The Ancient History of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians Part 23

Diodorus adds, that there was a brazen statue of Saturn, the hands of which were turned downward; so that when a child was laid on them, it dropped immediately into a hollow, where was a fiery furnace.

Can this, says Plutarch,(525) be called wors.h.i.+pping the G.o.ds? Can we be said to entertain an honourable idea of them, if we suppose that they are pleased with slaughter, thirsty of human blood, and capable of requiring or accepting such offerings? Religion, says this judicious author,(526) is placed between two rocks, that are equally dangerous to man, and injurious to the deity, I mean impiety and superst.i.tion. The one, from an affectation of free-thinking, believes nothing; and the other, from a blind weakness, believes all things. Impiety, to rid itself of a terror which galls it, denies the very existence of the G.o.ds: whilst superst.i.tion, to calm its fears, capriciously forges G.o.ds, which it makes not only the friends, but protectors and models, of crimes. Had it not been better, says he further,(527) for the Carthaginians to have had originally a Critias, or a Diagoras, who were open and undisguised atheists, for their lawgivers, than to have established so frantic and wicked a religion? Could the Typhons and the giants, (the avowed enemies of the G.o.ds,) had they gained a victory over them, have established more abominable sacrifices?

Such were the sentiments which a heathen entertained of this part of the Carthaginian wors.h.i.+p. One would indeed scarce believe that mankind were capable of such madness and frenzy. Men do not generally of themselves entertain ideas so destructive of all that nature considers as most sacred, as to sacrifice, to murder, their children with their own hands, and to throw them in cool blood into fiery furnaces! Sentiments so unnatural and barbarous, and yet adopted by whole nations, and even by the most civilized, by the Phnicians, Carthaginians, Gauls, Scythians, and even the Greeks and Romans, and consecrated by custom during a long series of ages, can have been inspired by him only who was a murderer from the beginning; and who delights in nothing but the humiliation, misery, and perdition of man.

SECT. III. FORM OF THE GOVERNMENT OF CARTHAGE.-The government of Carthage was founded upon principles of the most consummate wisdom; and it is with reason that Aristotle(528) ranks this republic in the number of those that were had in the greatest esteem by the ancients, and which were fit to serve as a model for others. He grounds his opinion on a reflection, which does great honour to Carthage, by remarking, that, from its foundation to his time, (that is, upwards of five hundred years,) no considerable sedition had disturbed the peace, nor any tyrant oppressed the liberty of that state. Indeed, mixed governments, such as that of Carthage, where the power was divided betwixt the n.o.bles and the people, are subject to two inconveniences; either of degenerating into an abuse of liberty by the seditions of the populace, as frequently happened in Athens, and in all the Grecian republics; or into the oppression of the public liberty by the tyranny of the n.o.bles, as in Athens, Syracuse, Corinth, Thebes, and Rome itself under Sylla and Caesar. It is, therefore, giving Carthage the highest praise, to observe, that it had found out the art, by the wisdom of its laws, and the harmony of the different parts of its government, to shun, during so long a series of years, two rocks that are so dangerous, and on which others so often split.

It were to be wished, that some ancient author had left us an accurate and regular description of the customs and laws of this famous republic. For want of such a.s.sistance, we can only give our readers a confused and imperfect idea of them, by collecting the several pa.s.sages which lie scattered up and down in authors. Christopher Hendrich has obliged the learned world in this particular, and his work(529) has been of great service to me.

The government of Carthage,(530) like that of Sparta and Rome, united three different authorities, which counterpoised and gave mutual a.s.sistance to one another. These authorities were, that of the two supreme magistrates, called Suffetes;(531) that of the Senate; and that of the people. There afterwards was added the tribunal of One Hundred, which had great credit and influence in the republic.

_The Suffetes._-The power of the Suffetes was only annual, and their authority in Carthage answered to that of the consuls at Rome.(532) In authors they are frequently called kings, dictators, consuls, because they exercised the functions of all three. History does not inform us of the manner of their election. They were empowered to a.s.semble the senate;(533) in which they presided, proposed subjects for deliberation, and collected the votes;(534) and they likewise presided in all debates on matters of importance. Their authority was not limited to the city, nor confined to civil affairs: they sometimes had the command of the armies. We find, that when their employment of Suffetes expired, they were made praetors, which was a considerable office, since, besides conferring upon them the privilege of presiding in some causes, it also empowered them to propose and enact new laws, and call to account the receivers of the public revenues, as appears from what Livy relates(535) concerning Hannibal on this head, and which I shall take notice of in the sequel.

