Produced by Martin Robb
THE YOUNG CARTHAGINIAN
A STORY OF THE TIMES OF HANNIBAL,
By G. A. Henty
PREFACE.
MY DEAR LADS,
When I was a boy at school, if I remember rightly, our sympathies were
generally with the Carthaginians as against the Romans. Why they were
so, except that one generally sympathizes with the unfortunate, I do
not quite know; certainly we had but a hazy idea as to the merits of
the struggle and knew but little of its events, for the Latin and Greek
authors, which serve as the ordinary textbooks in schools, do not treat
of the Punic wars. That it was a struggle for empire at first, and
latterly one for existence on the part of Carthage, that Hannibal was a
great and skilful general, that he defeated the Romans at Trebia, Lake
Trasimenus, and Cannae, and all but took Rome, and that the Romans
behaved with bad faith and great cruelty at the capture of Carthage,
represents, I think, pretty nearly the sum total of our knowledge.
I am sure I should have liked to know a great deal more about this
struggle for the empire of the world, and as I think that most of you
would also like to do so, I have chosen this subject for my story.
Fortunately there is no lack of authentic material from which to glean
the incidents of the struggle. Polybius visited all the passes of the
Alps some forty years after the event, and conversed with tribesmen who
had witnessed the passage of Hannibal, and there can be no doubt that
his descriptions are far more accurate than those of Livy, who wrote
somewhat later and had no personal knowledge of the affair. Numbers of
books have been written as to the identity of the passes traversed by
Hannibal. The whole of these have been discussed and summarized by
Mr. W. J. Law, and as it appears to me that his arguments are quite
conclusive I have adopted the line which he lays down as that followed
by Hannibal.
In regard to the general history of the expedition, and of the manners,
customs, religion, and politics of Carthage, I have followed M.
Hennebert in his most exhaustive and important work on the subject. I
think that when you have read to the end you will perceive that although
our sympathies may remain with Hannibal and the Carthaginians, it was
nevertheless for the good of the world that Rome was the conqueror in
the great struggle for empire. At the time the war began Carthage was
already corrupt to the core, and although she might have enslaved many
nations she would never have civilized them. Rome gave free institutions
to the people she conquered, she subdued but she never enslaved them,
but rather strove to plant her civilization among them and to raise them
to her own level. Carthage, on the contrary, was from the first a cruel
mistress to the people she conquered. Consequently while all the peoples
of Italy rallied round Rome in the days of her distress, the tribes
subject to Carthage rose in insurrection against her as soon as the
presence of a Roman army gave them a hope of escape from their bondage.
Had Carthage conquered Rome in the struggle she could never have
extended her power over the known world as Rome afterwards did, but
would have fallen to pieces again from the weakness of her institutions
and the corruption of her people. Thus then, although we may feel
sympathy for the failure and fate of the noble and chivalrous Hannibal
himself, we cannot regret that Rome came out conqueror in the strife,
and was left free to carry out her great work of civilization.
Yours sincerely,
G. A. Henty
CHAPTER I: THE CAMP IN THE DESERT
It is afternoon, but the sun's rays still pour down with great power
upon rock and sand. How great the heat has been at midday may be seen
by the quivering of the air as it rises from the ground and blurs all
distant objects. It is seen, too, in the attitudes and appearance of a
large body of soldiers encamped in a grove. Their arms are thrown aside,
the greater portion of their clothing has been dispensed with. Some
lie stretched on the ground in slumber, their faces protected from any
chance rays which may find their way through the foliage above by little
shelters composed of their clothing hung on two bows or javelins. Some,
lately awakened, are sitting up or leaning against the trunks of the
trees, but scarce one has energy to move.
The day has indeed been a hot one even for the southern edge of the
Libyan desert. The cream coloured oxen stand with their heads down,
lazily whisking away with their tails the flies that torment them. The
horses standing near suffer more; the lather stands on their sides,
their flanks heave, and from time to time they stretch out their
extended nostrils in the direction from which, when the sun sinks a
little lower, the breeze will begin to blow.
The occupants of the grove are men of varied races, and, although there
is no attempt at military order, it is clear at once that they are
divided into three parties. One is composed of men more swarthy than
the others. They are lithe and active in figure, inured to hardship,
accustomed to the burning sun. Light shields hang against the trees with
bows and gaily painted quivers full of arrows, and near each man are
three or four light short javelins. They wear round caps of metal, with
a band of the skin of the lion or other wild animal, in which are stuck
feathers dyed with some bright colour. They are naked to the waist, save
for a light breastplate of brass. A cloth of bright colours is wound
round their waist and drops to the knees, and they wear belts of leather
embossed with brass plates; on their feet are sandals. They are the
light armed Numidian horse.
