Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/172

160 CARTHAGE was situated on the north coast of Africa, not far from the modern city of Tunis, just at that point where the coast approaches most nearly to the Island of Sicily. It lay in the heart of the Bay of Tunis, close to the mouth of the River Bagradas, and its site was so favourable to the natural development of a city that a hundred years after its entire destruction by the Romans it was chosen with Corinth as a place for colonization by Julius Caesar, and rose into distinction as the third town in the empire. It was a colony of the Phoenicians, and was founded about the middle of the 9th century B.C., a hundred years before the foundation of Rome. This is not the place to discuss the position of Phcenicians in history, even if there existed sufficient material to do so with satisfactory results. The Phoenicians have generally been regarded as a purely com mercial nation, forming a connecting link between the nations of antiquity, distributing the elements of culture, but producing little or no addition to the common stock. A fuller examination of Phoenician and Assyrian remains may serve to show us that this view needs correction. It is probable that a nation which gave its language to the Hebrews, and its alphabet to the Greeks, and which, after profoundly influencing both these factors of modern civiliza tion, consolidated an empire which for four hundred years held its own against the preponderance of Greece and Rome, possessed a greater individuality of development than has been usually accorded to it. Phoenicians have had the mis fortune of being for the most part described by their enemies. We must receive with caution the accounts given us by the Jews of Canaanitish cruelty, or by the Romans of Carthaginian dishonesty. The relations of native historians both of the mother-city and of her chief colony have come down to us in a garbled and fragmentary form. Our bast hope of more perfect knowledge lies in the deciphering of contemporary inscriptions. The name Cartago (the city was called Karthada by the Phoenicians, and Kap^^Swv by the Greeks) signifies New City. The inhabitants called themselves Canaanites, or inhabitants of the plain. The Romans used the name Pceni or Punici, the Latin form of ^oiVt/ces, which either signifies &quot; red men,&quot; or refers to the palms which were the chief products, and the principal emblem of the Syrian coast. We gather from this that the first knowledge of Phoenicians was gained by the Romans from the Greeks, but the name Sarranus given to Phoenician wares, and the name Carthago itself, shows us that their knowledge of the chief products of Syrian merchandize, and of the existence of their rival city, was gained independently. Carthage was the youngest Phoenician colony founded in the territory, which she after wards subdued. Utica, Tunis, and Hadrumetum lay close to her in the district of Zeugitana, Hippo a short distance to the west, Leptis to the east. As these towns, with the exception of Utica, eventually became subject to her, she rose like Rome on the ruins of older towns, and she owed her success to the same cause, the possession of a situation of superior commercial capabilities. We propose to give first a sketch of the history, next of the constitution, and lastly of the topography of the city.

The history of ancient Carthage divides itself naturally into three periods : the first extends from about 850 to 410 B.C., from the foundation of the city to the beginning of the wars with Syracuse; the second from 410 to 265 B.C., the beginning of the wars with Rome ; the third from the commencement of the Roman (or Punic) wars till the destruction of the city, 146 B.C. It will then remain to remark the fortunes of the restored city until its destruction by the Arabs in 638 A.D. The first period of four centuries and a half contains the rise of the Carthaginian dominion and the culmination of its prosperity. Her empire was extended from the Straits of Gibraltar to the altars of the i, near the Great Syrtis, where she touched on the territory of Gyrene. She possessed as provinces Sardinia, the Balearic Islands, and Malta, and a few settlements in Spain and Gaul. She had subdued the neighbouring states founded from Phoenicia with the exception of Utica, and drew a large revenue from the corn lands of Byzacium and Emporia, situated on the coast south-east of the city. In Africa her subjects consisted of three classes (1) Libyo- Phcenicians, (2) Libyans, and (3) Nomads. The first were of a mixed race, the product of intermarriages be tween the native Libyans and the Carthaginians or earlier settlers from Phoenicia. They cultivated the fields of Zeugitana, but were regarded with suspicion by the Carthaginians of pure blood. The Libyans, although completely subdued by Carthage, were of an entirely different race, and to a great extent did not understand the Punic language. At first they received a rent from the new settlers for the ground they occupied, but this was after wards refused. They formed the staple of the Cartha ginian army. Entire difference of race made it impossible for the new settlers to amalgamate with the original inhabitants, and the hard treatment they received led them to join the mercenaries in a revolt against their masters. Outside these limits the rest of the territory of Carthage was occupied by Nomads, who owed her a loose allegiance. They supplied her with mercenary troops, especially cavalry ; but their fidelity could not be depended upon, and the Romans finally subdued Carthage by their assistance. Among these Nomad tribes were situated various cities, colonized partly from Carthage and partly from the mother- country. Towards the south the dominion of Carthage extended as far as Lake Tritonis, connected by a canal with the Lesser Syrtis. The foreign conquests of Carthage were undertaken with the object of securing her commerce. Justin tells us of a king, Malchus (the Latin form of the royal title), who after successes in Africa and Sicily was defeated in Sardinia, and turned his arms against his country. He must have lived between 600 and 550 B.C. A more historical personage is his successor Mago (between 550 and 500 B.C.), said to be the founder of the military power of the Carthaginians. His sons were Hasdrubal and Hamilcar, his grandsons Hannibal, Hasdrubal, and Sappho, sons of Hasdrubal, and Himilco, Hanno, and Gisco, sons of Hamilcar. By the energy of this family the Carthaginian empire was established over Sardinia, which was not lost till after the first Punic war, over the Balearic Islands and part of Sicily, and over portions of Liguria and Gaul. There are, however, few events of which the chronology is certain. The first is the sea fight between the Etruscans and Carthaginians on the one hand and the Phocseans of Aleria in Corsica on the other, which occurred in 536 B.C. The Phocreans, driven from Asia Minor by Harpagus in 564, had settled at Aleria or Alalia in Corsica, but engaged in piracy, which demanded the interference of the com mercial naval powers. The Phocseans won the battle, but with such loss that they abandoned Corsica, and settled at Velia in Italy. Polybius has preserved three treaties between Carthage and Rome, the first of which belongs to the year 509 B.C., the second probably to the period between 480 and 410 B.C. Their object is to restrict Roman commerce in Punic waters, and it is noticeable that the second treaty prescribes stricter limits than the first, and testifies to a considerable superiority of Carthage over Rome. To the period of about 500 B.C. belong the expedi tions of Hanno and Himilco, the one to found colonies on the west coast of Africa, which was probably explored as far as the mouths of the Senegal and Gambia, the other to obtain a knowledge of the Atlantic, which resulted in tb.e discovery of Britain. But the most important event of the 