Destroy Carthage Read online

  Control of the interior reinforced the authority of Carthage in Phoenician coastal settlements. Though numerous, these had not on the whole attained much size. Few could be dignified as cities in any sense. Some had grown into modest townships with markets attracting the surrounding tribes; others re­mained no more than trading stations, possibly occupied seasonally.

  The most easterly of the dependencies was on the gulf of Sidra, or Sirte, where Tripolitania borders Cyrenaica. Here, Phoenician territory abutted Greek settlement. Sallust told how two teams of runners, Carthaginian and Greek, com­peted to decide the point of the frontier. This, it was agreed, should be fixed where the opposing runners met, each team having started from the last outpost on its own land.

  According to the story, the Carthaginian champions, the brothers Philaeni, covered the greater distance, but the Greeks disputed their performance. At this, the two brothers declared themselves ready to be buried alive at the site of their achieve­ment provided it was acknowledged the frontier. The sacrifice was accepted. At all events, a spot known as the altars of the Philaeni marked the limits of Hellenism in Africa until the end of antiquity.

  However the name originated, the legend has significance, for fanatical selflessness in public duty - a quality oddly set beside material acquisitiveness - was widely accepted as a trait of Punic character. Closely linked with spiritual beliefs placing mortal life at a discount, it was not irrelevant to pioneering Africa - a continent whose dangers terrified intrepid men.

  The chief Carthaginian dependency between the gulf of Sidra and the westerly gulf of Gabes was Leptis, later known as Leptis Major (Leptis Minor was on the east coast of Tunisia). Like other settlements in Tripolitania, Leptis thrived on trade with the interior. Here tribesmen familiar with the desert trails to the Niger brought emeralds, chalcedony, carbuncles and gold dust to exchange for cheap goods from Carthage.

  And from here, in all probability, Carthaginian merchant adventurers mounted their first Saharan expeditions.

  So attractive were the valuables from Nigeria and Senegal that nothing could dissuade some traders from seeking the distant and myth-shrouded treasure hoards. The road to Eldorado confirmed its reputation. Native trails, leading south to the immemorial Saharan junction of Fezzan, continued south­west by Tassili round the Ahaggar, thence by the wastes of the Tanezrouft and Adrar to the Niger, emerging somewhere in the depths of modern Mali.

  Though less extensive than today, the desert was treacher­ous. Crossing the Tanezrouft involved travelling four days without water. Camels, little used for transport until Christian times, were unavailable. Instead, the ancients used light chariots drawn by horses with water-skins slung beneath their bellies. The ability to tolerate thirst was imperative. One Carth­aginian explorer, another Mago, was said to have crossed the desert three times without drinking, though which region he crossed is uncertain.

  From Fezzan, a bold western traveller might also reach Egypt and the Sudan without touching Greek Cyrenaica, by braving the sand trails of Kufra and Tibesti. Unfortunately, the indi­vidual exploits of these earliest of trans-Saharan adventurers are lost in time. Only an occasional hint in ancient literature remains to convey the danger from desert tribes, the mon­strous apparitions (heat hallucinations ?) reputed to exist among the burning dunes, the plight of travellers held prisoner by pigmies of the great swamps, the impact of bush and jungle on explorers two millennia before the age of David Livingstone 'discovered' tropical Africa.

  Despite the perils, trade grew with the interior. The im­portance of desert cargoes to Carthage is witnessed by the substantial customs dues her treasury gained from Leptis: the equivalent, at one period, of a ton of silver per month.

  Other business flourished on the coast between Sidra and Gabes. Fishing was important, both as a food industry and for the production of a purple dye much demanded by the ancients. Offshore lay the island of Meninx, claimed as the home of the Lotus Eaters of the Odyssey. Fertile and temperate, it was highly cultivated.

  Beyond the gulf of Gabes, where the coast turned north toward Cape Bon, the eastern seabord came under close supervision from Carthage. Among the places on this coast were Thaenae, Acholla, Thapsus, Leptis Minor and Hadrumetum, the last the largest, possessing a developed harbour complex. Directly accessible by land from the metropolis, this coast attracted Carthaginian residents. Hannibal Barca was among those to own a house at Thapsus.

