32. When they had arrived at their camps, they both issued orders that their soldiers should get their arms in readiness, and prepare their minds for the final contest; in which, if fortune should favour them, they would continue victorious, not for a single day, but for ever. "Before to-morrow night," they said, "they would know whether Rome or Carthage should give laws to the world; and that neither Africa nor Italy, but the whole world, would be the prize of victory. That the dangers which threatened those who had the misfortune to be defeated, were proportioned to the rewards of the victors." For the Romans had not any place of refuge in an unknown and foreign land, and immediate destruction seemed to await Carthage, if the troops which formed her last reliance were defeated. To this important contest, the day following, two generals, by far the most renowned of any, and belonging to two of the most powerful nations in the world, advanced, either to crown or overthrow, on that day, the many honours they had previously acquired. Their minds, therefore, were agitated with the opposite feelings of hope and fear; and while they contemplated at one time their own troops, at another those of their enemy, estimating their powers more by sight than by reason, they saw in them at once the grounds for joy and grief. Those circumstances which did not occur to the troops themselves spontaneously, their generals suggested by their admonitions and exhortations. The Carthaginian recounted his achievements in the land of Italy during sixteen years the many Roman generals and armies annihilated, reminding each individually of the honours he had acquired as he came to any soldier who had obtained distinction in any of his battles. Scipio referred to Spain, the recent battles in Africa and the enemy's own confession, that they could not through fear but solicit peace, nor could they, through their inveterate perfidy, abide by it. In addition to this he gave what turn he pleased to his conference with Hannibal, which was held in private, and was therefore open to misrepresentation. He augured success that the gods had exhibited the same omens to them on going out to battle on the present occasion, as they had to their fathers when they fought at the islands Aegates. He told them that the termination of the war, and their hardships, had arrived; that they had within their grasp the spoils of Carthage, and the power of returning home to their country, their parents, their children, their wives, and their household gods. He delivered these observations with a body so erect, and with a countenance so full of exultation, that one would have supposed that he had already conquered. He then drew up his troops, posting the hastati in front, the principes behind them, and closing his rear line with the triarii.