early as my countenance;
you would then find that this laughter which offends so much, flows not
from an intemperate joy, but from a mind almost distracted with the public
calamities. But is this laughter more unseasonable than your unbecoming
tears? Then, then, ought you to have wept, when your arms were
ingloriously taken from you, your ships burnt, and you were forbidden to
engage in any foreign wars. This was the mortal blow which laid us
prostrate.--We are sensible of the public calamity, so far only as we have
a personal concern in it; and the loss of our money gives us the most
pungent sorrow. Hence it was, that when our city was made the spoil of the
victor; when it was left disarmed and defenceless amidst so many powerful
nations of Africa, who had at that time taken the field, not a groan, not
a sigh was heard. But now, when you are called on to contribute
individually to the tax imposed upon the state, you bewail and lament as
if all were lost. Alas! I only wish that the subject of this day's grief
does not soon appear to you the least of your misfortunes."

Scipio, after all things were concluded, embarked, in order to return to
Italy. He arrived at Rome, through crowds of people, whom curiosity had
drawn together to behold his march. The most magnificent triumph that Rome
had ever seen was decreed him, and the surname of Africanus was bestowed
upon this great man; an honour till then unknown, no person before him
having assumed the name of a vanquished nation. Such was the conclusion of
the second Punic war, after having lasted seventeen years.

(M133) _A short Reflection on the Government of Carthage in the time of
the Second Punic War._--I shall conclude the particulars which relate to
the second Punic war, with a reflection of Polybius,(809) which will show
the difference between the two commonwealths of Rome and Carthage. It may
be affirmed, in some measure, that at the beginning of the second Punic
war, and in Hannibal's time, Carthage was in its decline. The flower of
its youth, and its sprightly vigour were already diminished. It had begun
to fall from its exalted pitch of power, and was inclining towards its
ruin; whereas Rome was then, as it were, in its bloom and prime of life,
and swiftly advancing to the conquest of the universe. The reason of the
declension of the one, and the rise of the other, is deduced, by Polybius,
from the different form of government established in these commonwealths,
a