neither trade nor money, they were not able to hire forces to push on
their conquests with the same rapidity as the Carthaginians: but then, as
they procured every thing from within themselves; and as all the parts of
the state were intimately united; they had surer resources in great
misfortunes than the Carthaginians. And for this reason they never once
thought of suing for peace after the battle of Cannae, as the Carthaginians
had done in a less imminent danger.

The Carthaginians had, besides, a body of troops (which was not very
numerous) levied from among their own citizens; and this was a kind of
school, in which the flower of their nobility, and those whose talents and
ambition prompted them to aspire to the first dignities, learned the
rudiments of the art of war. From among these were selected all the
general officers, who were put at the head of the different bodies of
their forces, and had the chief command in the armies. This nation was too
jealous and suspicious to employ foreign generals. But they were not so
distrustful of their own citizens as Rome and Athens; for the
Carthaginians, at the same time that they invested them with great power,
did not guard against the abuse they might make of it in order to oppress
their country. The command of armies was neither annual, nor limited to
any time, as in the two republics above-mentioned. Many generals held
their commissions for a great number of years, either till the war or
their lives ended; though they were still accountable to the commonwealth
for their conduct; and liable to be recalled, whenever a real fault, a
misfortune, or the superior interest of a cabal, furnished an opportunity
for it.

SECT. VII. ARTS AND SCIENCES.--It cannot be said that the Carthaginians
renounced entirely the glory which results from study and knowledge. The
sending of Masinissa, son of a powerful king,(550) thither for education,
gives us room to believe that Carthage was provided with an excellent
school. The great Hannibal,(551) who in all respects was an ornament to
that city, was not unacquainted with polite literature, as will be seen
hereafter. Mago,(552) another very celebrated general, did as much honour
to Carthage by his pen as by his victories. He wrote twenty-eight volumes
upon husbandry, which the Roman senate had in such esteem, that after the
taking of Carthage, when they presented the African princes with the
libraries found there, (another proof that learni