Page:Light and truth.djvu/106

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104
light and truth.

Pygmalion king of Tyre was her brother. Pygmalion put Sichaeus to death in order that he might have an opportunity to seize his immense treasures; but Dido eluded her brother's cruel avarice, by secretly conveying away her deceased husband's possessions. With a large train of followers she left her country, and after wandering sometime, landed on the coast of the Mediterranean, in Africa; and located her settlement at the bottom of the gulf, on a peninsula, near the spot where Tunis now stands. Many of the neighboring people allured by the prospect of gain, repaired thither to sell to those foreigners the necessaries of life; and soon became incorporated with them. The people thus gathered from different places soon grew very numerous. And the citizens of Utica, an African city about fifteen miles distant, considering them as their countrymen, as descended from the same common stock, advised them to build a city where they had settled. The other natives of the country, from their natural esteem and respect for strangers, likewise encouraged them to the same object. Thus all things conspiring with Dido's views, she built her city, which was appointed to pay an annual tribute to the Africans for the ground it stood upon, and called it Carthage—a name that in the Phœnician and Hebrew languages, [which have a great affinity,] signifies the "New City." It is said that in digging the foundation, a horse's head was found; which was thought to be a good omen, and a presage of the future warlike genius of that people. Carthage, had the same language, and national character as its parent state—Tyre. It became at length, particularly at the period of the Punic War, one of the most splendid cities in the world; and had under its dominion 300 cities bordering upon the Mediterranean. From the small beginning we have described, Carthage increased till her population numbered 700,000; and the number of her temples and other public buildings was immense. Her dominion was not long confined to Africa. Her ambitious inhabitants extended their conquests into Europe, by invading Sardinia, seizing a great part of Sicily, and subduing & almost all of Spain. Having sent powerful colonies every where, they enjoyed the empire of the seas for more