Note 189 — BOOK III (continued 2)

This treatment of non-combatants was contrary to the usages of civilised warfare even in those days, and seems to have been the true ground for the charge of crudelitas always attributed to Hannibal by Roman writers, as opposed to the behaviour of such an enemy as Pyrrhus (Cic. de Am. 28). It may be compared to the order of the Convention to give no quarter to English soldiers, which the French officers nobly refused to execute.