For this reason some say that Titus did not effect this of his own free will, but that he was sent with Lucius Scipio as a colleague on an embassy whose sole object was the death of Hannibal.  Now, as after these events we know of no other acts of Titus either as a warrior or statesman, and as he died a peaceful death, it is time to begin our comparison.

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 32:  Publius Sulpicius Galba.]

[Footnote 33:  Publius Villius Tappulus. Cf.  Livy xxxi. sqq.]

[Footnote 34:  The following is the account given of the Macedonian phalanx by Polybius:—­

“It is easy then to demonstrate by many reasons, that, while the phalanx retains its proper form and full power of action, no force is able to stand against it in front, or to support the violence of its attack.  When the ranks are closed in order to engage, each soldier, as he stands in his arms, occupies a space of three feet.  The spears in their most ancient form, contained seventeen cubits in length.  But, for the sake of rendering them more commodious in action, they have since been reduced to fourteen.  Of these, four cubits are contained between the part which the soldier grasps in his hands, and the lower end of the spear behind, which serves as a counterpoise to the part that is extended before him; and the length of this last part from the body of the soldier, when the spear is pushed forwards with both hands against the enemy, is by consequence ten cubits.  From hence it follows, that when the phalanx is closed in its proper form, and every soldier pressed within the necessary distance with respect to the man that is before him and upon his side, the spears of the fifth rank are extended to the length of two cubits, and those of the second, third, and fourth to a still greater length, beyond the foremost rank.  The manner in which the men are crowded together in this method is marked by Homer in the following lines: 

    “’Shield stuck to shield, to helmet helmet join’d,
    And man to man; and at each nod that bow’d,
    High waving on their heads the glittering cones,
    Rattl’d the hair-crown’d casques, so thick they stood.’

          Homer, Il. xiii., 131.

“This description is not less exact than beautiful.  It is manifest, then, that five several spears, differing each from the other in the length of two cubits, are extended before every man in the foremost rank.  And when it is considered likewise, that the phalanx is formed by sixteen in depth, it will be easy to conceive, what must be the weight and violence of the entire body, and how great the force of its attack.  In the ranks, indeed, that are behind the fifth, the spears cannot reach so far as to be employed against the enemy.  In these ranks, therefore, the soldiers, instead of extending their spears forwards, rest them upon the shoulders of the men that are before them,