CHAPTER VII.
CARTHAGINIANS AND ROMANS COMPARED.
The origin of both these people seems alike to have been extremely low. Romulus, according to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, could form no more than three thousand foot and three hundred horse out of his whole people, where every individual was obliged to be a soldier. The Tyrians, who accompanied Dido in her flight from her brother Pymalion, could be but few in number from the very circumstances of their escape from an avaricious and vigilant tyrant.
Romulus, to supply this defect, not only opened an asylum for all fugitives, whom he admitted as subjects, but in all his conquests over the neighbouring states, annexed the lands to his own small territory, and incorporated the prisoners amongst his own Roman citizens. By this masterly policy, notwithstanding the number of men he must necessarily have lost during a warlike reign of thirty-seven years, he left at his death, according to Dionysius, forty-five thousand foot and a thousand horse. As the same policy was pursued under the republican as under the regal government, the Romans, though involved in continual wars, found themselves not inferior in number even to those nations, who were reputed the most populous. Dionysius, from whom I have taken this account, extols the policy of the Romans in this point as greatly superior to that of the Grecians. The Spartans, says that judicious historian, were obliged to give up their dominion over Greece by their single defeat at Leuctra; as the loss of the battle of Chæronea reduced the Thebans and Athenians to the sad necessity of yielding up the government of Greece, as well as their liberty, to the Macedonians. These misfortunes Dionysius imputes to the mistaken policy of the Grecians, who were, in general, unwilling to communicate the privileges of their respective states to foreigners. Whereas the Romans, who admitted even their enemies to the rights of citizenship, derived additional strength even from their misfortunes. And he affirms, that after the terrible defeat of Cannæ, where out of eighty-six thousand little more than three thousand three hundred and seventy men escaped, the Romans owed the preservation of their state, not to the benevolence of fortune, as some, he says, imagine, but to the number of their disciplined militia, which enabled them to encounter every danger. I am sensible that the remarks of Dionysius, which have been adopted by many of our modern writers, are extremely just in relation to the Thebans and Athenians. Because as the former of these people endeavoured to extend their dominions by arms, the latter both by arms and commerce, both states ought, like the Romans, to have attracted as many foreigners as possibly they could, to enable them to execute plans which require an inexhaustible supply of people. But the exclusion of foreigners ought not, in my opinion, to be censured as a defect in the Spartan constitution. Because it is evident, from the testimony of Polybius and Plutarch, that the great end which Lycurgus proposed by his laws, was not to increase the wealth or power of his countrymen, but to preserve the purity of their manners; as his military regulations, according to the same authors, were not calculated for making conquests and serving the purposes of ambition, but for the defence and security of his republick. I observe too in proof of my opinion, that the Spartans gradually lost their virtue, and afterwards their liberty, only so far as they deviated from the institutions of their legislator.... But I return from the digression into which this subject unavoidably led me.
In our researches back into the remote times of antiquity, we must lay hold of whatever helps we are able to meet with. If Justin therefore is to be credited, Dido not only received considerable assistance from a colony of Tyrians which she found settled in Utica, but admitted great numbers of the natives who settled with her in the new city, and consequently became Carthaginians.[330] I may add too in proof of this account, that unless the Carthaginians had long pursued this wise policy, it is scarce possible by the course of nature, that the Tyrians alone could have multiplied by propagation to so prodigious a degree, as to be able to furnish men sufficient to raise and carry on that extensive commerce, and plant those numerous colonies which we meet with in the earlier ages of their history.
