Livy: AB VRBE CONDITA LIBRI

[1] Cum transitu Hasdrubalis quantum in Italiam declinauerat belli tantum leuatae Hispaniae uiderentur, renatum ibi subito par priori bellum est. Hispanias ea tempestate sic habebant Romani Poenique: Hasdrubal Gisgonis filius ad Oceanum penitus Gadesque concesserat: nostri maris ora omnisque ferme Hispania qua in orientem uergit Scipionis ac Romanae dicionis erat. nouus imperator Hanno in locum Barcini Hasdrubalis nouo cum exercitu ex Africa transgressus Magonique iunctus cum in Celtiberia, quae media inter duo maria est, breui magnum hominum numerum armasset, Scipio aduersus eum M. Silanum cum decem haud amplius milibus militum, equitibus quingentis misit.

[1] With Hasdrubal’s crossing, it seemed that Spain had been relieved by just as much as the war had inclined toward Italy; but there suddenly a war was reborn equal to the former. At that time the Romans and the Poeni held the Spains thus: Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo, had withdrawn far to the Ocean and to Gades; the shore of our sea and nearly all Spain which looks toward the orient was under Scipio and Roman dominion. Hanno, a new commander in place of Hasdrubal the Barcid, having transgressed from Africa with a new army and joined to Mago, when in Celtiberia, which is midway between the two seas, he had in a short time armed a great number of men, Scipio sent against him M. Silanus with not more than ten thousand soldiers and five hundred horsemen.

Silanus quantis maximis potuit itineribus—impediebant autem et asperitates uiarum et angustiae saltibus crebris, ut pleraque Hispaniae sunt, inclusae—tamen non solum nuntios sed etiam famam aduentus sui praegressus, ducibus indidem ex Celtiberia transfugis ad hostem peruenit. eisdem auctoribus compertum est cum decem circiter milia ab hoste abessent bina castra circa uiam qua irent esse; laeua Celtiberos nouum exercitum, supra nouem milia hominum, dextra Punica tenere castra; ea stationibus uigiliis omni iusta militari custodia tuta et firma esse: illa altera soluta neglectaque, ut barbarorum et tironum et minus timentium quod in sua terra essent.

Silanus, by the greatest marches he could—yet the asperities of the roads and the straits, enclosed with frequent passes, as most parts of Spain are, impeded him—nevertheless outstripped not only messengers but even the rumor of his arrival, and, with guides who were deserters from that same Celtiberia, came up to the enemy. By these same informants it was ascertained that, when they were about ten miles from the enemy, there were twin camps along the road by which they were going; on the left the Celtiberians, a new army, over nine thousand men, and on the right the Punic forces held their camp; that the latter was safe and firm with outposts, watches, with every proper military guard; but that the other was slack and neglected, as is the way of barbarians and raw recruits, and of men less fearful because they were in their own land.

Ea prius adgredienda ratus Silanus signa quam maxime ad laeuam iubebat ferri, necunde ab stationibus Punicis conspiceretur; ipse praemissis speculatoribus citato agmine ad hostem pergit.

Thinking those should first be assailed, Silanus ordered the standards to be carried as far as possible to the left, lest he be seen from the Punic outposts; he himself, with scouts sent ahead, proceeds toward the enemy with the column at speed.

[2] Tria milia ferme aberat, cum hauddum quisquam hostium senserat; confragosa loca, et obsiti uirgultis tegebant colles. ibi in caua ualle atque ob id occulta considere militem et cibum capere iubet; interim speculatores transfugarum dicta adfirmantes uenerunt; tum sarcinis in medium coniectis arma Romani capiunt acieque iusta in pugnam uadunt. mille passuum aberant, cum ab hoste conspecti sunt trepidarique repente coeptum; et Mago ex castris citato equo ad primum clamorem et tumultum aduehitur.

[2] They were about three thousand away, when as yet not a single one of the enemy had perceived them; the rugged ground and hills overgrown with brushwood hid them. There, in a hollow valley—and for that reason concealed—he orders the soldiers to take up position and to take food; meanwhile scouts came, confirming the statements of the deserters. Then, with the packs thrown together into the middle, the Romans take up arms and, in a regular line of battle, go forth to fight. They were a thousand paces off when they were seen by the enemy, and trepidation suddenly began; and Mago, from the camp, with his horse at speed, rides up at the first shout and tumult.

erant in Celtiberorum exercitu quattuor milia scutata et ducenti equites; hanc iustam legionem—et id ferme roboris erat—in prima acie locat: ceteros leuem armaturam in subsidiis posuit. cum ita instructos educeret e castris, uixdum in egressos uallo [eos] Romani pila coniecerunt. subsidunt Hispani aduersus emissa tela ab hoste, inde ad mittenda ipsi consurgunt; quae cum Romani conferti, ut solent, densatis excepissent scutis, tum pes cum pede conlatus et gladiis geri res coepta est.

There were in the Celtiberians’ army four thousand shield-bearers and two hundred horsemen; this full legion—and that was roughly their strength—he places in the front line: the rest, the light-armed, he set in reserve. When he was leading them out of the camp thus arrayed, scarcely had they gone out over the rampart when the Romans hurled their pila at [them]. The Spaniards duck down against the missiles sent by the enemy, then rise to launch their own; which the Romans, packed close, as they are wont, received with their shields massed; then foot with foot brought together, the affair began to be carried on with swords.

ceterum asperitas locorum et Celtiberis, quibus in proelio concursare mos est, uelocitatem inutilem faciebat, et haud iniqua eadem erat Romanis stabili pugnae adsuetis, nisi quod angustiae et internata uirgulta ordines dirimebant et singuli binique uelut cum paribus conserere pugnam cogebantur. quod ad fugam impedimento hostibus erat, id ad caedem eos uelut uinctos praebebat; et iam ferme omnibus scutatis Celtiberorum interfectis leuis armatura et Carthaginienses, qui ex alteris castris subsidio uenerant, perculsi caedebantur. duo haud amplius milia peditum et equitatus omnis uix inito proelio cum Magone effugerunt: Hanno alter imperator cum eis qui postremi iam profligato proelio aduenerant uiuus capitur.

However, the roughness of the terrain, and for the Celtiberians—whose custom in battle is to rush together in charges—their swiftness, made speed useless; and the same conditions were not unfair to the Romans, accustomed to a stable fight, except that the narrowness and the intergrown brushwood broke up the ranks, and they were compelled, one by one and in pairs, as it were, to engage the fight with equals. What was an impediment to the enemy for flight offered them up, as if bound, to slaughter; and now, with nearly all the shield-bearers of the Celtiberians killed, the light-armed and the Carthaginians, who had come from the other camp as succor, panic-struck, were being cut down. Not more than two thousand infantry and all the cavalry, with the battle scarcely begun, fled with Mago: Hanno, the other commander, with those who, the battle already decided, had arrived last, was captured alive.

Magonem fugientem equitatus ferme omnis et quod ueterum peditum erat secuti, decimo die in Gaditanam prouinciam ad Hasdrubalem peruenerunt: Celtiberi nouus miles in proximas dilapsi siluas inde domos diffugerunt.

Having followed Mago as he fled, almost all the cavalry and what there was of the veteran infantry, on the tenth day arrived in the Gaditan province to Hasdrubal: the Celtiberians, the new soldiery, having slipped away into the nearest woods, from there scattered to their homes.

Peropportuna uictoria nequaquam tantum iam conflatum bellum, quanta futuri materia belli, si licuisset iis Celtiberorum gente excita et alios ad arma sollicitare populos, oppressa erat. itaque conlaudato benigne Silano Scipio spem debellandi si nihil eam ipse cunctando moratus esset nactus, ad id quod reliquum belli erat in ultimam Hispaniam aduersus Hasdrubalem pergit. Poenus cum castra tum forte in Baetica ad sociorum animos continendos in fide haberet, signis repente sublatis fugae magis quam itineris modo penitus ad Oceanum et Gades ducit.

A very opportune victory had suppressed, not so much the war already kindled, as the material of a future war—for, had it been permitted to them, with the Celtiberian nation stirred up, to solicit other peoples to arms. Therefore, after kindly commending Silanus, Scipio, having obtained a hope of finishing the war, if he did not himself delay it by hesitation, proceeds to what remained of the war into Further Spain against Hasdrubal. The Carthaginian, since at that time he had his camp in Baetica to keep the spirits of the allies in loyalty, with the standards suddenly lifted, leads, in a mode more of flight than of marching, straight to the Ocean and to Gades.

ceterum, quoad continuisset exercitum, propositum bello se fore ratus, antequam freto Gades traiceret exercitum omnem passim in ciuitates diuisit ut et muris se ipsi et armis muros tutarentur.

However, judging that, so long as he kept the army together, he would be the object set up for the war, before he ferried it across the strait to Gades he divided the whole army here and there among the communities, so that they might defend themselves by their walls and defend the walls with arms.

[3] Scipio ubi animaduertit dissipatum passim bellum, et circumferre ad singulas urbes arma diutini magis quam magni esse operis, retro uertit iter. ne tamen hostibus eam relinqueret regionem, L. Scipionem fratrem cum decem milibus peditum, mille equitum ad oppugnandam opulentissimam in iis locis urbem—Orongin barbari appellabant—mittit. sita in Maesessum finibus est, Hispanae gentis; ager frugifer; argentum etiam incolae fodiunt.

[3] When Scipio noticed that the war was dissipated everywhere, and that to carry arms around to individual cities was a work more of duration than of magnitude, he turned his march back. Nevertheless, lest he leave that region to the enemies, he sends his brother L. Scipio with ten thousand infantry and one thousand cavalry to attack the most opulent city in those places—the barbarians called it Orongis. It is situated within the borders of the Maesessi, a Spanish nation; the land is fruit-bearing; the inhabitants also mine silver.

ea arx fuerat Hasdrubali ad excursiones circa mediterraneos populos faciendas. Scipio castris prope urbem positis, priusquam circumuallaret urbem misit ad portas qui ex propinquo adloquio animos temptarent suaderentque ut amicitiam potius quam uim experirentur Romanorum. ubi nihil pacati respondebatur, fossa duplicique uallo circumdata urbe in tres partes exercitum diuidit ut una semper pars quietis interim duabus oppugnaret.

That citadel had served Hasdrubal as a base for making excursions against the inland peoples. Scipio, with his camp pitched near the city, before he should circumvallate the city, sent men to the gates to test their spirits by a close address and to advise that they should experience the friendship rather than the force of the Romans. When nothing peaceable was returned in reply, with a ditch and a double rampart drawn around the city, he divided the army into three parts, so that one part should always be at rest while the other two were assailing it.

prima pars cum adorta ~oppugnare est,~ atrox sane et anceps proelium fuit; non subire, non scalas ferre ad muros prae incidentibus telis facile erat; etiam qui erexerant ad murum scalas, alii furcis ad id ipsum factis detrudebantur, in alios lupi superne ferrei iniecti ut in periculo essent ne suspensi in murum extraherentur. quod ubi animaduertit Scipio nimia paucitate suorum exaequatum certamen esse et iam eo superare hostem quod ex muro pugnaret, duabus simul partibus prima recepta urbem est adgressus. quae res tantum pauoris iniecit fessis iam cum primis pugnando, ut et oppidani moenia repentina fuga desererent et Punicum praesidium metu ne prodita urbs esset relictis stationibus in unum se conligeret.

when the first division had begun ~to assault,~ the battle was truly atrocious and two-edged; it was not easy to advance, not easy to carry ladders to the walls because of the missiles falling in front; even those who had raised ladders to the wall, some were pushed off with forks made for that very purpose, upon others “iron wolves” were flung down from above, so that they were in danger of being hauled up suspended onto the wall. when Scipio observed that, by the excessive fewness of his men, the contest had been made equal, and that the enemy now surpassed in that he was fighting from the wall, with the first division recalled he attacked the city on two sides at once. this thing cast such panic into men already wearied—especially those fighting in the front—that both the townsfolk abandoned the walls in sudden flight, and the Punic garrison, from fear that the city had been betrayed, left their posts and gathered themselves into one body.

Timor inde oppidanos incessit ne, si hostis urbem intrasset, sine discrimine Poenus an Hispanus esset obuii passim caederentur; itaque patefacta repente porta frequentes ex oppido sese eiecerunt, scuta prae se tenentes ne tela procul conicerentur, dextras nudas ostentantes ut gladios abiecisse appareret. id utrum parum ex interuallo sit conspectum an dolus aliquis suspectus fuerit incompertum est; impetus hostilis in transfugas factus, nec secus quam aduersa acies caesi; eademque porta signa infesta urbi inlata. et aliis partibus securibus dolabrisque caedebantur portae et refringebantur, et ut quisque intrauerat eques, ad forum occupandum—ita enim praeceptum erat—citato equo pergebat.

From there fear seized the townsfolk that, if the enemy had entered the city, those met here and there would be cut down without distinction, whether Carthaginian or Spaniard; and so, the gate having been suddenly thrown open, in crowds they hurled themselves out of the town, holding shields before them so that missiles might not be hurled from afar, showing bare right hands so that it might appear they had thrown away their swords. Whether that was too little seen from the interval, or some trick was suspected, is uncertain; a hostile charge was made against the deserters, and they were cut down no otherwise than an opposing battle line; and by the same gate standards hostile to the city were borne in. And in other quarters the gates were being hewn and broken open with axes and mattocks, and, as each horseman had entered, to seize the forum—for so it had been ordered—he rode on at speed.

additum erat et triariorum equiti praesidium; legionarii ceteras partes urbis peruadunt. direptione et caede obuiorum, nisi qui armis se tuebantur, abstinuerunt. Carthaginienses omnes in custodiam dati sunt, oppidanorum quoque trecenti ferme qui clauserant portas; ceteris traditum oppidum, suae redditae res.

There had also been added to the cavalry a guard of triarii; the legionaries pervaded the other parts of the city. They refrained from depredation and from the slaughter of those encountered, unless they were defending themselves with arms. All the Carthaginians were given into custody, as also nearly three hundred of the townsmen who had shut the gates; to the rest the town was delivered, their property restored to them.

cecidere in urbis eius oppugnatione hostium duo milia ferme, Romanorum haud amplius nonaginta.

About 2,000 of the enemy fell in the assault on that city; of the Romans no more than 90.

[4] Laeta et ipsis qui rem gessere urbis eius expugnatio fuit et imperatori ceteroque exercitui; et speciosum aduentum suum ingentem turbam captiuorum prae se agentes fecerunt. Scipio conlaudato fratre cum quanto poterat uerborum honore Carthagini ab se captae captam ab eo Orongin aequasset, quia et hiemps instabat ut nec temptare Gades nec disiectum passim per prouinciam exercitum Hasdrubalis consectari posset, in citeriorem Hispaniam omnes suas copias reduxit; dimissisque in hiberna legionibus L. Scipione fratre Romam misso et Hannone hostium imperatore ceterisque nobilibus captiuis ipse Tarraconem concessit.

[4] Joyful was the storming of that city both to those themselves who had carried out the deed and to the commander and the rest of the army; and they made their arrival splendid, driving before them a huge throng of captives. Scipio, after praising his brother, had, with as much honor in words as he could, made Orongis captured by him equal to Carthage captured by himself; because also winter was drawing on, so that he could neither attempt Gades nor pursue Hasdrubal’s army scattered everywhere through the province, he led back all his forces into Hither Spain; and the legions having been dismissed into winter quarters, his brother L. Scipio having been sent to Rome, and Hanno, the enemy commander, with the other noble captives, he himself withdrew to Tarraco.

Eodem anno classis Romana cum M. Ualerio Laeuino proconsule ex Sicilia in Africam transmissa in Uticensi Carthaginiensique agro late populationes fecit. extremis finibus Carthaginiensium circa ipsa moenia Uticae praedae actae sunt. repetentibus Siciliam classis Punica—septuaginta erant longae naues—occurrit; septemdecim naues ex iis captae sunt, quattuor in alto mersae; cetera fusa ac fugata classis.

In the same year the Roman fleet, with Marcus Valerius Laevinus, proconsul, sent across from Sicily into Africa, made widespread depredations in the Utican and Carthaginian territory. On the farthest borders of the Carthaginians, around the very walls of Utica, booty was driven off. As they were returning to Sicily, the Punic fleet—there were seventy long ships—met them; seventeen ships of these were captured, four were sunk on the deep; the rest of the fleet was routed and put to flight.

terra marique uictor Romanus cum magna omnis generis praeda Lilybaeum repetit. tuto inde mari pulsis hostium nauibus magni commeatus frumenti Romam subuecti.

Victorious by land and sea, the Roman victor returned to Lilybaeum with great booty of every kind. Thence, the sea being safe, with the enemy’s ships driven off, great convoys of grain were transported to Rome.

[5] Principio aestatis eius qua haec sunt gesta P. Sulpicius proconsul et Attalus rex cum Aeginae sicut ante dictum est hibernassent, Lemnum inde classe iuncta—Romanae quinque et uiginti quinqueremes, regiae quinque et triginta—transmiserunt. et Philippus ut, seu terra seu mari obuiam eundum hosti foret, paratus ad omnes conatus esset, ipse Demetriadem ad mare descendit, Larisam diem ad conueniendum exercitui edixit. undique ab sociis legationes Demetriadem ad famam regis conuenerunt.

[5] At the beginning of the summer in which these things were done, Publius Sulpicius, proconsul, and King Attalus, when they had wintered at Aegina, as was said before, from there, the fleet having been joined—twenty-five Roman quinqueremes, thirty-five royal—crossed over to Lemnos. And Philip, so that, whether by land or by sea it should be necessary to go to meet the enemy, he might be prepared for all endeavors, himself went down to the sea to Demetrias, and appointed a day at Larisa for the army to convene. From every side, from the allies, legations assembled at Demetrias at the report of the king.

sustulerant enim animos Aetoli cum ab Romana societate tum post Attali aduentum finitimosque depopulabantur; nec Acarnanes solum Boeotique et qui Euboeam incolunt in magno metu erant, sed Achaei quoque, quos super Aetolicum bellum Machanidas etiam Lacedaemonius tyrannus haud procul Argiuorum fine positis castris terrebat. hi omnes suis quisque urbibus quae pericula terra marique portenderentur memorantes auxilia regem orabant. ne ex regno quidem ipsius tranquillae nuntiabantur res: et Scerdilaedum Pleuratumque motos esse, et Thracum maxime Maedos, si quod longinquum bellum regem occupasset, proxima Macedoniae incursuros.

For the Aetolians had lifted their spirits, both from their Roman alliance and, after the arrival of Attalus, they were depredating their neighbors; nor were the Acarnanians alone and the Boeotians and those who inhabit Euboea in great fear, but the Achaeans also, whom, over and above the Aetolian war, Machanidas too, the Lacedaemonian tyrant, with his camp pitched not far from the border of the Argives, was terrifying. All these, each recounting in their several cities what dangers were being portended by land and by sea, were begging the king for auxiliaries. Not even from his own kingdom, moreover, were tranquil affairs being reported: both that Scerdilaedus and Pleuratus had been stirred, and that of the Thracians, especially the Maedi, if any long‑distant war should occupy the king, would make incursions into the parts nearest to Macedonia.

Boeoti quidem et interiores Graeciae populi Thermopylarum saltum, ubi angustae fauces coartant iter, fossa ualloque intercludi ab Aetolis nuntiabant ne transitum ad sociorum urbes tuendas Philippo darent.

Boeotians indeed and the peoples of interior Greece were reporting that the pass of Thermopylae, where narrow defiles constrict the route, was being shut off with a ditch and rampart by the Aetolians, so that they might not grant passage to Philip for the protection of the allies’ cities.

Vel segnem ducem tot excitare tumultus circumfusi poterant. legationes dimittit pollicitus prout tempus ac res sineret omnibus laturum auxilium. in praesentia quae maxime urgebat res, Peparethum praesidium urbi mittit, unde allatum erat Attalum ab Lemno classe transmissa omnem circum urbem agrum depopulatum.

So many tumults, poured around on every side, could have roused even a sluggish commander. He sends away the embassies, having promised that, as time and circumstance would permit, he would bring aid to all. For the present, as the matter which most pressed, he sends a garrison to Peparethus, whence it had been reported that Attalus, with the fleet transferred from Lemnos, had laid waste all the countryside around the city.

Polyphantam cum modica manu in Boeotiam, Menippum item quendam ex regiis ducibus cum mille peltatis—pelta caetrae haud dissimilis est—Chalcidem mittit; additi quingenti Agrianum ut omnes insulae partes tueri posset. ipse Scotussam est profectus eodemque ab Larisa Macedonum copias traduci iussit. eo nuntiatum est concilium Aetolis Heracleam indictum regemque Attalum ad consultandum de summa belli uenturum.

He sends Polyphantes with a modest band into Boeotia, and Menippus, likewise a certain one of the royal commanders, with 1,000 peltasts— the pelta is not unlike the caetra— to Chalcis; five hundred Agrianians were added so that he might be able to guard all parts of the island. He himself set out for Scotussa and ordered that from Larisa the forces of the Macedonians be transferred to the same place. There it was reported that an assembly of the Aetolians had been proclaimed at Heraclea, and that King Attalus would come to consult about the supreme conduct of the war.

hunc conuentum ut turbaret subito aduentu, magnis itineribus Heracleam duxit. et concilio quidem dimisso [iam] uenit; segetibus tamen, quae iam prope maturitatem erant, maxime in sinu Aenianum euastatis Scotussam copias reducit. ibi exercitu omni relicto, cum cohorte regia Demetriadem sese recepit.

to throw this convention into disorder by a sudden advent, he led his forces by great marches to Heraclea. and indeed he came with the council already dismissed; however, after devastating the crops—which were now near maturity—especially in the Aenianian gulf, he led the troops back to Scotussa. there, with the entire army left behind, he withdrew with the royal cohort to Demetrias.

inde ut ad omnes hostium motus posset occurrere, in Phocidem atque Euboeam et Peparethum mittit qui loca alta eligerent unde editi ignes apparerent: ipse in Tisaeo—mons est in altitudinem ingentem cacuminis editi—speculam posuit ut ignibus procul sublatis signum, ubi quid molirentur hostes, momento temporis acciperet.

thence, so that he might be able to meet all the movements of the enemy, he sends men into Phocis and Euboea and Peparethus to choose high places from which raised fires would be visible: he himself placed a watch-post on Tisaeus—a mountain of immense height with an elevated summit—so that, with fires lifted up far away, he might receive the signal, when the enemies were contriving anything, in a moment of time.

Romanus imperator et Attalus rex a Peparetho Nicaeam traiecerunt; inde classem in Euboeam ad urbem Oreum tramittunt, quae ab Demetriaco sinu Chalcidem et Euripum petenti ad laeuam prima urbium Euboeae posita est. ita inter Attalum ac Sulpicium conuenit ut Romani a mari, regii a terra oppugnarent.

The Roman commander and King Attalus crossed over from Peparethus to Nicaea; thence they send across the fleet into Euboea to the city of Oreus, which, for one making for Chalcis and the Euripus from the Demetriac Gulf, is situated on the left, the first of the cities of Euboea. Thus it was agreed between Attalus and Sulpicius that the Romans should attack from the sea, the king's men from the land.

[6] Quadriduo postquam adpulsa classis est, urbem adgressi sunt. id tempus occultis cum Platore, qui a Philippo praepositus urbi erat, conloquiis absumptum est. duas arces urbs habet, unam imminentem mari; altera urbis media est.

[6] Four days after the fleet had made landfall, they assaulted the city. That period was spent in clandestine colloquies with Plator, who had been set over the city by Philip. The city has two citadels, one overhanging the sea; the other is in the middle of the city.

cuniculo inde uia ad mare ducit, quam a mari turris quinque tabulatorum egregium propugnaculum claudebat. ibi primo atrocissimum contractum est certamen, et turre instructa omni genere telorum et tormentis machinisque ad oppugnandam eam ex nauibus expositis. cum omnium animos oculosque id certamen auertisset, porta maritimae arcis Plator Romanos accepit momentoque arx occupata est.

From there a sapping-tunnel leads a way to the sea, which on the seaward side a five-storied tower, an excellent bulwark, shut off. There at first a most atrocious battle was joined, the tower being equipped with every kind of missiles and artillery, and engines and machines for assault having been disembarked from the ships. When that contest had drawn aside all minds and eyes, Plator admitted the Romans through the gate of the maritime citadel, and in a moment the citadel was occupied.

oppidani pulsi inde in mediam urbem ad alteram tendere arcem; et ibi positi erant qui fores portae obicerent. ita exclusi in medio caeduntur capiunturque. Macedonum praesidium conglobatum sub arcis muro stetit, nec fuga effuse petita nec pertinaciter proelio inito.

Driven from there, the townspeople made for the middle of the city toward the other citadel; and men had been posted there to bar the doors of the gate. Thus shut out, they are cut down and captured in the midst. The Macedonians’ garrison, massed together, stood beneath the wall of the citadel, neither seeking flight in headlong disorder nor entering upon battle pertinaciously.

eos Plator uenia ab Sulpicio impetrata in naues impositos ad Demetrium Phthiotidis exposuit; ipse ad Attalum se recepit.

Plator, having obtained leave from Sulpicius, put them aboard ships and set them ashore at Demetrium of Phthiotis; he himself betook himself to Attalus.

Sulpicius tam facili ad Oreum successu elatus Chalcidem inde protinus uictrici classe petit, ubi haudquaquam ad spem euentus respondit. ex patenti utrimque coactum in angustias mare speciem intuenti primo gemini portus in ora duos uersi praebuerit; sed haud facile alia infestior classi statio est. nam et uenti ab utriusque terrae praealtis montibus subiti ac procellosi deiciunt, et fretum ipsum Euripi non septiens die, sicut fama fert, temporibus statis reciprocat, sed temere in modum uenti nunc huc nunc illuc uerso mari, uelut monte praecipiti deuolutus torrens rapitur.

Sulpicius, elated by so easy a success at Oreus, from there straightway made for Chalcis with his victorious fleet, where the outcome by no means answered to expectation. To one looking at its aspect, the sea, compressed from an open expanse on either side into narrows, would at first present on the shore the appearance of twin harbors, turned in two directions; but hardly is there any other station more inimical to a fleet. For sudden and squally winds are hurled down from the very lofty mountains of each land, and the very strait of the Euripus does not, seven times in a day, as fame reports, reciprocate at fixed periods, but at random, in the manner of a wind, with the sea turned now here, now there, it is swept along like a torrent rolled headlong from a precipitous mountain.

ita nec nocte nec die quies nauibus datur. cum classem tam infesta statio accepit, tum et oppidum, alia parte clausum mari, alia ab terra egregie munitum praesidioque ualido firmatum et praecipue fide praefectorum principumque, quae fluxa et uana apud Oreum fuerat, stabile atque inexpugnabile fuit. id prudenter, ut in temere suscepta re, Romanus fecit quod circumspectis difficultatibus ne frustra tempus tereret celeriter abstitit incepto classemque inde ad Cynum Locridis—emporium id est urbis Opuntiorum mille passuum a mari sitae—traiecit.

thus neither by night nor by day is rest given to the ships. not only did a station so infested receive the fleet, but the town too—on one side shut in by the sea, on the other from the land excellently fortified and strengthened with a strong garrison, and above all by the loyalty of the prefects and leading men, which had been shifting and vain at Oreus—was stable and impregnable. herein the Roman acted prudently, considering that the affair had been rashly undertaken: after the difficulties had been surveyed, lest he waste time to no purpose, he quickly desisted from the undertaking, and transported the fleet thence to Cynus in Locris—an emporium, that is, of the city of the Opuntians, situated a thousand paces from the sea.

[7] Philippum et ignes ab Oreo editi monuerant sed serius Platoris fraude ex specula elati; et impari tum maritimis uiribus haud facilis erat in insulam classi accessus; ita re per cunctationem omissa ad Chalcidis auxilium, ubi signum accepit, impigre est motus. nam et ipsa Chalcis, quamquam eiusdem insulae urbs est, tamen adeo arto interscinditur freto, ut ponte continenti iungatur terraque aditum faciliorem quam mari habeat. igitur Philippus ab Demetriade Scotussam, inde de tertia uigilia profectus, deiecto praesidio fusisque Aetolis qui saltum Thermopylarum insidebant cum trepidos hostes Heracleam compulisset, ipse uno die Phocidis Elatiam milia amplius sexaginta contendit.

[7] Fires sent out from Oreus had warned Philip, but, raised from the watchtower too late through the treachery of Plator; and with his naval forces then inferior, approach by the fleet to the island was by no means easy. Thus, the operation being dropped through delay, he moved briskly to the aid of Chalcis when he received the signal. For Chalcis itself, although a city of the same island, is cut off by so narrow a strait that it is joined to the continent by a bridge and has an easier approach by land than by sea. Therefore Philip from Demetrias to Scotussa—then, setting out from there at the third watch—after dislodging the garrison and routing the Aetolians who were occupying the pass of Thermopylae, when he had driven the panic-stricken enemies into Heraclea, he himself in one day pressed on to Elatea of Phocis, more than 60 miles.

eodem ferme die ab Attalo rege Opuntiorum urbs capta diripiebatur— concesserat eam regi praedam Sulpicius, quia Oreum paucos ante dies ab Romano milite, expertibus regiis, direptum fuerat. cum Romana classis Oreum sese recepisset, Attalus ignarus aduentus Philippi pecuniis a principibus exigendis terebat tempus, adeoque improuisa res fuit ut, nisi Cretensium quidam forte pabulatum ab urbe longius progressi agmen hostium procul conspexissent, opprimi potuerit. Attalus inermis atque incompositus cursu effuso mare ac naues petit, et molientibus ab terra naues Philippus superuenit tumultumque etiam ex terra nauticis praebuit.

