the Flemish field, by the superior genius.  The elder Africanus is the most exceptional character in all history, and it is impossible to place him.  He seems never to have been young, and we cannot associate the idea of age with him, even when he is dying at Liternum at upwards of fifty.  He was a man at seventeen, when first he steps boldly out on the historic page, and there is no apparent change in him when we find him leading great armies, and creating a new policy for the redemption of Italy from the evils of war.  He was intended to be a king, but he was born two centuries too early to be of any use to his country in accordance with his genius, out of the field.  Such a man is not to be judged as a mere soldier, and we were inclined not to range him on the side of youthful generals; but we will be generous, and, in consideration of his years, permit him to be claimed by those who insist that war is the business of youth.

At later periods, Rome’s greatest generals were men who were old.  The younger Africanus was fifty-one at Numantia, Marius did not obtain the consulship until he was fifty; and he was fifty-five when he won his first great victory over the Northern barbarians, and a year older when he completed their destruction.  Sulla was past fifty when he set out to meet the armies of Mithridates, which he conquered; and he was fifty-six when he made himself master of his country, after one of the fiercest campaigns on record.  Pompeius distinguished himself when very young, but it is thought that the title of “the Great” was conferred upon him by Sulla in a spirit of irony.  The late Sir William Napier, who ought to have been a good judge, said that he was a very great general, and in a purely military sense perhaps greater than Caesar.  He was fifty-eight in the campaign of Pharsalia, and if he then failed, his failure must be attributed to the circumstances of his position, which was rather that of a party leader than of a general; and a party leader, it has been truly said, must sometimes obey, in order that at other times he may command.  Pompeius delivered battle at Pharsalia against his own judgment.  The “Onward to Rome!” cry of the fierce aristocrats was too strong to be resisted; and “their general yielded with a sigh to the importunities of his followers, declaring that he could no longer command, and must submit to obey.”  Not long before he had beaten Caesar at Dyrrachium, with much loss to the vanquished, completely spoiling his plans; and the great contest might have had a very different result, had not political and personal considerations been permitted to outweigh those of a military character.  Politicians are pests in a camp.  Caesar was in his fifty-first year when he crossed the Rubicon and began his wonderful series of campaigns in the Civil War,—­campaigns characterized by an almost superhuman energy.  The most remarkable of his efforts was that which led to his last appearance in the field, at the Battle of Munda, where he fought for existence; he was then approaching fifty-five, and he could not have been more active and energetic, had he been as young as Alexander at Arbela.