ry one accused Barca of having
behaved with slackness. He ought to have annihilated the Mercenaries
after his victory. Why had he ravaged the tribes? The sacrifices
already imposed had been heavy enough! and the patricians deplored their
contributions of fourteen shekels, and the Syssitia their two hundred
and twenty-three thousand gold kikars; those who had given nothing
lamented like the rest. The populace was jealous of the New
Carthaginians, to whom he had promised full rights of citizenship;
and even the Ligurians, who had fought with such intrepidity, were
confounded with the Barbarians and cursed like them; their race became
a crime, the proof of complicity. The traders on the threshold of their
shops, the workmen passing plumb-line in hand, the vendors of pickle
rinsing their baskets, the attendants in the vapour baths and the
retailers of hot drinks all discussed the operations of the campaign.
They would trace battle-plans with their fingers in the dust, and
there was not a sorry rascal to be found who could not have corrected
Hamilcar's mistakes.

It was a punishment, said the priests, for his long-continued impiety.
He had offered no holocausts; he had not purified his troops; he had
even refused to take augurs with him; and the scandal of sacrilege
strengthened the violence of restrained hate, and the rage of betrayed
hopes. People recalled the Sicilian disasters, and all the burden of
his pride that they had borne for so long! The colleges of the pontiffs
could not forgive him for having seized their treasure, and they
demanded a pledge from the Great Council to crucify him should he ever
return.

The heats of the month of Eloul, which were excessive in that year, were
another calamity. Sickening smells rose from the borders of the Lake,
and were wafted through the air together with the fumes of the aromatics
that eddied at the corners of the streets. The sounds of hymns were
constantly heard. Crowds of people occupied the staircases of the
temples; all the walls were covered with black veils; tapers burnt
on the brows of the Pataec Gods, and the blood of camels slain for
sacrifice ran along the flights of stairs forming red cascades upon the
steps. Carthage was agitated with funereal delirium. From the depths of
the narrowest lanes, and the blackest dens, there issued pale faces,
men with viper-like profiles and grinding their teeth. The houses were
filled with the women's piercing shrieks, which, escap