Carthage was at that time divided between two factions, the one
led by the relatives and friends of the great Hamilcar Barca and
known as the Barcine party. The other was led by Hanno, surnamed the
Rich. This man had been the rival of Hamilcar, and the victories
and successes of the latter had been neutralized by the losses
and defeats entailed upon the republic by the incapacity of the
former. Hanno, however, had the support of the greater part of the
senate, of the judges, and of the lower class, which he attached
to himself by a lavish distribution of his vast wealth, or by the
common tie of wholesale corruption.

The Barcine party were very inferior in numbers, but they comprised
among them the energy, the military genius, and the patriotism of
the community. They advocated sweeping reforms, the purification
of the public service, the suppression of the corruption which was
rampant in every department, the fair administration of justice,
the suppression of the tyranny of the committee, the vigourous
prosecution of the struggle with Rome. They would have attached
to Carthage the but half subdued nations round her who now groaned
under her yoke, ground down to the dust by the enormous tribute
necessitated by the extravagance of the administration of the
state, the corruption and wholesale peculation of its officials.

Hamilcar Barca had been the founder of the party; in his absence
at the seat of war it had been led at Carthage by his son-in-law
Hasdrubal, whose fiery energy and stirring eloquence had rendered
him a popular idol in Carthage. But even the genius of Hamilcar and
the eloquence of Hasdrubal would not have sufficed to enable the
Barcine party to make head against the enormous power of the council
and the judges, backed by the wealth of Hanno and his associates,