Near them are a party of men lighter in hue, taller and stouter in
stature. Their garb is more irregular, their arms are bare, but they
wear a sort of shirt, open at the neck and reaching to the knees, and
confined at the waist by a leather strap, from which hangs a pouch of
the same material. Their shirts, which are of roughly made flannel, are
dyed a colour which was originally a deep purple, but which has faded,
under the heat of the sun, to lilac. They are a company of Iberian
slingers, enlisted among the tribes conquered in Spain by the
Carthaginians. By them lie the heavy swords which they use in close
quarters.
The third body of men are more heavily armed. On the ground near the
sleepers lie helmets and massive shields. They have tightly fitting
jerkins of well-tanned leather, their arms are spears and battleaxes.
They are the heavy infantry of Carthage. Very various is their
nationality; fair skinned Greeks lie side by side with swarthy negroes
from Nubia. Sardinia, the islands of the Aegean, Crete and Egypt, Libya
and Phoenicia are all represented there.
They are recruited alike from the lower orders of the great city and
from the tribes and people who own her sway.
Near the large grove in which the troops are encamped is a smaller one.
A space in the centre has been cleared of trees, and in this a large
tent has been erected. Around this numerous slaves are moving to and
fro.
A Roman cook, captured in a sea fight in which his master, a wealthy
tribune, was killed, is watching three Greeks, who are under his
superintendence, preparing a repast. Some Libyan grooms are rubbing down
the coats of four horses of the purest breed of the desert, while
two Nubians are feeding, with large flat cakes, three elephants, who,
chained by the leg to trees, stand rocking themselves from side to side.
The exterior of the tent is made of coarse white canvas; this is thickly
lined by fold after fold of a thin material, dyed a dark blue, to keep
out the heat of the sun, while the interior is hung with silk, purple
and white. The curtains at each end are looped back with gold cord to
allow a free passage of the air.
A carpet from the looms of Syria covers the ground, and on it are spread
four couches, on which, in a position half sitting half reclining,
repose the principal personages of the party. The elder of these is a
man some fifty years of age, of commanding figure, and features which
express energy and resolution. His body is bare to the waist, save for
a light short sleeved tunic of the finest muslin embroidered round the
neck and sleeves with gold.
A gold belt encircles his waist, below it hangs a garment resembling the
modern kilt, but reaching halfway between the knee and the ankle. It
is dyed a rich purple, and three bands of gold embroidery run round
the lower edge. On his feet he wears sandals with broad leather lacings
covered with gold. His toga, also of purple heavily embroidered with
gold, lies on the couch beside him; from one of the poles of the tent
hang his arms, a short heavy sword, with a handle of solid gold in a
scabbard incrusted with the same metal, and a baldrick, covered with
plates of gold beautifully worked and lined with the softest leather, by
which it is suspended over his shoulder.
Two of his companions are young men of three or four and twenty, both
fair like himself, with features of almost Greek regularity of outline.
Their dress is similar to his in fashion, but the colours are gayer.
The fourth member of the party is a lad of some fifteen years old. His
figure, which is naked to the waist, is of a pure Grecian model, the
muscles, showing up clearly beneath the skin, testify to hard exercise
and a life of activity.
Powerful as Carthage was, the events of the last few years had shown
that a life and death struggle with her great rival in Italy was
approaching. For many years she had been a conquering nation. Her
aristocracy were soldiers as well as traders, ready at once to embark on
the most distant and adventurous voyages, to lead the troops of Carthage
on toilsome expeditions against insurgent tribes of Numidia and Libya,
or to launch their triremes to engage the fleets of Rome.
The severe checks which they had lately suffered at the hands of the
newly formed Roman navy, and the certainty that ere long a tremendous
struggle between the two powers must take place, had redoubled the
military ardour of the nobles. Their training to arms began from their
very childhood, and the sons of the noblest houses were taught, at the
earliest age, the use of arms and the endurance of fatigue and hardship.
Malchus, the son of Hamilcar, the leader of the expedition in the
desert, had been, from his early childhood, trained by his father in the
use of arms. When he was ten years old Hamilcar had taken him with him
on a campaign in Spain; there, by a rigourous training, he had learned
to endure cold and hardships.
