Plutarch
46-119 A.C.E - Wrote in Greek
Marcellus
Written 75 A.C.E.
Translated by John Dryden
Marcellus
(legendary, died 208 B.C.E.)
By Plutarch
They say that Marcus Claudius, who was five times consul of the Romans,
was the son of Marcus; and that he was the first of his family called Marcellus;
that is, martial, as Posidonius affirms. He was, indeed, by long experience,
skilful in the art of war, of a strong body, valiant of hand, and by natural
inclinations addicted to war. This high temper and heat he showed conspicuously
in battle; in other respects he was modest and obliging, and so far studious
of Greek learning and discipline, as to honour and admire those that excelled
in it, though he did not himself attain a proficiency in them equal to
his desire, by reason of his employments. For if ever there were any men
whom, as Homer says, Heaven
"From their first youth unto their utmost age
Appointed the laborious wars to wage," certainly they were the chief
Romans of that time; who in their youth had war with the Carthaginians
in Sicily, in their middle age with the Gauls in the defence of Italy itself;
and at last, when now grown old, struggled again with Hannibal and the
Carthaginians, and wanted in their latest years what is granted to most
men, exemption from military toils; their rank and their great qualities
still making them be called upon to undertake the command.
Marcellus, ignorant or unskillful of no kind of fighting, in single
combat surpassed himself; he never declined a challenge, and never accepted
without killing his challenger. In Sicily, he protected and saved his brother
Otacilius when surrounded in battle, and slew the enemies that pressed
upon him; for which act he was by the generals, while he was yet but young,
presented with crowns and other honourable rewards; and, his good qualities
more and more displaying themselves, he was created Curule Aedile by the
people and by the high priests Augur; which is that priesthood to which
chiefly the law assigns the observation of auguries. In his Aedileship,
a certain mischance brought him to the necessity of bringing an impeachment
into the senate. He had a son named Marcus, of great beauty, in the flower
of his age, and no less admired for the goodness of his character. This
youth, Capitolinus, a bold and ill-mannered man, Marcellus's colleague,
sought to abuse. The boy at first himself repelled him; but when the other
again persecuted him, told his father. Marcellus, highly indignant, accused
the man in the senate: where he, having appealed to the tribunes of the
people, endeavoured by various shifts and exceptions to elude the impeachment;
and, when the tribunes refused their protection, by flat denial rejected
the charge. As there was no witness of the fact, the senate thought fit
to call the youth himself before them: on witnessing whose blushes and
tears, and shame mixed with the highest indignation, seeking no further
evidence of the crime, they condemned Capitolinus, and set a fine upon
him; of the money of which Marcellus caused silver vessels for libation
to be made, which he dedicated to the gods.
After the end of the first Punic war, which lasted one-and-twenty
years, the seed of Gallic tumults sprang up, and began again to trouble
Rome. The Insubrians, a people inhabiting the subalpine region of Italy,
strong in their own forces, raised from among the other Gauls aids of mercenary
soldiers, called Gaesatae. And it was a sort of miracle, and special good
fortune for Rome, that the Gallic war was not coincident with the Punic,
but that the Gauls had with fidelity stood quiet as spectators, while the
Punic war continued, as though they had been under engagement to await
and attack the victors, and now only were at liberty to come forward. Still
the position itself, and the ancient renown of the Gauls, struck no little
fear into the minds of the Romans, who were about to undertake a war so
near home and upon their own borders; and regarded the Gauls, because they
had once taken their city, with more apprehension than any people, as is
apparent from the enactment which from that time forth provided, that the
high priests should enjoy an exemption from all military duty, except only
in Gallic insurrections.
The great preparations, also, made by the Romans for war (for it
is not reported that the people of Rome ever had at one time so many legions
in arms, either before or since), and their extraordinary sacrifices, were
plain arguments of their fear. For though they were most averse to barbarous
and cruel rites, and entertained more than any nation the same pious and
reverent sentiments of the gods with the Greeks; yet, when this war was
coming upon them, they then, from some prophecies in the Sibyls' books,
put alive underground a pair of Greeks, one male, the other female; and
likewise two Gauls, one of each sex, in the market called the beast market:
continuing even to this day to offer to these Greeks and Gauls certain
ceremonial observances in the month of November.
In the beginning of this war, in which the Romans sometimes obtained
remarkable victories, sometimes were shamefully beaten, nothing was done
toward the determination of the contest until Flaminius and Furius, being
consuls, led large forces against the Insubrians. At the time of their
departure, the river that runs through the country of Picenum was seen
flowing with blood; there was a report that three moons had once been seen
at Ariminum; and, in the consular assembly, the augurs declared that the
consuls had been unduly and inauspiciously created. The senate, therefore,
immediately sent letters to the camp, recalling the consuls to Rome with
all possible speed, and commanding them to forbear from acting against
the enemies, and to abdicate the consulship on the first opportunity. These
letters being brought to Flaminius, he deferred to open them till, having
defeated and put to flight the enemy's forces, he wasted and ravaged their
borders. The people, therefore, did not go forth to meet him when he returned
with huge spoils; nay, because he had not instantly obeyed the command
in the letters, by which he was recalled, but slighted and contemned them,
they were very near denying him the honour of a triumph. Nor was the triumph
sooner passed than they deposed him, with his colleague, from the magistracy,
and reduced them to the state of private citizens. So much were all things
at Rome made to depend upon religion; they would not allow any contempt
of the omens and the ancient rites, even though attended with the highest
success: thinking it to be of more importance to the public safety that
the magistrates should reverence the gods, than that they should overcome
their enemies. Thus Tiberius Sempronius, whom for his probity and virtue
the citizens highly esteemed, created Scipio Nasica and Caius Marcius consuls
to succeed him; and when they were gone into their provinces, lit upon
books concerning the religious observances, where he found something he
had not known before; which was this. When the consul took his auspices,
he sat without the city in a house, or tent, hired for that occasion; but,
if it happened that he, for any urgent cause, returned into the city, without
having yet seen any certain signs, he was obliged to leave that first building,
or tent, and to seek another to repeat the survey from. Tiberius, it appears,
in ignorance of this, had twice used the same building before announcing
the new consuls. Now, understanding his error, he referred the matter to
the senate: nor did the senate neglect this minute fault, but soon wrote
expressly of it to Scipio Nasica and Caius Marcius; who, leaving their
provinces and without delay returning to Rome, laid down their magistracy.
This happened at a later period. About the same time, too, the priesthood
was taken away from two men of very great honour, Cornelius Cethegus and
Quintus Sulpicius: from the former, because he had not rightly held out
the entrails of a beast slain for sacrifice; from the latter, because,
while he was immolating, the tufted cap which the Flamens wear had fallen
from his head. Minucius, the dictator, who had already named Caius Flaminius
master of the horse, they deposed from his command, because the squeak
of a mouse was heard, and put others into their places. And yet, notwithstanding,
by observing so anxiously these little niceties they did not run into any
superstition, because they never varied from nor exceeded the observances
of their ancestors.
So soon as Flaminius with his colleague had resigned the consulate,
Marcellus was declared consul by the presiding officers called Interrexes;
and, entering into the magistracy, chose Cnaeus Cornelius his colleague.
