BARBARY STATES. OLIVER & BOYD, EDINBURGH. HISTORY PRESENT CONDITION THE BARBARY STATES : COMPREHENDING A VIEW OF THEIR CIVIL INSTITUTIONS, ANTIQUITIES, ARTS, RELIGION, LITERATURE, COMMERCE, AGRICULTURE, AND NATURAL PRODUCTIONS. BY THE REV. MICHAEL RUSSELL, LL.D., Author of " View of Ancient and Modern Egypt," " Palestine, or the Holy Land," " Nubia and Abyssinia," &c. WITH A MAP, AND ELEVEN ENGRAVINGS BY JACKSON. SECOND EDITION. EDINBURGH: OLIVER & BOYD, TWEEDDALE COURT; AND SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & CO., LONDON. MDCCCXXXV. Bj Transfer JUN I 119; ENTERED IN STATIONERS 1 HALL. Printed by Oliver & Boyd, Tweeddale Court, High Street. Edinburgh. / 7 J** PREFACE. This Volume completes the plan,, originally formed by the Publishers of the Edinburgh Cabinet Li- brary, for illustrating the History, the Antiquities, and the Present Condition of Africa. In the first instance, they drew the attention of their readers to the progress of Discovery in that vast continent ; describing the natural features of its seve- ral kingdoms, the social state of its people, and there- by bringing into one view all that appeared valuable in the observations of those travellers, whether in ancient or modern times, who have sought to ex- plore the remote recesses of its interior. They next made it their endeavour to collect, within a narrow compass, all that is known respecting Egypt, Nu- bia, and Abyssinia, — those countries so full of inte- rest to the scholar and the antiquary, and which are universally acknowledged to have been the cradle of the arts, so far as the elements of these were com- municated to the inhabitants of Europe. The Work now presented to the Public has for its object an historical outline of those remarkable provinces which stretch along the southern shores of the Mediterranean, during the successive periods when they were occupied by the Phoenicians, the Romans, the Vandals, the Arabs, and the Moors ; as well as a delineation of their condition since they acknowledged the dominion of the Porte. 6 PREFACE. No one who has read the annals of Carthage can be ignorant of the importance once attached to this singular country; in which was first exhibited to the eye of European nations the immense political power that may be derived from an improved agri- culture,, an active commerce, and the command of the sea. In the plains of Tunis,, too, were fought those battles which confirmed the ascendency of Rome, and laid the foundations of that colossal em- pire, whose territory extended from the Danube to the Atlas Mountains, and from the German Ocean to the banks of the Euphrates. The gigantic con- flict between the two greatest republics of the an- cient world was at length determined among the burning sands of Numidia, or on those shores, w 7 hich, for many centuries, have been strangers to the civi- lisation and arts diffused around their camps by these mighty rivals for universal sovereignty. Nor are the kingdoms of Northern Africa less in- teresting in an ecclesiastical point of view. The names of Tertullian,, Cyprian, and Augustin, re- flect honour on the churches of that land ; and their works are still esteemed as part of those authentic records whence the divine derives his knowledge of the doctrines, the usages, and institutions of primi- tive Christianity. With relation to the same object, the inroad of the schismatical Vandals, and the con- quest effected by the Arabs, present subjects worthy of the deepest reflection, inasmuch as they led to the gradual deterioration of the orthodox faith, till it was entirely superseded by the imposture of Mo- hammed. On these heads the reader will find some important details in the Chapter on the Religion and Literature of the Barbarv States. 6 PREFACE. 7 The writings of recent travellers have thrown a fascinating light over some parts of the ancient Cy- renaica, — a section of the Tripoline territory, which, having enjoyed the benefit of Grecian learning at an early period, still displays the remains of architec- tural skill and elegance, borrowed from the inha- bitants of Athens and Sparta. The position of the several towns composing the celebrated Pen- tapolis, the beauty of the landscape, the fertility of the soil, and the magnificence of the principal edifices, have been, in the course of a few years, not only illustrated with much talent, but ascertained with a degree of accuracy that removes all reason- able doubt. The conjectures of Bruce are confirmed, or refuted, by the actual delineations of Beechey and Delia Cella. The modern history of Barbary is chiefly interest- ing from the relations which so long subsisted be- tween its rulers and the maritime states of Europe, who, in order to protect their commerce from vio- lence, and their subjects from captivity, found it occasionally expedient to enter into treaty with th^ lieutenants of the Ottoman government. The wars which, from time to time, were waged against the rovers of Tunis, Sallee, and Algiers, from the days of the Emperor Charles the Fifth down to the late invasion by the French, are full of incident and ad- venture ; presenting, in the most vivid colours, the triumph of educated man over the rude strength of the barbarian, coupled with the inefficacy of all ne- gotiation which rested on national faith or honour. The records of piracy, which, not many years ago, filled the whole of Christendom with terror and in- dignation, may now be perused with feelings of com- 3 PREFACE. placency, arising from the conviction that the power of the marauders has been broken, and their ravages finally checked. Algiers, after striking its flag to the fleets of Britain, was compelled to obey the soldiers of France, — an event that may be said to constitute a new era in the policy of the floors, and seems to hold forth a prospect, however indistinct, of civili- sation, industry, and the dominion of law over brutal force and passion, being again established through- out the fine provinces which extend from Cape Spar- tel to the Gulf of Bomba. The Chapter on the Commerce of the Barbary States indicates, at least, the sources of wealth which, under an enlightened rule, might be rendered avail- able, not only for the advantage of the natives, but also of the trading communities on the opposite shores of the Mediterranean. Every where, in the soil, in the climate, and in the situation of the coun- try, are seen scattered, with a liberal hand, the ele- ments of prosperity; and it is manifest that the plains, which were once esteemed the granary of Rome, might again, with the aid of modern science, be rendered extremely productive in the luxuries, as well as the necessaries, of human life. The assiduity of French writers, since the con- quest of Algiers, has afforded the means of becoming better acquainted than formerly with the geology of Northern Africa, as well as with several other branches of Xatural History. From the same source have been derived materials for the embellishments introduced into this volume, and also for improving the Map, which the reader will find prefixed. Edinburgh, March 16. 1835. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. ANCIENT HISTORY. Contrast between the present and ancient Condition of the Barbary States — View of ancient Manners — Remains of former Magnifi- cence — Revolutions in that Country at once sudden and entire — Countries comprehended in Barbary — Division, according to He- rodotus — Origin of the Term Barbary — Opinion of Leo Africanus — Emigrants from Asia and Arabia — Monuments which denote an Eastern People — Colonies from Tyre — Foundation of Carthage — Supposed Extent of her Territory — Remark of Polybius — Car- thaginians encouraged Agriculture — Various Tribes subject to Carthage, or in Alliance with her — The History of Carthage for a long Time includes that of all the Barbary States — First Attempt on Sicily and Sardinia — Ambitious Views of the Cartha- ginians — Provoke the Resentment of Alexander the Great — First Punic War — Carthage besieged — Second Punic War — Character of Hannibal — Scipio invades the Carthaginian Territory — Hanni- bal recalled — Is defeated at Zama — Third Punic War — Fall of Carthage — History of Jugurtha — Subdued by the Romans — Ma- rks and Sylla— Pompey and Caesar — Conclusion^ Page 17 CHAPTER II. CONSTITUTION, COMMERCE, AND NAVIGATION OF THE PHCENICIAN COLONIES ON THE COAST OF BARBARY. Independence of the federated Towns, Utica, Leptis, &c. — Predo- minance of Carthage — Constancy of her Government — Its Pro- gress described — Originally a Monarchy, but gradually became aristocratical — House of Mago — Rights of the People exercised in public Assemblies — And in the Election of Magistrates — De- cided in all Questions in which the Kings and Senate could not agree — Constitution and Power of the Senate — The select Coun- cil — The Kings or Suffetes — Distinction between the King and a General — Some Resemblance to Roman Consuls and Hebrew Judges — Wise Administration of Justice — No judicial Assem- blies of the People — Basis of Power occupied by the Senate — ]0 CONTEXTS. Trade and Commerce