[76] Our history returns to the war against the Arevaci and the Numantines, whom Viriathus stirred up to revolt. [Consul Quintus] Caecilius Metellus was sent against them from Rome with a larger army and he subdued the Arevaci, falling upon them suddenly while they were gathering their crops.

There still remained the two towns of Termantia and Numantia to engage his attention. Numantia was difficult of access by reason of two rivers and the ravines and dense woods that surrounded it. There was only one road to the open country and that had been blocked by ditches and palisades. The Numantines were first-rate soldiers, both horse and foot, there being about 8,000 altogether. Although small in numbers, yet they gave the Romans great trouble by their bravery.

At the end of winter Metellus surrendered to his successor, Quintus Pompeius Aulus, the command of the army, consisting of 30,000 foot and 2,000 horse, admirably trained. While encamped against Numantia, Pompeius had occasion to go away somewhere. The Numantines made a sally against a body of his horse that was ranging after him and destroyed them. When he returned, he drew up his army in the plain. The Numantines came down to meet him, but retired slowly as though intending flight, until they had drawn Pompeius to the ditches and palisades.

[77] When he saw his forces wasted day by day in skirmishes with an enemy much inferior in numbers, he moved against Termantia as being an easier task. Here he engaged the enemy and lost 700 men; and one of his tribunes, who was bringing provisions to his army, was put to flight by the Termantines. In a third engagement the same day they drove the Romans into a rocky place where many of their infantry and cavalry with their horses were forced down a precipice. The remainder, panic-stricken, passed the night under arms. At daybreak the enemy came out and a regular battle was fought which lasted all day with equal fortune. Night put an end to the conflict.

Thence Pompeius marched against a small town named Malia, which was garrisoned by Numantines. The inhabitants slew the garrison by treachery and delivered the town to Pompeius. He required them to surrender their arms and give hostages, after which he moved to Sedatania, which a robber chief named Tanginus was plundering. Pompeius overcame him and took many of his men prisoners. So high-spirited were these robbers that none of the captives would endure servitude. Some killed themselves, others killed those who had bought them, and others scuttled the ships that carried them away.

[78] Pompeius, coming back to the siege of Numantia, endeavored to turn the course of a certain river in order to reduce the city by famine. The inhabitants harassed him while he was doing this work. They rushed out in crowds without giving any signal, and assaulted those who were working on the river, and hurled darts at those who came to their assistance from the camp, and finally shut the Romans up in their own fortification. They also attacked the foragers and killed many, and among them Oppius, a military tribune. They made an assault in another quarter on a party of Romans who were digging a ditch, and killed about 400 of them including their leader.

About this time certain counsellors came to Pompeius from Rome, together with an army of new recruits, still raw and undisciplined, to take the places of the soldiers who had served their six years. Pompeius, being put to shame by so many disasters, and desiring to wipe out the disgrace, remained in camp in the winter time with these raw recruits. The soldiers, being exposed to severe cold without shelter, and unaccustomed to the water and climate of the country, fell sick with dysentery and many died.

A detachment having gone out for forage, the Numantines laid an ambuscade near the Roman camp and provoked them to a skirmish. The latter, not enduring the affront, sallied out against them. Then those who were in ambush sprang up, and many of the common soldiers and many of the nobility lost their lives. Finally the Numantines encountered the foraging party on its return and killed many of those also.

[79] Pompeius, being cast down by so many misfortunes, marched away with his senatorial council to the towns to spend the rest of the winter, expecting a successor to come early in the spring. Fearing lest he should be called to account, he made overtures to the Numantines secretly for the purpose of bringing the war to an end. The Numantines themselves, being exhausted by the slaughter of so many of their bravest men, by the loss of their crops, by want of food, and by the length of the war, which had been protracted beyond expectation, sent legates to Pompeius. He publicly advised them to surrender at discretion, because no other kind of treaty seemed worthy of the dignity of the Roman people, but privately he told them what terms he should impose. When they had come to an agreement and the Numantines had given themselves up, he demanded and received from them hostages, together with the prisoners and deserters. He also demanded thirty talents of silver, a part of which they paid down and the rest he agreed to wait for.

