Hamilcar never gave way before the enemy, and never opened himself to a thrust; he often challenged the Romans to fight, and whenever he did so he always issued victorious from the struggle. Accordingly, when the Carthaginians had almost lost. everything in Sicily, he defended Eryx so vigorously and effectually, that he kept the war at a distance. After the Carthaginians had been defeated in a naval engagement at the Ægatian islands, by Lutatius Catulus, the Roman consul, they resolved to put an end to the war, and left Hamilcar all powers to carry on the negotiations. Though he was burning with the desire to carry on the war, he thought it his duty to adhere to peace, because he felt that his country, exhausted with expenses, could no longer support the calamities of war; but at the same time he was resolved, if matters mended a little, to renew the contest, and to follow it up against the Romans till, by their valour, the Carthaginians had triumphed over the enemy, or being crushed themselves they should be forced to ask quarter. It was while he was inspired with these sentiments that he negotiated for peace. He conducted the negotiations with such a haughty spirit, that when Catulus declared to him that he would not finish the war unless Hamilcar and those of his side, who had occupied Eryx, would lay down their arms and leave Sicily, he answered that, although he were to see his country sinking, he would perish sooner than return home with so great an infamy; that, in fact, it was unworthy of his courage to deliver up to the enemies of his country the arms he had received to use against them. Catulus was obliged to yield to his obstinacy.

As soon as he had arrived at Carthage he found the republic in a very different state from that which he had expected; for on account of the long duration of the foreign war, a civil war was enkindled at home in so formidable a shape, that Carthage was never in so great a danger, except when it was finally destroyed. In the first place, the mercenary soldiers who had served against the Romans revolted; and their number amounted to 20,000. They raised up an insurrection throughout Northern Africa, and even besieged Carthage.

The Carthaginians were so alarmed at these disasters, that they demanded help from the Romans; and they obtained it. But, ultimately, when almost reduced to despair, they made Hamilcar their general. Not only did this great leader drive off the enemy from the walls of Carthage, while the rebels still amounted to above 100,000 men, he moreover reduced them to such a pass that, enclosed in defiles, a greater number of them died of

hunger than by the sword. He restored to his country all the revolted cities, among others Utica and Hippo, the most powerful in Africa. Not satisfied with this, he even extended the limits of the Carthaginian empire, and restored such complete tranquillity in Africa that it seemed as if no war had visited it for a long course of years (B.c. 238).

After these satisfactory achievements, filled with confidence in himself, and stirred by his old animosity against the Romans, he strove to provoke a cause for a new outbreak, and managed to get himself sent as general with an army into Spain; and he led there his young son Hannibal, then nine years of age (B.C. 235). He also took with him an illustrious young man, conspicuous for great beauty of person, named Hasdrubal, to whom he had given his daughter in marriage. This Hasdrubal became eventually a man of much importance, because after Hamilcar had been killed, he commanded the army and carried out some important operations; he was also the first who corrupted the Carthaginians by largesses; and after his death he was succeeded by Hannibal in the command of the troops in Spain.

Now Hamilcar, after he had crossed over into Spain, carried out great measures most successfully; he subdued large and populous tribes, and he enriched Africa with horses, with arms, and with money. He was even proposing to carry over the war into Italy, nine years after he had come into Spain, when he was killed in a battle fighting against the Vettones, a people of Eastern Lusitania, or Portugal. It would seem that the Second Punic War was in great measure stirred up by his hatred of the Romans, for his son Hannibal was so excited by his pressing and perpetual admonitions, that he would have preferred to die rather than lose the chance of a contest with that hated people.

CHAPTER X.
HANNIBAL.

THE name of Hannibal has already been traced by our pen, and now we have to add some further particulars relating to his early life.

Hamilcar, when he was one day present in the Carthaginian senate, had been heard to exclaim: "I have four sons, and I train up in them four lions against Rome!" and he kept his word. When he was on the point of embarking for Spain, he asked his son Hannibal, then nine years of age, if he would accompany him. The boy consented joyfully. Thereupon his father entered a

temple, caused a sacrifice to be prepared, and made his son advance to the altar and swear that he would keep an unextinguishable hatred against the Romans till his end. Hannibal, who was distinguished above all his companions by his excellent qualities of mind, was even at that early age inflamed by the warmest love of his country, and the bitterest hatred against Rome. The oath which he now took before his father confirmed him in this mood, and he remained faithful to it to the end of his life.

After a sanguinary war, of nine years' duration, a great part of the most warlike tribes of Spain had been subdued by Hamilcar. We have seen that after this leader had fallen in battle, his sonin-law Hasdrubal continued successfully the work he had begun, and after the death of Hasdrubal (B.C. 221), the army chose Hannibal to be its commander, and the Carthaginian senate confirmed this choice.

Hannibal had been brought up under the eye of his father and of his brother-in-law, and in their army, which was the best of all military schools, he had learnt fundamentally the art of war, serving first as common soldier and afterwards as subaltern officer. He had shared all dangers and privations with the private. soldiers, and had surpassed them all in obedience, temperance, and bravery. In this manner he had become not only the friend and confidant, but the idol of the soldiers. Even after he had been appointed general he kept aloof from anything like ease; he slept commonly, enveloped in his martial cloak, on the bare ground; dressed, ate, and drank like the common soldiers, and was always the first and the last in every engagement. No danger was able to disturb his presence of mind, nor could any exertion weary out his body.

