victories. This was a
new honor--giving to a conqueror the name of the country that he had
subdued; it was invented specially as Scipio's reward, the deliverer
who had saved the empire from the greatest and most terrible danger by
which it had ever been assailed.

Hannibal, though fallen, retained still in Carthage some portion of
his former power. The glory of his past exploits still invested his
character with a sort of halo, which made him an object of general
regard, and he still had great and powerful friends. He was elevated
to high office, and exerted himself to regulate and improve the
internal affairs of the state. In these efforts he was not, however,
very successful. The historians say that the objects which he aimed to
accomplish were good, and that the measures for effecting them were,
in themselves, judicious; but, accustomed as he was to the
authoritative and arbitrary action of a military commander in camp, he
found it hard to practice that caution and forbearance, and that
deference for the opinion of others, which are so essential as means
of influencing men in the management of the civil affairs of a
commonwealth. He made a great many enemies, who did every thing in
their power, by plots and intrigues, as well as by open hostility, to
accomplish his ruin.

His pride, too, was extremely mortified and humbled by an occurrence
which took place very soon after Scipio's return to Rome. There was
some occasion of war with a neighboring African tribe, and Hannibal
headed some forces which were raised in the city for the purpose, and
went out to prosecute it. The Romans, who took care to have agents in
Carthage to keep them acquainted with all that occurred, heard of
this, and sent word to Carthage to warn the Carthaginians that this
was contrary to the treaty, and could not be allowed. The government,
not willing to incur the risk of another visit from Scipio, sent
orders to Hannibal to abandon the war and return to the city. Hannibal
was compelled to submit; but after having been accustomed, as he had
been, for many years, to bid defiance to all the armies and fleets
which Roman power could, with their utmost exertion, bring against
him, it must have been very hard for such a spirit as his to find
itself stopped and conquered now by a word. All the force they could
command against him, even at the very gates of their own city, was
once impotent and vain. Now, a mere message and threat, coming across
the