Before Chrift 229 — 222, 95 



The fole bufinefs of the Romans was war : by war they could not ori- 

 ginally lofe any thing ; and by war they had acquired every thing they 

 poiTefled. By a fuccefsful war the Carthaginians could fcarcely gain 

 any thing, their trade muft be diflrefled, and the attention of their 

 people drawn off from its proper objecfi: : and from an unfuccefsful war 

 they might dread abfolute ruin. Infligated however by refentment 

 againft Rome, and goaded on by the eagernefs of the generals, whom 

 the late wars had formed to military fcience, and raifed to power and 

 popularity, the Carthaginian fenate refolved, that their fliips, inilead of 

 carrying goods to Spain for fale, fhould tranfport an army to that coun- 

 try to effecfb the conqueft of it. The intention of the fenate, or, to 

 fpeak more correftly, of Amilcar their general, was to get poffeffion of 

 the rich mines and other wealth of Spain, in order to recruit and fup- 

 port the armies necelTary to carry on the contefl: with the Romans, and 

 to make amends for the lols of Sicily, out of which the Romans had 

 beaten them, and Sardinia, which they had treacheroully robbed them 

 of. 



Amilcar, after having reduced a great part of Spain to the Cartha- 

 ginian yoke, fell in battle, and was fucceeded in the command by his 

 fon-in-law Afdrubal, who immediately built a new capital city, which, 

 perhaps from the refemblance of its fituation and its harbour, obtained 

 the name of New Carthage, or Carthagena. This general is accufed of 

 corrupting the morals of the Carthaginians by introducing bribery 

 among them : [C. Nep. Vit. Hamilc. c. 3] and he was lufped:ed of a de- 

 fign to make himfelf fovereign of Spain. When he had commanded 

 eight years, and greatly extended the dominion of Carthage in Spain, 

 he was murdered by a Gaul, whom he had offended (a". 222). The 

 fupreme command was then conferred upon Hannibal, the fon of Amil- 

 car, the greateft general that ever was oppofed to the Romans, and who 

 never for a moment loft light of his father's injunftion, to keep up an 

 invincible enmity to Rome, and to make it the bufinefs of his life. 



The Carthaginians had now alTumed the charader of a v/arlike na- 

 tion. A great part of the citizens had exchanged agriculture, manu- 

 taftures, and commercial purfuits, for a military life. The gradual ac- 

 quilition of wealth by patient indnftry appeared contemptible, when 

 compared with the feizure of it by war and plunder. The people be- 

 came intoxicated by conqueft; their judgement was perverted, and their 

 avarice excited, by the example of the Romans, whom they faw proiper- 

 ing by a perpetual violation of juftice. The national virtue was relax- 

 ed ; and the military fuccefles, v/hich filled the city with exultation, laid 

 the foundation of its ruin. 



The Romans, who thought all acquifitions of territory by other na- 

 tions encroachments upon what they already confidered as their own, 

 could not fail to look upon the warlike progrefs of the Carth.aginians 



