CHAPTER XIX: IN THE MINES
The exultation of the Carthaginians at the total destruction of theirenemies was immense, and Maharbal and some of the other leaders urgedHannibal at once to march upon Rome; but Hannibal knew the spirit ofthe Roman people, and felt that the capture of Rome, even afterthe annihilation of its army, would be a greater task than he couldundertake. History has shown how desperate a defence may be made bya population willing to die rather than surrender, and the Romans, anessentially martial people, would defend their city until the last gasp.They had an abundance of arms, and there were the two city legions,which formed the regular garrison of the capital.
The instant the news of the defeat reached Rome, a levy of all malesover seventeen years of age was ordered, and this produced another tenthousand men and a thousand cavalry. Eight thousand slaves who werewilling to serve were enlisted and armed, and four thousand criminalsand debtors were released from prison and pardoned, on the condition oftheir taking up arms. The praetor Marcellus was at Ostia with the tenthousand men with which he was about to embark for Sicily.
Thus Rome would be defended by forty-three thousand men, while Hannibalhad but thirty-three thousand infantry, and his cavalry, the strongestarm of his force, would be useless. From Cannae to Rome was twelve days'march with an army encumbered with booty. He could not, therefore, hopefor a surprise. The walls of Rome were exceedingly strong, and he hadwith him none of the great machines which would have been necessary fora siege. He must have carried with him the supplies he had accumulatedfor the subsistence of his force, and when these were consumed he wouldbe destitute. Fresh Roman levies would gather on his rear, and beforelong his whole army would be besieged.
In such an undertaking he would have wasted time, and lost the prestigewhich he had acquired by his astonishing victory. Varro, who had escapedfrom the battle, had rallied ten thousand of the fugitives at the strongplace of Canusium, and these would be a nucleus round which the rest ofthose who had escaped would rally, and would be joined by fresh leviesof the Italian allies of Rome.
The Romans showed their confidence in their power to resist a siege byat once despatching Marcellus with his ten thousand men to Canusium.Thus, with a strongly defended city in front, an army of twenty thousandRoman soldiers, which would speedily increase to double that number, inhis rear, Hannibal perceived that were he to undertake the siege ofRome he would risk all the advantages he had gained. He determined,therefore, to continue the policy which he had laid down for himself,namely, to move his army to and fro among the provinces of Italy untilthe allies of Rome one by one fell away from her, and joined him, oruntil such reinforcements arrived from Carthage as would justify him inundertaking the siege of Rome.
Rome herself was never grander than in this hour of defeat; not fora moment was the courage and confidence of her citizens shaken. Thepromptness with which she prepared for defence, and still more theconfidence which she showed by despatching Marcellus with his legion toCanusium instead of retaining him for the defence of the city, show anational spirit and manliness worthy of the highest admiration. Varrowas ordered to hand over his command to Marcellus, and to return to Rometo answer before the senate for his conduct.
Varro doubted not that his sentence would be death, for the Romans,like the Carthaginians, had but little mercy for a defeated general. Hiscolleague and his army had undoubtedly been sacrificed by his rashness.Moreover, the senate was composed of his bitter political enemies, andhe could not hope that a lenient view would be taken of his conduct.Nevertheless Varro returned to Rome and appeared before the senate. Thatbody nobly responded to the confidence manifested in it; party feelingwas suspended, the political adversary, the defeated general, were alikeforgotten, it was only remembered how Varro had rallied his troops, howhe had allayed the panic which prevailed among them, and had at oncerestored order and discipline. His courage, too, in thus appearing,after so great a disaster, to submit himself to the judgment of thecountry, counted in his favour. His faults were condoned, and the senatepublicly thanked him, because he had not despaired of the commonwealth.
Hannibal, in pursuance of his policy to detach the allies of Italy fromRome, dismissed all the Italian prisoners without ransom. The Romanprisoners he offered to admit to ransom, and a deputation of themaccompanied an ambassador to offer terms of peace. The senate, however,not only refused to discuss any terms of peace, but absolutely forbadethe families and friends of the prisoners to ransom them, thinking itpolitic neither to enrich their adversary nor to show indulgence tosoldiers who had surrendered to the enemy.
