TO HIS ARMY BEFORE BATTLE[1]
(218 B.C.)
Born in — B.C., died in 212; defeated by Hannibal at the Ticino and the Trebia in 218 B.C.; destroyed the fleet of Carthage in 217, thus gaining for Rome the mastery of the sea; afterward gained other victories; finally defeated and slain in battle; father of the elder Scipio Africanus.
If, soldiers, I were leading out that army to battle which I had with me in Gaul, I should have thought it superfluous to address you; for of what use would it be to exhort either those horsemen who so gloriously vanquished the cavalry of the enemy at the river Rhone or those legions with whom, pursuing this very enemy flying before us, I obtained, in lieu of victory, a confession of superiority, shown by his retreat and refusal to fight? Now, because that army, levied for the province of Spain, maintains the war under my auspices, and the command of my brother Cneius Scipio, in the country where the senate and people of Rome wished him to serve; and since I, that you might have a consul
