The Martyrdom of Man by Winwood Reade (mini ebook reader .TXT) π
The Egyptians were islanders, cut off from the rest of the world by sand and sea. They were rooted in their valley; they lived entirely upon its fruits, and happily these fruits sometimes failed. Had they always been able to obtain enough to eat, they would have remained always in the semi-savage state.
It may appear strange that Egypt should have suffered from famine, for there was no country in the ancient world where food was so abundant and so cheap. Not only did the land produce enormous crops of corn; the ditches and hollows which were filled by the overflowing Nile supplied a harvest of wholesome and nourishing aquatic plants, and on the borders of the des
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treaty between Carthage and Rome, inscribed on tables of brass in old
Latin; in the time of Polybius it could scarcely be understood, for it had
been drawn up twenty eight years before Xerxes invaded Greece. When
Pyrrhus invaded Italy the Carthaginians had taken the Roman side, for the
Greeks were their hereditary enemies. There were Carthaginian shops in
the streets of Rome, a city in beauty and splendour far inferior to
Carthage, which as called the metropolis of the Western world. The
Romans were a people of warriors and small farmers, quaint in their
habits and simple in their tastes. Some Carthaginian ambassadors were
much amused at the odd fashion of their banquets, where the guests sang
old ballads in turn while the piper played, and they discovered that there
was only one service of plate in Rome, and that each senator borrowed it
when he gave a dinner. Yet there were already signs that Rome was
inhabited by a giant race. The vast aqueducts had been constructed; the
tunnel-like sewers had been hollowed out; the streets were paved with
smooth and massive slabs. There were many temples and statues to be
seen; each temple was the monument of a great victory; each statue was
the memorial of a hero who had died for Rome.
The Carthaginian army was composed entirely of mercenary troops.
Africa, Spain and Gaul were their recruiting grounds, an inexhaustible
treasury of warriors as long as the money lasted which they received as
pay. The Berbers were a splendid Cossack cavalry; they rode without
saddle or bridle, a weapon in each hand; on foot they were merely a horde
or savages with elephant-hide shields, long spears, and bear-skins floating
from their shoulders. The troops of Spain were the best infantry that the
Carthaginians possessed; they wore a white uniform with purple facings;
they fought with pointed swords. The Gauls were brave troops but were
badly armed; they were naked to the waist; their cutlasses were made of
soft iron and had to be straightened after every blow. The Balearic
Islands supplied a regiment of slingers whose balls of hardened clay
whizzed through the air like bullets, broke armour, and shot men dead.
We read much of the Sacred Legion in the Sicilian wars. It was
composed of young nobles, who wore dazzling white shields and
breastplates which were works of art; who even in the camp never drank
except from goblets of silver and of gold. But this corps had apparently
become extinct, and the Carthaginians only officered their troops, who
they looked upon as ammunition, and to whom their orders were
delivered through interpreters. The various regiments of the Carthaginian
army had therefore nothing in common with one another or with those by
whom they were led. They rushed to battle in confusion, βwith sounds,
discordant as their various tribes,β and with no higher feeling than the
hope of plunder or the excitement which the act of fighting arouses in the
brave soldier.
In Rome the army was the nation: no citizen could take office unless he
had served in ten campaigns. All spoke the same language, all were
inspired by the same ambition. The officers were often small farmers like
the men, but this civil equality produced no ill effects; the discipline was
most severe. It was a maxim that the soldier should fear his officer more
than he feared his foe. The drill was unremitting; when they were in
winter quarters they erected sheds in which the soldiers fenced with
swords cased in leather with buttons at the point and hurled javelins, also
buttoned, at one another. These foils were double the weight of the
weapons that were actually used. When the dayβs march was over they
took pick-axe and spade, and built their camp like a town with a twelve-foot stockade around it, and a ditch twelve feet deep and twelve feet
broad. When the red mantle was hung before the generalβs tent each
soldier said to himself, βPerhaps to-day I may win the golden crown.β
Laughing and jesting they rubbed their limbs with oil, and took out of
their cases the bright helmets and the polished shields which they used
only on the battle-day. As they stood ready to advance upon the foe the
general would address them in a vigorous speech; he would tell them that
the greatest honour which could befall a Roman was to die for his country
on the field, and that glorious was the sorrow, enviable the woe of the
matron who gave a husband or a son to Rome. Then the trumpets pealed,
and the soldiers charged, first firing a volley of javelins and then coming
to close quarters with the solid steel. The chief fault of the Roman
military system at that time was in the arrangement of the chief
command. There were two commanders-in-chief, possessing equal
powers, and it sometimes happened that they were both present on the
same spot, that they commanded on alternate days, and that their tactics
differed. They were appointed only for the year, and when the term drew
near its end a consul would often fight a battle at a disadvantage, or
negotiate a premature peace, that he might prevent his successor from
reaping the fruits of his twelve monthβs toil. The Carthaginian generals
had thereby an advantage, but they also were liable to be recalled when
too successful by the jealous and distrustful government at home.
