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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: shekels upon the rich. Even the women contributed; payment was made in
behalf of the children, and he compelled the colleges of priests to
furnish money--a monstrous thing, according to Carthaginian customs.
He demanded all the horses, mules, and arms. A few tried to conceal
their wealth, and their property was sold; and, to intimidate the
avarice of the rest, he himself gave sixty suits of armour, and
fifteen hundred gomers of meal, which was as much as was given by the
Ivory Company.
He sent into Liguria to buy soldiers, three thousand mountaineers
accustomed to fight with bears; they were paid for six moons in
advance at the rate of four minae a day.
Salammbo |