There was a report that, the Gauls proposing a pacification, and the senate
also inclining to peace, Marcellus inflamed the people to war; but a peace
appears to have been agreed upon, which the Gaesatae broke; who, passing
the Alps, stirred up the Insubrians (they being thirty thousand in number,
and the Insubrians more numerous by far); and proud of their strength,
marched directly to Acerrae, a city seated on the north of the river Po.
From thence Britomartus, king of the Gaesatae, taking with him ten thousand
soldiers, harassed the country round about. News of which being brought
to Marcellus, leaving his colleague at Acerrae with the foot and all the
heavy arms and a third part of the horse, and carrying with him the rest
of the horse and six hundred light-armed foot, marching night and day without
remission, he stayed not till he came up to these ten thousand near a Gaulish
village called Clastidium, which not long before had been reduced under
the Roman jurisdiction. Nor had he time to refresh his soldiers or to give
them rest. For the barbarians, that were then present, immediately observed
his approach, and contemned him, because he had very few foot with him.
The Gauls were singularly skilful in horsemanship, and thought to excel
in it; and as at present they also exceeded Marcellus in number, they made
no account of him. They, therefore, with their king at their head, instantly
charged upon him, as if they would trample him under their horses' feet,
threatening all kinds of cruelties. Marcellus, because his men were few,
that they might not be encompassed and charged on all sides by the enemy,
extended his wings of horse, and, riding about, drew out his wings of foot
in length, till he came near to the enemy. Just as he was in the act of
turning round to face the enemy, it so happened that his horse, startled
with their fierce look and their cries, gave back, and carried him forcibly
aside. Fearing lest this accident, if converted into an omen, might discourage
his soldiers, he quickly brought his horse round to confront the enemy,
and made a gesture of adoration to the sun, as if he had wheeled about
not by chance, but for a purpose of devotion. For it was customary to the
Romans, when they offered worship to the gods, to turn round; and in this
moment of meeting the enemy, he is said to have vowed the best of the arms
to Jupiter Feretrius.
The king of the Gauls beholding Marcellus, and from the badges
of his authority conjecturing him to be the general, advanced some way
before his embattled army, and with a loud voice challenged him, and, brandishing
his lance, fiercely ran in full career at him; exceeding the rest of the
Gauls in stature, and with his armour, that was adorned with gold and silver
and various colours, shining like lightning. These arms seeming to Marcellus,
while he viewed the enemy's army drawn up in battalia, to be the best and
fairest, and thinking them to be those he had vowed to Jupiter, he instantly
ran upon the king, and pierced through his breastplate with his lance;
then pressing upon him with the weight of his horse, threw him to the ground,
and with two or three strokes more slew him. Immediately he leapt from
his horse, laid his hand upon the dead king's arm and, looking up towards
Heaven, thus spoke: "O Jupiter Feretrius, arbiter of the exploits of captains,
and of the acts of commanders in war and battles, be thou witness that
I, a general, have slain a general: I, a consul, have slain a king with
my own hand, third of all the Romans; and that to thee I consecrate these
first and most excellent of the spoils. Grant to us to despatch the relics
of the war with the same course of fortune." Then the Roman horse joining
battle not only with the enemy's horse, but also with the foot who attacked
them, obtained a singular and unheard-of victory. For never before or since
have so few horse defeated such numerous forces of horse and foot together.
The enemies being to a great number slain, and the spoils collected, he
returned to his colleague, who was conducting the war, with ill-success,
against the enemies near the greatest and most populous of the Gallic cities,
Milan. This was their capital, and, therefore, fighting valiantly in defence
of it, they were not so much besieged by Cornelius, as they besieged him.
But Marcellus having returned, and the Gaesatae retiring as soon as they
were certified of the death of the king and the defeat of his army, Milan
was taken. The rest of their towns, and all they had, the Gauls delivered
up of their own accord to the Romans, and had peace upon equitable conditions
granted to them.
Marcellus alone, by a decree of the senate, triumphed. The triumph
was in magnificence, opulence, spoils, and the gigantic bodies of the captives
most remarkable. But the most grateful and most rare spectacle of all was
the general himself, carrying the arms of the barbarian king to the god
to whom he had vowed them. He had taken a tall and straight stock of an
oak, and had lopped and formed it to a trophy. Upon this he fastened and
hung about the arms of the king, arranging all the pieces in their suitable
places. The procession advancing solemnly, he, carrying this trophy, ascended
the chariot; and thus, himself the fairest and most glorious triumphant
image, was conveyed into the city. The army adorned with shining armour
followed in order, and with verses composed for the occasion, and with
songs of victory celebrated the praises of Jupiter and of their general.
Then entering the temple of Jupiter Feretrius, he dedicated his gift; the
third, and to our memory the last, that ever did so. The first was Romulus,
after having slain Acron, king of the Caeninenses: the second, Cornelius
Cossus, who slew Tolumnius the Etruscan: after them Marcellus, having killed
Britomartus, king of the Gauls; after Marcellus, no man. The god to whom
these spoils were consecrated is called Jupiter Feretrius, from the trophy
carried on the feretrum, one of the Greek words which at that time still
existed in great numbers in Latin: or, as others say, it is the surname
of the Thundering Jupiter derived from ferire, to strike. Others there
are who would have the name to be deduced from the strokes that are given
in fight; since even now in battles, when they press upon their enemies,
they constantly call out to each other, strike, in Latin feri. Spoils in
general they call Spolia, and these in particular Opima; though, indeed,
they say that Numa Pompilius, in his commentaries, makes mention of first,
second, and third Spolia Opima; and that he prescribes that the first taken
be consecrated to Jupiter Feretrius, the second to Mars, the third to Quirinus;
as also that the reward of the first be three hundred asses; of the second,
two hundred; of the third, one hundred. The general account, however, prevails,
that those spoils only are Opima which the general first takes in set battle,
and takes from the enemy's chief captain whom he has slain with his own
hand. But of this enough. The victory and the ending of the war was so
welcome to the people of Rome, that they sent to Apollo of Delphi, in testimony
of their gratitude, a present of a golden cup of an hundred pound weight,
and gave a great part of the spoil to their associate cities, and took
care that many presents should be sent also to Hiero, King of the Syracusans,
their friend and ally.
When Hannibal invaded Italy, Marcellus was despatched with a fleet
to Sicily. And when the army had been defeated at Cannae, and many thousands
of them perished, and a few had saved themselves by flying to Canusium,
and all feared lest Hannibal, who had destroyed the strength of the Roman
army, should advance at once with his victorious troops to Rome, Marcellus
first sent for the protection of the city fifteen hundred soldiers from
the fleet. Then, by decree of the senate, going to Canusium, having heard
that many of the soldiers had come together in that place, he led them
out of the fortifications to prevent the enemy from ravaging the country.
The chief Roman commanders had most of them fallen in battles; and the
citizens complained that the extreme caution of Fabius Maximus, whose integrity
and wisdom gave him the highest authority, verged upon timidity and inaction.
