When their respective escorts冲d withdrawn to an equal distance, the two leaders. advanced to meet each other, each accompanied by an interpreter-the greatest commanders not only of their own age but·of all who are recorded in history before their day, the peers of the most famous kings and commanders that the world had seen. For a few moments they gazed upon one another in silent admiration. Hannibal was the first to speak.“If," he said, “Destiny has so willed it that I, who was the first to make war on Rome and who have so often had the final victory almost within my grasp, should now be the first to peace, I congratulate myself that Fate has ted you, above all others, as the one from whom I am to as Amongst your many brilliant distinctions this will not be your smallest title to fame, that Hannibal, to whom the gods have given the victory over so many Roman generals, has yielded to you, that it has fallen to your lot to put an end to a war which has been more memorable for your defeats than for ours. This is indeed the irony of fortune, that after taking up arm s when your father was consul, and having him for my opponent in my first battle, it should be his son to whom I come unarmed to ask for peace. It would have been far better had the gods endowed our fathers with such a disposition that you would have been contented with the sovereignty of Italy, whilst"., . P " . ". " I' rti" "1_we1 were contentea with Africa. As it is, even for you, Sicily and Sardinia are no adequate compensation for the loss of so many fleets, so many armies, and so many splendid generals. But it is easier to regret the past than to repair it二We coveted what belonged to others, consequently we had to fi ght for our own possessions;not only has war assailed you in I taly and us in Africa, but you have seen the arms and standards of an enemy almost within your gates and on your walls while we hear 认Carthage the murmur of the Roman camp. S O the thing which we detest most of all.which you would have wished for before everything, has actually come about, the question of peace is raised when your fortunes are in the ascendant. We who are most concerned in securing peace are the ones to propose it, and we have full powers to treat, whatever we do here our governments will ratify. All we need is a temper to discuss things calmly. As far as I am concerned, coming back to a country which I left as a boy, years and a chequered experience of good and evil fortune have so disillusioned me that I prefer to take reason rather than Fortun le as my guide. As for you, your youth and unbroken success will make you, I fear, impatient of peaceful counsels. It is not easy for the man whom Fortune never d eceives the uncertainties and accidents of life. What at Cannae, that you are to-day. to bear arms when you were placed in all your enterprises, even the most da never played_you false. You avenged the deaths of your father and your uncle, and that disaster to vour house became the occasion of your winning a glorious reputation for courage赞nQn..’，多1. p二Y妙recovere and filial piety二Yourecovered the lost provinces of 合palDalterQnvinglour t,artnaguiianalter armies out of the country. Then you were elected consul, and whilst your predecessors had hardly spirit enough to protect Italv. you crossed over to Africa., and after destroying twoa.armies g and burning two camps within an hour, taking the powerful monarchsyPhaxPrisoner，androbbing hismonarch Syphax prisoner, dominions and ours of numerous cities you have at last dragged me away from Italy after I had kept my hold upon it for sixteen years. It is quite possible that in your present mood you should prefer victory to an equitable peace;I, too, know the ambition aims at what is great rather than at what is expedient; on me, too, a fortune such as yours once shone. But if in the midst of success the gods should also give us wisdom, we ought to reflect not only on what has happened in the past but also upon what may happen in the future. To take only one instance, I myself am a sufficient example of the fickleness of. fortune.0 0. Only the other day I had placed my camp between nyour city and the Anio and was advancing my standards against the walls of Rome一一here you see me.bereaved of my two brothers. brave soldiers and brilliant generals as the :neywere, in front of the walls oL- "气my， native place which is all but invested and pegging on Denali or my city that .t may be spared the fate with which I have threatened yours. The greater a man's good fortune the less ought he to count up on it. Success attends you and has deserted us, and this will make peace all the more splendid to you who grant it;to us who ask for it it is a stern necessity rather than an honourable surrender. Peace once established is a better and safer thing than hoping for victory; that is in your hands, this in the hands of the gods. Do not expose so many years' good fortune to the hazard of a single hour. You think of vour own strenzth. but think too of the part which fortune plays and the even chances of battle. On both sides there will be swords and men to use them, nowhere does the event less answer expectation than in war. Victory will not add so much to the glory which you can now win by granting peace, as defeat will take away from it. The chances of a single hour can annihilate all the honours you have gained and all you -can hope for. If you cement a peace, P. Cornelius, you are master of all, otherwise you will have to accept whatever fortune the gods send you. M. Atilius Regulus on this very soil would have afforded an almost unique instance of the success which waits on merit, nad ne in the pour of victory granted peace to our fathers when they asked for it. But as he would set no bounds to his prosperity, nor curb his elation at his good fortune, the height to which he aspired only made his fall the more terrible. “It is for him who grants peace, not for him who seeks it, to name the terms, but perhaps it may not be presuMptuous in us to assess our own penalty. We consent remaining yours for which we went to war-Si Spain and all the islands that lie between Africa and, 1W少二 We Cart haginians, confined within the shores of Africa, 4 content, since such is the will of the nods. to see you:To盼M ，:·，，，.，‘、.W,;二钾 alloutside our zrontiers oy sea ana lana as扣Ur00口旧口曰润幽哪 I am boun d to admit that the lack of sincerity lately in飞 the requ est for peace and in the non-observance of t一一ii!ft justified your suspicions as to But. SciDio. the loval observance the character of those through whom it is sought. I hear that yOu r senate have sometimes even refused to gran t it because the ambassadors were not of su伍cient rank. Now it is Hannibal who seeks it, and I should not ask for it if I did not believe it to be advantageous to us, and because I believe it to be so I shall keep it一violate.，As. I was res.. . eforb eginning the war and as 1 conauctea it in a way o one found fault with until the gods were jealous of my success. so I shall do my utmost to prevent any one frome being discontented. with the peacewhich I shall have been the means of procuring."