[Footnote 79: Polybius, who, as will be noted, belongs to a period two and
a half centuries later than the greatest Greek historians--Herodotus,
Thucydides and Xenophon--is classed by Mahaffy as "the soberest and most
valuable" of those who wrote with masters as their models. While he has
suffered from the fate of all imitators, his work is "of the highest value
to the historian, as a long series of approving critics has amply shown."
He has never been read as a stylist, "nor could he be said to form a part
of the classical literature of Greece."]
[Footnote 80: From Book IV of the "Histories." Translated by Evelyn S.
Shuckburgh. In this battle Hannibal had about 50,000 men, and the
Romans about 80,000.]
[Footnote 81: Gaius Terentius Varro, who was then Consul and died
later than 200 B.C.]
[Footnote 82: Lucius Æmilius Paulus was then Consul.]
[Footnote 83: Hannibal's brother, who, nine years later, crossed the
Alps and was killed in battle by the Romans. It was a tradition in
Rome that Hasdrubal's head, severed from his body, was sent to
Hannibal.]
[Footnote 84: The younger brother of Hannibal, who in 200 B.C. was
defeated by Scipio at Silpia.]
[Footnote 85: The site of Cannæ in Apulia, southern Italy, near the
Adriatic shore, lies on the bank of the river Aufidus, now called the
Ofanto.]