And hid their eyes and wept; and some did rest Their funeral piles with fuel, and look'd up 1 4. The wild birds shriek'd, And, terrified, did flutter on the ground, And flap their useless wings; the wildest brutes Came tame and tremulous; and vipers crawl'd And twin'd themselves among the multitude, Hissing, but stingless-they were slain for food: 5. And War, which for a moment was no more, Did glut himself again;-a meal was bought With blood, and each sate sullenly apart Gorging himself in gloom: no love was left; All earth was but one thought—and that was death, Immediate and inglorious; and the pang Of famine fed upon all entrails-men Died, and their bones were tombless as their flesh. And a quick desolate cry, licking the hand 7. The crowd was famish'd by degrees; but two Of an enormous city did survive, And they were enemies; they met beside The dying embers of an altar-place, Where had been heap'd a mass of holy things For an unholy usage; they raked up, And shivering scraped with their cold skeleton hands The feeble ashes, and their feeble breath Blew for a little life, and made a flame Which was a mockery; then they lifted up Each other's aspects-saw, and shriek'd, and died Unknowing who he was upon whose brow 8. The world was void, The populous and the powerful was a lump, And their masts fell down piecemeal; as they dropp'd They slept on the abyss without a surge— 9. The waves were dead; the tides were in their grave; The moon, their mistress, had expired before; The winds were wither'd in the stagnant air, And the clouds perish'd: Darkness had no need LESSON CXLVI. Hannibal to Scipio Africanus, at their interview preceding the Battle of Zama.† 1. SINCE fate has so ordained it, that I, who began the war, and who have been so often on the point of ending it by a complete conquest, should now come of my own inotion, to ask a peace-I am glad that it is of you, Scipio, I have the fortune to *Hannibal, a celebrated Carthaginian, and one of the greatest generals of antiquity, was born 252 years B. C. At 9 years of age, his father, Hamilcar, made him swear on the altar, eternal enmity to Rome. At 25 years of age, he took upon him the command of the army, and having conquered the Roman forces in Spain, he led his army over the Pyrenees and Alps into Italy. Here he gained many important victories; and during sixteen years conquered every army which the Romans sent against him. At the end of this time, the Romans sent an army into Africa, under the command of Scipio, and the Carthaginians called Hannibal out of Italy to defend his own country. He was defeated by Scipio at the battle of Zama, and was obliged to flee his country. He led a wandering life at the courts of Antiochus and Prusias, in Asia, and at last destroyed himself by poison, when he was about to be delivered into the hands of the Romans, B. C. 182, aged 70. The battle of Zama was fought 196 years B. C. in which the Carthaginians were totally defeated, and an end put to the second Punic War. The three wars between Rome and Carthage were called Punic Wars. The first Punic War commenced 264 years B. C. and lasted 23 years. The second commenced 218 years B. C. and lasted 22 years. The third commenced 149 years B. C. and lasted 3 years; when Carthage was entirely destroyed, 146 years B. C. ask it. Nor will this be among the least of your glories, that Hannibal, victorious over so many Roman Generals, submitted at last to you. 2 I could wish, that our fathers and we had confined our ambition within the limits which nature seems to have prescribed to it; the shores of Africa, and the shores of Italy. The gods did not give us that mind. On both sides we have been so eager after foreign possessions, as to put our own to the hazard of war. Rome and Carthage have had, each in her turn, the enemy at her gates. 3. But since errors past may be more easily blamed than corrected, let it now be the work of you and me, to put an end, if possible, to the obstinate contention. For my own part, my years, and the experience I have had of the instability of fortune, incline me to leave nothing to her determination which reason can decide. But much I fear, Scipio, that your youth, your want of the like experience, your uninterrupted success, may render you averse from the thoughts of peace. 4. He whom fortune has never failed, rarely reflects upon her inconstancy. Yet without recurring to former examples, my own may perhaps suffice to teach you moderation. I am the same Hannibal, who, after my victory at Cannæ, became master of the greatest part of your country, and deliberated with myself what fate I should decree to Italy and Rome. 5. And now see the change! Here, in Africa, I am come to treat with a Roman, for my own preservation and my country's. Such are the sports of fortune. Is she then to be trusted because she smiles? An advantageous peace is preferable to the hope of victory. The one is in your own power, the other at the pleasure of the gods. Should you prove victorious, it would add little to your own glory or the glory of your country; if vanquished, you lose, in one hour, all the honor and reputation you have been so many years acquiring. 