sion of the Carthaginian war.

6. With the permission of Lentulus, these men sent the most
distinguished of the cavalry and centurions, and a select body of the
legionary infantry, as ambassadors to Marcellus, to his winter
quarters. Having obtained leave to speak, one of them thus addressed
him: "We should have approached you, Marcus Marcellus, when consul in
Italy, as soon as that decree of the senate was passed respecting us,
which, though not unjust, was certainly severe, had we not hoped, that
being sent into a province which was in a state of disorder in
consequence of the death of its kings, to carry on an arduous war
against the Sicilians and Carthaginians together, we should make
atonement to the state by our blood and wounds, in the same manner as,
within the memory of our fathers, those who were taken prisoners by
Pyrrhus at Heraclea, made atonement by fighting against the same
Pyrrhus. And yet, for what fault of ours, conscript fathers, did you
then, or do you now, feel displeasure towards us; for when I look upon
you, Marcus Marcellus, I seem to behold both the consuls and the whole
body of the senate; and had you been our consul at Cannae, a better
fate would have attended the state as well as ourselves. Permit me, I
entreat you, before I complain of the hardship of our situation, to
clear ourselves of the guilt with which we are charged. If it was
neither by the anger of the gods, nor by fate, according to whose laws
the course of human affairs is unalterably fixed, but by misconduct
that we were undone at Cannae; but whose was that misconduct; the
soldiers', or that of their generals? For my own part, I, as a
soldier, will never say a word of my commander, particularly when I
know that he received the thanks of the senate for not having
despaired of the state; and who has been continued in command through
every year since his flight from Cannae. We have heard that others
also who survived that disaster, who were military tribunes, solicit
and fill offices of honour, and have the command of provinces. Do you
then, conscript fathers, pardon yourselves and your children, while
you exercise severity towards such insignificant persons as we are? It
was no disgrace to a consul and other leading persons in the state, to
fly when no other hope remained; and did you send your soldiers into
the field as persons who must of necessity die there? At the Allia
nearly the whole army fled; at the Caudine Forks the troop