Carthage was founded by the Tyrians about the year of the world 3158,
and 846 before Christ; that is, at the period in which Joash was king of
Judah. Its empire lasted about seven hundred years.
The Carthaginians were indebted to the Tyrians not only for their
origin, but their manners, customs, laws, religion, and their general
application to commerce. They spoke the same language with the Tyrians,
and these the same with the Canaanites and Israelites; that is, the
Hebrew; or at least a language entirely derived from it.
The strict union, which always subsisted between the Phoenicians and
Carthaginians, is remarkable. When Cambyses had resolved to make war
upon the latter, the Phoenicians, who formed the chief strength of his
fleet, told him plainly, that they could not serve him against their
countrymen: and this declaration obliged that prince to lay aside his
design. The Carthaginians, on their side, were never forgetful of the
country from whence they came, and to which they owed their origin. They
sent regularly every year to Tyre a ship freighted with presents, as a
quit-rent or acknowledgment, paid to their ancient country; and its
tutelar gods had an annual sacrifice offered to them by the
Carthaginians, who considered them as their protectors. They never
failed to send thither the first fruits of their revenues, nor the tithe
of the spoils taken from their enemies, or offerings to Hercules, one of
the principal gods of Tyre and Carthage.
The foundation of Carthage is ascribed to Elisa, a Tyrian princess,
better known by the name of Dido. She married her relation, whose name
was Sichæus. Her brother was Pigmalion, king of Tyre. Sichæus being
extremely rich, Pigmalion put him to death in order to seize upon his
wealth; but the plan did not succeed; for Dido managed to elude his
avarice, by withdrawing from the city with all her husband's
possessions. Taking all these out to sea, she wandered about for some
time; till, coming to the gulf, on the borders of which Utica stood,
about fifteen miles from Tunis, then but too well known for its
corsairs, she landed for the purpose of considering what plan it would
be proper to pursue. Invited by the hope of profit, the people of the
neighbouring country soon began to frequent the new settlement; and
those brought others from more distant parts, and the town soon began to
wear an air of importance.
Utica having also been raised by a colony from Tyre, its inhabitants
entered into friendship with the new comers. They deputed envoys with
considerable presents and exhorted them to build a city. This
exhortation was seconded by the natives of the country. All things
conspiring to so great an object, Dido immediately entered into a treaty
with the natives for a certain portion of land, and having agreed to pay
an annual tribute to the Africans for the ground on which the town was
to stand, she built that celebrated city, so universally known, and gave
it the name of Carthada, or Carthage, a word signifying the "New
City[174]."
Dido was soon sought in marriage by the king of Getulia, named Iarbus.
Having determined on never marrying again, out of compliment to her lost
husband, Sichæus, she desired time for consideration. We must now follow
the true history, and neglect the false one; that is, we must follow
Justin, and altogether disregard Virgil; since, to answer the purposes
of his poem, as well as those of a political nature, he has fixed the
building of Carthage no less than three hundred years before the period
in which it actually occurred.
Justin's account is this[175]:--"Iarbus, king of the Mauritanians,
sending for ten of the principal Carthaginians, demanded Dido in
marriage, threatening to declare war against her in case of refusal. The
ambassadors, being afraid to deliver the message of Iarbus, told her,
with punic honesty, that he wanted to have some person sent him, who was
capable of civilizing and polishing himself and his Africans; but there
was no possibility of finding any Carthaginian, who would be willing to
quit his native place and kindred, for the conversation of barbarians,
who were as savage as the wildest beasts. Here the queen, with
indignation, interrupted them, asking if they were not ashamed to refuse
living in any manner which might be beneficial to their country, to
which they owed their lives. They then delivered the king's message, and
bade her set them a pattern, and sacrifice herself to her country's
welfare. Dido, being thus ensnared, called on Sichæus, with tears and
lamentations, and answered that she would go where the fate of her city
called her. At the expiration of three months she ascended the fatal
pile, and with her last breath told the spectators, that she was going
to her husband, as they had ordered her."
