warned that, instructed by so many
disasters, they would at length believe in the existence of the gods,
and the obligation of an oath, these conditions of the peace were
stated to them: "That they should enjoy their liberty and live under
their own laws; that they should possess such cities and territories
as they had enjoyed before the war, and with the same boundaries, and
that the Romans should on that day desist from devastation. That they
should restore to the Romans all deserters and fugitives, giving up
all their ships of war except ten triremes, with such tamed elephants
as they had, and that they should not tame any more. That they should
not carry on war in or out of Africa without the permission of the
Roman people. That they should make restitution to Masinissa, and
form a league with him. That they should furnish corn, and pay for the
auxiliaries until the ambassadors had returned from Rome. That they
should pay ten thousand talents of silver, in equal annual instalments
distributed over fifty years. That they should give a hundred
hostages, according to the pleasure of Scipio, not younger than
fourteen nor older than thirty. That he would grant them a truce on
condition that the transports, together with their cargoes, which had
been seized during the former truce, were restored. Otherwise they
would have no truce, nor any hope of a peace." When the ambassadors
who were ordered to bear these conditions home reported them in an
assembly, and Gisgo had stood forth to dissuade them from the
terms, and was being listened to by the multitude, who were at once
indisposed for peace and unfit for war, Hannibal, indignant that such
language should be held and listened to at such a juncture, laid
hold of Gisgo with his own hand, and dragged him from his elevated
position. This unusual sight in a free state having raised a murmur
among the people, the soldier, disconcerted at the liberties which the
citizens took, thus addressed them: "Having left you when nine years
old, I have returned after a lapse of thirty-six years. I flatter
myself I am well acquainted with the qualifications of a soldier,
having been instructed in them from my childhood, sometimes by my own
situation, and sometimes by that of my country. The privileges, the
laws, and customs of the city and the forum you ought to teach me."
Having thus apologized for his indiscretion, he discoursed largely
concerning the peace, showing how inoppressive the t