The Junior Classics, vol 7 | Page 8

BRAVERY OF REGULUS
By Charlotte M. Yonge

The first wars that the Romans engaged in beyond the bounds of Italy,
were with the Carthaginians.

The first dispute between Rome and Carthage was about their
possession in the island of Sicily; and the war thus begun had lasted
eight years, when it was resolved to send an army to fight the
Carthaginians on their own shores. The army and fleet were placed
under the command of the two consuls, Lucius Manlius and Marcus
Attilius Regulus. On the way, there was a great sea-fight with the
Carthaginian fleet, and this was the first naval battle that the Romans
ever gained. It made the way to Africa free; but the soldiers, who had
never been so far from home before, murmured, for they expected to
meet not only human enemies, but monstrous serpents, lions, elephants,
asses with horns, and dog-headed monsters, to have a scorching sun
overhead, and a noisome marsh under their feet. However, Regulus
sternly put a stop to all murmurs, by making it known that disaffection
would be punished by death, and the army safely landed, and set up a
fortification at Clypea, and plundered the whole country round. Orders
here came from Rome that Manlius should return thither, but that
Regulus should remain to carry on the war. This was a great grief to
him. He was a very poor man, with nothing of his own but a little farm
of seven acres, and the person whom he had employed to cultivate it
had died in his absence; a hired laborer had undertaken the care of it,
but had been unfaithful, and had run away with his tools and his cattle,
so that he was afraid that, unless he could return quickly, his wife and
children would starve. However, the Senate engaged to provide for his
family, and he remained, making expeditions into the country round, in
the course of which the Romans really did fall in with a serpent, as
monstrous as their imagination had depicted. It was said to be 120 feet
long, and dwelt upon the banks of the river Bagrada, where it used to
devour the Roman soldiers as they went to fetch water. It had such
tough scales that they were obliged to attack it with their engines meant
for battering city walls; and only succeeded with much difficulty in
destroying it.
The country was most beautiful, covered with fertile corn-fields and
full of rich fruit-trees, and all the rich Carthaginians had country-houses
and gardens, which were made delicious with fountains, trees, land
flowers. The Roman soldiers, plain, hardy, fierce, and pitiless, did, it
must be feared, cruel damage among these peaceful scenes; they

boasted of having sacked 300 villages, and mercy was not yet known to
them. The Carthaginian army, though strong in horsemen and in
elephants, kept upon the hills and did nothing to save the country, and
the wild desert tribes of Numidians came rushing in to plunder what the
Romans had left. The Carthaginians sent to offer terms of peace; but
Regulus, who had become uplifted by his conquests, made such
demands that the messengers remonstrated. He answered, "Men who
are good for anything should either conquer or submit to their betters;"
and he sent them rudely away, like a stern old Roman as he was.
His merit was that he had no more mercy on himself than on others.
The Carthaginians were driven to extremity, and made horrible
offerings to Moloch, giving the little children of the noblest families to
be dropped into the fire between the brazen hands of his statue, and
grown-up people of the noblest families rushed in of their own accord,
hoping thus to propitiate their gods, and obtain safety for their country.
Their time was not yet fully come, and a respite was granted to them.
They had sent, in their distress, to hire soldiers in Greece, and among
these came a Spartan, named Xanthippus, who at once took the
command, and led the army out to battle, with a long line of elephants
ranged in front of them, and with clouds of horsemen hovering on the
wings, The Romans had not yet learnt the best mode of fighting with
elephants, namely, to leave lanes in their columns where these huge
beasts might advance harmlessly; instead of which, the ranks were
thrust and trampled down by the creatures' bulk, and they suffered a
terrible defeat; Regulus himself was seized by the horsemen, and
dragged into Carthage, where the victors feasted and rejoiced through
half the night, and testified their thanks to Moloch by offering in his
fires the bravest of their captives.
Regulus himself was not, however, one of these victims. He was kept a
close prisoner for two years, pining and sickening in his