[324] This fragment is supposed, by comparison with Livy, 25, 36, to belong to the account of the fall of Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio in Spain, B.C. 212.
[325] Or “legion,” according to others. But as both Consuls are engaged in the business, it seems reasonable to refer it to the two consular armies of two legions each.
[326] That is “blaming Fortune or Providence.” Schw. quotes Xenophon Hellen. 7, 5, 12, ἔξεστι μὲν τὸ θεῖον αἰτιᾶσθαι.
[327] συμπέμψαι, a difficult word. See Strachan-Davidson’s note. It seems to me to be opposed to φυγεῖν or some such idea. Hannibal was not in flight, but kept the enemy with him, as it were, in a kind of procession, until the moment for striking.
[328] There is some word wanting in the text here which has been variously supplied. I have ventured to conjecture τὰ γὰρ δοκοῦντα παράβολον κ.τ.λ., and to translate accordingly: for it is the boldness and apparent rashness of Hannibal’s movement that Polybius seems to wish to commend.
[329] Cp. Homer, Odyss. 19, 471.
[330] Livy, 25, 40, calls him Mutines.
[331] See 3, [86], note. Cp. Cicero de Am. § 8, cum duobus ducibus de imperio in Italia decertatum est, Pyrrho et Annibale. Ab altero propter probitatem ejus non nimis alien os animos habemus; alterum propter crudelitatem semper haec civitas oderit.
[332] The paragraph “For the Aetolians ... in Greece,” follows “the Messenians” in ch. 30, in the Greek texts. But it is evidently out of place there, and falls naturally into this position.
[333] Antigonus Doson.