Chapter I: To Syracuse

When Elissa left New Carthage, with the prospect before her of becoming a lifelong prisoner in Rome, the war was indeed, as Scipio had said, raging with fury both in Sicily and Italy. For it is a matter of the greatest astonishment how, in spite of the terrible reverses which she had suffered on Italian soil, Rome pulled herself together for renewed efforts, not only in Italy, then occupied by a successful invading army, but for a continuation of the conflict upon foreign shores. Thus she sent forth fleets and armies to Sardinia, to Spain, and to Sicily, and the Carthaginians, encouraged to renewed exertions by the glorious battle of Cannæ, did likewise.

Thus war was being carried on, at the same time, in all parts of the Mediterranean.

It was raging, too, on Numidian soil, where the kings, Syphax and Massinissa, were now fighting against each other.

Scipio had concluded a treaty with Massinissa, who was fighting therefore nominally in the interests of Rome, against Carthage; but, in reality, in rage and disappointment at the loss of the beautiful Sophonisba, whom he had vowed should be his. In the end, Massinissa was eventually successful in a pitched battle against his uncle, the kind-hearted Syphax, whom he slew, and thereupon he seized upon the fair Sophonisba, whom he promptly forced to be his own unwilling spouse.

Scipio, not thinking it was wise that his ally Massinissa should have in his household a Carthaginian wife, sent him a message that he should send her away to her own country; but rather than lose her, Massinissa presented the unfortunate girl with a cup of poison, and ordered her to drink it.

Remarking placidly that it seemed an inappropriate end for the bride of two kings, but that anything was better than life itself, poor Sophonisba gladly swallowed the poison, and died in agony.

Elissa, while sailing along the coast of Sicily, reflected sadly on this tragedy.

“Such,” she thought, “is the fate of humanity, and the ruling of the gods cannot be foretold. Therefore, as in the very hour of greatest prosperity sudden and great reverses may be awaiting us, it behoveth us all never to neglect the service of those omnipotent rulers of our being.”

Thus reflected Elissa when she looked back upon her own sudden fall from a position of almost regal rank to the state of a mere prisoner of war being deported to a foreign land.

At this time the war in Sicily centred round the enormous and powerful city of Syracuse, which had, with all its surrounding territory, remained, under King Hiero, an independent kingdom for no less than fifty years past. In the previous Punic war, when every other city in Sicily fell, first to one power then to another, neither Roman nor Carthaginian had ever been able to set foot within its walls. And this was chiefly owing to the wisdom of King Hiero himself, who, after various sieges and conflicts with each power in turn, concluded an alliance with Rome, which he maintained throughout his long reign of fifty years’ duration. But Hiero being dead, and succeeded by his grandson Hieronymus, all this was soon changed.

The young king was a debauched youth with an overweening idea of his own importance, and he openly insulted the ambassadors who came to him from Rome to seek a renewal of the old alliance. Insolently asking them, “What account the Romans had been able to give of themselves at Cannæ?” he declared for Carthage.

The city of Syracuse being full of intrigue, some wishing to remain faithful to Rome, others to attach themselves to Carthage, while all alike were disgusted with the cruelties and debauchery of the young king; the latter was soon assassinated, as were also all the princesses of the royal family, including Hiero’s daughter Demarata, and his grand-daughter Harmonia, and their respective husbands Andranodorus and Themistius.

Heraclea, the youngest daughter of Hiero, and her two beautiful daughters were murdered with the greatest brutality, after a terrible struggle; but no sooner were they dead than a messenger arrived from the magistrates who had ordered their murder, but had now relented, to stay the execution, for the very people themselves, who had been thirsting for all the royal blood a short time before, had now turned round upon the magistrates who had ordered the crime and ousted them, calling for the election of new pretors in place of the massacred Andranodorus and Themistius.

And thus it came to pass that two young generals, brothers, named Hippocrates and Epicydes, who were envoys from Hannibal to the Syracusans, came to be elected into power. These two young men were Syracusans themselves on the father’s side, but their mother was a Carthaginian, and they had been brought up in Carthage, where Cleandra had known them well while living there with her husband. They had already been at the bottom of the plotting and the counter-plotting against Rome, and although there were still various parties in the city, upon their election, after various vicissitudes and some fighting within the walls, they contrived to completely embroil the whole of the inhabitants with Rome. This was done by Hippocrates openly attacking, with Syracusan soldiers, a body of troops belong to the Roman consul, Appius Claudius, which the latter had sent to protect his allies in the neighbouring city of Leontini. Epicydes also repaired to Leontini, and by specious arguments persuaded the inhabitants of Leontini to rise against Rome.