The first war made by the Carthaginians was against the Africans, in
order to free themselves from the tribute they had engaged to pay. In
this, however, they were foiled. They afterwards carried their arms
against the Moors and Numidians, and won conquest from both. They had
then a dispute with Cyrene, on account of their respective limits. This
quarrel was settled without much trouble. They soon after conquered
Sardinia, Majorca, and Minorca. Then they added many cities in Spain to
their conquests; though it is not known at what period they entered
that country, nor how far they extended their conquests. Their conquests
were slow at the first; but in the process of time, they subjugated
nearly the whole country. They became soon after masters of nearly all
Sicily. This excited the jealousy of the Romans; and Sicily became an
arena for the trial of their respective strength. "What a fine field of
battle," said Pyrrhus, as he left that island, "do we leave the
Carthaginians and Romans!"
The wars between Rome and Carthage were three, and they are called, in
the history of the former city, "Punic" wars. The first lasted
twenty-four years; then there was an interval of peace, but that expired
at the end of twenty-four years more. The second Punic war took up
seventeen years; and then ensued another interval of forty-nine years;
followed by the third Punic war, which terminated, after a contest of
four years and some months, in the total destruction of Carthage.
The first was terminated in a treaty to the following effect[176], that
"there shall be peace between the Carthaginians and Romans, on the
following conditions:--The Carthaginians shall evacuate all Sicily;
shall no longer make war against the Syracusans or their allies; shall
restore to the Romans, without ransom, all the prisoners whom they shall
have taken from them; pay one thousand talents of silver immediately;
and two thousand two hundred talents of silver within the space of ten
years; and, also, depart out of all the islands situated between Italy
and Sicily." Sardinia was not comprehended in this treaty; but they gave
it up in a treaty some years after. This was the longest war that had
then been known in any country; it having lasted four-and-twenty years.
"The obstinacy in disputing for empire," says the historian, "was equal
on both sides; the same resolution, the same greatness of soul, in
forming as well as in executing of projects being equal on both sides.
The Carthaginians had the superiority over the Romans, with regard to
naval affairs; the strength and swiftness of their vessels; the working
of them; the skill and capacity of their pilots; the knowledge of
coasts, shallows, roads and winds; and in the inexhaustible fund of
wealth which furnished all the expenses of so long and obstinate a war.
The qualities and capabilities of the Romans were of a different
character. They had none of the advantages above stated; but their
courage, and regard for the public good, are said to have supplied all
of them; and their soldiers were greatly superior to those of Carthage,
not only in skill but in courage.
The Carthaginians had scarcely closed the war with the Romans, than they
were engaged in another against the mercenaries who had served under
them in Sicily. This was a short but a very sanguinary war. These
mercenaries being returned to the neighbourhood of Carthage, were
unjustly treated, in not being paid the wages they had earned by the
assistance they had given. Complaints, seditious and insolent murmurs,
were heard on every side. These troops being composed of different
nations, who were strangers to one another's language, were incapable of
hearing reason when they once mutinied. They consisted of Gauls,
Ligurians, Spaniards, and natives of the Balearic islands; a great
number of Greek slaves and deserters; and a large number of Africans.
These troops having been trifled with by the Carthaginian government,
the members of which attempted to defraud them of no small share of what
they had earned, broke out into ungovernable fury, and being twenty
thousand strong, marched towards Carthage, and encamped at Tunis, a city
not far from the metropolis.
The insurgents now began to act the part their employers had set them
the example of. They rose in their demands far above what was due to
them; and the Carthaginians at length saw the error of having given way
to a dishonest policy. The points at issue, however, were at last, in a
great measure, arranged, when two soldiers among the mercenaries found
means to raise the whole of their comrades into mutiny, and engaged
several cities to take up their cause. Their army amounted, after a
while, to seventy thousand men. Carthage had never been in such urgent
danger before. The command of the army was given to Hanno. Troops were
levied by land and sea; horse as well as foot. All the citizens capable
of bearing arms were mustered; all their ships were refitted; and
mercenaries were enlisted from all parts. On the other hand, the
insurgents harassed them with perpetual alarms, advancing to their walls
by night as well as by day.
When the mercenaries, who had been left in Sardinia, heard of what their
comrades had effected in Africa, they shook off their yoke in
imitation, murdered the general who commanded them, and all the
Carthaginians who served under him; and a successor, who was sent from
Carthage, also the forces which had accompanied him, went over to the
rebels. They hung the new general on a cross, and put all the
Carthaginians then in Sardinia to the sword, after making them suffer
inexpressible torments. They then besieged all the cities one after
another, and soon got possession of the whole country.
