o engage in no war out of Africa--and none in Africa except with the
consent of Rome, to restore to Massinissa, a prince of Numidia who had
joined Rome, his kingdom, to pay a contribution of two hundred talents a
year for fifty years, and to give a hundred hostages between the ages of
fourteen and thirty, to be selected by the Roman general.

These terms left Carthage at the mercy of Rome, when the latter,
confident in her power, entered upon the third Punic war, the overthrow
and the destruction of her rival were a comparatively easy task for her.
Hannibal lived nineteen years after his return to Carthage. For eight
years he strove to rectify the administration, to reform abuses, and to
raise and improve the state; but his exposure of the gross abuses of the
public service united against him the faction which had so long profited
by them, and, in B. C. 196, the great patriot and general was driven
into exile.

He then repaired to the court of Antiochus, King of Syria, who was at
that time engaged in a war against Rome; but that monarch would not
follow the advice he gave him, and was in consequence defeated at
Magnesia, and was forced to sue for peace and to accept the terms the
Romans imposed, one of which was that Hannibal should be delivered into
their hands.

Hannibal, being warned in time, left Syria and went to Bithynia. But
Rome could not be easy so long as her great enemy lived, and made a
demand upon Prusias, King of Bithynia, for his surrender. He was about
to comply with the request when Hannibal put an end to his life, dying
at the age of sixty-four.

No rumour of this event ever reached Malchus, but he heard, fifteen
years after he had passed into Germany, that Hannibal had at last
retired from Italy, and had been defeated at Zama, and that Carthage had
been obliged to submit to conditions which placed her at the mercy of
Rome. Malchus rejoiced more than ever at the choice he had made. His
sons were now growing up, and he spared no efforts to instill in them
a hatred and distrust of Rome, to teach them the tactics of war, and to
fill their minds with noble and lofty thoughts.

Nessus had followed the example of his lord and had married a Gaulish
maiden, and he was now a subchief in the tribe. Malchus and Clotilde
lived to a great age, and the former never once regretted the choice
he had made. From afar he heard of the ever growing power of Rome, and
warned his grandsons, as he had warned his sons, ag