The Periplus of Hanno

Front matter

THE PERIPLUS OF HANNO

A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY DOWN THE WEST AFRICAN COAST, BY A CARTHAGINIAN ADMIRAL OF THE FIFTH CENTURY B. C.

THE GREEK TEXT, WITH A TRANSLATION

Greek text

ΑΝΝΩΝΟΣ ΚΑΡΧΗΔΟΝΙΩΝ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΠΕΡΙΠΛΟΥΣ

ΤΩΝ ΥΠΕΡ ΤΑΣ ΗΡΑΚΛΕΟΥΣ ΣΤΗΛΑΣ ΛΙΒΥΚΩΝ ΤΗΣ ΓΗΣ ΜΕΡΩΝ (Ὃν καὶ άνέθηκε ἐν τῷ τοῦ Κρόνου τεμένει, δηλοῦντα τάδε·)

1. Ἔδοξε Καρχηδονίοις Ἅννωνα πλεῖν ἔξω Στηλῶν Ἡρακλείων καὶ πόλεις κτίζειν Λίβυφοινίων. Καὶ ἔπλευσε πεντηκοντόρους ἑξήκοντα ἄγων, καὶ πλῆθος ἀνδρῶν καὶ γυναικῶν εἰς ἀριθμὸν μυριάδων τριῶν καὶ σῖτα καὶ τὴν ἄλλην παρασκευήν.

2. Ώς δ' ἀναχθέντες τὰς Στήλας παρημείψαμεν καὶ ἔξω πλοῦν δυοῖν ἡμερῶν ἐπλεύσαμεν, ἐκτίσαμεν πρώτην πόλιν, ἥντινα ὠνομάσαμεν Θυμιατήριον· πεδίον δ᾽ αὐτῇ μέγα ὑπῆν.

3. Κἄπειτα πρὸς ἑσπέραν ἁναχθέντες ἐπὶ Σολόεντα, Λυβικὸν ἀκρωτήριον λάσιον δένδρεσι, συνήλθομεν.

4. Ἔνθα Ποσειδῶνος ἱερὸν ἱδρυσάμενοι πάλιν ἐπέβημεν πρὸς ἥλιον ἀνίσχοντα ἡμέρας ἥμισυ, ἄχρι ἐκομίσθημεν εἰς λίμνην οὐ πόρρω τῆς θαλάττης κειμένην, καλάμου μεστὴν πολλοῦ καὶ μεγάλου· ἐνῆσαν δὲ καὶ ἐλέφαντες καὶ τἆλλα θηρία νεμόμενα πάμπολλα.

5. Τήν τε λίμνην παραλλάξαντες ὅσον ἡμέρας πλοῦν, κατῳκίσαμεν πόλεις πρὸς τῇ θαλάττῃ καλουμένας Καρικόν τε τείχος καὶ Γύττην καὶ Ἄκραν καὶ Μέλιτταν καὶ Ἄραμβυν.

6. Κἀκεῖθεν δ᾽ ἀναχθέντες ἤλθομεν ἐπὶ μέγαν ποταμὸν Λίξον, ἀπὸ τῆς Λιβύης ῥέοντα. Παρὰ δ᾽ αὐτὸν νομάδες ἄνθρωποι Λιξῖται βυσκήματ᾽ ἔνεμον, παρ᾽ οἷς ἐμείναμεν ἄχρι τινός, φίλοι γενόμενοι.

7. Τούτων δὲ καθύπερθεν Αἰθίοπες ᾤκουν ἄξενοι, γῆν νεμόμενοι θηριώδη, διειλημμένην ὄρεσι μεγάλοις, ἐξ ὧν ῥεῖν φασι τὸν Αίξον, περὶ δὲ τὰ ὄρη κατοικεῖν ἀνθρώπους ἀλλοιομόρφους, Τρωγλοδύτας· οὓς ταχυτέρους ἵππων ἐν δρόμοις ἔφραζον οἱ Αιξῖται.

