CHAP. XVII.
A man is not to be disobliged, and employed afterwards in any matter of importance.
A Commonwealth is diligently to provide that no Citizen be entrusted in any weighty affair, who has received any remarkable injury; Claudius Nero (who divided the Army which was designed to confront Hanibal, and marched away with a strong party into la Mara to joyn with the other Consul, and engage Asdrubal before he got up with his supplies to Hanibal) having formerly commanded the Roman Army in Spain against the said Asdrubal, had come off with dishonour; for though he had enclosed Asdrubal and his whole Army, and so possest himself of all passes, that he must either fight with disadvantage, or perish with hunger, yet he was over-reach'd with the subtilty of the Carthaginian, who drill'd him on with pretended overtures of peace, till at length in the night he stole his Army thorow the woods, and got of where he was safe. This passage being known in Rome, was no small diminution to Nero's reputation both with the Senate and the People: but being afterwards made Consul, and sent with an Army against Hanibal, he ventured upon that desperate counsel of dividing the Army, which was a thing so doubtful and un∣certain in the opinion of the Romans, that the City was in strange anxiety and suspence till they had the news of his Victory. It is reported that when Claudius Nero was que∣stioned afterwards by his friends what it was that mov'd him to so hazardous an enterprize, in which, without necessary provocation, he had ventured the whole liberty of their Country, he answered, he had done it, because he knew if he succeded, he should recover that honour which he had lost in Spain; if he miscarried, and his design should have a con∣trary end, he should have had the satisfaction to have been revenged of the City and Citi∣zens, by whom he had been so ingratefully, and so indiscreetly calumniated. And if the