<p rend="Plain Text">An incident in Scipio's attempt to force an entry into <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Carthage&groupId=441&placeId=820">Carthage</a> See ad loc. for the argument that this excerpt should stand here in res Africae of Ol. 158, 2 = 147/6.</p>
38.19.1 - 38.19.4
<p rend="Plain Text">A recollection by the emperor Julian of Scipio's action at <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Carthage&groupId=441&placeId=820">Carthage</a></p>
<p rend="Plain Text">This extract from Ammianus' description of Julian's attack on Pirisabora in <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Babylonia&groupId=388&placeId=728">Babylonia</a> (Amm. xxiv. 2. 14–17) refers to something described by P.; it is not a fragment of P. in any real sense. It has been referred to Scipio's penetration of the <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Megara&groupId=746&placeId=1361">Megara</a> district of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Carthage&groupId=441&placeId=820">Carthage</a> in summer 147 (App. Lib. 117; Zon. ix. 29; Gsell, iii. 376 n. 1); but neither Appian nor Zonaras mentions P.'s share in that action, which is different in their versions. According to Appian, who is preferable, Scipio's troops bridged the gap between a deserted tower and the walls, and having got inside broke down the gate and let him in with 4,000 men. Zonaras has him get inside with the stronger part of his army, helped by deserters, and then let in other sections of his troops. Neither mentions a testudo. Consequently it seems more likely that the incident mentioned here occurred during the final assault in March or April 146 (cf. De Sanctis, iv. 3. 62 n. 90, 71); the passage will then stand after 8. 15 and before 20. 1.</p>
38.19.3 - 38.19.3
<p rend="Plain Text">in P., as Schweighaeuser, v. 49, saw.</p>
38.19.0 - 38.19.0
<p rend="Plain Text">An incident in Scipio's attempt to force an entry into <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Carthage&groupId=441&placeId=820">Carthage</a> (147)</p>
<p rend="Plain Text">
Much of P.'s account of the campaign of 147 stood in book xxxvii (Ol. 158, 1 = 148/7); but this book appears to have been lost early, and certainly by the tenth century, and P.'s account survives only through Appian, who draws on him at second hand (xxxvi. 3. 1– 6. 1 n.). It is not possible to deduce from Appian where the break between books xxxvii and xxxviii came in P.'s narrative. Scipio returned to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a> in autumn 148 to stand for the aedileship, but he was elected consul for 147 (xxxvi. 16. 12 n., following the note on xxxvi. 8. 8). In spring 147 Scipio took over from Piso and Mancinus, the consuls of 148. One of his first tasks was to rescue Mancinus from an awkward situation in the district of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Megara&groupId=746&placeId=1361">Megara</a> which he had pene-
<milestone unit="page" n="718">[718]</milestone>
trated and from which he could not get out (App. Lib. 113–14; Zon. ix. 29), after which he took steps to restore army discipline. The Carthaginians recalled Hasdrubal to take up a position near the walls on the Isthmus west of the city, and Scipio, after unsuccessfully trying to force an entry into <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Megara&groupId=746&placeId=1361">Megara</a> (on this see Astin, 341), set about a full blockade of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Carthage&groupId=441&placeId=820">Carthage</a> with earthworks across the Isthmus. A mole was built across the entrance to the harbour, but Roman attempts to penetrate the city from the <w lang="el-GR">χῶμα</w>, which was at the south-east corner of the city (and at the north end of the mole), were unsuccessful.
