Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/566

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CARTHAGO.

evil prodigies at its foundation gave the sanction of superstition to the decision of the senate, annuling this with other acts of Gracchus. (Appian. Pun. 136; Plut. C. Gracch. 13; Liv. Epit. ix. Vell. Paterc i. 15; Solin. 27). The project was revived by Julius Caesar, who with a sort of poetical justice planned the restoration of Carthage and of Corinth in tbe same year, {{smaller|B.C.]] 46; but, by his murder, the full execution of his design devolved upon his successor. (Appian. l.c.; Plut. Caes. 57; Strab. xvii. p. 833; Dion Caes. xlii. 50, comp. lii. 43; Paus. ii. 1.) Lepidus seems to have deprived the new colony of its privileges, during his short rule in Africa; but it was restored by Augustus (B.C. 19), under whom 3000 colonists were joined with the inhabitants of the neighbouring country to found the new city of Carthage, which, already when Strabo wrote, was as populous as any city of Africa (καί νύν εί τις άλλη καλώς οίκείται τών έν Λιβίη πόλεων: Strab., Dion, Appian., Solin., Il. cc.). It was made, in place of the Pompeian Utica, the seat of the proconsul of Old Africa. [Africa.]

It continued to flourish more and more during the whole period till the Vandal invasion. Herodian (vii. 6) calls it the next city after Rome, in eiie and wealth; and Ausonius thus compares it with Rome and Constantinople (Carm. 286):-

"Constantinopoli adsurgit Carthage priori,
Non toto cesaaia gradu, quia tertia dici
Fastidit."

Ecclesiastically, it was one of the most important of the numerous bishoprics of Africa: among the great names connected with it, are Cyprian, as its bishop, and Tertullian, who was probably a native of the city. In A.D. 439, it was taken by Genaeric, and made the capital of the Vandal kingdom in Africa. It was retaken by Belisarius, in 533, and named Justiniana. It was finally taken and destroyed, in 647, by the Arabs under Hassan. (Clinton, Fasti. Romani. s. aa.; Gibbon, vol. vi. p. 26, vol. vii. pp. 180, foll., 350—352, vol. ix. pp. 450, 458.) "Whatever yet remainded of Carthage was delivered to the flames, and the colony of Dido and Caesar lay desolate above two hundred years, till a part, perhaps a twentieth of the old circumference, was repeopled by the first of the Fatimite caliphs. In the

COINS OF CARTHAGE.

COINS OF CARTHAGE.

CARTHAGO.

beginning of the sixteenth century, the second capital of the West was represented by a mosque, a college without students, twenty-five or thirty shops, and the huts of five hundred peasants, who, in their abject poverty, displayed the arrogance of the Punic senators. Even that paltry village was swept away by the Spaniards, whom Charles V. had stationed in the fortress of Goletta. The ruins of Carthage have perished; and the place might he unknown if some broken arches of an aqueduct did not guide the footsteps of the inquisitive traveller." (Gibbon.)

Very few of its coins are extant, a large number of those ascribed to it being spurious. Among the genuine ones, besides those of the Roman emperors, there is a very rare and valuable medal of Hilderic, the Vandal king, with the legend Felix Kart. (Eckhel, vol. iv. pp. 136, &c) The cuts above represent a gold coin, the actual size, and one of the bronze, two-thirds the size of the original.

VII. Topography of Carthage. — The general situation of the city has already been described; but when we come to the details of its topography, we find the same tantalizing want of certain information, which renders all else respecting her so difficult.

The present remains are insufficient to guide us to an understanding of the obscure and often apparently contradictory statements of the ancient writers; and the inquirer often sighs over the loss of that picture, representing the site and size of Carthage, which Mancinus, the commander of the fleet in the Third Punic War (B.C. 148), exhibited to the Roman people in the forum, and won the consulship by his zeal in explaining its details. Appian (Pun. 95, foll.) is almost the only ancient author who has left any considerable details; and he is, as usual, very inexact, and in some points evidently quite wrong. Of the main difficulty, it is scarcely an exaggeration to compare it with a doubt among the future antiquaries twenty-five centuries hence, whether London or Southwark stood on the N. side of the Thames. We know that the old Punic city grew up round the original Bozra or Byrsa (whether the citadel called Byrsa in historical times stood on the old site is even doubtful), and that it gradually covered the whole peninsula; and we know that it had a large suburb called Megara or Magalia, and also the New City (Diod. xx. 44). We also know that the Roman city stood on a part of the ancient site, and was far inferior to the Old City in extent. But, whether the original Punic city, with its harbours, was on the N. or S. part of the peninsula; on which side of it the suburb of Megara was situated; and whether the Roman city was built on the site of the former, or of the latter; are questions on which some of the best scholars and geographers hold directly opposite opinions.

Upon the whole, comparing the statements of the ancient writers with the present state of the locality and the few ruins of the Punic city which remain, it seems most probable that the original city was on the SE. part of the peninsula about C. Carthage. The subjoined ground-plan from Mannert is given merely as an approximation to the ancient positions. For the details of the topography, the latest and best authority is Dr. H. Barth, who has compared the researches of Falbe with his own observations. (Wanderungen, &c. pp. 80, foll.)

The following are the most important details of the topography; —

1. The Taenia (raitia), was a tongue of land, of a considerable length, and half a stadium in breadth, mentioned again and again by Appian in