Hannibal, cities like Cumae and Beneventum and restored them to Rome. Cn. Fulvius, on the other hand, had an army of Roman citizens, born of respectable parents, brought up as free men, and he infected them with the vices of slaves, and made them such that they were insolent and riotous amongst our allies, weaklings and cowards in face of the enemy; they could not stand even the war-cry of the Carthaginians, let alone their charge. Good heavens! no wonder the soldiers gave ground, when their commander was the first to run away ”

“ Fulvius declared that the man was certainly out of his mind, and added that even if he wished to kill him he was prevented from doing so by the decree of the senate. Then Vibellius exclaimed, "Now that my native city has been taken, my friends and relations lost to me, my wife and children slain by my own hand to save them from insult and outrage, and since even the opportunity of dying as my fellow-countrymen here have died is refused me, let me seek in courage a release from the life which has become so hateful to me." ”

“ Fulvius is the only one who has demoralised his army by every form of vice before betraying them. They may with perfect truth be said to have been destroyed before they saw the enemy; they owed their defeat to their own commander, not to Hannibal.
"Now no man, when he is going to vote, takes sufficient trouble to find out what sort of a man it is to whom he is entrusting the supreme command of the army. ”

“ Their domestic quarrel will not let them act in unison, and now that they are divided they will not be able to withstand us. Welcome, soldiers, the omen of the name I bear, be loyal to a Scipio who is the offspring of your late commander, the scion of a stock which has been cut down. Come on then, my veterans, and lead a new army and a new commander across the Ebro into the lands which you have so often traversed and where you have given so many proofs of your prowess and your courage. ”

“ As you make their humble station in life a reproach to others, you do not yourselves belong to the lowest class in Syracuse, and yet who amongst you promised to open your gates and admit my armed force into your city? ”

“ It was settled that Capua itself should be simply a lodgment and a shelter, a city merely in name; there was to be no corporate life, no senate, no council of the plebs, no magistrates; the population were without any right of public assembly or self-government; they had no common interest and were incapable of taking any common action. The administration of justice was in the hands of a praetor who was to be sent annually from Rome. In this way matters were arranged at Capua in pursuance of a policy which commends itself from every point of view. ”

“ The rowers and marines put out to sea when the weather was calm and tested the speed and handiness of their ships in a sham fight. These maneuvers going on outside the city on land and sea sharpened the men both physically and mentally for war; the city itself resounded with the din of warlike constructions carried on by the artisans of every kind who were kept together in the Government workshops. The general devoted his attention equally to everything. At one time he was present with the fleet watching a naval encounter; at another he was exercising his legions ”

“ Soldiers, if any one supposes that you have been brought here for the sole purpose of attacking this city, he is making more account of the work before you than of the advantage you will reap from it. You are going, it is true, to attack the walls of a single city, but in the capture of this one city you will have secured the whole of Spain. Here are the hostages taken from all the nobles and kings and tribes, and when once these are in your power, everything which the Carthaginians now hold will be given up to you. ”

“ Now, by the goodness of heaven, everything is going in our favour; the situation in Italy and Sicily is becoming better and more hopeful day by day. In Sicily, Syracuse and Agrigentum have been captured, the enemy has been everywhere expelled and the whole of the island acknowledges the sovereignty of Rome. In Italy, Arpi has been recovered and Capua taken, Hannibal in his hurried flight has traversed the whole breadth of Italy from Rome to the furthest corners of Bruttium, and his one prayer is that he may be allowed to make a safe retreat and get away from the land of his enemies. ”

“ Thus, those who were at Cales were also executed. Now he read the despatch and the decree of the senate. But it was too late to prevent a deed accomplished, which had been hurried on as quickly as possible in order that it might not be prevented. Just as Fulvius was leaving the tribunal a Capuan named Taurea Vibellius strode through the middle of the crowd and addressed him by name. Fulvius resumed his seat, wondering what the man wanted. "Order me too," he cried, to be put to death so that you may boast of having caused the death of a braver man than yourself." ”

