Chapter XII: Front Matter (12)

Though several famous travellers visited and described the ruins of
Carthage during the first thirty years of the 19th century, such as
Major Humbert, Chateaubriand, Estrup, no scientific investigations
took place till 1833. In that year Captain Falbe, Danish consul at
Tunis, made a plan of the ruins so far as they were visible. In 1837
there was formed in Paris, on the initiative of Dureau de la Malle, a
_Societe pour les fouilles de Carthage_; under the auspices of this
body Falbe and Sir Grenville Temple undertook researches, and a little
later Sir Thomas Read, English consul, following the example of the
Genoese and the Pisans, carried away to England the mosaics, columns
and statues of the baths of Antoninus. The Abbe Bourgade, chaplain of
the church of St Louis erected in 1841, collected together Punic
stelae and other antiquities from the surrounding plain; these formed
the nucleus of the magnificent museum subsequently formed by Pere
Delattre at the instigation of Cardinal Lavigerie. Between 1856 and
1858 Nathan Davis made excavations on the supposed site of the Odeum,
and in 1859 Beule undertook his celebrated investigations on Byrsa.
Among other explorers were A. Daux in 1866; von Maltzan in 1870; E. de
Sainte-Marie in 1874; Ch. d'Herisson in 1883; E. Babelon and S.
Reinach in 1884; Vernaz in 1885; Gauckler in 1903. Of these the
majority were sent officially by the French government. But their
attempts were partial, disjointed and without any systematic plan;
they were entirely superseded by the brilliant and persevering work of
R.P. Delattre. The Musee Lavigerie, the result of his labours,
contains a vast archaeological treasure, the interest of which is
doubled by the fact that it stands in the very midst of the ancient
site. Unfortunately Delattre's work suffered too often from the
absence of a cordial understanding with the directors of the
antiquities department, La Blanchere and P. Gauckler, who, having
themselves undertaken excavations, transported their finds to the
Bardo museum, by the help of the public funds at their disposal.

The main authority for the topography and the history of the
excavations is Aug. Audollent's _Carthage romaine_ (Paris, 1901). A
topographical and archaeological map of the site was published under
the direction of Colonel Dolot and with the assistance of Delattre and
Gauckler by the Ministere de l'Instruction Publique in 1907.

_History._--The history of Carthage falls into four periods: (1) from the foundation to the beginning of the wars with the Sicilian Greeks in 550 B.C.; (2) from 550 to 265, the first year of the Punic Wars; (3) the Punic Wars to the fall of Carthage in 146 B.C.; (4) the periods of Roman and Byzantine rule down to the destruction of the city by the Arabs in A.D. 698.

(1) _Foundation to 550 B.C._--From an extremely remote period Phoenician sailors had visited the African coast and had had commercial relations with the Libyan tribes who inhabited the district which forms the modern Tunis. In the 16th century B.C. the Sidonians already had trading stations on the coast; with the object of competing with the Tyrian colony at Utica they established a trading station called Cambe or Caccabe on the very site afterwards occupied by Carthage. Near Borj-Jedid unmistakable traces of this early settlement have been found, though nothing is known of its history. According to the classical tradition Carthage was founded about 850 B.C. by Tyrian emigrants led by Elissa or Elissar, the daughter of the Tyrian king Mutton I., fleeing from the tyranny of her brother Pygmalion. According to the story, Elissa subsequently received the name of Dido, i.e. "the fugitive." Cambe welcomed the new arrivals, who bought from the mixed Libyo-Phoenician peoples of the neighbourhood, tributaries of the Libyan king Japon, a piece of land on which to build a "new city," _Kart-hadshat_, the Greek and Roman forms of the name. The story goes that Dido, having obtained "as much land as could be contained by the skin of an ox," proceeded to cut the skin of a slain ox into strips narrow enough to extend round the whole of the hill, which afterwards from this episode gained the name of _Byrsa_. This last detail obviously arose from a mere play on words by which [Greek: Bursa] "hide," "skin," is confused with the Phoenician _bosra, borsa_, "citadel," "fortress." In memory of its Tyrian origin, Carthage paid an annual tribute to the temple of Melkarth at Tyr, and under the Roman empire coins were struck showing Dido fleeing in a galley, or presiding over the building of Byrsa. On the Vatican _Virgil_ there is a representation in miniature of workmen shaping marble blocks and columns for Dido's palace.

The early history of Carthage is very obscure. It is only in the 6th century that real history begins. By this time the city is unquestionably a considerable capital with a domain divided into the three districts of Zeugitana (the environs of Carthage and the peninsula of C. Bon), Byzacium (the shore of the Syrtes), and the third comprising the emporia which stretch in the form of a crescent to the centre of the Great Syrtis as far as Cyrenaica. The first contest against the Greeks arose from a boundary question between the settlements of Carthage and those of the Greeks of Cyrene. The limits were eventually fixed and marked by a monument known as the "Altar of Philenae." The destruction of Tyre by Nebuchadrezzar (q.v.), in the first half of the 6th century, enabled Carthage to take its place as mistress of the Mediterranean. The Phoenician colonies founded by Tyre and Sidon in Sicily and Spain, threatened by the Greeks, sought help from Carthage, and from this period dates the Punic[2] supremacy in the western Mediterranean. The Greek colonization of Sicily was checked, while Carthage established herself on all the Sicilian coast and the neighbouring islands as far as the Balearic Islands and the coast of Spain. The inevitable conflict between Greece and Carthage broke out about 550.

(2) _Wars with the Greeks._--In 550, the Carthaginians, led by the suffetes Malchus, conquered almost all Sicily and expelled the Greeks. In 536 they defeated the Phocaeans and the Massaliotes before Alalia on the Corsican coast. But Malchus, having failed in Sardinia, was banished by the stern Carthaginian senate and swore to avenge himself. He laid siege to Carthage itself, and, after having sacrificed his son Carthalo to his lust for vengeance, entered the city as a victor. He ruled until he was put to death by the party which had supported him. Mago, son of Hanno, succeeded Malchus, as suffetes and general-in-chief. He was the true founder of the Carthaginian military power. He conquered Sardinia and the Balearic Islands, where he founded Port Mahon (Portus Magonis), and so increased the power of Carthage that he was able to force commercial treaties upon the Etruscans, and the Greeks of both Sicily and Italy. The first agreement between Carthage and Rome was made in 509, one year after the expulsion of the Tarquins, in the consulship of Junius Brutus and Marcus Horatius. The text is preserved by Polybius (_Hist._ iii. 22-23). It assigned Italy to the Romans and the African waters to Carthage, but left Sicily as a dangerous neutral zone.

