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Hannibal the Scapegoat and Warmonger
The focus of Roman anger onto one man saves the rest from retributive punishment.
There are varying traditions for the level of Carthaginian complaisance in the deflection
of Roman anger away from themselves onto Hannibal; a similar theme reappears among
the presentations of Rome‟s war against Antiochus. In some texts, the king is depicted
being persuaded into war against Rome by warmongering advisors such as Hannibal,
thus the king himself is not held solely responsible for embarking on war.
Hannibal is generally presented as perceiving that sooner or later the Romans would
demand his person. This comprehension underpins the drama and secrecy around his
escape stories, firstly from Carthage and later from the court of Antiochus.
Hannibal‟s economic and judicial reforms may have created a political rift between
himself and others at Carthage, but it was an internal matter and not a reason for Roman
anger toward Hannibal. External relations between Carthage and elsewhere, however,
are a different issue. Consequently, when his Carthaginian political enemies are said to
have informed their friends at Rome that Hannibal was in discussion with King
Antiochus and planning an attack on Rome, it is Hannibal as an individual, not the
Carthaginian senate, who stands accused of violating the peace conditions (Val. Max.
4.1.6b; Livy, 33.45.3).
Livy presents the accusations being dismissed initially as scurrilous gossip by the
Roman Senate and gives Hannibal a somewhat surprising supporter in the figure of
Scipio Africanus arguing that it was beneath the dignity of Rome to treat Hannibal as a
criminal (Livy, 33.47.2). Valerius Maximus records a similar reaction by Scipio, but for
the less plausible reason that it was inappropriate for Rome to interfere in the internal
affairs of Carthage (Val. Max. 4.1.6b). Of course, any discussion with Antiochus would
have constituted external, not internal, affairs. Scipio eventually agreed that envoys
should be sent to Carthage. 417
Livy marks a perceptible level of Roman moral decline in the fourth decad through
his depiction of the Roman envoys as duplicitous and in connivance with Hannibal‟s
enemies at Carthage. The envoys comply with advice to cover their true purpose with an
announcement that they had come to settle a dispute between Carthage and Masinissa.
417 Hoyos, 2003, 201 suggests that it reflects Scipio‟s waning influence when the envoys are sent to
Carthage.
196