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17In view of such a complete success, Hannibal’s friends urged him to follow up his good fortune and dash into their city on the heels of the flying enemy, assuring him in that case that on the fifth day after his victory he would sup on the Capitol. It is not easy to say what consideration turned him from this course, nay, it would rather seem that his evil genius, or some divinity, interposed to inspire him with the hesitation and timidity which he now showed. Wherefore, as they say, Barca, the Carthaginian, said to him angrily: “Thou canst win a victory, but thy victory thou canst not use.”[19]
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Notes
[19] Tum Maharbal: "Non omnia nimirum eidem di dedere: vincere scis, Hannibal, victoria uti nescis." Livy, xxii. 51.