When they had effected this, they quarrelled among themselves; and the
natives taking advantage of that, became soon enabled to drive them out
of the island. They took refuge in Italy, where, after some scruples on
the part of the Romans, they induced that people to sail over to
Sardinia, and render themselves masters of it. When the Carthaginians
heard of this, they were highly indignant; and the matter terminated, at
length, in what is called the Second Punic war.
This war had many remote causes besides the one we have just stated: but
for these, as well as its astonishing variety of incidents and fortunes,
we must refer to the various histories of the two states. We can only
state the issue. We cannot, however, deny ourselves the satisfaction of
quoting what Rollin says with regard to the general subject:--"Whether
we consider the boldness of the enterprises; the wisdom employed in the
execution; the obstinate efforts of the two rival nations, and the ready
resources they found in their lowest ebb of fortune; the variety of
uncommon events, and the uncertain issue of so long and bloody a war;
or, lastly, the assemblage of the most perfect models in every kind of
merit; we cannot but consider them as the most instructive lessons that
occur in history, either with regard to war, policy, or government.
Neither did two more powerful, or, at least, more warlike states or
nations make war against each other; and never had those in question
seen themselves raised to a more exalted pitch of power and glory."
Though, as we have already hinted, there were many remote causes for
this war, the more immediate one was the taking of Saguntum by the
Carthaginian general, Hannibal. We shall speak of the fall of this city
when we come to describe its ruins, which still remain.
Words, we are told, could never express the grief and consternation with
which the news of the taking of Saguntum was received at Rome. The
senate sent immediately deputies to Carthage to inquire whether Saguntum
had been besieged by order of the republic; and, if so, to declare war:
or, in case the siege had been undertaken solely by the authority of
Hannibal, that he should be delivered up to the Romans. The senate not
giving any answer to this demand, one of the deputies took up the folded
lappet of his robe, and said in a proud voice, "I bring here either
peace or war; the choice is left to yourselves." To this the senate
answered, "We leave the choice to you." The deputy then declared, "I
give you war then." "And we," answered the senate, "as heartily accept
it; and we are resolved to prosecute it with the same cheerfulness."
Such was the beginning of the second Punic war.
During this war Hannibal made his celebrated march over the Alps. He
entered Italy, and fought the battles of Ticinus, Trebia, Thrasymene,
and Cannæ. He besieged Capua, and then Rome. In the mean time Scipio
conquers all Spain; and having been appointed consul, he sets sail for
Africa, and carries the war into the bosom of the Carthaginian state.
Success attended him every where.
When the council of "one hundred" found this, they deputed thirty of
their body to the tent of the Roman general, when they all threw
themselves prostrate upon the earth, such being the custom of the
country, spoke to him in terms of great submission, and accused Hannibal
of being the author of all their calamities, and promised, in the name
of the senate, implicit obedience to whatever the Romans should be
pleased to ordain.
Scipio answered, that though he was come into Africa for conquest, and
not for peace, he would, nevertheless, grant them one, upon condition,
that they should deliver up all the Roman prisoners and deserters; that
they should recal their armies out of Gaul and Italy; that they should
never set foot again in Spain; that they should retire out of all the
islands between Italy and Africa; that they should deliver up all their
ships except twenty; give the Romans five hundred thousand bushels of
wheat; three hundred thousand of barley; and, moreover, pay to the
Romans fifteen thousand talents.
These terms the Carthaginians consented to; but their compliance was
only in appearance: their design being to gain time to recal Hannibal.
That general was then in Italy. Rome was almost within his grasp. He
had, perhaps, seized it, had he marched thither immediately on gaining
the battle of Cannæ. The order to return home overwhelmed him with
indignation and sorrow. "Never banished man," says Livy, "showed so much
regret at leaving his native country as Hannibal did in going out of
that of an enemy." He was exasperated almost to madness to see himself
thus forced to quit his prey. Arriving in his own country--for we must
hasten our narrative--that celebrated meeting between the two generals
at Zama took place, which makes so conspicuous a figure in Roman and
Carthaginian history.
The issue of this meeting was a battle, in which the Carthaginians,
after an obstinate engagement, took to flight, leaving ten thousand men
on the field of battle. Hannibal escaped in the tumult, and entering
Carthage, owned that he was overthrown; that the disaster was
irrecoverable; and that the citizens had no other choice left but to
accept whatever terms the conqueror chose to impose.