  Some time in the 5th century, a handsome town was built at modern Dar Essafi, near the point of Cape Bon, but the west side of the peninsula, facing Carthage, was barren of settle­ments. The rest of the African empire lay to the Atlantic side of the capital.

  Proceeding from Carthage toward the straits of Gibraltar, the older city of Utica was quickly encountered at the water's edge. Today, the site is inland, attesting the changes in the coast near Cape Farina. Utica's status appears to have varied from senior and privileged dependent to partner of Carthage, though not always a constant one. To her west, a string of anchorages, some established by Carthage, some of earlier origin, served the Andalusian and Moroccan trade.

  First of importance was Hippo Acra (Bizerta), whose physiographical appeal to seamen was strong from an early date. From Hippo to the gulf of Bougie, or thereabouts, the Numidians held the interior, their median stronghold at Cirta. On the coast, Carthaginian Iol, near modern Algiers, was of prob­able importance in the 5th century.

  Finally, at the gateway of the ancient sea, Tingi, com­memorated in Tangier, looked out on horizons wreathed in speculation - horizons Carthage was determined to investigate.

  10: Into the Ocean

  If one way of reaching gold was across the Sahara, another was round it: that is, by sea down the Atlantic coast. Logically, the westerly colonization of North Africa prefaced settlement on the Moroccan shores beyond Tangier, a development strongly backed by the expansionist Hanno. It was, like all enterprise in the far west, a subject of restricted information so far as Carthage's competitors were concerned. Greek ignor­ance of the sphere confirms the level of trade secrecy.

  Pindar, writing at the very moment Carthage was investigat­ing the Atlantic shores of Africa and Europe, declared the straits of Gibraltar - the Pillars of Hercules, as the Greeks had it - the limits of the accessible world. Beyond, in Hellenic mythology, lay the Garden of Hesperides where Hercules, winning the golden apples, achieved apotheosis.

  By the second half of the 5th century, Herodotus had caught word of the beginnings of Moroccan trade:

  The Carthaginians speak of a part of Libya (Africa) and its people beyond the straits of Gibraltar. On reaching this land they unload their goods and place them on the beach, then they retire to their ships and make signals. The natives, sighting the smoke, come down to the shore, place a quantity of gold beside the goods, and in turn retire. The Carthagin­ians come ashore again. If they deem the gold sufficient pay­ment for the goods, they collect it and sail away; if not, they go aboard again and wait until the natives have added more gold. There is no deception. The Carthaginians never touch the gold, nor the natives the goods, until both are satisfied.

  This is the earliest known description of dumb barter, a procedure noted in West Africa during the middle ages, and again as recently as the Victorian era. Essentially a first step in trade relationships, no doubt it had been superseded by closer contacts in Morocco when Herodotus wrote. The immense profitability of the exchange to the Carthaginians was a power­ful incentive to secure the sea route by colonization. Accord­ingly, about the middle of the 5th century, Hanno embarked on a celebrated voyage west.

  The expedition, of both settlement and discovery, was re­markable not only for the romance engendered - a mixture of Nuno Tristao and Sinbad the Sailor - but as the origin of the only substantial Carthaginian document to have survived in something like its true form. Hanno had an account of his adventures engraved on a stele in the temple of Baal Hammon at Carthage. Later, probably in the 4th century, a version was made available for G
reek translation.

  Though this omitted or falsified certain facts in the cause of trade security, the extant translation remains a gem of ex­ploration literature. Significantly, the opening passage, pro­claiming the aim of the enterprise, makes no mention of the gold market. 'The Carthaginians decreed that Hanno should sail beyond the Pillars of Hercules and found Libyphoenician colonies. He therefore set out with sixty ships, each of fifty oars, and with many men and women, about 30,000, with food and other necessities.'

