Total War Rome: Destroy Carthage by David Gibbins

Africanus and I came here all those years ago. She said that one with the name Scipio would conquer Carthage and have the world at his feet.’
    â€˜It cannot be me, then,’ Scipio said, pushing Fabius away, stumbling against the rocks and then standing without assistance, blinking in a shaft of sunlight that came through the smoke. ‘The Senate is too cautious to declare war, and Carthage will remain unfinished business.’
    â€˜Maybe for now, but war with Carthage is possible within our lifetimes,’ Gaius Paullus said cautiously.
    Scipio took a swig of water from the skin that Fabius had offered him. ‘How can you know this?’
    â€˜The day that we left Rome I spent the morning in the Forum. It began as a rumour among the people, and then became a murmur in the Senate, and then a clamour that drowned out all debate, until the consuls ordered the guard to unsheathe their swords to shut everybody up. And then Cato stood up to the rostrum and said the words that had been on everyone’s lips.’
    The centurion stared at him. ‘Out with it, man.’
    Gaius Paullus swallowed hard. ‘Carthago delenda est.’
    In the silence that followed, Fabius looked up and saw a crow flying high across the sky, just as his father had told him he had twice seen before sailing to war. Scipio turned to Gaius Paullus and repeated the words, his voice hoarse now with emotion. ‘ Carthago delenda est. Carthage must be destroyed.’
    The centurion fixed Scipio in his gaze, his eyes gleaming with a fire that Fabius had not seen in them before. ‘Almost fifty years ago I stood with your adoptive grandfather at this very spot, when war was in the offing. Eighteen years later we stood before the walls of Carthage, battle-hardened, watching Hannibal crawl before us, pleading for peace. Then, the Senate baulked at issuing the final order. Now, you are a new breed of men, and when those of you who live to see the day stand in front of those walls yourselves, there will be no appeasement, no mercy to the vanquished. That much I have taught you in the academy. There will be much preparation, and much hardship, and I myself will not live to see it. But I will die happy, knowing that the job will at last be finished.’
    Gaius Paullus stood at attention, staring straight ahead, the toll of the last few days showing on his face. Scipio straightened and slapped his right hand on his chest, his voice still clenched with emotion. ‘You can depend on us, centurion.’
    Just as they were about to turn and leave, the sound of a horse’s hooves came clattering from the crater, and a rider wearing an official messenger’s gold-rimmed tunic and neck gorget came into view. He dismounted, holding the horse’s bridle as it stomped and snorted in the fumes, and came up to them. ‘Gnaeus Petraeus Atinus, holder of the corona obsidionalis, I have news from the Senate. The war against King Perseus of Macedon is heading for a decisive battle. Lucius Aemilius Paullus has requested a further call to arms. The Senate has authorized the raising of another legion.’
    Fabius’ heart began to pound. He looked towards Scipio, seeing his eyes suddenly gleam. The messenger turned to Scipio. ‘Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus, your father requests that you be appointed a temporary military tribune on his staff. Gaius Aemilius Paullus, you are appointed temporary tribune to be second in command of the third maniple of the new legion. And Fabius Petronius Secundus, as your eighteenth birthday has passed, you are to be a legionary and standard-bearer of the first cohort of the first legion, on the special recommendation of primipilus Gnaeus Petraeus Atinus.’
    Fabius felt a surge of excitement and glanced at the centurion, who nodded curtly. Petraeus must have put in a word for him in Rome before they left. He must have known that the call to arms would come before their journey was over.