§1.1Hamilcar, Hannibalis filius, cognomine Barca, Karthaginiensis, primo Poenico bello, sed temporibus extremis, admodum adulescentulus in Sicilia praeesse coepit exercitui.
Hamilcar, the son of Hannibal, surnamed Barca, a Carthaginian, began to command the army in Sicily during the First Punic War, but in its final stages, as a very young man.
§1.2cum ante eius adventum et mari et terra male res gererentur Karthaginiensium, ipse ubi affuit, numquam hosti cessit neque locum nocendi dedit, saepeque e contrario occasione data lacessivit semperque superior discessit.
While before his arrival the affairs of the Carthaginians were conducted badly both by sea and by land, once he himself was present, he never yielded to the enemy nor gave them an opportunity to do harm, and on the contrary, when an opportunity was given, he often attacked and always came off superior.
quo facto, cum paene omnia in Sicilia Poeni amisissent, ille Erycem sic defendit, ut bellum eo loco gestum non videretur.
When this was done, although the Carthaginians had lost almost everything in Sicily, he defended Eryx in such a manner that the war did not seem to have been carried on in that place.
§1.3interim Karthaginienses classe apud insulas Aegates a C. Lutatio, consule Romanorum, superati statuerunt belli facere finem eamque rem arbitrio permiserunt Hamilcaris.
In the meantime, the Carthaginians, defeated in a naval battle near the Aegates Islands by C. Lutatius, the Roman consul, decided to make an end of the war and left that matter to the judgment of Hamilcar.
ille etsi flagrabat bellandi cupiditate, tamen paci serviundum putavit, quod patriam exhaustam sumptibus diutius calamitates belli ferre non §1.4posse intellegebat, sed ita ut statim mente agitaret, si paulum modo res essent refectae, bellum renovare Romanosque armis persequi, donicum aut virtute vicissent aut victi manus dedissent.
Although he was burning with a desire for fighting, yet he thought he must serve peace, because he understood that his country, exhausted by expenses, could no longer bear the calamities of war, but in such a way that he immediately turned over in his mind that, if affairs should be only a little restored, he would renew the war and pursue the Romans with arms, until they either conquered by valor or yielded being defeated.
§1.5hoc consilio pacem conciliavit, in quo tanta fuit ferocia, cum Catulus negaret bellum compositurum, nisi ille cum suis, qui Erycem tenerent, armis relictis Sicilia decederent, ut succumbente patria ipse periturum se potius dixerit, quam cum tanto flagitio domum rediret: non enim suae esse virtutis arma a patria accepta adversus hostes adversariis tradere.
With this design he brought about peace, in which there was such great fierceness—when Catulus said that he would not settle the war unless he with his men, who held Eryx, should leave Sicily with their arms abandoned—that, though his country was succumbing, he said he would rather perish himself than return home with such great disgrace; for he said it was not of his valor to hand over to his adversaries the arms received from his country against the enemy.
huius pertinaciae cessit Catulus.
Catulus yielded to this persistence.