Scipio, when he looked upon the city as it was utterly perishing and in the last throes of its complete destruction, is said to have shed tears and wept openly for his enemies.
After being wrapped in thought for long, and realizing that all cities, nations, and authorities must, like men, meet their doom; that this happened to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Ilium&groupId=645&placeId=1183">Ilium</a>, once a prosperous city, to the empires of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Assyria&groupId=375&placeId=707">Assyria</a>, <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Media&groupId=742&placeId=1354">Media</a>, and <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Persia&groupId=871&placeId=1571">Persia</a>, the greatest of their time, and to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Macedonia&groupId=723&placeId=428">Macedonia</a> itself, the brilliance of which was so recent, either deliberately or the verses escaping him, he said:
And when Polybius speaking with freedom to him, for he was his teacher, asked him what he meant by the words, they say that without any attempt at concealment he named his own country, for which he feared when he reflected on the fate of all things human. Polybius actually heard him and recalls it in his history.
Walbank Commentary