The victory of Cannae and Hannibal's clemency began to bear the effectswhich he hoped for. Apulia declared for him at once, and the townsof Arpi and Celapia opened their gates to him; Bruttium, Lucania, andSamnium were ready to follow. Mago with one division of the army wassent into Bruttium to take possession of such towns as might submit.Hanno was sent with another division to do the same in Lucania. Hannibalhimself marched into Samnium, and making an alliance with the tribes,there stored his plunder, and proceeded into Campania, and enteredCapua, the second city of Italy, which concluded an alliance with him.Mago embarked at one of the ports of Bruttium to carry the news ofHannibal's success to Carthage, and to demand reinforcements.
Neither Rome nor Carthage had the complete mastery of the sea, and asthe disaster which had befallen Rome by land would greatly lessenher power to maintain a large fleet, Carthage could now have pouredreinforcements in by the ports of Bruttium without difficulty. Butunfortunately Hannibal's bitterest enemies were to be found not in Italybut in the senate of Carthage, where, in spite of the appeals of Magoand the efforts of the patriotic party, the intrigues of Hanno andhis faction and the demands made by the war in Spain, prevented thereinforcements from being forwarded which would have enabled him toterminate the struggle by the conquest of Rome.
Hannibal, after receiving the submission of several other towns andcapturing Casilinum, went into winter quarters at Capua. During thewinter Rome made gigantic efforts to place her army upon a war footing,and with such success that, excluding the army of Scipio in Spain,she had, when the spring began, twelve legions or a hundred and twentythousand men again under arms; and as no reinforcements, save someelephants and a small body of cavalry, ever reached Hannibal fromCarthage, he was, during the remaining thirteen years of the war,reduced to stand wholly on the defensive, protecting his allies,harassing his enemy, and feeding his own army at their expense; and yetso great was the dread which his genius had excited that, in spite oftheir superior numbers, the Romans after Cannae never ventured again toengage him in a pitched battle.
Soon after the winter set in Hannibal ordered Malchus to take a numberof officers and a hundred picked men, and to cross from Capua toSardinia, where the inhabitants had revolted against Rome, and wereharassing the praetor, Quintus Mucius, who commanded the legion whichformed the garrison of the island. Malchus and the officers under himwere charged with the duty of organizing the wild peasantry of theisland, and of drilling them in regular tactics; for unless actingas bodies of regular troops, however much they might harass the Romanlegion, they could not hope to expel them from their country. Nessus ofcourse accompanied Malchus.
The party embarked in two of the Capuan galleys. They had not been manyhours at sea when the weather, which had when they started been fine,changed suddenly, and ere long one of the fierce gales which are sofrequent in the Mediterranean burst upon them. The wind was behind them,and there was nothing to do but to let the galleys run before it. Thesea got up with great rapidity, and nothing but the high poops at theirstern prevented the two galleys being sunk by the great waves whichfollowed them. The oars were laid in, for it was impossible to use themin such a sea.
As night came on the gale increased rather than diminished. TheCarthaginian officers and soldiers remained calm and quiet in the storm,but the Capuan sailors gave themselves up to despair, and the men at thehelm were only kept at their post by Malchus threatening to have themthrown o
verboard instantly if they abandoned it. After nightfall heassembled the officers in the cabin in the poop.
"The prospects are bad," he said. "The pilot tells me that unless thegale abates or the wind changes we shall, before morning, be thrown uponthe coast of Sardinia, and that will be total destruction; for upon theside facing Italy the cliffs, for the most part, rise straight up fromthe water, the only port on that side being that at which the Romanshave their chief castle and garrison. He tells me there is nothing to bedone, and I see nought myself. Were we to try to bring the galley roundto the wind she would be swamped in a moment, while even if we couldcarry out the operation, it would be impossible to row in the teeth ofthis sea. Therefore, my friends, there is nothing for us to do saveto keep up the courage of the men, and to bid them hold themselves inreadiness to seize upon any chance of getting to shore should the vesselstrike."