The wealth of Carthage was much greater than that of Rome, but her
method of making war was more costly, and a great deal of money was
stolen and wasted by the men in power. In Carthage the highest offices
of state were openly bought from a greedy and dangerous populace, just
as in Pompeyβs time tables were set out in the streets of Rome at which
candidates for office paid the people for their votes. But at this time
bribery was a capital offence at Rome. It was a happy period in Roman
history, the interlude between two aristocracies. There had been a time
when a system of hereditary castes prevailed; when the plebeians were
excluded from all share in the public lands and the higher offices of state;
when they were often chained in the dungeons of the nobles, and marked
with scars upon their backs: when Romans drew swords on Romans and
the tents of the people whitened the Sacred Hill. But the Licinian Laws
were carried; the orders were reconciled; plebeian consuls were elected;
and two centuries of prosperity, harmony, and victory prepared Rome for
the prodigious contest in which she was now engaged.
To her subject people Carthage acted as a tyrant. She had even deprived
the old Phoenician cities of their liberty of trade. She would not allow
them to build walls for fear they should rebel, loaded them with heavy
burdens grievous to be borne, treated the colonial provinces as conquered
lands, and sent decayed nobles as governors to wring out of the people all
they could. If the enemies of Carthage invaded Africa they would meet
with no resistance except from Carthage herself, and they would be
joined by thousands of Berbers who longed to be revenged on their
oppressors. But if the enemies of Rome invaded Italy they would find
everywhere walled cities ready to defend their liberties and having
liberties to defend. No tribute was taken by Rome from her allies except
that of military service, which service was rewarded with a share of the
harvest that the war brought in.
The Carthaginians were at a greater distance from the seat of war than the
Romans, who had only to sail across a narrow strait. However, this was
counterbalanced by the superiority of the Punic fleet. At that time the
Carthaginians were completely masters of the sea; they boasted that no
man could wash his hands in the salt water without their permission. The
Romans had not a single decked vessel, and in order to transport their
troops across the straits they were obliged to borrow triremes from the
Italian-Greeks. But their marvellous resolution and the absolute
necessities of the case overmastered their deficiencies and their singular
dislike of the sea. The wreck of a Carthaginian man-of-war served them
as a model; they ranged benches along the beach and drilled sailors who
had just come from the ploughβs tail to the service of the oar. The vessels
were rudely built and the men clumsy at their work, and when the hostile
fleets first met the Carthaginians burst into loud guffaws. Without taking
order of battle they flew down upon the Romans, the admiral leading the
van in a seven-decker that had belonged to Pyrrhus. On they went, each
ship in a bed of creamy foam, flags flying, trumpets blowing, and the
negroes singing and clanking their chains as they laboured at the oar. But
presently they perceived some odd-looking machines on the forecastles of
the Roman ships; they had never seen such things before, and this made
them hesitate a little. But when they saw in what a lubberly fashion the
ships were worked their confidence returned; they dashed in among the
Roman vessels, which they tried to rip up with their aquiline prows. As
soon as they came to close quarters the machines fell down upon them
with a crash, tore open their decks, and grappled them tightly in their iron
jaws, forming at the same time a gangway over which the Roman soldiers
poured. The sea fight was made a land fight, and only a few ships with
beaks all bent and broken succeeded in making their escape. They
entered the harbour of Carthage with their bows covered with skins, the
signal of defeat.
However, by means of skilful manoeuvring the invention of Duilius was
made of no avail, and the Carthaginians for many years remained the
masters of the sea. Twice the Roman fleet was entirely destroyed, and
their treasury was now exhausted. But he undaunted people fitted out a
fleet by private subscription, and so rapidly was this done that the trees,
as Florus said, were transformed into ships. Two hundred five-deckers
were ready before the enemy knew that they had begun to build, and so
the Carthaginian fleet was one day surprised by the Romans in no
fighting condition, for the vessels were laden to the gunwales with corn,
and only sailors were on board; the whole fleet was taken or sunk, and the
war was at an end. Yet when all was added up it was found that the
Romans had lost two hundred vessels more than the Carthaginians. But
Rome, even without large ships, could always reinforce Sicily, while the
Carthaginians, without a full fleet, were completely cut off from the seat
of war, and they were unable to rebuild in the manner of the Romans.
The war in Sicily had been a drawn game. Hamilcar Barca, although
unconquered, received orders to negotiate for peace. The Romans
demanded a large indemnity to pay for the expenses of the war, and took
the Sicilian settlements which Carthage had held for four hundred years.
Peace was made, and the mercenary troops were sent back to Carthage.
Their pay was in arrear, and there was no money left. Matters were so
badly managed that the soldiers were allowed to retain their arms. They
burst into mutiny, ravaged the country, and besieged the capital. The
veterans of Hamilcar could only be conquered by Hamilcar himself. He
saved Carthage, but the struggle was severe. Venerable senators, ladies
of gentle birth, innocent children, had fallen into the hands of the brutal
mutineers, and had been crucified, torn to pieces, tortured to death in a
hundred ways. During those awful orgies of Spendius and Matho the
Roman war had almost been forgotten; the disasters over which men had
mourned became by comparison happiness
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