LESSON XI.

Hannibal, on the other Side, made ufe of a new kind of Rhetoric to infpire his Soldiers with Kefolution. He gave Arms to feveral Mountaineers whom he had taken Prijoners in his Paffage over the Alps, and propofed to them to fight two and two to the Death of one of them, in the Sight of his Army; promifing Liberty and a compleat Suit of Armour, with a Warhorfe, to fuch of them as came off victorious. From the foy with which the Prisoners accepted thefe Conditions, and the Sentiments which Hannibal obferv'd in his Troops on behelding thefe Conflicts, he took Occafion to give them a more lively Image of their prefent Situation; which laid them under the abfolute Neceffity of conquering or dying. His Speech was to this Effect.

I you juft now did, in contem

F in the Eftimation of your own Fortune, you will but

plating the Fortune of others, the Victory, Soldiers, is ours. What you have feen, was not a mere Shew for Amusement, but a Representation of your own real Condition. I know not whether you or your Prifoners be encompaffed by Fortune with the ftricter Bonds and Neceffities. Two Seas enclofe you on the right and left;-not a Ship 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, Soldiers, you must either conquer or die, the very firft Hour you meet the Enemy. But the fame Fortune which has thus laid you under the Neceffity of fighting, has fet before your Eyes thofe Rewards of Victory, than which no Men are ever wont to with for greater from the immortal Gods. Should we by our Valour recover only Sicily and Sardinia, which were ravifh'd from our Fathers, thofe would be no inconfiderable Prizes. Yet, what are thofe? The Wealth of Rome, whatever Riches he has heaped together in the Spoils of Nations, all these, with the Mafters of them, will be yours. You have been long enough employed in driving the Cattle upon the vast 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 come to reap the full Recompence of your toilfome Marches over fo many Mountains and Rivers, and through fo many Nations, all of

F 4

them

them in Arms. This is the Place, which Fortune has appointed to be the Limits of your Labours; it is here that you will finish your glorious Warfare, and receive an ample Recompence of your compleated Service. 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 most 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 ftand in Competition with you? For (to fay nothing of your Service in War for twenty Years together with fo much Valour and Succefs) from the very Pillars of Hercules, from the Ocean, from the utmost 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 Soldiers, an undifciplined Army, beaten, vanquished, befieged by the Gauls the very last Summer, an Army unknown to their Leader, and unacquainted with him.

Or fhall I, who was born, I might almoft fay, but certainly brought up in the Tent of my Father, that most excellent General, fhall I, the Conqueror of Spain and Gaul, and not only of the Alpine Nations, but, which is greater yet, of the Alps themselves, fhall I compare myfelf with this Half-year Captain? A Captain, before whom should one place the two Armies, without their Enfigns, I am perfuaded he would not know to which of them he is Conful? I efteem it no fmall Advantage, Soldiers, that there is not one among you, who has not often been an Eye-witnefs of my Exploits in War; not one, of whofe Valour I myself have not been a Spectator, fo as to be able to name the Times and Places of his noble Atchievements; that with Soldiers, whom I have a thousand times praifed and rewarded, and whofe Pupil I was, before I became their General, I fhall march againft an Army of Men Strangers to one another.

On what Side foever I turn my Eyes, I behold all full of Courage and Strength; a Veteran Infantry, a moft gallant Cavalry; you, my Allies, moft faithful and valiant; you Carthaginians, whom not only your Country's Caufe, but the jufteft Anger impels to Battle. The Hope, the Courage of Affailants is always greater, than of thofe who act upon the Defenfive. With hoftile Banners difplay'd, you are come down upon Italy; you bring the War. Grief, Injuries, Indignities fire your Minds, and spur you forward to Revenge.—

First they demanded me; that I, your General should be deliver'd up to them; next, all you, who had fought at the Siege of Saguntum; and we were to be put to Death by the extremeft Tortures. Proud and cruel Nation! Every thing must be yours, and at your Difpofal? You are to prefcribe to us, with whom we shall make War, with whom we fhall make Peace? You are to fet us Bounds; to fhut us up within Hills and Rivers; but you, you are not to obferve the Limits which yourfelves have fix'd? Pafs not the IBERUS. What next? Touch not the SAGUNTINES; SAGUNTUM is upon the IBERUS, move not a Step towards that City. Is it a small Matter then, that you have deprived us of our ancient Poffeffions, Sicily and Sardinia; you would have Spain too? Well, we fhall yield Spain; and then-you will pals into Africa. Will pafs, did I fay?-This very Year they order'd one of their Confuls into Africa, the other into Spain. No, Soldiers, there is nothing left for us but what we can vindicate with our Swords. Come on then. Be Men. The Romans may with more Safety be Cowards; they have their own Country behind them, have Places of Refuge to fly to, and are fecure from Danger in the Roads thither: but for you, there is no middle Fortune between Death and Victory. Let this be but well fix'd in your Minds, and once again, I fay, you are CONQUERORS.

LESSON XII.

