25. As they expected that other fresh accounts would follow those

which they had received, not only of the death, but even of the

burial, of Scipio, and yet none arrived; and as the rumour which had

been so idly originated began to die away, the first author of it

began to be sought out; and each backing out in order that he might

appear rather to have inconsiderately credited than to have fabricated

such a report, the leaders were forsaken, and began now to dread their

own ensigns of authority, and to apprehend that, instead of that empty

show of command which they wore, a legitimate and rightful power would

be turned against them. The mutiny being thus paralysed, and credible

persons bringing in accounts, first, that Scipio was alive, and, soon

after, that he was even in good health, seven military tribunes were

sent by Scipio himself. At the first arrival of these their minds were

violently excited; but they were soon calmed by the mild and soothing

language which they addressed to such of their acquaintance as

they met with; for, going round first of all to the tents, and then

entering the principia and the praetorium, wherever they observed

circles of men conversing together, they addressed them, inquiring

rather what it was that had occasioned their displeasure and sudden

consternation, than taxing them with what had occurred. "That they

had not received their pay at the appointed time," was generally

complained; and "that although at the time of the horrid transaction

of the Illiturgians, and after the destruction of two generals and two

armies, the Roman cause had been defended and the province retained

by their valour; the Illiturgians had received the punishment due to

their offence, but there was no one found to reward them for their

meritorious services." The tribunes replied, "that, considering the

nature of their complaints, what they requested was just, and that

they would lay it before the general; that they were happy that there

was nothing of a more gloomy and irremediable character; that both

Publius Scipio, by the favour of the gods, and the commonwealth, were

in a situation to requite them." Scipio, who was accustomed to war

but inexperienced in the storms of sedition, felt great anxiety on the

occasion, lest the army should run into excess in transgressing, or

himself in punishing. For the present he resolved to persist in

the lenient line of conduct with which he had begun, and sending

collectors round to the tributary states, to give the soldiers hopes

of soon receiving their pay. Immediately after this a proclamation was

issued that they should come to Carthage to receive their pay, whether

they wished to do so in detached parties or all in a body. The sudden

suppression of the rebellion among the Spaniards had the effect of

tranquillizing the mutiny, which was by this time beginning to subside

of itself; for Mandonius and Indibilis, relinquishing their attempt,

had returned within their borders when intelligence was brought

that Scipio was alive; nor did there now remain any person, whether

countryman or foreigner, whom they could make their companion in

their desperate enterprise. On examining every method, they had no

alternative except that which afforded a retreat from wicked designs,

which was not of the safest kind, namely, to commit themselves either

to the just anger of the general, or to his clemency, of which

they need not despair. For he had pardoned even enemies whom he had

encountered with the sword; while they reflected that their sedition

had been unaccompanied with wounds or blood, and was neither in itself

of an atrocious character nor merited severe punishment. So natural is

it for men to be over-eloquent in extenuating their own demerit. They

felt doubtful whether they should go to demand their pay in single

cohorts or in one entire body; but the opinion that they should go in

a body, which they regarded as the safer mode, prevailed.

26. At the same time, when they were employed in these deliberations,

a council was held on their case at Carthage; when a warm debate took

place as to whether they should visit with punishment the originators

only of the mutiny, who were in number not more than thirty-five, or,

whether atonement should be made for this defection, (for such it was

rather than a mutiny,) of so dreadful a character as a precedent, by

the punishment of a greater number. The opinion recommending the

more lenient course, that the punishment should fall where the guilt

originated, was adopted. For the multitude a reprimand was considered

sufficient. On the breaking up of the council, orders were given to

the army, which was in Carthage, to prepare for an expedition against

Mandonius and Indibilis, and to get ready provisions for several days,

in order that they might appear to have been deliberating about this.

The seven tribunes who had before gone to Sucro to quell the mutiny,

having been sent out to meet the army, gave in, each of them, five

names of persons principally concerned in the affair, in order that

proper persons might be employed to invite them to their homes, with

smiles and kind words; and that, when overpowered with wine, they

might be thrown into chains. They were not far distant from Carthage

when the intelligence, received from persons on the road, that the

whole army was going the following day with Marcus Silanus against

the Lacetanians, not only freed them from all the apprehensions which,

though they did not give utterance to them, sat heavy upon their

minds, but occasioned the greatest transport, because they would

thus have the general alone, and in their power, instead of being

themselves in his. They entered the city just at sun-set, and saw the

other army making every preparation for a march. Immediately on their

arrival they were greeted in terms feigned for the purpose, that

their arrival was looked upon by the general as a happy and seasonable

circumstance, for they had come when the other army was just on

the point of setting out. After which they proceeded to refresh

themselves. The authors of the mutiny, having been conveyed to their

lodgings by proper persons, were apprehended by the tribunes without

any disturbance, and thrown into chains. At the fourth watch the

baggage belonging to the army, which, as it was pretended, was

about to march, began to set out. As soon as it was light the troops

marched, but were stopped at the gate, and guards were sent round to

all the gates to prevent any one going out of the city. Then those who

had arrived the day before, having been summoned to an assembly, ran

in crowds into the forum to the tribunal of the general, with the

presumptuous purpose of intimidating him by their shouts. At the same

time that the general mounted the tribunal, the armed troops, which

had been brought back from the gates, spread themselves around the

rear of the unarmed assembly. Then all their insolence subsided; and,

as they afterwards confessed, nothing terrified them so much as the

unexpected vigour and hue of the general, whom they had supposed they

should see in a sickly state, and his countenance, which was such as

they declared that they did not remember to have ever seen it even in

battle. He sat silent for a short time till he was informed that the

instigators of the mutiny were brought into the forum, and that every

thing was now in readiness.

27. Then, a herald having obtained silence, he thus began: "I imagined

that language would never fail me in which to address my army; not

that I have ever accustomed myself to speaking rather than action,

but because, having been kept in a camp almost from my boyhood, I had

become familiar with the dispositions of soldiers. But I am at a loss

both for sentiments and expressions with which to address you, whom I

know not even by what name I ought to call. Can I call you countrymen,

who have revolted from your country? or soldiers, who have rejected

the command and authority of your general, and violated the solemn

obligation of your oath? Can I call you enemies? I recognise the

persons, faces, dress, and mien of fellow countrymen; but I perceive

the actions, expressions, intentions, and feelings of enemies. For

what have you wished and hoped for, but what the Ilergetians and

Lacetanians did. Yet they followed Mandonius and Indibilis, men of

royal rank, who were the leaders of their mad project; you conferred

the auspices and command upon the Umbrian, Atrius, and the Calenian,

Albius. Deny, soldiers, that you were all concerned in this measure,

or that you approved of it when taken. I shall willingly believe, when

you disclaim it, that it was the folly and madness of a few. For the

acts which have been committed are of such a nature, that, if the

whole army participated in them, they could not be expiated without

atonements of tremendous magnitude. Upon these points, like wounds, I

touch with reluctance; but unless touched and handled, they cannot be

cured. For my own part, I believed that, after the Carthaginians

were expelled from Spain, there was not a place in the whole province

where, or any persons to whom, my life was obnoxious; such was the

manner in which I had conducted myself, not only towards my allies,

but even towards my enemies. But lo, even in my own camp, so much was

I deceived in my opinion, the report of my death was not only readily

believed, but anxiously waited for. Not that I wish to implicate you

all in this enormity; for, be assured, if I supposed that the whole of

my army desired my death, I would here immediately expire before your

eyes; nor could I take any pleasure in a life which was odious to my

countrymen and my soldiers. But every multitude is in its nature like

the ocean; which, though in itself incapable of motion, is excited by

storms and winds. So, also, in yourselves there is calm and there are

storms; but the cause and origin of your fury is entirely attributable

to those who led you on; you have caught your madness by contagion.

Nay, even this day you do not appear to me to be aware to what a pitch

of phrensy you have proceeded; what a heinous crime you have dared

to commit against myself, your country, your parents, your children;

against the gods, the witnesses of your oath; against the auspices

under which you serve; against the laws of war, the discipline of your

ancestors, and the majesty of the highest authority. With regard to

myself, I say nothing. You may have believed the report of my death

rather inconsiderately than eagerly. Lastly, suppose me to be such a

man that it could not at all be a matter of astonishment that my army

should be weary of my command, yet what had your country deserved

of you, which you betrayed by making common cause with Mandonius and

Indibilis? What the Roman people, when, taking the command from the

tribunes appointed by their suffrages, you conferred it on private

men? When, not content even with having them for tribunes, you, a

Roman army, conferred the fasces of your general upon men who never

had a slave under their command? Albius and Atrius had their tents in

your general's pavilion. With them the trumpet sounded, from them the

word was taken, they sat upon the tribunal of Scipio, upon whom the

lictor attended, for them the crowd was cleared away as they moved

along, before them the fasces with the axes were carried. When showers

of stones descend, lightnings are darted from the heavens, and animals

give birth to monsters, you consider these things as prodigies. This

is a prodigy which can be expiated by no victims, by no supplications,

without the blood of those men who have dared to commit so great a

crime.

