this Circumftance a few Words from me to you will be neither improper nor unfeasonable. And that you may not be unapprized of what fort of Enemies you are going to encounter, or of what is to be feared from them, they are the very fame whom, in a former War, you vanquished both by Land and Sea; the fame from whom you took Sicily and Sardinia, and who have been these twenty Years your Tributaries. You will not, I prefume, march against thefe Men with only that Courage, with which you are wont to face other Enemies, but with a certain Anger and Indignation, fuch as you would feel, if you faw your Slaves on a fudden rife up in Arms against you. Conquered and enflaved, it is not Boldness, but Neceffity that urges them to Battle: Unless you can believe that those who avoided fighting when their Army was entire, have acquired better Hope by the Lofs of two thirds of their Horfe and Foot, in the Paffage of the Alps. But you heard perhaps, that, though they are few in Number, they are Men of tout Hearts and robuft Bodies. Heroes of fuch Strength and Vigour, as nothing is able to refist.Mere Effigies! nay Shadows of Men! Wretches emaciated with Hunger, and benumbed with Cold! bruifed and battered to pieces among the Rocks and craggy Cliffs! their Weapons broke, and their Horfes weak and foundered! Such are the Cavalry, and fuch the Infantry, with which you are going to contend; not Enemies, but the Fragments of Enemies. There is nothing which I more apprehend, than that it will be thought, Hannibal was vanquished by the Alps, before we had any Conflict with him. But perhaps it was fitting that so it should be; and that with a People and a Leader, who had violated Leagues and Covenants, the Gods themselves, without Man's Help, fhould begin the War, and bring it to a near Conclufion; and that we, who, next to the Gods, have been injured and offended, fhould happily finish what they have begun. I need not be in any fear, that you should fufpect me of faying these things merely to encourage you, while inwardly I have different Sentiments. What hindered me from going into Spain? that was my Province; where I fhould have had the lefs-dreaded Afdrubal, not Hannibal to deal with. But hearing, as I paffed along the Coaft of Gaul, of this Enemy's March, I landed my Troops, fent the Horfe forward, and pitched my Camp upon the Rhone. A Part of my Cavalry encountered and defeated that of the Enemy; my Infantry not being able to overtake theirs, which fled before us, I returned to my Fleet, and with all the Expedition I could use in fo long a Voyage by Sea and Land, am come to meet them F 3 at at the Foot of the Alps. Was it then my Inclination to avoid a Contest with this tremendous Hannibal? And have I lit upon him only by accident and unawares? Or am I come on purpose to challenge him to the Combat? I would gladly try, whether the Earth, within these twenty Years, has brought forth a new kind of Carthaginians, or whether they be the fame fort of Men who fought at the gates; and whom, at Eryx, you fuffered to redeem themselves at eighteen Denarii per Head Whether this Hannibal, for Labours and Journeys, be, as he would be thought, the Rival of Hercules; or whether he be what his Father left him, a Tributary, a Vaffal, a Slave of the Roman People. Did not the Confcioufness of his wicked Deed at Saguntum torment him, and make him desperate, he would have fome Regard, if not to his conquered Country, yet furely to his own Family, to his Father's Memory, to the Treaty written with Amilcar's own Hand. We might have ftarved them in Eryx; we might have paffed into Africa with our victorious Fleet, and in a few Days have deftroyed Carthage. At their humble Supplication we pardoned them; we released them, when they were closely fhut up without a Poffibility of escaping; we made Peace with them when they were conquered. When they were diftreffed by the African War, we confidered them, we treated them as a People under our Protection. And what is the Return they make us for all thefe Favours? Under the Conduct of a hare-brained young Man, they come hither to overturn our State, and lay waste our Country. I could with indeed, that it were not fo; and that the War we are now engaged in concerned only our own Glory, and not our Prefervation. But the Contest at present is not for the Poffeffion of Sicily and Sardinia, but of Italy itself. Nor is there, behind us, another Army which, if we fhould not prove the Conquerors, may make head against our victorious Enemies. There are no more Alps for them to pafs, which might give us leifure to raise new Forces. No, Soldiers, here you muft make your Stand, as if you were juft now before the Walls of Rome. Let every one reflect, that he is now to defend, not his own Perfon alone, but his Wife, his Children, his helplefs Infants. Yet let not private Confiderations alone poffefs our Minds; let us remember that the Eyes of the Senate and People of Rome are upon us, and that as our Force and Courage fhall now prove, fuch will be the Fortune of that City, and of the Roman Empire. LESSON Hannibal, on the other Side, made ufe of a new kind of Rhetoric to infpire his Soldiers with Refolution. He gave Arms to feveral Mountaineers whom he had taken Prisoners in his Paffage over the Alps, and propofed to them to fight two and two to the Death of one of them, in the Sight f his Army; promifing Liberty and a compleat Suit of Armour, with a Warhorfe, to fuch of them as came off victorious. From the Joy with which the Prifoners accepted thefe Conditions, and the Sentiments which Hannibal obferv'd in his Troops on beholding thefe Conflicts, he took Occafion to give them a more lively Image of their prefent Situation; which laid them under the abfolute Neceffity of conquering or dying. His Speech was to this Effect. I F in the Estimation of your own Fortune, you will but bear the fame Mind which you juft now did, in contemplating the Fortune of others, the Victory, Soldiers, is ours. What you have feen, was not a mere Shew for Amusement, but a