woman! But once only treated as a flave, fhe thought life no longer to be endured. Lucretia, a woman, difdained a life that depended on a tyrant's will; and shall we, shall men with fuch an example before our eyes, and after five-andtwenty years of ignominious fervitude, fhall we, through a fear of dying, defer one single inftant to affert our liberty? No, Romans: now is the time; the favourable moment we have so long waited for is come. Tarquin is not at Rome. The Patricians are at the head of the enterprize. The city. is abundantly provided with men, arms, and all things ne-cessary. There is nothing wanting to fecure the fuccefs, if our own courage does not fail us. And all thofe warriors, who have ever been fo brave when foreign enemies were to be fubdued, or when conquests were to be made to gratify the. ambition and avarice of Tarquin, be then only cowards, when they are to deliver themselves from flavery? Some of you are perhaps intimidated by the army which Tarquin now commands. The foldiers, you imagine, will take the part of their general. Banish fo groundless a fear. The love of liberty is natural to all men.. Your fellow-citizens in the camp feel the weight of oppreffion with as quick a fense as you that are in Rome: they will as eagerly feize the occafion of throwing off the yoke. But let us grant there may be fome among them, who, through bafeness of spirit, ́or a bad education, will be difpofed to favour the tyrant. The number of these can be but small, and we have means fufficient in our hands to reduce them to reason. They have left us hoftages more dear to them than life. Their wives, their children, their fathers, their mothers, are here in the city.. Courage, Romans! the gods are for us; thofe gods whofe temples and altars the impious Tarquin has profaned by facrifices facrifices and libations made with polluted hands, polluted with blood, and with numberlefs unexpiated crimes committed against his fubjects. Ye Gods, who protected our forefathers! ye Genii, who watch for the prefervation and glory of Rome! do you infpire us with courage and unanimity in this glorious caufe, and we will to our last breath defend your worship from all profanation. LIVE. CHAP. II. HANNIBAL TO HIS SOLDIERS. I KNOW not, foldiers, whether you or your prifoners be encompaffed by fortune with the ftricter bonds and neceffities. Two feas inclofe you on the right and left;not a ship to flee to for escaping. Before you is the Po, a river broader and more rapid than the Rhone; behind you are the Alps, over which, even when your numbers were undiminished, you were hardly able to force a passage. Here then, foldiers! you must either conquer or die, the very first hour you meet the enemy. But the fame fortune which has thus laid you under the neceflity of fighting, has fet before your eyes thofe rewards of victory, than which no men are ever wont to wish for greater from the immortal Gods. Should we, by our valour, recover only Sicily and Sardinia, which were ravished from our fathers, those would be no inconfiderable prizes. Yet what are thefe? The wealth of Rome, whatever riches she has heaped together in the spoils of nations, all these, with the masters of them, will be yours. You have been long enough employed in driving the cattle upon the vaft mountains of Lufitania and Celtiberia; you have hitherto met with no reward worthy of the labours and dangers you have under gone. gone. The time is now come to reap the full recompenfe of your toilfome marches over so many mountains and rivers, and through so many nations, all of them in arms. This is the place which fortune has appointed to be the limits of your labours; it is here that you will finish your glorious warfare, and receive an ample recompenfe of your completed fervice. For I would not have you imagine, that victory will be as difficult as the name of a Roman war is great and founding. It has often happened that a defpifed enemy has given a bloody battle, and the most renowned kings and nations have by a fmall force been overthrown. And if you but take away the glitter of the Roman name, what is there, wherein they may ftand in competition with you? For to fay nothing of your service in war for twenty years together, with fo much valour and fuccefs, from the very pillars of Hercules, from the ocean, from the utmost bounds of the earth, through fo many warlike nations of Spain and Gaul, are you not come hither victorious? And with whom are you now to fight? With raw foldiers, an undifciplined army, beaten, vanquished, befieged by the Gauls the very laft fummer, an army unknown to their leader, and unacquainted with him. OR fhall I, who was born, I might almost say, but certainly brought up, in the tent of my father, that most excellent general, shall I, the conqueror of Spain and Gaul, and not only of the Alpine nations, but, which is greater yet, of the Alps themfelves, fhall I compare myfelf with this half-year captain! A captain, before whom should one place the two armies without their enfigns, I am perfuaded he would not know to which of them he is consul? I esteem it no small advantage, foldiers, that there is not one among you, who has not often been an eye-witnefs of my exploits. in war; not one of whofe valour I myself have not been a fpectator, fo as to be able to name the times and places of his noble achievements; that with foldiers whom I have a thousand times praised and rewarded, and whose pupil I was, before I became their general. I fhall march against an army of men, ftrangers to one another. ON what fide foever I turn my eyes, I behold all full of courage and ftrength; a veteran infantry; a moft gallant. cavalry; you, my allies, most faithful and valiant ? you, Carthaginians, whom not only your country's cause, but the jufteft anger impels to battle. The hope, the courage of affailants, is always greater than of thofe who act upon the defenfive. With hoftile banners difplayed, you are come down upon Italy; you bring the war. Grief, injuries, indignities fire your minds, and fpur you forward to revenge! -First they demanded me; that I, your general, fhould be delivered up to them: next, all of you, who had fought at the fiege of Saguntum: and we were to be put to death by the extremeft tortures. Proud and cruel nation! Every thing. must be yours, and at your difpofal! You are to prescribe to us with whom we fhall make war, with whom we fhall make peace! You are to fet us bounds; to fhut us up within hills and rivers! but you--you are not to obferve the limits which yourselves have fixed! Pafs not the Iberus.. What next? Touch not the Saguntines; Saguntum is upon the Iberus, move not a step towards that city. Is it a small matter then, that you have deprived us of our ancient poffeffions, Sicily and Sardinia; you would have Spain too! Well, we fhall yield Spain; and then-you will pafs into Africa. Will pass, did I fay ?—This very year they ordered one of their confuls into Africa, the other into Spain. No, Soldiers! there it nothing left for us but what we can vindicate The vindicate with our fwords. Come on then! Be men. Romans may with more fafety be cowards; they have their own country behind them, have places of refuge to flee to, and are fecure from danger in the roads thither; but for you, there is no middle fortune between death and victory, Let this be but well fixed in your minds, and once again, I fay, you are conquerors. CHA P. III. LIVY. C. MARIUS TO THE ROMANS, ON THEIR HESITATING TO APPOINT HIM GENERAL IN THE EXPEDITION AGAINST JUGURTHA, MERELY ON AC COUNT OF HIS EXTRACTION. IT is but too common, my countrymen, to obferve a ma terial difference between the behaviour of thofe, who ftand candidates for places of power and truft, before, and after their obtaining them. They folicit them in one manner, and execute them in another. They fet out with a great appearance of activity, humility, and moderation; and they quickly fall into floth, pride, and avarice. It is, undoubtedly, no eafy matter to discharge, to the general fatisfaction, the duty of a fupreme commander in troublefome times. I am, I hope, duly fenfible of the importance of the office I propose to take upon me, for the fervice of my country. To carry on, with effect, an expensive war, and yet be frugal of the public money; to oblige those to serve, whom it may be delicate to offend; to conduct, at the fame time, a complicated variety of operations; to concert measures at home, anfwerable to the ftate of things abroad; and to gain every valuable end, in fpite of oppofition from the envious, the fa&tious, and the difaffected; to do all this, my countrymen, is more difficult, than is gene rally |
