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chanics, and indeed all sciences subservient to practical utility, are greatly advanced by it, and derive a vast encouragement from the demands which it occasions for the productions of the useful With regard to literature there is greater doubt. The abor of the head in those productions which tend only to amusenent, or at least a refinement of the intellectual powers, without ny obvious consequence as to the practical business of worldly ife, will not, it is probable, meet with much encouragement among a people whose views extend no farther than the substantial acquisitions of wealth and property.

Such are the principal effects of the spirit of commerce on the character and manners of a nation; and such accordingly we find to constitute the principal features of the Carthaginian character opposed to the Roman.

CHAPTER IX.

FIRST PUNIC WAR-First Naval Victory of the Romans-Invasion of AfricaRegulus Termination of the War-SECOND PUNIC WAR-Hannibal passes the Alps-His victories in Italy- Battle of Canna Hannibal winters in Capua-Siege of Syracuse-defended by Archimedes-Battle of Zama-and end of Second Punic War-Defeat of Philip II. of Macedon-of Antiochus, king of Syria-Cato the Censor-Accusation of Scipio Africanus--His character-Scipio Asiaticus-War with Perseus and reduction of MacedoniaTHIRD PUNIC WAR, AND DESTRUCTION OF CARTHAGE.

IT has been justly remarked that the Romans, although an ambitious people, did not begin to form plans of extensive conquest, till they had sufficient strength to undertake them with advantage The triumph which their arms had obtained over Pyrrhus, the most able and the most experienced general of his time, seemed to give them an assurance of success in any military enterprise in which they should engage.

The First Punic war took its rise from the following cause. The Mamertines, a people of Campania, had taken possession of Messina, one of the Sicilian towns allied to Syracuse. Hiero, king of Syracuse, had marched against these invaders, who, conscious that they were unable to withstand so powerful an antagonist, applied for aid, first to the Carthaginians, and afterwards, from rational fear of being enslaved by this power, to the Romans. Although this was a very unjustifiable quarrel, the Romans made no scruple

to take a part; and they sent a large army, which engaged and defeated the united forces of the Syracusans and Carthaginians. The king of Syracuse having now experienced to his cost the power of the Roman arms, was glad to court their alliance; flattering himself, by this means, with the prospect of absolutely expelling from Sicily the Carthaginians, who had long entertained the design of annexing this island to their empire, and had made considerable progress in that design.

By the joint forces of the Romans and Syracusans, Agrigentum, one of the principal cities then possessed by the Carthaginians, was taken, after a long siege. The Romans, encouraged by this success, and conscious of the great advantage which the enemy derived from their marine, began to think of equipping a fleet to cope with them at sea, as well as on land. A Carthaginian galley, stranded on the coast of Italy, is said to have served them as a model; and, by a wonderful effort of industry, they equipped in a few weeks a hundred similar to it, with five banks of oars-and twenty of a smaller size with three banks. The Consul Dicilius made an improvement on these ships of war, by the invention of a machine called Corvus,-a sort of crane, which, falling down and fastening upon the ships of the enemy, brought them to a close engagement, and served at the same time as a bridge or gangway for boarding them. All new inventions are usually successful at first, from the surprise which they occasion. The Roman fleet gained a most complete victory over that of the Carthaginians. A vast number of their ships were destroyed, above 7,000 men killed, and an equal number made prisoners.

*

For a few years the success of the Romans was uninterrupted. They took from the Carthaginians the islands of Corsica and Sardinia; and in the naval engagement at Ecnomus, having captured sixty of the enemy's ships, they now thought themselves in a situation to attempt the invasion of Africa.