On almost the same day the city of the Opuntians was captured and was being plundered by King Attalus—the spoil had been conceded to the king by Sulpicius, because Oreum a few days before had been plundered by the Roman soldiery, with the king’s men left out. When the Roman fleet had withdrawn back to Oreum, Attalus, unaware of Philip’s arrival, was wasting time in exacting monies from the chiefs, and the affair was so unexpected that, had not certain Cretans, who by chance had gone farther from the city to forage, espied the enemy column from afar, he could have been overwhelmed. Attalus, unarmed and unarrayed, at a headlong run makes for the sea and the ships, and as they were working the ships off from the shore Philip came up and provided tumult even from the land for the seamen.

inde Opuntem rediit, deos hominesque accusans quod tantae rei fortunam ex oculis prope raptam amisisset. Opuntii quoque ab eadem ira increpiti quod, cum trahere obsidionem in aduentum suum potuissent, uiso statim hoste prope in uoluntariam deditionem concessissent.

thence he returned to Opus, accusing gods and men that he had lost the fortune of so great a matter, snatched almost from his eyes. The Opuntians, too, were upbraided in the same anger, because, although they could have protracted the siege until his arrival, at the mere sight of the enemy they had straightway all but passed into a voluntary surrender.

Compositis circa Opuntem rebus Toronen est profectus. et Attalus primo Oreum se recepit; inde, cum fama accidisset Prusian Bithyniae regem in fines regni sui transgressum, omissis Romanis rebus atque Aetolico bello in Asiam traiecit. et Sulpicius Aeginam classem recipit, unde initio ueris profectus erat.

With the affairs around Opus settled, he set out for Torone. And Attalus at first withdrew to Oreus; thence, when a report had arrived that Prusias, king of Bithynia, had crossed into the borders of his own realm, abandoning Roman affairs and the Aetolian war he crossed over into Asia. And Sulpicius brought the fleet back to Aegina, whence he had set out at the beginning of spring.

haud maiore certamine quam Opuntem Attalus ceperat, Philippus Toronen cepit. incolebant urbem eam profugi ab Thebis Phthioticis; urbe sua capta a Philippo cum in fidem Aetolorum perfugissent, sedem iis Aetoli eam dederant urbis uastae ac desertae priore eiusdem Philippi bello. tum ab Torone, sicut paulo ante dictum est, recepta profectus Tithronion et Drumias, Doridis parua atque ignobilia oppida, cepit.

With no greater contest than that with which Attalus had taken Opus, Philip took Torone. Refugees from Phthiotic Thebes inhabited that city; when their own city had been captured by Philip and they had fled into the faith (protection) of the Aetolians, the Aetolians had given them that place as a seat, a city devastated and deserted in the earlier war of that same Philip. Then, with Torone recovered, as was said a little before, setting out he took Tithronion and Drumias, small and inglorious towns of Doris.

inde Elatiam iussis ibi se opperiri Ptolomaei Rhodiorumque legatis uenit. ubi cum de finiendo Aetolico bello ageretur—adfuerant enim legati nuper Heracleae concilio Romanorum Aetolorumque—nuntius adfertur Machanidam Olympiorum sollemne ludicrum parantes Eleos adgredi statuisse. praeuertendum id ratus legatis cum benigno responso dimissis—se neque causam eius belli fuisse nec moram, si modo aequa et honesta condicione liceat, paci facturum—cum expedito agmine profectus per Boeotiam Megara atque inde Corinthum descendit, unde commeatibus sumptis Phliunta Pheneumque petit.

thence he came to Elatia, having ordered the envoys of Ptolemy and of the Rhodians to wait for him there. where, as the matter of ending the Aetolian war was being handled—for at the council at Heraclea there had recently been present envoys of the Romans and of the Aetolians—a message is brought that Machanidas had decided to attack the Eleans as they were preparing the solemn spectacle of the Olympics. thinking that this must be given precedence, after dismissing the envoys with a benign reply—saying that he had been neither the cause of that war nor would he be a hindrance, if only it might be permitted on an equitable and honorable condition, to peace—he set out with a light column, went through Boeotia to Megara and from there descended to Corinth, whence, having taken on supplies, he made for Phlius and Pheneus.

et iam cum Heraeam uenisset, audito Machanidam fama aduentus sui territum refugisse Lacedaemonem, Aegium se ad concilium Achaeorum recepit, simul classem Punicam, ut mari quoque aliquid posset accitam, ibi ratus se inuenturum. paucis ante diebus inde ~Oxeas traiecerant Poeni, inde portus Acarnanum petierant, cum ab Oreo profectum Attalum Romanosque audissent, ueriti ne in se iretur et intra Rhium—fauces eae sunt Corinthii sinus—opprimerentur.

and now when he had come to Heraea, hearing that Machanidas, frightened by the report of his arrival, had taken refuge back to Lacedaemon, he withdrew to Aegium to the council of the Achaeans, at the same time thinking he would find there the Punic fleet, summoned so that he might also be able to do something by sea. a few days earlier from there the Carthaginians had crossed over to ~Oxeae, from there they had made for the harbors of the Acarnanians, when they heard that Attalus and the Romans had set out from Oreus, fearing that an attack would be made upon them and that they would be overwhelmed within Rhium—the straits of the Corinthian Gulf.

[8] Philippus maerebat quidem et angebatur cum ad omnia ipse raptim isset nulli tamen se rei in tempore occurrisse, et rapientem omnia ex oculis elusisse celeritatem suam fortunam; in concilio autem dissimulans aegritudinem elato animo disseruit, testatus deos hominesque se nullo loco nec tempore defuisse quin ubi hostium arma concrepuissent eo quanta maxima posset celeritate tenderet: sed uix rationem iniri posse utrum a se audacius an fugacius ab hostibus geratur bellum. sic ab Opunte Attalum, sic Sulpicium ab Chalcide, sic eis ipsis diebus Machanidam e manibus suis elapsum. sed non semper felicem esse fugam nec pro difficili id bellum habendum in quo, si modo congressus cum hoste sis, uiceris.

[8] Philip was indeed grieving and was anguished that, although he himself had gone hastily to everything, yet he had met no affair in time, and that his fortune, snatching all things, had eluded his speed before his eyes; but in council, dissimulating his distress, he spoke with elevated spirit, calling gods and men to witness that he had been lacking neither in place nor in time, but that wherever the enemies’ arms had clashed, thither he had hastened with the greatest speed he could: but that scarcely could a reckoning be made whether the war was being conducted more boldly by himself or more in flight by the enemies. Thus Attalus from Opus, thus Sulpicius from Chalcis, thus in those very days Machanidas had slipped from his hands. But flight is not always fortunate, nor should that be held a difficult war in which, if only you should come to close quarters with the enemy, you would win.

quod primum esset, confessionem se hostium habere nequaquam pares esse sibi: breui et uictoriam haud dubiam habiturum, nec meliore euentu eos secum quam spe pugnaturos.

First of all, that he had the confession of the enemy that they were by no means peers to himself: that soon he would also have an undoubted victory, and that they would fight with him with no better event than hope.

Laeti regem socii audierunt. reddidit inde Achaeis Heraeam et Triphuliam, Alipheram autem Megalopolitis quod suorum fuisse finium satis probabant restituit. inde nauibus acceptis ab Achaeis—erant autem tres quadriremes et biremes totidem—Anticyram traiecit.

Gladly the allies heard the king. Then he gave back to the Achaeans Heraea and Triphylia, but Alipheira he restored to the Megalopolitans, because they sufficiently proved that it had been within their own boundaries. Then, ships having been received from the Achaeans—there were three quadriremes and the same number of biremes—he crossed over to Anticyra.

inde quinqueremibus septem et lembis uiginti amplius, quos ut adiungeret Carthaginiensium classi miserat in Corinthium sinum, profectus ad Eruthras Aetolorum, quae prope Eupalium sunt, escensionem fecit. haud fefellit Aetolos; nam hominum quod aut in agris aut in propinquis castellis Potidaniae atque Apolloniae fuit in siluas montesque refugit: pecora quae inter festinationem abigi nequierant sunt direpta et in naues compulsa. cum iis ceteraque praeda Nicia praetore Achaeorum Aegium misso cum Corinthum petisset, pedestres inde copias per Boeotiam terra duci iussit: ipse ab Cenchreis praeter terram Atticam super Sunium nauigans inter medias prope hostium classes, Chalcidem peruenit.

Thence, with seven quinqueremes and more than twenty lembi—which he had sent into the Corinthian Gulf to be joined to the Carthaginians’ fleet—setting out for the Aetolians’ Erythrae, which are near Eupalium, he made a landing. He did not deceive the Aetolians; for the people who were either in the fields or in the neighboring strongholds of Potidania and Apollonia fled into the woods and mountains; the herds which could not be driven off in the haste were plundered and forced aboard the ships. With these and the rest of the booty, when he had made for Corinth—Nicias, praetor of the Achaeans, having been sent to Aegium—he ordered the foot forces from there to be led by land through Boeotia; he himself, from Cenchreae, sailing past the land of Attica round Sunium, almost through the very midst of the enemy fleets, reached Chalcis.

inde conlaudata fide ac uirtute quod neque timor nec spes flexisset eorum animos, hortatusque in posterum ut eadem constantia permanerent in societate si suam quam Oritanorum atque Opuntiorum fortunam mallent, ab Chalcide Oreum nauigat, principumque iis qui fugere capta urbe quam se Romanis tradere maluerant summa rerum et custodia urbis permissa ipse Demetriadem ab Euboea, unde primum ad opem ferendam sociis profectus erat, traiecit. Cassandreae deinde centum nauium longarum carinis positis contractaque ad effectum eius operis multitudine fabrorum naualium, quia res in Graecia tranquillas et profectio Attali fecerat et in tempore laborantibus sociis latum ab se auxilium, retro in regnum concessit ut Dardanis bellum inferret.

then, their fidelity and virtue having been highly commended—because neither fear nor hope had bent their spirits—and having exhorted them henceforth to remain with the same constancy in the alliance, if they preferred their own fortune to that of the Oritans and Opuntians, he sails from Chalcis to Oreus, and to the leading men who had chosen to flee when the city was taken rather than to surrender themselves to the Romans the supreme control of affairs and the custody of the city was entrusted; he himself crossed from Euboea to Demetrias, whence he had first set out to bring aid to the allies. Then at Cassandreia, the keels of 100 long ships having been laid, and a multitude of naval craftsmen gathered for the completion of that work, because both Attalus’s departure had made affairs in Greece tranquil and timely aid had been brought by himself to allies in distress, he withdrew back into his kingdom to wage war upon the Dardani.

[9] Extremo aestatis eius qua haec in Graecia gesta sunt, cum Q. Fabius Maximus filius legatus ab M. Liuio consule Romam ad senatum nuntiasset consulem satis praesidii Galliae prouinciae credere L. Porcium cum suis legionibus esse, decedere se inde ac deduci exercitum consularem posse, patres non M. Liuium tantum redire ad urbem sed collegam quoque eius C. Claudium iusserunt. id modo in decreto interfuit quod M. Liui exercitum reduci, Neronis legiones Hannibali oppositas manere in prouincia iusserunt. inter consules ita per litteras conuenit ut, quemadmodum uno animo rem publicam gessissent, ita quamquam ex diuersis regionibus conuenirent uno tempore ad urbem accederent; Praeneste qui prior uenisset, collegam ibi opperiri iussus.

[9] At the end of that summer in which these things were conducted in Greece, when Q. Fabius Maximus the son, legate, had announced to the senate at Rome from M. Livius the consul that the consul believed L. Porcius with his own legions to be sufficient praesidium for the province of Gaul, that he himself was departing thence and that the consular army could be withdrawn, the Fathers ordered not M. Livius only to return to the city but his colleague C. Claudius as well. Only this differed in the decree: they ordered the army of M. Livius to be brought back, but the legions of Nero, set in opposition to Hannibal, to remain in the province. Between the consuls it was thus agreed by letters, that just as with one mind they had managed the commonwealth, so, although they were coming together from different regions, they should approach the city at the same time; whoever should arrive first at Praeneste was ordered to wait there for his colleague.

forte ita euenit ut eodem die ambo Praeneste uenirent. inde praemisso edicto ut triduo post frequens senatus ad aedem Bellonae adesset, omni multitudine obuiam effusa ad urbem accessere. non salutabant modo uniuersi circumfusi, sed contingere pro se quisque uictrices dextras consulum cupientes, alii gratulabantur, alii gratias agebant quod eorum opera incolumis res publica esset.

By chance it so happened that on the same day both came to Praeneste. Thence, an edict having been sent ahead that three days later a full senate should be present at the temple of Bellona, they approached the city with the entire multitude poured out to meet them. Not only did all, thronging around, greet them, but each man, eager for himself, desired to touch the consuls’ victorious right hands; some offered congratulations, others gave thanks because by their efforts the Republic was unharmed.

in senatu cum more omnium imperatorum expositis rebus ab se gestis postulassent ut pro re publica fortiter feliciterque administrata et dis immortalibus haberetur honos et ipsis triumphantibus urbem inire liceret, se uero ea quae postularent decernere patres merito deorum primum, dein secundum deos consulum responderunt; et supplicatione amborum nomine et triumpho utrique decreto, inter ipsos, ne cum bellum communi animo gessissent triumphum separarent, ita conuenit, quoniam et in prouincia M. Liui res gesta esset et eo die quo pugnatum foret eius forte auspicium fuisset et exercitus Liuianus deductus Romam uenisset, Neronis deduci de prouincia non potuisset, ut M. Liuium quadrigis urbem ineuntem milites sequerentur, C. Claudius equo sine militibus inueheretur.

In the senate, when, according to the custom of all commanders, after setting forth the affairs achieved by themselves they had requested that, for the republic having been administered bravely and felicitously, honor be paid to the immortal gods and that it be permitted to themselves, as triumphing, to enter the city, the Fathers replied that they did indeed decree the things they asked, deservedly first to the gods, then, after the gods, to the consuls; and, with a supplication decreed in the name of both and a triumph to each, it was agreed between themselves—lest, though they had waged the war with a common spirit, they should separate the triumph—thus: since both in the province the affair had been conducted by M. Livius, and on the day on which the fighting occurred the auspices had by chance been his, and the Livian army, having been led back, had come to Rome, whereas Nero’s could not be led away from the province, M. Livius, entering the city in a quadriga, should be followed by the soldiers, while C. Claudius should ride in on horseback without soldiers.

Ita consociatus triumphus cum utrique, tum magis ei qui quantum merito anteibat tantum honore collegae cesserat, gloriam auxit. illum equitem aiebant sex dierum spatio transcurrisse longitudinem Italiae, et eo die cum Hasdrubale in Gallia signis conlatis pugnasse quo eum castra aduersus sese in Apulia posita habere Hannibal credidisset. ita unum consulem pro utraque parte Italiae aduersus ~duos duces~ duos imperatores hinc consilium suum hinc corpus opposuisse.

Thus the shared triumph increased glory for both, but more for him who, by as much as he outstripped in merit, by so much had yielded the honor to his colleague. They said that that horseman, in the span of six days, had run through the length of Italy, and on that very day had fought, with standards joined, with Hasdrubal in Gaul, on which day Hannibal would have believed that he had his camp pitched against himself in Apulia. Thus one consul, on behalf of either part of Italy, set against ~two leaders~ two commanders, on the one side his counsel, on the other his person.

nomen Neronis satis fuisse ad continendum castris Hannibalem; Hasdrubalem uero qua alia re quam aduentu eius obrutum atque exstinctum esse? itaque iret alter consul sublimis curru multiiugis si uellet equis: uno equo per urbem uerum triumphum uehi, Neronemque etiamsi pedes incedat uel parta eo bello uel spreta eo triumpho gloria memorabilem fore. hi sermones spectantium Neronem usque in Capitolium prosecuti sunt.

that the name of Nero had been sufficient to keep Hannibal confined in his camp; and that Hasdrubal had been overwhelmed and extinguished by nothing other than his advent. Therefore let the other consul, if he wished, go exalted in a chariot with many-yoked horses: to be carried through the city on a single horse is the true triumph; and Nero, even if he should go on foot, would be memorable either for the glory won in that war or for the triumph spurned therein. These remarks of the spectators accompanied Nero all the way to the Capitol.

pecuniae in aerarium tulerunt sestertium triciens, octoginta milia aeris. militibus M. Liuius quinquagenos senos asses diuisit; tantundem C. Claudius absentibus militibus suis est pollicitus cum ad exercitum redisset. notatum est eo die plura carmina militaribus iocis in C. Claudium quam in consulem suum iactata; equites L. Ueturium et Q. Caecilium legatos magnis tulisse laudibus hortatosque esse plebem ut eos consules in proximum annum crearent; adiecisse equitum praerogatiuae auctoritatem consules postero die in contione quam forti fidelique duorum praecipue legatorum opera usi essent commemorantes.

they brought into the treasury money amounting to 3,000,000 sesterces, and 80,000 asses of bronze. to the soldiers M. Livius distributed fifty-six asses each; C. Claudius promised the same to his own absent soldiers when he should have returned to the army. it was noted that on that day more songs with military jests were bandied against C. Claudius than against their own consul; the knights extolled with great praises L. Veturius and Q. Caecilius, the legates, and urged the plebs to elect them consuls for the next year; the consuls added weight to the prerogative vote of the knights on the following day in a public assembly, recounting how brave and faithful had been the services—especially of the two legates—of which they had availed themselves.

[10] Cum comitiorum tempus appeteret et per dictatorem comitia haberi placuisset, C. Claudius consul M. Liuium collegam dictatorem dixit, Liuius Q. Caecilium magistrum equitum. a M. Liuio dictatore creati consules L. Ueturius Q. Caecilius, is ipse qui tum erat magister equitum. inde praetorum comitia habita; creati C. Seruilius M. Caecilius Metellus Ti. Claudius Asellus Q. Mamilius Turrinus, qui tum aedilis plebis erat.

[10] When the time of the comitia was approaching and it had been resolved that the comitia be held through a dictator, the consul Gaius Claudius named his colleague Marcus Livius dictator; Livius appointed Quintus Caecilius master of the horse. By the dictator Marcus Livius, the consuls were elected Lucius Veturius and Quintus Caecilius—the very same who at that time was master of the horse. Then the comitia of the praetors were held; elected were Gaius Servilius, Marcus Caecilius Metellus, Tiberius Claudius Asellus, and Quintus Mamilius Turrinus, who at that time was plebeian aedile.

comitiis perfectis dictator, magistratu abdicato dimissoque exercitu, in Etruriam prouinciam ex senatus consulto est profectus ad quaestiones habendas qui Etruscorum Umbrorumue populi defectionis ab Romanis ad Hasdrubalem sub aduentum eius consilia agitassent quique eum auxiliis aut commeatu aut ope aliqua iuuissent. haec eo anno domi militiaeque gesta.

With the elections completed, the dictator, having abdicated his magistracy and dismissed the army, set out, by decree of the senate, to the province of Etruria to hold inquiries into those among the peoples of the Etruscans or Umbrians who had agitated plans of defection from the Romans to Hasdrubal at the time of his approach, and who had assisted him with auxiliaries or with supplies or with some sort of help. These things were done that year both at home and in the field.

Ludi Romani ter toti instaurati ab aedilibus curulibus Cn. Seruilio Caepione Ser. Cornelio Lentulo; item ludi plebeii semel toti instaurati ab aedilibus plebis M. Pomponio Mathone et Q. Mamilio Turrino.

The Roman Games were three times restaged in full by the curule aediles Gnaeus Servilius Caepio and Servius Cornelius Lentulus; likewise the Plebeian Games were once restaged in full by the aediles of the plebs Marcus Pomponius Matho and Quintus Mamilius Turrinus.

Tertio decimo anno Punici belli L. Ueturio Philone et Q. Caecilio Metello consulibus, Bruttii ambobus ut cum Hannibale bellum gererent prouincia decreta. praetores exinde sortiti sunt M. Caecilius Metellus urbanam, Q. Mamilius peregrinam, C. Seruilius Siciliam, Ti. Claudius Sardiniam. exercitus ita diuisi: consulum alteri quem C. Claudius prioris anni consul, alteri quem Q. Claudius propraetor—eae binae legiones erant—habuisset exercitum: in Etruria duas uolonum legiones a C. Terentio propraetore M. Liuius proconsul, cui prorogatum in annum imperium erat, acciperet, et Q. Mamilius ut collegae iurisdictione tradita Galliam cum exercitu cui L. Porcius praetor praefuerat obtineret decretum est, iussusque populari agros Gallorum qui ad Poenos sub aduentum Hasdrubalis defecissent.

In the thirteenth year of the Punic war, with L. Veturius Philo and Q. Caecilius Metellus as consuls, the Bruttian country was assigned as the province to both, that they should wage war with Hannibal. Thereafter the praetors cast lots: M. Caecilius Metellus the urban jurisdiction, Q. Mamilius the peregrine, C. Servilius Sicily, Ti. Claudius Sardinia. The armies were divided thus: to one of the consuls the army which C. Claudius, consul of the previous year, had had; to the other, the one which Q. Claudius, propraetor—these were two legions apiece—had had. In Etruria M. Livius, proconsul, whose imperium had been prorogued for a year, was to receive from C. Terentius, propraetor, two legions of volunteers; and it was decreed that Q. Mamilius, jurisdiction having been handed over to his colleague, should hold Gaul with the army over which L. Porcius, praetor, had presided, and he was ordered to ravage the fields of the Gauls who had defected to the Carthaginians at the approach of Hasdrubal.

C. Seruilio cum Cannensibus duabus legionibus, sicut C. Mamilius tenuerat, Sicilia tuenda data. ex Sardinia uetus exercitus, cui A. Hostilius praefuerat, deportatus; nouam legionem quam Ti. Claudius traiceret secum consules conscripserunt. Q. Claudio ut Tarentum, C. Hostilio Tubulo ut Capuam prouinciam haberet prorogatum in annum imperium est.

To C. Seruilius, with the two Cannae legions, just as C. Mamilius had held, Sicily was given to be guarded. From Sardinia the old army, which A. Hostilius had commanded, was transported; the consuls enrolled a new legion which Ti. Claudius should carry across with himself. The imperium was prorogued for one year—for Q. Claudius to have Tarentum, and for C. Hostilius Tubulus to have Capua as province.

M. Ualerius proconsul, qui tuendae circa Siciliam maritimae orae praefuerat, triginta nauibus C. Seruilio praetori traditis cum cetera omni classe redire ad urbem iussus.

M. Valerius, proconsul, who had been in charge of guarding the maritime shore around Sicily, after thirty ships had been handed over to C. Servilius, praetor, was ordered to return to the city with all the rest of the fleet.

[11] In ciuitate tanto discrimine belli sollicita cum omnium secundorum aduersorumque causas in deos uerterent, multa prodigia nuntiabantur: Tarracinae Iouis aedem, Satrici Matris Matutae de caelo tactam; Satricanos haud minus terrebant in aedem Iouis foribus ipsis duo perlapsi angues; ab Antio nuntiatum est cruentas spicas metentibus uisas esse; Caere porcus biceps et agnus mas idem feminaque natus erat; et Albae duo soles uisos ferebant et nocte Fregellis lucem obortam; et bos in agro Romano locutus et ara Neptuni multo manasse sudore in circo Flaminio dicebatur; et aedes Cereris Salutis Quirini de caelo tactae. prodigia consules hostiis maioribus procurare iussi et supplicationem unum diem habere—ea ex senatus consulto facta—: plus omnibus aut nuntiatis peregre aut uisis domi prodigiis terruit animos hominum ignis in aede Uestae exstinctus, caesaque flagro est Uestalis cuius custodia eius noctis fuerat iussu P. Licini pontificis. id quamquam nihil portendentibus dis ceterum neglegentia humana acciderat, tamen et hostiis maioribus procurari et supplicationem ad Uestae haberi placuit.

[11] In the city, anxious with so great a crisis of war, since they were turning the causes of all favorable and adverse things to the gods, many prodigies were being reported: at Tarracina the temple of Jupiter, at Satricum that of Mother Matuta, was struck from the sky; the Satricans were no less terrified that two snakes had glided right to the very doors of the temple of Jupiter; from Antium it was announced that bloody ears of grain had been seen by reapers; at Caere a two-headed pig and a lamb both male and female was born; and at Alba they were reporting that two suns had been seen, and that at Fregellae light had arisen by night; and it was said that an ox had spoken in the Roman countryside, and that the altar of Neptune had run with much sweat in the Circus Flaminius; and the temples of Ceres, of Salus, and of Quirinus were struck from the sky. The consuls were ordered to attend to the prodigies with greater victims and to hold a one-day supplication—these things were done in accordance with a senatorial decree—: more than all the prodigies either reported from abroad or seen at home, the fire in the temple of Vesta being extinguished terrified the minds of men, and the Vestal whose watch it had been for that night was scourged by order of P. Licinius, the pontifex. Although, with the gods portending nothing, it had otherwise happened through human negligence, nevertheless it was resolved both that expiation be made with greater victims and that a supplication be held at Vesta’s shrine.

Priusquam proficiscerentur consules ad bellum moniti a senatu sunt ut in agros reducendae plebis curam haberent: deum benignitate summotum bellum ab urbe Romana et Latio esse et posse sine metu in agris habitari; minime conuenire Siciliae quam Italiae colendae maiorem curam esse. sed res haudquaquam erat populo facilis et liberis cultoribus bello absumptis et inopia seruitiorum et pecore direpto uillisque dirutis aut incensis; magna tamen pars auctoritate consulum compulsa in agros remigrauit. mouerant autem huiusce rei mentionem Placentinorum et Cremonensium legati querentes agrum suum ab accolis Gallis incursari ac uastari, magnamque partem colonorum suorum dilapsam esse, et iam infrequentes se urbes, agrum uastum ac desertum habere.

Before the consuls set out to war, they were admonished by the senate to take care for bringing the plebs back into the fields: by the benignity of the gods the war had been removed from the city of Rome and from Latium, and it was possible to inhabit the fields without fear; it least suited that there be greater care for cultivating Sicily than Italy. But the matter was by no means easy for the people, with the free cultivators consumed by war, a scarcity of slaves, the livestock carried off, and the villas torn down or burned; nevertheless a great part, compelled by the authority of the consuls, migrated back into the fields. Moreover, the legates of the Placentines and Cremonese had raised mention of this affair, complaining that their land was being raided and laid waste by the neighboring Gauls, that a great part of their colonists had slipped away, and that now their cities were thinly peopled, their countryside waste and deserted.

Mamilio praetori mandatum ut colonias ab hoste tueretur: consules ex senatus consulto edixerunt ut qui ciues Cremonenses atque Placentini essent ante certam diem in colonias reuerterentur.

A mandate was given to the praetor Mamilius to protect the colonies from the enemy: the consuls, by decree of the senate, issued an edict that those citizens who were of Cremona and of Placentia should return to the colonies before a fixed day.

Principio deinde ueris et ipsi ad bellum profecti sunt. Q. Caecilius consul exercitum ab C. Nerone, L. Ueturius a Q. Claudio propraetore accepit, nouisque militibus quos ipse conscripserat suppleuit. in Consentinum agrum consules exercitum duxerunt, passimque depopulati, cum agmen iam graue praeda esset, in saltu angusto a Bruttiis iaculatoribusque Numidis turbati sunt ita ut non praeda tantum sed armati quoque in periculo fuerint.

At the beginning then of spring they too set out to war. Q. Caecilius the consul received the army from C. Nero, L. Veturius from Q. Claudius the propraetor, and he replenished it with new soldiers whom he himself had conscribed. Into the Consentinian territory the consuls led the army, and, having ravaged everywhere, when the column was now heavy with booty, in a narrow defile they were thrown into disorder by the Bruttians and Numidian javelin-men, so that not booty only but the armed men too were in danger.

maior tamen tumultus quam pugna fuit, et praemissa praeda incolumes legiones in loca culta euasere. inde in Lucanos profecti; ea sine certamine tota gens in dicionem populi Romani rediit.

still, the tumult was greater than the battle, and with the plunder sent on ahead, the legions, unharmed, got clear into cultivated places. Thence they set out into the Lucanians; that whole nation, without contest, returned into the dominion of the Roman people.

[12] Cum Hannibale nihil eo anno rei gestum est. nam neque ipse se obtulit in tam recenti uolnere publico priuatoque neque lacessierunt quietum Romani; tantam inesse uim etsi omnia alia circa eum ruerent in uno illo duce censebant. ac nescio an mirabilior aduersis quam secundis rebus fuerit, quippe qui cum in hostium terra per annos tredecim, tam procul ab domo, uaria fortuna bellum gereret, exercitu non suo ciuili sed mixto ex conluuione omnium gentium, quibus non lex, non mos, non lingua communis, alius habitus, alia uestis, alia arma, alii ritus, alia sacra, alii prope di essent, ita quodam uno uinculo copulauerit eos ut nulla nec inter ipsos nec aduersus ducem seditio exstiterit, cum et pecunia saepe in stipendium et commeatus in hostium agro deesset, quorum inopia priore Punico bello multa infanda inter duces militesque commissa fuerant.

[12] No action was undertaken with Hannibal that year; for neither did he present himself, with so recent a wound, public and private, nor did the Romans provoke him while he was quiet; they judged that so great a force resided, even if all other things around him were collapsing, in that one leader. And I do not know whether he was more admirable in adverse than in prosperous circumstances, since, when on enemy soil for 13 years, so far from home, he was waging war with shifting fortune, with an army not his own civic one but mixed from the confluence of all nations—among whom there was not law, not custom, not a common language; a different habit, different clothing, different arms, different rites, different sacred things, almost different gods—he so bound them together by a certain single bond that no sedition arose either among themselves or against the leader, although both money for stipend and supplies were often lacking in the enemies’ land, in the scarcity of which things, in the earlier Punic War, many unspeakable deeds had been committed between commanders and soldiers.

post Hasdrubalis uero exercitum cum duce in quibus spes omnis reposita uictoriae fuerat deletum cedendoque in angulum Bruttium cetera Italia concessum, cui non uideatur mirabile nullum motum in castris factum? nam ad cetera id quoque accesserat ut ne alendi quidem exercitus nisi ex Bruttio agro spes esset, qui ut omnis coleretur exiguus tamen tanto alendo exercitui erat; tum magnam partem iuuentutis abstractam a cultu agrorum bellum occupauerat et mos uitio etiam insitus genti per latrocinia militiam exercendi; nec ab domo quicquam mittebatur, de Hispania retinenda sollicitis tamquam omnia prospera in Italia essent.

after, indeed, Hasdrubal’s army together with its commander—in whom all hope of victory had been placed—had been destroyed, and the rest of Italy had been conceded by withdrawing into the corner of Bruttium, who would not deem it marvelous that no movement was made in the camp? for to the other considerations this also had been added: that there was no hope of supplying the army except from the Bruttian land, which, even if all of it were cultivated, was still scant for feeding so great an army; then war had occupied a great part of the youth, drawn away from the cultivation of the fields, and there was a custom, a vice even ingrained in the nation, of exercising military service through brigandage; nor was anything being sent from home, they being anxious about holding Spain, as though all were prosperous in Italy.

