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alpine Gauls make an irruption into Italy: are conquered and put to the sword. Y.R. 516. B.C. 236.-The Roman army, in conjunction with the Latines, is said to have amounted to no less than three hundred thousand men. Y.R. 517. B.C. 235.-The Roman army for the first time, crosses the Po; fights with and subdues the Insubrian Gauls.、 Y.R. 530. B.C. 222.-Claudius Marcellus, consul, having slain Viridomarus, the general of the Insubrian Gauls, carries off the spolia opima. Y.R. 531. B.C. 221.-The Istrians subdued; also the Illyrians, who had rebelled. Y.R. 532. B.C. 220.-The censors hold a lustrum, in which the number of the citizens is found to be two hundred and seventy thousand two hundred and thirteen. The sons of freedmen formed into four tribes: the Esquiline, Palatine, Suburran and Colline. Y.R. 533. B.C. 219.-Caius Flaminius, censor, constructs the Flaminian road, and builds the Flaminian circus.

THE

HISTORY OF ROME.

BOOK XXI.

Rise of the second Punic war. Hannibal, contrary to treaty, passes the Iberus: besieges, and, after eight months, takes Saguntum. The Romans send an embassy to Carthage; declare war. Hannibal crosses the Pyrennees; makes his way through Gaul; with great fatigue passes the Alps; defeats the Romans at the river Ticinus, in a fight between the cavalry, in which P. Cornelius Scipio, being wounded, is saved by his son, afterwards Africanus. The Romans again defeated at the Trebia. Cneius Cornelius Scipio defeats the Carthaginian army in Spain, and makes Hanno, their general, prisoner.

I. To this division of my work, I may be allowed to prefix a remark, which most writers of history make in the beginning of their performance: that I am going to write of a war, the most memorable of all that were ever waged; that which the Carthaginians, under the conduct of Hannibal, maintained with the Roman people. For never did any other states and nations, of more potent strength and resources, engage in a contest of arms; nor did these same nations at any other period, possess so great a degree of power and strength. The arts of war also, practised by each party, were VOL. II.-3 E

not unknown to the other; for they had already gained experience of them in the first Punic war; and so various was the fortune of this war, so great its vicissitudes, that the party, which proved in the end victorious, was, at times, brought the nearest to the brink of ruin. Besides, they exerted, in

the dispute, almost a greater degree of rancour than of strength; the Romans being fired with indignation at a vanquished people presuming to take up arms against their conquerors: the Carthaginians, at the haughtiness and avarice, which they thought the others showed in their imperious exercise of the superiority which they had acquired. We are told that, when Hamilcar was about to march at the head of an army into Spain, after the conclusion of the war in Africa, and was offering sacrifices on the occasion, his son Hannibal, then about nine years of age, solicited him, with boyish fondness, to take him with him, whereupon, he brought him up to the altars, and compelled him to lay his hand on the consecrated victims, and swear, that as soon as it should be in his power, he would show himself an enemy to the Roman people. Being a man of high spirit, he was deeply chagrined at the loss of Sicily and Sardinia: for he considered Sicily as given up by his countrymen through too hasty despair of their affairs; and Sardinia as fraudulently snatched out of their hands by the Romans, during the commotions in Africa, with the additional insult of a farther tribute imposed on them.

II. His mind was filled with these vexatious reflections; and during the five years that he was employed in Africa, which followed soon after the late pacification with Rome; and likewise during nine years which he spent in extending the Carthaginian empire in Spain; his conduct was such, as afforded a demonstration that he meditated a more important war than any in which he was then engaged; and that, if he had lived some time longer, the Carthaginians would have

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carried their arms into Italy under the command of Hamilcar, instead of under that of Hannibal. The death of Hamilcar, which happened most seasonably for Rome, and the unripe age of Hannibal, occasioned the delay. During an interval of about eight years, between the demise of the father, and the succession of the son, the command was held by Hasdrubal; whom, it was said, Hamilcar had first chosen as a favourite, on account of his youthful beauty, and afterwards made him his son-in-law, on account of his eminent abilities; in consequence of which connection, being supported by the interest of the Barcine faction, which, among the army and the commons, was exceedingly powerful, he was invested with the command in chief, in opposition to the wishes of the nobles. He prosecuted his designs, more frequently by means of policy than of force; and augmented the Carthaginian power considerably, by forming connections. with the petty princes; and through the friendship of their leaders, conciliating the regard of nations hitherto strangers. But peace proved no security to himself. One of the barbarians, in resentment of his master having been put to death, openly assassinated him, and being seized by the persons. present, showed no kind of concern; nay, even while racked with tortures, as if his exultation, at having effected his purpose, had got the better of the pains, the expression of his countenance was such as carried the appearance of a smile. With this Hasdrubal, who possessed a surprising degree of skill in negotiation, and in attaching foreign nations to his government, the Romans renewed the treaty, on the terms, that the river Iberus should be the boundary of the two empires, and that the Saguntines, who lay between them, should retain their liberty.

III. There was no room to doubt that the suffrages of the commons, in appointing a successor to Hasdrubal, would follow the direction pointed out by the leading voice of the

army, who had instantly carried young Hannibal to the head-quarters, and with one consent, and universal acclamations, saluted him general. This youth, when scarcely arrived at the age of manhood, Hasdrubal had invited by letter to come to him; and that affair had even been taken into deliberation in the senate, where the Barcine faction showed a desire, that Hannibal should be accustomed to military service, and succeed to the power of his father. Hanno, the leader of the other faction, said, "although what Hasdrubal demands, seems reasonable; nevertheless, I do not think that his request ought to be granted;" and when all turned their eyes on him, with surprise at this ambiguous declaration, he proceeded, "Hasdrubal thinks that he is justly entitled to demand, from the son, the bloom of youth, which he himself dedicated to the pleasures of Hannibal's father. It would however be exceedingly improper in us, instead of a military education, to initiate our young men in the lewd practices of generals. Are we afraid lest too much time should pass, before the son of Hamilcar acquires notions of the unlimited authority, and the parade of his father's sovereignty or that after he had, like a king, bequeathed our armies, as hereditary property to his son-in-law, we should not soon enough become slaves to his son? I am of opinion that this youth should be kept at home, where he will be amenable to the laws, and to the magistrates; and that he should be taught to live on an equal footing with the rest of his countrymen; otherwise this spark, small as it is, may hereafter kindle a terrible conflagration."

IV. A few, particularly those of the best understanding, concurred in opinion with Hanno; but, as it generally happens, the more numerous party prevailed over the more judicious. Hannibal was sent into Spain, and on his first arrival attracted the notice of the whole army. The veteran soldiers imagined that Hamilcar was restored to them from

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