8. Λαβόντες δὲ παρ᾽ αὐτῶν ἑρμηνέας, παρεπλέομεν τὴν ἐρήμην πρὸς μεσημβρίαν δύο ἡμέρας· ἐκεῖθεν δὲ πάλιν πρὸς ἥλιον ἀνίσχοντα ἡμέρας δρόμον. Ἔνθα εὕρομεν ἐν μυχῷ τινος κόλπου νῆσον μικράν, κύκλον ἔχουσαν σταδίων πέντε· ἣν κατῳκίσαμεν, Κέρνην ὀνομάσαντες. Ἐτεκμαιρόμεθα δ᾽ αὐτὴν ἐκ τοῦ περίπλου κατ᾽ εὐθὺ κεῖσθαι Καρχηδόνος· ἐῴκει γὰρ ὁ πλοῦς ἔκ τε Καρχηδόνος ἐπὶ Στήλας κἀκεῖθεν ἐπὶ Κέρνην.

9. Τοὐντεῦθεν εἰς λίμνην ἀφικόμεθα, διά τινος ποταμοῦ μεγάλου διαπλεύσαντες, [ᾧ ὄνομα] Χρέτης· εἶχε δὲ νήσους ή λίμνη τρεῖς μείζους τῆς Κέρνης. Ἀφ᾽ ὧν ἡμερήσιον πλοῦν κατανύσαντες, εἰς τὸν μυχὸν τῆς λίμνης ἤλθομεν, ὑπὲρ ἣν ὄρη μέγιστα ὑπερέτεινε, μεστὰ ἀνθρώπων ἀγρίων, δέρματα θήρεια ἐνημμένων, οἳ πέτροις βάλλοντες ἀπήραξαν ἡμᾶς, κωλύοντες ἐκβῆναι.

10. Ἐκεῖθεν πλέοντες εἰς ἕτερον ἤλθομεν ποταμὸν μέγαν καὶ πλατύν, γέμοντα κροκοδείλων καὶ ἵππων ποταμίων. Ὅθεν δὴ πάλιν ἐπιστρέψαντες εἰς Κέρνην ἐπανήλθομεν.

11. Ἐκεῖθεν δὲ ἐπὶ μεσημβρίαν ἐπλεύσαμεν δώδεκα ήμέρας, τὴν γῆν παραλεγόμενοι, ἣν πᾶσαν κατῴκουν Αἰθίοπες φεύγοντες ἡμᾶς καὶ οὐχ ὑπομένοντες· ἀσύνετα δ᾽ ἐφθέγγοντο καὶ τοῖς μεθ᾽ ἡμῶν Λιξίταις.

12. Τῇ δ᾽ οὖν τελευταίᾳ ἡμέρᾳ προσωρμίσθημεν ὄρεσι μεγάλοις δασέσιν. Ἦν δὲ τὰ τῶν δένδρων ξύλα εὐώδη τε καὶ ποικίλα.

13. Περιπλεύσαντες δὲ ταῦτα ἡμέρας δύο ἐγινόμεθα ἐν θαλάττης χάσματι ἀμετρήτῳ, ἧς ἐπὶ θάτερα προς τῇ γῇ πεδίον ἦν· ὅθεν νυκτὸς ἀφεωρῶμεν πῦρ ἀναφερόμενον πανταχόθεν κατ᾽ ἀποστάσεις, τὸ μὲν πλέον, τὸ δ᾽ ἔλλατον.

14. Ὑδρευσάμενοι δ᾽ ἐκεῖθεν ἐπλέομεν εἰς τοὔμπροσθεν ἡμέρας πέντε παρὰ γῆν, ἄχρι ἤλθομεν εἰς μέγαν κόλπον, ὃν ἔφασαν οἱ ἑρμηνέες καλεῖσθαι Ἑσπέρου Κέρας. Ἐν δὲ τούτῳ νῆσος ἦν μεγάλη καὶ ἐν τῇ νήσῳ λίμνη θαλασσώδης, ἐν δὲ ταύτῃ νῆσος ἑτέρα, εἰς ἣν ἀποβάντες ἡμέρας μὲν οὐδὲν ἀφεωρῶμεν ὅτι μὴ ὕλην, νυκτός δὲ πυρά τε πολλὰ καιόμενα, καὶ φωνὴν αὐλῶν ἠκούομεν κυμβάλων τε καὶ τυμπάνων πάταγον καὶ κραυγὴν μυρίαν. Φόβος οὖν ἔλαβεν ἡμᾶς, καὶ οἱ μάντεις ἐκέλευον ἐκλείπειν τὴν νῆσον.