of Carthage— Inherited from the Phoeni- cians — Her Position favourable — Engrossed the Trade of Africa and Southern Europe — Opposed by the Greeks at Marseilles— Her Intercourse with Sicily, Sardinia. Malta, and the Balearic Isles — The Mines of Spain attract her Notice — Carthaginian Dealers penetrate into Gaul — Colonies in the Atlantic— The western Coasts of Spain — Voyages to Britain and the Tin Islands — Poem of Festus Avienus — Trade in Amber — Question whe- ther the Carthaginians ever entered the Baltic — Voyage of Hanno towards the South — Colonies planted on the western Coast of Africa— The Towns built in that Quarter— The Car- thaginians discovered Madeira — The Date at which the Expe- ditions of Hanno and Hamilco took Place— Proofs that Carthage must have attained great Power and Civilisation — Her Libraries — Agriculture — Splendid Villas — Rich Meadows and Gardens — Her extensive Land-trade across the Desert — Her warlike Pro- pensities — Causes of her Decline and Fall, Page 57 CHAPTER III. MODERN HISTORY OF THE BARB ART STATES. Time when the Barbary States assumed an independent Existence — The Libyans first inhabited Northern Africa — Influence of Phoeni- cian Colonies — Ancient and Modern Divisions of the Country — Extent of Roman Conquests — Revival of Carthage — Rebuilt from its own Ruins — Site and Description of it — Remains of former Magnificence — Mercenary Conduct of Romanus, Count of Afri- ca — Sufferings of the Tripolitans — Usurpation of Firmus — Vic- tories of Theodosius — Death of Firmus — Insurrection under Gildo — Wisdom and Bravery of Stilicho — Death of Gildo — Rebellion of Heraclian — Error of Bonifacius — He invites the Vandals — Pro- gress of Genseric, their General — Death of Bonifacius — Continued Success of the Vandals — Fall of Carthage — Severe Sufferings of the Inhabitants — Policy of Genseric — He creates a N'avy — Sacks Rome — Prosecutes a Maritime War — Marjorian meditates the Invasion of Africa — His Fleet is destroyed by Fire — Attempt of Basilicus — Loss of his Ships — Death of Genseric — Accession of Justinian — Usurpation of Gelimer in Africa — Belisarius takes the Command there — Victory over Gelimer — He reduces Car- tilage — Conquest of Africa — Surrender of Gelimer — Decay of the Vandal Power — Africa gradually relapses into Barbarism — Com- merce and Agriculture languish — Arrival of the Saracens — Con- duct of the Prefect Gregorv — Valour of Akbah — Dissension among the Caliphs — Akbah is slain — Conduct and Fate of Zo- beir — Foundation of Kairwan — Hassan retakes Carthage — The CONTENTS. 11 Greek Imperialists defeated, and finally leave the Country — The Moors contend for the Sovereignty — Queen Cahina — Her Success and Defeat — Union of the Moors and Mohammedan Arabs — ■ Revolt of Ibrahim — Dynasty of the Aglabites — Other Dynasties founded by Rostam and Edris — Rise of the Fatimites — Of the Zeirites— Emigration of Arabs from the Red Sea — The Almo- hades and Almoravides, Page 84 CHAPTER, IV. RELIGION" AND LITERATURE OF THE BARBARY STATES. The Religion and Literature vary with the successive Inhabitants — Superstition of the Natives — Human Sacrifices continued by the Carthaginians — Worship of Melcarth, Astarte, and Baal — No sacred Caste or Priesthood — Religious Rites performed by the Chief Magistrates — Introduction of Christianity — Accom- plished by the Arms of Rome — Different Opinions as to the Date of Conversion and the Persons by whom it was effected — State- ments of Salvian and Augustin — Learning and Eloquence of the African Clergy, Tertullian, Cyprian, Lactantius, and the Bishop of Hippo — Works of these Divines — Death of Cyprian and An- gus tin — The Writings of the Latin Fathers chiefly valuable as a Record of Usages, Opinions, and Discipline — Church revived under Justinian — Invasion of the Moslem — Christian Congrega- tions permitted to exist under the Mohammedan Rulers — Condi- tions of Toleration — Africans gradually yield to the Seducements of the New Faith, and the Gospel is superseded by the Koran — Barbary States the only Country where Christianity has been to- tally extinguished — Attempt made to restore it by the Patriarch of Alexandria — FiveBishops sent toKairwan — Public Profession of the Gospel cannot be traced after the Twelfth Century — A few Christians found at Tunis in 1533 — Learning of the Arabs — Great Exertions of Almamoun — He collects Greek Authors, and causes them to be translated — He is imitated by the Fatimites of Africa — Science cultivated by the Mohammedans Five Hundred Years — Their chief Studies were Mathematics, Astronomy, and Chemistry — Their Progress in these Researches — Neglect Li- terature, properly so called — Prospect of Improvement from the Settlement of European Colonies in Northern Africa, 124 CHAPTER V. THE CYRENAICA AND PENTAPOLIS. Modern Acceptation of the Term Barbary — Desert of Barca — Dis- trict of Marmarica — Its desolate State — Remains of ancient Im- 12 CONTENTS. provement — Derna — Natural Advantages — Habits of the People — Want of good Harbours — Attempt of Americans to colonize it — Ruins — Opinion of Pacho — Excavations and Grottos — Gyrene — Details by Herodotus — War with Egypt — Successes of the Persians — Form of Government — Cyrene subject to Egypt — Persians — Saracens— Present State of the Cyrenaica — Marsa- Suza — Ruins — Apollonia — Monuments of Christianity — Tombs — Theatres — Style of Architecture— Amphitheatre — Temples — Stadium — Hypogea — Notion of petrified Village — Account by Shaw — Remark by Delia Cella — Journey of Captain Smyth — State of Ghirza — Fountain of Apollo — Description of it — Exa- mined by Captain Beechey — Plain of Merge — Barca — History of — Doubts as to its real Position— Opinion of Delia Cella — Ptole- meta, or Dolmeita— Fine Situation of the Town— Streets covered with Grass and Shrubs — Extent of the City — Ruins — Theatres — Magnificent Gateway — Supposed of Egyptian Origin — Hypo- thesis of Delia Cella — Disputed by Captain Beechey — Taucra, or ancient Teuchira— Unfavourable as a Seaport— Complete Demo- lition of its Buildings — Ruins of two Christian Churches — Tombs — Variety of Greek Inscriptions — Mode of Burial— Bengazi, or Berenice — Miserable Condition of the Place— Plague of Flies — Population — Character of Inhabitants — Gardens of the Hespe- rides — Glowing Descriptions of them by ancient Writers — Posi- tion indicated by Scylax — Labours of Captain Beechey — Con- clusion, Page 153 CHAPTER VI. TRIPOLI AND ITS IMMEDIATE DEPENDENCIES. Ancient Limits of the Pashalic — Great Syrtis seldom visited — Delia Cella and the Beecheys — Ghimines — Forts and Ruins — Tabilba — Remains of a Castle — Curious Arch — Braiga, a Seaport and strongly garrisoned — Thought to be the ancient Automala — Sachrin, the southern Point of the Gulf — Shape of the Bay — Cato, Lucan, and Sallust — Muktar — Hudia — Linoof — Mahiriga — Fortress — Tower of Bengerwad — Supposed to be that of Eu- phrantas — Charax — Medinet Sultan — Shuaisha — Hamed Ga- roosh — Zaffran — Habits of the Natives — Their Dress — The Aspis of Ancient Writers — Giraff — Cape Triero — Mesurata — Salt-marshes — Gulf of Zuca — Lebida — Ruins — Narrative of Cap- tain Smyth — Tagiura — Fertility — Tripoli — Appearance — Tri- poli believed to be of Moorish Origin — Old Tripoli destroyed by the Saracens — Opinion of Leo Africanus — Favourable Judgment formed by Mr Blaquiere — Moral Character of the Tripolines CONTENTS. 13 — Statement by the Author of Tully's Letters — Description of Tripoli by Captain Beechey — Pasha's Castle — Mosques — Triumphal Arch — Inhabitants divided into Moors and Arabs — Manner in which the Turks spend their Time — Peculiar Mode of conducting" Conversation — Bedouins — Their Dress and Manners — The Pianura or Fertile Plain — Visit to the Castle — Magnificence of the Apartments — Pasha's principal Wife — Mode of Salutation — Refreshments — History of Tripoli — Knights of Malta — Rajoot Rais — Admiral Blake — Sir John Narborough — Revolution by Hamet the Great — The Atrocities which attended it — Fezzan — Siwah — Augila — Marabouts — Scene witnessed by Captain Lyon — Drunkenness — Languages spoken at Tripoli, Page 209 CHAPTER VII. TUNIS AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. Lands included in the Pashalic of Tunis — History resumed — Abou Ferez — His Court, Bodyguard, and Council — Invasion of Tunis by Louis IX. — Carthage reduced — Sufferings of the French — Death of the King- — Arrival of the Sicilian Crusaders — Failure of the Expedition — Rise of the two Barbarossas, Horuc and Hay- radin — The former invited to assist the King of Algiers — He murders him and seizes the Government — The Usurper defeated and slain — Algiers occupied by Hayradin, who courts the Protec- tion of the Grand Seignior — Plans an Attack on Tunis — Succeeds in his Attempt — Excites the Resentment of the Emperor Charles V. — The vast Preparations in Italy and Spain — Barbarossa prepares for Defence — The Goletta is taken — A general Engagement en- sues — The Moors are defeated and Tunis falls — TheTownis sack- ed and plundered — Muley Hassan