nation was victorious. For seventeen years Hannibal strove against
Rome, for sixteen years Napoleon strove against England; the efforts
of the first ended in Zama, those of the second in Waterloo." Sir
Edward Creasy, quoting this, adds: "One point, however, of the
similitude between the two wars has scarcely been adequately dwelt on;
that is, the remarkable parallel between the Roman general who finally
defeated the great Carthaginian, and the English general who gave the
last deadly overthrow to the French emperor. Scipio and Wellington
both held for many years commands of high importance, but distant from
the main theatres of warfare. The same country was the scene of the
principal military career of each. It was in Spain that Scipio, like
Wellington, successively encountered and overthrew nearly all the
subordinate generals of the enemy before being opposed to the chief
champion and conqueror himself. Both Scipio and Wellington restored
their countrymen's confidence in arms when shaken by a series of
reverses, and each of them closed a long and perilous war by a
complete and overwhelming defeat of the chosen leader and the chosen
veterans of the foe."

Neither of these Englishmen mentions the yet more striking
coincidence, that in both cases the mastery of the sea rested with the
victor. The Roman control of the water forced Hannibal to that long,
perilous march through Gaul in which more than half his veteran troops
wasted away; it enabled the elder Scipio, while sending his army from
the Rhone on to Spain, to intercept Hannibal's communications, to
return in person and face the invader at the Trebia. Throughout the
war the legions passed by water, unmolested and un-

wearied, between Spain, which was Hannibal's base, and Italy, while
the issue of the decisive battle of the Metaurus, hinging as it did