Polybius Histories 36

Evelyn S. Shuckburgh (Translator)

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Histories. Polybius. Evelyn S. Shuckburgh (Translator). London. 1889.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by Robert B. Strassler.

Current edition Perseus

The Histories (English) (Polybius. Vols. 1-2. Shuckburgh, Evelyn S., translator. London, New York, NY: Macmillan and Co., 1889.)

Editions (1)
Ἱστορίαι Perseus (Polybius. Vols. 1-4. Büttner-Wobst, Theodor, editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1893.) — 36.1 focus

Notes on the current edition

Histories

1. The dramatic representation of debates though convenient is not history.
2. The Romans were careful to have a fair pretext for war.
3. 32, 20.
4. The policy of Rome in Africa of constantly supporting Massanissa against Carthage was mentioned in 32, 2
. Frequent complaints came to Rome from the Numidian King, and the Carthaginians were said to be collecting an army contrary to treaty. Commissioners were sent over in 154 B. C. on the advice of Cato, who were roughly treated at Carthage; and when, in B. C. 151, Massanissa sent his son Gulussa with similar complaints to Rome, Cato urged immediate war. The Senate, however, again sent commissioners, among whom was Cato himself, to examine into the matter. They reported that the Carthaginians had an army and navy. An ultimatum was therefore sent, that the army and navy were to be broken up within the year, or that the next consuls should bring the question of war before the Senate (B. C. 150). Just at this crisis Utica, in enmity with Carthage, placed itself under the protection of Rome. Livy, Ep. 48 ; Appian, Pun. 75 .
5. B. C. 149. Utica puts itself under the protection of Rome.
6. Carthaginian plenipotentiaries at Rome.
7. What is implied by their surrender. See 20, 9-10
.
8. The Senate re-grant their liberty and territory to the Carthaginians,
9. but on condition of giving 300 hostages, and obeying certain orders not yet expressed.
10. τῶν ἐκ συγκλήτου καὶ τῆς γερουσίας. The same distinction occurs in 10, 18, and seems to refer to the two bodies known as the Hundred and the Gerusia. See Bosworth Smith’s Carthage and the Carthaginians, p. 27.
11. The hostages are sent to Lilybaeum.
12. The Consuls, L. Marcius Censorinus, M'. Manilius, land in Africa. B. C. 149.
13. They demand the disarming of the Carthaginians.
14. This was followed by a second injunction of the consuls that the whole people of Carthage should remove to some other spot, to be not less than ten miles from the sea, and there build a new city. Livy, Ep. 49 .
15. Return of the envoys with the last orders from the Consuls.
16. The envoys first report to the Gerusia. Appian, Pun. 91 .
17. The popular fury.
18. The Carthaginians determine to resist, and the consuls, who had not hurried themselves, because they believed that resistance from an unarmed populace was impossible, found, when they approached Carthage, that it was prepared to offer a vigorous resistance. The scene which followed the announcement of the Consul’s orders, and the incidents of the siege, are chiefly known to us from Appian, Pun. 91 sq. Livy, Ep. 49 . Scipio was serving as military Tribune, B. C. 149-148; consul, B. C. 147.
19. Phameas was afterwards persuaded by Massanissa to join the Romans. Livy, Ep. 50 .
20. Hamilcar Phameas, the commander of the Punic cavalry. Appian, Pun. 100 .
21. The incident referred to is narrated in Appian. Punica, 103 . Scipio relieved this body of men, who were beleaguered on the top of a hill, by a rapid and bold movement of his cavalry.
22. Polybius’s personal knowledge of Scipio.
23. Odyssey, 20, 495 . Cato had always been opposed to the Scipios, but Livy seems to attribute his former criticisms of the younger Africanus to his general habit of caustic disparagement ( vir promptioris ad vituperandum linguae), and we know that his elder son had married a daughter of Paulus, sister to the younger Africanus.