restored — Conditions — Exploits of Barbarossa — Spaniards expelled by Selim II. — Tunisians elect a Dey — Government settled in a Bey — Rise of Hassan Ben Ali —Power absolute — Administration of Justice — Description of Tunis — Soil and Climate — Army — Superstitions — Manners and Customs — Character of the Moors — Avarice of the late Bey — , Population of the Regency — Revenue — Intemperance — Anecdote of Hamooda — Description of Carthage — Cisterns and Aqueduct — Remains of a Temple — Appearance during the Fourth and Fifth Centuries — Details by Edrisi — Remark by Chateaubriand — Bizerta — Utica — Hammam Leif — Sidi Doud — Kalibia — Ghurba — Nabal — Keff — Tubersoke — Herkla — Sahaleel — Monasteer — Lempta — Agar — Demass — Sallecto — Woodlif — Gabes — Jemme — Sfaitla — Gilma — Casareene — Feriana, 262 14 CONTEXTS. CHAPTER VIII. THE REGENCY OF ALGIERS. Origin of the Term Algiers — Importance attached to its History — Boundaries of the State — Appearance of the Town — Its Interior — Population — Fortifications — Narrow Streets — History resum- ed — Charles V. resolves to attack Algiers — His Force — Prepa- rations of Hassan Aga — Storm disables the Spaniards — Loss of Ships and Men — Sufferings of the Army — Scattered at Sea — For- titude of the Emperor — These Hostilities had an earlier Origin — Policy of Cardinal Ximenes — Success of his Measures — Moors revolt, and invite Barbarossa — Spaniards deprived of Oran — Expedition of Philip V. — Oran destroyed by an Earthquake — French attack Algiers under Beaulieu — And under Duquesne — The City and Batteries destroyed — The Dutch, Danes, Swedes, Austrians, and Russians, adopt different Measures — English make several Efforts to reduce the Corsairs — Insults during the Reign Moorish Artisan and Female, 119 Coffeehouse and School at Byrmadrais, 150 Rich Moor and Female, 240 Moorish Lady and Fashionable Moor, 28*7 View of Algiers from the Land, 318 View of a Street in Algiers, 324 Gate and Fountain of Bab el Ouad, 346 View of Oran, 361 Aqueduct of Mustapha Pasha, 367 HISTORY AND PRESENT CONDITION OF THE BARBARY STATES. CHAPTER I. Ancient History. Contrast between the present and ancient Condition of the Barbarj States — View of ancient Manners — Remains of former Magnifi- cence — Revolutions in that Country at once sudden and entire — Countries comprehended in Barbary — Division, according to He- rodotus — Origin of the Term Barbary — Opinion of Leo Africanus — Emigrants from Asia and Arabia — Monuments which denote an Eastern People — Colonies from Tyre — Foundation of Carthage — Supposed Extent of her Territory — Remark of Polybius — Car- thaginians encouraged Agriculture — Various Tribes subject to Carthage, or in Alliance with her — The History of Carthage for a long Time includes that of all the Barbary States — First Attempt on Sicily and Sardinia — Ambitious Views of the Carthaginians — Provoke the Resentment of Alexander the Great — First Punic War — Carthage besieged — Second Punic War — Character of Hannibal — Scipio invades the Carthaginian Ter- ritory — Hannibal recalled — Is defeated at Zama — Third Punic War — Fall of Carthage — History of Jugurtha — Subdued by the Romans — Marius and Sylla — Pompey and Caesar — Conclusion. In entering upon a description of the Barbary States, the mind naturally turns, in the first in- stance, to a comparison of their actual condition, A 18 ANCIENT HISTORY. morally and politically considered, with the civili- sation to which they formerly attained under more enlightened governors. The contrast thus presented is rendered still more striking hy a reference to the literature and science of Europe, of which the ele- ments were in many cases derived from the north- ern shores of Africa ; as well when the Phoenicians extended their power to the Pillars of Hercules, as when the lieutenants of the Caliph exercised au- thority over the mixed tribes who were compelled to acknowledge their dominion. Nowhere, indeed, is the effect of wise institu- tions more clearly distinguished than at the point whence the philosophical eye marks the difference which prevails on the opposite sides of the Mediter- ranean. From the mountains of Spain the specta- tor may comprehend, at one glance, the abode of nations which, though in geographical position not farther distant than a voyage of a few hours, are ne- vertheless, in respect of religion, learning, and all the arts and feelings of social life, removed from one another by the lapse of many centuries. In passing the narrow channel which separates these two quar- ters of the globe, the traveller finds himself carried back to the manners and habits of ages long past, and witnesses, as it were, a revival of scenes which must have attracted the notice of the earliest histo- rians of the human race. On the one hand, he be- holds an order of men who, like the patriarchs of Arabia, are still engaged with the occupations of the pastoral state, living in tents, and sustaining themselves on the produce of their flocks. On the other, he may see a community devoting their cares to the pursuits of traffic, and, like the ancient Ish- ANCIENT HISTORY. 19 maelites, carrying the commodities of foreign lands across their wide deserts ; thereby connecting in the bonds of commercial intercourse the remotest na- tions of the Old World. In a third section of North- ern Africa his attention will be drawn to numerous tribes who, adopting partially the usages of both the other classes, refuse to abide by either; but, like the descendants of Esau, with their hands lifted against every man who crosses their path, esteem it their highest honour to impose tribute and enrich themselves on spoil. Nor is the contrast less remarkable, when the pre- sent aspect of the country is compared with the magnificence and cultivation which adorned it dur- ing several ages. In no other region of the earth has the flood of time committed ravages so extensive and deplorable, obliterating nearly all the traces of improvement, and throwing down the noblest works of art. Amidst the sand, accordingly, which covers the remains of ancient towns, are to be seen the finest specimens of architectural skill, mingled with the relics of a taste and luxury which distinguished the later years of the Roman empire. The fields, which once bore the most abundant crops, are now either deformed by the encroachments of the Desert, or overgrown with useless weeds and poisonous shrubs; while baths, porticos, bridges, theatres, and triumphal arches, have mouldered into ruins, or sunk under the hands of the barbarous inhabitants. No people, once civilized, retain so few marks of having risen above savage life as the present Moors and Arabs of Barbary. All other nations, however depressed with regard to power, wealth, and science, continue to exhibit some proofs of their former great- 20 ANCIENT HISTORY. ness, and to vindicate,, at least by their recollections and desires, the rank which their ancestors enjoyed in ancient times. The Jews, the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans, though now little more than the nominal representatives of distinguished empires, cherish the memory of what they were ; extol the exploits of their fathers, and admire their works ; hoping even to restore their fortunes and to emulate their fame in a more auspicious age. But the rude tribes of Africa are strangers to all such ennobling sentiments. They know not that their country was one of the first seats of government and commerce, and took the lead, at an early period, in all the attainments which exalt human nature, and confer the highest blessings on society. They for- get that Carthage held long suspended between her- self and Rome the scales of universal dominion ; that her provinces were opulent and enlightened ; that she could boast of renowned sages and learned fathers of the church ; and that some of her towns were on a footing of equality with the most cele- brated in antiquity. Ignorant, moreover, of the history of those monuments which still give an in- terest to their wild shores and dreary plains, they even make haste to deface every thing whereon in- genuity has been lavished, and to remove every token which might serve as an evidence that men more polished than themselves had occupied their cities or ploughed their fieldsj These facts will appear less inexplicable, when it is called to mind that the revolutions in Barbary have, for the most part, been not only sudden and complete, but that, being brought about by nations who had very little in common with those which ANCIENT HISTORY. 