In Hispania res quadam ex parte eandem fortunam, quadam longe disparem habebant; eandem quod proelio uicti Carthaginienses duce amisso in ultimam Hispaniae oram usque ad Oceanum compulsi erant, disparem autem quod Hispania non quam Italia modo sed quam ulla pars terrarum bello reparando aptior erat locorum hominumque ingeniis. itaque ergo prima Romanis inita prouinciarum, quae quidem continentis sint, postrema omnium nostra demum aetate ductu auspicioque Augusti Caesaris perdomita est. ibi tum Hasdrubal Gisgonis, maximus clarissimusque eo bello secundum Barcinos dux, regressus ab Gadibus rebellandi spe, adiuuante Magone Hamilcaris filio dilectibus per ulteriorem Hispaniam habitis ad quinquaginta milia peditum, quattuor milia et quingentos equites armauit.

In Spain the situation had in one respect the same fortune, in another far different; the same, in that the Carthaginians, defeated in battle and their leader lost, had been driven to the farthest shore of Spain even to the Ocean; far different, however, in that Spain was fitter for replenishment in war not only than Italy but than any part of the earth, by the qualities of its places and its men. And so, therefore, Spain, the first among the provinces undertaken by the Romans that are on the continent, was the last of all to be thoroughly subdued, only in our own age, under the leadership and auspices of Augustus Caesar. There at that time Hasdrubal son of Gisco, the greatest and most illustrious commander in that war next after the Barcids, having returned from Gades in the hope of renewing the war, with Mago, son of Hamilcar, assisting, and levies held throughout Further Spain, armed up to 50,000 infantry and 4,500 cavalry.

de equestribus copiis ferme inter auctores conuenit: peditum septuaginta milia quidam adducta ad Silpiam urbem scribunt. ibi super campos patentes duo duces Poeni ea mente ne detractarent certamen consederunt.

As to the cavalry forces, the authors are nearly in agreement; some write that seventy thousand infantry were brought to the city of Silpia. There, upon the open plains, the two Punic commanders took up position with the intent that they might not decline the contest.

[13] Scipio cum ad eum fama tanti comparati exercitus perlata esset, neque Romanis legionibus tantae se parem multitudini ratus ut non in speciem saltem opponerentur barbarorum auxilia, neque in iis tamen tantum uirium ponendum ut mutando fidem, quae cladis causa fuisset patri patruoque, magnum momentum facerent, praemisso Silano ad Culcham, duodetriginta oppidis regnantem, ut equites peditesque ab eo quos se per hiemem conscripturum pollicitus erat acciperet, ipse ab Tarracone profectus protinus ab sociis qui accolunt uiam modica contrahendo auxilia Castulonem peruenit. eo adducta ab Silano auxilia, tria milia peditum et quingenti equites. inde ad Baeculam urbem processum cum omni exercitu ciuium, sociorum, peditum equitumque quinque et quadraginta milibus.

[13] When the report had been brought to Scipio of so great an army assembled against him, he judged that with the Roman legions he was not a match for so great a multitude, so that at least in appearance the auxiliaries of the barbarians should be set in opposition; yet he thought that not so much of his strength ought to be placed in them that, by changing their faith— which had been the cause of disaster to his father and his uncle— they might have great weight. Silanus was sent ahead to Culcha, who ruled over twenty‑eight towns, to receive from him the horse and foot which he had promised he would enlist during the winter; Scipio himself, setting out from Tarraco, by gathering at once moderate aids from the allies who dwell along the road, came to Castulo. To that place the auxiliaries were brought by Silanus: three thousand infantry and five hundred cavalry. Thence an advance was made to the city of Baecula with the whole army of citizens and allies, infantry and cavalry, forty‑five thousand strong.

castra ponentes eos Mago et Masinissa cum omni equitatu adgressi sunt, turbassentque munientes ni abditi post tumulum opportune ad id positum ab Scipione equites improuiso in effusos incurrissent. ii promptissimum quemque et proxime uallum atque in ipsos munitores primum inuectum uixdum proelio inito fuderunt: cum ceteris, qui sub signis atque ordine agminis incesserant, longior et diu ambigua pugna fuit. sed cum ab stationibus primum expeditae cohortes, deinde ex opere deducti milites atque arma capere iussi plures usque et integri fessis subirent magnumque iam agmen armatorum a castris in proelium rueret, terga haud dubie uertunt Poeni Numidaeque.

As they were pitching camp, Mago and Masinissa attacked them with all the cavalry, and they would have thrown the entrenchers into disorder, had not horsemen—hidden behind a mound, opportunely stationed there by Scipio—unexpectedly charged into the strung-out attackers. These, with the battle scarcely begun, routed every boldest man and those who had pressed closest to the rampart and even upon the entrenchers themselves; with the rest, who had advanced under their standards and in the order of the marching column, the fight was longer and for a long time doubtful. But when first the unencumbered cohorts from the outposts, then the soldiers drawn off from the work and ordered to take up arms, kept relieving the weary with ever more fresh troops, and now a great column of armed men was rushing from the camp into the battle, the Carthaginians and Numidians undoubtedly turned their backs.

et primo turmatim abibant, nihil propter pauorem festinationemue confusis ordinibus; dein, postquam acrius ultimis incidebat Romanus neque sustineri impetus poterat, nihil iam ordinum memores passim qua cuique proximum fuit in fugam effunduntur. et quamquam eo proelio aliquantum et Romanis aucti et deminuti hostibus animi erant, tamen nunquam per aliquot insequentes dies ab excursionibus equitum leuisque armaturae cessatum est.

and at first they were withdrawing by squadrons, their ranks not at all confused by fear or by haste; then, after the Romans were pressing more sharply upon the hindmost and the impetus could not be withstood, now no longer mindful of their ranks they poured out into flight everywhere, wherever was nearest for each. and although by that battle the spirits were somewhat increased for the Romans and diminished for the enemies, nevertheless for several following days there was never any cessation from the incursions of the cavalry and the light-armed.

[14] Ubi satis temptatae per haec leuia certamina uires sunt, prior Hasdrubal in aciem copias eduxit, deinde et Romani processere; sed utraque acies pro uallo stetit instructa, et cum ab neutris pugna coepta esset, iam die ad occasum inclinante a Poeno prius, deinde ab Romano in castra copiae reductae. hoc idem per dies aliquot factum. prior semper Poenus copias castris educebat, prior fessis stando signum receptui dabat; ab neutra parte procursum telumue missum aut uox ulla orta.

[14] When their forces had been sufficiently tested by these light skirmishes, Hasdrubal first led his troops out into the line of battle; then the Romans also advanced. But each battle line stood drawn up before the rampart, and, since the fight had been begun by neither side, with the day now inclining toward sunset the troops were led back into camp—first by the Carthaginian, then by the Roman. The same thing was done for several days: the Carthaginian always led his forces out of the camp first, and first gave the signal for retreat to men wearied by standing; from neither side was there a sally, or a missile launched, or any shout raised.

mediam aciem hinc Romani illinc Carthaginienses mixti Afris, cornua socii tenebant—erant autem utrisque Hispani—; pro cornibus ante Punicam aciem elephanti castellorum procul speciem praebebant. iam hoc in utrisque castris sermonis erat, ita ut instructi stetissent pugnaturos; medias acies, Romanum Poenumque, quos inter belli causa esset, pari robore animorum armorumque concursuros. Scipio ubi hoc obstinate credi animaduertit, omnia de industria in eum diem quo pugnaturus erat mutauit.

the center of the battle-line here the Romans, there the Carthaginians, mixed with Africans; the allies held the wings—there were, moreover, Spaniards on both sides—; in front of the wings, before the Punic line, the elephants from afar presented the appearance of towers. already this was the talk in both camps, that, as they had stood drawn up, so they would fight; that the central lines, the Roman and the Punic, between whom the cause of the war lay, would clash with equal strength of spirit and of arms. Scipio, when he noticed that this was being stubbornly believed, changed everything deliberately for the day on which he intended to fight.

tesseram uesperi per castra dedit ut ante lucem uiri equique curati pransi essent, armatus eques frenatos instratosque teneret equos.

In the evening he gave the watchword throughout the camp that before daybreak the men and the horses should be seen to and have eaten, and that each cavalryman under arms should keep his horses bridled and saddled.

Vixdum satis certa luce equitatum omnem cum leui armatura in stationes Punicas immisit; inde confestim ipse cum graui agmine legionum procedit, praeter opinionem destinatam suorum hostiumque Romano milite cornibus firmatis, sociis in mediam aciem acceptis. Hasdrubal clamore equitum excitatus ut ex tabernaculo prosiluit tumultumque ante uallum et trepidationem suorum et procul signa legionum fulgentia plenosque hostium campos uidit, equitatum omnem extemplo in equites emittit; ipse cum peditum agmine castris egreditur, nec ex ordine solito quicquam acie instruenda mutat. equitum iam diu anceps pugna erat nec ipsa per se decerni poterat quia pulsis, quod prope in uicem fiebat, in aciem peditum tutus receptus erat; sed ubi iam haud plus quingentos passus acies inter sese aberant, signo receptui dato Scipio patefactisque ordinibus equitatum omnem leuemque armaturam in medium acceptam diuisamque in partes duas in subsidiis post cornua locat.

Hardly yet with sufficiently certain light he sent all the cavalry with the light armature into the Punic outposts; then forthwith he himself advanced with the heavy column of the legions, contrary to the settled expectation of both his own side and the enemy, with the wings strengthened by Roman soldiery, the allies having been received into the middle line. Hasdrubal, roused by the shouting of the horsemen, as he sprang out from his tent and saw the tumult before the rampart and the trepidation of his men and, afar, the standards of the legions gleaming and the fields full of enemies, instantly launches all the cavalry against the horsemen; he himself goes out of the camp with a column of infantry, nor does he change anything from the usual order in drawing up the battle line. The fight of the horsemen had already for a long time been in suspense, nor could it be decided by itself, because for those driven back—which happened almost in turn—there was safe reception into the infantry line; but when now the lines were not more than five hundred paces apart, the signal for recall having been given, Scipio, the ranks having been opened, receives all the cavalry and the light armature into the midst and, divided into two parts, places them in the reserves behind the wings.

inde ubi incipiendae iam pugnae tempus erat, Hispanos—ea media acies fuit—presso gradu incedere iubet; ipse e dextro cornu—ibi namque praeerat—nuntium ad Silanum et Marcium mittit ut cornu extenderent in sinistram partem quemadmodum se tendentem ad dextram uidissent, et cum expeditis peditum equitumque prius pugnam consererent cum hoste quam coire inter se mediae acies possent. ita diductis cornibus cum ternis peditum cohortibus ternisque equitum turmis, ad hoc uelitibus, citato gradu in hostem ducebant sequentibus in obliquum aliis; sinus in medio erat, qua segnius Hispanorum signa incedebant. et iam conflixerant cornua cum quod roboris in acie hostium erat, Poeni ueterani Afrique, nondum ad teli coniectum uenissent, neque in cornua ut adiuuarent pugnantes discurrere auderent ne aperirent mediam aciem uenienti ex aduerso hosti.

then, when it was now the time for beginning the battle, he orders the Spaniards—the center of the line—to advance with a close-ordered step; he himself from the right wing—for there he was in command—sends a messenger to Silanus and Marcius to extend their wing toward the left side just as they had seen him stretching toward the right, and, with the unencumbered infantry and cavalry, to join battle with the enemy before the center lines could come together with each other. thus, the wings having been drawn apart, with three cohorts of infantry and three troops of cavalry apiece, and in addition velites, they were leading at a quick pace against the enemy, with others following on the slant; there was a bay in the middle, where the standards of the Spaniards were advancing more slowly. and already the wings had clashed, while that which was the strength in the enemy’s line—the veteran Phoenicians and Africans—had not yet come to the casting-distance of a missile, nor did they dare to run to the wings to aid those fighting, lest they open the center to the foe coming face to face.

cornua ancipiti proelio urgebantur; eques leuisque armatura <ac> uelites circumductis alis in latera incurrebant: cohortes a fronte urgebant ut abrumperent cornua a cetera acie;

the wings were being pressed in a two-sided battle; the cavalry and the light-armed <ac> the velites, with the wings wheeled around, were charging into the flanks: the cohorts were pressing from the front to break off the wings from the rest of the battle-line;

[15] Et cum ab omni parte haudquaquam par pugna erat, tum quod turba Baliarium tironumque Hispanorum Romano Latinoque militi obiecta erat. et procedente iam die uires etiam deficere Hasdrubalis exercitum coeperant, oppressos matutino tumultu coactosque priusquam cibo corpora firmarent raptim in aciem exire; et ad id sedulo diem extraxerat Scipio ut sera pugna esset; nam ab septima demum hora peditum signa cornibus incucurrerunt; ad medias acies aliquanto serius peruenit pugna, ita ut prius aestus a meridiano sole laborque standi sub armis et simul fames sitisque corpora adficerent quam manus cum hoste consererent. itaque steterunt scutis innixi.

[15] And since on every side the fight was by no means equal—because a crowd of Balearics and Spanish recruits had been set against the Roman and Latin soldiery—and as the day was now advancing, even the strength of Hasdrubal’s army had begun to fail, surprised by the morning tumult and forced to rush out into the battle-line before they might strengthen their bodies with food; and to this end Scipio had diligently spun out the day so that the battle would be late; for only from the seventh hour did the infantry standards run in upon the wings; the fight reached the middle battle-lines considerably later, so that the heat from the midday sun and the toil of standing under arms, and at the same time hunger and thirst, afflicted their bodies before they joined hands with the enemy. And so they stood leaning on their shields.

iam super cetera elephanti etiam tumultuoso genere pugnae equitum uelitumque et leuis armaturae consternati e cornibus in mediam aciem sese intulerant. fessi igitur corporibus animisque rettulere pedem, ordines tamen seruantes haud secus quam si imperio ducis cederet integra acies.

now, in addition to the rest, even the elephants, thrown into confusion by the tumultuous kind of fighting of the cavalry, the velites, and the light-armed, had carried themselves from the wings into the middle of the battle line. therefore, weary in body and in spirit, they retired, yet keeping their ranks no otherwise than if an unbroken line were yielding by the command of the leader.

Sed cum eo ipso acrius ubi inclinatam sensere rem uictores se undique inueherent, nec facile impetus sustineri posset quamquam retinebat obsistebatque cedentibus Hasdrubal ab tergo esse colles tutumque receptum si modice se reciperent clamitans, tamen uincente metu uerecundiam cum proximus quisque hostem cederet, terga extemplo data, atque in fugam sese omnes effuderunt. ac primo consistere signa in radicibus collium ac reuocare in ordines militem coeperant cunctantibus in aduersum collem erigere aciem Romanis; deinde ut inferri impigre signa uiderunt, integrata fuga in castra pauidi compelluntur. nec procul uallo Romanus aberat; cepissetque tanto impetu castra nisi ex uehementi sole, qualis inter graues imbre nubes effulget, tanta uis aquae deiecta esset ut uix in castra sua receperint se uictores, quosdam etiam religio ceperit ulterius quicquam eo die conandi.

But when, by that very fact, the victors, more keenly, wherever they perceived the matter inclined, were bearing themselves in from every side, and the onrush could not easily be sustained—although Hasdrubal was restraining and standing against the retreaters, shouting that behind them there were hills and a safe reception if they withdrew in moderate fashion—yet, fear conquering shame, as each nearest gave way to the foe, their backs were straightway turned, and they all poured themselves out into flight. And at first the standards began to halt at the roots of the hills and to call the soldier back into ranks, the Romans hesitating to set their line on the opposing slope; then, when they saw the standards being borne in vigorously, with the flight renewed they, panic‑stricken, were driven into the camp. Nor was the Roman far from the rampart; and he would have taken the camp with such an impetus, had not, from a vehement sun, such as flashes out between heavy rain‑clouds, such a force of water been cast down that the victors scarcely withdrew into their own camp, and a certain religious scruple even seized some from attempting anything further that day.

Carthaginienses, quamquam fessos labore ac uolneribus nox imberque ad necessariam quietem uocabat, tamen quia metus et periculum cessandi non dabat tempus prima luce oppugnaturis hostibus castra, saxis undique circa ex propinquis uallibus congestis augent uallum, munimento sese quando in armis parum praesidii foret defensuri; sed transitio sociorum fuga ut tutior mora uideretur fecit. principium defectionis ab Attene regulo Turdetanorum factum est; is cum magna popularium manu transfugit; inde duo munita oppida cum praesidiis tradita a praefectis Romano; et ne latius inclinatis semel ad defectionem animis serperet res, silentio proximae noctis Hasdrubal castra mouet.

The Carthaginians, although night and a rainstorm were calling the men, wearied with labor and wounds, to necessary rest, nevertheless, because fear and the peril of pausing gave no time, with the enemy about to assault the camp at first light, they augment the rampart, stones heaped up on all sides around from the neighboring valleys, intending to defend themselves by the fortification, since in arms there would be too little protection; but the crossing-over of the allies in flight brought it about that delay seemed safer. The beginning of the defection was made by Attene, petty-king of the Turdetani; he deserted with a great band of his compatriots; then two fortified towns with their garrisons were handed over by their prefects to the Roman; and, lest the matter, once minds had inclined to defection, should creep more widely, in the silence of the next night Hasdrubal moves the camp.

[16] Scipio, ut prima luce qui in stationibus erant rettulerunt profectos hostes, praemisso equitatu signa ferri iubet; adeoque citato agmine ducti sunt ut, si uia recta uestigia sequentes issent, haud dubie adsecuturi fuerint: ducibus est creditum breuius aliud esse iter ad Baetim fluuium ut transeuntes adgrederentur. Hasdrubal clauso transitu fluminis ad Oceanum flectit, et iam inde fugientium modo effusi abibant; itaque ab legionibus Romanis aliquantum interualli fecit. eques leuisque armatura nunc ab tergo nunc ab lateribus occurrendo fatigabat morabaturque, sed cum ad crebros tumultus signa consisterent et nunc equestria nunc cum uelitibus auxiliisque peditum proelia consererent, superuenerunt legiones.

[16] Scipio, as at first light those who were on the outposts reported that the enemies had set out, with the cavalry sent ahead orders the standards to be carried; and they were led in so rapid a march that, if they had gone by the straight road following the tracks, they would without doubt have overtaken them: trust was placed in the guides that there was another shorter route to the river Baetis, so as to attack them while crossing. Hasdrubal, the passage of the river being shut, turns toward the Ocean, and from then on they were streaming away in the manner of fugitives; and thus he made a considerable interval from the Roman legions. The cavalry and the light-armed, by meeting them now from the rear, now from the flanks, were harassing and delaying them; but whenever, at the frequent alarms, the standards halted and they engaged in combats now of cavalry, now with the velites and the auxiliaries of foot, the legions came up.

inde non iam pugna sed trucidatio uelut pecorum fieri donec ipse dux fugae auctor in proximos colles cum sex millibus ferme semermium euasit; ceteri caesi captique. castra tumultuaria raptim Poeni tumulo editissimo communiuerunt, atque inde cum hostis nequiquam subire iniquo adscensu conatus esset haud difficulter sese tutati sunt. sed obsidio in loco nudo atque inopi uix in paucos dies tolerabilis erat; itaque transitiones ad hostem fiebant.

thence it was no longer a battle but a slaughter, as of cattle, until the leader himself, the author of the flight, escaped to the nearest hills with about six thousand semi-armed men; the rest were cut down and captured. The Carthaginians in haste fortified their tumultuary camp on a very lofty mound, and from there, when the enemy had in vain tried to come up by a disadvantageous ascent, they defended themselves without difficulty. But the siege, in a place bare and destitute, was scarcely tolerable for a few days; and so defections to the enemy were occurring.

postremo dux ipse nauibus accitis—nec procul inde aberat mare—nocte relicto exercitu Gades perfugit. Scipio fuga ducis hostium audita decem milia peditum mille equites relinquit Silano ad castrorum obsidionem; ipse cum ceteris copiis septuagensimis castris, protinus causis regulorum ciuitatiumque cognoscendis ut praemia ad ueram meritorum aestimationem tribui possent, Tarraconem rediit. post profectionem eius Masinissa cum Silano clam congressus, ut ad noua consilia gentem quoque suam oboedientem haberet cum paucis popularibus in Africam traiecit, non tam euidenti eo tempore subitae mutationis causa quam documento post id tempus constantissimae ad ultimam senectam fidei ne tum quidem eum sine probabili causa fecisse.

at last the leader himself, ships having been summoned—nor was the sea far from there—by night, with the army left behind, fled for refuge to Gades. Scipio, when the flight of the enemy’s leader was heard, left ten thousand foot-soldiers and 1,000 horsemen with Silanus for the siege of the camp; he himself, with the rest of the forces, at the 70th camp returned straightway to Tarraco, to take cognizance of the causes of the petty-kings and the communities, so that rewards might be assigned according to a true estimation of merits. after his departure, Masinissa, having met secretly with Silanus, in order that for his new counsels he might also have his own people obedient, crossed over into Africa with a few compatriots—not so much with an evident cause at that time for a sudden change as, by way of proof from that time onward, of a most constant loyalty down to extreme old age, that not even then had he acted without a probable cause.

Mago inde remissis ab Hasdrubale nauibus Gades petit; ceteri deserti ab ducibus, pars transitione, pars fuga dissipati per proximas ciuitates sunt, nulla numero aut uiribus manus insignis.

Mago then, the ships having been sent back by Hasdrubal, made for Gades; the rest, deserted by their leaders, part by transition to the enemy, part by flight, were scattered through the nearest cities, with no band distinguished by number or by strength.

Hoc maxime modo ductu atque auspicio P. Scipionis pulsi Hispania Carthaginienses sunt, quarto decimo anno post bellum initum, quinto quam P. Scipio prouinciam et exercitum accepit. haud multo post Silanus debellatum referens Tarraconem ad Scipionem rediit.

In this chief manner, under the leadership and auspices of P. Scipio, the Carthaginians were driven from Spain, in the 14th year after the war was begun, the 5th since P. Scipio received the province and the army. Not long after, Silanus, reporting that it had been fought to a finish, returned to Tarraco to Scipio.

[17] L. Scipio cum multis nobilibus captiuis nuntius receptae Hispaniae Romam est missus. et cum ceteri laetitia gloriaque ingenti eam rem uolgo ferrent, unus qui gesserat, inexplebilis uirtutis ueraeque laudis, paruum instar eorum quae spe ac magnitudine animi concepisset receptas Hispanias ducebat. iam Africam magnamque Carthaginem et in suum decus nomenque uelut consummatam eius belli gloriam spectabat.

[17] L. Scipio, with many noble captives, was sent to Rome as messenger of the recovery of the Spains. And while the rest were broadcasting that matter everywhere with immense joy and glory, the one man who had achieved it—insatiable for virtue and for true praise—judged the recovered Spains a small sample of the things which he had conceived in hope and greatness of spirit. Already he was looking toward Africa and great Carthage, and toward the glory of that war, as it were consummated, for his own honor and name.

itaque praemoliendas sibi ratus iam res conciliandosque regum gentiumque animos, Syphacem primum regem statuit temptare. Masaesuliorum is rex erat. Masaesulii, gens adfinis Mauris, in regionem Hispaniae maxime qua sita Noua Carthago est spectant.

Therefore, thinking that matters had now to be prepared beforehand for himself and that the minds of kings and nations must be conciliated, he resolved to try King Syphax first. He was king of the Masaesulii. The Masaesulii, a nation akin to the Moors, look toward the region of Spain, especially that part where New Carthage is situated.

foedus ea tempestate regi cum Carthaginiensibus erat, quod haud grauius ei sanctiusque quam uolgo barbaris, quibus ex fortuna pendet fides, ratus fore, oratorem ad eum C. Laelium cum donis mittit. quibus barbarus laetus et quia res tum prosperae ubique Romanis, Poenis in Italia aduersae in Hispania nullae iam erant, amicitiam se Romanorum accipere adnuit: firmandae eius fidem nec dare nec accipere nisi cum ipso coram duce Romano. ita Laelius in id modo fide ab rege accepta tutum aduentum fore, ad Scipionem redit.

At that time the king had a treaty with the Carthaginians, which he supposed would be for him no weightier or more sacred than it commonly is among barbarians, whose faith depends on fortune; he sends to him as envoy Gaius Laelius with gifts. At these the barbarian was glad, and because affairs were then prosperous everywhere for the Romans, while for the Carthaginians in Italy they were adverse and in Spain there were now none, he assented that he accepted the friendship of the Romans: for the strengthening of it he would neither give nor receive pledges except with the Roman leader himself in person. Thus Laelius, after receiving from the king a pledge to this effect only—that his arrival would be safe—returns to Scipio.

Magnum in omnia momentum Syphax adfectanti res Africae erat, opulentissimus eius terrae rex, bello iam expertus ipsos Carthaginienses, finibus etiam regni apte ad Hispaniam quod freto exiguo dirimuntur positis. dignam itaque rem Scipio ratus quae, quoniam non aliter posset, magno periculo peteretur, L. Marcio Tarracone M. Silano Carthagine Noua, quo pedibus ab Tarracone itineribus magnis ierat, ad praesidium Hispaniae relictis ipse cum C. Laelio duabus quinqueremibus ab Carthagine profectus tranquillo mari plurimum remis, interdum et leni adiuuante uento, in Africam traiecit. forte ita incidit ut eo ipso tempore Hasdrubal, pulsus Hispania, septem triremibus portum inuectus, ancoris positis terrae applicaret naues cum conspectae duae quinqueremes, haud cuiquam dubio quin hostium essent opprimique a pluribus priusquam portum intrarent possent, nihil aliud quam tumultum ac trepidationem simul militum ac nautarum nequiquam armaque et naues expedientium fecerunt.

Syphax was of great moment in all things for one aiming at the affairs of Africa, the most opulent king of that land, already experienced in war against the Carthaginians themselves, and with the borders of his kingdom set aptly toward Spain, since they are separated by a slight strait. Therefore Scipio, judging the matter worthy to be sought, since otherwise it could not be, at great peril, left L. Marcius at Tarraco and M. Silanus at New Carthage, to guard Spain—whither he had gone on foot from Tarraco by great marches—and he himself, with C. Laelius, setting out from New Carthage on two quinqueremes, crossed over to Africa on a tranquil sea, for the most part by oars, and at times with a gentle wind also helping. It chanced that at that very time Hasdrubal, driven from Spain, having entered the harbor with seven triremes, with anchors cast was bringing the ships to land, when the two quinqueremes were sighted; and since no one doubted that they were enemies and could be overwhelmed by the more numerous before they should enter the port, they effected nothing other than a tumult and trepidation at once of soldiers and sailors, vainly getting arms and ships ready.

percussa enim ex alto uela paulo acriori uento prius in portum intulerunt quinqueremes quam Poeni ancoras molirentur; nec ultra tumultum ciere quisquam in regio portu audebat. ita in terram prior Hasdrubal, mox Scipio et Laelius egressi ad regem pergunt.

for the sails, struck from the open sea by a somewhat keener wind, bore the quinqueremes into the harbor before the Carthaginians could weigh their anchors; nor did anyone in the royal harbor dare to stir up further tumult. thus Hasdrubal first, soon Scipio and Laelius, having disembarked onto land, proceed to the king.

[18] Magnificumque id Syphaci—nec erat aliter—uisum duorum opulentissimorum ea tempestate duces populorum uno die suam pacem amicitiamque petentes uenisse.

[18] And this seemed magnificent to Syphax—nor could it be otherwise—that the leaders of the two most opulent peoples at that time had come on one day seeking his peace and friendship.

Utrumque in hospitium inuitat, et quoniam fors eos sub uno tecto esse atque ad eosdem penates uoluisset, contrahere in conloquium dirimendarum simultatium causa est conatus, Scipione abnuente aut priuatim sibi ullum cum Poeno odium esse quod conloquendo finiret, aut de re publica quicquam se cum hoste agere iniussu senatus posse. illud magno opere tendente rege, ne alter hospitum exclusus mensa uideretur, ut in animum induceret ad easdem uenire epulas haud abnuit, cenatumque simul apud regem est; eodem etiam lecto Scipio atque Hasdrubal quia ita cordi erat regi accubuerunt. tanta autem inerat comitas Scipioni atque ad omnia naturalis ingenii dexteritas ut non Syphacem modo, barbarum insuetumque moribus Romanis, sed hostem etiam infestissimum facunde adloquendo sibi conciliarit.

He invites both into hospitality, and since chance had willed that they be under one roof and at the same Penates, he tried to bring them together into a conference for the purpose of dissolving animosities; but Scipio refused, saying either that he had no private enmity with the Carthaginian which he might end by conversing, or that, regarding the Republic, he could transact anything with an enemy without the order of the Senate. As the king pressed earnestly that neither of the guests should seem excluded from the table, he did not refuse to bring himself to come to the same banquet, and they dined together at the king’s; Scipio and Hasdrubal even reclined on the same couch, because this was pleasing to the king. Moreover, there was in Scipio such affability and such natural dexterity of genius for all things that, by speaking eloquently, he won over to himself not only Syphax—a barbarian unaccustomed to Roman customs—but even his most hostile enemy.

mirabiliorem sibi eum congresso coram uisum prae se ferebat quam bello rebus gestis, nec dubitare quin Syphax regnumque eius iam in Romanorum essent potestate; eam artem illi uiro ad conciliandos animos esse. itaque non quo modo Hispaniae amissae sint quaerendum magis Carthaginiensibus esse quam quo modo Africam retineant cogitandum. non peregrinabundum neque circa amoenas oras uagantem tantum ducem Romanum, relicta prouincia nouae dicionis relictis exercitibus, duabus nauibus in Africam traiecisse et commisisse sese in hostilem terram, in potestatem regiam, in fidem inexpertam, sed potiundae Africae spem adfectantem.

he openly declared that, having met him face-to-face, he seemed to him more admirable than in his war-achievements, nor did he doubt that Syphax and his kingdom were already in the power of the Romans; such was that man’s art for conciliating spirits. therefore the Carthaginians ought to be asking not so much how Spain was lost as thinking how they may retain Africa. it was not as a wanderer abroad nor merely strolling along pleasant shores that the Roman general—having left behind a province of new dominion, having left behind his armies—had crossed into Africa with two ships and committed himself to a hostile land, to royal power, to an untried good faith, but aiming at the hope of winning Africa.

hoc eum iam pridem uolutare in animo, hoc palam fremere quod non quemadmodum Hannibal in Italia sic Scipio in Africa bellum gereret. Scipio, foedere icto cum Syphace, profectus ex Africa dubiisque et plerumque saeuis in alto iactatus uentis die quarto Nouae Carthaginis portum tenuit.

that he had long ago been turning this over in his mind, that he openly grumbled that Scipio was not waging war in Africa in the same way as Hannibal in Italy. Scipio, a treaty having been struck with Syphax, set out from Africa, and—tossed on the deep by doubtful and for the most part savage winds—on the fourth day made the harbor of New Carthage.

