The power of Carthage emanated, therefore, from the Syssitia, that is to say, from a large court in the centre of Malqua, at the place, it was said, where the first bark of Phoenician sailors had touched, the sea having retired a long way since then.It was a collection of little rooms of archaic architecture, built of palm trunks with corners of stone, and separated from one another so as to accommodate the various societies separately.The rich crowded there all day to discuss their own concerns and those of the government, from the procuring of pepper to the extermination of Rome.Thrice in a moon they would have their beds brought up to the lofty terrace running along the wall of the court, and they might be seen from below at table in the air, without cothurni or cloaks, with their diamond-covered fingers wandering over the dishes, and their large earrings hanging down among the flagons,--all fat and lusty, half-naked, smiling and eating beneath the blue sky, like great sharks sporting in the sea.
But just now they were unable to dissemble their anxiety; they were too pale for that.The crowd which waited for them at the gates escorted them to their palaces in order to obtain some news from them.
As in times of pestilence, all the houses were shut; the streets would fill and suddenly clear again; people ascended the Acropolis or ran to the harbour, and the Great Council deliberated every night.At last the people were convened in the square of Khamon, and it was decided to leave the management of things to Hanno, the conqueror of Hecatompylos.
He was a true Carthaginian, devout, crafty, and pitiless towards the people of Africa.His revenues equalled those of the Barcas.No one had such experience in administrative affairs.
He decreed the enrolment of all healthy citizens, he placed catapults on the towers, he exacted exorbitant supplies of arms, he even ordered the construction of fourteen galleys which were not required, and he desired everything to be registered and carefully set down in writing.
He had himself conveyed to the arsenal, the pharos, and the treasuries of the temples; his great litter was continually to be seen swinging from step to step as it ascended the staircases of the Acropolis.And then in his palace at night, being unable to sleep, he would yell out warlike manoeuvres in terrible tones so as to prepare himself for the fray.
In their extremity of terror all became brave.The rich ranged themselves in line along the Mappalian district at cockcrow, and tucking up their robes practised themselves in handling the pike.But for want of an instructor they had disputes about it.They would sit down breathless upon the tombs and then begin again.Several even dieted themselves.Some imagined that it was necessary to eat a great deal in order to acquire strength, while others who were inconvenienced by their corpulence weakened themselves with fasts in order to become thin.
Utica had already called several times upon Carthage for assistance;but Hanno would not set out until the engines of war had been supplied with the last screws.He lost three moons more in equipping the one hundred and twelve elephants that were lodged in the ramparts.They were the conquerors of Regulus; the people loved them; it was impossible to treat such old friends too well.Hanno had the brass plates which adorned their breasts recast, their tusks gilt, their towers enlarged, and caparisons, edged with very heavy fringes, cut out of the handsomest purple.Finally, as their drivers were called Indians (after the first ones, no doubt, who came from the Indies) he ordered them all to be costumed after the Indian fashion; that is to say, with white pads round their temples, and small drawers of byssus, which with their transverse folds looked like two valves of a shell applied to the hips.
The army under Autaritus still remained before Tunis.It was hidden behind a wall made with mud from the lake, and protected on the top by thorny brushwood.Some Negroes had planted tall sticks here and there bearing frightful faces,--human masks made with birds' feathers, and jackals' or serpents' heads,--which gaped towards the enemy for the purpose of terrifying him; and the Barbarians, reckoning themselves invincible through these means, danced, wrestled, and juggled, convinced that Carthage would perish before long.Any one but Hanno would easily have crushed such a multitude, hampered as it was with herds and women.Moreover, they knew nothing of drill, and Autaritus was so disheartened that he had ceased to require it.
They stepped aside when he passed by rolling his big blue eyes.Then on reaching the edge of the lake he would draw back his sealskin cloak, unfasten the cord which tied up his long red hair, and soak the latter in the water.He regretted that he had not deserted to the Romans along with the two thousand Gauls of the temple of Eryx.
Often the sun would suddenly lose his rays in the middle of the day.
Then the gulf and the open sea would seem as motionless as molten lead.A cloud of brown dust stretching perpendicularly would speed whirling along; the palm trees would bend and the sky disappear, while stones would be heard rebounding on the animals' cruppers; and the Gaul, his lips glued against the holes in his tent, would gasp with exhaustion and melancholy.His thoughts would be of the scent of the pastures on autumn mornings, of snowflakes, or of the bellowing of the urus lost in the fog, and closing his eyelids he would in imagination behold the fires in long, straw-roofed cottages flickering on the marshes in the depths of the woods.