His successor, Marcus Popillius Laenas, had arrived when they brought the last instalment. Pompeius being no longer under any apprehension concerning the war, since his successor was present, and knowing that he had made a disgraceful peace and without authority from Rome, began to deny that he had come to any understanding with the Numantines. The latter proved the contrary by witnesses who had taken part in the transaction, senators, and his own prefects of horse and military tribunes. Popillius sent them to Rome to carry on the controversy with Pompeius there. The case was brought before the Senate, and the Numantines and Pompeius debated it there. The Senate decided to continue the war. Thereupon Popillius attacked the Lusones who were neighbors of the Numantines, but he accomplished nothing, and on the arrival of his successor in office, Hostilius Mancinus, he returned to Rome.

[80] Mancinus had frequent encounters with the Numantines in which he was worsted, and finally, after great loss, took refuge in his camp. On a false rumor that the Cantabri and Vaccaei were coming to the aid of the Numantines, he became alarmed, extinguished his fires, and fled in the darkness of night to a desert place where Nobilior once had a camp. Being shut up in this place at daybreak without preparation or fortification and surrounded by Numantines, who threatened all with death unless he made peace, he agreed to terms like those previously made between the Romans and Numantines. To this agreement he bound himself by an oath.

When these things were known at Rome there was great indignation at this most ignominious treaty, and the other consul, Aemilius Lepidus, was sent to Spain, Mancinus being called home to stand trial. The Numantine ambassadors followed him thither.

Aemilius becoming tired of idleness while awaiting the decision from Rome (for some men sought the command, not for the advantage of the city, but for glory, or gain, or the honor of a triumph), falsely accused the Vaccaei of supplying the Numantines with provisions during the war. Accordingly he ravaged their country and laid siege to their principal city, Pallantia, which had in no way violated the treaty, and he persuaded Brutus, his brother-in-law, who had been sent to Farther Spain (as I have before related), to join him in this undertaking.

[81] Here they were overtaken by Cinna and Caecilius, messengers from Rome, who said that the Senate was at a loss to know why, after so many disasters had befallen them in Spain, Aemilius should be seeking a new war, and they placed in his hands a decree warning him not to attack the Vaccaei. But he, having actually begun the war, considered that the Senate was ignorant of that, and of the fact that Brutus was cooperating with him, and that the Vaccaei had aided the Numantines with provisions, money, and men. Accordingly he made answer that it would be dangerous to abandon the war, since nearly all Spain would rebel if they should imagine that the Romans were afraid.

He sent Cinna's party home without having accomplished their errand, and he wrote in this sense to the Senate. After this he began, in a fortified place, to construct engines and collect provisions. While he was thus engaged, Flaccus, who had been sent out on a foraging expedition, found himself in an ambuscade but he saved himself by a trick. He cunningly spread a rumor among his men that Aemilius had captured Pallantia. The soldiers raised a shout of victory. The barbarians, hearing it and thinking that the report was true, withdrew. In this way Flaccus rescued his convoy from danger.

[82] The siege of Pallantia was long protracted, the food supply of the Romans failed, and they began to suffer from hunger. All their animals perished and many of the men died of want. The generals, Aemilius and Brutus, kept heart for a long time. Being compelled to yield at last, they gave an order suddenly one night, about the last watch, to retreat. The tribunes and centurions ran hither and thither to hasten the movement, so as to get them all away before daylight. Such was the confusion that they left behind everything, and even the sick and wounded, who clung to them and besought them not to abandon them. Their retreat was disorderly and confused and much like a flight, the Pallantines hanging on their flanks and rear and doing great damage from early dawn till evening. When night came, the Romans, worn with toil and hunger, threw themselves on the ground by companies just as it happened, and the Pallantines, moved by some divine interposition, went back to their own country. And this was what happened to Aemilius.

