Notes

Although the book is a novel, I have relied heavily on many sources for facts about the Romans, their religion, their way of life, their warfare, personalities, events, and so on. Where you find no note citing a source for a fact in my text, assume that my source was usually either Polybius or Livy, both of whom provide chronological accounts of the war, which often overlap. These notes provide anyone determined to follow up my words the means to go to my sources. They also explain some of my choices or arcane bits of Roman lore. Citations given here refer to items in the Bibliography. Many items also refer you to the Glossary. My chief source for many things Roman was Lesley Adkins & Roy Adkins, Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome.

Where I mention ancient names, I try to provide the modern name in parentheses. Keep in mind that this is still a very provisional set of notes.

Notes for Chapter 10, Scipio, Italian Gaul, 218 B.C.

[still incomplete]

“Sailed a direct course.” Generally, ancient shipping followed the coastlines because their navigation was poor. But in times of need, they might venture out into the open sea far from the sight of land. Lacking modern tools such as compasses and sextants, they had to navigate by the sun and stars.
“Big square sail.” Roman warships were square-rigged, with a big square sail on a mast amidships and a smaller, also square, sail nearer the bow. For more information on ships and sailing, see Casson. Also see Morrison, et al.
“Stays, braces, brails.” I took ship terminology mostly from Morrison, et al.
Rowers. Most ancient ships, especially warships, could be rowed as well as sailed. Rowing was used when the wind failed and for close maneuvering, as in battle. The numbers and arrangements of rowers varied from one ship type to another. See Casson, also Morrison, et al.
Height of the Alps. The tallest peak in the Alps is Mont Blanc, at 4,807 meters, or 15,771 feet. By contrast, Mount Corno, the tallest peak in the Apennines, is 2,912 meters, or 9,554 feet tall. Thus the Alps are literally almost twice as high as the Apennines. Source: Encarta.
Gens. A man’s gens was his extended clan—those even of distant relation who bore the same family name. Famous gens in Republican times included Cornelius (Scipio’s gens), Fabius, Claudius, Julius, Caecilius, Livius, Licinius, Fulvius, Mamilius, Atilius, Otacilius, Manlius, Marcius, Aemilius, Servilius, Minucius, Veturius, Papirius, Pomponius, Junius, Lutatius, Annius, Publicius, Furius, Sempronius. The gens was a man’s second name, after his given name of Gaius, Marcus, etc., and before his cognomen(s), e.g. Scipio, Maximus, Marcellus, etc., if he had any. For example: Publius Cornelius Scipio.
Hannibal’s troop strengths. I’ve combed the modern sources on Hannibal for figures indicating how many troops, elephants, etc., he had at various points along his march. The best source for these figures is Peddie, p. 102. Note that Hannibal arrives in Italy with about a quarter of the strength he began with in Spain. He lost perhaps twenty-five thousand men in the Alps, probably most of them in the first ambush.
“All thirty-six elephants.” There is disagreement in the sources about how many elephants survived into Italy. Most sources have Hannibal departing Spain with 37 of them, and most agree that he came down from the Alps with all of them still alive—though I have him lose one at the Rhodanus River. Most sources also agree that all but one elephant then died either in the battle at the Trebia River or shortly afterwards in the winter snows and cold. Livy differs from the other sources in saying that seven elephants survived all that but perished in the Apennine crossing—I doubt that version as Hannibal crossed the Apennines in spring, and it was a much less eventful crossing than the one through the Alps, so I’ve followed the majority of the sources. In any event, by the time he leaves the swamps south of the Apennines in 217, he has only one elephant left, his favorite, Surus, and he loses Surus not long after. The best modern source on this is Scullard, The Elephant in the Greek and Roman World.
“Carthage would perish from the earth.” Of course, although Hannibal could not know it, Carthage was indeed doomed to perish from the earth. Scipio’s grandson (by adoption), Scipio Aemilianus, razed Carthage to the ground in 146 B.C.E., during the Third Punic War, and is said to have sown salt in the earth—though no doubt many of her citizens survived, scattered, and Rome rebuilt a Roman Carthage on the spot.
Dignitas. A man’s sense of his worth and reputation—more than just his dignity. There was also his auctoritas—his political clout.
120 miles. The distance from Pisae to Placentia through the Apennines, as measured roughly in the Barrington Atlas.
Ticinus River. The modern Ticino, which flows south from the Alps into the Po (Padus) near modern Piacenza. The Ticino didn’t look very impressive when I visited Pavia, near the confluence with the Po, in 2001 (but then neither did the Po, due to the season).