After some difficulty and opposition in the Carthaginian senate, peace
was agreed upon. The terms were exceedingly hard. They were these:--that
the Carthaginians should continue free and preserve their laws,
territories, and the cities they possessed in Africa during the war.
That they should deliver up to the Romans all deserters, slaves, and
captives belonging to them; all their ships, except ten triremes; all
their tame elephants; and that they should not train up any more for
war. That they should not make war out of Africa, nor even in that
country, without obtaining leave for that purpose of the Roman people;
should restore to Masinissa all they had dispossessed either him or his
ancestors of; should furnish money and corn to the Roman auxiliaries,
till their ambassadors should be returned from Rome; should pay to the
Romans ten thousand Euboic talents[177] of silver in fifty annual
payments, and give one hundred hostages, who should be nominated by
Scipio.
These were hard terms indeed; and when Scipio burnt all the ships, to
the amount of five hundred in the harbour of Carthage, these ships which
had been the cause of all the power of Carthage, Carthage appeared to
its inhabitants as if it never could recover; nor, indeed, did it ever
do so. The blow was fatal.
This war lasted seventeen years: the peace which succeeded, fifty[178].
Twenty-five years after it was concluded, Hannibal poisoned himself at
the court of Prusias.
We must now pass to the war, which soon after occurred between the
Carthaginians and Masinissa, king of Numidia. In this war the
Carthaginians were, in the end, worsted. Scipio the younger, who
afterwards destroyed Carthage, was present at the battle. He had been
sent by Lucullus, who commanded in Spain, to Masinissa to desire some
elephants. During the whole engagement, he is represented as standing
upon a neighbouring hill; and was greatly surprised to see Masinissa,
then eighty-eight years of age, mounted, agreeably to the custom of his
country, on a horse without a saddle, flying from rank to rank like a
young officer, and sustaining the most arduous toils. The fight was very
obstinate, and continued all day; but at last the Carthaginians gave
way, and Masinissa afterwards turned their camp into a blockade, so that
no provisions could reach them. A famine ensued, and then the plague.
They were, in consequence, reduced to agreeing to the king's terms,
which were no other than these:--to deliver up all deserters; to pay
five thousands talents of silver in fifty years, and restore all
exiles. They were, also, made to suffer the ignominy of passing under
the yoke; and dismissed with only one suit of clothes for each. Nor did
their misfortunes terminate here. Gulussa, the son of Masinissa, whom
the Carthaginians had treated in a disrespectful manner, intercepted
them with a body of cavalry. They could neither resist nor escape. The
consequence of which was, that out of fifty-eight thousand men only a
very few returned to Carthage.
During the latter part of the second Punic war, it was stated in the
Roman senate, that Rome could never be in safety while Carthage was
permitted to exist:--"Carthage," said Cato, at the close of all his
speeches, "must be destroyed." The time soon came, in which the threat
was to be carried into execution: and this brings us to the commencement
of the third and last Punic war. It lasted only four years; and yet it
terminated in the total ruin and destruction of Carthage.
This war arose out of that which the Carthaginians had waged against
Masinissa; that prince being an ally of the Romans. The vanquished party
sent to Rome to justify their proceedings. When the matter came to be
debated in the senate, Cato and Scipio were of different opinions.
Nasica desired the preservation of Carthage, in order that the people
might, who were grown excessively insolent, have something to fear.
Cato, on the other hand, thought, that as the people had become what
Nasica represented them, it was highly dangerous that so powerful an
enemy as Carthage should be allowed to remain. "They may one day conquer
us, so great is our prosperity." He was but lately returned from Africa;
and he represented in the senate, that he had not found Carthage
exhausted either of men or money. On the contrary, that it was full of
vigorous young men, and abounded with immense quantities of gold and
silver, and prodigious magazines of arms and all warlike stores; and
was, moreover, so haughty and confident on account of all this, that
their hopes and ambition had no bounds. On saying this, he took from the
lappet of his coat a few figs, and, throwing them on the table, and the
senators admiring them--he called out, "Know, this; it is but three days
those figs were gathered; so short is the distance between the enemy and
us."
The Carthaginians not having made good their cause in regard to their
conduct towards Masinissa, war was declared against them, and the
generals[179], who were charged with the command, received strict
injunctions not to end the war but with the destruction of Carthage.
