but most of all from the mines of
gold and silver, which were at that time immensely rich, and were worked
by the labour of slaves taken in war or of whole tribes subdued.

Some idea of the richness of these mines may be formed by the fact that
one mine, which Hannibal had inherited from his father, brought in to
him a revenue of nearly a thousand pounds a day; and this was but one
of his various sources of wealth. This was the reason that Hamilcar,
Hasdrubal, and Hannibal were able to maintain themselves in spite of the
intrigues of their enemies in the capital. Their armies were their own
rather than those of the country.

It was to them that the soldiers looked for their pay, as well as for
promotion and rewards for valour, and they were able, therefore, to
carry out the plans which their genius suggested untrammelled by orders
from Carthage. They occupied, indeed, a position very similar to that of
Wallenstein, when, with an army raised and paid from his private means,
he defended the cause of the empire against Gustavus Adolphus and the
princes of the Protestant league. It is true that the Carthaginian
generals had always by their side two commissioners of the senate.
The republic of Carthage, like the first republic of France, was ever
jealous of her generals, and appointed commissioners to accompany them
on their campaigns, to advise and control their movements and to report
on their conduct; and many of the defeats of the Carthaginians were due
in no small degree to their generals being hampered by the interference
of the commissioners. They were present, as a matter of course, with the
army of Hannibal, but his power was so great that their influence over
his proceedings was but nominal.

The war which was about to break out with Rome is called the second
Punic war, but it should rather be named the war of Hannibal with
Rome. He conceived and carried it out from his own resources, without
interference and almost without any assistance from Carthage. Throughout
the war her ships lay idle in her harbour. Even in his greatest need
Carthage never armed a galley for his assistance. The pay of the army
came solely from his coffers, the material for the war from the arsenals
constructed by his father, his brother-in-law, and himself. It was a war
waged by a single man against a mighty power, and as such there is, with
the exception of the case of Wallenstein, nothing to resemble it in the
history of the world.

P