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As to the second Punic war, it were tedious to recount the disasters
it brought on both the nations engaged in so protracted and shifting a
war, that (by the acknowledgment even of those writers who have made
it their object not so much to narrate the wars as to eulogize the
dominion of Rome) the people who remained victorious were less like
conquerors than conquered. For, when Hannibal poured out of Spain
over the Pyrenees, and overran Gaul, and burst through the Alps,
and during his whole course gathered strength by plundering and subduing
as he went, and inundated Italy like a torrent, how bloody were the
wars, and how continuous the engagements, that were fought! How
often were the Romans vanquished! How many towns went over to the
enemy, and how many were taken and subdued! What fearful battles
there were, and how often did the defeat of the Romans shed lustre on
the arms of Hannibal! And what shall I say of the wonderfully
crushing defeat at Cannae, where even Hannibal, cruel as he was,
was yet sated with the blood of his bitterest enemies, and gave orders
that they be spared? From this field of battle he sent to Carthage
three bushels of gold rings, signifying that so much of the rank of
Rome had that day fallen, that it was easier to give an idea of it by
measure than by numbers and that the frightful slaughter of the common
rank and file whose bodies lay undistinguished by the ring, and who
were numerous in proportion to their meanness, was rather to be
conjectured than accurately reported. In fact, such was the scarcity
of soldiers after this, that the Romans impressed their criminals on
the promise of impunity, and their slaves by the bribe of liberty, and
out of these infamous classes did not so much recruit as create an
army. But these slaves, or, to give them all their titles, these
freed-men who were enlisted to do battle for the republic of Rome,
lacked arms. And so they took arms from the temples, as if the
Romans were saying to their gods: Lay down those arms you have held
so long in vain, if by chance our slaves may be able to use to purpose
what you, our gods, have been impotent to use. At that time, too,
the public treasury was too low to pay the soldiers, and private
resources were used for public purposes; and so generously did
individuals contribute of their property, that, saving the gold ring
and bulla which each wore, the pitiful mark of his rank, no senator,
and much less any of the other orders and tribes, reserved any gold for
his own use. But if in our day they were reduced to this poverty, who
would be able to endure their reproaches, barely endurable as they are
now, when more money is spent on actors for the sake of a superfluous
gratification, than was then disbursed to the legions?
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