ossess, Quintus Fabius, but,
(and in saying it I mean no offence,) if I can, even to exceed it. Let
not such a feeling exist in your mind towards me, nor in mine towards
those who are my juniors, as that we should be unwilling that any of
our countrymen should attain to the same celebrity with ourselves; for
that would be a detriment, not to those only who may be the objects
of our envy, but to the state, and almost to the whole human race. He
mentioned what a great degree of danger I should incur, should I cross
over into Africa, so that he appeared solicitous on my account, and
not only for the state and the army. But whence has this concern for
me so suddenly sprung? When my father and uncle were slain; when their
two armies were cut up almost to a man; when Spain was lost; when four
armies of the Carthaginians and four generals kept possession of every
thing by terror and by arms; when a general was sought for to take the
command of that war, and no one came forward besides myself, no one
had the courage to declare himself a candidate; when the Roman people
had conferred the command upon me, though only twenty-four years of
age; why was it that no one at that time made any mention of my age,
of the strength of the enemy, of the difficulty of the war, and of the
recent destruction of my father and uncle? Has some greater disaster
been suffered in Africa now than had at that time befallen us
in Spain? Are there now larger armies in Africa, more and better
generals, than were then in Spain? Was my age then more mature for
conducting a war than now? Can a war with a Carthaginian enemy be
carried on with greater convenience in Spain than in Africa? After
having routed and put to flight four Carthaginian armies; after having
captured by force, or reduced to submission by fear, so many cities;
after having entirely subdued every thing as far as the ocean, so
many petty princes, so many savage nations; after having regained
possession of the whole of Spain, so that no trace of war remains,
it is an easy matter to make light of my services; just as easy as
it would be, should I return victorious from Africa, to make light of
those very circumstances which are now magnified in order that they
may appear formidable, for the purpose of detaining me here. He says
that there is no possibility of entering Africa; that there are no
ports open. He mentions that Marcus Atilius was taken prisoner in
Africa, as if Marcus Atilius had mis