as in the two other Republicks. Many Generals preferv'd their Commiffions through a long Succeffion of Years, to the Conclufion of a War or even of their own Lives, tho' they remain'd ftill accountable to the Commonwealth for their Conduct, and liable to be recalled when a real Overfight, a Misfortune, or the fuperior Intereft of a Cabal furnished an Occafion.

SECT. VII. ARTS and SCIENCES.

IT

T cannot be faid that Carthage entirely renounced the Glory which flows from Study and Knowledge. Mafiniffa, Son of a powerful King*, fent thither for Inftruction and Education, gives us room to believe that Carthage was not without a School for fo excellent a Purpofe. The great Han-Nepos in nibal, who was in all refpects an Ornament to her, vita Anwas by no means unacquainted with polite Learn-nibalis. ing, as will be feen hereafter. Mago, another ce- Cic. L. 1. lebrated General, did no lefs Honour to Carthage de Orat. by his Pen than his Victories. He twenty-Plin. 18. eight Volumes upon Agriculture, of which the Ro- c. 3. man Senate had fuch Efteem, that after the taking of Carthage, when they prefented the African Princes with the Libraries founded there (another Inftance that Learning was not entirely banished from Carthage) they gave Order to have thefe Books tranflated into Latin, tho' Cato had before furnish'd them with Books on that Subject. We have yet Voff. de remaining a Greek Verfion of a Treatife drawn up Hift. Gr. by Hanno in the Punic Tongue, relating to a Voy-14. age made by him with a confiderable Fleet round Africk for the fettling of Colonies, by an Order

*King of the Maffylians in Africk.

Thefe Books were writ by Mago in the Punic Language,

and tranflated into Greek by Caf-
fius Dionyfius of Utica, from
whofe Verfion 'tis probable the La-
tin was made.

from

from the Senate. This Hanno is believ'd to be more ancient than him who liv'd in the Time of Agathocles.

I MIGHT place in the Number, or rather at the Head of these who have adorn'd Africk with their Writings, the celebrated Terence; himself fingly capable to bring infinite Honour to his Country by the Reputation of his Writings, if, on this Account, Carthage where he was born ought not to be lefs elteem'd his Country,than Rome where he was educated, and from whence he drew that pure Stile, Delicacy and Elegance which have procured him the Admiration of all fucceeding Ages. It is fuppofed that he was brought away an Infant, or at least very young, by the Numidians in their Incurfions upon the Carthaginian Territories while the War was depending between those two Nations, from the Conclufion of the fecond to the Beginning of the third Punick War. He was fold a Slave to Terentius Lucanus, who, after a careful Education beftow'd upon him, made him free, and, as was then the Custom, gave him his own Name. He was join'd in a strict Friendship with Scipio Africanus the Second, and Lelius, and it was a common Report at Rome, that he had the Affiftance of these great Men to compofe his Pieces. The Poet, far from taking off an Imputation fo advantageous to him, made a Merit of it. We have only fix of his Comedies remaining. Some Authors, according to Suetonius, the Writer of his Life, fay that in his Return from Greece, whither he had made a Voyage, he loft one hundred and eight Comedies tranflated from Menander, and could not furvive an Accident which gave him so fenfible an Affliction, but this Particular has no very folid Foundation. However this be, he died in the Year of Rome 594, under the Confulfhip of Cneius Cornelius Dolabella, and M. Fulvius, aged thirty-five Years, and confequently born 560.

IT is nevertheless undeniable, notwithstanding all that has been faid, that learned Men were always fcarce at Carthage, which, in a Courfe of more than feven hundred Years, fcarce furnished three or four Writers of Reputation. Her Correfpondence with Greece and fo many civiliz'd Nations, gave her no Curiofity to borrow their Learning, which was foreign to the Views of Trade and Commerce. Eloquence, Poetry, Hiftory, feem to have no great Regard paid them at Carthage. A Philofopher from that City was a fort of Prodigy amongst the Learned. What a Figure would an Aftronomer or a Geometrician have made? I am ignorant in what Reputation Phyfick, fo advantageous to Life, was at Carthage, and the Civil Law lo neceffary to Society.

