Regulus

Roman statesman

• Born: c. 300 b.c.e.
• Birthplace: Probably Rome (now in Italy)
• Died: c. 249 b.c.e.
• Place of death: Probably Carthage (now in Tunisia)

Through legendary embellishments of his actual exploits, Regulus has served as an example, variously, of moral courage and devotion to duty, of arrogance in the face of victory, and of the reversals of fortune that history records.

Early Life

Marcus Atilius Regulus (REHG-ew-luhs) was a Roman, born, in all probability, into a noble but not wealthy family when Rome was consolidating its takeover of Italy. Consul in 267 b.c.e., Regulus participated in the conquest of southern Italy by capturing Brundisium (modern Brindisi), the most important seaport on Italy’s eastern coast, and subduing the people around it. The reputation he earned in the engagement was no doubt instrumental in his selection to replace Q. Caedicus as consul in 257, when Caedicus died at a crucial moment in the First Punic War.

Life’s Work

It was as replacement consul (consul suffectus) that Regulus entered the stage of history. The long cold war between Rome and Carthage, competitors for dominance in the Mediterranean world, had finally exploded into hot war in 264. In 258, the year before Regulus assumed the consulship, Rome had laid siege to fortress-towns throughout Sicily, then a Carthaginian possession. Successful in conquering many of the towns, Rome was disabused of its enemy’s invincibility and grew confident of its own military ability. Rome planned to use its navy in a daring attack on Carthage itself. The Carthaginians, trusting their superiority in naval resources, resolved to meet the Roman navy at sea, defeat it, and so protect the African mainland, which was not well fortified for defense.

In 256, with Regulus and the other consul, L. Manlius Vulso Longus, in command, a Roman fleet of 330 battleships and 140,000 infantry met the more numerous (350 ships and 150,000 infantry) Carthaginians at Ecnomus. The advantage seemed to belong to the Carthaginians; their ships were more maneuverable, as the Roman ships were weighed down with land weapons. After a long battle the Romans won the day, destroying or capturing many Carthaginian ships.

The Carthaginian navy under Hanno withdrew to Africa to protect the sea lanes to Carthage, while Hamilcar Barca stayed with the land army in Sicily. A few months later, the Roman consuls led their invasion forces to Africa. It is said that en route, the tribune Nautius stirred up the fears of the already nervous Roman soldiers and that Regulus, learning of Nautius’s cowardly speeches, threatened him with an ax. Thus Regulus used fear to inspire his soldiers with courage.

The Romans landed at Cape Hermaeum (modern Cape Bon) and proceeded to Clupea, a town they captured and established as their base of operations. The consuls sent to the senate at Rome for further orders; when the reply came, Manlius returned to Rome with the fleet, while Regulus remained in Africa with forty ships and the land army of fifteen thousand men. With the army, Regulus subdued three hundred fortresses and towns throughout Libya. Stories survive that Regulus had to fight “huge monster-serpents” that harassed his camp. Perhaps in this period Regulus can be faulted for his insistence on conquest and plunder. If he had enlisted the aid of the Libyans and Numidians, who hated Carthage and might have made willing allies, he could have acquired a cavalry, the lack of which would prove fatal to his plans.

Up to this point, the Carthaginians had not comprehended the scale of the Roman invasion. They now sent for Hamilcar, who was in Sicily with their land army. Immediately on his return with five thousand men, he persuaded Carthage to engage Regulus in battle. While both sides possessed roughly the same number of infantry, the Carthaginians held an advantage in cavalry and elephants, animals unfamiliar to the Romans. Hamilcar was wary of confronting the Romans on a plain, though it was a terrain favorable to his cavalry and elephants, and occupied the high ground. Regulus seized the initiative and attacked the Carthaginian camp from two sides, causing a panic in the enemy and putting them to flight to Carthage. Regulus then advanced to nearby Tunis to set up winter quarters.

The Carthaginians were aware that they had been defeated at Ecnomus despite their superior navy. Their land army had been defeated in Africa. The Roman army was just outside their gates and plundering their territories with impunity. Even their Numidian subjects were raiding and plundering. Morale was at a low point. Now Regulus sent an overture suggesting willingness to settle on easy terms. Regulus’s motives are not known, but Roman terms of office were one year; when his term as consul ended, he would lack the authority to carry on the struggle. If, however, he worked out a treaty with Carthage, he would leave to posterity a reputation as the man who ended the First Punic War. Perhaps thinking of glory, then, Regulus entered into negotiations with a delegation headed by Hamilcar’s son Hanno.

It is not known with certainty what Regulus’s terms of settlement were, though ancient historians agree that they were excessively severe. Perhaps Regulus wanted the Carthaginians to give up Sardinia, Sicily, and their entire fleet except for one symbolic ship, and to pay an indemnity as well. By these terms, Carthage would have become virtually a subject state to Rome, and the wealthy merchants who ruled Carthage chose to prolong the war rather than agree to Regulus’s demands.

