at
AEneas, his hero, was contemporary with Dido, though there was an interval
of near three centuries between the one and the other; Carthage being
built three hundred years after the destruction of Troy. This liberty is
very excusable in a poet, who is not tied to the scrupulous accuracy of an
historian; and we admire, with great reason, the judgment which he has
shown in his plan, when, to interest the Romans (for whom he wrote) in his
subject, he has the art of introducing into it the implacable hatred which
subsisted between Carthage and Rome, and ingeniously deduces the original
of it from the very remote foundation of those two rival cities.

Carthage, whose beginnings, as we have observed, were very weak at first,
grew larger by insensible degrees, in the country where it was founded.
But its dominion was not long confined to Africa. This ambitious city
extended her conquests into Europe, invaded Sardinia, made herself
mistress of a great part of Sicily, and reduced to her subjection almost
the whole of Spain; and having sent out powerful colonies into all
quarters, enjoyed the empire of the seas for more than six hundred years;
and formed a state which was able to dispute preeminence with the greatest
empires of the world, by her wealth, her commerce, her numerous armies,
her formidable fleets, and, above all, by the courage and ability of her
captains. The dates and circumstances of many of these conquests are
little known. I shall take but a transient notice of them, in order to
enable my readers to form some idea of the countries, which will be often
mentioned in the course of this history.

_Conquests of the Carthaginians in Africa._--The first wars made by the
Carthaginians were to free themselves from the annual tribute which they
had engaged to pay the Africans, for the territory which had been ceded to
them.(575) This conduct does them no honour, as the settlement was granted
them upon condition of their paying a tribute. One would be apt to
imagine, that they were desirous of covering the obscurity of their
original, by abolishing this proof of it. But they were not successful on
this occasion. The Africans had justice on their side, and they prospered
accordingly; the war being terminated by the payment of the tribute.

The Carthaginians afterwards carried their arms against the Moors and
Numidians, and gained many conquests over both.(576) Being now emboldened
by these happy successes, they shook off