he nature of the war nor of the enemy, you
have to fight, soldiers, with those whom in the former war you
conquered both by land and sea; from whom you have exacted tribute for
twenty years; from whom you hold Sicily and Sardinia, taken as the
prizes of victory. In the present contest, therefore, you and they
will have those feelings which are wont to belong to the victors and
the vanquished. Nor are they now about to fight because they are
daring, but because it is unavoidable; except you can believe that
they who declined the engagement when their forces were entire, should
have now gained more confidence when two-thirds of their infantry and
cavalry have been lost in the passage of the Alps, and when almost
greater numbers have perished than survive. Yes, they are few indeed,
(some may say,) but they are vigorous in mind and body; men whose
strength and power scarce any force may withstand. On the contrary,
they are but the resemblances, nay, are rather the shadows of men;
being worn out with hunger, cold, dirt, and filth, and bruised and
enfeebled among stones and rocks. Besides all this, their joints are
frost-bitten, their sinews stiffened with the snow, their limbs
withered up by the frost, their armour battered and shivered, their
horses lame and powerless. With such cavalry, with such infantry, you
have to fight: you will not have enemies in reality, but rather their
last remains. And I fear nothing more than that when you have fought
Hannibal, the Alps may appear to have conquered him. But perhaps it
was fitting that the gods themselves should, without any human aid,
commence and carry forward a war with a leader and a people that
violate the faith of treaties; and that we, who next to the gods have
been injured, should finish the contest thus commenced and nearly
completed."

41. "I do not fear lest any one should think that I say this
ostentatiously for the sake of encouraging you, while in my own mind I
am differently affected. I was at liberty to go with my army into
Spain, my own province, whither I had already set out; where I should
have had a brother as the bearer of my councils and my dangers, and
Hasdrubal, instead of Hannibal, for my antagonist, and without
question a less laborious war: nevertheless, as I sailed along the
coast of Gaul, having landed on hearing of this enemy, and having sent
forward the cavalry, I moved my camp to the Rhone. In a battle of
cavalry, with which part of my forces the