expofe his life for imperious lords, with whom he can neither share the dignities of the ftate, nor in private life have alliance by marriage.

SPEECH of PUBLIUS SCIPIO to the ROMAN ARMY, before the battle of the Ticin.

I.

Wat is Gath, I might well forbear faying any thing to

ERE you, foldiers the fame army which I had with

me

you at this time: for what occafion could there be to uie ex. ertation to cavalry that had fo fignally vanquished the squadrons of the enemy opon the Rhone; or to legions, by whom the fame enemy, flying before them to avoid a battle, did in effect confefs themtelves conquered?

2. But, as thele troops having been enrolled for Spain are there with my brother Cneius, making war under my aufpices (as was the will of the Senate and people of Rome) I, that you might have a Conful for your Captain againft Hannibal and the Carthaginians, have freely offered myself for this war. You then have a new Genera: : and I a new army. On this account, a few words from me to you will be neither improper nor unrea fonable.

3. That you may not be unapprifed of what fort of enemies you are going to encounter, or of what is to be feared from them; they are the very fame, whom in a former war, you van. quifhed both by land and fea; the fame from whom you took Sicilly and Sardinia, and who have been these twenty years your tributaries,

4. You will not, I prefume, march against thefe men with only that courage with which you are wont to face other ene mies; but with a certain anger and indignation, such as you would feel if you faw your flaves on a fudden rife up against you.

5. Conquered and enflaved, it is not boldnefs, but neceflity that urges them to battle; unless you can believe that thofe who avoid fighting when their army was entire, have acquired better hope by the lofs of two thirds of their horfe and foot by paffing the Alps.

6. But you have heard perhaps, that though they are few in numbers they are men of ftout hearts, and robuft bodies; he roes of fuch ftrength and vigor, as nothing is able to refift.Mere effigies! nay, fhadows of men wretches emaciated with hunger, and benumbed with cold; bruized and batter. ed to pieces among the rocks and craggy cliffs! their weapong

oroken, and their horfes weak and foundered! Such are the cavalry, and fuch the infantry, with which you are going to contend; not enemics but the fragments of enemies.

7. There is nothmg which I more apprehend, than that it will be thought Hannibal was vanquished by the Alps before we had any conflict with him. But, perhaps, it was fitting it should be so ; and that, with a people and a leader who had vi olated leagues and covenants, the gods themselves, without man's help, fhould begin the war, and bring it to a near conclufion; and that we, who, next to the gods, have been injured and offended, fhould happily finish what they have begun.

8. I need not be in any fear that you should fufpect me of faying these things merely to encourage you, while inwardly L have different fentiments. What hindred me from going to Spain? That was my province, where I should have had the lefs dreadful Afdrubal, not Hannibal to deal with.

9. But hearing, as I paffed along the coaft of Gaul, of this enemy's march, I landed my troops, fent the horfe forward, and pitched my camp upon the Rhone. A part of my cavalry encountered, and defeated that of the enemy. My infantry, not being able to overtake theirs which fled before us, I returned to my fleet; and, with all the expedition I could use in so long a voyage by fea and land, am come to meet them at the foot of the Alps.

10. Was it, then, my inclination to avoid a conteft with this tremenduous Hannibal? and have I met with him only by ac.. cident and unawares? or am I come on purpose to challenge trim to the combat?

11. I would gladly try, whether the earth, within these twenty years, has brought forth a new kind of Carthagenians; or whether they be the fame fort of men who fought at the Ægates, and whom at Eryx, you fuffered to redeem themselves at eighteen denarii a head: whether this Hannibal, for labors and journies, be as he would be thought, the rival of Hercules; or whether he be, what his father left him, a tributary, a vassal, a flave of the Roman people.

12. Did not the consciousness of his wicked deed at Sagun tum torment him and make him defperate, he would have fome regard, if not to his conquered country, yet furely to his own family, to his father's meinory, to the treaty written with Amilcar's own hand. We might have tarved him in Eryx; we might have paffed into Africa with our victorious fleet; and in a few days have destroyed Carthage. At their humble fuppli

cation, we pardoned them, we releafed them, when they wer cloftly shut up without a poffibility of efcaping; we make peace with them when they were conquered.

13. When they were diftreffed by the African war, we con fidered them, we treated them,, as a people under our ptotec. tion: And what is the return they made us for all these favors! Under the conduct of a hair-brained young man, they come hith er to overturn our fate, and lay walte to our country.

14. I could wish, indeed, that it were not fo; and that the war we are now engaged in concerned only our own glory, and not our prefervation. But the conteft at prefent is not for the poffeffion of Sicilly and Sardinia, but of Italy itfelf: nor is there behind us another army, which, if we fhould not prove con querors, may make head againft our victorious enemies.

15. There are no more Alps for them to pafs, which might give us, leifure to raife new forces: No, foldiers; here you must take your ftands, as if you were just now before the walk of Rome. Let every one reflect, that he is now to defend not his own perfon only, but his wife, his children, his helpless in fants.

