It may not, perhaps, be unseasonable to give by anti cipation, in this place, a description of the town, as it existed at the period of its greatest splendour. Several writers have left us minute accounts of its situation and appearance at the beginning of the second Punic war ; by comparing and contrasting these accounts, we may be enabled to form sonic idea of its extent and magnifi cence.
The city consisted of three parts : Byrsa, or the Cita del ; Megara, or Magaria ; and the Cothon, Or port. The quarter called Byrsa is said to have been twenty-two stadia in circumference, and was situated in the centre of the city : its highest point was a steep rock, on which stood a temple of IEsculapius. This part of the town was thought to have been built by Dido herself : its name is a Greek corruption of the true Punic or Plicenician word Bosra, or Bostra, i. e. a fortress or citadel. The name of the second division of the town, Mcgara, or i\Iagaria, may also, according to Bochum, be traced to the 1'ho2nician, in which language it signifies houses, or a town. It was situated so as to encircle the Byrsa. The name of the third quarter, Cothon, has also been derived from the Phonician word which expresses an " artificial harbour." The entrance to the port was seventy feet broad, and was contrived so that it might be shut up with chains. The harbour was double ; the outer part appro priated exclusively to the use of merchants, the inner fitted for the reception of ships of war. In the midst of the inner harbour was an island, which, as well as the harbour itself, was lined with large quays, in which were distinct receptacles (vEwer:4) for laying up 220 ships of : over these was a range of storehouses, for the .necessary articles of naval equipment. The entrance into each of these clocks was adorned with pillars of the Ionic order, so that the harbour and the island had the appearance of a magnificent gallery (Ers EMOVX PTOZ7.) The merchants' harbour was completely separated from the arsenal, and had a distinct communication with the town, (Appian, de Bell. Punic.) As to the extent of the city, Litt) intimates, (lib. Ii. in epitonz.) that it was twenty three miles in circumference ;—the number of inhabi tants was roundly estimated at 700,000. This is the num ber given by Strabo, (lib. xvii.) ; and if w e consider, that Cartilage united " extensive commerce and middling empire," the circumstances which 11 note expressly Men tions, (Essay xi.) as the obvious causes of the growth of
large cities, it may perhaps be thought, that this state ment is not so much overcharged as sonic of those which have come down to us, of the populousness of ancient nations.
At no period of their history did the Carthaginians lose sight of their Canaanitish origin. Plautus (in Poenulo, act. 5. sc. 3.) expressly alludes to it ; and St Augustin says, that the tradition was even in nis days preserved. Their language appears to have been formed by a mix tore of I lebrew or Plutnic ian with the peculiar dialec t used by the more ancient inhabitants of Africa. I knee the epithets in Plautus of migdity68 and lusulsedlugud, ( Porn. ac t. v. sc. ii.) lilt some authors Inane iolarihed, that the Libo-Plutnicians were a people distinct both Iron, the Carthaginians awl Libyans, in the same way as the. mixed race bordering on the respective frontiers of S) tia and Plurnicia were called Syro-Plicenieian.
The government of Carthage was, at it, origin, proba bly monarchical. Justin expressly assigns the re gal character to Dido, (lib. xviii. c. 7.) A 'cry short time, however, could have elapsed before it was changed into a republic : Its exact form cannot be ascertained. totle, in a minute hut somewhat obscure account, de scribes it as a mixed government, (Dc /?cpub. lib. ii. r. I I.) consisting of an aristocracy, and of what he call:, juditenz ; by which word, as he himself explains it, ( Et 11 iicom. lib. v iii. c. 12.) he means an oligarchy,—a go vernment in which wealth formed the only title to office.• Polybius says, that the monarchical, the aristocratical, and the democratical forms were all united in it. But 1 socrates in Nieoct. vol. i. in 96.) seems to have had a more practical view of it, when he says, that the civil government was oligarchical, and the military mo narchical ; that is, in modern language, the legislative an oligarchy, and the executive a monarchy. For though the appointment and the functions of the Suffetes give to the constitution something of a monarchical air, the prin ciple of the whole was oligarchical ; all offices were elective, and all elections had reference to property. We will proceed to give some account of the constitution in its three branches.