rst and Second Punic
wars--when Carthage was brought to the very brink of destruction by a
revolt of her foreign troops. Other mutinies of the same kind must from
time to time have occurred. Probably one of these was the cause of the
comparative weakness of Carthage at the time of the Athenian expedition
against Syracuse, so different from the energy with which she attacked
Gelon half a century earlier and Dionysius half a century later. And
even when we consider her armies with reference only to their efficiency
in warfare, we perceive at once the inferiority of such bands of
_condottieri_, brought together without any common bond of origin,
tactics, or cause, to the legions of Rome, which, at the time of the
Punic wars, were raised from the very flower of a hardy agricultural
population, trained in the strictest discipline, habituated to victory,
and animated by the most resolute patriotism.

And this shows, also, the transcendency of the genius of Hannibal, which
could form such discordant materials into a compact organized force, and
inspire them with the spirit of patient discipline and loyalty to their
chief, so that they were true to him in his adverse as well as in his
prosperous fortunes; and throughout the checkered series of his
campaigns no panic rout ever disgraced a division under his command, no
mutiny, or even attempt at mutiny, was ever known in his camp; and
finally, after fifteen years of Italian warfare, his men followed their
old leader to Zama, "with no fear and little hope,"[60] and there, on
that disastrous field, stood firm around him, his Old Guard, till
Scipio's Numidian allies came up on their flank, when at last,
surrounded and overpowered, the veteran battalions sealed their devotion
to their general by their blood!

[Footnote 60: "We advanced to Waterloo as the Greeks did to Thermopylae:
all of us without fear, and most of us without hope."--_Speech of
General Foy._]

"But if Hannibal's genius may be likened to the Homeric god, who, in his
hatred to the Trojans, rises from the deep to rally the fainting Greeks
and to lead them against the enemy, so the calm courage with which
Hector met his more than human adversary in his country's cause is no
unworthy image of the unyielding magnanimity displayed by the
aristocracy of Rome. As Hannibal utterly eclipses Carthage, so, on the
contrary, Fabius, Marcellus, Claudius Nero, even Scipio himself, are as
nothing when compared to the spirit and w