Litchfield enquirer., 1879-07-17

Of Asdrubal, and setting fire to the fabric with their own hands, perished in the flames. For the last forty years, the chapel dedicated to St. Louis has occupied this site. Below was the palace of the Proconsul, which contained the various public offices and libraries. A short distance further was the temple of Jupiter, where Hannibal in hls infancy, swore impla- cable hatred to the Romans
 Dido had also her temple here, that unfor- tunate princess being deifed after her death by the name of Elissa: ...
 Unhappy, Dido, was thy fate
 In first, and second married state
 One husband caused thy flight by dying,
 Thy death the other caused by flying"
 On a hill near the acropolis was the temple of Astarte, or the Heavenly Juno. It was of extraordinary magnifcence, and surrounded by hundred shrines dedicated to inferior dei- ties. Not far from this site stood the dread sanctuary of Saturn, or Baal- -Moloch, that cru- el and terrible god, whose brass statue receiv- ed and let fall into fiery furnace at it's feet the infants that, to the number of two or three hundred, were sacrificed annually before the eyes of their mothers. Here also, were guard ed the record of Hanno's famous circumnavi- gation of Africa, and the archives of the re- public. On one side of the forum, among oth- CT temples, was the one sacred to Apollo, whose colossal statue was covered from head to foot with plates of gold.
 Carthage had naval and merchant port communicating one with the other. A few blocks of masonry, here and there in the water are all that remain of these great works; the mole and the ports were entirely destroyed by the Saracens. The ports included a surface of nearly seventy acres the Kothon, or mill tary port, was the smaller, and was circular in form, entirely surrounded by a beautiful Cor inthian portico, and contained 16S large basins for ships. The Admiral resided on an island in the middle of this port.
 Near the sea shore, northeast from the cita- del, are still to be seen above the surface of the ground, the intact vaults of six large cis- terms, perhaps one of the public baths that were ss numerous at Carthage. We learn that ln the time of early prosecutions. thousands of Christians were condemned to work in the quarries for the construction of these baths. The theatre and the gymnasium, of which a few scattered ruins lie near, are probably of Roman origin. El-Bekri, an Arabian histori- an of the 11th century, A. D., found these buildings still standing; he states that he saw the chapiter of one column so large, that twelve men could sit at table on top of it.
 The cisterns near the sea are worthy of spec- ial mention, and traces of them remain on every hand. Carthage possessed two sets of immense public reservoirs; one to the east, within the walls of the city; the other, to the northeast, and without these walls. These cis- terms are, to-day, the only well preserved relics of Carthage. The first set comprises seventeen reservoirs, measuring each over 100 feet in length, 16 feet wide, and having depth of nearly 30 feet. They are surmounted by six domes; four at the extremes, and two in the middle, still in very good state of preserva- tion. The interior of these great vaults is paved with mosaic; the cisterns are capable of containing 5,502, ,946 gallons of water.
 platna Nova (tne ntw planal is situated A little beyond the cisterns, and IS connected with the water front by flights of stone steps. The name of Dido's bath is given to the ruins of an edifice standing little to the northeast Upon the vaults of this building, remains of paintings may be traced.
 In the quarter of Megara now occupied by the village of Malka IS the second set of cis- terms, "A in number, and of even greater ca. pacity than those first described.
 At the commencement of the Roman occu- patton, a great drought prevailed in Africa, and caused these cisterns to fail. The Emper- or Adrian then conceived the gigantic project of conducting to Carthage waters from the neighboring mountains by means of an aque- duct. The traces of this work, extending from the abundant springs of Zaghouan, may still be followed along course of S1 miles,. In 1860, this aqueduct was restored by French engineers, and today supplies Tunis and Go letta with excellent water
 In ASA, the Vandal king Huneric terminated his cruelties towards the Christians by causing the Catholic bishops to be crushed to death under the feet of his horses at spot near the eisterns. Nearly at the same place, two cen- turies and half later, St. Cyprian, the most distinguished of the Carthaginian bishops, was martyred.
 The metropolis of Carthage was the hill on of Qamart, called by the Arabs Djebel Kaoui (the dug mountain). In spite of the ravages of time and sacrilegiOus spoliation, the sepul- chral chambers may yet be seen, partly con- eealed by the bushes.
 Of the later Christian basilicas, % in num- Der, but little is known except the names
 Viewing the actual state of Carthage, one is impressed with the melancholy fact, that of so many monuments and of so much magnifcence there remain to-day but few traces, scattered here and there. Tunis, with it's 100000 in habitants, of whom IS, 900 are Europeans and %, 900 Jews, only recalls Carthage by the stones and columns that have been stolen from her ruins Goletta, modern town of 2, 800 inhabitants, almost all Europeans, dates from
 
 is place of interest to all lovers of romance from the fact, that Cervantes, the author of that inimitable work, ''Don Quixote," passed a portion of his bondage after his capture by the Saracens, in digging the canal which con- nects the lake of Tunis with the gulf
 It may seem strange that this remote region on the shores of Africa should be of more than passing interest to us Americans, but l believe that there are few that will not re- member it more kindly, when they know that one of our household poets, John Howard Payne, the author of ''Heme, Sweet Home, " lies buried in the little European graveyard at Tunis he died while consul there many years ago. a.
 The chapel of St. Louis which occupies the site of the citadel of Carthage, is modest structure, built as the inscription over the door tells us, by one of his descendants, Louis Phil ippe, King of the French, in 1S42. Near it is A little monastery whore tun nriocto 1.-Two rnar