§8.1At Hannibal anno quarto, postquam domo profugerat, L. Cornelio Q. Minucio consulibus, cum quinque navibus Africam accessit in finibus Cyrenaeorum, si forte Karthaginienses ad bellum inducere posset Antiochi spe fiduciaque, cui iam persuaserat ut cum exercitibus in Italiam proficisceretur.
But Hannibal, in the fourth year after he had fled from home, in the consulship of Lucius Cornelius and Quintus Minucius, approached Africa in the territory of the Cyrenaeans with five ships, to see if by chance he could induce the Carthaginians to war through hope and confidence in Antiochus, whom he had already persuaded to set out for Italy with his armies.
huc Magonem fratrem excivit.
To this place he summoned his brother Mago.
§8.2id ubi Poeni resciverunt, Magonem eadem, qua fratrem, absentem affecerunt poena.
When the Carthaginians found this out, they inflicted upon the absent Mago the same punishment as upon his brother.
illi desperatis rebus cum solvissent naves ac vela ventis dedissent, Hannibal ad Antiochum pervenit.
When they, in desperate circumstances, had loosed their ships and given their sails to the winds, Hannibal reached Antiochus.
de Magonis interitu duplex memoria prodita est: namque alii naufragio, alii a servulis ipsius interfectum eum scriptum reliquerunt.
Concerning the death of Mago, a twofold account has been handed down; for some left it written that he was killed in a shipwreck, others that he was slain by his own slaves.
§8.3Antiochus autem si tam in gerendo bello consiliis eius parere voluisset, quam in suscipiendo instituerat, propius Tiberi quam in Thermopylis de summa imperii dimicasset.
But if Antiochus had been as willing to obey his counsels in conducting the war as he had resolved in undertaking it, he would have fought for the supreme empire closer to the Tiber than at Thermopylae.
quem etsi multa stulte conari videbat, tamen nulla deseruit in re.
Although Hannibal saw that he was attempting many things foolishly, yet he did not desert him in any matter.
§8.4praefuit paucis navibus, quas ex Syria iussus erat in Asiam ducere, iisque adversus Rhodiorum classem in Pamphylio mari conflixit.
He was in command of a few ships, which he had been ordered to lead from Syria to Asia, and with them he clashed with the fleet of the Rhodians in the Pamphylian sea.
in quo cum multitudine adversariorum sui superarentur, ipse quo cornu rem gessit fuit superior.
In this battle, although his own men were being overcome by the multitude of the adversaries, he himself was superior on the wing where he conducted the action.