All night the galley swept on before the storm. The light on the otherboat had disappeared soon after darkness had set in. Half the soldiersand crew by turns were kept at work baling out the water which found itsway over the sides, and several times so heavily did the seas break intoher that all thought that she was lost. However, when morning broke shewas still afloat. The wind had hardly shifted a point since it had begunto blow, and the pilot told Malchus that they must be very near to thecoast of Sardinia. As the light brightened every eye was fixed aheadover the waste of angry foaming water. Presently the pilot, who wasstanding next to Malchus, grasped his arm.
"There is the land," he cried, "dead before us."
Not until a few minutes later could Malchus make out the faint outlinethrough the driving mist. It was a lofty pile of rock standing byitself.
"It is an island!" he exclaimed.
"It is Caralis," the pilot replied; "I know its outline well; we arealready in the bay. Look to the right, you can make out the outline ofthe cliffs at its mouth, we have passed it already. You do not see theshore ahead because the rock on which Caralis stands rises from a levelplain, and to the left a lagoon extends for a long way in; it is therethat the Roman galleys ride. The gods have brought us to the only spotalong the coast where we could approach it with a hope of safety."
"There is not much to rejoice at," Malchus said; "we may escape the sea,but only to be made prisoners by the Romans."
"Nay, Malchus, the alternative is not so bad," a young officer who wasstanding next to him said. "Hannibal has thousands of Roman prisoners inhis hands, and we may well hope to be exchanged. After the last twelvehours any place on shore, even a Roman prison, is an elysium compared tothe sea."
The outline of the coast was now clearly visible. The great rock ofCaralis, now known as Cagliari, rose dark and threatening, the lowshores of the bay on either side were marked by a band of white foam,while to the left of the rock was the broad lagoon, dotted with theblack hulls of a number of ships and galleys rolling and tossingheavily, for as the wind blew straight into the bay the lagoon wascovered with short, angry waves.
The pilot now ordered the oars to be got out. The entrance to the lagoonwas wide, but it was only in the middle that the channel was deep, andon either side of this long breakwaters of stone were run out from theshore, to afford a shelter to the shipping within. The sea was so roughthat it was found impossible to use the oars, and they were againlaid in and a small sail was hoisted. This enabled the head to be laidtowards the entrance of the lagoon. For a time it was doubtful whetherthe galley could make it, but she succeeded in doing so, and then ranstraight on towards the upper end of the harbour.
"That is far enough," the pilot said presently; "the water shoals fastbeyond. We must anchor here."
The sail was lowered, the oars got out on one side, and the head of thegalley brought to the wind. The anchor was then dropped. As the stormbeaten galley ran right up the lagoon she had been viewed with curiosityand interest by those who were on board the ships at anchor. That shewas an Italian galley was clear, and also that she was crowded with men,but no suspicion was entertained that these were Carthaginians.
The anchor once cast Malchus held a council with the other officers.They were in the midst of foes, and escape seemed altogether impossible.Long before the gale abated sufficiently to permit them to put to seaagain, they would be visited by boats from the other vessels to ask whothey were and whence they came. As to fighting their way out it was outof the question, for there were a score of triremes in the bay, anyone of which could crush the Capuan galley, and whose far greater speedrendered the idea of flight as hopeless as that of resistance. Thecouncil therefore agreed unanimously that the only thing to be done wasto surrender without resistance.
The storm continued for another twenty-four hours, then the wind diedout almost as suddenly as it began.
As soon as the sea began to abate two galleys were seen putting out fromthe town, and these rowed directly towards the ship. The fact that shehad shown no flag had no doubt excited suspicion in the minds of thegarrison. Each galley contained fifty soldiers. As they rowed alongsidea Roman officer on the poop of one of the galleys hailed the ship, anddemanded whence it came.
"We are from Capua," the pilot answered. "The gale has blown us acrossthence. I have on board fifty Carthaginian officers and soldiers, whonow surrender to you."
As in those days, when vessels could with difficulty keep the sea in astorm, and in the event of a gale springing up were forced to run beforeit, it was by no means unusual for galleys to be blown into hostileports, the announcement excited no great surprise.
