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ex opibus posco.‟
„nil ductor honoris
„I your general, seek no fame from riches.‟
111
Pun. 9.199-200
Duff, 1989, 17.
Perhaps these claims to contentment with fame and glory alone are ironic allusions to
Hannibal‟s reputation for greed (Hist. 9.26.11).
Livy, too, alludes to the notion that Hannibal would become master of Italy if he won
at Cannae, but Livy places it in Varro‟s retort to Paulus that it would be no fault of
Varro‟s if Hannibal, by his victory, had almost gained the right to Italy (Livy, 22.44.6).
Hannibal almost duels with Aemilius Paulus
Presentations of Aemilius Paulus in battle at Cannae tend to vary only in measures of
his degree of heroism. Polybius brings his battle narrative as close as possible to
presenting a one-against-one duel between Paulus and Hannibal despite the reality that
they never meet. The fighting on the wing under Paulus‟ command is described as
particularly fierce and, once they engaged with the enemy, the cavalry dismount and
fight man-to-man (Hist. 3.115.1-3). After the cavalry wing was defeated, Paulus, who
survived, moves to the centre and became personally involved in the combat, urging his
men to stand firm (Hist. 3.116.1). Polybius describes Hannibal, who had been in the
centre from the beginning, as doing the same (Hist. 3.116.3-4). Thus Polybius places the
two men against each other on the same part of the battlefield at the same time; they
„duel‟ with their armies.
Livy initially presents Paulus as an even more heroic figure than Polybius because
Livy‟s Paulus continues to command and fight despite being wounded at the start of
battle:
Parte altera 279 pugnae Paulus, quamquam primo statim proelio funda
graviter ictus fuerat, tamen et occurrit saepe cum confertis Hannibali
et aliquot locis proelium restituit, protegentibus eum equitibus
Romanis, omissis postremo equis, quia consulem vel ad regendum
equum vires deficiebant.
Livy, 22.49.1
279 Foster, 1949, n2, 359 reads this phrase as placing Paulus in the centre.