_The Senate._-The Senate, composed of persons who were venerable on account of their age, their experience, their birth, their riches, and especially their merit, formed the council of state; and were, if I may use that expression, the soul of the public deliberations. Their number is not exactly known: it must, however, have been very great, since a hundred were selected from it to form a separate a.s.sembly, of which I shall immediately have occasion to speak. In the senate, all affairs of consequence were debated, the letters from generals read, the complaints of provinces heard, amba.s.sadors admitted to audience, and peace or war determined, as is seen on many occasions.

When the sentiments and votes were unanimous, the senate decided supremely, and there lay no appeal from it.(536) When there was a division, and the senate could not be brought to an agreement, the affair was then laid before the people, on whom the power of deciding thereby devolved. The reader will easily perceive the great wisdom of this regulation: and how happily it was adapted to crush factions, to produce harmony, and to enforce and corroborate good counsels; such an a.s.sembly being extremely jealous of its authority, and not easily prevailed upon to let it pa.s.s into other hands. Of this we have a memorable instance in Polybius.(537) When after the loss of the battle fought in Africa, at the end of the second Punic war, the conditions of peace offered by the victor were read in the senate; Hannibal, observing that one of the senators opposed them, represented in the strongest terms, that as the safety of the republic lay at stake, it was of the utmost importance for the senators to be unanimous in their resolutions, to prevent such a debate from coming before the people; and he carried his point. This, doubtless, laid the foundation, in the infancy of the republic, of the senate's power, and raised its authority to so great a height. And the same author observes, in another place,(538) that whilst the senate had the administration of affairs, the state was governed with great wisdom, and was successful in all its enterprises.

_The People._-It appears from every thing related hitherto, that even so low as Aristotle's time, who gives so beautiful a picture, and bestows so n.o.ble an eulogium on the government of Carthage, the people spontaneously left the care of public affairs, and the chief administration of them, to the senate: and this it was which made the republic so powerful. But things changed afterwards. For the people, grown insolent by their wealth and conquests, and forgetting that they owed these blessings to the prudent conduct of the senate, were desirous of having a share in the government, and arrogated to themselves almost the whole power. From that period, the public affairs were transacted wholly by cabals and factions: and this Polybius a.s.signs as one of the chief causes of the ruin of Carthage.

_The Tribunal of the Hundred._-This was a body composed of a hundred and four persons; though often, for brevity's sake, they are called only, the Hundred. These, according to Aristotle, were the same in Carthage, as the Ephori in Sparta; whence it appears, that they were inst.i.tuted to balance the power of the n.o.bles and senate: but with this difference, that the Ephori were but five in number, and continued in office but a year; whereas these were perpetual, and were upwards of a hundred. (M97) It is believed, that these Centumviri are the same with the hundred judges mentioned by Justin,(539) who were taken out of the senate, and appointed to inquire into the conduct of their generals. The exorbitant power of Mago's family, which, by its engrossing the chief employments both of the state and the army, had thereby the sole direction and management of all affairs, gave occasion to this establishment. It was intended as a curb to the authority of their generals, which, whilst the armies were in the field, was almost boundless and absolute; but, by this inst.i.tution, it became subject to the laws, by the obligation their generals were under, of giving an account of their actions before these judges on their return from the campaign: _Ut hoc metu ita in bello imperia cogitarent, ut domi judicia legesque respicerent._(540) Of these hundred and four judges, five had a particular jurisdiction superior to that of the rest; but it is not known how long their authority lasted. This council of five was like the council of ten in the Venetian senate. A vacancy in their number could be filled by none but themselves. They also had the power of choosing those who composed the council of the hundred. Their authority was very great, and for that reason none were elected into this office but persons of uncommon merit; and it was not judged proper to annex any salary or reward to it; the single motive of the public good, being thought a tie sufficient to engage honest men to a conscientious and faithful discharge of their duty. Polybius, in his account of the taking of New Carthage by Scipio,(541) distinguishes clearly two orders of magistrates established in Old Carthage; for he says, that among the prisoners taken at New Carthage, were two magistrates belonging to the body or a.s.sembly of old men, ?? t?? Ge???s?a?: so he calls the council of the hundred; and fifteen of the senate, ?? t?? S?????t??. Livy mentions(542) only the fifteen of the senators; but, in another place, he names the old men; and tells us, that they formed the most venerable council of the government, and had great authority in the senate. _Carthaginenses-Oratores ad pacem petendam mittunt triginta seniorum principes. Id erat sanctius apud illos concilium, maximaque ad ipsum senatum regendum vis._(543)