These instructions the Carthaginians did not become acquainted with till
some time after. They, therefore, sent deputies to make all manner of
submission. They were even instructed to declare, if necessity required,
that they were willing to give themselves up, with all they possessed,
to the will and pleasure of the Romans. On arriving at Rome, the
deputies found that the war had been, before their arrival, already
proclaimed, and that the army had actually sailed. They therefore
returned to Carthage with certain proposals, in complying with which the
Romans declared they would be satisfied. Amongst the terms demanded were
three hundred hostages, the flower and the last hopes of the noblest
families in Carthage. No spectacle, we are told, was ever more moving:
nothing was heard but cries; nothing seen but tears; and all places
echoed with groans and lamentations. Above all, the unhappy mothers,
bathed in tears, tore their dishevelled hair, beat their breasts, and
expressed their grief in terms so moving, that even savage beasts might
have been moved to compassion. But the scene is stated to have been much
more moving when the fatal moment arrived when, after having accompanied
their children to the ship, they bade them a long and last farewell,
persuaded that they should never see them again. They wept a flood of
tears over them, embraced them with the utmost fondness, clasped them
eagerly in their arms, and could not be prevailed upon to part with
them, till they were forced away.
When the hostages arrived at Rome, the deputies were informed that when
they should arrive at Utica, the consuls would acquaint them with the
orders of the republic. The deputies, therefore, repaired to Utica,
where they received orders to deliver up, without delay, all their arms.
This command was put immediately in execution; and a long train of
waggons soon after arrived at the Roman camp, laden with two hundred
thousand complete sets of armour, a numberless multitude of darts and
javelins, with two thousand engines for shooting darts and stones. Then
followed the deputies, and a great number of the most venerable senators
and priests, who came with the hope of moving the Romans to compassion.
When they arrived, Censorinus addressed them in the following
manner:--"I cannot but commend the readiness with which you execute the
orders of the senate. They have commanded me to tell you, that it is
their will and pleasure, that you depart out of Carthage, which they
have resolved entirely to destroy; and that you remove into any other
part of your dominions you shall think proper, provided it be at the
distance of eight stadia (twelve miles) from the sea."
The instant the consul had pronounced this fulminating decree, nothing
was heard among the Carthaginians but shrieks and howlings. Being now in
a manner thunderstruck, they neither knew where they were, nor what
they did; but rolled themselves in the dust, tearing their clothes, and
unable to vent their grief any otherwise but by broken sighs and deep
groans. Being afterwards a little recovered, they lifted up their hands
with the air of suppliants, one moment towards the gods, and the next
towards the Romans, imploring their mercy and justice with regard to a
people, who would soon be reduced to the extremities of despair. But as
both the gods and men were deaf to their fervent prayers, they now
changed them into reproaches and imprecations; bidding the Romans call
to mind, that there were such beings as avenging deities, whose severe
eyes were ever open on guilt and treachery. The Romans themselves could
not refrain from tears at so moving a spectacle: but their resolution
was fixed. The deputies could not even prevail so far as to get the
execution of the order suspended, till they should have an opportunity
of presenting themselves again before the senate, if possible, to get it
revoked. They were forced to set out immediately, and carry the answer
to Carthage.
The people waited for their return, with such an impatience and terror,
as words can never express. It was scarcely possible for them to break
through the crowd that flocked around them, to hear the answer which was
but too strongly painted in their faces. When they were come into the
senate, and had declared the barbarous orders of the Romans, a general
shriek informed the people of their too lamentable fate; and from that
instant nothing was seen or heard in every part of the city but howling
and despair, madness and fury. The consuls made no great haste to march
against Carthage; not suspecting they had reason to be under
apprehension from that city, as it was now disarmed. However, the
inhabitants took advantage of this delay to put themselves in a posture
of defence, being all unanimously resolved not to quit the city. They
appointed, as a general, without the walls, Asdrubal, who was at the
head of twenty thousand men; and to whom deputies were sent accordingly,
to entreat him to forget, for his country's sake, the injustice which
had been done to him, from the dread they were under of the Romans. The
command of the troops, within the walls, was given to another Asdrubal,
grandson to Masinissa. They then applied themselves to making arms with
considerable expedition. The temples, the palaces, the open markets and
squares, were all changed into so many arsenals, where men and women
worked day and night. Every day were made one hundred and forty shields,
three hundred swords, five hundred pikes or javelins, a thousand arrows,
and a great number of engines to discharge them; and because they wanted
materials to make ropes, the women cut off their hair, and abundantly
supplied their wants on this occasion.
