They are stuffed gods.

They conduct a silly nickelodeon romance while Carthage rolls on toward her doom.

They are like sparrows fighting for grain on the edge of the battle.
The doings of his principals are sufficiently evident to be grasped with a word or two of printed insert on the films.

But he sentimentalizes about them.

He adds side-elaborations of the plot that would require much time to make clear, and a hard working novelist to make interesting.