The Martyrdom of Man by Winwood Reade (mini ebook reader .TXT) ๐
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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the fleet was viewed as a slight calamity when death was howling at the
city gates. At last Hamilcar triumphed, and the rebels were cast to the
elephants, who kneaded their bodies with their feet and gored them with
their tusks; and Carthage, exhausted, faint from loss of blood, attempted
to repose.
But all was not yet over. The troops that were stationed in Sardinia
rebelled, and Hamilcar prepared to sail with an armament against them.
The Romans had acted in the noblest manner towards the Carthaginians
during the civil war. The Italian merchants had been allowed to supply
Carthage with provisions, and had been forbidden to communicate with
the rebels. When the Sardinian troops mutinied they offered the island to
Rome; the city of Utica had also offered itself to Rome, but the Senate
had refused both applications. And now all of a sudden, as if possessed
by an evil spirit, they pretended that the Carthaginian armament had been
prepared against Rome, and declared war. When Carthage, in the last
stage of misery and prostration, prayed for peace in the name of all the
pitiful gods, it was granted. But Rome had been put to some expense on
account of this intended war; they must therefore pay an additional
indemnity, and surrender Corsica and Sardinia. Poor Carthage was made
to bite the dust indeed.
Hamilcar Barca was appointed commander-in-chief. He was the
favourite of the people. He had to the last remained unconquered in
Sicily. He had saved the city from the mutineers. His honour was
unstained, his patriotism was pure.
In that hour of calamity and shame, when the city was hung with black,
when the spacious docks were empty and bare, when there was woe in
every face and the memory of death in every house, faction was forced to
be silent, and the people were permitted to be heard, and those who loved
their country more than their party rejoiced to see a Man at the head of
affairs. But Hamilcar knew well that he was hated by the leaders of the
government, the politicians by profession, those men who had devoured
the gold which was the very heart of Carthage, and had brought upon her
by their dishonesty this last distressing war; those men who by their
miserable suspicions and intrigues had ever deprived their best generals
of their commands as soon as they began to succeed, and appointed
generals whom theyโand the enemyโhad no cause to fear. To him was
entrusted by the patriots the office of regenerating Carthage. But how
was it to be done? Without money he was powerless; without money he
could not keep his army together; without money he could not even retain
his command. He had been given it by the people, but the people were
accustomed to be bribed. Gold they must have from the men in power; if
he had none to give they would go to those who had. His enemies he
knew would be able to employ the state revenues against him. What
could he do? Where was the money to be found? He saw before him
nothing but defeat, disgrace, and even an ignominious deathโfor in
Carthage they sometimes crucified their generals. Often he thought that it
would be better to give up public life, to abandon the corrupt and ruined
city, and to sail to those sweet islands which the Carthaginians had
discovered in the Atlantic Sea. There the earth was always verdant, the
sky was always pure. No fiery sirocco blew, and no cold rain fell in that
delicious land. Odoriferous balm dripped from the branches of the trees;
canary birds sang among the leaves; streams of silver water rippled
downwards to the sea. There Nature was a calm and gentle mother: there
the turmoils of the world might be forgotten; there the weary heart might
be at rest.
Yet how could he desert his fatherland in its affliction? To him the nation
turned its sorrowful eyes; on him the people called as men call upon their
gods. At this feet lay the poor, torn, and wounded Carthageโthe
Carthage once so beautiful and so strong, the Carthage who had fed him
from her full breast with riches and with power, the Carthage who had
made him what he was. And should he, who had never turned his back
upon her enemies, desert her now?
Then a glorious idea flashed in upon his brain. He saw a way of restoring
Carthage to her ancient glory, of making her stronger than she had ever
been, of making her a match for Rome. He announced to the senate that
he intended to take the army to Tangiers to reduce a native tribe which
had caused some trouble in the neighbourhood. He quickly made all
arrangements for the march. A few vessels had been prepared for the
expedition to Sardinia. These were commanded by his brother, and he
ordered that they should be sailed along the coast side by side with the
army as it marched. It might have appeared strange to some persons that
he should require ships to make war against a tribe of Moors on land. But
there was no fear of his enemies suspecting his design. It was so strange
and wild that when it had been actually accomplished they could scarcely
believe that it was real.
The night before he marched he went to the Great Temple to offer the
sacrifice of propitiation and entreaty. He took with him his son, a boy
nine years of age. When the libations and other rites were ended and the
victim lay divided on the altar, he ordered the attendants to withdraw. He
remained alone with his son.
The temple of Baal was a magnificent building supported by enormous
columns, covered with gold, or formed of a glass-like substance which
began to glitter and sparkle in a curious manner as the night came on.
