Destroy Carthage Read Online Free
reinforcements, but they never joined the king's fleet. Sailing north, they were worsted in the bay of Adalia by the warships of Rome's ally, Rhodes. Hannibal withdrew with the surviving craft of the beaten force. When Antiochus's Aegean squadrons were defeated at Myonessus, the water no longer protected him.
The invasion he feared came in 190, jointly led by Scipio and his brother Lucius. Antiochus, falling back from Ephesus to the river Hermus (Gediz Chai), stood to fight at Magnesia, modern Minissa, his army computed at 74,000 warriors. The Scipios led two Roman legions and proportionate allied contingents, perhaps 30,000 troops. Since Publius had taken ill and could not leave his sick-bed, Lucius engaged the enemy. The Romans affected disdain for them, a view with which Hannibal now concurred.
According to Cicero, he described a military lecture at Ephesus as the dissertation of an old fool. Asked his opinion of Antiochus's army, Hannibal is said to have observed: 'It will be sufficient - however greedy the Romans may be.'
Certainly, Antiochus had displayed little confidence in withdrawing so far before a much smaller force, but Hannibal had not despised the king's troops before Thermopylae, and Magnesia showed that they could yet be dangerous. For a time, the Romans were in jeopardy. While their ranks drove at the enemy's centre and left flank, Antiochus himself led his right wing in an advance that compelled part of the Roman army to withdraw to its battle camp. Only the steadfastness of a courageous tribune circumvented disaster, allowing time for reinforcements to come up.
Thwarted on the verge of success, Antiochus departed. His army, leaderless and demoralized, soon followed. Theirs was a long retreat, for the terms eventually agreed confined the Syrians beyond the Taurus range, leaving Rome to exploit Asia Minor.
The arrest of Hannibal again appeared imminent. Believing that Antiochus might betray him to the Romans, the Carthaginian embarked for Crete. There, the treasure he still carried disturbed his peace. Distrusting the motives of his hosts, who knew of his private wealth, he turned back to Asia, seeking refuge in the hilly north-western district of Bithynia, then feuding with its neighbour and rival, Pergamum.
Apparently the Bithynians had Hannibal to thank for a form of biological warfare they used against the ships of their enemy. Pots were filled with snakes and hurled at the hostile craft. As the missiles smashed, venomous reptiles swarmed among the terrified sailors of Pergamum.
Ingenious ruses proliferate in the literature of Hannibal's later years, adversity repeatedly foiled by an agile mind. Now the fugitive immobilizes a suspicious flotilla by persuading its captains to use their sails as weather shelters. Now he sets a false trail for those who seek his treasure, topping clay-filled jars with a skin of gold. Factual or apocryphal, the tales express the constant dangers of the exile's life.
Rome dogged his travels unforgivingly. When negotiations with Bithynia revealed his whereabouts to the Latin senate, extradition once more threatened. This time, there was no escape. In his sixty-fifth year, Hannibal was too old a bird, as Plutarch put it, to fly again. Rather than submit to capture, he killed himself by drinking poison - to relieve 'the great anxiety of the Romans,' he apostrophized.
The year was 183. Fate had already tagged a companion for his sombre shade. Within twelve months, Publius Scipio was dying at Liternum, Campania, as disillusioned and embittered as his old foe.
4: The Censor
The circumstances of Scipio's death introduce a new and ominous participant to the drama of Carthage. He first appears - a sedulous soldier-politician as conscientious in criticism as in his duties - with the general at Zama. Then thirty-two, of hardy Tusculum farming stock, Marcus Porcius Cato had risen by stubborn will and ability to a rank of note in Rome, recently holding
The invasion he feared came in 190, jointly led by Scipio and his brother Lucius. Antiochus, falling back from Ephesus to the river Hermus (Gediz Chai), stood to fight at Magnesia, modern Minissa, his army computed at 74,000 warriors. The Scipios led two Roman legions and proportionate allied contingents, perhaps 30,000 troops. Since Publius had taken ill and could not leave his sick-bed, Lucius engaged the enemy. The Romans affected disdain for them, a view with which Hannibal now concurred.
According to Cicero, he described a military lecture at Ephesus as the dissertation of an old fool. Asked his opinion of Antiochus's army, Hannibal is said to have observed: 'It will be sufficient - however greedy the Romans may be.'
Certainly, Antiochus had displayed little confidence in withdrawing so far before a much smaller force, but Hannibal had not despised the king's troops before Thermopylae, and Magnesia showed that they could yet be dangerous. For a time, the Romans were in jeopardy. While their ranks drove at the enemy's centre and left flank, Antiochus himself led his right wing in an advance that compelled part of the Roman army to withdraw to its battle camp. Only the steadfastness of a courageous tribune circumvented disaster, allowing time for reinforcements to come up.
Thwarted on the verge of success, Antiochus departed. His army, leaderless and demoralized, soon followed. Theirs was a long retreat, for the terms eventually agreed confined the Syrians beyond the Taurus range, leaving Rome to exploit Asia Minor.
The arrest of Hannibal again appeared imminent. Believing that Antiochus might betray him to the Romans, the Carthaginian embarked for Crete. There, the treasure he still carried disturbed his peace. Distrusting the motives of his hosts, who knew of his private wealth, he turned back to Asia, seeking refuge in the hilly north-western district of Bithynia, then feuding with its neighbour and rival, Pergamum.
Apparently the Bithynians had Hannibal to thank for a form of biological warfare they used against the ships of their enemy. Pots were filled with snakes and hurled at the hostile craft. As the missiles smashed, venomous reptiles swarmed among the terrified sailors of Pergamum.
Ingenious ruses proliferate in the literature of Hannibal's later years, adversity repeatedly foiled by an agile mind. Now the fugitive immobilizes a suspicious flotilla by persuading its captains to use their sails as weather shelters. Now he sets a false trail for those who seek his treasure, topping clay-filled jars with a skin of gold. Factual or apocryphal, the tales express the constant dangers of the exile's life.
Rome dogged his travels unforgivingly. When negotiations with Bithynia revealed his whereabouts to the Latin senate, extradition once more threatened. This time, there was no escape. In his sixty-fifth year, Hannibal was too old a bird, as Plutarch put it, to fly again. Rather than submit to capture, he killed himself by drinking poison - to relieve 'the great anxiety of the Romans,' he apostrophized.
The year was 183. Fate had already tagged a companion for his sombre shade. Within twelve months, Publius Scipio was dying at Liternum, Campania, as disillusioned and embittered as his old foe.
4: The Censor
The circumstances of Scipio's death introduce a new and ominous participant to the drama of Carthage. He first appears - a sedulous soldier-politician as conscientious in criticism as in his duties - with the general at Zama. Then thirty-two, of hardy Tusculum farming stock, Marcus Porcius Cato had risen by stubborn will and ability to a rank of note in Rome, recently holding
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