Page:The influence of commerce on civilization (IA influenceofcomme00ellerich).pdf/13

7 foretold eclipses, which mapped out astronomical calculations, but also had in some of these ancient long forgotten cities a scientifically and perfectly arranged sanitary system of sewerage and drainage. That the ancients understood water is evinced in the present day by the embankments on the Yellow River, in China. These embankments were built 2,500 B.C. They are standing yet, and have ever since controlled the waters of this mighty river in flood. It may well be asked how many centuries did it require to instruct the Chinese engineers to possess the knowledge sufficient to measure the volume of flood waters and to build these embankments? Probably another 2,500 years. The question now comes: what caused all this disruption of commerce and effacement of civilization among these ancient peoples? We shall never truly know, but the probable cause may be learned by the consideration of the downfall of more modern nations. The Phoenicians whose commerce, as I have said, spread from India to the British Isles, embraced all the products of the then known world at Tyre, their capital. They formed colonies on the Mediterranean at Carthage, the modern French naval station Bizerta; and though their commerce was immense, extending to all parts of the then known world, they paid tribute to the Lybians, from whom they acquired a site for a trading centre. Enriched by commerce, they acquired the unrest which comes from prosperity, which has been the overthrow of other nations, and many individuals. They threw off the yoke of the Lybians, sent their fleets abroad to annex territory; and this brought them into conflict with Rome, the power then rising over the horizon, and eventually succumbed after many years of struggle to the Roman General, Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, at the battle of Zama, 9th October, 202 B.C., which general then and there gained for the Romans a decisive victory over Hannibal, the Punic commander. The tribute of the Phoenicians to civilization has been great. They invented the purple dye made from shellfish, which has only been superseded in later days by the dye from the central American insect the cochineal. The remains in literature of the