[19] Hispaniae sicut a bello Punico quietae erant, ita quasdam ciuitates propter conscientiam culpae metu magis quam fide quietas esse apparebat, quarum maxime insignes et magnitudine et noxa Iliturgi et Castulo erant. Castulo, cum prosperis rebus socii fuissent, post caesos cum exercitibus Scipiones defecerat ad Poenos: Iliturgitani prodendis qui ex illa clade ad eos perfugerant interficiendisque scelus etiam defectioni addiderant. in eos populos primo aduentu cum dubiae Hispaniae essent merito magis quam utiliter saeuitum foret: tunc iam tranquillis rebus quia tempus expetendae poenae uidebatur uenisse, accitum ab Tarracone L. Marcium cum tertia parte copiarum ad Castulonem oppugnandum mittit, ipse cum cetero exercitu quintis fere ad Iliturgin castris peruenit.

[19] Just as the Spains were quieted from the Punic War, so it became apparent that certain communities, on account of consciousness of guilt, were quiet more from fear than from good faith, of which the most conspicuous both in magnitude and in offense were Iliturgi and Castulo. Castulo, though in prosperous circumstances they had been allies, after the Scipios had been cut down with their armies, had defected to the Carthaginians; the Iliturgitani, by betraying those who from that disaster had fled to them and by putting them to death, had added crime even to their defection. To vent severity upon those peoples at the first arrival, when the Spains were wavering, would have been more deserved than useful; then, with affairs now tranquil, since the time for seeking punishment seemed to have come, he summons from Tarraco L. Marcius and sends him with a third part of the forces to besiege Castulo; he himself, with the rest of the army, reached Iliturgi in almost five encampments.

clausae erant portae omniaque instructa et parata ad oppugnationem arcendam; adeo conscientia quid se meritos scirent pro indicto eis bello fuerat. hinc et hortari milites Scipio orsus est: ipsos claudendo portas indicasse Hispanos quid ut timerent meriti essent. itaque multo infestioribus animis cum eis quam cum Carthaginiensibus bellum gerendum esse; quippe cum illis prope sine ira de imperio et gloria certari, ab his perfidiae et crudelitatis et sceleris poenas expetendas.

the gates had been closed, and everything arrayed and prepared to ward off an assault; so much did their conscience—knowing what they had merited, with war proclaimed upon them—amount to. Hence Scipio also began to exhort the soldiers: by shutting the gates the Spaniards themselves had indicated what they had merited to fear. Therefore war must be waged with far more hostile minds against them than against the Carthaginians; for with those men one contends almost without wrath about dominion and glory, but from these the penalties of perfidy and cruelty and crime must be exacted.

euenisse tempus quo et nefandam commilitonum necem et in semet ipsos, si eodem fuga delati forent, instructam fraudem ulciscerentur, et in omne tempus graui documento sancirent ne quis unquam Romanum ciuem militemque in ulla fortuna opportunum iniuriae duceret.

that the time had come when they should avenge both the unspeakable slaughter of their comrades-in-arms and the treachery prepared against themselves, if by flight they had been borne to the same place, and should by a grave precedent for all time sanction that no one should ever deem a Roman citizen and soldier, in any fortune, opportune for injury.

Ab hac cohortatione ducis incitati scalas electis per manipulos uiris diuidunt, partitoque exercitu ita ut parti alteri Laelius praeesset legatus, duobus simul locis ancipiti terrore urbem adgrediuntur. non dux unus aut plures principes oppidanos, sed suus ipsorum ex conscientia culpae metus ad defendendam impigre urbem hortatur. et meminerant et admonebant alios supplicium ex se non uictoriam peti: ubi quisque mortem oppeteret, id referre, utrum in pugna et in acie, ubi Mars communis et uictum saepe erigeret et adfligeret uictorem, an postmodo cremata et diruta urbe, ante ora captarum coniugum liberorumque, inter uerbera et uincula, omnia foeda atque indigna passi exspirarent.

Roused by this exhortation of the leader, they divide the ladders among chosen men, maniple by maniple; and with the army apportioned in such a way that the legate Laelius commanded the other part, they attack the city simultaneously at two places, causing a twofold terror. Not one commander or several leading men urge the townsfolk to defend the city energetically, but their own fear, from a consciousness of guilt, does so. They both remembered and kept reminding others that punishment, not victory, was being sought from them: that it mattered where each should meet death—whether in fight and in the battle-line, where Mars is impartial and often raises the vanquished and strikes down the victor, or else afterward, when the city had been burned and razed, before the eyes of their captured wives and children, amid blows and bonds, having suffered all foul and unworthy things, they should breathe their last.

igitur non militaris modo aetas aut uiri tantum, sed feminae puerique super animi corporisque uires adsunt, pugnantibus tela ministrant, saxa in muros munientibus gerunt. non libertas solum agebatur, quae uirorum fortium tantum pectora acuit, sed ultima omnibus supplicia et foeda mors ob oculos erat. accendebantur animi et certamine laboris ac periculi atque ipso inter se conspectu.

therefore not only those of military age nor men alone, but women and boys, strain themselves beyond the powers of mind and body, are at hand: they minister weapons to the fighters, they carry stones to those fortifying the walls. not liberty alone was at stake, which sharpens only the hearts of brave men, but the last punishments for all and a foul death were before their eyes. spirits were kindled both by the contest of toil and of peril and by the very sight of one another.

itaque tanto ardore certamen initum est ut domitor ille totius Hispaniae exercitus ab unius oppidi iuuentute saepe repulsus a muris haud satis decoro proelio trepidaret. id ubi uidit Scipio, ueritus ne uanis tot conatibus suorum et hostibus cresceret animus et segnior miles fieret, sibimet conandum ac partem periculi capessendam esse ratus increpita ignauia militum ferri scalas iubet et se ipsum si ceteri cunctentur escensurum minatur. iam subierat haud mediocri periculo moenia cum clamor undique ab sollicitis uicem imperatoris militibus sublatus, scalaeque multis simul partibus erigi coeptae; et ex altera parte Laelius institit.

and so the contest was entered with such ardor that that tamer of the whole Spanish host, often repulsed from the walls by the youth of a single town, quailed in a not sufficiently decorous engagement. When Scipio saw this, fearing lest by so many vain attempts the spirit of the enemy should grow and his soldiery become more sluggish, and thinking that he must himself make the attempt and take up a share of the danger, after chiding the cowardice of the soldiers he orders the ladders to be brought and threatens that he himself will mount if the rest hesitate. He had already gone up to the walls with no moderate peril, when a shout was raised on every side by the soldiers anxious on behalf of their commander, and the ladders began to be set up in many places at once; and on the other side Laelius pressed on.

tum uicta oppidanorum uis deiectisque propugnatoribus occupantur muri. arx etiam ab ea parte qua inexpugnabilis uidebatur inter tumultum capta est:

Then, the force of the townsmen having been overcome and the defenders cast down, the walls are occupied. The citadel also, from the side where it seemed inexpugnable, was seized amid the tumult:

[20] Transfugae Afri, qui tum inter auxilia Romana erant, et oppidanis in ea tuenda unde periculum uidebatur uersis et Romanis subeuntibus qua adire poterant, conspexerunt editissimam urbis partem, quia rupe praealta tegebatur, neque opere ullo munitam et ab defensoribus uacuam. leuium corporum homines et multa exercitatione pernicium, clauos secum ferreos portantes, qua per inaequaliter eminentia rupis poterant scandunt. sicubi nimis arduum et leue saxum occurrebat, clauos per modica interualla figentes cum uelut gradus fecissent, primi insequentes extrahentes manu, postremi subleuantes eos qui prae se irent, in summum euadunt.

[20] African deserters, who were then among the Roman auxiliaries, while the townsfolk were turned to defending that quarter whence danger seemed and the Romans were going up wherever they could get access, caught sight of the loftiest part of the city, because it was screened by a very steep crag, and was fortified by no work and empty of defenders. Men of light bodies and, through much training, nimble, carrying iron nails with them, climb where they could by the uneven projections of the cliff. If anywhere a rock too steep and smooth presented itself, by setting the nails at short intervals, when they had made, as it were, steps, the foremost, with their hands, drew up those following, and the hindmost lifted those who were going before them; they make their way to the top.

inde decurrunt cum clamore in urbem iam captam ab Romanis. tum uero apparuit ab ira et ab odio urbem oppugnatam esse. nemo capiendi uiuos, nemo patentibus ad direptionem omnibus praedae memor est; trucidant inermes iuxta atque armatos, feminas pariter ac uiros; usque ad infantium caedem ira crudelis peruenit.

from there they run down with clamor into the city already captured by the Romans. Then indeed it appeared that the city had been assaulted from anger and from hatred. No one was intent on taking men alive; though everything lay open to direption, no one was mindful of booty; they massacre the unarmed as well as the armed, women equally as men; their cruel wrath reached even to the slaughter of infants.

ignem deinde tectis iniciunt ac diruunt quae incendio absumi nequeunt; adeo uestigia quoque urbis exstinguere ac delere memoriam hostium sedis cordi est.

then they cast fire upon the roofs and demolish what cannot be consumed by the conflagration; so much is it at their heart to extinguish even the traces of the city and to blot out the memory of the enemies’ seat.

Castulonem inde Scipio exercitum ducit, quam urbem non Hispani modo conuenae sed Punici etiam exercitus ex dissipata passim fuga reliquiae tutabantur. sed aduentum Scipionis praeuenerat fama cladis Iliturgitanorum terrorque inde ac desperatio inuaserat; et in diuersis causis cum sibi quisque consultum sine alterius respectu uellet, primo tacita suspicio, deinde aperta discordia secessionem inter Carthaginienses atque Hispanos fecit. his Cerdubelus propalam deditionis auctor, Himilco Punicis auxiliaribus praeerat; quos urbemque clam fide accepta Cerdubelus Romano prodit.

Thence Scipio leads the army to Castulo, which city was being defended not only by Spanish convenae (immigrant settlers) but also by the remnants of the Punic army from their everywhere-scattered rout. But the report of the Iliturgitani’s disaster had anticipated Scipio’s arrival, and from that quarter terror and desperation had taken possession; and, with divergent interests, since each wished to look out for himself without regard for the other, first silent suspicion, then open discord produced a secession between the Carthaginians and the Spaniards. Among these Cerdubelus was openly an advocate of surrender, while Himilco was in command of the Punic auxiliaries; and both them and the city, upon a pledge secretly accepted, Cerdubelus betrays to the Roman.

mitior ea uictoria fuit; nec tantundem noxae admissum erat et aliquantum irae lenierat uoluntaria deditio.

that victory was milder; nor had so great an offense been committed, and their voluntary surrender had somewhat mitigated the wrath.

[21] Marcius inde in barbaros si qui nondum perdomiti erant sub ius dicionemque redigendos missus. Scipio Carthaginem ad uota soluenda dis munusque gladiatorium, quod mortis causa patris patruique parauerat, edendum rediit. gladiatorum spectaculum fuit non ex eo genere hominum ex quo lanistis comparare mos est, seruorum de catasta ac liberorum qui uenalem sanguinem habent: uoluntaria omnis et gratuita opera pugnantium fuit.

[21] Then Marcius was sent against the barbarians, if any were not yet thoroughly subdued, to be brought back under law and dominion. Scipio returned to Carthage to discharge his vows to the gods and to exhibit the gladiatorial show which he had prepared on account of the death of his father and uncle. The spectacle of gladiators was not from that class of men from which it is the custom for lanistae to procure them—slaves from the auction-block and free men who have blood for sale: the whole service of the fighters was voluntary and without pay.

nam alii missi ab regulis sunt ad specimen insitae genti uirtutis ostendendum, alii ipsi professi se pugnaturos in gratiam ducis, alios aemulatio et certamen ut prouocarent prouocatique haud abnuerent traxit; quidam quas disceptando controuersias finire nequierant aut noluerant, pacto inter se ut uictorem res sequeretur, ferro decreuerunt. neque obscuri generis homines sed clari inlustresque, Corbis et Orsua, patrueles fratres, de principatu ciuitatis quam Ibem uocabant ambigentes ferro se certaturos professi sunt. Corbis maior erat aetate: Orsuae pater princeps proxime fuerat a fratre maiore post mortem eius principatu accepto.

for some had been sent by their petty-kings to exhibit a specimen of the virtue innate to their nation; others themselves professed that they would fight to gain the favor of the leader; others emulation and contest drew on, so that they might provoke and, when provoked, by no means refuse; certain men, the controversies which they had not been able or had not wished to finish by disputation, by a pact between themselves that the matter should follow the victor, decreed by steel. nor were they men of obscure stock but renowned and illustrious: Corbis and Orsua, paternal cousins, disputing about the principate of the city which they called Ibem, declared that they would contend by steel. Corbis was older in age: Orsua’s father had most recently been princeps, after the death of his elder brother, the principate having been taken up.

cum uerbis disceptare Scipio uellet ac sedare iras, negatum id ambo dicere cognatis communibus, nec alium deorum hominumue quam Martem se iudicem habituros esse. robore maior, minor flore aetatis ferox, mortem in certamine quam ut alter alterius imperio subiceretur praeoptantes cum dirimi ab tanta rabie nequirent, insigne spectaculum exercitui praebuere documentumque quantum cupiditas imperii malum inter mortales esset. maior usu armorum et astu facile stolidas uires minoris superauit.

when Scipio wished to dispute with words and to assuage angers, both declared to their common kinsmen that this was refused, and that they would have no judge, of gods or of men, other than Mars. the elder greater in strength, the younger fierce in the flower of age, preferring death in contest rather than that the one be subjected to the other’s command; and since they could not be parted from so great a rage, they furnished the army with a notable spectacle and a lesson-document of how great an evil the cupidity of rule was among mortals. the elder, by practice in arms and by astuteness, easily overmatched the stolid strength of the younger.

huic gladiatorum spectaculo ludi funebres additi pro copia prouinciali et castrensi apparatu.

To this gladiatorial spectacle, funeral games were added, according to the provincial resources and with camp apparatus.

[22] Res interim nihilo minus ab legatis gerebantur. Marcius superato Baete amni, quem incolae Certim appellant, duas opulentas ciuitates sine certamine in deditionem accepit. Astapa urbs erat Carthaginiensium semper partis; neque id tam dignum ira erat quam quod extra necessitates belli praecipuum in Romanos gerebant odium.

[22] Meanwhile, matters were nonetheless conducted by the legates. Marcius, the river Baetis having been crossed, which the inhabitants call the Certim, received two opulent cities into surrender without contest. Astapa was a city always of the Carthaginian party; nor was that so worthy of anger as the fact that, beyond the necessities of war, they bore a particular hatred toward the Romans.

nec urbem aut situ aut munimento tutam habebant quae ferociores iis animos faceret; sed ingenia incolarum latrocinio laeta ut excursiones in finitimum agrum sociorum populi Romani facerent impulerant et uagos milites Romanos lixasque et mercatores exciperent. magnum etiam comitatum, quia paucis parum tutum fuerat, transgredientem fines positis insidiis circumuentum iniquo loco interfecerant. ad hanc urbem oppugnandam cum admotus exercitus esset, oppidani conscientia scelerum, quia nec deditio tuta ad tam infestos uidebatur neque spes moenibus aut armis tuendae salutis erat, facinus in se ac suos foedum ac ferum consciscunt.

nor did they have a city safe either by site or by muniment to make their spirits the fiercer; but the dispositions of the inhabitants, rejoicing in brigandage, had driven them to make incursions into the neighboring fields of the allies of the Roman people and to waylay wandering Roman soldiers, camp-servants, and merchants. they had also, since for few it had been insufficiently safe, by setting ambushes surrounded and killed, in unfavorable ground, a large convoy that was crossing the borders. when an army was brought up to assault this city, the townsmen, conscious of their crimes, since surrender did not seem safe to men so hostile and there was no hope that their safety could be defended by walls or arms, resolve upon a deed foul and savage against themselves and their own.

locum in foro destinant quo pretiosissima rerum suarum congererent. super eum cumulum coniuges ac liberos considere cum iussissent, ligna circa exstruunt fascesque uirgultorum coniciunt. quinquaginta deinde armatis iuuenibus praecipiunt ut, donec incertus euentus pugnae esset, praesidium eo loco fortunarum suarum corporumque quae cariora fortunis essent seruarent; si rem inclinatam uiderent atque in eo iam esse ut urbs caperetur, scirent omnes quos euntes in proelium cernerent mortem in ipsa pugna obituros; illos se per deos superos inferosque orare ut memores libertatis, quae illo die aut morte honesta aut seruitute infami finienda esset, nihil relinquerent in quod saeuire iratus hostis posset; ferrum ignemque in manibus esse; amicae ac fideles potius ea quae peritura forent absumerent manus quam insultarent superbo ludibrio hostes.

they designate a place in the forum where they might heap up the most precious of their things. When they had ordered their wives and children to sit upon that pile, they build up wood around and throw in bundles of brushwood. Then they instruct fifty armed young men that, so long as the outcome of the battle was uncertain, they should keep a guard in that place over their fortunes and the bodies which were dearer than fortunes; if they should see the affair inclined and now at the point that the city would be captured, they should know that all whom they saw going into battle were going to meet death in the very fight; that they begged them, by the gods above and below, that, mindful of liberty, which on that day was to be ended either by honorable death or by infamous servitude, they should leave nothing on which an angry enemy could rage; that steel and fire were in their hands; that friendly and faithful hands should rather consume the things that were about to perish than that enemies should trample with arrogant mockery.

his adhortationibus exsecratio dira adiecta si quem a proposito spes mollitiaue animi flexisset.

to these exhortations a dire execration was added, if hope or softness of spirit should have bent anyone from the set purpose.

Inde concitato agmine patentibus portis ingenti cum tumultu erumpunt; neque erat ulla satis firma statio opposita, quia nihil minus quam ut egredi moenibus auderent timeri poterat. perpaucae equitum turmae leuisque armatura repente e castris ad id ipsum emissa occurrit. acrior impetu atque animis quam compositior ordine ullo pugna fuit.

Thence, with the column set in rapid motion, they burst out through the standing-open gates with immense tumult; nor was any sufficiently firm post opposed, because the last thing that could be feared was that they would dare to go out from the walls. A very few squadrons of cavalry and the light-armed, sent suddenly from the camp for that very purpose, met them. The fight was keener in onset and in spirit than it was composed in any order.

itaque pulsus eques qui primus se hosti obtulerat terrorem intulit leui armaturae; pugnatumque sub ipso uallo foret, ni robur legionum perexiguo ad instruendum dato tempore aciem direxisset. ibi quoque trepidatum parumper circa signa est cum caeci furore in uolnera ac ferrum uecordi audacia ruerent; dein uetus miles, aduersus temerarios impetus pertinax, caede primorum insequentes suppressit. conatus paulo post ultro inferre pedem, ut neminem cedere atque obstinatos mori in uestigio quemque suo uidit, patefacta acie, quod ut facere posset multitudo armatorum facile suppeditabat, cornua hostium amplexus, in orbem pugnantes ad unum omnes occidit.

and so the horseman who had first offered himself to the enemy, having been driven back, brought terror into the light-armed; and fighting would have taken place right under the rampart, had not the strength of the legions, with a very scant time given for drawing up, deployed the battle line. There too there was a brief trepidation around the standards, when, with blind furor, they rushed upon wounds and steel with witless audacity; then the veteran soldiery, pertinacious against temerarious assaults, checked the pursuers by the slaughter of the foremost. A little later, attempting of his own accord to advance, and seeing that no one yielded and that each man was obstinate to die on his own footprint, he—opening out the line, which he could easily do since a multitude of armed men readily supplied it—embracing the enemy’s wings, slew them all to a man, who were fighting in a ring.

[23] Atque haec tamen hostium iratorum <in morem> ac tum maxime dimicantium iure belli in armatos repugnantesque edebantur: foedior alia in urbe trucidatio erat cum turbam feminarum puerorumque imbellem inermem ciues sui caederent et in succensum rogum semianima pleraque inicerent corpora riuique sanguinis flammam orientem restinguerent: postremo ipsi caede miseranda suorum fatigati cum armis medio incendio se iniecerunt. iam caedi perpetratae uictores Romani superuenerunt. ac primo conspectu tam foedae rei mirabundi parumper obstipuerunt; dein cum aurum argentumque cumulo rerum aliarum interfulgens auiditate ingenii humani rapere ex igni uellent, correpti alii flamma sunt, alii ambusti adflatu uaporis, cum receptus primis urgente ab tergo ingenti turba non esset.

[23] And yet these things were being carried out after the manner <in morem> of enraged enemies, and just then most actively fighting, by the law of war, upon the armed and resisting; a fouler butchery in the city was another thing, when their own fellow-citizens were cutting down a crowd of women and boys, unwarlike and unarmed, and were casting most of the half-alive bodies onto a burning pyre, and streams of blood were extinguishing the flame as it rose; finally they themselves, wearied by the pitiable slaughter of their own people, hurled themselves with their arms into the midst of the conflagration. Now, after the slaughter had been perpetrated, the victorious Romans supervened. And at the first sight of so foul a thing, marveling, they stood for a little while astonied; then, when, with the avidity of human nature, they wished to snatch gold and silver, gleaming amid a heap of other things, out of the fire, some were seized by the flame, others were scorched by the blast of vapor, since for those in front there was no retreat, with a huge crowd pressing from behind.

ita Astapa sine praeda militum ferro ignique absumpta est. Marcius ceteris eius regionis metu in deditionem acceptis uictorem exercitum Carthaginem ad Scipionem reduxit.

thus Astapa was consumed by sword and fire, without booty for the soldiers. Marcius, the rest of that region, brought into surrender through fear, led the victorious army back to Carthage to Scipio.

Per eos ipsos dies perfugae a Gadibus uenerunt pollicentes urbem Punicumque praesidium quod in ea urbe esset et imperatorem praesidii cum classe prodituros. Mago ibi ex fuga substiterat, nauibusque in Oceano conlectis aliquantum auxiliorum et trans fretum ex Africa ora et ex proximis Hispaniae locis per Hannonem praefectum coegerat. fide accepta dataque perfugis, et Marcius eo cum expeditis cohortibus et Laelius cum septem triremibus quinqueremi una est missus ut terra marique communi consilio rem gererent.

During those very days deserters came from Gades, promising to betray the city and the Punic garrison which was in that city, and the commander of the garrison together with the fleet. Mago had halted there after the flight, and, with ships collected on the Ocean, had assembled some auxiliaries both from across the strait from the African coast and from the nearest places of Hispania through Hanno the prefect. A pledge having been received and given to the deserters, both Marcius was sent thither with light cohorts and Laelius with seven triremes, with one quinquereme in addition, so that by land and sea, by common counsel, they might conduct the affair.

[24] Scipio ipse graui morbo implicitus, grauiore tamen fama cum ad id quisque quod audierat insita hominibus libidine alendi de industria rumores adiceret aliquid, prouinciam omnem ac maxime longinqua eius turbauit; apparuitque quantam excitatura molem uera fuisset clades cum uanus rumor tantas procellas exciuisset. non socii in fide, non exercitus in officio mansit. Mandonius et Indibilis, quibus quia regnum sibi Hispaniae pulsis inde Carthaginiensibus destinarant animis nihil pro spe contigerat, concitatis popularibus—Lacetani autem erant—et iuuentute Celtiberorum excita agrum Suessetanum Sedetanumque sociorum populi Romani hostiliter depopulati sunt.

[24] Scipio himself, entangled in a grave illness, yet by a graver rumor—since each person, to what he had heard, from the inborn desire in men of feeding rumors, was deliberately adding something—threw the whole province, and especially its remoter parts, into turmoil; and it became apparent how great a mass a true disaster would have been about to rouse, when an empty rumor had stirred up such tempests. Neither did the allies remain in fidelity, nor the army in its duty. Mandonius and Indibilis—because, having destined in their minds for themselves the kingship of Hispania once the Carthaginians were driven out from there, nothing had fallen out according to their hope—after their compatriots had been stirred up—the Lacetani, moreover, they were—and the youth of the Celtiberians aroused, hostilely ravaged the territory of the Suessetani and Sedetani, allies of the Roman people.

Ciuilis alius furor in castris ad Sucronem ortus; octo ibi milia militum erant, praesidium gentibus quae cis Hiberum incolunt impositum. motae autem eorum mentes sunt non tum primum cum de uita imperatoris rumores dubii allati sunt, sed iam ante licentia ex diutino, ut fit, otio conlecta, et nonnihil quod in hostico laxius rapto suetis uiuere artiores in pace res erant. ac primo sermones tantum occulti serebantur: si bellum in prouincia esset, quid sese inter pacatos facere?

Another civil fury arose in the camp at the Sucro; there were eight thousand soldiers there, a garrison imposed for the peoples who dwell on this side of the Hiberus. Their minds, however, were stirred not then for the first time when doubtful rumors were brought about the life of the commander, but already before, by license gathered, as happens, from long leisure, and partly because, being accustomed in hostile country to live more loosely on rapine, their circumstances were tighter in peace. And at first only secret conversations were being sown: if there were war in the province, what were they doing among the pacified?

si debellatum iam et confecta prouincia esset, cur in Italiam non reuehi? flagitatum quoque stipendium procacius quam ex more et modestia militari erat, et ab custodibus probra in circumeuntes uigilias tribunos iacta, et noctu quidam praedatum in agrum circa pacatum ierant; postremo interdiu ac propalam sine commeatu ab signis abibant. omnia libidine ac licentia militum, nihil instituto aut disciplina militiae aut imperio eorum qui praeerant gerebatur.

if the war had already been fought out and the province settled, why were they not being carried back to Italy? The stipend too was demanded more impudently than was according to custom and military modesty, and insults were hurled by the guards at the tribunes as they went around the watches, and some by night had gone to prey upon the countryside around, which was at peace; finally, by day and openly, without leave they would go off from the standards. Everything was being done by the lust and license of the soldiers; nothing by established usage or the discipline of soldiery or the authority of those in command was being conducted.

forma tamen Romanorum castrorum constabat una ea spe quod tribunos ex contagione furoris haud expertes seditionis defectionisque rati fore, et iura reddere in principiis sinebant et signum ab eis petebant et in stationes ac uigilias ordine ibant; et ut uim imperii abstulerant, ita speciem dicto parentium ultro sibi ipsi imperantes seruabant.

nevertheless the form of the Roman camp remained uniform, on this hope: that they supposed the tribunes, through the contagion of the frenzy, would be by no means devoid of sedition and defection; and they allowed them to render judgments in the principia (the headquarters) and asked from them the signal, and they went to their posts and watches in due order; and just as they had removed the force of command, so they maintained the semblance of obeying orders, issuing commands to themselves of their own accord.

Erupit deinde seditio, postquam reprehendere atque improbare tribunos ea quae fierent et conari obuiam ire et propalam abnuere furoris eorum se futuros socios senserunt. fugatis itaque ex principiis ac post paulo e castris tribunis ad principes seditionis gregarios milites C. Albium Calenum et C. Atrium Umbrum delatum omnium consensu imperium est; qui nequaquam tribuniciis contenti ornamentis, insignia etiam summi imperii, fasces securesque, attractare ausi; neque eis uenit in mentem suis tergis suis ceruicibus uirgas illas securesque imminere quas ad metum aliorum praeferrent. mors Scipionis falso credita occaecabat animos, sub cuius uolgatam iam famam non dubitabant totam Hispaniam arsuram bello: in eo tumultu et sociis pecunias imperari et diripi propinquas urbes posse; et turbatis rebus cum omnia omnes auderent minus insignia fore quae ipsi fecissent.

Then the sedition burst forth, after they perceived that the tribunes were reprehending and disapproving the things that were being done and trying to go to meet them, and openly refusing to be associates of their frenzy. Accordingly, with the tribunes put to flight from the headquarters and shortly after from the camp, by the consensus of all imperium was conferred upon the rank‑and‑file soldiers, the leaders of the sedition, C. Albius Calenus and C. Atrius Umber; who, by no means content with the tribunician ornaments, even dared to lay hands upon the insignia of the highest imperium as well—the fasces and axes; nor did it come into their mind that those rods and axes which they carried before them for the fear of others were hanging over their own backs and their own necks. The death of Scipio, falsely believed, was blinding their minds, under whose report now spread abroad they did not doubt that all Hispania would blaze with war: in that tumult both that monies could be imposed upon the allies and that neighboring cities could be plundered; and, with affairs thrown into confusion, since all dared everything, the things which they themselves did would be less conspicuous.

[25] Cum alios subinde recentes nuntios non mortis modo sed etiam funeris exspectarent, neque superueniret quisquam euanesceretque temere ortus rumor, tum primi auctores requiri coepti; et subtrahente se quoque ut credidisse potius temere quam finxisse rem talem uideri posset, destituti duces iam sua ipsi insignia et pro uana imagine imperii quod gererent ueram iustamque mox in se uersuram potestatem horrebant. stupente ita seditione cum uiuere primo, mox etiam ualere Scipionem certi auctores adferrent, tribuni militum septem ab ipso Scipione missi superuenerunt. ad quorum primum aduentum exasperati animi: mox ipsis placido sermone permulcentibus notos cum quibus congressi erant, leniti sunt.

