Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 2).djvu/143

 and the Libyan desert allowed the Romanized region a breadth which varied from fifty to two hundred miles.

Carthage was situated on the shore of a small bay, and faced to the east, over against the Hermaean promontory, looking towards Sicily from a distance of one hundred and twenty-five miles. Being essentially a maritime capital it was distinguished by the extent of the accommodation it offered to shipping; and for more than a mile along its seaward aspect was bounded by a line of quays protected by a series of breakwaters from the violence of the waves. On the south an inner harbour, called the Mandracium, artificially constructed, was entered by a narrow channel defended by the usual device of a chain. Still lower down a natural expanse of water, land-locked and of considerable area, known as the Stagnum, was capable of receiving a vast congregation of vessels. The Mandracium was circular in form, and contained in its centre a small island of the same shape. The annular channel thus formed was bordered all round on both sides by colonnades which extended into the water. A