</p>
<p rend="Plain Text">It is to this operation that the present fragment (from Plut. Mor. 200 A) probably refers (see p. 48, and above 7. 1–8. 15 n.); it belongs to the events of autumn 147, and should stand between 6. 7 and 7. 1. Since, moreover, fgs. 217 and 145 probably go with it, it may be assumed that the events described were in book xxxviii rather than xxxvii (since xxxvii was probably lost too early to be used for Suidas). For a vaguer reference to the same occasion see Val. Max. iii. 7. 2; and cf. in general App. Lib. 113–25 (winter, <w lang="el-GR">χειμών</w>, 147/6, begins in ch. 126); Zon. ix. 29; Kahrstedt, iii. 655–9, esp. 658; Gsell, ii. 73–76, esp. 75–76 n. 4; iii. 379–86; De Sanctis, iv. 3. 58–69, esp. 66; J. Baradez, CRAI, 1955, 299 ff.</p>
Specifics
38.19.1 - 38.19.1
<p rend="Plain Text">
<emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">παρελθὼν εἰς τὸ τεῖχος</w>:</emph>
the wall which protected the <w lang="el-GR">χῶμα</w> on the south; App. Lib. 125 calls it <w lang="el-GR">διατείχισμα</w> (and in Lib. 124, less accurately, <w lang="el-GR">παρατείχισμα</w>; cf. Kahrstedt, iii. 658 n. 2). Appian describes how Scipio brought engines across the mole to attack this fortification and <w lang="el-GR">μέρος αὐτοῦ κατέβαλεν</w>. If, as Meltzer suggested to Bttner-Wobst, fg. 217 (from Suidas) belongs to this context, it will precede this chapter (coming immediately after 6. 7).
</p>
<p rend="Plain Text">
<emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">ἐκ τῆς ἄκρας ἀμυνομένων</w>:</emph>
this should mean 'defending themselves from the citadel'; but (a) the citadel of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Carthage&groupId=441&placeId=820">Carthage</a> was nowhere near the site of these operations, (b) P. nowhere uses <w lang="el-GR">ἄκρα</w> for 'citadel'. Plutarch has probably misunderstood P., who was perhaps referring to the troops on the <w lang="el-GR">χῶμα</w> or its southern tip. Gsell, ii. 75 n. 4, translates 'sur la pointe', and takes the <w lang="el-GR">ἄκρα</w> to be 'une saillie du rempart'.
</p>
<p rend="Plain Text">
<emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">τὴν διὰ μέσου θάλασσαν</w>:</emph>
this will be the sea to the west of Scipio's mole, in the direction of the harbour. In fact, the same night the Carthaginians launched an attack, swimming and wading, by this route, and destroyed Scipio's war-machines; cf. App. Lib. 124; Florus, i. 31. 15; Zon. ix. 29–30. P. was thus vindicated in his advice, as his own text no doubt went on to explain. Schweighaeuser (v. 49) aptly quotes Paus. viii. 30. 9, <w lang="el-GR">ὅσα μὲν δὴ Πολυβίῳ παραινοῦντι ὁ Ῥωμαῖος? ἐπείθετο, ἐς ὀρθὸν ἐχώρησεν αὐτῷ</w>
<emph rend="italics">\?\</emph>
<w lang="el-GR">ἃ δὲ οὐκ ἠκροᾶτο διδάσκοντος, γενέσθαι οἱ λέγουσιν ἁμαρτήματα</w>. (Here <w lang="el-GR">ὁ Ῥωμαῖος</w> will be Scipio, if indeed he
<milestone unit="page" n="719">[719]</milestone>
was mentioned in the epigram referred to by Pausanias; but if Paus. viii. 30. 8–9, <w lang="el-GR">συνέγραψε δὲ ὁ Πολύβιος . . . ἐς ἔδαφος</w>, is a parenthesis by Pausanias himself, the epigram contained no mention of Scipio, and <w lang="el-GR">ὁ Ῥωμαῖος</w>? must in that case mean 'the Romans'. This latter interpretation, which seems to me less probable, is how Momigliano, Entretiens sur Polybe, 348, takes it.)
</p>
<p rend="Plain Text">
<emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">κατασπεῖραι τριβόλους σιδηροῦς</w>:</emph>
'to strew iron caltrops'; for these devices, used also against cavalry, see Philon, Belop. 100. 7; Polyaen. i. 39. 2, iv. 3. 17.
</p>
<p rend="Plain Text">
<emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">ἢ σανίδας ἐμβαλεῖν κεντρωτάς</w>:</emph>
'or to throw planks with spikes into the water'; presumably weighted to make them sink.
</p>
<p rend="Plain Text">
<emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">κατειληφότας τὰ τείχη</w>:</emph>
an exaggeration; the walls had merely been holed.
</p>
<p rend="Plain Text">
<emph rend="bold">Fg. 145,</emph>
referring to both sides encamping on the <w lang="el-GR">χῶμα</w>, probably belongs in this context.
</p>
Walbank Commentary