Around the temple walls were idols representing the Phoenician gods;
prominent among them was the hideous statue of Moloch, with its
downward-sloping hands and the fiery furnace at its feet. There also
might be seen beautiful Greek statues, trophies of the Sicilian
Warsโespecially the Diana which the Carthaginians had taken from
Segesta, which was afterwards restored to that city by the Romans, which
Verres placed in his celebrated gallery and Cicero in his celebrated
speech. There also might be seen the famous brazen bull which an
Athenian invented for the amusement of Phalaris. Human beings were
put inside, a fire was lit underneath, and the throat was so contrived that
the shrieks and groans of the victims made the bull bellow as if he was
alive. The first experiment was made by King Phalaris upon the artist,
and the last by the people upon King Phalaris.
Hamilcar caressed his son and asked him if he would like to go to the
war; when the boy said yes, and showed much delight, Hamilcar took his
little hands and placed them upon the altar, and made him swear that he
would hate the Romans to his dying day. Long years afterwards, when
that boy was an exile in a foreign landโthe most glorious, the most
unfortunate of menโhe was accused by his royal host of secretly
intriguing with the Romans. He then related this circumstance, and asked
if it was likely that he would ever be a friend to Rome.
Hamilcar marched. The politicians supposed that he was merely engaged
in a third-rate war, and were quite easy in their minds. But one day there
came a courier from Tangiers. He brought tidings which plunged the
whole city in a tumult of wonder and excitement. The three great streets
which led to the market-place were filled with streaming crowds. A
multitude collected round the city hall, in which sat the senators
anxiously deliberating. Women appeared on the roofs of the houses and
bent eagerly over the parapets, while men ran along bawling out the
news. Hamilcar Barca had gone clean off. He was no longer in Africa.
He had crossed the sea. The Tangier expedition was a trick. He had
taken the army right over into Spain, and was fighting with the native
chiefs who had always been the friends and allies of Carthage.
By a strange fortuity, Spain was the Peru of the ancient world. The
horrors of the mines in South America, the sufferings of the Indians, were
copied, so to speak, from the early history of the people who inflicted
them. When the Phoenicians first entered the harbours of Andalusia they
found themselves in a land where silver was used as iron. They loaded
their vessel with the precious metal to the waterโs edge, cast away their
wooden lead-weighted anchor, and substituted a lump of pure silver in its
stead. Afterwards factories were established, arrangements were made
with the chiefs for the supply of labour, and the mining was conducted on
scientific principles. The Carthaginians succeeded the Phoenicians, and
remained, like them, only on the coast.
It was Hamilcarโs design to conquer the whole country, to exact tribute
from the inhabitants, to create a Spanish army. His success was splendid
and complete. The peninsula of Spain became almost entirely a Punic
province. Hamilcar built a city which he called New Carthageโthe
Carthagena of modern timesโand discovered in its neighbourhood rich
mines of silver-lead which have lately been reopened. He acquired a
private fortune, formed a native army, fed his party at Carthage, and
enriched the treasury of the state. He administered the province nine
years, and then dying, was succeeded by his brother, who, after governing
or reigning a few years, also died. Hannibal, the son of Hamilcar,
became Viceroy of Spain.
It appears strange that Rome should so tamely have allowed the
Carthaginians to take Spain. The truth was that the Romans just then had
enough to do to look after their own affairs. The Gauls of Lombardy had
furiously attacked the Italian cities, and had called to their aid the Gauls
who lived beyond the Alps. Before the Romans had beaten off the
barbarians the conquest in Spain had been accomplished. The Romans
therefore accepted the fact, and contented themselves with a treaty by
which the government of Carthage pledged itself not to pass beyond the
Ebro.
But Hannibal cared nothing about treaties made at Carthage. As
Hamilcar without orders had invaded Spain, so he without orders invaded
Italy. The expedition of the Gauls had shown him that it was possible to
cross the Alps, and he chose that extraordinary route. The Roman army
was about to embark for Spain, which it was supposed would be the seat
or war, when the news arrived that Hannibal had alighted in Italy with
elephants and cavalry, like a man descending from the clouds.
If wars were always decided by individual exploits and pitched battles
Hannibal would have conquered Italy. He defeated the Romans so often
and so thoroughly that at last they found it their best policy not to fight
with him at all. He could do nothing then but sweep over the country
with his Cossack cavalry, plunder, and destroy. It was impossible for him
to take Rome, which was protected by walls strong as rocks and by rocks
steep as walls. When he did march on Rome, encamping within three
miles of the city and raising a panic during an afternoon, it was done
merely as a ruse to draw away the Roman army from the siege of Capua.
But it did not have even that effect. The army before Capua remained
where it was, and another army appeared as if by magic to defend the
city. Rome appeared to be inexhaustible, and so in reality it was.
Hannibal knew well that Italy could be conquered only by Italians. So
great a general could never have
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