- Strabo 2.1.40 (meridian), 1.4.9 (constitutions); cf. Fraser 1972, 1:483, 769; Ash-
eri 1991 – 92, 73. - Serv. ap. Aen.4.682 = F 80 Peter; cf. Cic. Rep.2.41.2, with Zetzel 1995, ad loc.
- Horsfall 1973 – 74.
- A fundamental contribution on this function of Thebes in the Athenian imagi-
nary is Zeitlin 1986; P. Hardie (1990) demonstrated how profitably this model could be
transferred to Rome. I am indebted to Cowan’s outstanding analysis of the role of
Capua in Silius Italicus, where he shows the multiple mirroring role of Capua as altera
Carthagoand altera Roma,arguing that Silius’s Capua resembles “Rome so closely that
important but dangerous issues can be safely explored within its bounds without
openly admitting their presence at Rome” (Cowan 2002, 52 – 53). - For other weeping conquerors, see Labate 1991, 169; Rossi 2000. In general on
the urbs captamotif, see Paul 1982. - Rossi 2000, 61 – 63; H. I. Flower 2003, esp. 47; Marincola 2005, 226. The first
such moment in Livy’s history is the capture of Veii in book 5, where the themes of cor-
rupting wealth are already present, even if the threatening victim is Etruscan, not
Greek: Miles 1995, 79 – 88. - Sall. Cat.10.1; Jug.41.2 – 3; cf. Purcell 1995, 143.
- The reference to Troy is telling, coming from a Roman. The theme that the fates
of Carthage and Troy are linked is likewise sounded in the Aeneid,where the suicide of
Dido evokes Homer’s reference to the fall of Troy. When Dido collapses on the pyre,
the lamentation of the women is marked by a simile that refers to the destruction of
Carthage or Tyre, “just as if the enemy had been let in and all Carthage or ancient Tyre
were plunging” (non aliter quam si immissis ruat hostibus omnis/Karthago aut antiqua
Tyros, Aen.4.669 – 70). The simile alludes to Homer’s simile of the lamentation at the
death of Hector (Il.22. 410 – 11). The death of Hector makes the fall of Troy inevitable
a few weeks later: the death of Dido makes the fall of Carthage inevitable hundreds of
years later — a characteristically different epic-historical span of time for Virgil. - Scipio likewise refers to the changeability of fortune as he receives the suppli-
cation of the Carthaginian commander, Hasdrubal (Diod. Sic. 32.23); in both passages
he seems to be quoting the words of his natural father, Aemilius Paullus, who animad-
verted on the mutability of fortune after the battle of Pydna in 168 b.c.e., to an audi-
ence including his young son (Plut. Aem.27). A related use of the topos is in the mouth
of Hannibal, speaking to the elder Scipio Africanus before Zama (Polyb. 15.6.4 – 7.9;
Livy 30.30 – 31). - Appian’s version of Polybius’s account of Scipio’s words at Carthage does
explicitly have Scipio reflecting on the succession of empires, going over Troy, then
Assyria, Media, Persia, and Macedonia (App. Pun.132). It is keenly debated whether
this developed version of the “four plus one” imperial succession theme can have been
notes to pages 54 – 55. 235