mitting bafe and unjust actions. One fingle example will prove this. In the time of, a truce, granted by Scipio, to the earnest entreaties of the Carthaginians, fomeRoman veffels,being driven by a form on the coafts of Carthage, were feized by order of the fenate and peo ple*, who could not fuffer fo tempting a prey to efcape them. They were refolved to get money, though the manner of acquiring it was ever fo fcandalous. The inhabitants of Carthage, even in St. Auftin's time, (as that father informs us) fhowed on a particular occafion, that they ftill retained part of this characteristic. But these were not the only blemishes and faults of the Carthaginians. They had fomething auftere and favage in their difpofition and genius, a-haughty and imperious air, a fort of ferocity, which, in its first ftarts, was deaf to either reafon or remonftrances, and plunged brutally into the utmoft exceffes of violence. The people, cowardly and groveling under apprehenfions, were fiery and cruel in their tranfports; at the fame time that they treinbled under their magiftrates, they were dreaded in their turn by their miferable vaffals. In this we fee the difference which education makes between one nation and another. The Athenians, whofe city was always confidered as the centre of learning, were naturally jealous of their authority, and difficult to govern; but ftill, a fund of good nature and humanity made them compaffionate the misfor tunes of others, and be indulgent to the errors of their leaders. Cleon one day defired the affembly, in which Plut. De ger. Rep. p. 799. * Magiftratus fenatum vocare, populus in curiæ veftibulo fremere, ne tanta es oculis manibufque amitteretur prada. Confenfum eft ut, &c. Liv. I. xxx. 24/ Amountebank had promised the citizens of Carthage to discover to them their moft fecret thoughts, in case they would come, on a day appointed, to hear him. Being all met, he told them, they were de firous to buy cheap, and fell dear. Every man's confcience pleaded guilty to the charge; and the mountebank was difmiffed with apa plaufe and laughter. Vili vultis emore, et care vendere ;, in quo difto leviffimi Scenici omnes tamen confcientias invenerunt fuas, eique vera et tamen improvisa disenti admirabili favore plauferunt. S. AUGUST. 1, xiii. de Trinit. c. 3. he he prefided, to break up; becaufe, as he told them, he had a facrifice to offer, and friends to entertain. The people only laughed at the request, and immediately feparated. Such a liberty, fays Plutarch, at Carthage, would have coft a man his life. Livy makes a like reflection with regard to Terentius Varro. That general, being returned to Rome, after the battle of Canna, which had been loft by his ill conduct, was met by perfons of all orders of the ftate, at fome diftance from Rome; and thanked by them, for his not having defpaired of the commonwealth; who, fays the hiftorian, had he been a general of the Carthaginians, must have expected the most fevere punishment. Cui fi, Carthaginienfium ductor fuiffet, nihil recufandum fupplicii foret. Indeed a court was established at Carthage, where the generals were obliged to give an account of their conduct; and they all were made refponfible for the events of war. Ill fuccefs was punished there as a crime against the state; and whenever a general loft a battle, he was almost fure, at his return, of ending his life upon a gibbet. Such was the furious, cruel, and barbarous difpofition of the Carthaginians, who were always ready to fhed the blood of their citizens as well as of foreigners. The unheard-of tortures which they made Regulus fuffer are a manifeft proof of this affertion; and their history will furnifh us with fuch inftances of it, as are not to be read without horror. The Hiftory of the Carthaginians; HE interval of time between the foundation of years, and may be divided into two parts. The first, which is much the longeft, and the least known, (as is ordinary with the beginnings of all states) extends to the first Punic war, and takes up five hundred and eighty-two years. The fecond, which ends at the deftruction of Carthage, contains but a hundred and eighteen years. СНАР. 1. The Foundation of Carthage, and its Progrefs till the Time of the firft Punic War. ARTHAGE in Africa was a colony from Tyre, CARTHAGE in Africaily com the most renowned city at that time for com merce in the world. Tyre had long before tranfplanted another colony into that country, which built Utica*, inade famous 'by the death of the fecond Cato, who for this reafon is generally called Cato Uticenfis. Authors difagree very much with regard to the æra of the foundation of Carthaget. It is a difficult matter, and not very