demands made upon the latter caused revolts that cost much effort to
subdue. It required the personality of a Hannibal to develop an _esprit de
corps_ and discipline such as characterized his army in Italy. A third
factor was the absence in the Roman commanders of the personal rivalries
and lack of cooeperation which so greatly hampered the Carthaginians in
Spain and in Sicily. Still one must not be led into the error of supposing
that the Carthaginians did not display tenacity and patriotism to a very
high degree. The senatorial class especially distinguished itself by
courage and ability, and there are no evidences of factional strife
hampering the conduct of the war. The Romans overcame the disadvantage of
the annual change of commanders-in-chief by the use of the proconsulship
and pro-praetorship often long prorogued, whereby officers of ability
retained year after year the command of the same armies. This system
enabled them to develop such able generals as Metellus and the Scipios.

The cost of maintaining her fleet and her armies taxed the financial
resources of Rome to the utmost. The government had to make use of a
reserve fund which had been accumulating in the treasury for thirty years
from the returns of the 5% tax on the value of manumitted slaves, and the
armies in Spain could only be kept in the field by the generosity and
patriotism of several companies of contractors who furnished supplies at
their own expense until the end of the war. An additional burden was the
increased cost of the necessities of life and the danger of a grain
famine, caused by the disturbed conditions in Italy and Sicily and the
withdrawal of so many men from agricultural occupations. In 210 the
situation was only relieved by an urgent appeal to Ptolemy Philopator of
Egypt, from whom grain had to be purchased at three times the usual price.
However, this crisis passed with the pacification of Sicily in the next
year.

Furthermore, a heavy tribute had been levied upon the man power of the
Roman state. The census list of citizens eligible for military service
fell from about 280,000 at the beginning of the war to 237,000 in 209; and
the federate allies must have suffered at least as heavily. The greatest
losses fell upon the southern part of the peninsula. There, year after
year, the fields had been laid waste and the villages devastated by the
opposing armies, until the rural population had almost entirely
disappeared, the land had