09-30-2019, 08:11 AM
I think you`re right that Alimentus was in the right place at the right time and had the motives to fabricate, but there are so many sources implicit in Appian that lead me to believe/suspect that the official, family history of Scipio`s son and Scipio`s memoirs are represented there too and that these were fabrications too. Most notable I think, we have the contrasting description of the infantry fight in Appian`s and Polybius` accounts.
Polybius had several previous versions of this history to sift though to arrive at the final version of his Zama campaign and then there was Gaius Laelius and Gaius Laelius Jnr. who would supplement the text further! Perhaps Book 15 is so short and fragmentary because at a late stage he needed to edit and censor his own work ?
Checking those links again - they both take me to the same page.
Polybius had several previous versions of this history to sift though to arrive at the final version of his Zama campaign and then there was Gaius Laelius and Gaius Laelius Jnr. who would supplement the text further! Perhaps Book 15 is so short and fragmentary because at a late stage he needed to edit and censor his own work ?
Checking those links again - they both take me to the same page.