[83] When these things were known at Rome, Aemilius was deprived of his command and consulship, and when he returned to Rome as a private citizen he was fined besides. The dispute before the Senate between Mancinus and the Numantine ambassadors was still going on. The latter exhibited the treaty they had made with Mancinus; he, on the other hand, put the blame on Pompeius, his predecessor in the command, who had turned over to him a worthless and ill-provided army, with which Pompeius himself had often been beaten, and so had made a similar treaty with the Numantines. He added that the war had been under bad omens, for it had been decreed by the Romans in violation of these agreements.

The senators were equally incensed against both, but Pompeius escaped because he had been tried for this offense long before. They decided to deliver Mancinus to the Numantines for making a disgraceful treaty without their authorization. (In this they followed the example of the fathers, who once delivered to the Samnites twenty generals who had made similar treaties without authority.) Mancinus was taken to Spain by Furius, and delivered naked to the Numantines, but they refused to receive him.

Calpurnius Piso was chosen general against them, but he did not march against Numantia. He made an incursion into the territory of Pallantia, and having collected a small amount of plunder, spent the rest of his term of office in winter quarters in Carpetania.

[84] The Roman people being tired of this Numantine war, which was protracted and severe beyond expectation, elected Scipio, the conqueror of Carthage, consul again, believing that he was the only man who could subdue the Numantines. As he was still under the consular age, the Senate voted, as was done when Scipio was appointed general against the Carthaginians, that the tribunes of the people should repeal the law respecting the age limit, and reenact it for the following year. Thus Scipio was made consul a second time and hastened to Numantia.

He did not take any army by levy because the city was exhausted by so many wars, and because there were plenty of soldiers in Spain. With the Senate's consent he took a certain number of volunteers sent to him by cities and kings on the score of private friendship. To these were added 500 of his clients and friends whom he joined in one body and called it the troop of friends. All these, about 4,000 in number, he put under marching orders in charge of Buteo, his nephew, while he went in advance with a small escort to the army in Spain, having heard that it was full of idleness, discord, and luxury, and well knowing that he could never overcome the enemy unless he should first bring his own men under strict discipline.

[85] When he arrived he expelled all traders and harlots; also the soothsayers and diviners, whom the soldiers were continually consulting because they were demoralized by defeat. For the future he forbade the bringing in of anything not necessary, or any victims for purposes of divination. He ordered all wagons and their superfluous contents to be sold, and all pack animals, except such as he designated, to remain. For cooking utensils it was permitted to have only a spit, a brass kettle, and one cup. Their food was limited to plain boiled and roasted meats. They were forbidden to have beds, and Scipio was the first one to sleep on straw. He forbade them to ride on mules when on the march; "for what can you expect in a war," said he, "from a man who is not able to walk?" Those who had servants to bathe and anoint them were ridiculed by Scipio, who said that only mules, having no hands, needed others to rub them.

Thus in a short time he brought them back to good order. He accustomed them also to respect and fear himself by being difficult of access and sparing of favors, especially favors contrary to regulations. He often said that those generals who were severe and strict in the observance of law were serviceable to their own men, while those who were easy-going and bountiful were useful only to the enemy. The soldiers of the latter, he said, might be joyous but insubordinate, while the others, although downcast, would be obedient and ready for all emergencies.

[86] He did not venture to engage the enemy until he had trained his men by many laborious exercises. He traversed all the neighboring plains, and daily fortified new camps one after another, and then demolished them, dug deep trenches and filled them up again, constructed high walls and overthrew them, personally overlooking the work from morning till night. In order to prevent the men from straggling while on the march, as heretofore, he always moved in the form of squares, and no one was allowed to change the place assigned to him. Moving around the line of march he often visited the rear and caused horsemen to dismount and give their places to the sick, and when the mules were overburdened he made the foot soldiers carry a part of the load. When he had come to the end of the day's march he required those who had formed the vanguard during the day to deploy around the camping place, and a body of horse to scour the country, while the rest performed their allotted tasks, some digging the trench, others building the rampart, and others pitching the tents. He also fixed the time within which these tasks must be finished, and kept an accurate account thereof.

