Romans were compelled to retreat from their conquests, and even to defend their homes.60 But the magnitude and the extent of the warlike enterprises on which they seem to have been driven may have prepared us to read of strange reverses; while the sensitiveness we have witnessed in supporting the laws they were allowed to institute and to obey may make it but a natural result that they should be upheld through the woes and the excitements of the seventeen years 61 for which the second Punic war continued. The means of deciding upon the strength which the liberty of Rome communicated to her people must be sought in some scenes from which a Christian heart would fain shrink back in sorrow.

Of the factions amongst the few in Carthage who had any place in either faction or citizenship, one was for the existing luxury and oligarchy, while the other maintained the necessity of more liberal government and more general energy. The disputes between them, which had not been quieted by the misfortunes of the war with Rome, nor even overcome by the greater dangers that ensued with the long-protracted rebellion of the mercenary troops and the African subjects of the city, broke out, it would appear, into fresh violence, when Hamilcar Barca, at the head of the comparatively liberal party, after having saved his country from utter shame in Sicily, and utter destruction in her own territories, made and carried his proposal of an expedition to

60 "Pro Italia pugnandum." Liv., XXI. 42.

61 A. C. 218-201.

VOL. II.

16

Spain, where, as he undoubtedly declared, lay the only opportunities of repairing the recent losses and calamities. He had another, but a secret, aim; and when he stood, as leader of the armament against Spain, before one of the great shrines in his city, a few years after the peace with Rome, the thought of revenge upon the only enemies who had triumphed over Carthage was at the beginning and the end of the plans on whose execution he was then departing. His prayers and libations for success were offered; but, instead of withdrawing, he took his son, a boy but nine years old, and leading him up to the altar,. where none but the god could hear, he bade him swear there should be no peace betwixt him and the Romans. The boy was Hannibal; and the war upon which we are entering was the keeping of his vow. Its fulfilment had been already begun. On Hamilcar's death in Spain, his son-in-law, Hasdrubal, succeeded to his post and enterprise; and when Hasdrubal perished, three years before hostilities began with Rome, Hannibal, though still but young 63 to assume such an inheritance as that of his brother-inlaw and father, obtained the command by the voices of the soldiers, who had witnessed his daring and his skill in Hamilcar's battles when he was a boy, and in the expeditions which were put under his own direction as he grew in years.

62 Polyb., III. 11. Corn. Nepos, years. Nepos says (Hann., 3) less Hann., 2.

63 Zonaras (VIII. 21) seems to have the right in giving him 26

than 25. But Hannibal was born A. C. 247, and it was now 221.

On the other hand, the Romans, who had taken the most treacherous advantage of the perils into which Carthage was brought by her mercenaries, were greatly concerned to hear of the advances made

the Carthaginian generals in Spain. At one time, they entered into a treaty with Hasdrubal, who consented that the river Ebro should be the limit of the Carthaginian dominions, and that the independence of Saguntum in the South should be respected as that of a city allied to Rome.65 But it was not so easy to deal with Hannibal, who, immediately after his appointment by the soldiers was confirmed at Carthage, began upon campaigns against several of the Spanish tribes, and in the next year but one laid siege to Saguntum itself, as if he desired nothing more than war 67 with the nation to whom he had sworn implacable enmity in his boyhood, and against whom his whole life had been spent in discipline. The fall of Saguntum provoked the open declaration of hostilities on the part of Rome, and was soon followed by the astonishing march of the Carthaginian army across the Pyrenees and the Alps to the northern plains of Italy.

Six-and-twenty thousand troops 69 under a Carthaginian commander might well appear to the Romans

64 Utriusque imperii" is the expression of Livy, as if the Romans had been in possession of the country to the north. XXI. 2.

65 Liv., loc. cit. Polyb., II. 13. 66 Polyb., III. 13.

67 Ex quo die dux est declaratus, velut Italia ei provincia decreta,

bellumque Romanum mandatum esset." Liv., XXI. 5.

33.

68 Liv., XXI. 18. Polyb., III.

69 12,000 African and 8,000 Spanish foot-soldiers, besides 6,000 horse. Polyb., III. 56.

to be no match for the Consuls and the legions of their own great Commonwealth; and there were few spirits so heavy as not to be stirred by the hope of instant and entire victory over the foe, who, after conquering Spain against their will, now dared to brave them on their own soil. The first encounter, however, with the invader, near the river Ticino,70 made the Romans aware that he was formidable; and the next engagement, on the banks of the Trebbia," resulting in the complete defeat of two Consuls, with both their armies, threatened nearer dangers than had been believed within the range of possibility. Hannibal, flushed with his rapid victories, and joined by large numbers of Gauls, allies as well as enemies of Rome," sped on towards the prize he now not only hoped, but confidently looked, to gain. Caius Flaminius, the Tribune and the Censor, now Consul, dared to block up the way by Thrasymene; but was slain himself, while his legions were scattered like “a forest felled by mountain winds."73 Keen blew the blast towards Rome; and when the Senate had sat shivering from sunrise to sunset, they determined to screen themselves and the people by appointing a Dictator, to whom the charge they gave-that he should "fortify the walls and towers of the city, post garrisons wherever might be proper, cut down bridges across the streams, and save Rome, at least,

70 Polyb., III. 65. Liv., XXI. 46.

73 See Byron's magnificent stanzas in Childe Harold, IV. 62-65.

71 Polyb., III. 73. Liv., XXI. The ancient accounts of the battle 55, 56.

72 Polyb., III. 77.

are in Liv., XXII. 5-7; Polyb., III. 84.

74

if Italy could not be defended ""- reveals the consternation and the chill as wellnigh universal.

75

The Dictator elected to such a charge by the people was Quintus Fabius, the great-grandson of the old hero Rullianus, and had twice before been Consul, once Censor, and once Dictator. The moment of his appointment was the first lull in the tempest which had broken upon Rome; and though the winds might rise and roar again, the calm was prepared in the distance. After ordering the religious supplications which he thought as necessary to his own success as to the spirits of his countrymen, the Dictator set out to delay the progress of Hannibal, who was pressing on from Thrasymene, across the Apennines and through Picenum, into Apulia. The calm steadfastness with which Fabius, worthy then of being called Maximus, the Great, pursued the only course he knew was practicable, is one of the magnificent results of Roman liberty. Refusing to risk another army in the open field, in entire disregard both of the provocation he had to bear from the impetuous Hannibal and of the discontentment he could not but inflame amongst his own soldiers, he hung upon the march of the Carthaginians, cutting off their supplies, whenever he could, and escaping their retaliations, whenever they were so goaded as to turn upon him, like hungered and tormented beasts upon a pursuer. The name of Cunc

74 Liv., XXII. 8.

75 Or, as he was actually styled, Pro-Dictator, on account of the un

usual manner of his election. Liv., XXII. 8. Polyb., III. 87.