[25] While they kept expecting other fresh reports not only of death but even of the funeral, and no one arrived and the rashly-arisen rumor was vanishing, then the first authors began to be sought; and as each also withdrew himself so that he might seem to have believed rather rashly than to have fabricated such a matter, the leaders, now deserted, shuddered at their own insignia, and, in place of the empty image of the imperium which they were bearing, at the true and just power soon to be turned against themselves. With the sedition thus astounded, when reliable authors were reporting that Scipio was first alive, soon even in good health, seven tribunes of the soldiers, sent by Scipio himself, arrived. At whose first arrival spirits were exasperated; soon, as these very men, with placid speech, were soothing those acquaintances with whom they had met, they were softened.

circumeuntes enim tentoria primo, deinde in principiis praetorioque ubi sermones inter se serentium circulos uidissent adloquebantur, percontantes magis quae causa irae consternationisque subitae foret quam factum accusantes. uolgo stipendium non datum ad diem iactabatur, et cum eodem tempore quo scelus Iliturgitanum exstitisset post duorum imperatorum duorumque exercituum stragem sua uirtute defensum nomen Romanum ac retenta prouincia esset, Iliturgitanos poenam noxae meritam habere, suis recte factis gratiam qui exsoluat non esse. talia querentes aequa orare seque ea relaturos ad imperatorem respondebant; laetari quod nihil tristius nec insanabilius esset; et P. Scipionem deum benignitate et rem publicam esse gratiae referendae.

for, going around the tents at first, then in the principia and the praetorium, when they had seen circles of men spinning conversations among themselves, they addressed them, inquiring rather what the cause of anger and sudden consternation was than accusing the deed. commonly it was being bruited about that the stipend had not been given on the due day; and that, at the very time when the Iliturgitan crime had arisen, after the slaughter of two commanders and two armies, by their own valor the Roman name had been defended and the province retained, the Iliturgitani had the penalty deserved for their offense, but for their own right deeds there was no one to pay out gratitude. to men complaining of such things they replied that they were asking for equitable terms and that they would report these to the imperator; that they rejoiced because there was nothing more grievous nor more incurable; and that thanks were to be rendered to P. Scipio for the gods’ benignity, and to the commonwealth.

Scipionem, bellis adsuetum, ad seditionum procellas rudem, sollicitum habebat res ne aut exercitus peccando aut ipse puniendo modum excederet. in praesentia, ut coepisset, leniter agi placuit et missis circa stipendiarias ciuitates exactoribus stipendii spem propinquam facere; et edictum subinde propositum ut ad stipendium petendum conuenirent Carthaginem, seu carptim partes seu uniuersi mallent. tranquillam seditionem iam per se languescentem repentina quies rebellantium Hispanorum fecit; redierant enim in fines omisso incepto Mandonius et Indibilis, postquam uiuere Scipionem allatum est; nec iam erat aut ciuis aut externus cum quo furorem suum consociarent.

Scipio, accustomed to wars but untrained for the storms of seditions, was kept anxious by the situation, lest either the army, by offending, or he himself, by punishing, should exceed due measure. For the present, as he had begun, it pleased him to act gently and, by sending exactors of the stipend around the stipendiary communities, to create a near hope of pay; and an edict was thereupon posted that they should convene at Carthage to seek the stipend, whether they preferred to come piecemeal, by parts, or all together. A sudden quiet of the rebellious Spaniards made tranquil a sedition already languishing of itself; for Mandonius and Indibilis, after it was reported that Scipio was alive, had returned to their own borders with the enterprise abandoned; nor now was there either citizen or foreigner with whom they might associate their frenzy.

omnia circumspectantes [consilia] nihil reliqui habebant praeter unum tutissimum a malis consiliis receptum, ut imperatoris uel iustae irae uel non desperandae clementiae sese committerent: etiam hostibus eum ignouisse cum quibus ferro dimicasset: suam seditionem sine uolnere, sine sanguine fuisse nec ipsam atrocem nec atroci poena dignam—ut ingenia humana sunt ad suam cuique leuandam culpam nimio plus facunda. illa dubitatio erat singulaene cohortes an uniuersi ad stipendium petendum irent. inclinauit sententia, quod tutius censebant, uniuersos ire.

surveying all [plans], they had nothing remaining except one—most secure as a refuge from evil counsels—namely, to commit themselves to the emperor’s either just wrath or clemency not to be despaired of: that he had even pardoned enemies with whom he had contended by the sword: that their own sedition had been without wound, without blood, and was neither itself atrocious nor worthy of an atrocious punishment—such as human dispositions are, all too eloquent for each to lighten his own blame. The doubt was whether the cohorts should go singly or all together to seek the stipend. The opinion inclined, as they judged safer, that all should go.

[26] Per eosdem dies quibus haec illi consultabant consilium de iis Carthagini erat, certabaturque sententiis utrum in auctores tantum seditionis—erant autem ii numero haud plus quam quinque et triginta—animaduerteretur, an plurium supplicio uindicanda tam foedi exempli defectio magis quam seditio esset. uicit sententia lenior ut unde culpa orta esset ibi poena consisteret: ad multitudinem castigationem satis esse. consilio dimisso, ut id actum uideretur, expeditio aduersus Mandonium Indibilemque edicitur exercitui qui Carthagine erat et cibaria dierum aliquot parare iubentur.

[26] During the same days in which they were consulting about these matters, there was a deliberation at Carthage concerning them, and there was a contest of opinions whether only the authors of the sedition—now they were in number not more than 35—should be proceeded against, or whether by the punishment of more persons the defection, a precedent of so foul an example rather than a sedition, should be vindicated. The gentler opinion prevailed, that where the fault had arisen, there the penalty should rest: for the multitude a chastisement was sufficient. The council having been dismissed, so that it might appear that the matter had been dealt with, a campaign against Mandonium and Indibilis is proclaimed to the army which was at Carthage, and they are ordered to prepare rations for several days.

tribunis septem qui et antea Sucronem ad leniendam seditionem ierant obuiam exercitui missis quina nomina principum seditionis edita sunt, ut eos per idoneos homines benigno uoltu ac sermone in hospitium inuitatos sopitosque uino uincirent. haud procul iam Carthagine aberant cum ex obuiis auditum postero die omnem exercitum cum M. Silano in Lacetanos proficisci non metu modo omni qui tacitus insidebat animis liberauit eos, sed laetitiam ingentem fecit quod magis habituri solum imperatorem quam ipsi futuri in potestate eius essent. sub occasum solis urbem ingressi sunt exercitumque alterum parantem omnia ad iter uiderunt.

To the seven tribunes—who also earlier had gone to Sucrone to soften the sedition—sent to meet the army, five names apiece of the leaders of the sedition were given out, so that, through suitable men, with a benign countenance and speech, they might invite them into hospitality and, once lulled by wine, bind them. They were now not far from Carthage when, from people met on the road, it was heard that on the next day the whole army would set out with M. Silanus against the Lacetani; this not only freed them from all the fear which silently sat in their minds, but produced great rejoicing, because they would rather have only the commander than themselves be going to be in his power. Toward sunset they entered the city and saw the other army preparing everything for the march.

excepti sermonibus de industria compositis—laetum opportunumque aduentum eorum imperatori esse quod sub ipsam profectionem alterius exercitus uenissent— corpora curant. ab tribunis sine ullo tumultu auctores seditionis per idoneos homines perducti in hospitia comprensi ac uincti sunt. uigilia quarta impedimenta exercitus cuius simulabatur iter proficisci coepere: sub lucem signa mota, et ad portam retentum agmen custodesque circa omnes portas missi ne quis urbe egrederetur.

received with speeches composed on purpose—their advent was joyful and opportune to the general, because they had come at the very moment of the other army’s departure—they attend to their bodies. by the tribunes, without any tumult, the authors of the sedition, conducted to lodgings by suitable men, were seized and bound. at the fourth watch the baggage-train of the army whose march was being simulated began to set out: toward daybreak the standards were moved, and at the gate the column was held back, and guards were sent around all the gates, lest anyone go out of the city.

uocati deinde ad contionem qui pridie uenerant, ferociter in forum ad tribunal imperatoris ut ultro territuri succlamationibus concurrunt. simul et imperator in tribunal escendit et reducti armati a portis inermi contioni se ab tergo circumfuderunt. tum omnis ferocia concidit et, ut postea fatebantur, nihil aeque eos terruit quam praeter spem robur et colos imperatoris, quem adfectum uisuros crediderant, uoltusque qualem ne in acie quidem aiebant meminisse.

Then those who had come the day before, summoned to a contio, rushed fiercely into the forum to the emperor’s tribunal with acclamations, as if they on their own initiative were going to overawe. At the same time the emperor mounted the tribunal, and the armed men, brought back from the gates, poured in from the rear and encircled the unarmed assembly. Then all ferocity collapsed, and—as they later confessed—nothing terrified them so much as, beyond expectation, the robustness and color of the emperor, whom they had believed they would see enfeebled, and a countenance such as, they said, they did not remember even in the battle line.

sedit tacitus paulisper donec nuntiatum est deductos in forum auctores seditionis et parata omnia esse.

he sat silent for a little while until it was announced that the authors of the sedition had been led down into the forum and that everything was prepared.

[27] Tum silentio per praeconem facto ita coepit: 'nunquam mihi defuturam orationem qua exercitum meum adloquerer credidi, non quo uerba unquam potius quam res exercuerim, sed quia prope a pueritia in castris habitus adsueram militaribus ingeniis: apud uos quemadmodum loquar nec consilium nec oratio suppeditat, quos ne quo nomine quidem appellare debeam scio. ciues? qui a patria uestra descistis.

[27] Then, a silence having been made by the herald, he began thus: 'I never believed that an oration by which I might address my army would fail me, not that I have ever exercised words rather than deeds, but because, brought up almost from boyhood in the camps, I had grown accustomed to military minds: before you, as to how I should speak, neither counsel nor oration supplies me, men whom I know I ought not even to address by any name. citizens? you who have defected from your fatherland.

an milites? qui imperium auspiciumque abnuistis, sacramenti religionem rupistis. hostes?

or soldiers? who have refused the imperium and the auspice, have broken the religion of the sacrament. enemies?

corpora, ora, uestitum, habitum ciuium adgnosco: facta, dicta, consilia, animos hostium uideo. quid enim uos, nisi quod Ilergetes et Lacetani, aut optastis aliud aut sperastis? et illi tamen Mandonium atque Indibilem, regiae nobilitatis uiros, duces furoris secuti sunt: uos auspicium et imperium ad Umbrum Atrium et Calenum Albium detulistis.

bodies, faces, vesture, habit of citizens I recognize; deeds, words, counsels, spirits of enemies I see. for what have you done, except what the Ilergetes and the Lacetani did? have you either wished or hoped for anything else? and yet even they followed Mandonium and Indibilis, men of royal nobility, leaders of their frenzy: you have handed over the auspices and the command to an Umbrian, Atrius, and to a Calenian, Albius.

negate uos id omnes fecisse aut factum uoluisse, milites; paucorum eum furorem atque amentiam esse libenter credam, negantibus; nec enim ea sunt commissa quae, uolgata in omnem exercitum, sine piaculis ingentibus expiari possint.

deny that you all have done this or wished it done, soldiers; I will gladly believe, if you deny it, that it is the fury and insanity of a few; for no such things have been committed as, if spread abroad through the whole army, could be expiated without vast expiatory sacrifices.

'Inuitus ea tamquam uolnera attingo; sed nisi tacta tractataque sanari non possunt. equidem pulsis Hispania Carthaginiensibus nullum locum tota prouincia nullos homines credebam esse ubi uita inuisa esset mea; sic me non solum aduersus socios gesseram sed etiam aduersus hostes: in castris en meis—quantum opinio fefellit.—fama mortis meae non accepta solum sed etiam exspectata est. non quod ego uulgari facinus per omnes uelim—equidem si totum exercitum meum mortem mihi optasse crederem hic statim ante oculos uestros morerer, nec me uita iuuaret inuisa ciuibus et militibus meis.

'Unwillingly I touch these things as though wounds; but unless touched and handled they cannot be healed. Indeed, with the Carthaginians driven out of Spain, I believed there was no place in the whole province, no men, where my life would be hateful; so had I borne myself not only toward allies but also toward enemies: lo, in my own camp—how greatly expectation deceived me.—the report of my death was not only received but even awaited. Not that I would wish the deed to be made vulgarized among all—indeed, if I believed my whole army had wished for my death, I would die here at once before your eyes, nor would life help me, hated by my citizens and my soldiers.

sed multitudo omnis sicut natura maris per se immobilis est, [et] uenti et aurae cient; ita aut tranquillum aut procellae in uobis sunt; et causa atque origo omnis furoris penes auctores est, uos contagione insanistis; qui mihi ne hodie quidem scire uidemini quo amentiae progressi sitis, quid facinoris in me, quid in patriam parentesque ac liberos uestros, quid in deos sacramenti testes, quid aduersus auspicia sub quibus militatis, quid aduersus morem militiae disciplinamque maiorum, quid aduersus summi imperii maiestatem ausi sitis.

but the whole multitude, just as the nature of the sea is by itself motionless, [and] winds and breezes set it in motion; so either calm or storms are within you; and the cause and origin of all frenzy lie with the authors; you have grown insane by contagion; you, who seem to me not even today to know to what point of madness you have advanced, what crime against me, what against your fatherland and your parents and your children, what against the gods, witnesses of your oath, what against the auspices under which you serve as soldiers, what against the custom of military service and the discipline of the ancestors, what against the majesty of the supreme command you have dared.

'De me ipso taceo—temere potius quam auide credideritis, is denique ego sim cuius imperii taedere exercitum minime mirandum sit—: patria quid de uobis meruerat, quam cum Mandonio et Indibili consociando consilia prodebatis? quid populus Romanus, cum imperium ablatum ab tribunis suffragio populi creatis ad homines priuatos detulistis, cum eo ipso non contenti si pro tribunis illos haberetis, fasces imperatoris uestri ad eos quibus seruus cui imperarent nunquam fuerat, Romanus exercitus detulistis? in praetorio tetenderunt Albius et Atrius; classicum apud eos cecinit; signum ab iis petitum est; sederunt in tribunali P. Scipionis; lictor apparuit; summoto incesserunt; fasces cum securibus praelatis sunt.

'I am silent about myself—grant that you believed rashly rather than avidly; suppose, finally, that I am indeed such a man that it is by no means to be wondered at if the army is weary of my imperium—: what had the fatherland done to deserve this from you, which you were betraying by concerting counsels with Mandonio and Indibilis? What had the Roman People done, when you transferred the imperium taken away from tribunes created by the suffrage of the people to private men; and, not content even that you should hold them as tribunes in place of your own, you, a Roman army, carried the fasces of your imperator to those who had never had even a single slave to command? In the praetorium Albius and Atrius pitched their tents; the classicum sounded at their quarters; the signal was asked of them; they sat on the tribunal of P. Scipio; a lictor appeared; with the crowd removed they advanced; the fasces with axes were borne before them.

lapides pluere et fulmina iaci de caelo et insuetos fetus animalia edere uos portenta esse putatis: hoc est portentum quod nullis hostiis nullis supplicationibus sine sanguine eorum qui tantum ausi facinus sunt expiari possit.

You think that stones rain and thunderbolts are hurled from heaven and that animals bring forth unaccustomed offspring are portents: this is the portent, which can be expiated by no victims, by no supplications, without the blood of those who have dared so great a crime.

[28] 'Atque ego, quamquam nullum scelus rationem habet, tamen, ut in re nefaria, quae mens, quod consilium uestrum fuerit scire uelim. Regium quondam in praesidium missa legio interfectis per scelus principibus ciuitatis urbem opulentam per decem annos tenuit, propter quod facinus tota legio, milia hominum quattuor, in foro Romae securi percussi sunt. sed illi primum non Atrium Umbrum semilixam, nominis etiam abominandi ducem, sed D. Uibellium tribunum militum secuti sunt, nec cum Pyrrho nec cum Samnitibus aut Lucanis, hostibus populi Romani, se coniunxerunt: uos cum Mandonio et Indibili et consilia communicastis et arma consociaturi fuistis.

[28] 'And I, although no crime has a rationale, yet, as in a nefarious matter, would wish to know what mind, what counsel was yours. A legion once sent to Regium as a garrison, after the leading men of the state had been murdered by crime, held that wealthy city for 10 years, on account of which deed of wickedness the entire legion, four thousand men, were struck with the axe in the Forum at Rome. But they, first, did not follow Atrius Umber, a sutler, a leader with a name even to be abominated, but D. Vibellius, a tribune of soldiers; nor did they join themselves with Pyrrhus nor with the Samnites or Lucanians, enemies of the Roman people: you both shared counsels with Mandonio and Indibilis and were about to unite your arms.'

illi, sicut Campani Capuam Tuscis ueteribus cultoribus ademptam, Mamertini in Sicilia Messanam, sic Regium habituri perpetuam sedem erant, nec populum Romanum nec socios populi Romani ultro lacessituri bello: Sucronemne uos domicilium habituri eratis? ubi si uos decedens confecta prouincia imperator relinquerem, deum hominumque fidem implorare debebatis quod non redieritis ad coniuges liberosque uestros.

they, just as the Campanians, with Capua taken from the Etruscans, its ancient cultivators, and the Mamertines in Sicily, Messana—so they were going to hold Rhegium as a perpetual seat, and they were not about to provoke, of their own accord, either the Roman people or the allies of the Roman people to war: were you going to have Sucronem as your domicile? where, if, as he departed, the province having been completed, the commander should leave you behind, you ought to implore the faith of gods and men on the ground that you had not returned to your wives and children.

'Sed horum quoque memoriam, sicut patriae meique, eieceritis ex animis uestris: uiam consilii scelerati sed non ad ultimum dementis exsequi uolo; mene uiuo et cetero incolumi exercitu, cum quo ego die uno Carthaginem cepi, cum quo quattuor imperatores quattuor exercitus Carthaginiensium fudi, fugaui, Hispania expuli, uos octo milia hominum, minoris certe omnes pretii quam Albius et Atrius sunt quibus uos subiecistis, Hispaniam prouinciam populo Romano erepturi eratis? amolior et amoueo nomen meum; nihil ultra facile creditam mortem meam a uobis uiolatus sim: quid? si ego morerer, mecum exspiratura res publica, mecum casurum imperium populi Romani erat?

'But you have cast out from your minds the memory of these things also, as of your fatherland and of me: I wish to follow the path of your criminal counsel, but not to the final point of madness; with me alive and the rest of the army intact— with which I in one day captured Carthage, with which I routed, put to flight, and expelled from Spain four generals and four armies of the Carthaginians— were you, eight thousand men, all surely of less worth than Albius and Atrius, to whom you have subjected yourselves, going to snatch Spain, a province, from the Roman People? I remove and put away my own name; let me be wronged no further by you in that my death was so readily believed. What? If I were to die, was the commonwealth to breathe its last with me, was the empire of the Roman People to fall with me?'

ne istuc Iuppiter optimus maximus sirit, urbem auspicato dis auctoribus in aeternum conditam huic fragili et mortali corpori aequalem esse. Flaminio, Paulo, Graccho, Postumio Albino, M. Marcello, T. Quinctio Crispino, Cn. Fuluio, Scipionibus meis, tot tam praeclaris imperatoribus uno bello absumptis superstes est populus Romanus, eritque mille aliis nunc ferro nunc morbo morientibus: meo unius funere elata esset res publica? uos ipsi hic in Hispania patre et patruo meo duobus imperatoribus interfectis Septimum Marcium ducem uobis aduersus exsultantes recenti uictoria Poenos delegistis.

May Jupiter Best and Greatest not permit this—that a city, founded under auspices with the gods as authors for eternity, be made coeval with this fragile and mortal body. With Flaminius, Paulus, Gracchus, Postumius Albinus, M. Marcellus, T. Quinctius Crispinus, Cn. Fulvius, my Scipios—so many and so illustrious commanders—consumed in a single war, the Roman people has survived, and will survive while a thousand others perish now by the sword, now by disease: would the commonwealth have been borne out with my single funeral? You yourselves here in Spain, when my father and my uncle—two commanders—were slain, chose Septimus Marcius as leader for yourselves against the Carthaginians exulting in their recent victory.

et sic loquor tamquam sine duce Hispaniae futurae fuerint: M. Silanus eodem iure eodem imperio mecum in prouinciam missus, L. Scipio frater meus et C. Laelius legati, uindices maiestatis imperii deessent? utrum exercitus exercitui, an duces ducibus, an dignitas, an causa comparari poterat? quibus si omnibus superiores essetis, arma contra patriam contra ciues uestros ferretis?

And I speak thus as though Spain would have been without a leader: was M. Silanus, sent into the province with the same right and the same imperium as I, lacking, and were L. Scipio my brother and C. Laelius, legates, vindicators of the majesty of the imperium, lacking? Could army be compared with army, or leaders with leaders, or dignity, or cause? If you were superior to all these, would you bear arms against your fatherland, against your fellow citizens?

Africam Italiae, Carthaginem urbi Romanae imperare uelletis? quam ob noxam patriae?

Would you wish Africa to command Italy, Carthage to command the Roman city? For what offense against the fatherland?

[29] Coriolanum quondam damnatio iniusta, miserum et indignum exsilium ut iret ad oppugnandam patriam impulit; reuocauit tamen a publico parricidio priuata pietas: uos qui dolor, quae ira incitauit? stipendiumne diebus paucis imperatore aegro serius numeratum satis digna causa fuit cur patriae indiceretis bellum, cur ad Ilergetes descisceretis a populo Romano, cur nihil diuinarum humanarumue rerum inuiolatum uobis esset?

[29] Once an unjust condemnation drove Coriolanus, a wretched and unworthy exile, to go to oppugn his fatherland; yet private piety recalled him from public parricide: you—what grief, what wrath incited you? Was the stipend, counted out a few days late with the commander sick, a cause sufficiently worthy why you should declare war against your fatherland, why you should defect to the Ilergetes from the Roman people, why nothing of things divine or human should be left inviolate by you?

'Insanistis profecto, milites, nec maior in corpus meum uis morbi quam in uestras mentes inuasit. horret animus referre quid crediderint homines, quid sperauerint, quid optauerint: auferat omnia inrita obliuio, si potest: si non, utcumque silentium tegat. non negauerim tristem atrocemque uobis uisam orationem meam: quanto creditis facta uestra atrociora esse quam dicta mea?

'You have indeed gone mad, soldiers, and no greater force of disease has invaded my body than has invaded your minds. My spirit shudders to relate what men have believed, what they have hoped, what they have desired: let oblivion carry off all the vain things, if it can; if not, let silence cover them however it may. I will not deny that my speech seemed to you grim and atrocious: how much more atrocious do you believe your deeds to be than my words?

et me ea quae fecistis pati aequum censetis: uos ne dici quidem omnia aequo animo fertis? sed ne ea quidem ipsa ultra exprobrabuntur. utinam tam facile uos obliuiscamini eorum quam ego obliuiscar.

and you judge it fair that I endure the things which you have done; do you yourselves not even bear, with equanimity, that everything be said? but not even those very things will be reproached further. would that you might as easily forget them as I shall forget.

itaque quod ad uniuersos uos attinet, si erroris paenitet, satis superque poenarum habeo: Albius Calenus et Atrius Umber et ceteri nefariae seditionis auctores sanguine luent quod admiserunt. uobis supplicii eorum spectaculum non modo non acerbum sed laetum etiam, si sana mens rediit, debet esse; de nullis enim quam de uobis infestius aut inimicius consuluerunt.'

therefore, as concerns all of you, if you repent of the error, I have punishments enough and more than enough: Albius Calenus and Atrius Umber and the other authors of the nefarious sedition will pay with their blood for what they have committed. For you, the spectacle of their punishment ought not only not to be bitter but even joyful, if a sound mind has returned; for against no one did they take counsel more hostilely or more inimically than against you.'

Vix finem dicendi fecerat cum ex praeparato simul omnium rerum terror oculis auribusque est offusus. exercitus, qui corona contionem circumdederat, gladiis ad scuta concrepuit; praeconis audita uox citantis nomina damnatorum in consilio; nudi in medium protrahebantur et simul omnis apparatus supplicii expromebatur. deligati ad palum uirgisque caesi et securi percussi, adeo torpentibus metu qui aderant ut non modo ferocior uox aduersus atrocitatem poenae sed ne gemitus quidem exaudiretur.

Hardly had he made an end of speaking when, by prearrangement, at once a terror of all things was poured over eyes and ears. the army, which had surrounded the assembly in a corona, clashed their swords upon their shields; the voice of the herald was heard calling the names of those condemned by the council; naked, they were dragged into the midst, and at the same time the whole apparatus of punishment was brought out. bound to the stake and beaten with rods and struck by the axe, with those present so numbed by fear that not only was a more ferocious voice against the atrocity of the penalty not heard, but not even a groan was audible.

tracti inde de medio omnes, purgatoque loco citati milites nominatim apud tribunos militum in uerba P. Scipionis iurarunt stipendiumque ad nomen singulis persolutum est. hunc finem exitumque seditio militum coepta apud Sucronem habuit.

then all were dragged away from the midst, and the place having been cleared, the soldiers, summoned by name, swore in the presence of the military tribunes in the words of P. Scipio, and the stipend was paid in full to each man according to the roll. this end and outcome the sedition of the soldiers, begun at Sucron, had.

[30] Per idem tempus ad Baetim fluuium Hanno praefectus Magonis missus a Gadibus cum parua manu Afrorum, mercede Hispanos sollicitando ad quattuor milia iuuenum armauit. castris deinde exutus ab L. Marcio, maxima parte militum inter tumultum captorum castrorum, quibusdam etiam in fuga amissis, palatos persequente equite, cum paucis ipse effugit.

[30] About the same time Hanno, prefect of Mago, sent from Gades to the Baetis River with a small band of Africans, by soliciting the Spaniards with pay armed to the number of four thousand youths. Then, stripped of his camp by L. Marcius, with the greater part of his soldiers lost amid the tumult of the captured camp, some also lost in flight, as the cavalry pursued those scattered, he himself escaped with a few.

Dum haec ad Baetim fluuium geruntur, Laelius interim freto in Oceanum euectus ad Carteiam classe accessit. urbs ea in ora Oceani sita est, ubi primum e faucibus angustis panditur mare. Gades sine certamine per proditionem recipiendi, ultro qui eam rem pollicerentur in castra Romana uenientibus, spes, sicut ante dictum est, fuerat.

While these things are being transacted at the river Baetis, Laelius meanwhile, carried out through the strait into the Ocean, approached Carteia with the fleet. the city is situated on the shore of the Ocean, where the sea is first spread out from its narrow jaws. There had been hope, as was said before, of receiving Gades without contest through treachery, with men of their own accord coming into the Roman camp to promise that matter.

sed patefacta immatura proditio est, comprensosque omnes Mago Adherbali praetori Carthaginem deuehendos tradit. Adherbal coniuratis in quinqueremem impositis praemissaque ea, quia tardior quam triremis erat, ipse cum octo triremibus modico interuallo sequitur. iam fretum intrabat quinqueremis cum Laelius et ipse in quinqueremi ex portu Carteiae sequentibus septem triremibus euectus in Adherbalem ac triremes inuehitur, quinqueremem satis credens deprensam rapido in freto in aduersum aestum reciprocari non posse.

but the treachery was disclosed prematurely, and Mago hands over all the arrested to Adherbal the praetor, to be transported to Carthage. Adherbal, after putting the conspirators on a quinquereme and sending it ahead—because it was slower than a trireme—himself follows with eight triremes at a moderate interval. The quinquereme was already entering the strait when Laelius too, in a quinquereme, having put out from the port of Carteia with seven triremes following, bears down upon Adherbal and the triremes, believing well enough that the quinquereme, once caught in the swift strait with the tide against it, could not be rowed back.

Poenus in re subita parumper incertus trepidauit utrum quinqueremem sequeretur an in hostes rostra conuerteret. ipsa cunctatio facultatem detractandae pugnae ademit; iam enim sub ictu teli erant et undique instabant hostes. aestus quoque arbitrium moderandi naues ademerat; neque erat nauali pugna similis, quippe ubi nihil uoluntarium, nihil artis aut consilii esset.

The Carthaginian, in the sudden crisis, for a little while uncertain, was in a flutter whether he should follow the quinquereme or turn his rams against the enemies. The very delay took away the opportunity of declining the combat; for already they were within missile-range and on every side the enemies were pressing on. The tide too had taken away the discretion of managing the ships; nor was it like a naval battle, since there was nothing voluntary, nothing of art or counsel.

una natura freti aestusque totius certaminis potens suis, alienis nauibus nequiquam remigio in contrarium tendentes inuehebat; et fugientem nauem uideres, uertice retro intortam uictoribus inlatam, et sequentem, si in contrarium tractum incidisset maris, fugientis modo sese auertentem. iam in ipsa pugna haec cum infesta rostro peteret hostium nauem, obliqua ipsa ictum alterius rostri accipiebat: illa cum transuersa obiceretur hosti, repente intorta in proram circumagebatur. cum inter triremes fortuna regente anceps proelium misceretur, quinqueremis Romana seu pondere tenacior seu pluribus remorum ordinibus scindentibus uertices cum facilius regeretur, duas triremes suppressit, unius, praelata impetu, lateris alterius remos detersit; ceterasque quas indepta esset mulcasset, ni cum reliquis quinque nauibus Adherbal uelis in Africam transmisisset.

one and the same nature of the strait and the tide, potent over the whole contest, was bearing in both friendly and enemy ships, as they, straining with their rowing in the contrary direction, availed nothing; and you might see a ship in flight, twisted back by a vortex and delivered to the victors, and a pursuer, if it had fallen into a counter-draw of the sea, turning itself away in the manner of the fleeing. already in the very fight, when this one, with hostile rostrum, aimed at an enemy ship, it itself, on the oblique, was receiving the blow of another rostrum; that one, when set transverse against the foe, suddenly, twisted, was whirled around toward the prow. while, among the triremes, with Fortune steering, a doubtful battle was mingled, the Roman quinquereme—whether more tenacious by its weight, or, with its several ranks of oars cleaving the vortices, because it was more easily governed—drove under two triremes; in the case of one, borne forward by its impetus, it wiped off the oars from the other’s flank; and it would have mauled the rest which it had seized, had not Adherbal, with the remaining five ships, under sail crossed over to Africa.

