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Themistocles (Thuc. 1.135-8). 422 However, the parallels between the two figures are
very slight. Themistocles became politically alienated at Athens after the victory at
Salamis; he left Athens and he was declared an exile with a price on his head; he
escaped by ship to Asia, perhaps via Aegea where none but his host knew his identity;
and, at the end of his life, he may have committed suicide by poison (Plutarch,
Themistocles, 26-7, 31.5; Thucydides, 1.135-6). Briscoe‟s remark that Themistocles was
greeted, not by the king but the king‟s son might be a misreading of Thucydides,
1.137.3, as Artaxerxes was the new king (discussed by Plutarch, Themistocles, 27.1).
On the other hand, as Briscoe points out, Themistocles‟ flight to Persia did not prove
the charge of Medism made before he left. 423 For the same reason, the Roman case
against Hannibal was fragile and the fact that he joined Antiochus later does not mean
that Hannibal had been in negotiation with him beforehand. Briscoe‟s further
observation that the parallels to Themistocles‟ story create a „difficulty‟ in Livy‟s
account stemming from Polybius (no longer extant) is left unexplained but reflects the
concern of much early to mid-twentieth century scholarship with identifying Livy‟s
sources where none are extant (and dismissing anything considered „non-Polybian‟ as
unreliable). It is, as Warrior says, an approach that distorts the interpretation of Livy, 424
and furthermore, in this instance, the attempt to create similarities between these two
figures later years seems to depend on an assumption that Polybius would allude to his
Greek predecessor.
Justinus writes that the charges against Hannibal were false but accepted by those
Carthaginians who were afraid of Rome. Once Hannibal joined Antiochus, the king
became a more dangerous enemy (Justinus, 31.1-2). Cornelius Nepos depicts Hannibal
inspiring Antiochus for warfare against Rome (Cornelius Nepos, Hann. 2.1). The
Romans counter by sending envoys to Antiochus from time to time with instructions to
request an audience with Hannibal in order to arouse Antiochus‟ suspicions against
Hannibal (Cornelius Nepos, Hann. 2; also Frontinus, Strat. 1.8.7; Livy, 35.14).
Perhaps these duplicitous embassies and courtly intrigues lie behind a remark by
Diodorus that Antiochus became suspicious when Hannibal urged caution in fighting
the Romans (Diodorus Siculus, 29.3). It is in reference to Antiochus‟ suspicion of
Hannibal‟s motives when Livy inserts the anecdote of Hannibal‟s childhood oath into a
422 Briscoe, 1973, 335.
423 Briscoe, 1973, 336-7.
424 Warrior, 1996, 10.
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