material, to reconcile them; at least, agreeably to the plan laid down by me, it is fufficient to *Utica et Carthago ambæ inclytæ, ambæ a Phænicibus condita; illa fato Catonis infignis, hæc fuo. Pompon. Mel. c. 67. Utica and Carthage, both famous, and both built by Phoenicians; the first renowned by Cato's fate, the last by its own. + Our countryman, Howel, endeavours to reconcile the three different accounts of the foundation of Carthage, in the following manner. He fays that the town confifted of three parts, viz. Cothon, or the port to know; within a few years, the time in which that city was built. Carthage exifted a little above feven hundred years. It was destroyed under the confulate of Cn. Lentulus, and L. Mummius, the 603d year of Rome, 3859th of the world, and 145 before Chrift. The foundation of it may therefore be fixed at the year of the world 3158, when Joafh was king of Judah, 98 years before the building of Rome, and 846 before. our Saviour. The foundation of Carthage is afcribed to Elifa, a Tyrian princefs, better known by the name of Dido. Ithobal, king of Tyre, and father of the famous Jezebel, called in fcripture Ethbaal, was her great grandfather. She married her near relation Acerbas, called otherwife Sicharbas and Sichæus, an extremely rich prince, and Pygmalion king of Tyre was her brother. This prince having put Sichæus to death, in order that he might have an opportunity to feize his immense treasures; Dido eluded the cruel avarice of her brother, by withdrawing fecretly with all her dead hufband's poffeffions. After having long wandered, the at laft landed on the coaft of the Mediterranean, in the gulph where Utica ftoód, and in the country of Africa, properly fo called, diftant almost fifteen * miles from Tunis, fo famous, at this time, for its corfairs; and there fettled with her few followers, after having purchafed fome lands from the inhabitants of the countryt. Many Liv. Epit. 1. li. *Juftin. 1. xviii. c. 4, 5, 6. App. de bello Pun. p. 1. Strab. I. xvii. p. 832. Paterc. 1. i. c. 6. port and buildings adjoining to it, which he supposes to have been first built; Megara, built next, and in refpect of Cothon, called the New Town, or Karthada; and Byrfa, or the citadel, built laft of all and probably by Dido. Gothon, to agree with Appian, was built fifty years before the taking of Troy; Megara, to correfpond with Eufebius, was built a hundred ninety-four years later; Byrfa, to agree with Menander, (cited by Jofephus) was built a hundred fixty-fix years after Megara. 120 Stadia. Strab. 1. xiv. p. 687. + Some authors fay, that Dido put a trick on the natives, by defiring to purchase of them, for her intended fettlement, only fo much and as an ox's hide would encompass. The request was thought too moderate Many of the neighbouring people, invited by the profpect of lucre, repaired thither to fell to thefe foreigners the neceffaries of life; and fhortly after incorporated themfelves with them. Thefe inhabitants, who had been thus gathered from different places, foor grew very numerous. The citizens of Utica confidering them as their countrymen, and as defcended from the fame common stock, deputed envoys with very confiderable prefents, and exhorted them to build a city in the place where they had first fettled. The natives of the country, from the efteem and refpect frequently fhown to frangers, made them the like offers. Thus all things confpiring with Dido's views, fhe built her city, which was appointed to pay an annual tribute to the Africans for the ground it flood upon; and called Carthada*, or Carthage, a name that, in the Phoenician and Hebrew tongues (which have a great affinity) fignifies the New City. It is faid that when the foundations were dug, a horse's head was found, which was thought a good omen, and a prefage of the future warlike genius of that peoplet. This princefs was afterwards courted by Iarbas king of Getulia, and threatened with a war in cafe of refufal. Dido, who had bound herself by an oath not to confent to a fecond marriage, being incapable of violating the faith fhe had fworn to Sichæus, defired time for delibemoderate to be denied. She then cut the hide into the smallest thongs; and, with them, encompaffed a large tract of ground, on which the built a citadel called byrfa, from the hide. But this tale of the thong is generally exploded by the learned; who obferve, that the Hebrew word Bufra, which fignifies a fortification, gave rife to the Greek word Byfa, which is the name of the citadel of Carthage. * Kartha Hadath or Hadtha. + Effodere loco fignum, quod regia Juno VIRG. En. 1. i. ver. 447 The Tyrians landing near this holy ground, 2 DAYDEN. ration, |