would have been taken upon all the leading members of the Barcine
faction.

After the banquet, while Hamilcar and his companions reclined on
their couches at tables, a Greek slave, a captive in war, sang songs
of his native land to the accompaniment of the lyre. A party of
dancing girls from Ethiopia performed their rhythmical movements to
the sound of the tinkling of a little guitar with three strings,
the beating of a small drum, the clashing of cymbals, and the
jingling of the ornaments and little metal bells on their arms
and ankles. Perfumes were burned in censers, and from time to time
soft strains of music, played by a party of slaves among the trees
without, floated in through the casements.

Malchus was in wild spirits, for his father had told him that it
was settled that he was to have the command of a body of troops
which were very shortly to proceed to Spain to reinforce the army
under Hannibal, and that he should allow Malchus to enter the band
of Carthaginian horse which was to form part of the body under
his command.

The regular Carthaginian horse and foot formed but a very small
portion of the armies of the republic. They were a corps d'elite,
composed entirely of young men of the aristocratic families of
Carthage, on whom it was considered as almost a matter of obligation
to enter this force. They had the post of honour in battle, and
it was upon them the Carthaginian generals relied principally to
break the ranks of the enemy in close battle. All who aspired to
distinguish themselves in the eyes of their fellow citizens, to rise
to power and position in the state, to officer the vast bodies of