Placentia. Most historians assume that ancient Placentia, the colony town established by Rome in 219-218 B.C.E. near the confluence of the Ticinus and Padus Rivers, lay where modern Piacenza does. But Tenney Frank (?) argues that the town has moved since Republican Roman times, lying originally to the west of the Trebia River rather than east as Piacenza does now. I believe Tenney Frank’s arguments make sense of Publius Scipio’s movements and the orientation of Hannibal’s and Publius Scipio’s camps on the Trebia, so I’ve followed that logic. I got Tenney Frank’s arguments from Connolly, Greece and Rome at War, p. 167.
Legion numbers. I follow the practice of Connolly, Greece and Rome at War, in numbering the legions in the Second Punic War as they were brought into service in 218 and following years. If the Romans of that time did number their legions, as Rome did later, their numbers haven’t survived. The first legion, thus, is the first legion allocated to Publius Scipio, the senior consul, at the beginning of his consulship in 218. He got legions one and two, while his junior consular colleague Sempronius got three and four. The first and second legions ended up in Italian Gaul when the Boii rebelled and attacked Placentia and Cremona. Publius Scipio then had to raise two new legions, five and six, which he took to Massilia and his brother Gnaeus then took to Spain.
Organization of the Republican Roman legions. I’ve described this pretty thoroughly in this chapter, especially their disposition during battle. Connolly, Greece and Rome at War, was my main source. For more details about legion composition and numbers, see my analysis in Legionary Dimensions.
“The Romans’ intelligence, such as it was.” Rome in Scipio’s day was not reputed to have a good intelligence system—unlike Hannibal, who had an excellent one.
Tree species in ancient Italian Gaul. Today, the predominant tree in much of northern Italy is the poplar, but that species was introduced after Republican times. I’ve selected ash and maple to mention, based on information in Simon and Schuster’s Guide to Trees. This is guesswork to some extent. The flora and fauna have changed in 2200 years, as has some of the geography, such as river courses and lake beds.
Gaius Laelius. Laelius, a plebeian of a family never before distinguished, became Scipio’s companion throughout the war. When Scipio defeated Hannibal finally at the Battle of Zama in Africa, Laelius led the cavalry who made the decisive difference in the outcome. His career continued to be tied to the Scipios. He served his consulship in 190 B.C.E. with Scipio’s brother Lucius as his colleague.
Pyrrhus. One of the successors to parts of Alexander the Great’s conquests, and a kinsman of Alexander, Pyrrhus (peer’ us) ruled Epirus in northwestern Greece (just east of the heel of Italy). After various exploits in Macedonia, he invaded Italy in 280 B.C.E. At the time, Rome had conquered most of the Italian peninsula except for the areas in the south controlled by Greek colonies. When Rome turned to them, Pyrrhus came to their aid. Rome faced the Macedonian phalanx for the first time at Heraclea, losing a third of her army. (Pyrrhus’s forces were so beaten up, though, that his victory was what today we call a ‘Pyrrhic victory.’) Their next meeting went about the same way, so Pyrrhus transferred his energies to Sicily, where he beat back the Carthaginians, who were threatening Greek cities there. Back in Italy after losing half his fleet to the Carthaginians in the crossing, he again did poorly against the Romans. Having never been defeated, yet having lost the war, he returned to Epirus. His defeat left the Romans the preeminent military power in the Mediterranean Sea, and they were on their way towards Empire. I took my summary account of Pyrrhus here from Connolly, Greece and Rome at War, p. 90.
The Gauls (who invaded Italy and took much of Rome in 390 B.C.E.). The Gauls entered northern Italy in the fourth century B.C.E., settling in what became Italian Gaul, the area north of the Apennines. In 390, the Senones, led by Brennus (after whom the Brenner Pass in the Alps is named), crossed the Apennines to attack Clusium, in Etruria (roughly, modern Tuscany). Then, for reasons unknown, they broke off the attack at Clusium and turned on Rome. The Romans lost a battle just north of the city in which they tried to block the attacking Gauls, and the Gauls plundered and burned the city—except for the citadel on Capitoline Hill, which the Romans successfully defended. Supposedly, Rome named one Camillus dictator to meet the crisis. After a siege of seven months, the citadel’s defenders paid the Gauls a thousand pounds of gold to withdraw. But Camillus appeared and drove the Gauls off. There’s a lovely legendary story about the sacred geese on the Capitol alerting Marcus Manlius (later called Capitolinus) to defend the citadel. But the truth is probably that the defenders bought off the Gauls, who then retired, the whole story of Camillus being part legend and partly a fiction created to save Roman face. In any event, this episode remained a black mark in Roman history to the end of the Empire hundreds of years later. It also helps explain the fear and animosity of the Romans towards the Gauls, which fueled the incessant wars against the Gauls throughout Republican Roman history until Caesar conquered Gaul for good.
