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forces, 191 sending some to Spain (his allocated province) with his brother while he
travelled to northern Italy. Scipio is represented anticipating an easy victory over an
exhausted, depleted army, a crucial miscalculation of the effects of the journey (Hist.
3.61-64).
Seneca is witness to the tradition that the Romans were „taken by surprise‟ at
Hannibal‟s arrival in Italy. Seneca‟s explanation for „taken by surprise‟ is in the degree
to which Scipio and successive Roman consuls underestimated the strength of
Hannibal‟s army (NQ 3 Pref 6). Silius Italicus modifies the reaction to a sense of mutual
amazement with a Roman reaction of alarm, but not shock, at reports of Hannibal‟s
arrival in the Po valley. There is, naturally enough, disappointment that Hannibal did not
perish in the Alps (Pun. 4.33-6). 192
Crossing the Alps with his army and elephants earns Hannibal a special place in
history; Hannibal himself is represented by Silius as proud of this achievement (Pun.
4.3-5). It is a feat which, even today, tends to be admired rather than criticised, although
there are some voices of dissent. Among the ancient texts, Juvenal cites Hannibal for
bringing ruin to his country in his quest for glory; the crossing of the Alps served no
purpose except to provide a topic for schoolboys‟ recitations (Sat. 10.140-167). One
modern critic is Dexter Hoyos, who argues that the overland journey from Spain to Italy
was a serious miscalculation on the part of Hannibal, causing irrecoverable manpower
losses: „crossing the Alps remains the most famous and mistakenly emblematic of his
feats.‟ 193
191 Polybius is non-specific about how Scipio divided his forces (Hist., 3.49.2); Livy (21.32.1-2), wrote
that he sent most to Spain, which excuses Scipio‟s subsequent loss on the grounds of using mostly raw
recruits. See Grant, 1979, 102-3 for a discussion of Scipio‟s decision.
192 See Wilson, 2007, 429-30 for a discussion of Seneca‟s passage. Seneca disparages not only marauding
generals, such as Hannibal, but also the historiographic tradition, including the Roman tradition, in
comparison to his own genre.
193 See Hoyos, 2003, 111-3; Goldsworthy, 2004, 167-8 for discussions of Hannibal‟s manpower losses
and long term implications for the war.
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