The combat, which was carried on from the tops of the houses, continued
six days, during which a dreadful slaughter was made. To clear the
streets, and make way for the troops, the Romans dragged aside with
hooks the bodies of such of the inhabitants as had been slain, or
precipitated headlong from the houses, and threw them into pits, the
greatest part of them being still alive and panting.
There was still reason to believe that the siege would last much longer,
and occasion a great effusion of blood. But on the seventh day there
appeared a company of men, in a suppliant posture and habit, who desired
no other conditions, but that the Romans would be pleased to spare the
lives of all those who should be willing to leave the citadel; which
request was granted them. The deserters only were excepted.
Accordingly, there came out fifty thousand men and women, who were sent
into the fields under a strong guard. The deserters were about nine
hundred. Finding they would be allowed no quarter, they fortified
themselves in the temple of Æsculapius, with Asdrubal, his wife, and two
children; where, though their number was but small, they might have held
out a long time, because the temple stood on a very high hill, upon
rocks, to which the ascent was by sixty steps. But, at last, exhausted
by hunger and watchings, oppressed with fear, and seeing their
destruction at hand, they lost all patience, when, abandoning the lower
part of the temple, they retired to the uppermost story, and resolved
not to quit it but with their lives.
In the mean time, Asdrubal, being desirous of saving his own life, came
down privately to Scipio, carrying an olive-branch in his hand, and
threw himself at his feet. Scipio showed him immediately to the
deserters, who, transported with rage and fury at the sight, vented
millions of imprecations against him, and set fire to the temple. Whilst
it was lighting, we are told that Asdrubal's wife, dressing herself as
splendidly as possible, and placing herself and her two children in
sight of Scipio, addressed him with a loud voice:--"I call not down,"
says she, "curses on thy head, O Roman, for thou only takest the
privilege allowed by the laws of war: but may the gods of Carthage, and
thou, in concert with them, punish, according to his deserts, the false
wretch who has betrayed his country, his gods, his wife, his children!"
Then directing herself to Asdrubal, "perfidious wretch!" says she, "thou
basest of creatures! this fire will presently consume both me and my
children; but as to thee, too shameful general of Carthage,--go,--adorn
the gay triumph of thy conqueror,--suffer, in the sight of all Rome, the
tortures thou so justly deservest!" She had no sooner pronounced these
words, but, seizing her children, she cut their throats, threw them into
the flames, and afterwards rushed into them herself; in which she was
imitated by all the deserters. With regard to Scipio, when he saw this
famous city, which had flourished seven hundred years, and might have
been compared to the greatest empires on account of the extent of its
dominions both by sea and land, its mighty armies, its fleets,
elephants, and riches, and that the Carthaginians were even superior to
other nations, by their courage and greatness of soul, as,
notwithstanding their being deprived of armies and ships, they had
sustained, for three whole years, all the hardships and calamities of a
long siege; seeing, I say, this city entirely ruined, historians relate,
that he could not refuse his tears to the unhappy fate of Carthage. He
reflected that cities, nations, and empires, are liable to revolutions
no less than particular men; that the like sad fate had attended Troy,
anciently so powerful; and in latter times, the Assyrians, Medes, and
Persians, whose dominions were once of so great an extent; and lastly,
the Macedonians, whose empire had been so glorious throughout the world.
Full of these mournful ideas, he repeated the following verses of
Homer:--
The day shall come, that great avenging day,
Which Troy's proud glories in the dust shall lay;
When Priam's powers, and Priam's self shall fall,
And one prodigious ruin follow all.
Thereby denouncing the future destiny of Rome, as he himself confessed
to Polybius, who desired Scipio to explain himself on that occasion.
Carthage being taken in this manner, Scipio gave the plunder of it (the
gold, silver, statues, and other offerings which should be found in the
temples excepted) to his soldiers for seven days. After this, adorning a
very small ship with the enemy's spoils, he sent it to Rome, with the
news of the victory. At the same time he ordered the inhabitants of
Sicily to come and take possession of the pictures and statues, which
the Carthaginians had plundered them of in former wars.