Establishments, though const.i.tuted with the greatest wisdom and the justest harmony of parts, degenerate, however insensibly, into disorder and the most destructive licentiousness. These judges, who by the lawful execution of their power were a terror to transgressors, and the great pillars of justice, abusing their almost unlimited authority, became so many petty tyrants. (M98) We shall see this verified in the history of the great Hannibal, who during his praetors.h.i.+p, after his return to Africa, employed all his influence to reform so horrid an abuse; and made the authority of these judges, which before was perpetual, only annual, about two hundred years from the first founding the tribunal of the One Hundred.

_Defects in the Government of Carthage._-Aristotle, among other reflections made by him on the government of Carthage, remarks two great defects in it, both which, in his opinion, are repugnant to the views of a wise lawgiver and the maxims of sound policy.

The first of these defects was, the investing the same person with different employments, which was considered at Carthage as a proof of uncommon merit. But Aristotle thinks this practice highly prejudicial to the public welfare. For, says this author, a man possessed but of one employment, is much more capable of acquitting himself well in the execution of it; because affairs are then examined with greater care, and sooner despatched. We never see, continues our author, either by sea or land, the same officer commanding two different bodies, or the same pilot steering two s.h.i.+ps. Besides, the welfare of the state requires that places and preferments should be divided, in order to excite an emulation among men of merit: whereas the bestowing of them on one man, too often dazzles him by so distinguis.h.i.+ng a preference, and always fills others with jealousy, discontent, and murmurs.

The second defect taken notice of by Aristotle in the government of Carthage, was, that in order for a man to attain the first posts, a certain income was required (besides merit and n.o.ble birth.) By which means, poverty might exclude persons of the most exalted merit, which he considers as a great evil in a government. For then, says he, as virtue is wholly disregarded, and money is all-powerful, because all things are attained by it, the admiration and desire of riches seize and corrupt the whole community. Add to this, that when magistrates and judges are obliged to pay large sums for their employments, they seem to have a right to reimburse themselves.'

There is not, I believe, one instance in all antiquity, to show that employments, either in the state or the courts of justice, were sold. The expense, therefore, which Aristotle talks of here to raise men to preferments in Carthage, must doubtless be understood of the presents that were given in order to procure the votes of the electors: a practice, as Polybius observes, very common at Carthage, where no kind of gain was judged a disgrace.(544) It is, therefore, no wonder, that Aristotle should condemn a practice whose consequences, it is very plain, may prove fatal to a government.

But in case he pretended that the chief employments of a state ought to be equally accessible to the rich and the poor, as he seems to insinuate, his opinion is refuted by the general practice of the wisest republics; for these, without any way demeaning or aspersing poverty, have thought that, on this occasion, the preference ought to be given to riches; because it is to be presumed that the wealthy have received a better education, have n.o.bler sentiments, are more out of the reach of corruption, and less liable to commit base actions; and that even the state of their affairs makes them more affectionate to the government, more disposed to maintain peace and order in it, and more interested in suppressing whatever may tend to sedition and rebellion.

Aristotle, in concluding his reflections on the republic of Carthage, is much pleased with a custom that prevailed there: _viz._ of sending from time to time colonies into different countries; and in this manner procuring its citizens commodious settlements. This provided for the necessities of the poor, who, equally with the rich, are members of the state: and it disburdened Carthage of mult.i.tudes of lazy, indolent people, who were its disgrace, and often proved dangerous to it: it prevented commotions and insurrections, by thus removing such persons as commonly occasion them; and who being ever discontented under their present circ.u.mstances, are always ready for innovations and tumults.

