a shock indeed at Prion, where 40,000 of them were slaughtered; but
soon after this battle, in another they took one of the Carthaginian
generals prisoner, whom they fixed to a cross, crucifying thirty of
the principal senators round about him. Spendius and Matho were at
last taken, the one crucified and the other tormented to death: but
the war lasted three years and near four months with excessive
cruelty; in which the State of Carthage lost several battles, and
was often brought within a hair's-breadth of utter ruin.

If so great a commonwealth as Carthage, though assisted at that time
by Hiero, King of Syracuse, and by the Romans, ran the hazard of
losing their empire, city, and liberties, by the insurrection of a
handful of mercenaries, whose first strength was but 20,000 men; it
should be a warning to all free nations how they suffer armies so
composed to be among them, and it should frighten a wise State from
desiring such an increase of people as may be had by the bringing
over foreign soldiers.

Indeed, all armies whatsoever, if they are over-large, tend to the
dispeopling of a country, of which our neighbour nation is a
sufficient proof, where in one of the best climates in Europe men
are wanting to till the ground. For children do not proceed from
the intemperate pleasures taken loosely and at random, but from a
regular way of living, where the father of the family desires to
rear up and provide for the offspring he shall beget.

Securing the liberties of a nation may be laid down as a fundamental
for increasing the numbers of its people; but there are other
polities thereunto conducing which no wise State has ever neglected.