Urania, the same with the Moon, who was invoked in great calamities, and particularly in droughts, in order to obtain rain: That very virgin Cœlestis, says Tertullian, the promiser of rain, Ista ipsa Virgo Calestis pluviarum pollicitatrix. Tertullian, speaking of this goddess and of Esculapius, makes the heathens of that age a challenge, which is bold indeed, but at the same time very glorious to the cause of Christianity; declaring, that any Christian who may first come, shall oblige these false gods to confess publicly, that they are but devils; and consenting that this Christian shall be immediately killed, if he does not extort such a confession from the mouth of these gods. Nisi se dæmones confessi fuerint Christiano mentiri non audentes, ibidem illius Christiani procacissimi sanguinem funditc. St. Austin likewise makes frequent mention of this deity. What is now, says he, become of Calestis, whose empire was once so great in Carthage? This was doubtless the same deity, whom Jeremiah' calls the queen of heaven; and who was held in so much reverence by the Jewish women, that they addressed their vows, burnt incense, poured out drink-offerings, and made cakes for her with their own hands, ut facient placentas regina cali; and from whom they boasted their having received all manner of blessings, whilst they regularly paid her this worship; whereas, since they had failed in it, they had been oppressed with misfortunes of every

kind.

2

The second deity particularly adored by the Carthaginians, and in whose honour human sacrifices were offered, was Saturn, known in Scripture by the name of Moloch; and this worship had passed from Tyre to Carthage. Philo quotes a passage from Sanchoniathon, which shows that the kings of Tyre, in great dangers, used to sacrifice their sons to appease the anger of the gods; and that one of them, by this action, procured himself divine honours, and was worshipped as a god, under the name of the planet Saturn; to this doubtless was owing the fable of Saturn's devouring his own children. Private persons, when they were desirous of averting any great calamity, took the same method; and, in imitation of their princes, were so very superstitious, that such as had no children, purchased those of the poor, in order that they might not be deprived of the merit of such a sacrifice. This custom prevailed long among the Phoenicians and Canaanites, from whom the Israelites borrowed it, though forbidden expressly by Heaven. At first, these children were inhumanly burnt, either in a fiery furnace, like those in the valley of Hinnom, so often mentioned in Scripture; or enclosed in a flaming statue of Saturn. The cries of these unhappy victims were drowned by the uninterrupted noise of drums and trumpets. Mothers made it a merit, and a part of their religion, to view this barbarous spectacle with dry eyes, and without so much as a groan; and if a tear or a sigh stole from them, the sacrifice was less acceptable to the deity, and all the effects of it were entirely lost. This strength of mind, or rather savage barbarity, was carried to such excess, that even mothers would endeavour, with embraces and kisses, to hush the cries of their children; lest, had the victim been offered with an unbecoming grace, and in the midst of tears, it should be displeasing to the god: Blanditiis et osculis comprimebant vagitum, ne flebilis hostia immolaretur. They afterwards contented themselves with making their children pass through the fire, as appears from several passages of Scripture; in which they frequently perished.

The Carthaginians retained the barbarous custom
Apolog. c. xxiii.
* In Psalm xcviii.

Jer. vii. 18. and xliv. 17-25. Plut. de superstit. p. 171. Hapsiothrel dì ʼn μýrǹo åreyktos kal åσrévaKros, &c. The cruel and pitiless mother stood by as an unconcerned spectator; a groan or a tear falling from her, would have been punished by a fine; and still the child must have been sacrificed. Plut. de superstitione. Tertul. in Apolog. 1 Minut. Felix. Q. Curt. 1. iv. c. 5.

of offering human sacrifices to their gods, till the ruin of their city: an action which ought to have been called a sacrilege rather than a sacrifice. Sacrilegium variùs quàm sacrum. It was suspended only for some years, from the fear they were under of drawing upon themselves the indignation and arms of Darius I. king of Persia, who forbade them the offering up of human sacrifices, and the eating the flesh of dogs: but they soon resumed this horrid practice; since, in the reign of Xerxes, the successor to Darius, Gelon, the tyrant of Syracuse, having gained a considerable victory over the Carthaginians in Sicily, among other conditions of peace which he enjoined them, inserted this article; viz. That no more human sacrifices should be offered to Saturn. And, doubtless, the practice of the Carthaginians, on this very occasion, made Gelon use this precaution. For during the whole engagement," which lasted from morning till night, Hamilcar, the son of Hanno their general, was perpetually offering up to the gods sacrifices of living men, who were thrown in great numbers on a flaming pile; and seeing his troops routed and put to flight, he himself rushed into it, in order that he might not survive his own disgrace, and to extinguish, says St. Ambrose speaking of this action, with his own blood, this sacrilegious fire, when he found that it had not proved of service to him.12

