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T. LIVII PATAVINI

HISTORIARUM

AB URBE CONDITA

LIBRI.

LIBER XXI.

EPITOME.

In Italiam belli Punici secundi ortus narratur, et Hannibalis Panorum ducis contra fœdus per Iberum amnem transitus, a quo Saguntum, sociorum populi Romani civitas, obsessa octavo mense capta est. De quibus injuriis missi legati ad Carthaginienses, qui quererentur. Quum satisfacere nollent, bellum iis indictum est. Hannibal, superato Pyrenæo saltu, per Gallias, fusis Volscis, qui obsistere conati erant, ad Alpes venit; et laborioso per eas transitu, quum montanos quoque Gallos obvios aliquot præliis repulisset, descendit in Italiam, et ad Ticinum amnem Romanos equestri prælio fudit: in quo vulneratum P. Cornelium Scipionem protexit filius, qui Africani postea nomen accepit. Iterumque exercitu Romano ad flumen Trebiam fuso, Hannibal Apenninum quoque, per magnam militum vexationem propter vim tempestatum, transiit. Cn. Cornelius Scipio in Hispania contra Panos prospere pugnavit, duce hostium Magone capto,

IN parte operis mei licet mihi præfari, quod in principio. summæ totius professi plerique sunt rerum scriptores, bellum maxime omnium memorabile, quæ unquam gesta sint, me scripturum; quod, Hannibale duce, Carthagi

In parte operis.] "At a section of my work," &c. Notwithstanding some discussion on the question, it would appear from the prefatory remarks here, and at the commencements of Books i. and xxxi. (the beginning of xli. having been lost, that Livy intended to divide his work into Decades. (See Niebuhr,

and Smith's Dict. of Biogr. and Mythol.)

2 Quod professi plerique sunt &c.] For instance, Sallust, (Preface to Jugurtha,) and Thucydides, who premises that the war he describes μέγαν τε ἔσεσθαι, καὶ ἀξιολογώτατον τῶν προγεγενημένων.

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nienses cum populo Romano gessere. Nam neque validiores opibus ullæ inter se civitates gentesque contulerunt arma, neque his ipsis tantum unquam virium aut roboris fuit et haud ignotas belli artes inter se, sed expertas primo Punico conserebant bello: et adeo varia belli fortuna ancepsque Mars fuit, ut propius periculum fuerint, qui vicerunt. Odiis etiam prope majoribus certarunt, quam viribus: Romanis indignantibus, quod victoribus victi ultro inferrent arma; Poenis, quod superbe avareque crederent imperitatum victis esse. Fama etiam est, Hannibalem annorum ferme novem, pueriliter blandientem patri Hamilcari, ut duceretur in Hispaniam, quum, perfecto Africo bello, exercitum eo trajecturus sacrificaret, altaribus admotum, tactis sacris jurejurando adactum, se, quum primum posset, hostem fore populo Romano. Angebant ingentis spiritus virum Sicilia Sardiniaque amissæ: nam et Siciliam nimis celeri desperatione rerum concessam, et Sardiniam inter motum Africæ fraude Romanorum, stipendio etiam insuper imposito, interceptam. His anxius curis ita se Africo bello', quod fuit sub recentem Romanam pacem, per

3 Et haud ignotas &c.] 66 They also brought to the contest military resources not mutually (inter se) unknown, but tested in the first Punic war."

4 Odiis &c.] "The animosity with which they contended was almost greater than their strength."

5 Pueriliter blandientem.] "Urging his father with childish caresses, (or childish enthuiasm.)"

6 Sicilia Sardiniaque amissæ.] "The loss of Sicily and Sardinia was vexatious to a proud-spirited man; for (he considered) that Sicily on the one hand (et) had been abandoned in premature despair of the cause (rerum), and, on the other (et), that Sardinia" &c. These had been lost by Carthage in the first Punic war. The terms on which peace was concluded were, the evacuation of Sicily; the surrender of all prisoners of war without ransom; the payment of 3000 talents of silver (about £600,000); the exclusion of Carthage from all islands about Italy and Sicily; and mutual noninterference with allies. After the second Punic war, the Carthaginians abandoned all their territories out of Africa, and surrendered their fleet

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to the Romans. The foreign possessions of Carthage, before the first Punic war, were, the Baleares, Corsica, Sardinia, and some smaller islands in the Mediterranean, the southern parts of Italy and Spain, some settlements on the western coast of Africa, the Insulæ Fortunatæ (Canaries), and Madeira.

On

7 Africo bello.] This, called by historians inexpiabile bellum, was a civil war against Carthage, on the part of the Numidians and other mercenaries, who had supplied contingents in the Roman (first Punic) war, and complained of not having received their stipulated pay. this occasion the insurgents actually took Carthage, and sold into slavery a considerable number of the children of the nobility. One of these was the comic poet, Terence, who was purchased by the distinguished Roman whose family name he assumed, as usual, on his manumission.

