Cartesianism

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

system of philosophy taught by Descartes. CARTHAGE (L. Carthago, Gr. Karchédōn), the most famous city of Africa in antiquity, capital of a rich and powerful commercial republic, situated in the territory now belonging to Tunis. Carthage was the latest of the Phoenician colonies in this district, and is supposed to have been founded by settlers from Tyre and from the neighboring Utica about the middle of the 9th century before Christ. The story of Dido and the foundation of Carthage is mere legend or invention. The history of Carthage falls naturally into three epochs. The first, from the foundation to 410 B. C., comprises the rise and culmination of Carthaginian power; the second ond, from 410 to 265 B. C., is the period of the wars with the Sicilian Greeks; the third, from 265 to 146 b. c., the period of the wars with Rome, ending with the fall of Carthage. The rise of Carthage may be attributed to the superiority of her site for commercial purposes, and the enterprise of her inhabitants. Her relations with the native populations, Libyans and nomads, were those of a superior with inferior races. Some of them were directly subject to Carthage, others contributed large sums as tribute, and Libyans formed the main body of infantry as nomads of cavalry in the Carthaginian army. Besides these there were native Carthaginian colonies, small centers and supports for her great commercial system, sprinkled along the whole northern coast of Africa, from Cyrenaica on the E. to the Straits of Gibraltar on the W. In extending her commerce Carthage was naturally led to the conquest of the various islands which from their position might serve as entrepôts for traffic with the northern shores of the Mediterranean. Sardinia was the first conquest of the Carthaginians, and its capital, Caralis, now Cagliari, was founded by them. Soon after they occupied Corsica, the Balearic, and many smaller islands in the Mediterranean. When the Persians, under Xerxes, invaded Greece, the Carthaginians, who had already several settlements in the W. of Sicily, co-operated by organizing a great expedition on of 300,000 men against the Greek cities in Sicily. But the defeat of the Carthaginians at Himera by the Greeks under Gelon of Syracuse effectually checked their further progress (480 b. c.). The war with the Greeks in Sicily was not renewed till 410. Hannibal the son of Gisco, invaded Sicily, reduced first Selinus and Himera, and then Agrigentum. Syracuse itself was only saved a little later by a pestilence which enfeebled the later army of Himilco (396). The struggle between the Greeks and the Carthaginians continued at intervals with varying success, its most remarkable events being the military successes of the Corinthian Timoleon (34 (345-340) at Syracuse, and the invasion of the Carthaginian territory in Africa by Agathocles, 310 b. c. After the death of Agathocles the Greeks called in Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, to their aid, but notwithstanding numerous defeats (277-275 B. c.), the Carthaginians seemed, after the departure of Pyrrhus, to have the conquest of all Sicily at length within their power. The intervention of the Romans was now invoked, and with their invasion, 264 B. C., the third period of Carthaginian history begins. The first Punic war (L. Punicus, Ph Phœnician), in which Rome and Carthage contended for the dominion of Sicily, was prolonged for 23 years, 264 to 241 B. C., and ended, through the exhaustion of the resources of Carthage, in her expulsion from the island. The loss of Sicily led to the acquisition of Spain for Carthage, which was almost solely the work of Hamilcar and Hasdrubal. The second Punic war, arising out of incidents connected with the Carthaginian conquests in Spain, and conducted on the side of the Carthaginians by the genius of Hannibal, and distinguished by his great march on Rome and the victories of Lake Trasimene, Trebia, and Cannæ, lasted 17 years, 218 to 201 b. c., and after just missing the overthrow of Rome, ended in the complete humiliation of Carthage. The policy of Rome in encouraging the African enemies of Carthage occasioned the third Punic war, in which Rome was the aggressor. This war, begun 150 b. c., ended 146 B. C., in the total destruction of Carthage. The constitution of Carthage, like her history, remains in many points obscure. The name of king occurs in the Greek accounts of it, but the monarchial constitution, as commonly understood, never appears to have existed in Carthage. The officers called kings by the Greeks were two in number, the heads of an oligarchical republic, and were otherwise called Suffetes, the original name being considered identical with the Hebrew Shofetim, judges. These officers were chosen from the principal families, and were elected annually. There was a senate of 300, and a smaller body of 30 chosen from the senate, sometimes another smaller council of 10. In its later ages the state was divided by bitter factions, and liable to violent popular tumults. After the destruction of Carthage her territory became the Roman province of Africa. Twenty-four years after her fall an unsuccessful attempt was made to rebuild Carthage by Caius Gracchus. This was finally accomplished by Augustus, and Roman Carthage became one of the most important cities of the empire. It was taken and destroyed by the Arabs in 638. The religion of the Carthaginians was that of their Phœnician ancestors. They worshiped Moloch or Baal, to whom they offered human sacrifices; Melkart, the patron deity of Tyro; Astarte, the Phœnician Venus, and other deities, which were mostly propitiated by cruel or lascivious rites.