The Holbrook news., 1911-12-29

AOA SdPA CAhdOyS AlclJ, tue A1OO- ern successor to the Rome of the Caesars, is seeking to establish her sovereignty.
 Only yesterday, as history measures the life of nations. Italy sprang into nationhood and now this puny sue cessor to the world-conquering Rome of the consuls and the Caesars is reaching out for part of that terri tory over which imperial Rome exer- cised her authority from the Red sea to the Pillars of Hercules.
 But of all that vast region there is little now that is not pre-empted. Egypt Is securely anchored to British uthority-securely at least for the present generation. Far to the west lies Morocco, where French dominance Is assured East of 1t lies Algeria, and further east. Tunis. both as securely French as Egypt is British. And then lying in between Tunis and Egypt and extending southernward into the sands of the desert lies Tripoli. with it's de- pendencies of Barca and Fezzan, the particular region which modern Italy covets and over which the Turkish crescent floats in impotent protection.
 When Carthage Was Supreme.
 Tripoli formed portion of the an cient empire of Carthage. which had It's beginning, according to legend, in the city founded by Queen Dido, near the modern city of Tunis. The Car thaginians, like the Romans, were empire builders and gradually came into possession of the rich cities and colonies founded by the adventurous Phoenicians on the African coast, ultimately controlling the whole ter ritory extending from the Pillars of Hercules to the Great Syrtis-a dis tance of 2,000 miles. At the height of her power Carthage was the greatest maritime nation in the world, as then constituted, and her enterprises on the sea led her on almost inevitably to engage in foreign conQuests. In her colonization schemes in Sicily she 1rst came into contact with Roman power and the first Punic war, in which the Carthaginians suffered de- feat, was the result This war began In 264 and ended in 241 B. c. and Carthage was compelled to cede Sicily and Sardinia to the Romans. The second Punic war. provoked by Car thaginian conquests in Spain, broke out in 218, when the great Hannibal led his soldiers across the Alps and by vigorous campaigns and several bloody battles brought Rome almost to the brink of ruin. But Rome tri umphed in the end, breaking the power If Carthage in Spain and de- feating Hannibal in the decisive battle of Zama, in Africa. The third Punic war, begun in 150 B. C. by Rome, ended in the destruction of Carthage and the Roman absorption of the rich African territories, including Tripoli, which for centuries had been under Carthaginian sway.
 Northern Africa remained in Roman, or Byzantine, possession until the fierce inroads of the Vandals early in the fifth century of the Chris tian era These savage warriers had swept a short time before across the Pyrenees into Spain and had estab- lished an independent kingdom Vandalatia, the modern Andalusia. The hordes which crossed with their great general. Genseric, into Africa, soon overran the country and occu- pied 1t until 533, when their power was broken by Belisarius. the famous commander of Justinian the Great, the emperor of Constantinople.
 But disintegration had well begun in the provinces of northern Africa and soon the power of Rome as well as of the Byzantine empire, founded. by Constantine, was restricted to the neighborhood of Carthage and other points on the coast. The Barbary states thus became an easy prey for the fierce and fanatical Arabs, who swept from Egypt into the region in the middle of the seventh century and who soon established their supremacy.