§28.44.1sed quid ultro metum inferre hosti et ab se remoto periculo alium in discrimen adducere quale sit, veteribus externisque exemplis admonere opus est? maius praesentiusve ullum exemplum esse quam Hannibal potest?
But what need is there to remind you by ancient and foreign examples of what sort of thing it is to bring fear upon the enemy of one's own accord, and, having removed danger from oneself, to bring another into hazard? Can there be any greater or more present example than Hannibal?
§28.44.2multum interest, alienos populari fines an tuos uri et uideas; videas; plus animi est inferenti periculum quam propulsanti; ad hoc maior ignotarum rerum est terror;
There is a great difference between ravaging the territories of others and seeing, seeing your own being burned; there is more courage in one who brings danger than in one who repels it; in addition, the terror of unknown things is greater.
§28.44.3bona malaque hostium ex propinquo ingressus fines aspicias.
Once you have entered their borders, you can observe from nearby the advantages and disadvantages of the enemy.
§28.44.4non speraverat Hannibal fore, ut tot in Italia populi ad se deficerent, quot defecerunt post Cannensem cladem; quanto minus quicquam in Africa Carthaginiensibus firmum aut stabile sit, infidis sociis, gravibus ac superbis dominis.
Hannibal had not hoped that so many peoples in Italy would defect to him as defected after the disaster of Cannae; how much less is there anything secure or stable for the Carthaginians in Africa, who have faithless allies and oppressive and haughty masters.
§28.44.5ad hoc nos, etiam deserti ab sociis, viribus nostris, milite Romano stetimus; Carthaginiensi nihil civilis roboris est, mercede paratos milites habent, Afros Numidasque, levissima fidei mutandae ingenia.
To this, we, even when deserted by our allies, stood by our own strength, by Roman soldiery; the Carthaginian has no civic strength, they have soldiers procured by hire, Africans and Numidians, characters of the most fickle faith.
§28.44.6hic modo nihil morae sit: una et traiecisse me audietis et ardere bello Africam et obsideri Carthaginem.
Only let there be no delay here: at one and the same time you will hear both that I have crossed, and that Africa is ablaze with war, and that Carthage is besieged.
laetiores et frequentiores ex Africa expectate nuntios quam ex Hispania accipiebatis.
Expect happier and more frequent news from Africa than you used to receive from Hispania.
§28.44.7has mihi spes subicit fortuna populi Romani, di foederis ab hoste violati testes, Syphax et Masinissa reges, quorum ego fidei ita innitar, ut bene tutus a perfidia sim.
These hopes are suggested to me by the fortune of the Roman people, the gods who are witnesses of the treaty violated by the enemy, and the kings Syphax and Masinissa, on whose fidelity I shall so rely as to be well secured against treachery.
§28.44.8multa, quae nunc ex intervallo non apparent, bellum aperiet.
Many things which do not appear now from a distance, war will reveal.
et id est viri et ducis, non deesse fortunae praebenti se et oblata casu flectere ad consilium.
And it is the part of a man and a leader not to fail fortune when she offers herself, and to turn what is offered by chance into a plan.
§28.44.9habebo, Q. Fabi, parem, quem das, Hannibalem;
I shall have, Q.
sed illum ego potius traham, quam ille me retineat; in sua terra cogam pugnare eum, et Carthago potius praemium victoriae erit quam semiruta Bruttiorum castella.
Fabius, a match in Hannibal, whom you assign to me; but I shall rather draw him away than let him detain me; I shall force him to fight in his own land, and Carthage will be the prize of victory rather than the half-ruined forts of the Bruttii.
§28.44.10ne quid interim, dum traicio, dum expono exercitum in Africa, dum castra ad Carthaginem promoveo, res publica hic detrimenti capiat, quod tu, Q. Fabi, cum victor tota volitaret Italia Hannibal, §28.44.11potuisti praestare, hoc vide ne contumeliosum sit concusso iam et paene fracto Hannibale negare posse P. Licinium consulem, virum fortissimum, praestare, qui, ne a sacris absit pontifex maximus, ideo in sortem tam longinquae provinciae non venit.
Lest in the meantime, while I cross, while I land the army in Africa, while I advance my camp toward Carthage, the commonwealth here should suffer any harm—which you, Q. Fabius, when Hannibal was flying victorious through all Italy, were able to guarantee, see to it lest this be insulting, now that Hannibal is shaken and almost broken, to deny that the consul P. Licinius, a most brave man, can guarantee this—who, so that he, the pontifex maximus, may not be absent from sacred rites, for that reason did not enter the lot for so distant a province.
§28.44.12si hercules nihilo maturius hoc, quo ego censeo, modo perficeretur bellum, tamen ad dignitatem populi Romani famamque apud reges gentesque externas pertinebat, non ad defendendam modo Italiam, sed ad inferenda etiam Africae arma videri nobis animum esse, §28.44.13nec hoc credi vulgarique, quod Hannibal ausus sit, neminem ducem Romanum audere, et priore Punico bello tum, cum de Sicilia certaretur, totiens Africam ab nostris exercitibusque et classibus oppugnatam, nunc, cum de Italia certetur, Africam pacatam esse.
By Hercules, even if the war were to be finished not a bit sooner in this way which I propose, nevertheless it concerned the dignity of the Roman people and their reputation among foreign kings and nations that we should be seen to have the spirit not only to defend Italy but also to carry arms into Africa, and that this should not be believed and spread abroad, that what Hannibal dared, no Roman general dares; and that in the former Punic war at that time when Sicily was being contested, Africa was so often attacked by our armies and fleets, but now, when Italy is being contested, Africa is at peace.
§28.44.14requiescat aliquando vexata tam diu Italia, uratur evasteturque in vicem Africa; §28.44.15castra Romana potius Carthaginis portis immineant, quam nos iterum vallum hostium ex moenibus nostris videamus; Africa sit reliqui belli sedes, illuc terror fugaque, populatio agrorum, defectio sociorum, ceterae belli clades, quae in nos per quattuordecim annos ingruerunt, vertantur.
Let Italy, harassed for so long, at last rest, and let Africa in turn be burned and devastated; let Roman camps rather threaten the gates of Carthage than that we should again see the rampart of the enemy from our walls; let Africa be the seat of the remaining war, and thither let terror and flight, the devastating of fields, the defection of allies, and the other disasters of war, which have assailed us for fourteen years, be turned.
§28.44.16quae ad rem publicam pertinent et bellum, quod instat, et provincias, de quibus agitur, dixisse satis est;
It is enough to have spoken of those things which pertain to the commonwealth, and the war which is imminent, and the provinces which are under discussion; that speech would be long and of no concern to you, if, in the manner that Q.
§28.44.17illa longa oratio nec ad vos pertinens sit, si, quem ad modum Q. Fabius meas res gestas in Hispania elevavit, sic ego contra gloriam eius eludere et meam verbis extollere velim.
Fabius belittled my achievements in Hispania, I in turn wished to mock his glory and extol my own in words.
§28.44.18neutrum faciam, patres conscripti, et, si nulla alia re, modestia certe et temperando linguae adulescens senem vicero.
I shall do neither, conscript fathers, and, if in nothing else, certainly in modesty and in restraining my tongue, I, a young man, shall conquer the old man.
ita et vixi et gessi res, ut tacitus ea opinione, quam vestra sponte conceptam animis haberetis, facile contentus essem. ”
I have so lived and conducted affairs that, remaining silent, I would be easily content with that opinion which you of your own accord hold conceived in your minds."