when we consider, that very probably, a people from the opposite coast of Italy, either the Ligurians, or the Etruscans, have taken possession of Corsica.
Whatever may be in this conjecture, it is certain, that its next masters were the Carthaginians, who extended their conquests over all the islands of the Mediterranean. Aristotle relates a most extraordinary piece of Punick policy, with respect to Corsica. Finding that is was difficult to keep the inhabitants in subjection, they ordered the whole of the vines and olives in the island to be pulled up, and forbid the Corsicans, under the pain of death, to sow their fields with any kind of grain, so that they might be kept in the most absolute dependance; and, though possessed of a very fertile territory, be obliged to resort to Africa, to seek the bare necessaries of life. So early was the cowardly and barbarous policy of a trading republick exercised against this people.
Corsica next passed under the dominion of Rome. In the first Punick war, and about the year 493 from the building of the city, Lucius Cornelius Scipio conquered the island[1], being opposed
- ↑ Liv. Epit. lib. xvii. Flor. lib. ii. cap. 2.
