1A few, and those as a rule the best men, agreed with Hanno; 1but, as usually happens, the larger party prevailed over the better. 1Sent to Spain, Hannibal turned the whole army towards himself from the very moment of his arrival: the veteran soldiers believed that Hamilcar had been given back to them as a young man; they saw the same vigour in his face, the same force in his eyes, the same expression and features. 2Then in a short time he brought it about that his father counted for very little in winning him favour. 2Never was the same nature more apt for the most opposite things, obeying and commanding.
3And so you could not easily have told whether he was dearer to the general or to the army: Hasdrubal preferred to put no one else in charge whenever anything was to be done with courage and energy, nor did the soldiers have more confidence or daring under any other leader. 5He had the greatest boldness in taking on dangers, the greatest judgement in the midst of the dangers themselves. 5No toil could tire his body or overcome his spirit. 6His endurance of heat and cold was the same; 6the measure of his food and drink was set by natural need, not by pleasure; 6his times for waking and sleeping were not marked off by day or night: whatever was left over from his work was given to rest; 7and that rest was not sought on a soft bed or in silence; 7many often saw him, covered with a soldier's cloak, lying on the ground among the sentries and outposts of the soldiers.
8His dress in no way stood out among his peers; 8his arms and horses drew all eyes. 8He was by far the foremost of both horsemen and foot-soldiers alike; 8he was first to go into battle, last to leave it once battle was joined. 9These great virtues of the man were matched by enormous vices: inhuman cruelty, treachery worse than Punic, no truth, nothing sacred, no fear of the gods, no regard for oaths, no religious scruple. 10With this nature, compounded of virtues and vices, he served for three years under Hasdrubal's command, passing over nothing that ought to be done or seen by one who was to be a great general.