to a young prince of the Celtiberians, named Allucius. He immediately, therefore, summoned from their abode her parents and lover, and having heard in the mean time that the latter was desperately enamored of her, as soon as he arrived he addressed him in a more studied manner than her parents. "A young man myself," said he, " I address myself to a young man, and therefore there need be the less reserve in this conversation. As soon as your intended bride, having been captured by my soldiers, was brought into my presence, and I was informed that she was endeared to you, which her beauty rendered probable; considering that I should myself wish that my affection for my intended bride, though excessive, should meet with indulgence, could I enjoy the pleasures suited to my age (particularly in an honorable and lawful love), and were not my mind engrossed by public affairs, I indulge as far as I can your passion. Your mistress, while under my protection, has received as much respect as under the roof of her own parents, your father-in-law and mother-in-law. She has been kept in perfect safety for you, that she might be presented to you pure, a gift worthy of me and of you. This only reward I bargain for in return for the service I have rendered you, that you would be a friend to the Roman people; and if you believe that I am a true man, as these nations knew my father and uncle to have been heretofore, that you would feel assured that in the Roman state there are many like us; and that no nation in the world at the present time can be mentioned with which you ought to be less disposed that you, or those belonging to you, should be at enmity, or with which you would rather be in friendship." The young man, overcome at once with joy and modesty, clung to Scipio's right hand, and invoked all the gods to recompense him in his behalf, since he himself was far from possessing means proportioned either to his own wishes or Scipio's deserts. He then addressed himself to the parents and relatives of the damsel, who, on receiving her back without any reward, whom they had brought a very large weight of gold to redeem, entreated Scipio to accept it from them as a present to himself; affirming that if he would do so, they should feel as grateful for it as they did for the restoration of their daughter inviolate. As

they were so earnest in their entreaties, Scipio promised to accept it, and ordered it to be laid at his feet. Then calling Allucius to him, he said: "To the dowry which you are about to receive from your father-in-law, let these marriage presents also from me be added;" bidding him take away the gold and keep it for himself. Delighted with these presents and honors, he was dismissed to his home, where he inspired his countrymen with the deserved praises of Scipio, observing, "that a most godlike youth had come among them, who conquered every thing, not only by arms, but by kindness and generosity." Accordingly, making a levy among his dependents, he returned to Scipio after a few days, with fourteen hundred chosen horsemen.

51. Scipio kept Lælius with him until he had disposed of the captives, hostages, and booty, in accordance with his advice; but when all these matters were satisfactorily arranged, he gave him a quinquereme, and, selecting from the captives Mago, and about fifteen Senators who had been made prisoners at the same time with him, put them on board, and sent him to Rome with the news of his victory. He himself employed the few days he had resolved to stay at Carthage, in exercising his naval and land forces. On the first day the legions under arms performed evolutions through a space of four miles; on the second day he or dered them to repair and clean their arms before their tents; on the third day they engaged in imitation of a regular battle with wooden swords, throwing javelins with the points covered with balls; on the fourth day they rested; on the fifth they again performed evolutions under arms. This succession of exercise and rest they kept up as long as they staid at Carthage. The rowers and mariners, pushing out to sea when the weather was calm, made trial of the manageableness of their ships by mock seafights. Such exercises, both by sea and land, without the city, prepared their minds and bodies for war. The city itself was all bustle with warlike preparations, artificers of every description being collected together in a publicworkshop. The general went round to all the works with equal attention. At one time he was employed in the dock-yard with his fleet, at another he exercised with the

legions; sometimes he would devote his time to the inspection of the works, which were every day carried on with the greatest eagerness by a multitude of artificers, both in the workshops and in the armory and docks. Having put these preparations in a train, repaired the walls in a part where they had been shattered, and placed bodies of troops to guard the city, he set out for Tarraco; and on his way thither was visited by a number of embassies, some of which he dismissed, having given them answers on his journey; others he postponed till his arrival at Tarraco, at which place he had appointed a meeting of all his new and old allies. Here ambassadors from almost all the people dwelling on this side the Iberus, and from many dwelling in the farther Spain, met. The Carthaginian generals at first industriously suppressed the rumor of the capture of Carthage; but afterwards, when it became too notorious to be concealed or dissembled, they disparaged its importance by their language. They said that "by an unexpected attack, and in a manner by stealth, in one day, one city of Spain had been snatched out of their hands; that a presumptuous youth, elated with the acquisition of this, so inconsiderable an advantage, had, by the extravagance of his joy, given it the air of an important victory; but that as soon as he should hear that three generals and three victorious armies of his enemies were approaching, the deaths which had taken place in his family would occur to his recollection." Such was the tone in which they spoke of this affair to the people, though they were, at the same time, far from ignorant how much their strength had been diminished in every respect by the loss of Carthage.