15. Ταχὺ δ᾽ έκπλεύσαντες παρημειβόμεθα χώραν διάπυρον θυμιαμάτων μεστ[ήν· μέγιστ]οι δ᾽ ἀπ᾽ αὐτῆς πυρώδεις ῥύακες ἐνέβαλλον εἰς τὴν θάλατταν. Ἡ γῆ δ᾽ ὑπὸ θέρμης ἄβατος ἦν.

16. Ταχὺ ούν κακεῖθεν φοβηθέντες ἀπεπλεύσαμεν. Τέτταρας δ᾽ ἡμέρας φερόμενοι, νυκτὸς τὴν γῆν ἀφεωρῶμεν φλoγὸς μεστήν· ἐν μέσῳ δ᾽ ἦν ἠλίβατόν τι πῦρ, τῶν ἄλλων μεῖζον, ἁπτόμενον, ὦς ἐδόκει, τῶν ἄστρων. Τοῦτο δ᾽ ἡμέρας ὄρος ἐφαίνετο μέγιστον, Θεῶν ὄχημα καλούμενον.

17. Τριταῖοι δ᾽ ἐκεῖθεν πυρώδεις ῥύακας παραπλεύσαντες ἀφικόμεθα εἰς κόλπον Νότου Κέρας λεγόμενον.

18. Ἐν δὲ τῷ μυχῷ νῆσος ἦν, ἐοικυῖα τῇ πρώτῃ, λίμνην ἔχουσα· καὶ ἐν ταύτῃ νῆσος ἦν ἑτέρα, μεστὴ ἀνθρώπων ἀγρίων. Πολὺ δὲ πλείους ἦσαν γυναῖκες, δασεῖται τοῖς σώμασιν· ἃς οἱ ἑρμηνέες ἐκάλουν Γορίλλας. Διώκοντες δὲ ἄνδρας μὲν συλλαβεῖν οὐκ ἠδυνήθημεν, ἀλλὰ πάντες (μὲν) ἐξέφυγον, κρημνοβάται ὄντες καὶ τοῖς πέτροις ἀμυνόμενοι, γυναῖκας δὲ τρεῖς, αἳ δάκνουσαί τε καὶ σπαράττουσαι τοὺς ἄγοντας οὐκ ἤθελαν ἕπεσθαι. Ἀποκτείναντες μέντοι αὐτάς ἐξεδείραμεν καὶ τὰς δορὰς ἐκομίσαμεν εἰς Καρχηδόνα. Οὐ γὰρ ἔτι ἐπλεύσαμεν προσωτέρω, τῶν σίτων ἡμᾶς ἐκλιπόντων.

The Voyage of Hanno, King of the Carthaginians

THE VOYAGE OF HANNO, KING OF THE CARTHAGINIANS To the Libyan regions of the earth beyond the Pillars of Hercules, which he dedicated also in the Temple of Baal, affixing this

1. It pleased the Carthaginians that Hanno should voyage outside the Pillars of Hercules, and found cities of the Libyphœnicians. And he set forth with sixty ships of fifty oars, and a multitude of men and women, to the number of thirty thousand, and with wheat and other provisions.

2. After passing through the Pillars we went on and sailed for two days' journey beyond, where we founded the first city, which we called Thymiaterium; it lay in the midst of a great plain.

3. Sailing thence toward the west we came to Solois, a promontory of Libya, bristling with trees.

4. Having set up an altar here to Neptune, we proceeded again, going toward the east for half the day, until we reached a marsh lying no great way from the sea, thickly grown with tall reeds. Here also were elephants and other wild beasts feeding, in great numbers.

5. Going beyond the marsh a day's journey, we settled cities by the sea, which we called Caricus Murus, Gytta, Acra, Melitta and Arambys.

6. Sailing thence we came to the Lixus, a great river flowing from Libya. By it a wandering people, the Lixitas, were pasturing their flocks; with whom we remained some time, becoming friends.

7. Above these folk lived unfriendly Æthiopians, dwelling in a land full of wild beasts, and shut off by great mountains, from which they say the Lixus flows, and on the mountains live men of various shapes, cave-dwellers, who, so the Lixitæ say, are fleeter of foot than horses.