“More than a troop of scouts.” The annalists tell us that Publius Scipio was badly outnumbered at the Ticinus, expecting a smaller scouting force like his own. Yet another failure of Rome to predict the wily Hannibal. Dodge (p. 251) says Scipio had about two thousand cavalry (a large number to accompany only one Roman legion, by the way—many of them would have to be Gallic mercenaries, as the typical legion had only about 300 cavalry) and his light troops. As a legion had about 1200 velites, the light troops, I have a thousand of them at the skirmish on the Ticinus.
Hannibal’s line (his “wings”) at the skirmish on the Ticinus. This is historically accurate—Hannibal did spread his lines wide and use them to envelop the Romans. See Dodge, pp. 251-252.
Location of the skirmish at the Ticinus. This is highly controversial, with some modern historians arguing that it took place east of the Ticinus and north of the Padus while others contend that it took place west of the Ticinus (and north of the Padus). Scullard and others place it near modern Lomello, a small town across the Ticino River west of modern Pavia (a small city south of Milan with an ancient university whose alumni include Alessandro Volta, who presented the first electrical battery to Napoleon there. Having visited the general area of Lomello and Pavia, I decided to follow Scullard and place the skirmish near Lomello, which is about twenty kilometers southwest of Pavia. My wife and I visited the Lomello area in 2001, where we got a good feel for the generally flat terrain, now full of poplars and rice paddies. See Note 17 above, on tree species, for how I forested the area in Scipio’s day.
“Ambush.” Although the ancient sources don’t mention an ambush at the Ticinus, I took the suggestion of one from Connolly, Greece and Rome at War,” who says on p. 168 that “this suggests that in fact the Numidians were also placed in hiding.” Although I’m not sure that’s so, I found the mention of an ambush here useful in presaging Hannibal’s later tricks. I wanted him known right away as an “ambusher,” as Scipio calls him.
Roman standards. Dodge (p. 71) explains the use of standards in Roman legions. They began as, for instance, a bundle of hay tied to a lance, but later became a carved fist at the tip of a lance (giving the origin of maniple: manipulus (from manus, hand), a handful or squad of men, though the size later changed). After Scipio’s time (around 100 B.C.E., under Gaius Marius), the standards began to bear an eagle of silver or gold, along with the unit’s emblem and number. Dodge tells us (p. 72), “The standard was carried by the first centurion of the first maniple of the triarii.” This man was called the primipilus and often commanded a legion under the tribunes. The cavalry’s color was red.
Scipio’s rescue of his father. This does come from the ancient sources, though it’s possibly legendary. Some sources (e.g. Coelius Antipater, cited in Livy, xxi, 46) argue that a Ligurian slave saved Publius Scipio. All the sources agree on P. Scipio’s wound (though don’t mention its nature or location), and the strongest tradition is that it was seventeen-year-old Scipio. This is, in fact, the earliest mention of Scipio in the ancient sources, which recount only about three incidents involving Scipio before he assumed the command in Spain at age twenty-five. One is the rescue at the Ticinus. Another is his leadership among the survivors of Cannae, where he is said to have quelled a mutiny (see my Chapter 12). And the third is his aedileship in 213 B.C.E., though some sources get this wrong, stating that he and his brother Lucius ran together. Actually he ran with Marcus Cornelius Cethegus, according to more reliable sources, including Broughton. (See my next book.)
Trumpeter. Connolly examines the evidence for trumpeters (tubicines) and other horn blowers (cornicines) on p. 129 of Greece and Rome at War. Although Polybius, who provides our best account of the organization of Roman armies in Scipio’s day, doesn’t mention the full two centuries of trumpeters and horn blowers found in the earlier Etruscan-Roman armies—probably enough for one per century of troops—he does mention trumpeters and horn blowers. Connolly surmises that each maniple had a trumpeter and a horn blower. Connolly says (p. 139) that these musicians were used to mark the changing of the guard when the Romans were in camp. Dodge (p. 70) describes the musical instruments used by the legions to signal movements in camp, on the march, and in battle. He says that these were “apparently [used] much more than bugle-calls are used to-day.” (His book was published in 1891.) The general’s trumpeters gave a signal that other trumpeters repeated throughout the army. Dodge notes (p. 71), “There were no firearms or artillery to drown the trumpet-blast.”
Extraordinarii. The Italian allies who accompanied Roman legions—in strength and organization approximately equal to the legion—provided troops, primarily cavalry, whose job it was to protect the camp and the marching column.
