The Sun.
London, England, 1836-12-23 00:00:00

CONSTANTINA.

The following details of the history of the city of Con-
stantina will be found to possess some interest at the present

moment :

Constantino, the ancient Cirtha, is a town three times
as large as Algiers, and surrounded with strong walls 35
feet high. It was founded by the Carthaginians, and owed
both its numerous population and its embellishments to the
long reign of Massenissa. It first subdued the Massceyliens
(Strabo. 17—Pliny), who cultivated the fruitful plain of
Hamsab. Scipio Emilianus enlarged the kingdom of Massi-
nissa, and of Micipsa, his son-in-low, by the addition of the
valley of Bagrada (the present Mcgerdah), when it took
the name of Numidia. It was desolated by the rivalry of
Marius and Sylla, the exactions of the Roman Proconsuls,
and afterwards by a civil war. Hicmpsal, conquered by
Csar, at Thapsa, with Cato and Labienus, lost a part of
his kingdom. Cirtha alone remained to him, but he re-
establised his fortunes by the trade which he carried on
with the interior of Africa. At length, in the year 45 of
the Christian era, Numidia became a Roman province. It
was governed by Proconsuls, and since the time
-of Dio-
_

clesian by Presidents, under the orders of the Vicar at
Carthage, by the Prefect of the Italian Pretorium, and was
placed in the military division of a Count, who resided at
Hippo Regius (now Bona), and who had under his com-
mand, for the defence of Numidia and the Bizgeene (the
Tunisian province of Souza), 4,800 infantry and 800 ca-
valry, which were quartered in 16 fortresses or castles.
Numidia embraced Christianity, but it was afflicted by per-
secutions, and still more • by
,dissensions, heresies, and
schisms,by the Donatists and the Arians. The former de-
stroyed the furniture and the houses of the Catholics ; they
also burnt Cirtha. .Bet Ween the years 340 and 350 it was
rebuilt by the Emperor Constant, son of Constantine, who
gave to it its present name. Its position is formidable, and
the Romans had even fortified it with an inclosure of lofty
walls, flanked with towers front clistance"to distance. • This
inclosure is still in good preservation. In Pliny's time the
city roso on a species of promontory, inaccessible on every
side except towards the south-east. The town inclined
a little to the south, and terminated to the north by
a precipice of 600 feet in depth. The view on this
side is magnificent, and commands a number of val-
leys, which were formerly covered with country seats,
palaces, and Roman villas, numerous vestiges of which
still remain. To the east the town is commanded by lofty
mountains, formed a chain of inaccessible rocks. Con-
stantine suffered every species of devastation from the Go-
vernment of the Vandals; it, however, preserved its muni-
cipal rights of Roman or Carthaginian origin, and lost them
Only at the period of its conquest by the Arabs in 659, but
it was slow in embracing the Mahometan religion, which it
adopted only in 710, with Numidia and the rest of Africa.
It at first formed part of the kingdom of Africa, under the
dynasty of the Fathemites, till 900. It then passed under
the dominion of the Zcrytes, who reigned at Telma,. and at
Asch'yr, over the whole territory of the Eastern •Division,
which afterwards became the Regency of Algiers. After
600 years of variable fortune, under the Almoravides and
the Almohades, Constantine and Numidia fell under the
leaden sceptre of the Osmanlis in 1550. The cultivation of
the soil, which is one of the most fertile of Africa, a nume-
rous and industrious population, the commerce with central
Africa, and in fine the advantageous position ofthe capital be-
tween the desert and the best part of Belled-el-Gerid (the
Date country), the most fertile province of the king-
dom of Tunis, that of Sousah, and the country un-
der the dominion of the Divan of Algiers, have given
to Constantine, under the predatory and absurd rule
of the Turks, a considerable degree of importance.
Its most natural commercial connections were with Tunis
to the East by El Quef and Queyrouan, and by the
branches of the chains of the Aoures, and the Aleheghala-
lis and to the North by the Megerdali and Byzertes, the
Hippo Zaristos of the Carthaginians. These connections
disturbed the Divan of Algiers, which declared war with
Tunis in 1782 and 1783. Hostilities, without any me-
morable feat of arms, were followed by the plague in 1784.
Both these scourges, war and infection, carried off a num-
ber of the inhabitants of this part of Africa. Before 1780
the population of Constantine amounted to between 40,000
and 45,000 souls. At the present day it is not believed
to be more than half this number. Before its decline Con-
stantine sent a monthly caravan to Tunis, estimated at
the value Pf one hundred thousand Spanish piastres,
amounting to about 6,600,000 francs per annum. It,
at the same time, carried on a trade with Bona, the
small ports in the bays of Quol and Store, and with
the Royal African Cor2nany of Marseilles, to the amount
of four to five millioeS Of fra.:es• The commerce between
Constantina and Tunis has been ‘T"c".cd with some activity
for several years past, and it is no lob;:er doubtful that if
Achmet Bey had been less sanguinary ant: rapacious, this
trade would have been still more important, insteodof pass-
ing to Touzer and Tughurt. Amidst the ruins wikich at-
test the splendour of ancient Cirtha, are a number of cis-
terns, constantly filled with the waters of the Physiali,whielt
were conducted thither ; the ruins of the cisterns still re-
- To the north of the town a superb bridge, a chef-
. ceuvre of Roman architecture, is throwp over the Rum-
mel, which bathes the walls of the town, and to which the
Arabs have given the name of Ouel-el-Keber, the Lampsa-
gus of the ancients. At the extremity of the bridge, at the
entrance to the town, is a vast edifice, which at present
serves as a barrack for the Turkish garrison, and
which, to
judge from the appearance of its ruins, must have been the
palace of the Roman Prefect."

main.

THE IRON TRADE.—We are sorry to hear that
the reaction in the demand for iron, though such an event
might reasonably have been expected, has reached South
Wales, and that the ironmasters have been compelled to
" blow out," as the phrase is is, a certain number of their
furnaces. When, however, we look at.the list of notices
extracted from the various provincial papers of Bills for
railroads intended to be solicited in the ensuing session
of Parliament, we cannot but believe that the diminution

of orders is but temporary, and that the ensuing spring
will restore the furnaces to their full activity. The de-
mand for iron in America being simultaneous with that of
home consumption, has tended to keep up the price to a
point beyond that which it ought to maintain, and the rail-
road makers of the United States are wise enough to hang
back until reasonable prices will be accepted ; or, in de-
fault of this, to look at home for a supply. It is also a
subject of much consolation that the railroad from Cardiff
to Merthyr, and others in the neighbourhood, will afford
ample employment for all the labourers who may be de-
prived of work by the recent determination of the iron-
masters to " blow out" some of their furnaces ; even if our
anticipations of a large demand for iron should not be re-
alised.—Merthyr Guardian.