They confided in him to keep them out of danger, but could not expect that
he would enable them to retaliate. Fixing, therefore, their thoughts upon
Marcellus, and hoping to combine his boldness, confidence, and promptitude
with Fabius's caution and prudence, and to temper the one by the other,
they sent, sometimes both with consular command, sometimes one as consul,
the other as proconsul, against the enemy. Posidonius writes, that Fabius
was called the buckler, Marcellus the sword of Rome. Certainly, Hannibal
himself confessed that he feared Fabius as a schoolmaster, Marcellus as
an adversary: the former, lest he should be hindered from doing mischief;
the latter, lest he should receive harm himself.
And first, when among Hannibal's soldiers, proud of their victory,
carelessness and boldness had grown to a great height, Marcellus, attacking
all their stragglers and plundering parties, cut them off, and by little
and little diminished their forces. Then carrying aid to the Neopolitans
and Nolans, he confirmed the minds of the former, who, indeed, were of
their own accord faithful enough to the Romans; but in Nola he found a
state of discord, the senate not being able to rule and keep in the common
people, who were generally favourers of Hannibal. There was in the town
one Bantius, a man renowned for his high birth and courage. This man, after
he had fought most fiercely at Cannae, and had killed many of the enemies,
at last was found lying in a heap of dead bodies, covered with darts, and
was brought to Hannibal, who so honoured him, that he not only dismissed
him without ransom, but also contracted friendship with him, and made him
his guest. In gratitude for this great favour, he became one of the strongest
partisans of Hannibal, and urged the people to revolt. Marcellus could
not be induced to put to death a man of such eminence, and who had endured
such dangers in fighting on the Roman side; but, knowing himself able,
by the general kindliness of his disposition, and in particular by the
attractiveness of his address, to gain over a character whose passion was
for honour, one day when Bantius saluted him, he asked him who he was;
not that he knew him not before, but seeking an occasion of further conference.
When Bantius had told who he was, Marcellus, seeming surprised with joy
and wonder, replied: "Are you that Bantius whom the Romans commend above
the rest that fought at Cannae, and praise as the one man that not only
did not forsake the consul Paulus Aemilius, but received in his own body
many darts thrown at him?" Bantius owning himself to be that very man,
and showing his scars: "Why, then," said Marcellus, "did not you, having
such proofs to show of your affection to us, come to me at my first arrival
here? Do you think that we are unwilling to requite with favour those who
have well deserved, and who are honoured even by our enemies?" He followed
up his courtesies by a present of a war-horse and five hundred drachmas
in money. From that time Bantius became the most faithful assistant and
ally of Marcellus, and a most keen discoverer of those that attempted innovation
and sedition.
These were many, and had entered into a conspiracy to plunder the
baggage of the Romans, when they should make an irruption against the enemy.
Marcellus, therefore, having marshalled his army within the city, placed
the baggage near to the gates, and, by an edict, forbade the Nolans to
go to the walls. Thus, outside the city, no arms could be seen; by which
prudent device he allured Hannibal to move with his army in some disorder
to the city, thinking that things were in a tumult there. Then Marcellus,
the nearest gate being, as he had commanded, thrown open, issuing forth
with the flower of his horse in front, charged the enemy. By and by the
foot, sallying out of another gate, with a loud shout joined in the battle.
And while Hannibal opposes part of his forces to these, the third gate
also is opened, out of which the rest break forth, and on all quarters
fall upon the enemies, who were dismayed at this unexpected encounter,
and did but feebly resist those with whom they had been first engaged,
because of their attack by these others who sallied out later. Here Hannibal's
soldiers, with much bloodshed and many wounds, were beaten back to their
camp, and for the first time turned their backs to the Romans. There fell
in this action, as it is related, more than five thousand of them; of the
Romans, not above five hundred. Livy does not affirm that either the victory
or the slaughter of the enemy was so great; but certain it is that the
adventure brought great glory to Marcellus, and to the Romans, after their
calamities, a great revival of confidence, as they began now to entertain
a hope that the enemy with whom they contended was not invincible, but
liable like themselves to defeats.
Therefore, the other consul being deceased, the people recalled
Marcellus, that they might put him into his place; and, in spite of the
magistrates, succeeded in postponing the election till his arrival, when
he was by all the suffrages created consul. But because it happened to
thunder, the augurs accounting that he was not legitimately created, and
yet not daring, for fear of the people, to declare their sentence openly,
Marcellus voluntarily resigned the consulate, retaining however his command.
Being created proconsul, and returning to the camp at Nola, he proceeded
to harass those that followed the party of the Carthaginians; on whose
coming with speed to succour them, Marcellus declined a challenge to a
set battle, but when Hannibal had sent out a party to plunder, and now
expected no fight, he broke out upon him with his army. He had distributed
to the foot long lances, such as are commonly used in naval fights; and
instructed them to throw them with great force at convenient distances
against the enemies, who were inexperienced in that way of darting, and
used to fight with short darts hand to hand. This seems to have been the
cause of the total rout and open flight of all the Carthaginians who were
then engaged; there fell of them five thousand; four elephants were killed,
and two taken; but what was of the greatest moment, on the third day after,
more than three hundred horse, Spaniards and Numidians mixed, deserted
to him, a disaster that had never to that day happened to Hannibal, who
had kept together in harmony an army of barbarians, collected out of many
various and discordant nations. Marcellus and his successors in all this
war made good use of the faithful service of these horsemen.
He now was a third time created consul, and sailed over into Sicily.
For the success of Hannibal had excited the Carthaginians to lay claim
to that whole island; chiefly because, after the murder of the tyrant Hieronymus,
all things had been in tumult and confusion at Syracuse. For which reason
the Romans also had sent before to that city a force under the conduct
of Appius, as praetor. While Marcellus was receiving that army, a number
of Roman soldiers cast themselves at his feet, upon occasion of the following
calamity. Of those that survived the battle at Cannae, some had escaped
by flight, and some were taken alive by the enemy; so great a multitude,
that it was thought there were not remaining Romans enough to defend the
wall of the city. And yet the magnanimity and constancy of the city was
such, that it would not redeem the captives from Hannibal, though it might
have done so for a small ransom; a decree of the senate forbade it, and
chose rather to leave them to be killed by the enemy, or sold out of Italy;
and commanded that all who had saved themselves by flight should be transported
into Sicily, and not permitted to return into Italy, until the war with
Hannibal should be ended. These, therefore, when Marcellus was arrived
in Sicily, addressed themselves to him in great numbers; and casting themselves
at his feet, with much lamentation and tears humbly besought him to admit
them to honourable service; and promised to make it appear by their future
fidelity and exertions that that defeat had been received rather by misfortune
than by cowardice. Marcellus, pitying them, petitioned the senate by letters,
that he might have leave at all times to recruit his legions out of them.
After much debate about the thing, the senate decreed they were of opinion
that the commonwealth did not require the service of cowardly soldiers;
if Marcellus perhaps thought otherwise, he might make use of them, provided
no one of them be honoured on any occasion with a crown or military gift,
as a reward of his virtue or courage. This decree stung Marcellus; and
on his return to Rome, after the Sicilian war was ended, he upbraided the
senate that they had denied to him, who had so highly deserved of the republic,
liberty to relieve so great a number of citizens in great
calamity.
