History of Rome

“If, Lucius Aemilius, you either had a colleague like yourself, which I should have preferred, or you were like your colleague, my speech would be superfluous;

​for if you were two good consuls, even without my speaking, you would do everything in accordance with the public interest and your own loyalty, and if you were bad, you would neither receive my words with your ears nor my counsels in your minds.

​As it is, looking at both your colleague and you, who are such a man, all my speech is directed to you, whom I see will be a good man and citizen in vain, if, with the republic limping on one side, evil counsels shall have the same right and power as good ones.

​For you are mistaken, Lucius Paulus, if you think you will have less of a contest with Gaius Terentius than with Hannibal; I suspect that this adversary may remain a more dangerous opponent to you than that enemy, ​since you will fight with the latter only in the line of battle, but with the former in all places and at all times, and while against Hannibal and his legions you must fight with your horse and foot, Varro as general will attack you with your own soldiers. May the memory of Gaius Flaminius be absent from you, even for the sake of the omen.

​Yet he, after all, only began to rage when consul, both in his province and with the army; this man, before he sought the consulship, then while seeking the consulship, and now too as consul, before he has seen the camp or the enemy, is insane.

​And he who even now, while among those wearing the toga, excites such great storms by boasting of battles and battle lines, what do you think he will do among armed youth, and where action immediately follows words?

​And yet if, as he declares he will do, he fights immediately, either I am ignorant of military affairs, of this kind of war, and of this enemy, or some other place more famous than Trasimene will exist for our disasters.

​Nor is this the time for boasting against one man, and I would rather have exceeded the limit in despising glory than in seeking it; but the matter stands thus: there is only one method of waging war against Hannibal, the one by which I waged it.

​Nor does the outcome alone teach this—that is the teacher of fools—; but the same reasoning which was valid will remain in the future, unchanged as long as the circumstances remain the same.

​We are waging war in Italy, in our own home and soil; everything around us is full of citizens and allies; they assist and will assist us with arms, men, horses, and provisions:

​they have already given this proof of loyalty in our adversity; time and days make us better, more prudent, and more steadfast; Hannibal, on the other hand, in a foreign, ​hostile land, is in the midst of everything unfriendly and dangerous, far from home, from his country; there is peace for him neither by land nor by sea; no cities receive him, no walls;

​he sees nothing anywhere that is his own; he lives on daily plunder; he has scarcely a third part of that army which he led across the river Hiberus; more have been consumed by hunger than by the sword, nor is there now enough food provided even for these few.

​Do you doubt, then, that by sitting still we shall conquer him who grows weaker day by day, who has no provisions, no reinforcements, no money?

​How long has he been sitting before the walls of Gereonium, a poor fort of Apulia, as if before the walls of Carthage? But I will not boast of myself even to you: see how Servilius and Atilius, ​the last consuls, baffled him. This is the single way of safety, Lucius Paulus, which your fellow citizens will make more difficult and dangerous for you than your enemies.

​For your soldiers will want the same thing as the enemy’s soldiers, and Varro, the Roman consul, will desire the same thing as Hannibal, the Carthaginian general. You, one man, must resist two generals. And you will resist them, if you stand sufficiently firm against the reputation and rumors of men, if neither the vain glory of your colleague nor your own false infamy moves you.

​They say that truth too often suffers, but is never extinguished; he who has despised vain glory will have true glory. Let them, ​call you timid instead of cautious, slow instead of deliberate, cowardly instead of skilled in war. I prefer that a wise enemy should fear you, rather than foolish citizens praise you. Hannibal will despise one who dares all things, but will fear one who does nothing rashly. Nor do I, ​advise that nothing should be done, but that reason, not fortune, should guide you as you act; let yourself and all your resources always be under your own power; be armed and intent; neither fail your own opportunity nor give his opportunity to the enemy. All things will be clear and certain to one who does not hasten;

​haste is improvident and blind.”