SECT. IV. TRADE OF CARTHAGE, THE FIRST SOURCE OF ITS WEALTH AND POWER.-Commerce, strictly speaking, was the occupation of Carthage, the particular object of its industry, and its peculiar and predominant characteristic. It formed the greatest strength and the chief support of that commonwealth. In a word, we may affirm that the power, the conquests, the credit, and glory of the Carthaginians, all flowed from their commerce. Situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, and stretching out their arms eastward and westward, the extent of their commerce took in all the known world, and wafted it to the coast of Spain, of Mauritania, of Gaul, and beyond the straits and pillars of Hercules. They sailed to all countries, in order to buy at a cheap rate the superfluities of every nation; which, by the wants of others, became necessaries; and these they sold to them at the dearest rates. From Egypt the Carthaginians fetched fine flax, paper, corn, sails and cables for s.h.i.+ps; from the coast of the Red-Sea, spices, frankincense, perfumes, gold, pearls, and precious stones; from Tyre and Phoenicia, purple and scarlet, rich stuffs, tapestry, costly furniture, and divers curious and exquisite works of art: in a word, they fetched, from various countries, all things that can supply the necessities, or are capable of contributing to the convenience, the luxury, and the delights of life. They brought back from the western parts of the world, in return for the articles carried thither, iron, tin, lead, and copper: by the sale of these various commodities, they enriched themselves at the expense of all nations; and put them under a kind of contribution, which was so much the surer as it was spontaneous.

In thus becoming the factors and agents of all nations, they had made themselves lords of the sea; the band which held the east, the west, and south together; and the necessary channel of their communication: so that Carthage rose to be the common city, and the centre of the trade, of all those nations which the sea separated from one another.

The most considerable personages of the city were not ashamed of engaging in trade. They applied themselves to it as industriously as the meanest citizens; and their great wealth did not make them less in love with the diligence, patience, and labour, which are necessary to augment it. To this they owed their empire of the sea, the splendour of their republic; their being able to dispute for the superiority with Rome itself; and their exalted pitch of power, which forced the Romans to carry on a b.l.o.o.d.y and doubtful war, for upwards of forty years, in order to humble and subdue this haughty rival. In short, Rome, even when triumphant, thought Carthage was not to be entirely reduced any other way, than by depriving that city of the resources which it might still derive from its commerce, by which it had so long been enabled to resist the whole strength of that mighty republic.

However, it is no wonder that, as Carthage came in a manner out of the greatest school of traffic in the world, I mean Tyre, she should have been crowned with such rapid and uninterrupted success. The very vessels on which its founders had been conveyed into Africa, were afterwards employed by them in their trade. They began to make settlements upon the coasts of Spain, in those ports where they unloaded their goods. The ease with which they had founded these settlements, and the conveniences they met with, inspired them with the design of conquering those vast regions; and some time after, _Nova Carthago_, or New Carthage, gave the Carthaginians an empire in that country, almost equal to that which they enjoyed in Africa.

SECT. V. THE MINES OF SPAIN, THE SECOND SOURCE OF THE RICHES AND POWER OF CARTHAGE.-Diodorus justly remarks,(545) that the gold and silver mines found by the Carthaginians in Spain, were an inexhaustible fund of wealth, that enabled them to sustain such long wars against the Romans. The natives had long been ignorant of these treasures that lay concealed in the bowels of the earth, at least of their use and value. The Phnicians took advantage of this ignorance; and, by bartering some wares of little value for this precious metal, they ama.s.sed infinite wealth. When the Carthaginians had made themselves masters of the country, they dug much deeper into the earth than the old inhabitants of Spain had done, who probably were content with what they could collect on the surface; and the Romans, when they had dispossessed the Carthaginians of Spain, profited by their example, and drew an immense revenue from these mines of gold and silver.

The labour employed to come at these mines, and to dig the gold and silver out of them, was incredible.(546) For the veins of these metals rarely appeared on the surface; they were to be sought for and traced through frightful depths, where very often floods of water stopped the miners, and seemed to defeat all future pursuits. But avarice is no less patient in undergoing fatigues, than ingenious in finding expedients. By pumps, which Archimedes had invented when in Egypt, the Romans afterwards threw up the water out of these pits, and quite drained them. Numberless mult.i.tudes of slaves perished in these mines, which were dug to enrich their masters; who treated them with the utmost barbarity, forced them by heavy stripes to labour, and gave them no respite either day or night.

