carried on his first access to
Africa. Nor does he recollect that the ports of Africa were open to
that very commander, unfortunate as he was; that he performed some
brilliant services during the first year, and continued undefeated
to the last, so far as related to the Carthaginian generals. You will
not, therefore, in the least deter me by that example of yours. If
that disaster had been sustained in the present, and not in the former
war, if lately, and not forty years ago, yet why would it be less
advisable for me to cross over into Africa after Regulus had been
made prisoner there, than into Spain after the Scipios had been slain
there? I should be reluctant to admit that the birth of Xanthippus
the Lacedaemonian was more fortunate for Carthage than mine for my
country. My confidence would be increased by the very circumstance,
that such important consequences depended upon the valour of one
man. But further, we must take warning by the Athenians, who
inconsiderately crossed over into Sicily, leaving a war in their own
country. Why, therefore, since you have leisure to relate Grecian
tales, do you not rather set before us the instance of Agathocles,
king of Syracuse, who, when Sicily was for a long time wasted by a
Punic war, by passing over into this same Africa, removed the war to
the country from whence it came.

44. "But what need is there of ancient and foreign examples to remind
us what sort of thing it is boldly to carry terror against an enemy,
and, removing the danger from oneself, to bring another into peril?
Can there be a stronger instance than Hannibal himself, or one more
to the point? It makes a great difference whether you devastate the
territories of another, or see your own destroyed by fire and sword.
He who brings danger upon another has more spirit than he who repels
it. Add to this, that the terror excited by unknown circumstances is
increased on that account. When you have entered the territory of an
enemy, you may have a near view of his advantages and disadvantages.
Hannibal did not expect that it would come to pass that so many of the
states in Italy would come over to him as did so after the defeat at
Cannae. How much less would any firmness or constancy be experienced
in Africa by the Carthaginians, who are themselves faithless allies,
oppressive and haughty masters! Besides, we, even when deserted by
our allies, stood firm in our own strength, the Roman soldiery. The
Carthaginians poss