behind you are the Alps; over which, even when your numbers were undiminished, you were hardly able to force a paffage. Here, then, Soldiers, you must either conquer or die, the very first hour you meet the enemy. But the fame fortune which has thus laid you under the neceffity of fighting, has fet before your eyes the moft glorious rewards of victory. Should we, by our valour, recover only Sicily and Sardinia, which were ravifhed from our fathers, thofe would be no inconfiderable prizes. Yet, what are those? The wealth of Rome; whatever riches fhe has heaped together in the spoils of nations; all the fe, with the mafters of them, will be yours. The time is now come to reap the full recompenfe of your toilfome marches, over so many mountains and rivers, and through so many nations, all of them in arms. This is the place which Fortune has appointed to be the limits of your labour; it is here that you will finish your glorious warfare, and receive an ample recompenfe of your completed fervice. For I would not have you imagine, that victory will be as difficult as the name of a Roman war is great and founding. It has often happened, that a defpifed enemy has given a bloody battle; and the most renowned kings and nations have by a fmall force been overthrown. And, if you but take away the glitter of the Roman name, what is there wherein they may ftand in competition with you? For (to fay nothing of your fervice in war, for twenty years together, with fo much valour and fuccefs) from the very pillars of Hercules, from the ocean, from the utmoft bounds of the earth, through fo many warlike nations of Spain and Gaul, are you not come hither victorious? And with whom are you now to fight? With raw foldiers, an undifciplined army, beaten, vanquished, befieged by the Gauls the very laft fummer; an army unknown to their leader, and unacquainted with him. Or fhall I, who was born, I might almost fay, but certainly brought up, in the tent of my father, that moft excellent general; fhall I, the conqueror of Spain and Gaul, and not only of the Alpine nations, but, which is greater ftill, of the Alps themfelves; fhall I compare myfelf myfelf with this half-year captain? a captain, before whom fhould one place the two armies without their enfigns, I am perfuaded he would not know to which of them he is conful. Iefteem it no small advantage, Soldiers, that there is not one among you, who has not often been an eye-witness of my exploits in war; not one, of whose valour I myself have not been a fpectator, fo as to be able to name the times and places of his noble achiev ments; that with foldiers, whom I have a thousand times praised and rewarded, and whose pupil I was before I became their general, I fhall march against an army of men ftrangers to one another. -- On what fide foever I turn my eyes, I behold all full of courage and ftrength. A veteran infantry; moft gallant cavalry; you, my Allies, mof faithful and vaTiant; you, Carthaginians, whom not only your coun try's cause, but the jufteft anger, impels to battle. The hope, the courage of affailants, is always greater than of those who act upon the defenfive. With hostile banners difplayed, you are come down upon Italy: you bring the war. Grief, injuries, indignities, fire your minds, and fpur you forward to revenge. First, they demanded me, that I, your general, fhould be delivered up to them; next, all of you who had fought at the fiege of Saguntum: and we were to be put to death by the extremeft tortures. Proud and cruel nation! Every thing must be yours, and at your difpofal? You are to prefcribe to us with whom we fhall make war, with whom we shall make peace? You are to fet us bounds; to fhut us up within hills and rivers; but you, you are not to observe the limits which yourselves have fixed!" Pafs not the Iberus." What next? "Touch not the Saguntines; Saguntum is upon the Iberus, move not a Atep towards that city." Is it a small matter, then, that you have deprived us of our ancient poffeffions, Sicily and Sardinia? you would have Spain too. Well; we shall yield Spain, and then-you will pafs into Africa.—— Will país, did I fay?—this very year they ordered one of their confuls into Africa, the other into Spain. No, Soldiers; there is nothing left for us but what we can vindicate with our fwords. Come on, then. Be men. The Romans may, with more fafety, be cowards: they have their own country behind them, have places of refuge to fly to, and are fecure from danger in the roads thither; but, for you, there is no middle fortune between death and victory. Let this be but well fixed in your minds; and, once again, I say you are conquerors. VIII. Speech of Adherbal to the Roman Senate, imploring their Afiflance against Jugurtha. FATHERS! IT is known to you, that king Micipfa, my father, on his deathbed, left in charge to Jugurtha, his adopted fon, conjunctly with my unfortunate brother Hiempfal, and myself, the children of his own body, the adminiftration of the kingdom of Numidia, directing us to confider the fenate and people of Rome as proprietors of it. He charged us to ufe our beft endeayours to be ferviceable to the Roman commonwealth, in peace and war; affuring us, that your protection would prove to us a defence against all enemies, and would be inftead of armies, fortifications, and treafures. While my brother and I were thinking of nothing but how to regulate ourselves according to the direc tions of our 'deceafed father-Jugurtha-the most infamous of mankind!