Description of the ramparts around a Roman army camp. I took this description from a number of sources: McCullough, The First Man in Rome; Connolly, Greece and Rome at War; Dodge; and others.
Praetorian Gate. A Roman legionary camp had three main streets, according to Connolly, Greece and Rome at War, p. 137, and four gates, one on each side of the square camp: the Porta praetoria (main gate, closest to the general’s quarters and to the enemy), the Porta principalis sinistra (left gate), the Porta principalis dextra (right gate), and the Porta decumana (back gate, farthest from the enemy).
Surgeons. Quite a bit is known about Roman medicine, which was largely derived from the Greeks and included surgical medicine as well as pharmacological medicine and magical or religious medicine. Good sources include Hornblower and Spawforth, also Edelstein. For more about the physicians used in Rome in Scipio’s time, see Note 11 for Chapter 3, above.
Book buckets and scrolls. Since most paper in Scipio’s time was papyrus (see Note 10 for Chapter 6) and the book format had not yet been invented, sheets of papyrus were joined to form scrolls. The most convenient way to store scrolls is in pigeonholes, as in a roll top desk, or in the leather book buckets that the Romans and other ancient peoples used.
“Tribunes had things well in hand.” In Scipio’s time Rome did not use legates, so the next command level below the commanding consul, praetor, proconsul, or propraetor consisted of the military tribunes. As there were six tribunes per legion, each probably commanded one-sixth of the legion’s thirty maniples, or five maniples, each consisting of two centuries. In rotation, the tribunes (at least the senior tribunes) ran the legion for the general. The cohort, consisting of three maniples, or about 420 men, had not yet been invented. The cohort became the standard unit for maneuvers and special assignments after the Second Punic War (or possibly during its later years). My source for most of this is Connolly, Greece and Rome at War, p. 129. Note that Connolly and other authors describe the early Roman army, ca. 4^th century, and the army as it existed in about 160 B.C.E. (as described by Polybius). Because in the early phases of the Second Punic War at least the army probably had not yet fully matured into the army that Polybius describes, I’ve taken his description as a basis but tried to shade it a bit backwards in time. Despite descriptions such as Polybius’s, there is still a lot unknown and a lot open to interpretation.
Description of Hannibal. I’ve taken much of this from coins and from the fact that, as a Phoenician descendant, Hannibal was of Semitic origin and would look much like modern Jews and Arabs. According to Encarta, Phoenicia was a small “country” formed of a dozen or so city-states dominated by one or another of their number, especially Sidon and Tyre. These lay on the eastern Mediterranean coast, in what is now mostly modern Lebanon. See also Note 6 for Chapter 1.
Blooded. Military men speak of being “blooded” in combat when they injure or kill an enemy soldier. A legionary commander looked forward to blooding his troops as an important step in turning them into experienced veterans.
Roman bridge. The Romans were famous for their engineering skills, including building military structures such as bridges, artillery pieces, and siege structures such as mantlets and siege towers. Soldiers did much of the work building the famous Roman road system.
The colonies at Placentia and Cremona. One way Rome stabilized a region it had conquered was to plant colony towns there, with populations largely composed of retired veteran soldiers and their families. Establishing these two colonies in Italian Gaul began probably in 219 B.C.E. under the consulship of Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Marcus Livius Salinator (Aemilia Tertia’s and Marcus Livius’s fathers, respectively). They actually broke ground, I believe, in the spring of 218, just as the war was beginning. A trio of commissioners were appointed to supervise establishing the colonies: Gaius Lutatius Catulus, Gaius Servilius Geminus, and Marcus Annius. According to Broughton, while Lutatius is clearly correct, the other two are somewhat in doubt. Established in hostile territory, a colony town of this sort probably resembled a military camp in its early months and years, with strong military fortifications and a military style of operation. See Gargola, Lands, Laws, and Gods, for much more information on colonies. The location of Placentia is somewhat in dispute. Most scholars place it at the site of modern Piacenza, but according to Connolly, Greece and Rome at War, p. 167, the scholar Tenney Frank has argued well for placing the original colony at Stradella, 30 kilometers west of Piacenza. Frank argues that the colony was “besieged by Hasdrubal [Barca] in 207 and destroyed by the Celts in 200,” then rebuilt at the present site of Piacenza. The value of this placement is that Stradella is closer than Piacenza to the confluence of the Padus (Po) and Ticinus (Ticino) rivers and is west of the Trebia rather than east, making it easier to reconcile the geography with the ancient accounts. I’ve gone with Tenney Frank.
