ently and occasionally. I shall therefore relate such facts only as
may give the reader a just idea of the republic whose history lies before
me; by confining myself to those particulars which relate chiefly to the
Carthaginians, and to their most important transactions in Sicily, Spain,
and Africa: a subject in itself sufficiently extensive.

I have already observed, that from the first Punic war to the ruin of
Carthage, a hundred and eighteen years elapsed. This whole time may be
divided into five parts or intervals.

I. The first Punic war lasted twenty-four years.

II. The interval betwixt the first and second Punic war is also
twenty-four years.

III. The second Punic war took up seventeen years.

IV. The interval between the second and third is forty-nine years.

V. The third Punic war, terminated by the destruction of Carthage,
continued but four years and some months.

Total: 118 years.

(M106) ARTICLE I. THE FIRST PUNIC WAR.--The first Punic war arose from the
following cause. Some Campanian soldiers, in the service of Agathocles,
the Sicilian tyrant, having entered as friends into Messina, soon after
murdered part of the townsmen, drove out the rest, married their wives,
seized their effects, and remained sole masters of that important
city.(660) They then assumed the name of Mamertines. In imitation of them,
and by their assistance, a Roman legion treated in the same cruel manner
the city of Rhegium, lying directly opposite to Messina, on the other side
of the strait. These two perfidious cities, supporting one another,
rendered themselves at length formidable to their neighbours; and
especially Messina, which became very powerful, and gave great umbrage and
uneasiness both to the Syracusans and Carthaginians, who possessed one
part of Sicily. As soon as the Romans had got rid of the enemies they had
so long contended with, and particularly of Pyrrhus, they began to think
of punishing the crime of their citizens, who had settled themselves at
Rhegium, in so cruel and treacherous a manner, nearly ten years before.
Accordingly, they took the city, and killed, in the attack, the greatest
part of the inhabitants, who, instigated by despair, had fought to the
last gasp: three hundred only were left, who were carried to Rome,
whipped, and then publicly beheaded in the forum. The view which the
Romans had in making this bloody execution, was, to prove to their allies
their own sincerity and innocence. Rhegiu