21 they subdued, an entire change was introduced as often as new masters assumed the government. The Saracens, for example, who marched under the banners of Mohammed, had no respect for the in- stitutions of the Romans, whether conveyed thither from Italy or from the shores of the iEgean Sea. On the contrary, those fierce warriors felt themselves impelled by religious zeal to root out whatever had been planted by Christians, — to demolish the edifices in which they had worshipped, — to destroy the em- blems of their faith, — and to treat with scorn every usage which could be traced to the hated Nazarenes. The barbarians who humbled the European portion of the empire, yielded their reverence, and even their belief, to the magnificent and imposing ritual of the Church. Their own tenets were so ill defined, and rested on principles so extremely vague, that they were easily capable of amalgamating with any other system which simply recognised the doctrine of a Divine Providence, and the sanctions of a fu- ture state, as the reward of the good and the punish- ment of the guilty. But the disciples of the Koran were not allowed to make terms with the professors of any rival creed. An acknowledgment of their pro- phet, as an inspired messenger sent by Heaven, was ever held as a condition quite indispensable to the enjoyment of security, and even of those ordinary privileges in life, without which man may be said to forfeit all the advantages of associating with his fellow-creatures. Hence the irruption of the Ara- bian host produced, on the face of Upper Africa, effects hardly less violent and universal than if a second deluge had swept over it. The past could not have been more profoundly forgotten, and the 22 ANCIENT HISTORY. labours of former generations could scarcely have more entirely disappeared. The countries included under the general descrip- tion of Barbary, and of which it is our intention in the present work to give an account, may be con- veniently understood as extending from the Desert of Barca on the east to Cape Nun on the west ; a space which comprehends the Cyrenaica, Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers, and Morocco, and embraces more than 2000 miles of coast. It is true that the first of the districts now specified is not usually attached to the Barbary States, being more closely connected with Egypt, both by its historical relations and its natural affinity. But as the celebrated towns, com- posing the Pentapolis of ancient authors, were not described in our volume on the kingdom of the Pha- raohs, we have thought it expedient to introduce them here, in order that we may fully complete our undertaking, and lay before the readers of the Ca- binet Library all that is known respecting the great continent of Africa. The breadth of the territory which thus falls under our notice varies very much at different parts, according to the proximity of the sandy waste by which it is bounded on the south ; and this uncertainty is still farther increased by the occasional movements of the Sahara itself, which, so far from being permanently fixed, is found from time to time invading the cultivated lands. According to Herodotus, the north of Africa is divided into three regions, which he distinguishes into inhabited land, the wild-beast country, and the desert ; an arrangement strictly corresponding to the modern classification of Barbary, properly so called ; the Blaid el Jerid, or region of dates ; and ANCIENT HISTORY. 23 the Sahara. The first section contains Mauritania, Numidia, the territory of Carthage, Cyrenaica, and Marmarica ; that is, the northern parts of the pre- sent kingdoms of Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, and Barca. It was not without reason that the fa- ther of history conferred upon this extensive tract the epithet of habitable ; for, though at certain parts its continuity is broken by the approach of the sands, it is, generally speaking, uncommonly productive. By the Romans, indeed, it was, next to Egypt, es- teemed their granary ; and its abundant returns long enabled the Carthaginians to maintain armies able to cope with the conquerors of Europe. Beyond this favoured region a chain of mountains runs across the continent, beginning at the shores of the Atlantic, and reaching the boundaries of Egypt. The whole line, it is true, has not been examined by recent travellers ; but the opinions of the ablest geographers favour the conclusion that, though it occasionally sinks to the level of the Desert, the range may be distinctly traced from the neighbour- hood of the Nile to the Western Ocean. Its loftiest and broadest part, bearing the name of Atlas, oc- cupies the southern provinces of Morocco and Al- giers ; and in this vicinity, where water abounds, there are many wild beasts, — the ground of the dis- tinction attributed to it by Herodotus. The later Greek and Roman writers called it Getulia; and it is celebrated by their poets as the native haunt of savage animals. By the Arabs, however, as already suggested, it is named the Land of Dates, from the vast quantity of that fruit which grows there, and which constitutes an article of food and of commerce extremely important to the various tribes who fre« 24 ANCIENT HISTORY. quent its borders. The whole region comprises the southern side of Atlas, together with the territory lying near it, extending as far as the Great Desert, between the 26th and 30th degrees of north la- titude.* This country, which is fertile only in those places where water is found, loses itself by degrees in the Sahara, the desert of Herodotus. Like the hills just mentioned, this barren tract occupies the entire breadth of Africa, and even stretches through Ara- bia and Persia into the provinces of Northern India. The width of the sandy belt is not every where the same ; the greatest being in the western parts, be- tween Morocco and the Negro Country, and the narrowest between the present states of Tripoli and Kassina, where also the oases, — those fruitful patches of well- watered ground, — occur most frequently in the path of the caravans. It becomes again much broader as it approaches Egypt ; and, finally, forms a junction with the wilderness of Nubia, and thence, * Every classical scholar will call to mind the poetical descrip- tion which Virgil has given of Mount Atlas : — u Iamqne volans apicem et latera ardua cernit Atlantis duri, ccelum qui vertice fulcit : Atlantis, cinctum assidue cui nubibus atris Piniferum caput et vento pulsatur et imbri : Nix humeros infusa tegit : turn flumina mento Praecipitant senis, et glade riget horrida barba." iENEiDOS, lib. iv. and who inherited the least auspicious part of their fortunes. A revolt of his subjects, headed by a brave though unprincipled leader, who is known to history under the appellation of Tacfarinas, not only disturbed his government several years, but also employed the arms of Rome in a very doubtful war. Tacitus remarks that many generals contented themselves with triumphal honours, without exert- ing their strength to subdue the enemy. At Rome had been erected no fewer than three statues crowned with laurel, and yet Africa was still ravaged by the insurgents, who, disgusted with the conduct of some of Ptolemy's officers, preferred an honourable war to an inglorious vassalage. Their place of retreat was the territory of Garamantis, whose prince shared in the spoil, though without sending his troops into the field. Dolabella, the proconsul, whose force had been unduly diminished by the recall of the ninth legion, found it necessary to at- tack his enemy under the cloud of night. Hearing that the Numidians had taken possession of a wood as a safe place of encampment, he made a forced march with his cavalry and light-armed foot, and, falling upon them while still asleep and their horses at pasture, he gained an easy and a most complete victory. The Romans, irritated by the fatiguing service in which they had been so long employed, and stung by the remembrance of several discom- * Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. v. c. 1. Tacit. Annal. lib. iv. c. 13. ANCIENT HISTORY. 55 fitures, failed not to take ample revenge on their unresisting foes. The main object of their desire, however, was the life or captivity of Tacfarinas ; being satisfied that as long as he should survive, the disaffected Africans would never be without a rally- ing point, a standard to follow, and a general to lead. But this brave rebel had determined that the soldiers of Augustus should not exult over him as a prisoner. Perceiving that all his guards were cut in pieces, that his son was already taken, and his adversaries pouring in thickly upon him, he sprang undauntedly forward into the midst of his assailants, and sold his life at a dear price.* Ptolemy did not long enjoy the peace which was purchased at the expense of so much blood ; for, being invited to Rome by the Emperor Caligula, he was barbarously murdered at the command of that tyrant, who either coveted his riches or envied his popularity. He was the last king of Africa for many ages ; his dominions, at his death, being in- corporated with the contiguous provinces, and go- verned by a praetor or proconsul. Mauritania, on this occasion, was divided into two sections, — a mea- sure which was not accomplished without some dis- turbance and much bloodshed ; for iEdemon, one of the freedmen of the late sovereign, took up arms to revenge his death. This war, which was prosecuted with various success, continued some years during the reign of Claudius, and, indeed, appears not to have reached its termination till near the middle of the first century ; various leaders having sprung up to vindicate the independence of Western Africa, * Annal. lib. iv. c. 15. 