[87] When he judged that the army was alert, obedient to himself, and patient in labor, he moved his camp near to Numantia. He did not place advance guards in fortified stations, as some do, because he did not wish to divide his army as yet, lest he should meet some disaster at the outset and gain the contempt of the enemy, who had so long despised the Romans. Nor did he proceed at once to attack the enemy because he was still studying the nature of this war, watching his opportunity, and trying to discover the plans of the Numantines. In the meantime he foraged through all the fields behind his camp and cut down the unripe grain. When those fields had been harvested and it was necessary to move forward, and a short road to Numantia was found across the country which many advised him to take, he said: "What I am afraid of is the coming back. Our enemies are very nimble. They can dart out of the city and dart back again, while our men, like soldiers who return from foraging, will be tired out with the booty, the wagons, and the burdens they bring. For this reason the fighting will be severe and unequal. If we are beaten the danger will be serious, and if victorious, neither the glory nor the gain will be great. It is foolish to incur danger for small results. He must be considered a reckless general who would fight before there is any need, while a good one takes risks only in cases of necessity."

He added by way of simile that physicians do not cut and burn their patients till they have first tried drugs. Having spoken thus, he ordered his officers to take the longer road. Then he made some excursions beyond the camp and later advanced into the territory of the Vaccaei, from whom the Numantines bought their food supplies, cutting down everything, taking for himself what was useful as food, and piling the rest in heaps and burning it.

[88] In a part of Pallantia called Complanio the Pallantians had concealed a large force just below the brow of a hill while others openly annoyed the Roman foragers. Scipio ordered Rutilius Rufus, a military tribune (who afterwards wrote a history of these transactions), to take four troops of horse and drive back the assailants. Rufus followed them too sharply when they retreated, and darted up the hill with the fugitives. When he discovered the ambush he ordered his troops not to pursue or attack the enemy further, but to stand on the defensive with their spears presented to the enemy and merely ward off their attack.

Straightway Scipio, seeing that Rufus had exceeded his orders, and fearing for his safety, followed with all haste. When he discovered the ambush he divided his horse into two bodies and ordered them to charge the enemy on either side alternately, hurling their javelins all together and then retiring, not to the same spot from which they had advanced, but a little further back each time. In this way the horsemen were brought in safety to the plain.

As he was shifting quarters and retiring again, he had to cross a river which was difficult to ford by reason of its muddy banks, and here the enemy had laid an ambush for him. Having learned this fact, he turned aside and took a route that was longer, and where there was no water supply. Here he marched by night on account of the heat and thirst, and dug wells which yielded for the most part only bitter water. He saved his men with extreme difficulty, but some of his horses and pack animals perished of thirst.

[89] While passing through the territory of the Caucaei, whose treaty with the Romans Lucullus had violated, he made proclamation that they might return in safety to their own homes. Thence he came again to the Numantine territory and went into winter quarters. Here Jugurtha, the grandson of Massinissa, joined him with twelve elephants and the body of archers and slingers who usually accompanied them in war.

While Scipio was constantly ravaging and plundering the neighboring country, the enemy laid an ambush for him at a certain village which was surrounded on nearly all sides by a marshy pool. On the remaining side was a ravine in which the ambuscading party was hidden. Scipio's soldiers were divided so that one part entered the village to plunder it, leaving the standards outside, while another, but not large party, was coursing around it on horseback. The men in ambush fell upon the latter, who began a desperate fight. Scipio, who happened to be standing in front of the village near the standards, recalled by trumpet those who had gone inside, and before he had collected a thousand men went to the aid of the horsemen who were in difficulties. The greater part of those who were in the village rushed out and put the enemy to flight. He did not pursue the fugitives, however, but returned to the camp, a few having fallen on each side.

[90] Not long afterwards he established two camps very near to Numantia and placed his brother Maximus in charge of one while he commanded the other. The Numantines came out in large numbers and offered battle, but he disregarded their challenge, not thinking it wise to engage in battle with men who were fighting in sheer desperation, but rather to shut them up and reduce them by famine.

