Mago had been on a long journey since last he spoke with his brother. He had spent a short time in Italy just before Cannae where Hannibal had crushed the consular army of a hundred thousand men. It was one of the proudest moments in Mago’s life seeing so many Roman’s dead. However, soon after, as Hannibal’s staff urged him to march on Rome and take the city, he had refused — failing to cease his great victory.
Hannibal then sent Mago back to Carthage to request more men, so that he may finish the war in Italy and bring Rome’s walls crashing down.
Mago had with him the rings and other markings of the Roman Senate and elite — thousands of small pieces of gold that had been stripped from still warm corpses following Cannae. When he stepped foot in the Senate, for the first time in his life, Mago threw the rings onto the Senate floor for all the leaders of Carthage to see with their own eyes what Hannibal had accomplished.
He spoke passionately about what he witnessed — three consuls dead, hundreds of thousands of Roman soldiers killed — whole settlements and communities destroyed, Italy was Hannibal’s.
Mago expected, with his words the Senate to bow to Hannibal’s wishes and rally their swords. The only question would be: how many soldiers should they send? However, that question never came.
When Mago finished his speech, those within the Senate, enemies of Hannibal, who had grown jealous of his success turned against him as they called him a warmonger — a tyrant and a traitor for instigating the conflict with Rome in the first place. It sickened Mago. These men were merchants and businessmen who cared only about money, and not the pride of their nation. And, before he knew, the whole Senate had rallied against Hannibal, calling his actions a crime as they turned their attention towards protecting Carthage’s interests from Rome, namely its territories in Spain.
Hannibal would not get any reinforcements as he hoped. Rome’s walls would remain strong and still standing, and he, as he began to lose support from his Gallic allies, was trapped, as his opponents under the leadership of the Dictator Fabius Maximus refused to confront him in open battle.
It was an embarrassment! Mago left furious as he was refused the chance to return to his brother after he was ordered by the Senate to take up command in Spain, and make ready for a new Roman offensive. And so he had been for the past five years, trapped, freezing his ass off, holding firm against the Scipio, a man unlike any Roman he had ever encountered — one that fought more like his brother.
Now, Mago returns to Italy with terrible news. He races to tell his brother in no short order that Spain had fallen — New Carthage had been taken by Scipio, and that Hannibal was cut off from his only reliable source for reinforcements and supplies. However, Mago would not get the chance to deliver his terrible message through words — just symbolically as a small bag was thrown by a Roman horseman over the high walls that surrounded Hannibal’s camp.
The bag was found momentarily by a Carthaginian soldier who read the notation that it was a message meant for Hannibal. He raced as quickly as he could across the camp to his leader’s tent where he presented the bag to him.
As Hannibal unfurled the string that sealed the bag shut, the smell alone indicated to him what it was, just not who.
A moment later, Hannibal pulled the severed head of his brother, Mago out from the bag; his white eyes rolled into his skull; his neck dry of blood with only a note attached to the base, pinned into the flesh indicating the sender — Scipio.
Even Hannibal’s bravest men shuttered when they heard him scream in agony over the loss of his beloved brother.
If there were any doubt to the long-term outcome of the war, Hannibal’s army had lost all hope of claiming another smashing victory against their bitter rivals upon Mago’s arrival. Little did they know they would all be going home soon.