The History of Rome, vol 3 | Page 6

tribes adopted for their language the
Phoenician alphabet;(4) to Phoenicise them completely suited neither
the genius of the nation nor the policy of Carthage.

The epoch, at which this transformation of Carthage into the capital of
Libya took place, admits the less of being determined, because the
change doubtless took place gradually. The author just mentioned
names Hanno as the reformer of the nation. If the Hanno is meant who
lived at the time of the first war with Rome, he can only be regarded as
having completed the new system, the carrying out of which
presumably occupied the fourth and fifth centuries of Rome.
The flourishing of Carthage was accompanied by a parallel decline in
the great cities of the Phoenician mother-country, in Sidon and
especially in Tyre, the prosperity of which was destroyed partly by
internal commotions, partly by the pressure of external calamities,
particularly of its sieges by Salmanassar in the first, Nebuchodrossor in
the second, and Alexander in the fifth century of Rome. The noble
families and the old firms of Tyre emigrated for the most part to the
secure and flourishing daughter-city, and carried thither their
intelligence, their capital, and their traditions. At the time when the
Phoenicians came into contact with Rome, Carthage was as decidedly
the first of Canaanite cities as Rome was the first of the Latin
communities.
Naval Power Of Carthage
But the empire of Libya was only half of the power of Carthage; its
maritime and colonial dominion had acquired, during the same period,
a not less powerful development.
Spain
In Spain the chief station of the Phoenicians was the primitive Tyrian
settlement at Gades (Cadiz). Besides this they possessed to the west
and east of it a chain of factories, and in the interior the region of the
silver mines; so that they held nearly the modern Andalusia and
Granada, or at least the coasts of these provinces. They made no effort
to acquire the interior from the warlike native nations; they were
content with the possession of the mines and of the stations for traffic
and for shell and other fisheries; and they had difficulty in maintaining
their ground even in these against the adjoining tribes. It is probable

that these possessions were not properly Carthaginian but Tyrian, and
Gades was not reckoned among the cities tributary to Carthage; but
practically, like all the western Phoenicians, it was under Carthaginian
hegemony, as is shown by the aid sent by Carthage to the Gaditani
against the natives, and by the institution of Carthaginian trading
settlements to the westward of Gades. Ebusus and the Baleares, again,
were occupied by the Carthaginians themselves at an early period,
partly for the fisheries, partly as advanced posts against the Massiliots,
with whom furious conflicts were waged from these stations.
Sardinia
In like manner the Carthaginians already at the end of the second
century of Rome established themselves in Sardinia, which was utilized
by them precisely in the same way as Libya. While the natives
withdrew into the mountainous interior of the island to escape from
bondage as agricultural serfs, just as the Numidians in Africa withdrew
to the borders of the desert, Phoenician colonies were conducted to
Caralis (Cagliari) and other important points, and the fertile districts
along the coast were turned to account by the introduction of Libyan
cultivators.
Sicily
Lastly in Sicily the straits of Messana and the larger eastern half of the
island had fallen at an early period into the hands of the Greeks; but the
Phoenicians, with the help of the Carthaginians, retained the smaller
adjacent islands, the Aegates, Melita, Gaulos, Cossyra--the settlement
in Malta especially was rich and flourishing--and they kept the west
and north-west coast of Sicily, whence they maintained communication
with Africa by means of Motya and afterwards of Lilybaeum and with
Sardinia by means of Panormus and Soluntum. The interior of the
island remained in the possession of the natives, the Elymi, Sicani, and
Siceli. After the further advance of the Greeks was checked, a state of
comparative peace had prevailed in the island, which even the
campaign undertaken by the Carthaginians at the instigation of the
Persians against their Greek neighbours on the island (274) did not
permanently interrupt, and which continued on the whole to subsist till

the Attic expedition to Sicily (339-341). The two competing nations
made up their minds to tolerate each other, and confined themselves in
the main each to its own field.
Maritime Supremacy Rivalry With Syracuse
All these settlements and possessions were important enough in
themselves; but they were of still greater moment, inasmuch as they
became the pillars of the Carthaginian maritime supremacy. By their
possession of the south of Spain, of the Baleares, of Sardinia, of
western Sicily and Melita, and by their prevention of Hellenic colonies
on