Page:Archaeologia volume 38 part 1.djvu/233

 Recent Excavations at Carthage. 203 In the sixth century before Christ we find Carthage mistress of Sardinia and Corsica, and filling the neighbouring coasts of Africa, Spain, and Sicily with her colonies ; so great indeed had she become as to rouse the jealousy of Cambyses, who contemplated an attack upon her. Then began the wars with the Greeks in Sicily, ending with her great defeat at Himera in B.C. 480. Fresh inroads upon the Greek colonies ensued, which, though vigorously resisted, were eventually successful, till, when about to carry all before her, Carthage encountered the iron legions of Rome. Then came the First Punic war, terminating in B.C. 241 with the loss of Sicily, wasted finances, and domestic troubles. The Second Punic war, though rendered glorious by the victories and conquests of Hannibal, was, not- withstanding, brought to a close on the fatal field of Zama in B.C. 201, leaving Carthage once more prostrate and exhausted. We then arrive at the encroach- ments of Masinissa and the Third Punic war, the last mighty contest between Carthage and Rome ; in which the former was no longer contending for the empire of the Mediterranean, but struggling for existence ; until at length she concentrated her expiring energies to withstand that extraordinary siege so well described by Polybius and Appian, which terminated in a destruction more awful and complete than ever befel so powerful a state. Delenda est Carthago; the decree went forth, and the sword, fire, and ram did their appointed work. This was in B.C. 140 ; twenty-four years later the conquerors seem to have repented of the extent of their vindictiveness and of the desolation they had wrought, and Caius Gracchus attempted to rcfound Carthage, under the name of Junonia. But great cities are not to be refounded at will : the colony dwindled away, and it was not till B.C. 19 that Augustus rebuilt Carthage. After this the city gradually increased in wealth and consequence, until, through the favour of Septimius Severus and the later emperors, she attained to such a degree of prosperity, that in the time of Ausonius we find her claiming to be at least the third, if not the second, city of the Roman empire." Carthage then became celebrated as a centre of Christianity, was made illustrious by her bishops, and was consecrated by her martyrs. Conquered by Genseric in A.D. 439, she became the capital of the Vandal kingdom in Africa, until retaken by Belisarius in A.D. 533. Her final destruction came from the hands of the Arabs under Hassan in A.D. 647. Ausonius, Ordo Nobilium Urbium. II. Constantinopolis et Carthago. Constantinopoli adsurgit Carthago priori, Non toto cessura gradu : quia tertia dici Fastidit, non ausa locum sperare secundura, Qui fuit ambarum. 2D 2