The war with the Greeks in Sicily was re newed in 409. Hannibal, the son of Gisco, landed an army at Lilybmum, in the spring of that year, and reduced Selinus and Himera. In a subsequent expedition Agrigentum was sub dued. A pestilence seconded the efforts of Dionysius and saved Syracuse, 396 B.C. A treaty put an end to the war in 392. The struggle between the Greeks and the Carthaginians con tinued with varying success throughout the remainder of this period. Its most remarkable event was the invasion of Africa by Agathocles, 310 B.C. Defeated in Sicily by the Carthagin ians, to avert the total ruin of his affairs, he raised an army and passed over to Africa. The most extraordinary success awaited him, show ing at once the weakness of the hold which Carthage had of her external possessions on the continent, and the danger she constantly en countered from factions and dissensions within the city itself. Agathocles was the precursor of Scipio. After the death of Agathocles the Carthaginians renewed their enterprise in Sicily, and had nearly completed its conquest when the Greeks called in the aid of Pyrrhus, who for a time arrested their progress, 277-75 a.c. Notwithstanding numerous and disastrous defeats in their contests with the Greeks, the Carthaginians seemed, after the departure of Pyrrhus, to have the conquest of Sicily at length within her power. A dissension with the Mamertines, their former allies, called in the Romans, and with their invasion, 264 a.c., the third period of Carthaginian history begins.
The First Punic War, in which Rome and Carthage contended for the dominion of Sicily, was prolonged for 23 years, 264 to 241 a.c., and ended, through the exhaustion of the re sources of Carthage, in her expulsion from the island. The Second Punic War, conducted on the side of the Carthaginians by the genius of Hannibal, lasted 17 years, 218 to 201 a.c., and after just missing the overthrow of Rome, ended in the complete humiliation of Carthage. The policy of Rome, at the end of this war, in placing Carthage, disarmed, at the mercy of her African enemies, and raising her a powerful opponent in Masinissa, occasioned the Third Punic War, in which Rome was the aggressor. It lasted only three years, but served to throw a halo of glory round the fall of Carthage, in whose total ruin it ended. This war, begun 150 a.c., ended, in 146 ac., in the destruction of the last vestige of its power.
The repeated and not always unsuccessful struggles of Carthage with her African neigh bors, in the very midst of her schemes of for eign conquest, indicate the marvelous tension to which a power inherently so weak was i wrought in those great enterprises which vir tually grasped at the supremacy of the world. In this matter the experience of Carthage was not unparalleled by that of Rome; but the great difference between them was that the former was surrounded by alien tribes, the latter by races kindred in language and manners, with whom, after conquest, she could easily unite. The invasion and conquest of Spain, begun by Hamilcar and carried on by Hasdrubal and Hannibal, and which led to the Second Punic War, can only be mentioned in passing.
Carthage perished leaving no historians to tell her tale; hence many interesting circum stances in her history can never be known, what is preserved has the color of partial and often hostile authority. Recent excavations show that the streets crossed each other regu larly at right angles. The long streets ran parallel to the quays and were distant from each other about 150 feet. The inhabitants are said to have numbered about 700,000 in 149 B.C. No foreign traders were allowed at any of her western colonies, and only the port of Carthage was open to foreigners. Traders found elsewhere were drowned. The revenue to cover her great military and naval expendi tures appears to have been derived from tribute imposed on the neighboring subject races, from mines in Spain and from import duties on her vast commerce. Her merchant ships reached
to every coast and island of the Mediterranean, and even to Britain and the Baltic shore. Her caravans penetrated far into the Dark Continent to the gold districts of the Niger and up the Nile. Many citizens, however, were not en gaged in commercial pursuits, but cultivata large estates by means of slaves. The consti tution of Carthage has occupied much of the attention of scholars, but still remains in many points obscure. The name of king occurs in the Greek accounts of it, and the first Cartha ginian general who is recorded to have invaded Sicily and Sardinia is called Malchus, the Phoe nician for king, but the monarchical constitution, as commonly understood, never appears to have existed in it. The officers called kings by the Greeks were two in number, the heads of an oligarchical republic, commonly called suffetes, the original name being considered identical with the Hebrew shofetim, judges. These offi cers were always chosen from the principal families, and were elected annually. It is not known if they could be re-elected. There was a senate of 300, and the citizens were divided into classes similar to the Roman tribes, curia and gentes. There was a smaller body of 30 chosen from the Senate, sometimes another smaller council of 10. Various other officers are mentioned, but the particulars regarding them are often obscure, and sometimes contra dictory.
After the destruction of Carthage, her terri tory became the Roman province of Africa. A curse was pronounced upon the site of the city, and any attempt to rebuild it prohibited. The attempt was, however, made 24 years after her fall, by Coins Gracchus, one of the leading men of Rome. The same plan was entertained by Julius Caesar, and it was accomplished by Au gustus. The new city became the seat of the proconsul of Old Africa in place of Utica, and continued to flourish till the Vandal invasion. It became distinguished in the annals of the Christian Church. Cyprian was its bishop, and Tertullian is supposed to have been a native of it. Genseric made it the capital of the Vandal kingdom in 439. Belisarius took it in 533, and named it Colonia Justiniana Carthago. It was taken and destroyed by the Arabs, under Has san, in 647. A few miserable hamlets and ruins mark its site. In recent times many ex cavations have been made, uncovering parts of the ancient walls and remains of the har bors; the citadel, the forum and the amphi theatre have been almost completely excavated, and have yielded many small objects and in scriptions, principally those from tombs of Punic and Roman times.
The religion of the ancient Carthaginians was essentially that of their Phoenician ances tors. They worshipped Moloch or Baal, to whom they offered human sacrifices; Hercules, the patron deity of Tyre and her colonies; As tarte, and other deities, which were identified with the heavenly bodies, but propitiated by cruel or lascivious rites. Their religion was considerably modified by their intercourse with the Greeks. After their defeat by Gelon he made it a condition of peace with them that they should abandon human sacrifices. Some of their deities were identified with those of the Greeks, and they adopted others of that people, and no doubt received also some of their ideas regarding them. Consult Arnold's and Mommsen's histories of Rome; Smith, R. B., 'Carthage and the Carthaginians' (London 1877) ; Church, A., 'Carthage, or the Empire of Africa' (New York 1886) ; Davis, N., 'Car thage and Her Remains' (London 1861) ; Melt zer, der Karthager' (Berlin 1913) ; Moore, 'Carthage of the Phoenicians in the Light of Modern Excavation' (London 1905) ; de Sainte-Marie, E. de, 'Mission a Carthage> (Paris 1884) ; id., 'Atlas archeologique de la Tunisie' (Paris 1893) ; Audollent, 'Carthage romaine' (Paris 1901) ; also 'Comptes Rendus de l'Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Let tres' (Vol. XXVIII, Paris 1901), and map issued in 1907 by the French Minister of Public Instruction.