56 ANCIENT HISTORY. which, before these troubles, had not been approach- ed by a Roman army.* Having brought down the narrative of events, so far as they can be ascertained from authentic history, to the memorable epoch when the Roman empire gave laws to the greater part of the civilized world, and changed the form of supreme power in most of the ancient nations whose shores were washed by the Mediterranean, it may be convenient to pause until we shall have given a short sketch of the con- stitution and commerce of the Barbary States at the remote era to which our attention is now directed. * Dion Cassius, lib. 59. Seneca, de tranquil. Vitae. Plin. lib. v. c. 1, 2. Sueton. in vita Calig. sect. 26. CONSTITUTION, COMMERCE, &c. 57 CHAPTER II. Constitution, Commerce, and Navigation of the Phoeni- cian Colonies on the Coast of Barbary. Independence of the federated Towns, Utica, Leptis, &c — Predo- minance of Carthage — Constancy of her Government — Its Pro- gress described— Originally a Monarchy, but gradually became aristocratical— House of Mago — Rights of the People exercised in public Assemblies— And in the Election of Magistrates— De- cided in all Questions in which the Kings and Senate could not agree — Constitution and Power of the Senate — The select Coun- cil — The Kings or Suffetes — Distinction between the King and a General— Some Resemblance to Roman Consuls and Hebrew Judges — Wise Administration of Justice — No judicial Assem- blies of the People — Basis of Power occupied by the Senate — Trade and Commerce of Carthage — Inherited from the Phoeni- cians — Her Position favourable — Engrossed the Trade of Africa and Southern Europe — Opposed by the Greeks at Marseilles — Her Intercourse with Sicily, Sardinia, Malta, and the Balearic Isles— The Mines of Spain attract her Notice — Carthaginian Dealers penetrate into Gaul — Colonies in the Atlantic— The western Coasts of Spain — Voyages to Britain and the Tin Islands — Poem of Festus Avienus— Trade in Amber — Question whe- ther the Carthaginians ever entered the Baltic — Voyage of Hanno towards the South— Colonies planted on the western Coast of Africa — The Towns built in that Quarter — The Car- thaginians discovered Madeira — The Date at which the Expe- ditions of Hanno and Hamilco took Place— Proofs that Carthage must have attained great Power and Civilisation — Her Libraries — Agriculture — Splendid Villas — Rich Meadows and Gardens — Her extensive Land trade across the Desert — Her warlike Pro- pensities — Causes of her Decline and Fail. Of the trading towns or smaller states which owned a subordination to Carthage, some were colonies which had sprung immediately from herself, and others were settlements founded by their common 58 CONSTITUTION, COMMERCE, AND NAVIGATION parent, the wealthy city of Tyre. Sallust, who had good means of information on this subject, in- forms his readers, that not only Utica and Leptis, but also Adrumetum, Hippo, and other large towns on the coast, were of Phoenician origin.* These establishments are also understood to have been free and independent from the beginning; every one, with a moderate territory annexed to it, forming a little republic. Hence, the Carthaginians, even when they had attained their greatest degree of power, did not exercise an absolute government over these colonial sovereignties ; but rather, on all proper occasions, were ready to acknowledge their constitutional freedom, and likewise their right of entering into separate alliances with foreign nations. This opinion is supported by the remarkable fact, mentioned by Polybius, that, in a commercial treaty between them and the Romans, made in the year 348 before Christ, it is said, " upon these conditions shall be peace between Rome and her allies, and between Carthage, Utica, and their allies." Here, it is obvious, Utica is recognised as on a footing of equality with the larger state, and as having the privilege of contracting, in regard to trade, a friendly intercourse with the Roman commonwealth, then fast approaching to her political supremacy. It cannot be concealed, at the same time, that the greater riches and population of the colony founded by Dido, secured for it a predominating influence over the others, which appear to have * Sallust. Jugurth. c. 19. — " Postea Phoenices, alii multitudinis domi minuendas gratia, pars imperii cupidine, solicitata plebe et aliis novarum reruni avidis, Hipponem, Hadrumetum, Leptim ali- asqne urbes in ora maritima condidere." — Polyb. lib. i. c. J. Hee- ren, vol. i. p. 43. OF THE ANCIENT BARBAE. Y STATES. 59 conceded, without reluctance,, that pre-eminence in public affairs which belonged to the mother-cities of Greece. Aristotle, who was well acquainted with the different constitutions which prevailed in his age, mentions, as a peculiar circumstance in the Carthaginian government, that, down to his own days, it had undergone no very great change, either from the impatience of its citizens or the usurpation of tyrants, — a proof that its principles were at once well balanced and judiciously administered. In common with Athens, Rome, Sparta, and the other celebrated democracies of ancient times, this Phoeni- cian community, as we have just observed, pre- sented the general character of having a single cit}^ for its head; and hence, however great the do- minions of the metropolis might become, the govern- ment must still have remained municipal. It is nevertheless true, that the constitution of Carthage was not constructed upon any particular model, but arose, like the frame of society every where else, out of the circumstances in which she found herself placed. Originating in a monarchy, or rather, perhaps, in that patriarchal rule of which the eastern nations every where exhibit the pattern, it soon passed into a republic, where certain powers were extended to all orders of the state. Without trusting implicitly to the historical authorities usual- ly quoted in support of these views, we might in- deed presume, that this people, after the manner of all ancient colonies, adopted the political usages of their ancestors at Tyre, so far as these could be rendered applicable to the condition of things in which their civic authorities were first called to act.* * Arist. Politic, lib. v. c. 12. 60 CONSTITUTION, COMMERCE, AND NAVIGATION But although the Carthaginians are said to have preferred a commonwealth to the more despotic form which they had brought from Asia, it is gene- rally understood that the actual administration of affairs was lodged in the hands of a few powerful families who constituted the aristocracy of wealth. As the magisterial office conferred honour, and even a certain rank, without any revenue, it must ne- cessarily have been bestowed on persons distin- guished by some measure of opulence ; whence, we cannot be surprised to learn that, though there was no hereditary claim, riches supplied a qualification w r hich, in most cases, was held equally valid. Aris- totle has accordingly remarked, that the governors of the city were chosen on account of their property, their worth, and their popular virtues. In ordinary times, such considerations would doubtless have their full weight ; but it is manifest that, in a nation devoted to conquest, another and a more prevailing source of influence would soon be opened up, in the superior military talents of an individual or a family. The Greek and Roman w T riters, owing to the scan- ty remains of Carthaginian history which fell into their hands, could not determine with precision the rise of those great names which figure in the more important transactions of the republic, her w r ars and treaties, and occasionally created so much jealousy in the minds of the people. But the house of Mago, the first conquerors of Sicily, affords a striking in- stance of the ascendency now alluded to ; having, during the lapse of four generations, supplied com- manders to their countrymen.* It is manifest, therefore, that the royal functions * Arist. Polit. lib. v. c 7. OF THE ANCIENT BARBARY STATES. 61 being superseded, the government of the ancient Barbary States, three or four centuries before the Christian era, had become a mixture of aristocracy with an infusion of democratical elements. We find, accordingly, that Polybius and Aristotle, the most competent authorities on this subject, place the con- stitution of Carthage among those mixed forms where power is divided between the people, properly so called, and the patrician order, which has gradually risen from them. The one compares it to the admi- nistration of Sparta, before anarchy or despotism had paralysed its rulers ; and the other likens it to that of Rome, when, as yet, no demagogue had in- sulted the majesty of the senate.