te object of contention was the island of Sicily, lying
between the territory of Rome and that of Carthage. In Sicily the First
Punic War, lasting about twenty-three years, was mainly carried on by
the Romans with success, while on the sea Carthage for a long time
maintained superiority.

During the intervals between the Punic wars two things appear with
striking force in the history of these events--the passive strength and
recuperative power of Carthage, which enabled her to return again and
again to the struggle from almost crushing defeat, and the marvellous
development of resources and aggressive vigor on the part of Rome, in
whose case the rise of powerful individual leaders more than offset the
weight of long-accumulated energies, supplemented as these were by the
genius and achievement of great Carthaginian warriors.

The wars progressed in a spirit of deadly hatred, constantly intensified
on both sides, and the Roman determination, of which Cato was the
mouthpiece, that Carthage must be destroyed, met its stubborn answer in
the endeavors of the Carthaginians to turn this vengeance against Rome
herself.

Carthage had been mistress of the world, the richest and most powerful
of cities. Her naval supremacy alone had sufficed to secure her safety
and superiority over all rivals or possible combinations of force. But
the strength of her government lay not so much in her people, or even in
her statesmen and soldiers, as in her men of wealth. A political
establishment founded upon such supports was peculiarly liable to all
the dangers of corruption and of public ignorance and apathy in the
conduct of affairs. These causes appear conspicuously in the history of
the Punic wars, as contributing largely to the overthrow and final
extinguishment of Carthage, which left to her successful rival the open
way to universal dominion.

The account of Florus presents in a style at once comprehensive and
succinct a splendid narrative of these wars, with their decisive and
world-changing events.)

THE FIRST PUNIC WAR

The victor-people of Italy, having now spread over the land as far as
the sea, checked its course for a little, like a fire, which, having
consumed the woods lying in its track, is stopped by some intervening
river. But soon after, seeing at no great distance a rich prey, which
seemed in a manner detached and torn away from their own Italy, they
were so inflamed with a desire to possess it that, since it could