6. But what is my aim in all this? That you should content yourself with our cession of Spain, Sicily, Sardinia, and all Islands between Italy and Africa. A peace on these conditions will, in my opinion, not only secure the future tranquillity of Carthage, but be sufficiently glorious for you and for the Roman name. And do not tell me, that some of our citizens dealt fraudulently with you in the late treaty.-It is I, Hannibal, that now ask a peace :-I ask it, because I think it expedient for my country; and thinking it expedient, I will inviolably maintain it. LESSON CXLVII. Scipio's Reply to Hannibal. 1. I KNEW very well, Hannibal, that it was the hope of your return, which emboldened the Carthaginians to break the truce with us, and lay aside all thoughts of peace, when it was just upon the point of being concluded; and your present proposal is a proof of it. You retrench from their concessions, every thing but what we are and have been long possessed of. 2. But as it is your care, that your fellow citizens should have the obligation to you, of being eased from a great part of their burden, so it ought to be mine, that they draw no advantage from their perfidiousness. Nobody is more sensible than I am of the weakness of man, and the power of fortune, and that whatever we enterprise, is subject to a thousand chances. 3. If before the Romans passed into Africa, you had, of your own accord, quitted Italy, and made the offers you now make, I believe they would not have been rejected. But, as you have been forced out of Italy, and we are masters here of the open country, the situation of things is much altered. 4. And what is chiefly to be considered, the Carthaginians, by the late treaty, which we entered into at their request, were, over and above what you offer, to have restored to us our prisoners without ransom, delivered up their ships of war, paid us five thousand talents, and to have given hostages for the formance of all. per 5 The senate accepted these conditions, but Carthage failed on her part: Carthage deceived us. What then is to be done? Are the Carthaginians to be released from the most important articles of the treaty, as a reward for their breach of faith? No, certainly. 6. If to the conditions before agreed upon, you had added some new articles, to our advantage, there would have been matter of reference to the Roman people; but when, instead of adding, you retrench, there is no room for deliberation. The Carthaginians, therefore, must submit to us at discretion, or must vanquish us in battle. *Publius Cornelius Scipio, an illustrious Roman and brave general.— While Hannibal was in the northern part of Italy, the Roman Senate sent Scipio into Africa to carry war to the gates of Carthage. He defeated the Carthaginians under Hannibal at the battle of Zama, and obtained the honorable surname of Africanus. He was afterwards treated with ingratitude and baseness by the Romans, and fled from the public clamors, and died in retirement B. Č. 180. LESSON CXLVIII. Cassius instigating Brutus to join the Conspiracy against Cesar.-TRAGEDY OF JULIUS CESAR. 1. HONOR is the subject of my storyI cannot tell what you and other men Think of this life; but for my single self, I had as lief not be, as live to be In awe of such a thing as myself. I was born free as Cesar;t so were you: 2. For once upon a raw and gusty day, And bade him follow; so indeed he did. 3. But ere we could arrive the point propos'd, Cesar cry'd, "Help me, Cassius, or I sink." *Caius Cassius, a celebrated Roman, who was attached to the interests of Pompey, and when Cesar obtained the victory in the plains of Pharsalia, Cassius owed his life to the mercy of the conqueror. He was an artful and ambitious man, and was at the head of the conspiracy against Cesar. At the battle of Philippi, fearful of falling into the hands of his enemies, he caused one of his slaves to slay him with the very sword with which he had given wounds to Cesar, B. C. 42. + Caius Julius Cesar, an illustrious Roman general and historian, was born B. C. 98. He was famous for his learning, his ambition, his valor, and his tragical death. By his valor and eloquence he acquired the highest reputation in the field and in the senate; and enjoyed every magisterial and military honor that the republic could bestow. In 59 B. C. the government of the Roman Commonwealth was divided between Cesar, Crassus, and Pompey. Jealousies soon arose, which terminated in a civil war. Cesar subdued Pompey, and became master of the Commonwealth. His ambition became boundless-he grasped at sovereign power. But he was beloved by the Roman people, and they thought no honor, except that of king, too great to be conferred on him. In the midst of his ambitious projects, a conspiracy was formed against him, headed by Cassius and Brutus, and he was assassinated in the senate-house, B. C. 43, in the 56th year of his age. It is said that he conquered 300 nations, took 800 cities, and defeated 3,000,000 of people, 1,000,000 of which fell in battle. Tiber, a river of Italy, on whose banks the city of Rome was built. |