28. "Now, though villany is never guided by reason, yet so far as it

could exist in so nefarious a transaction, I would fain know what was

your design. Formerly, a legion which was sent to garrison Rhegium,

wickedly put to the sword the principal inhabitants and kept

possession of that opulent city through a space of ten years; on

account of which enormity the entire legion, consisting of four

thousand men, were beheaded in the forum at Rome. But they, in the

first place, did not put themselves under the direction of Atrius the

Umbrian, scarcely superior to a scullion, whose name even was ominous,

but of Decius Jubellius, a military tribune; nor did they unite

themselves with Pyrrhus, or with the Samnites or Lucanians, the

enemies of the Roman people. But you made common cause with Mandonius

and Indibilis, and intended also to have united your arms with them.

They intended to have held Rhegium as a lasting settlement, as

the Campanians held Capua, which they took from its ancient Tuscan

inhabitants; and as the Mamertines held Messana in Sicily, without any

design of commencing without provocation a war upon the Roman people

or their allies. Was it your purpose to hold Sucro as a place of

abode? where, had I, your general, left you on my departure after the

reduction of the province, you would have been justified in imploring

the interference of gods and men, because you could not return to your

wives and children. But suppose that you banished from your minds all

recollection of these, as you did of your country and myself; I would

wish to track the course of a wicked design, but not of one utterly

insane. While I was alive, and the rest of the army safe, with which

in one day I took Carthage, with which I routed, put to flight,

and expelled from Spain four generals and four armies of the

Carthaginians; did you, I say, who were only eight thousand men, all

of course of less worth than Albius and Atrius, to whom you subjected

yourselves, hope to wrest the province of Spain out of the hands of

the Roman people? I lay no stress upon my own name, I put it out of

the question. Let it be supposed that I have not been injured by you

in any respect beyond the ready credence of my death. What! if I were

dead, was the state to expire with me? was the empire of the Roman

people to fall with me? Jupiter, most good and great, would not have

permitted that the existence of the city, built under the auspices and

sanction of the gods to last for ever, should terminate with that of

this frail and perishable body. The Roman people have survived those

many and distinguished generals who were all cut off in one war;

Flaminius, Paulus, Gracchus, Posthumius Albinus, Marcus Marcellus,

Titus Quinctius Crispinus, Cneius Fulvius, my kinsmen the Scipios;

and will survive a thousand others who may perish, some by the sword,

others by disease; and would the Roman state have been buried with my

single corpse? You yourselves, here in Spain, when your two generals,

my father and my uncle, fell, chose Septimus Marcius as your general

to oppose the Carthaginians, exulting on account of their recent

victory. And thus I speak, on the supposition that Spain would have

been without a leader. Would Marcus Silanus, who was sent into the

province with the same power and the same command as myself, would

Lucius Scipio my brother, and Caius Laelius, lieutenant-generals, have

been wanting to avenge the majesty of the empire? Could the armies,

the generals themselves, their dignity or their cause, be compared

with one another? And even had you got the better of all these, would

you bear arms in conjunction with the Carthaginians against your

country, against your countrymen? Would you wish that Africa should

rule Italy, and Carthage the city of Rome? If so, for what offence on

the part of your country?

29. "An unjust sentence of condemnation, and a miserable and

undeserved banishment, formerly induced Coriolanus to go and fight

against his country; he was restrained, however, by private duty from

public parricide. What grief, what resentment instigated you? Was the

delay of your pay for a few days, during the illness of your general,

a reason of sufficient weight for you to declare war against your

country? to revolt from the Roman people and join the Ilergetians?

to leave no obligation, divine or human, unviolated? Without doubt,

soldiers, you were mad; nor was the disease which seized my frame more

violent than that with which your minds were affected. I shrink with

horror from the relation of what men believed, what they hoped and

wished. Let oblivion cover all these things if possible; if not,

however it be, let them be covered in silence. I must confess my

speech must have appeared to you severe and harsh, but how much more

harsh, think you, must your actions be than my words! Do you think it

reasonable that I should suffer all the acts which you have committed,

and that you should not bear with patience even to hear them

mentioned? But you shall not be reproached even with these things any

further. I could wish that you might as easily forget them as I shall.

Therefore, as far as relates to the general body of you, if you repent

of the error you have committed, I shall have received sufficient and

more than sufficient atonement for it. Albius the Calenian, and Atrius

the Umbrian, with the rest of the principal movers of this

impious mutiny, shall expiate with their blood the crime they have

perpetrated. To yourselves, if you have returned to a sound state

of mind, the sight of their punishment ought not only to be not

unpleasant, but even gratifying; for there are no persons to whom the

measures they have taken are more hostile and injurious than to

you." He had scarcely finished speaking, when, according to the plan

preconcerted, every object of terror was at once presented to their

eyes and ears. The troops, which had formed a circle round the

assembly, clashed their swords against their shields; the herald's

voice was heard citing by name the persons who had been condemned in

the council; the culprits were dragged naked into the midst of the

assembly, and at the same time all the apparatus for punishment was

brought forth. They were tied to the stake, scourged with rods, and

decapitated; while those who were present were so benumbed with fear,

that not only no expression of dissatisfaction at the severity of the

punishment, but not even a groan was heard. They were then all dragged

out, the place was cleared, and the men cited by name took the oath of

allegiance to Scipio before the military tribunes, each receiving

his full demand of pay as he answered to his name. Such was the

termination and result which the insurrection of the soldiers, which

began at Sucro, met with.

30. During the time of these transactions, Hanno, the

lieutenant-general of Mago, having been sent from Gades to the river

Baetis with a small body of Africans, by tempting the Spaniards with

money, armed as many as four thousand men; but afterwards, being

deprived of his camp by Lucius Marcius, and losing the principal part

of his troops in the confusion occasioned by its capture, and some

also in the flight, for the cavalry pursued them closely while they

were dispersed, he made his escape with a few attendants. During these

transactions on the river Baetis, Laelius in the mean time, sailing

out of the straits into the ocean, came with his fleet before Carteia,

a city situated on the coast of the ocean, where the sea begins

to expand itself, after being confined in a narrow strait. He had

entertained hopes of having Gades betrayed to him without a contest,

persons having come unsolicited into the Roman camp to make promises

to that effect, as has been before mentioned. The plot was discovered

before it was ripe, and all having been apprehended, were placed by

Mago in the hands of Adherbal the praetor, to be conveyed to Carthage.

Adherbal, having put the conspirators on board a quinquereme, sent

it in advance, because it sailed slower than a trireme, and followed

himself at a moderate distance with eight triremes. The quinquereme

was just entering the strait, when Laelius, who had himself also

sailed out of the harbour of Carteia in a quinquereme, followed by

seven triremes, bore down upon Adherbal and his triremes, feeling

assured that the trireme, when once caught in the rapid strait, would

not be able to return against the opposing current. The Carthaginian,

alarmed by the suddenness of the affair, hesitated for some little

time whether he should follow the trireme, or turn his prows against

the enemy. This very delay put it out of his power to decline an

action, for they were now within a weapon's cast, and the enemy were

bearing down upon him on all sides. The current also had rendered

it impossible to manage the ships. Nor was the action like a naval

engagement, inasmuch as it was in no respect subject to the control

of the will, nor afforded any opportunity for the exercise of skill

or method. The nature of the strait and the tide, which solely and

entirely governed the contest, carried the ships against those of

their own and the enemy's party indiscriminately, though striving in

a contrary direction; so that you might see one ship which was flying

whirled back by an eddy and driven against the victors, and another

which was engaged in pursuit, if it had fallen into an opposite

current, turning itself away as if for flight. And when actually

engaged, one ship while bearing down upon another with its beak

directed against it, assuming an oblique position itself, received a

stroke from the beak of the other; while another which lay with its

side exposed to the enemy, receiving a sudden impulse, was turned

round so as to present its prow. While the triremes were thus engaged

in a doubtful and uncertain contest, in which every thing was governed

by chance, the Roman quinquereme, whether being more manageable in

consequence of its weight, or by means of more banks of oars making

its way through the eddies, sunk two triremes, and swept off the oars

from one side of another, while sailing by it with great violence.

