It has been a general remark of most writers, both ancient and modern, that the Roman republick owed its preservation to the firmness and wisdom of the senate, and the subordinate obedience of the people: and that the republick of Carthage must ascribe its ruin to that ascendency, which the people had usurped over the authority of the senate. The reverse of this seems to be the truth. We meet with but one instance in history, where the power of the Carthaginian people over-ruled the authority of their senate, so far as to compel them to act contrary to their opinion. This was that shameful violation of the law of nations in seizing the transports which were bringing necessaries to Scipio’s camp, during the truce he had granted that they might send ambassadours to Rome to negotiate a peace with the Roman senate. For though they threatened violence to the senate, if they submitted to those hard terms which were imposed by Scipio after the defeat at Zama; yet they were easily reduced to obedience by Hannibal, and resigned the whole affair to the decision of the senate. The Roman history, on the contrary, is one continued detail of animosities, and frequently most bloody contests, between the senate and the people in their perpetual struggles for power. And the frequent elections of that low Plebeian Marius to the consular dignity, in opposition to the Patricians, (the malignant effects of the over-bearing power of the people) opened that scene of blood and anarchy, which ended only in the utter subversion of their liberty and constitution.