The desperation of Carthage was a source of courage to the Carthaginians, and they were preparing a fight to the death when there arrived in Carthage some Greek mercenaries, among them the Spartan Xanthippos, a man trained in the military tradition of Sparta. He examined the Carthaginian military and criticized it as inadequate. The Carthaginians were impressed and gave him the command. Confident that they had in Xanthippos a man who knew what he was doing, the Carthaginians took the field against Regulus in late spring. While the advantage perhaps lay with the Romans in infantry, the Carthaginians were again superior in cavalry and elephants. Under Xanthippos, at Tunis the Carthaginians were not reluctant to fight on a plain. Regulus, anticipating that he would defeat this nation of shopkeepers as easily as he had before, took to the field. Now, however, the outcome was quite different. The Carthaginian cavalry chased the smaller Roman cavalry from the field. Elephants trampled large numbers of Roman infantry . It is said, too, that Regulus’s men were worn out from the heat and thirst and the heaviness of their weapons. Of Regulus’s army, only a few escaped to Clupea. The rest were killed or captured, including Regulus.

It is not known what actually happened to Regulus after his capture. It may be that he simply died in captivity; it may be that some form of the tales the historians and poets tell is true. However, no account of Regulus would be complete without these tales. While he was held captive in Carthage, the fortunes of war shifted back and forth for the next few years between Carthage and Rome. In 251, the Punic commander Hasdrubal advanced on Panormus in Sicily but met a devastating defeat. He was recalled to Carthage and impaled. Then, probably in 250, according to traditional accounts, Regulus was ordered by his Carthaginian captors to return to Rome and to negotiate either an exchange of prisoners (by some accounts) or a peace on lenient terms (by other accounts). He was on his oath to persuade the Roman senate or, failing to do so, to return to Carthage to meet torture and death.

When he arrived in Rome, accompanied by Carthaginian ambassadors, he entered the senate clad as a prisoner in Punic clothes. When the ambassadors had left, Regulus is said to have disclosed the full crisis of Carthage’s desperation and to have advised peace on much harder terms than the Carthaginians wished—or, if Carthage did not accept such terms, a renewed aggressive war. Then, although he could have remained in Rome with his loving family, he kept his oath to Carthage and returned there, knowing that he would be punished for his failure to obtain a generous peace. There are varying accounts of his torture at Carthage. According to Cicero, he was kept awake until he died. According to the more common and more detailed account, he was confined in a wooden box designed so that he was forced to remain standing. Through the planks of the box were placed iron spikes to prevent his lying down or resting; abused in this way, he eventually died. According to some writers, the stories of his oath and torture are inventions to cover up an atrocity by Regulus’s widow. According to this version, when Regulus died in captivity, his widow was so distressed that she tortured two Punic boys held captive by her family.

Significance

The story of Regulus has achieved prominence because of the moral lessons it instills. For some writers, the tale of Regulus is a lesson in the fickleness of fortune. Victorious in his battles and unyielding in his demands to Carthage, he was then defeated and forced to sue for his life. Thus, he illustrates the law that fortune most likes to afflict those who enjoy extreme prosperity. For other moralists, Regulus’s arrogance was his undoing. If he had not pressed excessively harsh terms on Carthage, he would have won glory for himself and peace for Rome. It was his contumelious belief in his powers and luck that struck him down.

To traditional patriotic Romans, Regulus became a symbol of Roman probity, the man who kept his oath, even unto death. The great orator and statesman Cicero held him as a model. For Cicero, Regulus was a glorious example of a man who rejected what seemed to be his private advantage—his life and a comfortable existence at Rome as a former consul—for what was honorable and noble.

Bibliography

Caven, Brian. The Punic Wars. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1980. Covers all the Punic Wars in annalistic form. Includes plates and maps that help the reader to follow the strategic plans of both sides.

Goldsworthy, Adrian. The Punic Wars. London: Cassell, 2000. Each of the wars is described in detail, including an account of the long stalemate over Sicily in the First Punic War. Provides background to the conflict as a whole and its context in military history.

Lancel, Serge. Carthage: A History. Translated by Antonia Nevill. Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1997. Detailed study of Carthage from its founding and rise in the early centuries of the first millennium to its defeat and Roman absorption by the end of the period.

Livy. The Rise of Rome. Translated by T. J. Luce. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Includes introduction, notes, bibliography, and index.

Livy. The War with Hannibal. Translated by Aubrey de Sélincourt. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1965. Along with Polybius’s work, it is the best source of information on the Punic Wars. Useful for the more knowledgeable reader.

Polybius. The Rise of the Roman Empire. Translated by F. W. Walbank. New York: Penguin, 1979. By one of the great historians of the ancient world. Drawing from a great many earlier histories that have been lost, Polybius is the main source for the early story of Regulus.

Walbank, F. W. A Historical Commentary on Polybius. 3 vols. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1967-1979. An annotated commentary on the Greek text of the influential ancient historian. Carefully assesses Polybius’s sources and weighs the evidence in the conflicting accounts of the story of Regulus.