Address to the Troops Before Cannae

Your Record

¹Soldiers, I should have wished that you be satisfied with your own valour before I addressed you; but since fortune has so disposed matters that I must speak, hear me with attention.

²I have given you as comrades those who have conquered in many battles. You come not as raw recruits but as veterans, not from Italy but from Spain, from the furthest corners of the earth.

³You have crossed the Alps, a feat the world thought impossible. You have overcome rivers, mountains, and hostile peoples. You stand here as proof that nothing can withstand a resolute army.

The Enemy

⁴Behold the Roman army drawn up before you. What manner of men are these? They are the same whom you defeated at the Trebia, the same whom you routed at Lake Trasimene.

⁵These are the men whose consul Flaminius you slew, whose legions you scattered, whose standards you captured. They are not enemies worthy of your valour — they are the very trophies of your former victories.

Victory or Death

⁶Necessity is laid upon you to conquer or die. You have no second army behind you, no ships to carry you home, no refuge if you flee. Before you is the enemy; behind you lies a country not your own.

⁷Nothing remains to you but hope in your own courage and valour. You are cut off from your country by vast tracts of land and sea. You must find a new country here, or die.

⁸The gods themselves have given you the means of victory. The country of the enemy lies open before you, rich with spoils. Soldiers, you need no exhortation of mine. Let your courage speak.

⁹Fortune favours the bold. Go forward, and the wealth and glory of Rome shall be your reward. This day will be the beginning of your liberty or the end of your sufferings.