Mago was succeeded as commander-in-chief by his elder son Hasdrubal (c. 500), who was thrice chosen suffetes; he died in Sardinia about 485. His brother Hamilcar, having collected a fleet of 200 galleys for the conquest of Sicily, was defeated by the combined forces of Gelo of Syracuse and Theron of Agrigentum under the walls of Himera in 480, the year in which the Persian fleet was defeated at Salamis (some say the two battles were simultaneous); it is said that 150,000 Carthaginians were taken prisoners. The victory is celebrated by Pindar (_Pyth._ i.).

These two leaders of the powerful house of the Barcidae each left three sons. Those of Hasdrubal were Hannibal, Hasdrubal and Sapho; those of Hamilcar, Himilco, Hanno and Gisco. All, under various titles, succeeded to the authority which it had already enjoyed. About 460 Hanno,[3] passing beyond the Pillars of Hercules (Straits of Gibraltar), founded settlements along the West African coast in the modern Senegal and Guinea, and even in Madeira and the Canary Islands.

In Sicily the war lasted for a century with varying success. In 406 Hannibal and Himilco destroyed Agrigentum and threatened Gela, but the Carthaginians were forced back on their strongholds in the south-west by Dionysius the Elder, Dionysius the Younger, Timoleon and Agathocles successively, whose cause was aided by a terrible plague and civil troubles in Carthage itself, A certain Hanno, unquestionably of the Barcide house, attempted to seize the supreme power, but his partisans were overwhelmed and he himself suffered the most cruel punishment. Profiting by these troubles, Timoleon defeated the Carthaginians at Crimissus in 340, and compelled them to sue for peace. This peace was not of long duration; Agathocles crossed to Africa and besieged Carthage, which was then handicapped by the conspiracy of Bomilcar. Bomilcar was crucified, and Agathocles having been obliged to return to Sicily, his general Eumarcus was compelled to carry his army out of Africa, where it had maintained itself for three years (August 310 to October 307). After the death of Agathocles, the Carthaginians re-established their supremacy in Sicily, and Mago even offered assistance to Rome against the invasion of Pyrrhus (480). Pyrrhus crossed to Sicily in 277, and was preparing to emulate Agathocles by sailing to Africa when he was compelled to return to Italy (see SICILY: _History_).

Delivered from these dangers and more arrogant than before, Carthage claimed the monopoly of Mediterranean waters, and seized every foreign ship found between Sardinia and the Pillars of Hercules. "At Carthage," said Polybius, "no one is blamed, however he may have acquired his wealth." The sailors took the utmost care to conceal the routes which they followed; there is a story that a Carthaginian ship, pursued by a Roman galley as far as the Atlantic, preferred to be driven out of her course and sunk rather than reveal the course to the Cassiterides, whither she was bound in quest of tin. The owner being saved, the senate made good his losses from the public treasury (Strabo, iii. 5. 11).

(3) _Wars with Rome._[4]--The first Punic War lasted twenty-seven years (268-241); it was fought by Carthage for the defence of her Sicilian possessions and her supremacy in the Tyrrhenian Sea. The Romans, victorious at the naval battles of Mylae (Melazzo) and Ecnomus (260 and 256), sent M. Atilius Regulus with an army to Africa. But the Carthaginians, by the help of the Spartan Xanthippus, were successful, and Regulus was captured. The fighting was then transferred to Sicily, where Hasdrubal was defeated at Panormus (250); subsequently the Romans failed before Lilybaeum and were defeated at Drepanum, but their victory at the Aegates Islands ended the war (241). Carthage now desired to disband her forces, but the mercenaries claimed their arrears of pay, and on being refused revolted under Spendius and Matho, pillaged the suburbs of Carthage and laid siege to the city itself. Only the genius of Hamilcar Barca raised the siege; the mercenaries were caught in the defile of the Axe, where they were cut down without mercy. This war, which all but ruined Carthage, is known to the Roman historians as the _bellum inexpiabile._

This peril averted, Carthage undertook the conquest of Spain. It was the work of Hamilcar, and lasted nine years up to the day of Hamilcar's death, sword in hand, in 228. His son-in-law, Hasdrubal Pulcher, built Carthagena in 227 and concluded with Rome a treaty by which the Ebro was adopted as the boundary of the Carthaginian sphere. On his death the soldiers chose for themselves as leader Hannibal, son of Hamilcar. At this period Carthage, with a population of perhaps 1,000,000, was in the enjoyment of extraordinary prosperity alike in its internal industries and in its foreign trade. The manufacture of woven goods, especially, was a flourishing industry; the Greek writer Polemo records a special treaty dealing with Carthaginian fabrics which were a recognized luxury throughout the ancient world. In Sicily, Italy and Greece the Carthaginians sold especially black slaves, ivory, metals, precious stones and all the products of Central Africa, which came thence by caravan. In Spain they sought copper and silver, and it was by them that the modern mines of Huelva, as also those of Osca and Carthagena, were first exploited. The district round Carthage, with its amazing fertility, was the granary of the city, as it was later that of Rome. Mago had drawn up a treaty dealing with agriculture and' rural economy generally, which was subsequently brought to Rome and translated into Latin by Decimus Silanus by order of the senate (J.P. Mahaffy, "The Work of Mago," in _Hermathena_, xv. pp. 29-35).

