10 Imaginary Conversation. SCIPIO. I do not remember the overthrow of any two other great cities within so short an interval. PANETIUS. I was not thinking so much of cities or their inhabit- ants, when I began to speak of what a breath of the gods removes at once from earth. I was recollecting, O Emili- anus, that in one Olympiad the three greatest men that ever appeared together were swept off. What is Babylon, or Corinth, or Carthage, in comparison with these ! what would their destruction be, if every hair on the head of every inhabitant had become a man, such as most men are ! First in order of removal was, he whose steps you have fol- lowed and whose labours you have completed, Africanus: then Philopemen, whose task was more difficult, more complex, more perfect : and lastly Hannibal. What he was you know better than any. SCIPIO. Had he been supported by his country, had only his losses been filled up, and skilful engineers sent out to him with machinery and implements for sieges, we should not be discoursing here on what he was : the Roman name had been extinguished. POLYBIUS. Since Emilianus is as unwilling to blame an enemy as a friend, I take it on myself to censure Hannibal for two things, subject however to the decision of him who has con- quered Carthage. SCIPIO. The first I anticipate: now what is the second? PANETIUS. I would hear both stated and discoursed on, altho the knowledge will be of little use to me. POLYBIUS. I condemn, as every one does, his inaction after the battle of Cannae ; and, in his last engagement with Africanus,
