The CDPD Public Domain Collection for CDTV 3/CDPDIII.bin/books/plutarch/marcellus

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                                      75 AD
                                   MARCELLUS
                                 268?-208 B.C.
                                  by Plutarch
                           translated by John Dryden
MARCELLUS

  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