ated on my family. But as the
orphanhood and desolation of my own family depresses my mind, so both
the good fortune and valour of our nation forbid me to despair of the
safety of the state. It has happened to us by a kind of fatality, that
in all important wars we have been victorious, after having been
defeated. I pass over those wars of ancient date with Porsena, the
Gauls, and Samnites. I will begin with the Punic wars. How many
fleets, generals, and armies were lost in the former war? Why should I
mention what has occurred in this present war? I have either been
myself present at all the defeats sustained, or have felt more than
any other those from which I was absent. What else are the Trebia, the
Trasimenus, and Cannae, but monuments of Roman armies and consuls
slain? Add to these the defection of Italy, of the greater part of
Sicily and Sardinia, and the last terror and panic, the Carthaginian
camp pitched between the Anio and the walls of Rome, and the
victorious Hannibal seen almost in our gates. Amid this general ruin,
the courage of the Roman people alone stood unabated and unshaken.
When every thing lay prostrate on the ground, it was this that raised
and supported the state. You, first of all, my soldiers, under the
conduct and auspices of my father, opposed Hasdrubal on his way to the
Alps and Italy, after the defeat of Cannae, who, had he formed a
junction with his brother, the Roman name would now have been extinct.
These successes formed a counterpoise to those defeats. Now, by the
favour of the gods, every thing in Italy and Sicily is going on
prosperously and successfully, every day affording matter of fresh
joy, and presenting things in a better light. In Sicily, Syracuse and
Agrigentum have been captured, the enemy entirely expelled the island,
and the province placed again under the dominion of the Romans. In
Italy, Arpi has been recovered and Capua taken. Hannibal has been
driven into the remotest corner of Bruttium, having fled thither all
the way from Rome, in the utmost confusion; and now he asks the gods
no greater boon than that he might be allowed to retire in safety, and
quit the territory of his enemy. What then, my soldiers, could be more
preposterous than that you, who here supported the tottering fortune
of the Roman people, together with my parents, (for they may be
equally associated in the honour of that epithet,) when calamities
crowded one upon another in quick succession, and even