[878] Aristotel. Politic. ii, 8, 2.
[879] Livy, xxxiii, 46. Justin (xix, 2) mentions the one hundred select Senators set apart as judges.
[880] Heeren (Ideen über den Verkehr der Alten Welt, part ii, p. 138, 3rd edit.) and Kluge (in his Dissertation, Aristoteles de Politiâ Carthaginiensium, Wratisl. 1824) have discussed all these passages with ability. But their materials do not enable them to reach any certainty.
[881] Valerius Max. ix, 5, 4. “Insolentiæ inter Carthaginiensem et Campanum senatum quasi æmulatio fuit. Ille enim separato à plebe balneo lavabatur, hic diverso foro utebatur.”
[882] Diodor. xx, 10; xxiii, 9; Valer. Max. ii, 7, 1.
[883] Aristotel Politic. iii, 5, 6.
These banquets must have been settled, daily proceedings,—as well as multitudinous, in order to furnish even apparent warrant for the comparison which Aristotle makes with the Spartan public mess. But even granting the analogy on these external points,—the intrinsic difference of character and purpose between the two must have been so great, that the comparison seems not happy.
Livy (xxxiv, 61) talks of the circuli et convivia at Carthage; but this is probably a general expression, without particular reference to the public banquets mentioned by Aristotle.
[884] Aristotel. Polit. ii, 8, 3.
[885] Aristot. Polit. ii, 8, 1. He briefly alludes to the abortive conspiracy of Hanno (v, 6, 2), which is also mentioned in Justin (xxi, 4). Hanno is said to have formed the plan of putting to death the Senate, and making himself despot. But he was detected, and executed under the severest tortures; all his family being put to death along with him.