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Notes Display Latin text | Translated by Rev. Canon Roberts Book XXXVIII Chapter 46: Mago attacks the North of Italy[205 BC] | Return to index Previous chapter |
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Scipio sailed to Sicily with 7000 volunteers on board his thirty warships, and Publius Licinius proceeded to Bruttium. Of the two consular armies stationed there he selected the one which the former consul Lucius Veturius had commanded. He allowed Metellus to keep the legions he was in command of as he thought he would do better with men accustomed to his leadership. The praetors also departed for their several provinces. As money was needed for the war the quaestors received instructions to sell that part of the Capuan territory which extends from the Fossa Graeca to the coast, and evidence was asked for of any cases where land had been appropriated by a citizen of Capua, that it might be included in the Roman stateland. The informer was to receive a gratuity of ten per cent. of the value of the land. The City praetor, Gnaeus Servilius, was also to see that the citizens of Capua were residing where the senate had given them permission to reside, and any who were living elsewhere were to be punished. During the summer Mago who had been wintering in Minorca embarked with a force of 12,000 and 2000 cavalry, and set sail for Italy with about thirty warships and a large number of transports. The coast was quite unguarded and he surprised and captured Genua. From there he went on to the Ligurian coast on the chance of rousing the Gauls. One of their tribes were at the time engaged in a war with the Epanterii, an Alpine tribe. After storing his plunder in Savo and leaving ten vessels as guard-ships, Mago sent the remainder of his ships to Carthage to protect the coast, as it was rumoured that Scipio intended to invade Africa, and then he formed an alliance with the Ingauni, from whom he expected more support than from the mountaineers, and commenced to attack the latter. His army grew in numbers every day; the Gauls, drawn by the spell of his name, flocked to him from all parts. The movement became known in Rome through a despatch from Spurius Lucretius, and the senate were filled with the gravest apprehensions. It seemed as though the joy with which they heard of the destruction of Hasdrubal and his army two years before would be completely stultified by the outbreak of a fresh war in the same quarter, quite as serious as the former one, the only difference being in the commander. They sent orders to the proconsul Marcus Livius to move the army of Etruria up to Ariminum, and the City praetor, Gnaeus Servilius, was empowered, in case he thought it advisable, to order the City legions to be employed elsewhere and give the command to the man whom he thought most capable. Marcus Valerius Laevinus led these legions to Arretium. About this time Gnaeus Octavius who was commanding in Sardinia captured as many as eighty Carthaginian transports in the neighbourhood. According to Coelius' account they were loaded with corn and supplies for Hannibal; Valerius, however, says that they were carrying the plunder from Etruria and the Ligurian and Epanterian prisoners to Carthage. Hardly anything worth recording took place in Bruttium this year. A pestilence attacked the Romans and the Carthaginians and was equally fatal to both, but in addition to the epidemic, the Carthaginians were suffering from scarcity of food. Hannibal spent the summer near the temple of Juno Lacinia, where he built and dedicated an altar with a long inscription recording his exploits in Phoenician and also in Greek. Attack on Africa, 205 BC, Mago attacks the North of Italy, 205 BC Events: Attack on Africa, 205 BC, Mago attacks the North of Italy |