Lutatii as allies of the Scipiones. I’ve used Scullard’s Roman Politics, 220 – 150 B.C. as my source for how the political factions were composed during the Second Punic War. Romans at this period had not developed political parties, but there were definite factions, whose membership shifted depending on events and issues. These factions usually centered around a man, a family, or a group of families rather than an idea or philosophy and were largely based on common causes, loyalty, and political ties bound by money, blood, or arranged marriages. (Here was the value of a man’s daughters.) However, during the Second Punic War, there were large factions favoring and opposing the war—not parties per se, but definitely organized around an issue. I tried to use Scullard’s information as a guide when I had to decide things like who might be married to whom (would an Aemilius marry a Fabius, for instance?), who a man’s friends might be, and so on.
“Every spare stitch they possessed.” The Romans at this date did not wear trousers, so the soldiers would be forced to suffer the cold on bare legs. But note that I’ve had Scipio the innovator have a pair of trousers made for himself before the battle at the Trebia River.
The revolt of Publius Scipio’s Gauls. This incident is attested in the ancient sources, lopped heads and all. Scipio’s analysis of why the Gauls took Roman heads is probably correct too.
Striking the camp. Source?
Surveying equipment. We know a bit about Roman surveying and surveyors’ instruments, chiefly a device known as a groma, with which the surveyor could “project a rectangular grid and mark out with spears the camp’s grid,” according to Connolly, Greece and Rome at War, p. 134.
“Disciplined structure on the march.” As we’ll see in Chapter 8, it was partly Gaius Flaminius’s strung out marching column, and its inability to wheel effectively into a viable fighting formation, that enabled Hannibal’s famous ambush of Flaminius at Lake Trasimene. According to Dodge (p. 63), up until Lake Trasimene the Romans were “careless in their order of march.” It was after that debacle cost them some fifteen thousand men and put Rome in direct danger from Hannibal that Roman armies adopted a more structured order of march when there was any prospect of encountering the enemy. Dodge describes three parallel columns, one of the hastati, one of the principes, and one of the triarii, with the velites forming a thin fourth column. The velites marched on the side most likely to be attacked, and each column shielded its baggage train on the side least likely to be attacked. With this formation, they could easily wheel to face the attack (as long as it came from the anticipated direction). With a little extra effort, they could face forward, to the rear, or to the opposite side.
Column a mile long. I’ve borrowed from Connolly, Greece and Rome at War, p. 238, for a description of marching order that didn’t use the post-Lake Trasimene triple columns. Connolly says with the men marching six abreast, “allowing a minimum of two paces per six men each legion would be strung out over at least one and a half kilometers.” That translates to just under a mile per legion. As Publius Scipio was marching only one legion from Placentia to the Trebia, it would have been about a mile long.
Marcus Livius’s father. As consul the year before (in 219), the elder Marcus Livius Salinator fought Demetrios of Pharos in Illyria. When he returned to Rome, he celebrated a triumph. But one of his tribunes, Gaius Claudius Nero, lodged charges against him of mishandling army funds.
Description of the Trebia River. In 2001, my wife and I visited the area on the Trebia, a few miles southwest of modern Piacenza, where the Romans and Hannibal are thought to have camped. The battle was near Hannibal’s camp. When I saw the river in good weather in late April (2,221 years later), its flow was neither strong nor deep. I walked out onto the gravel beds almost to the center before encountering the first of the stream’s several flows. I would imagine that time of year, weather patterns, and things like modern agriculture in the area might affect its size and volume. The area we visited is not far north of the Apennines, where the stream originates. One of my prizes is a small stone I picked up from the gravel beds as a souvenir. Like the rest of the gravel, it’s white and light gray, shaped and worn fairly smooth by the stream. Here’s what it looked like.
Mattock, basket. Each Roman legionary carried some tools for erecting a camp as part of his gear. Most soldiers carried a mattock for digging and a basket for hauling away the earth dug up. This was in addition to—according to Dodge, p. 79—“on the right shoulder, two or more posts or palisades for the stockade of the nightly camp. . . Slung to the end of these was his bag of corn, calculated to last him at least two weeks. . . His shield, lance and as many as seven darts [javelins] he carried on his left arm. The helmet, if not worn, hung by its strap upon the breast. At times he must also carry axe, saw, spade, scythe, a rope, a basket and a pot to cook his rations in. His cloak was rolled up and slung on his back. About extra clothing or sandals we do not hear. All this, with the armor, made up a weight which had to be borne under the sun, dust and sand of Italy or Africa, through the heavy mud of spring and fall, through the everlasting snow of the mountains.” Dodge compares the weight of this gear to the “fifty-six to sixty-four pounds” a modern soldier carries and estimates the Roman carried as much as eighty-five pounds! And legionaries marched everywhere: no trucks or choppers to ferry them around. Often they built roads and bridges as they went.
