How Generations Remember:

Conflicting Histories and Shared

Memories in Post-War Bosnia and
Herzegovina 1st Edition Monika
Palmberger
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://textbookfull.com/product/how-generations-remember-conflicting-histories-and-
shared-memories-in-post-war-bosnia-and-herzegovina-1st-edition-monika-palmberge
r/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

Memories on the Move: Experiencing Mobility, Rethinking

the Past 1st Edition Monika Palmberger

https://textbookfull.com/product/memories-on-the-move-
experiencing-mobility-rethinking-the-past-1st-edition-monika-
palmberger/

The Struggle for Redress: Victim Capital in Bosnia and

Herzegovina Jessie Barton-Hronešová

https://textbookfull.com/product/the-struggle-for-redress-victim-
capital-in-bosnia-and-herzegovina-jessie-barton-hronesova/

Ethnonationality’s Evolution in Bosnia Herzegovina and

Macedonia: Politics, Institutions and Intergenerational
Dis-continuities Arianna Piacentini

https://textbookfull.com/product/ethnonationalitys-evolution-in-
bosnia-herzegovina-and-macedonia-politics-institutions-and-
intergenerational-dis-continuities-arianna-piacentini/

The Political System of Bosnia and Herzegovina:

Institutions – Actors – Processes Damir Banovi■

https://textbookfull.com/product/the-political-system-of-bosnia-
and-herzegovina-institutions-actors-processes-damir-banovic/
Cultural, Autobiographical and Absent Memories of
Orphanhood: The Girls of Nazareth House Remember 1st
Edition Delyth Edwards (Auth.)

https://textbookfull.com/product/cultural-autobiographical-and-
absent-memories-of-orphanhood-the-girls-of-nazareth-house-
remember-1st-edition-delyth-edwards-auth/

Childhood and Schooling in (Post)Socialist Societies:

Memories of Everyday Life 1st Edition Iveta Silova

https://textbookfull.com/product/childhood-and-schooling-in-
postsocialist-societies-memories-of-everyday-life-1st-edition-
iveta-silova/

Asia and the Great War : a shared history 1st Edition

Xu

https://textbookfull.com/product/asia-and-the-great-war-a-shared-
history-1st-edition-xu/

CMBEBIH 2019: Proceedings of the International

Conference on Medical and Biological Engineering, 16 ■■
18 May 2019, Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina Almir
Badnjevic
https://textbookfull.com/product/cmbebih-2019-proceedings-of-the-
international-conference-on-medical-and-biological-
engineering-16-%cc%b6%cc%b6-18-may-2019-banja-luka-bosnia-and-
herzegovina-almir-badnjevic/

Playful Memories: The Autofictional Turn in Post-

Dictatorship Argentina 1st Edition Jordana Blejmar
(Auth.)

https://textbookfull.com/product/playful-memories-the-
autofictional-turn-in-post-dictatorship-argentina-1st-edition-
jordana-blejmar-auth/
 G
D

LO
How Generations

IV

BA
ER
Remember

L
SI
TI
ES
Conflicting Histories
and Shared Memories
in Post-War Bosnia
and Herzegovina

MONIKA PALMBERGER
 Global Diversities

Series Editors
Steven Vertovec
Department of Socio-Cultural Diversity
Max Planck Institute
Göttingen, Germany

Peter van der Veer

Department of Religious Diversity
Max Planck Institute
Göttingen, Germany

Ayelet Shachar
Ethics, Law, and Politics
Max Planck Institute
Göttingen, Germany
Aims of the Series
Over the past decade, the concept of ‘diversity’ has gained a leading place
in academic thought, business practice, politics and public policy across
the world. However, local conditions and meanings of ‘diversity’ are
highly dissimilar and changing. For these reasons, deeper and more com-
parative understandings of pertinent concepts, processes and phenomena
are in great demand. This series will examine multiple forms and con-
figurations of diversity, how these have been conceived, imagined, and
represented, how they have been or could be regulated or governed, how
different processes of inter-ethnic or inter-religious encounter unfold,
how conflicts arise and how political solutions are negotiated and prac-
tised, and what truly convivial societies might actually look like. By com-
paratively examining a range of conditions, processes and cases revealing
the contemporary meanings and dynamics of ‘diversity’, this series will be
a key resource for students and professional social scientists. It will repre-
sent a landmark within a field that has become, and will continue to be,
one of the foremost topics of global concern throughout the twenty-first
century. Reflecting this multi-disciplinary field, the series will include
works from Anthropology, Political Science, Sociology, Law, Geography
and Religious Studies. While drawing on an international field of schol-
arship, the series will include works by current and former staff members,
by visiting fellows and from events of the Max Planck Institute for the
Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity. Relevant manuscripts submitted
from outside the Max Planck Institute network will also be considered.

More information about this series at

http://www.springer.com/series/15009
 Monika Palmberger

How Generations
Remember
Conflicting Histories and Shared Memories in
Post-War Bosnia and Herzegovina
Monika Palmberger
University of Vienna, Austria
University of Leuven, Belgium

Published with the support of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF):

PUB 395-Z28.

Global Diversities
ISBN 978-1-137-45062-3 ISBN 978-1-137-45063-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-45063-0

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016936772

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and the Author(s) 2016. This book is published open access.

Open Access This book is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, duplication,
adaptation, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate
credit to the original author(s) and the source, a link is provided to the Creative Commons license, and
any changes made are indicated.
The images or other third party material in this book are included in the work’s Creative Commons
license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if such material is not included in the work’s Creative
Commons license and the respective action is not permitted by statutory regulation, users will need to
obtain permission from the license holder to duplicate, adapt, or reproduce the material.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or
the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any
errors or omissions that may have been made.

Cover image: © Monika Palmberger, War Damage Close to Mostar’s Former Frontline.

Printed on acid-free paper

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature

The registered company is Macmillan Publishers Ltd.
The registered company address is: The Campus, 4 Crinan Street, London, N1 9XW, United Kingdom
This book is dedicated to my sons, Noel, Elias and Aaron,
whose curiosity I truly admire
 Acknowledgements

How many times in recent years have I been humbled by the great sup-
port I received from numerous people on the way to this book and now
it is finally time to put my gratitude on paper. Among all these people, I first
wish to thank the people in Mostar who shared their stories with me;
without their openness, patience and trust this study would simply have
been impossible. I also owe special thanks to Univerzitet Džemal Bijedić
Mostar, Sveučiliste u Mostaru and Otvoreno srce for their kind openness
towards my project. I am likewise grateful to those people in Mostar and
Sarajevo who have become good friends over the years and who make
return visits so enjoyable! I particularly extend my thanks to Meri, Adaleta,
Kerim, Sanja, Lejla, Omer, Nasveta (who sadly passed away just before
the publication of this book), Minela, Amila and both Nermins and their
families for their friendship and support. Furthermore, I am grateful to
my interviewees from different NGOs and international organisations
for the time they spent with me to provide important information on
Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Mostar in particular.
Steven Vertovec was crucial in making this book possible by granting
me unfailing support from the very beginning of this project. I particu-
larly profited from his critical reading and constructive comments, his
personal interest in the region and his invaluable advice granted in many
different situations, for which I will always remain grateful.

vii
viii Acknowledgements

For critical reading of early drafts of this book, stimulating conversations

and invaluable support I am particularly grateful to Bob Parkin. I would
like to thank Marcus Banks, Ayşe Çağlar, Gerald Creed, Marita Eastmond,
Susanne Gal, Christian Gudehus, Elissa Helms, Stef Jansen, Frances Pine,
Karin Schittenhelm, Nicholas Van Hear, MitjaVelikonja and Ian Walker
for their close reading and helpful comments at different stages and on
different parts of the text from which this book evolved.
For inspiring conversations and constructive criticism along the way
I am grateful to many friends and colleagues, but I particularly wish to
thank Tilmann Heil, Azra Hromadžić, Chris Kofri, Kristine Krause, Fran
Meissner, Boris Nieswand, Magda Nowicka, Felix Ringel, Jelena Tošić,
Larissa Vetters, Susanne Wessendorf and Maria Schiller. Moreover, I wish
to thank my friends and colleagues at the Institute of Social and Cultural
Anthropology at the University of Oxford and Linacre College, at the
Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in
Göttingen and at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology
at the University of Vienna, for the many ways in which they supported
me on the way to this book. I also wish to thank Andre Gingrich, who
supervised my first research project in Bosnia and Herzegovina and who
gave me the confidence to embark on an ‘academic life’.
Different chapters include reworked parts of different journal arti-
cles (particularly Palmberger 2008; 2013a; 2013b) and I would like to
thank the anonymous reviewers of the different journals for their much-
appreciated comments and constructive criticism. Moreover, I wish
to thank the editors at Palgrave Macmillan, Judith Allan and Philippa
Grand, who smoothly guided me through the entire publication process,
Alexei Matveev for helping me with the maps for this book and Julene
Knox and Michelle Chew for their professional help with editing.
This book was made possible with the kind financial support of the
Austrian Academy of Sciences, the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education
and the Sciences, the Austrian Science Fund (FWF: T702-G18) and the
Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity.
At the end of this already long list, I wish to thank my entire family,
but particularly Ingrid, Gertrude, Richard, Verena, Walter, Katja, Birgit,
Sophia and Olivia, who not only provided great moral support but were
also always ready to help whenever they could.
 Acknowledgements ix

