thence four Carthaginian armies.  When elected consul, though all others wanted courage to defend Italy, you crossed over into Africa; where having cut to pieces two armies, having at once captured and burnt two camps in the same hour; having made prisoner Syphax, a most powerful king, and seized so many towns of his dominions and so many of ours, you have dragged me from Italy, the possession of which I had firmly held for now sixteen years.  Your mind, I say, may possibly be more disposed to conquest than peace.  I know the spirits of your country aim rather at great than useful objects.  On me, too, a similar fortune once shone.  But if with prosperity the gods would also bestow upon us sound judgment, we should not only consider those things which have happened, but those also which may occur.  Even if you should forget all others, I am myself a sufficient instance of every vicissitude of fortune.  For me, whom a little while ago you saw advancing my standards to the walls of Rome, after pitching my camp between the Anio and your city, you now behold here, bereft of my two brothers, men of consummate bravery, and most renowned generals, standing before the walls of my native city, which is all but besieged, and deprecating, in behalf of my own city, those severities with which I terrified yours.  In all cases, the most prosperous fortune is least to be depended upon.  While your affairs are in a favourable and ours in a dubious state, you would derive honour and splendour from granting peace; while to us who solicit it, it would considered as necessary rather than honourable.  A certain peace is better and safer than a victory in prospect; the former is at your own disposal, the latter depends upon the gods.  Do not place at the hazard of a single hour the successes of so many years.  When you consider your own strength, then also place before your view the power of fortune, and the fluctuating nature of war.  On both sides there will be arms, on both sides human bodies.  In nothing less than in war do events correspond (with men’s calculations).  Should you be victorious in a battle, you will not add so much to that renown which you now have it in your power to acquire by granting peace, as you will detract from it should any adverse event befall you.  The chance of a single hour may at once overturn the honours you have acquired and those you anticipate.  Every thing is at your own disposal in adjusting a peace; but, in the other case, you must be content with that fortune which the gods shall impose upon you.  Formerly, in this same country, Marcus Atilius would have formed one among the few instances of good fortune and valour, if, when victorious, he had granted a peace to our fathers when they requested it; but by not setting any bounds to his success, and not checking good fortune, which was elating him, he fell with a degree of ignominy proportioned to his elevation.  It is indeed the right of him who grants, and not of him who solicits