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The City of God

Chapter 19.--Of the Calamity of the Second Punic War, Which Consumed the Strength of Both Parties.

As to the second Punic war, it were tedious to recount the disasters it brought on both the nations engaged in so protracted and shifting a war, that (by the acknowledgment even of those writers who have made it their object not so much to narrate the wars as to eulogize the dominion of Rome) the people who remained victorious were less like conquerors than conquered. For, when Hannibal poured out of Spain over the Pyrenees, and overran Gaul, and burst through the Alps, and during his whole course gathered strength by plundering and subduing as he went, and inundated Italy like a torrent, how bloody were the wars, and how continuous the engagements, that were fought! How often were the Romans vanquished! How many towns went over to the enemy, and how many were taken and subdued! What fearful battles there were, and how often did the defeat of the Romans shed lustre on the arms of Hannibal! And what shall I say of the wonderfully crushing defeat at Cannae, where even Hannibal, cruel as he was, was yet sated with the blood of his bitterest enemies, and gave orders that they be spared? From this field of battle he sent to Carthage three bushels of gold rings, signifying that so much of the rank of Rome had that day fallen, that it was easier to give an idea of it by measure than by numbers and that the frightful slaughter of the common rank and file whose bodies lay undistinguished by the ring, and who were numerous in proportion to their meanness, was rather to be conjectured than accurately reported. In fact, such was the scarcity of soldiers after this, that the Romans impressed their criminals on the promise of impunity, and their slaves by the bribe of liberty, and out of these infamous classes did not so much recruit as create an army. But these slaves, or, to give them all their titles, these freed-men who were enlisted to do battle for the republic of Rome, lacked arms. And so they took arms from the temples, as if the Romans were saying to their gods: Lay down those arms you have held so long in vain, if by chance our slaves may be able to use to purpose what you, our gods, have been impotent to use. At that time, too, the public treasury was too low to pay the soldiers, and private resources were used for public purposes; and so generously did individuals contribute of their property, that, saving the gold ring and bulla which each wore, the pitiful mark of his rank, no senator, and much less any of the other orders and tribes, reserved any gold for his own use. But if in our day they were reduced to this poverty, who would be able to endure their reproaches, barely endurable as they are now, when more money is spent on actors for the sake of a superfluous gratification, than was then disbursed to the legions?

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De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput XIX: De adflictione belli Punici secundi, qua uires utriusque partis consumptae sunt.

Secundo autem Punico bello nimis longum est commemorare clades duorum populorum tam longe se cum lateque pugnantium, ita ut his quoque fatentibus, qui non tam narrare bella Romana quam Romanorum imperium laudare instituerunt, similior uicto fuerit ille qui uicit. Hannibale quippe ab Hispania surgente et Pyrenaeis montibus superatis, Gallia transcursa Alpibusque disruptis, tam longo circuitu auctis uiribus cuncta uastando aut subigendo torrentis modo Italiae faucibus inruente quam cruenta proelia gesta sunt, quotiens Romani superati. quam multa ad hostem oppida defecerunt, quam multa capta et obpressa. quam dirae pugnae et totiens Hannibali Romana clade gloriosae. de Cannensi autem mirabiliter horrendo malo quid dicam, ubi Hannibal, cum esset crudelissimus, tamen tanta inimicorum atrocissimorum clade satiatus parci iussisse perhibetur? unde tres modios anulorum aureorum Carthaginem misit, quo intellegerent tantam in illo proelio dignitatem cecidisse Romanam, ut facilius eam caperet mensura quam numerus, atque hinc strages turbae ceterae tanto utique numerosioris, quanto infimioris, quae sine anulis iacebat, conicienda potius quam nuntianda putaretur. denique tanta militum inopia secuta est, ut Romani reos facinorum proposita inpunitate colligerent, seruitia libertate donarent atque illis pudendus non tam subpleretur quam institueretur exercitus. seruis itaque, immo, ne faciamus iniuriam, iam libertis, pro Romana republica pugnaturis arma defuerunt. detracta sunt templis, tamquam Romani dis suis dicerent: ponite quae tam diu inaniter habuistis, ne forte aliquid utile inde facere possint nostra mancipia, unde uos nostra numina facere non potuistis. tunc etiam stipendiis sufficiendis cum defecisset aerarium, in usus publicos opes uenere priuatae, adeo unoquoque id quod habuit conferente, ut praeter singulos anulos singulasque bullas, miserabilia dignitatis insignia, nihil sibi auri senatus ipse, quanto magis ceteri ordines tribusque relinquerent. quis ferret istos, si nostris temporibus ad hanc inopiam cogerentur, cum eos modo uix feramus, quando pro superflua uoluptate plura donantur histrionibus, quam tunc legionibus pro extrema salute conlata sunt?