Among all those who supported this project, my greatest debt is owed
to my husband Robert and my children Noel and Elias (born in 2005)
and their little brother Aaron (who joined us in 2011) who almost liter-
ally followed every step of this book, from Vienna to Oxford, then to
Mostar, Göttingen, back to Vienna and finally to Brussels. They helped
me feel at home in every one of these places.
 Contents

1 Introduction: Researching Memory and Generation 1

Generations: Between Personal and Collective Memories 6
A Narrative Approach to Remembering 11
The Fine Line Between Memory and History 18
Situating Mostar’s Memories 21
Bibliography 40

2 Fragments of Communicative Memory: World War II,

Tito and the 1992–95 War 51
World War II in the Territory of Present-Day Bosnia
and Herzegovina 52
The Second Yugoslavia and Memory Politics Under Tito 55
National Mobilisation and Instrumentalisation of the Past 66
War in Mostar and its Aftermath 70
Bibliography 85

3 Divided Education: Divergent Historiographies

and Shared Discursive Practices 91
Institutionalising Mostar’s Division: Divided Education 93
Rewriting History and Placing the Nation 106
Towards Multi-Perspectivity 120
Bibliography 122
xi
xii Contents

4 Two Wars and Tito In-Between: The First Yugoslavs 127

Danica: More than One Rupture in a Lifetime 135
Armen: A ‘True Mostarian’ Embedded in Local History 139
Remembering the Partisan Past: Old Form, New Meaning 146
Interpretative Templates for Personal Meaning-Making
and as Political Tools 160
Bibliography 162

5 Ruptured Biographies: The Last Yugoslavs 165

Aida: A Lost Home 170
Minela and Željko: Shifting Narratives 176
Lost Homes: Oscillating Between Opposing Discourses 192
Bibliography 197

6 The (Un)spoilt Generation: The Post-Yugoslavs 201

Mario and Lejla: ‘Distancing’ Personal Experience
from that of the Collective 204
Darko and Elvira: ‘Normalising’ Mostar 209
Sabina: Facing Conflicting Memories of Yugoslavia 217
Transmission of Memories: Between Persistence and Change 223
Bibliography 225

7 Conclusion 229
Between Nation and Generation 231
Between Sharing and Silencing the Past 235
Generations and the Life Course 237
Bibliography 238

Glossary of Bosnian/Croatian Terms 241

Index 243
 List of Abbreviations

ABiH Armija Bosne i Hercegovine (Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina)

ARC American Refugee Committee
BiH Bosna i Hercegovina (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
EU European Union
HDZ Hrvatska demokratska zajednica (Croat Democratic Union)
HOS Hrvatske obrambene snage (Croat Defence Force)
HVIDR-a Hrvatski vojni invalidi domovinskog rata (Croat War Invalids of
the Homeland War)
HVO Hrvatsko vijeće obrane (Croat Defence Council)
ICG International Crisis Group
ICTY International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
JNA Jugoslovenska narodna armija (Yugoslav People’s Army)
LCY League of Communists of Yugoslavia
NDH Nezavisna Država Hrvatska (Independent State of Croatia)
NGO non-governmental organisation
OHR Office of the High Representative
OSCE Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
SBIH Stranka za BiH (Party for BiH)
SDA Stranka demokratska akcije (Party of Democratic Action)
SDP Socijaldemokratska partija (Social Democratic Party)
SDS Srpska demokratska stranka (Serb Democratic Party)

xiii
xiv List of Abbreviations

SUBNOR Savez udruženja boraca Narodno-oslobodilačkog rata

(The Federation of Associations of Veterans of the National
Liberation War)
TO Territorial Defence
UNDP United Nations Development Programme
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
VRS Vojska Republike Srpske (Army of the Serb Republic)
ZAVNOBiH Zemaljsko antifašističko vijeće narodnog oslobodjenja Bosne i
Hercegovine (National Antifascist Council of National Liberation
of Bosnia and Herzegovina)
 List of Figures

Fig. 1.1 Hrvatski Dom at Rondo 28

Fig. 1.2 Ulica fra Didaka Buntića is a new street name, named
after a Catholic priest born in 1871 29
Fig. 2.1 Graffito next to the Catholic cathedral stating: ‘Ante Gotovina
heroj’ (‘Ante Gotovina is a hero’) 78
Fig. 2.2 Rebuilt Stari most (old bridge) 84
Fig. 3.1 Stara gimnazija, the Old Grammar School in 2008 98
Fig. 3.2 A memorial stone at the Old Bridge 101
Fig. 3.3 The imam with pupils at Šehitluci (martyrs’ cemetery), 2006 102
Fig. 4.1 During one of the memory-guided city tours with Armen,
at Stari most 142
Fig. 4.2 At the anniversary commemoration of Mostar’s poet Aleksa
Šantić, 2006 143
Fig. 4.3 Partisan commemoration ceremony, 2008 152
Fig. 4.4 Partisan commemoration ceremony, 2008 153
Fig. 5.1 Graffito stating: ‘Živio Tito’ (‘Long live Tito’) 174
Fig. 7.1 Graffito stating: ‘Look the aliens destroyed the bridge.
UFO=HVO’, 2006 230

xv
 List of Maps

Map 1.1 Map showing the borders of former Yugoslavia,

the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 4
Map 1.2 Map of present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina showing
the Serb Republic (Republika Srpska) and the
Bosniak-dominated Bosniak–Croat Federation 5
Map 1.3 Map of Mostar showing the former frontline and some
‘field sites’ 32

xvii
 1
Introduction: Researching Memory
and Generation

Danica, Aida and Darko spent (most of ) their lives in the city of Mostar.
However, they grew up in three different countries: while Danica (born
1926) spent her childhood in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
(renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929), Aida (born 1969) grew
up in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, or SFRY. Darko (born
1989) spent only the first three years of his life in SFRY before he and
his family had to flee. When he returned to Mostar at the end of the war,
it was to a country called Bosnia and Herzegovina (Figs. 1.1 and 1.2).
The lives of Danica, Aida and Darko were all significantly affected by
the war that was fought in present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosna i
Hercegovina, BiH) between 1992 and 1995, yet they attribute different
meanings to that war.
I met Danica, a graceful and cheerful woman of 80 years, at Otvoreno
srce (Open Heart), a day-centre for elderly people—a place open to all
nationalities1 and one of my main research sites. Danica likes to sing

1
Throughout this book, I refer to ‘nation’ or ‘national identity’ instead of ‘ethnicity’ or ‘ethnic
identity’. In BiH people employ the terms narod/nacija (people/nation) to describe group identities
(Bringa 1995). Moreover, the term ’ethnic’ has often been used in a selective and hierarchical way
and has been ascribed only to some groups and not to others (Baumann 1996).

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016 1

M. Palmberger, How Generations Remember,
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-45063-0_1
2 How Generations Remember

traditional Sevdalinka2 and delve into her memories of past times, which
centre mostly on Mostar’s former beauty and the deceased Yugoslav state-
man Josip Broz Tito, who she will never stop admiring. Danica does
not accept national identities as primordial. Regardless of her Catholic
background, she never introduced herself as a Croat to me, as is common
in post-war Mostar.3 Her best friend, also a regular visitor to Otvoreno
srce, is a Muslim. They both first and foremost identify themselves as
city dwellers and not in national terms, as Croat or Bosniak, respective-
ly.4 In Danica’s narrative, World War II (WWII) is of more significance
than the 1992–1995 war. When she talks about the latter, she draws on
interpretative templates based on her early experience of WWII. Thereby
she integrates the 1992–1995 war into a wider narrative of suffering and
the fight against fascism. Moreover, her experience of post-WWII recon-
struction and economic progress, and the renewed peaceful coexistence
of Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs give her hope that times will also get better
after the recent war.
The 1992–1995 war was the first war Aida experienced. In contrast
to Danica, Aida grew up under relative political and economic stability,
and to the day it eventually broke out, a war in her home country was
impossible to imagine for her. For Aida, the war in the 1990s constitutes
a significant rupture and is connected with the loss of home and future
prospects—life is sharply divided into a time ‘before’ and ‘after’ the war
and the break-up of Yugoslavia. Aida was just about to pursue her career
and to establish her own household when war broke out. She had to flee
her hometown of Mostar. Now, two decades after the war ended, she still
lives with her parents, a fact she connects to the uncertainties the war
brought her and her family. She shares with Danica warm memories of
Tito (partly transmitted to her by her much-loved grandmother). But
she does not share Danica’s optimistic outlook that social relations in
Mostar will normalise. Aida and I met on a regular basis over a period
of three years, mostly in a café or for a walk, but always on the Bosniak-
dominated east side of Mostar. Only once could I convince Aida to cross

