Nepos: LIBER DE EXCELLENTIBUS DVCIBUS EXTERARVM GENTIVM

[1] HAMILCAR, Hannibalis filius, cognomine Barca, Carthaginiensis, primo Poenico bello, sed temporibus extremis, admodum adulescentulus in Sicilia praeesse coepit exercitui.

[1] HAMILCAR, son of Hannibal, by surname Barca, a Carthaginian, in the First Punic War—but in its latest times—being a very young adolescent, began to command the army in Sicily.

2 Cum ante eius adventum et mari et terra male res gererentur Carthaginiensium, ipse, ubi adfuit, numquam hosti cessit neque locum nocendi dedit saepeque e contrario occasione data lacessivit semperque superior discessit. Quo facto, cum paene omnia in Sicilia Poeni amisissent, ille Erycem sic defendit, ut bellum eo loco gestum non videretur.

2 Before his arrival, both at sea and on land the affairs of the Carthaginians were conducted badly; he himself, once he was there, never yielded to the enemy nor afforded an opportunity of harming, and often, on the contrary, given the occasion, he provoked them, and he always departed the superior. With this accomplished, when the Punics had lost almost everything in Sicily, he defended Eryx in such a way that it did not seem that war had been waged in that place.

3 Interim Carthaginienses classe apud insulas Aegatis a C. Lutatio, consule Romanorum, superati statuerunt belli facere finem eamque rem arbitrio permiserunt Hamilcaris. Ille etsi flagrabat bellandi cupiditate, tamen paci serviundum putavit, quod patriam, exhaustam sumptibus, diutius calamitates belli ferre non posse intellegebat,

3 In the meantime the Carthaginians, their fleet defeated near the Aegates Islands by C. Lutatius, consul of the Romans, resolved to make an end of the war, and they entrusted that matter to the discretion of Hamilcar. He, although he was blazing with a desire for waging war, nevertheless thought that peace ought to be served, because he understood that his fatherland, exhausted by expenses, could no longer endure the calamities of war,

4 sed ita, ut statim mente agitaret, si paulum modo res essent refectae, bellum renovare Romanosque armis persequi, donicum aut virtute vicissent aut victi manus dedissent

4 but in such a way that he immediately pondered in mind that, if affairs were only a little restored, he would renew the war and pursue the Romans with arms, until either they had conquered by valor or, defeated, had given their hands in surrender.

5 Hoc consilio pacem conciliavit; in quo tanta fuit ferocia, cum Catulus negaret bellum compositurum, nisi ille cum suis, qui Erycem tenuerunt, armis relictis Sicilia decederent, ut succumbente patria ipse periturum se potius dixerit, quam cum tanto flagitio domum rediret. Non enim suae esse virtutis arma a patria accepta adversus hostis adversariis tradere. Huius pertinaciae cessit Catulus.

5 By this plan he conciliated peace; in which matter so great was his ferocity, when Catulus said he would not compose the war unless he, with his own men who held Eryx, should, leaving their arms, depart from Sicily, that, with the fatherland succumbing, he declared he would rather perish than return home with so great a disgrace. For it was not, he said, in keeping with his own virtue to hand over to adversaries the arms received from the fatherland against enemies. Catulus yielded to this pertinacity.

[2] At ille ut Carthaginem venit, multo aliter, ac sperarat, rem publicam se habentem cognovit. Namque diuturnitate externi mali tantum exarsit intestinum bellum, ut numquam in pari periculo fuerit Carthago, nisi cum deleta est.

[2] But when he came to Carthage, he found the republic in a condition far otherwise than he had hoped. For by the long duration of an external evil, the civil war had flared up to such a degree that Carthage was never in equal peril, except when it was destroyed.

2 Primo mercennarii milites, qui adversus Romanos fuerant, desciverunt; quorum numerus erat XX milium. Hi totam abalienarunt Africam, ipsam Carthaginem oppugnarunt.

2 First the mercenary soldiers, who had been against the Romans, revolted; their number was 20,000. These alienated the whole of Africa, and attacked Carthage itself.