As to their constitution, Rome and Carthage were both republicks, both free, and their form of government nearly similar, as far as we can collect from history. Two supreme magistrates,[331] annually elected, the senate, and the people, formed the body politick in each republick. The annual elections of their chief magistrates were a permanent source of division and faction alike in both; a defect which Lycurgus guarded against in the Spartan government, where the chief magistracy was perpetual and hereditary. The senate in both nations was composed out of the most respectable and greatest men in each republick. At Rome the consuls chose the senators with the approbation of the people, but at last the censors arrogated that power to themselves. At Carthage, as Aristotle informs us, the senators were elected; but as he has no where told us who were the electors, it is most probable, that the right of election was the inherent privilege of the people, since he censures that republick as too much leaning towards democracy. At Rome, in the virtuous times of that republick, birth and merit alone entitled the possessor to a place in the senate, as well as the chief offices in the state. At Carthage, though birth and merit seem to have been qualifications indispensably necessary, yet even these could not succeed,[332] unless the candidate was at the same time master of such a fortune as would enable him to support his dignity with lustre.[333] This Aristotle censures as a defect. For he looks upon all that merit, which was unsupported by the proper proportion of wealth, as so much lost to the Carthaginians; and he lays down that maxim in their government, as the real cause of that undue respect for wealth, and that lust of gain, which prevailed so much in that republick. But the sentiments of this philosopher, like those of his master Plato, are, I fear, too ideal to be reduced to practice. For he does not seem to attend to the different genius of different nations, but aims at adjusting the balance of power in his republick by the nice standard of philosophick theory. The genius of nations differs perhaps as much as their climate and situation, which seem (at least in some degree) to be the natural cause of that difference. The republicks of Sparta and Rome were both military, and military glory stamped the primary character of both these people. The republick of Carthage, like that of their ancestors, the Tyrians, was commercial. Hence the lust of gain marked their ruling character. Their military character arose from the necessity of defending that wealth which their commerce had acquired. Hence military glory was but a secondary passion, and generally subservient to their lust of gain. Unless we attend to the different ruling passion, which forms the different character of each republick, we shall never be able to make such a comparison as will do equal justice to each people. At Sparta and Rome wealth was despised, when put in competition with honour, and poverty joined with merit formed the most estimable of all characters. Quite different maxims prevailed at Carthage. Wealth with them was the chief support of merit, and nothing was so contemptible as poverty. Hence the Carthaginians, who were well acquainted with the power and influence of wealth, required the additional qualifications of an ample fortune in all candidates for the senatorial dignity, and publick employments. For they judged that such men would be less exposed to the temptations of corruption, and at the same time more anxious for the welfare of a state, in which they were so deeply interested by their private property. That this was the real state of the case, at Carthage, notwithstanding the suggestions of Aristotle and the Greek and Roman historians, may, I think, be fairly proved from the behaviour of their senate and the choice of their officers, which ought certainly to be admitted as the best evidence. For we constantly find all their publick employments filled up with men of the greatest families, and (unless when the intrigues of faction sometimes prevailed) of the greatest abilities. We find in general the same firm and steady attachment to the service of their country, and the same indefatigable zeal for extending the territories and power of their republick. Nor does the most partial historian charge any one of them with sacrificing the honour and interest of his country to any foreign power for money: a practice which was shamefully common amongst the Roman generals in the time of Jugurtha. Hence we may, I think, assign the true reason, why the greatest families in Carthage (as we are informed by historians) thought it no way derogatory to their honour to engage in commerce. For as this is most probably to be understood of the younger sons of their nobility, the true motive seems to arise, not from avarice, as their enemies object, but from a view of raising such a fortune, as might qualify them for admission into the senate, or any of the great employments. Hence too it is evident, that a regulation which might be highly useful and salutary in an opulent commercial republick, would be greatly injurious to such military republicks as Rome and Sparta, by corrupting their manners. We need no other proof than the fate of those two republicks, who both owed their ruin to the introduction of that wealth, which was unknown to their virtuous ancestors. The Carthaginian senate seems to have been much more numerous than the Roman. For at Carthage there was a select standing committee established, of one hundred and four of the most respectable members, to keep a watchful eye over the great families, and repress any attempts which their ambition might make to subvert the constitution.