1-Istoria ramane pasiunea mea nr-1.
2-Acest articol este copiat !
"On Scipio's again asking him whom he regarded as the third, Hannibal, without any hesitation, replied, 'Myself.' Scipio smiled and asked, 'What would you say if you had vanquished me?' 'In that case,' replied Hannibal, 'I should say that I surpassed Alexander and Pyrrhus, and all other commanders in the world’.” (Livy)
Roman victory at the Battle of Zama finally brought an end to the 17-year-long Second Punic War, and essentially reversed the roles of Hannibal Barca’s crushing victory at Cannae 14 years earlier. The eyes of Rome now turned to Scipio to see how he could respond, with many embittered foes, especially Cato, expecting him to raze the Phoenician city to the ground. Defying such hatred, Scipio instead proffered relatively moderate terms to the Senate – guaranteeing the security and supremacy of Rome, he saw no reason to threaten Carthage further. Systems of government were left in place, and Hannibal himself was allowed to retire from military leadership into civic life. Scipio’s enemies would not forget, nor forgive, this perceived leniency.
Despite the “relatively” kind terms, Scipio’s conditions would not repeat the mistakes of the treaty that concluded the first war – her we ensure the permanent neutering of Carthage, that it would never be in a position to challenge Roman hegemony again. Its entire fleet was surrendered, and a heavy war indemnity of 10,000 talents that would have to be paid over 50 years bankrupted the city initially. Carthage forfeit all of its overseas possessions, and Numidia, much reducing its African holdings and leaving Rome the dominant power in Hispania – much to the chagrin of the Celtiberians, who had though Rome was liberating them from Carthage, not merely replacing the Punic power. Carthage was also not allowed to wage war without express consent from Rome.
Scipio returned to Rome a hero, and was immediately granted a triumph by the Senate. Paraded through the streets with his spoils of war, his face painted red as he was towed in a chariot, a slave stood behind him holding a laurel wreath above his head repeated “remember, thou art mortal” – something that had been a forgotten sight in Rome during the perpetual years of warfare. He was granted the cognomen (honorary last name) “Africanus”, and declined further honours such as Consul for life, and Dictator, though in 199 BC he was awarded the high office of Censor (only available to Consulars). As Roman debauchery increased and republican value unravelled in the century that followed him, he would come to be regarded by many as the last Roman of great virtue.
Having already proved himself a military genius, Hannibal now proved himself an astute politician too. Under his leadership as suffete (chief magistrate), taxes remained level and Carthage focussed on trade and commerce rather than war, something which was always alien to most of the populace, and soon the shattered city was thriving anew. Hannibal reorganised the state finances, looking to eliminate corruption and retrieve embezzled funds. Many startled Romans took this as a sign of Carthage’s continued threat, and Hannibal maintained allies both in Rome and in Carthage. The city’s recovery was so successful that within several years of the war ending they offered the pay off the entire 50-year indemnity as a lump sum – Rome refused, preferring to keep Carthage in its debt with the regular payments.
Inevitably Hannibal’s financial cleansing of Carthage provoked the ire of the Hundred and Four, the institution whose oligarchs benefitted so much from the corruption he challenged. Hannibal passed a law that members of the august body be elected rather than co-opted, with life terms reduced to an annual terms, which could not be held for successive years. For all that Rome benefitted from incorporating its enemies innovations, Hannibal now looked to benefit Carthage by aligning its systems of governance more closely to Rome’s – a chief reason why he failed to attract the Italian support he had envisaged, with the Italians seeing little benefit in choosing to support Carthage rather than Rome.
The immediate years after the war saw Roman attention turn east, to Greece. King Philip V of Macedon was seeking to unite the country as Alexander the Great had, and Rome had already fought him during the First Punic War, with little actual fighting. War weary from the conflict with Carthage, the People’s Assemblies initially blocked the war, though it took much conniving and bribing from the Senate to force it through. The Second Macedonian War saw a legionary invasion from Illyria, with much indecisive skirmishing and Macedon apparently in the ascendancy until 198 BC saw the legions manage to attack the flank of the phalanx and utterly rout them at the Battle of Cynoscepholae. Thus began Roman garrisoning of various parts of Greece, ostensibly there to secure the peace, though in practice an occupying force. Macedon paid tribute and was essentially cowed, though the stage was set for further Roman intervention in Greece that would see it fully incorporated as a province within half a century. With Roman legionaries now by the Aegean they were able to look further east, to Asia Minor (modern Turkey). The weakened of the Macedonian kingdom would also embolden the Seleucid Empire across the Hellespont, who would see this as an ideal opportunity to invade Greece itself to unify the Hellenic world.
Seven years after Zama, the resentful Romans used hearsay of Hannibal reaching out to Antiochus III of the Seleucid Empire to demand his surrender to Rome. Aware of his internal enemies from the financial reforms, and the bitter Romans still intent on his capture, he fled the city into voluntary exile. Journeying to Tyre, the mother city of Carthage, then on the Antioch, he was finally honourably received by Antiochus in Ephesus. The king consulted Hannibal on his strategic plans for war with Rome, and the philosopher Phormio gave a lecture there about the duties of a general, to which Hannibal observed: "I have seen during my life many old fools; but this one beats them all." When Antiochus showed Hannibal the size of his forces and the armoury assembled to invade Greece, and asked if it was enough to challenge Rome, Hannibal replied: "I think all this will be enough, yes, quite enough, for the Romans, even though they are most avaricious."
Tensions broke out betwixt Rome and the Seleucids in 193 BC. Scipio himself travelled to Ephesus as an ambassador, and there met with Hannibal again. Scipio asked Hannibal whom he deemed the greatest commander, to which he listed Alexander first, and Pyrrhus second. Livy then details: "On Scipio's again asking him whom he regarded as the third, Hannibal, without any hesitation, replied, 'Myself.' Scipio smiled and asked, 'What would you say if you had vanquished me?' 'In that case,' replied Hannibal, 'I should say that I surpassed Alexander and Pyrrhus, and all other commanders in the world'.” Scipio was apparently delighted at the unexpected flattery with Hannibal implicitly setting him apart from other military captains as an incomparable commander.
Antiochus supported Hannibal’s plans for an anti-Roman coup in Carthage, though he was never able to realise these ambitions. Hannibal advised equipping a fleet and invading southern Italy, under his command. After a string of defeats – including bizarrely trying to hold the fabled pass at Thermopylae, which everybody knew could be flanked by a goat path by this point – Hannibal was finally given his first command, after five years at the Seleucid Court. He was tasked to build a fleet at Cilicia, though was frustrated by how long this took. Back in Rome, the younger brother of Scipio was assigned a leading role in preparation to cross the Hellespont and invade Asia Minor. With Hannibal in the service of Antiochus, the stage appeared set for a rematch betwixt the two great generals of the Second Punic War.
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