"Who commands the party?" the Roman officer asked.
"I do," Malchus replied. "I am Malchus, the son of Hamilcar, who waskilled at the Trebia, a cousin of Hannibal and captain of his guard. Isurrender with my followers, seeing that resistance is hopeless."
"It is hopeless," the Roman replied, "and you are right not to throwaway the lives of your men when there is no possibility of resistance."
As he spoke he stepped on board, ordered the anchor to be weighed, andthe galley, accompanied by the two Roman boats, was rowed to the landingplace. A messenger was at once sent up to Mucius to tell him what hadhappened, and the praetor himself soon appeared upon the spot. Theofficer acquainted him with the name and rank of the leader of theCarthaginian party, and said that there were with him two officers ofnoble families of the Carthaginians.
"That is well," the praetor said, "it is a piece of good fortune. TheCarthaginians have so many of our officers in their hands, that it iswell to have some whom we may exchange for them. Let them be landed."
As they left the ship the Carthaginians laid down their arms and armour.By this time a large number of the Roman garrison, among whom thenews had rapidly spread, were assembled at the port. Many of theyoung soldiers had never yet seen a Carthaginian, and they lookedwith curiosity and interest at the men who had inflicted such terribledefeats upon the armies of the Romans. They were fine specimens ofHannibal's force, for the general had allowed Malchus to choose his ownofficers and men, and, knowing that strength, agility, and endurancewould be needed for a campaign in so mountainous a country as Sardinia,he had picked both officers and men with great care.
His second in command was his friend Trebon, who had long since obtaineda separate command, but who, on hearing from Malchus of the expeditionon which he was bound, had volunteered to accompany him. The men wereall Africans accustomed to desert fighting and trained in warfare inSpain. The Romans, good judges of physical strength, could not repressa murmur of admiration at the sight of these sinewy figures. Lessheavy than themselves, there was about them a spring and an elasticityresembling that of the tiger. Long use had hardened their muscles untilthey stood up like cords through their tawny skin, most of them borenumerous scars of wounds received in battle, and the Romans, as theyviewed them, acknowledged to themselves what formidable opponents thesemen would be.
A strong guard formed up on either side of the captives, and they weremarched through the town to the citadel on the upper part of the rock.Here a large chamber
, opening on to the courtyard, was assigned to theofficers, while the men, who were viewed in the light of slaves, were atonce set to work to carry stores up to the citadel from a ship which hadarrived just as the storm broke.
A fortnight later a vessel arrived from Rome with a message fromthe senate that they would not exchange prisoners, and that theCarthaginians were at once to be employed as slaves in the mines. Thegovernor acquainted Malchus with the decision.
"I am sorry," he said, "indeed, that it is so; but the senate aredetermined that they will exchange no prisoners. Of course their viewof the matter is, that when a Roman lays down his arms he disgraceshimself, and the refusal to ransom him or allow him to be exchanged isintended to act as a deterrent to others. This may be fair enough incases where large numbers surrender to a few, or where they lay downtheir arms when with courage and determination they might have cut theirway through the enemy; but in cases where further resistance would behopeless, in my mind men are justified in surrendering. However, I canonly obey the orders I have received, and tomorrow must send you andyour men to the mines."
As Malchus had seen the Iberian captives sent to labour as slaves in themines in Spain, the fate thus announced to him did not appear surprisingor barbarous. In those days captives taken in war were always madeslaves when they were not put to death in cold blood, and althoughHannibal had treated with marked humanity and leniency the Roman andItalian captives who had fallen into his hands, this had been the resultof policy, and was by no means in accordance with the spirit in whichwar was then conducted. Accordingly, the next day the Carthaginianswere, under a strong guard, marched away to the mines, which lay on theother side of the island, some forty miles due west of the port, andthree miles from the western sea coast of the island. The road lay forsome distance across a dead flat. The country was well cultivated andthickly studded with villages, for Rome drew a heavy tribute in cornannually from the island.
