FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   456   457   458   459   460   461   462   463   464   465   466   467   468   469   470   471   472   473   474   475   476   477   478   479   480  
481   482   483   484   485   486   487   488   489   490   491   492   493   494   495   496   497   498   499   500   501   502   503   504   >>  
ains of this great wall. There is no reason for regarding these as the remains of a separate fortification of the citadel distinct from the city wall; it may be presumed that further excavations at a corresponding depth--the foundation of the city wall discovered at the Byrsa lies fifty-six feet beneath the present surface--will bring to light like, or at any rate analogous, foundations along the whole landward side, although it is probable that at the point where the walled suburb of Magalia rested on the main wall the fortification was either weaker from the first or was early neglected. The length of the wall as a whole cannot be stated with precision; but it must have been very considerable, for three hundred elephants were stabled there, and the stores for their fodder and perhaps other spaces also as well as the gates are to be taken into account. It is easy to conceive how the inner city, within the walls of which the Byrsa was included, should, especially by way of contrast to the suburb of Magalia which had its separate circumvallation, be sometimes itself called Byrsa (App. Pun. 117; Nepos, ap. Serv. Aen. i. 368). 10. Such is the height given by Appian, l. c.; Diodorus gives the height, probably inclusive of the battlements, at 40 cubits or 60 feet. The remnant preserved is still from 13 to 16 feet (4-5 metres) high. 11. The rooms of a horse-shoe shape brought to light in excavation have a depth of 14, and a breadth of 11, Greek feet; the width of the entrances is not specified. Whether these dimensions and the proportions of the corridor suffice for our recognizing them as elephants' stalls, remains to be settled by a more accurate investigation. The partition-walls, which separate the apartments, have a thickness of 1.1 metre = 3 1/2 feet. 12. Oros. iv. 22. Fully 2000 paces, or--as Polybius must have said--16 stadia, are=about 3000 metres. The citadel-hill, on which the church of St. Louis now stands, measures at the top about 1400, half-way up about 2600, metres in circumference (Beule, p. 22); for the circumference at the base that estimate will very well suffice. 13. It now bears the fort Goletta. 14. That this Phoenician word signifies a basin excavated in a circular shape, is shown both by Diodorus (iii. 44), and by its being employed by the Greeks to denote a "cup." It thus suits only the inner harbour of Carthage, and in that sense it is used by Strabo (xvii. 2, 14, where it
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   456   457   458   459   460   461   462   463   464   465   466   467   468   469   470   471   472   473   474   475   476   477   478   479   480  
481   482   483   484   485   486   487   488   489   490   491   492   493   494   495   496   497   498   499   500   501   502   503   504   >>  



Top keywords:

metres

 

separate

 

elephants

 

circumference

 

suburb

 

Magalia

 
height
 
Diodorus
 

suffice

 

citadel


fortification

 
remains
 

denote

 

dimensions

 
corridor
 

proportions

 

Greeks

 
accurate
 

investigation

 

employed


settled

 

stalls

 

Whether

 
recognizing
 

entrances

 
harbour
 

Carthage

 

partition

 

breadth

 

brought


excavation

 

thickness

 

stands

 

measures

 

preserved

 

church

 

Phoenician

 

Goletta

 

signifies

 

estimate


circular
 

stadia

 

Strabo

 

Polybius

 

excavated

 

apartments

 

called

 

walled

 

rested

 

probable