paid from his private means, he defended the cause of the empire
against Gustavus Adolphus and the princes of the Protestant league.
It is true that the Carthaginian generals had always by their side
two commissioners of the senate. The republic of Carthage, like
the first republic of France, was ever jealous of her generals,
and appointed commissioners to accompany them on their campaigns,
to advise and control their movements and to report on their
conduct; and many of the defeats of the Carthaginians were due in
no small degree to their generals being hampered by the interference
of the commissioners. They were present, as a matter of course,
with the army of Hannibal, but his power was so great that their
influence over his proceedings was but nominal.

The war which was about to break out with Rome is called the second
Punic war, but it should rather be named the war of Hannibal
with Rome. He conceived and carried it out from his own resources,
without interference and almost without any assistance from
Carthage. Throughout the war her ships lay idle in her harbour.
Even in his greatest need Carthage never armed a galley for his
assistance. The pay of the army came solely from his coffers, the
material for the war from the arsenals constructed by his father,
his brother-in-law, and himself. It was a war waged by a single man
against a mighty power, and as such there is, with the exception
of the case of Wallenstein, nothing to resemble it in the history
of the world.

Passing through the narrow passage into the harbour the fleet sailed
up to the end of the bay, and were soon alongside the spacious
quays which had been erected. A large quantity of shipping already
lay there, for the trade of Carthagena with the mother city and with