Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 1.djvu/63

ORIGIN OF THE PHOENICIANS. 43 with such things as they prized. Wine, for instance, must have been as greatly sought for as spirits are now. True to their national habits, the Tyrians preferred to buy a few acres of land in this fashion, than to take them by force and defend them with the sword. Carthage found herself compelled by events to take another line ; as soon as she had conceived the desire to possess the sur- rounding country an army became necessary, and she found the first elements of it in the very native tribes for whose subjection it was intended. The liberal pay which she could so easily offer attracted recruits from all the races by which her own territories and those of her neighbours were peopled. She enrolled Liby- Phcenicians, Numidians and Moors, while her own citizens fashioned the rough material thus provided into efficient fighting units. Her army was at first purely African, but in later years, when she embarked on her great conflicts with the Sicilian Greeks and the Romans, she had to turn for help to all who chose to live by the profession of arms, and of all the people who dwelt on the Mediterranean coast, there was not one, speaking broadly, that was unrepresented in the great regiments of mercenaries with which Hamilcar, Hasdrubal and Hannibal disputed the empire of the world with Rome. But long before she could put these great hosts into the field, that is, at the beginning of the sixth century, Carthage had what no Phoenician city had possessed before her, namely, a wide territory and a standing army. She was, therefore, in a condition to make the best of her opportunities when the long duel between Tyre and Babylon prevented the former city, for ten years and more, from supporting her stations beyond the sea. Disquieting events were taking place in every direction. In Betica the Turdetani had risen, had attacked the Phoenician settlements, and had massacred the African colonists whom Tyre had established in the valley of the Betis. And the gravity of the crisis was increased by the fact that the hand of Greece was felt behind it. As early as 640 Coleos of Samos had pushed a hardy prow as far as these distant coasts, and, favoured by fortune, had returned to vaunt the wonders of Betica and the treasures of Gades in his native island. From that day every Ionian captain had burned to reach Tartessos, as the Greeks called Tarshish. In making for Spain, a Greek of Phocsea, Euxenes by name, had landed in southern Gaul, not far