A classical dictionary: containing a copious account of all the proper names mentioned in ancient authors with tables of coins, weights, and measures used among the Greeks and Romans and a chronological tableLemprière, John
History
A classical dictionary: containing a copious account of all the proper names mentioned in ancient authors with tables of coins, weights, and measures used among the Greeks and Romans and a chronological table
Lemprière, John
Classical dictionaries
foot and 10,000 horse, when he engaged the Romans at the celebrated
battle of Cannæ. The slaughter was so great, that no less than 40,
000 Romans were killed, and the conqueror made a bridge with the
dead carcases; and as a sign of his victory, he sent to Carthage
three bushels of gold rings which had been taken from 5630 Roman
knights slain in the battle. Had Annibal, immediately after the
battle, marched his army to the gates of Rome, it must have yielded
amidst the general consternation, if we believe the opinions of some
writers; but his delay gave the enemy spirit and boldness, and when
at last he approached the walls, he was informed that the piece of
ground on which his army then stood was selling at a high price in
the Roman forum. After hovering for some time round the city, he
retired to Capua, where the Carthaginian soldiers soon forgot to
conquer in the pleasures and riot of this luxurious city. From that
circumstance it has been said, and with propriety, that Capua was
a Cannæ to Annibal. After the battle of Cannæ the Romans became
more cautious, and when the dictator Fabius Maximus had defied
the artifice as well as the valour of Annibal, they began to look
for better times. Marcellus, who succeeded Fabius in the field,
first taught the Romans that Annibal was not invincible. After many
important debates in the senate, it was decreed that war should be
carried into Africa, to remove Annibal from the gates of Rome; and
Scipio, who was the first proposer of the plan, was empowered to put
it into execution. When Carthage saw the enemy on her coasts, she
recalled Annibal from Italy; and that great general is said to have
left, with tears in his eyes, a country which during 16 years he
had kept under continual alarms, and which he could almost call his
own. He and Scipio met near Carthage, and after a parley, in which
neither would give the preference to his enemy, they determined
to come to a general engagement. The battle was fought near Zama:
Scipio made a great slaughter of the enemy, 20,000 were killed,
and the same number made prisoners. Annibal, after he had lost the
day, fled to Adrumetum. Soon after this decisive battle, the Romans
granted peace to Carthage, on hard conditions; and afterwards
Annibal, who was jealous and apprehensive of the Roman power, fled
to Syria, to king Antiochus, whom he advised to make war against
Rome, and lead an army into the heart of Italy. Antiochus distrusted
the fidelity of Annibal, and was conquered by the Romans, who
granted him peace on the condition of his delivering their mortal
enemy into their hands. Annibal, who was apprised of this, left
the court of Antiochus, and fled to Prusias king of Bithynia. He
encouraged him to declare war against Rome, and even assisted him in
weakening the power of Eumenes king of Pergamus, who was in alliance
with the Romans.
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