[31] Laelius uictor Carteiam reuectus. auditis quae acta Gadibus erant—patefactam proditionem coniuratosque missos Carthaginem, spem ad inritum redactam qua uenissent—nuntiis ad L. Marcium missis nisi si terere frustra tempus sedendo ad Gades uellent redeundum ad imperatorem esse, adsentiente Marcio paucos post dies ambo Carthaginem rediere. ad quorum discessum non respirauit modo Mago cum terra marique ancipiti metu urgeretur, sed etiam audita rebellione Ilergetum spem reciperandae Hispaniae nanctus nuntios Carthaginem ad senatum mittit qui simul seditionem ciuilem in castris Romanis simul defectionem sociorum in maius uerbis extollentes hortentur ut auxilia mitterent quibus traditum a patribus imperium Hispaniae repeti posset.

[31] Laelius, victorious, was carried back to Carteia. When he heard what had been done at Gades—namely, that the treason had been laid open and the conspirators sent to Carthage, the hope on account of which they had come being reduced to a nullity—he sent messengers to L. Marcius, saying that, unless they wished to waste time to no purpose by sitting at Gades, they must return to the commander; Marcius agreeing, a few days later both returned to Carthage. At their departure Mago not only drew breath, though he was pressed by a twofold fear by land and sea, but, upon hearing of the rebellion of the Ilergetes and having gotten hope of recovering Spain, he sends messengers to Carthage to the senate, who, exaggerating in words both the civil sedition in the Roman camps and the defection of the allies, should urge that reinforcements be sent by which the sovereignty of Spain, handed down by the fathers, might be reclaimed.

Mandonius et Indibilis in fines regressi paulisper dum quidnam de seditione statueretur scirent suspensi quieuerunt, si ciuium errori ignosceretur non diffidentes sibi quoque ignosci posse. postquam uolgata est atrocitas supplicii suam quoque noxam pari poena aestimatam rati, uocatis rursus ad arma popularibus contractisque quae ante habuerant auxiliis, in Sedetanum agrum, ubi principio defectionis statiua habuerant, cum uiginti milibus peditum duobus milibus equitum et quingentis transcenderunt.

Mandonius and Indibilis, having returned into their own borders, for a little while rested in suspense until they might learn what would be decreed concerning the sedition, not doubting that, if pardon were granted for the citizens’ error, they too could be forgiven. After the atrocity of the punishment was made public, thinking that their own offense likewise had been assessed with an equal penalty, having summoned their compatriots again to arms and gathered the auxiliaries which they had had before, they crossed into the Sedetan territory—where at the beginning of the defection they had had their standing camp—with 20,000 infantry and 2,500 cavalry.

[32] Scipio cum fide soluendi pariter omnibus noxiis innoxiisque stipendii tum uoltu ac sermone in omnes placato facile reconciliatis militum animis, priusquam castra ab Carthagine moueret contione aduocata multis uerbis in perfidiam rebellantium regulorum inuectus, nequaquam eodem animo se ire professus est ad uindicandum id scelus quo ciuilem errorem nuper sanauerit. tum se haud secus quam uiscera secantem sua cum gemitu et lacrimis triginta hominum capitibus expiasse octo milium seu imprudentiam seu noxam: nunc laeto et erecto animo ad caedem Ilergetum ire. non enim eos neque natos in eadem terra nec ulla secum societate iunctos esse; eam quae sola fuerit fidei atque amicitiae ipsos per scelus rupisse.

[32] Scipio, since in good faith he paid out the stipend equally to all, guilty and guiltless alike, and with countenance and speech appeased toward all had easily reconciled the soldiers’ minds, before he moved the camp from Carthage, after an assembly had been called, with many words inveighed against the perfidy of the rebel petty-kings, declaring that he was by no means going with the same spirit to vindicate that crime as that with which he had lately healed the civil error. Then, as if cutting into his own vitals, with groan and tears he had expiated the imprudence or the fault of eight thousand by the heads of thirty men; now with a glad and uplifted spirit he was going to the slaughter of the Ilergetes. For they were neither born in the same land nor joined with him by any alliance; that bond which alone had been of faith and friendship they themselves had broken by crime.

in exercitu suo se, praeterquam quod omnes ciues aut socios Latinique nominis uideat, etiam eo moueri quod nemo fere sit miles qui non aut a patruo suo Cn. Scipione, qui primus Romani nominis in eam prouinciam uenerit, aut a patre consule aut a se sit ex Italia aduectus. Scipionum nomini auspiciisque omnes adsuetos, quos secum in patriam ad meritum triumphum deducere uelit, quos consulatum petenti uelut si omnium communis agatur honos adfuturos speret.

in his own army, besides the fact that he sees all as citizens or allies and of the Latin name, he is also moved by this: that there is scarcely any soldier who was not conveyed from Italy either by his uncle Gnaeus Scipio, who was the first of the Roman name to come into that province, or by his father when consul, or by himself. All are accustomed to the name and auspices of the Scipios; these he would wish to lead with him back into the fatherland to a merited triumph; these he hopes will be present to support him as he seeks the consulship, as though a common honor of all were being pursued.

Quod ad expeditionem attineat quae instet, immemorem esse rerum suarum gestarum qui id bellum ducat. Magonis hercule sibi qui extra orbem terrarum in circumfusam Oceano insulam cum paucis perfugerit nauibus maiorem curam esse quam Ilergetum; quippe illic et ducem Carthaginiensem et quantumcumque Punicum praesidium esse, hic latrones latronumque duces, quibus ut ad populandos finitimorum agros tectaque urenda et rapienda pecora aliqua uis sit, ita in acie ac signis conlatis nullam esse; magis uelocitate ad fugam quam armis fretos pugnaturos esse. itaque non quod ullum inde periculum aut semen maioris belli uideat, ideo se priusquam prouincia decedat opprimendos Ilergetes duxisse, sed primum ne impunita tam scelerata defectio esset, deinde ne quis in prouincia simul uirtute tanta et felicitate perdomita relictus hostis dici posset.

As to the expedition that is at hand, he who would lead that war is unmindful of his own deeds. By Hercules, Mago, who has fled with a few ships beyond the circle of the lands to an island encompassed by Ocean, is a greater concern to me than the Ilergetes; for there there is both a Carthaginian leader and whatever Punic garrison, here bandits and leaders of bandits, who, though they have some force for ravaging the fields of their neighbors, for burning roofs and driving off cattle, yet in the battle-line and with standards joined have none; they will fight relying more on speed for flight than on arms. And so, not because he sees any danger thence or the seed of a greater war, did he therefore judge that the Ilergetes must be crushed before he leaves the province, but first lest so criminal a defection be unpunished, then lest anyone in a province brought under by such virtue and felicity could be said to have been left an enemy.

proinde dis bene iuuantibus sequerentur, non tam ad bellum gerendum—neque enim cum pari hoste certamen esse—quam ad expetendas ab hominibus scelestis poenas.

accordingly, with the gods kindly aiding, let them follow, not so much to wage war—for the contest is not with an equal enemy—as to exact penalties from criminal men.

[33] Ab hac oratione dimissos ad iter se comparare in diem posterum iubet profectusque decimis castris peruenit ad Hiberum flumen. inde superato amni die quarto in conspectu hostium posuit castra. campus ante montibus circa saeptus erat.

[33] From this oration, having dismissed them, he orders them to prepare for the journey on the following day; and having set out, at the tenth camp he reached the river Hiberus. Thence, the stream having been crossed, on the fourth day he pitched camp in the sight of the enemy. The plain in front was enclosed around by mountains.

in eam uallem Scipio cum pecora rapta pleraque ex ipsorum hostium agris propelli ad inritandam feritatem barbarorum iussisset, uelites subsidio misit, a quibus ubi per procursationem commissa pugna esset Laelium cum equitatu impetum ex occulto facere iubet. mons opportune prominens equitum insidias texit nec ulla mora pugnae facta est. Hispani in conspecta procul pecora, uelites in Hispanos praeda occupatos incurrere.

Into that valley Scipio, after he had ordered that most of the livestock seized from the enemies’ own fields be driven in to provoke the savagery of the barbarians, sent the velites as support; and when by a skirmishing sally the fight had been joined by them, he orders Laelius with the cavalry to make a charge from ambush. A hill conveniently jutting out veiled the cavalry’s ambuscade, and no delay in the battle was made. The Spaniards rushed toward the herds sighted from afar; the velites charged the Spaniards occupied with the booty.

primo missilibus territauere; deinde missis leuibus telis, quae inritare magis quam decernere pugnam poterant, gladios nudant et conlato pede res coepta geri est; ancepsque pedestre certamen erat ni equites superuenissent. neque ex aduerso tantum inlati obuios obtriuere, sed circumuecti etiam quidam per infima cliui ab tergo se ut plerosque intercluderent obiecerunt, maiorque caedes fuit quam quantam edere leuia per excursiones proelia solent.

At first they terrified with missiles; then, after sending light missiles, which could provoke rather than decide the fight, they bare their swords, and, with feet brought together, the affair began to be carried on at close quarters; and the pedestrian (infantry) contest was double-edged—i.e., in the balance—had not the cavalry come up. Nor, coming on only from the front, did they merely crush those who met them; but some, wheeling around along the lower parts of the slope, threw themselves in at the rear so as to cut off the greater part; and the slaughter was greater than such light battles conducted by excursions (forays) are wont to produce.

Ira magis accensa aduerso proelio barbaris est quam imminuti animi. itaque ne perculsi uiderentur prima luce postero die in aciem processere. non capiebat omnes copias angusta, sicut ante dictum est, ualles; duae ferme peditum partes omnis equitatus in aciem descendit: quod reliquum peditum erat obliquo constituerunt colle.

Their anger was more inflamed by the adverse battle than their spirits diminished. Therefore, lest they seem dismayed, at first light on the next day they advanced into the battle line. The narrow valley, as was said before, did not contain all the forces; nearly two parts of the infantry and all the cavalry descended into the line: what remained of the infantry they stationed on a slanting hill.

Scipio pro se esse loci angustias ratus et quod in arto pugna Romano aptior quam Hispano militi futura uidebatur et quod in eum locum detracta hostium acies esset qui non omnem multitudinem eorum caperet, nouo etiam consilio adiecit animum; equitem nec se posse circumdare cornibus in tam angusto spatio, et hosti, quem cum pedite deduxisset inutilem fore. itaque imperat Laelio ut per colles quam occultissimo itinere circumducat equites segregetque quantum possit equestrem a pedestri pugnam: ipse omnia signa peditum in hostes uertit; quattuor cohortes in fronte statuit quia latius pandere aciem non poterat. moram pugnandi nullam fecit ut ipso certamine auerteret ab conspectu transeuntium per colles equitum; neque ante circumductos sensere quam tumultum equestris pugnae ab tergo accepere.

Scipio, thinking the narrowness of the place to be in his favor—both because in confined ground the battle seemed likely to be more apt for the Roman soldier than for the Spanish, and because the enemy’s line had been drawn down into a place that could not hold their whole multitude—took heart for a new counsel as well; he judged that he could not in so narrow a space envelop with his wings by cavalry, and that the enemy’s horse, when he had drawn it down together with the foot, would be useless to the foe. And so he commands Laelius to lead the horsemen around by the hills by the most hidden route possible and to segregate, as far as he can, the cavalry fight from the infantry fight: he himself turns all the standards of the infantry against the enemy; he set four cohorts in the front, because he could not spread the line more widely. He made no delay in fighting, so that by the combat itself he might divert their gaze from the sight of the horsemen passing over the hills; nor did they perceive them to have been led around before they caught from behind the tumult of a cavalry fight.

ita duo diuersa proelia erant; duae peditum acies, duo equitatus per longitudinem campi, quia misceri ex genere utroque proelium angustiae non patiebantur, pugnabant. Hispanorum cum neque pedes equiti neque eques pediti auxilio esset, pedes fiducia equitis temere commissus campo caederetur, eques circumuentus nec peditem a fronte—iam enim stratae pedestres copiae erant—nec ab tergo equitem sustineret, et ipsi cum diu in orbem sese stantibus equis defendissent ad unum omnes caesi sunt, nec quisquam peditum equitumue superfuit qui in ualle pugnauerunt. tertia pars, quae in colle ad spectaculum magis tutum quam ad partem pugnae capessendam steterat, et locum et tempus ad fugiendum habuit.

thus there were two different battles; two battle-lines of infantry, two of cavalry along the length of the plain, were fighting, because the narrowness did not allow the battle to be mingled from both kinds. Among the Spaniards, since neither the foot-soldier was a help to the horseman nor the horseman to the foot-soldier, the foot, trusting in the cavalry, rashly committed to the open field, was being cut down; the horseman, surrounded, could sustain neither the foot-soldier in front—for already the infantry forces had been laid low—nor the horseman in the rear, and they themselves, after defending themselves for a long time in a circle with their horses standing, were all cut down to a man, nor did any of the foot or the horse survive who fought in the valley. A third part, which had stood on the hill more for a safer spectacle than to take up a share of the fight, had both the place and the time for fleeing.

inter eos et reguli ipsi fugerunt priusquam tota circumueniretur acies inter tumultum elapsi.

among them even the reguli themselves fled, before the whole battle line was surrounded, slipping away amid the tumult.

[34] Castra eodem die Hispanorum, praeter ceteram praedam, cum tribus ferme milibus hominum capiuntur. Romani sociique ad mille et ducenti in eo proelio ceciderunt; uolnerata amplius tria milia hominum. minus cruenta uictoria fuisset si patentiore campo et ad fugam capessendam facili foret pugnatum.

[34] The camp of the Spaniards was captured that same day, in addition to the rest of the plunder, with nearly three thousand men taken. About one thousand two hundred Romans and allies fell in that battle; more than three thousand men were wounded. The victory would have been less bloody if the fighting had been on a more open plain and one easier for taking flight.

Indibilis abiectis belli consiliis nihil tutius in adflictis rebus experta fide et clementia Scipionis ratus, Mandonium fratrem ad eum mittit; qui aduolutus genibus fatalem rabiem temporis eius accusat cum uelut contagione quadam pestifera non Ilergetes modo et Lacetani sed castra quoque Romana insanierint. suam quidem et fratris et reliquorum popularium eam condicionem esse ut aut, si ita uideatur, reddant spiritum P. Scipioni ab eodem illo acceptum, aut seruati bis uni debitam uitam pro eo in perpetuum deuoueant. antea in causa sua fiduciam sibi fuisse nondum experta clementia eius: nunc contra nullam in causa, omnem in misericordia uictoris spem positam habere.

Indibilis, having cast aside plans for war, thinking nothing safer in a stricken situation than the tried good faith and clemency of Scipio, sends his brother Mandonius to him; who, having fallen at his knees, arraigns the fatal frenzy of that time, since, as if by some pestiferous contagion, not only the Ilergetes and the Lacetani but even the Roman camp had gone mad. As for his own condition—and his brother’s and that of the rest of their compatriots—it is this: either, if it so seem, they give back their breath to P. Scipio, received from that very man, or, saved twice by one man, they devote forever on his behalf the life owed to him. Formerly, in their own cause, he had had confidence, his clemency not yet experienced; now, on the contrary, they have none in the cause, and have all their hope placed in the victor’s mercy.

mos uetustus erat Romanis, cum quo nec foedere nec aequis legibus iungeretur amicitia, non prius imperio in eum tamquam pacatum uti quam omnia diuina humanaque dedidisset, obsides accepti, arma adempta, praesidia urbibus imposita forent. Scipio multis inuectus in praesentem Mandonium absentemque Indibilem uerbis, illos quidem merito perisse ipsorum maleficio ait, uicturos suo atque populi Romani beneficio. ceterum se neque arma iis adempturum <neque obsides imperaturum>—quippe ea pignera timentium rebellionem esse: se libera arma relinquere, solutos animos—neque [se] in obsides innoxios sed in ipsos, si defecerint, saeuiturum, nec ab inermi sed ab armato hoste poenas expetiturum.

There was an old custom among the Romans, that when friendship was joined with someone neither by treaty nor by equitable laws, they would not employ authority over him as though pacified before he had surrendered all things divine and human, hostages had been received, arms taken away, and garrisons imposed upon the cities. Scipio, having inveighed with many words against Mandonius present and Indibilis absent, says that those men indeed had deservedly perished by their own malefaction, and that they would live by his and the Roman people’s beneficence. Moreover, that he would neither take away their arms nor <impose hostages>—for indeed those are pledges of men who fear rebellion: that he leaves their arms free, their spirits unshackled—nor would [he] rage against guiltless hostages but against themselves, if they should defect, nor would he exact penalties from an unarmed but from an armed enemy.

utramque fortunam expertis permittere sese utrum propitios an iratos habere Romanos mallent. ita dimissus Mandonius pecunia tantummodo imperata ex qua stipendium militi praestari posset. ipse Marcio in ulteriorem Hispaniam praemisso, Silano Tarraconem remisso paucos moratus dies dum imperatam pecuniam Ilergetes pernumerarent, cum expeditis Marcium iam adpropinquantem Oceano adsequitur.

he allowed those who had experienced both fortunes to choose whether they preferred to have the Romans propitious or irate. Thus Mandonius was dismissed, money only being imposed, from which stipend could be furnished to the soldiery. He himself, Marcius having been sent ahead into Farther Spain and Silanus sent back to Tarraco, after delaying a few days while the Ilergetes paid over the imposed money, with the light-armed he overtakes Marcius now approaching the Ocean.

[35] Incohata res iam ante de Masinissa aliis atque aliis de causis dilata erat, quod Numida cum ipso utique congredi Scipione uolebat atque eius dextra fidem sancire; ea tum itineris tam longi ac tam deuii causa Scipioni fuit. Masinissa cum Gadibus esset, certior aduentare eum a Marcio factus, causando corrumpi equos inclusos in insula penuriamque omnium rerum et facere ceteris et ipsos sentire, ad hoc equitem marcescere desidia, <Magonem> perpulit ut se traicere in continentem ad depopulandos proximos Hispaniae agros pateretur. transgressus tres principes Numidarum praemittit ad tempus locumque conloquio statuendum.

[35] The matter already initiated concerning Masinissa had on one pretext and another been deferred, because the Numidian was intent on meeting with Scipio himself in any case and on sanctioning good faith by his right hand; that was then the reason for Scipio’s journey so long and so out of the way. When Masinissa was at Gades, informed by Marcius that he was approaching, pleading that the horses, shut up on the island, were being spoiled, and that the scarcity of all things both affected the rest and was felt by themselves—besides that the cavalry was languishing through idleness—he prevailed upon <Mago> to allow him to cross over to the mainland to ravage the nearest fields of Hispania. Having crossed, he sends forward three chiefs of the Numidians to fix a time and place for a colloquy.

duos pro obsidibus retineri ab Scipione iubet: remisso tertio qui quo iussus erat adduceret Masinissam, cum paucis in conloquium uenerunt. ceperat iam ante Numidam ex fama rerum gestarum admiratio uiri, substitueratque animo speciem quoque corporis amplam ac magnificam; ceterum maior praesentis ueneratio cepit, et praeterquam quod suapte natura multa maiestas inerat, adornabat promissa caesaries habitusque corporis non cultus munditiis sed uirilis uere ac militaris, et aetas erat in medio uirium robore, quod plenius nitidiusque ex morbo uelut renouatus flos iuuentae faciebat.

he orders that two be retained by Scipio as hostages; the third was sent back, to bring Masinissa to the place where he had been ordered, and they came with a few to a conference. Already before, from the fame of his achievements, admiration of the man had taken the Numidian, and he had set up in his mind also an image of the body, ample and magnificent; but a greater veneration seized him at the sight in person, and, besides the fact that by his very nature much majesty was inherent, his flowing hair and the carriage of his body—no grooming with niceties, but truly virile and military—adorned him, and his age was in the very strength of powers, which the bloom of youth, as if renewed from sickness, made fuller and brighter.

Prope attonitus ipso congressu Numida gratias de fratris filio remisso agit. ex eo tempore adfirmat eam se quaesisse occasionem quam tandem oblatam deum immortalium beneficio non omiserit. cupere se illi populoque Romano operam nauare ita ut nemo unus externus magis enixe adiuuerit rem Romanam.

Almost thunderstruck at the very encounter, the Numidian gives thanks for the release of his brother’s son. From that time, he affirms, he had been seeking that opportunity, which, when at last offered by the beneficence of the immortal gods, he did not let slip. He desires to render service to him and to the Roman people, in such wise that no single foreigner has more earnestly aided the Roman cause.

id se, etiamsi iam pridem uellet, minus praestare in Hispania terra aliena atque ignota potuisse; in qua autem genitus educatusque in spem paterni regni esset, facile praestaturum. si quidem eundem Scipionem ducem in Africam Romani mittant, satis sperare perbreuis aeui Carthaginem esse. laetus eum Scipio uidit audiuitque cum caput rerum in omni hostium equitatu Masinissam fuisse sciret, et ipse iuuenis specimen animi prae se ferret.

that he, even if he had long since wished it, had been less able to accomplish in Spain, a land alien and unknown; but in the land in which he had been born and educated for the hope of his paternal kingdom, he would easily accomplish it. Provided that the Romans send that same Scipio as commander into Africa, he quite hoped that Carthage would be short‑lived. Scipio saw and heard him gladly, since he knew that Masinissa had been the head of affairs in all the enemy cavalry, and the young man himself displayed a specimen of spirit.

fide data acceptaque profectus retro Tarraconem est. Masinissa permissu Romanorum ne sine causa traiecisse in continentem uideretur populatus proximos agros, Gades rediit.

with a pledge of good faith given and received, he set out back to Tarraco. Masinissa, with the permission of the Romans, so that he might not seem to have crossed over to the mainland without cause, after ravaging the nearest fields, returned to Gades.

[36] Magoni desperatis in Hispania rebus, in quarum spem seditio primum militaris, deinde defectio Indibilis animos eius sustulerant, paranti traicere in Africam nuntiatum ab Carthagine est iubere senatum ut classem quam Gadibus haberet in Italiam traiceret; conducta ibi Gallorum ac Ligurum quanta maxima posset iuuentute coniungeret se Hannibali neu senescere bellum maximo impetu maiore fortuna coeptum sineret. ad eam rem et a Carthagine pecunia Magoni aduecta est, et ipse quantam potuit a Gaditanis exegit, non aerario modo eorum sed etiam templis spoliatis et priuatim omnibus coactis aurum argentumque in publicum conferre.

[36] When Mago had despaired of affairs in Spain—on the hope of which first a military sedition, then the defection of Indibilis, had buoyed his spirits—while he was preparing to cross into Africa, a message came from Carthage that the senate ordered him to transfer to Italy the fleet which he had at Gades; there, having enlisted as large a youth as he could of Gauls and Ligurians, he should join Hannibal and not allow the war, begun with the greatest impetus and with greater fortune, to grow old. For this purpose both money was conveyed to Mago from Carthage, and he himself exacted as much as he could from the Gaditanians, not only with their treasury despoiled but even their temples, and with all private persons compelled to bring gold and silver into the public.

Cum praeterueheretur Hispaniae oram, haud procul Carthagine Noua expositis in terram militibus proximos depopulatur agros; inde ad urbem classem adpulit. ibi cum interdiu milites in nauibus tenuisset, nocte in litus expositos ad partem eam muri qua capta Carthago ab Romanis fuerat ducit, nec praesidio satis ualido urbem teneri ratus et aliquos oppidanorum ad spem nouandi res aliquid moturos. ceterum nuntii ex agris trepidi simul populationem agrestiumque fugam et hostium aduentum attulerant, et uisa interdiu classis erat, nec sine causa electam ante urbem stationem apparebat; itaque instructi armatique intra portam ad stagnum ac mare uersam continebantur.

While he was coasting along the shore of Spain, not far from New Carthage, after putting the soldiers ashore he ravaged the nearest fields; from there he brought the fleet up to the city. There, after he had kept the soldiers on the ships by day, at night, once they were put ashore, he leads them to that part of the wall by which Carthage had been captured by the Romans, thinking that the city was not held by a sufficiently strong garrison and that some of the townspeople, in the hope of renewing affairs, would set something in motion. But messengers, alarmed, from the fields had at the same time brought news of the devastation, the flight of the country folk, and the arrival of the enemy, and the fleet had been seen by day, and it was apparent that the station chosen in front of the city was not selected without cause; accordingly, drawn up and armed, they were kept within the gate turned toward the lagoon and the sea.

ubi effusi hostes, mixta inter milites naualis turba, ad muros tumultu maiore quam ui subierunt, patefacta repente porta Romani cum clamore erumpunt, turbatosque hostes et ad primum incursum coniectumque telorum auersos usque ad litus cum multa caede persequuntur; nec nisi naues litori adpulsae trepidos accepissent superfuisset fugae aut pugnae quisquam. in ipsis quoque trepidatum nauibus est dum ne hostes cum suis simul inrumperent trahunt scalas, orasque et ancoras ne in moliendo mora esset praecidunt; multique adnantes nauibus, incerto prae tenebris quid aut peterent aut uitarent, foede interierunt. postero die cum classis inde retro ad Oceanum unde uenerat fugisset, ad octingenti homines caesi inter murum litusque et ad duo milia armorum inuenta.

when the enemy, poured out in disorder, with a naval throng mixed in among the soldiers, came up to the walls with more tumult than force, the gate suddenly thrown open the Romans erupt with a shout, and they pursue the disordered foes—turned to flight at the first charge and the volley of missiles—all the way to the shore with much slaughter; nor would anyone have been left for either flight or fight, had not the ships, driven up to the shore, taken in the panic‑stricken. There was panic even on the ships themselves; lest the enemy break in together with their own men, they haul up the gangways and cut the cables and the anchors, so that there might be no delay in getting under way; and many, swimming toward the ships, uncertain because of the darkness what to seek or what to avoid, perished foully. On the next day, when the fleet had fled back from there to the Ocean whence it had come, about eight hundred men were found slain between the wall and the shore, and about two thousand sets of arms were found.

[37] Mago cum Gades repetisset, exclusus inde ad Cimbios—haud procul a Gadibus is locus abest—classe adpulsa, mittendis legatis querendoque quod portae sibi socio atque amico clausae forent, purgantibus iis multitudinis concursu factum infestae ob direpta quaedam ab conscendentibus naues militibus, ad conloquium sufetes eorum, qui summus Poenis est magistratus, cum quaestore elicuit, laceratosque uerberibus cruci adfigi iussit. inde nauibus ad Pityusam insulam centum milia ferme a continenti—Poeni tum eam incolebant—traiecit. itaque classis bona cum pace accepta est, nec commeatus modo benigne praebiti sed in supplementum classis iuuentus armaque data; quorum fiducia Poenus in Baliares insulas—quinquaginta inde milia absunt—tramisit.

[37] When Mago had returned to Gades and was shut out from there, he put in with his fleet to the Cimbii—a place not far from Gades—sending envoys and complaining that the gates had been closed to him, an ally and friend; they cleared themselves, saying it had been done by a rush of the populace, made hostile on account of certain things plundered by the soldiers embarking on the ships. He lured out to a conference their sufetes, which is the highest magistracy among the Carthaginians, together with the quaestor, and ordered them, torn with scourging, to be affixed to the cross. Thence he crossed by ship to the island Pityusa, about one hundred miles from the mainland—the Carthaginians then inhabited it. Accordingly the fleet was received on good and peaceful terms, and not only were supplies kindly furnished, but youth and arms were given as a reinforcement for the fleet; trusting in these, the Carthaginian crossed over to the Balearic islands—fifty miles distant from there.

Duae sunt Baliares insulae, maior altera atque opulentior armis uirisque; et portum habet, ubi commode hibernaturum se—et iam extremum autumni erat—censebat. ceterum haud secus quam si Romani eam insulam incolerent hostiliter classi occursum est. fundis ut nunc plurimum, ita tum solo eo telo utebantur, nec quisquam alterius gentis unus tantum ea arte quantum inter omnes alios Baliares excellunt.

There are two Balearic islands, the other larger and more opulent in arms and men; and it has a port, where he judged that he would winter conveniently—and now it was the end of autumn. But, no otherwise than if Romans inhabited that island, the fleet was met in hostile fashion. With slings, as now for the most part, so then they used that weapon alone, and no single man of any other nation attains so much in that art as the Balearics excel among all the rest.

itaque tanta uis lapidum creberrimae grandinis modo in propinquantem iam terrae classem effusa est ut intrare portum non ausi auerterent in altum naues. in minorem inde Baliarium insulam traiecerunt, fertilem agro, uiris armis haud aeque ualidam. itaque egressi nauibus super portum loco munito castra locant; ac sine certamine urbe agroque potiti, duobus milibus auxiliarium inde conscriptis missisque Carthaginem, ad hibernandum naues subduxerunt.

and so such a force of stones, after the fashion of a very thick hailstorm, was poured upon the fleet now approaching the land that, not daring to enter the harbor, they turned the ships out into the deep. From there they crossed to the smaller Balearic island, fertile in soil, not equally strong in men and arms. And so, having disembarked from the ships, they pitch camp above the harbor in a fortified place; and, without a contest, having taken possession of the city and the countryside, with 2,000 auxiliaries there enrolled and sent to Carthage, they hauled the ships ashore for wintering.

post Magonis ab Oceani ora discessum Gaditani Romanis deduntur.

after Mago’s departure from the shores of Ocean, the Gaditani are surrendered to the Romans.

[38] Haec in Hispania P. Scipionis ductu auspicioque gesta. ipse L. Lentulo et L. Manlio Acidino propraetoribus prouincia tradita decem nauibus Romam rediit, et senatu extra urbem dato in aede Bellonae quas res in Hispania gessisset disseruit, quotiens signis conlatis dimicasset, quot oppida ex hostibus ui cepisset, quas gentes in dicionem populi Romani redegisset; aduersus quattuor se imperatores, quattuor uictores exercitus in Hispaniam isse; neminem Carthaginiensem in iis terris reliquisse. ob has res gestas magis temptata est triumphi spes quam petita pertinaciter, quia neminem ad eam diem triumphasse qui sine magistratu res gessisset constabat.