* The rights enjoyed by the people appear to have been chiefly displayed in their public assemblies ; but as to the precise extent of their privileges, and the manner in which they were exercised, history does not convey any satisfactory information. It is generally admitted, however, that the popular part of the government was invested with a certain influ- ence in the election of the chief magistrates or kings, — aright which, while it imposed on the leading families a feeling of dependence, raised the great body of the commons to a suitable degree of political elevation. But we learn from Aristotle, that the distinction now mentioned was often prostituted to the lowest purposes ; that the electors, in most cases, were ac- tuated by considerations of gain rather than of na- tional honour or advantage ; and that, in his time, the highest offices in Carthage were obtained by bribery. We are informed by the same author, that there was placed in the hands of the people the * Aristotle ; as just quoted. Polyb. lib. vi. c. 2. 62 CONSTITUTION, COMMERCE, AND NAVIGATION prerogative of deciding in all questions concerning which the king and the senate could not agree ; and, on this principle, it was not uncommon to find them deliberating on matters of the deepest importance, such as declarations of war and treaties of peace. The senate, it is however acknowledged, possessed a paramount authority in all state affairs ; and in fact, previous to the wars with Rome, exercised nearly the whole power of the commonwealth. But it is not certainly known whether that assembly was permanent, or consisted of a body of citizens which was from time to time renewed, nor even what was the exact number of its constituent members. The ascendency which it had acquired strengthens the probability that it was not entirely dependent on the suffrages of the people ; and there is equal rea- son to conclude that, like the Roman senate, it amounted to several hundreds, whose rank or ser- vices entitled them to a voice in its decisions. This inference derives confirmation from the fact, that out of it was chosen a more Select Council, which, it is said, was held in the greatest reverence, and en- joyed an unquestionable control over the senate itself. In respect to the origin of this supreme com- mittee, Justin gives the following account : — 4. &:c. OF THE ANCIENT BARBARY STATES. 77 and where the wants of the inhabitants are supplied by the spontaneous gifts of nature. All that he tells us, of its being situated at a considerable dis- tance in the ocean, of its streams and rivers, of its productions, its fruits, and foliage, agrees with no other island so well as Madeira. Historians and geographers have long disputed as to the extent of the navigation which the ships of Carthage accomplished in the Atlantic Ocean. Some are content with extending the limits of their voyages from the southern coast of Britain on the north to Cape Bojador on the south ; while others, conferring upon them a share in the direct trade with the Baltic, conduct their ships to the mouth of the Vistula and the coast of Prussia, on the one hand, and on the other, to the estuary of the Gam- bia and the shores of Guinea. It is even maintain- ed, that they crossed to America, and visited the borders of the New World, — an opinion founded so entirely upon conjecture, as to be beyond the reach of fact or reasoning, were we to undertake its refu- tation. We agree with an author already quoted, that " at the time Carthage was most flourishing, she traded northwards directly to Britain, and in- directly to the Baltic ; southwards to the Gambia by sea, and by caravans far into the interior of Africa; while eastward she carried on an active commerce with all parts of the Mediterranean, and, through the mother-city, obtained the productions of India. She may, too, have purchased slaves from the Grecian slave- dealers. Her commercial relations would thus have extended over nearly the whole of the known world, and would only have been surpassed by those of modern Europe since the 78 CONSTITUTION, COMMERCE, AND NAVIGATION discovery of America, and of the passage to the East by the Cape of Good Hope.* It is manifest that the spirit of monopoly was a chief element in the Carthaginian laws, as is proved by their commercial treaties with Rome, and from the fact of it being the custom to drown the crews of such vessels, belonging to other nations, as were found in the vicinity of those places with which they carried on the most lucrative traffic. This ardent rivalry is assigned by Heeren as the main cause why their trade was not more extensive in the eastern parts of the Mediterranean, where they could not have escaped a very active competi- tion with the older dealers. It would appear that the expeditions under Han- no and Hamilco took place about 480 years before the reign of Augustus, — a period when Carthage en- joyed the blessing of a profound peace. Her pro- gress in wealth, population, and refinement, must already have been very considerable. A fleet of sixty large ships, each propelled by fifty oars, and having on board 30,000 emigrants, denotes the power and condition of a prosperous state. Another proof of her advancement in the arts and enjoyments of social life, is the attention paid by her citizens to agriculture regarded as a science. Pliny relates, that when the Romans overthrew the city of Dido, they gave the libraries found there to their allies, the Xumidians, — a circumstance which throws some light upon the manner in which the works of the Carthaginian historians had come into the posses- sion of King Hiempsal. The works of Mago alone. * Foreign Quarterly Review, No. zxvii. p. 225. OF THE ANCIENT BARBAE, Y STATES. 79 one of the kings or suffetes, extending to twenty- eight books,, were translated into Latin by Soiinus ; some fragments of which, preserved by the distin- guished naturalist to whom we owe our knowledge of this fact, are sufficient to show, that the royal author treated fully of all kinds of husbandry, agri- culture, planting, breeding of stock, and the im- provement of fruit-trees. It cannot, then, be doubt- ed, even if the mention of libraries failed to prove it, that there was a Carthaginian literature ; that it was patronised by the great ; and had already passed from the romance of poetry, the first compo- sition of all rude nations, into the more didactic form of prose.* All accounts agree in praising the high state of cultivation found in the neighbourhood of Carthage. We learn from Diodorus, that the territory through which Agathocles led his army, after landing on the African shore, was covered with gardens and large plantations, every where abounding in canals, by means of which they were plentifully watered. A continual succession of fine estates were seen, adorn- ed with elegant buildings, which indicated the opu- lence of their proprietors. These dwellings, says he, were furnished with every thing requisite for the enjoyment of men ; the owners having accumulated immense stores during the long peace. The lands were planted with vines, with palms, and with many other trees bearing fruit. On one side were mea- dows filled with flocks and herds, and on the lower grounds were seen numerous brood-mares reserved for the uses of the army, the chariot, or the husbandman. In short, the whole prospect displayed the riches of * Plin, Hist. Nat. lib. xviii. c. 3. 80 CONSTITUTION, COMMERCE, AND NAVIGATION the inhabitants ; while the higher ranks had very extensive possessions, and vied with one another in pomp and luxury.* Fifty years later, when the dominions of Carthage were invaded by the Romans, a similar picture is given by Polybius of the wealth, elegance, and cul- tivation which every where adorned them. On that occasion, a number of splendid villas were destroyed, an immense booty was obtained in cattle, and above 20,000 slaves were carried away. The same his- torian relates, that at the period now mentioned, the better class of the people drew their private in- come from their own estates ; the public revenue was derived from the provinces.t We have already alluded to the land-trade of Carthage, which, by means of caravans, she appears to have carried far into the South, the East, and the West. Herodotus, whose knowledge of ancient Af- rica was much more complete and accurate than hasty critics are wont to imagine, has traced with much precision the routes of the merchant-travellers from the neighbourhood of the Syrtis to F'ezzan, Siwah or Ammonium, Thebes, the regions of the Joliba, and even the borders of the western desert. No difficulties however great, no dangers however ap- palling, can check the avarice or damp the courage of man, when wealth, conquest, or revenge, become the motives of his actions. Gold, precious stones, drugs, spices, dates, salt, and slaves, were the objects upon which the Phoenician colonists and their Lib- yan subjects placed the greatest value, and to obtain which they consented to undergo the most painful * Diod. Sicul. lib. ix. c. 26, &c. •f Polyb. lib. i. c. 5, and lib. ii. c. 3, 4, 5. 5 OP THE ANCIENT BARBARY STATES. 