Polybius, as quoted by Strabo,(547) says, that, in his time, upwards of forty thousand men were employed in the mines near _Nova Carthago_; and furnished the Romans every day with twenty-five thousand drachmas, or eight hundred fifty-nine pounds seven s.h.i.+llings and sixpence.(548)

We must not be surprised to see the Carthaginians, soon after the greatest defeats, sending fresh and numerous armies again into the field; fitting out mighty fleets, and supporting, at a great expense, for many years, wars carried on by them in far-distant countries. But it must appear surprising to us that the Romans should be capable of doing the same; they whose revenues were very inconsiderable before those great conquests which subjected to them the most powerful nations; and who had no resources, either from trade, to which they were absolute strangers, or from gold or silver mines, which were very rarely found in Italy, in case there were any; and the expenses of which must, for that very reason, have swallowed up all the profit. The Romans, in the frugal and simple life they led, in their zeal for the public welfare, and their love for their country, possessed funds which were not less ready or secure than those of Carthage, but at the same time were far more honourable to their nation.

SECT. VI. WAR.-Carthage must be considered as a trading, and, at the same time, a warlike republic. Its genius and the nature of its government led it to traffic; and it became warlike, first, from the necessity the Carthaginians were under of defending themselves against the neighbouring nations, and afterwards from a desire of extending their commerce and empire. This double idea gives us, in my opinion, the true plan and character of the Carthaginian republic. We have already spoken of its commerce.

The military power of the Carthaginians consisted in their alliances with kings; in tributary nations, from which they drew both men and money; in some troops raised from among their own citizens; and in mercenary soldiers purchased of neighbouring states, without being themselves obliged to levy or exercise them, because they were already well disciplined and inured to the fatigues of war; they making choice, in every country, of such troops as had the greatest merit and reputation.

They drew from Numidia a light, bold, impetuous, and indefatigable cavalry, which formed the princ.i.p.al strength of their armies; from the Balearic isles, the most expert slingers in the world; from Spain, a steady and invincible infantry; from the coasts of Genoa and Gaul, troops of acknowledged valour; and from Greece itself, soldiers fit for all the various operations of war, for the field or the garrisons, for besieging or defending cities.

In this manner the Carthaginians sent out at once powerful armies, composed of soldiers which were the flower of all the armies in the universe, without depopulating either their fields or cities by new levies; without suspending their manufactures, or disturbing the peaceful artificer; without interrupting their commerce, or weakening their navy.

By venal blood they possessed themselves of provinces and kingdoms; and made other nations the instruments of their grandeur and glory, with no other expense of their own than their money; and even this furnished from the traffic they carried on with foreign nations.

If the Carthaginians, in the course of a war, sustained some losses, these were but as so many foreign accidents, which only grazed, as it were, over the body of the state, but did not make a deep wound in the bowels or heart of the republic. These losses were speedily repaired, by sums arising out of a flouris.h.i.+ng commerce, as from a perpetual sinew of war, by which the government was continually reinforced with new supplies for the purchase of mercenary forces, who were ready at the first summons. And from the vast extent of the coasts which the Carthaginians possessed, it was easy for them to levy, in a very little time, a sufficient number of sailors and rowers for the working of their fleets, and to procure able pilots and experienced captains to conduct them.

But as these parts were fortuitously brought together, they did not adhere by any natural, intimate, or necessary tie. No common and reciprocal interest united them in such a manner, as to form a solid and unalterable body. Not one individual in these mercenary armies, was sincerely interested in the success of measures, or in the prosperity of the state.

They did not act with the same zeal, nor expose themselves to dangers with equal resolution, for a republic which they considered as foreign, and which consequently was indifferent to them, as they would have done for their native country, whose happiness const.i.tutes that of the several members who compose it.

In great reverses of fortune, the kings in alliance with the Carthaginians(549) might easily be detached from their interest, either by that jealousy which the grandeur of a more powerful neighbour naturally excites; or by the hopes of reaping greater advantages from a new friend; or by the fear of being involved in the misfortunes of an old ally.

The tributary nations, impatient under the weight and disgrace of a yoke which had been forced upon their necks, generally flattered themselves with the hopes of finding one less galling in changing their masters; or, in case servitude was unavoidable, the choice was indifferent to them, as will appear from many instances in the course of this history.

The mercenary forces, accustomed to measure their fidelity by the largeness or continuance of their pay, were ever ready, on the least discontent, or the slightest expectation of a more considerable stipend, to desert to the enemy with whom they had just before fought, and to turn their arms against those who had invited them to their a.s.sistance.

