APPENDIX III
1, 21. The capture of Cornelius Asina is ascribed by Livy (Ep. 17) to an act of treachery, per fraudem velut in colloquium evocatus captus est. He is copied by Florus (2, 2) and Eutropius (2, 10). See also Valerius Max. 6, 6, 2. This is perhaps not incompatible with the narrative of Polybius, which, however, does not suggest it. He must have been released at the time of the entrance of Regulus into Africa, for being captured in B.C. 260, we find him Consul for B.C. 254, without any account of his release being preserved.
1, 32-36.—XANTHIPPUS THE LACEDAEMONIAN
The fate of Xanthippus has been variously reported. Polybius represents him as going away voluntarily, and Mommsen supposes him to have taken service in the Egyptian army. Appian, however, asserts that he and his men were drowned on their way home to Sparta by the Carthaginian captains who were conveying them, and who were acting on secret orders from home (8, 4). Mommsen also regards the account of Polybius of the reforms introduced in the Carthaginian tactics by Xanthippus as exaggerated: “The officers of Carthage can hardly have waited for foreigners to teach them that the light African cavalry can be more appropriately employed on the plain than among hills and forests.” The doubt had apparently occurred to others [Diodor. Sic. fr. bk. 23.] The mistake, however, was not an unnatural one. For other references to Xanthippus see Cicero de Off. 3, 26, 7; Valerius Max. 1, 1, 14; Dio Cassius, fr. 43, 24.
1, 34.—M. ATILIUS REGULUS
No more is told us of the fate of Regulus, and Mommsen says “nothing more is known with certainty.” Arnold, following Niebuhr, declared the story of his cruel death to be a fabrication. The tradition, however, of his mission home to propose peace, his subsequent return after advising against it, and his death under torture, was received undoubtingly by the Roman writers of the time of Cicero and afterwards. See Cicero, Off. 3, § 99; ad Att. 16, 11; de Sen. § 74; Paradox. 2, 16; Tusc. 5, § 14. Horace, Od. 3, 5; Livy, Ep. 18; Valerius Max. 1, 1, 14; Dio Cassius, fr. 43, 28. To Appian (8, 4) is due the additional particular of the barrel full of nails, καὶ αὐτὸν οἱ Καρχηδόνιοι καθείρξαντες ἐν γαλεάγρᾳ κέντρα πάντοθεν ἐχούσῃ διέφθειραν. Against this uniformity of tradition is to be set the silence of Polybius. But on the other hand, in this introductory part of his history, Polybius does not profess to give full particulars (see note to 1, 21); and in the case of Regulus, he has not stated what we learn from Livy (Ep. 18) and Valerius Max. 4, 4, 6, that his stay in Africa for the second year was against his own express wish, his private business requiring, as he thought, his presence in Italy.
1, 60.—LUTATIUS
Lutatius is represented by Polybius as directing the operations at the battle of Aegusa; but it appears that he had received some hurt a few days before, and was confined to his lectica during the action (lectica claudum jucuisse). The chief direction therefore devolved upon the praetor, Q. Valerius Falto, who accordingly claimed to share his triumph, but was refused on the technical ground that the victory had not been won under his auspicia. Valerius Max. 2, 8, 2.