Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/918

Rh 904 MAGO. celebrated harbour called Portus Magonis, or Port Mahon. Early in the ensuing summer Mago landed in Liguria, where he surprised the town of Genoa. His name quickly gathered around him many of the Ligurian and Gaulish tribes, among others the Ino-aunes, and the spirit of disaffection spread even to the Etruscans, so that the Romans were obliged to maintain an army in Etruria, as well as one in Cisalpine Gaul, in order to hold him in check. Whether these forces proved sufficient effectually to impede his operations, or that he wasted his time in hostilities against the mountain tribes, in which at one time Ave find him engaged, our im- perfect accounts of his proceedings will not enable us to decide. It is certain that, though repeatedly WTged by messages from Carthage to prosecute the war with vigour, and more than once strengthened with considerable reinforcements, he did not effect anything of importance, and the alarm at first ex.cited at Rome by his arrival in Liguria gradually died away. Meanwhile, the successes of Scipio in all their forces for the defence of their capital, and they at length sent messengers to recal Mago as well as his brother Hannibal from Italy B. c. 203. Just before these orders arrived Mago had at length encountered in Cisalpine Gaul the combined forces of the praetor Quinctilius Varus and the proconsul M. Cornelius. The battle, which was fought in the territory of the Insubrians, was fiercely con- tested, but terminated in the complete defeat of the Carthaginians, of whom 5000 were slain. Mago himself was severely wounded, but effected his retreat to the seacoast among the Ingaunes, where he received the pressing summons of the senate to Carthage. He immediately embarked his troops, and set sail with them in person, but died of his Avound before they landed in Africa. (Liv. xxviii. 46, xxix. 4, 5, 13, 36, xxx. 18, 19 ; Polyb. Fraff. Hist. 31 ; Appian, Ilisp. 37, Annih. 54, Pun. 9, 31, 32 ; Zonar. ix. 11, 13.) Such is the statement of Livy and all our other authorities ; but Cornelius Nepos, on the contrary, represents him as not only surviving the battle of Zama, but as remaining at Carthage after the banishment of Hannibal, and subsequently co-operating with his brother at the commencement of the war with Antiochus (b. c. 193) in endeavouring to induce the Carthaginians to join in hostilities against Rome. According to the same author, he was banished from Carthage on this account, and died soon after, being either shipwrecked or assassinated by his slaves. (Corn. Nep. Hann. 7, 8.) It seems probable that the circumstances here related refer in fact to some other person of the name of Mago, whom Nepos has confounded with the brother of Hannibal. 6. One of the chief officers of Hannibal in Italy, whose name is appended to the treaty concluded by that general with Philip V., king of Macedonia. (Polyb. vii. 9.) It would seem probable that he is the same who was sent immediately afterwards with Bostar and Gisco to accompany the Macedonian ambassadors back to the court of Philip, and obtain the ratification of the treaty by that monarch, but who unfortunately fell into the hands of the Romans, and were carried prisoners to Rome. (Liv. xxiii. 34.) Schweighaeuser, on the contrary, supposes him to be the same with the following. 7. Surnaraed the Samnite (o SauviTTjy), was one of the chief officers of Hannibal in Italy, where he MAGO. held for a considerable time the chief command in Bruttium. Here he is mentioned in b. c. 212 :is co-operating with Hanno, the son of Bomilcar, in the siege and capture of Thurii ; and not long after he was enabled by the treachery of the Lucanian Flavins to lead the Roman general Tib. Gracchus into an ambuscade in which he lost his life. [Fla- VI us, No. 2.] Mago immediately sent his lifeless body, together with the insignia of his rank, to Hannibal. (Liv. xxv. 15, 16 ; Diod. Eaec. Vales. xxvi. p. bQ^ ; Val. Max. i. 6. $ 8.) In 208 we find him defending the city of Locri .igainst the Roman general L. Cincius, who pressed the siege with so much vigour both by land and sea, that Mago could with difficulty hold out, when the op- portune arrival of Hannibal himself compelled the Romans to raise the siege with precipitation. (Liv. xxvii. 26, 28 ; comp. Frontin. Stratcg. iv. 7. § 29.) According to Polybius (ix. 25), this Mago had been the companion and friend of Hannibal from his earliest youth : he was involved by the Carthaginians themselves in the same general charge of avarice with his great commander. 8. A Carthaginian of noble birth, and a near relation of Hannibal, taken prisoner in Sardinia B. c, 215. (Liv. xxiii. 41.) 9. An officer who commanded a body of Car- thaginian cavalry at Capua in B. c. 212, and by a sudden sally threw the Roman army under the two consuls App. Claudius and Fulvius into confusion, and occasioned them heavy loss. (Liv. xxv. 18.) It is probably the same whom Ave find shortly afterwards commanding a body of horse under Hannibal himself, and taking a prominent part in the defeat of the praetor Cn. Fulvius at Herdonea. {Id. 21.) 1 0. Commander of the garrison of New Carthage when that city was attacked by P. Scipio in B. c. 209. So little had the Carthaginian generals thought it necessary to provide for the defence of this important post, that Mago had only 1000 regular troops under his orders when the enemy appeared before the Avails. He, however, armed about 2000 more as best he could, and seems to have displayed all the qualities of an able and energetic officer ; making a vigorous sally in the first instance, and repulsing the troops of Scipio in their first assault. But all his efforts Avere in- effectual: the Romans scaled the walls where they had been supposed to be guarded by a lagoon, and made themselves masters of the town ; and Mago, who had at first retired into the citadel, with the intention of holding out there, at length saw that all further resistance was hopeless, and surrendered to Scipio. He himself, with the other more eminent of the Carthaginian captives, Avas sent a prisoner of war to Rome. (Polyb. x. 8, 12—15, 18, 19 ; Liv. xxvi. 44—46, 51; Appian, Hisp. 19—22.) Eutropius (iii. 15) and Orosius (iv. 18) have con- founded this Mago with the brother of Hannibal. 11. An officer of cavalry under Hasdrub.al, son of Gisco, in the war against Scipio and Masinissa in Africa, b. c. 204. (Appian, Pun. 15.) 12. One of the Carthaginian ambassadors sent to Rome just before the breaking out of the third Punic war (b. c. 149), to avert the impending hos- tilities by offering unqualified submission. (Polyb. xxxvi. 1.) 13. A Carthaginian, apparently not the same as the preceding, who, on the return of the embassy just spoken of, addressed the Carthaginian senate
 * Africa compelled the Carthaginians to concentrate