81 toils, and encounter the most frightful hazards that a wilderness, many hundred miles in extent, parch- ed by the sun, disturbed by moving sands, and des- titute of water, could present to the imagination. By these means, however, — her colonies, her fleets, andher internal commerce, — Carthage became one of the most powerful commonwealths of ancient times ; and by the fame which she acquired as the patron of discovery and navigation, by her gallant struggle with Rome, the victories of her generals, and their conquests in Italy, Gaul, and Spain, he has confer- red upon the Barbary States a degree of renown which could not otherwise have fallen to their lot. The rulers of Carthage have been blamed for yielding to the temptation of engaging in. war. It has been imagined that, had they followed the ex- ample of Tyre, their greatness would never have been impaired, nor their stability menaced ; inas- much as all nations would have shown a readiness to trade with her, if she had not avowed an inten- tion to conquer a settlement in every country where her crews were permitted to land. Experience has proved, however, that an extensive foreign commerce cannot be maintained without territorial possessions. The colonies of England, Holland, and France, in the remotest parts of the globe, seem to establish the fact, that the soldier, if he do not precede, will ever follow closely in the footsteps of the merchant. The fate of this celebrated republic, however, was hastened, not so much by her warlike propensities and desire of conquest, as by the necessity which was imposed upon her of employing foreign merce- naries to fight her battles. She enlisted, in Africa, Spain, and Gaul, troops who could have no sincere E 82 CONSTITUTION, C03I3IERCE, AND NAVIGATION interest in her prosperity or reputation, and who, upon the slightest reverse of fortune, were ready to take part with her enemies, and even to draw the sword under their banners. The expense, too, in- cident to protracted wars, by exhausting her ordi- nary resources, compelled her to lay oppressive taxes on her subjects, and more especially on her African dependencies ; who, it is said, were on some occa- sions obliged to surrender, in the form of tribute, not less than half the produce of their lands. Again, by employing in the field her Numidian allies, the fearless horsemen of the Sahara, she taught them to render their courage formidable, by adding to it the valuable qualities of discipline and subordination ; and, accordingly, when the final contest arose, the Romans found most efficient auxiliaries in the squa- drons of Masinissa, Syphax, and Juba, who were eager to avenge on the proud republic the injuries which their countrymen had formerly sustained at the hands of the Phoenician settlers. The fall of Carthage has, moreover, been ascribed to that ne- glect of her maritime forces which was manifested during the last Punic war. When Scipio crossed from Sicily to Africa, there was not a fleet to oppose him. But the principal cause of her decline and ultimate overthrow was the fierce hostility of rival factions within her own walls. Two great parties, arrayed the one against the other, indulged their mutual enmity while the legions were at her gates : tyranny on the one hand was met by turbulence on the other ; and each section of the commonwealth, with the language of patriotism in their mouths, were more pleased to see their country perish than to witness the ascendency of their political antago- OF THE ANCIENT BARBARY STATES. 83 nists. In the fate of Carthage was exemplified the usual result of a popular government and of civic contention : the voice of clamour is silenced only by the shouts of a triumphant foe, who puts an end to the rivalry of parties by treading all distinctions under foot. The late Emperor of France was wont to com- pare our countrymen to the Carthaginians ; both being distinguished by their success in commerce, their command of the sea, and their numerous colo- nies : And, for reasons which appeared satisfactory to his penetrating mind, he predicted that a similar fate, originating in similar causes, would at no dis- tant period overtake his great rival. Let us hope that the voice of history will not be heard in vain ; and that the errors of past ages will impress modern states with the feelings of wisdom and caution. 84 MODERN HISTORY OF CHAPTER III. Modern History of the Barbary States. Time when the Barbary States assumed an independent Existence — The Libyans first inhabited Northern Africa — Influence of Phoeni- cian Colonies — Ancient and Modern Divisions of the Country — Extent of Roman Conquests — Revival of Carthage — Rebuilt from its own Ruins — Site and Description of it — Remains of former Magnificence — Mercenary Conduct of Romanus, Count of Afri- ca — Sufferings of the Tripolitans — Usurpation of Firmus — Vic- tories of Theodosius — Death of Firmus — Insurrection under Gildo — Wisdom and Bravery of Stilicho — Death of Gildo — Rebellion of Heraclian — Error of Bonifacius — He invites the Vandals — Pro- gress of Genseric, their General — Death of Bonifacius — Continued Success of the Vandals — Fall of Carthage — Severe Sufferings of the Inhabitants — Policy of Genseric — He creates a Navy — Sacks Rome — Prosecutes a Maritime War — Marjorian meditates the Invasion of Africa — His Fleet is destroyed by Fire — Attempt of Basilicus — Loss of his Ships — Death of Genseric — Accession of Justinian — Usurpation of Gelimer in Africa — Belisarius takes the Command there — Victory over Gelimer — He reduces Car- thage — Conquest of Africa — Surrender of Gelimer — Decay of the Vandal Power — Africa gradually relapses into Barbarism — Com- merce and Agriculture languish — Arrival of the Saracens — Con- duct of the Prefect Gregory — Valour of Akbah — Dissension among the Caliphs — Akbah is slain — Conduct and Fate of Zo- beir — Foundation of Kairwan — Hassan retakes Carthage — The Greek Imperialists defeated, and finally leave the Country — The Moors contend for the Sovereignty — Queen Cahina — Her Success and Defeat — Union of the Moors and Mohammedan Arabs — Revolt of Ibrahim — Dynasty of the Aglabites — Other Dynasties founded by Rostam and Edris — Rise of the Fatimites — Of the Zeirites — Emigration of Arabs from the Red Sea — The Almo- hades and Almoravides. As it was not till about the time when the ascen- dency of the Turks was established in the Eastern Empire, that the modern kingdoms of Tripoli, T u- THE BARBAKY STATES. 85 nis, Algiers, and Morocco, claimed the notice of the geographer or historian as separate, and in some degree independent governments, the annals of Northern Africa, down to the end of the fifteenth century, will he most conveniently presented under one head, and as applicable to the whole country which stretches from Cyrene to the Western Ocean. It has been already remarked that this region, if we follow the line of the coast, may be estimated at not less than 2000 miles ; though its breadth, con- fined between the Mediterranean and the Sahara, does not exceed 150, even where the sandy border is farthest removed. Till the arrival of the Phoenicians, that fertile" co- lony was inhabited by the Libyans, accounted by ancient writers among the most savage of mankind, — a race of wandering shepherds who, in our times, are more familiarly known by the appellation of Berbers, from which the whole maritime district has taken its name. The proximity of the Tyrian set- tlement produced, to some extent, on their character and habits, those changes which a civilized people hardly ever fail to accomplish among rude tribes, strangers to reflection, and to all the artificial en- joyments of life. But, even at the present day, the descendants of those simple Nomades occupy a pro- minent station in the land of their fathers ; and are, it is thought, easily distinguishable from the Moors, as well as from those other families of later origin, whose lineage belongs to the central parts of Asia or even of Europe. The following representa- tion exhibits the features and dress of these children of the Desert, who, it will be observed, bear no slight resemblance to the inhabitants of Southern Arabia, with whom their oldest tradition connects them. 86 MODERN HISTORY OF Berbers. It has appeared that, under the immediate juris- diction of Carthage, the neighbouring lands became the centre of commerce and of empire ; though the remains of that renowned commonwealth must now be sought in the disorderly states of Tripoli and Tunis. The Numidia, which w r as the object of con- tention between Jugurtha and Masinissa, is at pre- sent subject to the military government of Algiers ; though a large portion of that kingdom was with- drawn in the reign of Augustus, and erected into a jDroconsular province, under the title of Mauritania Cassariensis. The true country of the Moors, which, from the ancient city of Tingi, or Tangier, was de- nominated Tingitana, is placed in our maps as the sovereignty of Fez. The Romans extended their THE BARBARY STATES. 