ldiers purchased of neighbouring states, without being themselves
obliged to levy or exercise them, because they were already well
disciplined and inured to the fatigues of war; they making choice, in
every country, of such troops as had the greatest merit and reputation.
They drew from Numidia a light, bold, impetuous, and indefatigable
cavalry, which formed the principal strength of their armies; from the
Balearic isles, the most expert slingers in the world; from Spain, a
steady and invincible infantry; from the coasts of Genoa and Gaul, troops
of acknowledged valour; and from Greece itself, soldiers fit for all the
various operations of war, for the field or the garrisons, for besieging
or defending cities.

In this manner the Carthaginians sent out at once powerful armies,
composed of soldiers which were the flower of all the armies in the
universe, without depopulating either their fields or cities by new
levies; without suspending their manufactures, or disturbing the peaceful
artificer; without interrupting their commerce, or weakening their navy.
By venal blood they possessed themselves of provinces and kingdoms; and
made other nations the instruments of their grandeur and glory, with no
other expense of their own than their money; and even this furnished from
the traffic they carried on with foreign nations.

If the Carthaginians, in the course of a war, sustained some losses, these
were but as so many foreign accidents, which only grazed, as it were, over
the body of the state, but did not make a deep wound in the bowels or
heart of the republic. These losses were speedily repaired, by sums
arising out of a flourishing commerce, as from a perpetual sinew of war,
by which the government was continually reinforced with new supplies for
the purchase of mercenary forces, who were ready at the first summons. And
from the vast extent of the coasts which the Carthaginians possessed, it
was easy for them to levy, in a very little time, a sufficient number of
sailors and rowers for the working of their fleets, and to procure able
pilots and experienced captains to conduct them.

But as these parts were fortuitously brought together, they did not adhere
by any natural, intimate, or necessary tie. No common and reciprocal
interest united them in such a manner, as to form a solid and unalterable
body. Not one individual in these mercenary armies, was sincerely
interested in the success of measures, or in the prosperity