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trecentos ex Romanis captivis Poenus daret Campanis, quos ipsi
elegissent, cum quibus equitum Campanorum, qui in Sicilia stipendia
facerent, permutatio fieret.
Livy, 23.7.1-2
The legates came to Hannibal and made an alliance with him on these
terms: that no general or magistrate of the Carthaginians should have
any authority over a Campanian citizen, and that no Campanian citizen
should be a soldier or perform any service against his will; that Capua
should have its own laws, its own magistrates, that the Carthaginian
should give the Campanians three hundred of the Roman captives of
their own choosing with whom there should be an exchange of the
Campanian horsemen who were serving in Sicily.
Moore, 1951, 19.
The suspension of belief that Hannibal agreed 341 to these terms is necessary while
Livy‟s narrative unfolds to reveal the extent of Capuan self-delusion and Hannibal‟s
Punica fides as a treaty-breaker. On Hannibal‟s first day, with the (unwitting) support of
the Capuans, he dissimulates his intentions:
Hannibal ingressus urbem senatum extemplo postulat, precantibusque
inde primoribus Campanorum ne quid eo die seriae rei gereret
diemque ut ipse adventu suo festum laetus ac libens celebraret,
quamquam praeceps ingenio in iram erat, tamen, ne quid in principio
negaret, visenda urbe magnam partem diei consumpsit.
Livy, 23.7.11-12
Hannibal entered the city and at once demanded a senate meeting.
Then the leading Campanians begged him not to do any serious
business that day and that he should cheerfully and willingly honour
the day gladdened by his coming, though he was naturally shorttempered,
still in order not to deny them anything at the start, he spent
a large part of the day in sightseeing around the city.
Adapted from Moore, 1951, 23.
It is on Hannibal‟s second day that everything changes. Hannibal presides over a
Senate meeting. Livy gives Hannibal direct speech in which Hannibal expresses thanks
to the Capuans for their support and promises that they would soon be the premier city
of Italy. Hannibal then reveals his Punica fides through a change of tone and demands
the surrender of Magius Decius for trial in direct contravention of the first treaty item
(Livy, 23.10.1-2). Magius Decius had been brought to Hannibal‟s attention by publicly
displaying his fides to Rome when he walked around the forum with clients instead of
341 Von Ungern-Sternberg, 1975, 76 reads them as Hannibal‟s terms... conventional promises that were
repeated to Tarentum, Locri and Lucania. Erskine; 1993, 60 reads the treaty as consistent with Hannibal‟s
liberation propagandaand reflecting traditional Greek aspirations.
143