The idea that mercantile business and warlike spirit are contradictory dates to the Age of Enlightenment and is generally not shared by ancient sources, such as Virgil, who writes in "Aeneid" 1,444f. on Carthage: for this reason shall the people be glorious in war and acquire food easily for centuries ("sic nam fore bello / egregiam et facilem victu per saecula gentem"). Livy already points out that Carthage did house a body of at least 40,000 professional soldiers until sometime after the Second Punic War. Other sources can be interpreted to refer to a high degree of military professionalism in the small Punic population whose constitution Aristotle groups along with those of Sparta and Crete. So there is an ongoing debate among historians about the extent of Carthage's military spirit. It should be pointed out that the sources on the Punic forces are rare and not easily accessible because they are almost exclusively written by their opponents in war. An inscription discovered in Carthage seems to confirm the doubts raised by the lack of sources concerning members of the nobility in the trading business. The translation (which is, like all translations from the Punic, disputed in details) only mentions in the existing parts merchants among the people with little money, while owners of producing facilities are mentioned among those with more money. [https://web.archive.org/web/20071011110130/http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/GeogHist/histories/Oldcivilization/phoenicia/origin/puniclit/inscriptions.html]