8. Taking interpreters from them, we sailed twelve days toward the south along a desert, turning thence toward the east one day's sail. There, within the recess of a bay we found a small island, having a circuit of fifteen stadia; which we settled, and called it Cerne. From our journey we judged it to be situated opposite Carthage ; for the voyage from Carthage to the Pillars and thence to Cerne was the same.

9. Thence, sailing by a great river whose name was Chretes, we came to a lake, which had three islands, larger than Cerne. Running a day's sail beyond these, we came to the end of the lake, above which rose great mountains, peopled by savage men wearing skins of wild beasts, who threw stones at us and prevented us from landing from our ships.

10. Sailing thence, we came to another river, very great and broad, which was full of crocodiles and hippopotami. And then we turned about and went back to Cerne.

11. Thence we sailed toward the south twelve days, following the shore, which was peopled by Æthiopians who fled from us and would not wait. And their speech the Lixitæ who were with us could not understand.

12. But on the last day we came to great wooded mountains. The wood of the trees was fragrant, and of various kinds.

13. Sailing around these mountains for two days, we came to an immense opening of the sea, from either side of which there was level ground inland; from which at night we saw fire leaping up on every side at intervals, now greater, now less.

14. Having taken in water there, we sailed along the shore for five days, until we came to a great bay, which our interpreters said was called Horn of the West. In it there was a large island, and within the island a lake of the sea, in which there was another island. Landing there during the day, we saw nothing but forests, but by night many burning fires, and we heard the sound of pipes and cymbals, and the noise of drums and a great uproar. Then fear possessed us, and the soothsayers commanded us to leave the island.

15. And then quickly sailing forth, we passed by a burning country full of fragrance, from which great torrents of fire flowed down to the sea. But the land could not be come at for the heat.

16. And we sailed along with all speed, being stricken by fear. After a journey of four days, we saw the land at night covered with flames. And in the midst there was one lofty fire, greater than the rest, which seemed to touch the stars. By day this was seen to be a very high mountain, called Chariot of the Gods.

17. Thence, sailing along by the fiery torrents for three days, we came to a bay, called Horn of the South.

18. In the recess of this bay there was an island, like the former one, having a lake, in which there was another island, full of savage men. There were women, too, in even greater number. They had hairy bodies, and the interpreters called them Gorillæ. When we pursued them we were unable to take any of the men; for they all escaped, by climbing the steep places and defending themselves with stones; but we took three of the women, who bit and scratched their leaders, and would not follow us. So we killed them and flayed them, and brought their skins to Carthage. For we did not voyage further, provisions failing us.

MAP to illustrate THE PERIPLUS of HANNO

The Geography of the Voyage of Hanno

THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE VOYAGE OF HANNO

The Carthaginian colonies mentioned in this text can be identified only in the most general way with any existing settlement. They were destroyed and abandoned so many centuries ago that no traces are likely to remain, although the unsettled condition of the country, which has remained to the present time, has prevented any exploration of the interior or even of the coast itself.

§ 1. The Pillars of Hercules are, of course, the Straits of Gibraltar.

§ 2. The first city, called in the text Thymiaterium, is identified by Müller as Mehedia at the mouth of the Sbou River at about 34° 20' N. The name of this city as we have it is a Greek corruption and to the eyes of various commentators suggests Dumathir—flat ground, or city of the plain.

§ 3. The Promontory of Solois is probably the same as Cape Cantin at 32° 30' N.

§ 4. The section of marshy ground is probably reached on both sides of Cape Safi, 32° 20' N.

§ 5. The location of the five colonies mentioned in this paragraph is uncertain. Müller places the first at the ruins of Agouz, 32° 5' at the mouth, of the Tensift River. The second perhaps at Mogador, 31° 30'. The third at Agadir, 30° 25'. The fourth at the mouth of the Messa River, 30° 5'. The fifth, perhaps, at the mouth of the Gueder River, 29° 10', or at Araouas, 29°.

§ 6. The Lixus River is quite certainly the modern Wadi Draa, emptying into the ocean at 28° 30'.

