8.  His first loss was at the siege of Nola, where Marcel’lus, the praetor, made a successful sally.  He some time after attempted to raise the siege of Cap’ua, attacked the Romans in their trenches, and was repulsed with considerable loss.  He then made a feint to besiege Rome, but finding a superior army ready to receive him, was obliged to retire. 9.  For many years he fought with varied success; Marcel’lus, his opponent, sometimes gaining, and sometimes losing the advantage, without coming to any decisive engagement.

10.  The senate of Carthage at length came to a resolution of sending his brother As’drubal to his assistance, with a body of forces drawn out of Spain. 11.  As’drubal’s march being made known to the consuls Liv’ius and Nero, they went against him with great expedition; and, surrounding him in a place into which he was led by the treachery of his guides, they cut his whole army to pieces. 12.  Han’nibal had long expected these succours with impatience; and the very night on which he had been assured of his brother’s arrival, Nero ordered As’drubal’s head to be cut off, and thrown into his brother’s camp. 13.  The Carthaginian general now began to perceive the downfall of Carthage; and, with a sigh, observed to those about him, that fortune seemed fatigued with granting her favours.

14.  In the mean time, the Roman arms seemed to be favoured in other parts; Marcel’lus took the city of Syr’acuse, in Sicily, defended by the machines and the fires of Archime’des,[3] the mathematician. 15.  The inhabitants were put to the sword, and among the rest, Archime’des himself, who was found, by a Roman soldier, meditating in his study. 16.  Marcel’lus, the general, was not a little grieved at his death.  A love of literature at that time began to prevail among the higher ranks at Rome.  Marcel’lus ordered Archime’des to be honourably buried, and a tomb to be erected to his memory.

17.  As to their fortunes in Spain, though for a while doubtful, they soon recovered their complexion under the conduct of Scip’io Africa’nus, who sued for the office of proconsul to that kingdom, at a time when every one else was willing to decline it. 18.  Scip’io, now no more than twenty-four years old, had all the qualifications requisite for forming a great general, and a good man; he united courage with tenderness, was superior to Hannibal in the arts of peace, and almost his equal in those of war. 19.  His father had been killed in Spain, so that he seemed to have an hereditary claim to attack that country.  He, therefore, appeared irresistible, obtaining many great victories, yet subduing more by his generosity, mildness, and benevolent disposition, than by the force of arms.[4]

20.  He returned with an army from the conquest of Spain, and was made consul at the age of twenty-nine.  It was at first supposed he intended meeting Hannibal in Italy, and that he would attempt driving him from thence:  but he had formed a wiser plan, which was, to carry the war into Africa; and, while the Carthaginians kept an army near Rome, to make them tremble for their own capital.