Livy

“ The chances of a single hour can annihilate all the honours you have gained and all you can hope for. If you cement a peace, P. Cornelius, you are master of all, otherwise you will have to accept whatever fortune the gods send you. M. Atilius Regulus on this very soil would have afforded an almost unique instance of the success which waits on merit, had he in the hour of victory granted peace to our fathers when they asked for it. But as he would set no bounds to his prosperity, nor curb his elation at his good fortune, the height to which he aspired only made his fall the more terrible. ”

“ Only the other day I had placed my camp between your city and the Anio and was advancing my standards against the walls of Rome - here you see me, bereaved of my two brothers, brave soldiers and brilliant generals as they were, in front of the walls of my native place which is all but invested, and begging on behalf of my city that it may be spared the fate with which I have threatened yours. The greater a man's good fortune the less ought he to count upon it. Success attends you and has deserted us, and this will make peace all the more splendid to you who grant it ”

“ It is quite possible that in your present mood you should prefer victory to an equitable peace; I, too, know the ambition which aims at what is great rather than at what is expedient; on me, too, a fortune such as yours once shone. But if in the midst of success the gods should also give us wisdom, we ought to reflect not only on what has happened in the past but also upon what may happen in the future. ”

“ I wish, Masinissa, that you would add these to the other noble features of your own character. At our time of life we are not, believe me, so much in danger from armed foes as from the seductive pleasures which tempt us on every side. The man who has curbed and subjugated these by his self-control has won for himself greater glory and a greater victory than we have won over Syphax. ”

“ We coveted what belonged to others, consequently we had to fight for our own possessions; not only has war assailed you in Italy and us in Africa, but you have seen the arms and standards of an enemy almost within your gates and on your walls while we hear in Carthage the murmur of the Roman camp. So the thing which we detest most of all, which you would have wished for before everything, has actually come about, the question of peace is raised when your fortunes are in the ascendant. ”

“ The proper time to weep was when we were deprived of our arms, when our ships were burnt, when we were interdicted from all war beyond our frontiers. That is the wound that will prove fatal. There is not the slightest reason for supposing that the Romans are consulting your peace and quietness. No great State can remain quiet; if it has no enemy abroad it finds one at home, just as excessively strong men, whilst seemingly safe from outside mischief, fall victims to the burden of their own strength. ”

“ We consent to everything remaining yours for which we went to war - Sicily, Sardinia, Spain and all the islands that lie between Africa and Italy. We Carthaginians, confined within the shores of Africa, are content, since such is the will of the gods, to see you ruling all outside our frontiers by sea and land as your dominions. I am bound to admit that the lack of sincerity lately shown in the request for peace and in the non-observance of the truce justified your suspicions as to the good faith of Carthage. ”

“ Amongst your many brilliant distinctions this will not be your smallest title to fame, that Hannibal, to whom the gods have given the victory over so many Roman generals, has yielded to you, that it has fallen to your lot to put an end to a war which has been more memorable for your defeats than for ours. ”

“ Scipio has not to do with Syphax, whose subjects are undisciplined barbarians and whose army was generally led by Statorius, who was little more than a camp menial, nor with Syphax's elusive father-in-law, Hasdrubal nor with a half-armed mob of peasants hastily collected from the fields. It is Hannibal whom he has to meet, who was all but born in the headquarters of his father, that bravest of generals; reared and brought up in the midst of arms, a soldier whilst still a boy, and when hardly out of his teens in high command. ”

“ How often in our councils have we heard the plaint of men lifting up their hands to heaven and asking whether the day would ever come when they would see Italy freed from an enemy's presence and flourishing in peace and prosperity! At last, after sixteen years of war, the gods have granted us this boon, and yet there are none who ask that thanks should be offered to them. Men do not receive even a present blessing with grateful hearts, much less are they are likely to remember past benefits. ”

“ And indeed it would be a matter for surprise were it otherwise, for those to whom good fortune is a novelty go mad with unrestrained delight because they are unused to it, but to you Romans the joy of victory is a usual, I might almost say a commonplace experience. It is by clemency towards the conquered more than by conquest itself that you have extended your dominion." The others spoke in language more calculated to evoke compassion. They reminded their audience of the powerful and influential position from which Carthage had fallen. ”

“ The critical state of affairs acted as strong stimulus, everything was done with feverish energy, any one who showed hesitation or slackness was regarded as a traitor to the safety of all. As Scipio was making slow progress, his army being encumbered with the spoils of many cities, he sent the prisoners and the rest of the booty to his old camp at Utica. As Carthage was now his objective, he seized Tyneta, from which the garrison had fled, a place about fifteen miles from Carthage, protected by its natural situation as well as by defensive works. ”

“ Seldom are good fortune and good sense granted to men at the same time. ”

“ Men could not make up their minds whether they had more to rejoice over in the fact that at the end of sixteen years Hannibal had finally evacuated Italy and left the unchallenged possession of it to Rome, or more to fear from his having landed in Africa with his military strength unimpaired. ”