[334] To this committee all their commanding officers by sea and land, without exception, were obliged to give a strict account of their conduct at the end of every campaign. We may therefore properly term it the Carthaginian court-martial. Out of this venerable body another select committee was formed of five members only, who were most conspicuous for their probity, ability, and experience. These served without fee or salary; as glory, and the love of their country, were esteemed motives sufficient to engage men of their superior rank and character, to serve the publick with zeal and fidelity.[335] For which reason they were not chosen by lot, but elected by merit. Their power was very extensive. Their office was for life, and they filled up any vacancy in their own body, out of the one hundred and four, and all vacancies in that grand committee, out of the rest of the senate, by their own authority and at their own discretion.[336] They were the supreme judges besides in all causes whatsoever without appeal. The institution of this grand committee, in my opinion, exceeded every thing in the Roman policy. For it preserved their state from all those violent concussions, which so frequently shook, and at last totally subverted the Roman republick.[337] But the power of the committee of five was exorbitant, and dangerous to the lives and fortunes of their fellow-citizens. The proof is from fact. For at the conclusion of the second Punick war, they had made so arbitrary an use of their power, and were grown so odious to the people, that the great Hannibal regulated that amongst other abuses, and procured a law, which made that office annual and elective, with a clause forbidding any future alteration. Whether the Carthaginian senators enjoyed their seats for life, or whether they were liable to be expelled for any misdemeanour, and by whom, are points in which history is quite silent. At Rome, as the censors had the power of promoting to that dignity, so they had equally the power of expelling any member for bad manners, by the single ceremony of leaving out his name when they called over the list of the senate. I cannot help thinking this a great defect in the Roman polity: since it threw the power of garbling and modelling the senate into the hands of two men, who were liable to be corrupted to serve the ends of faction. A power which ought never to be lodged in so few hands in a country which enjoys the blessings of liberty. For how serviceable soever it might have been, as a curb to licentiousness in the earlier ages of that republick; yet Cicero, in his oration for A. Cluentius, inveighs bitterly against the abuse of the censorial power in his time, and gives several instances where it was made subservient to the ends of faction in modelling the senate. And he seems to fear that the censors list may bring as many calamities upon the citizens as the late most inhuman proscription; and that the point of the censors pen may prove as terrible as the sword of their late dictator. C. Nepos, in the life of Hamilcar, takes notice of an officer of the same nature amongst the Carthaginians, to whose inspection the greatest men in that republick seem to have been subject. But it does not appear from history, whether his power extended so far as to expel a senator. Should a bad prince, or a wicked minister, ever be invested with the power of weeding the house, and modelling the parliament at pleasure, there would be an end of our constitution and liberty.
In the Roman senate all questions were decided (as in our parliament) by a majority of voices. At Carthage no law could pass, unless the senate were unanimous, like the Polish diet. One single veto from any one member, took the question out of the hands of the senate, and gave up the ultimate decision to the people, who were the dernier resort of all power. This Aristotle censures as inclining more towards democracy than was consistent with the just rules of a well regulated republick.[338] Because the magistrates were not only obliged to open all the different opinions and debates of the senators upon the question, in the hearing of the people, who were the absolute and decisive judges in all these cases of appeal; but any one, even the lowest fellow in the mob, might freely give his opinion in opposition just as he thought proper. A source of endless discord, anarchy, and confusion! A kind of polity, as Aristotle observes, unknown in any other form of republican government.
In this point, I think the Roman polity far preferable to the Carthaginian, except in those abuses of the tribunitial power, which so frequently happened towards the decline of that republick. But when any one turbulent, seditious tribune, instigated by ambition, or corrupted by a faction (which in those times was generally the case) could by his single veto, stop all proceedings of the senate, and haul the case before the people; nay when he could drag the supreme magistrates, the consuls themselves, to prison, by his sole authority, and could commit the most outrageous, and most shameful acts of licentiousness with impunity, because their office rendered their persons sacred by law, I esteem the Carthaginian polity infinitely more eligible. For that fear and jealousy of ceding any part of the authority, which is so natural to men in power, would always be a strong motive to union in a Carthaginian senate; because it would naturally induce any member, rather to give up his private opinion, than suffer an essential part of their power to devolve to the people. But the Roman tribunitial power, which was in constant opposition to the senatorial, drew at last by much too great a weight into the democratick scale, and in the last period of their liberty was a principal leading cause of the ruin of that republick. For as the senate was unsupported by a third power so essentially requisite to preserve the balance of government in its due æquipoise, the tribunes perpetually fomented and kept up those terrible feuds, which brought on anarchy, and terminated in absolute insupportable tyranny.
