Gazette Of The United States, & Daily Advertiser

In a communication from a politician of distinguished rank abroad, it was suggested that many points of resemblance could be found between the characters of BUONAPARTE and HANNIBAL, as the latter is described by the historian, Livy. On consulting that author, the following translation was made. The classical reader who wishes to be feasted with Latin luxury, will turn to the fourth section of the twenty-first book of Livy, in the Elzevir edition. The passages in question begins "Mirus Annibal in Hispaniam primo statim adventu omnem exercitum in se convertit."

No sooner had Hannibal arrived upon his mission to Spain, than the whole army became attached to him—The veteran soldiers believed that Amilcar himself was resuscitated. They beheld the same vigor of countenance, the same fire in his eye; the very lines and features of his face. He shortly supersedes by his own merit the necessity of a recommendation from the love they bore for his father. Never was the same ability discovered in one person for a diversity of pursuits: he was fitted alike for obedience and command; so that it was difficult to discern, to which he he was most dear, the commander or the army. Asdrubal would have elected no one sooner, for the execution of any bold or arduous enterprize; nor was the confidence or the courage of the oldiers greater under any other chieftain.

In "enterprizes of great pith and moment," he mingled much audacity with much caution. His body was as incapable of being fatigued by labor, as his mind of being overcome by it. Of heat and of cold he was equally patient. His appetite was satisfied with what is necessary for sustenance, instead of luxuries. His waking and sleeping hours knew no discrimination of time into day and night—what portion was not devoted to active labors, was given to repose; not indeed on beds of down, nor in the silence of retirement. Many have often seen him, covered with a soldier's cloak, lying on the bare ground among the guards and soldiers' posts. His attire did not exceed that of his equals in rank; in arms and equipage he surpassed them. He was alike pre-eminent in the ranks of infantry as in the quadrons of cavalry—foremost in advancing to the field of battle, and last to leave it when the battle was over.

So many manly virtues were counterbalanced by a correspondent number of flagitious vices. He was a monster of cruelty; his perfidy worse than Punic; actuated by no regard to truth or sanctity—"the fear of God was not in him," nor had he any respect for his oath, or his religion. Thus endowed with virtues and vices, he served three years under the commander Asdrubal.