XXVI. Fabius now tried another method to oppose Scipio. He dissuaded the
youth of the city from taking service with him by continually
vociferating in all public meetings that Scipio not only was himself
running away from Hannibal, but also was about to take all the remaining
forces of Italy out of the country with him, deluding the young men
with vain hopes, and so persuading them to leave their parents and
wives, and their city too, while a victorious and invincible enemy was
at its very gates. By these representations he alarmed the Romans, who
decreed that Scipio should only use the troops in Sicily, and three
hundred of the best men of his Spanish army. In this transaction Fabius
seems to have acted according to the dictates of his own cautious
disposition.
However, when Scipio crossed over into Africa, news came to Rome at once
of great and glorious exploits performed and great battles won. As
substantial proof of these there came many trophies of war, and the king
of Numidia as a captive. Two camps were burned and destroyed, with great
slaughter of men, and loss of horses and war material in the flames.
Embassies also were sent to Hannibal from Carthage, begging him in
piteous terms to abandon his fruitless hopes in Italy and come home to
help them, while in Rome the name of Scipio was in every man's mouth
because of his successes. At this period Fabius proposed that a
successor to Scipio should be sent out, without having any reason to
allege for it except the old proverb that it is dangerous to entrust
such important operations to the luck of one man, because it is hard for
the same man always to be lucky.
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