Conspicuous above all for his greatness of soul and heroic courage, he was equally remarkable for his powerful and handsome bodily make, for his noble and dignified bearing, and for his sonorous and musical voice. It is no wonder that the soldiers followed such a leader with enthusiasm, and that they endured unheard-of hardships under his lead.

When the Romans received intelligence of the Carthaginian conquests in Spain, they were troubled, and demanded of their rivals that they should admit the river Ebro to be the limit of their encroachments, and that they should not attack the city of Saguntum, which had placed itself under Roman protection. But Hannibal did not pay any attention to these claims. He attacked and captured Saguntum (B.c. 219), after the inhabitants had made a heroic defence, and had ultimately set on fire their own houses

and burnt themselves, with their wives and children. For even at that early date the people of Spain exhibited the same heroic spirit in defending their towns, which has made the terrible siege of Saragoza memorable at the time of the invasion of Spain by Napoleon I. (1809).

The Romans pronounced the capture of Saguntum a violation of the terms of peace, and sent ambassadors to require the extradition of Hannibal. While the senate at Carthage was conducting protracted negotiations about this matter, one of the Roman envoys, wearied with the tedious discussions, suddenly drew together his toga, and exclaimed with a haughty brevity, "Here I have war and peace; choose one of the two." One of the Carthaginian senators replied: "Give us what you will.” “Then be it war," was the Roman's reply, and the negotiations were broken off.

CHAPTER XI.

HANNIBAL'S MARCH OVER THE ALPS (B.C. 218).

SCARCELY had Hannibal heard of the declaration of war by the Romans, when he formed the bold design of passing over the Pyrenees and the Alps into Italy, and attacking the enemy in the heart of his own country. He left strong armies behind him in Africa and Spain, went in the spring of the year B.C. 218 over the Ebro, occupied the passes of the Pyrenees and crossed over those mountains, engaged in perpetual combats with the inhabitants.

Descending into the plains of Gaul, he advanced to the Alps at the head of 50,000 infantry, 9000 cavalry, and 730 elephants, gaining over the inhabitants of that country by handsome presents, or opening a way for his army with the sword. Arrived on the banks of the Rhone his Numidian cavalry had some engagements with the Roman troops sent to oppose him from Marseilles, by Scipio. Of the populations he met in Gaul, the Bebryces formed an alliance with Hannibal, and the Volks who tried to stop his passage over the Rhone, were deceived by a stratagem. Advancing to the Alps, whose snowy summits appeared already shining above the woods and pastures, he marched up the valley of Tarentaise, and it is generally conceived that he took the pass of the Little St. Bernard, as the easiest in this part of the chain.

Writers have described the surprise and terror with which the

Carthaginians were affected on seeing the glaciers and towering peaks of the Alps, whose dangers had been magnified by report. Accordingly, Hannibal called together his officers and tried to encourage them by a cheering speech. "He reminded them of the numerous victories they had won in Spain, of the dangers they had overcome, and of the enthusiasm with which they had been inspired when they first started for Italy, to destroy the Romans. Then he appealed to them and asked them, if, now that most obstacles were overcome and they stood at the very threshold of Italy, if now was the time to feel dejection and fear? He added, that the Alps were peopled and cultivated, and could be traversed like other countries. Those who wished to turn back were free to depart; he would advance with those who remained till he reached the walls of Rome."

After Hannibal had restored the spirit of his troops by this speech, he began the dangerous march in the month of November. It was one of the boldest strokes recorded in history. An African army, used to a burning climate, accompanied by a train of elephants and of countless beasts of burden, had to be led over almost precipitous rocks, steep snow slopes, and treacherous glaciers, without any path or proper guide, assailed on all hands by the hostile mountaineers. Although the soldiers had been prepared for these dangers, nevertheless the towering mountains which they had to climb, the wondrous slopes of purest snow seeming to reach to the blue vault of heaven, the wretched hovels and savage, dirty appearance of the mountain tribes, kept up a feeling of dismay and dejection in the ranks of the African army. It was soon perceived that the very passes were occupied by these highlanders. When Hannibal saw that he could not penetrate any further, he pitched his camp in a broad valley. While resting there, he ascertained that the passes were only held by the mountaineers during the day. Accordingly, he struck his camp in the valley, pitched it again at the foot of the mountains, and to deceive the enemy set his men to work hard in throwing up entrenchments. As soon as he observed that the enemy had deserted the passes, he caused a number of watch-fires to be lighted to deceive him, left the baggage, the cavalry, and part of the infantry behind in the camp, and occupied quickly, with picked troops, the passes that the enemy had just abandoned. At the first light of dawn he struck the camp, and caused the troops left behind to march up to the passes. At this moment the mountaineers came back to reoccupy the passes, when they saw the mass of the African army advancing up the defiles; and when