ng debated, Croesus, contrary to
the opinion of other advisers, counselled Cyrus to go forward and meet
the queen, urging that were he to defeat her at a distance from her
kingdom, he might not be able to take it from her, since she would have
time to repair her strength; whereas, were he to defeat her within her
own dominions, he could follow her up on her flight, and, without giving
her time to recover herself, deprive her of her State. They cite
also the advice given by Hannibal to Antiochus, when the latter was
meditating a war on the Romans. For Hannibal told him that the Romans
could not be vanquished except in Italy, where an invader might turn to
account the arms and resources of their friends, whereas any one making
war upon them out of Italy, and leaving that country in their
hands, would leave them an unfailing source whence to draw whatever
reinforcement they might need; and finally, he told him, that the Romans
might more easily be deprived of Rome than of their empire, and of Italy
more easily than of any of their other provinces. They likewise instance
Agathocles, who, being unequal to support a war at home, invaded the
Carthaginians, by whom he was being attacked, and reduced them to sue
for peace. They also cite Scipio, who to shift the war from Italy,
carried it into Africa.

Those who hold a contrary opinion contend that to have your enemy at a
disadvantage you must get him away from his home, alleging the case of
the Athenians, who while they carried on the war at their convenience in
their own territory, retained their superiority; but when they quitted
that territory, and went with their armies to Sicily, lost their
freedom. They cite also the fable of the poets wherein it is figured
that Antaeus, king of Libya, being assailed by the Egyptian Hercules,
could not be overcome while he awaited his adversary within the bounds
of his own kingdom; but so soon as he was withdrawn from these by the
craft of Hercules, lost his kingdom and his life. Whence the fable runs
that Antaeus, being son to the goddess Earth, when thrown to the ground
drew fresh strength from the Earth, his mother; and that Hercules,
perceiving this, held him up away from the Earth.

Recent opinions are likewise cited as favouring this view. Every one
knows how Ferrando, king of Naples, was in his day accounted a most wise
prince; and how two years before his death there came a rumour that
Charles VIII of France was meditating an att