26.5
For not even after Hannibal and his army had sailed away from Italy203 B.C. would he suffer the rejoicing and fresh courage of the citizens to be undisturbed and assured, but then even more than ever he insisted that the city was running into extremest peril and that her affairs were in a dangerous plight. For Hannibal, he said, would fall upon them with all the greater effect in Africa at the gates of Carthage, and Scipio would be confronted within an army yet warm with the blood of many importers, dictators, and consuls. Consequently, the city was once more confounded by these speeches, and although the war had been removed to Africa, they thought its terrors were nearer Rome.
27.1
But shortly afterward Scipio utterly defeated Hannibal himself in battle, humbled and trod under foot the pride of fallen Carthage, restored to his fellow-citizens a joy that surpassed all their hopes, and in very truth righted once more the ship of their supremacy, which had been shaken in a heavy surge. Fabius Maximus, however, did not live to see the end of the war, minor did he even hear of Hannibal’s defeat, nor behold the great and assured prosperity of the country, but at about the time when Hannibal set sail from Italy, he fell sick and died.203 B.C. Cf. Livy, xxx. 26.