16. Yet let not private confiderations alone poffefs our minds; let us remember that the eyes of the Senate and people of Rome are upon us; and that, as our force and courage fhall now prove, fuch will be the fortune of that city and of the Roman empire.

CAIUS MARIUS to the Romans; fhewing the abfurdity of their hefitating to confer on him the rank of General, merely on ac count of his extraЯion.

I'

Tis but too common, my countrymen, to obferve a ma

candidates for places of power and truft, before and after their obtaining them.

2. 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.

3. It is, undoubtedly, no eafy matter to discharge, to the general fatisfaction, the duty of a fupreme commander in trou blefome times.

4. To carry on, with effect, an expenfive war, and yet be frugal of the public money; to oblige thofe to ferve, whom

it may be delicate to offend; to conduct at the fame time a com plicated variety of operations; to concert measures at home, answerable to the ftate of things abroad; and to gain very valuable end, in fpite of oppofition from the envious, the actious, and the difaffected. To do all this, my countrymen, s more difficult than is generally thought.

5. But befides the difadvantages which are common to me with all others in eminent ftations, may cafe is, in this refpect, peculiarly hard; that whereas a commander of Patrician rank, if he is guilty of a neglect or breach of duty, has his great connections, the antiquity of his family, the important ervices of his ancestors, and the multitudes he has, by power, engaged in his intereft, to screen him from condign punishment -my whole fafety depends upon my felf, which renders it the more indifpenfibly neceffary for me to take care that my con duct be clear and unexceptionable,

6. Befides I am well aware, my countrymen, that the eye of the public is upon me; and that, tho the impartial, who prefer the real advantage of the commonwealth to all other confiderations, favor my pretenfions, the Patricians want nothing fo much as an occafion against me.

7. It is therefore my fixed refolution to ufe my beft endeav prs, that you be not difappointed in me, and that their indirect defigns against me may be defeated.

8. I have from my youth been familiar with toils and with dangers. I was faithful to your intereft, my countrymen, when I ferved you for no reward but that of honor. It is not my defign to betray you, now that you have conferred upon me a place of profit.

9. You have committed to my conduct the war against Jugur tha. The Patricians are offended at this. But where would be the wifdom of giving fuch a command to one of their honor. able body? a perfon of illuftrious birth, of ancient family, of innumerable ftatutes but-of no experience..

10. What fervice would his long line of dead ancestors, or his multitude of motionlefs ftatues, do his country in the day of battle? What could fuch a general do, but in his trepidation and inexperience, have recourfe to fome inferior commander for direction in difficulties to which he was not himself equal Thus, your Patrician general would in fact have a general over him ; fo that the acting commander would ftill be a Plebeian.

11. So true is this, my countrymen, that I have myfelf known thofe who have been chofen Confuls, begin then to read

the hiftory of their own country, of which till that time were totally ignorant; that is, they fit obtained the em, ment, and then bethought them felves of the qualification ceffery for the proper difcharge of it,

12. I fubmit to your judgment, Romans, on which fide advantage lies, when a comparifon is made between Patri haughtinefs and Plebeian experience. The very actions wh they have only read, I have partly feen, and partly myfeli chieved. What they know by reading, I know by action. They are pleafed to flight my mean birth; I defpife their me characters. Want of birth and fortune is the objection agai me; want of perfonal worth againft them.

13. But are not all men of the fame fpecies? What c make a differerce between one man and another, but the dowments of the mind? For my part, I fhall always look on the bravest man as the nobleft man. Suppofe it weret quired of the fathers of fuch Patricians as Albinus and Bet whether, if they had their choice, they would defire fons their character or of mine? What would they anfwer, but th they should wish the worthieft to be their fons? If the Pat cians have reason to defpife me, let them likewife despise the ancestors, whofe nobility was the fruit of their virtue. they envy the honors bestowed on me? Let them envy wife my labors, my abftinence, and the dangers I have unde gone my country, by which I have acquired them.

for

14. But thofe worthlefs men lead fuch a life of inactivit as if they defpifed any honors. you can deftow; whilft the afpire to honors as if they had deferved them by the mo induftrious virtue. They lay claim to the rewards of activity for their having enjoyed the pleasures of luxury, yet none ca be more lavish than they are in praise of their ancestors. A they imagine they honor themfelves by celebrating their for fathers; whereas they do the very contrary for, as mud as their ancestors were diftinguished for their virtues, fo much are they difgraced by their vices.

are.

15. The glory of ancestors cats a light indeed, upon the pofterity; but it only ferves to fhow what the defcendan It alike exhibits to public view their degeneracy and their worth. I own I cannot boat of the deeds of my fore fathers but I hope I may anfwer the cavils of the Patrician by flanding up in defence of what I have myfelf done.

16. Obferve now my countrymen, the injuftice of the Patricians. They arrogate to themselves honors on account of