In the midst of this prosperity the Second War with Rome broke out. At this time the genius of Carthage is incarnate in Hannibal; his campaigns in Spain, Italy and Africa have won the admiration of military experts of all periods. The war became inevitable in 210 when Hannibal captured Saguntum, which was in alliance with Rome. Passing through Spain and Gaul, Hannibal resolved to carry the war into the heart of Italy (218-217). The battles of the Ticinus, Trebia and Trasimene Lake are but stages in the wonderful progress which culminated in the battle of Cannae (August 2, 216). The road to Rome was now open to him, but he did not profit by his advantage, while the Carthaginian senate, to its shame, withheld all further support. His brother Hasdrubal with his relieving army was defeated at the Metaurus in 207; the Romans recovered their hold in Spain, and, seeing that Hannibal was unable to move in Italy, carried the war back to Africa. Hearing that Scipio had taken Utica (203) and defeated Hasdrubal and Syphax, king of Numidia, Hannibal returned from Italy, but with a hastily levied army was defeated at Zama (October 19, 202). The subsequent peace was disastrous to Carthage, which lost its fleet and all save its African possessions.

After the Second War Carthage soon revived. The population is said still to have numbered 700,000, and despite its humiliation, the city never ceased to inspire alarm at Rome. The Numidian prince Massinissa, rival of Syphax and a Roman protege, took advantage of a clause in the treaty of 202, which forbade Carthage to make war without the consent of the Roman senate, to extend his possessions at the expense of Carthage. In response to a protest from Carthage an embassy including M. Porcius Cato the Elder was sent to inquire into the matter, and Cato was so impressed with the city as a whole that on returning to Rome he never made a speech without concluding with the warning "Delenda est Carthago."

At this time there were three political parties in Carthage: (1) that which upheld the Roman alliance, (2) hat which advocated the Numidian alliance, and (3) the popular party. These three were led respectively by Hanno, Hannibal Passer, Hasdrubal and Carthalo. The popular faction, which was turbulent and exasperated by the bad faith of the Romans, expelled the Numidian party and declared war in 149 on Massinissa, who was victorious at Oroscope. Rome then intervened, determined finally to destroy her now enfeebled rival. War was declared on the pretext that Carthage had engaged in war with Massinissa without the sanction of Rome. The third Punic War lasted three years, and after a heroic resistance the City fell in 146. The last champions of liberty entrenched themselves under Hasdrubal in the temple of Eshmun, the site of which is now occupied by the chapel of St Louis. The Roman troops were let loose to plunder and burn. The thick bed of cinders, blackened stones, broken glass, fragments of metal twisted by fire, half-calcined bones, which is found to-day at a depth of 13 to 16 ft. under the remains of Roman Carthage between Byrsa and the harbours, bears grim witness, in accord with the accounts of Polybius and Appian, to the terrible fate which overtook this part of the city. Before long a commission arrived from Rome to decide the fate of the province of Carthage. In the city itself, temples, houses and fortifications were levelled to the ground, the site was dedicated with solemn imprecations to the infernal gods, and all human habitation throughout the vast ruined area was expressly forbidden.

_Constitutional History._--The narrative must here be interrupted by
an account of the political and religious development of Phoenician
Carthage. Carthage was an aristocratic republic based on wealth rather
than on birth. Indeed, the popular party, which included certain noble
families such as the Barcidae, was always powerful, and thus
government by demagogues was not infrequent. So Aristotle, writing
about 330, emphasizes the importance of great wealth in Carthaginian
politics. The government was in fact a plutocracy. The aristocratic
party was represented by the two suffetes and the senate; the
democratic by the popular assembly. The suffetes (_Sofetim_) presided
in the senate and controlled the civil administration; the office was
annual, but there was no limit to re-election. Hannibal was elected
for twenty-two years. The senate, which, like that of Tyre, was
composed of 300 members, exercised ultimate control over all public
affairs, decided on peace and war, nominated the Commission of Ten,
which was charged with aiding and controlling the suffetes. This
commission was subsequently replaced, by a council of one hundred,
called by the Greeks _gerousia_. This tribunal, which maintained law
and order and called the generals to account, gradually became a
tyrannical inquisition. Frequently it met at night in the Temple of
Eshmun On Byrsa, in secret sessions described by Aristotle as [Greek:
sussitia ton hetairion].

The popular assembly was composed, not of all the citizens, but of the
_timuchi_ (Gr. [Greek: time, echein]), i.e. those who possessed a
certain property-qualification. The election of the suffetes had to be
ratified by this assembly. The two bodies were almost always in
opposition, and this was one of the chief causes of the ruin of
Carthage.

The army was recruited externally by senators who were sent to the
great _emporia_ or trade-centres, even to the most remote, to contract
with local princes for men and officers. The payments, agreed upon in
this way, were frequently in arrears; hence the terrible revolts such
as that of the "bellum inexpiabile." It was not till the 3rd century
that Carthage, in imitation of the kings of Syria and Egypt, began to
make use of elephants in war. The elephant used was the African type
(_elephas capensis_), which was smaller than the Asiatic (_elephas
indicus_), though with longer ears. In addition to the mercenaries,
the army contained a legion composed of young men belonging to the
best families in the state; this force was important as a nursery of
officers.

_Religion_.--The religion of Carthage was that of the Phoenicians.
Over an army of minor deities (_alonim_ and _baalim_) towered the
trinity of great gods composed of Baal-Ammon or Moloch (identified by
the Romans with Cronus or Saturn); Tanit, the virgin goddess of the
heavens and the moon, the Phoenician Astarte, and known as Juno
Caelestis in the Roman period; Eshmun, the protecting deity and
protector of the acropolis, generally identified with Aesculapius.
There were also special cults: of Iolaus or Tammuz-Adonis, whom the
Romans identified to some extent with Mercury; of the god Patechus or
Pygmaeus, a deformed and repulsive monster like the Egyptian Ptah,
whose images were placed on the prows of ships to frighten the enemy;
and lastly of the Tyrian Melkarth, whose functions were analogous to
those of Hercules. The statue of this god was carried to Rome after
the siege of 146 (Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xxxvi. 12. 39). From
inscriptions we know the names of other minor deities, which are
perhaps only other names of the same gods, e.g. Rabbat Umma, "the
great mother"; Baalat haedrat, "mistress of the sanctuary"; Ashtoreth
(Astarte), Illat, Sakon, Tsaphon, Sid, Aris (? Ares).

