390 plint's fatijral nisTOEX. [Book V. 



lony^ of Carfhage, founded upon the remains of Great Car- 

 thage^, the colony of Maxula^ the towns of Carpi'*, Misua, 

 and Clypea^, the last a free town, on the Promontory of 

 Mercury ; also Curubis, a free town^, and Neapolis^ 



Here commences the second division^ of Africa properly 

 so called. Those who inhabit Byzacium have the name of 

 Libyphcenices^. Byzacium is the name of a district which 

 is 250 miles in circumference, and is remarkable for its ex- 

 treme fertility, as the ground returns the seed sown by the 

 husbandman with interest a hundred-fold ^°. Here are the 



nus the Elder first encamped, on landing in Africa, B.C. 204. Csesar de- 

 scribes this spot, in liis description of Cui*io's operations against Utica, 

 B. C. b. ii. c. 24, 25. This spot is now called Ghellah. 



J^ This colony was first established by Caius Gracchus, who sent 6000 

 settlers to found on the site of Carthage the new city of Junonia. The 

 Roman senate afterwards annulled this with the other acts of 

 "G-racchus. Under Augustus however the new city of Carthage was 

 founded, which, when Strabo wrote, was as prosperous as any city in 

 Africa. It was made, in place of Utica, which had favom*ed the Pom- 

 peian party, the seat of the proconsul of Old Africa. It stood on the 

 peninsula terminated by Ras-Sidi-Bou-Said, Cape Carthage or Car- 

 thagena. As Gibbon has remarked, "The place might be unknown if 

 some broken arches of an aqueduct did not guide the footsteps of the 

 inquisitive traveller." 



2 The original city of Carthage was called ' Carthago Magna' to di- 

 stinguish it from New Carthage and Old Carthage, colonies in Spain. 



3 Now Ehades, according to Marcus. 



^ Marcus identifies it with the modern Gurtos. 



5 By the Greeks called ' Aspis.' It derived its Greek and Roman names 

 from its site on a hiU of a shield-hke shape. It was built by Agathocles, 

 the Sicilian, B.C. 310. In the first Punic war it was the landuig-place 

 of Manlius and Regulu.s, whose first action was to take it, B.C. 256. Its 

 site is stiU known as Kalebiah, and its ruins are pecuharly interesting. 

 The site of Misua is occupied by Sidi-Doud, according to Shaw and 

 DAnvHle. 



fi Shaw informs us that an inscription foimd on the spot designates this 

 place as a colony, not a free city or town. Its present name is Kurbah. 



7 The present Nabal, according to DAnville. 



^ Zeugitana extended from the river Tusca to Horrea-Coeha, and Byza- 

 cium from this last place to Thenge. 



3 As sprung partly from the Phoenician immigrants, and partly from ' 

 the native Libyans or Africans. 



JO Phny says, B. xvii. c. 3, "A hundred and fifty fold." From Shaw 

 we learn that this fertility no longer exists, the fields producing not more 

 than eight- or at most twelve-fold. 



