§26.19.1quaa ubi ab re tanto impetu acta sollicitudinem curamque hominum animadvertit, advocata contione ita de aetate sua imperioque mandato et bello, quod gerundum esset magno elatoque animo disseruit, §26.19.2ut ardorem eum, qui resederat, excitaret rursus novaretque et impleret homines certioris spei, quam quantam fides promissi humani aut ratio ex fiducia rerum subicere solet.
When he noticed the anxiety and concern of the people arising from a matter conducted with such great impulse, having called an assembly, he spoke with a great and elevated mind concerning his age, the command entrusted to him, and the war that had to be waged, in such a way that he aroused again and renewed that ardor which had subsided, and filled the people with a more certain hope than that which the trust in human promise or reason based on confidence in affairs is accustomed to suggest.
§26.19.3fuit enim Scipio non veris tantum virtutibus mirabilis, sed arte quoque quadam ab iuventa in ostentationem earum compositus, §26.19.4pleraque apud multitudinem aut ut per nocturnas visa species aut velut divinitus mente monita agens, sive et ipse capti quadam superstition animi, sive ut imperia consiliaque velut sorte oraculi missa sine cunctatione exsequerentur.
For Scipio was admirable not only for true virtues, but also from his youth he was fashioned by a certain art for the display of them, doing most things before the multitude either as if they were visions seen by night or as if suggested to his mind by divine inspiration, whether he himself was also possessed of a mind captured by some superstition, or so that they might execute his commands and plans without hesitation, as if sent by the lot of an oracle.
§26.19.5ad hoc iam inde ab initio praeparans animos, ex quo togam virilem sumpsit, nullo die prius ullam publicam privatamque rem egit, quam in Capitolium iret ingressusque aedem consideret et plerumque solus in secreto ibi tempus tereret.
Preparing their minds for this from the very beginning, from the time he assumed the toga of manhood, on no day did he conduct any public or private business before he went to the Capitol, and entering the temple, sat down, and for the most part alone in secret there spent his time.
§26.19.6hic mos, quem per omnem vitam servabat, seu consulto seu temere vulgatae opinioni fidem apud quosdam fecit stirpis eum divinae virum esse, §26.19.7rettulitque famam in Alexandro Magno prius vulgatam, et vanitate et fabula parem, anguis immanis concubitu conceptum, et in cubiculo matris eius visam persaepe prodigii eius speciem interventuque hominum evolutasn repente atque ex oculis elapsam.
This custom, which he preserved through his whole life, whether by design or by chance, produced belief in some people in the report, which had been spread abroad, that he was a man of divine offspring, and recalled the story previously spread about Alexander the Great, equal both in vanity and in fable, that he had been conceived from the embrace of an immense serpent, and that the appearance of that prodigy had been seen very often in his mother's bedchamber, and at the approach of people had suddenly coiled away and slipped out of sight.
§26.19.8his miraculis nunquam ab ipso elusa fides est; quin potius aucta arte quadam nec abnuendi tale quicquam nec palam adfirmandi.
The belief in these marvels was never discredited by him; rather, it was increased by a certain art of neither denying any such thing nor openly affirming it.
§26.19.9multa alia eiusdem generis, alia vera, alia adsimulata, admirationis humanae in eo iuvene excesserant modum; quibus freta tunc civitas aetati haudquaquam maturae tantam rerum molem tantumque imperium permisit.
Many other things of the same kind, some true, others feigned, had exceeded the measure of human admiration for that young man; relying on these, the state then entrusted so great a mass of affairs and so great a command to an age by no means mature.
§26.19.10ad eas copias quas ex vetere exercitu Hispania habebat quaeque a Puteolis cum C. Nerone traiectae erant, decem milia militum et mille equites adduntur; et M. Iunius Silanus propraetor adiutor ad res gerendas datus est.
To those forces which Spain had from the old army, and those which had been crossed over from Puteoli with Gaius Nero, ten thousand soldiers and a thousand horsemen were added; and Marcus Junius Silanus, the propraetor, was given as an assistant for conducting affairs.
§26.19.11ita cum triginta navium classe — omnes autem quinqueremes erant — ab ostiis Tiberinis profectus praeter oram Tusci maris, Alpes atque Gallicam sinum et deinde Pyrenaei circumvectus promunturium, Emporiis, urbe Graeca — oriundi et ipsi a Phocaea sunt —, copias exposuit.
Thus, having set out from the mouths of the Tiber with a fleet of thirty ships—now all of them were quinqueremes—he sailed past the coast of the Tuscan Sea, the Alps, and the Gallic Gulf, and then, having rounded the promontory of the Pyrenees, landed his forces at Emporiae, a Greek city—they themselves also having originated from Phocaea.
§26.19.12inde sequi navibus iussis Tarraconem pedibus profectus conventum omnium sociorum — etenim legationes ad famam eius ex omni se provincia effuderant — habuit.
Having ordered the ships to follow him from there, he proceeded on foot to Tarraco, and held a meeting of all the allies—for indeed, embassies had poured forth from the whole province at the report of him.
§26.19.13naves ibi subduci iussit remissis quattuor triremibus Massiliensium, quae officii causa ab domo prosecutae fuerant.
There he ordered the ships to be hauled ashore, after sending back the four triremes of the Massilians, which had escorted him from home for the sake of respect.
§26.19.14responsa inde legationibus suspensis varietate tot casuum dare coepit ita elato ab ingenti virtutum suarum fiducia animo, ut nullum ferox verbum excideret, ingensque omnibus, quae diceret, cum maiestas inesset tum fides.
Thereupon he began to give answers to the embassies, which were suspended in anxiety by the variety of so many events, with a mind so elevated by the immense confidence in his own virtues, that no arrogant word fell from him, and there was in everything he said both a great majesty and credibility.