From the close of the 4th century B.C. the intimate relations between
the Carthaginians and the Sicilian Greeks began to introduce Hellenic
elements into this religion. In the forum of Carthage was a temple to
Apollo containing a colossal statue, which was transported to Rome.
The Carthaginians once at least sent offerings to Delphi, and Tanit
approximated to some extent to Demeter; hence on the coins we find the
head of Tanit or the Punic Astarte crowned with ears of corn, in
imitation of the coins of the Greek Sicilian colonies. The symbol of
Tanit is the crescent moon; in her temple at Carthage was preserved a
famous veil or _peplus_ which was venerated as the city's palladium.
On the innumerable votive stelae which have been unearthed, we find
invocations to Tanit and Baal-Ammon, as two associate deities ([Greek:
theoi paredroi]). The usual formula in these inscriptions is, "To the
great lady Tanit, the manifestation [reflex, face] of Baal
(_Tanti-Pene-Baal_) and to our lord Baal-Ammon, the vow of Bomilcar,
son of Mago, son of Bomilcar, because they have heard his prayer"
(_Corp. inscr. semit._ vol. i. pp. 276 f.; Audollent, _Carth. Rom._ p.
369).

Baal-Ammon or Moloch, the great god of all Libya, is represented as an
old man with ram's horns on his forehead; the ram is frequently found
with his statues. He appears also with a scythe in his hand ("_falcem
ferens senex pingitur_." St Cyprian, _De idol. vanit._ 11). At
Carthage children were sacrificed to him, and in his temple there was
a colossal bronze statue in the arms of which were placed the children
who were to be sacrificed (Diod. Sic. xx. 14; Justin xviii. 6, xix. 1;
Plut. _De superstit._ 13, _De sera num. vindic._ 6.). The children
slipped one by one from the arms into a furnace amid the plaudits of
fanatical worshippers. These sacrifices persisted even under Roman
rule; Tertullian states that even in his time they took place in
secret (_Apolog._ cix.; cf. Delattre, "Inscript. de Carth.," in
_Bulletin epigraphique_, iv. p. 317; Audollent, op. cit. p. 398).

(4) _Roman Period._--In 122 B.C., twenty-four years after the destruction of the city by Scipio Aemilianus, the Roman senate, on the proposal of Rubrius, decided to plant a Latin colony on the site. C. Gracchus and Fulvius Flaccus were entrusted with the foundation of the new city, which was christened _Colonia Junonia_, and placed under the protection of Juno Caelestis, the new name for the Punic Tanit. But its prosperity was obstructed both by unpropitious omens and by the very recollection of the ancient feud, and fifty years later Marius, proscribed by Sulla, found the ruins practically deserted. In the neighbourhood were the scattered remnants of the old Punic population, who, according to Athenaeus (_Deipnosoph._ v. 50), had actually had the assurance to send ambassadors to Mithradates the Great assuring him of their support against Rome. Ultimately M. Minucius Rufus passed a law abrogating that of 122 and suppressing the _Colonia Junonia_.

Julius Caesar, pursuing the lost supporters of Pompey, encamped on the ruins of the city, and there, according to tradition, had a dream which induced him to re-establish the abandoned colony. Returning to Rome, he despatched thither the poor citizens who were demanding land from him. Later on Augustus sent new colonists, and, henceforward, the machinery of administration was regularly centred there (Appian viii. 136; Dio Cass. lxxx. 1; Audollent, op. cit. p. 46). The proconsuls of the African province had hitherto lived at Utica; in 14-13 B.C. C. Sentius Saturninus transferred his headquarters to Carthage, which was henceforth known as _Colonia Julia Carthago_. Several inscriptions use this name, as also the bronze coins which bear the heads of Augustus and Tiberius, and were struck at first in the name of the _suffetes_, afterwards in that of _duumviri_.

Pomponius Mela and Strabo already describe Carthage as among the greatest and most wealthy cities of the empire. Herodian puts it second to Rome, and such is the force of tradition that the Roman citizens resident in Carthage boasted of its Punic past, and loved to recall its glory. Virgil in the _Aeneid_ celebrated the misfortunes of Dido, whom the colonists ultimately identified with Tanit-Astarte; a public Dido-cult grew up, and the citizens even pretended to have discovered the very house from which she had watched the departure of Aeneas. The religious character of these legends, coupled with the city's resumption of its old role as mistress of Africa, and its independent spirit, reawakened the old distrust, and even up to the invasions of the Vandals the jealous rivalry of Rome forbade the reconstruction of the city walls.

The revolt of L. Clodius Macer, legate of Numidia, in A.D. 68 was warmly supported by Carthage, and one of the coins of this short-lived power bears the symbol of Carthage personified. At the moment of the accession of Vitellius, Piso, governor of the province of Africa, was in his turn proclaimed emperor at Carthage. A little later, under Antoninus Pius, we read of a fire which devastated the quarter of the forum; about the same time, i.e. under Hadrian and Antoninus, there was built the famous Zaghwan aqueduct, which poured more than seven million gallons of water a day into the reservoirs of the Mapalia (La Malga); the cost of this gigantic work was defrayed by a special tax which pressed heavily on the inhabitants as late as the reign of Septimius Severus; allusions to it are made on the coin-types of this emperor (E. Babelon, _Revista italiana di numismatica_, 1903, p. 157).

In the early history of Christianity Carthage played an auspicious part, in virtue of the number of its disciples, the energy and learning of their leaders, the courage and eloquence of its teachers, the persecutions of which it was the scene, the number of its councils and the heresies of which it witnessed the birth, propagation or extinction (see CARTHAGE, SYNODS OF). The labours of Delattre have filled the St Louis museum at Carthage with memorials of the early Church. From the end of the 2nd century there was a bishop of Carthage; the first was Agrippinus, the second Optatus. At the head of the apologists, whom the persecutions inspired, stands Tertullian. In 202 or 203, in the amphitheatre, where Cardinal Lavigerie erected a cross in commemoration, occurred the martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas. Tertullian was succeeded (248) by a no less famous bishop Cyprian. About this time the proconsul Gordian had himself proclaimed (239) emperor at Thysdrus (El Jem). Shortly afterwards Sabinianus, aspiring to the same dignity, was besieged by the procurator of Mauretania; the inhabitants gave him up and thus obtained a disgraceful pardon (R. Cagnat, _L'armee romaine d'Afrique_ p. 52; Audollent, op. cit. p. 73). Peace being restored, the persecution of the Christians was renewed by an edict of the emperor Decius (250). Cyprian escaped by hiding, and subsequently caused the heresy of Novatian to be condemned in the council of 251. In 257, in a new persecution under Valerian, Cyprian was beheaded by the proconsul Galerius Maximus.

