(5.) Money. — The entire absence of Punic coins (for those which are extant belong to the restored Roman city) has raised the interesting question, whether this great power was without a mint of her own. Gold and silver were the standard of value at Carthage, as elsewhere, but we have no evidence that the republic coined money. Some of the Sicilian states which were subject to Carthage, especially Panormus, struck coins with epigraphs in the Punic language, which are still extant; and such money was doubtless current at Carthage, as well as other foreign coinages. The only money we hear of as peculiar to Carthage was a sort of token, consisting of a substance enclosed in leather, sealed, and bearing the stamp of the state, the whole being of the size and value of a tetradrachm: the exact composition of the enclosed substance was kept secret. (Aesch. Dial. Socrat. p. 78, ed. Fischer; Aristid. Orat. Platon. ii. p. 145; Eckhel, Doctr. Num. Vet. vol. iv. pp. 136, 137, where the whole subject of the Punic money is discussed.) 14. Trade of Carthage. — On this subject, which is fully discussed by Heeren in two of the best chapters of his most valuable essay, we have only space for a few brief remarks. The whole foreign trade of Carthage was, as far as possible, a rigid system of monopoly. Other great maritime states have generally sought to develope the commerce of their colonies; but Carthage regarded her colonies and possessions merely as staples for her own trade; and made every effort, as the treaties with Rome show, to exclude foreign merchants from all ports except her own. (1.) Her Maritime commerce of course included all her colonies and possessions, and extended also to the shores of other states. The chief scene of its activity was the W. Mediterranean, including, besides her own ports, those of the Greek states of Sicily and Southern Italy, whence she imported oil and wine tor her own use and for the market of Cyrene; giving in return the agricultural produce and doth manufactures of her own territory, with gold, silver, and precious stones, and negro slaves from Inner Africa. Among her other chief imports were linen cloths from Malta for the African market; alum from Lipara; from Corsica, wax and honey, and slaves, who were most highly esteemed; iron from Aethalia (Elba); and from the Balearic islands mules and fruits, giving in return the commodities of which the islanders were fondest, wine and women. [Baleares.] But these islands were chiefly of importance as a station off the coast of Spain, for the trade with the peninsula in oil and wine, as well as in the precious metals. This trade is thought by Heeren to have been the channel also for that with Gaul, on the coast of which the Carthaginians had no colonies, and where the only foreign maritime state, Massilia, was always at enmity with Carthage; for that the Carthaginians had relations with Gaul, directly or indirectly, is proved by the lists of mercenaries in their armies. Beyond the Straits, their trade extended northwards as far as |
(2.) Land Trade. — By the agency of the Nomad tribes, especially the Nasamones, Carthage carried on a very extensive trade in Inner Africa, to the banks of the Nile, on the one side, and of the Niger on the other, and in the intervening space to the oases of Augila, the Garamantes (Fexxan), and others; whence their chief importations seem to have been a few precious stones and a vast number of negro slaves. But this subject is so mixed up with the caravan routes over the desert, and with the geography of Africa in general, that it cannot be discussed here. 15. Religion. — Those who wish to study this most interesting but obscure branch of Carthaginian antiquities may consult the works of Munter and Gesenius mentioned above. Not having space for speculation, we here set down merely the few ascertained facts. The Punic worship, though influenced by foreign elements, especially the Greek, was doubtless at first identical with that of the Phoenicians, which was a form of the Sabaeism so generally prevalent in the East. They adored the following divinities, who are mentioned, of course, by the ancient writers, under the names of their supposed equivalents in the Greek and Roman systems. (1.) Kronos or Saturn, who is generally identified with the Moloch of the Canaanites, and by some with Baal, and whose natural manifestation is supposed by some to be the Sun, as the chief power of Nature; by others the planet Saturn, as the most malignant of celestial influences. To him they had recourse in the disasters of the state, propitiating him with human sacrifices, sometimes of captives taken in war, and at others, as the most acceptable offering, of the best beloved children of the noblest citizens. (Diod. xiii. 86, xx. 14, 65; Justin, xviii. 6 ; Oros. iv. 6.) Certainly the description of this deity and his rites answers exactly to that of (2.) The Tyrian Hercules, the patron deity of the mother city and all her colonies, whose Phoenician name was Melcarth, i. e. King of the City, is by some identified with Baal and the Sun, by others with the Babylonish Bel and the planet |
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