The rest too, had they come in its way, it would have disabled; but

Adherbal, with his remaining four ships, sailed over into Africa.

31. Laelius returned victorious into Carteia; and hearing there

what had occurred at Gades, that the plot had been discovered, the

conspirators sent to Carthage, and that the hopes which had brought

them there had been completely frustrated, he sent a message to

Lucius Marcius, to the effect that, unless they wished to waste time

uselessly in lying before Gades, they should return to the general;

and Marcius consenting to the proposal, they both returned to Carthage

a few days after. In consequence of their departure, Mago not only

obtained a temporary relief from the dangers which beset him on all

sides, both by sea and land, but also on hearing of the rebellion

of the Ilergetians, conceived hopes of recovering Spain, and sent

messengers to Carthage to the senate, who, at the same time that they

represented to them in exaggerated terms both the intestine dissension

in the Roman camp and the defection of their allies, might exhort them

to send succours by which the empire of Spain, which had been handed

down to them by their ancestors, might be regained. Mandonius and

Indibilis, retiring within their borders, remained quiet for a

little time, not knowing what course to take, till they knew what was

determined upon respecting the mutiny; but not distrusting that if

Scipio pardoned the error of his own countrymen, they also might

obtain the same. But when the severe punishment inflicted came to

be generally known, concluding that their offence also would be

considered as demanding a similar expiation, they again summoned their

countrymen to arms; and assembling the auxiliaries which had joined

them before, they crossed over into the Sedetanian territory, where

they had had a fixed camp at the beginning of the revolt, with twenty

thousand foot and two thousand five hundred horse.

32. Scipio having without difficulty regained the affection of his

soldiers, both by his punctuality in discharging the arrears of pay to

all, as well the guilty as the innocent, and particularly by the looks

and language of reconciliation towards all, before he quitted Carthage

summoned an assembly; and after inveighing at large against the

perfidy of the petty princes who were in rebellion, declared "that the

feelings with which he set out to take revenge for their villany were

widely different from those with which he lately corrected the error

committed by his countrymen. That on the latter occasion, he had with

groans and tears, as though he were cutting his own vitals, expiated

either the imprudence or the guilt of eight thousand men with the

heads of thirty; but now he was going to the destruction of the

Ilergetians with joyful and animated feelings: for they were neither

natives of the same soil, nor united with him by any bond of society.

The only connexion which did subsist between them, that of honour and

friendship, they had themselves severed by their wicked conduct." When

he looked at the troops which composed his army, besides that he saw

that they were all either of his own country, or allies and of the

Latin confederacy; he was also strongly affected by the circumstance,

that there was scarcely a soldier in it who was not brought out of

Italy into that country either by his uncle, Cneius Scipio, who was

the first of the Roman name who had come into that province, or by his

father when consul, or by himself. That they were all accustomed to

the name and auspices of the Scipios; that it was his wish to take

them home to their country to receive a well-earned triumph; and

that he hoped that they would support him when he put up for the

consulship, as if the honour sought were to be shared in common by

them all. With regard to the expedition which they were just going to

undertake, that the man who considered it as a war must be forgetful

of his own achievements. That, by Hercules, Mago, who had fled for

safety with a few ships beyond the limits of the world into an island

surrounded by the ocean, was a source of greater concern to him than

the Ilergetians; for in it there was both a Carthaginian general and a

Carthaginian army, whatever might be its numbers; while here were only

robbers and leaders of robbers, who, though they possessed sufficient

energy for ravaging the lands of their neighbours, burning their

houses, and carrying off their cattle, yet would have none at all in

a regular and pitched battle; and who would come to the encounter

relying more on the swiftness with which they can fly than on their

arms. "Accordingly," he said, "that he had thought it right to quell

the Ilergetians before he quitted the province, not because he saw

that any danger could arise from them, or that a war of greater

importance could grow out of these proceedings; but in the first

place, that a revolt of so heinous a character might not go

unpunished, and in the next place, that not a single enemy might be

said to be left in a province which had been subdued with such valour

and success. He bid them, therefore, follow him, with the assistance

of the gods, not so much to make war upon, for the contest was

not with an enemy who was upon an equality with them, but to take

vengeance on the basest of men."

33. After this harangue he dismissed them, with orders to get

themselves in readiness in every respect for marching the next day;

when, setting out, he arrived at the river Iberus in ten days. Then

crossing the river, he, on the fourth day, pitched his camp within

sight of the enemy. Before him was a plain enclosed on all sides by

mountains. Into the valley thus formed Scipio ordered some cattle,

taken chiefly from the lands of the enemy, to be driven, in order to

excite the rapacity of the barbarians, and then sent some light-armed

troops as a protection for them, directing Laelius to charge the enemy

from a place of concealment when they were engaged in skirmishing. A

mountain which projected conveniently concealed the ambuscade of the

cavalry, and the battle began without delay. The Spaniards, as soon

as they saw the cattle at a distance, rushed upon them, and the

light-armed troops attacked the Spaniards while occupied with their

booty. At first they annoyed each other with missiles; but afterwards,

having discharged their light weapons, which were calculated to

provoke rather than to decide the contest, they drew their swords,

and began to engage foot to foot. The fight between the infantry would

have been doubtful, but that the cavalry then came up, and not only,

charging them in front, trod down all before them, but some also,

riding round by the foot of the hill, presented themselves on their

rear, so that they might intercept the greater part of them; and

consequently the carnage was greater than usually takes place in light

and skirmishing engagements. The resentment of the barbarians was

rather inflamed by this adverse battle, than their spirits depressed.

Accordingly, that they might not appear cast down, they marched out

into the field the following day as soon as it was light. The valley,

which was confined, as has been before stated, would not contain all

their forces. About two-thirds of their foot and all their cavalry

came down to the engagement. The remainder of their infantry they

stationed on the declivity of the hill. Scipio, conceiving that the

confined nature of the ground would be in his favour, both because the

Roman troops were better adapted for fighting in a contracted space

than the Spanish, and also because the enemy had come down and formed

their line on ground which would not contain all their forces, applied

his mind to a new expedient. For he considered that he could not

himself cover his flanks with his cavalry, and that those of the enemy

which they had led out, together with their infantry, would be unable

to act. Accordingly he ordered Laelius to lead the cavalry round by

the hills as secretly as possible, and separate, as far as he could,

the fight between the cavalry from that between the infantry. He

himself drew up the whole body of his infantry against the enemy,

placing four cohorts in front, because he could not extend his line

further. He commenced the battle without delay, in order that the

contest itself might divert the attention of the enemy, and prevent

their observing the cavalry which were passing along the hills. Nor

were they aware that they had come round before they beard the noise

occasioned by the engagement of the cavalry in their rear. Thus there

were two battles; two lines of infantry and two bodies of horse being

engaged within the space occupied by the plain lengthwise; and that

because it was too narrow to admit of both descriptions of force being

engaged in the same lines. When the Spanish infantry could not assist

their cavalry, nor their cavalry the infantry, and the infantry, which

had rashly engaged in the plain, relying on the assistance of the

cavalry, were being cut to pieces, the cavalry themselves also, being

surrounded and unable to stand the shock of the enemy's infantry

in front, (for by this time their own infantry were completely

overthrown,) nor of the cavalry in their rear, after having formed

themselves into a circle and defended themselves for a long time,

their horses standing still, were all slain to a man. Nor did one

person, horse or foot, survive of those who were engaged in the

valley. The third part, which stood upon the hill rather to view the

contest in security than to take any part of it upon themselves, had

both time and space to fly; among whom the princes themselves also

fled, having escaped during the confusion, before the army was

entirely surrounded.

