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Representations of Hannibal threatening Rome
When Hannibal sets out from Spain, the Gauls are generally represented giving him a
mixed reception. Some tribes oppose him while others support him and he has to fight
and/or negotiate or bribe his way across their territories into Italy from Spain. Polybius
presents Hannibal fighting or negotiating with different tribes, but particularly illustrates
Hannibal‟s forward-planning and negotiating skills by locating Hannibal in a meeting
with Gallic chiefs from the Po Valley. It takes place before Hannibal crosses the Alps
and indicates that Hannnibal‟s envoys must have travelled well ahead of the army in
order to meet and convince these men to meet the Carthaginian. Polybius presents
Hannibal arranging for these chiefs to personally address his army in order to reassure
his men of their support (Hist. 3.44.1-12).
Livy‟s representation of Hannibal‟s interactions with the Gauls is more negative;
they prepare an army to face Hannibal but he persuades them that his quarrel is not with
them and pays for passage through their lands (Livy, 21.24.3-5). Those tribes who
support Hannibal are said to do so either out of fear or by accepting bribes. The contrary
view that Hannibal crossed their territories by conquest is placed in a direct speech by
Hannibal himself; its credibility is left to the reader. Hannibal reminds his men that as
they had repeatedly conquered the Gauls who had themselves once captured Rome, they
should find the courage to face their final goal, Rome:
Cepisse quondam Gallos ea quae adiri posse Poenus desperet? Proinde
aut cederent animo atque virtute genti per eos dies totiens ab se victae,
aut itineris finem sperent campum interiacentem Tiberi ac moenibus
Romanis.
Livy, 21.30.11
Had the Gauls once captured that which the Phoenicians despaired of
approaching? Then let them yield in spirit and manhood to a race
which they had so often defeated over the last few days or look to end
their march in the field between the Tiber and the walls of Rome.
Adapted from Foster, 1949, 89.
In the same speech, Rome is described as the capital of the world Romam caput orbis
terrarum (Livy, 21.30.10). It might be considered a „strange anachronism in the mouth
of Hannibal‟ 218 but it reminds the audience of the fictional nature of the speech as well
218 Foster, 1949, 88, n2.
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