Thus the grandeur of the Carthaginians being sustained only by these foreign supports, was shaken to the very foundation when they were once taken away. And if to this there happened to be added an interruption of their commerce, (which was their sole resource,) arising from the loss of a naval engagement, they imagined themselves to be on the brink of ruin, and abandoned themselves to despondency and despair, as was evidently seen at the end of the first Punic war.

Aristotle, in the treatise where he shows the advantages and defects of the government of Carthage, finds no fault with its keeping up none but foreign forces; it is therefore probable, that the Carthaginians did not fall into this practice till a long time after. But the rebellions which hara.s.sed Carthage in its later years, out to have taught its citizens, that no miseries are comparable to those of a government which is supported only by foreigners; since neither zeal, security, nor obedience, can be expected from them.

But this was not the case with the republic of Rome. As the Romans had neither trade nor money, they were not able to hire forces to push on their conquests with the same rapidity as the Carthaginians: but then, as they procured every thing from within themselves; and as all the parts of the state were intimately united; they had surer resources in great misfortunes than the Carthaginians. And for this reason they never once thought of suing for peace after the battle of Cannae, as the Carthaginians had done in a less imminent danger.

The Carthaginians had, besides, a body of troops (which was not very numerous) levied from among their own citizens; and this was a kind of school, in which the flower of their n.o.bility, and those whose talents and ambition prompted them to aspire to the first dignities, learned the rudiments of the art of war. From among these were selected all the general officers, who were put at the head of the different bodies of their forces, and had the chief command in the armies. This nation was too jealous and suspicious to employ foreign generals. But they were not so distrustful of their own citizens as Rome and Athens; for the Carthaginians, at the same time that they invested them with great power, did not guard against the abuse they might make of it in order to oppress their country. The command of armies was neither annual, nor limited to any time, as in the two republics above-mentioned. Many generals held their commissions for a great number of years, either till the war or their lives ended; though they were still accountable to the commonwealth for their conduct; and liable to be recalled, whenever a real fault, a misfortune, or the superior interest of a cabal, furnished an opportunity for it.

SECT. VII. ARTS AND SCIENCES.-It cannot be said that the Carthaginians renounced entirely the glory which results from study and knowledge. The sending of Masinissa, son of a powerful king,(550) thither for education, gives us room to believe that Carthage was provided with an excellent school. The great Hannibal,(551) who in all respects was an ornament to that city, was not unacquainted with polite literature, as will be seen hereafter. Mago,(552) another very celebrated general, did as much honour to Carthage by his pen as by his victories. He wrote twenty-eight volumes upon husbandry, which the Roman senate had in such esteem, that after the taking of Carthage, when they presented the African princes with the libraries found there, (another proof that learning was not entirely banished from Carthage,) they gave orders to have these books translated into Latin,(553) though Cato had before written his books on that subject.

There is still extant a Greek version of a treatise drawn up by Hanno in the Punic tongue,(554) relating to a voyage he made (by order of the senate) with a considerable fleet round Africa, for the settling of different colonies in that part of the world. This Hanno is believed to be more ancient than that person of the same name who lived in the time of Agathocles.

c.l.i.tomachus, called in the Punic language Asdrubal, was a great philosopher.(555) He succeeded the famous Carneades, whose disciple he had been; and maintained in Athens the honour of the Academic sect. Cicero says,(556) that he was a more sensible man, and fonder of study, than the Carthaginians generally are. He wrote several books;(557) in one of which he composed a piece to console the unhappy citizens of Carthage, who, by the ruin of their city, were reduced to slavery.

I might rank among, or rather place at the head of, the writers who have adorned Africa, the celebrated Terence; himself singly being capable of reflecting infinite honour on his country by the fame of his productions, if, on this account, Carthage, the place of his birth, ought not to be less considered as his country than Rome, where he was educated, and acquired that purity of style, that delicacy and elegance, which have gained him the admiration of all succeeding ages. It is supposed,(558) that he was carried off when an infant, or at least very young, by the Numidians in their incursions into the Carthaginian territories, during the war carried on between these two nations, from the conclusion of the second, to the beginning of the third Punic war. He was sold for a slave to Terentius Luca.n.u.s, a Roman senator; who, after giving him an excellent education, gave him his liberty, and called him by his own name, as was then the custom. He was united in a very strict friends.h.i.+p with the second Scipio Africa.n.u.s, and Laelius; and it was a common report at Rome, that he had the a.s.sistance of these two great men in composing his pieces. The poet, so far from endeavouring to stifle a report so advantageous to him, made a merit of it. Only six of his comedies are extant. Some authors, on the authority of Suetonius, (the writer of his life,) say, that in his return from Greece, whither he had made a voyage, he lost a hundred and eight comedies, which he had translated from Menander, and could not survive an accident which must naturally afflict him in a sensible manner; but this incident is not very well founded. Be this as it may, he died in the year of Rome 594, under the consuls.h.i.+p of Cneius Cornelius Dolabella, and M. Fulvius, at the age of thirty-five years, and consequently he was born anno 560.