34. The same day, besides other booty, the camp of the Spaniards was

taken, together with about three thousand men. Of the Romans and their

allies as many as one thousand two hundred fell in that battle; more

than three thousand were wounded. The victory would have been less

bloody had the battle taken place in a plain more extended, and

affording facilities for flight. Indibilis, renouncing his purpose

of carrying on war, and considering that his safest reliance in his

present distress was on the tried honour and clemency of Scipio, sent

his brother Mandonius to him; who, falling prostrate before his knees,

ascribed his conduct to the fatal frenzy of those times, when, as it

were from the effects of some pestilential contagion, not only the

Ilergetians and Lacetanians, but even the Roman camp had been infected

with madness. He said that his own condition, and that of his brother

and the rest of his countrymen, was such, that either, if it seemed

good, they would give back their lives to him from whom they had

received them, or if preserved a second time, they would in return for

that favour devote their lives for ever to the service of him to whom

alone they were indebted for them. They before placed their reliance

on their cause, when they had not yet had experience of his clemency,

but now, on the contrary, placing no reliance on their cause, all

their hopes were centred in the mercy of the conqueror. It was a

custom with the Romans, observed from ancient times, not to exercise

any authority over others, as subject to them, in cases where they did

not enter into friendship with them by a league and on equal terms,

until they had surrendered all they possessed, sacred and profane;

until they had received hostages, taken their arms from them, and

placed garrisons in their cities. In the present instance, however,

Scipio, after inveighing at great length against Mandonius, who stood

before him, and Indibilis, who was absent, said "that they had justly

forfeited their lives by their wicked conduct, but that they should

be preserved by the kindness of himself and the Roman people. Further,

that he would neither take their arms from them, (which only served as

pledges to those who feared rebellion,) but would leave them the

free use of them, and their minds free from fear; nor would he take

vengeance on their unoffending hostages, but upon themselves, should

they revolt, not inflicting punishment upon a defenceless but an armed

enemy. That he gave them the liberty of choosing whether they would

have the Romans favourable to them or incensed against them, for they

had experienced them under both circumstances." Thus Mandonius was

allowed to depart, having only a pecuniary fine imposed upon him to

furnish the means of paying the troops. Scipio himself, having sent

Marcius in advance into the Farther Spain, and sent Silanus back to

Tarraco, waited a few days until the Ilergetians had paid the fine

imposed upon them; and then, setting out with some troops lightly

equipped, overtook Marcius when he was now drawing near to the ocean.

35. The negotiation which had some time before commenced respecting

Masinissa, was delayed from one cause after another; for the Numidian

was desirous by all means of conferring with Scipio in person, and of

touching his right hand in confirmation of their compact. This was the

cause of Scipio's undertaking at this time a journey of such a length,

and into so remote a quarter. Masinissa, when at Gades, received

information from Marcius of the approach of Scipio, and by pretending

that his horses were injured by being pent up in the island, and that

they not only caused a scarcity of every thing to the rest, but also

felt it themselves; moreover that his cavalry were beginning to lose

their energy for want of employment; he prevailed upon Mago to allow

him to cross over to the continent, to plunder the adjacent country

of Spain. Having passed over, he sent forward three chiefs of the

Numidians, to fix a time and place for the conference desiring that

two might be detained by Scipio as hostages. The third being sent back

to conduct Masinissa to the place to which he was directed to bring

him, they came to the conference with a few attendants. The Numidian

had long before been possessed with admiration of Scipio from the fame

of his exploits; and his imagination had pictured to him the idea of

a grand and magnificent person; but his veneration for him was still

greater when he appeared before him. For besides that his person,

naturally majestic in the highest degree, was rendered still more

so by his flowing hair, by his dress, which was not in a precise and

ornamental style, but truly masculine and soldier-like, and also by

his age, for he was then in full vigour of body, to which the bloom of

youth, renewed as it were after his late illness, had given additional

fulness and sleekness. The Numidian, who was in a manner thunderstruck

by the mere effect of the meeting, thanked him for having sent home

his brother's son. He affirmed, that from that time he had sought for

this opportunity, which being at length presented to him, by favour of

the immortal gods, he had not allowed to pass without seizing it. That

he desired to serve him and the Roman people in such a manner, as that

no one foreigner should have aided the Roman interest with greater

zeal than himself. Although he had long since wished it, he had not

been so able to effect it in Spain, a foreign and strange country; but

that it would be easy for him to do so in that country in which he had

been born and educated, under the hope of succeeding to his father's

throne. If, indeed, the Romans should send the same commander, Scipio,

into Africa, he entertained a well-grounded hope that Carthage would

continue to exist but a short time. Scipio saw and heard him with the

highest delight, both because he knew that he was the first man in all

the cavalry of the enemy, and because the youth himself exhibited in

his manner the strongest proof of a noble spirit. After mutual pledges

of faith, he set out on his return to Tarraco. Masinissa, having laid

waste the adjacent lands, with the permission of the Romans, that he

might not appear to have passed over into the continent to no purpose,

returned to Gades.

36. Mago, who despaired of success in Spain, of which he had

entertained hopes, from the confidence inspired first by the mutiny of

the soldiers, and afterwards by the defection of Indibilis, received a

message from Carthage, while preparing to cross over into Africa, that

the senate ordered him to carry over into Italy the fleet he had at

Gades; and hiring there as many as he could of the Gallic and Ligurian

youth, to form a junction with Hannibal, and not to suffer the war to

flag which had been begun with so much vigour and still more success.

For this object Mago not only received a supply of money from

Carthage, but himself also exacted as much as he could from the

inhabitants of Gades, plundering not only their treasury, but their

temples, and compelling them individually to bring contributions of

gold and silver, for the public service. As he sailed along the coast

of Spain, he landed his troops not far from New Carthage, and after

wasting the neighbouring lands, brought his fleet thence to the city.

Here, keeping his troops in the ships by day, he landed them by night,

and marched them to that part of the wall at which Carthage had been

captured by the Romans; for he had supposed both that the garrison

by which the city was occupied was not sufficiently strong for its

protection, and that some of the townsmen would act on the hope of

effecting a change. But messengers who came with the utmost haste

and alarm from the country, brought intelligence at once of the

devastation of the lands, the flight of the rustics, and the approach

of the enemy. Besides, the fleet had been observed during the day, and

it was evident that there was some object in choosing a station before

the city. Accordingly, the troops were kept drawn up and armed within

the gate which looks towards the lake and the sea. When the enemy,

rushing forward in a disorderly manner, with a crowd of seamen mingled

with soldiers, came up to the walls with more noise than strength;

the gate being suddenly thrown open, the Romans sallied forth with a

shout, and pursued the enemy, routed and put to flight at the first

onset and discharge of their weapons, all the way to the shore,

killing a great number of them; nor would one of them have survived

the battle and the flight, had not the ships, which had been brought

to the shore, afforded them a refuge in their dismay. Great alarm and

confusion also prevailed in the ships, occasioned by their drawing up

the ladders, lest the enemy should force their way in together with

their own men, and by cutting away their halsers and anchors that they

might not lose time in weighing them. Many, too, met with a miserable

death while endeavouring to swim to the ships, not knowing, in

consequence of the darkness, which way to direct their course, or what

to avoid. On the following day, after the fleet had fled back to the

ocean whence it had come, as many as eight hundred were slain between

the wall and the shore, and two thousand stand of arms were found.

37. Mago, on his return to Gades, not being allowed to enter the

place, brought his fleet to shore at Cimbis, a place not far distant

from Gades; whence he sent ambassadors with complaints of their having

closed their gates upon a friend and ally. While they endeavoured

to excuse themselves on the ground that it was done by a disorderly

assembly of their people, who were exasperated against them on account

of some acts of plunder which had been committed by the soldiers when

they were embarking, he enticed their suffetes, which is the name

of the chief magistracy among the Carthaginians, together with

their quaestor, to come to a conference; when he ordered them to be

lacerated with stripes and crucified. He then passed over with his

fleet to the island Pityusa, distant about a hundred miles from the

continent, and inhabited at that time by Carthaginians; on which

account the fleet was received in a friendly manner; and not only were

provisions liberally furnished, but also young men and arms were given

them to reinforce their fleet. Rendered confident by these supplies,

the Carthaginians crossed over to the Balearian islands, fifty miles

distant. The Balearian islands are two in number; one larger than the

other, and more powerful in men and arms; having also a harbour in

which, as it was now the latter end of autumn, he believed he might

winter conveniently. But here his fleet was opposed with as much

hostility as he would have met with had the Romans inhabited that

island. The only weapons they used at that time, and which they now

principally employ, were slings; nor is there an individual of any

other nation who possesses such a degree of excellence in the skilful

use of this weapon, as the Balearians universally possess over the

rest of the world. Such a quantity of stones, therefore, was poured

like the thickest hail on the fleet, when approaching the shore, that,

not daring to enter the harbour, they made off for the main. They

then passed over to the lesser Balearian island, which is of a fertile

soil, but not equally powerful in men and arms. Here, therefore, they

landed, and pitched a camp in a strong position above the harbour;

and having made themselves masters of the city and country without a

contest, they enlisted two thousand auxiliaries, which they sent to

Carthage, and then hauled their ships on shore for the winter. After

Mago had left the coast of the ocean, the people of Gades surrendered

to the Romans.

