now,

venience from their own strength. We feel, it seems, for the public misfortunes, only in proportion as our private affairs are affected by them; and none of them stings more deeply than the loss of money. Thus, when the spoils were stripped off from vanquished Carthage, and you saw her left naked among so many armed states of Africa, not one of you uttered a groan ; because a contribution must be made to the tribute out of your private properties, you lament as if the existence of the state were terminated. Much I dread lest you quickly feel that the subject of your tears this day is the lightest of your misfortunes." Such were Hannibal's sentiments which he delivered to the Carthaginians. Scipio, having called an assembly, bestowed on Masinissa, in addition to his paternal kingdom, the city of Cirta, and other cities and lands belonging to the territories of Syphax,2 which had fallen into the hands of the Roman people. He ordered Cneius Octavius to conduct the fleet to Sicily, and deliver it to the consul, Cneius Cornelius ; and the ambassadors of the Carthaginians to go to Rome, in order that the terms stipulated for him might be ratified by the authority of the Senate and the order of the people.

Peace being established by sea and land, he embarked his army, and carried it over to Lilybaeum in Sicily; and from thence, sending a great part of his troops around by sea, he himself landed in Italy. As he proceeded through the country, he found it no less delighted at finding there was an end to the war than at the success in it, not only the inhabitants of the

1 A king of Numidia, who had aided Scipio against Hannibal. 2 A prince of western Numidia, who had fought on the side of the Carthaginians.

cities pouring out to show their respect to him, but crowds of the country-people also filling up the roads. Thus he arrived at Rome, where he entered the city in the most splendid triumph which had ever been beheld. He carried into the treasury a hundred and twenty-three thousand pounds weight of silver, and out of the spoil distributed to each of his soldiers four hundred asses.1 The death of Syphax caused some diminution in the splendor of the show, but none in the glory of the general who triumphed. He died a short time before at Tibur, to which place he had been removed from Alba. His death, however, made some noise, for he was honored with a public funeral. Polybius, a writer of no contemptible authority, asserts that this king was led in triumph. I have not been able to discover whether it was the affection of the soldiers, or the attachment of the people, which honored Scipio with the surname of Africanus; nor whether it was brought into use by the flattery of his friends, as that of Felix given to Sulla, and of Magnus to Pompey, in the memory of our fathers. He was certainly the first general distinguished by the title of a nation which he had subdued. Others, afterwards following his example, though far inferior in the greatness of their achievements, assumed pompous inscriptions for their statues, and splendid surnames for their families.

THE DEATH OF HANNIBAL1

(XXXIX., 51.)

In

TITUS QUINTIUS FLAMININUS came as ambassador to King Prusias, who had incurred the jealousy of the Romans by entertaining Hannibal after the flight of Antiochus, and by making war on Eumenes. Soon after his arrival, among other discourse, he remonstrated with Prusias on his giving protection to a person who, of all men living, was the most inveterate enemy to the Roman nation; who had incited, first his own country, and afterwards, when its power was reduced, King Antiochus, to make war on Rome. consequence of this, or of Prusias having himself a desire of gratifying Flamininus, a party of soldiers was sent to guard Hannibal's house. The Carthaginian had always foreseen such end of his life, for he knew the implacable hatred which the Romans bore him, and placed little confidence in the faith of kings. Besides, he had experienced the fickle temper of Prusias, and had for some time dreaded the arrival of Flamininus, as an event fatal to him. Surrounded as he was by dangers on all sides, in order to have always some passage of flight open, he had made seven doors in his house, of which some were concealed lest they might be invested by a guard. But the imperious government of kings suffers nothing to remain secret, which they choose to discover. The troops formed a circle of

1 Hannibal remained at the head of the government for six years after the conclusion of peace with the Romans. Then, accused by his political enemies of planning to join forces with Antiochus, king of Syria, in another attack upon Rome, he was compelled, on pressure from the Romans, to flee from Carthage. He went first to Tyre, then to Ephesus, and finally to the court of Prusias, king of Bithynia.

guards around the house in such a manner that it was impossible to slip out. Hannibal, on being told that some of the king's soldiers were in the porch, endeavored to escape through a back door, which was the most private, and whence the passage was least likely to be observed; but, perceiving that to be guarded, and every avenue round to be shut by a body of soldiers, he called for poison, which he had long kept in readiness for such an event, and said, "Let us release the Romans from their long anxiety, since they have not patience to wait for the death of an old man. Flamininus will gain no very great or memorable victory over one unarmed and betrayed. What an alteration has taken place in the behavior of the Roman people, this day affords abundant proof. Their fathers gave warning to Pyrrhus, their armed foe, then heading an army against them in Italy, to beware of poison. The present generation have sent an ambassador, of consular rank, to persuade Prusias villanously to murder his guest." Then imprecating curses on the head of Prusias, and on his kingdom, and calling on the gods, the avengers of violated hospitality, to witness his breach of faith, he drank off the contents of the cup. In this manner did Hannibal end his life.

PETRONIUS

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

"WITH regard to Caius Petronius, I ought to dwell a little on his antecedents. His days he passed in sleep, his nights in the business and pleasures of life. Indolence had raised him to fame, as energy raises others, and he was reckoned not a debauchee and spendthrift, like most of those who squander their substance, but a man of refined luxury. And indeed his talk and his doings, the freer they were and the more show of carelessness they exhibited, were the better liked, for their look of a natural simplicity. Yet as proconsul of Bithynia and soon afterwards as consul, he showed himself a man of vigor, and equal to business. Then falling back into vice or affecting vice, he was chosen by Nero to be one of his few intimate associates, as a critic in matters of taste, while the emperor thought nothing charming or elegant in luxury unless Petronius had expressed to him his approval of it. Hence jealousy on the part of Tigellinus, who looked on him as a rival, and even his superior in the science of pleasure. And so he worked on the prince's cruelty, which dominated every other passion, charging Petronius with having been the friend of Scaevinus, bribing a slave to become informer, robbing him of the means of defence, and hurrying into prison the greater part of his domestics.

"It happened at the time that the emperor was on his way to Campania, and that Petronius, after going as far as Cumae, was detained there. He bore no longer the sus