The History of Rome, Vol. 2

On this counsel being rejected, and the messenger returning a second time, he recommended that they all, to a man, be put to death. When these two answers, so opposite to each other like those of an ambiguous oracle, were given, his son considered that his father’s mental powers had been impaired by age. However, persuaded by the general desire, he sent for his father to consult him in person. The old man complied and was carried in a wagon to the camp. When summoned to give his advice, he made no change in his opinions but added his reasons:

“By my first plan, which I esteemed the best, I meant to establish perpetual peace and friendship with a most powerful nation through an act of extraordinary kindness. By the second, I meant to postpone the return of war for many ages, during which the Roman state, after the loss of these two armies, could not easily recover its strength. There is no third plan.”

When his son and the other chiefs asked if a middle path could be adopted—to dismiss them unhurt but also impose terms on them as vanquished—he replied, “That plan is of a nature that neither procures friends nor removes enemies. You would preserve those whom you would simultaneously irritate by ignominious treatment. The Romans are a race who do not know how to sit quietly under defeat; whatever is branded upon them by current necessity will rankle in their breasts forever and will not suffer them to rest until they have wreaked manifold vengeance on your heads.” Neither plan was approved, and Herennius was carried home.

4. In the Roman camp, after many fruitless efforts to force a passage and with all food supplies exhausted, they were forced by necessity to send ambassadors. They were ordered to ask for peace on equal terms, or, if that were refused, to challenge the enemy to battle. To this, Pontius answered that the war was already at an end, and that even in their present vanquished state...