and the Libyan desert allowed the Romanized region a breadth which varied from fifty to two hundred miles.[1]
Carthage was situated on the shore of a small bay, and faced to the east, over against the Hermaean promontory,[2] looking towards Sicily from a distance of one hundred and twenty-five miles. Being essentially a maritime capital it was distinguished by the extent of the accommodation it offered to shipping; and for more than a mile along its seaward aspect was bounded by a line of quays protected by a series of breakwaters from the violence of the waves.[3] On the south an inner harbour, called the Mandracium, artificially constructed, was entered by a narrow channel defended by the usual device of a chain.[4] Still lower down a natural expanse of water, land-locked and of considerable area, known as the Stagnum, was capable of receiving a vast congregation of vessels.[5] The Mandracium was circular in form, and contained in its centre a small island of the same shape. The annular channel thus formed was bordered all round on both sides by colonnades which extended into the water. A
- ↑ Named consecutively from east to west the seven provinces were Tripolis, Byzacium, Zeugitana ("Proconsular Africa," cap. Carthage; now Tunisia), Mauritania Sitifensis, M. Caesariensis (these two constitute the modern Algeria), and Tingitana (now Morocco). All lay along the irregular coast.
- ↑ Cape Bon (Ras Addar).
- ↑ The remains of these works are still to be seen under water. They were so considerable in Bruce's time that he fancied most of Carthage must have been submerged; Travels, etc., 1790, i, p. xxi. The best compendious guide to the existing ruins of Carthage is Babelon's Carthage, Paris, 1896. He was one of the excavators, and gives a large map which indicates everything remaining on the site.
- ↑ Procopius, De Bel. Vand., i, 20, etc.
- ↑ Ibid., 15, etc. Now the Lake or Lagoon of Tunis. Carthage was at the north-west corner, Tunis diagonally at the opposite one. About two miles long, one and a half wide.