After twenty miles' march they halted for the night, pursuing their wayon the following morning. They had now entered a wide and fertile valleywith lofty hills on either side. In some places there were stagnantmarshes, and the officer in charge of the guard informed Malchus that inthe autumn a pestilential miasma rose from these, rendering a sojourn inthe valley fatal to the inhabitants of the mainland. The native peoplewere wild and primitive in appearance, being clad chiefly in sheepskins.They lived in beehive shaped huts. The hills narrowed in towards theend of the day's march, and the valley terminated when the party arrivedwithin half a mile of their destination. Here stood a small town namedMetalla, with a strong Roman garrison, which supplied guards over theslaves employed in working the mines. This town is now called Iglesias.
The principal mine was situated in a narrow valley running west from thetown down to the sea coast. The officer in command of the escort handedover Malchus and his companions to the charge of the officer at the headmining establishment.
Malchus was surprised at the large number of people gathered at thespot. They lived for the most part in low huts constructed of boughs orsods, and ranged in lines at the bottom of the valley or along the lowerslopes of the hill. A cordon of Roman sentries was placed along thecrest of the hill at either side, and a strong guard was posted in alittle camp in the centre of the valley, in readiness to put down anytumult which might arise.
The great majority of the slaves gathered there were Sards, menbelonging to tribes which had risen in insurrection against the Romans.There were with them others of their countrymen who were not like themslaves, though their condition was but little better except that theyreceived a nominal rate of payment. These were called free labourers,but their labour was as much forced as was that of the slaves--eachdistrict in the island being compelled to furnish a certain amountof labourers for this or the mines further to the north. The men soconscripted were changed once in six months. With the Sards were mingledpeople of many nations. Here were Sicilians and members of many Italiantribes conquered by the Romans, together with Gauls from the northernplains and from Marseilles.
There were many mines worked in different parts of the island, butMetalla was the principal. The labour, in days when gunpowder had notbecome the servant of man, was extremely hard. The rocks had to bepierced with hand labour, the passages and galleries were of thesmallest possible dimensions, the atmosphere was stifling; consequentlythe mortality was great, and it was necessary to keep up a constantimportation of labour.
"If these people did but possess a particle of courage," Trebon said,"they would rise, overpower the guard, and make for the forests. Thewhole island is, as the officer who brought us here told us, coveredwith mountains with the exception of the two broad plains runningthrough it; as we could see the hills are covered with woods, and thewhole Roman army could not find them if they once escaped."
"That is true enough," Malchus said, "but there must be at least five orsix thousand slaves here. How could these find food among the mountains?They might exist for a time upon berries and grain, but they would inthe end be forced to go into the valleys for food, and would then beslaughtered by the Romans. Nevertheless a small body of men could nodoubt subsist among the hills, and the strength of the guard you see onthe heights shows that attempts to escape are not rare. Should we findour existence intolerable here, we will at any rate try to escape. Thereare fifty of us, and if we agreed in common action we could certainlybreak through the guards and take to the hills. As you may see by theirfaces, the spirit of these slaves is broken. See how bent most of themare by their labour, and how their shoulders are wealed by the lashes oftheir taskmasters!"
The officer in charge of the mines told Malchus that he should not puthim and the other two officers to labour, but would appoint them asoverseers over gangs of the men, informing them that he had a brotherwho was at present a captive in the hands of Hannibal; and he trustedthat Malchus, should he have an opportunity, would use his kind officeson his behalf.
One of the lines of huts near the Roman camp was assigned to theCarthaginians, and that evening they received rations of almost blackbread similar to those served out to the others. The following morningthey were set to work. Malchus and his two friends found their tasks byno means labourious, as they were appointed to look after a number ofSards employed in breaking up and sorting the lead ore as it was broughtup from the mine. The men, however, returned in the evening worn outwith toil. All had been at work in the mines. Some had had to crawl longdistances through passages little more than three feet high and one footwide, until they reached the broad lode of lead ore.