Corona civica. The civic crown was awarded to a soldier who “saved the life of a fellow citizen” (soldier) according to Grant, The Roman Soldier, p. xx. In Republican times, it was a wreath of oak leaves. McCullough, Fortune’s Favorites, p. 823, says it was the second highest military decoration. She adds that in addition to saving a fellow’s life, the winner had to “hold the ground on which he did this for the rest of the duration of the battle.” Rome’s highest award was the corona graminea (or obsidionalis), the “grass crown.” The winner “had to have saved a whole legion or army by his personal efforts” (McCullough, p. 823). There were numerous other awards for military achievements as well—various crowns, torcs, phallerae, and so on. Phallerae were discs of silver or gold, usually worn in sets of nine on a harness on the cuirass (McCullough, p. 851). A torc was a thick metal necklace, often of gold. Gauls wore them, and Rome awarded smaller versions of the torc to her soldiers (McCullough, p. 871).
“Past forty-five days.” As soon as Publius Scipio returned to Pisae on his way to Italian Gaul, he sent word to the Senate in Rome. They in turn summoned the other consul, Tiberius Sempronius Longus, who made all haste to reach his colleague in Italian Gaul. To do so, Sempronius turned his troops loose with instructions to meet him in the town of Ariminum in forty days—reasoning that they could travel faster individually than he could march them. Like Publius Scipio’s best decision (to send his legions on the Spain while he returned to Italy), this was no doubt Sempronius’s crowning moment.
Carpentum. Romans had a number of carriage types. Casson, Travel in the Ancient World, p. 179, describes the carpentum as “a heavy two-wheeled de luxe carriage with a substantial roof supported by ornamental columns; the sides could be closed off with draw curtains.” It had no springs, wooden wheels on iron tires.
“Spending each night.” In Republican times there were often few accommodations along the roads, especially accommodations suitable for one as exalted as a Roman consul. Thus it was custom for these officials to stay at the home of the wealthiest citizen wherever he stopped, and of course he was treated with the utmost hospitality. For a description of land travel in Roman times, see Casson, Travel in the Ancient World, Part Two. He also covers sea travel. Needless to say, for ordinary folk, travel was no picnic (or rather, it often was, since they might have to camp beside the road, always in danger of brigands).
“Figpecker patina, stuffed dormice and thrushes.” Wealthy Romans were known to enjoy such delicacies. Figpeckers and thrushes are birds. A dormouse is a small mouse like rodent. Not to your taste? Prefer a Big Mac? For more on these and other delicacies, see Cozzini Giacosa.
“Everlasting reputation.” This was precisely what most Roman noblemen aspired to. Unfortunately, Sempronius, as we’ll see, achieved an everlasting reputation, just not of the sort he’d planned on.
Fortune. One of the favorite gods of the Roman soldiery was Fortuna, a goddess of “fate, chance, and luck” (Adkins & Adkins, Dictionary of Roman Religion). A lucky man could consider himself one of “Fortune’s favorites” (McCullough).
“Left five maniples behind.” About 800 men, probably under the command of a tribune or a senior centurion.
“Outpolling Sempronius and the other candidates.” The consular candidate who got the most votes in the election became the senior consul. The man who came in second became the junior consul. Chapter 11 describes a Roman election in some detail. See also Staveley, Greek and Roman Voting and Elections.
Consular year. At the time of the Second Punic War, the year ran from March 15 to March 15. It was changed in ____ to run from January 1 to January 1. Thus during the war, curule elections (consuls, praetors, and curule aediles) probably came in late winter usually, where later they occurred in late fall.
“Counter the uprising.” This refers to the attack of the Gauls on Placentia and Cremona, the new colonies in Italian Gaul, which I described in Chapter 2.
“I won’t veto you.” Many of Rome’s elected magistrates had the power to veto the decisions of other magistrates. Thus one consul could veto another, though they seldom did. The veto was most powerful in the hands of the ten tribunes of the plebs, elected annually to protect the interest of the plebeians against the patricians who largely controlled the Senate. Tribunes of the plebs often vetoed the consuls, each other, and just about anything that moved.

