Livy

Book 21 Summary
In this book is described the beginning of the Second Punic War, and how Hannibal, the
general of the Phoenicians, crossed the river Ebro in violation of the treaty. Besieging Saguntum, a
city belonging to allies of the Roman People, he captured it in the eighth month. These injuries led
to the dispatch of ambassadors to the Carthaginians, to complain. On their refusing satisfaction,
war was declared against Carthage. Hannibal, after surmounting the passes of the Pyrenees,
traversed Gaul—having routed the Volcae, who had attempted to stop him—and arrived at the
Alps. After a troublesome passage of these mountains, in the course of which he also defeated in
several battles the Gallic mountaineers, when they blocked his way, he descended into Italy and
routed the Romans in a cavalry battle near the river Ticinus. In this battle Publius Cornelius Scipio
was wounded and was saved by his son, who later received the name of Africanus. Again a Roman
army was routed near the river Trebia. After this Hannibal crossed the Apennines, with great
distress to his soldiers, because of violent storms. In Spain Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio fought
successfully against the Phoenicians and captured the enemy’s general, Mago.¹

1 This name is a mistake (found also in Orosius, IV. xiv. 9) for Hanno (chap. lx. § 4).

Book 22 Summary
Hannibal, losing sleep continuously in the marshes, went blind in one eye, and reached Etruria
after marching through the swamps for four days and three nights without rest. Gaius Flaminius
the consul, a headstrong man, set out, against the warning of the auspices, after digging out the
military standards that they had been unable to pull up and after the horse which he had mounted
had thrown him over its head; and trapped by Hannibal in an ambush at Lake Thrasymennus, he
was killed and his army cut to pieces. Six thousand men who had broken through the enemy’s lines
were thrown into chains through Hannibal’s treachery, despite the pledge that Atherbal194 had
given them. While the Romans were in mourning at the news of this calamity, two mothers died of
joy on recovering the sons whom they had given up for lost. Because of this calamity a Sacred
Spring was vowed at the direction of the Sibylline Books.

194 This name is not found in any other account (see textual note).

After that Quintus Fabius Maximus, who had been sent out as dictator to oppose Hannibal, was
unwilling to meet him in the open field. He would not trust his soldiers, who had been cowed by
these defeats, in a battle with an enemy emboldened by his victories; and was satisfied merely to
thwart the efforts of Hannibal by blocking his way. Marcus Minucius, the master of horse, a rash
and headstrong man, then charged the dictator with sluggishness and timidity and persuaded the
people to decree that his own authority should be equal to that of the dictator. But with the army
being divided between them, Minucius gave battle in an unfavorable position and his legions were
in great peril, when Fabius Maximus came up with his army and saved him. Won over by this
generosity, he joined his camp to that of Fabius and, saluting him as his father, ordered his army do
the same.

After laying waste Campania, Hannibal was penned in by Fabius between the town of Casilinum
and Mount Callicula. Binding twigs about the horns of oxen and setting them on fire, he frightened
off the detachment of Romans stationed on Callicula, and so marched over the pass.195 It was
Hannibal, too, who spared the farm of Quintus Fabius Maximus the dictator, when burning all of
that countryside, in order to make him a suspected traitor.
 195 In Livy this precedes the quarrel between Fabius and Minucius (22.16.6–17.7); the Summary agrees with
Appian (Hann. 12–13) and [Aurel. Vict.] Vir. ill. 43.

Aemilius Paulus and Terentius Varro then became consuls and commanded the army that fought
disastrously against Hannibal at Cannae. Killed in that battle were forty-five thousand Romans,
including the consul Paulus, and ninety senators, and thirty others who had been consuls or
praetors or aediles. After that, some young nobles in their despair were plotting to abandon Italy,
when Publius Cornelius Scipio, a tribune of the soldiers, who was later surnamed Africanus, held
his drawn sword over the heads of the conspirators and, vowing that he would treat as a public
enemy whoever should not swear at his dictation, compelled them all to bind themselves with an
oath not to abandon Italy.

There were so few soldiers that they armed eight thousand slaves. They were given an opportunity
of ransoming the prisoners, but did not ransom them.

The book also describes the panic and grief in the City, and the operations, conducted more
successfully, in Spain. The Vestals Opimia and Florentia196 were convicted of unchastity. The
people went out to meet Varro and thanked him because he had not despaired of the Republic.

196 Named Floronia in 22.57.2.

Book 30 Summary
Scipio in Africa defeated the Carthaginians and the same Syphax, King of Numidia, and Hasdrubal
in a number of battles with the aid of Masinissa. He took by assault two camps of the enemy, in
which forty thousand men were wiped out by sword and fire. He captured Syphax by the help of
Gaius Laelius and Masinissa. Masinissa, having captured Sophoniba, wife of Syphax and daughter
of Hasdrubal, at once fell in love and after marrying her had her to wife. When rebuked by Scipio
he sent her poison, and upon drinking it she died. The consequence of Scipio’s many victories was
that the Carthaginians, driven to despair, recalled Hannibal to the defence of the state. And he,
withdrawing from Italy in the sixteenth year, crossed over to Africa and endeavoured by a
conference to make peace with Scipio; and as there was no agreement on the peace terms, he was
vanquished in battle. The Carthaginians sued for peace and it was granted them. When Gisgo
argued against a peace, Hannibal with his own hand dragged him down. Then after apologizing for
the rashness of his act, he himself argued in favour of peace. Masinissa’s kingdom was restored to
him. Returning to the city Scipio celebrated a most splendid and distinguished triumph, followed
by Quintus Terentius Culleo, a senator, wearing a liberty cap. Whether Scipio Africanus received
that cognomen first from his popularity with the soldiers or from fickle favour of the people is not
known. Certainly he was the first commander-in-chief to be distinguished by the name of a nation
he had conquered. Mago was wounded in a war in which he had come in conflict with Romans in
the land of the Insubrians, and while returning to Africa, having been recalled by envoys, he died
of his wound.