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[113]
32. Now, as Regulus deserves praise for1
being true to his oath, so those ten whom Hannibal
sent to the senate on parole after the battle of
Cannae deserve censure, if it is true that they did not
return; for they were sworn to return to the camp
which had fallen into the hands of the Carthaginians,
if they did not succeed in negotiating an exchange
[p. 395]
of prisoners. Historians are not in agreement in
regard to the facts. Polybius, one of the very best
authorities, states that of the ten eminent nobles
who were sent at that time, nine returned when
their mission failed at the hands of the senate. But
one of the ten, who, a little while after leaving the
camp, had gone back on the pretext that he had
forgotten something or other, remained behind at
Rome; he explained that by his return to the camp
he was released from the obligation of his oath.
He was wrong; for deceit does not remove the guilt
of perjury—it merely aggravates it. His cunning
that impudently tried to masquerade as prudence2
was, therefore, only folly. And so the senate
ordered that the cunning scoundrel should be taken
back to Hannibal in chains.
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