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S cipio Africanus, as men who were easily able to exist without
emotional dependence on others.
In reality, these men were anything but self-contained. Their
fortunes from one day to the next relied on the loyalty of tens of
thousands of troops.   And it hung on their ability to maintain the
confidence of figures even further removed from them in the grand
web of the superorganism: the powers of the state back home.  Without
the financial backing of the Roman senate and the council of Carthage,
both men's efforts would have been doomed.61
When Rome's senators accused Scipio of pilfering money from
the public treasuries, the general was far from indifferent to the charge.
He burst into the Senatorial hall with his account books, tore them up
in front of the lawmakers, and stormed out of Rome, never to return.
Not exactly the gesture of a man untouched by the opinions of others.62
Historian Bradford, convinced that Scipio was, indeed, a master
of self-reliance, had probably been deceived by a trick of aristocracy, a
theatrical charade used by those who wish to exert power over others.
It's a device even ambitious chimpanzees employ to maintain
authority.  The ruse goes something like this.  The dominant male sits
in the center of a noisy multitude looking utterly indifferent to what
goes on around him.  Lower ranking monkeys nervously glance left,
right and behind them for clues as to what they should do next. They
cast frequent, furtive glances at the master chimp to see if it is time for
them to honor him with a deferentially downcast gaze or to discover if
he has turned aside.  For when his back is toward them, the underlings
can get away with some forbidden gesture.  But the lofty head of the
chimpanzee clan seems to look at no other.  He gives the impression
that he need take his cues from no mere earthly beast.63
Even the hierarchy-topping monkey who looks so impressively
aloof, however, is boiling with social emotions he doesn't dare show.
Ethologist Frans De Waal made a six-year study of chimps in Belgium's
Arnhem Zoo and published the results in a brilliantly illuminating
volume called Chimpanzee Politics.  In it, De Waal describes two males
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