A Lesson from history.
The extract given below is taken from Plutarch's Lives, and will be bound interesting in view of the position of the contending armies.
History is constantly repeating itself.
The
Fabius of yesterday is not unlike the
Fabius of to-day, and
Scipio of glorious memory is likely to find his antitype in our own
Jackson:
After
Publius Cornelius Scipio, who was sent pro-consul into
Spain, had driven the Carths gonfalons out of that province, and had reduced several towns and nations under the obedience of
Rome, he was received at his coming home with a general joy and acclamation of the people; who, to show their gratitude and high esteem for him designed him consul for the year ensuing.
Knowing what high expectation they had of him, he thought the design of only driving
Hannibal out of
Italy rot great enough to answer the hopes and the happiness they promised themselves from his consulship.
He therefore proposed no less a task to himself than to make
Carthage the seat of the war, and so to college
Hannibal, instead of invading the countries of others, to draw back and defend his own. To this end he made use of all the credit and favor he had with the people, and assiduously courting them, left no popular act united that he might gain them to second his design.
Fabius, on the other side, opposed with all his might this undertaking of
Scipio telling the people that nothing but the temerity of a hot young man could inspire them will such dangerous counsels, which, by drawing away their forces to parts so remote, might expose
Rome itself to be the conquest of
Hannibal.
His authority and persuasions prevailed with the Senate to espouse his sentiments; but the common people thought that he envied the fame of
Scipio, and that he was afraid lest this young conqueror should have the glory to drive
Hannibal out of
Italy and to the war, which had for so many years continued and protracted under his Government.
To say the truth, when Fabien first opposed this project of
Scipio, I believe he did it in consideration only of the public safety, and of the danger which the
Commonwealth might incur by such a proceeding.
But when he found
Scipio every day increasing in the esteem of the people, envy then, and ambition, took hold of him, which made him so violent in his opposition.
For he applied himself to
Crassus, the colleague of
Scipio, and persuaded him not to yield that province to
Scipio, but that (if his inclinations were for that war) he should himself in person lead the army to
Carthage.
He also hindered the giving money to
Scipio for the war, who was forced to raise it on his own credit and interest, and was supplied by the cities of hetrusia, which were wholly devoted to him. On the other side,
Crassus would not stir against him, nor remove out of
Italy, as being in his own nature an enemy to striate and contention, and also as having the care of religion by his office of high priest.
Wherefore
Fabius tried other wave to break the design; he declaimed both in the Senate and to the people that
Scipio did not only himself fly from
Hannibal, but did also endeavor to drain
Italy of all their forces, and to spirit away the youth of the country to a foreign war, leaving behind them their parents, wives, and children, a defenceless prey to the enemy at their doors.
With this he so terrified the people that at last they would only allow to
Scipio for the war the legions which were
Sicily, and three hundred of those men who had so bravely served him in
Spain.
In these transactions hitherto Sabius only seemed to follow the dictates of his own wary temper, But after that
Scipio was gone over into
Africa, when news was brought to
Rome of his wonderful exploits and victories, of a
Numidian King taken prisoner, of a vast slaughter of their men, of two camps of the enemy burnt and destroyed, and in a great quantity of arms and horses when hereupon the Cartilaginous had been compelled to send their envoys to
Hannibal to tail him home, and leave
Italy to defend Cartilage when for so dent and transcending services the whole people of
Rome, with no look gratitude than acclamation; cried p and extolled the actions of
Scipio, even then old Fables contended that a successor should be sent in his place, alleging for it only the old threadbare and pitiful reason of the mutability of fortune, as if she would be weary of long favoring the same person.
But this too manifestly laid open his obvious and morose author, wise nothing (not done by himself) could please him. Nay, when
Hannibal had put his army on shipboard, and taken leave of
Italy, and when the people had therefore decreed a thanksgiving day, did habits still oppose and disturb the universal joy of
Rome by spreading about his fears and apprehensions, and by telling them that the Common.
th was never more in danger than now and that
Hannibal was a more dreadful enemy under the walls of
Carthage than ever he had been in
Italy; that it would be fatal to
Rome whenever
Scipio should encounter his victorious army, still warm with the blood of so many
Roman Generals, Dictators, and Col. Some of the people were started with these declarations, and were brought to believe that the farther off
Hannibal was, the nearer was their danger.
But
Scipio afterwards fought
Hannibal and defeated them and sufficiently humbled the pride of hage, whereby the raised again the drooping
Alvita of the Romans, no more to he dejected, and firmly established their Empire, which the tempest of this punic war had to long caused to fluctuate.
