II
the first punic war
In many ways the state of affairs at the outbreak of the first Punic war recalls the situation at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war.
Carthage was the mistress of the Western Mediterranean. Absolute Sea Power was hers. Her ships were many, her crews well trained and practised. Born of the sea, she lived by it.
A Phoenician colony, the Carthaginians preserved to a large extent the Phœnician characteristics. The Phoenicians were ever a peculiar people. National feeling, as possessed by other races of their time, they had none: they cared nothing for politics, and whatever military power was in the ascendent, to that they willingly became tributary so long as they were allowed to retain their existence upon the seas.
Of this sea existence Carthage was a pied à terre; and being the best harbour in Africa, it rapidly rose to great importance.
The pressure of circumstances and the rivalries of trade brought about a consolidated empire, and the nations round about her were enrolled as subjects,
