21.30
When
Hannibal had made up his mind to go forward and lose no time in reaching
Italy, his goal, he ordered a muster of his troops and addressed them in tones
of mingled rebuke and encouragement. "I am astonished," he said, "to see
how hearts that have been always dauntless have now suddenly become a
prey to fear. Think of the many victorious campaigns you have gone
through, and remember that you did not leave Spain before you had added to
the Carthaginian empire all the tribes in the country washed by two widely
remote seas. The Roman people made a demand for all who had taken part
in the siege of Saguntum to be given up to them, and you, to avenge the
insult, have crossed the Ebro to wipe out the name of Rome and bring
freedom to the world. When you commenced your march, from the setting
to the rising sun, none of you thought it too much for you, but now when
you see that by far the greater part of the way has been accomplished; the
passes of the Pyrenees, which were held by most warlike tribes, surmounted;
the Rhone, that mighty stream, crossed in the face of so many thousand
Gauls, and the rush of its waters checked -now that you are within sight of
the Alps, on the other side of which lies Italy, you have become weary and
are arresting your march in the very gates of the enemy. What do you
imagine the Alps to be other than lofty mountains? Suppose them to be
higher than the peaks of the Pyrenees, surely no region in the world can
touch the sky or be impassable to man. Even the Alps are inhabited and
cultivated, animals are bred and reared there, their gorges and ravines can be
traversed by armies. Why, even the envoys whom you see here did not cross
the Alps by flying through the air, nor were their ancestors native to the soil.
They came into Italy as emigrants looking for a land to settle in, and they
crossed the Alps often in immense bodies with their wives and children and
all their belongings. What can be inaccessible or insuperable to the soldier
who carries nothing with him but his weapons of war? What toils and perils
you went through for eight months to effect the capture of Saguntum! And
now that Rome, the capital of the world, is your goal, can you deem
anything so difficult or so arduous that it should prevent you from reaching
it? Many years ago the Gauls captured the place which Carthaginians despair
of approaching; either you must confess yourselves inferior in courage and
enterprise to a people whom you have conquered again and again, or else
you must look forward to finishing your march on the ground between the
Tiber and the walls of Rome."