38. Such were the transactions in Spain under the conduct and auspices

of Publius Scipio. Scipio himself, having put Lucius Lentulus and

Lucius Manlius Acidinus in charge of the province, returned to Rome

with ten ships. Having obtained an audience of the senate without the

city, in the temple of Bellona, he gave an account of the services he

had performed in Spain; how often he had fought pitched battles, how

many towns he had taken by force from the enemy, and what nations he

had brought under the dominion of the Roman people. He stated that he

had gone into Spain against four generals, and four victorious armies,

but that he had not left a Carthaginian in that country. On account of

these services he rather tried his prospect of a triumph, than pressed

it pertinaciously; for it was quite clear, that no one had triumphed

up to that time for services performed, when not invested with a

magistracy. When the senate was dismissed he entered the city, and

carried before him into the treasury fourteen thousand three hundred

and forty-two pounds of silver, and a great quantity of coined silver.

Lucius Veturius Philo then held the assembly for the election

of consuls, when all the centuries, with the strongest marks of

attachment, named Publius Scipio as consul. Publius Licinius Crassus,

chief pontiff, was joined with him as his colleague. It is recorded,

that this election was attended by a greater number of persons than

any other during the war. People had come together from all quarters,

not only to give their votes, but also for the purpose of seeing

Publius Scipio. They ran in crowds, not only to his house, but also to

the Capitol; where he was engaged in offering a sacrifice of a

hundred oxen to Jupiter, which he had vowed in Spain, impressed with

a presentiment, that as Caius Lutatius had terminated the former Punic

war, so Publius Scipio would terminate the present; and that as he had

driven the Carthaginians out of every part of Spain, so he would

drive them out of Italy; and dooming Africa to him as his province, as

though the war in Italy were at an end. The assembly was then held

for the election of praetors. Two were elected who were then plebeian

aediles, namely, Spurius Lucretius and Cneius Octavius; and of private

persons, Cneius Servilius Caepio and Lucius Aemilius Papus.

In the fourteenth year of the Punic war, Publius Cornelius Scipio and

Publius Licinius Crassus entered on the consulship, when the provinces

assigned to the consuls were, to Scipio, Sicily, without drawing lots,

his colleague not opposing it, because the care of the sacred affairs

required the presence of the chief pontiff in Italy; to Crassus,

Bruttium. The provinces of the praetors were then put to the

determination of lots, when the city jurisdiction fell to Servilius;

Ariminum, for so they called Gaul, to Spurius Lucretius; Sicily to

Lucius Aemilius; Sardinia to Cneius Octavius. A senate was held in

the Capitol, when, on the motion of Publius Scipio, a decree was made,

that he should exhibit the games which he had vowed in Spain during

the mutiny of the soldiers, out of the money which he had himself

brought into the treasury.

39. He then introduced into the senate the Saguntine ambassadors,

the eldest of whom thus spoke: "Although there remains no degree of

suffering, conscript fathers, beyond what we have endured, in order

that we might keep our faith towards you to the last; yet such are

the benefits which we have received both from yourselves and your

generals, that we do not repent of the calamities to which we have

ourselves been exposed. On our account you undertook the war, and

having undertaken it, you have continued to carry it on for now the

fourteenth year with such inflexible perseverance, that frequently you

have both yourselves been reduced, and have brought the Carthaginians

to the last extremity. At a time when you had a war of such a

desperate character in Italy, and Hannibal as your antagonist, you

sent your consul with an army into Spain, to collect, as it were, the

remains of our wreck. Publius and Cneius Cornelius, from the time they

entered the province, never ceased from adopting such measures as were

favourable to us and detrimental to our enemies. First of all,

they restored to us our town; and, sending persons to collect our

countrymen, who were sold and dispersed throughout all Spain, restored

them from a state of slavery to freedom. When our circumstances, from

being wretched in the extreme, had nearly assumed a desirable state,

your generals Publius and Cneius Cornelius fell more to be lamented by

ourselves even than by you. Then truly we seemed to have been dragged

back from distant places to our ancient abode, to perish again, and

witness the second destruction of our country. Nor did it appear

that there was any need forsooth of a Carthaginian army or general

to effect our destruction; but that we might be annihilated by the

Turdulans, our most inveterate enemies, who had also been the cause of

our former overthrow. When suddenly, to our great surprise, you sent

us this Publius Scipio, in seeing whom declared consul, and in having

it in our power to carry word back to our countrymen that we have

seen it, for on him our hopes and safety entirely rest, we consider

ourselves the most fortunate of all the Saguntines. He, when he had

taken a great number of the cities of your enemies in Spain, on all

occasions separated the Saguntines out of the mass of captives, and

sent them back to their country; and lastly, by his arms he reduced to

so low a state Turdetania, which harboured such animosity against

us, that if that nation continued to flourish it was impossible that

Saguntum could stand, that it not only was not an object of fear to

us, but, and may I say it without incurring odium, not even to our

posterity. We see the city of those persons demolished, to gratify

whom Hannibal destroyed Saguntum. We receive tribute from their lands,

which is not more acceptable to us from the advantage we derive from

it than from revenge. In consideration of these benefits, than which

we could not hope or wish for greater from the immortal gods, the

senate and people of Saguntum have sent us ten ambassadors to you

to return their thanks; and at the same time to offer you their

congratulations on your having carried on your operations in Spain

and Italy so successfully of late years, that you have subdued by

your arms, and have gotten possession of Spain, not only as far as

the river Iberus, but also to where the ocean forms the limit of the

remotest regions of the world; while in Italy you have left nothing

to the Carthaginian except so much space as the rampart of his camp

encloses. We have been desired, not only to return thanks for these

blessings to Jove most good and great, the guardian deity of the

capitoline citadel, but also, if you should permit us, to carry into

the Capitol this present of a golden crown in token of victory. We

request that you would permit us so to do; and, if you think

proper, that you would, by your authority, perpetuate and ratify the

advantages which your generals have conferred upon us." The senate

replied to the Saguntines, "that the destruction and restoration of

Saguntum would form a monument to all the nations of the world of

social faith preserved on both sides. That, in restoring Saguntum, and

rescuing its citizens from slavery, their generals had acted properly,

regularly, and according to the wishes of the senate; and that,

whatever other acts of kindness they had done to them, were in

conformity with the wishes of the senate. That they gave them

permission to deposit their present in the Capitol." Orders were then

given to furnish the ambassadors with apartments and entertainment,

and that not less than ten thousand _asses_ should be given to each as

a present. After this, the rest of the embassies were introduced and

heard. On the request of the Saguntines that they might go and take

a view of Italy as far as they could with safety, they were furnished

with guides, and letters were sent to the several towns, requiring

them to entertain the Spaniards kindly. The senate then took into

consideration the state of public affairs, the levying troops, and the

provinces.

40. It being generally reported that Africa, as a new province, was

destined for Publius Scipio without casting lots; and he himself, not

content with any moderate share of glory, asserting that he had been

declared consul, not only for prosecuting, but for finishing the war;

that that object could not be accomplished by any other means than

by his transporting an army into Africa; and himself openly declaring

that he would do it through the people if the senate opposed him; the

design by no means pleased the principal senators; and when the rest,

either through fear or a wish to ingratiate themselves with him, only

murmured, Quintus Fabius Maximus, being asked his opinion, thus spoke:

"I know, conscript fathers, that by many of you the question which is

this day agitated is considered as already determined; and that the

man who shall deliver his sentiments on the subject of making Africa a

province, as a new proposal, will speak to little purpose. But, in the

first place, I cannot see how it can be considered as determined,

that Africa shall be the province of the consul, that brave and active

officer, when neither the senate have voted nor the people ordered

that it should be constituted a province this year. In the next

place, if it is determined, I think the consul is to blame, who,

by pretending to consult the senate on a question already decided,

insults that body, and not the senator only who delivers his

sentiments in his place on the subject of deliberation. Now I am well

aware, that by disapproving of this excessive eagerness to pass over

into Africa, I subject myself to two imputations: one grounded on the

caution inherent in my disposition, which young men may if they

please call cowardice and sloth, so long as we have the consolation

to reflect, that though hitherto the measures of others have always

appeared on the first view of them the more plausible, mine on

experience have proved the sounder. The other imputation is that of

jealousy and envy towards the daily increasing glory of this most

valiant consul. But if neither my past life and character, nor a

dictatorship, together with five consulships, and so much glory

acquired, both in peace and war, that I am more likely to loathe it

than desire more, exempt me from such a suspicion, let my age at least

acquit me. For what rivalry can there exist between myself and a man

who is not equal in years even to my son? When I was dictator, when

as yet in the possession of full vigour, and engaged in a series of

affairs of the utmost magnitude, no one heard me, either in the senate

or in the popular assembly, express any reluctance to have the command

equally shared between myself and the master of the horse, at the

time when he was maligning me; a proposition which no one ever heard

mention of before. I chose to bring it about by actions rather than

by words, that he who was placed on the same footing with me in the

judgment of others, should soon by his own confession declare me his

superior. Much less, after having passed through these honours, would

I propose to myself to enter the lists of competition and rivalry with

a man in the very bloom of youth. And that, forsooth, in order that

Africa, if it shall have been denied to him, may be assigned as a

province to me, who am now weary of life, and not merely of active

employments. I must live and die with that share of glory which I have

already acquired. I prevented Hannibal from conquering, in order

that he might even be conquered by you, whose powers are now in full

vigour.

