Primacy in humanitas: rival contenders

Not all the sources acknowledged Scipio’s primacy. Plutarch presents M.Claudius Marcellus as a serious rival. He was modest, humane and an admirer of paideia, and after capturing Syracuse in Sicily in 212/11 he restricted his soldiers’ devastation of the city, ordering them not to lay hands on any citizen or free Syracusan.

To other nations the Romans were formidable in war but lacked kindheartedness, philanthropia and other civic virtues. Marcellus seems to have been the first to show the Greeks that the Romans had a greater sense of justice [than had been thought]. He showed this by the benefits that he granted, including those that he gave to Syracuse. (Plut. Marc. 1.19-20 adapted)

Livy also approves of Marcellus at Syracuse, citing his claim to have come to prevent deserters and foreigners from holding the city captive, not to enslave it (Livy 25.31.8-9). Cicero is more measured, confining his approval to Marcellus’ abstention from stripping the city of all its treasures. As a conqueror he could have done that,²³ but his humanitas preserved for Syracuse as much as his conquest secured for Rome (Verr. II 4.120-1).

Elsewhere Plutarch says that people contrasted the plundering of Syracuse with Fabius Cunctator’s moderation at Tarentum.²⁴ The sources had good reason to be cautious. Marcellus’ treatment of Syracuse was in fact responsible for the very first complaint by non­Romans about the excesses of Roman commanders. It was left to Scipio to repair the damage when he was in Sicily a few years later.²⁵