At this time Marcellus, first incensed by injuries done him by
Hippocrates, commander of the Syracusans (who, to give proof of his good
affection to the Carthaginians, and to acquire the tyranny to himself,
had killed a number of Romans at Leontini), besieged and took by force
the city of Leontini; yet violated none of the townsmen; only deserters,
as many as he took, he subjected to the punishment of the rods and axe.
But Hippocrates, sending a report to Syracuse, that Marcellus had put all
the adult population to the sword, and then coming upon the Syracusans,
who had risen in tumult upon that false report, made himself master of
the city. Upon this Marcellus moved with his whole army to Syracuse, and
encamping near the wall, sent ambassadors into the city to relate to the
Syracusans the truth of what had been done in Leontini. When these could
not prevail by treaty, the whole power being now in the hands of Hippocrates,
he proceeded to attack the city both by land and by sea. The land forces
were conducted by Appius: Marcellus, with sixty galleys, each with five
rows of oars, furnished with all sorts of arms and missiles, and a huge
bridge of planks laid upon eight ships chained together, upon which was
carried the engine to cast stones and darts, assaulted the walls, relying
on the abundance and magnificence of his preparations, and on his own previous
glory; all which, however, were, it would seem, but trifles for Archimedes
and his machines.
These machines he had designed and contrived, not as matters of
any importance, but as mere amusements in geometry; in compliance with
King Hiero's desire and request, some little time before, that he should
reduce to practice some part of his admirable speculation in science, and
by accommodating the theoretic truth to sensation and ordinary use, bring
it more within the appreciation of the people in general. Eudoxus and Archytas
had been the first originators of this far-famed and highly-prized art
of mechanics, which they employed as an elegant illustration of geometrical
truths, and as means of sustaining experimentally, to the satisfaction
of the senses, conclusions too intricate for proof by words and diagrams.
As, for example, to solve the problem, so often required in constructing
geometrical figures, given the two extremes, to find the two mean lines
of a proportion, both these mathematicians had recourse to the aid of instruments,
adapting to their purpose certain curves and sections of lines. But what
with Plato's indignation at it, and his invectives against it as the mere
corruption and annihilation of the one good of geometry, which was thus
shamefully turning its back upon the unembodied objects of pure intelligence
to recur to sensation, and to ask help (not to be obtained without base
supervisions and depravation) from matter; so it was that mechanics came
to be separated from geometry, and, repudiated and neglected by philosophers,
took its place as a military art. Archimedes, however, in writing to King
Hiero, whose friend and near relation he was, had stated that given the
force, any given weight might be moved, and even boasted, we are told,
relying on the strength of demonstration, that if there were another earth,
by going into it he could remove this. Hiero being struck with amazement
at this, and entreating him to make good this problem by actual experiment,
and show some great weight moved by a small engine, he fixed accordingly
upon a ship of burden out of the king's arsenal, which could not be drawn
out of the dock without great labour and many men; and, loading her with
many passengers and a full freight, sitting himself the while far off,
with no great endeavour, but only holding the head of the pulley in his
hand and drawing the cords by degrees, he drew the ship in a straight line,
as smoothly and evenly as if she had been in the sea. The king, astonished
at this, and convinced of the power of the art, prevailed upon Archimedes
to make him engines accommodated to all the purposes, offensive and defensive,
of a siege. These the king himself never made use of, because he spent
almost all his life in a profound quiet and the highest affluence. But
the apparatus was, in most opportune time, ready at hand for the Syracusans,
and with it also the engineer himself.
When, therefore, the Romans assaulted the walls in two places at
once, fear and consternation stupefied the Syracusans, believing that nothing
was able to resist that violence and those forces. But when Archimedes
began to ply his engines, he at once shot against the land forces all sorts
of missile weapons, and immense masses of stone that came down with incredible
noise and violence; against which no man could stand; for they knocked
down those upon whom they fell in heaps, breaking all their ranks and files.
In the meantime huge poles thrust out from the walls over the ships sunk
some by the great weights which they let down from on high upon them; others
they lifted up into the air by an iron hand or beak like a crane's beak
and, when they had drawn them up by the prow, and set them on end upon
the poop, they plunged them to the bottom of the sea; or else the ships,
drawn by engines within, and whirled about, were dashed against steep rocks
that stood jutting out under the walls, with great destruction of the soldiers
that were aboard them. A ship was frequently lifted up to a great height
in the air (a dreadful thing to behold), and was rolled to and fro, and
kept swinging, until the mariners were all thrown out, when at length it
was dashed against the rocks, or let fall. At the engine that Marcellus
brought upon the bridge of ships, which was called Sambuca, from some resemblance
it had to an instrument of music, while it was as yet approaching the wall,
there was discharged a piece of rock of ten talents weight, then a second
and a third, which, striking upon it with immense force and a noise like
thunder, broke all its foundation to pieces, shook out all its fastenings,
and completely dislodged it from the bridge. So Marcellus, doubtful what
counsel to pursue, drew off his ships to a safer distance, and sounded
a retreat to his forces on land. They then took a resolution of coming
up under the walls, if it were possible, in the night; thinking that as
Archimedes used ropes stretched at length in playing his engines, the soldiers
would now be under the shot, and the darts would, for want of sufficient
distance to throw them, fly over their heads without effect. But he, it
appeared, had long before framed for such occasions engines accommodated
to any distance, and shorter weapons; and had made numerous small openings
in the walls, through which, with engines of a shorter range, unexpected
blows were inflicted on the assailants. Thus, when they who thought to
deceive the defenders came close up to the walls, instantly a shower of
darts and other missile weapons was again cast upon them. And when stones
came tumbling down perpendicularly upon their heads, and, as it were, the
whole wall shot out arrows at them, they retired. And now, again, as they
were going off, arrows and darts of a longer range inflicted a great slaughter
among them, and their ships were driven one against another; while they
themselves were not able to retaliate in any way. For Archimedes had provided
and fixed most of his engines immediately under the wall; whence the Romans,
seeing that indefinite mischief overwhelmed them from no visible means,
began to think they were fighting with the gods.
Yet Marcellus escaped unhurt, and deriding his own artificers and
engineers, "What," said he, "must we give up fighting with this geometrical
Briareus, who plays pitch-and-toss with our ships, and, with the multitude
of darts which he showers at a single moment upon us, really outdoes the
hundred-handed giants of mythology?" And, doubtless, the rest of the Syracusans
were but the body of Archimedes's designs, one soul moving and governing
all; for, laying aside all other arms, with this alone they infested the
Romans and protected themselves. In fine, when such terror had seized upon
the Romans, that, if they did but see a little rope or a piece of wood
from the wall, instantly crying out, that there it was again, Archimedes
was about to let fly some engine at them, they turned their backs and fled,
Marcellus desisted from conflicts and assaults, putting all his hope in
a long siege. Yet Archimedes possessed so high a spirit, so profound a
soul, and such treasures of scientific knowledge, that though these inventions
had now obtained him the renown of more than human sagacity, he yet would
not deign to leave behind him any commentary or writing on such subjects;
but, repudiating as sordid and ignoble the whole trade of engineering,
and every sort of art that lends itself to mere use and profit, he placed
his whole affection and ambition in those purer speculations where there
can be no reference to the vulgar needs of life; studies, the superiority
of which to all others is unquestioned, and in which the only doubt can
be whether the beauty and grandeur of the subjects examined, of the precision
and cogency of the methods and means of proof, most deserve our admiration.
