The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-05 00:00:00

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Carthage and her Remains. By Dr. N. Davis,
F.R.G.S., etc. Bentley.
This work amply fulfils the promise of its title-
page, of " being an account of the excavations and
researches on the Site of the Phosnician metropolis,
in Africa, and other adjacent places, conducted
under the auspices of her Majesty's Government."
There is hardly any more interesting class of lite-
' rature than that which pertains to the mighty
cities of old, and all that relates to their pristine
splendour, and in some measure brings before us
out of the dust of ages, traces of their glories
and remnants of their past days of magnificence.
The author of this book has evidently entered on
his task in earnest, for nothing but real desire
to succeed could have carried him through
the arduous undertaking, and inspired him
to persevere, when hope so often seemed extinct.
After presenting his readers with a very instructive
account of this famous city, in which he asserts his
opinion that Carthage was the " Tarshish of the
sacred writers," Dr. Davis expresses his opinions
concerning the gigantic work before him in these
words :
"A more intimate acquaintance with the site and remains
of Carthage tended to produce in me the conviction that
much of her former greatness was only hid from the eye,
by an accumulation of earth, gradually deposited, and that
these deposits have contributed to form the colossal towers
of the city of Dido. To resuscitate, at least, a portion of
her remains, now became my vehement desire, for I
thoroughly repudiated the often-repeated assertion of poets
and historians, that the very ruins of the capital of this
once mighty empire had disappeared, sticon periers ruiner)."
Perhaps the part of the volume that excites in the
highest degree our interest, and claims most espe-
cially our admiration, is that which relates the
" first discovery" of hidden treasures. There are
few few prouder moments in a
an he reaches the glorious goal
rleiafet,erthtarniumwphhens,
which his prescience has seen from afar, but which
man's life,
others have denied his chance of attaining. He
thus speaks of—" The great difficulties connected
with excavating at Carthage will be estimated from
the fact that I toiled most assiduously, with from
forty to fifty men, for nearly three months, without
realising anything worth the labour of a single
day. It is vain to continue,' some of my men
often said, for unless you are satisfied with the
fragments we dig up, there is no chance of coming
upon something better' A gratuitous comment
upon the saying of wiser men, that the very ruins of
Carthage have disappeared. Apparently, however,
this seems true ; for when we read of the greatness,
the strength, and magnificence of this once
famous city, and compare those descriptions with
the paucity of the visble remains we may well con-
clude that the very ruins of Carthage have disap-
peared. My own conviction, notwithstanding this,
was that patience and perseverance wilt succeed in
bringing to light some important, and even valu-
able relics of antiquity. My plan of operations
was to mark out a certain number of narrow
trenches, and set my men to work. I then either
walked or rode over the ruins in search of eligible
localities for future investigations. Sometimes I
was accompanied in these little excursions by
two or three men, with whose aid I was enabled
to come to an immediate decision as to the value of
particular places to which my attention had been
directed." In the extracts that are sub-
joined there is a striking instance of the dis-
appointment that often waits on success in
the crumbling of the mosaic at the moment
of its being raised. Dr. Davis exhibited a deter-
mination that was equal to his perseverance when,
through the interference of a Minister, Mohammed
Pasha, drew back from his previous engagement,
and prohibited the further progress of the works.
In this dilemma Dr. Davis proceeded to the palace,
and refused to quit it till the order was rescinded.
His resolute bearing won the day, and the plans
were carried out as before arranged. There is a
curious account given of the manner in which the
author was taken in by the fabulous narrative
of a wonderful skeleton of extraordinary size.
When be went to seek out the truth-for himself he
found that the tale was an invention ; in the account
he tells us of the grounds he had for placing any re-
liance on the statement. In some of the chapters there
is a description of the religion of the Carthaginians
and of the fearful custom of human immolation.
This portion of the volume furnishes very desirable
information. There is also much to attract notice
in the sketch of the temples of foreign deities ;
and the ramblEs over ruined cities is again a sug-
gestive subject for the attention. It is difficult in
a circumscribed space to do justice to a work which
has so many points of attraction, and which
presents such stores of entertaining and interesting
knowledge, alike to the literary as to the scientific
world. This chronicle of the Researches into the
Remains of Carthage wilt doubtless be welcomed
with approval, and all who peruse its pages will
agree that the author has displayed the true
English spirit of perseverance which has so often
led our countrymen into danger, but which seldom
or never sees them defeated, whether their task is
to excavate the colossal temples of antiquity, or to
discover a passage among the Polar seas, where

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" Winter barricades the realms of frost."
Dr. Davis may be congratulated for the signal suc-
cess of his noble endeavours to rescue from oblivion
the superb relics of one of the great cities of the
past.

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 5. 1861.

_
have been expected to mingle with men, but the insepar-
able attribute of invisibility which appertains to the Deity
prevented Phosnician theologians from giving him a visible
representation, and hence his temple in Tyre, though highly
revered, had no statue of him, and his priests, who were to
be found in every colony, in reality taught the people to
worship and to sacrifice to an unknown God.
*

The chief blemish in the religion of Carthage was the
system of human sacrifices; but even this diabolical rite
could not, with consistency, be condemned by Pagan Rome
or Pagan Greece, since they were guilty of equarcruelties.
Did not the Lacethemonians yearly offer human sacrifices
to their Diana, for which Lycurgus afterwards substituted
flagellation ? In the first ages of the Roman Republic,
too, human victims were annually immolated, according to
law, and it was not till the year 657 that the Senate made
a decree to abolish the custom. Notwithstanding this, we
find that two individuals were slain as victims, with the
usual solemnities, in the Campus Martins, by the pontiff
and flamen of Mars, in the time of Julius Cassar, 50 years
after the senatorial prohibition. We also know that Au-
gustus, after he had compelled L. Antoninus to surrender
at Perusia, ordered, according to Suetonius, 300 of the
senators and equites who had sided with Antony to be
sacrificed as victims on the altar of Julius Caesar. Sex.
Pompoius in like manner threw into the sea not only horses
but also men, alive, as victims to Neptune, whose son he
professed to be. And so late as the time of the Emperor
Aurelius (A.D. 270) an immolation of 100 knights took
place."