enity of their present sovereigns,
ought to make them sensible which would be most advantageous for them, to
live under the yoke of Sicilians, or the government of the Romans.

Having exposed to sale part of the spoils of Carthage, he commanded, on
the most severe penalties, his family not to take or even buy any of them;
so careful was he to remove from himself, and all belonging to him, the
least suspicion of avarice.

When the news of the taking of Carthage was brought to Rome, the people
abandoned themselves to the most immoderate transports of joy, as if the
public tranquillity had not been secured till that instant.(910) They
revolved in their minds, all the calamities which the Carthaginians had
brought upon them, in Sicily, in Spain, and even in Italy, for sixteen
years together; during which, Hannibal had plundered four hundred towns,
destroyed, in different engagements, three hundred thousand men, and
reduced Rome itself to the utmost extremity. Amidst the remembrance of
these past evils, the people in Rome would ask one another, whether it
were really true that Carthage was in ashes. All ranks and degrees of men
emulously strove who should show the greatest gratitude towards the gods;
and the citizens were, for many days, employed wholly in solemn
sacrifices, in public prayers, games, and spectacles.

After these religious duties were ended, the senate sent ten commissioners
into Africa, to regulate, in conjunction with Scipio, the fate and
condition of that country for the time to come.(911) Their first care was,
to demolish whatever was still remaining of Carthage.(912) Rome,(913)
though mistress of almost the whole world, could not believe herself safe
as long as even the name of Carthage was in being. So true it is, that an
inveterate hatred, fomented by long and bloody wars, lasts even beyond the
time when all cause of fear is removed; and does not cease, till the
object that occasions it is no more. Orders were given, in the name of the
Romans, that it should never be inhabited again; and dreadful imprecations
were denounced against those, who, contrary to this prohibition, should
attempt to rebuild any parts of it, especially those called Byrsa and
Megara. In the mean time, every one who desired it, was admitted to see
Carthage: Scipio being well pleased, to have people view the sad ruins of
a city which had dared to contend with Rome for empire.(914) The
commissioners decreed farther, that those citi