-breaking through all ties of gratitude and of common humanity, and trampling on the authority of the Roman commonwealth, procured the murder of my unfortunate brother, and has driven me from my throne and native country, though he knows I inherit, from my grandfather Maffiniffa, and my father Micipfa, the friendihip and alliance of the Romans. For a prince to be reduced, by villany, to my diftrefsful circumftances, is calamity enough; but my misfortunes are heightened by the confideration-that I find myself obliged to folicit your affiftance, Fathers, for the fervices done you by my ancestors, not for any I have been able to render you in my own perfon. Jugurtha has put it out of my power to deferve any thing at your hands; and has forced me to be burdenfome, before I could be useful to you. And yet, if I had no plea, but my undeferved mifery- once powerful prince, the defcendant of a race of illuftrious monarchs, now, without any fault of my own, deftitute of every fup port, and reduced to the neceffity of begging foreign affiftance, against an enemy who has feized my throne and my kingdom-if my unequalled diftreffes were all I had to plead-it would become the greatness of the Roman commonwealth, the arbitress of the world, to protect the injured, and to check the triumph of daring wickednefs over helplefs innocence. But, to provoke your vengeance to the utmost, Jugurtha has driven me from the very dominions, which the fenate and people of Rome gave to my ancestors; and, from which, my grandfather, and my father, under your umbrage, expelled Syphax and the Carthaginians. Thus, Fathers, your kindness to our family is defeated; and Jugurtha, in injuring me, throws contempt on you. O wretched prince! Oh cruel reverse of fortune! Oh father Micipfa is this the confequence of your generofity; that he, whom your goodness raised to an equality with your own children, fhould be the murderer of your children? Muft, then, the royal house of Numidia always be a fcene of havoc and blood? While Carthage remained, we fuffered, as was to be expected, all forts of hardships from their hoftile attacks; our enemy near; our only powerful ally, the Roman commonwealth, at a distance. While we were fo circum ftanced, we were always in arms and in action. When that fcourge of Africa was no more, we congratulated ourfelves on the profpect of established peace. But, inftead of peace, behold the kingdom of Numidia drenched with royal blood! and the only furviving fon of its late king, flying from an adopted murderer, and feeking that fafety in foreign parts which he cannot command in his own kingdom. Whither-Oh! whither fhall I fly? If I return to the royal palace of my ancestors, my father's throne is feized by the murderer of my brother. What can I there expect, but that Jugurtha fhould haften to im brue, in my blood, thofe hands which are now reek ing with my brother's? If I were to fly for refuge, or for affiftance, to any other court; from what prince can I hope for protection, if the Roman commonwealth give me up? From my own family or friends I have o expectations. My royal father is no more. He is beyond beyond the reach of violence, and out of hearing of the complaints of his unhappy fon. Were my brother alive, our mutual fympathy would be fome alleviation. But he is hurried out of life, in his early youth, by the very hand which fhould have been the laft to injure any of the royal family of Numidia. The bloody Jugurtha has butchered all whom he fufpected to be in my intereft. Some have been deftroyed by the lingering torment of the crofs. Others have been given a prey to wild beafts, and their anguifh made the fport of men more cruel than wild beaits. If there be any yet alive, they are fhut up in dungeons, there to drag out a life more intolerable than death itself. Lock down, illuftrious fenators of Rome! from that height of power to which you are raised, on the unexampled diftreffes of a prince, who is, by the cruelty of a wicked intruder, become an outcaft from all mankind. Let not the crafty infinuations of him who returns murder for adoption, prejudice your judgment. Do not liften to the wretch who has butchered the fon and relations of a king, who gave him power to fit on the fame throne with his own loas. have been informed, that he labours by his emiffaries to prevent your determining any thing againft him in his abfence; pretending. that I magnify my diftrefs, and might for him have ftaid in peace in my own kingdom. But if ever the time comes when the due vengeance from above shall overtake him, he will then diffemble as I do. Then he, who now, hardened in wickedness, triumphs over thofe whom his violence has laid low, will, in his turn, feel diftrefs, and fuffer for his impious ingratitude to my father, and his blood-thirsty cruelty to my brother. Oh murdered, butchered brother! Oh dearest to my heart-now gone for ever from my fight-but why: hould I lament his death? He is, indeed, deprived of the bleffed light of heaven, of life, and kingdom, at once, by the very perfon who ought to have been the firft to hazard his own life in defence of any one of Micipia's family? but, as things are, my brother is not fo much deprived of thefe comforts, as delivered from terrour, from flight, from exile, and the endless Bb. 2. train |