§28.41.1illud te mihi ignoscere, P. Corneli, aequum erit, si, cum in me ipso numquam pluris famam hominum quam rem publicam fecerim, ne tuam quidem gloriam bono publico praeponam; §28.41.2quamquam, si aut bellum nullum in Italia aut is hostis esset, ex quo victo nihil gloriae quaereretur, qui te in Italia retineret, etsi id bono publico faceret, simul cum bello materiam gloriae tuae isse ereptum videri posset.
It will be fair, P. Cornelius, for you to forgive me for this, if, since in my own case I have never made the reputation of men of more value than the commonwealth, I do not prefer even your glory to the public good; although, if there were either no war in Italy or such an enemy from whose defeat no glory was to be sought, he who held you back in Italy, even if he did it for the public good, might seem to have snatched away, along with the war, the material of your glory.
§28.41.3cum vero Hannibal hostis incolumi exercitu quartum decimum annum Italiam obsideat, paenitebit te, P. Corneli, gloriae tuae, si hostem eum, qui tot funerum, tot cladium nobis causa fuit, tu consul Italia expuleris et, sicut penes C. Lutatium prioris Punici perpetrati belli titulus fuit, ita penes te huius fuerit?
But when Hannibal, the enemy, with his army intact, is besieging Italy for the fourteenth year, will you, P. Cornelius, be dissatisfied with your glory if you, as consul, expel from Italy that enemy who has been the cause of so many deaths and so many disasters to us, and, just as the honor of finishing the first Punic War was in the hands of C. Lutatius, so that of this war should be in yours?
§28.41.4nisi aut Hamilcar Hannibali dux est praeferundus aut illud bellum huic, aut victoria illa maior clariorque quam haec — modo contingat, ut te consule vincamus — futura est.
Unless either Hamilcar is to be preferred to Hannibal as a leader, or that war to this, or that victory is to be greater and more illustrious than this—provided it happens that we win under your consulship.
§28.41.5ab Drepanis aut Eryce detraxisse Hamilcarem quam Italia expulisse Poenos atque Hannibalem malis?
Would you prefer to have withdrawn Hamilcar from Drepana or Eryx rather than to have expelled the Carthaginians and Hannibal from Italy?
§28.41.6ne tu quidem, etsi magis partam quam speratam gloriam amplecteris, Hispania potius quam Italia bello liberata gloriatus fueris.
Even you yourself, although you embrace a glory already won rather than one hoped for, would not boast of Hispania being freed from war rather than Italy.
§28.41.7nondum is est Hannibal, quem non magis timuisse videatur quam contempsisse, qui aliud bellum maluerit.
Hannibal is not yet such a one that he who prefers another war should not seem to have feared him rather than to have despised him.
§28.41.8quin igitur ad hoc accingeris nec per istos circumitus, ut, cum in Africam traieceris, secuturum te illuc Hannibalem speres potius quam recto hinc itinere, ubi Hannibal est, eo bellum intendis, si egregiam istam palmam belli Punici patrati petis?
Why then do you not gird yourself for this, and instead of those roundabouts, so that you hope Hannibal will follow you there when you have crossed into Africa, why do you not direct the war there by a straight path from here, where Hannibal is, if you seek that outstanding palm of finishing the Punic War?
§28.41.9hoc et natura prius est tua cum defenderis, aliena ire oppugnatum; pax ante in Italia quam bellum in Africa sit, et nobis prius decedat timor quam ultro aliis inferatur.
This is also prior in your nature, when you have defended your own, to go to attack another's; let there be peace in Italy before there is war in Africa, and let fear depart from us before it is brought of our own accord to others.
§28.41.10si utrumque tuo ductu auspicioque fieri potest, Hannibale hic victo illic Carthaginem expugna; si altera utra victoria novis consulibus relinquenda est, prior cum maior clariorque, tum causa etiam insequentis fuerit.
If both can be done under your leadership and auspices, conquer Hannibal here and then storm Carthage there; if either victory must be left to the new consuls, the prior one, as it will be greater and more illustrious, so also will be the cause of the following one.
§28.41.11nam nunc quidem, praeterquam quod et in Italia et in Africa duos diversos exercitus alere aerarium non potest,
For indeed now, besides the fact that the treasury cannot support two different armies both in Italy and in Africa, besides the fact that nothing is left from which we may maintain fleets, from which we may suffice for providing provisions, what?
§28.41.12praeterquam quod, unde classes tueamur, unde commeatibus praebendis sufficiamus, nihil reliqui est, quid? periculi tandem quantum adeatur, quem fallit?
Who is deceived as to how great a danger is finally being approached?
§28.41.13P. Licinius in Italia, P. Scipio bellum in Africa geret: quid? si — quod omnes dei omen avertant et dicere etiam reformidat animus, sed quae acciderunt accidere possunt — victor Hannibal ire ad urbem perget, tum demum te consulem ex Africa, sicut Q. Fulvium a Capua, arcessemus? quid? quod in Africa quoque Mars communis belli erit?
P. Licinius will conduct the war in Italy, P. Scipio in Africa: what? If—which omen may all the gods avert, and my mind even dreads to say, but what has happened can happen—Hannibal as victor proceeds to go to the city, will we then at last summon you as consul from Africa, just as we did Q. Fulvius from Capua? What? Will not Mars also be common in the war in Africa?
§28.41.14domus tibi tua, pater patruusque intra triginta dies cum exercitibus caesi documento sint, §28.41.15ubi per aliquot annos maxumis rebus terra marique gerendis amplissimum nomen apud exteras gentes populi Romani vestraeque familiae fecerant.
Let your own house, your father and uncle slain within thirty days with their armies, be a lesson to you, where for several years, by conducting the greatest affairs by land and sea, they had made the name of the Roman people and of your family most illustrious among foreign nations.
§28.41.16dies me deficiat, si reges imperatoresque temere in hostium terram transgressos cum maximis cladibus suis exercituumque suorum enumerare velim.
Day would fail me if I wished to enumerate the kings and commanders who, having rashly crossed into the enemy's land, met with the greatest disasters for themselves and their armies.
§28.41.17Athenienses, prudentissima civitas, bello domi relicto, auctore aeque inpigro ac nobili iuvene magna classe in Siciliam tramissa, una pugna navali florentem rem publicam suam in perpetuum adflixerunt.
The Athenians, a most prudent state, leaving the war at home, and crossing with a great fleet into Sicily at the instance of a youth equally energetic and noble, ruined their flourishing commonwealth forever in a single naval battle.