About 264 or 265 a certain Celsus proclaimed himself emperor at Carthage, but was quickly slain. Probus, like Hadrian and Severus, visited the city, and Maximian had new baths constructed. Under Constantius Chlorus, Maxentius proclaimed himself emperor in Africa; this caused great excitement in Carthage, and the garrison, which was hostile to the pretender, compelled L. Domitius Alexander to assume the purple. Domitius was, however, captured by Maxentius and strangled at Carthage. About 311 there arose the famous Donatist heresy, supported by 270 African bishops (see DONATISTS and CONSTANTINE I.). At the synod of Carthage in 411 this heresy was condemned owing to the eloquence of Augustine. Two years later the Carthaginian sectaries even ventured upon a political rebellion under the leadership of Heraclianus, who proclaimed himself emperor and actually dared to make a descent on Italy itself, leaving his son-in-law Sabinus in command at Carthage. Being defeated he fled precipitately to Carthage, where he was put to death (413). Donatism was followed by Pelagianism (see PELAGIUS), also of Carthaginian origin, and these religious troubles were not settled when in May 429 the Vandals, on the appeal of Count Boniface, governor of Africa, crossed the Straits of Gibraltar and invaded Mauretania. Genseric, who was hailed with one accord by all the different sectaries as the champion of their several views, appeared in 439 before the walls of Carthage, which had been hastily rebuilt after five hundred years by the order of Theodosius II. The priest Salvianus has left a splendid picture of Carthage at this moment (_de Gubern._ vii. 16). It had 500,000 inhabitants, and 22 basilicas (several of which have been discovered by Delattre). Genseric entered almost without a blow (October 19, 439), and gave over the city to plunder before departing for his attack on Italy. From this time Carthage became, in the hands of the Vandals, a mere pirate stronghold, such as Tunis and Algiers were subsequently to become. Once, in 470, the fleet of the Eastern empire under the orders of Basiliscus appeared in the Bay of Carthage, but Genseric succeeded in setting fire to the attacking ships and from Byrsa watched their entire annihilation.

_Byzantine Rule_.--Under Genseric's successors (see VANDALS), Carthage was still the scene of many displays of savage brutality, though Thrasamund built new baths and a basilica. Ultimately Gelimer, the last Vandal king, was defeated at Ad Decimum by the Byzantine army under Belisarius, who entered Carthage unopposed (September 14, 533). The restored city now received the name of Colonia Justiniana Carthago; Belisarius rebuilt the walls and entrusted the government to Solomon. New basilicas and other monuments were erected, and Byzantine Carthage recovered for a century the prosperity of the Roman city.

At length the Arabs, having conquered Cyrenaica and Tripolitana (647), and founded Kairawan (670), arrived before Carthage. In 697 Hasan ibn en-Noman, the Gassanid governor of Egypt, captured the city almost without resistance. But the garrison left by the Arabs was quite unable to defend itself against the patrician Joannes, who retook the city and hastily put it in a state of defence. Hasan returned furious with anger, defeated the Byzantines again, and decreed the entire destruction of the city. His orders were fulfilled; and in 698 Carthage finally disappears from history. Once again only does the name appear in the middle ages, when the French king, Louis IX., at the head of the eighth crusade, disembarked there on the 17th of July 1270. He died, however, of the plague on the 25th of August without having recovered northern Africa for civilization.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--I. _Ancient_.--(a) Polybius, Diodorus Siculus, Livy,
Appian, Justin, Strabo; (b) for the Christian period, Tertullian,
Cyprian, Augustine; (c) for the Byzantine and Vandal, Procopius and
Victor de Vita. All the references to the topography of Roman and
Byzantine Carthage are collected in Audollent, _Carthage romaine_
(1901), pp. 775-825, which also contains a full list of modern works
(pp. 13-32. and p. 835).

II. _Modern_.--The most important are: Falbe, _Recherches sur
l'emplacement de Carthage_ (Paris, 1833); Dureau de la Malle,
_Topographie de Carthage_ (Paris, 1835); Nathan Davis, _Carthage and
her Remains_ (London, 1861); Beule, _Fouilles a Carthage_ (Paris,
1861); Victor Guerin, _Voyage archeologique dans la regence de Tunis_
(Paris, 1862); E. de Sainte Marie, _Mission a Carthage_ (Paris, 1884);
C. Tissot, _Geographie comparee de la province romaine d'Afrique_
(Paris, 1884-1888, 2 vols.); E. Babelon, _Carthage_ (Paris, 1896);
Otto Meltzer, _Geschichte der Karthager_ (Berlin, 1879-1896, 2 vols.);
Paul Monceaux, _Les Africains, etude sur la litterature latine de
l'Afrique; Les Paiens_ (Paris, 1898); _Histoire litteraire de
l'Afrique chretienne_ (Paris, 1901-1909, 3 vols.); Pallu de Lessert,
_Vicaires et comtes d'Afrique_ (Paris, 1892); _Fastes des provinces
africaines sous la domination romaine_ (Paris, 1896-1901, 2 vols.); R.
Cagnat, _L'Armee romaine d'Afrique_ (Paris, 1892); C. Diehl,
_L'Afrique byzantine, histoire de la domination byzantine en Afrique_
(Paris, 1896); Aug. Audollent, _Carthage romaine_ (Paris, 1901); A.J.
Church and A. Gilman, _Carthage_ in "Story of the Nations" series
(1886). For the numerous publications of Pere Delattre scattered in
various periodicals see _Etude sur les diverses publications du R.P.
Delattre_, by Marquis d'Anselme de Puisaye (Paris, 1895); Miss Mabel
Moore's _Carthage of the Phoenicians_ (London, 1905) contains a useful
summary of Delattre's excavations. See further for the discussion of
particular points: "Chronique archeologique africaine," published by
Steph. Gsell, in the _Revue africaine_ of Algiers, 1893, and following
years; and in the _Melanges d'archeologie et d'histoire de l'Ecole
francaise de Rome_, vol. xv. (1895 and following years); Dr Carton,
"Chronique archeologique nord-africaine," in the _Revue tunisienne_.
(E. B.*)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The whole question of these harbours has been fully discussed by
Cecil Torr, Otto Meltzer, R. Ohler, S. Gsell, M. de Roquefeuil; see
Aug. Audollent, _Carthage romaine_, pp. 198 seq.; _Revue archeol._
3rd series, xxiv.; _Jahrbuch f. class. Philologie_, vols. cxlvii.,
cxlix.; also _Classical Review_, vols. v., vii., viii.

