390 
pliny's natural history. 
[Book V. 
lony^ of Carthage, 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 ^sTeapolis''. 
Here commences the second division^ of Africa properly 
so called. Those who inhabit Byzacium have the name of 
Libyphoenices^. 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 
nils the Elder first encamped, on landing in Africa, B.C. 204. Csesar de- 
scribes this spot, in his description of Curio's operations against Utica, 
B. C. b. ii. c. 24, 25. This spot is now called Grhellah. 
1 This colony was first established by Caius Grracchus, 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 
Gracchus. 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 favoured the Pom- 
peian party, the seat of the proconsul of Old Africa. It stood on the 
peninsula terminated by Kas-Sidi-Bou-Said, Cape Carthage or Car- 
thagena. As Gribbon has remarked, "The place might be unknown if 
some broken arches of an aqueduct did not guide the footsteps of the 
inquisitive traveller." 
2 Ttie original city of Carthage was called ' Carthago Magna' to di- 
stinguish it from New Carthage and Old Carthage, colonies in Spain. 
3 Now Rhades, according to Marcus. 
^ Marcus identifies it with the modern Grurtos. 
s By the Grreeks called ' Aspis.' It derived its Grreek and Roman names 
from its site on a hiU of a shield-hke shape. It was built by Agathocles, 
the Sicihan, B.C. 310. In the first Punic war it was the landing-place 
of Manlius and Regulus, whose first action was to take it, B.C. 256. Its 
site is still known as Kalebiah, and its ruins are peculiarly interesting. 
The site of Misua is occupied by Sidi-Doud, according to Shaw and 
DAnville. 
6 Shaw informs us that an inscription found on the spot designates this 
place as a colony, not a fi'ee city or town. Its present name is Kurbah. 
7. The present Nabal, according to D Anville. 
8 Zeugitana extended from the river Tusca to Horrea-CseHa, and Byza- 
cium from this last place to Thense. ■ _ 
9 As sprung partly from the Phoenician immigrants, and partly fr'om * 
the native Libyans or Africans. 
Pliny says, B. xvii. c. 3, "A hundred and fifty fold." Prom Shaw • 
we learn that this fertility no longer exists, the fields producmg not more 
than eight- or at most twelve-fold. 
