Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-08
A Word About Roman Carthage.


stores today.
A Word About Roman Carthage.
The Carthage 1 have described was ut
terly destroyed 146 B. c., and it was almost
half century before another city began
to rise on its ruins. This was the Carthage
fostered by Julius Caesar and Augustus
which in time became the Roman capital Of
north Africa, and which, once almost rival
ed Rome itself That Carthage was a city
of theaters, the remains of which still stand
on the ruins of the old Phoenician city. 1t
was a city of gladiatorial shows where
CHRISTIANS were eaten by lions gored to
death by wild bulls and slaughtered by
siadiators. On the hill of the museum I
saw tombs of Saints Perpetua and Felctas,
, two young women who were killed in the
arena, which | describe farther on.
Later still. when Rome was converted.
Carthage became the chief Christian city
of Africa, while still holding it's place as
one Of the great ports of the world. Here
St Augustine studied and preached, and
near here st. Cyprian. the martyr was
killed. When the Vandals invaded Africa
they made Carthage their capital, and It
remained great until the seventh century,
when the Mohammadan Arabs came in
and destroyed it.
A Quarry for the World.
! Since then Carthage has been a quarry
for the artistic building material Of all the
palaces along the Mediterranean sea. In
the great mosque of Santa Sophia. at
Constantinopie, l saw marble columns
which came from here; many of the Won
ders of architectural Rome originated in
Carthage, and shipioads of its ruins have
gone to Palermo and other Italian cities.
The palaces OF the Bey of Tunis are
built OF Punic marble, and the bazaars Of
lunis are thanked with marble columns
which the Arabs have painted over in red
yellow and green stripes, so that they
now look more like barber poles than any
thing else.
Many of the houses of Tunis contain ma
terials from the same source and the ruins
here have been furnishing building stone
of one kind or another for more than 1OUO
years.
During recent centuries the various NIL
seums of the world have been robbing this
ancient city, and trave.ers also have been
allowed to pick up and carry away what
they pleased. This is so today, although
the French have established two mu-
scuUfs. one on the site of old Carthage and
the other at the Bardo. in the palace of the
bey and are trying to preserve what is
left.
Exploring the Ruins.
The books about Africa will tell you that
there Is nothing of Carthage now to be
seen except a few broken down cisterns
which once supplied the city with water.
| This is not SO. The French have been max
ing excavations ever since they have had
Tunisia under their control This is so not
only here, but in all parts of the country,
and they have unearthed ruins which will
compare with those of Athens and Rome.
! They are anxious to increase their work
along these lines, and the remains are such
| that it might well pay our rich American
colleges to establish schools of exploration
| here. as they have done in old Greece.
Take this city OF Carthage alone and
imagine what might be found Suppose you
| States either Boston. Philadelphia or St
| Louis. Suppose you could destroy all the
/ buildings and cover them with earth. Then
! let them lie for decades and build other
| great cities top. Then destroy those
| cities. and let the storms and dust of g
! thousand years settle upon them, and you
! may have some idea of the condition f-the
ruins OF Carthage today. You must add
| however the tombS in which the ancents
! were accustomed to put jewelry and othe,
| relies, and imagine that the destruction
was such that much of the belongings Of
| the people were left in the debris.
| 1t is now more than twenty-seven hun.
4 dred years since the first buildings of Car
| thage were erected, and many OF the OBJ
#, 1ects l saw today We're more than two
| thousand years old. AS I went over the
\ ruins | observed the Arab farmers plowins
up bits OF pottery and pieces of marble
| which were parts of houses more thar
| twenty centuries ago, and i have been both
cred all day by dark-faced Mohammedans
| begging me to buy Carthaginian coins II
| use long before Christ and canoes the size
| of my finger nail. which We're probably worn
| in the rings of those Punic maidens wher
all the world was young.
I can't begin to describe the extent Of tn.
ruins. BY this l do not mean the remain.
of great temples and palaces, of theater!
and tombs. These are comparatively few
but there are vast tracts covered with bit.
OF pottery, pieces of broken marble, hal
ground up bricks and bits of mosaic. Such
remains cover the ground. The sheep and
goats feed among them, and they are pillow