Daily writing prompt
What’s the trait you value most about yourself?
The Roman Republic and the Carthaginian Empire were the great rivals of the ancient world. An upstart rabble of Europeans started a war with an ancient civilisation of great antiquity. In fact the fate of the world stood in the balance. If the Romans had lost Carthage would have dominated the Mediterranean and potentially Europe. It is an interesting thought of how the world would be a different place.
The Romans did not do very well. Their greatest general of the war until Skipio was Fabius who was famed for not engaging Hannibal. Hannibal terrified the Romans because he was a tactical genius who could turn the Romans great strengths against them. With the Roman armies wrecked repeatedly, their territory occupied, allies turning against them and 10% of their male population dead Rome was in trouble. Everyone was expecting Rome to come to terms but Skipio had different ideas. First he did the incredibly Roman thing of having a dinner party. He forcibly invited his patrician friends to his house, pulled down the front wall and had the party in full view of the plebs to show them that the elite were backing Rome. Then the Romans didn’t give up. They simply refused to surrender or come to terms with Carthage. They were very polite about it and treated their envoys with respect and with due regard but they used the word ‘no’.
I think this is a lesson to us all and one that I try to do in my life. Simply not giving up. I am a man who has had a lot of set backs in my life and for a long time I took it personally and would retreat and lick my wounds. Now I realise a wonderful truth, just because something has defeated you it doesn’t mean you have lost. Imagine that, how could you not live your best life if you had the power to be undefeatable?
Historytalker 