Lehal Library

death of his father than the loss of his inheritance. Of course there are always reasons for taking people’s property and a ruler who has started to live that way will never be short of pretexts for grabbing more. On the other hand, reasons for executing a man come more rarely and pass more quickly. But when a ruler is leading his army and commanding large numbers of soldiers, then above all he must have no qualms about getting a reputation for cruelty; otherwise it will be quite impossible to keep the army united and fit for combat. One of Hannibal’s most admirable achievements was that despite leading a huge and decidedly multiracial army far from home there was never any dissent among the men or rebellion against their leader whether in victory or defeat. The only possible explanation for this was Hannibal’s tremendous cruelty, which, together with his countless positive qualities, meant that his soldiers always looked up to him with respect and terror. The positive qualities without the cruelty wouldn’t have produced the same effect. Historians are just not think- ing when they praise him for this achievement and then condemn him for the cruelty that made it possible. To show that Hannibal’s other qualities wouldn’t have done the job alone we can take the case of Scipio, whose army mutinied in Spain. Scipio was an extremely rare commander not only in his own times but in the whole of recorded history, but he was too easy-going and as a result gave his troops a freedom that was hardly conducive to military discipline. Fabius Maximus condemned him for this in the Senate, claim- ing that he had corrupted the Roman army. When one of his officers sacked the town of Locri, Scipio again showed leniency; he didn’t carry out reprisals on behalf of the towns- folk and failed to punish the officer’s presumption, so much so that someone defending Scipio in the Senate remarked that he was one of those many men who don’t make mistakes themselves, but find it hard to punish others who do. If Scipio had gone on leading his armies like this, with time his