§30.28.1inter haec simul spes simul cura in dies crescebat, nec satis certum constare apud animos poterat, utrum gaudio dignius esset Hannibalem post sextum decimum annum ex Italia decedentem vacuam possessionem eius reliquisse populo Romano, an magis metuendum, quod incolumi exercitu in Africam transisset: §30.28.2locum nimirum, non periculum mutatum;
In the midst of this, both hope and anxiety were growing day by day, and it could not be sufficiently established in men's minds whether it was more worthy of joy that Hannibal, departing from Italy after sixteen years, had left its vacant possession to the Roman people, or more to be feared that he had crossed over into Africa with his army intact: only the place, surely, and not the danger, had been changed; and that Q.
cuius tantae dimicationis vatem, qui nuper decessisset, Q. Fabium haud frustra canere solitum graviorem in sua terra futurum hostem Hannibalem, quam in aliena fuisset. §30.28.3nec Scipioni aut cum Syphace, inconditae barbariae rege, cui Statorius semilixa docere exercitus solitus sit, aut cum socero eius Hasdrubale, fugacissimo duce, rem futuram aut tumultuariis exercitibus ex agrestium semermi turba subito conlectis, sed cum Hannibale, §30.28.4prope nato in praetorio patris, fortissimi ducis, alito atque educato inter arma, puero quondam milite, §30.28.5vixdum iuvene imperatore, qui senex vincendo factus Hispanias, Gallias, Italiam ab Alpibus ad fretum monumentis ingentium rerum complesset.
Fabius, the prophet of this so great struggle, who had recently died, had not in vain been accustomed to predict that Hannibal would be a more dangerous enemy in his own land than he had been in a foreign one. And Scipio would have to do, not with Syphax, a king of uncivilized barbarians, whose armies Statorius, a half-camp-follower, had been accustomed to train, nor with his father-in-law Hasdrubal, a most fleeing general, nor with irregular armies suddenly collected from a half-armed crowd of rustics, but with Hannibal, who was almost born in the headquarters of his father, a most brave general, nourished and brought up among arms, once a soldier even as a boy, scarcely yet a youth when made general, who, having grown old in winning victories, had filled the Spains, the Gauls, and Italy from the Alps to the strait with the monuments of his mighty deeds.
ducere exercitum aequalem stipendiis suis, duratum omnium rerum patientia, quas vix fides fiat homines passos, perfusum miliens cruore Romano, exuvias non militum tantum sed etiam imperatorum portantem. §30.28.6multos occursuros Scipioni in acie, qui praetores, qui imperatores, qui consules Romanos manu sua occidissent, muralibus vallaribusque insignes coronis, pervagatos capta castra, captas urbes Romanas. §30.28.7non esse hodie tot fasces magistratibus populi Romani, quot captos ex caede imperatorum prae se ferre posset Hannibal.
He was leading an army coeval with his own campaigns, hardened by endurance of all hardships, which it could scarcely be believed that men had suffered, drenched a thousand times in Roman blood, and bearing the spoils not only of soldiers but also of generals. Many would meet Scipio in the battle-line who had slain with their own hand Roman praetors, generals, and consuls, distinguished by mural and vallar crowns, and who had wandered through captured camps and captured Roman cities. There were not as many fasces today for the magistrates of the Roman people as Hannibal could bear before him, captured from the slaughter of generals.
has formidines agitando animis ipsi curas et metus augebant, §30.28.8etiam quod, cum adsuessent per aliquot annos bellum ante oculos aliis atque aliis in Italiae partibus lenta spe in nullum propinquum debellandi finem gerere, erexerant omnium animos Scipio et Hannibal, velut ad supremum certamen comparati duces. §30.28.9eis quoque, quibus erat ingens in Scipione fiducia et victoriae spes, quo magis in propinquam eam imminebant animis, eo curae intentiores erant.
By revolving these terrors in their minds, they themselves were increasing their anxieties and fears, and also because, although they had been accustomed for several years to wage war before their eyes in various parts of Italy with slow hope, with no near end of finishing the war, Scipio and Hannibal, as generals prepared for the supreme conflict, had aroused the minds of all. Even for those who had great confidence in Scipio and hope of victory, the more they directed their minds to that near prospect, the more intense were their anxieties.
haud dispar habitus animorum Carthaginiensibus erat, §30.28.10quos modo petisse pacem, intuentes Hannibalem ac rerum gestarum eius magnitudinem, paenitebat, modo, cum respicerent bis sese acie victos, §30.28.11Syphacem captur, pulsos se Hispania, pulsos Italia, atque ea omnia unius virtute et consilio Scipionis facta, velut fatalem eum ducem in exitium suum natum horrebant.
Nor was the state of mind different among the Carthaginians, who, at one moment, looking at Hannibal and the greatness of his achievements, repented of having sought peace; at another moment, when they reflected that they had been twice defeated in battle, that Syphax had been captured, that they had been driven from Spain and driven from Italy, and that all these things had been accomplished by the valor and counsel of Scipio alone, shuddered at him as a fated general, born for their destruction.