The Carthaginians, being a wealthy and mercantile community, like the Venetians and Genoese of later times, generally employed mercenary troops in their wars; and were therefore under considerable disadvantage, as compared with the Ro

quinque annos, ita deinde novem annis in Hispania augendo Punico imperio gessit, ut appareret, majus eum, quam quod gereret, agitare in animo bellum: et, si diutius vixisset, Hamilcare duce Poenos arma Italiæ illaturos fuisse, qui Hannibalis ductu intulerunt. Mors Hamilcaris peroppor

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tuna et pueritia Hannibalis distulerunt bellum. Medius Hasdrubal inter patrem et filium octo ferme annos imperium obtinuit; flore ætatis, uti ferunt, primo Hamilcari conciliatus: gener inde ob altam indolem provecto annis ascitus, et, quia gener erat, factionis Barcinæ opibus, quæ apud milites plebemque plus quam modicæ erant, haud sane voluntate principum, imperio potitus. Is, plura consilio, quam vi, gerens, hospitiis regulorum magis, conciliandisque per amicitiam principum novis gentibus, quam bello aut armis, rem Carthaginiensem auxit. Ceterum nihilo ei pax tutior fuit. Barbarus eum quidam palam, ob iram interfecti ab eo domini, obtruncavit; comprehensusque ab circumstantibus haud alio, quam si evasisset, vultu, tormentis quoque quum laceraretur, eo fuit habitu oris, ut, superante lætitia dolores, ridentis etiam speciem præbuerit. Cum hoc Hasdrubale', quia miræ artis in sollicitandis gentibus, imperioque jungendis suo fuerat, fœdus renovaverat populus Romanus, ut finis utriusque imperii esset amnis Iberus, Saguntinisque mediis inter imperia duorum populorum

mans, among whom every citizen was a soldier. It was during those domestic troubles that a threatened renewal of hostilities compelled them to give up Sardinia, not included in the original treaty, and increase the indemnity by 1000 silver talents.

8 Hamilcare duce, &c.] "That the Carthaginians would have carried war into Italy under the command of Hamilcar, as (qui) they did," &c. The general here mentioned was Hamilcar Barca. Two others of the same name had previously commanded the armies of Carthage; the son of Mago, defeated and slain by Gelon of Syracuse, (B. C. 480;) and the son of Gisco, who was killed in an assault on Syracuse during the absence of Agathocles in Africa, (B.C. 309.) This Hamilcar had fallen in battle with the Vetrones, one of the most warlike Spanish tribes.

9 Factionis Barcina.] This was the democratic party, headed by the Barca family, whose most distinguished members were Hamilcar,

his three sons, Hannibal the Great, Hasdrubal, and Mago, and his sonin-law Hasdrubal. The leader of the opposite (aristocratic) faction, at this time, was Hanno; and it was by the jealousy and machinations of this party that Hannibal was banished on the conclusion of the second Punic war. The name Barca (Hebrew, Varak) literally signifies "a thunderbolt." It is probably in the same sense that Virgil calls the Scipios fulmina belli.

1 Cum hoc Hasdrubale.] In order to retain the emphasis which the arrangement of words, in the original, lends to the proper name, we must translate, "It was with this Hasdrubal, because he possessed singular address in conciliating," &c.

2 Saguntinisque.] "And that the liberties of the Saguntines, who lay between the dominions of both nations, should be guaranteed." The name Saguntum (now Murviedro) is a corruption of that of Zacynthus,

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libertas servaretur. In Hasdrubalis locum3 haud dubia res
fuit, quin prærogativam militarem, qua extemplo juvenis
Hannibal in prætorium delatus, imperatorque ingenti
omnium clamore atque assensu appellatus erat, favor etiam
plebis sequeretur. Hunc vixdum puberem Hasdrubal
literis ad se arcessierat: actaque res etiam in senatu fuerat,
Barcinis nitentibus, ut assuesceret militiæ Hannibal, atque
in paternas succederet opes. Hanno, alterius factionis
princeps, 'Et æquum postulare videtur,' inquit, 'Hasdrubal,
et ego tamen non censeo, quod petit, tribuendum.' Quum
admiratione tam ancipitis sententiæ in se omnes conver-
tisset, Florem ætatis,' inquit, 'Hasdrubal, quem ipse patri
Hannibalis fruendum præbuit, justo jure eum a filio repeti
censet: nos tamen minime decet, juventutem nostram pro
'militari rudimento assuefacere libidini prætorum. An hoc
'timemus, ne Hamilcaris filius nimis sero imperia immodica
'et regni paterni speciem videat; et, cujus regis genero
'hereditarii sint relicti exercitus nostri, ejus filio parum
mature serviamus? Ego, istum juvenem domi tenendum,
'sub legibus, sub magistratibus' docendum vivere æquo jure

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from which its founders originally
came. It is not to be understood
here that the Ebro actually formed
a frontier; for the territories of the
two nations were not so regularly
defined; but, that neither party
should cross it for the purpose of
invasion.