When the news of the taking of Carthage was brought to Rome, the people
abandoned themselves to the most immoderate transports of joy, as if the
public tranquillity had not been secured till that instant. All ranks
and degrees of men emulously strove who should show the greatest
gratitude towards the gods; and the citizens were, for many days,
employed wholly in solemn sacrifices, in public prayers, games, and
spectacles.
After those religious duties were ended, the senate sent ten
commissioners into Africa, to regulate, in conjunction with Scipio, the
fate and condition of that country in times to come. Their first care
was to demolish whatever was still remaining of Carthage: and we may
guess at the dimensions of this famous city by what Florus says, viz.,
that it was seventeen days on fire before it could be all consumed.
Rome, though mistress of almost the whole world, could not believe
herself safe as long as even the name of Carthage was in being. Orders
were given that it should never be inhabited again; and dreadful
imprecations were denounced against those, who, contrary to this
prohibition, should attempt to rebuild any parts of it. In the mean
time, every one, who desired it, was admitted to see Carthage; Scipio
being well pleased to have people view the sad ruins of a city, which
had dared to contend for empire with the majesty of Rome.[180]
Commerce, strictly speaking, was the occupation of Carthage, the
particular object of its industry, and its peculiar and predominant
characteristic. It formed the greatest strength and the chief support of
that commonwealth. In a word, it may be affirmed, that the power, the
conquests, the credit, and the glory of the Carthaginians, all flowed
from trade.
This gives Mr. Montague an opportunity of comparing Carthage with
England:--"To the commercial maxims of the Carthaginians, we have added
their insatiable lust of gain, without their economy, and contempt of
luxury and effeminacy. To the luxury and dissipation of the Romans, we
have joined their venality, without their military spirit: and we feel
the pernicious effects of the same species of faction, which was the
great leading cause to ruin in both those republics. The Roman
institution was formed to make and to preserve their conquests. Abroad
invincible, at home invulnerable, they possessed within themselves all
the resources requisite for a warlike nation. The military spirit of
their people, where every citizen was a soldier, furnished inexhaustible
supplies for their armies abroad, and secured them at home from all
attempts of invasion. The Carthaginian was better calculated to acquire
than to preserve. They depended upon commerce for the acquisition of
wealth, and upon their wealth for the protection of their commerce. They
owed their conquests to the venal blood and sinews of other people; and,
like their ancestors the Phoenicians, exhibited their money bags as
symbols of their power. They trusted too much to the valour of
foreigners, and too little to that of their own natives. Thus while they
were formidable abroad by their fleets and mercenary armies, they were
weak and defenceless at home. But the great event showed how dangerous
it is for the greatest commercial nation to rely on this kind of
mercantile policy; and that a nation of unarmed undisciplined traders
can never be a match, whilst they are so circumstanced, for a nation of
soldiers."
Notwithstanding the denunciations of the senate against all who should
attempt to rebuild Carthage, the senators were induced, in a very short
period, themselves to sanction the undertaking.
When Marius took refuge in Africa, outcast and deserted, he is said to
have dwelt in a hovel amidst the ruins of Carthage. The answer of Marius
to the prætor of Africa, is one of the finest indications of a strong
mind recorded in history. Oppressed with every species of misfortune,
Marius, after escaping many dangers, arrived at length in Africa; where
he hoped to have received some mark of favour from the governor. He was
scarcely landed, however, when an officer came to him, and addressed him
after the following manner:--"Marius, I am directed by the prætor to
forbid your landing in Africa. If, after this message, you shall persist
in doing so, he will not fail to treat you as a public enemy." Struck
with indignation at this unexpected intelligence, Marius, without making
any reply, fixed his eyes, in a stern menacing manner, upon the officer.
In this position he stood for some time. At length, the officer desiring
to know whether he chose to return any answer;--"Yes," replied Marius,
"go to the prætor, and tell him that thou hast seen the exiled Marius,
sitting among the ruins of Carthage[181]."
Twenty-four years after the victory of Æmilianus (B.C. 142), the
sedition of Tiberius Gracchus began to be formidable to the patricians,
since he was supported by the great body of the people in his endeavours
to pass an Agrarian law. Gracchus, finding himself unable to accomplish
his purpose, was probably not unwilling to accept the offer, made to
him by the senate, of becoming the leader of six thousand citizens to
the site of Carthage, for the purpose of its restoration. From this,
however, he was terrified by a dream.
