not remain in force long, and were exceeding severe in their
penalties. But they were afterward revived, and copied by other Sicilian
cities, and remained in force to the Grecian conquest of the island.

(M656) The Syracusans then prosecuted war with vigor against Naxos, which
sided with Athens, until it was brought to a sudden close by an invasion
of the Carthaginians, the ancient foes of Greece. As far back as the year
480 B.C.--that year which witnessed the invasion of Greece by Xerxes--the
Carthaginians had invaded Sicily, with a mercenary army under Hamilcar,
for the purpose of reinstating the tyrant of Himera, expelled by Theron of
Agrigentum. The Carthaginian army was routed, and Hamilcar was slain by
Gelon, the tyrant of Syracuse. This defeat was so signal, that it was
seventy years before the Carthaginians again invaded Sicily, shortly after
the destruction of Athenian power at Syracuse. No sooner was the
protecting naval power of Athens withdrawn from Greece, than the Persians
and the Carthaginians pressed upon the Hellenic world.

(M657) It is singular that so little is known of the early history of
Carthage, which became the great rival of Rome. It was founded by the
Phoenicians, and became a considerable commercial city before Athens had
reached the naval supremacy of Greece. Her possessions were extensive on
the coast of Africa, both east and west, comprehending Sardinia and the
Balearic isles. At the maximum of her power, before the first Punic war,
the population was nearly a million of people. It was built on a fortified
peninsula of about twenty miles in circumference, with the isthmus. Upon
this isthmus was the citadel Byrsa, surrounded with a triple wall, and
crowned at its summit by a magnificent temple of AEsculapius. It possessed
three hundred tributary cities in Libya, which was but a small part of the
great empire which belonged to it in the fourth century before Christ. All
the towns on the coast, even those founded by the Phoenicians, like Hippo
and Utica, were tributary, with the exception of Utica. Although the
Carthaginians were averse to land service, yet no less than forty thousand
hoplites, with one thousand cavalry and two thousand war chariots, marched
out from the gates to resist an enemy. But the Carthaginian armies were
mostly composed of mercenaries--Gauls, Iberians, and Libyans, and forming a
discordant host in language and custom.

(M658) The political constitution of Carthage wa