Notes for Chapter 8, Flaminius, Lake Trasimene, 217 B.C.

[still incomplete]

Hannibal’s route south in the spring of 217. Both Livy and Polybius fail to mention how he came south, just that he encountered marshy ground. Dodge claims Hannibal went west from Italian Gaul to Genova (Genoa) in Liguria, then south along the coast to about Pisae (Pisa), where he contacted the Arnus (Arno) River, which he followed up to Faesulae (Fiesole—on the hilltop overlooking modern Florence, which did not exist then). This strikes me as an odd and unlikely route. It was long. It risked encountering Romans at Pisae. And Bradford (p. 87) says that Carthage attempted to land a fleet near Pisae to bring reinforcements to Hannibal but that the Romans repulsed the fleet. Hannibal could not have known the fleet had been repulsed, so we can assume he planned somehow to meet the reinforcements it was bringing. Clearly he did not, and could not, meet them, so I have him too weary even to think about it after the marshes. In any event, had he taken Dodge’s route to Pisae, he’d have been able to meet the fleet, had it succeeded in landing.
Swamp. The swamp described in the ancient sources would have been at about the location of modern Florence. Both Polybius and Livy say it took Hannibal four days and three nights to traverse the swamp south of the Apennines (Polybius, iii, 79). Livy blames the swamp on flooding of the Arnus (Arno) River, which sounds plausible (Livy, xxii, 2). Both mention the problem Hannibal had with his eye, which the Penguin Classics translation of Polybius calls ophthalmia (Polybius, iii, 79), and both say that he rode his elephant, Surus. Both also mention Hannibal’s doubt about the fortitude of his Gauls, so that he placed them in the middle of the column, with Mago’s cavalry behind to stop desertions (Livy, xxii, 2). Both also report the men catching brief naps on dead animals to keep out of the water.
Ambrus, near Vendorix’s oppidum. The Barrington Atlas lists a town called Ambrussum about midway along Hannibal’s likely route from the Apennines to the Rhodanus, and about the right distance for the characters’ movements I’ve described. I take Ambrussum to be a Romanized name, which I’ve shortened to Ambrus to make it sound more Gallic.

