the Carthaginian shore. He
encamped as soon as he landed, and sent back word to the Roman senate
asking what was next to be done.

The senate, considering that the great difficulty and danger, viz.,
that of repulsing the Carthaginian fleet, was now past, ordered
Regulus to send home nearly all the ships and a very large part of the
army, and with the rest to commence his march toward Carthage.
Regulus obeyed: he sent home the troops which had been ordered home,
and with the rest began to advance upon the city.

Just at this time, however, news came out to him that the farmer who
had had the care of his land at home had died, and that his little
farm, on which rested his sole reliance for the support of his family,
was going to ruin. Regulus accordingly sent to the senate, asking them
to place some one else in command of the army, and to allow him to
resign his office, that he might go home and take care of his wife and
children. The senate sent back orders that he should go on with his
campaign, and promised to provide support for his family, and to see
that some one was appointed to take care of his land. This story is
thought to illustrate the extreme simplicity and plainness of all the
habits of life among the Romans in those days. It certainly does so,
if it is true. It is, however, very extraordinary, that a man who was
intrusted by such a commonwealth, with the command of a fleet of a
hundred and thirty vessels, and an army of a hundred and forty
thousand men, should have a family at home dependent for subsistence
on the hired cultivation of seven acres of land. Still, such is the
story.

Regulus advanced toward Carthage, conquering as he came. The
Carthaginians were beaten in one field after another, and were
reduced, in fact, to the last extremity, when an occurrence took place
which turned the scale. This occurrence was the arrival of a large
body of troops from Greece, with a Grecian general at their head.
These were troops which the Carthaginians had hired to fight for them,
as was the case with the rest of their army. But these were _Greeks_,
and the Greeks were of the same race, and possessed the same
qualities, as the Romans. The newly-arrived Grecian general evinced at
once such military superiority, that the Carthaginians gave him the
supreme command. He marshaled the army, accordingly, for battle. He
had a hundred elephants in the van. They were trained to rush forward
and trample down the enemy. H