"Many things which, owing to distance, are not now evident the war will reveal. [8] It is the part of a man and a general not to prove wanting when fortune presents herself, and to fit what is offered by chance into his plan. [9] I shall have Hannibal as the antagonist you assign me, Quintus Fabius; but I shall draw him after me, not let him hold me back. In his own land will I compel him to fight, and Carthage is to be the reward of victory, not the half-ruined strongholds of the Bruttians. [10] Meantime, while I am crossing over, while landing my army in Africa, while moving my camp up to Carthage, let the republic suffer no harm here. That service you, Quintus Fabius, were able to guarantee while everywhere in Italy the victorious [p. 187]Hannibal flitted about. [11] Would it not be insulting,2 with Hannibal now shaken and almost broken, to claim that Publius Licinius, the consul —a very brave man who took no part in the allotment of so distant a province, solely that as pontifex maximus he might not be absent from religious ceremonies —cannot do the same? [12] If in truth the war were not completed any more promptly by the method which I propose, it would nevertheless conduce to the dignity of the Roman people and its reputation among kings and foreign nations to let it be seen that we have the spirit not only to defend Italy but also to invade Africa. [13] Likewise not to have it believed and published abroad that what Hannibal has dared no Roman general dares, and that in the former Punic war, at a time when the stake was Sicily, Africa was attacked so many times by our armies and fleets, but that now, when Italy is the stake, Africa is at peace. [14] Let Italy, so long harried, at length have rest; let Africa in turn be burned over and laid waste. [15] Let Roman camps threaten the gates of Carthage; better so than that we should see the enemy's earthworks from our walls for the second time. Let Africa be the theatre of the remainder of the war. In that direction may terror and flight be diverted, the devastation also of farms, the desertion of allies, and the other calamities of war which for fourteen years have assailed us.
[16] “It is enough to have spoken of matters concerning the state and the war now in progress and the provinces which are in question. [17] A long speech it would be and one of no concern to you senators if, after the manner in which Quintus Fabius has disparaged my achievements in Spain, I on my part should be [p. 189]minded to scoff at his fame and to enlarge upon my3 own. [18] I will do neither, conscript fathers, and if in no other respect, in modesty at least and in control of my tongue I, who am young, will outstrip the older man. Such have been my life and achievements that, although silent, I am quite content with the opinion which of your own accord you have formed and retain.”
