“What of the taxes that Carthage had ended?” I asked. “Destroying the city wouldn’t recover that money.”
“Sometimes, with aggressive nations like ancient Rome, reason takes a back seat to rage.”
* * *
We finished our coffee and I bid Vito goodbye. I wanted to hurry to the library to research the Punic Wars and get more detail on what he had told me. When I was about halfway there, I remembered that Vito had talked about Sicily as a source of grain for Rome and wished that I had asked him more about that.
I pulled an armful of books from the shelf in the quiet of the library and settled into a chair set askew of a large table. The large window beside the table would provide ample light and, since it was only about ten o’clock in the morning, I knew that I had plenty of opportunity to re
