AKMT OF ROME. 123 



It was composed of young nobles, who wore dazzling 

 white shields and breast-plates which were works of 

 art ; who, even in the camp, never drank except from 

 goblets of silver and of gold. But this corps had 

 apparently become extinct, and the Carthaginians 

 only officered their troops, whom they looked upon 

 as ammunition, and to whom their orders were de- 

 livered through interpreters. The various regiments 

 of the Carthaginian army had therefore nothing in 

 common with one another, or with those by whom they 

 were led. They rushed to battle in confusion, " with 

 sounds discordant as their various tribes," and with 

 no higher feeling than the hope of plunder, or the 

 excitement which the act of fighting arouses in the 

 brave soldier. 



In Rome the army was the nation : no citizen could 

 take office unless he had served in ten campaigns. 

 All spoke the same language ; all were inspired by 

 the same ambition. The officers were often small 

 farmers like the men ; but this civil equality pro- 

 duced no ill effects ; the discipline was most severe. 

 It was a maxim that the soldier should fear his officer 

 more than he feared his foe. The drill was unre- 

 mitting; when they were in winter quarters they 

 erected sheds in which the soldiers fenced with swords 

 cased in leather, with buttons at the point, and hurled 

 javelins, also buttoned, at one another. These foils 

 were double the weight of the weapons that were 

 actually used. When the day's march was over, they 

 took pick-axe and spade, and built their camp like 

 a town with a twelve-foot stockade around it, and a 

 ditch twelve feet deep, and twelve feet hroad. When 

 the red mantle was hung before the general's tent, 

 each soldier said to himself, " Perhaps to-day I may 



