1Troubled by these anxieties, he so conducted himself in the African war, which followed immediately upon the recent peace with Rome, for five years, and then for nine years in Spain in enlarging the Carthaginian empire, that it was plain he was contemplating a greater war than the one he was waging, and that, had he lived longer, the Carthaginians would have carried under Hamilcar's command the war into Italy which they carried there under Hannibal's leadership. 2The very timely death of Hamilcar and the boyhood of Hannibal postponed the war. 3Between father and son, Hasdrubal held command for about eight years; by the first bloom of his youth, so they say, he had won Hamilcar's favour, then was taken on as his son-in-law for a different quality, namely of mind, and because he was son-in-law he was placed in command by the influence of the Barcine faction, which was more than moderate among the soldiers and the common people, though certainly not by the wish of the nobles.
5Conducting affairs more by policy than by force, he enlarged the Carthaginian state rather by forming ties of hospitality with petty kings and by winning over new peoples through the friendship of their chiefs than by war or arms. 5Yet peace made him no safer: a certain barbarian, in anger because Hasdrubal had put his master to death, cut him down in public; and when seized by the bystanders he wore the same expression as if he had escaped, and even while he was being torn by tortures he kept such a look on his face that, his joy overcoming his pains, he even presented the appearance of a man smiling.
7With this Hasdrubal, because he had shown remarkable skill in tempting nations and joining them to his empire, the Roman people had renewed the treaty, on the terms that the river Ebro should be the boundary of each empire and that the Saguntines, lying between the empires of the two peoples, should keep their freedom.