al
occasioned him further delay. First, the open ships, which the
king was to have sent with him to Africa, were slowly prepared, and
afterwards a consultation was set on foot whether he ought to be sent
at all, chiefly by Thoas the Aetolian; who, after setting all Greece
in commotion, came with the account of Demetrias being in the hands of
his countrymen; and as he had, by false representations concerning the
king, and multiplying, in his assertions, the numbers of his forces,
exalted the expectations of many in Greece; so now, by the same
artifices, he puffed up the hopes of the king; telling him, that
"every one was inviting him with their prayers, and that there would
be a general rush to the shore, from which the people could catch a
view of the royal fleet." He even had the audacity to attempt altering
the king's judgment respecting Hannibal when it was nearly settled.
For he alleged, that "the fleet ought not to be weakened by sending
away any part of it, but that if ships must be sent no person was
less fit for the command than Hannibal, for he was an exile and a
Carthaginian, to whom his own circumstances or his disposition might
daily suggest a thousand new schemes. Then as to his military fame,
by which, as by a dowry, he was recommended to notice, it was too
splendid for an officer acting under a king. The king ought to be the
grand object of view; the king ought to appear the sole leader, the
sole commander. If Hannibal should lose a fleet or an army the amount
of the damage would be the same as if the loss were incurred by any
other general; but should success be obtained, all the honour would be
ascribed to Hannibal, and not to Antiochus. Besides, if the war
should prove so fortunate as to terminate finally in the defeat of the
Romans, could it be expected that Hannibal would live under a king;
subject, in short, to an individual; he who could scarcely bear
subjection to his own country? That he had not so conducted himself
from early youth, having embraced the empire of the globe in his hopes
and aspirations, that in his old age he would be likely to endure a
master. The king wanted not Hannibal as a general: as an attendant and
a counsellor in the business of the war, he might properly employ him.
A moderate use of such abilities would be neither unprofitable nor
dangerous; but if advantages of the highest nature were sought through
him, they, probably, would be the destruction both of the giver and
th