41. "It is but fair, Publius Cornelius, that you should pardon me,

if I, who in my own case never preferred the honour of men to the

interest of the state, do not place even your fame before the public

good. Although, if there were either no war in Italy, or an enemy of

such a description that no glory could be acquired from conquering

him, the man who would retain you in Italy, though actuated by a

desire to promote the public good, might appear to wish to deprive

you of an opportunity of acquiring renown when he objected to your

removing the war. But since Hannibal is our antagonist, who is

besieging Italy for now the fourteenth year, with an army unimpaired,

will you have reason to be dissatisfied, Publius Cornelius, with the

glory you will acquire, if you in your consulate shall drive out of

Italy an enemy who has been the cause of so many deaths and so many

disasters to us, and if you should enjoy the distinction of having

terminated this, as Caius Lutatius did the former Punic war? Unless

either Hamilcar is a general more worthy of consideration than

Hannibal, or a war in Africa of more importance, or a victory there

greater and more glorious, (should it be our lot to be victorious

while you are consul,) than one here. Would you rather have drawn away

Hamilcar from Drepanum and Eryx than have expelled the Carthaginians

and Hannibal from Italy? Although you naturally prize more highly

the renown which you have acquired than that which you hope for, yet

surely you would not boast more of having freed Spain from war than of

having freed Italy. Hannibal is not as yet in such a state as that

the man who prefers another war would not appear to have feared rather

than to have despised him. Why then do you not apply yourself to

this, and carry the war in a straightforward manner to the place where

Hannibal is, rather than pursue that circuitous course, according to

which you expect that when you shall have crossed over into

Africa Hannibal will follow you thither? Do you seek to obtain the

distinguished honour of having finished the Punic war? After you have

defended your own possessions, for this is naturally the first object,

then proceed to attack those of others. Let there be peace in Italy

before war in Africa; and let us be free from fear ourselves before

we bring it upon others. If it is possible that both objects may be

accomplished under your conduct and auspices, having first conquered

Hannibal here, then go and lay siege to Carthage; but if one or other

of these conquests must be left for the succeeding consuls, the former

is both the greater and more glorious, and also the cause of the

second. For now indeed, besides that the treasury is not able to

maintain two different armies, one in Italy and one in Africa; besides

that we nave nothing left from which we may equip fleets or be able to

furnish provisions, who knows not how great danger would be incurred?

Publius Licinius will wage war in Italy, Publius Scipio in Africa.

What if, (an omen which may all the gods avert, and which my mind

shrinks back with alarm from mentioning,--but what has happened may

happen again,--) what I say, if Hannibal, having gained a victory,

should advance to the city? Shall we then at length send for you, our

consul, out of Africa, as we formerly sent for Quintus Fulvius from

Capua? What shall we say when we consider that in Africa also both

parties will be liable to the chances of war? Let your own house, your

father and your uncle, slain together with their armies within the

space of thirty days, after that, having spent several years in the

performance of the most important services, both by sea and land, they

had inspired foreign nations with the highest reverence for the name

of the Roman people and your family, be a warning to you. The day

would fail me were I disposed to enumerate the kings and generals

who have brought the most signal calamities upon themselves and their

armies by rashly passing into the territories of their enemies. The

Athenians, a state distinguished for prudence, leaving a war at home,

sent a great fleet into Sicily at the instance of a youth equally

enterprising and illustrious; but by one naval battle they reduced

their flourishing republic to a state of humiliation from which she

could never recover.

42. "But I am adducing foreign and too remote examples. That same

Africa, and Marcus Atilius, who was a signal example of both

extremes of fortune, may form a warning to us. Without doubt, Publius

Cornelius, when you shall have a view of Africa from the sea, the

reduction of your province of Spain will appear to you to have been a

mere matter of sport and pastime. For what similarity is there between

them? After sailing along the coast of Italy and Gaul to Emporiae

without any enemy to oppose you, you brought your fleet to land at

a city of our allies. There landing your soldiers, you marched them

through countries entirely secure from danger to Tarraco, to join the

allies and friends of the Roman people. After that, from Tarraco you

marched through places garrisoned by Roman troops. On the banks of the

Iberus were the armies of your father and your uncle, rendered still

more furious after the loss of their generals, even by the very

calamity they had suffered. The general, indeed, Lucius Marcius, had

been irregularly constituted and chosen for the time by the suffrages

of the soldiers; but had he been adorned with noble birth and the

regular gradation of preferment, he would have been equal to the most

distinguished generals, from his skill in every art of war. You then

laid siege to Carthage, quite at your leisure, not one of the three

Punic armies coming to the defence of their allies. The rest of your

achievements, nor do I wish to disparage them, are by no means to be

compared with what you will have to do in a war in Africa, where there

is not a single harbour open to receive our fleet, no part of the

country at peace with us, no state in alliance, no king in friendship

with us, no room in any part either to take up a position or to

advance. Whichever way you turn your eyes, all is hostility and

danger. Do you trust in the Numidians and Syphax? Let it suffice to

have trusted in them once. Temerity is not always successful, and the

fraudulent usually pave the way to confidence in small matters, that

when an advantageous opportunity occurs, they may deceive with great

gain. Your father and uncle were not cut off by the arms of their

enemies till they were duped by the treachery of their Celtiberian

allies; nor were you yourself exposed to so much danger from Mago

and Hasdrubal, the generals of your enemies, as from Indibilis and

Mandonius, whom you had received into friendship. Can you place any

confidence in Numidians after having experienced a defection in your

own soldiers? Syphax and Masinissa would rather that they themselves

should have the rule in Africa than the Carthaginians, but that the

Carthaginians should rather than any other state. At present emulation

and the various causes of dispute existing between them incite them

against each other, because the fear of any foreign enemy is remote.

But show them the Roman arms and a body of troops, natives of another

country, and they will run together as if to extinguish a common

conflagration. These same Carthaginians defended Spain in a different

manner from that in which they will defend the walls of their capital,

the temples of their gods, their altars, and their hearths; when their

terrified wives will attend them on the way to the battle, and

their little children will run to them. What, moreover, if the

Carthaginians, feeling sufficiently secure in the harmony subsisting

in Africa, in the attachment of the sovereigns in alliance with them,

and their own fortifications, should, when they see Italy deprived

of the support of yourself and your army, themselves assuming an

offensive attitude, either send a fresh army out of Africa into

Italy, or order Mago, who, it is certain, having passed over from the

Baleares, is now sailing along the coast of Liguria and the Alps, to

form a junction with Hannibal. Without doubt, we should be thrown into

the same state of alarm as we were lately, when Hasdrubal passed over

into Italy; that Hasdrubal, whom you, who are about to blockade, not

Carthage only, but all Africa with your army, allowed to slip out of

your hands into Italy. You will say that he was conquered by you.

