priest of Mars, forcibly detained in the city by Cæcilius Metellus, the high priest, and not suffered to go forth to war, being obliged by law to attend to the sacred duties of his office. [Y. R. 508. B. C. 244.] After several successful engagements with the Carthaginians, Caius Lutatius, consul, puts an end to the war, [Y. R. 509. B. C. 243.] by gaining a complete victory over their fleet, at the island of gate. The Carthaginians sue for peace, which is granted to them. [Y. R. 510. B. C. 242.] The temple of Vesta being on fire, the high priest, Cæcilius Metellus, saves the sacred utensils from the flames. [Y. R. 511. B. C. 241.] Two new tribes added, the Veline and Quirine. The Falisci rebel; are subdued in six days.

BOOK XX.-A colony settled at Spoletum. [Y. R. 512. B. c. 240.] An army sent against the Ligurians; being the first war with that state. The Sardinians and Corsicans rebel, and are subdued. [Y. R. 514. B. c. 238.] Tuccia, a vestal, found guilty of incest. War declared against the Illyrians, who had slain an ambassador; they are subdued and brought to submission. [Y. R. 515. B. C. 237.] The number of prætors increased to four. The Transalpine 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 Latins, 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.

BOOK XXI.

Origin of the second Punic war. Hannibal's character. In violation of a treaty, he passes the Iberus. Besieges Saguntum, and at length takes it. The Romans send ambassadors to Carthage; declare war. Hannibal crosses the Pyrenees: makes his way through Gaul; then crosses the Alps; defeats the Romans at the Ticinus. The Romans again defeated at the Trebia. Cneius Cornelius Scipio defeats the Carthaginians in Spain, and takes Hanno, their general, prisoner .

1. I MAY be permitted to premise at this division of my work, what most historians' have professed at the beginning of their whole undertaking; that I am about to relate the most memorable of all wars that were ever waged the war which the Carthaginians, under the conduct of Hannibal, maintained with the Roman people. For never did any states and nations more efficient in their resources engage in contest; nor had they themselves at any other period so great a degree of power and energy. They brought into action too no arts of war unknown to each other, but those which had been tried in the first Punic war; and so various was the fortune of the conflict, and so doubtful the victory, that they who conquered were more exposed to danger. The hatred with which they fought also was almost greater than their resources; the Romans being indignant that the conquered aggressively took up arms against their victors; the Carthaginians, because they considered that in their subjection it had been lorded over them with haughtiness.d avarice. There is besides a story, that Hannibal, when about nine years old, while he boyishly coaxed his father Hamilcar that he might be taken to Spain, (at the time when the African war was completed, and he was employed in sacrificing previously to transporting his army thither,) was conducted to the altar

Thucydides seems to be specially referred to.

and, having laid his hand on the offerings, was bound by an oath to prove himself, as soon as he could, an enemy to the Roman people. The loss of Sicily and Sardinia grieved the high spirit of Hamilcar: for he deemed that Sicily had been given up through a premature despair of their affairs; and that Sardinia, during the disturbances in Africa, had been treacherously taken by the Romans, while, in addition, the payment of a tribute had been imposed.

2. Being disturbed with these anxieties, he so conducted himself for five years in the African war, which commenced shortly after the peace with Rome, and then through nine years employed in augmenting the Carthaginian empire in Spain, that it was obvious that he was revolving in his mind a greater war than he was then engaged in; and that if he had lived longer, the Carthaginians under Hamilcar would have carried the war into Italy, which, under the command of Hannibal, they afterwards did. The timely death of Hamilcar and the youth of Hannibal occasioned its delay. Hasdrubal, intervening between the father and the son, held the command for about eight years. He was first endeared to Hamilcar, as they say, on account of his youthful beauty, and then adopted by him, when advanced in age, as his son-in-law, on account of his eminent abilities; and, because he was his son-in-law, he obtained the supreme authority, against the wishes of the nobles, by the influence of the Barcine faction,' which was very powerful with the military and the populace. Prosecuting his designs rather by stratagem than force, by entertaining the princes, and by means of the friendship of their leaders, gaining the favour of unknown nations, he aggrandized the Carthaginian power, more than by arms and battles. Yet peace proved no greater security to himself. A barbarian, in resentment of his master's having been put to death by him, publicly murdered him; and, having been seized by the bystanders, he exhibited the same countenance as if he had escaped; nay, even when he was lacerated by tortures, preserved such an expression of face, that he presented the appearance of one who smiled, his joy getting the better of his pains. With this Hasdrubal, because he possessed such wonderful skill in gaining over the 1'ons and adding them

he

The Barcine faction derived its name from Hamilcar, who was surnamed Larca. Hanno appears to have been at the head of the opposite

arty.

to his empire, the Roman people had renewed the treaty,' on the terms, that the river Iberus should be the boundary of both empires; and that to the Saguntines, who lay between the territories of the two states, their liberty should be preserved.