It must yet be confessed, notwithstanding all we have said, that there ever was a great scarcity of learned men in Carthage, since it hardly furnished three or four writers of reputation in upwards of seven hundred years. Although the Carthaginians held a correspondence with Greece and the most civilized nations, yet this did not excite them to borrow their learning, as being foreign to their views of trade and commerce.

Eloquence, poetry, history, seem to have been little known among them. A Carthaginian philosopher was considered as a sort of prodigy by the learned. What then would an astronomer or a geometrician have been thought? I know not in what esteem physic, which is so highly useful to life, was held at Carthage; or jurisprudence, so necessary to society.

As works of wit were generally had in so much disregard, the education of youth must necessarily have been very imperfect and unpolished. In Carthage, the study and knowledge of youth were for the most part confined to writing, arithmetic, book-keeping, and the buying and selling goods; in a word, to whatever related to traffic. But polite learning, history, and philosophy, were in little repute among them. These were, in later years, even prohibited by the laws, which expressly forbade any Carthaginian to learn the Greek tongue, lest it might qualify them for carrying on a dangerous correspondence with the enemy, either by letter or word of mouth.(559)

Now what could be expected from such a cast of mind? Accordingly there was never seen among them that elegance of behaviour, that ease and complacency of manners, and those sentiments of virtue, which are generally the fruits of a liberal education in all civilized nations. The small number of great men which this nation has produced, must therefore have owed their merit to the felicity of their genius, to the singularity of their talents, and a long experience, without any great a.s.sistance from cultivation and instruction. Hence it was, that the merit of the greatest men of Carthage was sullied by great failings, low vices, and cruel pa.s.sions; and it is rare to meet with any conspicuous virtue among them without some blemish; with any virtue of a n.o.ble, generous, and amiable kind, and supported by enlightened and steady principles, such as is every where found among the Greeks and Romans. The reader will perceive that I here speak only of the heathen virtues, and agreeably to the idea which the Pagans entertained of them.

I meet with as few monuments of their skill in arts of a less n.o.ble and necessary kind, as painting and sculpture. I find, indeed, that they had plundered the conquered nations of a great many works in both these kinds; but it does not appear that they themselves had produced many.

From what has been said, one cannot help concluding, that traffic was the predominant inclination, and the peculiar characteristic of the Carthaginians; that it formed, in a manner, the basis of the state, the soul of the commonwealth, and the grand spring which gave motion to all their enterprises. The Carthaginians, in general, were skilful merchants; employed wholly in traffic; excited strongly by the desire of gain, and esteeming nothing but riches; directing all their talents, and placing their chief glory, in ama.s.sing them; though at the same time they scarce knew the purpose for which they were designed, or how to use them in a n.o.ble or worthy manner.

SECT. VIII. THE CHARACTER, MANNERS, AND QUALITIES OF THE CARTHAGINIANS.-In the enumeration of the various qualities which Cicero(560) a.s.signs to different nations, as their distinguis.h.i.+ng characteristics, he declares that of the Carthaginians to be craft, skill, address, industry, cunning, _calliditas_; which doubtless appeared in war, but was still more conspicuous in the rest of their conduct; and this was joined to another quality that bears a very near relation to it, and is still less reputable. Craft and cunning lead naturally to lying, duplicity, and breach of faith; and these, by accustoming the mind insensibly to be less scrupulous with regard to the choice of the means for compa.s.sing its designs, prepare it for the basest frauds and the most perfidious actions.

This was also one of the characteristics of the Carthaginians;(561) and it was so notorious, that to signify any remarkable dishonesty, it was usual to call it _Punic faith, fides Punica_; and to denote a knavish, deceitful disposition, no expression was thought more proper and emphatical than this, a Carthaginian disposition, _Punic.u.m ingenium_.