The chief magistrates, two in number, called Suffete were elected annually ft om the noblest families, and al ways supposed to be chosen for their w ealth and talents. Their province was to assemble the senate, (Liv. 62.) in which they presided, in order to propose the subjects of deliberation, and to receive the suffrages. If the suffetes concurred with the senate, the decision was final ; if otherwise, the matter was referred to the people, ubi supra.) It will be el idcnt, that the stiff( tes answered in sonic degree to the kings of Laced...mon. and to the consuls of Rome ; consequently. in some au thors, we find them indifferently called either kings or consuls, (Justin, xxxi. 3.) But they differ from the for mer, in as much as they were elective and from the lat ter, as they were confined to civil affairs. It is not as certained by whom the suffetes were elected, probably by the people, as an office similar to theirs existed in all the towns of note throughout the Carthaginian clominions.
The senatorial digbity was elective, as appears Flom Aristotle, but it is not known in whom the election There does not appear to have been any specific qualifi cation, as birth, riches, and individual merit are, in their turns, mentioned as suppiying sufficient ciaims. We are ignorant of the number which compose d the senate, though probably it was very large ; for Justin mentions, (lib. xis. c. 2.) that on one occasion a hundred were se lected to investigate some alleged misconduct of their generals. In this great council, CN cry thing relating to peace and war, negotiations and alliances, in a word, all affairs of consequence. foreign or domestic, were debated, and for the most part determined. Ti.e re was, however, in its constitution one provision, which is obviously anomalous to every principle of good govern ment. The decision of the senate was net final, unless the vote were unanimous, and received the sanction of the suffetes. Hence the people, by degrees, acquired an overpowering influence. The consequences were, as might be expected, fatal : For, during the second and third Punic wars, every thing was referred to the popu lace ; while in Rome, on the contrary, the senatorial in fluence was in full vigour ; and thus, as Polybius re marks, (book vi.) the Romans, even after their severe defeats, by means of their good government, 2-cp pta(vEcext xceAw5, recovered, and were finally victorious.
The centumvirate consisted of an hundred and four persons, elected from the senate ; they seem to have had extensive power, though confined, as Aristotle (ubi see also Alexander ab .4lexundro, lib. iv. c. 11.) intimates,
chiefly to affairs of a judicial nature. They were, as we have seen above, (Justin,) appointed, in the first instance, for the purpose inquiring into the conduct of their ge nerals in an unsuccessful expedition ; and though their power afterwards was considerably enlarged, this seems to have been their principal business. Aristotle com pares them to the Ephori at Sparta ; but it will appear, that the tribunal which we shall next consider has a bet ter title to this comparison. The quinquevirate consisted of five men, selected from the centumvirate, possessed almost of despotic authority. Their privileges are im perfectly known, but they seem to have been almost un limited. They had cognizance of all affairs, whether of a public or of a private nature, and appear to have con stituted a court of appeal in the last resort for all causes. It is not certain whether the office was perpetual. They not only had the power of filling up the vacancies in their own body ; but we learn from Aristotle, that they chose those persons who composed the tribunal of the centum virate.
The principal offices in the executive government of Carthage were, the proton, the qustor, and the censor ; titles which seem to have been given by the Roman his torians, from the analogy of their duties to the same offi cers in the irown constitution.* Of the system of Carthaginian legislation very incon siderable traces remain ; and those are important only as they throw light on the manners of the people.—Diodo ens mentions a law of a very long- duration, that those children alone who were nobly born should be sacrificed to Saturn. This had fallen into disuse, but was revived on an occasion of great public emergency, (Diodorus, lib. xx.) when two hundred children of the best families were offered at once to atone for the neglect. Some other laws regulating the popular superstitions are preserved. Indeed it is most singular, that of the very few fragments that remain to us, there is not one but is calculated, in some degree, to confirm the belief that Carthage must have been immersed in the most degrading barbarism. Even so late as the time of the elder Dionvsius, we find that a law was made, (Justin, hook xx. c. 5.) prohibiting every inhabitant of Carthage from learning either to write or to speak G reek. However, this absurd law must have been in a•very short time either repealed or neglected, as Hannibal seems to have been eminently skilled in that language.