In the depth of winter his father had made him pass the nights uncovered
and almost without clothing in the cold. He had bathed in the icy water
of the torrents from the snow clad hills, and had been forced to keep
up with the rapid march of the light armed troops in pursuit of the
Iberians. He was taught to endure long abstinence from food and to bear
pain without flinching, to be cheerful under the greatest hardships,
to wear a smiling face when even veteran soldiers were worn out and
disheartened.
“It is incumbent upon us, the rulers and aristocracy of this great
city, my son, to show ourselves superior to the common herd. They must
recognize that we are not only richer and of better blood, but that we
are stronger, wiser, and more courageous than they. So, only, can we
expect them to obey us, and to make the sacrifices which war entails
upon them. It is not enough that we are of pure Phoenician blood, that
we come of the most enterprising race the world has ever seen, while
they are but a mixed breed of many people who have either submitted to
our rule or have been enslaved by us.
“This was well enough in the early days of the colony when it was
Phoenician arms alone that won our battles and subdued our rivals. In
our days we are few and the populace are many. Our armies are composed
not of Phoenicians, but of the races conquered by us. Libya and Numidia,
Sicily, Sardinia, and Spain, all in turn conquered by us, now furnish us
with troops.
“Carthage is a mighty city, but it is no longer a city of Phoenicians.
We form but a small proportion of the population. It is true that all
power rests in our hands, that from our ranks the senate is chosen, the
army officered, and the laws administered, but the expenses of the state
are vast. The conquered people fret under the heavy tributes which they
have to pay, and the vile populace murmur at the taxes.
“In Italy, Rome looms greater and more powerful year by year. Her people
are hardy and trained to arms, and some day the struggle between us
and her will have to be fought out to the death. Therefore, my son,
it behooves us to use every effort to make ourselves worthy of our
position. Set before yourself the example of your cousin Hannibal,
who, young as he is, is already viewed as the greatest man in Carthage.
Grudge no hardship or suffering to harden your frame and strengthen your
arms.
“Some day you too may lead armies in the field, and, believe me, they
will follow you all the better and more cheerfully if they know that in
strength and endurance, as well as in position, their commander is the
foremost man in his army.”
Malchus had been an apt pupil, and had done justice to the pains which
his father had bestowed upon him and to the training he had undergone.
He could wield the arms of a man, could swim the coldest river, endure
hardship and want of food, traverse long distances at the top of his
speed, could throw a javelin with unerring aim, and send an arrow to the
mark as truly as the best of the Libyan archers.
“The sun is going down fast, father,” the lad said, “the shadows are
lengthening and the heat is declining.”
“We have only your word for the decline of the heat, Malchus,” one of
the younger men laughed; “I feel hotter than ever. This is the fifteenth
time that you have been to the door of the tent during the last half
hour. Your restlessness is enough to give one the fever.”
“I believe that you are just as eager as I am, Adherbal,” the boy
replied laughing. “It's your first lion hunt as well as mine, and I am
sure you are longing to see whether the assault of the king of beasts is
more trying to the nerves than that of the Iberian tribesmen.”
“I am looking forward to it, Malchus, certainly,” the young man replied;
“but as I know the lions will not quit their coverts until after
nightfall, and as no efforts on my part will hasten the approach of that
hour, I am well content to lie quiet and to keep myself as cool as may
be.”
“Your cousin is right,” the general said, “and impatience is a fault,
Malchus. We must make allowances for your impatience on the present
occasion, for the lion is a foe not to be despised, and he is truly
as formidable an antagonist when brought to bay as the Iberians on the
banks of the Ebro--far more so than the revolted tribesmen we have been
hunting for the past three weeks.”
“Giscon says nothing,” Adherbal remarked; “he has a soul above even
the hunting of lions. I warrant that during the five hours we have been
reclining here his thoughts have never once turned towards the hunt we
are going to have tonight.”
“That is true enough,” Giscon said, speaking for the first time. “I
own that my thoughts have been of Carthage, and of the troubles that
threaten her owing to the corruption and misgovernment which are sapping
her strength.”
“It were best not to think too much on the subject, Giscon,” the general
said; “still better not to speak of it. You know that I lament, as you
do, the misgovernment of Carthage, and mourn for the disasters which
have been brought upon her by it. But the subject is a dangerous one;
the council have spies everywhere, and to be denounced as one hostile to
the established state of things is to be lost.”
“I know the danger,” the young man said passionately. “I know that
hitherto all who have ventured to raise their voices against the
authority of these tyrants have died by torture--that murmuring has been
stamped out in blood. Yet were the danger ten times as great,” and the
speaker had risen now from his couch and was walking up and down the
tent, “I could not keep silent. What have our tyrants brought us to?