The condition of the Roman populace before the erection of the tribunitial power, seems, in my judgement, to have been little better than that state of vassalage, which the peasants groan under in Poland. The relation between patron and client amongst the Romans, seems to be something analogous to the relation between lord and vassal, with this difference, that the client had the free choice of his patron, which the vassal has not with respect to the lord. At least it is certain, if we may credit the Roman historians, that their people were subject to equal, if not greater exactions and oppressions from the Patricians. How heavy these were, we may learn from the numerous mutinies, insurrections, and that great secession, which compelled the Patricians to create the tribunitial office in their favour. This new office occasioned a great revolution in their new government, and produced those perpetual conflicts between the aristocratick and democratick powers, which fill the history of that republick. The Patricians had recourse frequently to their only resource a dictator with absolute power, to defend them from the insolence of the tribunes. But this was only a temporary expedient. The people renewed their attacks, until they had abolished the distinct prerogatives arising from birth and family, and laid open all honours, even the consulship, and dictatorship, the supreme magistracy of all, to the free admission of their own body. The people were highly elated with these repeated victories, as they imagined them, over their old enemies the Patricians, but they were quickly sensible, that in fact, they were only the dupes of their ambitious leaders. The most opulent and powerful of the Plebeians, by serving the high offices of the state, acquired the title of nobles, in contradistinction to those, who were descended from the Patrician families, who still retained their ancient appellation. These new nobles, many of whom had crept into the senate, sided constantly with the Patricians in all disputes and contests with their former friends, the people, and were generally their greatest enemies. The Patricians, strengthened by this new acquisition of power, were frequently too hard for the tribunes. In those memorable contests with the two Gracchi, who endeavoured in their tribuneship to revive the Agrarian law (calculated to divide the conquered lands among the poor citizens) the dispute seems to have lain wholly between the rich and the poor: for the nobles and rich Plebeians were as unwilling to part with their land, as the Patricians. This strengthened the Patricians so much, that they were able in each of those contests, to quell the efforts of the people by force, and quash the whole affair by the death of both the Gracchi.
It has been a general remark of most writers, both ancient and modern, that the Roman republick owed its preservation to the firmness and wisdom of the senate, and the subordinate obedience of the people: and that the republick of Carthage must ascribe its ruin to that ascendency, which the people had usurped over the authority of the senate. The reverse of this seems to be the truth. We meet with but one instance in history, where the power of the Carthaginian people over-ruled the authority of their senate, so far as to compel them to act contrary to their opinion. This was that shameful violation of the law of nations in seizing the transports which were bringing necessaries to Scipio’s camp, during the truce he had granted that they might send ambassadours to Rome to negotiate a peace with the Roman senate. For though they threatened violence to the senate, if they submitted to those hard terms which were imposed by Scipio after the defeat at Zama; yet they were easily reduced to obedience by Hannibal, and resigned the whole affair to the decision of the senate. The Roman history, on the contrary, is one continued detail of animosities, and frequently most bloody contests, between the senate and the people in their perpetual struggles for power. And the frequent elections of that low Plebeian Marius to the consular dignity, in opposition to the Patricians, (the malignant effects of the over-bearing power of the people) opened that scene of blood and anarchy, which ended only in the utter subversion of their liberty and constitution.
The judicious Montesquieu observes, “that the Carthaginians grew rich much sooner than the Romans, and consequently sunk much sooner into corruption.” He adds too; “that whilst merit alone entitled the possessor to the great employments at Rome, every thing which the publick at Carthage had the power of bestowing, was venal.”... The former part of this assertion is too general to be admitted without proper restrictions; the latter is a plain transcript from Polybius. The Carthaginians must have been rich several ages before the Romans. For both Herodotus and Thucydides (who was but thirteen years younger) take notice of them as a very formidable maritime power, a circumstance which could only arise from their naval genius and extensive commerce. Yet we find no instance of their being corrupt, until the conclusion of the second Punick war, when Hannibal reformed those shameful abuses, which had crept into the management of the publick revenue, and restrained that power which the committee of five had usurped over the lives and fortunes of their fellow-citizens. As for the quotation out of Polybius, whose country was at that time a province to the Romans, with whom he resided only as a state prisoner; I esteem it as no more than a compliment to the Romans’ vanity at the expense of the Carthaginians, whose very name was odious to that people. Or very probably he might bring that charge against the Carthaginians, as a hint to show the consequences of the same species of corruption, which, even in his time, had found entrance amongst the Romans.