jealousy
of the rival faction at Carthage, he would have crushed the power of the
legions, and given to Carthage, not Rome, the empire of the world. As it
was, he brought them to the brink of ruin, and achieved triumphs over
their armies greater than all other nations put together. After he was
overthrown, it was comparatively an easy task to conquer the world. For
this he received in life exile, disgrace, and death: for this he has
since obtained immortality. At his name the heart of the patriot has
thrilled through every subsequent age. To illustrate his virtues, genius
and learning have striven in every succeeding country; and the greatest
praise which the world can yet bestow on warriors is to compare them to
Hannibal.

No name, even in the majestic annals of Roman victories, stands forth
with lustre equal to that of the Carthaginian hero. They were made by
their countrymen, but his countrymen were made by him. Scipio, Pompey,
Caesar himself, did not evince equal capacity: they had lesser
difficulties to contend with; they owed more to the support of others,
and did not do so much by the strength of their individual arm, by the
energy of their individual will. The institutions, the laws, the ideas,
the manners, the very language of the Romans, were made for conquest:
they sprang up from the earth a race of armed men. Virtue with them was
derived from "manly valour:" an army was designated by a word which
signified "exercised:"[22] their generals were borne aloft to conquest
on the shields of the legions. Such was the spirit of the soldiers, that
they were fairly compelled to victory by the presence which urged them
on; such the determination of the people, that the armies were pressed
forward to the conquest of the world as by a supernatural power. The
purposes of Providence, mysterious at the time, apparent afterwards,
never were more clearly evinced than in the peculiar impress
communicated to the Roman institutions. But the Carthaginians were a
race, not of warriors, but of colonists. They rose to greatness, not by
their military spirit, but by their commercial prosperity; their
outposts were, not the fortified camp, but the smiling seaport.
Extending as far as the waters of the Mediterranean roll, they spread
inwards from the sea-coast, not outwards from the camp; the navy was the
arm of their strength, not their land forces. Their institutions,
habits, national spirit, and government, were all adapted to the