Their extravagance, their corruption, have wasted the public funds and
have paralyzed our arms. Sicily and Sardinia have been lost; our allies
in Africa have been goaded by their exactions again and again into
rebellion, and Carthage has more than once lately been obliged to fight
hard for her very existence. The lower classes in the city are utterly
disaffected; their earnings are wrung from them by the tax gatherers.
Justice is denied them by the judges, who are the mere creatures of the
committee of five. The suffetes are mere puppets in their hands. Our
vessels lie unmanned in our harbours, because the funds which should pay
the sailors are appropriated by our tyrants to their own purposes. How
can a Carthaginian who loves his country remain silent?”
“All you say is true, Giscon,” the general said gravely, “though I
should be pressed to death were it whispered in Carthage that I said so;
but at present we can do nothing. Had the great Hamilcar Barca lived I
believe that he would have set himself to work to clear out this Augean
stable, a task greater than that accomplished by our great hero, the
demigod Hercules; but no less a hand can accomplish it. You know how
every attempt at revolt has failed; how terrible a vengeance fell on
Matho and the mercenaries; how the down trodden tribes have again and
again, when victory seemed in their hands, been crushed into the dust.
“No, Giscon, we must suffer the terrible ills which you speak of until
some hero arises--some hero whose victories will bind not only the army
to him, but will cause all the common people of Carthage--all her allies
and tributaries--to look upon him as their leader and deliverer.
“I have hopes, great hopes, that such a hero may be found in my nephew,
Hannibal, who seems to possess all the genius, the wisdom, and the
talent of his father. Should the dream which he cherished, and of which
I was but now speaking to you, that of leading a Carthaginian army
across the Ebro, over the Apennines, through the plains of lower Gaul,
and over the Alps into Italy, there to give battle to the cohorts of
Rome on their own ground,--should this dream be verified I say, should
success attend him, and Rome be humbled to the dust, then Hannibal would
be in a position to become the dictator of Carthage, to overthrow the
corrupt council, to destroy this tyranny--misnamed a republic--and to
establish a monarchy, of which he should be the first sovereign, and
under which Carthage, again the queen of the world, should be worthy
of herself and her people. And now let us speak of it no more. The very
walls have ears, and I doubt not but even among my attendants there are
men who are spies in the pay of the council. I see and lament as much
as any man the ruin of my country; but, until I see a fair hope of
deliverance, I am content to do the best I can against her enemies, to
fight her battles as a simple soldier.”
There was silence in the tent. Malchus had thrown himself down on his
couch, and for a time forgot even the approaching lion hunt in the
conversation to which he had listened.
The government of Carthage was indeed detestable, and was the chief
cause both of the misfortunes which had befallen her in the past, and
of the disasters which were in the future to be hers. The scheme of
government was not in itself bad, and in earlier and simpler times had
acted well. Originally it had consisted of three estates, which answered
to the king, lords, and commons. At the head of affairs were two
suffetes chosen for life. Below them was the senate, a very numerous
body, comprising all the aristocracy of Carthage. Below this was the
democracy, the great mass of the people, whose vote was necessary to
ratify any law passed by the senate.
In time, however, all authority passed from the suffetes, the general
body of the senate and the democracy, into the hands of a committee of
the senate, one hundred in number, who were called the council, the real
power being invested in the hands of an inner council, consisting of
from twenty to thirty of the members. The deliberations of this body
were secret, their power absolute. They were masters of the life and
property of every man in Carthage, as afterwards were the council of ten
in the republic of Venice. For a man to be denounced by his secret
enemy to them as being hostile to their authority was to ensure his
destruction and the confiscation of his property.
The council of a hundred was divided into twenty subcommittees, each
containing five members. Each of these committees was charged with the
control of a department--the army, the navy, the finances, the roads
and communications, agriculture, religion, and the relations with the
various subject tribes, the more important departments being entirely in
the hands of the members of the inner council of thirty.
The judges were a hundred in number. These were appointed by the
council, and were ever ready to carry out their behest, consequently
justice in Carthage was a mockery. Interest and intrigue were paramount
in the law courts, as in every department of state. Every prominent
citizen, every successful general, every man who seemed likely, by his
ability or his wealth, to become a popular personage with the masses,
fell under the ban of the council, and sooner or later was certain to be
disgraced. The resources of the state were devoted not to the needs of
the country but to aggrandizement and enriching of the members of the
committee.
Heavy as were the imposts which were laid upon the tributary peoples of
Africa for the purposes of the state, enormous burdens were added by the
tax gatherers to satisfy the cupidity of their patrons in the council.
