that formidable onset.

Arnold, whose account of Hannibal's campaigns in Italy is by much the
best which has been given in modern times to the world, and more
scientific and discriminating than either of the immortal narratives of
the ancient historians, has clearly brought out two important truths
from their examination. The first is, that it was Hannibal's superiority
in cavalry, and, above all, the incomparable skill and hardihood of his
Numidian horse, which gave him what erelong proved an undisputed
superiority in the field; the second, that it was the strength of the
towns in the Roman alliance in the south of Italy, and the want of siege
artillery on the side of the Carthaginian general, which proved their
salvation. So undisputed did the superiority of the invading army
become, that, after the battle of Cannae, it was a fixed principle with
the Roman generals, during the thirteen subsequent campaigns that
ensued in Italy, never on any occasion, or with any superority of force
whatever, to hazard a general battle. Such was their terror of the
African horse, that the sight of a few Numidian uniforms in the fields
was sufficient to make a whole consular army stand to its arms. So
paralysed was the strength of Rome by the slaughter of Cannae, that Capua
soon after revolted and became the headquarters of Hannibal's army; and,
out of the thirty Roman colonies, no less than twelve sent in answer to
the requisitions of the consuls, that they had not a man or a penny more
to send, and that Rome must depend on its own resources. Never, not even
when the disasters of Thrasymene and Cannae were first heard, was such
consternation apparent in Rome, as when that mournful resolution was
communicated in the Forum.

In truth, such was the prostration of the strength of Rome by these
terrible defeats, that the republic was gone but for the jealousy of the
Carthaginian government, which hindered them from sending any efficient
succours to Hannibal, and the unconquerable spirit of the Roman
aristocracy, which rose with every disaster which ensued, and led them
to make efforts in behalf of their country which appear almost
superhuman, and never have been equalled by any subsequent people on
earth. Republican as he is in his ideas, Arnold, with his usual candour
as to facts, admits, in the strongest manner, those prodigious efforts
made by the patricians of Rome on this memorable occasion; and that the
issue of the contest, and wit