It is not possible to find in all geometry more difficult and intricate
questions, or more simple and lucid explanations. Some ascribe this to
his natural genius; while others think that incredible effort and toil
produced these, to all appearances, easy and unlaboured results. No amount
of investigation of yours would succeed in attaining the proof, and yet,
once seen, you immediately believe you would have discovered it; by so
smooth and so rapid a path he leads you to the conclusion required. And
thus it ceases to be incredible that (as is commonly told of him) the charm
of his familiar and domestic Siren made him forget his food and neglect
his person, to that degree that when he was occasionally carried by absolute
violence to bathe or have his body anointed, he used to trace geometrical
figures in the ashes of the fire, and diagrams in the oil on his body,
being in a state of entire preoccupation, and, in the truest sense, divine
possession with his love and delight in science. His discoveries were numerous
and admirable; but he is said to have requested his friends and relations
that, when he was dead, they would place over his tomb a sphere containing
a cylinder, inscribing it with the ratio which the containing solid bears
to the contained.
Such was Archimedes, who now showed himself, and so far as lay
in him the city also, invincible. While the siege continued, Marcellus
took Megara, one of the earliest founded of the Greek cities in Sicily,
and capturing also the camp of Hippocrates at Acilae, killed above eight
thousand men, having attacked them whilst they were engaged in forming
their fortifications. He overran a great part of Sicily; gained over many
towns from the Carthaginians, and overcame all that dared to encounter
him. As the siege went on, one Damippus, a Lacedaemonian, putting to sea
in a ship from Syracuse, was taken. When the Syracusans much desired to
redeem this man, and there were many meetings and treaties about the matter
betwixt them and Marcellus, he had opportunity to notice a tower into which
a body of men might be secretly introduced, as the wall near to it was
not difficult to surmount, and it was itself carelessly guarded. Coming
often thither, and entertaining conferences about the release of Damippus,
he had pretty well calculated the height of the tower, and got ladders
prepared. The Syracusans celebrated a feast to Diana; this juncture of
time, when they were given up entirely to wine and sport, Marcellus laid
hold of, and before the citizens perceived it, not only possessed himself
of the tower, but, before the break of day, filled the wall around with
soldiers, and made his way into the Hexapylum. The Syracusans now beginning
to stir, and to be alarmed at the tumult, he ordered the trumpets everywhere
to sound, and thus frightened them all into flight, as if all parts of
the city were already won, though the most fortified, and the fairest,
and most ample quarter was still ungained. It is called Acradina, and was
divided by a wall from the outer city, one part of which they call Neapolis,
the other Tycha. Possessing himself of these, Marcellus, about break of
day, entered through the Hexapylum, all his officers congratulating him.
But looking down from the higher places upon the beautiful and spacious
city below, he is said to have wept much, commiserating the calamity that
hung over it, when his thoughts represented to him how dismal and foul
the face of the city would be in a few hours, when plundered and sacked
by the soldiers. For among the officers of his army there was not one man
that durst deny the plunder of the city to the soldiers' demands; nay,
many were instant that it should be set on fire and laid level to the ground:
but this Marcellus would not listen to. Yet he granted, but with great
unwillingness and reluctance, that the money and slaves should be made
prey; giving orders, at the same time, that none should violate any free
person, nor kill, misuse, or make a slave of any of the Syracusans. Though
he had used this moderation, he still esteemed the condition of that city
to be pitiable, and, even amidst the congratulations and joy, showed his
strong feelings of sympathy and commiseration at seeing all the riches
accumulated during a long felicity now dissipated in an hour. For it is
related that no less prey and plunder was taken here than afterward in
Carthage. For not long after they obtained also the plunder of the other
parts of the city, which were taken by treachery; leaving nothing untouched
but the king's money, which was brought into the public treasury. But nothing
afflicted Marcellus so much as the death of Archimedes, who was then, as
fate would have it, intent upon working out some problem by a diagram,
and having fixed his mind alike and his eyes upon the subject of his speculation,
he never noticed the incursion of the Romans, nor that the city was taken.
In this transport of study and contemplation, a soldier, unexpectedly coming
up to him, commanded him to follow to Marcellus; which he declining to
do before he had worked out his problem to a demonstration, the soldier,
enraged, drew his sword and ran him through. Others write that a Roman
soldier, running upon him with a drawn sword, offered to kill him; and
that Archimedes, looking back, earnestly besought him to hold his hand
a little while, that he might not leave what he was then at work upon inconclusive
and imperfect; but the soldier, nothing moved by his entreaty, instantly
killed him. Others again relate that, as Archimedes was carrying to Marcellus
mathematical instruments, dials, spheres, and angles, by which the magnitude
of the sun might be measured to the sight, some soldiers seeing him, and
thinking that he carried gold in a vessel, slew him. Certain it is that
his death was very afflicting to Marcellus; and that Marcellus ever after
regarded him that killed him as a murderer; and that he sought for his
kindred and honoured them with signal favours.
Indeed, foreign nations had held the Romans to be excellent soldiers
and formidable in battle; but they had hitherto given no memorable example
of gentleness, or humanity, or civil virtue; and Marcellus seems first
to have shown to the Greeks that his countrymen were most illustrious for
their justice. For such was his moderation to all with whom he had anything
to do, and such his benignity also to many cities and private men, that,
if anything hard or severe was decreed concerning the people of Enna, Megara,
or Syracuse, the blame was thought to belong rather to those upon whom
the storm fell, than to those who brought it upon them. One example of
many I will commemorate. In Sicily there is a town called Engyum, not indeed
great, but very ancient and ennobled by the presence of the goddesses,
called the Mothers. The temple, they say, was built by the Cretans; and
they show some spears and brazen helmets, inscribed with the names of Meriones,
and (with the same spelling as in Latin) of Ulysses, who consecrated them
to the goddesses. This city highly favouring the party of the Carthaginians,
Nicias, the most eminent of the citizens, counselled them to go over to
the Romans; to that end acting freely and openly in harangues to their
assemblies, arguing the imprudence and madness of the opposite course.
They, fearing his power and authority, resolved to deliver him in bonds
to the Carthaginians. Nicias, detecting the design, and seeing that his
person was secretly kept in watch, proceeded to speak irreligiously to
the vulgar of the Mothers, and showed many signs of disrespect, as if he
denied and contemned the received opinion of the presence of those goddesses;
his enemies the while rejoicing that he, of his own accord, sought the
destruction hanging over his head. When they were just now about to lay
hands upon him, an assembly was held, and here Nicias, making a speech
to the people concerning some affair then under deliberation, in the midst
of his address, cast himself upon the ground; and soon after, while amazement
(as usually happens on such surprising occasions) held the assembly immovable,
raising and turning his head round, he began in a trembling and deep tone,
but by degrees raised and sharpened his voice. When he saw the whole theatre
struck with horror and silence, throwing off his mantle and rending his
tunic he leaps up half naked, and runs towards the door, crying out aloud
that he was driven by the wrath of the Mothers. When no man durst, out
of religious fear, lay hands upon him or stop him, but all gave way before
him, he ran out of the gate, not omitting any shriek or gesture of men
possessed and mad. His wife, conscious of his counterfeiting, and privy
to his design, taking her children with her, first cast herself as a suppliant
before the temple of the goddesses; then, pretending to seek her wandering
husband, no man hindering her, went out of the town in safety; and by this
means they all escaped to Marcellus at Syracuse. After many other such
affronts offered him by the men of Engyum, Marcellus, having taken them
all prisoners and cast them into bonds, was preparing to inflict upon them
the last punishment; when Nicias, with tears in his eyes, addressed himself
to him. In fine, casting himself at Marcellus's feet, and deprecating for
his citizens, he begged most earnestly their lives, chiefly those of his
enemies. Marcellus, relenting, set them all at liberty, and rewarded Nicias
with ample lands and rich presents. This history is recorded by Posidonius
the philosopher.
