Harangues of Hannibal and Scipio
Having by this example made the impression he desired upon the minds of his troops, Hannibal
then came forward himself and said, "that he
had exhibited these captives in order that they
might see in the person of others a vivid representation of
what they had to expect themselves, and might so lay their plans
all the better in view of the actual state of affairs. Fortune
had summoned them to a life and death contest very like that
of the two captives, and in which the prize of victory was the
same. For they must either conquer, or die, or fall alive into
the hands of their enemies; and the prize of victory would not
be mere horses and military cloaks, but the most enviable position in the world if they became masters of the wealth of
Rome:
or if they fell in battle their reward would be to end their
life fighting to their last breath for the noblest object, in the
heat of the struggle, and with no sense of pain; while if they
were beaten, or from desire of life were base enough to fly, or
tried to prolong that life by any means except victory, every
sort of misery and misfortune would be their lot: for it was
impossible that any one of them could be so irrational or
senseless, when he remembered the length of the journey he
had performed from his native land, and the number of
enemies that lay between him and it, and the size of the
rivers he had crossed, as to cherish the hope of being able
to reach his home by flight. They should therefore cast away
such vain hopes, and regard their position as being exactly
that of the combatants whom they had but now been watching.
For, as in their case, all congratulated the dead as much as the
victor, and commiserated the survivors; so they should think
of the alternatives before themselves, and should, one and all,
come upon the field of battle resolved, if possible, to conquer,
and, if not, to die. Life with defeat was a hope that must
by no means whatever be entertained. If they reasoned
and resolved thus, victory and safety would certainly attend
them: for it never happened that men who came to such
a resolution, whether of deliberate purpose or from being
driven to bay, were disappointed in their hope of beating their
opponents in the field. And when it chanced, as was the
case with the Romans, that the enemy had in most cases a
hope of quite an opposite character, from the near neighbourhood of their native country making flight an obvious means
of safety, then it was clear that the courage which came of
despair would carry the day."
When he saw that the example and the words he had
spoken had gone home to the minds of the rank and file, and
that the spirit and enthusiasm which he aimed at inspiring
were created, he dismissed them for the present with commendations, and gave orders for an advance at daybreak on
the next morning.
