Mors Romanorum

Perfidia Punica

Quid, Hannibal Cannensem populi Romani aciem nonne prius quam ad dimicandum descenderet conpluribus astutiae copulatam laqueis ad tam miserabilem perduxit exitum? ante omnia enim providit ut et solem et pulverem, qui ibi vento multus excitari solet, adversum haberet. deinde partem copiarum suarum inter ipsum proelii tempus de industria fugere iussit, quam cum a reliquo exercitu abrupta legio Romana sequeretur, trucidandam eam ab his, quos <in> insidiis collocaverat, curavit. postremo cccc equites subornavit, qui simulata transitione petierunt consulem, a quo iussi more transfugarum depositis armis in ultimam pugnae partem secedere destrictis gladiis, quos inter tunicas et loricas abdiderant, poplites pugnantium Romanorum ceciderunt. haec fuit Punica fortitudo, dolis et insidiis et fallacia instructa. quae nunc certissima circumventae virtutis nostrae excusatio est, quoniam decepti magis quam victi sumus.

Valerius Maximus, Facta et Dicta Memorabilia 7.4 ext. 2

Hannibal long remained a bugbear to the Romans. Domitian (ruled AD 81-96) had a senator killed for several trivial reasons, including that he had called two of his slaves after Hannibal and his brother Mago (but a son and nephew of Constantine the Great [ruled AD 306-337] were both called Hannibalianus). Carthage may have been destroyed in 146 BC, but it was not long before a Roman colony was established there. Septimius Severus (ruled AD 193-211) was the first emperor of Carthaginian ancestry.