07-05-2019, 06:06 AM
(07-04-2019, 07:33 AM)Michael Collins Wrote: Polybius bias is so very obvious here in this and in other examples in this campaign also (he does not mention Octavius` victory over Vermina, nor Q. Minucius Thermus` action, for two instances), it`s difficult to dismiss the possibility that he knowingly covered up the truth in order to present Scipio Africanus in a better light.
It is well to note that Polybios is extremely lacunose concerning the African campaign. Book 15 begins with what is clearly a repeat of the fact that the Roman supply ships had been captured by Carthage and goes on to tell us the results. This action was evidently recounted in Book 14. The cavalry defeats you speak of will also have been placed in book 14. We cannot say, with any real certainty, what Polybios did or did not say about these due to the state of Book 14.
Interesting that Appian, too, presents the "three spies". Agreed this is not likely to have happened, nor the meeting of the two belligerents.
Paralus|Michael Park
Ἐπὶ τοὺς πατέρας, ὦ κακαὶ κεφαλαί, τοὺς μετὰ Φιλίππου καὶ Ἀλεξάνδρου τὰ ὅλα κατειργασμένους
Wicked men, you are sinning against your fathers, who conquered the whole world under Philip and Alexander!
Academia.edu
Ἐπὶ τοὺς πατέρας, ὦ κακαὶ κεφαλαί, τοὺς μετὰ Φιλίππου καὶ Ἀλεξάνδρου τὰ ὅλα κατειργασμένους
Wicked men, you are sinning against your fathers, who conquered the whole world under Philip and Alexander!
Academia.edu
