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NOTICES OF BOOKS. 339
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
The Excavations " Carthage At Carthage A...
faithless , though . Pious , _^ Sneas ran away from Dido , his _shij 3 S were waffced upon Latiuinthe sea-shore of Rome . Everybody knows
, the print , taken I think from a picture by some French artist , in which . Dido is reclining * on a funeral pyre , her breast transfixed
by a dagger , and surrounded by her weeping maidens , while the distant sails of the treacherous hero are lessening on the sea . "We
have also the building of Carthage , by Turner , a noble picture , now in the Vernon Gallery , a beautiful fantastic dream of palaces and
grove-crowned heights , with only one defect for our present purpose , namely , that it is as unlike the actual features of fche shore as
possible _^ 3 Eneas . is regarded poetically as the founder of Ronle , as Dido
of Carthage ; but in point of fact , Carthage was a great and mighty nation while yet the seven hills of Home were a waste of brushwood
and asphodel , divided by the morasses of the Tiber . It was Etruria ( whose rich and industrious cities , scattered over what are now the
_Pope's territories , excelled alike in architecture , in _expressiveportrait sculptureand in the working of delicate gold and silver filigree ) which
, was really the rival of Carthage in the days of her early glory . The most ancient naval or commercial treaty in the world is that
between Carthage and Etruria , engraved on a tablet and preserved at Rome . It is in the Etruscan language , towards the
decipheringof which , successful attempts have within this century been made by Italian savants . Rome , the wretched marauder , Rome , suckled
hy a wolf and bearing wolf-like sons , inch by inch destroyed first Etruriawhose laws she swallowed to aggrandize herself , and then
Carthage , , whom she ground level with the dust . Punic Carthage was taken by Scipio in the year 218 b . c , and
for some time she was merely held in vassalage ; but in consequence of real or imaginary offences she was in 146 b . c . completely
destroyed ; and though the Romans afterwards built a new Carthage , it did not cover the site of the old , or attain to anything like its old
importance . Now the Punic and the Roman cities are alike a shapeless world of ruin ; and the modern city of Tunis , distant ten miles ,
is peopled by a barbaric race , who have not one idea in common with the wealthy and learned population which has passed away .
The excavations lately conducted on the site of Carthage were commenced under the following auspices . Dr . Davis was a
gentleman who had long felt a particular interest in that famous Empire , since her foundress Queen , Dido , had been the object of a theme
allotted to him as a schoolboy . Circumstances into which he does not entercaused him to visit Tunis , whence he made an excursion to
see the site , of the ancient city , and he then became convinced that excavation would produce to the light of day objects of rich historical
interest . The first step to be taken towards the accomplishment of this object was to obtain permission of the Bey , which after various
manoeuvres of the kind rendered proverbial by suitors in eastern courts , was at length obtained . Dr . Davis then looked to England for
B B 2
Notices Of Books. 339
NOTICES OF BOOKS . 339
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), July 1, 1861, page 339, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01071861/page/51/
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