at
the nape of the neck, and the wounded, bleeding as they still were,
running also along; horsemen followed them, driving them on with blows
of the whip.

Then there was a delirium of joy! People repeated that there were six
thousand Barbarians killed; the others would not hold out, and the war
was finished; they embraced one another in the streets, and rubbed
the faces of the Pataec Gods with butter and cinnamomum to thank them.
These, with their big eyes, their big bodies, and their arms raised as
high as the shoulder, seemed to live beneath their freshened paint, and
to participate in the cheerfulness of the people. The rich left their
doors open; the city resounded with the noise of the timbrels; the
temples were illuminated every night, and the servants of the goddess
went down to Malqua and set up stages of sycamore-wood at the corners
of the cross-ways, and prostituted themselves there. Lands were voted to
the conquerors, holocausts to Melkarth, three hundred gold crowns to the
Suffet, and his partisans proposed to decree to him new prerogatives and
honours.

He had begged the Ancients to make overtures to Autaritus for exchanging
all the Barbarians, if necessary, for the aged Gisco, and the other
Carthaginians detained like him. The Libyans and Nomads composing the
army under Autaritus knew scarcely anything of these Mercenaries, who
were men of Italiote or Greek race; and the offer by the Republic of so
many Barbarians for so few Carthaginians, showed that the value of the
former was nothing and that of the latter considerable. They dreaded a
snare. Autaritus refused.

Then the Ancients decreed the execution of the captives, although the
Suffet had written to them not to put them to death. He reckoned
upon incorporating the best of them with his own troops and of thus
instigating defections. But hatred swept away all circumspection.

The two thousand Barbarians were tied to the stelae of the tombs in
the Mappalian quarter; and traders, scullions, embroiderers, and even
women,--the widows of the dead with their children--all who would,
came to kill them with arrows. They aimed slowly at them, the better to
prolong their torture, lowering the weapon and then raising it in turn;
and the multitude pressed forward howling. Paralytics had themselves
brought thither in hand-barrows; many took the precaution of bringing
their food, and remained on the spot until the evening; others passed
the night there. Tents