Note 61 — Chapter XIII · THE MACEDONIAN AND SYRIAC WARS AND THE THIRD PUNIC WAR (200-131 B.C.)

[Ihnef says of this: “We have serious doubts about the truth of this dramatic effect, which would do honour to any stage manager. A woman standing on the roof of a burning temple, and, in the midst of uproar and carnage, haranguing her husband, who is at a safe distance, is a scene passing all bounds of historical probability. What makes it particularly suspicious is the pretty little piece of adulation which the frantic woman has the politeness to address to Scipio: σοὶ μὲν οὐ νέμεσις ἐκθεῶν ὦ Ῥωμαῖε, ἐπὶ γὰρ πολεμίαν ἐστρατεύσας. Appian,g VIII, 31. Καὶ τῷ στρατηγῷ μεγάλας ἐπανῆγε τὰς χάριτας. Polybius,d XXXIX, 3, 6. All this is as much a fiction as any scene in a sensational novel. We have no doubt that Hasdrubal and his wife were retained by the Roman deserters against their will. At last Hasdrubal succeeded in escaping from them (λαθὼν ἔφυγε, Appian, VIII, 131). It is possible that thereupon his wife and children were murdered before his eyes.”]