the danger which threatened our
allies the Mamertines, and in the present the destruction of Saguntum,
girded us with just and pious arms. That you were the aggressors, both
you yourselves confess and the gods are witnesses, who determined the
issue of the former war, and who are now determining and will determine
the issue of the present according to right and justice. As to myself, I
am not forgetful of the instability of human affairs, but consider the
influence of fortune, and am well aware that all our measures are liable
to a thousand casualties. But as I should acknowledge that my conduct
would savor of insolence and oppression if I rejected you on your coming
in person to solicit peace before I crossed over into Africa, you
voluntarily retiring from Italy, and after you had embarked your troops,
so now, when I have dragged you into Africa almost by manual force,
notwithstanding your resistance and evasions, I am not bound to treat
you with any respect. Wherefore, if in addition to those stipulations on
which it was considered that a peace would at that time have been agreed
upon, and what they are you are informed, a compensation is proposed for
having seized our ships together with their stores during a truce, and
for the violence offered to our ambassadors, I shall then have matter to
lay before my council. But if these things also appear oppressive,
prepare for war, since you could not brook the conditions of peace."

Thus, without effecting an accommodation, when they had returned from
the conference to their armies, they informed them that words had been
bandied to no purpose, that the question must be decided by arms, and
that they must accept that fortune which the gods assigned them.

When they had arrived at their camps, they both issued orders that their
soldiers should get their arms in readiness and prepare their minds for
the final contest; in which, if fortune should favor them, they would
continue victorious, not for a single day, but forever. "Before
to-morrow night," they said, "they would know whether Rome or Carthage
should give laws to the world, and that neither Africa nor Italy, but
the whole world, would be the prize of victory. That the dangers which
threatened those who had the misfortune to be defeated were proportioned
to the rewards of the victors." For the Romans had not any place of
refuge in an unknown and foreign land, and immediate destruction seemed
to await Carthage if the tro