dually aggrandized
for three hundred years. It was a rich and powerful city at the close of
the Persian wars. It had succeeded Tyre as the mistress of the sea.

(M829) We have seen, in the second book, how the Carthaginians were
involved in wars with Syracuse, when that city had reached the acme of its
power under Dionysius. We have also alluded to the early history and power
of Carthage. At the time Pyrrhus landed in Sicily, it contained nearly a
million of people, and controlled the northern coast of Africa, and the
western part of the Mediterranean. Carthage was strictly a naval power,
although her colonies were numerous, and her dependencies large. The land
forces were not proportionate to the naval; but large armies were
necessary to protect her dependencies in the constant wars in which she
was engaged. These armies were chiefly mercenaries, and their main
strength consisted in light cavalry.

(M830) The territories of Carthage lay chiefly in the islands which were
protected by her navy and enriched by her commerce. Among these insular
possessions, Sardinia was the largest and most important, and was the
commercial depot of Southern Europe. A part of Sicily, also, as we have
seen (Book ii., chap. 24), was colonized and held by her, and she aimed at
the sovereignty of the whole island. Hence the various wars with Syracuse.
The Carthaginians and Greeks were the rivals for the sovereignty of this
fruitful island, the centre of the oil and wine trade, the store-house for
all sorts of cereals. Had Carthage possessed the whole of Sicily, her
fleets would have controlled the Mediterranean.

(M831) The embroilment of Carthage with the Grecian States on this island
was the occasion of the first rupture with Rome. Messina, the seat of the
pirate republic of the Mamertines, was in close alliance with Rhegium, a
city which had grown into importance during the war with Pyrrhus. Rhegium,
situated on the Italian side of the strait, solicited the protection of
Rome, and a body of Campanian troops was sent to its assistance. These
troops expelled or massacred the citizens for whose protection they had
been sent, and established a tumultuary government. On the fall of
Tarentum, the Romans sought to punish this outrage, and also to embrace
the opportunity to possess a town which would facilitate a passage to
Sicily, for Sicily as truly belonged to Italy as the Peloponnesus to
Greece, being separated only by a narrow strait. A Roman