In short, it were hardly possible to conceive a more horrid and bloody picture, if that the Punic wars that ensued soon after did not present one that far exceeds it.
Here we find that climax of devastation, and ruin, which seemed to shake the whole earth.

The extent of this war, which vexed so many nations, and both elements, and the havoc of the human species caused in both, really astonishes beyond expression, when it is nakedly considered, and those matters which are apt to divert our attention from it, the characters, actions, and designs of the persons concerned, are not taken into the account.

These wars, I mean those called the Punic wars, could not have stood the human race in less than three millions of the species.

And yet this forms but a part only, and a very small part, of the havoc caused by the Roman ambition.

The war with Mithridates was very little less bloody; that prince cut off at one stroke 150,000 Romans by a massacre.