12

In times of pestilence1s they used to sacrifice a great number of children to their gods, unmoved with pity for a tender age, which excites compassion in the most cruel enemies; thus seeking a remedy for their evils in guilt itself, and endeavouring to appease the gods by the most shocking barbarity.

Diodorous relates an instance of this cruelty which strikes the reader with horror. At the time that Agathocles was just going to besiege Carthage, its inhabitants, seeing the extremity to which they were reduced, imputed all their misfortunes to the just anger of Saturn, because that, instead of offering up children nobly born, who were usually sacrificed to him, there had been fraudulently substituted in their stead the children of slaves and foreigners. To atone for this crime, two hundred children of the best families in Carthage were sacrificed to Saturn; besides which, upwards of three hundred citizens, from a sense of their guilt of this pretended crime, voluntarily sacri

9

It appears from Tertullian's Apology, that this barba rous custom prevailed in Africa long after the ruin of Carthage. Infantes penès Africam Saturno immolabantur palàm usque ad proconsulatum Tiberii, qui eosdem sacerdotes in eisdem arboribus templi sui obumbratricibus scelerum votivis crucibus exposuit, teste militiâ patriæ nostræ quæ id ipsum sacrificed to Saturn, down to the proconsulship of Tiberius, munus illi proconsuli functa est, i. e. Children were publicly who hanged the sacrificing priests themselves on the trees which shaded their temple, as on so many crosses, raised to expiate their crimes, of which the militia of our country are witnesses, who were the actors of this execution at the command of this proconsul. Tertull. Apolog. c. 9. Two learned men are at variance about the proconsul, and the time of his government. Salmasius confesses his ignorance of both; but rejects the authority of Scaliger, who, for proconsulatum, reads proconsulem Tiberii, and thinks Tertullian, when he wrote his Apology, had forgot his name. However this be, it is certain that the memory of the incident here related by Tertullian was then recent, and probably the witnesses of it had not been long dead.

10 Plut. de será vindic. decorum, p. 552. 11 Herod. 1. vii. c. 167.

13 In ipsos quos adolebat sese præcipitavit ignes, ut eos ve. cruore suo extingueret, quos sibi nihil profuisse cognoverat. S. Amb.

13 Cùm peste laborarent, cruentâ sacrorum religione et scelere pro remedio usi sunt. Quippe homines ut victimas immolabant, et impuberes (quæ ætas etiam hostium misericordiam provocat) aris admovebant, pacem deorum sanguine eorum exposcentes, pro quorum, vitâ dii maximè rogari solent. Justin. 1. xviii. c. 6. The Gauls as well as Germans used to sacrifice men, if Dionysius and Tacitus may be credited.

14 Lib. xx. p. 756.

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, 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 noble a 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 assigns as one of the chief causes of the ruin of Carthage.

The Tribunal of the Hundred.

A. M. 3609.

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 instituted to balance the power of the nobles 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. It is believed, that these Centumviri are the same with the hundred judges A. Carth. 487. mentioned by Justin, 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 'ts 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 institution, 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. 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, 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 assembly of old men [K Ths Tepovalas]: so he calls the council of the hundred; and fifteen of

1 Polyb. 1. vi. 494. Justin 1. xix.

the senate [ik ris Evykλýrov]. Livy mentions 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.

Establishments, thougn constituted with the great est wisdom and the justest harmony of parts, dege nerate, however insensibly, into disorder and the mos destructive licentiousness. These judges, who by the lawful execution of their power were a terror to trans gressors, and the great pillars of justice, abusing thei almost unlimited authority, became so many pett, tyrants. We shall sea this verified in the history of the great Hannibal, who, during his prætorship, afte his return to Africa, employed all his influence to reform so horrid an A. M. 3082. abuse; and made the authority of A. Carth. 682 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 ships. 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 distinguishing 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 noble 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

Lib. xxvi. n. 51. t. xxx. n. 16.

2 Lib. xix. c. ii.