562 



CARTHAGE. 



Carthage. 



The cen- 

 tumvirate. 



The quin- 

 quevirate. 



Subordi- 

 nate magis- 

 trates. 



Remains of 

 the code of 

 laws. 



Hence the people, by degrees, acquired an over- 

 powering influence. The consequences were, as 

 .might be expected, fatal : For, during the second 

 and third Punic wars, every thing was referred to 

 the populace ; while in Rome, on the contrary, the 

 senatorial influence was in full vigour ; arid thus, 

 as Polybius remarks, (book vi.) the Romans, even 

 after their severe defeats, by means of their good go- 

 vernment, TV /Sa'Atueir&xi x,x,hus } recovered, and were fi- 

 nally victorious. 



The centumvirate consisted of an hundred and four 

 persons, elected from the senate ; they seem to have 

 had extensive power, though confined, as Aristo- 

 tle (u/ji sup. see also Alexander ab Alexandra, lib. 

 iv. c. 11.) intimates, chiefly to affairs of a judicial na- 

 ture. They were, as we have seen above, (Justin^) 

 appointed, in the first instance, for the purpose of 

 inquiring into the conduct of their generals in an un- 

 successful expedition ; and though their power after- 

 wards was considerably enlarged, this seems to have 

 been their principal business. Aristotle compares 

 them to the Ephori at Sparta; but it will appear, 

 that the tribunal which we shall next consider has a 

 better title to this comparison. The quirquevirate 

 consisted of five men, selected from the centumvirate, 

 possessed almost of despotic authority. Their pri- 

 vileges are imperfectly known, but they seem to have 

 been almost unlimited. They had cognizance of all 

 affairs, whether of a public or of a private nature, and 

 appear to have constituted a court of appeal in the 

 last resort for all causes. It is not certain whether 

 the office was perpetual. They not only had the 

 power of filling up the vacancies in their own body ; 

 but we learn from Aristotle, that they chose those 

 persons who composed the tribunal of the centumvi- 

 rate. 



The principal offices in the executive government 

 of Carthage were, the praetor, the quaestor, and the 

 censor ; titles which seem to have been given by the 

 Roman historians, from the analogy of their duties 

 to the same officers in their own constitution.* 



Of the system of Carthaginian legislation very in- 

 considerable traces remain ; and those are important 

 only as they throw light on the manners of the peo- 

 ple. Diodorus mentions a law of a very long dura- 

 tion, that those children alone who were nobly born 

 should be sacrificed to Saturn. This had fallen into 

 disuse, but was revived on an occasion of great pub- 

 lic emergency, (Diodorus, lib. xx.) when two hun- 

 dred children of the best families were offered at 

 once to atone for the neglect. Some other laws re- 

 gulating the popular superstitions are preserved. In- 

 deed it is most singular, that of the very few frag- 

 ments that remain to us, there is not one but is cal- 

 culated, in some degree, to confirm the belief that 

 .Carthage must have been immersed in the most de- 

 grading barbarism. Even so late as the time of the 



elder Dionysius, we find that a law was made, (Jus- C.irthage. 

 tin, book xx. c. 5.) prohibiting every inhabitant of *~~Y*~* 

 Carthage tiom Ldrnuig either to write or to -sptak 

 Greek. However, tins absurd law must have been 

 in a very short time either repealed or .,eglccted, as 

 Hannibal seems to have been eminently *kiiled in that 

 language. 



Accounts are preserved of v several very peculiar Peculiar 

 customs which prevailed among the Carthaginians, customg. 

 In any great public calamity, the city wa> hung with 

 black ; this took place more than once. Its inhabi- 

 tants fed on the flesh of dogs till the time of Darius 

 Hystaspes, who interfered to prevent the continuance 

 of this practice, and stipulated that their compliance 

 in this point should be a condition of his entering into 

 alliance with them ; as also, that they should cease 

 to offer human sacrifices, and that they should burn 

 instead of burying their dead. The magistrates in 

 office, and the soldiers in the field, were forbidden to 

 drink wine. The generals were held personally re- 

 sponsible for the success of their undertakings, and 

 several instances are recorded in which they were pu- 

 nished for their failure with death. The populace 

 and senators had distinct baths ; this is rnei^tioned by 

 Valerius Maximus (lib ix. c. 5.) in proof of the ex- 

 treme arrogancy of the senate ; but he gives no fur- 

 ther particulars relating to it. Like the Greeks and 

 Romans, they had no public inns, but btrangers were 

 entertained in private houses ; and, like them, they 

 paid uniform respect to soothsayers of all descriptions. 



It would appear that the religious worship of the Reli 

 Carthaginians was taken entirely from the Phoeni- worship. 

 clans ; but as their frequent intercourse with the 

 Greeks, especially those of Sicily, induced them to 

 adopt many of their religious ceremonies, and even 

 some of their deities, and, as the Greek and Roman 

 writers invariably apply the names of their own dei- 

 ties to the gods of foreign nations, the subject is in- 

 volved in very great obscurity. 



The principal deity worshipped at Carthage, as 

 Diodorus informs us, was Chronius, who, according 

 to Quintus Curtius, (lib. iv. c. 3.) was the same with 

 Saturn. Though the Punic name of this deity is not 

 known, there seems good reason to conclude, from 

 the similarity of rites, and other circumstances, that 

 he was the same as Moloch, or Milchom, the famous 

 idol of the Ammonites, Caijaamtes, and other neigh- 

 bouring nation?. (Levit. xviii. 21. xx. 2, 3, 4.) 



The deity next in estimation was Urania, called, in 

 the Phoenician, Bellis, or Belthee. It is not easy 

 to determine whether she most resembled the Venus 

 or the Juno of the Greek mythology. St Austin 

 seems to have considered her as the first, but Virgil 

 distinctly asserts that she was the sec-'iid. (See /En. i. 

 and Heyi.e not. in lac.) Of the subordinate deities 

 little is known, and that little i& unsatisfactory. The 

 most celebrated was the Tyrian Hercules, whose 



* Aristotle argues, that the different powers in the Carthaginian constitution must have been very nicely adjusted, and 

 states, in proof, its very long continuance without a deviation into tyranny on the one side, or anarchy on the other: how- 

 ever, he himself notices, that the propensity for colonization, which seems always to have existed amongst the Carthaginians, 

 may, in a great degree, account for this, though it cannot be considered as a remedy applied and enforced by the laws. With 

 his characteristic acuteness, he detects the fault of the Carthaginian constitution, and foretels its baneful effects; remarking 

 that the legislature is compelled to regard property rather than merit 5 povcy n^v\^^ t oihhaxtu nbvlwow tt>iKr$ett rov$ 



