398 HISTORY OF GREECE. knew j but they were always selected out of some few principal families or Gentes. There is reason for believing that the genuine Carthaginian citizens were distributed into three tribes, thirty cu- ria?, and three hundred gentes something in the manner of the Roman patricians. From these gentes emanated a Senate of three hundred, out of which again was formed a smaller council or com- mittee of thirty principes representing the curise ;' sometimes a still smaller, of only ten principes. These little councils are both frequently mentioned in the political proceedings of Carthage ; and perhaps the Thirty may coincide with what Polybius calls the Gerusia, or Council of Ancients, the Three Hundred, with that which he calls the Senate. 2 Aristotle assimilates the two kings (suffetes) of Carthage to the two kings of Sparta and the Ge- rusia of Carthage also to that of Sparta ; 3 which latter consisted of thirty members, including the kings who sat in it. But Aris- totle does not allude to any assembly at Carthage analogous to what Polybius calls the Senate. He mentions two Councils, one of one hundred members, the other of one hundred and four ; and certain Boards of Five, the pentarchies. He compares the Council of one hundred and four to the Spartan ephors ; yet again he talks of the pentarchies as invested with extensive functions, and terms the Council of one hundred the greatest authority in the state. Perhaps this last Council was identical with the assembly of one hundred Judges (said to have been chosen from the Senate as a check upon the generals employed), or Ordo Judicum ; of which Livy speaks after the second Punic war, as existing with its mem- bers perpetual and so powerful that it overruled all the other assem blies and magistracies of the state. Through the influence of Han- nibal, a law was passed to lessen the overweening power of this Order of Judges ; causing them to be elected only for one year, instead of being perpetual. 4 1 See Movers, Die Phonizier, ii, 1, p. 483-499. 8 Polybius, x, 18; I/ivy, xxx, 16. Yet again Polybius in another place speaks of the Gerontion at Carthage as representing the aristocratical force, and as opposed to the JT^TJ&O^ or people (vi, 51). It would seem that by Tepovnov he must mean the samo as the assembly called in another passage (x, 18) 2t>yKA??rof.
- Aristotel. Politic, ii, 8, 2.
4 Livy v xxxiii, 46. Justin (xix, 2) mentions the one hundred select Sen atore set apart as judges.
