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BOOK II. CONTINUED.

THE ANCIENT

HISTORY

OF THE

CARTHAGINIANS,

CONTINUE D.

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The interval between the fecond and third PUNICK WAR..

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HIS interval, though confiderable enough with regard to its duration, fince it took up above fifty years, is very little remarkable as to the events which relate to Carthage. They may be reduced to two heads; of whica the one relates to the perfon of Hannibal, and the other to fome particular differences between the Carthaginians and Mafiniffa king of the Numidians. We shall treat both separately, but with no great extent.

SECT. I. Continuation of the hiftory of HANNIBAL.

WHEN the fecond Puwith Scipio, Hannibal, as he him

of peace concluded with Scipio, Hannibal, as he himfelf obferved in the Carthaginian fenate, was forty-five years of age. What we have farther to fay of this great man, includes the space of twenty-five years.

HANNIBAL undertakes and compleats the reformation of the

courts of justice, and the treafury of CARTHAGE.

After the conclufion of the peace, Hannibal, at least in the beginning, was greatly refpected in Carthage, where he filled the first employments of the state with honour and applause. (a) He headed the Carthaginian forces in fome wars against the Africans: But the Romans, to whom the very name of Hannibal gave uneasiness, not being able to see him in ar as. VOL. II.

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(a) Corn. Nep, in Annib. ê, 7.

made

made complaints on that account, and accordingly he was recalled to Carthage.

(b) On his return he was appointed prætor, which feems to have been a very confiderable employment, as well as of great authority. Carthage is therefore going to be, with regard to him, a new theatre, as it were, on which he will display virtues and qualities of a quite different nature from thofe we have hitherto admired in him, and which will finish the picture of this illuftrious man.

Eagerly defirous of restoring the affairs of his afflicted coun try to their former happy condition, he was perfuaded, that the two moft powerful methods to make a ftate flourish, were, an exact and equal diftribution of juftice to all people in general, and a faithful management of the publick finances. The former, by preferving an equality among the citizens, and making them enjoy fuch a delightful, undisturbed liberty, under the protection of the laws, as fully fecures their honour, their lives, and properties; unites the individuals of the commonwealth more clofely together, and attaches them more firmly to the ftate, to which they owe the prefervation of all that is moft dear and valuable to them. The latter, by a faithful adminiftration of the publick revenues, fupplies punc tually the feveral wants and neceffities of the ftate; keeps in referve a never-failing refource for fudden emergencies, and prevents the people from being burthened with new taxes, which are rendered neceffary by extravagant profufion, and which chiefly contribute to make men harbour an averfion for a government.

Hannibal faw with great concern, the irregularities which had crept equally into the administration of justice, and the management of the finances. Upon his being nominated prætor, as his love for regularity and order made him uneasy at every deviation from it, and prompted him to ufe his utmoft endeavours to reftore it; he had the courage to attempt the reformation of this double abufe, which drew after it a numberless multitude of others, without dreading, either the animofity of the old faction that oppofed him, or the new enmity which his zeal for the republick muft neceffarily raise.

(c) The judges exercised the most cruel rapine with impu nity. They were fo many petty tyrants, who difpofed, in an arbitrary manner, of the lives and fortunes of the citizens; without there being the leaft poflibility of putting a flop to their injuftice, because they held their commiffions for life, and mutually fupported one another. Hannibal, as prætor, fummoned

(4) A. M. 3810. A. Rom. 554. (e) Liv. 1. xxxiii, n. 46.

fummoned before his tribunal an officer, belonging to the bench of judges, who openly abused his power. Livy tells us that he was a queftor. This officer, who was in the oppofite faction to Hannibal, and had already affumed all the pride and haughtiness of the judges, among whom he was to be admitted at the expiration of his prefent office, infolently refused to obey the fummons. Hannibal was not of a disposition to fuffer an affront of this nature tamely. Accordingly he caufed him to be feized by a lictor, and brought him before the affembly of the people. There, not fatisfied with levelling his refentment against this fingle officer, he impeached the whole bench of judges; whofe infupportable and tyran nical pride was not reftrained, either by the fear of the laws, or a reverence for the magistrates. And, as Hannibal per ceived that he was heard with pleasure, and that the lowest and most inconfiderable of the people difcovered on this occafion, that they were no longer able to bear the infolent pride of thefe judges, who feemed to have a defign upon their liberties; he propofed a law (which accordingly paffed) by which it was enacted, that new judges fhould be chofen annually: with a clause, that none should continue in office beyond that term. This law, at the fame time that it acquired him the friendship and efteem of the people, drew upon him, proportionably, the hatred of the greatest part of the grandees and nobility.

(d) He attempted another reformation, which created him new enemies, but gained him great honour. The publick revenues were either fquandered away by the negligence of thofe who had the management of them, or were plundered by the chief men of the city, and the magiftrates; fo that money being wanting to pay the annual tribute due to the Romans, the Carthaginians were going to levy it upon the people in general. Hannibal, entering into a long detail of the publick revenues, ordered an exact estimate of them to be laid before him; enquired in what manner they had been applied; the employments and ordinary expences of the ftate; and having discovered, by this enquiry, that the publick funds bad been in a great measure embezzled, by the fraud of the officers who had the management of them; he declared and promifed, in a full affembly of the people, that, without laying any new taxes upon private men, the republick should hereafter be enabled to pay the tribute to the Romans, and he was as good as his word. The farmers of the revenues, whofe plunder and rapine he had publickly detected, having accuf

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(d) Liv, I. xxiii, n. 46, 47.

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