3 In Hasdrubalis locum.] As it
would involve too violent a trans-
position of the text, to take these
words after imperator appellatus erat,
the whole sentence must be regarded
as an anacoluthon. Retaining, as
nearly as possible, the order of the
original, the translation will run
thus: "In succession to Hasdrubal,
there was no doubt that the appro-
bation of the people also would fol-
low the precedent (prærogativam) of
the military vote, by which the young
Hannibal had been at once brought
into the prætorium, and received
the title of General, with loud and
universal acclamation and assent."
For the primary meaning of præro-
gativa, see Roman Antiquities.
This Hannibal had been preceded
by two others of the same name
(synonymous with the Hebrew Ana-
nias); the grandson and great-
grandson of Mago, whose father

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5 Tam ancipitis sententiæ,] "So two-sided (ambiguous) an opinion.". 6 Et, cujus regis &c.] The English idiom, rarely admitting the relative before the antecedent, requires a transposition fatal to the emphasis of this sentence; sc. " and that we may not, sufficiently soon, become subject to the son of that prince, to whose son-in-law our armies have been left as an inheritance." It is possible that Hanno may have used the term regis maliciously, to enlist the prejudices of a people whose government was a republic.

7 Sub magistratibus.] The civil and military authorities at Carthage

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'cum ceteris, censeo: ne quandoque parvus hic ignis incen'dium ingens exsuscitet.' Pauci, ac ferme optimus quisque, Hannoni assentiebantur: sed, ut plerumque fit, major pars meliorem vicit. Missus Hannibal in Hispaniam primo statim adventu9 omnem exercitum in se convertit. Hamil

carem juvenem redditum sibi veteres milites credere; eundem vigorem1 in vultu, vimque in oculis, habitum oris, lineamentaque intueri. Dein brevi effecit, ut pater in se minimum momentum ad favorem conciliandum esset. Nunquam ingenium idem ad res diversissimas, parendum atque imperandum, habilius fuit. Itaque haud facile decerneres, utrum imperatori, an exercitui, carior esset: neque Hasdrubal alium quemquam præficere malle, ubi quid fortiter ac strenue agendum esset: neque milites alio duce plus confidere, aut audere. Plurimum audaciæ ad pericula capessenda, plurimum consilii inter ipsa pericula erat: nullo labore aut corpus fatigari, aut animus vinci poterat. Caloris ac frigoris patientia par; cibi potionisque desiderio naturali, non voluptate, modus finitus: vigiliarum somnique nec die, nec nocte discriminata tempora. Id, quod gerendis rebus superesset, quieti datum: ea neque molli strato, neque silentio arcessita. Multi sæpe militari sagulo opertum, humi jacentem inter custodias stationesque militum, conspexerunt. Vestitus nihil inter æquales excellens : arma atque equi conspiciebantur. Equitum peditumque idem longe primus erat. Princeps in proelium3 ibat: ultimus conserto prælio excedebat. Has tantas viri virtutes ingentia vitia æquabant; inhumana crudelitas, perfidia plus quam Punica, nihil veri1, nihil sancti, nullus deûm metus,

66

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were always perfectly distinct; of the former, the highest were the two suffetes, (Hebrew, shophetim, 'judges,”) elected annually and two councils or senates, called by the Greeks synkletos and gerusia, and somewhat analogous to our two Houses of Parliament. The judicial tribunal consisted of 104 justices. Their military commanders were sometimes mercenaries, (e. g. Xanthippus,) like the "free lances" of the middle ages.

8 Sed, ut plerumque &c.] "But, as it generally happens, the more numerous party prevailed against the wiser." Like our English proverb, "Might prevails against right." 9 Primo statim adventu.] "From the first moment of his arrival;" in se convertit, "attracted the attention of."

D

"The

1 Eundem vigorem, &c.]
same animation of countenance,
power of eye, personal demeanour,
and features."

2 Nullo labore.] To preserve the
emphasis, we must translate, “ there
was no toil by which either his body
could be wearied, or his spirit
subdued."

3 Princeps in prælium &c.] "He was the foremost to, sc. he was the first to, advance," &c.

4 Nihil veri &c.] "No sincerity, no veneration, no fear of the gods, no regard for oaths, no conscience." The elaborate portrait of Hannibal in this chapter resembles rather the style and habit of Sallust and Tacitus, than the usual practice of Livy, who generally leaves the characters of historical personages to be

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