§ 8. The island of Cerne, lying in the recess of a bay, is identified with the modern Herne Island within the mouth of the Rio de Oro at about 23° 45' N. The relative distances as mentioned in this paragraph from the Straits of Gibraltar to Carthage and to Herne Island respectively, are very nearly correct.

§ 9. The Chretes River Müller identifies with the modern St. Jean at 19° 25', at the mouth of which the three islands exist as the text describes.

§ 10, The great river full of crocodiles and hippopotami is identified with the Senegal at about 16° 30' N.

§§ 12 and 13. These great wooded mountains around which the expedition sailed, can be nothing but Cape Verde, and the immense opening of the sea is the mouth of the Gambia River at 13° 30' N.

§ 14. The bay called Horn of the West reaches from 12° to to 11° N. and the islands are the modern Bissagos.

§ 16. The high mountain called Chariot of the Gods, Müller identifies with Mt. Kakulima at 9° 30' N.

§§ 17 and 18. The island enclosed within the bay called Horn of the South, it is now agreed by all commentators, is the modern Sherboro Sound in the British colony of Sierra Leone, about 7° 30' N.

This identification of the places named in the text extends Hanno's voyage about 29 degrees of latitude along the West African coast, or a total length outside of Gibraltar, following the direction of the shore line, of about 2600 miles.

Editions of the Periplus of Hanno

EDITIONS OF THE PERIPLUS OF HANNO

(From Bunbury, History of Ancient Geography, I, 332-3)

"The narrative of Hanno was certainly extant in Greek at an early period. It is cited in the work ascribed to Aristotle on Marvellous Narratives (§37) which belongs to the 3d century B. C.; as well as by Mela, Pliny, and many later writers; and Pliny expressly speaks of it as the source whence many Greek and Roman writers had derived their information, including, as he considered, many fables. (Pliny, H. N., V. 8.)

"The authenticity of the work may be considered as unquestionable. The internal evidence is conclusive upon that point. There is considerable doubt as to the date of the voyage. On this point the narrative itself gives no information, and the name Hanno was very common at Carthage. (See Smith's Dict, of Biog., Art. Hanno). But it has been generally agreed that this Hanno was either the father or the son of the Hamilcar who led the great Carthaginian expedition to Sicily in B. C. 480. In the former case the Periplus may be probably assigned to a date about B. C. 520; in the latter it must be brought down to about B. C. 470. This last view is that adopted by C. Müller in his edition of the Periplus (Geographi Græci Minores, I, xxi-xxiv), where the whole subject is fully discussed; but as between him and his grandfather, the choice is hardly more than conjectural. M. Vivien de St. Martin, however, prefers the date of B. C. 570, which had been previously adopted by Bougainville (Mémoires de l' Académie des Inscriptions, xxviii, 287).

"The Periplus of Hanno was first published at Basle in 1533 (as an appendix to the Periplus of the Erythræan Sea), from a manuscript in the Heidelberg library (Cod. Pal. Græc., 398), the only one in which it is found. There have been numerous subsequent editions; of these the one by Falconer, 8vo, 1797, and Kluge, 8vo, Leipzig, 1829, are the most valuable. The treatise is also included in the editions of the

Geographi Græci Minores by Hudson, Gail, and C. Müller. The valuable and elaborate commentary by the latest editor may be considered as in a great measure superseding all others. Besides all these editions, it has been made the subject of elaborate investigations by Gosselin, Bougainville, Major Rennell, Heeren, Ukert, Vivien de St. Martin, and other geographical writers. Indeed there are few ancient writings that have been the subject of more copious commentary in proportion to its very limited extent. The earliest of these commentaries, inserted by Ramusio in his collection of Voyages (Venice, 1550), is curious and interesting as being derived from Portuguese sources, who were in modern times the earliest explorers of these coasts. That by the Spanish writer Campomanes (in his Antigüedad Maritima de Cártago, 4to, Madrid, 1756) is, on the contrary, utterly worthless."