2
Sevdalinka is a traditional folk music from BiH with very emotional melodies.
3
In this book Bosnian Croats are referred to as Croats, as is common practice in Mostar, regardless
of whether they are in possession of the Croat passport or not.
4
‘Bosniak’ is today the official term for a Bosnian Muslim (Donia 2000).
 1 Introduction 3

sides with me to visit Mostar’s only proper park. It was the first time since
the war that Aida had been to this park, as she no longer feels at home on
the Croat-dominated west side, regardless of the fact that she was born
and grew up there.
In contrast to Aida, Darko, who was a child when the war in Mostar
started, narrates his life as relatively unaffected by the experience of war and
its aftermath by distancing his personal experience from that of the wider
society. His life narrative is not divided by the war as is Aida’s. Darko is a
student at Stara gimnazija, Mostar’s prestigious secondary school, where
Bosniak and Croat students are now taught separate curricula albeit under
the same roof. While he is critical of the students’ separation, he still has,
at least to a certain degree, incorporated the division of Mostar’s citizens
into separate nationalities (with separate histories) as ‘natural’. Whenever
I spent time with Darko, wandering around town, meeting for coffee or
a movie, he preferred to steer clear of topics concerning war and post-war
issues. This was also the case when I asked him for a memory-guided tour
through Mostar with a group of visiting foreign students. The places and
stories Darko chose to share were strikingly detached from the war’s legacy.
Danica, Aida and Darko each belong to one of the three generations
identified in this book: Danica to the ‘First Yugoslavs’, Aida to the ‘Last
Yugoslavs’ and Darko to the ‘Post-Yugoslavs’.5 They position themselves
differently in relation to the significant political, societal and economic
changes BiH has faced in the recent past. In this book I introduce the
concept of ‘generational positioning’, which incorporates age as well as
stage of life (past and present). I show the way in which generational
positioning is significant in how individuals in present-day Mostar nar-
rate their lives, rethink the past and (re-)envision the future, and at the
same time (re-)position themselves in post-war and post-socialist society.
Mostar is a city where the rapid political shifts BiH experienced
in the 20th century have revealed themselves most prominently, and it is
a suitable place to explore questions related to generation and memory.
Mostar has seen severe political and societal transformations over the last
century, which culminated in the fall of socialist Yugoslavia and in a brutal

5
I named the three generations ‘First Yugoslavs’, ‘Last Yugoslavs’ and ‘Post-Yugoslavs’, because their
personal experience of different phases of Yugoslavia or the lack of it is decisive in the way
Mostarians position themselves in the past.
4 How Generations Remember

Map 1.1 Map showing the borders of former Yugoslavia, the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia. Map by Alexei Matveev. Map data © OpenStreetMap
contributors

war that divided the once multinational city into a Bosniak-dominated

east side and a Croat-dominated west side. Accordingly, experiences of
different (often opposing) nationality and memory politics, as well as
of different forms of coexistence vary greatly along generational lines.
What makes the Mostar case so special is that there has been very limited
interaction between Bosniaks and Croats since the 1992–1995 war, and
generational commonalities still prevail in the way Mostarians6 position
themselves vis-à-vis the fractures and turning points of local history. By
conducting long-term fieldwork on both sides—in Bosniak-dominated
East Mostar as well as in Croat-dominated West Mostar—and by concen-
trating on the ways in which individuals give meaning to their personal
and their community’s past, I reveal generational commonalities that tran-
scend the national border, always so dominant in present-day Mostar.

6
When referring to ‘Mostarians’ in this book, I mean all people presently living in Mostar, includ-
ing those who were born in other places.
 1 Introduction 5

Map 1.2 Map of present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina showing the Serb
Republic (Republika Srpska) and the Bosniak-dominated Bosniak–Croat
Federation. Map by Alexei Matveev. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors

This book explores how Mostar’s different generations place themselves

vis-à-vis competing authoritative narratives of the local past. It analyses
how experiences and exposure to different political-historical periods/
events and memory politics affect people’s historical understanding. I do
not suggest that individuals are unaffected by existing canonical national
historiographies when orienting themselves anew in society and that they
do not take part in reaffirming them. Instead, I argue that we should not
assume individuals naïvely take on new dominant public discourses and
simply overwrite their previous experiences. Although political changes
may come about abruptly and radically, it would be inaccurate to assume
that a society fully adapts to all of these changes, and even more inaccu-
rate to imagine that such societal changes take place at the same speed at
which political elites change.
6 How Generations Remember

Following Holland and Lave (2001), I view the notion of generation

as closely interlinked with memory and history: ‘Because history is
made in person, registered in intimate identities as well as in institu-
tions, there is every reason to expect that age cuts across people’s expe-
riences and creates intergenerational differences’ (Holland and Lave
2001: 17). Norman Ryder (1965), another scholar who has vividly
engaged in the discussion on generations, has pointed out that trau-
matic events, such as wars and economic crises, are likely to leave an
imprint on the lives of individuals regardless of their stage in life. This
is also confirmed in this book. Still, there are significant generational
differences in the ways Mostarians make sense of and position them-
selves towards the past in the present.
This said, the results of my study do not suggest that nationality
has become secondary in the lives of Mostarians or that they feel more
attached to people of the same generation than to those of the same
nation. This is because the three generations identified in the study
do not each constitute a community in the sense of being a group
based on social interaction. By exploring generational differences in
positioning oneself towards the past, I do not by any means attempt
to downplay differences between Bosniaks and Croats concerning the
respective nationalised historiographies. Nor do I deny other social
locations. Besides generational and national identity, other identities,
as for example those based on gender, socio-economic or rural/urban
background, also play a role when Mostarians position themselves vis-
à-vis the local past (see Altinary and Pető 2015; Helms 2010; Henig
2012; Jansen 2005; Kolind 2008; Leydesdorff et al. 1996; Paletschek
and Schraut 2008). Although not at the centre of my analysis, when-
ever possible these social locations are considered.

 enerations: Between Personal and Collective

G
Memories
In recent decades there has been a strong increase in studies of mem-
ory in the social sciences (Berliner 2005). Even if this development has
brought a great wealth of insightful studies, one binary set of distinctions
 1 Introduction 7

has remained: the division between personal and collective memory (see
Bloch 2007). The division of personal and collective memory often coin-
cides with the division of firsthand and secondhand experiences. Pickering
and Keightley make a plea for a closer investigation of ‘the way that we
take up and synthesise firsthand and secondhand experience in develop-
ing self-narratives, how collective “frames” of memory are adopted and
applied in everyday remembering processes, and how we make sense of
and operationalise institutionalised and objectivised memory’ (Pickering
and Keightley 2013: 119). By focusing on personal memories as well as
transmitted memories and on the specific generational discursive tactics
and interpretative templates, this book hopes to contribute towards this
aim and to bridge the division between personal and collective memory,
even if it can never be eliminated fully. Individuals’ narratives are never
solely personal memories but are always related to a wider social frame-
work and to the prevailing official histories (Fabian 2007; Halbwachs
1980, 1992).7 By examining the role of generational positioning, it is
precisely the intersection of the individual and the wider social arena that
takes centre stage.
In the case of my particular study, I suggest that it is more accurate to
speak of a Bosniak or Croat ‘dominant public discourse’ rather than of
Bosniak or Croat ‘collective memory’ as such. I do so to emphasise that
there is a difference between public/official history and what we may
call vernacular/popular history, or between those who are professionally
involved in creating national history and those who are not. Moreover, by
speaking of discourse, we are reminded that the subject of discussion is
historically embedded and is thus dynamic, while the notion of collective
memory is rather tangible and static.
The title of this book, How Generations Remember, is an allusion to
the title of Paul Connerton’s seminal book, How Societies Remember
(1989). In his book, Connerton opens up a timely discussion going
beyond the textual and discursive understanding of remembering by
concentrating on embodied/habitual memory and ritual aspects of

7
This central insight serves as the broadest common ground for social scientists working on
memory today. Nevertheless, their foci may vary greatly between individualist and collectivist
understandings of social (collective) memory (see Olick 1999; Olick and Robbins 1998).
8 How Generations Remember

memory. In terms of the study of generations he thus mainly discusses

generations as transmitters or receivers of group memory. Although
Connerton’s pioneering contribution to the study of memory is
unquestioned, by focusing on how memory is passed down through the
generations he primarily answers the question of how group memory is
conveyed and sustained. This emphasis on transmission and persistence
leaves open the question of where to locate the individual, the agent, the
force and possibility for reflexivity and change (Argenti and Schramm
2010; Shaw 2010). My study, in concentrating on the role of generational
positioning, reveals that past experiences inform present stances, but
also shows that it is the actor in the present that gives meaning to the
past. This is also true for narratives of the past that are passed on from
older to younger generations, and are then scrutinised and contextualised
by the latter. It is suggested that people’s sense of continuity can deal
with the inconsistencies that arise with this transfer between generations.
It is this field of tension between collective and personal, and between
persistence and change that is central in the discussion of generational
positioning in this book.
Generations can be seen as ‘mediators’ between individual and col-
lective memory. Several scholars have proven the significance of family
narratives for the process of transmission of memories through gen-
erations (see, e.g., Erll 2011a; Feuchtwang 2005; Halbwachs 1925;
Hirsch 2008; Welzer et al. 2005). In recent discussions of families as
small-scale mnemonic communities, the concept of transmission is
critically reflected and sometimes replaced by other concepts, such as
‘re-­narration’ (Welzer 2010). Welzer argues that ‘narrations of memory
are never transmitted, but rather constitute an occasion for an endless line
of re-narrations that are constantly reformatted according to generational
needs and frames of interpretation’ (Welzer 2010: 16). This indicates that
generations borrow, cross-reference and negotiate personal and shared
pasts in finding their narrative, as suggested by Rothberg’s multidirec-
tional understanding of memory (Rothberg 2009: 3). This process of
‘bringing into relation different inherited pasts, and use them in orienting
ourselves to the future’ (Pickering and Keightley 2013: 121) is still
 1 Introduction 9

