If the effect of this ostensibly unpremeditated candidature was thus calculated, it was perfectly successful.

The son, who went to avenge the death of a father whose life he had saved nine years before on the Ticinus; the young man of manly beauty and long locks, who with modest blushes offered himself in the absence of a better for the post of danger; the mere military tribune, whom the votes of the centuries now raised at once to the roll of the highest magistracies--all this made a wonderful and indelible impression on the citizens and farmers of Rome.

And in truth Publius Scipio was one, who was himself enthusiastic, and who inspired enthusiasm.

He was not one of the few who by their energy and iron will constrain the world to adopt and to move in new paths for centuries, or who at any rate grasp the reins of destiny for years till its wheels roll over them.

Publius Scipio gained battles and conquered countries under the instructions of the senate; with the aid of his military laurels he took also a prominent position in Rome as a statesman; but a wide interval separates such a man from an Alexander or a Caesar.