Hannibal's Dynasty by Dexter Hoyos

Author:Dexter Hoyos [Hoyos, Dexter]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: History, Humanities
ISBN: 9780415299114
Goodreads: 1408522
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2003-04-11T00:00:00+00:00

naries just arrived from Spain, and then with them and Syphax was

shatteringly defeated by Scipio all over again. Only the doomed valour of the

Celtiberians allowed Hasdrubal and his local forces to escape. Syphax, pur-

sued all the way back to his own land, was soon beaten and captured by

Masinissa and Scipio’s lieutenant Laelius, a prize which led his capital, Cirta,

to surrender. This brought much of the Numidian kingdom into Masinissa’s

hands, with Scipio’s blessing once the new king got rid of Syphax’s wife

with whom he had rashly fallen in love, Hasdrubal’s beautiful daughter

Sophoniba.15

At the same time the fleet at Carthage bungled an attack against Scipio’s

ships at anchor near Utica, an attack that might have done something to

redress his land victory if the fleet commanders had fully exploited Scipio’s

absence inland. Instead they waited until his return march took him to Tunes,

from where he could see their ships put out to sea. They then took overnight

to reach the Romans’ roadstead, allowing him to get by land to his encamp-

ment and organize defence. As a result the Punic attack was beaten off with

limited Roman losses. This last action in the war by the navy of Carthage

lived up to the ineptitude it had shown more or less consistently since 218.

Hasdrubal son of Gisco now disappears from Polybius’ and Livy’s narra-

tives. Appian may be right that his infuriated fellow-citizens removed him

from his generalship, even voted his death—a common penalty in pre-Barcid

times for military failure. Much more dubiously, Appian has him raise a

rough-and-ready force on his own account, including slaves, and carry on

162

A F R I C A I N VA D E D

resistance to the Romans for a time (a friendly tradition may have invented

this). During 202, according to Appian, he died—forced to kill himself to

avoid being lynched by an angry mob in the city. Dead in any case was his

pre-eminence in the state. If his faction did not completely disintegrate, at

least many of its members must have betaken themselves elsewhere. With

few of them likely to gravitate to Hanno the Great’s peace-group, the biggest

beneficiaries of his ruin were probably the Barcids.

If Appian is right, the new general by land was Hanno son of Bomilcar,

who as noted earlier may be Hannibal’s nephew, last heard of in Bruttium in

207: if so Hannibal must have sent him back to Carthage. But whoever did

take over the command plainly could do little except await the enemy’s next

move, and press Hannibal to come home.16

163

X I V

D E F E AT

I

With their only ally Syphax fallen, Hasdrubal’s generalship discredited, the

countryside open to the invader—and already inclined to rebellion, Polybius

claims, because of heavy war-taxation—and Scipio preparing to blockade

their city, the Carthaginians had only two real alternatives: seek terms from

the enemy, or carry on the fight and recall Hannibal and Mago from their use-

less footholds in Italy. Dispirited yet still pugnacious, the Punic senate

promptly did both.

This was not due to a compromise between peace-inclined doves and war-

like hawks in the aristocracy. Not only was the most obvious peace-group,

Hanno the Great and his friends, sidelined as before

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