[2] i.e. "of the Poeni (Phoenicians)."

[3] The identification of this Hanno with the son of Hamilcar is
conjectural; see HANNO.

[4] For the military side of these wars see PUNIC WARS; HANNIBAL;
HASDRUBAL.

CARTHAGE, a city and the county-seat of Jasper county, Missouri, U.S.A., on the Spring river, about 950 ft. above sea-level, and about 150 m. S. by E. of Kansas City. Pop. (1890) 7981; (1900) 9416, of whom 539 were negroes; (1910 census) 9483. It is served by the St. Louis & San Francisco, the Missouri Pacific, and the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern railways, and is connected with Webb City and Joplin, Mo., and Galena, Kan., by the electric line of the Southwest Missouri railway. The town is built on high ground underlain by solid limestone, and has much natural and architectural beauty. It is the seat of the Carthage Collegiate Institute (Presbyterian). A Chautauqua assembly and a county fair are held annually. In the vicinity there are valuable lead, zinc and coal mines, and quarries of Carthage "marble," with which the county court house is built. Carthage is a jobbing centre for a fruit and grain producing region; live-stock (especially harness horses) is raised in the vicinity; and among the city's manufactures are lime, flour, canned fruits, furniture, bed springs and mattresses, mining and quarrying machinery, ploughs and woollen goods. In 1905 the factory products were valued at $1,179,661. Natural gas for domestic use and for factories is piped from the Kansas gas fields. The municipality owns and operates the electric-lighting plant. Carthage, founded in 1833, was laid out as a town and became the county-seat in 1842, was incorporated as a town in 1868, was chartered as a city in 1873, and in 1890 became a city of the third class under the general (state) law. On the 5th of July 1861 about 3500 Confederates under General James E. Rains and M.M. Parsons, accompanied by Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson (1807-1862), and 1500 Union troops under Colonel Franz Sigel, were engaged about 7 m. north of the city in an indecisive skirmish which has been named the battle of Carthage.

CARTHAGE, SYNODS OF. During the 3rd, 4th, and 5th centuries the town of Carthage (q.v.) in Africa served as the meeting-place of a large number of church synods, of which, however, only the most important can be treated here.

1. In May 251 a synod, assembled under the presidency of Cyprian to consider the treatment of the _lapsi_ (those who had fallen away from the faith during persecution), excommunicated Felicissimus and five other Novatian bishops (Rigorists), and declared that the _lapsi_ should be dealt with, not with indiscriminate severity, but according to the degree of individual guilt. These decisions were confirmed by a synod of Rome in the autumn of the same year. Other Carthaginian synods concerning the _lapsi_ were held in 252 and 254.

See Hefele, 2nd ed., i. pp. 111 sqq. (English translation, i. pp. 93
sqq.); Mansi, i. pp. 863 sqq., 905 sqq.; Hardouin, i. pp. 133 sqq.,
147 sqq.; Cyprian, _Epp._ 52, 54, 55, 68.

2. Two synods, in 255 and 256, held under Cyprian, pronounced against the validity of heretical baptism, thus taking direct issue with Stephen, bishop of Rome, who promptly repudiated them, and separated himself from the African Church. A third synod, September 256, unanimously reaffirmed the position of the other two. Stephen's pretensions to authority as "bishop of bishops" were sharply resented, and for some time the relations of the Roman and African Churches were severely strained.

See Hefele, 2nd ed., i. pp. 117-119 (English translation, i. pp. 99
sqq.); Mansi, i. pp. 921 sqq., 951 sqq.; Hardouin, i. pp. 153 sqq.;
Cyprian, _Epp._ 69-75.

3. The Donatist schism (see DONATISTS) occasioned a number of important synods. About 348 a synod of Catholic bishops, who had met to record their gratitude for the effective official repression of the "Circumcelliones" (Donatist terrorists), declared against the rebaptism of any one who had been baptized in the name of the Trinity, and adopted twelve canons of clerical discipline.

See Hefele, 2nd. ed., i. pp. 632-633 (English translation, ii. pp.
184-186); Mansi, iii. pp. 143 sqq.; Hardouin, i. pp. 683 sqq.

4. The "Conference of Carthage" (see DONATISTS), held by imperial command in 411 with a view to terminating the Donatist schism, while not strictly a synod, was nevertheless one of the most important assemblies in the history of the African church, and, indeed of the whole Christian church.

See Hefele, 2nd ed., ii. pp. 103-104 (English translation, ii. pp.
445-446); Mansi, iv. pp. 7-283; Hardouin, i. pp. 1043-1190.

5. On the 1st of May 418 a great synod ("A Council of Africa," St Augustine calls it), which assembled under the presidency of Aurelius, bishop of Carthage, to take action concerning the errors of Caelestius, a disciple of Pelagius (q.v.), denounced the Pelagian doctrines of human nature, original sin, grace and perfectibility, and fully approved the contrary views of Augustine. Prompted by the reinstatement by the bishop of Rome of a deposed African priest, the synod enacted that "whoever appeals to a court on the other side of the sea (meaning Rome) may not again be received into communion by any one in Africa" (canon 17).

