military power in any other quarter of the world but Africa, and
they were not to make war in Africa except by previously making known
the occasion for it to the Roman people, and obtaining their
permission. They were also to pay to the Romans a very large annual
tribute for fifty years.

There was great distress and perplexity in the Carthaginian councils
while they were debating these cruel terms. Hannibal was in favor of
accepting them. Others opposed. They thought it would be better still
to continue the struggle, hopeless as it was, than to submit to terms
so ignominious and fatal.

Hannibal was present at these debates, but he found himself now in a
very different position from that which he had been occupying for
thirty years as a victorious general at the head of his army. He had
been accustomed there to control and direct every thing. In his
councils of war, no one spoke but at his invitation, and no opinion
was expressed but such as he was willing to hear. In the Carthaginian
senate, however, he found the case very different. There, opinions
were freely expressed, as in a debate among equals, Hannibal taking
his place among the rest, and counting only as one. And yet the spirit
of authority and command which he had been so long accustomed to
exercise, lingered still, and made him very impatient and uneasy under
contradiction. In fact, as one of the speakers in the senate was
rising to animadvert upon and oppose Hannibal's views, he undertook to
pull him down and silence him by force. This proceeding awakened
immediately such expressions of dissatisfaction and displeasure in the
assembly as to show him very clearly that the time for such
domineering was gone. He had, however, the good sense to express the
regret he soon felt at having so far forgotten the duties of his new
position, and to make an ample apology.

[Illustration: THE BURNING OF THE CARTHAGINIAN FLEET.]

The Carthaginians decided at length to accede to Scipio's terms of
peace. The first instalment of the tribute was paid. The elephants
and the ships were surrendered. After a few days, Scipio announced
his determination not to take the ships away with him, but to
destroy them there. Perhaps this was because he thought the ships
would be of little value to the Romans, on account of the difficulty
of manning them. Ships, of course, are useless without seamen, and
many nations in modern times, who could easily build a navy, are
debarred from doin