Under such circumstances it was not to be wondered at that Carthage,
decaying, corrupt, ill governed, had suffered terrible reverses at the
hands of her young and energetic rival Rome, who was herself some day,
when she attained the apex of her power, to suffer from abuses no
less flagrant and general than those which had sapped the strength of
Carthage.
With the impetuosity of youth Malchus naturally inclined rather to the
aspirations of his kinsman Giscon than to the more sober counsels of his
father. He had burned with shame and anger as he heard the tale of the
disasters which had befallen his country, because she had made money
her god, had suffered her army and her navy to be regarded as secondary
objects, and had permitted the command of the sea to be wrested from her
by her wiser and more far seeing rival.
As evening closed in the stir in the neighbouring camp aroused Malchus
from his thoughts, and the anticipation of the lion hunt, in which he
was about to take part, again became foremost.
The camp was situated twenty days' march from Carthage at the foot of
some hills in which lions and other beasts of prey were known to abound,
and there was no doubt that they would be found that evening.
The expedition had been despatched under the command of Hamilcar to
chastise a small tribe which had attacked and plundered some of
the Carthaginian caravans on their way to Ethiopia, then a rich and
prosperous country, wherein were many flourishing colonies, which had
been sent out by Carthage.
The object of the expedition had been but partly successful. The lightly
clad tribesmen had taken refuge far among the hills, and, although by
dint of long and fatiguing marches several parties had been surprised
and slain, the main body had evaded all the efforts of the Carthaginian
general.
The expedition had arrived at its present camping place on the previous
evening. During the night the deep roaring of lions had been heard
continuously among the hills, and so bold and numerous were they that
they had come down in such proximity to the camp that the troops had
been obliged to rise and light great fires to scare them from making an
attack upon the horses.
The general had therefore consented, upon the entreaties of his nephew
Adherbal, and his son, to organize a hunt upon the following night. As
soon as the sun set the troops, who had already received their orders,
fell into their ranks. The full moon rose as soon as the sun dipped
below the horizon, and her light was ample for the object they had in
view.
The Numidian horse were to take their station on the plain; the infantry
in two columns, a mile apart, were to enter the mountains, and having
marched some distance, leaving detachments behind them, they were to
move along the crest of the hills until they met; then, forming a great
semicircle, they were to light torches, which they had prepared during
the day, and to advance towards the plain shouting and dashing their
arms, so as to drive all the wild animals inclosed in the arc down into
the plain.
The general with the two young officers and his son, and a party of
fifty spearmen, were to be divided between the two groves in which the
camps were pitched, which were opposite the centre of the space facing
the line inclosed by the beaters. Behind the groves the Numidian horse
were stationed, to give chase to such animals as might try to make their
escape across the open plain. The general inspected the two bodies
of infantry before they started, and repeated his instructions to the
officers who commanded them, and enjoined them to march as noiselessly
as possible until the semicircle was completed and the beat began in
earnest.
The troops were to be divided into groups of eight, in order to be able
to repel the attacks of any beasts which might try to break through the
line. When the two columns had marched away right and left towards the
hills, the attendants of the elephants and baggage animals were ordered
to remove them into the centre of the groves. The footmen who remained
were divided into two parties of equal strength. The general with
Malchus remained in the grove in which his tent was fixed with one of
these parties, while Adherbal and Giscon with the others took up their
station in the larger grove.
“Do you think the lions are sure to make for these groves?” Malchus
asked his father as, with a bundle of javelins lying by his side, his
bow in his hand, and a quiver of arrows hung from his belt in readiness,
he took his place at the edge of the trees.
“There can be no certainty of it, Malchus; but it seems likely that the
lions, when driven out of their refuges among the hills, will make
for these groves, which will seem to offer them a shelter from their
pursuers. The fires here will have informed them of our presence last
night; but as all is still and dark now they may suppose that the groves
are deserted. In any case our horses are in readiness among the trees
close at hand, and if the lions take to the plains we must mount and
join the Numidians in the chase.”
“I would rather meet them here on foot, father.”
“Yes, there is more excitement, because there is more danger in it,
Malchus; but I can tell you the attack of a wounded lion is no joke,
even for a party of twenty-five well armed men. Their force and fury are
prodigious, and they will throw themselves fearlessly upon a clump of
spears in order to reach their enemies. One blow from their paws is
certain death. Be careful, therefore, Malchus. Stir not from my side,
and remember that there is a vast difference between rashness and
bravery.”