  If the number of emigrants were not an exaggeration, the sixty galleys must have accompanied transports, unmentioned in the report. After dealing briefly with the founding of the settlements, the narrative continues with an intriguing account of Hanno's explorations. The following is the text:

  Having passed the Pillars and sailed on for two days, we founded the first colony, naming it Thymiaterium. By this lay a great plain. Sailing westward, we came next to a place called Soloeis, a thickly-wooded promontory. Here we built a sanctuary to the sea god (Poseidon in the Greek text), then sailed east for half a day until we reached a lagoon near the sea, Med with an abundance of tall reeds. Elephants were feeding, and many other animals. For a day we skirted the lagoon, leaving colonists at places named Fort Carion, Gytta, Acra, Melita and Arambys. Next, we reached the Lixus, a great river which flows out of the continent. On its banks the Lixites, a wandering tribe, grazed their flocks. We stayed with them for a period of days, becoming friends. Beyond the Lixites dwelt Ethiopians (black men), inhospitable people occupying a land of wild beasts divided by high mountains from which, they say, emerges the river Lixus. In the region of these mountains live men of strange appearance, the Troglodytes. They could run faster than horses, so the Lixites said. Recruiting interpreters from the Lixites, we coasted south for two days beside uninhabited country, then east for another day. We came now to a gulf containing a small island, about five stades (three quarters of a mile) in circum­ference. We called it Cerne and placed a station on it. This place we judged exactly opposite to Carthage, for the voyage from Carthage to the Tillers equalled that from the Tillars to Cerne. From here, encountering a great river which is called the Chretes, we came to a lagoon containing three islands, each larger than Cerne. A day's sailing brought us to the far end of the lagoon, overshadowed by towering mountains in which lived savages clad in the pelts of wild animals. They stopped us landing by throwing stones at us. After reaching another broad river, full of crocodiles and hippopotami ('river-horses'), we returned to Cerne.

  Later, we sailed south again from Cerne, following the coast for twelve days. The whole land was inhabited by Ethiopians who fled at our approach. Their tongue was in­comprehensible, even by the Lixite interpreters. On the twelfth day we drew near a range of high mountains covered with aromatic trees of coloured wood. Sailing beside these for two days, we came to a great bay with flat land on either side. At intervals during the night, fires flared up in all directions. Taking on water, we skirted the coast for five more days until reaching an immense gulf which the inter­preters called West Horn. In it was a big island, and within the island a lagoon containing yet another island. Landing, we saw nothing except forest, but at night fires burned and we heard pipes, cymbals, drums and multitudinous shout­ing.

  Terrified, we departed swiftly, coasting a region scented with the smell of burning wood. Streams of fire plunged to the sea, and the heat prevented an approach to land. Con­tinuing apprehensively and without delay for four days, we saw nocturnal fires at the centre of which one blaze rose above all others, appearing to touch the stars. This, it transpired, was the highest mountain we had seen, and was called the Chariot of the Gods.

  On the third day of our departure from this place, having sailed beside more fiery streams, we came to a gulf called the Southern Horn. At the head of this gulf was an island resembling the last mentioned in that it enclosed a lake containing another island. This was full of savages, of whom the greater number were women. Their bodies were covered with hair, and the interpreters called them Gorillas. We pursued them. The men were too elusive for us, climbing precipices and throwing down rocks, but we caught three women who bit and scratched their captors. We killed and skinned them, bearing their pelts back to Carthage. We went no further; our provisions were inadequate.

  Beset with obscurities, deliberate or otherwise, the Hanno report has fascinated and frustrated countless scholars. Their interpolations form a subject in its own right. Briefly, expert opinion, though divided in detail, has become decreasingly sceptical as time has passed. Among other ancients, Pliny the Elder was unimpressed by Hanno's claims. On the basis of the report, he protested, many fabulous things were asserted 'of which, in fact, neither memory nor trace remain.' Later scholars found it difficult to believe that the Carthaginians had outsailed medieval mariners. Throughout the middle ages, it was noted, Arab sailors never managed to progress beyond Cape Yubi, the southernmost point of the Moroccan coast. Even the Portuguese did not succeed until the 16th century.