BOOK XXVII.

Cneius Fulvius, proconsul, defeated by Hannibal and slain; the consul Claudius Marcellus engages him with better success. Hannibal, raising his camp, retires; Marcellus pursues, and forces him to an engagement. They fight twice; in the first battle, Hannibal gains the advantage; in the second, Marcellus. Tarentum betrayed to Fabius Maximus, the consul. Scipio engages with Hasdrubal, the son of Hamilcar, at Bætula, in Spain, and defeats him. Among other prisoners, a youth of royal race and exquisite beauty is taken; Scipio sets him free, and sends him, enriched with magnificent presents, to his uncle Masinissa. Marcellus and Quintus Crispinus, consuls, drawn into an ambuscade by Hannibal; Marcellus is slain, Crispinus escapes. Operations by Publius Sulpicius, prætor, against Philip and the Achæans. A census held; the number of citizens found to amount to one hundred and thirtyseven thousand one hundred and eight: from which it appears how great a loss they had sustained by the number of unsuccessful battles they had of late been engaged in. Hasdrubal, who had crossed the Alps with a reinforcement for Hannibal, defeated by the consuls, Marcus Livius and Claudius Nero, and slain; with him fell fifty-six thousand men.

1. SUCH was the state of affairs in Spain. In Italy, the consul Marcellus, after regaining Salapia, which was betrayed into his hands, took Maronea and Meles from the Samnites by force. As many as three thousand of the soldiers of Hannibal, which were left as a garrison, were here surprised and overpowered. The booty, and there was a considerable quantity of it, was given up to the troops. Also, two hundred and forty thousand pecks of wheat, with a hundred and ten thousand pecks of barley, were found here. The joy, however, thus occasioned, was by no means so great as a disaster sustained a few days afterwards, not far from the town Herdonea. Cneius Fulvius, the consul, was lying encamped there, in the hope of regaining Herdonea, which had revolted from the Romans after the defeat at Cannæ, his position being neither sufficiently secure, from the nature of the place, nor strengthened by guards The natural negligence of the general

was now increased by the hope that their attachment to the Carthaginians was shaken, when they had heard that Hannibal, after the loss of Salapia, had retired from that neighborhood into Bruttium. Intelligence of all these circumstances being conveyed to Hannibal by secret messengers from Herdonea, at once excited an anxious desire to retain possession of a city in alliance with him, and inspired a hope of attacking the enemy when unprepared. With a lightly-equipped force he hastened to Herdonea by forced marches, so as almost to anticipate the report of his approach; and in order to strike greater terror into the enemy, came up with his troops in battle-array. The Roman, equal to him in courage, but inferior in strength, hastily drawing out his troops, engaged him. The fifth legion and the left wing of the allied infantry commenced the battle with spirit. But Hannibal ordered his cavalry, on a signal given, to ride round, as soon as the foot-forces had their eyes and thoughts occupied with the contest before them, and one half of them to attack the camp of the enemy, the other half to fall upon their rear, while busily engaged in fighting. He himself, sarcastically alluding to the similarity of the name Fulvius, as he had defeated. Cneius Fulvius, the prætor, two years ago, in the same country, expressed his confidence that the issue of the battle would be similar. Nor was this expectation vain ; for after many of the Romans had fallen in the close contest, and in the engagement with the infantry, notwithstanding which they still preserved their ranks and stood their ground, the alarm occasioned by the cavalry on their rear, and the enemy's shout, which was heard at the same time from their camp, first put to flight the sixth legion, which, being posted in the second line, was first thrown into confusion by the Numidians; and then the fifth legion, and those who were posted in the van. Some fled precipitately, others were slain in the middle space, where also Cneius Fulvius himself, with eleven military tribunes, fell. Who can state with certainty how many thousands of the Romans and their allies were slain in this battle, when I find in some accounts that thirteen, in others that not more than seven, thousand were slain? The conquerors got possession of the camp and the spoil. Finding that