while there
exist men like me and my friends. Either Rome or Africa! Let the final
clash come! The sooner the better, the supreme struggle; and let that
nation which is left standing be ruler of the world! I hate the rich of
my country who live content in the shame of defeat because it enables
them to traffic calmly and to cram their vaults with silver. Those are
the wretches who, after our defeat in Sicily, dared to dream of
abandoning Carthage and of moving wholesale to the islands of the Great
Sea to live in tranquility. They are Carthaginians indeed; true sons of
Phoenicia, with no other conception of glory than trade, nor other
aspiration than to find new ports where they can market their wares! We
Barcas are Libyans; we descend from the gods; like them we have
greatness of thought; we must be masters, or die! Those merchants do not
understand that it is not enough to be rich; that one must dominate and
instill fear; and they formed in Carthage a peace-party, which
embittered my father's life by defeats, and they leave me with no other
resources than those that I can procure on the Peninsula. They do not
know the Barcas, despite the fact that we struggle to make Carthage a
world power! My father, when he lost Sicily, foresaw the future
extinction of our nation, and he wished to prevent it. We had lost a
great part of our ancient commerce. We needed an army to defend us from
ambitious Rome, and we did not have it. The citizens of Carthage are
good, at the best, to fight on their own soil. The merchant cannot bear
the weight of arms nor endure marches for months and years through
hostile countries. The profit derived from booty conquered with blood,
he can win more easily standing behind his bales of goods, and as he
loves money he does not wish to pay it out to foreign soldiers. That is
why Hamilcar brought us to the Peninsula, and here we have given
Carthage new ports and markets, and the Barcas have an army gathered
together by their own efforts. Little does it matter that the
Carthaginian Senate, lovers of peace, refuse to send us soldiers. The
Iberian tribes loved my father after putting his bravery to the test,
and they will rise in arms at the voice of the Barcas against whatever
enemy we may designate."

Hannibal turned his gaze toward the distant mountains, as if he could
behold the innumerable barbarian tribes who lived behind them scratching
the earth, or pasturing their flocks. "Hamilcar fell," he said s