The consul Attilius Regulus had the command of that expedition. The history of this illustrious man, particularly the latter part of it, is, by some modern writers, suspected of being fabulous; and indeed they have advanced some very plausible arguments against the belief of its authenticity: yet it is found in the best of the Roman writers, and is in itself so beautiful, that we cannot hastily resolve to refuse it credit. Regulus, after several successful engagements in Africa, had advanced even to the gates of Carthage; and such was the general consternation, that the city proposed to capitulate. It had been glorious for Regulus thus to have termin

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* This naval engagement was fought on the coast of Sicily, near Mylæ, now Milazzo. A monument of the victory was erected at Rome, which subsists to this day-the columna rostrata, dug up about 200 years ago, and now standing in the Capitol.

ated the war by an advantageous and honorable peace, but, blinded by success, the terms he insisted on were so severe, that, even situated as they were, the Carthaginians rejected them In the meantime, a large body of Greek troops arrived to their assistance. This changed the fortune of the war; the Carthaginians assumed new courage, and with an army largely reinforced, attacking the Romans, they gained an important victory, and made Regulus their prisoner.

The Romans, undismayed by this great misfortune, prosecuted the war with fresh vigor. Metellus, in Sicily, was carrying every thing before him. He defeated Asdrubal, the Carthaginian general in a signal engagement near Panormus; and Carthage, dispirited by her losses, began seriously to wish for peace. Ambassadors for that purpose were despatched to Rome; and Regulus was sent along with them, as it was not doubted that the negotiation, seconded by the endeavors of this general, whom his country most deservedly respected, would be easily terminated. They exacted at the same time from him an oath-that he would return to Carthage, in case there should neither be peace nor an exchange of prisoners. To the surprise of all, this great and generous man used his utmost endeavors to dissuade his countrymen from agreeing to a peace; a proposition which he represented as proceeding solely from the weakness of the enemy, whom, by continuing the war, they would compel to any submission. But still further, he even dissuaded his countrymen from consenting to an exchange of prisoners; a measure which he endeavored to convince them must be to their disadvantage, from this circumstance, that they had in their hands many of the best officers of the enemy, whom they would be obliged to exchange against private men. His arguments prevailed, and the negotiation was broken off.

Of the conduct of Regulus, and of the nature of the obligation which bound him, there have been various opinions, both among the ancients and moderns. Cicero argues the matter at great length in the third book of his Offices. He applauds the conduct of Regulus, not only in the strict observance of his oath, but in his dissuasive against the exchange of prisoners. On the other hand, Sir Walter Raleigh, in his excellent History of the World, has distinguished between these two actions. He applauds the conduct of Regulus in strictly maintaining the obligation of his oath, and in opposing the treaty of peace with the enemy; but his dissuading his countrymen from agreeing to an exchange of prisoners, he censures as a piece of ostentatious stoicism, and even inhumanity, which no good reasor of state could justify. And this we must think a sound opinion. The latter part of the conduct of this illustrious man must on all hands meet with ad

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miration. The Pontifex Maximus, on being consulted on the validity of the oath he had sworn to return to Carthage, gave it as his opinion that, it having been extorted by the necessity of his situation, he was under no obligation to observe it. But the noble soul of Regulus could not admit of such evasion. Disre garding the entreaties of his friends, the tears of his wife and chil dren, the urgent remonstrance of the senate and of the whole Roman people, this generous and heroic man resolved that the terror of consequences, how dreadful soever, should not persuade him to a violation of his honor.* "I am not ignorant," said he, 66 that death and the severest tortures are preparing for me; but what are these to the stain of an infamous action, the reproach of a guilty mind? I have sworn to return to Carthage; it is therefore my duty to go. Let the gods direct the consequence as to their wisdom shall seem best." To Carthage accordingly he returned, where, as he had foreseen, he suffered a cruel and ignominious death.†

The war in the meantime continued. Lilyboeum, one of the strongest places belonging to the Carthaginians in Sicily, after a siege of many years, by the Romans, with the aid of the Syracusans, and the most signal efforts on both sides of courage, skill, and perseverance, was taken, in the tenth year, by blockade. After some alternate successes at sea, the Romans were victorious in two naval engagements; in the last of which, the Consul Lu

* This scene is beautifully described by Horace, Od. iii. 5, 49.

