128 THE MERCENARY WAR. 



Peace was made, and the mercenary troops were 

 sent back to Carthage. Their pay was in arrears, and 

 there was no money left. Matters were so badly 

 managed that the soldiers were allowed to retain their 

 arms. They burst into mutiny, ravaged the country, 

 and besieged the capital. The veterans of Hamilcar 

 could only be conquered by Hamilcar himself. He 

 saved Carthage, but the struggle was severe. Vener- 

 able senators, ladies of gentle birth, innocent children 

 had fallen into the hands of the brutal mutineers and 

 had been crucified, torn to pieces, tortured to death 

 in a hundred ways. During those awful orgies of 

 Spendius and Matho, the Roman war had almost been 

 forgotten ; the disasters over which men had mourned, 

 became by comparison happiness and peace. The 

 destruction of the fleet was viewed as a slight calamity 

 when death was howling at the city gates. At last 

 Hamilcar triumphed, and the rebels were cast to the 

 elephants who kneaded their bodies with their feet 

 and gored them with their tusks ; and Carthage, 

 exhausted, faint from loss of blood, attempted to 

 repose. 



But all was not yet over. The troops that were 

 stationed in Sardinia rebelled, and Hamilcar prepared 

 to sail with an armament against them. 



The Romans had acted in the noblest manner 

 towards the Carthaginians during the civil war. The 

 Italian merchants had been allowed to supply Carthage 

 with provisions, and had been forbidden to communi- 

 cate with the rebels. When the Sardinian troops 

 mutined, they offered the island to Rome ; the city of 

 Utica had also offered itself to Rome ; but the Senate 

 had refused both applications. And now all of a 

 sudden, as if possessed by an evil spirit, they pretended 



