30.44
The
last time peace was concluded with Carthage was in the consulship of Q.
Lutatius and A. Manlius, forty years previously. Twenty-three years
afterwards the war began in the consulship of P. Cornelius and Tiberius
Sempronius. It ended in the consulship of Cnaeus Cornelius and P. Aelius
Paetus, seventeen years later. Tradition tells of a remark which Scipio is said
to have frequently made to the effect that it was owing to the jealous
ambition of Tiberius Claudius and afterwards to that of Cnaeus Cornelius
that the war did not end with the destruction of Carthage. Carthage found a
difficulty in meeting the first instalment of the war indemnity as her treasury
was exhausted. There was lamentation and weeping in the senate and in the
middle of it all Hannibal is said to have been seen smiling. Hasdrubal Haedus
rebuked him for his mirth amid the nation's tears. "If," Hannibal replied, "you
could discern my inmost thoughts as plainly as you can tell the expression of
my countenance you would easily discover that this laughter which you find
fault with does not proceed from a merry heart but from one almost
demented with misery. All the same, it is very far from being so ill-timed as
those foolish and misplaced tears of yours. The proper time to weep was
when we were deprived of our arms, when our ships were burnt, when we
were interdicted from all war beyond our frontiers. That is the wound that
will prove fatal. There is not the slightest reason for supposing that the
Romans are consulting your peace and quietness. No great State can remain
quiet; if it has no enemy abroad it finds one at home, just as excessively
strong men, whilst seemingly safe from outside mischief, fall victims to the
burden of their own strength. Of course we only feel public calamities so far
as they affect us personally, and nothing in them gives us a sharper pang than
the loss of money. When the spoils of victory were being dragged away from
Carthage when you saw yourselves left naked and defenceless amidst an
Africa in arms, nobody uttered a groan; now because you have to contribute
to the indemnity from your private fortunes you lament as loudly as though
you were present at your country's funeral. I greatly fear that you will very
soon find that it is the least of your misfortunes which you are shedding tears
over today." Such was the way in which Hannibal spoke to the
Carthaginians. Scipio summoned his troops to assembly, and in the presence
of the whole army rewarded Masinissa by adding to his ancestral realm the
town of Cirta and the other cities and districts which had belonged to the
dominion of Syphax and had passed under the rule of Rome. Cnaeus
Octavius received instructions to take the fleet to Sicily and hand it over to
the consul Cnaeus Cornelius. Scipio told the Carthaginian envoys to start for
Rome in order that the arrangements he had made in consultation with the
ten commissioners might receive the sanction of the senate and the formal
order of the people.