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initially slow: segne primo (Livy, 22.48.1). In a possible allusion to Varro‟s lack of
experience, he is deceived by a ruse when a large group of Numidians feign desertion
and dismount, throwing down their javelins but keeping swords concealed beneath their
clothing; they are sent to the rear without being searched or placed under sufficient
guard. Hence they were in position to attack the Romans from behind to devastating
effect once the action turned into a rout (Livy, 22.48.2-5). 287
Silius Italicus combines the negative features about Varro from both the earlier
traditions to introduce him as militarily inexperienced, as rash as Flaminius and a
coward (Pun. 8.258-262; 8.310-16). This must modify somewhat the view that Silius
Italicus follows Livy in terms of the „blistering treatment‟ he gives Varro, portraying
him as „unscrupulous and cowardly to create his two paradigms of Roman conduct for
each consul, one glorious, one shameful.‟ 288 It is rightly pointed out that Varro never
appears heroically fighting in the Punica and when he finds himself unable to fight or
die, he flees (Pun. 9.656-657). 289 The nymph, Anna, directly compares Varro to
Flaminius in her description to Hannibal: cumque alio tibi Flaminio sunt bella gerenda
(Pun. 8.218) but Silius Italicus has a slight variant on Livy‟s presentation of a Punic
deception to illustrate Varro‟s inexperience. In the Punica, Varro is not so naive and the
(unidentified) soldiers who feign surrender are searched and disarmed because when
they decide to re-enter the fray they do not have weapons and take them from corpses
lying around (Pun. 10.185-92). 290
When Varro calls for withdrawal, authors have the option of presenting an ordered
departure or a disordered flight and chaos. Initially Livy allows for the possibility of
Varro making an ordered withdrawal:
Consul alter, seu forte seu consilio nulli fugientium insertus agmini,
cum quinquaginta fere equitibus Venusiam perfugit.
Livy, 22.49.14
The other consul, whether by accident or by design, had not joined any
throng of fugitives, but fled to Venusia with some fifty horsemen.
Foster, 1949, 363.
287
Appian, Hann. 7.22, says Servilius, not Varro, was tricked by the feigned desertion. Servilius removed
the weapons and thought that leaving them in tunics would be sufficient.
288
Ahl, Davis, Pomeroy, 1986, 2531.
289
Ahl, Davis, Pomeroy, 1986, 2535-6.
290
In Livy‟s text they picked up spare shields not weapons. Appian, 7.4.22, includes the same ruse but
presents the soldiers as Celtiberians from the Carthaginian centre.
116