Placing seven towers around the city, he began the siege and wrote letters to each of the allied tribes, telling them what forces he desired them to send. When they came he divided them into several parts and afterwards subdivided his own army. Then he appointed a commander for each division and ordered them to surround the city with a ditch and palisade. The circumference of Numantia itself was 4¼ kilometers, that of the enclosing works more than twice as great. All of this space was carefully allotted to the several divisions, and he had given orders that if the enemy should make a sally anywhere they should signal to him by raising a red flag on a tall spear in the daytime or by a fire at night, so that he or Maximus might hasten to the aid of those who needed it.

When this work was completed and he could effectually repel any assaults, he dug another ditch not far behind this one and fortified it with palisades and built a wall 2½ meters wide and three meters high high, exclusive of the parapets. He built towers along the whole of this wall at intervals of thirty meters. As it was not possible to carry the wall around the adjoining marsh he threw an embankment around it of the same height and thickness as the wall, to serve in place of it.

[91] Thus Scipio was the first general, as I think, to throw a wall around a city which did not shun a battle in the open field. However, the river Durius, which took its course through the fortifications, was very useful to the Numantines for bringing provisions and sending men back and forth, some diving and others concealing themselves in small boats, some making their way with sail-boats when a strong wind was blowing, or with oars aided by the current.

As he was not able to span it on account of its breadth and swiftness, Scipio built two towers in place of a bridge. To each of these towers he moored large timbers with ropes and set them floating across the river. The timbers were stuck full of knives and spear-heads, which were kept constantly in motion by the force of the stream dashing against them, so that the enemy were prevented from passing covertly, either by swimming, or diving, or sailing in boats. Thus was accomplished what Scipio especially desired, namely, that nobody could have any dealings with them, nobody could come in, and they could have no knowledge of what was going on outside. Thus they would be in want of provisions and apparatus of every kind.

[92] When everything was ready and the catapults, ballistae, and other engines were placed on the towers, the stones, darts, and javelins collected on the parapets, and the archers and slingers in their places, he stationed messengers at frequent intervals along the entire wall to pass the word from one to another by day or night to let him know what was taking place. He gave orders to each tower that in any emergency the one that was first attacked should hoist a signal and that the others when they saw it should do the same, in order that he might be advised of the commotion quickly by signal, and learn the particulars afterward by messengers. The army, together with the native forces, now numbering some 60,000 men, he arranged so that one half should guard the wall and in case of necessity go to any place where they should be wanted, 20,000 were to fight from the top of the wall when necessary, and the remaining 10,000 were kept in reserve. Each division had its place assigned, and it was not permitted to any to change without orders. Each man was to spring to the place assigned to him when any signal of an attack was given. So carefully was everything arranged by Scipio.

[93] The Numantines made several attacks here and there upon those guarding the walls. Swift and terrible was the appearance of the defenders, the signals being everywhere hoisted, the messengers running, the defenders of the walls springing to their places in crowds, and the trumpets sounding on every tower, so that the whole circuit of 9 kilometers presented to all beholders a most formidable aspect. This circuit Scipio traversed each day and night for the purpose of inspection. He was convinced that the enemy thus enclosed, and unable to obtain food, arms, or succor from without, could not hold out very long.

[94] In the meantime Rhetogenes, a Numantine, surnamed Caraunius, a man of the greatest valor, induced five of his friends to take an equal number of servants and horses, and cross the space between the two armies secretly, on a cloudy night, carrying a bridge made in sections. Arriving at the wall he and his friends sprang upon it, slew the guards on either side, sent back the servants, drew the horses up the bridge, and rode off to the towns of the Arevaci, bearing olive-branches and entreating them, as blood relations, to help the Numantines.

The chiefs of the Arevaci, fearing the Romans, would not even listen to them, but sent them away immediately. There was a rich town named Lutia, distant 55 kilometers from Numantia, whose young men sympathized with the Numantines and urged their city to send them aid. The older citizens secretly communicated this fact to Scipio.