Meanwhile the other Roman consul, Marcus Marcellus, he who used to be known by the title of “The Sword of Rome,” who was in the vicinity with a large force, demanded from the Syracusans the surrender of the two brothers, who had dared to attack Roman troops while a state of peace, or at all events of truce, existed between Syracuse and Rome. But the Syracusans pretending that they had no authority to give up the two brothers, as they were now in the free city of Leontini, the two Roman consuls attacked the last mentioned city and stormed it. But the two brothers escaped, and with their usual cleverness persuaded the force of six hundred Cretans, who were with the Syracusan force, which, in the Roman interest, had been sent to capture them, to join their own standard against Rome. And the Cretans in turn persuaded the other Syracusan troops to join them also.

Thus had Hippocrates and Epicydes contrived to completely embroil Syracuse with Rome, and when the ships of Caius Lælius with Elissa on board arrived at the port of Syracuse, they found that the gates of the city were shut, and that it was about to be invested both by sea and land by the two Roman consuls, while the two brothers were supreme within the city, and had on their side a large body of Roman soldiers who had deserted to Syracuse.

Throughout the sea voyage of Elissa and Cleandra, Caius Lælius had faithfully kept his promise to Scipio, and treated Hannibal’s daughter with the greatest respect and kindness. They had visited in turn various ports upon the coasts of Sicily, and the Roman flag-ship and the two other vessels had on a recent occasion narrowly escaped capture at the hands of a Carthaginian squadron off the seaport of Lilybæum. Unfortunately for Elissa, however, Caius Lælius had, after a sea-fight, contrived to make good his escape, although he himself had received a severe wound from a sling during the action. By this wound he was for a time quite incapacitated, and thus was confined to his cabin when his ships arrived off Syracuse. Now during the voyage he had become much attached to Cleandra, whom, it may be remembered, knew the Latin tongue well. She was ever about him, nursing him when sick in his cabin, and Lælius, taking no notice of her presence, freely discussed before her the whole state of affairs with his flag captain, an officer by name Labeo Ascanius. Hence she soon learned the whole condition of affairs, and, moreover, that her two friends, the brothers Hippocrates and Epicydes, were in possession of the city of Syracuse.

With her usual quick-wittedness Cleandra soon set about devising a means for the escape of Elissa and herself from the ship; for however kind Lælius might be himself to the two ladies, they were, none the less, prisoners, and likely to be so for life. Their future fate was uncertain; only one thing seemed certain, that they would infallibly be separated from each other upon arrival in Rome.

Now it so happened that not only Caius Lælius but also his flag-captain, Labeo Ascanius, had, during the voyage, become much enamoured of Cleandra, whose beauty had increased rather than diminished during the four or five years which had elapsed since her flight from New Carthage to Old Carthage. While the Admiral Lælius was well, this officer had had no opportunity of expressing his admiration of Cleandra, but she had, none the less, been perfectly well aware of the fact, and had determined, if possible, to utilise it.

Now that his chief was utterly incapacitated and he himself in supreme command, Ascanius had every opportunity of conversing with and making love to Cleandra, who, while using great discretion lest any of the other officers or seamen should observe anything, made opportunities herself, and encouraged him with all the wiles of a clever woman, still, however, keeping him, in a certain measure, at a distance, and not granting all the favours that he sought of her. At length the Roman became, through her artifices, so inflamed with passion that he told her that he would do anything in the world for her sake if she would but be his. Cleandra, not yet sure of him, did not show him her hand, but, the better to bend him to her will, secretly and repeatedly stirred up Caius Lælius against him on various pretexts, and especially by false reports that she gave him about what was going on in the ship during his own illness. Thus Lælius, being rendered peevish by sickness, on several occasions unjustly found great fault with Ascanius, who became, in turn, incensed against his commander. He did not suspect Cleandra of being the cause of these reports, but his first lieutenant, a man of great probity, named Horatius Calvinus.

At length one day, after Lælius had once again found fault unjustly with his flag-captain, Ascanius, going forth in a rage, accused Calvinus of being the traitor who falsely accused him to the admiral, and, listening to no excuses, put him in irons, treating him with the greatest indignity.

