Part 7 (2/2)
So the armies drew up opposite each other on the field of Za of 202 BC which was to decide whether Carthaginians or Romans were to be masters of the world Hannibal had about five thousand men hty elephants which he had placed in front were young and untrained The cavalry of the Romans was under the command of Massinissa and of Laelius, friend of the historian Polybius, and it was this strong body of Numidian horse which ultimately turned the fate of the day As for the elephants, the sound of the Roun, and threw theht into the inian cavalry, followed by Massinissa and by Laelius, who succeeded in breaking the ranks of the horse and putting theht For a n troops which Hannibal then brought up would prevail against the Roth they were forced back on to their own lines, which took then soldiers fell on the Carthaginians, and fighting hard they retreated on Hannibal's reserve, the well-trained Italians
At this point there was a pause, and both commanders an afresh, and the generals left their posts and fought for hours in the ranks of the common soldiers At last the cavalry returned froinians This ti that the battle was lost, quitted the field, in the hope that soht still save his country from destruction
How bitter, in after years,his h Hannibal and the Romans hated each other somore than in the way that no defeat ever depressed them or found them without some plan to turn it into victory In truth, in spite of his love for his country, which was dearer to him than wife or child, Hannibal was far, far inian
Peace was made, and, as was inevitable, the terms were less favourable than when the fate of both countries hung in the balance Naturally, the Carthaginians threw the bla filled with theto mankind, when they found that all was in confusion and no one knehere to turn, they sent for the man they had abandoned and abused, and bade his he had suffered at their hands were forgotten; he accepted the position of dictator or _suffete_, he caused more humane laws to be passed, and not only saved the people frooods, but paid the large sum demanded as a war inde done what no other e, could possibly have done, it is needless to rerew jealous of hier to Rome's demand for his surrender, nation of Scipio To save himself fro he escaped by night, leaving a sentence of banishment to be passed on him and the palace of his fathers to be wrecked Perhaps--who knows?--hesha him up to walk by the chariot wheels in the triu years of his life--nearly twenty-five, it is said--are so sad that one can hardly bear to write about thee was at Ephesus, with Antiochus the Great, lord, at least in name, of a vast number of mixed races fro in mind the master passion of his life, he tried to induce Antiochus to forue by which Ro, who had little in hireatness but his naave the chief co Hannibal to obey orders instead of issuing the and joined Ro help to the Ronesia put an end to the war, and the dominions of Antiochus became a Roman province
Once more the surrender of Hannibal was made one of the terms of the treaty, and once more he escaped and spent some time first in Crete, and then in Armenia, and finally, for the last ti of Bithynia
The hearty welco of pleasure and rest that he had not known for long; but he was never destined to be at peace, and soon after a Roman envoy arrived at the palace of Prusias and deiven up To a brave soldier like Flahly distasteful, which is another proof, if one anted, how great even in his downfall was the dread the Carthaginian inspired 'Italy will never be without hile Hannibal lives!' had been the cry long, long ago, and it still rang proudly in his ears He knew, and had always known, that his life would end by his own hand, and most likely he was not sorry that the moment had come
'Let me release the Romans from their anxiety, since they cannot wait for the death of one old man,' he said, when he heard that soldiers had surrounded his house, and drawing from his tunic some poison that he carried, he sed it and fell back dead He had escaped at last
[Illustration: 'Let me release the Romans from their anxiety,' he said]
His last words had told truly the story of his life It was the one old reat nation
On reading the tale of his steadfastness, his unselfishness, his goodness to his soldiers, and the base ingratitude and wickedness hich his country that the lost cause had proved the winning one, and again and again we have to remind ourselves of the terrible evil it would have been to the world if Carthage had overcoe was possessed of almost every bad quality which could work ill to the human race Greed for money was her passion, and in order to obtain wealth she proved herself fickle, short-sighted, lawless, and boundlessly cruel The government of Rome, which the Eternal City handed on to the countries she conquered, was founded not only on law, but on co the thousand years of her greatest glory, she was seldom cruel, and her people were ready at all tiood of the state
So it ell for us now and here that Hannibal was overthrown at Zae; yet our hearts will always cry out with Othello, 'Oh, the pity of it!'
THE APOSTLE OF THE LEPERS
No one can travel through the countries of the East or sail about the lovely islands of the South Seas without constantly seeing before hi of the most terrible of all diseases--leprosy The poor victims are cast out from their homes, and those who have loved thereatest horror, for one touch of their bodies or their clothes ht cause the wife or child to share their dooes are set apart for them, and in old ti cry,
'Room for the leper! Room!'