登陆注册
15401800000047

第47章

Hamilcar understood; the Mercenaries were in occupation of the country.He leaned upon his other elbow with a hollow groan; and the Chief of Farms was so afraid to speak that he trembled horribly in spite of his thick shoulders and his big red eyeballs.His face, which was as snub-nosed as a mastiff's, was surmounted by a net woven of threads of bark.He wore a waist-belt of hairy leopard's skin, wherein gleamed two formidable cutlasses.

As soon as Hamilcar turned away he began to cry aloud and invoke all the Baals.It was not his fault! he could not help it! He had watched the temperature, the soil, the stars, had planted at the winter solstice and pruned at the waning of the moon, had inspected the slaves and had been careful of their clothes.

But Hamilcar grew angry at this loquacity.He clacked his tongue, and the man with the cutlasses went on in rapid tones:

"Ah, Master! they have pillaged everything! sacked everything!

destroyed everything! Three thousand trees have been cut down at Maschala, and at Ubada the granaries have been looted and the cisterns filled up! At Tedes they have carried off fifteen hundred gomors of meal; at Marrazana they have killed the shepherds, eaten the flocks, burnt your house--your beautiful house with its cedar beams, which you used to visit in the summer! The slaves at Tuburbo who were reaping barley fled to the mountains; and the asses, the mules both great and small, the oxen from Taormina, and the antelopes,--not a single one left! all carried away! It is a curse! I shall not survive it!" He went on again in tears: "Ah! if you knew how full the cellars were, and how the ploughshares shone! Ah! the fine rams! ah! the fine bulls!--"Hamilcar's wrath was choking him.It burst forth:

"Be silent! Am I a pauper then? No lies! speak the truth! I wish to know all that I have lost to the last shekel, to the last cab!

Abdalonim, bring me the accounts of the ships, of the caravans, of the farms, of the house! And if your consciences are not clear, woe be on your heads! Go out!"All the stewards went out walking backwards, with their fists touching the ground.

Abdalonim went up to a set of pigeon-holes in the wall, and from the midst of them took out knotted cords, strips of linen or papyrus, and sheeps' shoulder-blades inscribed with delicate writing.He laid them at Hamilcar's feet, placed in his hands a wooden frame furnished on the inside with three threads on which balls of gold, silver, and horn were strung, and began:

"One hundred and ninety-two houses in the Mappalian district let to the New Carthaginians at the rate of one bekah a moon.""No! it is too much! be lenient towards the poor people! and you will try to learn whether they are attached to the Republic, and write down the names of those who appear to you to be the most daring! What next?"Abdalonim hesitated in surprise at such generosity.

Hamilcar snatched the strips of linen from his hands.

"What is this? three palaces around Khamon at twelve kesitahs a month!

Make it twenty! I do not want to be eaten up by the rich."The Steward of the stewards, after a long salutation, resumed:

"Lent to Tigillas until the end of the season two kikars at three per cent., maritime interest; to Bar-Malkarth fifteen hundred shekels on the security of thirty slaves.But twelve have died in the salt-marshes."

"That is because they were not hardy," said the Suffet, laughing."No matter! if he is in want of money, satisfy him! We should always lend, and at different rates of interest, according to the wealth of the individual."Then the servant hastened to read all that had been brought in by the iron-mines of Annaba, the coral fisheries, the purple factories, the farming of the tax on the resident Greeks, the export of silver to Arabia, where it had ten times the value of gold, and the captures of vessels, deduction of a tenth being made for the temple of the goddess."Each time I declared a quarter less, Master!" Hamilcar was reckoning with the balls; they rang beneath his fingers.

"Enough! What have you paid?"

"To Stratonicles of Corinth, and to three Alexandrian merchants, on these letters here (they have been realised), ten thousand Athenian drachmas, and twelve Syrian talents of gold.The food for the crews, amounting to twenty minae a month for each trireme--""I know! How many lost?"

"Here is the account on these sheets of lead," said the Steward."As to the ships chartered in common, it has often been necessary to throw the cargo into the seas, and so the unequal losses have been divided among the partners.For the ropes which were borrowed from the arsenals, and which it was impossible to restore, the Syssitia exacted eight hundred kesitahs before the expedition to Utica.""They again!" said Hamilcar, hanging his head; and he remained for a time as if quite crushed by the weight of all the hatreds that he could feel upon him."But I do not see the Megara expenses?"Abdalonim, turning pale, went to another set of pigeon-holes, and took from them some planchettes of sycamore wood strung in packets on leathern strings.