See Hefele, 2nd ed., ii. pp. 116 sqq. (English translation, ii. pp.
458 sqq.); Mansi, iii. pp. 810 sqq., iv. pp. 377 sqq., 451 sqq.;
Hardouin, i. pp. 926 sqq.

6. The question of appeals to Rome occasioned two synods, one in 419, the other in 424. The latter addressed a letter to the bishop of Rome, Celestine, protesting against his claim to appellate jurisdiction, and urgently requesting the immediate recall of his legate, and advising him to send no more judges to Africa.

See Hefele, 2nd ed., ii. pp. 120 sqq., 137 sqq. (English translation,
ii. pp. 462 sqq., 480 sqq.); Mansi, iii. pp. 835 sqq., iv. pp. 401
sqq., 477 sqq.; Hardouin, i. pp. 943 sqq., 1241 sqq. (T.F.C.)

CARTHUSIANS, an order of monks founded by St Bruno (q.v.). In 1084 Bruno and his six companions presented themselves before the bishop of Grenoble and explained to him their desire to lead an ascetical life in a solitary place. He pointed out to them a desolate spot named Chartreuse, on the mountains near Grenoble, rocky and precipitous, and snow-covered during a great portion of the year, and told them they might there carry out their design. They built themselves three huts and an oratory, and gave themselves up to a life of prayer and silence and extreme austerity. After a few years Bruno was summoned to Rome by Urban II., as an adviser in the government of the Church, c. 1090; but after a year or so he obtained permission to withdraw from Rome, and was able to found in the forests of Calabria near Squillace a second, and later on a third and a fourth monastery, on the same lines as the Chartreuse. On one of these south Italian foundations Bruno died in 1101. On leaving the Chartreuse he had appointed a successor as superior, and the institute steadily took more settled shape and further development. Peter the Venerable, abbot of Cluny, writing about forty years later, speaks thus of the mode of life of the earliest Carthusians:--

"Warned by the negligence and lukewarmness of many of the older monks,
they adopted for themselves and for their followers greater precaution
against the artifices of the Evil One. As remedy against pride and
vain-glory they chose a dress more poor and contemptible than that of
any other religious body; so that it is horrible to look on these
garments, so short, scanty, coarse and dirty are they. In order to cut
up avarice by the roots, they enclosed around their cells a certain
quantity of land, more or less, according to the fertility of the
district; and they would not accept a foot of land beyond that limit
if you were to offer them the whole world. For the same motive they
limit the quantity of their cattle, oxen, asses, sheep and goats. And
in order that they might have no motive for augmenting their
possessions, either of land or animals, they ordained that in every
one of their monasteries there should be no more than twelve monks,
with their prior the thirteenth, eighteen lay brothers and a few paid
servants. To mortify the flesh they always wear hair shirts of the
severest kind, and their fasting is wellnigh continuous. They always
eat bread of unbolted meal, and take so much water with their wine
that it has hardly any flavour of wine left. They never eat meat,
whether in health or ill. They never buy fish, but they accept it if
it is given to them for charity. They may eat cheese and eggs only on
Sundays and Thursdays. On Tuesdays and Saturdays they eat cooked
vegetables. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays they take only bread
and water. They eat once a day only, save during the octaves of
Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, Epiphany and other solemnities. They
live in separate little houses like the ancient monks of Egypt, and
they occupy themselves continually with reading, prayer and the labour
of their hands, especially the writing of books. They recite the
prayers for minor canonical hours in their own dwellings, when warned
by the bell of the church; but they all assemble in church for matins
and vespers. On feast days they eat twice, and sing all the offices in
the church, and eat in the refectory. They do not say mass save on
festivals and Sundays. They boil the vegetables served out to them in
their own dwellings, and never drink wine save with their food."
(Migne, _Patrol. Lat._ clxxxix. 943.)

In its broad outlines this description of primitive Carthusian life has remained true, even to the present day: the regulations as to food are not quite so stringent, and the habit is now an ordinary religious habit of white serge. It was not until 1170 that the Carthusians were formally constituted a separate religious order by papal act. Owing to its very nature, the institute never had any great expansion: at the middle of the 13th century there were some 50 Charterhouses; at the beginning of the 18th there were 170, 75 being in France.

There was no written rule before 1130, when Guigo, the fifth prior of the Grande Chartreuse, reduced to writing the body of customs that had been the basis of Carthusian life (Migne, _Patrol. Lat._ cliii. 631); enlargements and modifications of this code were made in 1259, 1367, 1509 and 1681: this last form of the statutes is the present Carthusian rule.

The life is very nearly eremitical: except on Sundays and feasts, the Carthusians meet only three times a day in the church--for the Midnight Office, for Mass and for Vespers; once a week, on Sundays (and feasts) they have their meal in the refectory, and once a week they have recreation together and a walk outside enclosure. All the rest of their time is passed in solitude in their hermitages, which are built quite separate from one another. Each hermitage is a house, containing living-room, bedroom and oratory, workshop and store-room, and has a small garden attached. The monks are supplied with such tools as they wish to employ in workshop and garden, and with such books as they need from the library. The Carthusian goes to bed every evening at 7 and is called about 11, when he says in his private oratory the _Officium B. Mariae Virginis_. Towards midnight all repair to the church for Matins and Lauds, which are celebrated with extraordinary solemnity and prolixity, so as to last from 2 to 3 hours, according to the office. They then return to bed until 5, when they again go to the church for the daily High Mass, still celebrated according to the phase of liturgical and ritual development of the 11th century. The private Masses are then said, and the monks betake themselves to work or study. At 10 in summer, 11 in winter, 12 on feast days, they have their dinner, alone except on Sundays and feasts; the dinner is supplied from the common kitchen through a small window. On many days of the year there is but one meal; meat is never eaten, even in sickness--this has always been an absolute rule among the Carthusians. In the afternoon they again assemble in the church for Vespers; the lesser portions of the canonical office, as well as the Office of the Blessed Virgin and the Office of the Dead, are said privately in the oratories.

