Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae
Volume/Issue:
Volume 63: Issue 2-3
Regulus, Hannibal, and why Roman POWs can't go home again
Author:
Gaius Stern Retired from University of California, Berkeley, USA

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Pages:
397–415
Online Publication Date:
25 Mar 2024
Publication Date:
16 May 2024
Article Category:
Research Article
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1556/068.2024.00131
Keywords:
Roman historiography; Regulus; Hannibal; Cannae; Roman prisoners; POWs; shame culture; Caudine Forks; Brennus; Alia river
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Abstract

In August 216 BC, Hannibal offered Rome a chance to ransom 10,000 POWs (prisoners of war), but the Senate, even though it was desperate for manpower, rejected his offer and instead purchased and freed 8,000 slaves to enlist in the army. The message was that Rome preferred newly freedmen who would fight for Rome over the men who had not fought their way out of the enemy's grasp. Hannibal sold the POWs into slavery. Thereafter, disdain for prisoners became a permanent feature of the Roman war machine. Diodorus, Livy, Plutarch, and Dio acknowledge that the Romans used to ransom and exchange POWs just like everyone else, but after Cannae they stopped. Cannae revived traumatic memories of how Rome had surrendered to Brennus and ransomed the city in 387 BC and surrendered to the Samnites in 321 BC at Caudine Forks and signed an unfavorable peace. Although Romans invented stories of salvation and exacting revenge in both cases, these humiliating events left deep scars in the Roman psyche, which never completely healed.

The defeat and capture of Atilius Regulus in Africa in 255 directly relates to the above-mentioned disasters. Although Romans transformed Regulus into a hero and martyr for integrity, claiming that he returned to Rome in 250 BC (five years after his death!) and denounced a prisoner exchange he had promised to endorse, the legend obscured the fact that Rome did exchange prisoners out of necessity in 249.

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Cover Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae
Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae
Print ISSN:
0044-5975
Online ISSN:
1588-2543

Senior editors

Editor(s)-in-Chief: Takács, László

Managing Editor(s): Kisdi, Klára

Editorial Board

  • Tamás DEZSŐ (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest)
  • Miklós MARÓTH (Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Avicenna Institute of Middle Eastern Studies)
  • Gyula MAYER (Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Classical Philology Research Group)
  • János NAGYILLÉS (University of Szeged)
  • Lajos Zoltán SIMON (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest)
  • Csilla SZEKERES (University of Debrecen)
  • Kornél SZOVÁK (Pázmány Péter Catholic University)
  • Zsolt VISY (University of Pécs)

 

Advisory Board

  • Michael CRAWFORD (University College London, prof. em.)
  • Patricia EASTERLING (Newnham College, University of Cambridge, prof. em.)
  • László HORVÁTH (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest)
  • Patricia JOHNSTON (Brandeis University Boston, prof. em.)
  • Csaba LÁDA (University of Kent)
  • Herwig MAEHLER
  • Attilio MASTROCINQUE (University of Verona)
  • Zsigmond RITOÓK (Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, prof. em.)

László Takács
Acta Antiqua
Mikszáth tér 1.
H-1088 Budapest
E-mail: acta.antiqua.hung@gmail.com

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2023  
Scopus  
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CiteScore rank Q3 (Classics)
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Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae
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