women rushed towards the guards of the Legion and kissed their feet.
The litteradvanced on the shoulders of twelve Negroes who walked in

step with short, rapid strides; they went at random to right or left,
being embarrassed by the tent-ropes, the animals that were straying

about, or the tripods where food was being cooked. Sometimes a fat
hand, laden with rings, would partially open the litter, and a hoarse

voice would utter loud reproaches; then the bearers would stop and
take a different direction through the camp.

But the purple curtains were raised, and a human head, impassible and
bloated, was seen resting on a large pillow; the eyebrows, which were

like arches of ebony, met each other at the points; golden dust
sparkled in the frizzled hair, and the face was so wan that it looked

as if it had been powdered with marble raspings. The rest of the body
was concealed beneath the fleeces which filled the litter.

In the man so reclining the soldiers recognised the Suffet Hanno, he
whose slackness had assisted to lose the battle of the Aegatian

islands; and as to his victory at Hecatompylos over the Libyans, even
if he did behave with clemency, thought the Barbarians, it was owing

to cupidity, for he had sold all the captives on his own account,
although he had reported their deaths to the Republic.

After seeking for some time a convenient place from which to harangue
the soldiers, he made a sign; the litter stopped, and Hanno, supported

by two slaves, put his tottering feet to the ground.
He wore boots of black felt strewn with silver moons. His legs were

swathed in bands like those wrapped about a mummy, and the flesh crept
through the crossings of the linen; his stomach came out beyond the

scarletjacket which covered his thighs; the folds of his neck fell
down to his breast like the dewlaps of an ox; his tunic, which was

painted with flowers, was bursting at the arm-pits; he wore a scarf, a
girdle, and an ample black cloak with laced double-sleeves. But the

abundance of his garments, his great necklace of blue stones, his
golden clasps, and heavy earrings only rendered his deformity still

more hideous. He might have been taken for some big idol rough-hewn in
a block of stone; for a pale leprosy, which was spread over his whole

body, gave him the appearance of an inert thing. His nose, however,
which was hooked like a vulture's beak, was violently dilated to

breathe in the air, and his little eyes, with their gummed lashes,
shone with a hard and metallic lustre. He held a spatula of aloe-wood

in his hand wherewith to scratch his skin.
At last two heralds sounded their silver horns; the tumult subsided,

and Hanno commenced to speak.
He began with an eulogy of the gods and the Republic; the Barbarians

ought to congratulate themselves on having served it. But they must
show themselves more reasonable; times were hard, "and if a master has

only three olives, is it not right that he should keep two for
himself?"

The old Suffet mingled his speech in this way with proverbs and
apologues, nodding his head the while to solicit some approval.

He spoke in Punic, and those surrounding him (the most alert, who had
hastened hither" target="_blank" title="ad.到那里 a.那边的">thither without their arms), were Campanians, Gauls, and

Greeks, so that no one in the crowd understood him. Hanno, perceiving
this, stopped and reflected, swaying himself heavily from one leg to

the other.
It occurred to him to call the captains together; then his heralds

shouted the order in Greek, the language which, from the time of
Xanthippus, had been used for commands in the Carthaginian armies.

The guards dispersed the mob of soldiers with strokes of the whip; and
the captains of the Spartan phalanxes and the chiefs of the Barbarian

cohorts soon arrived with the insignia of their rank, and in the
armour of their nation. Night had fallen, a great tumult was spreading

throughout the plain; fires were burning here and there; and the
soldiers kept going from one to another asking what the matter was,

and why the Suffet did not tribute" target="_blank" title="vt.分配；分布；散播">distribute the money?
He was setting the infinite burdens of the Republic before the

captains. Her treasury was empty. The tribute to Rome was crushing
her. "We are quite at a loss what to do! She is much to be pitied!"

From time to time he would rub his limbs with his aloe-wood spatula,
or perhaps he would break off to drink a ptisan made of the ashes of a

weasel and asparagus boiled in vinegar from a silver cup handed to him
by a slave; then he would wipe his lips with a scarletnapkin and

resume:
"What used to be worth a shekel of silver is now worth three shekels

of gold, while the cultivated lands which were abandoned during the
war bring in nothing! Our purpura fisheries are nearly gone, and even

pearls are becoming exhorbitant; we have scarcely unguents enough for
the service of the gods! As for the things of the table, I shall say

nothing about them; it is a calamity! For want of galleys we are
without spices, and it is a matter of great difficulty to procure

silphium on account of the rebellions on the Cyrenian frontier.
Sicily, where so many slaves used to be had, is now closed to us! Only

yesterday I gave more money for a bather and four scullions than I
used at one time to give for a pair of elephants!"

He unrolled a long piece of papyrus; and, without omitting a single
figure, read all the expenses that the government had incurred; so

much for repairing the temples, for paving the streets, for the
construction of vessels, for the coral-fisheries, for the enlargement

of the Syssitia, and for engines in the mines in the country of the
Cantabrians.

But the captains understood Punic as little as the soldiers, although
the Mercenaries saluted one another in that language. It was usual to

place a few Carthaginian officers in the Barbarian armies to act as
interpreters; after the war they had concealed themselves through fear

of vengeance, and Hanno had not thought of taking them with him; his
hollow voice, too, was lost in the wind.

The Greeks, girthed in their iron waist-belts, strained their ears as
they strove to guess at his words, while the mountaineers, covered

with furs like bears, looked at him with distrust, or yawned as they
leaned on their brass-nailed clubs. The heedless Gauls sneered as they

shook their lofty heads of hair, and the men of the desert listened
motionless, cowled in their garments of grey wool; others kept coming

up behind; the guards, crushed by the mob, staggered on their horses;
the Negroes held out burning fir branches at arm's length; and the big

Carthaginian, mounted on a grassy hillock, continued his harangue.
The Barbarians, however, were growing impatient; murmuring arose, and

every one apostrophized him. Hanno gesticulated with his spatula; and
those who wished the others to be quiet shouted still more loudly,

thereby adding to the din.
Suddenly a man of mean appearance bounded to Hanno's feet, snatched up

a herald's trumpet, blew it, and Spendius (for it was he) announced
that he was going to say something of importance. At this declaration,

which was rapidly uttered in five different languages, Greek, Latin,
Gallic, Libyan and Balearic, the captains, half laughing and half

surprised, replied: "Speak! Speak!"
Spendius hesitated; he trembled; at last, addressing the Libyans who

were the most numerous, he said to them:
"You have all heard this man's horrible threats!"

Hanno made no exclamation, therefore he did not understand Libyan;
and, to carry on the experiment, Spendius repeated the same phrase in

the other Barbarian dialects.
They looked at one another in astonishment; then, as by a tacit

agreement, and believing perhaps that they had understood, they bent
their heads in token of assent.

Then Spendius began in vehement tones:
"He said first that all the Gods of the other nations were but dreams

besides the Gods of Carthage! He called you cowards, thieves, liars,
dogs, and the sons of dogs! But for you (he said that!) the Republic

would not be forced to pay excessivetribute to the Romans; and
through your excesses you have drained it of perfumes, aromatics,

slaves, and silphium, for you are in league with the nomads on the
Cyrenian frontier! But the guilty shall be punished! He read the