Carthaginian Chronology

CARTHAGINIAN CHRONOLOGY

| |b. c.

|Migration of the Phœnicians from the Persian Gulf to South Arabia and the Mediterranean, about | |2800

|Phœnician cities on the Mediterranean subject alternately to Babylon and Egypt. Rise of Assyria, about | |1300

|Greek activity and extension of Israel; fall of Troy, about | |1183

|Temporary weakness of both Assyria and Egypt makes possible the independence and alliance of Israel and Phœnicia, | |1049-976

|Phœnician colonies westward, about | |1000

|Founding of Carthage, about | |878

|At this period the Semitic commercial system centering in Mesopotamia, Phœnicia and Carthage controlled the trade of the world; continued expansion of Greece, and foundation of Greek colonies in Asia Minor and the Black Sea and westward in Italy, Sicily and Gaul, | |800-600

|Founding of Rome, | |753

|Decline of Assyria under this competition, | |650

|Greek colony established at Cyrene in North Africa, | |631

|Greek commercial agency established on the Nile, | |630

|Fall of Nineveh, | |606

|Extension of Carthaginian dominions in Africa, Sicily and Sardinia, | |550

|Defeat of the Carthaginians by the Greeks, | |539

|Fall of Babylon and rise of the Persian Empire, | |538

|War between Carthage and Syracuse for the possession of Sicily, | |533

|Change of Carthaginian policy toward African tribes and enforcement of tribute, | |533

|Rome under Etruscan kings extends its dominion in Italy, | |528

|Egypt conquered by the Persians, | |525

|Cyrene, and Africa as far as the Carthaginian possessions, conquered by the Persians, | |524

|Invasion of Italy by the Gauls, | |520

|Northern India conquered by the Persians, | |512

|Expulsion of the Tarquins and establishment of the Republic of Rome, | |509

|The Persians advance into Thrace, | |505

|Persian advance continues into Greece until checked by the defeat of Marathon, | |490

|Second effort of the older civilization against Greece under Xerxes, this time employing all its forces from India in the east to Carthage in the west, ends in double victory by the Greeks over the Carthaginians at Himera in Sicily and over the Persians at Salamis, | |480

|Battle of Plataea; expulsion of the Persians from Greece, | |479

|Probable date of the voyage of Hanno, marking the decline of Carthaginian supremacy in the northern Mediterranean and the movement to extend its trade westward by the Atlantic Ocean, | |470

|At this period Carthage was by far the richest city on the Mediterranean.

|Invasion of Italy by the Gauls, capture and destruction of Rome, | |390

|Defeat of the Etruscans by the Romans, | |310

|Defeat of the Samnites, Nubians and Gauls by the Romans, | |295

|Invasion of Italy by Pyrrhus and his defeat by the Romans, | |280-275

|Basis of Roman wealth and power laid by the capture and sack of Tarentum, | |272

|First Punic war ending in the loss of Sicily to Rome, | |264-241

|Second Punic war ending in the loss of Spain, Sardinia and Corsica to Rome, | |218-201

|Third Punic war ending in the total destruction of Carthaginian power, | |145-146

|Capture and destruction of both Carthage and Corinth and transfer of their wealth to Rome, | |146

| |a.d.

|Steady advance of Roman power in all directions ending with complete possession of the Mediterranean at the death of Augustus, | |13

The "Burning Country" of §§ 14-16

THE "BURNING COUNTRY" OF §§ 14-16

Mungo Park (Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa. London, 1799: Chap, xx), thus describes the burning of the grass in the dry season in Senegambia:

"The termination of the rainy season is likewise attended with violent tornadoes; after which the wind shifts to the northeast, and continues to blow from that quarter during the rest of the year. . , . The grass soon becomes dry and withered, the rivers subside very rapidly, and many of the trees shed their leaves. . . . This wind, in passing over the great desert of Sahara, acquires a very strong attraction for humidity, and parches up everything exposed to the current. . . . Whenever the grass is sufficiently dry, the Negroes set it on fire; but in Ludamar and other Moorish countries this practice is not allowed, for it is on the withered stubble that the Moors feed their cattle until the return of the rains. The burning of the grass in Manding exhibits a scene of terrific grandeur. In the middle of the night, I could see the plains and mountains, as far as my eye could reach, variegated with lines of fire; and the light reflected on the sky made the heavens appear in a blaze. In the daytime pillars of smoke were seen in every direction; while the birds of prey were observed hovering round the conflagration and pouncing down upon the snakes, lizards, and other reptiles, which attempted to escape from the flames. This annual burning is soon followed by a fresh and sweet verdure, and the country is thereby rendered more healthful and pleasant."

