For they thought the business of such a nature, that whether expedited or delayed, it could not very materially affect the general interest of the Roman people.

It was deemed more important to endeavour to discover what line of conduct Hannibal and the Carthaginians would pursue, in case of a war breaking out with Antiochus.

Persons of the faction which opposed Hannibal wrote continually to their several friends, among the principal men in Rome, that "messages and letters were sent by Hannibal to Antiochus, and that envoys came secretly from the king to him.

That, as some wild beasts can never be tamed, so the disposition of this man was irreclaimable and implacable.

That he sometimes complained, that the state was debilitated by ease and indolence, and lulled by sloth into a lethargy, from which nothing could rouse it but the sound of arms." These accounts were deemed probable, when people recollected the former war, which had not more been carried on than at first set on foot by the efforts of that single man.