For that very reason I should be less willing, not on account of the

commonwealth only, but of yourself, that, after having been defeated,

he should be allowed to march into Italy. Suffer us to ascribe to your

prudence all the successful events which have happened to you and

the empire of the Roman people, and to impute all those of an adverse

nature to the uncertain chances of war and to fortune. The more

meritorious and brave you are, so much the more do your country and

all Italy desire to retain you as their protector. You cannot even

yourself pretend to deny, that where Hannibal is, there is the head

and principal stress of the war, for you profess, that your motive

in crossing over into Africa is to draw Hannibal thither. Whether,

therefore, here or there, it is with Hannibal that you will have to

contend. Will you then, I pray, have more power in Africa and alone,

or here, with your own and your colleague's army united? Is not the

great difference which this makes proved to you even by the recent

precedent of Claudius and Livius, the consuls? What! will Hannibal,

who has now for a long time been unavailingly soliciting succours from

home, be rendered more powerful in men and arms when occupying the

remotest corner of the Bruttian territory, or when near to Carthage

and supported by all Africa? What sort of policy is that of yours, to

prefer fighting where your own forces will be diminished by one half,

and the enemy's greatly augmented, to encountering the enemy when

you will have two armies against one, and that wearied with so many

battles, and so protracted and laborious a service? Consider how far

this policy of yours corresponds with that of your parent. He, setting

out in his consulship for Spain, returned from his province into

Italy, that he might meet Hannibal on his descent from the Alps; while

you are going to leave Italy when Hannibal is there, not because you

consider such a course beneficial to the state, but because you think

it will redound to your own honour and glory; acting in the same

manner as you did when leaving your province and your army without the

sanction of a law, without a decree of the senate, you, a general

of the Roman people, intrusted to two ships the fortune of the

commonwealth and the majesty of the empire, which were then hazarded

in your person. In my estimation, conscript fathers, Publius Cornelius

was elected consul for the service of the state and of us, and not to

forward his own individual interest; and the armies were enlisted for

the protection of the city and of Italy, and not for the consuls,

like kings, to carry into whatever part of the world they please from

motives of vanity."

43. Fabius having made a strong impression on a large portion of the

senate, and especially those advanced in years, by this speech,

which was adapted to the occasion, and also by his authority and his

long-established reputation for prudence; and those who approved

of the counsel of this old man being more numerous than those who

commended the hot spirit of the young one; Scipio is reported thus

to have spoken: "Even Quintus Fabius himself has observed, conscript

fathers, in the commencement of his speech, that in the opinion he

gave a feeling of jealousy might be suspected. And though I dare

not myself charge so great a man with harbouring that feeling, yet,

whether it is owing to a defect in his language, or to the fact, that

suspicion has certainly not been removed. For he has so magnified his

own honours and the fame of his exploits, in order to do away with

the imputation of envy, that it would appear I am in danger of being

rivalled by every obscure person, but not by himself, because, as he

enjoys an eminence above every body else, an eminence to which I do

not dissemble that I also aspire, he is unwilling that I should be

placed upon a level with him. He has represented himself as an old

man, and as one who has gone through every gradation of honour, and me

as below the age even of his son; as if he supposed that the desire

of glory did not exceed the limits of human life, and as if its chief

part had not respect to memory and future ages. I am confident, that

it is usual with all the most exalted minds, to compare themselves,

not only with the illustrious men of the present, but of every age.

For my own part, I do not dissemble that I am desirous, not only to

attain to the share of glory which you possess, Quintus Fabius, but,

(and in saying it I mean no offence,) if I can, even to exceed it. Let

not such a feeling exist in your mind towards me, nor in mine towards

those who are my juniors, as that we should be unwilling that any of

our countrymen should attain to the same celebrity with ourselves; for

that would be a detriment, not to those only who may be the objects

of our envy, but to the state, and almost to the whole human race. He

mentioned what a great degree of danger I should incur, should I cross

over into Africa, so that he appeared solicitous on my account, and

not only for the state and the army. But whence has this concern for

me so suddenly sprung? When my father and uncle were slain; when their

two armies were cut up almost to a man; when Spain was lost; when four

armies of the Carthaginians and four generals kept possession of every

thing by terror and by arms; when a general was sought for to take the

command of that war, and no one came forward besides myself, no one

had the courage to declare himself a candidate; when the Roman people

had conferred the command upon me, though only twenty-four years of

age; why was it that no one at that time made any mention of my age,

of the strength of the enemy, of the difficulty of the war, and of the

recent destruction of my father and uncle? Has some greater disaster

been suffered in Africa now than had at that time befallen us

in Spain? Are there now larger armies in Africa, more and better

generals, than were then in Spain? Was my age then more mature for

conducting a war than now? Can a war with a Carthaginian enemy be

carried on with greater convenience in Spain than in Africa? After

having routed and put to flight four Carthaginian armies; after having

captured by force, or reduced to submission by fear, so many cities;

after having entirely subdued every thing as far as the ocean, so

many petty princes, so many savage nations; after having regained

possession of the whole of Spain, so that no trace of war remains,

it is an easy matter to make light of my services; just as easy as

it would be, should I return victorious from Africa, to make light of

those very circumstances which are now magnified in order that they

may appear formidable, for the purpose of detaining me here. He says

that there is no possibility of entering Africa; that there are no

ports open. He mentions that Marcus Atilius was taken prisoner in

Africa, as if Marcus Atilius had miscarried on his first access to

Africa. Nor does he recollect that the ports of Africa were open to

that very commander, unfortunate as he was; that he performed some

brilliant services during the first year, and continued undefeated

to the last, so far as related to the Carthaginian generals. You will

not, therefore, in the least deter me by that example of yours. If

that disaster had been sustained in the present, and not in the former

war, if lately, and not forty years ago, yet why would it be less

advisable for me to cross over into Africa after Regulus had been

made prisoner there, than into Spain after the Scipios had been slain

there? I should be reluctant to admit that the birth of Xanthippus

the Lacedaemonian was more fortunate for Carthage than mine for my

country. My confidence would be increased by the very circumstance,

that such important consequences depended upon the valour of one

man. But further, we must take warning by the Athenians, who

inconsiderately crossed over into Sicily, leaving a war in their own

country. Why, therefore, since you have leisure to relate Grecian

tales, do you not rather set before us the instance of Agathocles,

king of Syracuse, who, when Sicily was for a long time wasted by a

Punic war, by passing over into this same Africa, removed the war to

the country from whence it came.

44. "But what need is there of ancient and foreign examples to remind

us what sort of thing it is boldly to carry terror against an enemy,

and, removing the danger from oneself, to bring another into peril?

Can there be a stronger instance than Hannibal himself, or one more

to the point? It makes a great difference whether you devastate the

territories of another, or see your own destroyed by fire and sword.

He who brings danger upon another has more spirit than he who repels

it. Add to this, that the terror excited by unknown circumstances is

increased on that account. When you have entered the territory of an

enemy, you may have a near view of his advantages and disadvantages.

Hannibal did not expect that it would come to pass that so many of the

states in Italy would come over to him as did so after the defeat at

Cannae. How much less would any firmness or constancy be experienced

in Africa by the Carthaginians, who are themselves faithless allies,

oppressive and haughty masters! Besides, we, even when deserted by

our allies, stood firm in our own strength, the Roman soldiery. The

Carthaginians possess no native strength. The soldiers they have are

obtained by hire;--Africans and Numidians--people remarkable above

all others for the inconstancy of their attachments. Provided no

impediment arises here, you will hear at once that I have landed, and

that Africa is blazing with war; that Hannibal is preparing for his

departure from this country, and that Carthage is besieged. Expect

more frequent and more joyful despatches from Africa than you received

from Spain. The considerations on which I ground my anticipations are

the good fortune of the Roman people, the gods, the witnesses of the

treaty violated by the enemy, the kings Syphax and Masinissa; on whose

fidelity I will rely in such a manner as that I may be secure from

danger should they prove perfidious. Many things which are not now

apparent, at this distance, the war will develope; and it is the

part of a man, and a general, not to be wanting when fortune presents

itself, and to bend its events to his designs. I shall, Quintus

Fabius, have the opponent you assign me, Hannibal; but I shall rather

draw him after me than be kept here by him. I will compel him to fight

in his own country, and Carthage shall be the prize of victory rather

than the half-ruined forts of the Bruttians. With regard to providing

that the state sustain no injury in the mean time, while I am crossing

over, while I am landing my troops in Africa, while I am advancing

my camp to the walls of Carthage; be not too sure that it is not an

insult to Publius Licinius, the consul, a man of consummate valour,

who did not draw lots for so distant a province merely that, as he was

chief pontiff, he might not be absent from religious affairs, to

say that he is unable to do that, now that the power of Hannibal is

shaken, and in a manner shattered, which you Quintus Fabius, were

able to effect when he was flying victorious throughout all Italy.