Hamilcar, curious about these domestic details, listened to him and grew calm with the monotony of the tones in which the figures were enumerated.Abdalonim became slower.Suddenly he let the wooden sheets fall to the ground and threw himself flat on his face with his arms stretched out in the position of a condemned criminal.Hamilcar picked up the tablets without any emotion; and his lips parted and his eyes grew larger when he perceived an exorbitant consumption of meat, fish, birds, wines, and aromatics, with broken vases, dead slaves, and spoiled carpets set down as the expense of a single day.

Abdalonim, still prostrate, told him of the feast of the Barbarians.

He had not been able to avoid the command of the Ancients.Moreover, Salammbo desired money to be lavished for the better reception of the soldiers.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 末日尸王,女人晚上见

    末日尸王,女人晚上见

    即使是重生一次,她依旧逃离不开命运之轮,末世的到来,无疑给了她喘息的机会……她只是想安安静静的报仇打打丧尸,不想被一个老僵尸给缠上……“据我观察,先生,你和丧尸没区别!”某女慎重揣摩着。“怎么没区别?为夫可以做丧尸会做的事情,也可以做丧尸做不了的事情,比如……你懂得……夫人要不要试试?”某僵尸王朝某女眨眨眼。“无耻!”某女恼羞成怒。“夫人错了,无齿的话,这满汉全席怎么吃?夫人不要告诉为夫,你想歪了?”
  • 初恋刻骨铭心

    初恋刻骨铭心

    初恋是每个人生的经历,它是纯洁、羞涩、美好的,但初恋往往很多时候失去的比在一起的要多,这个故事是一个真实的没有加任何修饰,是我的一些经历,决定把它写成一本书,故事内容围绕着主题跟初恋有关,是大多年轻人在初恋时容易失去自我、容易犯的一些错误,我用我的亲身经历写成一本书,希望大家抓住自己认为对的感情在不伤害父母与亲人的同时抓住那份纯真,那份美好、那份我们铭记在心的初恋。19岁的小瑀迷茫的走入社会,偶然的机会遇到了一个让他心动的女孩,在经历了父母阻止,她们的执念又走在一起到最后各为人妻、人夫、是现实打败了爱情还是老天注定缘份已尽。
  • 盘古大神

    盘古大神

    散修出身的九天玄仙赵琼,在仙界为了更好的丹药和功法,得罪了不少仙人,终于有天惹火了仙帝,被整个仙界的人追杀,被逼无奈只能自曝,自曝居然都没有死去,在疗伤无望的情况下转世成为了一个普通大学生,但是做为大学生在快毕业的时候又因为喝醉酒了,被公交车撞飞,到了一个魔法大陆,在这魔法大陆上,赵琼又会遇到什么呢……
  • 都市超品丹尊

    都市超品丹尊

    仙域,绝情丹帝境界突破,一不小心被雷劫劈死了。重生地球失恋又失业的夏天身上,借此重活与花花都市里。至此,丹帝要在这花花世界都市里历练红尘,吊打一切小人,修炼重回巅峰
  • 琢月

    琢月

    冷希文,一个温婉淡然的女孩子,年幼时在一场车祸中丧生。弟弟冷希扬便在那时具备了姐姐的人格。当这个秘密被自己深爱的女友秦妍发现,当自己的死党黎凡和自己的另一种人格(冷希文)相恋。当众人不知所错,却无意得知,曾经的车祸不是意外而是谋杀,而是谁,又会成为下一个权利的牺牲者……
  • 谷沫沫梨嘉院

    谷沫沫梨嘉院

    亲你还在为早上吃什么中午喝什么晚上又是什么,而烦恼吗?哦不,这是人之常情,你可以继续思考这个以天为乐的想法。不管这笨笨(本本)里会写些什么,其实我到现在也没个所以然,你看或不看,我一直都在,你点或不点,我劝你还是点上一点,说不定以后你都不用考虑早上中午晚上到底吃啥喝啥、哈(#▽#)
  • 九霄玄尊

    九霄玄尊

    九霄大陆之上无数武修针锋,少年出自楚宗,从此铁血修炼,踏天骄,成就武道巅峰一途
  • 帝尊破

    帝尊破

    神龙大陆龙族为尊,凤天大陆凤凰麒麟争雄,出生神秘的少年携妖兽崛起……
  • 福尔摩斯探案全集4

    福尔摩斯探案全集4

    《福尔摩斯探案全集》是英国作家阿瑟·柯南道尔创作的一部长篇侦探小说,主角名为夏洛克·福尔摩斯(Sherlock Holmes,又译作歇洛克·福尔摩斯),共有4部长篇及56个短篇。第一部长篇《血字的研究》完成于1896年,隔年与其它作品合集出版于《比顿圣诞年刊》。被多次改编为电影与电视剧。
  • 时与爱与

    时与爱与

    当爱的人的狗突然跑到车前,从此,人代替了狗。