It seems probable, nevertheless that a few buildings began to spring up
among the ruins. Julius Cæsar determined on rebuilding it, in
consequence of having beheld, in a dream, a numerous army, weeping at
the fate of Carthage. His death prevented the fulfilment of his purpose.
Augustus, however, sent three thousand Romans thither, or rather, within
a short distance of it, who were joined by the inhabitants of the
neighbouring country.
From this time it appears to have increased in beauty, convenience, and
the number of its inhabitants.
In the early part of the fifth century, however, Genseric having invaded
Africa, the whole of the fruitful provinces, from Tangier to Tripoli,
were in succession overwhelmed, and Carthage was surprised, five hundred
and eighty-five years after its destruction by the younger Scipio.
At this time, we are told[182], Carthage was considered as the "Rome" of
the African world. It contained the arms, the manufactures, and the
treasures of six provinces; schools and gymnasia were instituted for the
education of youth; and the liberal arts were publicly taught in the
Greek and Latin languages.
The buildings were uniform and magnificent; a shady grove was planted in
the midst of the city; the new port, a secure and capacious harbour, was
subservient to the commercial industry of citizens and strangers; and
the splendid games of the circus and the theatre were exhibited.
After Genseric had permitted his licentious troops to satiate their rage
and avarice, he promulgated an edict, which enjoined all persons to
deliver up their gold, silver, jewels, and valuable furniture and
apparel, to the royal officers; and the attempt to secrete any part of
their patrimony was punished with torture and death, as an act of
treason against the state.
Carthage never recovered this blow, and it fell gradually into such
insignificance, that it disappeared altogether from the records of
history.
We now select a few passages from Mons. Chateaubriand and Sir George
Temple, in respect to its present condition.
"The ship in which I left Alexandria," says the former, "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 Mahommedan hermitage at the point of a
projecting cape; sheep browsing 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 distinguish these ruins,
it is necessary to go methodically to work. I suppose then that the
reader sets out with me from the port of Goltetha, 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 of the sea. You begin to discover jetties
running out to a considerable distance under water. The sea and jetties
are on your right; on your left you perceive a great quantity of ruins
upon eminences of unequal height, and below these ruins is a basin of
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 observed a
second inner canal, which may have been the cut, made by the
Carthaginians when they opened a new passage for their fleet."
At the foot of the hill at Maallakah[183] are the foundations of an
amphitheatre, the length of which appears to have been about three
hundred feet by two hundred and thirty, and the dimensions of the arena
one hundred and eighty by one hundred.
There are, also, the ruins of a very extensive edifice, supposed to have
been the temple of Ceres.
Some trifling fragments of edifices, and the traces of its triple walls,
are all that remain of the Byrsa's splendid fanes and palaces; though
many pieces of rare marbles have been found, as serpentine, giallo,
rosso, and porphyry. Nor is there any remain of the famous temple of
Æsculapius, the approach to which was by a magnificent flight of steps,
and rendered so interesting from having been the place in whose flames
Asdrubal's wife destroyed herself, her children, and nine hundred Roman
deserters, rather than submit to the yoke of the haughty vanquishers of
her country.
Sir George Temple's observations are very beautiful:--"Early in the
morning, I walked to the site of the great Carthage--of that town, at
the sound of whose name mighty Rome herself had so often trembled--of
Carthage, the mistress of powerful and brave armies, of numerous fleets,
and of the world's commerce, and to whom Africa, Spain, Sardinia,
Corsica, Sicily, and Italy herself, bowed in submission as to their
sovereign;--in short, 'Carthago, dives opum, studiisque asperrima
belli.' I was prepared to see but few vestiges of its former grandeur;
it had so often suffered from the devastating effects of war, that I
knew many could not exist: but my heart sunk within me, when, ascending
one of its hills, (from whose summit the eye embraces a view of the
whole surrounding country to the edge of the sea,) I beheld nothing more
than a few scattered and shapeless masses of masonry[184]. Yes, all the
vestiges of the splendour and magnificence of the mighty city had,
indeed, passed away, and its very name is now unknown to the present
inhabitants[185]."