e before the
age of forty. He twice crossed the Rhine, and conquered all Gaul, and
had twice passed over to Britain, before the age of forty-five; at
fifty-two he had won the field of Pharsalia, and attained the supreme
power. He died in the fifty-sixth year of his age, the victor of five
hundred battles, and the conqueror of a thousand cities.

Hannibal joined the Carthaginian army in Spain at twenty-two, and was
made commander-in-chief at twenty-six. Victorious in Spain and France,
he crossed the Alps and won the battle of Cannae before the age of
thirty-one.

Scipio Africanus, (the elder,) at the age of sixteen distinguished
himself at the battle of Ticinus; at twenty was made edile, and soon
after pro-consul in Spain; at twenty-nine he won the great battle of
Zama, and closed his military career. Scipio Africanus (the younger)
also distinguished himself in early life; at the age of thirty six he
had conquered the Carthaginian armies and completed the destruction of
Carthage.

Gengis-Khan succeeded to the domain of his father at the age of
thirteen, and almost immediately raised an army of thirty thousand men,
with which he defeated a numerous force of rebels, who had thought to
take advantage of his extreme youth to withdraw from his dominion. He
soon acquired a military reputation by numerous conquests, and before
the age of forty had made himself emperor of Mogul.

Charlemagne was crowned king at twenty-six, conquered Aquitania at
twenty-eight, made himself master of France and the greater part of
Germany at twenty-nine, placed on his brows the iron crown of Italy at
thirty-two, and conquered Spain at thirty-six.

Gonsalvo de Cordova, the "great captain," entered the army at fifteen,
and before the age of seventeen had acquired a brilliant military
reputation, and was knighted by the king himself on the field of battle;
at forty-one he was promoted over the heads of older veterans and made
commander-in-chief of the army in Italy.

Henry IV. of France was placed at the head of the Huguenot army at the
age of sixteen, at nineteen he became king of Navarre; at forty he had
overthrown all his enemies, placed himself on the throne of France, and
become the founder of a new dynasty.

Montecuculi, at the age of thirty-one, with two thousand horse, attacked
ten thousand Swedes and captured all their baggage and artillery; at
thirty-two he gained the victory of Triebel, at forty-nine defeated the
Swedes and saved