what occafion could there be, to use exhortation to a cavalry, that had fo fignally vanquifhed the fquadrons of the enemy upon the Rhone; or to legions, by whom, that fame enemy, flying before them to avoid a battle, did, in effect, confefs themselves conquered? But, as these troops, having been inrolled for Spain, are there with my brother Cneius, making war un der my aufpices (as was the will of the tend people of Rome), I, that you might have a conful for your Captain against Hannibal and the arthaginians, have freely offered myfelf for this wou then, have a new general; and I, a new ar

this account, a few words from me to you, will be neither improper, nor unfeafonable.

THAT you may not be unapprised of what fort of enemies you are going to encounter, or of what is to be feared from them, they are the very fame, whom, in a former war, you vanquished both by land and fea; the fame, from whom you took Sicily and Sardinia; and who have been, thefe twenty years, your tributaries. You will not, I prefume, march against these men, with only that courage, with which you are wont to face other enemies; but with a certain anger and indignation, fuch as you would feel, if you faw your flaves, on a fudden, rife up in arms against you. Conquered and enflaved it is not boldnefs, but neceffity, that urges them to battle unlet, you can believe, that thofe, who avoided fighting, when their army was entire, have acquired better hope, by the lofs of two-thirds of their horfe and foot, in the paffage of the Alps.

BUT you have heard, perhaps, that, though they are few in number, they are men of ftout hearts, and robuft bodies; heroes, of fuch ftrength and vigour, as nothing is able to refift.Mere effigies! nay, fhadows

fhadows of men! wretches, emaciated with hunger, and benumbed with cold! bruised and battered to pieces among the rocks and craggy cliffs! their weapons broken! their horfes weak, and foundered! Such are the cavalry, and fuch the infantry, with which you are going to contend: not enemies, but the fragments of enemies. There is nothing which I more apprehend, than that it will be thought Hannibal was vanquished by the Alps, before we had any conflict with him. But, perhaps, it was fitting it should be fo: and that, with a people and a leader who had violated leagues and covenants, the gods themselves, without man's help, fhould begin the war, and bring it to a near conclufion; and that we, who, next to the gods, have been injured and offended, should happily finish, what they have begun.

I need not be in any fear, that you should fufpect me of faying these things merely to encourage you, while inwardly, I have different fentiments. What hindered me from going into Spain? that was my province; where I fhould have had the lefs dreaded Afdrubal, not Hannibal to deal with. But, hearing, as I paffed along the coast of Gaul, of this enemy's march, I landed my troops, fent the horse forward, and pitched my camp upon the Rhone. A part of my cavalry encountered, and defeated that of the enemy. My infantry not being able to overtake theirs, which fled before us, I returned to my fleet; and, with all the expedition I could ufe in fo long a voyage by fea and land, am come to meet them at the foot of the alps. Was it, then, my inclination, to avoid a conteft with this tremendous Hannibal ? and have I met with him only by accident and unawares? or am I come on purpose to challenge him to the combat? I would gladly try,

whether

whether the earth, within these twenty years, has brought forth a new kind of Carthaginians; or whether they be the fame fort of men, who fought at the gates, and whom, at Eryx, you fuffered to redeem themselves at eighteen denarii per head: whether this Hannibal, for labours and journies, be, as he would be thought, the rival of Hercules; or whether he be, what his father left him, a tributary, a vaffal, a flave of the Roman people. Did not the consciousness of his wicked deed at Sanguntum torment him and make him desperate, he would have fome regard, if not to his conquered country, yet furely to his own family, to his father's memory, to the treaty written with Amilcar's own hand. We might have starved him in Eryx; we might have paffed into Africa with our victorious fleet; and, in a few days, have, destroyed Carthage. At their humble fupplication, we pardoned them; we releafed them, when they were closely fhut up, with out a poffibility of efcaping; we made peace with them, when they were conquered. When they were diftreffed by the African war, we confidered them, we treated them, as a people under our protection. And what is the return they make us for all these favours? Under the conduct of a hare-brained young man, they come hither to overturn our ftate, and lay waste our country.-I could wish, indeed, that it were not fo; and that the war we are now engaged in, concerned only our own glory, and not our prefervation. But the conteft, at prefent, is, not for the poffeffion of Sicily and Sardinia, but of Italy itself. Nor is there, behind us, another army, which, if we should not prove the conquerors, may make head against our victorious enemies. There are no more Alps for them to pafs, which might give us leifure to raise new forces. No foldiers;

here

here you must make your ftand, as if you were just now before the walls of Rome. Let every one reflect, that he is now to defend, not his own person only, but his wife, his children, his helplefs infants. Yet, let not private confiderations, alone, poffefs our minds: let us remember, that the eyes of the fenate, and people of Rome, are upon us; and that, as our force and courage fhall now prove, fuch will be the fortune of that city, and of the Roman empire.

ར་ར་

I

VIII.

HANNIBAL TO THE CARTHAGINIAN ARMY.

KNOW not, foldiers, whether you or your prifoners, be encompaffed by fortune, with the ftricter bonds and neceffities. Two feas inclose you on the right and left: not a fhip to fly to, for efcaping. Before you is the Po, a river broader and more rapid than the Rhone: behind you, are the Alps; over which, even when your numbers were undiminished, you were hardly able to force a paffage. Here, then, foldiers, you must either conquer or die, the very first hour you meet the enemy.

BUT, the fame fortune, which has thus laid you under the neceffity of fighting, has fet before your eyes those rewards of victory, than which no men are ever wont to wifh for greater than the immortal gods. Should we, by our valour, recover only Sicily and Sardinia, which were ravished from our fathers, thofe would be no inconfiderable prizes.

Yet,

Yet, what are thofe? The wealth of Rome; whatever riches fhe has heaped together in the fpoils of nations; all thefe, with the mafters of them, will be yours. You have been long enough employed, in driving the cattle upon the vaft mountains of Lufitania and Celtiberia; you have, hitherto, met with no reward, worthy of the labours and dangers you` 'have undergone. The time is now côme, to reap the full recompenfe of your toil fome marches, over fo many mountains and rivers, and through fo many nations, all of them in arms. This is the place, which Fortune has appointed to be the limits of your labour; it is here, that you will finish your glorious warfare, and receive an ample recompence of your completed fervice. For, I would not have you imagine, that victory will be as difficult, as the name of a Roman war is great and founding. It has often happened, that a defpifed enemy has given a bloody battle; and the moft renowned kings and nations have, by a 'fmall force, been overthrown. And, if you but take away the glitter of the Roman name, what is there wherein they may stand in competition with you? For (to fay nothing of your fervice in war, for twenty years together, with fo much valour and fuccefs) from the very pillars of Hercules, from the ocean, from the utmoft bounds. of the earth, through fo many warlike nations of Spain and Gaul, are you not come hither victorious? And with whom are you now to fight? With raw foldiers, an undifciplined army, beaten, vanquished, befieged by the Gauls the very laft fummer; an army, unknown to their leader, and unacquainted with him..

OR, fhall I, who was born, I might almost fay, but certainly brought up, in the tent of my father, that most excellent general; fhall I, the conqueror

of