268 THE MEDITERRANEAN, PHYSICAL AND HISTORICAL. 



the coast from Oyrene to Numidia, besides having a considerable influ- 

 ence over the interior of the continent, so that the name of Africa, 

 given to their own dominions, was gradually applied to a whole quarter 

 of the globe. The ruling passion with the Carthaginians was love of 

 gain, not patriotism, and their wars were largely fought with mercena- 

 ries. It was the excellence of her civil constitution which, according 

 to Aristotle, kept in cohesion for centuries her straggling possessions. 

 A country feebly patriotic, which intrusts her defense to foreigners, 

 has the seeds of inevitable decay, which ripened in her struggle with 

 Eome, despite the warlike genius of Hamilcar and the devotion of the 

 magnanimous Hannibal. The gloomy and cruel religion of Carthage, 

 with its human sacrifices to Moloch and its worship of Baal under the 

 name of Melkarth, led to a criminal code of Draconic severity and 

 alienated it from surrounding nations. When the struggle with Kome 

 began, Carthage had no friends. The first Punic war was a contest for 

 the possession of Sicily, whose prosperity is even now attested by the 

 splendor of its Hellenic monuments. When Sicily was lost by the 

 Carthaginians, so also was the dominion of the sea, which hitherto 

 had been uncontested. The second Punic war resulted in the utter 

 prostration of Carthage and the loss of all her possessions out of 

 Africa, and in 201 b. c, when this war was ended, 552 years after 

 the foundation of the city, Rome was mistress of the world. 



The destruction of Carthage after the third Punic war was a heavy 

 blow to Mediterranean commerce. It was easy for Cato to utter his 

 stern Delenda est Carthago. Destruction is easy, but construction is 

 vastly more diflBcult. Although Augustus in his might built a new 

 Carthage near the site of the old city, he could never attract again the 

 trade of the Mediterranean, which had been diverted into other chan- 

 nels. Roman supremacy was unfavorable to the growth of commerce, 

 because, though she allowed unrestricted trade throughout her vast 

 empire and greatly improved internal communications in the subju- 

 gated countries, Rome itself absorbed the greater part of the wealth 

 and did not produce any commodities in return for its immense con- 

 sumption, therefore Mediterranean commerce did not thrive under the 

 Roman rule. The conquest of Carthage, Greece, Egypt, and the East 

 poured in riches to Rome, and dispensed for a time with the needs of 

 productive industry, but formed no enduring basis of prosperity. 



It is only in relation to the Mediterranean that I can refer to Roman 

 history; but 1 must allude to the interesting episode in the life of 

 Diocletian, who, after an anxious reign of 21 years in the eastern 

 division of the empire, abdicated at Nicomedia, and retired to his 

 native province of lllyria. He spent the rest of his life in rural pleas- 

 ures and horticulture at Salona, near which he built that splendid pal- 

 ace within the walls of which subsequently arose the modern city of 

 Spalato. Nothing more interesting exists on the shores of the Medi- 

 terranean than this extraordinary edifice, perhaps the largest that 



