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Carthaginian
Who has heard the crack of Carthaginian whips
Upon the backs of frozen elephants,
The roar of war-horns in the Maritime Alps,
The snake-drums of Numidian cavalry?
Who has seen the Punic triremes walk the sea
Like water-spiders, to the yell of slaves?-
Seen lamps on horns of oxen rush the Apennines?
In vain, Great City by the Sea!
Shot from the Roman catapult,
The head of Hasdrubal whizzes into the lap of Hannibal.
"Carthago . . . Delenda est Carthago! . . ."
In vain the shrieks of babes in Moloch-fires,
Or twisted engine-ropes of women's hair.
The eagle advances;
Flames spout from the rock-hewn windows
Of the elephant barracks;
Ships flare;
The ax of the proconsul leaps from its rods-
And Carthage falls.
On the green surface of a bronze coin
A genial Numidian lion
Smiles heraldically beneath a palm-tree.
Hannibal struck him to pay his soldiers.