against her enemies, to fight her battles as a simple soldier."

There was silence in the tent. Malchus had thrown himself down on
his couch, and for a time forgot even the approaching lion hunt
in the conversation to which he had listened.

The government of Carthage was indeed detestable, and was the chief
cause both of the misfortunes which had befallen her in the past,
and of the disasters which were in the future to be hers. The scheme
of government was not in itself bad, and in earlier and simpler
times had acted well. Originally it had consisted of three estates,
which answered to the king, lords, and commons. At the head of
affairs were two suffetes chosen for life. Below them was the
senate, a very numerous body, comprising all the aristocracy of
Carthage. Below this was the democracy, the great mass of the
people, whose vote was necessary to ratify any law passed by the
senate.

In time, however, all authority passed from the suffetes, the
general body of the senate and the democracy, into the hands of
a committee of the senate, one hundred in number, who were called
the council, the real power being invested in the hands of an inner
council, consisting of from twenty to thirty of the members. The
deliberations of this body were secret, their power absolute. They
were masters of the life and property of every man in Carthage,
as afterwards were the council of ten in the republic of Venice.
For a man to be denounced by his secret enemy to them as being
hostile to their authority was to ensure his destruction and the
confiscation of his property.