CARTHAGE. 266 CARTHAGE. in whicl) Hannibal pursued his career of con- ijucst from Spain, through Gaul, and aomss the Alps into Italy itself, defeate.l the Romans with terrible slaughter in various battles, and, by that of Cann:e in parlieular. brought Home to the very brink of ruin. Yet the war terminated in the total defeat of the Carthaginians by Publius Cornelius Scipio, who overthrew their ])ower in Spain and was vietorious over Hannibal in the linal and deeisive battle of Zama, in Afriea, in Oetober, 202. A peaee was then eoneluded, in vvhieh the Carthaginians were limited to their African territories, while most of their ships of war and war elephants were taken from them, besides an immense sum of money, and they were bound not to make war without permission of the Romans. JIassinissa, King of Xuniidia, skillfully availed himself of dissensions whieh arose within Carthage between the nobles and the people, to advance his own interests at the expense of the Carthaginians: and as they (b.c, 151) opposed him, and drove his adherents out of the city, the Romans seized the oi)portunity for a new declaration of war fn.c. 149), on the ground that the treaty was broken, and after a siege of two years Carthage was taken by Pub- lius Cornelius Seipio .l^milianus {b.c. 140). For six days the combat was maintained in the streets of the city, and for seventeen days the work of its destruction by fire was carried on by the conquerors. The country became a Ro- man province. Gains Gracchus sent out GOOO colonists to found a new city on the site of Carthage. It was called Junonia, but it did not prosper. Augustus, carrying out the intention ■of his great uncle, restored the city, in n.c. 29. and the new Carthage had become, in the Second and Third centuries of the Christian Era, one of the finest cities of the Roman Empire. In a.d. 4.39 Genseric made it the cajiital of the Vandal kingdom ; Bclisarius conquered it in .533. and named it Justiniana; the Arabs under Hassan Titterly destroyed it in ..D. 647 ; and now only iwo or three small hamlets and a few ruins mark its site. Remains of the ancient walls, and pos- sibly of the harbors, have been found, and re- cently man}' graves of Punic and Roman limes, yielding many inscriptions and snuiUer objects, have l)een opened. AVe have not very satisfactory accounts of the constitution of the Carthaginian State. It was highly esteemed by Aristotle, but his account of it has perished, and our information is scattered: nor is it certain that it remained entirely un- changed. At the nominal head were two suffetw (Hebrew, shofetim, 'judges' in the Bible), who seem to have been chosen by the people on the nomination of t!u> Senate. The nobles, who seem lo have needed money as well as birth to main- tain their position, seem to have formed a Sen- ate of 300, from whom a body of 30 ( including the suffetw) were chosen to carry on the ordi- nary government. Later we hear of the intro- duction of a body of 104 judges, who seem to have had su])rpme power over all officials, including the generals, and. like the Council of Ten at Venice, to have become the real rulers of the State. We can gather dimly, from various scat- tered statements, that the Carthaginian oli- garchy, while despising the nuiltitude, was itself split up into factions and torn by family jeal- ousies. On the other hand, our knowledge of Carthage comes chiefly from her enemies, .ind the goernnient, though not always consistent in policy, and luidoubtcdly oppressive to its siib- jects, was remarkably free from revolution or even popular uprising. The Carthaginian Army was raised from the conscription of the subjugated Libyans, from the hired Xumidians, and mercenaries from Spain, Gaul, and. indeed, all parts of the world. The soldiers had no interest in the State, but were ca])able of becoming strongly attached to their generals, and in good hands were a for- midable force, as is seen in the successful cam- paigns of Hamilcar Barca and Hannibal. In the time of Agathocles the city sent forth 40.000 heavy-armed infantry, 1000 cavalry, and 2000 war chariots, but the State could easilv raise 100,000 troops. The fleet in the First Punic War consisted of 3.)0 ships, carrying 150.000 men. IIow Carthage contrived to raise revenvie suflicient to cover the enormous expense her military and naval organization involved is not very clear. It was, in all likeliliood, derived from tribute imposed on subject Libyan or Xumidian races, in great" jtart from mines in Spain, and from import duties derived from her maritime
- ind inland trade, which was prodigiously great.
Her merehantnien visited every coast and island of the ^Mediterranean, and even ventured as far as the Azores, Britain, the Baltic, etc. : while her caravans penetrated through Sahara to the gold- producing districts of the Niger, and thrnugh the Libyan Desert to the lauds along the Xile. Still, Carthage was by no means an exclusively mercantile State. Many of her wealthiest citi- zens derived tlieir income from large estates cul- tivated by l)ands of slaves, and tlie only Punie literature the Romans tliought worth preserva- tion was a treatise on agriculture by JIago, which was translated into Latin by order of the Senate, for the benefit of the Roman husbandmen. The religion of the Carthaginians appears to have been substantially the same as that of the Ph<enicians — a worship of the stars and of fire. Moloch was the chief deity, and to him cliildren and cai)tlves were sacrificed. The highest nat- >iral manifestation of this deity was the sim. Besides ilolocli. the Carthaginians worshiped the Tyrian Jlelcart; Astarte, the moon godiless; Esmun, also called Aselepios by the Greeks; and a few of the Greek divinities, of v.lioni a knowl- edge had been obtained in Sicil,v. It does not ap- pear that there was a distinct sacerdotal order in Carthage. Probably religious ceremonies were performed by the dignitaries of the State, but our knowledge on this interesting jwint is too meagre to ])prmit of our arriving at any very lefinite conclusion. Consult : A. Cliurch. Ciirlhafle, or the Empire of Africa f Xew York, 188G) ; R. B. Smith, Cttrlliafic and the Carihajjiniaxs (Lon- don, 1877): ileltzer, Oc.iehichtr tier Knrthager (Berlin, 1879, 189G) : Andollert, Carthage ro- maine (Paris, 1901): X. Davis, Carthage and Her fteniaiits (London, 1801); Ch. E. Beule, Fouilles a Carthage (Paris, 1800) ; E. de Sainte- Jlarie, Mission a Carthage (Paris. 1884) ; Alias areheologique dc hi Ttinisie (Paris, 1893), For recent discoveries, see Comptes liendiis de I'Acadc- iiiir lies Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, Vol. XXVIII. (Paris. 1901). CARTHAGE. A city and county-seat of Han- cock County, HI., 32 miles south of Burlington,
