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19. Mago set out in the stillness of the following1 night and, lengthening the day's marches as much as he could endure by reason of his wound, he reached the sea in the country of the Ligurian Ingauni.2 [2] There envoys from Carthage came to him, having put in a few days before into the Gallic Gulf,3 bringing him orders to cross over to Africa as soon as possible. [3] His brother Hannibal, they said, would do the same; for to him also envoys had gone bearing the same command; that the Carthaginian state was in no position to hold Gaul and Italy by armed forces. [4] Mago was not only swayed by the command from the senate and the danger of his city, but also feared that if he delayed the victorious enemy might be upon him, and the Ligurians themselves, seeing that the Carthaginians were abandoning Italy, might go over to the side of those in whose power they would presently be. [5] Hoping at the same time that motion would be less painful to his wound on shipboard than on the road and everything more convenient for treatment, he embarked his troops and sailed, but had hardly passed Sardinia when he died of his wound.4 In addition a considerable number of the Carthaginian ships, being scattered in the open sea, were captured by the Roman fleet which was off Sardinia. [6] Such were the events on land and sea in that part of Italy which borders upon the Alps.

[7] The consul Gaius Servilius, who had accomplished nothing that deserves mention in his province of Etruria and in Gaul —for he had advanced into that [p. 439]country as well-rescued from slavery after fifteen5 years his father Gaius Servilius and Gaius Lutatius,6 who had been captured near the village of Tannetum7 by the Boii. [8] Upon that he returned to Rome escorted by his father on one side and Catulus on the other, gaining distinction for an act that was personal rather than official. [9] A bill was brought before the people that it should not be a ground for charges against Gaius Servilius that while his father, who had occupied a curule chair,8 was still alive-a fact of which he was unaware-he had been tribune of the plebs and plebeian aedile, contrary to provisions of the laws.9 [10] This bill became a law, whereupon he returned to his province.

As for Gnaeus Servilius, the consul, who was in the land of the Bruttii, Consentia,10 Aufugum, Bergae, Baesidiae, Ocriculum, Lymphaeum, Argentanum, Clampetia and many other unimportant communities, came over to his side, seeing that the Punic war was failing. [11] The same consul engaged in battle with Hannibal in the territory of Croton. The story of that battle is not clear. Valerius Antias11 says five thousand of the enemy were slain-a victory on such a scale as to have been either shamelessly fabricated or else carelessly passed over. [12] What is certain is that nothing further was accomplished by Hannibal in Italy. For to him also came emissaries from Carthage to recall him to Africa just at the time, it [p. 441]chanced, that others came to Mago.

1 B.C. 203

2 Presumably he followed a road leading down to Vada Sabat(i)a, which belonged to the Ingauni, as did Savo (Savona). Cf. pp. 197, n. 3 f.; 225, n. 2. The wounded Mago may have been carried on an elephant. Cf. Hannibal in the Arno valley, XXII. ii. 10 f. Nothing is said of any Roman pursuit.

3 I.e. Gulf of Genoa.

4 No further authority for this statement can be cited. Other sources vary so much that their statements are of no value: that Mago was still in Liguria after Zama (AppianPun. 49; cf. 59); that after reaching Africa. he was sent back to Italy (Zonaras IX. xiii. 10); that ten years later he perished either in a shipwreck or by the hands of his slaves (Nepos Hann. viii. 1 f.).

5 B.C. 203

6 Son of the victor in 242, he had been consul in 220 B.C.; Zonaras VIII. xx. 10.

7 They were seized, as Livy himself has it, near Mutina (Modena), but their Gallic captors were unsuccessfully pursued northwestward as far as Tannetum (half-way between Parma and Reggio Emilia). Cf. XXI. xxv. 3, 13; xxvi. 2; XXVII. xxi. 10; Polybius III. xl. 9-13.

8 He had held the praetorship; Polybius l.c. § 9.

9 Cf. Vol. VII. p. 301, n. 1 for one explanation of this restriction placed upon patrician candidates who were under patria potestas. The purpose of the consul's return from his province was that his acts as a magistrate might be legalized.

10 See p. 357, n. 2 (for Clampetia also).

11 Cf. XXVIII. xlvi. 14 and note; XXIX. xxxv. 2; above, iii. 6; below, xxix, 7; xliii. 12 n.

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load focus Summary (English, Frank Gardener Moore, Professor Emeritus in Columbia University, 1949)
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load focus Summary (Latin, Frank Gardener Moore, Professor Emeritus in Columbia University, 1949)
load focus English (Rev. Canon Roberts, 1912)
load focus Latin (W. Weissenborn, H. J. Müller, 1884)
load focus Latin (Frank Gardener Moore, Professor Emeritus in Columbia University, 1949)
load focus English (Cyrus Evans, 1850)
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  • Commentary references to this page (5):
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 32.6
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 33.10
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 33.41
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 38.41
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 39-40, commentary, 40.13
  • Cross-references to this page (32):
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, C. Lutatius
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Lex
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Lymphacum
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Mago
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Ocriculum
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Pater
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Sinus Gallicus
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, C. Servilius
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, C. Servilius
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Cn. Servilius Caepio
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Tannetum
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Aediles
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Argentanum
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Aufugium
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Valerius Antias
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Vergae
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Bergae
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Besidiae.
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Clampetia
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Consentia
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Crotonienses
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Hannibal
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Ingauni
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), BRU´TTII
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), CASTRA HANNI´BALIS
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), CONSE´NTIA
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), CROTON or CROTONA
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), INGAUNI
    • Smith's Bio, Ha'nnibal
    • Smith's Bio, Mago
    • Smith's Bio, Servi'lius
    • Smith's Bio, Servi'lius
  • Cross-references in notes to this page (1):
  • Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page (23):
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