S81 



CARTHAGE. 



CARTHAGE. 



when they destroyed that city, and which was translated by D. 

 Silanus. but is unfortunately lo*t. 



The Carthaginians derived their ordinary public revenue, 1, from 

 the tuxes paid by the provinces (the district of the Emporia, Sicily, 

 Sardinia, &c.) in produce, and by the cities in money ; 2, from import 

 duties, which were rigorously levii-d ; and 3, the produce of the 

 Spanish miues, which during the second Punic war sufficed alone to 

 pay the military expenses of the state. The chief state offices of the home 

 government were held without salary. The great demands on the trea- 

 sury therefore were for the maintenance of the military forces and the 

 expenses of colonial and commercial expenditure. Commercial inter- 

 course with foreigners was carried on by barter. Manufactures and 

 mechanical arts nourished, and great wealth flowed into the city by 

 the importation of the precious metals, tin, &c. from Spain and 

 elsewhere. Gold and silver were the standard of value at Carthage, 

 but there ia a string probability that the republic cjiued no money, 

 although the coins of other cities were doubtless current. We believe 

 that not a single genuine coin of Carthage previous to her becoming a 

 Roman city exists. The only money recorded as peculiar to tie republic 

 was a token consisting of a substance inclosed in leather, sealed, and 

 bearing the stamp of the state, the whole being of the size and value of 

 a t^tradrachm. What the inclosed substance was, was kept secret. 



The foreign trade of the Carthaginians was a system of monopolies 

 grasping and jealous. They carried on a very extensive inland trade 

 with the interior of Africa by the agency of the nomad tribes, espe- 

 cially the Nasamoues. This trade extended to the Nile on one side, 

 to the Niger on the other, and to the intervening oases ; their chief 

 importations from these regions being precious stones and a vast 

 number of negro slaves. The maritime commerce of Carthage 

 extended to all her own possessions and to the shores of the states 

 in the western part of the Mediterranean. Oil and wine were 

 imported from Sicily and South Italy for her own use and the markets 

 of Cyreue ; linen a4 fine cloth were imported from Malta for the 

 African and other markets ; wax, honey, and slaves from Corsica ; iron 

 from iKthalia (now Elba), and mules and fruits from the Balearic Isles. 

 The Balearic Isles (before the conquest of Spain)' were chiefly of im- 

 portance as a station connected with the Spanish trade in oil, wine, and 

 precious metals. The trade with Gaul was also probably carried on from 

 the Baleares. Beyond the Strait of Hercules their trade extended to 

 the tin and amber producing countries of Northern Europe ; aud along 

 the west coast of Africa their colonies reached as far south as the 

 Island of Cerne, where they bartered ornament*, wine, vessels, and 

 Egyptian linen for elephants' teeth and hides. It is not improbable 

 that they reached the gold producing countries about the Niger, and 

 that their trading expeditions may have reached the Azores ; but like 

 then* Phoenician ancestors the Carthaginians told exaggerated tales of 

 the dangers of the Atlantic for the purpose of deterring other mariners 

 from entering upon that commercial field. Carthage in her early 

 treaties with Home shows her object to be to exclude foreign merchants 

 from all ports but her own ; and her own colonies she regarded 

 merely as means to extend her trade. The city exercised by means 

 of her trading factories and colonies an imperial authority in a 

 greater or less degree over all the north coast of Africa, from the 

 Pillars of Hercules to the bottom of the Great Syrtis, where the 

 A no Philienorum fixed the boundary towards Gyrene. 



The intercourse of the Carthaginians with Tyre seems to have 

 been very closely maintained. We read in Josephus (' Cont. Apion.' 

 lib. i.) that they sent assistance to the Tyrians when besieged by the 

 king of Babylon about B.C. 600, aud afterwards when Tyre was 

 besieged and taken by Alexander the Great, the Carthaginians 

 afforded a refuge to the women, children, aud old men of Tyre. 



lingo wag the first who made Carthage a conquering nation. He 

 i said to have freed his country from the tribute or rent which they 

 still paid to the Libyans for the original ground on which they built 

 their city. It was the policy of Carthage to establish colonies 

 among the Libyans, by means of which a mixed race was formed, 

 called by Polybius Libyo Phoenicians, as distinguished both from the 

 pure Phoenicians of Carthage, Utica, and other maritime towns, and 

 from the Nomades or Numidians of the interior. These Libyans, 

 among whom the Carthaginians settled, were husbandmen, or forced 

 to become such by the intruders. They had fixed habitations, and 

 the/ are evidently the same whom Herodotus mentions as living 

 north of the Lake Tritonis, and distinguishes from the Nomadic 

 Libyans. [AFRICA.] They consisted of several tribes which in 

 course of time made together one body of subjects of the republic. 



The military resources of Carthage were chiefly her powerful fleets 

 and her armies of mercenaries. Although the Carthaginians were 

 generally unlucky in their sea fights, their fleets were truly formid- 

 able in point of numbers. In the First Punic War th.-y had 350 ships 

 of war, carrying 150,000 men, in the great engagement at sea with 

 Regulun, B.o. 254. The navy consisted during the Sicilian wars of 

 triremes, in the Roman wars of quinquiremes, carrying 120 fighting 

 men and 300 rowers. The rowers were public slaves, bought in the 

 interior of Africa. After thrir repeated defeats at sea by the Romans, 

 and the loss of their chief insular possessions, the naval power of 

 Carthage was of little importance, and the republic adopting the 

 policy of the Barciue family afterwards fought its battles by land 

 rather than by sea. 