Receiving this intelligence about the eighth hour, he marched thither at once with a numerous and well-equipped force. Surrounding the place about daylight, he demanded that the leaders of the young men should be delivered up to him. When the citizens replied that they had fled from the place, he sent a herald to tell them that if these men were not surrendered to him he would sack the city. Being terrified by this threat, they delivered them up, to the number of about 400. Scipio cut off their hands, withdrew his force, rode away, and was back in his own camp the next morning.

[95] The Numantines, being oppressed by hunger, sent five men to Scipio to ask whether he would treat them with moderation if they would surrender. Their leader, Avarus, discoursed much about the prestige and bravery of the Numantines, and said that even now they had done no wrong, but had fallen into their present misery for the sake of their wives and children, and for the freedom of their country. "Wherefore, Scipio," he said, "it is worthy of you, as a man renowned for virtue, to spare a brave and honorable race and to extend to us terms dictated by humanity, which we shall be able to bear, now that we have at last experienced a change of fortune. It rests not with us but with you whether you receive the surrender of our city on fair terms, or allow it to perish in a last struggle."

When Avarus had thus spoken, Scipio (who knew from prisoners the state of affairs inside) said merely that they must surrender their arms and place themselves and their city in his hands. When this answer was made known, the Numantines, who were previously savage in temper because of their absolute freedom and quite unaccustomed to obey the orders of others, and were now wilder than ever and beside themselves by reason of their hardships, slew Avarus and the five ambassadors who had accompanied him, as bearers of evil tidings, and perhaps thinking that they had made private terms for themselves with Scipio.

[96] Soon after this, all their eatables being consumed, having neither grain, nor flocks, nor grass, they began, as is frequently necessary in wars, to lick boiled hides. When these also failed, they boiled and ate the bodies of human beings, first of those who had died a natural death, chopping them in small bits for cooking. Afterwards being nauseated by the flesh of the sick, the stronger laid violent hands upon the weaker. No form of misery was absent. They were rendered savage in mind by their food, and their bodies were reduced to the semblance of wild beasts by famine, plague, long hair, and neglect.

In this condition they surrendered themselves to Scipio. He commanded them the same day to bring their arms to a place designated by him, and on the following day to assemble at another place. But they put off the day, declaring that many of them still clung to liberty and desired to take their own lives. Wherefore they asked for a day to arrange for death.

[97] Such was the love of liberty and of valor which existed in this smallbarbarian town. With only 8,000 fighting men before the war began, how many and what terrible reverses did they bring upon the Romans! How many treaties did they make on equal terms with the Romans, which the latter would not consent to make with any other people! How often did they challenge to open battle the last general sent against them, who had an army of 60,000 men! But he showed himself more experienced in war than themselves, by refusing to join battle with wild beasts when he could reduce them by that invincible enemy, hunger. In this way alone was it possible to capture the Numantines, and in this way alone were they captured. Reflecting upon their small numbers and great sufferings, their valiant deeds and long endurance, it has occurred to me to narrate these particulars of the Numantine history. Many, directly after the surrender, killed themselves in whatever way they chose, some in one way and some in another.

The remainder congregated on the third day at the appointed place, a strange and shocking spectacle. Their bodies were foul, their hair and nails long, and they were smeared with dirt. They smelt most horribly, and the clothes they wore were likewise squalid and emitted an equally foul odor. For these reasons they appeared pitiable even to their enemies. At the same time there was something fearful to the beholders in the expression of their eyes - an expression of anger, grief, toil, and the consciousness of having eaten human flesh.

[98] Having reserved fifty of them for his triumph, Scipio sold the rest and razed the city to the ground. So this Roman general overthrew two most powerful cities - Carthage, by decree of the Senate, on account of its greatness, its power, and its advantages by land and sea; Numantia, small and with a sparse population, the Romans knowing nothing about the transaction as yet. He destroyed the latter either because he thought that it would be for the advantage of the Romans, or because he was in a violent rage against the captives, or, as some think, in order to acquire the glory of two surnames from two great calamities. At any rate, the Romans to this day call him Africanus and Numantinus from the ruin he brought upon those two places. Having divided the territory of the Numantines among their near neighbors and transacted certain business in the other cities, threatening or fining any whom he suspected, he sailed for home.