Marcellus, at length recalled by the people of Rome to the immediate
war at home, to illustrate his triumph, and adorn the city, carried away
with him a great number of the most beautiful ornaments of Syracuse. For,
before that, Rome neither had, nor had seen, any of those fine and exquisite
rarities; nor was any pleasure taken in graceful and elegant pieces of
workmanship. Stuffed with barbarous arms and spoils stained with blood,
and everywhere crowned with triumphal memorials and trophies, she was no
pleasant or delightful spectacle for the eyes of peaceful or refined spectators;
but, as Epaminondas named the fields of Boeotia the stage of Mars; and
Xenophon called Ephesus the workhouse of war; so, in my judgment, may you
call Rome, at that time (to use the words of Pindar), "the precinct of
the peaceless Mars." Whence Marcellus was more popular with the people
in general, because he had adorned the city with beautiful objects that
had all the charms of Grecian grace and symmetry; but Fabius Maximus, who
neither touched nor brought away anything of this kind from Tarentum, when
he had taken it, was more approved of by the elder men. He carried off
the money and valuables, but forbade the statues to be moved; adding, as
it is commonly related, "Let us leave to the Tarentines these offended
gods." They blamed Marcellus, first for placing the city in an invidious
position, as it seemed now to celebrate victories and lead processions
of triumph, not only over men, but also over the gods as captives; then,
that he had diverted to idleness, and vain talk about curious arts and
artificers, the common people, which, bred up in wars and agriculture,
had never tasted of luxury and sloth, and, as Euripides said of Hercules,
had been-
"Rude, unrefined, only for great things good," so that now they
misspent much of their time in examining and criticizing trifles. And yet,
notwithstanding this reprimand, Marcellus made it his glory to the Greeks
themselves, that he had taught his ignorant countrymen to esteem and admire
the elegant and wonderful productions of Greece.
But when the envious opposed his being brought triumphant into
the city, because there were some relics of the war in Sicily, and a third
triumph would be looked upon with jealousy, he gave way. He triumphed upon
the Alban mount, and thence entered the city in ovation, as it is called
in Latin, in Greek eua; but in this ovation he was neither carried in a
chariot, nor crowned with laurel, nor ushered by trumpets sounding; but
went afoot with shoes on, many flutes or pipes sounding in concert, while
he passed along, wearing a garland of myrtle, in a peaceable aspect, exciting
rather love and respect than fear. Whence I am, by conjecture, led to think
that, originally, the difference observed betwixt ovation and triumph did
not depend upon the greatness of the achievements, but the manner of performing
them. For they who, having fought a set battle, and slain the enemy, returned
victors, led that martial, terrible triumph, and, as the ordinary custom
then was in lustrating the army, adorned the arms and the soldiers with
a great deal of laurel. But they who without force, by colloquy, persuasion,
and reasoning, had done the business, to these captains custom gave the
honour of the unmilitary and festive ovation. For the pipe is the badge
of peace, and myrtle the plant of Venus, who more than the rest of the
gods and goddesses abhors force and war. It is called ovation, not as most
think, from the Greek euasmus, because they act it with shouting and cries
of Eua: for so do they also the proper triumphs. The Greeks have wrested
the word to their own language, thinking that this honour, also, must have
some connection with Bacchus, who in Greek has the titles of Euius and
Thriambus. But the thing is otherwise. For it was the custom for commanders,
in their triumph, to immolate an ox, but in their ovation, a sheep: hence
they named it Ovation, from the Latin ovis. It is worth observing, how
exactly opposite the sacrifices appointed by the Spartan legislator are
to those of the Romans. For at Lacedaemon, a captain, who had performed
the work he had undertook by cunning, or courteous treaty, on laying down
his command, immolated an ox; he that did the business by battle, offered
a cock; the Lacedaemonians, though most warlike, thinking exploit performed
by reason and wisdom to be more excellent and more congruous to man, than
one effected by mere force and courage. Which of the two is to be preferred
I leave to the determination of others.
Marcellus being the fourth time consul, his enemies suborned the
Syracusans to come to Rome to accuse him, and to complain that they had
suffered indignities and wrongs, contrary to the conditions granted them.
It happened that Marcellus was in the capitol offering sacrifice when the
Syracusans petitioned the senate, yet sitting, that they might have leave
to accuse him and present their grievances. Marcellus's colleague, eager
to protect him in his absence, put them out of the court. But Marcellus
himself came as soon as he heard of it. And first, in his curule chair
as consul, he referred to the senate the cognizance of other matters: but
when these were transacted, rising from his seat, he passed as a private
man into the place where the accused were wont to make their defence, and
gave free liberty to the Syracusans to impeach him. But they, struck with
consternation by his majesty and confidence, stood astonished; and the
power of his presence now, in his robe of state, appeared far more terrible
and severe than it had done when he was arrayed in armour. Yet, reanimated
at length by Marcellus's rivals, they began their impeachment, and made
an oration in which pleas of justice mingled with lamentation and complaint;
the sum of which was, that being allies and friends of the people of Rome,
they had, notwithstanding, suffered things which other commanders had abstained
from inflicting upon enemies. To this Marcellus answered that they had
committed many acts of hostility against the people of Rome, and had suffered
nothing but what enemies conquered and captured in war cannot possibly
be protected from suffering: that it was their own fault they had been
made captives, because they refused to give ear to his frequent attempts
to persuade them by gentle means: neither were they forced into war by
the power of tyrants, but had rather chosen the tyrants themselves for
the express object that they might make war. The orations ended, and the
Syracusans, according to the custom, having retired, Marcellus left his
colleague to ask the sentences, and, withdrawing with the Syracusans, stayed
expecting at the doors of the senate-house; not in the least discomposed
in spirit, either with alarm at the accusation, or by anger against the
Syracusans; but with perfect calmness and serenity attending the issue
of the cause. The sentences at length being all asked, and a decree of
the senate made in vindication of Marcellus, the Syracusans, with tears
flowing from their eyes, cast themselves at his knees, beseeching him to
forgive themselves there present, and to be moved by the misery of the
rest of their city, which would ever be mindful of, and grateful for, his
benefits. Thus Marcellus, softened by their tears and distress, was not
only reconciled to the deputies, but ever afterwards continued to find
opportunity of doing kindness to the Syracusans. The liberty which he had
restored to them, and their rights, laws, and goods that were left, the
senate confirmed. Upon which account the Syracusans, besides other signal
honours, made a law, that if Marcellus should at any time come into Sicily,
or any of his posterity, the Syracusans should wear garlands and offer
public sacrifice to the gods.
