delivered up to the Romans, he never
ceased to combat their ambition with all the powers of his gigantic
intellect. If history had preserved no other proof of his profound
political discernment, it would be sufficiently established by the
memorable words he addressed to the senate of Carthage on the probable
fate of Rome:--"Nulla magna civitas diu quiescere potest. Si fores
hostem non habet, domi invenit; ut praevalida corpora ab externis causis
tutae videntur, sed suis ipsa viribus conficiuntur. Tantum nimirum ex
publicis malis sentimus quantum ad res privatas attinet, nec in eis
quidquam acrius quam pecuniae damnum stimulat." If anyone doubts the
truth and profound wisdom of these remarks, let him reflect on the exact
demonstration of these truths which was afforded two thousand years
after, in the British empire. "Si monumentum quaeris, circumspice."

He constantly affirmed that it was in Italy alone that Rome was
vulnerable, and that by striking hard and often there, she might be
conquered. He did not despair of effecting the deliverance of the world
by a conflict on their own shores, even after the battle of Zama had to
all appearance decisively settled the conflict in favour of the Capitol,
and nothing remained to combat the legions but the unwarlike soldiers of
the Eastern monarch. His own campaigns demonstrate that he was right:
the Gauls and the Carthaginians in different ages brought the Romans to
the brink of ruin; but it was by victories on the Tiber that Brennus and
Hannibal penetrated to their gates. Nor is it difficult to see to what
cause this comparative weakness at home of so great a military power was
owing. Rome was not merely a powerful state, but the head of a great
military confederacy; the resources which, partly by force, partly by
inclination, and the natural appetite of mankind for victory and
plunder, were ranged on her side, were in great part derived from
foreign states. When she carried the war into foreign states, this
formidable mass of auxiliaries doubled the strength of her legions; when
she was assailed at home, one half of them were lost, or appeared in the
ranks of her enemies. The same cause appeared at a subsequent period in
the campaigns of Napoleon: his armies were innumerable, his force
irresistible, as long as he headed the forced confederacy of western
Europe, and he invaded Russia with five hundred thousand men; but when
the disaster of Moscow, and the resurrection of German