Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/419

 ARMIES OF CARTHAGE. 39? zens, men of wealth and family, formed what was Called the Sacred Band of Carthage, 1 distinguished for their bravery in the field as well as for the splendor of their arms, and the gold and silver p/ate which formed part of their baggage. We shall find these citizen- troops occasionally employed on service in Sicily : but most part of the Carthaginian armies consists of Gauls, Iberians, Libyans, etc., a mingled host got together for the occasion, discordant in language as well as in customs. Such men had never any attachment to the cause in which they fought, seldom, to the commanders under whom they served ; while they were often treated by Carthage with bad faith, and recklessly abandoned to destruction. 2 A mili- tary system such as this was pregnant with danger, if ever the mercenary soldiers got footing in Africa ; as happened after the first Punic war, when the city was brought to the brink of ruin. But on foreign service in Sicily, these mercenaries often enabled Carthage to make conquest at the cost only of her money, without any waste of the blood of her own citizens. The Carthaginian generals seem generally to have relied, like Persians, upon num- bers, manifesting little or no military skill ; until we come to the Punic wars with Rome, conducted under Hamilkar Barca and his illustrious son Hannibal. Respecting the political constitution of Carthage, the facts known are too few, and too indistinct, to enable us to comprehend its real working. The magistrates most conspicuous in rank and prece- dence were, the two kings or suffetes, who presided over the Sen- ate. 3 They seem to have been renewed annually, though how far the same persons were reeligible, or actually rechosen, we do not 1 Diodor. xvi, 8. 8 See the striking description in Livy, of the motley composition of the Carthaginian mercenary armies, where he bestows just admiration on the genius of Hannibal, for having always maintained his ascendency ovei them, and kept them in obedience and harmony (Livy, xxviii, 12). Com- pare Polybius, i, 65-67, and the manner in which Imilkon abandoned his mercenaries to destruction at Syracuse (Diodor. xiv, 75-77). 3 There were in like manner two suffetes in Gades and each of the other Phoenician colonies (Livy, xxviii, 37). Cornelius Nepos (Hannibal, c. 7) talks of Hannibal as having been made king (rex) when he was invested with his great foreign military command, at twenty-two years of age. So Diodorus (xiv, 54) talks about Imilkon, and Herodotus jvii, 166) about Hamilkar