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Cornelius Nepos · Hannibal §7.1-7.7

Hannibal's Magistracy and Flight to Syria

Passage 7 of 13 · Latin

Summary

After the peace treaty between Carthage and Rome, Hannibal returns home and is elected to the highest magistracy, achieving great success through financial reforms. However, fearing Roman demands for his surrender, he flees to Syria and is subsequently exiled by the Carthaginians.

§7.1Cum in apparando acerrime esset occupatus, Karthaginienses bellum cum Romanis composuerunt.
While Hannibal was most actively occupied in making preparations, the Carthaginians brought the war with the Romans to an end.
ille nihilo setius exercitui postea praefuit resque in Africa gessit usque ad P. Sulpicium C. Aurelium consules.
He, nonetheless, subsequently remained in command of the army and conducted affairs in Africa until the consulship of Publius Sulpicius and Gaius Aurelius.
§7.2his enim magistratibus legati Karthaginienses Romam venerunt, qui senatui populoque Romano gratias agerent, quod cum iis pacem fecissent, ob eamque rem corona aurea eos donarent simulque peterent, ut obsides eorum Fregellis essent captivique redderentur.
For during their magistracy, Carthaginian envoys came to Rome, to express their thanks to the Roman senate and people for having made peace with them, and to present them with a golden crown for that reason, and at the same time to request that their hostages might be at Fregellae and their prisoners returned.
§7.3his ex senatus consulto responsum est: munus eorum gratum acceptumque esse; obsides, quo loco rogarent, futuros; captivos non remissuros, quod Hannibalem, cuius opera susceptum bellum foret, inimicissimum nomini Romano, etiamnum cum imperio apud exercitum haberent itemque fratrem eius Magonem.
To them, in accordance with a decree of the senate, the following reply was made: that their gift was welcome and accepted; that the hostages would be in the place they requested; but that they would not send back the prisoners, because they still kept Hannibal, by whose agency the war had been undertaken, the bitterest enemy to the Roman name, in command of the army, and likewise his brother Mago.
§7.4hoc responso Karthaginienses cognito Hannibalem domum et Magonem revocarunt.
When this reply became known to the Carthaginians, they recalled Hannibal and Mago home.
huc ut rediit, rex factus est, postquam imperator fuerat, anno secundo et vicesimo: ut enim Romae consules, sic Karthagine quotannis annui bini reges creabantur.
When he returned here, he was made king, after having been general, in his twenty-second year; for just as consuls were elected at Rome, so at Carthage two annual kings were created every year.
§7.5in eo magistratu pari diligentia se Hannibal praebuit, ac fuerat in bello.
In that magistracy, Hannibal showed himself with equal diligence as he had been in war.
namque effecit ex novis vectigalibus non solum ut esset pecunia, quae Romanis ex foedere penderetur, sed etiam superesset, quae in aerario reponeretur.
For he brought it about by means of new taxes that there was not only money to be paid to the Romans according to the treaty, but also a surplus to be deposited in the treasury.
§7.6deinde M. Claudio L. Furio consulibus Roma legati Karthaginem venerunt.
Afterwards, in the consulship of Marcus Claudius and Lucius Furius, envoys from Rome came to Carthage.
hos Hannibal ratus sui exposcendi gratia missos, priusquam iis senatus daretur, navem ascendit clam atque in Syriam ad Antiochum perfugit.
Hannibal, thinking that these had been sent for the purpose of demanding his surrender, before an audience with the senate was granted to them, secretly boarded a ship and fled to Antiochus in Syria.
§7.7hac re palam facta Poeni naves duas, quae eum comprehenderent, si possent consequi, miserunt, bona eius publicarunt, domum a fundamentis disiecerunt, ipsum exulem iudicarunt.
When this matter became publicly known, the Carthaginians sent two ships to capture him if they could overtake him, confiscated his property, razed his house to its foundations, and declared him an exile.

Notes

  1. §7.2his enim magistratibus — An "ablative absolute" construction consisting of a pronoun and a noun without a participle, meaning "when these were magistrates." The pronoun "his" refers to the two consuls mentioned at the end of the previous section.
  2. §7.3responsum est — An impersonal passive verb meaning "it was replied," taking the dative "his" (to them) as its indirect object. It introduces the subsequent indirect discourse consisting of several accusative and infinitive clauses (munus... esse, obsides... futuros, and captivos... non remissuros).
  3. §7.3captivos non remissuros — The subject accusative pronoun "se" (referring to the Roman senate or the Romans) and the auxiliary verb "esse" are omitted from the future infinitive clause "captivos non remissuros [esse]."
  4. §7.4postquam imperator fuerat, anno secundo et vicesimo — Meaning "in the twenty-second year after he had been general." It counts the years from BC 221 when Hannibal became general ("imperator"), indicating that he was elected to the highest magistracy ("rex," in reality sufes) of Carthage in BC 200/199.
  5. §7.6sui exposcendi gratia — A gerundive construction with "gratia" governing the genitive. "sui" is the genitive of the reflexive pronoun "se" referring to Hannibal. When the genitive of personal or reflexive pronouns (like "sui") is used with a gerundive, the gerundive regularly takes the genitive singular ending "-i," regardless of the gender or number of the pronoun's antecedent.

Cite this passage

Cornelius Nepos, Hannibal §7.1-7.7. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0588.abo023.humanitext-lat2:7.1-7.7

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