cond Punic war, the conditions of peace offered by the victor
were read in the senate; Hannibal, observing that one of the senators
opposed them, represented in the strongest terms, that as the safety of
the republic lay at stake, it was of the utmost importance for the
senators to be unanimous in their resolutions, to prevent such a debate
from coming before the people; and he carried his point. This, doubtless,
laid the foundation, in the infancy of the republic, of the senate's
power, and raised its authority to so great a height. And the same author
observes, in another place,(538) that whilst the senate had the
administration of affairs, the state was governed with great wisdom, and
was successful in all its enterprises.

_The People._--It appears from every thing related hitherto, that even so
low as Aristotle's time, who gives so beautiful a picture, and bestows so
noble an eulogium on the government of Carthage, the people spontaneously
left the care of public affairs, and the chief administration of them, to
the senate: and this it was which made the republic so powerful. But
things changed afterwards. For the people, grown insolent by their wealth
and conquests, and forgetting that they owed these blessings to the
prudent conduct of the senate, were desirous of having a share in the
government, and arrogated to themselves almost the whole power. From that
period, the public affairs were transacted wholly by cabals and factions:
and this Polybius assigns as one of the chief causes of the ruin of
Carthage.

_The Tribunal of the Hundred._--This was a body composed of a hundred and
four persons; though often, for brevity's sake, they are called only, the
Hundred. These, according to Aristotle, were the same in Carthage, as the
Ephori in Sparta; whence it appears, that they were instituted to balance
the power of the nobles and senate: but with this difference, that the
Ephori were but five in number, and continued in office but a year;
whereas these were perpetual, and were upwards of a hundred. (M97) It is
believed, that these Centumviri are the same with the hundred judges
mentioned by Justin,(539) who were taken out of the senate, and appointed
to inquire into the conduct of their generals. The exorbitant power of
Mago's family, which, by its engrossing the chief employments both of the
state and the army, had thereby the sole direction and management of all
affairs, gave occasion to this establishment. It was