After this he moved against Hannibal. And whereas the other consuls
and commanders, since the defeat received at Cannae, had all made use of
the same policy against Hannibal, namely, to decline coming to a battle
with him; and none had had the courage to encounter him in the field and
put themselves to the decision by the sword; Marcellus entered upon the
opposite course, thinking that Italy would be destroyed by the very delay
by which they looked to wear out Hannibal; and that Fabius, who, adhering
to his cautious policy, waited to see the war extinguished, while Rome
itself meantime wasted away (like timid physicians, who, dreading to administer
remedies, stay waiting, and believe that what is the decay of the patient's
strength is the decline of the disease), was not taking a right course
to heal the sickness of his country. And first, the great cities of the
Samnites, which had revolted, came into his power; in which he found a
large quantity of corn and money, and three thousand of Hannibal's soldiers,
that were left for the defence. After this, the proconsul Cnaeus Fulvius
with eleven tribunes of the soldiers being slain in Apulia, and the greatest
part of the army also at the same time cut off, he despatched letters to
Rome, and bade the people be of good courage, for that he was now upon
the march against Hannibal, to turn his triumph into sadness. On these
letters being read, Livy writes that the people were not only not encouraged,
but more discouraged than before. For danger, they thought, was but the
greater in proportion as Marcellus was of more value than Fulvius. He,
as he had written, advancing into the territories of the Lucanians, came
up to him at Numistro, and, the enemy keeping himself upon the hills, pitched
his camp in a level plain, and the next day drew forth his army in order
for fight. Nor did Hannibal refuse the challenge. They fought long and
obstinately on both sides, victory yet seeming undecided, when, after three
hours' conflict, night hardly parted them. The next day, as soon as the
sun was risen, Marcellus again brought forth his troops, and ranged them
among the dead bodies of the slain, challenging Hannibal to solve the question
by another trial. When he dislodged and drew off, Marcellus, gathering
up the spoils of the enemies, and burying the bodies of his slain soldiers,
closely followed him. And though Hannibal often used stratagems, and laid
ambushes to entrap Marcellus, yet he never could circumvent him. By skirmishes,
meantime, in all of which he was superior, Marcellus gained himself such
high repute, that, when the time of the Comitia at Rome was near at hand,
the senate thought fit rather to recall the other consul from Sicily than
to withdraw Marcellus from his conflict with Hannibal; and on his arrival
they bid him name Quintus Fulvius dictator. For the dictator is created
neither by the people nor by the senate, but the consul of the praetor,
before the popular assembly, pronounces him to be dictator whom he himself
chooses. Hence he is called dictator, dicere meaning to name. Others say
that he is named dictator because his word is a law, and he orders what
he pleases, without submitting it to the vote. For the Romans call the
orders of magistrates Edicts.
And now because Marcellus's colleague, who was recalled from Sicily,
had a mind to name another man dictator, and would not be forced to change
his opinion, he sailed away by night back to Sicily. So the common people
made an order that Quintus Fulvius should be chosen dictator: and the senate,
by an express, commanded Marcellus to nominate him. He obeying proclaimed
him dictator according to the order of the people; but the office of proconsul
was continued to himself for a year. And having arranged with Fabius Maximus
that, while he besieged Tarentum, he would, by following Hannibal and drawing
him up and down, detain him from coming to the relief of the Tarentines,
he overtook him at Canusium: and as Hannibal often shifted his camp, and
still declined the combat, he everywhere sought to engage him. At last,
pressing upon him while encamping, by light skirmishes he provoked him
to a battle; but night again divided them in the very heat of the conflict.
The next day Marcellus again showed himself in arms, and brought up his
forces in array. Hannibal, in extreme grief, called his Carthaginians together
to an harangue: and vehemently prayed them to fight to-day worthily of
all their former success; "For you see," said he, "how, after such great
victories, we have not liberty to respire, nor to repose ourselves, though
victors; unless we drive this man back." Then the two armies, joining battle,
fought fiercely; when the event of an untimely movement showed Marcellus
to have been guilty of an error. The right wing being hard pressed upon,
he commanded one of the legions to be brought up to the front. This change
disturbing the array and posture of the legions gave the victory to the
enemies; and there fell two thousand seven hundred Romans. Marcellus, after
he had retreated into his camp, called his soldiers together. "I see,"
said he, "many Roman arms and bodies, but I see not so much as one Roman."
To their entreaties for his pardon, he returned a refusal while they remained
beaten, but promised to give it so soon as they should overcome; and he
resolved to bring them into the field again the next day, that the fame
of their victory might arrive at Rome before that of their flight. Dismissing
the assembly, he commanded barley instead of wheat to be given to those
companies that had turned their backs. These rebukes were so bitter to
the soldiers, that though a great number of them were grievously wounded,
yet they relate there was not one to whom the general's oration was not
more painful and smarting than his wounds.
The day breaking, a scarlet toga, the sign of instant battle, was
displayed. The companies marked with ignominy begged they might be posted
in the foremost place, and obtained their request. Then the tribunes bring
forth the rest of the forces, and draw them up. On news of which, "O strange!"
said Hannibal, "what will you do with this man, who can bear neither good
nor bad fortune? He is the only man who neither suffers us to rest when
he is victor, nor rests himself when he is overcome. We shall have, it
seems, perpetually to fight with him; as in good success his confidence,
and in ill success his shame, still urges him to some further enterprise."
Then the armies engaged. When the fight was doubtful, Hannibal commanded
the elephants to be brought into the first battalion, and to be driven
upon the van of the Romans. When the beasts, trampling upon many, soon
caused disorder, Flavius, a tribune of soldiers, snatching an ensign, meets
them, and wounding the first elephant with the spike at the bottom of the
ensign staff, puts him to flight. The beast turned around upon the next,
and drove back both him and the rest that followed. Marcellus, seeing this,
pours in his horse with great force upon the elephants, and upon the enemy
disordered by their flight. The horse, making a fierce impression, pursued
the Carthaginians home to their camp, while the elephants, wounded and
running upon their own party, caused a considerable slaughter. It is said
more than eight thousand were slain; of the Roman army three thousand,
and almost all wounded. This gave Hannibal opportunity to retire in the
silence of the night, and to remove to greater distance from Marcellus;
who was kept from pursuing by the number of his wounded men, and removed,
by gentle marches, into Campania, and spent the summer at Sinuessa, engaged
in restoring them.
