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Updated: June 14, 2025
"And then," he went on, "my father bound my arms to my sides, with his own around me, and wept and talked of our recent pledges to these foreigners. 'Can they outweigh our ancient pledges to Rome? I answered. So he pleaded how the attendants would surely cut me down, and mentioned Hannibal's look, which he affirmed I would not be able to confront; but I laughed and made little of these things.
XXIV. Next he proceeded against Hannibal; and whereas nearly all the other consuls and generals, after the disaster at Cannæ had thought of nothing but avoiding battles with him, and no one had dared to measure himself with him in the field, he adopted the opposite course, arguing that while they fancied that they were wearing out Hannibal's army they did not perceive that Italy was being consumed by it.
Hannibal, therefore, though he saw the impossibility of gaining any further advantages, was compelled to decide the affair by a last and desperate effort. In a personal interview between the two generals Scipio was inexorable as to the conditions. Hannibal's army was in a bad condition; and in the ensuing battle, to the west of Zama, the victory of Scipio was complete.
Will you be able to bear the look of Hannibal himself, which armed hosts cannot sustain, from which the Roman people shrink with horror? And though other assistance be wanting, will you have the hardihood to strike me when I oppose my body in defence of Hannibal's? But know that through my breast you must strike and transfix him.
The man who had singed the Pope's beard and chucked cardinals under the chin was growing old, and the most daring of the others had no mind to fight with foes whose weapons were not of this world. Count Hannibal's gaiety, however, was well grounded, had they known it.
It might have held them in check, forced them to give battle, but done them little or no harm as long as the ranks were preserved. We know that of Hannibal's infantry only twelve thousand at the most were equipped with Roman weapons.
All this time Le Vigan was to us as Capua to Hannibal's soldiers Circe's charmed cup held to the lips of Odysseus. We ought not to have stayed there an unnecessary hour. We should have continued our journey at once. On and on we lingered, nevertheless, and when at last we braced ourselves up for an effort, the terrible truth was broken to us.
Tears tears incredible, unnatural welled from under Count Hannibal's closed eyelids, and rolled sluggishly down his harsh cheek to the edge of his beard. "I would have gone," he muttered. "If you had spoken, I would have spared you this." "I know," she answered unsteadily; "the men told me." "And yet " "It was just. And you are my husband," she replied.
At the back of the King's chair, Chicot, his gentleman-jester, hung over Charles's shoulder, now scanning his cards, and now making hideous faces that threw the on-lookers into fits of laughter. Farther up the Chamber, at the end of the alcove, Marshal Tavannes our Hannibal's brother occupied a low stool, which was set opposite the open door of the closet.
Seeing the city tranquil, busy in preparation for the great Panathenaic festival, trusting in its protecting alliance with Rome, the recollection of the interview with the African assumed the vagueness of a dream. Perhaps Hannibal's words were only the arrogant boasts of youth.
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