a weekly feature of the carthaginian messenger, quoted from its issue of march 15, 220 b. c.
it is quite a pleasure to be in dear old rome again after a week spent upon an important mission which your readers are already acquainted with, in the tuscan country. all that drive through etruria was very delightful and the investigation will undoubtedly prove of the greatest use. but what a difference it is to be back in the sparkle and gaiety of the via sacra. every day one feels more and more how real the entente is. probably no nations have become faster friends than those who have learnt to respect each other in war, and though the romans were compelled to accept our terms, and to undertake the difficult administration of sicily with money furnished by the carthaginian government, all that was[pg 328] more than twenty years ago and the memory of it does not rankle now. indeed, i think i may say that the roman character is a peculiarly generous one in this regard. they know what a good fight is, and they enjoy it—none better—but when it is over no one is readier to shake hands and to make friends again than a roman. i was talking it over with dear little lucia balba the other day and i thought she put it very prettily. she said:
est autem amicitia nihil aliud, nisi omnium divinarum huminarumque rerum cockalorumque romanorum et jejorum concinnatio!
was it not charming?
of course there is a little jealousy—no more than a pout!—about hasdrubal's magnificent work in spain, but every one recognises what a great man he is, and it was only yesterday that m. catulus (the son of our fine old enemy lutatius) said to me with a sigh: "the reason we romans cannot do that kind of thing is because we cannot stick together. we are for ever fighting among ourselves. just look at our[pg 329] history!" on the other hand, i can't think that our mixture of democracy and common sense would suit the latin temperament, with its verve and nescio quid, which make it at the same time so incalculable and so fascinating. every nation must have its own advantages and drawbacks. we are a little too stolid, perhaps, and a little too businesslike, but our stolidity and our businesslike capacity have founded colonies over the whole world and established a magnificent empire. the romans are a little too fond of "glory" and give way to sudden emotion in a fashion which seems to us perilously like weakness, but no one can deny that they have established a wonderfully methodical and orderly system of roads all over italy, and that their capital is still the intellectual centre of the world.
talking of that i ought to pay a tribute to the roman home and to roman thrift. we hear too much in our country of the roman amphitheatre and all the rest of it. what many carthaginians do not yet know is that the[pg 330] stay-at-home sober roman is the backbone of the whole place. he hates war as heartily as we do, and though his forms of justice are very different from ours he is a sincere lover of right-dealing according to his lights. it is due to such men that rome is, after ourselves, the chief financial power in the world.
but you will ask me for more interesting news than this sermon. well! well! i have plenty to give you. the debates in the senate are as brilliant and, i am afraid, as theatrical as usual. certainly the romans beat us at oratory. to hear flaccus deliver a really great speech about the introduction of greek manners is a thing one can never forget! of course, it will seem to you in carthage very unpractical and very "roman," and it is true that that kind of thing doesn't make a nation great in the way we have become great, but it is wonderful stuff to hear all the same—and such a young man too! the senate has, however, none of our ideas of order, and the marvel is how they get through their work at all.[pg 331] there are no suffetes, and sometimes you will hear five or six men all talking at once and gesticulating in that laughable italian fashion which our caricaturists find so valuable!
those of my readers who run over to rome two or three times a year for the games will be interested to hear that the great aurelian house near the new temple of saturn (the rogues with their "temples!" but still there is a good deal of real religion left in rome) is being pulled down and a splendid one is being put in its place upon the designs of a really remarkable young architect, pneius caius agricola. he is the nephew, by the way, of sopher masher baal, whom we all know so well at carthage, and who is, i think, technically, a carthaginian citizen. possibly i am wrong, for i remember a delightful dinner with him years ago among our cousins overseas, and he may very possibly be tyrian. if so, and if these humble lines meet his eye, i tender him my apologies. but anyhow, his nephew is a very remarkable and original artist whom all[pg 332] rome is eager to applaud. when the new aurelian house is finished it will have a façade in five orders, doric, ionic, corinthian, heavy egyptian on the fourth story, and assyrian on the top, the whole terminating in a vast pyramid, which is to have the appearance of stone, but which will really be a light erection in thin plaster slabs.
last wednesday we had the review of the troops. you may imagine how the roman populace delighted in that! there is a good deal that is old-fashioned to our ideas in the accouterments, and it was certainly comic to see an "admiral" leading his "sailors" past the saluting post like so many marines! but it is always a pleasant spectacle for a warmhearted man to see the humbler classes of rome picnicking in true roman fashion upon the campus martius and cheering their sons and brothers. the army is very popular in rome, although the men are paid hardly anything—a mere nominal sum. the romans do not come up to our standard of physique, and i am afraid[pg 333] the golden legion would laugh at them. but they are sturdy little fellows, and not to be despised when it comes to marching, or turning their hands to the thousand domestic details of the camp; moreover, they are invariably good-humoured, and that is a great charm.
it is unfortunately impossible to officer all the troops with gentlemen, and that is a drawback of which thoughtful romans are acutely conscious. it is on this account that there is none of that cordial relation between officer and man which we take for granted in our service. an intelligent and travelled roman said to me the other day: "how i envy you your carthaginian officers! always in training! always ready! always urbane!" but we must remember that our service is not so numerous as theirs.
i must not ramble on further, for the post is going, and you know what the roman post is. it starts when it feels inclined, and the delivery is tantum quantum, as we say in italy. i have to be a good hour before the official time[pg 334] or risk being told by some shabbily uniformed person that my letter missed through my own fault! next week i hope to give you an interesting account of sapphira moshetim's début. she is a roman of the romans, and i was quite carried away! such subtlety! such declamation! i hope to be her herald, for she is to come to carthage next season, and i am sure she will bear out all i say.