IN fo general an Indifference for Works of Wit, the Education of Youth must have been very imperfect and unpolite. In Carthage, Study and Knowledge amongst the Youth were confin'd, as to the greater Number, to Writing, Arithmetick, Bookkeeping and the Knowledge of the Counter; in one Word, to whatever had any Regard to Traffick. Polite Learning, History, Philofophy, were in little Request at Carthage. They were in later Years even interdicted by the Laws, which exprefsly forbad all the Carthaginians to learn the Greek Tongue, in the fear that it might qualify them for a dangerous Commerce with the Enemy, either by Letters or Converfation a.

a Factum fenatufconfultum ne quis poftea Carthaginienfis, aut literis Græcis aut fermoni ftuderet; ne aut loqui cum hofte, aut fcibere fine interprete poffit. Juftin, 1. 20. c. 5. Juftin gives for the Reafon of this Law, a traiterous CorreSpondence between one Suniatus, 4 powerful Carthaginian, and

Dionyfius the Tyrant of Sicily;
the former by Letters writ in
Greek (which afterwards fell
into the Hands of the Carthagi-
nians) having inform'd the Ty-
rant of the War defigned upon
him by his Country, in batred of
the General Hanno, to whom be
was an Enemy.

Thad

WHAT

.

WHAT could be expected from fuch a Tafte? Therefore we never meet with that Sweetness of Behaviour, that Facility of Manners, thofe Sentiments of Virtue in the Carthaginians, which are the Fruits of Education in civiliz'd Nations. The fmall Number of great Men, which this Nation has produc'd, muft have receiv'd their Merit from a happy Genius, fingular Talents, and long Experience, without any great Affiftance from Education and Inftruction. From the want of thefe it was, that the Merit of the greatest Men of Carthage was fullied by great Failings, low Vices, and cruel Paffions; and it is rare to meet with any Virtue there without fome Blemish; with any Virtue noble, generous, amiable, and fupported by clear and lafting Principles, fuch as is every where met with amongst the Greeks and Ro

mans.

I MEET with as few Monuments of their Ability in Arts less elevated and neceffary, as Painting and Sculpture. I find indeed that they had plunder'd a great many Works in both of thefe from conquer'd Nations; but few, very few of their own are recorded.

FROM what has been faid, one cannot help concluding that Commerce was the prevailing Tafte, and reigning Character of the Nation; that it was in a manner the Ground-work of the State, the Soul of the Commonwealth, and the great Spring of all its Undertakings. The Carthaginians were in general good Merchants, wholly employ'd in Traffick, and pufh'd forward by the Defire of Gain, paffionately in love with Riches, and in the Purfuit of them placing their whole Talents and Glory, without any Thought of their true Destination, or Knowledge how to put them to noble and becoming Ufes.

SECT.

SECT. VIII. CHARACTER, MANNERS and
QUALITIES of the CARTHAGI-
NIANS.

N the Catalogue of the different Qualities affign'd

IN

by Cicero a to different Nations, as their diftinguishing Characters, he makes the prevailing Character of the Carthaginians to lie in Craft, Ingenuity, Addrefs, Industry, Cunning; which doubtless was allowable in War, but was diffus'd likewise over their whole Conduct, and was join'd with another Quality very nearly related to it, and ftill lefs reputable to them. Craft and Cunning lead naturally to Lying, Knavery, Breach of Faith; and by accuftoming the Mind infenfibly to lefs Scruple and Delicacy about the Choice of the Means to compass its Designs, they prepare it for the bafeft Perfidies. This was likewife one part of the Character of the Carthaginians b and it was fo noted, that to fignify any remarkable Difhonefty, it was ufual to call it Punic Ho-: nour, Fides Punica; and to denote a Mind fill'd with Deceit, no Expreffion was thought more proper and emphatical than to call it a Carthaginian Mind, Punicum İngenium.

AN exceffive Defire, and an immoderate Love of Gain, were at Carthage the ordinary Source of Juf tice and bafe Actions. One fingle Example will prove this. In the Time of a Truce, granted to the earnest Prayers of the Carthaginians by Scipio, fome. Roman Veffels, drove by a Tempeft on the Coafts of even Carthage, were arrested and feiz'd by an Order of

2 Quam volumus licet ipfi nos amemus,tamen nec numero Hifpanos, nec robore Gallos, nec calliditate Pœnos, &c. fed pietate ac religione, &c. omnes gentes nationefque fuperavimus. De Arufp. Refp. n. 19.

b Carthaginienfes fraudulenti & mendaces ... multis & variis mercatorum advenarumque fermonibus ad ftudium fallendi quæftus cupiditate vocabantur, Cic. Orat, 2, in Rullum, n. 94.

the