By Hercules, even if the war would not be more speedily terminated by

adopting the plan I propose, yet it were consistent with the dignity

of the Roman people, and the high character they enjoy with foreign

kings and nations, to appear to have had spirit not only to defend

Italy, but also to carry hostilities into Africa; and that it should

not be supposed and spread abroad that no Roman general dared what

Hannibal had dared; that in the former Punic war, when the contest was

about Sicily, Africa should have been so often attacked by our fleets

and armies, and that now, when the contest is about Italy, Africa

should be left undisturbed. Let Italy, which has so long been

harassed, at length enjoy some repose; let Africa, in her turn,

be fired and devastated. Let the Roman camp overhang the gates of

Carthage rather than that we should again behold the rampart of the

enemy from our walls. Let Africa be the seat of the remainder of the

war. Let terror and flight, the devastation of lands, the defection of

allies, and all the other calamities of war which have fallen upon

us, through a period of fourteen years, be turned upon her. It is

sufficient for me to have spoken on those matters which relate to the

state, the war before us, and the provinces which form the subject of

deliberation. My discourse would be tedious and uninteresting to you

if, as Fabius has depreciated my services in Spain, I should also

in like manner endeavour, on the other hand, to turn his glory into

ridicule, and make the most of my own. I will do neither, conscript

fathers; and if in nothing else, though a young man, I shall certainly

have shown my superiority over this old man, in modesty and the

government of my tongue. Such has been my life, and such the services

I have performed, that I can gladly rest contented in silence with

that opinion which you have spontaneously conceived of me."

45. Scipio was heard less favourably, because, a report had been

spread that, if he did not prevail with the senate to have Africa

decreed to him as his province, he would immediately lay the matter

before the people. Therefore, Quintus Fulvius, who had been consul

four times, and censor, requested of the consul that he would openly

declare in the senate whether "he submitted to the fathers to decide

respecting the provinces; and whether he intended to abide by their

determination, or to put it to the people." Scipio having replied that

he would act as he thought for the interest of the state, Fulvius then

rejoined: "When I asked you the question I was not ignorant of what

answer you would give, or how you would act; for you plainly show that

you are rather sounding than consulting the senate; and, unless we

immediately decree to you the province you wish, have a bill ready

(to lay before the people). Therefore," said he, "I require of you,

tribunes of the people, to support me in refusing to give my opinion,

because, though my recommendation should be adopted, the consul is

not disposed to abide by it." An altercation then arose, the consul

asserting that it was unfair for the tribunes to interpose so as to

prevent any senator from living his opinion in his place on being

asked it. The tribunes came to the determination, "that if the consul

submit to the senate the question relating to the provinces, whatever

the senate decree we shall consider as final, nor will we allow a bill

to be proposed to the people on the subject. If he does not submit

it to them, we will support any one who shall refuse to deliver his

sentiments upon the matter." The consul requested the delay of a day

to confer with his colleague. The next day the decision was submitted

to the senate. The provinces were assigned in this manner: to one of

the consuls Sicily and thirty ships of war, which Caius Servilius had

commanded the former year; he was also permitted to cross over into

Africa if he conceived it to be for the advantage of the state. To the

other consul Bruttium and the war with Hannibal were assigned; with

either that army which Lucius Veturius or that which Quintus Caecilius

commanded. The two latter were to draw lots, and settle between

themselves which should act in Bruttium with the two legions which

the consul gave up; and he to whose lot that province fell, was to be

continued in command for a year. The other persons also, besides

the consuls and praetors, who were to take the command of armies and

provinces, were continued in command. It fell to the lot of Quintus

Caecilius to carry on the war against Hannibal in Bruttium, together

with the consul. The games of Scipio were then celebrated in the

presence of a great number of persons, and with the approbation of the

spectators. The deputies, Marcus Pomponius Matho and Quintus Catius,

sent to Delphi to convey a present out of the spoils taken from

Hasdrubal, carried with them a golden crown of two hundred pounds'

weight, and representations of the spoils made out of a thousand

pounds' weight of silver. Scipio, though he could not obtain leave

to levy troops, a point which he did not urge with great eagerness,

obtained leave to take with him such as volunteered their services;

and also, as he declared that the fleet would not be the occasion of

expense to the state, to receive what was furnished by the allies for

building fresh ships. First, the states of Etruria engaged to assist

the consuls to the utmost of their respective abilities. The people

of Caere furnished corn, and provisions of every description, for the

crews; the people of Populoni furnished iron; of Tarquinii, cloth

for sails; those of Volaterrae, planks for ships, and corn; those of

Arretium, thirty thousand shields, as many helmets; and of javelins,

Gallic darts, and long spears, they undertook to make up to the amount

of fifty thousand, an equal number of each description, together

with as many axes, mattocks, bills, buckets, and mills, as should be

sufficient for fifty men of war, with a hundred and twenty thousand

pecks of wheat; and to contribute to the support of the decurios and

rowers on the voyage. The people of Perusia, Clusium, and Rusella

furnished firs for building ships, and a great quantity of corn.

Scipio had firs out of the public woods. The states of Umbria, and,

besides them, the people of Nursia, Reate, and Amiternum, and

all those of the Sabine territory, promised soldiers. Many of the

Marsians, Pelignians, and Marrucinians volunteered to serve in the

fleet. The Cameritans, as they were joined with the Romans in league

on equal terms, sent an armed cohort of six hundred men. Having laid

the keels of thirty ships, twenty of which were quinqueremes, and ten

quadriremes, he prosecuted the work with such diligence, that, on the

forty-fifth day after the materials were taken from the woods, the

ships, being fully equipped and armed, were launched.

46. He set out into Sicily with thirty ships of war, with about seven

thousand volunteers on board. Publius Licinius came into Bruttium to

the two consular armies, of which he selected for himself that which

Lucius Veturius, the consul, had commanded. He allowed Metellus to

continue in the command of those legions which were before under him,

concluding that he could act more easily with the troops accustomed to

his command. The praetors also went to their different provinces. As

there was a scarcity of money to carry on the war, the quaestors were

ordered to sell a district of the Campanian territory extending from

the Grecian trench to the sea, with permission to receive information

as to what land belonged to a native Campanian, in order that it might

be put into the possession of the Roman people. The reward fixed

upon for the informer was a tenth part of the value of the lands so

discovered. Cneius Servilius, the city praetor, was also charged with

seeing that the Campanians dwelt where they were allowed, according to

the decree of the senate, and to punish such as dwelt anywhere else.

The same summer, Mago, son of Amilcar, setting out from the lesser of

the Balearian islands, where he had wintered, having put on board

his fleet a chosen body of young men, conveyed over into Italy twelve

thousand foot, and about two thousand horse, with about thirty ships

of war, and a great number of transports. By the suddenness of his

arrival he took Genoa, as there were no troops employed in protecting

the sea-coast. Thence he brought his fleet to shore, on the coast of

the Alpine Ligurians, to see if he could create any commotion there.

The Ingaunians, a tribe of the Ligurians, were at that juncture

engaged in war with the Epanterians, a people inhabiting the

mountains. The Carthaginian, therefore, having deposited his plunder

at Savo, an Alpine town, left ten ships of war for its protection. He

sent the rest to Carthage to guard the sea-coast, as it was reported

that Scipio intended to pass over thither; formed an alliance with

the Ingaunians, whose friendship he preferred; and commenced an attack

upon the mountaineers. His army increased daily, the Gauls flocking to

his standard from all sides, from the splendour of his fame. When the

senate received information of these things, by a letter from Spurius

Lucretius, they were filled with the most intense anxiety, lest the

joy they had experienced on the destruction of Hasdrubal and his army,

two years before, should be rendered vain by another war's springing

up in the same quarter, equal in magnitude, but under a new leader.

They therefore ordered Marcus Livius, proconsul, to march his army

of volunteer slaves out of Etruria to Ariminum, and gave in charge to

Cneius Servilius to issue orders, if he thought it necessary for the

safety of the state, that the city legions should be marched out under

the command of any person he thought proper. Marcus Valerius Laevinus

led those legions to Arretium. About the same time, as many as eighty

transports of the Carthaginians were captured, near Sardinia, by

Cneius Octavius, who had the government of that province. Caelius

states that they were laden with corn and provisions, sent for

Hannibal; Valerius, that they were conveying the plunder of Etruria,

and the Ligurian mountaineers who had been captured, to Carthage.

In Bruttium scarcely any thing was done this year worth recording.

A pestilence had attacked both Romans and Carthaginians with equal

violence; but the Carthaginian army, in addition to sickness, was

distressed by famine. Hannibal passed the summer near the temple

of Juno Lacinia, where he erected and dedicated an altar with an

inscription engraved in Punic and Greek characters, setting forth, in

pompous terms, the achievements he had performed.