The army was composed of the Libyan subjects of Carthage, who 

 were forced to serve as they were forced to till the ground ; and of 

 mercenaries, collected not only from the moumdic tribes of Africa, 

 but from nearly all the countries of Western Europe. The officers 

 were all Carthaginians. There was also in every Carthaginian army a 

 body of infantry, consisting of 2500 citizens called the ' Sacred Band,' 

 which formed the general's bodyguard ; they were selected for their 

 rank, wealth, and courage, and were distinguished by -their rich and 

 splendid armour. Upon dangerous emergencies all the citizens 

 turned out as soldiers ; to meet Agathocles 40,000 heavy-armed 

 infantry, 1000 cavalry, and 200 war-chariots marched out of the gates 

 of Carthage ; and the desperate defence of the city during its final 

 siege by Scipio proves the warlike mettle of the descendants of 

 the Phoenicians. The Libyans formed the chief part of the infantry 

 and heavy cavalry, and were armed with long lances. The Iberians, 

 dressed in white linen vests, had swords with which to cut or thrust. 

 The Gauls fought naked with broadswords. The Balearic slingers 

 and the nomad cavalry were two descriptions of force peculiar to the 

 Punic armies. This cavalry was hired among the nomad tribes all 

 along the north of Africa. They rode on small well-trained active 

 horses, without saddle and without bridle, for they <vere guided by 

 a rush halter. A lion's skin served them for dress and bed, and a 

 piece of elephant's hide for shield. War-chariots were used in the 

 Sicilian wars ; but they were superseded in the struggles with Rome 

 by elephants, the use of which they had probably learned from Pyr- 

 rhus. In time of peace only the garrisons for the city and the foreign 

 possessions were kept up. The military system of Carthage had two 

 great sources of danger, which are respectively pointed out by Grote 

 and Heeren namely, the want of attachment to the cause in which 

 they (the mercenary armies) fought, and the impossibility of calling 

 a mercenary army together in a short time so as to meet a sudden 

 attack. The main advantages of the system were a saving of the lives 

 of the citizens, and the dispensing with frreat military skill in the 

 generals, who till the appearance of Hannibal, made tBeir conquests 

 generally by overpowering numbers. 



The real territory of Carthage seems to have extended about 80 

 geographical miles southward from the city, and its boundaries were 

 about the same as those of the district named Zeugitaua, coinciding 

 nearly with the present state of Tunis. It included also the strip of coast 

 farther south, along which were Byzacium and the Emporia, or terri- 

 tory of the sea-port towns along the Lesser Syrtis. These districts 

 consisted of fertile plains, which were cultivated under the direction 

 of the nobles, and supplied most of the corn required for the con- 

 sumption of the city. But besides her close connection and alliance 

 with the older Phoenician cities, Utica, Leptis, Hippo, Hadrumetum, 

 the political influence and indirect sway of Carthage extended far 

 inland over many tributary native chiefs and nomad tribes. 



The Carthaginians early took possession of Melita (Malta), Gaulos 

 (Gozo), the Balearic, and Lipari isles, which had possibly been pre- 

 viously held by the Phoenicians. 



The first foreign conquest of importance attempted was Sardinia in 

 the first half of the tith century B.C., under Malchus, who failud ; it 

 was renewed by Hasdrubal and Hauiilcar, the sons of Mago. Has- 

 drubal, of whom we are told that he had been eleven times general, 

 fell in battle in Sardinia ; but his brother Hamilcar succeeded in 

 reducing the south part of the island, where the Carthaginians 

 settled the colonies of Caralis (now Cagliari) and Sulci. Sardinia 

 yielded Carthage corn, gold, aud silver. 



Corsica was first occupied by the Tyrrhenians, but the Carthagi- 

 nians early obtained a footing in it ; and the two nations united their 

 fleets to resist the Phocgeans of Aleria, who gained such a damaging 

 victory that they soon afterwards abandoned the island, B.C. 536. 

 The Tyrrhenians long maintained possession of a great part of tl'e 

 island, but in the Punic Wars it appears as a Carthaginian province. 



About B.C. 480 Hamilcar was sent to Sicily with a great force, 

 according to Diodorus, 300,000 men. This was (he first attempt of 

 Carthage to conquer that fine island, and it was made at the instiga- 

 tion of Anaxilas the tyrant of Messana, and of his son-in-law the 

 tyrant of Himera, who being expelled his country had taken refuge at 

 Carthage. TheCarthaginiaus landed at Panormus (which, like Soluutum 

 and Motya, was an old Phoenician settlement that came under the power 

 of Carthage on the decline of Tyre) and moved thence to besiege 

 Himera. Gelonthe tyrant of Syracuse came to the assistance of the place, 

 and by a stratagem surprised the Carthaginian camp, killed their com- 

 mander Hamilcar, set fire to the ships, and totally defeated their army. 

 The whole Carthaginian force was either destroyed or taken prisoners. 

 Herodotus says that the battle of Himera happened on the same day 

 as the battle of Salamis. On the news of the defeat the senate of 

 Carthage sent messengers to Gelon to request peace, which Gelon 

 granted, on condition that Carthage should pay 2000 talents and send 

 to Syracuse two ships completely equipped, and also that the Cartha- 

 ginians should abolish the cruel practice of sacrificing human victims 

 to Moloch. There was after this a period of 70 years of peace, during 

 which Carthag seems to have reached tho highest point of its com- 

 mercial prosperity. It was during this time that two fleets were sent 

 to explore the western coasts of Africa aud Europe. The first was 

 commanded by Hanno, son of Hamilcar, who hud died in Sicily. He 

 tcok out with him 30,000 colonist", of the rural population, whom lie 



