them that this trade was threatened, and that it was threatened in
the interest of the tyrants of Carthage, for them to enter heart
and soul into the cause.

During these four days the Barcine Club was like the headquarters
of an army. Night and day the doors stood open, messengers came
and went continually, consultations of the leading men of the city
were held almost without a break. Every man belonging to it had his
appointed task. The landed proprietors stirred up the cultivators
of the soil, the manufacturers were charged with the enlightenment
of their hands as to the dangers of the situation, the soldiers
were busy among the troops; but theirs was a comparatively easy task,
for these naturally sympathized with their comrades in Spain, and
the name of the great Hamilcar was an object of veneration among
them.

Hanno's faction was not idle. The Syssite which was composed of
his adherents was as large as its rival. Its orators harangued the
people in the streets on the dangers caused to the republic by the
ambition of the family of Barca, of the expense entailed by the
military and naval establishments required to keep up the forces
necessary to carry out their aggressive policy, of the folly of
confiding the principal army of the state to the command of a mere
youth. They dilated on the wealth and generosity of Hanno, of his
lavish distribution of gifts among the poor, of his sympathy with
the trading community. Each day the excitement rose, business was
neglected, the whole population was in a fever of excitement.

On the evening of the fourth day the agents of the Barcine
Club discovered that Hanno's party were preparing for a public