Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/571

 CABTHAGO NOVA. it (torn every wind except the SW. {Africiu and left (wlj a narrow passage on each side, so tliat it formed an excellent harbour. (SU. ItaL xr. 220: — £xoe]so6 tollit pelago drcumflna muros.") Polybius gives twenty stadia for the depth of this bay, and ten for its breadth at the mouth. Livy, who copies the description of Polybius, gives by some mbtake 500 paces (mstead of 2500) for the depth, and a little more for the breadth. The city was built on an elevated tongue of land, projecting into the bay, surrounded by the sea on the E. and S., and on the W., and partly on the N. by a lake having an artificial communication with the sea, the remaining space, or isthmus, being only 250 paces wide ; and it was only accessible from Uie mainland by a narrow path along the ridge. The city stood comparatively low, in a hollow of the peninsula, sloping down to the sea on the S.; but on tiie land side it was entirely surrounded on all sides by heights, the two at Uie extremities being mountain- ous and. rugged, and the three between them lower, but steep and rocky. On the eastern height, which jutted out into the sea, stood the temple of Aescula- pius (Esmun). the chief deity here, as Carthage ; on the western, the pahce built by Hasdrubal ; of the intervening hills, the one nearest to the £. was sacred to Hephaestus, that on the W. to Saturn, and the middle one to Aletes, who received divine honours as the discoverer of the silver mines in the neighbourhood. Livy mentions also a hill sacred to Mercury, perhaps that of Aletes (xxvi. 44). We aee here an interesting example of the worship on the city was connected with the mainland by a bridge across the channel cut from the sea to the lake. (Polyb. x. 10 ; Liv. xxvi. 42 ; Strab. iiL p. 158.) The city was most strongly fortified, and was twenty stadia in circumference. (Polyb. z. 11.) Polybius distinctly contradicts those who gave it double this drcnit on his own evidence as an eye- witness ; and he adds that, in his time (under the Bomans), the circuit was still more contracted. Besides aU these advantages, New Carthage had in its immediate vicinity the richest silver mines of Spain, which are inddent^ly mentioned by Polybius in the preceding account, and were more fully described by him in another passage (xxxir. 9), a part of which is preserved by Strabo (iii. pp. 147, 148, 158). The description is taken from Uieir condition under the Bomans, who probably only continued the opera- tions of their predecessors. The mines lay twenty stadia (two geog. miles) N. of the city in the mountain spur, which fonns the junction of M. Idnbeda and JA, Orospeda (Strab. iii. p. 161); and extended over a space 400 stadia in circumference. They employed 40,000 men, and brought into the Boman treasury 25,000 drachmae daily. After condensing Poly- bius's description of the mode of extracting the sil- Ter, Strabo adds that in his time the silver mines Ptol. iL 6. § 14, from the shores abounding in the fish called ffK6/A6pos, a kind of tunny or mackerel, from which was made the best sort of the sauce called fforotk (Strab. I c; Plin. xxxL 8. s. 41.) It is still called Etcombrera^ as well as simply La /slotaj the Itlet. Strabo mentions just above the extensive manufacture of cured fish at New Car- thage and its neighbourhood (iroAA^ ^ ropixc^ xiL p. 158). CABTHAGO NOVA. 553 were no longer the property of the state, but only the gold mines ; the former belonged to individuals. Such was the city founded by the second head of the great house of Barca, not perhaps without some view to its becoming the capital of an independent kingdom, if the opposite faction should prevail at Carthage (Polyb. x. 10, says that the palace there was built by Hasdrubal fioyapxucris dpryS/ityov i^ovaias). During their government of Spain, it formed the head-quarters of their civil administra- tion and their military power. (Polyb. iii. 15. § 3: (SntwcI vp6<Txnf^ K<^ jScuriXctoy ^y Kapxfl^ovlwy iv rois Kwrh r^y 'I^^p/oc rWoiS ; Liv. xxvii. 7, caput Hispaniae.) There we find Hannibal regu- larly establishing his winter quarters, and receiving the ambassadors of Bome (Polyb. iii. 13. § 7, 15. § 4, 5, 33. § 5 ; Liv. xxi. 5, 6) ; and thrace he started on the expedition which opened the Second Punic War, B.C. 218. (Polyb. iii. 39. § 11.) It remained liie Punic head-quarters during the ab- sence of Hannibal (Polyb. iii. 76. § 11), who had taken care, before setting out, to make every pro- vision for its safety (iii. 33). Here were deposited the treasures, the baggage of the Punic army, and the hostages of the Spanish peoples. (Polyb. z. 8. § 3 ; Liv. xxvi. 42.) The military genius of P. Sdpio (afterwards the elder Africanus) at once, on his arrival in Spain, B.a 211, pointed out the cap- ture of New Carthage as a stroke decisive of the war in Spun; and, as soon as spring opened*, seizing an opportunity when, by some fatal oversight, the garri- son was reduced to 1000 men fit for service, he made a rapid march from the Ebro witii nearly all bis forces, 25,000 infantry and 2500 cavalry, at the same time sending round his fleet under Laelius, who alone was in the secret, and took the city by storm, with frightful slaughter, and the gain of an immense booty, B.C. 210. (Polyb. x. 8 — 19; Liv. xxvi. 42 — 51.) It yna on this occasion that Scipio gave that example of continence, which is so often cele- brated by ancient writers. (Polyb.; Liv.; Val. Max. iv. 3; GelLvi. 8.) The important dty thus gained by the Bomans in Hispania Ulterior naturally became the rival of Tarraco, their previous head-quarters in Hispania Citerior. We find Scipio making it his head- quarters (in addition to Tarraco), and celebrating there the games in honour of his father and uncle, B.a206. (Liv. xxviii. 18, 21, et alib.) Under the early onperors it was a colony (Plin. iii. 8. s. 4), with the full name of Colonia Victrix Julia Nova Carthago (coins), and the seat of a con- ventus juridicus, including 65 peoples, besides those of the islands. (Plin. L c; Baleares.) It shared with Tarraco the honour of the winter residence of the Legatus Caesaris, who governed the province of Tarraconensis. (Strab. iii. p. 167.) Its terri- tory is called by Strabo Carchedonia (Kapxv^opla^ p. 161 ; ager Carthaginiensis, Yarr. R. R. i. 57. § 2). It was the point of meeting of two great roads, the one from Tarraco, the other finnn Castulo on the Baetis; it was 234 M. P. from the former place, and 203 from the latter, (/tm. Ant. pp. 396, 401.) As has been seen, its size was ahready diminiished in the time of Polybius; but still it was, in the time of Strabo, a great emporium, both for tiie export and the import trade of Spain, and the most flourishing some doubt respecting the true date, which Polybius removes by authority (x. 9; Liv. xxvii. 7).
 * Carthago impenso Naturae a^jnta favore,
 * high places " practised by the race. On the W.,
 * There was, among the contemporary historians,