Notes for Chapter 9, Hannibal, Etruria, 217 B.C.

Notes for Chapter 10, Fabius, Campania, 217 B.C.

Description of the Temple of Bellona. This is taken from general descriptions of Roman temples in the Republican era. The Temple of Bellona stood beside the Temple of Apollo Sosianus (or Medicus) next to the Circus Flaminius and the much later Theater of Marcellus. But little is left of it, so we have no real description of its interior (but see Richardson, p. 163, for a possible partial plan). As a fairly early Republican temple, it was undoubtedly built of volcanic tufa stone rather than marble. It probably had a fairly large central area, called the cella, surrounded by stone walls rather than columns in Scipio’s day, with a statue—probably in terracotta—of the goddess. Bellona was the goddess of frenzy in battle, an appropriate place for the Senate to talk of war and to make its declarations of war as well as to greet returning generals soon to triumph. When those sorts of things were on the agenda, the Senate usually met in Bellona instead of in the Curia Hostilia (Senate House), which lay inside the sacred boundary, the pomerium, where such things couldn’t be formally discussed. In later times, there were other venues outside the pomerium, such as Pompey’s curia. The vacant area known as “Enemy Territory” lay outside the temple, possibly within its walled precinct. Here special priests called fetiales conducted the rituals accompanying a declaration of war, and one of them cast a spear into Enemy Territory.
Religious steps taken by Fabius after Lake Trasimene. The details are from Livy, xxii, 10.
Asses. The as was a small denomination Roman coin. Two asses made one dupondius. Two dupondii made one sestertius. Later in the war, as the value of the as was continually reduced, from 322 grams of bronze originally, before 269 B.C.E., to 44 grams by 211 B.C.E., new coins were introduced, including the silver denarius in 211, worth 4 sestercii. See Coinage.

Notes for Chapter 14, Marcellus, Campania, 216 B.C.

1. Did Marcellus launch an assault on Hannibal from inside Nola, as Livy says (XXIII.17)? The details described in Livy are probably not true, according to _____. Instead of this magnificent assault, I have Marcellus sally some troops to discourage Hannibal, who withdraws.

2. On slaves being manumitted before they could fight in the army. Isidore of Seville reports (in Greek and Roman Slavery, 66) that normally slaves were freed before they could fight as soldiers. “The exception was in the time of Hannibal, when the Romans were in such dire straits after the battle of Cannae, that they didn’t even have the time to free their slaves first.” The lack of time seems doubtful, but other sources attest that the slaves enlisted were first purchased from their masters by the state and promised manumission after their service.

Notes for Chapter 10, Scipio, Italian Gaul, 218 B.C.

Notes for Chapter 8, Flaminius, Lake Trasimene, 217 B.C.

End