“ As to the incidents attending its capture, these men would be more justified in laying their complaints before Hannibal and his vanquished Carthaginians than before the senate of the people who vanquished them. If, senators, I had intended to conceal my spoliation of Syracuse I should never have adorned the City of Rome with its spoils. With regard to what I, as conqueror, took away or bestowed in individual cases, I am quite satisfied that I acted in accordance with the laws of war, according to the deserts of each individual. ”

“ Though there was a foreign enemy on Italian soil, and that enemy Hannibal, though the flames of war were being kindled in every quarter, they neglected everything, even Hannibal himself, and sent both the consuls, each with an army, to Capua. For two years now have they hemmed us in with their lines of circumvallation, and are wearing us down with famine. They have endured as much as we have in the extremity of peril, the utmost severity of toil; often have they been slaughtered about their entrenchments, and all but driven out of them. ”

“ At all events, nothing has been left to us beyond our walls and our houses stripped of everything, and the defaced and despoiled temples of our gods, from which even the gods themselves and their votive offerings have been carried off. Many have been deprived of their land, so that they have not even the bare soil on which to support themselves, and all who belong to them, with the remains of their wrecked fortunes. We beg and entreat you, senators, if you cannot order all that we have lost to be restored to us, at least to insist upon the restitution of what can be found and identified. ”

“ But if they have proved false to us, opened their gates to the enemy, threatened our envoys with drawn swords, shut their city and walls against us and called in a Carthaginian army to protect them against us, who is there who can feel any indignation at their having suffered hostile violence after having practiced it? ”

“ He had gone off, so the despatch hinted, to be out of the way, lest Capua should be taken before his eyes, The Romans could not be drawn off from besieging Capua even when an attack was threatened on their city; so much more determination did the Romans show as enemies, than the Carthaginians as friends. If Hannibal would return to Capua and turn the whole tide of war in that direction, then the garrison were prepared to make an attack on the besiegers. He had not crossed the Alps to make war with Regium or Tarentum; where the legions of Rome were, there ought the armies of Carthage to be. ”

“ That draught will free our bodies from torture, our spirits from insult, our eyes and ears from seeing and hearing all the suffering and outrage which await the vanquished. Men will be in readiness to place our lifeless bodies on a vast pile which will be kindled in the court-yard of the house. ”

“ Delighted with the present and the honourable treatment he had received, the young man resumed home, and filled the ears of his countrymen with justly-earned praises of Scipio. A young man had come among them, he declared, in all ways like the gods, winning his way everywhere by his generosity and goodness of heart as much as by the might of his arms. ”

“ They were of opinion that hostilities ought to have been directed against the tyrants, who were the common enemies of Syracuse and of Rome. The city ought to have been allowed to surrender, not taken by storm, and when surrendered it ought to have had its own laws and liberties guaranteed to it, instead of being ruined by war after it had been worn out by a deplorable servitude under its tyrants. ”

“ As long as the commonwealth is safe, each man's property is safe under its protection, but if you desert it, it will be in vain that you try to keep what you have." These suggestions were so favourably received that the consuls were even thanked for them. No sooner did the senate adjourn, than they each brought their gold and silver and bronze to the treasury, and they were so eager to be among the first to have their names inscribed in the public register that the commissioners were not able to take over the amounts or the clerks to enter them fast enough. ”

“ When all were on the tiptoe of expectation to learn what he wanted, he began by excusing himself on the score of his eyesight. "A man must have little sense of shame," he continued "whether he be pilot of a ship or commander of an army, who asks that the lives and fortunes of others should be committed to him when, in all he does, he has to depend upon other people's eyes. If, therefore, you approve, order the Veturian century of juniors to cast their vote again, and to remember, whilst they are choosing their consuls, the war in Italy and the critical position of the republic. ”

“ If you believe me to be an upright and honourable man such as the nations here found my father and uncle to be, you may rest assured that there are many in Rome like us, and you may be perfectly certain that nowhere in the world can any people be named whom you would less wish to have as a foe to you and yours, or whom you would more desire as a friend. ”