The Roman people were like all nations who have not had recent experience of war at home, and when they saw their legions march out well appointed, they had been quite sure of victory. Of a sudden one straggler, returning, announced what they could not bear to believe, that their consul was dead and their army routed. It was then and thus that this city of Rome began to feel the pressure of that long war, which lasted sixteen years, while Hannibal ravaged one part of Italy and another. It was the beginning of the training which was to cure Rome, for the moment, of her luxury and to lift her, for the time, from her degeneracy.

You have heard it said that the luxuries of Capua, the chief city of Campania, were really what defeated Hannibal. It has become a proverbial expression to say of any luxury which destroys a successful man, that it is his "Capua." But I think the best opinion of the best military men relieves Hannibal from the charge implied in this sneer. It is very easy for you and me, sitting at our ease here two thousand and one hun

dred years after all this happened, to say that, after routing the Roman army at Thrasymene, he should have marched directly on Rome and destroyed it. But he certainly knew his business better than we do. He passed by Rome into Campania, and made his headquarters for a time at Capua. For the next fifteen years and more he did very much what he chose in Italy, often advancing to the very walls of Rome, but never strong enough to storm a city where by this time every man was a soldier, nor to blockade it so as to starve it into submission. In this time he partially regained the command of Sicily, which the Carthaginians had lost after the first Punic War. He was cruelly disappointed, and the fate of the world was changed when Claudius Nero, the Roman commander in the north of Italy, defeated Hasdrubal, Hannibal's brother, who was bringing him reënforcements. Nero sent Hasdrubal's head into Hannibal's camp, and when he saw it, he sighed and said, "I see the fate of Carthage."

The end came when Cornelius Scipio built a Roman fleet, carried an army across to

Africa, and threatened Carthage itself. It is from this bold enterprise that we take our proverb, "He carried the war into Africa." The Carthaginian senate could not endure to the end. They began sending for Hannibal, who at first would not come. At last he came, and the great battle of Zama followed, one of the critical battles of the history of the world. Whatever advantage the Carthaginians had was in their cavalry. Their force of infantry was inferior to that of the Romans. But the Romans had for allies the Numidians, people who lived in the country which we now call Morocco. It is one of the most productive countries in the world. If it had a decent government, it would be the granary of Europe to-day. Now the Numidian horse and their force of elephants were more than a match for those of the Carthaginians. The battle began by a conflict in which the Numidians swept the Carthaginian cavalry out of the field. The Roman infantry then pressed on the Carthaginian infantry. They stood the attack at first, but when the Numidian cavalry returned and joined in the attack, the Cartha

ginian army gave way and Hannibal's career of victory was ended.

He told the Carthaginian senate that all was lost, and they made such terms as Romans would grant to the conquered. Poor Hannibal could not long remain in Carthage. He was one of the chief magistrates there for a year or two. But one party there hated him worse than the Romans hated him. He, however, addressed the people of Carthage and taught them that it was necessary. He said in his first address to them, Having left you when nine years old, I have returned after an absence of thirty-six years." He had never been in his own country since he was a child.

He knew that the Romans would wish to make him a prisoner. He sailed at once to Syria, where he intrusted himself to Antiochus the Third, one of the successors, after nearly a century, of Alexander the Great. He served Antiochus faithfully till the Romans so pressed him that he was forced to give up his guest, and Hannibal retired to Bithynia. Here, again, the Romans followed him up. They could not be

at ease while he lived, and Flaminius was sent to Prusias, king of Bithynia, to demand his surrender. Prusias was mean enough to send troops for his arrest. When Hannibal found his escape was cut off, he took poison and died.

EDWARD EVERETT HALE. Abridged.

WHATEVER THE WEATHER MAY BE

"WHATEVER the weather may be," "Whatever the weather may be,

be," says

he

It's plaze, if ye will, an' I'll say me say,Supposin' to-day was the winterest day, Wud the weather be changing because ye cried,

Or the snow be grass were ye crucified? The best is to make yer own summer," says he,

"Whatever the weather may be," says heWhatever the weather may be!

he

"Whatever the weather may be," says he "Whatever the weather may be,

It's the songs ye sing, an' the smiles ye

wear,