578 



CARTHAGE. 



Carthage, important actions, succeeded in protracting the war 

 ^ -y ' for a considerable period. The craft and the perse- 

 verance of Genseric finally prevailed : the whole of 

 the fruitful provinces from Tangier to Tripoli were 

 jn succession overwhelmed, and Carthage itself was 

 at length surprised ; five hundred and eighty-five 

 years after the destruction of the city and republic 

 by the younger Scipio. The stern barbarian carried 

 on the work of desolation in a manner the most sys- 

 tematic and unrelenting. Carthage never recovered 

 the blow ; its very name is scarcely to be found in 

 the records of subsequent historians. 



Site of Car- Several modern travellers have visited the ruins of 

 thage. Carthage. We shall give extracts from two of them : 

 from Shaw, because he is unquestionably the most 

 learned; and from De Chateaubriand, because his vi- 

 sit was most recent. Shaw's account is as follows. 



" Carthage has not much better supported itself 

 against the encroachments of the north-east wind and 

 the Mejerdah, which together have stopped up its 

 ancient harbour, and made it almost as far distant 

 from the sea as Utica. The place is still called El 

 Mersa, the port, lying to the north and north-west of 

 the city, and forms with the lake of Tunis the penin- 

 sula upon which Carthage was built. Upon the 

 other side of the peninsula, Carthage hath been a lo- 

 ser by the sea, for in that direction near three fur- 

 longs in length, and half a furlong or more in breadth, 

 lieth under water. A little to the northward of 

 these ruins, but to the south-east of El Mersa, are 

 the traces of a Cothon, scarcely a hundred yards 

 square. This was probably the new port which the 

 Carthaginians built after Scipio had blocked up the 

 old ; and might be the same that was called Mundra- 

 cium in the time of Procopius. The greatest part 

 of Carthage hath been erected on three hills, inferior 

 in elevation to those on which Rome was built. 

 Upon that which overlooketh the south-east, there is 

 the area of a spacious room, with several smaller ones 

 by it. Some of them had tessekvted pavements, but 

 neither the design nor the materials are worthy of no- 

 tice. The Byrsa, I presume, had formerly this situ- 

 ation. In rowing along the shore, the common sewers 

 discover themselves ; which, being well built at first, 

 time hath not in the least injured or impaired. The 

 cisterns are other structures which have submitted 

 the least to the general ruin of the city. Besides 

 those appertaining to particular houses, there were 

 two sets belonging to the public ; the greater where- 

 of, which was the grand reservoir of the aqueduct, 

 lay near the western wail of the city, and consisted of 

 more than twenty contiguous cisterns, each of them 

 about 100 feet long and 30 broad. The lesser is in 

 a higher situation, near the Cothon ; having been 

 niade to collect the rain-water which fell on the top 

 of it, and upon some adjacent pavements made for 

 that purpose. This might be repaired with little ex- 

 pence ; the small earthen pipes through which the 

 rain water was conducted wanting only to be cleaned. 

 Besides these, there are no other tokens left us of the 

 grandeur and magnificence of this ancient city, the 

 rival of Rome : we even meet with no triumphal 

 arch, or sculptured piece of architecture ; no granite 

 pillars, or curious entablatures ; but the broken walls 



and structures that remain to this day, are either built Carthage. 

 in the Gothic manner, or according to that of the ^ 

 later inhabitants." Shaw's Travels, p. 150 154s 



The account given by Chateaubriand differs from 

 this in many respects ; differences which it would be 

 impossible to reconcile or decide upon, without an 

 actual inspection. We subjoin it in his own words : 

 " The ship in which I left Alexandria having arrived 

 in the port of Tunis, we cast anchor opposite to the 

 ruins of Carthage. I looked at them, but was unable 

 to make out what they could be. I perceived a few 

 Moorish huts, a Mahometan hermitage at the point 

 of a projecting cape, sheep browzing among the 

 ruins ; ruins so far from striking, that I could 

 scarcely distinguish them from the ground on which 

 they lay. This was Carthage." ,' In order to dis- 

 cover these ruins, it is necessary to. go methodically 

 to work. I suppose then, that the reader sets out 

 with me from the fort of Golteltu, standing upon the 

 canal by which the lake of Tunis discharges itself 

 into the sea. Riding along the shore in an east-north- 

 east direction, you come in about half an hour to 

 some salt- pits, which extend towards the west. Pas- 

 sing between these salt-pits and the sea, you begin 

 to discover jetties running out to a considerable dis- 

 tance under water. The sea and the jetties are on 

 your right ; on your left you perceive a great quan- 

 tity of ruins upon eminences of unequal height, and 

 below these ruins is a basin of a circular form and of 

 considerable depth, which formerly communicated 

 with the sea by means of a canal, traces of which are 

 still to be seen. This basin must be, in my opinion, 

 the Cothon or inner port of Carthage. The remains 

 of the immense works discernible in the sea would, 

 in this case, indicate the site of the outer mole. If I 

 am not mistaken, some piles of the dam constructed 

 by Scipio for the purpose of blocking up the port, 

 may still be distinguished. I also observe a second 

 inner canal, which may have been the cut made by 

 the Carthaginians when they opened a new passage 

 for the fleet." 



Having now settled the situation of the ports, the 

 rest will not detain us long. I suppose that we have 

 pursued our way along the coast to the angle from 

 which the promontory of Carthage projects. This 

 cape was never included in the city. .Leaving the 

 sea, and striking off to the left, we first find the re- 

 mains of a very extensive edifice, which seems to have 

 formed part of a palace or of a theatre. Above this 

 edifice, ascending to the west, you come to the beau- 

 tiful cisterns, which are generally accounted the city 

 relics of ancient Carthage : they were probably sup- 

 plied with water from an aqueduct, some fragments 

 of which may be seen in the plain. This aqueduct 

 was fifty miles in length, commencing at the springs 

 of Zawan and Zangar. There were temples above 

 these springs. The largest arches of the aqueduct 

 are seventy feet high, and the columns which support 

 these arches are sixteen feet square. The cisterns 

 are prodigious ; they form a series of vaults com- 

 municating with each other, and are bordered through- 

 out their whole length with a corridor. This is a 

 truly magnificent work. A rugged road leads from 

 the public cisterns to the hill of Byrsa, from the sum- 

 mit of which the eye embraces the ruins of Carthage, 



