Imaginary Conversation. 33 nations of which it was composed, and kept together the heteroo-eneous and discordant mass. It was time that he should think of this : for probably there was not a soldier left, who had not lost in battle or by fatigue his dearest friend and comrade. Dry bread and hard blows are excellent things in them- selves, and military requisites . . to those who converse on them over their cups, turning their heads for the approbation of others on whose bosom they recline, and yawning from sad disquieted at the degeneracy and effeminacy of the age. But there is finally a day when the cement of power begins to lose its strength and coherency, and when the fabric must be kept together by pointing it anew, and by protecting it a little from that rigour of the seasons which at first compacted it. The story of Hannibal and his army wasting away in luxury, is common, general, universal : its absurdity is re- marked by few, or rather by none. POLYBIUS. The wisest of us are slow to disbelieve what we have learnt early : yet this story has always been to me incredible. SCIPIO. Beside the reasons I have adduced, is it necessary to remind you that Campania is subject to diseases which inca- pacitate the soldier ? Those of Hannibal were afflicted by them ; few indeed perished : but they were debilitated by their malady, and while they were waiting for the machinery which (even if they had had the artificers amongst them) could not have been constructed in double the time requisite for importing it, the period of dismay at Rome, if ever it ex- isted, had elapsed. The wonder is less that Hannibal did not take Rome, than that he was able to remain in Italy, not having taken it. Considering how he held together, how he disciplined, how he provisioned (the most difficult thing of all, in the face of such enemies) an army in great part, as one would imagine, so intractable and wasteful ; what commanders, what soldiers, what rivers, and what mountains, opposed him ; I think, Polybius, you will hardly admit to a parity or compari- son with him, in the rare union of political and military Vol. II. No. 4. E
