of the Campanians you have been admitted by Hannibal, that you may ensanguine that very board with the blood of your host.  Could I conciliate Hannibal to my son, and not my son to Hannibal?  But let nothing be held sacred by you, neither our pledges, nor the sense of religion, nor filial duty; let the most horrid deeds be dared, if with guilt they bring not ruin upon us.  Will you singly attack Hannibal?  What will that numerous throng of freemen and slaves be doing?  What the eyes of all intent on him alone?  What those so many right hands?  Will they be torpid amidst your madness?  Will you be able to bear the look of Hannibal himself, which armed hosts cannot sustain, from which the Roman people shrink with horror?  And though other assistance be wanting, will you have the hardihood to strike me when I oppose my body in defence of Hannibal’s?  But know that through my breast you must strike and transfix him.  Suffer yourself to be deterred from your attempt here, rather than to be defeated there.  May my entreaties prevail with you, as they did for you this day.”  Upon this, perceiving the youth in tears, he threw his arms around him, and kissing him affectionately, ceased not his entreaties until he prevailed upon him to lay aside his sword and give his promise that he would do no such thing.  The young man then observed, “I will indeed pay to my father the debt of duty which I owe to my country, but I am grieved for you on whom the guilt of having thrice betrayed your country rests; once when you sanctioned the revolt from the Romans; next when you advised the alliance with Hannibal; and thirdly, this day, when you are the delay and impediment of the restoration of Capua to the Romans.  Do thou, my country, receive this weapon, armed with which in thy behalf I would fain have defended this citadel, since a father wrests it from me.”  Having thus said, he threw the sword into the highway over the garden wall, and that the affair might not be suspected, himself returned to the banquet.

10.  The next day an audience of a full senate was given to Hannibal, when the first part of his address was full of graciousness and benignity, in which he thanked the Campanians for having preferred his friendship to an alliance with the Romans, and held out among his other magnificent promises “that Capua should soon become the capital of all Italy, and that the Romans as well as the other states should receive laws from it.  That there was, however, one person who had no share in the Carthaginian friendship and the alliance formed with him, Decius Magius, who neither was nor ought to be called a Campanian.  Him he requested to be surrendered to him, and that the sense of the senate should be taken respecting his conduct, and a decree passed in his presence.”  All concurred in this proposition, though a great many considered him as a man undeserving such severe treatment; and that this proceeding was no small infringement of their liberty to begin with.  Leaving the senate-house,