While Carthage was in flames Scipio repeated two lines of the Iliad, which express the destruction of Troy, acknowledging to Polybius, his friend and preceptor (Polyb. [Fragm. 1. xxxix 'sub fin'.] in Excerpt. de Virtut. et Vit. tom. ii. p. 1455-1465), that while he recollected the vicissitudes of human affairs he inwardly applied them to the future calamities of Rome (Appian. in Libycis [1. viii. c. 132], p. 136, edit. Toll.).