widely unexplored and the analysis presented in this book hopes to

contribute to its elucidation.
Following Mannheim’s seminal essay The Problems of Generations (1997
[1928]), most studies linking generation with memory have concentrated
principally on the different historico-political periods that individuals
of different generations have lived through (see, e.g., Borneman 1992;
Bude 2005; Corning 2010; Fietze 2009; Rosenthal and Gather 1986;
Schuman and Corning 2012; Schuman and Scott 1989; Yurchak 2005).
Some of these studies also consider the stage of life individuals were in
when they witnessed a certain event. Adolescence and young adulthood
here carry particular weight, and experiences during that early period
are seen as formative, as in Mannheim’s work. This research does not,
however, suggest that such interpretations and norms remain unchanged
throughout a lifetime, but only that they continue to be important refer-
ence points.
The concept of ‘generational positioning’ that I introduce in this book
gives further importance to the stage of life in the sense of a particular
‘life situation’ individuals are in at the time when they reflect on the
past (and not only at the time of the original experience). For example,
we can expect differences in experiences of war between those who live
through it as children and those who do so as adults or parents. Still, it
is the actor in the present that gives meaning to the past. Thus the narra-
tors’ present life situation is likely to affect their retrospective narrations
of past events. Consequently, the experience of certain events alone, such
as the war, does not signify a generation, rather the interpretative act of
making sense of it, whereby individuals position themselves by following
certain discursive tactics does. Generational identity is constructed by
sharing memories but also by collectively silencing them. Generations
assign their identity and at the same time differentiate themselves from
other generations.
Due to their divergent life situations, the First Yugoslavs, Last
Yugoslavs and Post-Yugoslavs face distinct everyday realities and chal-
lenges, and thus are differently affected by the recent societal and eco-
nomic changes; this influences the way they probe the past. Generational
positioning is closely interlinked with the meaning-making and mne-
monic processes that are likely to change with the different life situa-
10 How Generations Remember

tions people face (Reulecke 2010: 121).8 Giving meaning to past events
is a situational process and not a single act. It is likely that the meaning
people give to important events and periods in their biography changes
during the course of life. Here it is important to state, as Gardner has,
that ‘the life course is of course not culturally neutral, nor is it unaf-
fected by particular geographical locations, for these involve very real
material conditions and power relations’ (Gardner 2002: 221). In this
book, the power relations concerning the transmission of memories (or
the failure of the same) between generations in particular are carved out.
The generations I refer to evolved from my interlocutors’ narratives.
These generations are understood as sharing a historical experience that
generates a ‘community of perception’ (Olick 1999: 339). A shared past
is crucial for a generation’s constitution. Equally important are ‘cer-
tain interpretative principles’ and ‘discursive practices’ (Nugin 2010:
355–356). The narrator takes a central role; individuals are not passive
consumers of experiences, but rather play an active role in generating
meaning from their experiences.
Even if in most cases the generations outlined here correlate with
the age of my interlocutors, we need to keep in mind that the bound-
aries drawn between the generations are not clear-cut and age alone
is not always decisive. Consequently the generations should not be
considered as homogeneous cohorts, but rather as trends based on
generational identification. The notion of ‘generation’ used in this
book should thus be understood as a heuristic device (see Borneman
1992). Regardless of shared ‘discursive tactics’ identified, I did not
encounter one ‘standard’ narrative representative for each generation,

8
There is widespread interest today in the concept of generation within the social sciences and
beyond. Yet it is understood in many different ways, not only between but also within disciplines.
Existing research spans studies on kinship and family (see, e.g., Bertaux and Thompson 1993;
Lisón Tolosana 1966; Parkin and Stone 2004), to ageing and the intergenerational contract (see,
e.g., Lüscher and Liegle 2003) and life-course research related to political attitudes and educational
and career paths (see, e.g., Mayer 2009). In the last few decades, generation has become a central
concept in research on migration, connected to studies on exiles (see, e.g., Ballinger 2003; Berg
2009) as well as second-generation migrants (see, e.g., Vertovec and Rogers 1998; Wessendorf
2007). Moreover, generation has also been a topic in life-course and biography research connected
with political ruptures (see, e.g., Borneman 1992; Diewald et al. 2006; Rosenthal and Bogner
2009) as well as in studies concerned with intergenerational aspects of memory (see, e.g., Argenti
and Schramm 2010; Bloch 1998; Hirsch 2008; Welzer 2007).
 1 Introduction 11

and even narratives told to me by the same person sometimes varied

significantly depending on the situation in which they were told.
Lastly, the generations here are not political generations who share a
politico-ideological outlook (see Bude 1997). The First, Last and Post-­
Yugoslavs are not necessarily connected through their political outlooks;
what they share are certain discursive tactics in the ways they (re-)posi-
tioned themselves after the war. In this sense each generation may be seen
as a group of people who share a certain processing of experiences, as
suggested by Lüscher (2005) in the phrase ‘gemeinsame Verarbeitung von
Erfahrungen’ (a shared way in coming to terms with the past) (Lüscher
2005: 55). This is especially interesting if one considers that the contact
between the Bosniak and Croat members of the generations is extremely
limited. For the Post-Yugoslavs this has been true for most of their lives,
yet this is the group that most often refers to itself as one generation,
thereby differentiating themselves from the older population. As I show
in Chap. 6, they do so not only by means of sharing memories but also
by silencing them.

A Narrative Approach to Remembering

In this study, I concentrate on what Assmann and Czaplicka (1995)
refer to as ‘communicative memory’. This is the memory that is still
preserved among living generations, and this time span is most impor-
tant for individuals’ perception of their lives. The aspect of time is cru-
cial here because communicative memory is limited to a time span of
around 80–100 years (during which eyewitnesses to the events remain
alive) (see Assmann and Czaplicka 1995). Central political periods
(rather than specific events)—and the meanings they assume in the
life narratives of individuals of different generations—are central in
my analysis. The three historico-political periods primarily explored
in this book thus are the period of socialist Yugoslavia (including the
constituting period of WWII), the war in the 1990s and the post-war
period. These are tightly interconnected and often narrated in relation
to each other, both in public history representations as well as in per-
sonal accounts.
12 How Generations Remember

The entry point I have chosen for this research are narratives of dif-
ferent forms (and in different settings) that allow me to make visible the
actors and their strategies/tactics for dealing with the past. Memories are
thus understood as interpretations of the past that always include intel-
lectual work (Wood 1991). Narratives are simultaneously born out of
experiences and structure experience (Ochs and Capps 1996). In contrast
to the cognitive approach to memory, in which memory is only ­attributed
to the individual mind, the narrative approach taken here treats memory
as a social practice because it is communicative (Fabian 2007).
Whenever the notion of memory is used in this book, it should be
understood as a narrative that is selective and situational in character,
and a product of past experiences, present needs and future aspira-
tions. Although at first glance memory might seem to be chiefly con-
nected to the past, it is also closely linked to the present and the future
(Haukanes and Trnka 2013). We remember in order to give meaning to
the present and thus gain power over the future (see Assmann 2007;
Schwartz 1982). Thus we are confronted with different temporal
moments including the inherited and experienced past, the present
moment of narration as well as the imagined future (Pickering and
Keightley 2013: 125; see also French 2012). Consequently, narratives
of experienced events refer both to current life and to past experi-
ence but are also linked to what the future holds for individuals as
well as for societies (Kerby 1991; Koselleck 2004; Natzmer 2002;
Palmberger and Tošić 2016; Polkinghorne 1998).
As Trouillot (1995) has rightly stated, ‘human beings participate in
history both as actors and narrators’ (Trouillot 1995: 2). This means
that individuals are narrators of history and also actors, and thus are not
entirely free to choose since their narratives of the past are based to a
certain degree on personal experiences and on wider public narratives
they have been exposed to. This becomes apparent in the discussion of
generations I present below. Despite all the choices individuals can draw
on when narrating the past, they are also influenced by experiences in the
past and by socio-historical structures (Rosenthal 2006: 1). Memories are
thus selective constructions incorporating experience (Kansteiner 2002).
Processes of remembering not only enable us to make sense of our
pasts, but they also help in identity constructions.
 1 Introduction 13

Memory serves as both a phenomenological ground of identity (as when

we know implicitly who we are and the circumstances that have made us
so) and the means for explicit identity construction (as when we search our
memories in order to understand ourselves or when we offer particular
stories about ourselves in order to make a certain kind of impression).
(Antze and Lambek 1996a: xvi)9

To be precise, it is not only a matter of the way the past is narrated,

but also of the way the narrators position themselves in the past (Antze
and Lambek 1996b). The way that meaning is attributed to past experi-
ences is likely to change during one’s lifetime due to changes in historico-­
political contexts, new autobiographical experiences and the fact that one
is moving forwards in the life cycle (Rosenthal 2006). The dimension of
temporal transformation and new interpretations of the past in new pres-
ents has generally been little explored and calls for closer investigation,
not least through the focus on generation (Feindt et al. 2014).

 ifferent Temporal Moments in the Process

D
of Remembering

As the preceding paragraphs have illuminated, the work presented here

builds on the premise that memory (or better ‘remembering’) is an active
process. Remembering is understood as a narrative act of generating mean-
ing located in the present and directed towards the future. Remembering is
‘not only welcoming, receiving an image of the past, it is also searching for
it, “doing” something’ (Ricoeur 2006: 56; see also Hodgkin and Radstone
2006; Passerini 2007; Schwartz 1982; Tonkin 1992).
Remembering and its counterpart, forgetting/silencing, therefore have
little to do with a mere retrospection on the past (Fabian 2007; Rasmussen
2002), but also relate to the way one’s present and future are conceptual-
ised (Ochs and Capps 2001: 255; see also Erll 2011b; Lowenthal 1985;
Tannock 1995). Memory thus acts as an orienting force and ‘there are
times when a very specific vision of the future frames the utilization of
the past’ (Irwin-Zarecka 1994: 101). As I show at different points in this

9
On this matter see also Cole and Knowles 2001; Friedman 1992; Jureit 2009.
14 How Generations Remember

book, nostalgia for Yugoslavia manifested within the three generations’

narratives and as such is a representation of the past that at times serves
as a vision for the future.
Nostalgic feelings for the socialist past have been identified in many
post-socialist contexts, and nostalgic icons have been identified as ‘mne-
monic bridges’ between the present and the past that offer continuity in
times of wide-reaching societal changes (Ange and Berliner 2015; Bach
2002; Bartmanski 2011; Boym 2001; Brunnbauer and Troebst 2007;
Creed 2006; Heady and Gambold Miller 2006; Velikonja 2009; Yurchak
2005). As recent work on post-socialism has shown, it would be wrong
to assume ‘a clear break from the past’ and from experiences of socialism
eradicated from people’s memories (Kay et al. 2012; see also Greenberg
2014; Pine 2013; Ringel 2013). Assuming that regime changes coupled
with war are likely to intensify feelings of loss and insecurity, and trigger
a yearning for the past, it is not surprising that a longing for the pre-war
times, for Yugoslavia, prevails in BiH. People in BiH have experienced
not only a drastic change in the political system governing their country,
but also the war that accompanied it.
This book builds on the past–present–future interrelations inherent
to nostalgia (Davis 1977). Rather than viewing nostalgia for Yugoslavia
as oriented towards the past alone, I argue that it can also be seen as
criticism of the present post-war and post-socialist realities, and may be
reflected in visions of a better future (see Boyer 2006). It is suggested that
a longing for Yugoslavia has the potential to ‘paralyse’ individuals, who
realise that what was lost can never be regained, and this puts them into a
constant state of ‘waiting’. At the same time this longing is an expression
of criticism of the present situation and in this way can become a source
for future aspirations. As I reveal in this book, nostalgia shows itself in
different forms along generational demarcations.

 etween Memory Politics and Individual

B
Meaning-Making

In his critical article on memory studies, Confino (1997) argues that

the discussions of memory in recent decades have reduced memory to
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 CHAPTER VIII.
LOVE FULFILLED.

Since the rescue of Elissa from the brutal grasp of Adherbal, the
young girl had unrestrainedly given all her love to her protector.
Although experienced in matters of war, from having accompanied
her father on his campaigns, she was utterly inexperienced in
matters of love, and, for all her determination—indeed, almost
cruelty of character—begot by the way in which she had been
brought up, she was passionately loving. This was born in her, and
she was, moreover, just at the very age when a maiden’s heart is
most impressionable. She had no idea of counting the cost of
anything that she might do where her love was concerned, and she
had fully made up her mind that Maharbal was to be hers, and she
his. Although in those days, as now, eventual matrimony was
considered a desirable object in life for young women, a lapse from
virtue beforehand, when marriage was intended, was not looked
upon as a heinous crime, even among the highest families of
Carthage. For the worship of Tanais, or Astarte, was but another
name for the worship of Venus, and, as all readers of the classics
know, whether under the names of Artemis or Aphrodite, of Venus or
Astarte, the worship of the goddess of love was seldom
accompanied by the greatest continence. This was evident by the
Eleusinian mysteries in Greece, and the Veneralia in Rome, while
the extreme licentiousness of the Carthaginian priestesses of Tanais
at Cissa, the town whither the revolted mercenaries of Hamilcar were
banished, is too well known to require comment.
From her earliest youth, Elissa had been instructed to be a
worshipper of the greatest of Carthaginian divinities after Melcareth,
this Venus, Astarte, or Tanais. And she was more than ever a faithful
votary of the shrine since she herself, youthful, ardent, and loving,
had set her deepest affections upon Maharbal. She expected and
intended that he should become her husband; but she had, with the
laxity of the times, resulting from this worship of Tanais, fully
determined that, with or without the marriage tie, their lives should be
joined together in a closer union than that which usually unites those
who have not already become man and wife.
The only difficulty was in Maharbal himself. He was a man who
had ideas of purity far beyond his age. He did not believe at all in
pre-nuptial love, and had altogether a higher standard of the moral
law than any known to exist at that time. He was, indeed, laughed at
in the army for never keeping even one female slave. He had, in
consequence, after having come to a full understanding with Elissa,
whom he loved, as she loved him, with every fibre of his soul, been
extremely careful that, as far as he was concerned, she should
remain absolutely pure. He intended her to be his wife, and she was,
he knew, absolutely determined to marry him. There, indeed,
seemed to be to neither of them the slightest reason why they should
not shortly wed. Therefore, he had ever gently restrained her
passionate abandonment. He recognised plainly that these loving
advances were made solely in the loving confidence that she
reposed in the man who was to be her husband. To any other man
she would, he well knew, have been as cold as ice, and he
recognised that, with body and soul, she loved him, and him alone.
Thus, when Hannibal’s mandates arrived, ordering Maharbal to
take Melania as his mistress, the youthful and passionate Elissa
became furious with rage and jealousy. She might have looked upon
the matter in a less severe light, judging by the habits of the day, had
not Hannibal, her father, so distinctly said that Maharbal and Melania
were to be considered as betrothed to each other; but this order,
depriving her for ever of the hope of the lover who had never as yet
been hers, aroused her fury to the highest degree, and Maharbal
himself was not less angry than Elissa at being caught in this trap of
Hannibal’s. While discussing the matter together, the letter from
Hannibal to Melania was brought to them. When Elissa had read it,
for once her whole nature rose up in revolt. She became, for the first
time in her life, a thorough rebel to her father’s authority, and
instantly determined upon the death of her rival. For was she not still
the Regent and Governor of New Carthage, and was not the power
of life and death in her hands?
 She instantly called the palace guards, and ordered them to go to
Melania’s apartment, to lead her away for instant decapitation, and
to return and inform her when her orders had been obeyed.
Maharbal strove to interfere; but Elissa, drawing herself up,
remarked calmly:
“I am supreme here, Maharbal; this is my palace, and these are
my guards. No one can give orders here but myself.”
Shortly afterwards word was brought to Elissa that Melania was
missing, and that a letter had been found in her room saying that she
was departing for ever; therefore the order for her execution could
not be carried out. She had been seen to leave the city; but whither
she had gone no man knew.
Her first rage being past, Elissa was doubtless glad that her
barbarous orders could not be executed, since she was not cruel at
heart. As for Maharbal, he was delighted, not only that Melania’s
execution could not be carried out, but that her absence made it
quite impossible for him to fulfil the orders of his chief. He thought it
probable that the girl had fled—as indeed she had—merely from fear
of Elissa’s vengeance, and sincerely hoped that he might never see
her face again.
Under Hannibal’s delegated authority Elissa had it in her power to
ratify the marriages of all persons under her rule at New Carthage;
so in her disappointment, and while knowing that without Hannibal’s