The two following Speeches are those preceding the Battle of Zama; which concluded the fecond Punic War to the Advantage of the Romans, after it had lafted 17 Years. They are different from the two former, as they relate to a Treaty of Peace. The two Generals were Hannibal and the famous Scipio Africanus, Son of the former Scipio. An Interview was defired by Hannibal, and agreed to by Scipio. The Place pitch'd upon was a large Plain between the two Camps, entirely open, and where no Ambush could be laid. The two Generals rode thither, efcorted by an equal Number of Guards; from whom feparating, and each attended only by an Interpreter, they met in the Mid-way. Both remain'd for a while filent, viewing each other with mutual Admiration. Hannibal at length poke thus.

INCE Fate has fo ordain'd it, that I, who began the
War, and who have been fo often on the Point of end-

SW

ing it by a compleat Conqueft, fhould now come of my own Motion, to afk a Peace; I am glad that it is of you, Scipio, I have the Fortune to afk it. Nor will this be among the leaft of your Glories, that Hannibal, victorious over fo many Roman Generals, fubmitted at last to You.'

I could with, that our Fathers and we had confin'd our Ambition within the Limits, which Nature feem'd to have prefcrib'd to it; the Shores of Africa, and the Shores of Italy. The Gods did not give us that Mind. On both Sides we have been fo eager after foreign Poffeffions, as to put our own to the Hazard of War. Rome and Carthage have had, each in their Turn, the Enemy at her Gates. But fince Errors paft may be more eatily blamed than corrected, let it now be the Work of you and me, to put an End, if poffible, to the obftinate Contention. For my own Part, my Years, and the Experience I have had of the Inftability of Fortune, inclines me to leave nothing to her Determination which Reafon can decide. But much I fear, Scipio, that your Youth, your want of the like Experience, your uninterrupted Succefs, may render you averfe from the Thoughts of Peace. He whom Fortune has never failed, rarely reflects upon her Inconftancy. her Inconftancy. Yet without recurring to former Examples, my own may perhaps fuffice to teach you Moderation. I am that fame Hannibal who, after my Victory at Canne, became Mafter of the greateft Part of your Country, and deliberated with myself what Fate I fhould decree to Italy and Rome. And now-fee the Change! Here, in Africa, I am come to treat with a Roman, for my own Prefervation and my Country's. Such are the Sports of Fortune. Is fhe then to be trufted becaufe the fmiles? An advantageous Peace is preferable to the Hope of Victory. The one is in your own Power, the other at the Pleasure of the Gods. Should you prove victorious, it would add little to your own Glory, or the Glory of your Country; if vanquifh'd, you lofe in one Hour all the Honour and Reputation you have been fo many Years acquiring. But what is my Aim in all this? That you fhould content yourself with our Ceffion of Spain, Sicily, Sardinia, and all the Iflands between Italy and Africa. A Peace on thefe Conditions will, in my Opinion, not only fecure the future Tranquility of Carthage, but be fufficiently glorious for you, and for the Roman Name. And do not tell me, that fome of our Citizens dealt fraudulently with you in the late Treaty: It is I, Hannibal, that now afk a Peace; I afk it, because I think it ex

pedient

pedient for my Country; and, thinking it expedient, I will inviolably maintain it.

The Anfwer of SCIPIO was to this Effect.

KNEW very well, Hannibal, that it was the Hope of your Return which embolden'd the Carthaginians to break the Truce with us, and to lay afide all Thoughts of a Peace, when it was juft upon the Point of being concluded; and your prefent Propofal is a Proof of it. You retrench from their Conceffions every thing but what we are, and have been long, poffeffed of. But as it is your Care that your FellowCitizens fhould have the Obligations to you of being eafed from a great Part of their Burthen, fo it ought to be mine, that they draw no Advantage from their Perfidioufnefs. No body is more fenfible than I am of the Weakness of Man, and the Power of Fortune, and that whatever we enterprize is fubject to a thoufand Chances. If before the Romans paffed into Africa, you had of your own Accord quitted Italy, and made the Offers you now make, I believe they would not have been rejected. But as you have been forced out of Italy, and we are Masters here of the open Cnuntry, the Situation of things is much altered. And what is chiefly to be confider'd, the Carthaginians by the late Treaty, which we entered into at their Requeft, were, over and above what you offer, to have reftored to us our Prifoners without Ranfom, deliver'd up their Ships of War, paid us five thoufand Talents, and to have given Hoftages for the Performance of all. The Senate accepted thefe Conditions, but Carthage failed on her Part; Carthage deceived us. What then is to be done? Are the Carthaginians to be releafed from the most important Articles of the Treaty, as a Reward of their Breach of Faith? No, certainly. If to the Conditions before agreed upon, you had added fome new Articles to our Advantage, there would have been Matter of Reference to the Roman People; but when, instead of adding, you retrench, there is no Room for Deliberation. The Carthaginians therefore must submit to us at Difcretion, or muft vanquish us in Battle.

N. B. The Battle was fought, the Romans gained the Victory, and the Carthaginians Jubmitted to Rome. the fecond Punic War, and acquired Scipio the Africanus.

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