“ He warned the senators to use their good fortune in a spirit of moderation and self-restraint. "If," he continued, "the Carthaginians had listened to Hanno and myself and had been willing to take advantage of their opportunity, they would have dictated the terms of peace which now they are seeking from you. Seldom are good fortune and good sense granted to men at the same time. What makes Rome invincible is the fact that her people do not lose their sound judgment in the hour of prosperity. ”

“ The one to whom the fleet was assigned was to sail to Sicily, and if it proved impossible to make peace with Carthage, he was to proceed to Africa. The consul was to act by sea; Scipio, retaining his full powers, was to conduct the campaign on land. If the terms of peace were agreed upon the tribunes of the plebs were to ask the people whether it was their will that peace should be granted by the consul or by Scipio. And also if the victorious army was to be brought away from Africa, they were to decide who should bring it. ”

“ Seldom, according to the accounts, has any one left his native country to go into exile in such gloomy sorrow as Hannibal manifested when quitting the country of his foes. It is stated that he often looked back to the shores of Italy, accusing gods and men and even cursing himself for not having led his soldiers reeking with blood from the victorious field of Cannae straight to Rome. ”

“ As he was entering the vestibule, on the very threshold in fact, he was met by Sophonisba, the wife of Syphax and daughter of the Carthaginian Hasdrubal. When she saw him surrounded by an armed escort, and conspicuous by his arms and general appearance, she rightly guessed that he was the king, and throwing herself at his feet, exclaimed: "Your courage and good fortune aided by the gods have given you absolute power over us. ”

“ You were hardly old enough to bear arms when you were placed in high command, and in all your enterprises, even the most daring, Fortune has never played you false. You avenged the deaths of your father and your uncle, and that disaster to your house became the occasion of your winning a glorious reputation for courage and filial piety. ”

“ They reported that the discussion had been fruitless, that the matter must be decided by arms, and the result left to the gods.
32 On their return to their camps, the commanders-in-chief each issued an order of the day to their troops. "They were to get their arms ready and brace up their courage for a final and decisive struggle; if success attended them they would be victors not for a day only but for all time; they would know before the next day closed whether Rome or Carthage was to give laws to the nations. For not Africa and Italy only - the whole world will be the prize of victory. ”

“ As far as I am concerned, coming back to a country which I left as a boy, years and a chequered experience of good and evil fortune have so disillusioned me that I prefer to take reason rather than Fortune as my guide. ”

“ The effect of their charge was heightened by the battle-shout of the legions, and the hostile lines would not have stood their ground, had not Mago, at the first movement of the cavalry, promptly brought his elephants into action. The appearance of these animals, their trumpeting and smell so terrified the horses as to render the assistance of the cavalry futile. When engaged at close quarters and able to use sword and lance the Roman cavalryman was the better fighter, but when carried away by a frightened horse, he was a better target for the Numidian darts. ”

“ The Dictator spent the remainder of the year in visiting, accompanied by M. Servilius, his Master of the Horse, the different cities of Italy which had fallen away from Rome during the war, and holding an enquiry in each case. During the armistice a hundred transports carrying supplies and escorted by twenty warships were despatched from Sardinia by Lentulus the praetor and reached Africa without any damage either from the enemy or from storms. Cnaeus Octavius sailed from Sicily with two hundred transports and thirty warships, but was not equally fortunate. ”

“ The velites, to avoid being trampled to death, sprang back to the maniples and thus allowed a path for the elephants, from both sides of which they rained their darts on the beasts. The leading maniples also kept up a fusillade of missiles until these animals too were driven out of the Roman lines on to their own side and put the Carthaginian cavalry, who were covering the right flank, to flight. When Laelius saw the enemy's horse in confusion he at once took advantage of it. ”

“ The Romans kept their foothold as they fought and pressed the enemy by the sheer weight of their arms and bodies; on the other side there was much more agility and nimbleness of foot than actual fighting strength. ”

“ When the servant came with the poison and the message to Sophonisba, she said, "I accept this wedding gift, no unwelcome one if my husband can do nothing more for his wife. But tell him that I should have died more happily had not my marriage bed stood so near my grave." ”

“ He hoped too that a sea voyage would be less trying to his wound than the jolting of the march had been, and that everything would contribute to his recovery. He embarked his men and set sail, but he had not cleared Sardinia when he died of his wound. Some of his ships which had parted company with the rest when out at sea were captured by the Roman fleet which was lying off Sardinia. Such was the course of events in the Alpine districts of Italy. The consul C. Servilius had done nothing worth recording in Etruria, nor after his departure for Gaul. ”

“ But now that I have dragged you to Africa like a reluctant and tricky defendant I am not bound to show you the slightest consideration. So then, if in addition to the terms on which peace might have been concluded previously, there is the further condition of an indemnity for the attack on our transports and the ill-treatment of our envoys during the armistice, I shall have something to lay before the councils. If you consider this unacceptable. then prepare for war as you have been unable to endure peace." Thus, no understanding was arrived at and the commanders rejoined their armies. ”