MANICHAEAN
07-23-2010, 03:59 AM
During my recent holiday I managed to get engrossed in Livy's "The War with Hannibal" Books XXI - XXX of his "History of Rome from its Foundations". And what an interesting read it is.I soon realised that Livy possessed the art of being a good novelist. He wrote to be read with enjoyment. What was also fascinating was some of the aspects of his writing that have remained constant themes through the years, albeit in entirely different historical circumstances e.g: the irony implicit in racial stereotyping, society's prejudices & excesses at times of national stress & finally the brutality of war.
Let me give you some examples:
1. The Character of The Gauls:
The Trebia 218 BC.
"Accordingly, Hannibal's Gallic spies were safer to use as they were serving in both camps."
"Gallic chieftains frequently plotted against his life, but it was their own mutual treachery that saved him; for they would inform against each other as frivolously as they would themselves conspire. None the less Hannibal had had to protect himself by adopting disguises of various sorts, such as changing his clothes or his headgear". (Footnote: Polybius says he had several changes of wig!)
2. The Superstitions of the Time:
Rome 218-17 BC.
"In the course of that winter many queer things happened in Rome and the country round it - or at least they were said to have happened, and believed on small evidence, to have happened, as is the way when men's minds are shaken by superstitious fears. A six-months old baby, of good family had shouted "Victory" in the vegetable market; at Lanuvium a spear had moved of its own accord, and a crow had swooped down on to the shrine of Juno and perched on the Sacred Couch; at Caere the divination tablets had ominously grown smaller, and in Gaul a wolf had pulled a sentry's sword out of its sheath and run off with it."
Rome 216 BC.
"There was yet another cause for alarm in the occurrence of certain events of evil omen. Of these the chief was the conviction for sexual incontinence of two Vestal Virgins, Opimia and Floronia. One of them was buried alive at the Colline Gate, the traditional punishment for this offence; the other killed herself. The man who had debauched Floronia, Lucius Cantilius, secretary of the Pontiffs was beaten to death by the "pontifex maximus" in the place of the assembly. On the authority of the Sacred Books some unusual rites were performed: one of them consisting of burying alive in the cattle market a pair of Gauls, male and female, and a pair of Greeks. The buriel was in a walled enclosure, which had been sprinkled before with the blood of human sacrifice."
3. Conjuring up the Image:
The Arno 217 BC.
"He (Hannibal) rode the one surviving elephant, to keep himself as far above the water as he could, but in the end lack of sleep combined with the marsh climate and its nocturnal damps affected his head, and as there was neither the place nor the time to seek a cure, he lost the sight of an eye."
4. The Brutality of War:
Cannae 216 BC.
"At dawn next morning the Carthaginians applied themselves to collecting the spoils and viewing the carnage, which even to an enemy's eyes was a shocking spectacle. All over the field Roman soldiers lay dead in their thousands, horse and foot mingled, as the shifting phases of the battle, or the attempt to escape, had brought them together. Here and there wounded men, covered in blood, who had been roused to consciousness by the morning cold, were dispatched by a quick blow as they struggled to rise from amongst the corpses; others were found still alive with the sinews in their thighs and behind their knees sliced through, baring their throats and necks begging who would to spill what little blood they had left. Some had their heads buried in the ground, having apparently dug themselves holes and by smothering their faces with earth had choked themselves to death."
Let me give you some examples:
1. The Character of The Gauls:
The Trebia 218 BC.
"Accordingly, Hannibal's Gallic spies were safer to use as they were serving in both camps."
"Gallic chieftains frequently plotted against his life, but it was their own mutual treachery that saved him; for they would inform against each other as frivolously as they would themselves conspire. None the less Hannibal had had to protect himself by adopting disguises of various sorts, such as changing his clothes or his headgear". (Footnote: Polybius says he had several changes of wig!)
2. The Superstitions of the Time:
Rome 218-17 BC.
"In the course of that winter many queer things happened in Rome and the country round it - or at least they were said to have happened, and believed on small evidence, to have happened, as is the way when men's minds are shaken by superstitious fears. A six-months old baby, of good family had shouted "Victory" in the vegetable market; at Lanuvium a spear had moved of its own accord, and a crow had swooped down on to the shrine of Juno and perched on the Sacred Couch; at Caere the divination tablets had ominously grown smaller, and in Gaul a wolf had pulled a sentry's sword out of its sheath and run off with it."
Rome 216 BC.
"There was yet another cause for alarm in the occurrence of certain events of evil omen. Of these the chief was the conviction for sexual incontinence of two Vestal Virgins, Opimia and Floronia. One of them was buried alive at the Colline Gate, the traditional punishment for this offence; the other killed herself. The man who had debauched Floronia, Lucius Cantilius, secretary of the Pontiffs was beaten to death by the "pontifex maximus" in the place of the assembly. On the authority of the Sacred Books some unusual rites were performed: one of them consisting of burying alive in the cattle market a pair of Gauls, male and female, and a pair of Greeks. The buriel was in a walled enclosure, which had been sprinkled before with the blood of human sacrifice."
3. Conjuring up the Image:
The Arno 217 BC.
"He (Hannibal) rode the one surviving elephant, to keep himself as far above the water as he could, but in the end lack of sleep combined with the marsh climate and its nocturnal damps affected his head, and as there was neither the place nor the time to seek a cure, he lost the sight of an eye."
4. The Brutality of War:
Cannae 216 BC.
"At dawn next morning the Carthaginians applied themselves to collecting the spoils and viewing the carnage, which even to an enemy's eyes was a shocking spectacle. All over the field Roman soldiers lay dead in their thousands, horse and foot mingled, as the shifting phases of the battle, or the attempt to escape, had brought them together. Here and there wounded men, covered in blood, who had been roused to consciousness by the morning cold, were dispatched by a quick blow as they struggled to rise from amongst the corpses; others were found still alive with the sinews in their thighs and behind their knees sliced through, baring their throats and necks begging who would to spill what little blood they had left. Some had their heads buried in the ground, having apparently dug themselves holes and by smothering their faces with earth had choked themselves to death."