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Hannibal pleading a case to King Antiochus. The audience is forced to conclude that
Polybius introduces Hannibal as someone who kept fides to his oath.
Moore 94 argues that, apart from virtus, no Roman virtue plays as important a role as
fides in Livy‟s text; primarily Moore‟s focus is on fides publica as an aspect of an
alliance between Rome and other townships or city-states, such as Saguntum suffering
for her fides to Rome (Livy, 28.39.1). However, Livy also presents fides as a very
important personal quality and his annalistic format justifies him using the anecdote
about Hannibal‟s oath twice in his text but with important differences in context that
may be interpreted as bearing on its relation to fides.
At the start of the third decad Livy relates a rumour (fama) that the 9-year old
Hannibal swore an oath at an altar under the guidance of his father to be an enemy of
Rome (Livy, 21.1.4-5). The word fama allows for a measure of doubt as to its veracity,
and, because it is not placed in the context of an older Hannibal justifying himself to an
eastern King it carries no underlying representation of Hannibal maintaining fides to his
oath. Instead, there is more emphasis on continuing a family tradition, and in addition,
Livy‟s representation of the child Hannibal has a nuanced difference to the child in
Polybius:
Fama est etiam Hannibalem annorum ferme novem pueriliter
blandientem patri Hamilcari ut duceretur in Hispaniam cum perfecto
Africo bello exercitum eo traiecturus sacrificaret, altaribus admotum
tactis sacris iure iurando adactum se cum primum posset hostem fore
populo Romano.
Livy, 21.1.4
It is said moreover that when Hannibal, then about 9 years old, was
childishly teasing his father Hamilcar to take him with him into Spain,
his father, who had finished the African war and was sacrificing,
before crossing with his army, led the boy up to the altar and made
him touch the offerings and bind himself with an oath that so soon as
he should be able he would be the declared enemy of the Roman
people.
Foster, 1949, 5.
The child actively urges his father to take him to Spain whereas Polybius presents the
child responding to an invitation, albeit with enthusiasm. 95
At Hannibal‟s next appearance in the third decad, he is at war and the declared
enemy of Rome. Livy avoids the problem of illustrating Hannibal‟s fides to his oath
94 Moore, 1989, 35-7.
95 Hoyos, 2008, 25 also notes this subtle difference.
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