宗教的見地から見たリーウィウスの第三 Decade

Abstract

It is well known that Livius arranged his work so as to bring the described historical events to a conclusion every Decade or every Pentade, not to say, every Book. As well, the historian wrote, apart from the Praefatio, several passages with preface qualities at the beginnings of Books 21 and 31. Therefore we can feel that the structure of his work is well-proportioned as regards the arrangement of historical events. But when in considering the thoughts beneath these descriptions, the problem arises as to the nature of the relationship between the stream of external description and the underlying thoughts. Accordingly, this paper focuses on Livius' third Decade, whose main theme is the second Punic War with the aim of clarifying these relations, as viewed particularly from the religious perspective. Among the important personae in this Decade is, first of all, Hannibal, representative of Carthage and wager of the war against Rome, who has a coherent and constant religious character assigned by Livius, each of the Roman generals or consuls who force a series of battles on Hannibal also having his own unique religious character. Hannibal seems not to enjoy close intimacy with the gods, relying rather on his own talent, both physically and mentally. Hannibal's address to Scipio Africanus just before the battle of Zama in Book 30 shows, however, that fortuna has been working behind the behavior of Hannibal from the very outset of his war, which seems to mean fortis fortuna iuuat. Moreover, the fortuna Hannibal relies upon is far luckier than that of any other Roman general or consul, excepting Scipio Africanus. Careful perusal of this Decade makes clear that the Roman generals defeated by Hannibal are as well inferior to him in religious character. Scipio Afrricanus, however, the first Roman general thus superior to Hannibal, is able to win the decisive battle at Zama that brings the final victory to Rome. Consequently I surmise that the series of historical events which Livius composed into this Decade corresponds to the religious characters of each of the personae. All in all victory or defeat in battle depends on the superiority or inferiority of religious qualities both in the individual battles and in the second Punic War overall. As regards the significance of this third Decade in Livius' whole work I think as follows : because of the original sin which traces back to the sanguinary affair of Remus' murder at the hands of his brother Romulus, Rome had been successively har-rassed and burdened with various troubles and disasters visited upon by the gods, both at home and abroad, as described more concretely and in more detail in the first Decade. The concept of the original sin of Rome can also be seen in Horatius Epodes 7 and 16. The Hannibalic War was one of the greatest crises and pressures from without that Rome had ever suffered, and can be, I think, regarded as one of the trials imposed by god upon Rome. But when Rome was driven into a tight corner in this war, Scipio Africanus appeared as a divine savior, rescuing Rome and lessening the original sin by resolving the difficulties of the time and winning the War. Since Rome's foundation several divine saviors had appeared ; for example, Numa, Camillus, Decius and Scipio Africanus. They continued the purgation of Rome's original sin, which Augustus at length completed. In this sense the divine nature and behavior of Scipio Africanus are held partly in common with those of Romulus, Camillus and Augustus.