23.42
Both
nations sent envoys simultaneously to Hannibal, who addressed him thus:
"We have been the enemies of Rome, Hannibal, from very early times. At
first we fought her in our own might as long as our arms, our strength,
sufficed to protect us. When we could trust them no more we took our place
by the side of King Pyrrhus; when we were abandoned by him we were
compelled to accept terms of peace and by those terms we stood for almost
fifty years, down to the time of your arrival in Italy. It was your conspicuous
courtesy and kindness towards our fellow-countrymen who were your
prisoners and whom you sent back to us, quite as much as your courage and
success, which have so won our hearts that as long as you, our friend, are
safe and prosperous we should not fear -I do not say the Romans, but -even
the wrath of heaven, if I may say so without irreverence. But, good heavens!
while you are not only safe and victorious but actually here amongst us,
when you could almost hear the shrieks of our wives and children and see
our blazing houses, we have suffered such repeated devastations this summer
that it would seem as if M. Marcellus and not Hannibal had been the victor
at Cannae, and as if the Romans had good cause to boast that you have only
strength enough for one blow, and that like a bee that has left its sting you
are now inert and powerless. For a hundred years we have been at war with
Rome and no general, no army from without, has come to our aid save for
the two years when Pyrrhus used our soldiers to increase his strength rather
than use his strength to defend us. I will not boast of our successes -the two
consuls with their armies whom we sent under the yoke, and all the other
fortunate or glorious events which we can recall. The trials and sufferings we
then went through can be recounted with less bitter feelings than those which
are happening today. Then great Dictators with their Masters of the Horse
would invade our borders, two consuls and two consular armies found it
necessary to act together against us, and they took every precaution, careful
scouting, reserves duly posted, their army in order of battle, when they
ravaged our country; now we are the prey of a solitary propraetor and a
small garrison at Nola! They do not even march in military detachments, but
they scour the whole of our country like brigands and more carelessly than if
they were roaming about on Roman ground. The reason is simply this: you
do not defend us, and our soldiery who could protect us if they were at
home are all serving under your standards. I should be utterly ignorant of
you and your army if I did not think it an easy task for the man, by whom to
my knowledge so many Roman armies have been routed and laid low, to
crush these plunderers of our country while they are roving about in disorder
and wandering wherever any one is led by hopes of plunder, however futile
such hopes may be. They will be the prey of a few Numidians, and you will
relieve both us and Nola of its garrison if only you count the men whom you
thought worthy of your alliance still worthy of your protection."
