the defeat at Cannae, although most momentous, being the
third they had met with, no whit daunted them; so that they continued
to send forth armies, refused to ransom prisoners as contrary to their
custom, and despatched no envoy to Hannibal or to Carthage to sue for
peace; but without ever looking back on past humiliations, thought
always of war, though in such straits for soldiers that they had to arm
their old men and slaves. Which facts being made known to Hanno the
Carthaginian, he, as I have already related, warned the Carthaginian
senate not to lay too much stress upon their victory. Here, therefore,
we see that in times of adversity the Romans were neither cast down nor
dismayed. On the other hand, no prosperity ever made them arrogant.
Before fighting the battle wherein he was finally routed, Antiochus sent
messengers to Scipio to treat for an accord; when Scipio offered peace
on condition that he withdrew at once into Syria, leaving all his other
dominions to be dealt with by the Romans as they thought fit. Antiochus
refusing these terms, fought and was defeated, and again sent envoys to
Scipio, enjoining them to accept whatever conditions the victor might be
pleased to impose. But Scipio proposed no different terms from those he
had offered before saying that "_the Romans, as they lost not heart on
defeat, so waxed not insolent with success._"

The contrary of all this is seen in the behaviour of the Venetians, who
thinking their good fortune due to valour of which they were devoid, in
their pride addressed the French king as "Son of St. Mark;" and making
no account of the Church, and no longer restricting their ambition to
the limits of Italy, came to dream of founding an empire like the Roman.
But afterwards, when their good fortune deserted them, and they met at
Vaila a half-defeat at the hands of the French king, they lost their
whole dominions, not altogether from revolt, but mainly by a base and
abject surrender to the Pope and the King of Spain. Nay, so low did
they stoop as to send ambassadors to the Emperor offering to become his
tributaries, and to write letters to the Pope, full of submission and
servility, in order to move his compassion. To such abasement were they
brought in four days' time by what was in reality only a half-defeat.
For on their flight after the battle of Vaila only about a half of their
forces were engaged, and one of their two provedditori escaped to Verona
with five and twent