But as Hannibal, having disentangled himself from Marcellus, ranged
with his army round about the country, and wasted Italy free from all fear,
at Rome Marcellus was evil spoken of. His detractors induced Publicius
Bibulus, tribune of the people, an eloquent and violent man, to undertake
his accusation. He, by assiduous harangues, prevailed upon the people to
withdraw from Marcellus the command of the army; "Seeing that Marcellus,"
said he, "after brief exercise in the war, has withdrawn as it might be
from the wrestling ground to the warm baths to refresh himself." Marcellus,
on hearing this, appointed lieutenants over his camp and hasted to Rome
to refute the charges against him: and there found ready drawn up an impeachment
consisting of these calumnies. At the day prefixed, in the Flaminian circus,
into which place the people had assembled themselves, Bibulus rose and
accused him. Marcellus himself answered, briefly and simply, but the first
and most approved men of the city spoke largely and in high terms, very
freely advising the people not to show themselves worse judges than the
enemy, condemning Marcellus of timidity, from whom alone of all their captains
the enemy fled, and as perpetually endeavoured to avoid fighting with him
as to fight with others. When they made an end of speaking, the accuser's
hope to obtain judgment so far deceived him, that Marcellus was not only
absolved, but the fifth time created consul.
No sooner had he entered upon this consulate, but he suppressed
a great commotion in Etruria, that had proceeded near to revolt, and visited
and quieted the cities. Then, when the dedication of the temple, which
he had vowed out of his Sicilian spoils to Honour and Virtue, was objected
to by the priests, because they denied that one temple could be lawfully
dedicated to two gods, he began to adjoin another to it, resenting the
priests' opposition, and almost converting the thing into an omen. And,
truly, many other prodigies also affrighted him; some temples had been
struck with lightning, and in Jupiter's temple mice had gnawed the gold:
it was reported, also, that an ox had spoken, and that a boy had been born
with a head like an elephant's. All which prodigies had indeed been attended
to, but due reconciliation had not been obtained from the gods. The aruspices
therefore detained him at Rome, glowing and burning with desire to return
to the war. For no man was ever inflamed with so great desire of anything
as was he to fight a battle with Hannibal. It was the subject of his dreams
in the night, the topic of all his consultations with his friends and familiars,
nor did he present to the gods any other wish, but that he might meet Hannibal
in the field. And I think that he would most gladly have set upon him,
with both armies environed within a single camp. Had he not been even loaded
with honours, and had he not given proofs in many ways of his maturity
of judgment and of prudence equal to that of any commander, you might have
said that he was agitated by a youthful ambition, above what became a man
of that age, for he had passed the sixtieth year of his life when he began
his fifth consulship.
The sacrifices having been offered, and all that belonged to the
propitiation of the gods performed, according to the prescription of the
diviners, he at last with his colleague went forth to carry on the war.
He tried all possible means to provoke Hannibal, who at that time had a
standing camp betwixt Bantia and Venusia. Hannibal declined an engagement,
but having obtained intelligence that some troops were on their way to
the town of Locri Epizephyrii, placing an ambush under the little hill
of Petelia, he slew two thousand five hundred soldiers. This incensed Marcellus
to revenge; and he therefore moved nearer Hannibal. Betwixt the two camps
was a little hill, a tolerably secure post, covered with wood; it had steep
descents on either side, and there were springs of water seen trickling
down. This place was so fit and advantageous that the Romans wondered that
Hannibal, who had come thither before them, had not seized upon it, but
had left it to the enemies. But to him the place had seemed commodious
indeed for a camp, but yet more commodious for an ambuscade; and to that
use he chose to put it. So in the wood and the hollows he hid a number
of archers and spearmen, confident that the commodiousness of the place
would allure the Romans. Nor was he deceived in his expectation. For presently
in the Roman camp they talked and disputed, as if they had all been captains,
how the place ought to be seized, and what great advantage they should
thereby gain upon the enemies, chiefly if they transferred their camp thither,
at any rate, if they strengthened the place with a fort. Marcellus resolved
to go, with a few horse, to view it. Having called a diviner he proceeded
to sacrifice. In the first victim the aruspex showed him the liver without
a head; in the second the head appeared of unusual size, and all the other
indications highly promising. When these seemed sufficient to free them
from the dread of the former, the diviners declared that they were all
the more terrified by the latter; because entrails too fair and promising,
when they appear after others that are maimed and monstrous, render the
change doubtful and suspicious. But-
"Nor fire nor brazen wall can keep out fate;" as Pindar observes.
Marcellus, therefore, taking with him his colleague Crispinus, and his
son, a tribune of soldiers, with two hundred and twenty horse at most (among
whom there was not one Roman, but all were Etruscans, except forty Fregellans,
of whose courage and fidelity he had on all occasions received full proof),
goes to view the place. The hill was covered with woods all over; on the
top of it sat a scout concealed from the sight of the enemy, but having
the Roman camp exposed to his view. Upon signs received from him, the men
that were placed in ambush stirred not till Marcellus came near; and then
all starting up in an instant, and encompassing him from all sides, attacked
him with darts, struck about and wounded the backs of those that fled,
and pressed upon those who resisted. These were the forty Fregellans. For
though the Etruscans fled in the very beginning of the fight, the Fregellans
formed themselves into a ring, bravely defending the consuls, till Crispinus,
struck with two darts, turned his horse to fly away; and Marcellus's side
was run through with a lance with a broad head. Then the Fregellans, also,
the few that remained alive, leaving the fallen consul, and rescuing young
Marcellus, who also was wounded, got into the camp by flight. There were
slain not much above forty; five lictors and eighteen horsemen came alive
into the enemy's hands. Crispinus also died of his wounds a few days after.
Such a disaster as the loss of both consuls in a single engagement was
one that had never before befallen the Romans.
Hannibal, little valuing the other events, as soon as he was told
of Marcellus's death, immediately hasted to the hill. Viewing the body,
and continuing for some time to observe its strength and shape, he allowed
not a word to fall from him expressive of the least pride or arrogancy,
nor did he show in his countenance any sign of gladness, as another perhaps
would have done, when his fierce and troublesome enemy had been taken away;
but amazed by so sudden and unexpected an end, taking off nothing but his
ring, gave order to have the body properly clad and adorned and honourably
burned. The relics put into a silver urn, with a crown of gold to cover
it, he sent back to his son. But some of the Numidians, setting upon these
that were carrying the urn, took it from them by force, and cast away the
bones; which being told to Hannibal, "It is impossible, it seems then,"
he said, "to do anything against the will of God!" He punished the Numidians;
but took no further care of sending or re-collecting the bones; conceiving
that Marcellus so fell, and so lay unburied, by a certain fate. So Cornelius
Nepos and Vaerius Maximus have left upon record: but Livy and Augustus
Caesar affirm that the urn was brought to his son, and honoured with a
magnificent funeral. Besides the monuments raised for him at Rome, there
was dedicated to his memory at Catana, in Sicily, an ample wrestling place
called after him; statues and pictures, out of those he took from Syracuse,
were set up in Samothrace, in the temple of the gods, named Cabiri, and
in that of Minerva at Lindus, where also there was a statue of him, says
Posidonius, with the following inscription:-
"This was, O stranger, once Rome's star divine,
Claudius Marcellus of an ancient line;
To fight her wars seven times her consul made,
Low in the dust her enemies he laid." The writer of the inscription
has added to Marcellus's five consulates his two proconsulates. His progeny
continued in high honour even down to Marcellus, son of Octavia, sister
of Augustus, whom she bore to her husband Caius Marcellus; and who died
a bridegroom, in the year of his Aedileship, having not long before married
Caesar's daughter. His mother, Octavia, dedicated the library to his honour
and memory, and Caesar the theatre which bears his name.
THE END
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