3. There was no doubt that in appointing a successor to Hasdrubal, the approbation of the commons would follow the military prerogative, by which the young Hannibal had been immediately carried to the prætorium, and hailed as general, amid the loud shouts and acquiescence of all. Hasdrubal had sent for him by letter, when scarce yet arrived at manhood; and the matter had even been discussed in the senate, the Barcine faction using all their efforts, that Hannibal might be trained to military service and succeed to his father's command. Hanno, the leader of the opposite faction, said, “Hasdrubal seems indeed to ask what is reasonable, but I, nevertheless, do not think his request ought to be granted." When he had attracted to himself the attention of all, through surprise at this ambiguous opinion, he proceeded: "Hasdrubal thinks that the flower of youth which he gave to the enjoy ment of Hannibal's father, may justly be expected by himself in return from the son: but it would little become us to accustom our youth, in place of a military education. to the lustful ambition of the generals. Are we afraid that the son of Hamilcar should be too late in seeing the immoderate power and splendour of his father's sovereignty? or that we shall not soon enough become slaves to the son of him, to whose son-in-law our armies were bequeathed as an hereditary right? I am of opinion, that this youth should be kept at home, and taught, under the restraint of the laws and the authority of magistrates, to live on an equal footing with the rest of the citizens, lest at some time or other this small fire should kindle a vast conflagration."

4. A few, and nearly every one of the highest merit, concurred with Hanno; but, as usually happen, the more numerous party prevailed over the better. Hannibal, having

A. U. C. 526, thirteen years after the conclusion of the first Punic war, being the sixth treaty between the Carthaginians and Romans. The first was a commercial agreement made during the first consulate, in the year that the Tarquins were expelled from Rome; but is not mentioned by Livy. The second is noted by him, lib. vii. 27, and the third, lib. ix. 43. The fourth was concluded during the war with Pyrrhus and the Trentines, Polyb. V. iii. 25; and the fifth was the memorable treaty at the close of the first war

been sent into Spain, from his very first arrival drew the eyes of the whole army upon him. The veteran soldiers imagined that Hamilcar in his youth, was restored to them; they remarked the same vigour in his looks and animation in his eye, the same features and expression of countenance; and then, in a short time, he took care that his father should be of the least powerful consideration in conciliating their esteem. There never was a genius more fitted for the two most opposite duties of obeying and commanding; so that you could not easily decide whether he were dearer to the general or the army and neither did Hasdrubal prefer giving the command to any other, when any thing was to be done with courage and activity; nor did the soldiers feel more confidence and boldness under any other leader. His fearlessness in encountering dangers, and his prudence when in the midst of them, were extreme. His body could not be exhausted, nor his mind subdued, by any toil. He could alike endure either heat or cold. The quantity of his food and drink was determined by the wants of nature, and not by pleasure. The seasons of his sleeping and waking were distinguished neither by day nor night. The time that remained after the transaction of business was given to repose; but that repose was neither invited by a soft bed nor by quiet. Many have seen him wrapped in a military cloak, lying on the ground amid the watches and outposts of the soldiers. His dress was not at all superior to that of his equals: his arms and his horses were conspicuous. He was at once by far the first of the cavalry and infantry; and, foremost to advance to the charge, was last to leave the engagement. Excessive vices counterbalanced these high virtues of the hero; inhuman cruelty, more than Punic perfidy, no truth, no reverence for things sacred, no fear of the gods, no respect for oaths, no sense of religion. With a character thus made up of virtue and vices, he served for three years under the command of Hasdrubal, without neglecting any thing which ought to be done or seen by one who was to become a great general.

5. But from the day on which he was declared general, as if Italy had been decreed to him as his province, and the war with Rome committed to him, thinking there should be no delay, lest, while he procrastinated, some unexpected accident might defeat him, as had happened to his father, Hamilcar,

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