Now was Cleandra’s opportunity. She had learned from Labeo Ascanius himself that his own brother, named Caius Ascanius, formerly a centurion in the troops under Marcellus, was among those who had deserted to the Carthaginian flag, and was now with her friends, Hippocrates and Epicydes, in the city. She took good care not to inform Lælius about his flag-captain having put Calvinus in irons, for it suited her better that he should remain there. However, she falsely informed Ascanius in the afternoon that the Admiral had learned the fact, and had announced to her his intention of publicly degrading him on the following morning, and of placing Calvinus over his head.

Then she plainly proposed to him that to escape from such an unjust degradation he should leave the ship that very night and join his brother. He could take her and Elissa with him in a boat, and, under pretence that he was acting under the admiral’s orders, and about to deliver them over to Appius Claudius, the Roman Consul commanding the fleet that had just arrived, row them ashore, and land at the city steps in the port. These steps, as could be plainly seen from the ships, were protected by a guard of Carthaginian soldiers. As he would be steersman himself, Ascanius could, she pointed out, easily direct the boat to the steps. She suggested he should only take two men, and they such as were faithful to himself. As a reward for his saving them, Cleandra promised to become his wife so soon as they should land. Thus was the plot laid, and Ascanius agreed willingly to Cleandra’s proposals.

That very night, after dark had set in, did Ascanius take the two ladies, who had with them nought save their jewels, to shore in a boat. And upon their arrival at the steps, and Elissa proclaiming aloud in the Carthaginian tongue her name and quality, she was instantly most warmly welcomed with her companions. Thus was their escape successfully contrived by Cleandra’s cleverness, and that night they supped with Hippocrates and Epicydes.

Hippocrates and Epicydes took them to the house of Archimedes, the ancient mathematician, to whose wonderful genius the excellent state of the defences of the city was mainly attributable. Archimedes welcomed them most hospitably, and Cleandra’s promise to Ascanius was immediately redeemed by her becoming his wife that very night, his brother Caius and others being invited to the wedding-feast at midnight, when was much festivity. But Cleandra, while thanking her new husband for having rescued her from a life-long slavery, took good care not to inform him by what wiles she had won him to her will. And he, imagining that he had escaped an unjust degradation on the morrow, and being convinced that he had won for his wife the woman whom he loved, and moreover that she loved him with equal passion, felt no qualms of conscience whatever at his desertion from the Roman standard. Even if he had felt any, were not his own brother and hundreds of other Roman soldiers present who had joined the Carthaginian cause without any of the provocation that he had himself received? He had been, for his part, at least so he believed, merely forced to an act of self-preservation.

On the following day Hippocrates appointed Ascanius to a command in his forces, for, as were all the other deserters in the city, he was now so irretrievably committed that nought but crucifixion or torture could be his lot should he ever again fall into the hands of his own compatriots. There was, therefore, no fear of any treachery to Syracuse on the part of the deserters; it was indeed they who, by fighting to the very last, were mainly instrumental in beating off the assailants for a period of at least three years.

In the meantime, the sage Archimedes had welcomed Elissa and her followers within his hospitable walls, and a considerable sum of money for her maintenance was at once voted by the Senate under the direction of Hippocrates and Epicydes. Archimedes occupied a palace in the city proper, which was named Achradina, whereas the port whereon Elissa had landed on the previous night abutted on Achradina, and was known as Ortygia or the island. They were, in fact, two separate towns, each surrounded by a wall. There were, in addition, two large suburbs surrounded by separate walls, and named respectively Tycha and Neapolis, and the whole city was enclosed by an outside wall no less than eighteen miles in circumference; thus some idea can be formed of its size and the difficulty of a besieging force in investing it. There were two harbours, the greater and the lesser, and while Caius Lælius had joined the Roman fleet under Appius Claudius in the lesser harbour, the Carthaginian fleet, under an admiral named Bomilcar, was riding securely at anchor under the walls in the larger one.

Elissa soon learned that, while Marcus Marcellus was threatening the city with a large Roman land force on one side, there were on the other hand, for its protection, a large number of Carthaginian troops, encamped close at hand under the command of a general named Himilco.

There was thus, at first at all events, no danger to be apprehended of the city falling. In fact, the siege had not begun--it was an attempted blockade at best; and by means of the fleet, free communication was, for a considerable time, established with the outside world. Ships were constantly coming and going from both Carthage and Italy, and although there were occasional small sea fights, yet, owing to the preponderance of the Phœnician ships, the port was virtually open.