permission it would be illegal and irregular to apply this authority to
her own person, she determined upon a bold stroke, and resolved
instantly to celebrate her own marriage with Maharbal. Requesting
the presence of Gisco and the princess as witnesses, she, much to
their alarm and surprise, at once announced to them her intention;
and when the guards, who had brought the news of Melania’s
absence, had withdrawn, proudly drew herself up, and advancing to
where Maharbal was sitting, sadly buried in thought, laid both her
hands upon his shoulders, and looked him straight in the eyes. All
trace of girlishness had now vanished; it was a woman, and a
determined woman, who thus confronted him.
“So Melania is not to die, it seems, for if she reappear now I shall
not have her executed, but carry out my father’s orders, and hand
her over unto thee, or, rather, hand thee over unto her. Yea, hand
over thee my affianced husband to be the affianced lover of another
woman. And she, this slave, by Hannibal’s cruel command, in which,
methinks, he hath dealt somewhat lightly with Hannibal’s daughter,
hath been plainly ordered to live with thee as if thou wert in truth her
husband. Hannibal says it is for State reasons; but State reasons or
no, since I am not thy wife, and this girl is missing, I will do that
which will make it for ever impossible for me to give myself as wife to
any other man. For I, too, although only affianced to thee, will do my
duty to thee as thy wife. And since what applies where this Iberian
slave is concerned, applies equally where Hannibal’s daughter is
concerned, I, Elissa, being determined to bind my life unto thine, and
to thine alone for ever, now solemnly salute thee, Maharbal, as my
husband, before these two witnesses, and before Melcareth and
Tanais; and if Hannibal confirm not our marriage, he can, at all
events, find no fault with thee or me. But be assured that he will
confirm it, for he loveth me. And if thou wilt not take me, I will die.”
Seeing that if Melania reappeared, his beloved Elissa and he
would be separated for ever, all Maharbal’s scruples fled from him
upon hearing Elissa’s word, as leaves fly before the autumn wind.
Thus it fell out that he also vowed eternal fidelity to her, saluting her
as his wife before the two witnesses.
For the next few days Maharbal and Hannibal’s daughter yielded
themselves up to all the delights of mutual love; for as they
considered themselves actually married before the gods, Elissa
became his wife in all but law. Maharbal, however, being the soul of
honour, had stipulated before he yielded, that they should instantly
confess the situation to Hannibal, and ask him to confirm their union
without delay. To this Elissa readily agreed, for she knew her father’s
immense love for herself, and believed that, as the unexpected
absence of Melania had made compliance with his instructions quite
impossible, he would not be so very angry at what had occurred.
Moreover, she quite expected that, knowing that she and her lover
had overstepped the boundary of prudence, he would yield to their
wishes at once, and make them, by his sanction, man and wife; or,
rather, confirm the marriage which, she considered, they had
consummated.
 But for all that she knew him so well, and that she and her father
loved each other so dearly, she yet did not thoroughly know Hannibal
the Great, nor the inflexibility of his will. He arrived at New Carthage
on the morning of the fourth day after these events with a large army,
and still Melania had not reappeared.
No time was lost by Maharbal and Elissa in disclosing to him the
actual truth. He was vexed on finding Melania missing, but found no
fault with what they had done. He merely remarked drily, and with a
sarcastic smile:
“I have given certain orders, my child Elissa, and they will have to
be obeyed if possible, for I go not back upon my word. Neither thou
nor Maharbal have hitherto been to blame, since ye could not carry
them out. And as thou wast the Regent and Governor here,
Maharbal was, of course, in the meantime, bound to obey thine
orders. Apparently thou hast given him instructions that he was not
very loth to obey. But if thou, as the result of thy futile presumption in
thinking I would make ye twain man and wife, shouldst bear to him a
child, think not that I will any the more for that unite thee to him in
matrimony. Far from it! I have said that Maharbal and Melania are
affianced to one another, and, until I know of the girl’s death,
affianced they remain. Mind I do not say married, but affianced; and
that he cannot be affianced to two women at once, or wedded to one
and affianced to another, is evident.”
Neither the prayers of Maharbal nor his reference to his former
services, nor the tears and supplications of Elissa herself, would for
a moment shake Hannibal’s will. He was not to be moved, for he was
iron.
“Nay, Elissa, notwithstanding that thou hast in mine absence
chosen to take the law into thine own hands, and to consider thyself
the wife of Maharbal, yet, despite the oaths which thou hast sworn
before two witnesses and the gods, thou art not and canst not be his
wife without my consent, and that consent is withheld. Thou couldst
indeed, it is true, in thy position as Regent and Governor of New
Carthage, have given thine own consent, and it would have been
legal, to the marriage of any others who might have bound
themselves as ye have done by mutual oaths. But for thine own
marriage thou wast answerable to me alone, and I will not confirm it.
So that is an end of the matter. But now let us go to our mid-day
meal; this subject will keep till later. I presume that thou hast made
inquiries for Melania in any case?”
The shock of this blow had nearly rendered the wretched Elissa
speechless. She could merely murmur:
“Ay, my father, I have sent in all directions.”
“That will do then; so now let us to our repast.”
Before the end of the meal, the old ex-soldier and now forester,
who had met Melania on the hill, appeared, asking to see the lady
Elissa. She shuddered when she heard of his presence with a
foreboding of woe, for what could bring him but news of Melania? He
brought, indeed, tidings that his sons, while hunting a wild boar, had
come upon Melania lying unconscious in the forest, and that she was
now reposing at his hut, and seemed nearly dead from starvation.
“That will do,” said Hannibal, giving the man a large sum of money.
“Take the lady out all necessary provisions and wine, and bring her
in when she is completely recovered; but see that she is completely
recovered first.”
When the old man had gone, Hannibal addressed his daughter
and Maharbal.
“Until Melania reappears, my children, since matters have gone so
far between ye, I will not interfere in your illegal and ill-judged union.
But when she arrives, remember this, thou Elissa, and thou
Maharbal, that Melania and Maharbal are betrothed to each other,
and Elissa and Maharbal are thenceforth to be but the merest
acquaintances, nothing more.
“Now, let us be merry together, and let the wine-cup go round, for
we cannot always be thinking of matters of policy or of State, and
save only for them, I vow I would readily ever see ye twain together
as ye are now. For, by Adonis, god of beauty, ye are a splendid
couple. But duty is duty, alas!
“Meanwhile,” he resumed, with a humorous twinkle in his eye, “let
us now raise a brimming goblet to Tanais the dear sweet goddess of
love herself. What sayest thou, my pretty widow Cœcilia—they say
that Tanais hath no more devoted votary than thee—wilt thou not
drain a cup with us?”
 Not only the flirting little princess, but everyone present, including
Hannibal himself, who was no anchorite, drained their wine-cups to
the dregs, Maharbal and Elissa looking deep down into each other’s
eyes as they drank. And the afternoon and night were passed in
happiness, music, and song, and all was gaiety and rejoicing, both in
the palace and camp, at the return of Hannibal from Saguntum.
 CHAPTER IX.
A LAUGH AND A LIFE.