This manner of life has been kept up almost without variation for eight centuries: among the Carthusians there have never been any of those revivals and reforms that are so striking a feature in the history of other orders--"never reformed, because never deformed." The Carthusians have always lived thus wholly cut off from the outer world, each one in almost entire isolation. They introduced and have kept up in western Europe a life resembling that of the early Egyptian monks, as under St Anthony's guidance monasticism passed from the utter individualism of the first hermits to the half eremitical, half cenobitical life of the Lauras (see MONASTICISM). Owing to certain resemblances in external matters to the Benedictine rule and practice, the Carthusians have sometimes been regarded as one of the offshoots from the Benedictines; but this view is not tenable, the whole Carthusian conception, idea and spirit being quite different from the Benedictine.

The superiors of the Charterhouses are priors, not abbots, and the prior of the Grande Chartreuse is the superior general of the order. A general chapter of the priors is held annually at the Grande Chartreuse. The Carthusians have always flourished most in France, but they had houses all over western Europe; some of the Italian _Certose_, as those at Pavia, Florence and Naples, are renowned for their wonderful beauty.

The first English Charterhouse was established in 1178 at Witham by Selwood Forest, and at the Dissolution there were nine, the most celebrated being those at Sheen in Surrey and at Smithfield in London (for list see _Catholic Dictionary_, art. "Carthusians"). The Carthusians were the only order that made any corporate resistance to the ecclesiastical policy of Henry VIII. The community of the London Charterhouse stood firm, and the prior and several of the monks were put to death in 1535 under circumstances of barbarous cruelty. In Mary's reign a community was reassembled at Sheen, and on her death it emigrated, fifteen in number, to Flanders, and finally settled in Nieuport; it maintained itself as an English community for a considerable time, but gradually dwindled, and the last of the old English Carthusian stock died in 1831. There is now one Charterhouse in England established at Parkminster in Sussex in 1883; the community numbers 50 choir-monks, but it is almost wholly made up of foreigners, including many of those recently expelled from France.

At the French Revolution the monks were driven from the Grande Chartreuse, but they returned in 1816; they were again driven out under the Association Laws of 1901, and the community of the Grande Chartreuse is now settled in an old Certosa near Lucca. Of late years the community at the Grande Chartreuse had consisted of some 40 choir-monks and 20 lay brothers. Before the recent expulsions from France there were in all some 20 Charterhouses.

There have been since the middle of the 13th century a very few convents of Carthusian nuns, not more than ten; in recent times there have been but two or three, one situated a few miles from the Grande Chartreuse. The rule resembles that of the monks, but the isolation, solitude and silence are much less stringent. The habit of the Carthusians, both monks and nuns, is white.

A word may be added as to the famous liqueur, known as Chartreuse, made by the monks. At the Revolution the property of the Carthusians was confiscated, and on their restoration they recovered only the barren desert in which the monastery stood, and for it they had to pay rent. Thus they were for some years in want even of the needful means of subsistence. Then the liqueur was invented as a means of supplying the wants of the community; it became a great commercial success and produces a large yearly income. This income the monks have not spent on themselves, nor does it accumulate. The first charge is the maintenance of the Grande Chartreuse and the other Charterhouses, and out of it have been built and established the new monasteries of the order, as at Dusseldorf, Parkminster and elsewhere; but by far the largest portion has been spent on religious and charitable purposes in France and all over the world,--churches, schools, hospitals, almshouses, foreign missions. One thing is certain: the profits made no difference at all to the secluded and austere life of the monks of the Grande Chartreuse.

AUTHORITIES.--The most comprehensive historical work on the Carthusian
order is B. Tromby, _Storia del patriarca S. Brunone e del suo ordine_
(10 vols., 1773). References to other histories, old and new, will be
found in Max Heimbucher, _Orden u. Kongregationen_ (1896), i. S 36;
Wetzer und Welte, _Kirchenlexicon_ (ed. 2), art. "Karthauserorden";
Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopadie_ (ed. 3), art. "Karthauser." For the
English Carthusians, see E. Margaret Thompson, _Somerset Carthusians_
(1895), and Dom L. Hendriks, _London Charterhouse_ (1889). The best
study on St Bruno and the foundation of the order is Hermann Lobbel,
"Der Stifter des Karthauser-Ordens," 1899 (vol. v. No. 1 of
_Kirchengeschichtliche Studien_, Munster); and the best account of the
actual life is by Algar Thorold (_Dublin Review_, April 1892), who
spent some months in the noviciate at the Grande Chartreuse. A little
tract (anonymous) translated from French, _The Carthusians_, 1902
(Orphans Press, Buckley Hall, Rochdale), gives precise information on
the history, spirit and life of the Carthusians. (E. C. B.)

CARTIER, SIR GEORGES ETIENNE, Bart. (1814-1873), Canadian statesman, was born in the province of Quebec on the 6th of September 1814. Called to the bar in 1835, he soon gained a large practice. He took part in the rebellion of 1837, and was forced for a time to fly the country. In 1848 he was elected to the Canadian parliament. His youthful ebullition of 1837 was soon repented of, and he became a loyal subject of the British crown. So greatly had he changed that in 1854 he became a leading member of the reconstructed Liberal-Conservative party. In 1855 he was appointed provincial secretary, and in 1857 attorney-general for Lower Canada. From 1858 to 1862 he and Sir John Macdonald were joint prime ministers of Canada, and their alliance lasted till the death of Cartier. He took the chief part in promoting many useful measures, such as the abolition of seigneurial tenure in Lower Canada (see QUEBEC), and the codification of the civil law of that province (1857-1864). Above all he favoured the construction of railways, and to his energy and fearless, optimism are largely due the eventual success of the Grand Trunk railway, and the resolve to construct the Canadian Pacific. In the face of great opposition, he carried his native province into federation (1864-1867), which would have been impossible without his aid. In the first cabinet of Sir John Macdonald he sat as minister of militia and defence, and carried in 1868 an important act establishing the land forces of Canada on a sound basis. Though a devout Catholic, he became involved in a political quarrel with his church, and was defeated by clerical influence at the general election of 1872. Another seat was found for him, but his health failed and he died on the 20th of May 1873.

The _Life_, by Alfred O. De Celles (Toronto, 1904), may be
supplemented by the sketch in Dent's _Canadian Portrait Gallery_
(Toronto, 1880). (W. L. G.)