3 Quibus malis adeo sunt Poeni perterriti, ut etiam auxilia ab Romanis petierint eaque impetrarint. Sed extremo, cum prope iam ad desperationem pervenissent, Hamilcarem imperatorem fecerunt.

3 By these evils the Carthaginians were so thoroughly terrified that they even sought auxiliaries from the Romans and obtained them. But in the end, when they had now come almost to desperation, they made Hamilcar their commander.

4 Is non solum hostis a muris Carthaginis removit, cum amplius C milia facta essent armatorum, sed etiam eo compulit, ut locorum angustiis clausi plures fame quam ferro interirent. Omnia oppida abalienata, in his Uticam atque Hipponem, valentissima totius Africae, restituit patriae.

4 He not only removed the enemies from the walls of Carthage, when more than 100 thousand armed men had been mustered, but even drove them to this: that, shut in by the narrowness of the places, more perished by hunger than by steel. All the towns that had been alienated—including Utica and Hippo, the strongest in all Africa—he restored to the fatherland.

5 Neque eo fuit contentus, sed etiam finis imperii propagavit, tota Africa tantum otium reddidit, ut nullum in ea bellum videretur multis annis fuisse.

5 Nor was he content with that, but he also extended the frontiers of the empire, rendered to all Africa so great a peace that no war seemed to have been there for many years.

[3] Rebus his ex sententia peractis, fidenti animo atque infesto Romanis, quo facilius causam bellandi reperiret, effecit, ut imperator cum exercitu in Hispaniam mitteretur, eoque secum duxit filium Hannibalem annorum novem.

[3] With these matters carried through to his satisfaction, with a confident spirit and hostile toward the Romans, in order the more easily to find a cause for waging war, he brought it about that a commander with an army be sent into Spain; and he took with him his son Hannibal, nine years old.

2 Erat praeterea cum eo adulescens illustris, formosus, Hasdrubal; quem nonnulli diligi turpius, quam par erat, ab Hamilcare loquebantur. Non enim maledici tanto viro deesse poterant. Quo factum est, ut a praefecto morum Hasdrubal cum eo vetaretur esse.

2 There was, moreover, with him an illustrious, handsome adolescent, Hasdrubal; whom some said was loved more shamefully than was fitting by Hamilcar. For slanderers could not be lacking to so great a man. Wherefore it came about that by the Prefect of Morals Hasdrubal was forbidden to be with him.

Huic ille filiam suam in matrimonium dedit, quod moribus eorum non poterat interdici socero genero.

To this man he gave his own daughter in matrimony, since by their mores it could not be interdicted for a father-in-law to be with a son-in-law.

3 De hoc ideo mentionem fecimus, quod Hamilcare occiso ille exercitui praefuit resque magnas gessit et princeps largitione vetustos pervertit mores Carthaginiensium eiusdemque post mortem Hannibal ab exercitu accepit imperium.

3 Of him we have therefore made mention, because, Hamilcar having been slain, he was in command of the army and accomplished great things, and as leader by largess he perverted the time-worn morals of the Carthaginians; and after his death Hannibal received the command from the army.

[4] At Hamilcar posteaquam mare transiit in Hispaniamque venit, magnas res secunda gessit fortuna; maximas bellicosissimasque gentes subegit; equis, armis, viris, pecunia totam locupletavit Africam.

[4] But Hamilcar, after he crossed the sea and came into Spain, accomplished great things with favorable fortune; he subdued the greatest and most warlike peoples; with horses, arms, men, and money he enriched all Africa.

2 Hic cum in Italiam bellum inferre meditaretur, nono anno, postquam in Hispaniam venerat, in proelio pugnans adversus Vettones occisus est.

2 As he was contemplating to carry war into Italy, in the 9th year after he had come to Spain, while fighting in battle against the Vettones, he was killed.

3 Huius perpetuum odium erga Romanos maxime concitasse videtur secundum bellum Poenicum. Namque Hannibal, filius eius, assiduis patris obtestationibus eo est perductus, ut interire quam Romanos non experiri mallet.

3 His perpetual hatred toward the Romans seems to have most especially stirred up the Second Punic War. For Hannibal, his son, by the continual adjurations of his father, was brought to such a point that he preferred to perish rather than not put the Romans to the test.