That’s a weird quote in that it appears to mash together two sentences not near each other in the original. Besides, Livy, of course, would not talk of a God.
A glance at a better translation would indicate that Hannibal was talking about the power of desperation:
There is nothing left to us anywhere except what we claim by force of arms. Those may be allowed to be cowards and dastards who have something to fall back upon, whom their own land, their own territory will receive as they flee through its safe and peaceful roads; you must of necessity be brave men, every alternative between victory and death has been broken off by the resolve of despair, and you are compelled either to conquer, or if Fortune wavers, to meet death in battle rather than in flight. If you have all made up your minds to this, I say again you are victors, no keener weapon has been put into men’s hands by the immortal gods than a contempt for death.
That’s a weird quote in that it appears to mash together two sentences not near each other in the original. Besides, Livy, of course, would not talk of a God.
A glance at a better translation would indicate that Hannibal was talking about the power of desperation: