The first was terminated in a treaty to the following effect[176], that "there shall be peace between the Carthaginians and Romans, on the following conditions:--The Carthaginians shall evacuate all Sicily; shall no longer make war against the Syracusans or their allies; shall restore to the Romans, without ransom, all the prisoners whom they shall have taken from them; pay one thousand talents of silver immediately; and two thousand two hundred talents of silver within the space of ten years; and, also, depart out of all the islands situated between Italy and Sicily." Sardinia was not comprehended in this treaty; but they gave it up in a treaty some years after. This was the longest war that had then been known in any country; it having lasted four-and-twenty years. "The obstinacy in disputing for empire," says the historian, "was equal on both sides; the same resolution, the same greatness of soul, in forming as well as in executing of projects being equal on both sides. The Carthaginians had the superiority over the Romans, with regard to naval affairs; the strength and swiftness of their vessels; the working of them; the skill and capacity of their pilots; the knowledge of coasts, shallows, roads and winds; and in the inexhaustible fund of wealth which furnished all the expenses of so long and obstinate a war. The qualities and capabilities of the Romans were of a different character. They had none of the advantages above stated; but their courage, and regard for the public good, are said to have supplied all of them; and their soldiers were greatly superior to those of Carthage, not only in skill but in courage. The Carthaginians had scarcely closed the war with the Romans, than they were engaged in another against the mercenaries who had served under them in Sicily. This was a short but a very sanguinary war. These mercenaries being returned to the neighbourhood of Carthage, were unjustly treated, in not being paid the wages they had earned by the assistance they had given. Complaints, seditious and insolent murmurs, were heard on every side. These troops being composed of different nations, who were strangers to one another's language, were incapable of hearing reason when they once mutinied. They consisted of Gauls, Ligurians, Spaniards, and natives of the Balearic islands; a great number of Greek slaves and deserters; and a large number of Africans. These troops having been trifled with by the Carthaginian government, the members of which attempted to defraud them of no small share of what they had earned, broke out into ungovernable fury, and being twenty thousand strong, marched towards Carthage, and encamped at Tunis, a city not far from the metropolis.