All was now animation in Saguntum. The winter had passed and
the place was full of troops, for Hannibal was now using the city as
his base of operations against all the Iberian tribes living across the
Iber or Ebro.
Elissa and Maharbal had been long since ruthlessly torn apart, the
latter swearing to his dear lover, for it was impossible to consider her
as his wife, that Melania should be as a sister to him and nothing
more. But Hannibal, careless of anybody’s feelings, even his own, so
that the business of the State was advanced, had soon perceived
that the occasional meetings which took place between his daughter
and her lover Maharbal were disturbing to them both, and thus
upsetting to his calculations. He, therefore, took an opportunity one
day when Maharbal was busy exercising the large body of Numidian
Cavalry now under his command, of paying an unexpected visit to
the house that he had given to the young warrior.
Entering quietly, he found the beautiful young Iberian girl sitting in
the most forlorn position, weeping violently. Very few questions won
from the reluctant damsel the position of affairs, and the anger of the
great Chief was aroused. For Maharbal, faithful to Elissa, and being
but her’s alone, was not obeying his General’s commands to make
Melania perfectly happy, since it was not the love of a brother, which
was all that Maharbal had given her, that would fill her yearning
heart. There had been a short and sharp interview between the Chief
and his Commander of Numidians, and a few days later, it being now
early in the autumn, Maharbal and Melania had been sent away, with
a large force as escort, to travel by easy stages on an embassy to
her uncle Andobales, King of the Ilergetes. And from the time that
they had left New Carthage the face of the young maiden had
brightened.
The description of the Court of Andobales, where Melania and
Maharbal remained all the winter and early spring, is not here
necessary, but the result of the embassy is a matter of history.
Moved by the representations of Melania, by the munificent presents
of Hannibal, and the fact that Melania was the affianced bride of one
of the most powerful chiefs of the Carthaginian army, the closest
compact of friendship was entered into between both Andobales and
his brother Mandonius with the Carthaginians, which treaty of
friendship was of the greatest advantage to Hannibal at that time,
and faithfully respected by the Iberians so long as they were treated
with proper consideration. Before, however, the treaty was absolutely
ratified, the General Hasdrubal was sent by Hannibal on a further
mission to Andobales to see the exact position of affairs. On his
return, the report that he gave to his brother the great Commander
was most satisfactory. But the information that he carried to his niece
Elissa, which was purposely coloured and false, tore the poor girl’s
heart with frantic jealousy, for it left not the slightest room for doubt
as to the state of the relations now existing between the man whom
she insisted, in spite of her father’s absolute disavowal of any
marriage, was her husband, and the daughter of Mandonius. For
Hasdrubal brought back the news that Melania was making
Maharbal as happy as possible, and further that she was likely to
become a mother. After hearing this intelligence, Elissa was both
enraged and jealous to frenzy; moreover, she suffered the more
bitterly in her spirit from the fact that no such good fortune, for so she
would have indeed considered it, had fallen to herself. She felt it all
the more, since, moved by her unhappy looks and frequent tears,
and perhaps by the fact that the treaty of friendship he desired was
now established with the tribes of the Ilergetes, Hannibal had one
day told her that, had there been any such an eventuality where she
herself was concerned, he would have thrown over his tool Melania,
and, notwithstanding his previous refusal, have ratified his own
daughter’s irregular connection with Maharbal simply in order to
legitimatise her offspring. But this opportunity of gaining her heart’s
desire was for poor Elissa lost, and possibly her astute father would
never have told her, at this time, what he would have done, had he
not already known that there would not be any chance of his having
to keep his word.
 Elissa’s love of Maharbal was now turned, or she imagined that it
was turned, to hatred, for, misled by Hasdrubal, she had no doubt of
his infidelity, and did not in the least take into account the fact that
that infidelity had been imposed upon him by her father’s
commands. She, womanlike, only imagined that he had broken his
vow of fidelity to herself. And this thing she could not forgive!
Meanwhile, the King of the Ilergetes wrote to Hannibal requesting
permission to have the nuptials of his niece and Maharbal
celebrated, and to have the freedom which had been promised to
Melania confirmed. Hannibal, with all the trickiness of the policy of
those days, wrote in return that the marriage should be celebrated in
Saguntum, and directed that the Numidian chief and his affianced
wife should return for the purpose without delay to that city. He had
not at heart the slightest intention of fulfilling either promise, but
proposed to keep the girl really, although not nominally, as a hostage
for the good behaviour of her relations. Thus State reasons
influenced him again to the sacrifice of the personal feelings of the
sweet-natured Melania, whom it had suited his purpose to make a
plaything of in every way.
Fortunately for the great Commander’s reputation for good faith,
and for the feelings of Melania herself, she was spared the indignity
of the wrongs that would undoubtedly have been put upon her had
she reached Saguntum alive. For death came suddenly and
unexpectedly to take her away at a time when she could die happily
in the arms of the man whom she loved. An accident that occurred to
her by the fall of her mule over a precipice in crossing the mountains
caused her sudden and early death. Maharbal had scarcely reached
her where she lay crushed and mangled at the foot of a dark ravine,
when she became unconscious, and passed peacefully away. And
she was buried on the side of the mountain where she died.
Thus did Melania, who had never harmed a living soul, escape, by
the will of Providence, from a world in which, had she lived longer,
she would have undoubtedly only experienced many and bitter trials,
of which the enmity of her former friend, Elissa, would have been by
no means the least.
But her removal from Elissa’s path by no means lessened the
feeling of resentment that burned in the bosom of Hannibal’s
daughter against her ex-lover, Maharbal.
He, poor fellow, did not deserve the resentment, for he adored her
still, as he had ever done. He had certainly, while obeying his Chief’s
orders, learnt to appreciate Melania’s devotion to himself, especially
as he had always had an affection for her, in which, however,
passion had had no part.
Maharbal had been only three days in Saguntum, when going out
to review the large body of Iberian and Numidian Cavalry, mounted
upon his war horse, which, on account of his own great size, was an
enormous animal, he was proceeding down the main street of the
city. He was a magnificent sight, reminding the spectator of Apollo,
the sun god, as, with a golden helmet, and wearing the most
magnificent armour, he, on his mighty black charger, preceded his
brilliant staff of officers. Suddenly he espied Elissa, the woman who
had been as a wife to him, and who should, but for the great
Hannibal’s invincible will, have been actually his wife, coming down
the street in the opposite direction. She was on foot, and followed by
several maidens, accompanied also by a couple of young gallants
about the court, who were highly honoured at being seen in her
company by so many noble officers. Raising his hand, Maharbal
halted the officers behind him. Dismounting, he courteously saluted
the woman whom he had saved from Adherbal, and who had been,
and still was, everything to him.
“And how doth the Lady Elissa?” he demanded, his eyes aglow
with the delight he felt on seeing her. “By all the gods of Carthage
she hath a right royal mien, and it doth the heart of Maharbal good to
see her once more.”
Elissa deliberately turned her back upon him. Addressing one of
the young men of her escort, she remarked in a voice which was
intentionally raised so that all present could hear it:
“What a number of these stranger officers of the mercenaries
there are in the town just now. But surely someone should give them
a lesson in manners; they should be taught that ladies of rank are
not to be addressed in the streets by uncouth barbarians whom they
do not know.”
Then, with a little bitter laugh, she sauntered on without once
glancing at Maharbal. A loud titter was heard from all the maidens,
following their mistress’s example; from the two young nobles also,
and, worst of all, from the officers of Maharbal’s own staff.
But one of the latter not merely tittered, but laughed outright. He
was a certain Idherbal, a right valiant officer, who had considered
himself much slighted when Maharbal had been appointed over his
head to the command of the Numidians. And there was not a man or
woman there but knew well what was, doubtless, considered the
diverting history of the loves of Elissa and Maharbal. Therefore, they
considered a laugh at the unexpected insult and rebuff given by
Elissa to her lover quite excusable.
Not so Maharbal. Bounding upon his war-horse, his face all
aflame, the young man drew his sword.
“Defend thyself, oh, Idherbal,” he cried, “for ’tis the first and last
time thou shalt ever laugh at Maharbal!”
The other drew his sword rapidly, and, waiting until he did so,
Maharbal charged him. Idherbal struck a mighty blow as he
approached, but Maharbal, bending to his horse’s neck, and, with all
the skill of the famed Numidian riders, throwing his whole body on
the further side of his steed, the sword met no resistance, but only
whistled through the air. Back in his saddle in an instant, Maharbal,
still crouched low, lunged home with the point of his weapon at the
joint in the armour beneath his antagonist’s arm. The blow told; but,
even as the red blood spurted out, the young giant withdrew his
sword, and, with a second blow—a terrible, sweeping cut—caught
Idherbal just below the helmet at the neck. The wretched man’s
head, helmet and all, flew spinning off into the middle of the street,
while his body fell on the other side.
“Here, sirrah!” cried Maharbal to the young noble who had been
addressed by Elissa, who, with all her companions, had been forced
to turn and watch the rapid and bloody conflict, “come hither
instantly.”
Tremblingly the young man approached Maharbal, and terrified he
viewed his bloody sword. For he also had been a laugher, and
feared his own instant death.
“Take up that head,” he commanded, in a loud voice. “It is the
head of Idherbal, the son of Mago.”
 The young man submissively picked up the bloody head, bleeding
in its casque, of the man who had been living and laughing like
himself but a minute previously.
“Present the head to the Lady Elissa,” he said, “and ask her
whether or no it be the head of one of the stranger officers of the
mercenaries who hath dared to insult her by laughing at her words
without first having with her a proper acquaintance. Inform her that
there are plenty more useless heads about—thine own, for instance.
Go!” he thundered, “and that instantly,” as the young man hesitated,
“or I will depute someone else to carry both Idherbal’s head and
thine own to the Lady Elissa.”
This was quite enough for the young noble. So terrible was the
look in Maharbal’s eye that the face of everyone present, as well as
his own, was blanched with fear. He rushed to Elissa and deposited
the terrible emblem of the sanguinary conflict at her feet.
Maharbal rode to where she stood. With his bloody glaive he
pointed first to the head at her feet, then to the trunk from which the
blood was still oozing, forming a large crimson pool on the highway.
“See what thy laugh hath cost, Elissa,” quoth he. “Thou hast
caused the death of a brave man, who was full of health and vigour,
full of hope and happiness, only two minutes ago. That life which
hath now gone to Eternity might just as well have been mine own.
Thou little fool! I loved thee before, but now I hate thee for having
been the cause of my shedding innocent blood. Get thee gone
home; never let me see thy fair face again, since I have killed a man
simply for its contemptuous smile! Art thou satisfied with thy work?
Begone, Elissa, I say, begone, Hannibal’s daughter, or I will slay
thee, too, for all that thou hast been to me, even as my wife! For thou
art a dangerous woman. Begone, I say!”
Again Maharbal thundered these last words in such a terrible tone
that everyone in the street trembled before him. He was well known
for his bravery in battle; but no one had ever seen him in the fiercest
conflict aroused like this. Even his followers tried vainly each to get
behind his fellow, so terrified of his fearful anger was each and every
one. As for Elissa herself, she at that moment once more loved
Maharbal quite as much as she feared him, and loved him all the
more because she did so fear him. Trembling, she fell upon her
knees in the street before him, towering there on his war-horse, and
looking the very picture of vengeance. Everyone else, from the great
and sudden fear of the commander, who had showed so well his
power to prove his strength, and right to command by force of arms,
and from respect for the great Hannibal’s daughter, had now fallen
back and out of earshot, so her words were heard by him alone.
“My lord Maharbal,” she said, with hands uplifted, “forgive me; I
am but a woman, and I have dearly loved thee. I have given myself
to thee, and proved my love. I have since foolishly hated thee; and
by mine infamous conduct to-day, which hath, alas! been the cause
of unhappy Idherbal’s death, I have proved my hate; and, indeed, I
am much to blame, and grieve sorely for what hath happened. My
lord! all thy suite can see me humbly kneeling to thee here, and
Hannibal will hear of it as well, but ere I rise I ask thee for thy
forgiveness, for thou art before heaven mine own lord, mine only
love. And all the vows I made to thee shall last until my dying day;
unless, that is,” she added reflectively, “some great need of our
mutual country should ever compel me to sacrifice myself in the
country’s cause. But know this, I love thee—I love thee, my lord and
husband Maharbal.”
Maharbal sprang from his horse, and flung his bloody weapon into
the street. He seized her in his mighty arms, lifting her bodily from
the ground, and kissed her on the lips and on both cheeks. Picking
up his sword, he then addressed the officers of his suite.
“Whoever there may be among ye who would smile at his
commander let him now smile. And I will meet him here on foot in
mortal combat before the Lady Elissa, who is my wife.”
But none smiled!
Hannibal was extremely displeased when he heard of the
occurrence, for he could not afford to have his best officers killing
each other on the eve of a campaign, simply owing to his daughter’s
foolish behaviour. Therefore he instantly sent Elissa back to New
Carthage without allowing her to see Maharbal again, and they were
not to meet for years.

