SLC Thesis Template - ResearchSpace@Auckland - The University ...

It is, as Florus wrote, scarcely credible. In reality, Baiae was too close to Roman held
territory, such as Naples, for Hannibal to have spent much time relaxing in the hot
pools.
Livy makes no reference to the spa resort in his summary of the invidious effects of
Capuan luxury on Hannibal and his army; the focus of his text is on activities within
Capua:
Somnus enim et vinum et epulae et scorta balinaeque et otium
consuetudine in dies blandius ita enervaverunt corpora animosque ut
magis deinde praeteritae victoriae eos quam praesentes tutarentur vires
maiusque id peccatum ducis apud peritos artium militarium haberetur
quam quod non ex Cannensi acie protinus ad urbem Romanam
duxisset; illa enim cunctatio distulisse modo victoriam videri potuit
hic error vires ademisse ad vincendum.
Livy, 23.18.12-13
For sleep and wine, and feasts and harlots, and baths and idleness,
which habit made daily more seductive, so weakened their bodies and
spirits that it was their past victories rather than their present strength
which thereafter protected them, and this was regarded among the
military experts as a more serious failure in their commander than that
he had not led his men from the field of Cannae forthwith to the city of
Rome.
Moore, 1951, 63.
In sum, Hannibal‟s men enjoy the women, 349 and the baths, both of which were
considered to weaken a man‟s moral and physical strength, leaving him unable to take
part in public or military life. 350 Brothels were an integral part of Roman society but
Cicero implies that they were considered infamia (Cicero, Cael. 48). scorta, Livy‟s
word for the Capuan women is a derogatory term.
Silius Italicus acknowledges the effects of the baths causing irreversible weakness in
Hannibal‟s men (Pun. 11.417-8) but there is no direct reference to the Capuan women in
the Punica. It is Venus who despatches an army of Cupids to weaken Hannibal‟s
soldiers (Pun. 11.385-423). 351 The allegorical use of the goddess shows a careful
distinction that she, not the Capuan women, deserved thanks for her role in weakening
Hannibal‟s army:
349 See Edwards, 1993, 92 for Roman views of sex. There is no evidence to support her comment that
„real Romans only had sex with their wives and even then not too often.‟
350 E.g. Martial, 7.82. Cf. Sallust, Cat. 11.5: the pleasures of the East and art appreciation weakened
Sulla‟s army.
351 Wilson, 1993, 222.
149