  Two factors invalidate the objection that such an exploit was navigationally and logistically impossible, i, the combina­tion of winds and currents which baffled medieval sailing ships was not insuperable for galleys which could travel under oar- power. 2, long stretches of the Mauretanian coast, arid and lifeless in Christian times, were life-supporting in previous centuries. The dehydration of the Sahara, as mentioned, has accelerated rapidly. In Hanno's day, wadis now long dry bore fresh water to the western shore.

  Modern commentators observe the matter-of-fact quality of the report and the absence of such fantasies as might be ex­pected in fictional passages. Indeed, the descriptions of tropical exploration - the largely credible savages, the drums in the night, the bush fires, the timbers of the rain belt - bear an authenticity beyond the range of guesswork. Comparison with reports by European voyagers a thousand years later shows remarkable consistency.

  When it comes to identifying specific locations there is more doubt. The vagueness, if not deceptiveness, of the navi­gational information is conspicuous, especially in relation to that area most vulnerable to rival penetration, the Moroccan coast. Of the colonies founded, only two can be placed with some assurance: Thymiaterion, on the river Sebou, and the island of Cerne (Heme) in the bay of the Rio de Oro, between Cape Bojador and Port Etienne.

  There is also a striking omission. While mentioning a river Lixus south of 'Soloeis' (Cape Santin), Hanno gives no indica­tion of Lixus itself, a commercial station already established beyond Tangier. Probably, his Lixite interpreters were not natives in the true sense but seasoned colonists. The Troglo­dytes, or cave-dwellers, are introduced on hearsay. Ancient writers apply the name to tribes in various parts of Africa, Herodotus adding to their alleged fleetness that their speech was like the screeching of owls. From Cerne, the base for Hanno's explorations, two southerly voyages are described. The first, and shorter, ap­pears to have terminated at the delta of the Senegal, identified in the report as the 'Chretes' and the river of hippopotami and crocodiles. The second and more sensational reconnaissance seems to have taken the travellers beyond Cape Verde, the wooded range twelve days from Cerne, into regions strange even to the Lixites.

  If modern exegesis is correct in recognizing 'West Horn' as Bissagos Bay, and the 'Chariot of the Gods' as Mount Kakulima, then the Carthaginians have a strong claim to have been the first civilized people to have explored the coasts of Portu­guese Guinea and French Equatorial Africa.

  True, Herodotus believed that Phoenician mariners had cir­cumnavigated Africa in the 7th century, but the tale is enigmatical. Later, Xerxes of Persia promised, somewhat less than magnanimously, to pardon the condemned courtier Sataspes if he sailed round the continent. Sataspes indeed travelled south from Tangier beyond the Saharan fringe, but just where he turned back is unknown. In any case, he could hardly have got so far without Phoenician, probably Carth­aginian, co-operation.

  By comparison, the scale of Hanno's expedition was grandi­ose. The A
tlantic coast was not merely navigated but stationed to a point near the tropics. According to extreme interpola­tion, the 'Chariot of the Gods' was the volcanic Mount Cameroon, carrying the exploration beyond Cape Palmas to the bight of Biafra, though this seems unlikely even ignoring the sailing times.

  Finally, the closing reference to 'Gorillas' has raised dispute. The giant anthropoid apes were named, after Hanno's descrip­tion, by their modern discoverers. Scholars are divided as to whether the report itself concerns apes or human beings, one school asserting that the captives were hairy Pigmies, another that they were apes, but specifically chimpanzees. At all events, the skins were a sufficient novelty in their day to be placed on public show at Carthage.

  * *

  While Hanno sailed south, other mariners turned north up the western coast of Europe to Brittany. Their quest was not for gold but tin, increasingly valuable to a developing Punic bronze industry. The inspiration came from Tarshish. The Tartessians traded with a Breton people, the Oestrymnians (in legend, of Spanish origin), knowing from them of Ireland and England. At Gades, Carthaginian merchants were well-placed to learn of such connections. They resolved to tap the northern trade.