560 



CARTHAGE. 





Cajthage- C/ARTHAGE, the chief city of Africa Propria,* situa- 

 T" / ted in longitude 10 40' east, latitude 36 40' north. 

 The materials we possess for composing a history of 

 the Carthaginians, bear no proportion to the import- 

 ance of the subject. Every page of ancient history 

 contains some reference to this remarkable people, 

 aome circumstance with which they were directly or 

 indirectly concerned ; yet are we almost wholly igno- 

 rant of their internal polity, and of all the secret 

 springs which gave energy to their exertions. We 

 find them bearing a part in the most important trans- 

 actions of the civilized states, pushing their maritime 

 discoveries and their system of colonization into the 

 remotest regions, and at last striving with Rome her- 

 self for the mastery of the world : Yet of their re- 

 sources we know scarcely any thing, except from 

 analogy and conjecture ; and of the events of their 

 domestic history our accounts are meagre and unsa- 

 tisfactory. The information we possess is for the 

 most part derived from the casual notices of the 

 Greek and Roman historians, few of whom had the 

 opportunity, some, as it appears, not even the incli- 

 nation, to give fidelity and accuracy to their narra- 

 tives. It is our business, therefore, to put together 

 the fragments which (without a metaphor) lie scat- 

 tered throughout the ancient historians : from these 

 something like a continuous narrative may be formed ; 

 though still we must content ourselves with a partial 

 and imperfect knowledge of many important points. 

 According to Procopius, ( De Bella Fund. lib. ii. 

 c. 10.) the whole district of Africa, from Egypt to 

 the Pillars of Hercules, was first peopled by the 

 tribes that fled before Joshua from the countries of 

 Canaan ; and it seems unquestionable, that the sys- 

 tem of colonization which had been begun by the 

 great Phoenician cities, received a very powerful im- 

 pulse from the revolution which that conquest pro- 

 duced : an impulse which was felt, not only on the 

 northern shore of Africa, but throughout all the 

 countries of Europe. It is impossible to reconcile 

 the various and contradictory accounts of the founda- 

 tion of Carthage, in any way but by supposing, that 

 they may have reference to the different stages of 

 settlements made on that part of the African coast j 

 and this supposition is strengthened by the authori- 

 ty of Sallust, (De Bell. Jug. c. 18.) Petavius has 

 bestowed great pains on this most difficult point of 

 chronology. He enumerates (lib. ix. cap. 62.) all 

 the statements which he had been able to discover. 

 The opinion he adopts is, that it was founded about 

 the middle of the ninth century before Christ. This 



Founda 

 tion of 

 Carthage 



nearly falls in with Sir Isaac Newton's conclusion ; Carthag 

 and Blair, whose Tables we follow throughout, co- x "Y"** 

 incides with it, placing the building of Carthage ante 

 Christ. 869. We are perhaps justified in assuming 

 this date as sufficiently exact, since it tallies very 

 closely with the period at which the Phoenicians be- 

 gan to obtain naval ascendency in the Mediterranean. 

 The dominion of the seas had been obtained by the 

 Lydians, the Thracians, the Rhodians, the Phry- 

 gians, and the Cyprians ; the people of Phoenicia had 

 now, in their turn, succeeded to it, and they main- 

 tained it in undisputed possession for upwards of 

 200 years. To this period we may, without hesita- 

 tion, refer the adventures of ElissaorDido -f- ; who, as 

 Justin informs us, quitted Tyre at the head of a nu- 

 merous colony, to avoid the oppression of her brother , 

 Pygmalion. After touching at Cyprus, where she ob- 

 tained an addition to her numbers, she proceeded to 

 the African coast. A Phoenician settlement had 

 been previously established at Utica, by which they 

 were gladly received ; the natives, too, welcomed their 

 arrival, being eager to avail themselves of the com- 

 mercial advantages which the arrival of the strangers 

 held out. A negociation was speedily entered upon 

 for an allotment of land ; the artifice which Dido ia 

 said to have practised in obtaining the allotment, is 

 well known : She covenanted for as much land as 

 the hide of an ox would inclose, (quantum loci bovis 

 tergo circumdare polucrint ) ; then cutting the hide 

 into shreds, she claimed as much as she could sur- 

 round with them. The site of the infant colony was- 

 well chosen. A bold projection of the African coast 

 marks almost exactly the central point of the south- 

 ern shore of the Mediterranean. A noble bay, form- 

 ed by the promontories of Juno and Apollo, supplies 

 all the advantages of a sheltered and capacious road- 

 stead. At the bottom of this bay stretches a penin- 

 sula, 360 stadia, or about 45 miles, in circumference,, 

 connected with the mainland by an isthmus of the 

 breadth of little more than three miles, (25 stadia). 

 Upon this isthmus Dido laid the foundation of her 

 new town. 



It may not, perhaps, be unseasonable to give by 

 anticipation, in this place, a description of the town 

 as it existed at the period of its greatest splendour. 

 Several writers have left us minute accounts of its- 

 situation and appearance at the beginning of the se- 

 cond Punic war ; by comparing and contrasting these 

 accounts, we may be enabled to form some idea of its 

 extent and magnificence. 



The city consisted of three parts : Byrsa, or the 



* There are some slight differences amongst the ancient geographers respecting the extent of the country which was called 

 Africa Propria. Mela (lib. i. c. 7.) describes it as containing all the countries situated between the river Ampsaga and the 

 borders of Cyrenaica : But this would include part of Numidia and Regio Syrtica, which must be considered as distinct from 

 the proper territory of Carthage. Its true limits seem to have been, the river Tusca on the west, the frontier of the Garaman- 

 tes and the desarts of Libya Interior on the south, and the Mediterranean with the Lesser Syrtis to the north and east. It 

 was divided into two provinces, Regio Zeugitana to the west, and Byzacium or Emporia to the east. 



f The name Dido appears to have been only a characteristic appellative, signifying, according to Serrias, a virago ;' but 

 Sochart chews, that it meant a ' wanderer.' 