See also a paper by Dr. Walther Busse in Mitteilungen aus der Deutschen Schutzgehieten, 1908, No. 2, reviewed in the Geographical Journal for October, 1908.

Native method of clearing the ground for the planting of crops, still in general use in West Africa. (See text, §§ 13-17, and note, p. 13.)

Carthage and the Carthaginians

CARTHAGE AND THE CARTHAGINIANS

By R. BOSWORTH SMITH, M. A. London, 1877

Chapter I. Extracts

"The land-locked sea, the eastern extremity of which washes the shores of Phœnicia proper, connecting as it does three continents, and abounding in deep gulfs, in fine harbors, and in fertile islands, seems to have been intended by nature for the early development of commerce and colonization. By robbing the ocean of half its mystery and more than half its terrors, it allured the timid mariner, even as the eagle does her young, from headland on to headland, or from

islet to islet, till it became the highway of the nations of the ancient world; and the products of each of the countries whose shores it laves became the common property of all. At a very early period the Etruscans, for instance, that mysterious people who then occupied with their settlements Campania and Cisalpine Gaul, as well as that extensive intermediate region to which they afterwards gave their name, swept all the Italian seas with their galleys, half piratical, and half commercial. The Greeks, somewhat later, founded (B. C. 631) Cyrene and (B. C. 560) Barca in Africa, (B. C. 564) Alalia in Corsica, and (B. C. 600) Massilia in Gaul, and lined the southern shores of Italy and the western shores of Asia Minor with that fringe of colonies which were so soon to eclipse in prosperity and power their parent cities. Even Egypt, with her immemorial antiquity and her exclusive civilization, deigned to open (B. C. 550) an emporium at Naucratis for the ships and commerce of the Greeks, creatures of yesterday as they must have seemed in comparison with her.

"But in this general race of enterprise and commerce among the nations which bordered on the Mediterranean, it is to the Phœnicians that unquestionably belongs the foremost place. In the dimmest dawn of history, many centuries before the Greeks had set foot in Asia Minor or in Italy, before even they had settled down in secure possession of their own territories, we hear of Phœnician settlements in Asia Minor and in Greece itself, in Africa, in Macedon, and in Spain. There is hardly an island in the Mediterranean which has not preserved some traces of these early visitors; Cyprus, Rhodes and Crete in the Levant; Malta, Sicily, and the Balearic Isles in the middle passage; Sardinia, Corsica, and Elba in the Tyrrhenian Sea; the Cyclades, as Thucydides tells us, in the mid-Ægean; and even Samothrace and Thasos at its northern extremity, where Herodotus, to use his own forcible expression, himself saw a whole mountain 'turned upside down' by their mining energy; all have either yielded Phœnician coins and inscriptions, have retained Phœnician proper names and legends, or possess mines, long, perhaps, disused, but which were worked as none but Phœnicians ever worked them. And among the Phœnician factories which dotted the whole southern shore of the Mediterranean, from the east end of the Greater Syrtis even to the Pillars of Hercules, there was one which, from a concurrence of circumstances, was destined rapidly to outstrip all the others, to make herself their acknowledged head, to become the Queen of the Mediterranean, and, in some sense, of the Ocean beyond, and for a space of over a hundred years, to maintain a deadly and not an unequal contest with the future mistress of the world.

"The rising African factory was known to its inhabitants by the name of Kirjath-Hadeschath, or New Town, to distinguish it from the much older settlement of Utica, of which it may have been, to some extent, an offshoot. The Greeks, when they came to know of its existence, called it Karchedon, and the Romans Carthago. The date of its foundation is uncertain; but the current tradition refers it to a period about a hundred years before the founding of Rome.

"In her origin, at least, Carthage seems to have been, like other Phœnician settlements, a mere commercial factory. Her inhabitants cultivated friendly relations with the natives, looked upon themselves as tenants at will rather than owners of the soil, and, as such, cheerfully paid a rent to the African Berbers for the ground covered by their dwellings. Thus much, if thus much only, of truth is contained in the legend of Dido, which, adorned as it has been by the genius of Virgil, and resting in part on early local traditions, must always remain indissolubly bound up with the name of Carthage.

