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Salammbo-Part14_Gustave Flaubert(1821-1880)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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The nations roared like billows around her, and the slightest storm

shook this formidable machine.



The treasury was exhausted by the Roman war and by all that had been

squandered and lost in the bargaining with the Barbarians.



Nevertheless soldiers must be had, and not a government would trust

the Republic! Ptolemaeus had lately refused it two thousand talents.



Moreover the rape of the veil disheartened them. Spendius had clearly

foreseen this.



But the nation, feeling that it was hated, clasped its money and its

gods to its heart, and its patriotism was sustained by the very



constitution of its government.

First, the power rested with all, without any one being strong enough



to engross it. Private debts were considered as public debts, men of

Chanaanitish race had a monopoly of commerce, and by multiplying the



profits of piracy with those of usury, by hard dealings in lands and

slaves and with the poor, fortunes were sometimes made. These alone



opened up all the magistracies, and although authority and money were

perpetuated in the same families, people tolerated the oligarchy



because they hoped ultimately to share in it.

The societies of merchants, in which the laws were elaborated, chose



the inspectors of the exchequer, who on leaving office nominated the

hundred members of the Council of the Ancients, themselves dependent



on the Grand Assembly, or general gathering of all the rich. As to the

two Suffets, the relics of the monarchy and the less than consuls,



they were taken from distinct families on the same day. All kinds of

enmities were contrived between them, so that they might mutually



weaken each other. They could not deliberateconcerning war, and when

they were vanquished the Great Council crucified them.



The power of Carthage emanated, therefore, from the Syssitia, that is

to say, from a large court in the centre of Malqua, at the place, it



was said, where the first bark of Phoenician sailors had touched, the

sea having retired a long way since then. It was a collection of



little rooms of archaic architecture, built of palm trunks with

corners of stone, and separated from one another so as to accommodate



the various societies separately. The rich crowded there all day to

discuss their own concerns and those of the government, from the



procuring of pepper to the extermination of Rome. Thrice in a moon

they would have their beds brought up to the lofty terrace running



along the wall of the court, and they might be seen from below at

table in the air, without cothurni or cloaks, with their diamond-



covered fingers wandering over the dishes, and their large earrings

hanging down among the flagons,--all fat and lusty, half-naked,



smiling and eating beneath the blue sky, like great sharks sporting in

the sea.



But just now they were unable to dissemble their anxiety; they were

too pale for that. The crowd which waited for them at the gates



escorted them to their palaces in order to obtain some news from them.

As in times of pestilence, all the houses were shut; the streets would



fill and suddenly clear again; people ascended the Acropolis or ran to

the harbour, and the Great Council deliberated every night. At last



the people were convened in the square of Khamon, and it was decided

to leave the management of things to Hanno, the conqueror of



Hecatompylos.

He was a true Carthaginian, devout, crafty, and pitiless towards the



people of Africa. His revenues equalled those of the Barcas. No one

had such experience in administrative affairs.



He decreed the enrolment of all healthy citizens, he placed catapults

on the towers, he exacted exorbitant supplies of arms, he even ordered



the construction of fourteen galleys which were not required, and he

desired everything to be registered and carefully set down in writing.



He had himself conveyed to the arsenal, the pharos, and the treasuries

of the temples; his great litter was continually to be seen swinging



from step to step as it ascended the staircases of the Acropolis. And

then in his palace at night, being unable to sleep, he would yell out



warlike manoeuvres in terrible tones so as to prepare himself for the




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