Being now only about ninety miles away from the city of Carthage, on the opposite African coast, Elissa was sorely tempted to risk sailing thither to visit the land of her ancestors, which she had never yet seen. From taking this step, however, she was dissuaded by the prudent Cleandra, who assured her that the enemies of her race were far too strong in Carthage for her to venture alone and unprotected within that noble city. For Hannibal’s very successes had made the anti-Barcine party more bitter than ever against him.

Elissa was, however, now able to communicate with her father direct, for hearing that the inhabitants of the city of Capua had recently surrendered to him, she wrote to Hannibal there, acquainting him in full of all that had taken place, and of her now being at Syracuse. Moreover she offered, should he see fit, to leave Syracuse and join him at Capua, in which city she learned that he had established himself with his whole army, intending to remain there for the winter.

It was some considerable time before Elissa received from Hannibal any reply to her letter, but it came at length, just as the spring was commencing.

Hannibal’s letter, which was written by the hand of his friend and scribe Silenus, was so lengthy that it would be impossible to transcribe it here. In it, however, after applauding her for her bravery upon many occasions, and commiserating with her deeply upon the fall of New Carthage, he informed her that his own army was constantly decreasing in numbers, and was also, to his great annoyance, considerably deteriorated in its quality by the ease and delights which the men had experienced during a whole winter passed in the enervating atmosphere of the pleasure-loving city of Capua. He complained bitterly of the small number of reinforcements that had reached him from Carthage, and urged her to remain in Syracuse, and there, by her presence and example, inspire the garrison and the Carthaginian troops, whether of the land forces under Himilco or the sea forces under Bomilcar, to heroic and continued efforts against Claudius and Marcellus. By this means he pointed out that the Roman troops now in Sicily would be compelled to remain there, and thus be unable to cross over into Italy to assist the Romans in prosecuting the war against himself. He informed her further that unless some reinforcements arrived to help him before long he would soon be obliged to content himself with merely defensive operations at the ports he had already captured, but that in that case it would be a matter of great importance that he should be able to make an ally of some foreign power who would be willing to fight with him against Rome. And none, he added, seemed to him so fitting for this purpose as the young King Philip V. of Macedon, who was now constantly engaged in wars of his own in Illyria, or against the various leagues in the Peloponnesus of Greece. These, Hannibal pointed out, Philip seemed in a fair way to subdue, and when he had done so, a young prince of so much ambition would doubtless require a new field whither he might direct his successful arms. Therefore, since it seemed to Hannibal that Elissa by her position on the sea at Syracuse might possibly sooner or later be able to obtain an opportunity of either sending an embassy to Philip, or personally going to meet him, he enclosed a document, giving her full powers on his own behalf to enter into a treaty of offensive and defensive alliance with the Macedonian.

In conclusion, Hannibal gave to his daughter news of Sosilus, of Silenus, and Chœras, all of whom, he said, had hitherto survived the hardships of the long-continued war. Of Maharbal he merely said that he continued to be, as formerly, as his own right arm in all matters appertaining to the war, and that he now looked forward to a period when peace might be assured, that he might reward the fidelity of the Numidian general by giving to him her, Elissa’s, hand in marriage. Hannibal added that Maharbal was writing to her on his own behalf.

Having read her father’s epistle, Elissa turned to her lover’s letter.

Within its pages Maharbal breathed forth such unswerving and straightforward devotion, such absolute faith and trust in herself and her integrity and honour, that before it was half finished she thanked the gods a thousand times that they had inspired her with sufficient strength to remain faithful to this man who had been such an invaluable aid to Hannibal in assisting him to maintain ever to the fore the honour and glory of Carthage. But her cheek burned with shame even as she read. For she realised to her sorrow that whatever honour had prompted her to do in the past or might prompt her to do in the future, she would nevertheless far rather have received those burning lines of love and devotion from the hand of Scipio, the enemy of her father and her country, than from the hand of Maharbal, the brave upholder of her country’s honour and her father’s life-long friend. But such is life, and such are the hearts of women, and despite her burning cheek Elissa knew that since she had ever behaved most straightforwardly and honourably by her absent lover she had done Maharbal no wrong.

Just after she received these letters, the investment of Syracuse by the Romans was commenced with great determination on the land side and the sea side alike. Thus was no opportunity given to Elissa for any reply, neither did she have any means at her command for establishing any understanding with Philip of Macedon.