Representation of your own real Condition. I know not whether you or your Prifoners be encompaffed by Fortune with the ftricter Bonds and Neceffities. Two Seas enclose you on the right and left; not a Ship to fly to for escaping. Before you is the Po, a River broader and more rapid than the Rhone; behind you are the Alps, over which, even when your Numbers were undiminished, you were hardly able to force a Paffage. Here then, Soldiers, you must either conquer or die, the very firft Hour you meet the Enemy. But the fame Fortune which has thus laid you under the Neceffity of fighting, has fet before your Eyes those Rewards of Victory, than which no Men are ever wont to wifh for greater from the immortal Gods. Should we by our Valour recover only Sicily and Sardinia, which were ravish'd from our Fathers, thofe would be no inconfiderable Prizes. Yet, what are thofe? The Wealth of Rome, whatever Riches fhe has heaped together from the Spoils of Nations, all these, with the Masters of them, will be yours, You have been long enough employed in driving the Cattle upon the vaft Mountains of Lufitania and Celtiberia; you have hitherto met with no Reward worthy of the Labours and Dangers you have undergone. The Time is now come to reap the full Recompence of your toilfome Marches over fo many Mountains and Rivers, and through fo many Nations, all of F 4 them them in Arms. This is the Place, which Fortune has ap→ pointed to be the Limits of your Labours; it is here that you will finish your glorious Warfare, and receive an ample Recompence of your compleated Service. For I would not have you imagine, that Victory will be as difficult as the Name of a ROMAN WAR is great and founding. It has often happened that a despised Enemy has given a bloody Battle, and the most renowned Kings and Nations have by a small Force been overthrown. And if you but take away that Glitter of the Roman Name, what is there, wherein they may ftand in Competition with you? For (to fay nothing of your Service in War for twenty years together with fo much Valour and Succefs) from the very Pillars of Hercules, from the Ocean, from the utmoft Bounds of the Earth, through so many warlike Nations of Spain and Gaul, are you not come hither victorious? And with whom are you now to fight? With raw Soldiers, an undifciplined Army, beaten, vanquished, befieged by the Gauls the very laft Summer, an Army unknown to their Leader, and unacquainted with him. Or fhall I, who was born, I might almoft fay, but cer tainly brought up in the Tent of my Father, that most excellent General, fhall I, the Conqueror of Spain and Gaul, and not only of the Alpine Nations, but, which is greater yet, of the Alps themselves, fhall I compare myself with this Half-year-Captain? A Captain, before whom should one place the two Armies, without their Enfigns, I am perfuaded he would not know to which of them he is Conful? I efteem it no fmall Advantage, Soldiers, that there is not one among you, who has not often been an Eye-witness of my Exploits in War; not one, of whofe Valour I myself have not been a Spectator, fo as to be able to name the Times and Places of his noble Atchievements; that with Soldiers, whom I have a thousand times praised and rewarded, and whofe Pupil I was, before I became their General, I fhall march against an Army of Men Strangers to one another. On what Side foever I turn my Eyes, I behold all full of Courage and Strength; a Veteran Infantry, a most gallant Cavalry; you, my Allies, moft faithful and valiant; you Carthaginians, whom not only your Country's Caufe, but the jufteft Anger impels to Battle. The Hope, the Courage of Affailants is always greater, than of those who act upon the Defenfive. With hoftile Banners difplay'd, you are come down upon Italy; you bring the War. Grief, Injuries, Indignities fire your Minds, and fpur you forward to Revenge. Firft they demanded me; that I, your General, fhould be deliver'd up to them; next, all you, who had fought at the Siege of Saguntum; and we were to be put to Death by the extremeft Tortures. Proud and cruel Nation! Every thing must be yours, and at your Disposal? You are to prescribe to us, with whom we shall make War, with whom we shall make Peace? You are to fet us Bounds; to fhut us up within Hills and Rivers; but you, you are not to observe the Limits which yourfelves have fix'd? Pafs not the IBERUS. What next? Touch not the SAGUNTINES; SAGUNTUM is upon the IBERUS, move not a Step towards that City. It is a fmall Matter then, that you have depriv'd us of our ancient Poffeffions, Sicily and Sardinia; you would have Spain too? Well, we fhall yield Spain; and then-you will pass into Africa. Will pais, did I fay?-This very Year they order'd one of their Confuls into Africa, the other into Spain. No, Soldiers, there is nothing left for us but what we can vindicate with our Swords. Come on then. Be Men. The Romans may with more Safety be Cowards; they have their own Country behind them, have Places of Refuge to fly to, and are fecure from Danger in the Roads thither: but for you, there is no middle Fortune between Death and Victory. Let this be but well fix'd in your Minds, and once again, I fay, you are CONQUERORS. The two following Speeches are thofe preceding the Battle of Zama; which concluded the fecond Punic War to the Advantage of the Romans, after it had lafted 17 Years. They are different from the two former, as they relate to a Treaty of Peace. The two Generals were Hannibal and the famous Scipio Africanus, Son of the former Scipio. An Interview was defired by Hannibal, and agreed to by Scipio. The Place pitch'd upon was a large Plain between the two Camp‹, entirely open, and where no Ambush could be laid. The two Generals rode thither, escorted by an equal Number of Guards; from whom feparating, and each attended only by an Interpreter, they met in they Mid-way. Both remain'd for a while filent, viewing each other with mutual Admiration. Hannibal at length spoke thus. INCE Fate has fo ordain'd it, that I, who began the ing |