Here some of the party had been set to work, others had been employed inpushing on the little galleries, and there had sat for hours workingin a cramped position, with pick, hammer, and wedge. Others had beenlowered by ropes down shafts so narrow that when they got to the bottomit was only with extreme difficulty that they were able to stoop to workat the rock beneath their feet. Many, indeed, of these old shafts havebeen found in the mines of Montepone, so extremely narrow that it issupposed that they must have been bored by slaves lowered by ropes, headforemost, it appearing absolutely impossible for a man to stoop to workif lowered in the ordinary way.
The Carthaginians, altogether unaccustomed to work of this nature,returned to their huts at night utterly exhausted, cramped, and achingin every limb. Many had been cruelly beaten for not performing the tasksassigned to them. All were filled with a dull despairing rage. In theevening a ration of boiled beans, with a little native wine, was servedout to each, the quantity of the food being ample, it being necessary tofeed the slaves well to enable them to support their fatigues.
After three days of this work five or six of the captives were soexhausted that they were unable to take their places with the gang whenordered for work in the morning. They were, however, compelled by blowsto rise and take their places with the rest. Two of them died during thecourse of the day in their stifling working places; another succumbedduring the night; several, too, were attacked by the fever of thecountry. Malchu
s and his friends were full of grief and rage at thesufferings of their men.
"Anything were better than this," Malchus said. "A thousand times betterto fall beneath the swords of the Romans than to die like dogs in theholes beneath that hill!"
"I quite agree with you, Malchus," Halco, the other officer with theparty, said, "and am ready to join you in any plan of escape, howeverdesperate."
"The difficulty is about arms," Trebon observed. "We are so closelywatched that it is out of the question to hope that we should succeed ingetting possession of any. The tools are all left in the mines; and asthe men work naked, there is no possibility of their secreting any.The stores here are always guarded by a sentry; and although we mightoverpower him, the guard would arrive long before we could break throughthe solid doors. Of course if we could get the other slaves to join us,we might crush the guard even with stones."
"That is out of the question," Malchus said. "In the first place, theyspeak a strange language, quite different to the Italians. Then, werewe seen trying to converse with any of them, suspicions might be roused;and even could we get the majority to join us, there would be many whowould be only too glad to purchase their own freedom by betraying theplot to the Romans. No, whatever we do must be done by ourselves alone;and for arms we must rely upon stones, and upon the stoutest stakes wecan draw out from our huts. The only time that we have free to ourselvesis the hour after work is over, when we are allowed to go down to thestream to wash and to stroll about as we will until the trumpet soundsto order us to retire to our huts for the night.
"It is true that at that time the guards are particularly vigilant, andthat we are not allowed to gather into knots; and an Italian slave Ispoke to yesterday told me that he dared not speak to me, for the placeswarms with spies, and that any conversation between us would be sureto be reported, and those engaged in it put to the hardest and cruelestwork. I propose, therefore, that tomorrow--for if it is to be done, thesooner the better, before the men lose all their strength--the men shallon their return from work at once eat their rations; then each man,hiding a short stick under his garment and wrapping a few heavy stonesin the corner of his robe, shall make his way up towards the top of thehill above the mine.
"No two men must go together--all must wander as if aimlessly among thehuts. When they reach the upper line on that side and see me, let allrapidly close up, and we will make a sudden rush at the sentries above.They cannot get more than five or six together in time to oppose us, andwe shall be able to beat them down with our stones. Once through them,the heavy armed men will never be able to overtake us till we reach theforest, which begins, I believe, about half a mile beyond the top."
The other two officers at once agreed to the plan; and when the camp wasstill Malchus crept cautiously from hut to hut, telling his men of theplan that had been formed and giving orders for the carrying of it out.
All assented cheerfully; for although the stronger were now becomingaccustomed to their work, and felt less exhausted than they had done thefirst two days, there was not one but felt that he would rather sufferdeath than endure this terrible fate. Malchus impressed upon themstrongly that it was of the utmost consequence to possess themselves ofthe arms of any Roman soldiers they might overthrow, as they would toa great extent be compelled to rely upon these to obtain food among themountains.
Even the men who were most exhausted, and those stricken with fever,seemed to gain strength at once at the prospect of a struggle forliberty, and when the gang turned out in the morning for work nonelagged behind.