END OF PART II.

 PART III.

CHAPTER I.
SOSILUS AND CHŒRAS.

Hannibal was resting in his house in Saguntum a few days after

having sent Elissa back to New Carthage. He had, prior to the scene
depicted in the last chapter, overrun a portion of the country north of
the Ebro, and Hasdrubal, his brother, was still engaged in
prosecuting the campaign against all the Spanish tribes of Northern
Iberia, to whom the Romans, wishing to have a hold of Spain, had
promised protection. As Hannibal was presiding over his wine at an
informal gathering of some of his friends and officers, he was a noble
figure of a man. Not very tall, he was, having very broad shoulders,
nevertheless, of extremely athletic bearing, being built in a sinewy
mould. His chest was large, his biceps wiry and largely developed,
his wrists small, but like iron. His legs were one knotted mass of
muscle without any superfluous flesh. His colouring was fair, indeed
ruddy; his eyes were blue and piercing; his hair was a dark shade of
brown. His mouth, though firm, was rather large and humorous, his
forehead high and commanding. Being clean shaved, his determined
chin was remarkable. He looked, as he sat there, what he actually
was—one of the very strongest men in the whole army. There was
not, then, when he was still a comparatively young man, his equal for
boxing, wrestling, or running long distances, in the whole of the
Carthaginian forces, with the sole exception of Maharbal. He was the
fairest man in the whole of the assembly, having inherited the
colouring off his mother, who had come from a Gallic stock.
There were present with him at his table several people whose
names are well known in history. Silenus, his constant companion,
was of course there, also Chœras, who was a comic individual,
good-tempered—a sort of buffoon, in fact, when it suited him to be
amusing. Chœras was, however, an excellent versifier, and by no
means a fool. Next to him sat Sosilus of Ilium, a pedant who bored
everybody by his reference to learned books which nobody else
cared anything about. There was also present a very different
character, Hannibal Monomachus, who cared for nothing but
warfare, and who delighted in slaying. He was, at present, head of
the pioneers of the army. His skill was undeniable; but the methods
that he employed at times were as rough and ready as the pickaxes
of his own pioneers. In fact, he never minded how cruel he was
when he considered cruelty necessary. He had had a considerable
amount of training as a cavalry officer, and much preferred being on
a war-horse at the head of his men, leading a furious charge into the
midst of a body of the enemy, to building bridges and making roads.
But Hannibal had somehow found out, with his singular capacity for
judging men, that Monomachus had great engineering skill, and had,
therefore, transferred him, for the time being, much to his disgust,
from the more strictly combatant to the scientific branch of the
service. He was now, therefore, what might be considered the
general of engineers or sappers and miners.
The other soldiers present were Mago, the younger brother of the
chief, and a high-spirited, brave young fellow; Hanno, a general of
much experience; and last, but not least, at any rate in size, the
Numidian commander Maharbal, who was the youngest man
present.
Hannibal was in high good humour; news had come in that day of
continued successes on the part of Hasdrubal in the provinces north
of the Ebro, which he was over-running right up to the Pyrenees.
“Hast thou heard the news, Hanno?” quoth he. “Hasdrubal hath
taken town after town. His last success seems to have been, after a
brilliant cavalry action, in front of a city which he calls Appollonia. I
only know of two Appollonias, the one in Illyria and the other in
Assyria; I know not of this one.”
“I know it and to my cost, Hannibal,” replied General Hanno, “and
so doth our friend Monomachus. When thou wast still quite young,
and we pretty young too ourselves, thy father Hamilcar, upon whose
spirit rest the blessing of the gods, took us both with him with a small
flying column, thinking to take the place by a sudden surprise.
Surprise there indeed was, but it was all the other way. The
barbarians were waiting for us in a pass in the mountains, and it was
but those of us who had the fleetest horses that escaped. The worst
of it was, that Monomachus here had promised us an easy entrance
to the place, owing to the treachery of a young Iberian woman of
whom he had, so he thought, made a conquest. He mounted her on
a horse with his cavalry of the advance guard, and a nice trap she
led him into, for she took him right through the pass before the
enemy, who closed behind him, and attacked us. How didst thou
escape, Monomachus, by the bye? Thou wert the sole member of
the advance guard who ever returned, that I well remember. But we
did not see thee for days.”
“Escape!” growled out Hannibal Monomachus, “easily enough,
though I nearly died of starvation first. The instant I saw the
treachery I seized the accursed girl, and, under a pretence of saving
her life, placed her on my steed, and rode off with her into a wood.
There, after first stripping her of all her clothing, for fear that the
raiment should be besoiled with blood, I cut her throat, but slowly
only, letting her life’s blood fall drop by drop. I tied her to a tree, and
watched her die in fact, while expounding unto her all the maxims of
virtue, the point of which was that she would have done better to run
straight in every sense of the word. When at length she was quite
dead, I attired myself in her raiment, and being then a beardless boy,
escaped under the guise of a woman, after many wanderings. A
curse I say upon that place Appollonia! I hope to all the gods that
Hasdrubal hath not left either man nor woman living there, especially
the women.”
“Most excellent Monomachus,” here cut in Sosilus of Ilium, “I have
listened with great interest to this thy not altogether unprecedented
description of the pitfalls into which man may sometimes fall through
the snare of woman. But I can cite thee a somewhat similar instance.
I have no doubt but that all our distinguished company here present
under Hannibal’s roof will have read a certain treatise entitled
‘Woman and her Wiles,’ written by one Onesimus of Syracuse. It
was the only thing that he ever wrote, for he was strangled by Hiero
for writing it, since it concerned that monarch’s mistress, Melissa by
name. But the treatise was so carefully designed, so prettily
elaborated, and so excellently carried through, that it seemeth to me,
although ’twas slightly scandalous indeed, that had Hiero been but a
man of humour, he would, instead of strangling Onesimus, rather
have promoted him to the post of chief librarian. The treatise was
divided into three parts. ‘Woman as an attraction for man,’ was the
first part; ‘Woman as a pitfall for man,’ was the second part; ‘Woman
as the accursed and faithless traitress of man,’ was the third part.
Now, the first part commenced by a very erudite discussion upon the
animal passions, and very lengthy but still not uninstructive
arguments as to whether woman most attracteth man or man most
attracteth woman. I remember well a remark on this subject that was
most pertinently quoted. It was of the Greek writer Eulikmartes, and
to the effect that—”
“Monomachus was a fool,” here cut in Chœras, with a loud guffaw,
and all the rest of the company, who were tittering at the
meanderings of the erudite Sosilus, were pleased at the interruption.
“Yes, just so, Chœras,” remarked Hannibal. “I know, at all events,
that had I been in his shoes, and while being led through the nose by
a woman—which, alas! hath sometimes been my case—myself led
in turn my followers into a trap, I should have considered that I, too,
had been a fool. But he was young—like Maharbal here is now.”
“Ay, my lord Hannibal,” answered Chœras, “Maharbal is no
exception; he is ever over-confiding in loving also. But here is a
verse which I think applies to the case quite as well as the long-
winded reflections of Sosilus:

“Nought of girls knew Monomachus.

Nought from female wiles can shake us.
One who thousand lives hath ta’en
Ofttimes is through woman slain.”

A round of applause greeted this spontaneous outburst of

Chœras, and the pedant was snuffed out.
“Maharbal,” quoth Hannibal, when the merriment had died down
and the wine cups had been replenished, “doth this not indeed a little
remind thee of thine own case? Mightest not thou thyself have been
slain, and only last week, solely for the bright eyes of a woman—ay,
even mine own daughter, Elissa? But, instead of falling, thou hast
deprived me for ever of the services of one of my most excellent
officers, poor Idherbal; I pray thee earnestly not to do so again.”
Maharbal sat silent under the well-merited reproach.
“My lord Hannibal,” quoth Sosilus, “this remark of thine remindeth
me exactly of a verse I once read when I was but a boy; it was
written by an author who lived at Tyre, and was named Pygmalion,
after the king, who was the brother of Dido. He was a writer who
possessed a great amount of erudition, and had considered several
cases much resembling that of Maharbal here, who, somewhat too
rashly, albeit to preserve his own honour, in the most chivalrous way
slew Idherbal the other day in the street. Now to get back to
Pygmalion. He said—yet I must remember in which of his books it
was; I think in the thirteenth stanza of his nineteenth volume.”
“Oh, confound his books!” said Chœras, again rudely interrupting
the learned man. “I will tell thee what he said, oh, Sosilus. Was it not
something like this?—

“Maharbal was in a sense

Bound to seek some recompense.
He was mocked at, and the crowd
Echoed out the laugh aloud.
Thus the warrior lit and drew
Forth his blade—the scoffer slew.
Once more woman by her wiles
Sent a soul to Heaven’s smiles.”

“Bravo, Chœras!” shouted out Mago, thumping on the table. “Thou

art the boy for me, and if my lord and brother Hannibal will allow me,
I will take thee with me, when first he deigns to give me a separate
command somewhere or other. For by the gods, I like thy pithy
verses—

“ ‘Once more woman by her wiles

Sent a man to Heaven’s smiles.’
But come, Maharbal, my lad, why sittest thou so glum thyself, while
thou and Monomachus are giving us such a pleasant and instructive
subject of conversation? Cheer up, lad, and join me in a cup of wine.
What hast been thinking about while looking as melancholy as a dog
about to be led out to execution? There are plenty more bright eyes
besides those of my pretty niece Elissa in the world, and thou and I
shall in our leisure moments oft pursue them together, that I’ll
warrant thee. Or is it the excellent but unfortunate deceased young
woman Melania of whom thou art thinking? Ah! there was a girl for
thee if thou wilt, who would never have betrayed a man—nay, nor
even a woman either. Thou shouldst give me thanks for having first
put it into Hannibal’s head to give her unto thee; for by Melcareth, I
saw her value from the first, and would gladly have had her as a
companion myself. Her’s was a noble disposition.”
“What I am thinking about is this, oh Mago!” responded Maharbal,
“that while echoing the praise that thou hast paid to poor Melania’s
memory, which is well deserved, it seemeth to me that the
conversation hath, with all due deference to Hannibal, been
concerned quite long enough either with women or myself, and that
now it would be far better if we could get back to some subject that is
important at the moment, such as the news of the Iberian war, or the
attitude of the Romans now that they know not only that we have
taken Saguntum, but further, in direct defiance of the treaty the late
Hasdrubal made with them, that we have crossed the Iber, and are
hunting their allies about like foxes to their dens in the mountains.”
“Well spoken, Maharbal, my lad!” quoth Hannibal; “I will join thee
and Mago in that cup of wine—’tis some that the rascal Adherbal
brought to New Carthage, and most excellent. And, here is my hand
upon it, this is the last that thou shalt ever hear from me of that little
matter of the slaying of Idherbal the other day. For thou art, indeed, a
warrior after my own heart, and I honestly agree with Chœras that as
a soldier under the circumstances

“ ‘Maharbal was in a sense

Bound to seek some recompense.’