CARTHAGE) the chief city of Africa Propria,' situated in longitude 10° 40' east, latitude 36° 40' north. The mate rials we possess for composing a history of the Cartha ginians, bear no proportion to the importance of the sub ject. Every page of ancient history contains some re ference to this remarkable people, some circumstance with which they were directly or indirectly concerned ; yet arc we almost wholly ignorant of their internal polity, and of all the secret springs which gave energy to their exertions. Wc find them bearing a part in the most important transactions of the civilized states, pushing their maritime discoveries and their system of coloniza tion into the remotest regions, and at last striving with Rome herself for the mastery of the world: Yet of their resources we know scarcely any thing, except from ana logy and conjecture ; and of the events of their domestic history our accounts are meagre and unsatisfactory. The information we possess is for the most part derived from the casual notices of the Greek and Roman historians, few of whom had the opportunity, some, as it appears, not even the inclination, to give fidelity and accuracy to their narratives. It is our business, therefore, to put to gether the fragments which (without a metaphor) lie scattered throughout the ancient historians : from these something like a continuous narrative may be formed; though still we must content ourselves with a partial and imperfect knowledge of many important points.
According to Procopius, (De Bello Vand. lib. U. c. 10.) the whole district of Africa, from Egypt to the Pillars of Hercules, was first peopled by the tribes that fled before Joshua from the countries of Canaan ;—and it seems un questionable, that the system of colonization which had been begun by the great Phoenician cities, received a very powerful impulse from the revolution which that conquest produced : an impulse which was felt, not only WI the northern shore of Africa, but throughout all the countries of Europe. It is impossible to reconcile the and contradictory accounts of the foundation of Carthage in any way, but by supposing, that they may have reference to the different stages of settlements made on that part of the African coast ; and this supposition is strengthened by the authority of Sallust, (De Bell. Jug. c. 18.) Petavius has bestowed great pains on this most difficult point of chronology. He enumerates (lib. ix.
cap. 62.) all the statements which he had been able to discover. The opinion he adopts is, that it was founded about the middle of the ninth century before Christ. This nearly falls in with Sir Isaac Newton's conclusion ; and Blair, whose Tables we follow throughout, coincides with it, placing the building of Carthage, ante Christ, 869. We are perhaps justified in assuming this date as sufficiently exact, since it tallies very closely with the period at which the Phoenicians began to obtain naval ascendancy in the Mediterranean. The dominion of the seas had been obtained by the Lydians, the Thraeians, the Rhodians, the Phrygians, and the Cyprians ; the people of Phoenicia had now, in their turn, succeeded to it, and they maintained it in undisputed possession for upwards of 200 years. To this period we may, without hesitation, refer the adventures of Elissa or Dido ;f who, as Justin informs us, quitted Tyre at the head of a nu merous colony, to avoid the oppression of her brother Pygmalion. After touching at Cyprus, where she ob tained an addition to her numbers, she proceeded to the African coast. A Pheenician settlement had been pre viously established at Utica, by which they were gladly received ; the natives, too, welcomed their arrival, being. eager to avail themselves of the commercial advantages which the arrival of the strangers held out. A negocia tion was speedily entered upon for an alotment of land ; —the artifice which Dido is said to have practised in obtaining the alotment is well known : She covenanted for as much land as the hide of an ox would inclose, (quan tum loci bovis tergo circumdare fiotuerint 3) then, cutting the hide into shreds, she claimed as much as she could surround with them. The site of the infant colony was well chosen. A bold projection of the African coast marks almost exactly the central point of the southern shore of the Mediterranean. A noble hay, formed by the promontaries of Juno and Apidlo, suppLes all the :advantages of a sheltered and capacious roadstead. At the bottom of this bay stretches a peninsula, 360 stadia, or about 45 miles, in circumference, connected with the mainlaod by an isthmus of the breadth of little more titan three miles, (25 stadia.) Upon this istmus Dido laid the foundation of her new town.