s of Italy, and within their view, with languid hopes and
without the prospect of bringing it to a speedy termination, Scipio and
Hannibal had stimulated the minds of all, as generals prepared for a
final contest. Even those persons whose confidence in Scipio and hopes
of victory were great, were affected with anxiety, increasing in
proportion as they saw their completion approaching. The state of
feeling among the Carthaginians was much the same; for when they turned
their eyes on Hannibal, and the greatness of his achievements, they
repented having solicited peace; but when again they reflected that they
had been twice defeated in a pitched battle, that Syphax had been made
prisoner, that they had been driven out of Spain and Italy, and that all
this had been effected by the valor and conduct of Scipio alone, they
regarded him with horror, as a general marked out by destiny, and born
for their destruction.

Hannibal had by this time arrived at Adrumetum, from which place, after
employing a few days there in refreshing his soldiers, who had suffered
from the motion by sea, he proceeded by forced marches to Zama, roused
by the alarming statements of messengers who brought word that all the
country around Carthage was filled with armed troops. Zama is distant
from Carthage a five days' journey. Some spies whom he sent out from
this place, being intercepted by the Roman guard and brought before
Scipio, he directed that they should be handed over to the military
tribunes, and after having been desired fearlessly to survey everything,
to be conducted through the camp wherever they chose; then, asking them
whether they had examined everything to their satisfaction, he assigned
them an escort and sent them back to Hannibal.

Hannibal received none of the circumstances which were reported to him
with feelings of joy, for they brought word that, as it happened,
Masinissa had joined the enemy that very day with six thousand infantry
and four thousand horse; but he was principally dispirited by the
confidence of his enemy, which, doubtless, was not conceived without
some ground. Accordingly, though he himself was the originator of the
war, and by his coming had upset the truce which had been entered into,
and cut off all hopes of a treaty, yet concluding that more favorable
terms might be obtained if he solicited peace while his strength was
unimpaired than when vanquished, he sent a message to Scipio requesting
permission to co