"It was the instinct of self-preservation alone which, in the course of the sixth century, dictated a change of policy at Carthage, and transformed her peace-loving mercantile community into the war-like and conquering state, of which the whole of the western Mediterranean was so soon to feel the power. A people far less keensighted than the Phœnicians must have discerned that it was their very existence which was at stake; at all events, unless they were willing to be dislodged from Africa, and Sicily, and Spain, as they had already been dislodged from Italy and Greece and the islands of the Levant, by the flood of Hellenic colonization, they must alter their policy. Accordingly they joined hands (in B. C. 537) with their inveterate enemies, the Etruscans, to prevent a threatened settlement of some exiled Phocæans on the important island of Corsica. In Africa they took up arms to make the inhabitants of Cyrene feel that it was towards Egypt or the interior, not towards Carthage, that they must look for an extension of their boundaries; and in Sicily, by withdrawing half voluntarily from the eastern side of the island in which the Greeks had settled, they tightened their grip upon the western portion which, as being nearer to Carthage, was more important to them, and where the original Phœnician settlements of Panormus, Motye, and Soloeis had been planted.

"The result of this change of policy was that the western half of the Mediterranean became, with one exception, what the whole of it had once bidden fair to be—a Phœnician lake, in which no foreign merchantmen dared to show themselves. It was a vast preserve, to be caught trespassing upon which, so Strabo tells us, on the authority of Eratosthenes, ensured the punishment of instant death by drowning. No promontory was so barren, no islet so insignificant, as to escape the jealous and ever watchful eye of the Carthaginians. In Corsica, if they could not get any firm or extensive foothold themselves, they at least prevented any other state from doing the like. Into their hands fell, in spite of the ambitious dreams of Persian kings and the aspirations of patriot Greeks, that 'greatest of all islands,' the island of Sardinia; theirs were the Ægatian and the Liparæan, the Balearic and the Pityusian Isles; theirs the tiny Elba, with its inexhaustible supply of metals; theirs, too, Malta still remained, an outpost pushed far into the domain of other advancing enemies, a memorial of what once had been, and, perhaps, to the sanguine Carthaginian temperament, an earnest of what might be again hereafter. Above all the Phœnician settlements in Spain, at the innermost corner of the great preserve, with the adjacent silver mines which gave to these settlements their peculiar value, were now trebly safe from all intruders.

"Elated, as it would seem, by their naval successes, which were hardly of their own seeking, the Carthaginians thought that they might now at least become the owners of the small strip of African territory which they had hitherto seemed to occupy on sufferance only, and they refused the ground-rent which, up till now, they had paid to the adjoining tribes. Step by step they enlarged their territories at the expense of the natives, till the whole of the rich territory watered by the Bagradas became theirs. The Nomadic tribes were beaten back beyond the river Triton into the country named, from the roving habits of its inhabitants, Numidia, or into the desert of Tripolis, and were henceforward kept in check by the primitive defence of a line of ditch and rampart, just as, in earlier times, the rich plains of Babylonia had been protected by the 'wall of Semiramis' from the incursions of the less civilized Medes. The agricultural tribes were forced to pay tribute to the conquerors for the right of cultivating their own soil or to shed their blood on the field of battle in the prosecution of further conquests from the tribes beyond.

"Nor did the kindred Phœnician settlements in the adjoining parts of Africa escape unscathed. Utica alone, owing probably to her antiquity and to the semi-parental relation in which she stood to Carthage, was allowed to retain her walls and full equality of rights with the rising power; but Hippo Zarytus, and Adrumetum, the greater and the lesser Leptis, were compelled to pull down their walls and acknowledge the supremacy of the Carthaginian city. All along the northern coast of Africa the original Phœnician settlers, and, probably, to some extent, the Carthaginians themselves, had intermarried with the natives. The product of these marriages was that numerous class of Libyphœnicians which proved to be so important in the history of the Carthaginian colonization and conquest; a class which, equidistant from the Berbers on the one hand, and from the Carthaginians proper on the other, and composed of those who were neither wholly citizens nor yet wholly aliens, experienced the lot of most half castes, and were alternately trusted and feared, pampered and oppressed, loved and hated, by the ruling state.