1. ¶The Romans were at their prime in equipment for war and enjoyed absolute harmony among themselves.  Whereas the majority of persons are led by unmixed good fortune to audacity but by a tremendous fear to proper behavior, they had quite a different experience at that time in those matters.  The more successes they had the more sober it made them; against their enemies they displayed the kind of boldness that partakes of bravery, while toward one another they employed that right dealing which is closely connected with good order. [Footnote:  The word for “good order” is conjectured by van Herwerden.] They held their power with a view to the practice of moderation and kept their orderliness for the acquirement of a true bravery:  they did not allow their good fortune to develop into wantonness, nor their right dealing into cowardice.  They believed that in case of such laxity temperance might be ruined by bravery and boldness by boldness; but that when people exercised care, as they did, moderation was made more secure by bravery and good fortune rendered surer by discipline.  This was the reason for their vast superiority over the enemies that encountered them and for their excellent administration of both their own affairs and those of the allies. (Mai, p. 186.)

2. ¶ All who dwelt on the near side of the Alps revolted to join the Carthaginians, not because they preferred the Carthaginians to the Romans as leaders, but because they hated the force that ruled them and were for welcoming the untried.  The Carthaginians had allies against the Romans from every one of the tribes that then existed; but Hannibal was worth nearly all of them.  He could comprehend matters very quickly and plan the details of every project that he laid to heart, notwithstanding the fact that generally sureness is the product of slowness and only rash decisions result from hastiness of disposition.  He was most [lacuna] when given the smallest margin of time, and most enduring with a very great degree of reliability.  He managed in a safe way the affair of the moment and showed skill in considering the future beforehand:  he proved himself a most capable counselor in ordinary events and a very accurate judge of the unusual.  By these powers he handled the issue immediately confronting him very readily and in the shortest time, while by calculation he anticipated the future afar off and considered it as though it were actually present.  Consequently he, more than any man, met each occasion with suitable words and acts, because he made no distinction between what he possessed and what he hoped for.  He was able to conduct matters so for the reason that in addition to his natural capacity he was well versed in much Phoenician learning, common to his country, and likewise much Greek, and furthermore he understood divination by inspection of entrails. (Mai, p. 187 and Valesius, p. 593.)