[38] These things in Spain were done under the leadership and auspices of P. Scipio. He himself, the province having been handed over to the propraetors L. Lentulus and L. Manlius Acidinus, returned to Rome with ten ships, and, the senate having been convened outside the city in the temple of Bellona, he set forth what affairs he had transacted in Spain: how many times he had fought with standards joined, how many towns he had taken by force from the enemy, what nations he had reduced into the dominion of the Roman people; that he had gone into Spain against four commanders, four victorious armies; that he had left no Carthaginian in those lands. On account of these achievements the hope of a triumph was rather attempted than pertinaciously sought, because it was established that up to that day no one had triumphed who had conducted affairs without a magistracy.

senatu misso urbem est ingressus, argentique prae se in aerarium tulit quattuordecim milia pondo trecenta quadraginta duo et signati argenti magnum numerum. comitia inde creandis consulibus habuit L. Ueturius Philo, centuriaeque omnes ingenti fauore P. Cornelium Scipionem consulem dixerunt; collega additur ei P. Licinius Crassus pontifex maximus. ceterum comitia maiore quam ulla per id bellum celebrata frequentia proditum memoriae est.

with the senate dismissed, he entered the city, and he carried before him into the treasury fourteen thousand three hundred forty-two pounds of silver, and a great quantity of coined (stamped) silver. thereafter L. Ueturius Philo held the comitia for creating consuls, and all the centuries, with immense favor, named P. Cornelius Scipio consul; a colleague is added to him, P. Licinius Crassus, pontifex maximus. moreover, it has been handed down to memory that the comitia were celebrated with a throng greater than any held during that war.

conuenerant undique non suffragandi modo sed etiam spectandi causa P. Scipionis, concurrebantque et domum frequentes et in Capitolium ad immolantem eum cum centum bubus uotis in Hispania Ioui sacrificaret; spondebantque animis, sicut C. Lutatius superius bellum Punicum finisset, ita id quod instaret P. Cornelium finiturum, atque uti Hispania omni Poenos expulisset, sic Italia pulsurum esse; Africamque ei perinde ac debellatum in Italia foret prouinciam destinabant. praetoria inde comitia habita. creati duo qui tum aediles plebis erant, Sp. Lucretius et Cn. Octauius, et ex priuatis Cn. Seruilius Caepio et L. Aemilius Papus.

They had convened from every quarter not only for the sake of suffraging but also for the sake of beholding P. Scipio, and they thronged both to his house and to the Capitol to him as he was immolating, when he offered to Jupiter, in fulfillment of vows made in Spain, a sacrifice with a hundred oxen; and they pledged in their minds that, just as C. Lutatius had brought the earlier Punic war to an end, so P. Cornelius would bring to an end the one now pressing, and that, as he had expelled the Poeni from all Spain, so he would drive them from Italy; and they were assigning Africa to him as his province as though the war in Italy were already completely fought out. Then the praetorian elections were held. Two were created who at that time were plebeian aediles, Sp. Lucretius and Cn. Octavius, and from among the private citizens, Cn. Servilius Caepio and L. Aemilius Papus.

Quarto decimo anno Punici belli P. Cornelius Scipio et P. Licinius Crassus ut consulatum inierunt, nominatae consulibus prouinciae sunt, Sicilia Scipioni extra sortem, concedente collega quia cura sacrorum pontificem maximum in Italia retinebat, Bruttii Crasso. tum praetoriae prouinciae in sortem coniectae. urbana Cn. Seruilio obtigit, Ariminum—ita Galliam appellabant—Sp. Lucretio, Sicilia L. Aemilio, Cn. Octauio Sardinia.

In the fourteenth year of the Punic war, when P. Cornelius Scipio and P. Licinius Crassus entered upon the consulship, provinces were assigned to the consuls: Sicily to Scipio outside the lot, his colleague conceding it because the care of the sacred rites as pontifex maximus kept him in Italy, and Bruttium to Crassus. Then the praetorian provinces were cast into the lot. The urban [jurisdiction] fell to Cn. Servilius; “Ariminum”—thus they called Gaul—to Sp. Lucretius; Sicily to L. Aemilius; Sardinia to Cn. Octavius.

Senatus in Capitolio habitus. ibi referente P. Scipione senatus consultum factum est ut quos ludos inter seditionem militarem in Hispania uouisset, ex ea pecunia quam ipse in aerarium detulisset faceret.

A meeting of the Senate was held on the Capitol. There, with P. Scipio bringing the matter forward, a senatorial decree was passed that the games which he had vowed during the military sedition in Spain should be performed from that money which he himself had paid into the treasury.

[39] Tum Saguntinorum legatos in senatum introduxit. ex eis maximus natu: 'etsi nihil ultra malorum est, patres conscripti, quam quod passi sumus ut ad ultimum fidem uobis praestaremus, tamen ea uestra merita imperatorumque uestrorum erga nos fuerunt ut nos cladium nostrarum non paeniteat. bellum propter nos suscepistis; susceptum quartum decimum annum tam pertinaciter geritis ut saepe ad ultimum discrimen et ipsi ueneritis et populum Carthaginiensem adduxeritis.

[39] Then he introduced the legates of the Saguntines into the senate. Of them, the eldest by birth said: 'Although there is nothing beyond our misfortunes, Conscript Fathers, than what we have suffered in order that we might to the very end keep faith with you, nevertheless such were your services—and those of your commanders—toward us that we do not regret our disasters. You undertook a war on our account; the war you undertook you have been conducting for the fourteenth year so pertinaciously that you have often come yourselves to the ultimate crisis and have brought the Carthaginian people to it.'

cum in Italia tam atrox bellum et Hannibalem hostem haberetis, consulem cum exercitu in Hispaniam uelut ad conciliandas reliquias naufragii nostri misistis. P. et Cn. Cornelii ex quo in prouinciam uenerunt nullo tempore destiterunt quae nobis secunda quaeque aduersa hostibus nostris essent facere. iam omnium primum oppidum nobis restituerunt; per omnem Hispaniam ciues nostros uenum datos, dimissis qui conquirerent, ex seruitute in libertatem restituerunt.

although you had in Italy so fierce a war and Hannibal as an enemy, you sent a consul with an army into Spain, as if to gather the remnants—the relics—of our shipwreck. P. and Cn. Cornelii, from the time they came into the province, at no time ceased to do whatever would be favorable for us and adverse to our enemies. First of all, they restored to us our town; throughout all Spain, our citizens who had been sold, after dispatching men to search them out, they restored from servitude into liberty.

cum iam prope esset ut optabilem ex miserrima fortunam haberemus, P. et Cn. Cornelii imperatores uestri luctuosius nobis prope quam uobis perierunt.

when it was now almost at the point that from most wretched fortune we would have a desirable one, Publius and Gnaeus Cornelius, your commanders, perished—more mournfully for us almost than for you.

'Tum uero ad hoc retracti ex distantibus locis in sedem antiquam uidebamur ut iterum periremus et alterum excidium patriae uideremus—nec ad perniciem nostram Carthaginiensi utique aut duce aut exercitu opus esse: ab Turdulis nos ueterrimis hostibus, qui prioris quoque excidii causa nobis fuerant, exstingui posse—cum ex insperato repente misistis nobis hunc P. Scipionem, quem fortunatissimi omnium Saguntinorum uidemur quia consulem declaratum uidemus ac uidisse nos ciuibus nostris renuntiaturi sumus, spem, opem, salutem nostram; qui cum plurimas hostium uestrorum cepisset in Hispania urbes, ubique ex captorum numero excretos Saguntinos in patriam remisit; postremo Turdetaniam, adeo infestam nobis ut illa gente incolumi stare Saguntum non posset, ita bello adflixit ut non modo nobis sed—absit uerbo inuidia—ne posteris quidem timenda nostris esset. deletam urbem cernimus eorum quorum in gratiam Saguntum deleuerat Hannibal; uectigal ex agro eorum capimus quod nobis non fructu iucundius est quam ultione. ob haec, quibus maiora nec sperare nec optare ab dis immortalibus poteramus, gratias actum nos decem legatos Saguntinus senatus populusque ad uos misit; simul gratulatum quod ita res hos annos in Hispania atque Italia gessistis ut Hispaniam non Hibero amne tenus sed qua terrarum ultimas finit Oceanus domitam armis habeatis, Italiae nisi quatenus uallum castrorum cingit nihil reliqueritis Poeno.

'Then indeed, drawn back from distant places into our ancient seat, we seemed only to perish again and to see a second destruction of our fatherland—not that for our ruin there was any need, assuredly, of a Carthaginian either as leader or with an army: we could be extinguished by the Turduli, our most ancient enemies, who had also been the cause of our former destruction—when, unexpectedly, you suddenly sent to us this P. Scipio, whom we seem the most fortunate of all Saguntines because we see declared as consul, and we shall report to our fellow citizens that we have seen—our hope, our help, our salvation; who, when he had taken very many cities of your enemies in Spain, everywhere sent Saguntines, selected out of the number of captives, back to their fatherland; finally he so afflicted Turdetania—so hostile to us that, with that people intact, Saguntum could not stand—by war, that it would be a thing to be feared not only for us but—far be the word from envy—not even for our descendants. We behold the city destroyed of those for whose favor Hannibal had destroyed Saguntum; we take tribute from their land, which is no more pleasant to us for its yield than for its vengeance. For these things, than which we could neither hope nor wish greater from the immortal gods, the Saguntine senate and people sent us, ten envoys, to you to give thanks; at the same time to offer congratulations, because you have conducted affairs these years in Spain and Italy in such a way that you hold Spain subdued by arms not only as far as the river Hiberus, but to where the Ocean bounds the furthest lands, and that you have left the Carthaginian nothing in Italy, save in so far as the rampart of his camp encloses it.'

Ioui optimo maximo, praesidi Capitolinae arcis, non grates tantum ob haec agere iussi sumus sed donum hoc etiam, si uos permitteretis, coronam auream in Capitolium uictoriae ergo ferre. id uti permittatis quaesumus, utique, si uobis ita uidetur, quae nobis imperatores uestri commoda tribuerunt, ea rata atque perpetua auctoritate uestra faciatis.'

To Jupiter Best and Greatest, guardian of the Capitoline citadel, we have been bidden not only to render thanks for these things but also, if you would permit, to carry this gift as well—a golden crown—into the Capitol for the sake of victory. That you permit this we beseech, and in any case, if it so seems to you, that the advantages which your commanders have bestowed upon us you make, by your authority, ratified and perpetual.'

Senatus legatis Saguntinis respondit et dirutum et restitutum Saguntum fidei socialis utrimque seruatae documentum omnibus gentibus fore; suos imperatores recte et ordine et ex uoluntate senatus fecisse quod Saguntum restituerint ciuesque Saguntinos seruitio exemerint; quaeque alia eis benigne fecerint, ea senatum ita uoluisse fieri; donum permittere ut in Capitolio ponerent. locus inde lautiaque legatis praeberi iussa et muneris ergo in singulos dari ne minus dena milia aeris. legationes deinde ceterae in senatum introductae auditaeque; et petentibus Saguntinis ut quatenus tuto possent Italiam spectatum irent, duces dati litteraeque per oppida missae ut Hispanos comiter acciperent.

The senate replied to the Saguntine envoys that both the razed and the restored Saguntum would be a proof to all nations of the social faith kept on both sides; that their generals had acted rightly, in due order, and according to the will of the senate in that they had restored Saguntum and had exempted the Saguntine citizens from servitude; and that whatever other things they had done benignly for them, the senate had wished to be so done; they permitted the gift to be placed on the Capitol. Then orders were given that quarters and lavish hospitality be furnished to the envoys, and, as a favor, that there be given to each not less than ten thousand asses. Then the other embassies were introduced into the senate and heard; and, at the request of the Saguntines that, so far as they could safely, they might go to view Italy, guides were assigned and letters were sent through the towns that they should receive the Spaniards courteously.

tum de re publica, de exercitibus scribendis, de prouinciis relatum.

then a motion was brought concerning the republic, about the enrolling of armies, about the provinces.

[40] Cum Africam nouam prouinciam extra sortem P. Scipioni destinari homines fama ferrent, et ipse nulla iam modica gloria contentus non ad gerendum modo bellum sed ad finiendum diceret se consulem declaratum, neque id aliter fieri posse quam si ipse in Africam exercitum transportasset, et acturum se id per populum aperte ferret si senatus aduersaretur,—id consilium haudquaquam primoribus patrum cum placeret, ceteri per metum aut ambitionem mussarent, Q. Fabius Maximus rogatus sententiam: 'scio multis uestrum uideri, patres conscripti, rem actam hodierno die agi et frustra habiturum orationem qui tamquam de integra re de Africa prouincia sententiam dixerit. ego autem primum illud ignoro quemadmodum iam certa prouincia Africa consulis, uiri fortis ac strenui, sit, quam nec senatus censuit in hunc annum prouinciam esse nec populus iussit. deinde, si est, consulem peccare arbitror qui de re transacta simulando se referre senatum ludibrio habet, non senatorem qui de quo consulitur suo loco dicit sententiam.

[40] When men were reporting by rumor that Africa, a new province, was being assigned outside the lot to P. Scipio, and he himself, now content with no moderate glory, said that he had been declared consul not only to wage the war but to finish it, and that this could not be brought about otherwise than if he himself transported an army into Africa, and he openly declared that he would carry this through the people if the senate should oppose,—since that plan by no means pleased the foremost of the fathers, while the rest muttered through fear or ambition, Q. Fabius Maximus, asked for his opinion, said: “I know it seems to many of you, Conscript Fathers, that a thing already done is being done today, and that he will have his speech in vain who gives his opinion on the African province as though about a matter untouched. But I for my part am first ignorant how Africa is already the fixed province of the consul, a man brave and strenuous, when neither has the senate decreed that it be a province for this year nor has the people ordered it. Next, if it is, I judge the consul to be at fault who, by pretending to refer a transacted matter, holds the senate to mockery, not the senator who, on that about which he is consulted, states his opinion in his proper place.”

atque ego certum habeo dissentienti mihi ab ista festinatione in Africam traiciendi duarum rerum subeundam opinionem esse, unius, insitae ingenio meo cunctationis, quam metum pigritiamque homines adulescentes sane appellent, dum ne paeniteat adhuc aliorum speciosiora primo adspectu consilia semper uisa, mea usu meliora; alterius, obtractationis atque inuidiae aduersus crescentem in dies gloriam fortissimi consulis. a qua suspicione si me neque uita acta et mores mei neque dictatura cum quinque consulatibus tantumque gloriae belli domique partae uindicat ut propius fastidium eius sim quam desiderium, aetas saltem liberet. quae enim mihi aemulatio cum eo esse potest qui ne filio quidem meo aequalis sit?

and I for my part am certain that, as I dissent from that haste of crossing over into Africa, I must incur the imputation of two things: one, a hesitation inborn in my nature, which young men indeed may call fear and sloth—provided only it not be regretted that others’ counsels, more specious at first sight, have always seemed so, while mine have proved better in practice; the other, of detraction and envy against the glory, increasing day by day, of a most valiant consul. From this suspicion, if neither my life already lived and my character nor the dictatorship together with five consulships and so great a glory won in war and at home vindicate me—so that I am nearer to satiety of it than to desire—let my age at least set me free. For what emulation can there be for me with one who is not even equal to my son?

me dictatorem cum uigerem adhuc uiribus et in cursu maximarum rerum essem recusantem nemo aut in senatu aut apud populum audiuit quo minus insectanti me magistro equitum, quod fando nunquam ante auditum erat, imperium mecum aequaretur; rebus quam uerbis adsequi malui ut qui aliquorum iudicio mihi comparatus erat sua mox confessione me sibi praeferret; nedum ego perfunctus honoribus certamina mihi atque aemulationem cum adulescente florentissimo proponam; uidelicet ut mihi iam uiuendo non solum rebus gerendis fesso, si huic negata fuerit, Africa prouincia decernatur. cum ea gloria quae parta est uiuendum atque moriendum est. uincere ego prohibui Hannibalem ut a uobis quorum uigent nunc uires etiam uinci posset.

When I was dictator, while I still was vigorous in my powers and in the course of the greatest affairs, no one either in the senate or before the people listened to me refusing, so as to prevent that, my Master of the Horse assailing me—a thing never before heard—his imperium should be made equal with mine; I preferred to achieve by deeds rather than by words, so that he who by the judgment of some had been compared to me would soon by his own confession prefer me to himself; much less shall I, having been surfeited with honors, propose contests and emulation for myself with a most flourishing youth; evidently so that to me, now wearied by living and not only by the conducting of affairs, the province of Africa should be decreed, if it is denied to this man. With that glory which has been won one must live and die. I prevented Hannibal from conquering, so that by you, whose strengths now are vigorous, he might even be conquered.

[41] 'Illud te mihi ignoscere, P. Corneli, aequum erit, si cum in me ipso nunquam pluris famam hominum quam rem publicam fecerim, ne tuam quidem gloriam bono publico praeponam. quamquam si aut bellum nullum in Italia aut is hostis esset ex quo uicto nihil gloriae quaereretur, qui te in Italia retineret, etsi id bono publico faceret, simul cum bello materiam gloriae tuae isse ereptum uideri posset. cum uero Hannibal hostis incolumi exercitu quartum decimum annum Italiam obsideat, paenitebit te, P. Corneli, gloriae tuae si hostem eum qui tot funerum tot cladium nobis causa fuit tu consul Italia expuleris et, sicut penes C. Lutatium prioris Punici perpetrati belli titulus fuit, ita penes te huius fuerit?

[41] 'It will be just that you pardon me this, Publius Cornelius, if, since in my own case I have never valued the fame of men more than the commonwealth, I shall not put even your glory before the public good. And yet, if either there were no war in Italy, or the enemy were of such a sort that, once conquered, no glory would be sought from him, one who should keep you in Italy—although he would do that for the public good—might seem to have snatched away, along with the war, the material of your glory. But since the enemy Hannibal, with his army intact, is besieging Italy in the fourteenth year, will you, Publius Cornelius, regret your glory if you, as consul, shall have driven from Italy that foe who has been the cause to us of so many funerals, so many calamities, and, just as the title of the former Punic war, when brought to completion, was with Gaius Lutatius, so the title of this one shall be with you?

nisi aut Hamilcar Hannibali dux est praeferendus aut illud bellum huic, aut uictoria illa maior clariorque quam haec—modo contingat ut te consule uincamus—futura est? a Drepanis aut Eryce detraxisse Hamilcarem quam Italia expulisse Poenos atque Hannibalem malis? ne tu quidem, etsi magis partam quam speratam gloriam amplecteris, Hispania potius quam Italia bello liberata gloriatus fueris.

Unless either Hamilcar is to be preferred to Hannibal as leader, or that war to this one, or that victory is going to be greater and more illustrious than this—provided only it come to pass that with you as consul we conquer—? Would you prefer to have dragged Hamilcar down from Drepanum or from Eryx, rather than to have expelled the Carthaginians and Hannibal from Italy? Not even you, though you embrace glory achieved rather than hoped, would have boasted of Spain rather than of Italy freed from war.

'Nondum is est Hannibal, quem non magis timuisse uideatur quam contempsisse qui aliud bellum maluerit. quin igitur ad hoc accingeris nec per istos circuitus, ut cum in Africam traieceris secuturum te illuc Hannibalem speres, potius quam recto hinc itinere, ubi Hannibal est, eo bellum intendis? egregiam istam palmam belli Punici patrati petis?

'Hannibal is not yet such a man, that he who has preferred another war should seem to have feared him more than to have contemned him. Why then do you gird yourself for this, and not by those circuits—hoping that, when you have conveyed across into Africa, Hannibal will follow you there—rather than by a straight route from here, where Hannibal is, do you direct the war thither? Do you seek that distinguished palm of the Punic war brought to completion?

hoc et natura prius est, tua cum defenderis aliena ire oppugnatum. pax ante in Italia quam bellum in Africa sit, et nobis prius decedat timor quam ultro aliis inferatur. si utrumque tuo ductu auspicioque fieri potest, Hannibale hic uicto, illic Carthaginem expugna: si alterautra uictoria nouis consulibus relinquenda est, prior cum maior clariorque tum causa etiam insequentis fuerit.

This too is prior by nature: when you have defended your own, then go to attack what is another’s. Let there be peace in Italy before there is war in Africa, and let fear depart from us before it is of our own accord brought upon others. If both can be accomplished under your leadership and auspices, with Hannibal conquered here, then storm Carthage there; if one or the other victory must be left to the new consuls, the former will not only be greater and more illustrious, but will also be the cause of the subsequent one.

nam nunc quidem, praeterquam quod et in Italia et in Africa duos diuersos exercitus alere aerarium non potest, praeterquam quod unde classes tueamur unde commeatibus sufficiamus praebendis nihil reliqui est, quid? periculi tandem quantum adeatur quem fallit? P. Licinius in Italia, P. Scipio bellum in Africa geret.

for now indeed, besides the fact that both in Italy and in Africa the treasury cannot sustain two distinct armies, besides the fact that there is nothing left whence we might maintain the fleets and suffice in providing supplies, what then? how great a danger is being incurred—who fails to perceive it? P. Licinius will wage war in Italy, P. Scipio will wage war in Africa.

quid? si—quod omnes di omen auertant et dicere etiam reformidat animus, sed quae acciderunt accidere possunt—uictor Hannibal ire ad urbem perget, tum demum te consulem ex Africa, sicut Q. Fuluium a Capua, arcessemus? quid?

What? If—may all the gods avert the omen, and my spirit even shrinks to speak it, but things that have occurred can occur—Hannibal as victor goes on to proceed to the city, shall we then at last summon you the consul from Africa, just as we summoned Quintus Fulvius from Capua? What?

quod in Africa quoque Mars communis belli erit? domus tibi tua, pater patruusque intra triginta dies cum exercitibus caesi documento sint, ubi per aliquot annos maximis rebus terra marique gerendis amplissimum nomen apud exteras gentes populi Romani uestraeque familiae fecerant. dies me deficiat si reges imperatoresque temere in hostium terram transgressos cum maximis cladibus suis exercituumque suorum enumerare uelim.

that in Africa too the Mars of a common war will be? Let your own house be a demonstration to you—your father and your paternal uncle, cut down with their armies within thirty days—where for several years, by conducting the greatest affairs on land and sea, they had made the most ample name among foreign gentes for the Roman people and for your family. Day would fail me if I should wish to enumerate kings and commanders who, having rashly transgressed into the enemy’s land, met with the greatest disasters for themselves and their armies.

Athenienses, prudentissima ciuitas, bello domi relicto, auctore aeque impigro ac nobili iuuene, magna classe in Siciliam tramissa, una pugna nauali florentem rem publicam suam in perpetuum adflixerunt.

The Athenians, a most prudent city, with the war left at home, under an instigator as energetic as he was noble, a young man, after sending a great fleet into Sicily, by a single naval battle afflicted their flourishing republic forever.

[42] 'Externa et nimis antiqua repeto. Africa eadem ista et M. Atilius, insigne utriusque fortunae exemplum, nobis documento sint. ne tibi, P. Corneli, cum ex alto Africam conspexeris, ludus et iocus fuisse Hispaniae tuae uidebuntur.

[42] 'I revert to external and too ancient matters. Let that same Africa and Marcus Atilius, a distinguished example of both kinds of fortune, be a lesson to us. Do not, Publius Cornelius, when from the deep you have caught sight of Africa, let your Spain seem to have been sport and jest.

quid enim simile? pacato mari praeter oram Italiae Galliaeque uectus Emporias in urbem sociorum classem adpulisti; expositos milites per tutissima omnia ad socios et amicos populi Romani Tarraconem duxisti; ab Tarracone deinde iter per praesidia Romana; circa Hiberum exercitus patris patruique tui post amissos imperatores ferociores calamitate ipsa facti, et dux tumultuarius quidem ille L. Marcius et militari suffragio ad tempus lectus, ceterum si nobilitas ac iusti honores adornarent, claris imperatoribus qualibet arte belli par; oppugnata per summum otium Carthago nullo trium Punicorum exercituum socios defendente; cetera—neque ea eleuo—nullo tamen modo Africo bello comparanda, ubi non portus ullus classi nostrae apertus, non ager pacatus, non ciuitas socia, non rex amicus, non consistendi usquam locus, non procedendi; quacumque circumspexeris hostilia omnia atque infesta.

For what, indeed, is similar? With the sea pacified, having been carried along past the coast of Italy and Gaul, you brought the fleet to Emporiae, a city of allies; having disembarked the soldiers, you led them through everything most secure to the allies and friends of the Roman People, to Tarraco; from Tarraco then the march was through Roman garrisons; around the Ebro were the armies of your father and your uncle, made more fierce by the very calamity after their commanders had been lost, and that ad hoc leader L. Marcius, chosen for the moment by a military vote—yet, if nobility and lawful honors were to adorn him, a match for famous commanders in any art of war; Carthage was attacked in the height of leisure, with none of the three Punic armies defending the allies; the rest—and I do not make light of them—are in no way, however, to be compared with the African war, where no harbor is open to our fleet, no field pacified, no allied city, no friendly king, no place anywhere for standing, none for advancing; wherever you look around, all things are hostile and threatening.

'An Syphaci Numidisque credis? satis sit semel creditum; non semper temeritas est felix, et fraus fidem in paruis sibi praestruit ut, cum operae pretium sit, cum mercede magna fallat. non hostis patrem patruumque tuum armis prius quam Celtiberi socii fraude circumuenerunt; nec tibi ipsi a Magone et Hasdrubale hostium ducibus quantum ab Indibili et Mandonio in fidem acceptis periculi fuit.

'Do you trust Syphax and the Numidians? Let once having trusted be enough; rashness is not always fortunate, and fraud builds up credit for itself in small things, so that, when it is worth the effort, it may deceive for a great reward. It was not by an enemy’s arms that your father and your uncle were first hemmed in, but by the treachery of the allied Celtiberians; nor was there as much danger to you yourself from Mago and Hasdrubal, leaders of the enemy, as from Indibilis and Mandonius, who had been received into your good faith.

Numidis tu credere potes, defectionem militum tuorum expertus? et Syphax et Masinissa se quam Carthaginienses malunt potentissimos in Africa esse, Carthaginienses quam quemquam alium. nunc illos aemulatio inter sese et omnes causae certaminum acuunt quia procul externus metus est: ostende Romana arma et exercitum alienigenam; iam uelut ad commune restinguendum incendium concurrent.

Can you trust the Numidians, you who have experienced the defection of your soldiers? Both Syphax and Masinissa prefer that they themselves, rather than the Carthaginians, be the most potent in Africa, while the Carthaginians prefer it for themselves rather than for anyone else. Just now emulation among them and every cause of contention spur them on because the external fear is far away: display Roman arms and a foreign (alien-born) army; straightway they will run together as if to extinguish a common conflagration.

aliter iidem illi Carthaginienses Hispaniam defenderunt, aliter moenia patriae, templa deum, aras et focos defendent cum euntes in proelium pauida prosequetur coniunx et parui liberi occursabunt.

Those same Carthaginians defended Spain in one way; in another they will defend the walls of their fatherland, the temples of the gods, the altars and hearths, when, as they go into battle, a fearful wife will accompany them and little children will keep running to meet them.

'Quid porro, si satis confisi Carthaginienses consensu Africae, fide sociorum regum, moenibus suis, cum tuo exercitusque tui praesidio nudatam Italiam uiderint, ultro ipsi nouum exercitum in Italiam aut ex Africa miserint, aut Magonem, quem a Baliaribus classe transmissa iam praeter oram Ligurum Alpinorum uectari constat, Hannibali se coniungere iusserint? nempe in eodem terrore erimus in quo nuper fuimus cum Hasdrubal in Italiam transcendit, quem tu, qui non solum Carthaginem sed omnem Africam exercitu tuo es clausurus, e manibus tuis in Italiam emisisti. uictum a te dices; eo quidem minus uellem—et id tua non rei publicae solum causa—iter datum uicto in Italiam esse.

'What moreover, if the Carthaginians, confident enough, relying on the consensus of Africa, on the faith of their allied kings, and on their own walls, when they see Italy stripped of your protection and that of your army, of their own accord themselves either send a new army into Italy from Africa, or order Mago—who, with a fleet transmitted from the Balearics, is already established to be sailing past the Ligurian shore by the Alps—to join himself to Hannibal? Surely we shall be in the same terror in which we lately were when Hasdrubal crossed into Italy, he whom you—you who are going to shut up not only Carthage but all Africa with your army—sent forth out of your very hands into Italy. You will say he was conquered by you; for that very reason I would the less wish—and that for your sake, not the Republic’s only—that a passage was given to a vanquished foe into Italy.

patere nos omnia quae prospera tibi ac populi Romani imperio euenere tuo consilio adsignare, aduersa casibus incertis belli et fortunae relegare: quo melior fortiorque es, eo magis talem praesidem sibi patria tua atque uniuersa Italia retinet. non potes ne ipse quidem dissimulare, ubi Hannibal sit, ibi caput atque arcem huius belli esse, quippe qui prae te feras eam tibi causam traiciendi in Africam esse ut Hannibalem eo trahas. siue igitur hic siue illic, cum Hannibale est tibi futura res.

allow that we assign to your counsel all the things which have turned out prosperous for you and for the imperium of the Roman people, and relegate the adverse things to the uncertain chances of war and of Fortune: the better and braver you are, the more your fatherland and all Italy retain such a guardian for themselves. you yourself cannot even dissemble that where Hannibal is, there are the head and citadel of this war, since you openly declare that this is your reason for crossing into Africa—to draw Hannibal thither. therefore, whether here or there, your affair will be with Hannibal.

'Utrum tandem ergo firmior eris in Africa solus an hic tuo collegaeque exercitu coniuncto? ne Claudius quidem et Liuius consules tam recenti exemplo quantum id intersit documento sunt? quid?

'Which, then, pray, will you be stronger: in Africa alone, or here with your army and your colleague’s joined? Are not even the consuls Claudius and Livius, by so recent an example, a proof of how much that matters? What?

Hannibalem utrum tandem extremus angulus agri Bruttii, frustra iam diu poscentem ab domo auxilia, an propinqua Carthago et tota socia Africa potentiorem armis uirisque faciet? quod istud consilium est, ibi malle decernere ubi tuae dimidio minores copiae sint, hostium multo maiores, quam ubi duobus exercitibus aduersus unum tot proeliis et tam diuturna ac graui militia fessum pugnandum sit? quam compar consilium tuum parentis tui consilio sit reputa.