† Most of the ancient writers concur in the assertion that Regulus was put to death in a very barbarous manner by the Carthaginians. The authors of the Ancient Universal History relate as the most common opinion, that he was first exposed to a burning sun, with his eyelids cut off, and afterwards shut up in a cask, stuck around with sharp nails, in which he was suffered to die of hunger and want of sleep.-Anc. Un. Hist., vol. xii. p. 191. It must, however, be owned, that great doubt hangs over all the accounts that are given of the inhuman treatment of Regulus. Polybius, who is extremely minute in every thing relative to the history of this illustrious man, is entirely silent as to his fate; which, had it been such as is commonly related, he could never have omitted to mention. He assures us, in the first book of his History, that he has been most particular in his account of Regulus, that others may derive improvement from his example in not trusting too much to a course of prosperous fortune. As, therefore, the calamitous death of Regulus was the strongest exemplification of this moral lesson, it is impossible to believe that he would have studiously avoided the mention of the above particulars, if they had been true.

But there is in reality a positive testimony against the truth of those atrocious circumstances above related. Among various fragments of ancient authors, collected by the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, is a passage from Diodorus Siculus, in which it is asserted that the death of Regulus was owing to neglect; probably the carelessness of his keepers in omitting to supply him with food. The author adds, that the widow of Regulus instigated her sons, in revenge of their father's death, to wreak their resentment against two of the Carthaginian prisoners who had fallen into their hands, one of whom they actually starved to death. The other was fortunate enough to convey intelligence to the Roman magistrate of his comrade's death and his own intended fate, in consequence of which the Attilii very narrowly escaped a capital punishment. See Toland's Works, vol. ii. p. 42, where there is a translation of the fragment of Diodorus and a proof of its authenticity

tatius defeated Hamilcar Barcas, the father of the great Hannibal, and compelled the Carthaginians to sue for peace, which was not granted them but on the hardest conditions. These were, that they should abandon all their possessions in Sicily; that, in the space of twenty years, they should pay to the Romans 2,200 talents of silver-about 325,4801 sterling; that they should restore, without ransom, all their prisoners; and lastly, that they should not make war against Hiero, the king of Syracuse, or any of his allies. The Roman people refused to ratify this treaty, unless on the further conditions, that they should have an additional thousand talents for the expenses of the war; that the whole sum should be paid in ten years instead of twenty; and that the Carthaginians should yield up all the small islands which they possessed upon the coast of Italy. Sicily was declared a Roman province, with the exception of the kingdom of Syracuse. A prætor and quæstor were sent thither yearly, the former as a civil judge, the latter to collect the 'revenues.

Thus, the Romans, after a war of twenty-four years, begun under every disadvantage, destitute of finances, totally unprovided with a fleet, and, of course, ignorant of navigation, were, at length, able to prescribe the most humiliating terms to Carthage, the first maritime power in the world.

At the end of the First Punic war, the temple of Janus was shut -an event which had not happened since the reign of Numa, that is, near 500 years. In a few years it was again opened, and never shut till the reign of Augustus.

It

The treaty with the Carthaginians was of no long duration. was of too humbling a nature to the pride of this mighty power, to subsist longer than absolute necessity compelled:-an useful lesson of moderation to a victorious people. No sooner had a little time allowed the vanquished state to repair her losses, than the war broke out again, with redoubled animosity. The Carthaginians began hostilities by the siege of Saguntum, a city of Spain, then in alliance with the Romans. The siege was conducted by Hannibal, then a very young man, but who, from his infancy, had been inured to arms, and had all the qualities of a great general. His character has been drawn by Livy with the pencil of a master: "Hannibal, being sent into Spain, on his arrival drew the eyes of the whole army upon him. The old soldiers believed that Hamilcar was again restored to life, and that they saw once more the same look of decision, the same fire of the eye, the very countenance and lineaments of their leader. Speedily, there was no need of such recollections of the father to endear to them the son. None ever showed a happier aptitude of disposition, whether in obeying or commanding; so that it was impossible to say whether he was most prized by the general or by the army. Nor, in whatever service of difficulty or of danger, would Asdrubal appoint any other to the command, or the troops engage under any other with

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