Will Hannibal be made the more powerful in arms and men by the farthest corner of the land of the Bruttii, now long in vain demanding auxiliaries from home, or by near Carthage and all allied Africa? What kind of counsel is it to prefer to decide the issue there where your forces are less by half and the enemy’s much greater, rather than where, with two armies against one—worn out by so many battles and by so long and grievous military service—there is fighting to be done? Consider how your counsel compares with your father’s counsel.

ille consul profectus in Hispaniam, ut Hannibali ab Alpibus descendenti occurreret in Italiam ex prouincia rediit: tu cum Hannibal in Italia sit relinquere Italiam paras, non quia rei publicae utile sed quia tibi id amplum et gloriosum censes esse—sicut cum prouincia et exercitu relicto sine lege sine senatus consulto duabus nauibus populi Romani imperator fortunam publicam et maiestatem imperii, quae tum in tuo capite periclitabantur, commisisti. ego, patres conscripti, P. Cornelium rei publicae nobisque, non sibi ipsi priuatim creatum consulem existimo, exercitusque ad custodiam urbis atque Italiae scriptos esse, non quos regio more per superbiam consules quo terrarum uelint traiciant.'

that consul set out into Spain, in order to meet Hannibal descending from the Alps, and returned into Italy from his province: you, while Hannibal is in Italy, are preparing to abandon Italy—not because it is useful for the commonwealth, but because you judge that to be splendid and glorious for yourself—just as, with province and army left behind, without statute, without a decree of the senate, with two ships, as imperator of the Roman people you entrusted the public fortune and the majesty of the imperium, which at that time were being put in peril in your own person. I, Conscript Fathers, reckon that P. Cornelius was created consul for the commonwealth and for us, not for himself privately, and that the armies were enrolled for the guarding of the city and of Italy, not such as consuls, in kingly fashion through arrogance, may carry across to whatever parts of the world they wish.'

[43] Cum oratione ad tempus parata Fabius, tum auctoritate et inueteratae prudentiae fama magnam partem senatus et seniores maxime <cum> mouisset, pluresque consilium senis quam animum adulescentia ferocem laudarent, Scipio ita locutus fertur: 'et ipse Q. Fabius principio orationis, patres conscripti, commemorauit in sententia sua posse obtractationem suspectam esse; cuius ego rei non tam ipse ausim tantum uirum insimulare quam ea suspicio, uitio orationis an rei, haud sane purgata est. sic enim honores suos et famam rerum gestarum extulit uerbis ad exstinguendum inuidiae crimen tamquam mihi ab infimo quoque periculum sit ne mecum aemuletur, et non ab eo qui, quia super ceteros excellat, quo me quoque niti non dissimulo, me sibi aequari nolit. sic senem se perfunctumque et me infra aetatem filii etiam sui posuit tamquam non longius quam quantum uitae humanae spatium est cupiditas gloriae extendatur maximaque pars eius in memoriam ac posteritatem promineat.

[43] When Fabius, with a speech prepared for the occasion, and then by his authority and the repute of his long-tried prudence, had moved a great part of the senate, especially the elders, and when more praised the counsel of the old man than the fierce spirit of youth, Scipio is said to have spoken thus: ‘Even Quintus Fabius himself, at the beginning of his speech, Conscript Fathers, remarked that in his opinion carping might seem suspect; in which matter I would not so much myself dare to accuse so great a man, as that suspicion—whether by a fault of his speech or of the subject—has by no means been cleared away. For he so lifted up with words his honors and the fame of his exploits, to extinguish the charge of envy, as though there were danger to me from even the lowest, lest anyone rival me, and not from him who, because he rises above the rest—toward whom I do not deny that I too strive—would not wish me to be made equal to himself. Thus he has set himself down as an old man who has done his part, and me as below even the age of his own son, as though the desire for glory extended no farther than the span of human life, whereas the greatest part of it projects into memory and posterity.’

maximo cuique id accidere animo certum habeo ut se non cum praesentibus modo sed cum omnis aeui claris uiris comparent. equidem haud dissimulo me tuas, Q. Fabi, laudes non adsequi solum uelle sed—bona uenia tua dixerim—, si possim, etiam exsuperare. illud nec tibi in me nec mihi in minoribus natu animi sit ut nolimus quemquam nostri similem euadere ciuem; id enim non eorum modo quibus inuiderimus sed rei publicae et paene omnis generis humani detrimentum est.

I hold it certain that this befalls the spirit of each man of the greatest sort: that they compare themselves not only with those present but with famous men of every age. For my part I do not conceal that I wish not only to attain your praises, Q. Fabius, but—if I may say it with your good leave—if I can, even to surpass them. Let there be in neither you toward me nor me toward those younger in years such a temper as to be unwilling that anyone should turn out a citizen like ourselves; for that is a detriment not only to those whom we have envied but to the commonwealth and almost to the whole race of humankind.

'Commemorauit quantum essem periculi aditurus si in Africam traicerem, ut meam quoque, non solum rei publicae et exercitus uicem uideretur sollicitus. unde haec repente cura de me exorta? cum pater patruusque meus interfecti, cum duo exercitus eorum prope occidione occisi essent, cum amissae Hispaniae, cum quattuor exercitus Poenorum quattuorque duces omnia metu armisque tenerent, cum quaesitus ad id bellum imperator nemo se ostenderet praeter me, nemo profiteri nomen ausus esset, cum mihi quattuor et uiginti annos nato detulisset imperium populus Romanus, quid ita tum nemo aetatem meam, uim hostium, difficultatem belli, patris patruique recentem cladem commemorabat?

'He commemorated how much danger I was about to incur if I crossed over into Africa, so that he seemed solicitous for my case as well, not only for the Republic and the army. Whence has this sudden concern for me arisen? When my father and my paternal uncle were slain, when their two armies had been all but destroyed in a massacre, when the Spains were lost, when four Carthaginian armies and four commanders held everything by fear and by arms, when, sought for that war, no general showed himself except me, no one dared to profess his name, when the Roman People had conferred imperium upon me at the age of twenty-four, why was it then that no one was commemorating my age, the force of the enemy, the difficulty of the war, the recent disaster of my father and my uncle?

utrum maior aliqua nunc in Africa calamitas accepta est quam tunc in Hispania erat? an maiores nunc sunt exercitus in Africa et duces plures melioresque quam tunc in Hispania fuerunt? an aetas mea tunc maturior bello gerendo fuit quam nunc est?

Has some greater calamity now been sustained in Africa than there was then in Spain? Or are the armies now in Africa larger, and the leaders more numerous and better, than they were then in Spain? Or was my age then more mature for waging war than it is now?

an cum Carthaginiensi hoste in Hispania quam in Africa bellum geri aptius est? facile est post fusos fugatosque quattuor exercitus Punicos, post tot urbes ui captas aut metu subactas in dicionem, post perdomita omnia usque ad Oceanum, tot regulos, tot saeuas gentes, post receptam totam Hispaniam ita ut uestigium belli nullum reliquum sit, eleuare meas res gestas, tam hercule quam, si uictor ex Africa redierim, ea ipsa eleuare quae nunc retinendi mei causa ut terribilia eadem uideantur uerbis extolluntur.

or is it more apt that with the Carthaginian enemy the war be waged in Spain than in Africa? It is easy—after four Punic armies have been routed and put to flight, after so many cities have been taken by force or brought under dominion by fear, after all things have been thoroughly subdued as far as the Ocean, so many petty kings, so many savage nations, after the whole of Spain has been recovered in such a way that no trace of war is left—to make light of my achievements, just as, by Hercules, if I should return a victor from Africa, to belittle those very things which now, for the purpose of detaining me, are being exalted in words so that the same may seem terrible.

'Negat aditum esse in Africam, negat ullos patere portus. M. Atilium captum in Africa commemorat, tamquam M. Atilius primo accessu ad Africam offenderit, neque recordatur illi ipsi tam infelici imperatori patuisse tamen portus Africae, et res egregie primo anno gessisse et quantum ad Carthaginienses duces attinet inuictum ad ultimum permansisse. nihil igitur me isto exemplo terrueris.

'He denies that there is access into Africa, he denies that any ports lie open. He commemorates M. Atilius captured in Africa, as though M. Atilius had suffered a mishap at the very first approach to Africa, nor does he remember that to that same most unlucky commander the ports of Africa nevertheless lay open, and that he conducted affairs excellently in the first year and, as far as concerns the Carthaginian commanders, remained unconquered to the very end. Therefore by that example you will not have frightened me.

si hoc bello non priore, si nuper et non annis ante quadraginta ista ita clades accepta foret, qui ego minus in Africam Regulo capto quam Scipionibus occisis in Hispaniam traicerem? nec felicius Xanthippum Lacedaemonium Carthagini quam me patriae meae sinerem natum esse, cresceretque mihi ex eo ipso fiducia quod possit in hominis unius uirtute tantum momenti esse. at etiam Athenienses audiendi sunt temere in Siciliam omisso domi bello transgressi.

if in this war and not in the former, if recently and not forty years before, that disaster had been incurred in such a way, why should I less cross into Africa with Regulus captured than into Spain with the Scipios slain? nor would I allow that Xanthippus the Lacedaemonian was more felicitously born for Carthage than I for my own fatherland, and my confidence would grow from that very fact, that so much moment can reside in the virtue of a single man. but even the Athenians are to be heard—who, with the war at home set aside, rashly crossed over into Sicily.

cur ergo, quoniam Graecas fabulas enarrare uacat, non Agathoclem potius, Syracusanum regem, cum diu Sicilia Punico bello ureretur, transgressum in hanc eandem Africam auertisse eo bellum unde uenerat refers?

why then, since it is free to narrate Greek fables, do you not rather relate that Agathocles, the Syracusan king, when Sicily for a long time was being scorched by the Punic war, having crossed over into this same Africa, diverted the war to that place whence it had come?

[44] 'Sed quid, ultro metum inferre hosti et ab se remoto periculo alium in discrimen adducere quale sit, ueteribus externisque exemplis admonere opus est? maius praesentiusue ullum exemplum esse quam Hannibal potest? multum interest alienos populere fines an tuos uri exscindi uideas; plus animi est inferenti periculum quam propulsanti.

[44] 'But what? Is it necessary to admonish, by ancient and foreign examples, what sort of thing it is to bring fear upon the enemy of one’s own accord, and, with the peril removed from oneself, to lead another into the crisis? Can any example be greater or more immediate than Hannibal? It makes much difference whether you are ravaging another’s borders or see your own being burned and razed; there is more spirit in the one bringing danger than in the one warding it off.

ad hoc maior ignotarum rerum est terror: bona malaque hostium ex propinquo ingressus fines adspicias. non sperauerat Hannibal fore ut tot in Italia populi ad se deficerent: defecerunt post Cannensem cladem: quanto minus quicquam in Africa Carthaginiensibus firmum aut stabile est infidis sociis, grauibus ac superbis dominis. ad hoc nos, etiam deserti ab sociis, uiribus nostris milite Romano stetimus: Carthaginiensi nihil ciuilis roboris est: mercede paratos milites habent, Afros Numidasque, leuissima fidei mutandae ingenia.

In addition, the terror of unknown things is greater: the goods and evils of the enemy you will behold at close hand, once you have entered their borders. Hannibal had not hoped that so many peoples in Italy would defect to him: they defected after the disaster of Cannae: how much less is there anything in Africa firm or stable for the Carthaginians, with allies untrustworthy and rulers harsh and arrogant. In addition, we, even deserted by our allies, have stood by our own strength, by Roman soldiery: to the Carthaginian there is nothing of civic vigor: they have soldiers made ready for pay, Africans and Numidians, natures lightest for changing loyalty.

hic modo nihil morae sit, una et traiecisse me audietis et ardere bello Africam et molientem hinc Hannibalem et obsideri Carthaginem. laetiores et frequentiores ex Africa exspectate nuntios quam ex Hispania accipiebatis. has mihi spes subicit fortuna populi Romani, di foederis ab hoste uiolati testes, Syphax et Masinissa reges quorum ego fidei ita innitar ut bene tutus a perfidia sim.

here, only let there be no delay; at once you will hear both that I have crossed over, and that Africa is blazing with war, and that Hannibal is striving to depart from here, and that Carthage is being besieged. Expect gladder and more frequent dispatches from Africa than you were receiving from Spain. The Fortune of the Roman people suggests to me these hopes—the gods, witnesses of the treaty violated by the enemy, and Syphax and Masinissa, kings, on whose good faith I so rely that I am well secured against perfidy.

'Multa quae nunc ex interuallo non apparent bellum aperiet: id est uiri et ducis, non deesse fortunae praebenti se et oblata casu flectere ad consilium. habebo, Q. Fabi, parem quem das Hannibalem; sed illum ego potius traham quam ille me retineat. in sua terra cogam pugnare eum, et Carthago potius praemium uictoriae erit quam semiruta Bruttiorum castella.

'Many things which now, at an interval, are not apparent, the war will reveal: that is a man's and a leader's part—not to be lacking to Fortune when she offers herself, and to bend what has been offered by chance to counsel. I shall have, Quintus Fabius, as a match the Hannibal you assign; but I will rather drag him than he hold me back. I will compel him to fight on his own soil, and Carthage will be the prize of victory rather than the half-ruined forts of the Bruttians.

ne quid interim dum traicio, dum expono exercitum in Africa, dum castra ad Carthaginem promoueo, res publica hic detrimenti capiat, quod tu, Q. Fabi, cum uictor tota uolitaret Italia Hannibal potuisti praestare, hoc uide ne contumeliosum sit concusso iam et paene fracto Hannibale negare posse P. Licinium consulem, uirum fortissimum, praestare, qui ne a sacris absit pontifex maximus ideo in sortem tam longinquae prouinciae non uenit. si hercules nihilo maturius hoc quo ego censeo modo perficeretur bellum, tamen ad dignitatem populi Romani famamque apud reges gentesque externas pertinebat, non ad defendendam modo Italiam sed ad inferenda etiam Africae arma uideri nobis animum esse, nec hoc credi uolgarique quod Hannibal ausus sit neminem ducem Romanum audere, et priore Punico bello tum cum de Sicilia certaretur totiens Africam ab nostris exercitibusque et classibus oppugnatam, nunc cum de Italia certetur Africam pacatam esse. requiescat aliquando uexata tam diu Italia: uratur euasteturque in uicem Africa.

lest in the meantime, while I cross over, while I disembark the army in Africa, while I advance the camp up to Carthage, the commonwealth here should take any detriment—what you, Q. Fabi, were able to guarantee when Hannibal as victor was winging through all Italy—see that it be not contumelious to say that P. Licinius, the consul, a most brave man, cannot guarantee it now, Hannibal being already shaken and almost broken; he, in order that the pontifex maximus not be absent from the sacred rites, for that reason did not fall by lot to so far–distant a province. Even if, by Hercules, the war would not be brought to completion any earlier by the plan which I propose, nevertheless it pertained to the dignity of the Roman People and to reputation among kings and foreign nations, that we seem to have the spirit not only for defending Italy but also for bringing arms into Africa; and that this be not believed and spread abroad, that thing which Hannibal has dared—that no Roman leader dares; and that, in the prior Punic war, then when the contest was for Sicily, Africa was so often attacked by our armies and fleets, whereas now, when the contest is for Italy, Africa is pacified. Let Italy, so long vexed, at last have rest: let Africa in turn be burned and laid waste.

castra Romana potius Carthaginis portis immineant quam nos iterum uallum hostium ex moenibus nostris uideamus. Africa sit reliqui belli sedes; illuc terror fugaque, populatio agrorum, defectio sociorum, ceterae belli clades, quae in nos per quattuordecim annos ingruerunt, uertantur.

let the Roman camp rather overhang the gates of Carthage than that we again see the enemies’ rampart from our own walls. Let Africa be the seat of the remaining war; thither let terror and flight, the devastation of the fields, the defection of allies, and the other disasters of war, which for fourteen years have borne down upon us, be turned.

'Quae ad rem publicam pertinent et bellum quod instat et prouincias de quibus agitur dixisse satis est: illa longa oratio nec ad uos pertinens sit, si quemadmodum Q. Fabius meas res gestas in Hispania eleuauit sic ego contra gloriam eius eludere et meam uerbis extollere uelim. neutrum faciam, patres conscripti, et si nulla alia re, modestia certe et temperando linguae adulescens senem uicero. ita et uixi et gessi res ut tacitus ea opinione quam uestra sponte conceptam animis haberetis facile contentus essem.'

'As to what pertains to the commonwealth, and the war which is imminent, and the provinces under discussion, it is enough to have spoken: let that long speech, not pertaining to you, be omitted—namely, if, just as Q. Fabius belittled my exploits in Spain, I should in turn play against his glory and exalt my own by words. I will do neither, Conscript Fathers, and if by nothing else, surely by modesty and by restraining my tongue I, a young man, will have overcome an old man. I have so lived and so conducted my affairs that, keeping silence, I would be easily content with that opinion which you have conceived in your minds of your own accord.'

[45] Minus aequis animis auditus est Scipio quia uolgatum erat si apud senatum non obtinuisset ut prouincia Africa sibi decerneretur, ad populum extemplo laturum. itaque Q. Fuluius, qui consul quater et censor fuerat, postulauit a consule ut palam in senatu diceret permitteretne patribus ut de prouinciis decernerent staturusque eo esset quod censuissent an ad populum laturus. cum Scipio respondisset se quod e re publica esset facturum, tum Fuluius: 'non ego ignarus quid responsurus facturusue esses quaesiui, quippe cum prae te feras temptare te magis quam consulere senatum et ni prouinciam tibi quam uolueris extemplo decernamus paratam rogationem habeas.

[45] Scipio was heard with less than equitable minds, because it had been bruited about that, if he did not prevail in the senate that the province of Africa be decreed to himself, he would forthwith bring it before the people. And so Q. Fulvius, who had been consul 4 times and censor, demanded of the consul that he declare openly in the senate whether he permitted the Fathers to decree concerning the provinces and whether he would stand by what they had decided, or would bring it before the people. When Scipio replied that he would do what was for the commonwealth, then Fulvius: 'I did not ask in ignorance of what you would answer or do, since you make it plain that you are making trial of the senate rather than consulting it, and that, unless we immediately decree to you the province which you have wished, you have a prepared bill.'

itaque a uobis, tribuni plebis, postulo' inquit 'ut sententiam mihi ideo non dicenti quod, etsi in meam sententiam discedatur, non sit ratum habiturus consul auxilio sitis.' inde altercatio orta cum consul negaret aequum esse tribunos intercedere quo minus suo quisque loco rogatus sententiam diceret. tribuni ita decreuerunt: 'si consul senatui de prouinciis permittit, stari eo quod senatus censuerit placet, nec de ea re ferri ad populum patiemur; si non permittit, qui de ea re sententiam recusabit dicere auxilio erimus.'

'Therefore from you, tribunes of the plebs, I demand,' he says, 'that you be a help to me for this reason, that I am not giving my opinion: because, even if the vote should go with my motion, the consul would not hold it as ratified.' Then an altercation arose, since the consul denied it was equitable for the tribunes to intercede so as to prevent anyone, when asked in his proper place, from stating his opinion. The tribunes thus decreed: 'If the consul permits the senate to decide about the provinces, it is our pleasure to stand by that which the senate shall have decreed, and we will not allow the matter to be brought to the people; if he does not permit it, we will be a help to whoever refuses to declare an opinion on that matter.'

Consul diem ad conloquendum cum collega petit; postero die permissum senatui est. prouinciae ita decretae: alteri consuli Sicilia et triginta rostratae naues quas C. Seruilius superiore anno habuisset; permissumque ut in Africam, si id e re publica esse censeret, traiceret; alteri Bruttii et bellum cum Hannibale, cum eo exercitu quem~~. L. Ueturius et Q. Caecilius sortirentur inter se compararentue uter in Bruttiis duabus legionibus quas consul reliquisset rem gereret, imperiumque in annum prorogaretur cui ea prouincia euenisset. et ceteris ~praeter consules praetoresque qui exercitibus prouinciisque praefuturi~ erant prorogata imperia.

The consul asked a day for a conference with his colleague; on the following day permission was granted to the senate. The provinces were decreed thus: to one consul, Sicily and thirty rostrate ships which Gaius Servilius had had in the previous year; and it was permitted that he should cross over into Africa, if he judged that to be in the interest of the republic; to the other, Bruttium and the war with Hannibal, with that army which~~. Lucius Vetur(i)us and Quintus Caecilius should draw lots between themselves, or should arrange, which of them should conduct affairs in Bruttium with the two legions which the consul had left, and that the imperium be prorogued for a year for the one to whom that province had fallen. And for the rest, ~except the consuls and praetors who were going to be in charge of armies and provinces~, their commands were prorogued.

Q. Caecilio sorti euenit ut cum consule in Bruttiis aduersus Hannibalem bellum gereret.

To Q. Caecilius it fell by lot to wage war with the consul in Bruttium against Hannibal.

Ludi deinde Scipionis magna frequentia et fauore spectantium celebrati. Legati Delphos ad donum ex praeda Hasdrubalis portandum missi M. Pomponius Matho et Q. Catius. Tulerunt coronam aureaum ducentum pondo et simulacra spoliorum ex mille pondo argenti facta.

Then the games of Scipio were celebrated with a great throng and the favor of the spectators. Legates were sent to Delphi to carry a gift from Hasdrubal’s booty—M. Pomponius Matho and Q. Catius. They bore a golden crown of two hundred pounds, and images of the spoils made from one thousand pounds of silver.

Scipio cum ut dilectum haberet neque impetrasset neque magnopere tetendisset, ut uoluntarios ducere sibi milites liceret tenuit et, quia impensae negauerat rei publicae futuram classem, ut quae ab sociis darentur ad nouas fabricandas naues acciperet. Etruriae primum populi pro suis quisque facultatibus consulem adiuturos polliciti: Caerites frumentum sociis naualibus commeatumque omnis generis, Populonenses ferrum, Tarquinienses lintea in uela, Volaterrani interamenta nauium et frumentum, Arretini tria milia scutorum, galeas totidem, pila gaesa hastas longas, milium quinquaginta summam pari cuiusque generis numero expleturos, secures rutra falces alueolos molas quantum in quadraginta longas naues opus esset, tritici centum uiginti milia modium et in uiaticum decurionibus remigibusque conlaturos; Perusini Clusini Rusellani abietem in fabricandas naues et frumenti magnum numerum; abiete <et> ex publicis siluis est usus. Vmbriae populi et praeter hos Nursini et Reatini et Amiternini Sabinusque omnis ager milites polliciti.

Scipio, since he had neither obtained permission to hold a levy nor pressed it greatly, carried it that it should be allowed him to lead soldiers as volunteers; and, because he had denied that the fleet would be an expense to the commonwealth, he obtained that he should receive from the allies what they might give for constructing new ships. First, the peoples of Etruria promised to aid the consul each according to his resources: the Caerites grain for the naval allies and provisions of every kind, the Populonenses iron, the Tarquinienses linen for sails, the Volaterrani fittings of ships and grain, the Arretines three thousand shields, as many helmets, pila, gaesae, long spears, undertaking to make up a total of fifty thousand with an equal number of each kind, axes, spades, sickles, troughs, millstones, as much as was needed for forty long ships, one hundred twenty thousand modii of wheat, and they would contribute traveling-money for the decurions and the oarsmen; the Perusines, Clusines, and Rusellani fir for building ships and a great quantity of grain; of fir from the public forests there was use. The peoples of Umbria, and besides these the Nursini and Reatini and Amiternini and all the Sabine countryside, promised soldiers.

Marsi Paeligni Marrucinique multi uoluntarii nomina in classem dederunt. Camertes cum aequo foedere cum Romanis essent cohortem armatam sescentorum hominum miserunt. Triginta nauium carinae, uiginti quinqueremes decem quadriremes, cum essent posirae ipse ita institit operi ut die quadragensimo quinto quam ex siluis detracta materia erat naues instructae armataeque in aquam deductae sint.

The Marsi, the Paeligni, and the Marrucini, many volunteers, enrolled their names in the fleet. The Camertes, since they were in an equal treaty with the Romans, sent an armed cohort of six hundred men. The keels of thirty ships—twenty quinqueremes and ten quadriremes—having been laid, he himself pressed the work in such a way that on the forty-fifth day from when the timber had been drawn from the forests the ships, equipped and armed, were launched into the water.

[46] Profectus in Siciliam est triginta nauibus longis, uoluntariorum septem ferme milibus in naues impositis. Et P. Licinius in Bruttios ad duos exercitus consulares uenit. Ex iis eum sibi sumpsit quem L. Veturius consul habuerat: Metello ut quibus praefuisset legionibus iis praeesset, facilius cum adsuetis imperio rem gesturum ratus, permisit.

[46] He set out for Sicily with thirty long ships, about seven thousand volunteers having been embarked on the ships. And P. Licinius came into the Bruttian land to the two consular armies. From these he took for himself that one which the consul L. Veturius had had; he permitted Metellus to command those same legions which he had previously commanded, thinking he would conduct the matter more easily with troops accustomed to his command.

Et praetores diuersi in prouincias profecti. Et quia pecunia ad bellum deerat, agri Campani regionem a fossa Graeca ad mare uersam uendere quaestores iussi, indicio quoque permisso qui ager ciuis Campani fuisset, uti is publicus populi Romani esset; indici praemium constitutum, quantae pecuniae ager indicatus esset pars decima. Et Cn. Seruilio praetori urbano negotium datum ut Campani ciues, ubi cuique ex senatus consulto liceret habitare, ibi habitarent, animaduerteretque in eos qui alibi habitarent.

And the praetors departed separately into their provinces. And because money was lacking for the war, the quaestors were ordered to sell the tract of the Campanian land, from the Greek Ditch turned toward the sea, with denunciation also permitted as to what land had been of a Campanian citizen, so that it might be public property of the Roman people; a reward was fixed for the informer: a tenth part of the sum of money at which the land had been denounced. And to Cn. Servilius, the urban praetor, the business was given to ensure that the Campanian citizens should dwell where it was permitted to each by decree of the senate to dwell, and to take action against those who were dwelling elsewhere.

Eadem aestate Mago Hamilcaris filius ex minore Baliarium insula, ubi hibernarat, iuuentute lecta in classem imposita in Italiam triginta ferme rostratis nauibus et multis onerariis duodecim milia peditum duo ferme equitum traiecit, Genuamque nullis praesidiis maritimam oram tutantibus repentino aduentu cepit. Inde ad oram Ligurum Alpinorum, si quos ibi motus facere posset, classem adpulit. Ingauni- Ligurum ea gens est—bellum ea tempestate gerebant cum Epanteriis Montanis.

In the same summer, Mago, son of Hamilcar, from the smaller island of the Baleares, where he had wintered, after the chosen youth had been put aboard the fleet, transported into Italy with nearly thirty beaked ships and many cargo-ships about twelve thousand infantry and nearly two thousand cavalry, and by a sudden arrival he took Genua, as no garrisons were guarding the sea-coast. Thence to the shore of the Alpine Ligurians, to see whether he could raise any disturbances there, he brought the fleet in. The Ingauni-
Ligurum, that people is—were at that time waging war with the Epanterii Montani.

Igitur Poenus Sauone oppido Alpino praeda deposita et decem longis nauibus in statione ad praesidium relictis, ceteris Carthaginem missis ad tuendam maritimam oram quia fama erat Scipionem traiecturum, ipse societate cum Ingaunis quorum gratiam malebat composita Montanos instituit oppugnare. Et crescebat exercitus in dies ad famam nominis eius Gallis undique confluentibus. Ea <res> litteris cognita Sp. Lucreti, ne frustra Hasdrubale cum exercitu deleto biennio ante forent laetati si par aliud inde bellum duce tantum mutato oreretur, curam ingentem accendit patribus.

Accordingly the Carthaginian, having deposited the booty at the Alpine town of Savona and leaving ten long ships on station as a guard, sent the rest to Carthage to protect the maritime coast, because there was a report that Scipio would cross; he himself, a league concluded with the Ingauni—whose favor he preferred—set about besieging the Montani. And his army grew by the day at the fame of his name, with Gauls flocking together from every side. That <matter>, learned from the letters of Sp. Lucretius, kindled a huge concern in the Fathers, lest they had rejoiced to no purpose, when Hasdrubal with his army had been destroyed two years before, if an equal war should arise from there with only the leader changed.

Itaque et M. Liuium proconsulem ex Etruria uolonum exercitum admouere Ariminum iusserunt, et Cn. Seruilio praetori negotium datum ut, si e re publica censeret esse, duas urbanas legiones imperio cui uideretur dato ex urbe duci iuberet. M. Valerius Laeuinus Arretium eas legiones duxit.

Thus they ordered Marcus Livius, the proconsul, to move the army of volunteers from Etruria to Ariminum; and the praetor Gnaeus Servilius was given the business that, if he judged it to be for the republic, he should order two urban legions to be led out of the city, with imperium granted to whom he thought proper. Marcus Valerius Laevinus led those legions to Arretium.

Iisdem diebus naues onerariae Poenorum ad octoginta circa Sardiniam ab Cn. Octauio, qui prouinciae praeerat, captae; eas Coelius frumento misso ad Hannibalem commeatuque onustas,Valerius praedam Etruscam Ligurumque et Montanorum captiuos Carthaginem portantes captas tradit. In Bruttiis nihil ferme anno eo memorabile gestum. Pestilentia incesserat pari clade in Romanos Poenosque, nisi quod Punicum exercitum super morbum etiam fames adfecit.

In the same days about eighty cargo ships of the Carthaginians around Sardinia were captured by Cn. Octavius, who was in charge of the province; Coelius reports them as laden with grain sent to Hannibal and with provisions,Valerius that they were captured carrying Etruscan plunder and captives of the Ligurians and the Mountaineers to Carthage. In Bruttium scarcely anything memorable was done in that year. A pestilence had set in, with an equal disaster upon Romans and Carthaginians, except that the Punic army, over and above the disease, hunger also afflicted.

Propter Iunonis Laciniae templum aestatem Hannibal egit, ibique aram condidit dedicauitque cum ingenti rerum ab se gestarum titulo Punicis Graccisque litteris insculpto.

Near the temple of Juno Lacinia Hannibal spent the summer, and there he set up and dedicated an altar, with a huge inscription of the deeds accomplished by himself, engraved in Punic and Greek letters.