87 sway as far as the ocean, comprehending Sallee, once so infamous for its piracies ; and Mequinez, a resi- dence of the Emperor of Morocco, may still be iden- tified as one of their foundations. Under the fostering care of the imperial govern- ment, more especially as administered by Augustus, the first of its sovereigns, Carthage emerged from its ruins, and became once more the capital of Africa Propria, the territory to which the senate thought it meet to restrict this designation. In truth, if a judg- ment may be formed from the relics which still remain, it must be admitted that the principal grandeur of the new city was bestowed upon it, at a period subsequent to the age of the beneficent ruler just named, and when architectural taste had already somewhat declined. Several of the muti- lated statues, we are told, are in the worst style of the Lower Empire. There are, notwithstanding, many proofs that the birthplace of Hannibal must have been occupied soon after its first and violent destruction; several of the walls and even of the towers being composed of ancient fragments con- fusedly piled together. Most of the arcades and public buildings, too, appear to have been made up of massy blocks of sandstone and conglomerate, disposed in layers, without cement, or with a spe- cies of it which has almost entirely dissolved. The greatest care seems to have been lavished upon the temples. These edifices were constructed in a style of the utmost magnificence, adorned with immense columns of granite and marble ; the shafts of which, generally speaking, consisted of a single piece. Even here, however, there are indications that the Roman Carthage was indebted for some of its 88 MODERN HISTORY OF decorations to the Carthage founded by the Phoeni- cians. Many of the pillars now found are of the Corinthian order, and belong, of course, to an im- proved epoch of the art ; but amongst them are also seen enormous masses of a different description, dis- playing capitals and triglyphs, which render it ex- tremely probable that a structure of Doric archi- tecture had previously occupied the site at present covered with their common ruins. The more mo- dern city, at all events, must have been encompass- ed with strong walls of solid masonry, furnished with magnificent gates, and ornamented with spa- cious porticos. It was divided, too, from its princi- pal suburb on the east by a river, the mouth of which, forming an extensive basin, was called the fC Co- thon," defended at its narrow entrance by two strong fortifications, and connected with which were a couple of moles, still seen stretching out under the water. On the banks of this stream, the bed of which continues to be occupied by a rivulet, are the remains of various aqueducts, and some large reser- voirs in excellent preservation. Between the prin- cipal cisterns and a torrent which passes to the west- ward of Leptis, some mounds have been construct- ed across the plain, by means of which the winter rains were conveyed for the use of the city. On the eastern bank of the river already mentioned are the vestiges of a galley-port and of numerous baths, together with a circus richly ornamented with obelisks and columns. The whole plain, in- deed, from the Margib Hills to the Cinyphus, pre- sents unequivocal proofs of great opulence and a dense population.* * Beechey, p. 74. Leo Africamis remarks, a Notissirnum hoc THE BARBARY STATES. 89 These fragments of ancient magnificence leave no doubt as to the care bestowed by the Romans upon the capital of their Africa, however difficult it may be to determine the proportion of them which be- longs to a remoter period. Nor can it be necessary to remark that the second Carthage, with the pro- vinces subjected to its jurisdiction, shared largely in those vicissitudes and political commotions which shook the empire itself, both before and after the reign of Constantine. At one time three hundred cities are said to have acknowledged her authority, after she had risen with new splendour from her ashes, and when she had once more acquired, as a provincial metropolis, all the advantages which can be separated from independent sovereignty.* The first calamities which Roman Africa endur- ed, arose from the ferocious character of her neigh- bours, and the avarice of those who were sent by the imperial court to exercise the government. In the reign of Valentinian, about the middle of the fourth century, the military command was intrusted to a chief, whose sordid views were the leading mo- tives of his conduct, and who, on most occasions, acted as if he had been the enemy of the province, and the friend of the barbarians by whom it was assailed. The three flourishing cities of Oea, Lep- tis, and Sabrata, which, under the name of Tripolis, had long constituted a federal union, were obliged, atque antiquissisimum oppidum a quodam populo extructura fuit qui ex Syria hue venerat. Alii vero a Regina quadam conditum raalunt.— Quare nihil est in prassentia quod de hujus conditoribus affirmem ; nam praeterquam quod varie Af ri atque historiographi inter se dissentiant, nemo est illorum qui inde aliquid scriptum reliquerit nisi post Romani imperii decrementum. — P. 553. Edit. 1632. * Strab. Geog. lib. xvii. 90 MODERN HISTORY OP for the first time, to shut their gates in order to protect the lives and property of their inhabitants from the savages of the Desert. After much suffering, the civic rulers applied to Romanus, entitled the Count of Africa, entreating him to march to their relief, and promising to raise, without delay, the supplies of money and camels, which he had made the con- dition of their obtaining his protection. But the mercenary general, hoping that the fears of the Tripolitans would hasten their gifts, delayed his assistance till many of the citizens were surprised and massacred, their villages burnt, their suburbs plundered, and the vines and fruit-trees of their fine territory rooted up or consumed with fire. A de- putation to Rome was instantly resolved upon by the assembly of the three cities, the members of which were instructed to inform Valentinian of their de- plorable condition, and, at the same time, to convey to his ears the well-founded complaint, that they were ruined by the enemy, and betrayed by his lieutenant. The count, however, contrived to anti- cipate this intelligence, which must have endanger- ed his command and perhaps his life, and to im- press upon the minds of the imperial council, that the murmurs against him had no other foundation than the cowardice or disaffection of the provincialists. An investigation was commanded by the emperor, who appears to have been animated with a sincere desire to discover the truth, and to pronounce an award according to justice. But Roman us expe- rienced as little difficulty in deceiving or corrupting the commissioners, as he had to encounter in his attempts upon the honesty of the supreme govern- ment. The charge against him was declared to THE BARBARY STATES. 91 be false ; the information lodged by the people of Tripolis was interpreted as the proof of a conspiracy ; and orders were given to prosecute the authors of it as traitors to their lawful sovereign. The inquiries were managed with so much dexterity, that the ci- tizens of Leptis, who had sustained a siege of eight days, were compelled to contradict the truth of their own decrees, and to censure the behaviour of their own deputies. A sentence, sanctioned by Valenti- nian, condemned the president of the Tripolitan coun- cil to death; and, accordingly, this distinguished person, as well as four others of similar rank, were publicly executed, as accomplices in an imaginary treason.* This cruel and unjust decision, by showing the subjects of the Roman colony that they were ex- cluded from the benefits of an equal government, diminished whatever affection or confidence they might have entertained towards the masters of Af- rica. An occurrence soon took place, which ex- posed their allegiance to a severe test. Firm us, the son of Nabal, a Moorish prince, had forced his way to the occupation of his barbarian sovereignty by destroying the life of a brother, whose birth gave him a better claim, and who, moreover, enjoyed the patronage of the Romans. Imitating the conduct of Jugurtha, this usurper had recourse at once to policy and arms ; but finding the former unavail- ing, and that the count was about to prove an in- exorable enemy, he took the field at the head of a powerful body of troops, and bade defiance to his resentment. The authority of Firmus was soon established in all the provinces of Numidia and * Amraian. Marcell. lib. xviii. c. 6. 92 MODERN HISTORY OF Mauritania; while the indiscriminating fury with which he pursued his conquests along the shores of the Mediterranean, compelled or induced many of the provincialists to join his standard.* Romanus, whose talents were only displayed in the arts of oppression and frauds found himself un- equal to oppose the victorious insurgents, who al- ready possessed, as confederates or vassals, nearly all the towns between Cfesarea and the ocean. Africa, accordingly, must have been severed from the em- pire, had not Theodosius been sent to restore its affairs, and to repel the ravages of the Moors. Fir- mus, though his arms and treasures were still un- diminished, gave way to despair as soon as he learn- ed that a commander so renowned had landed on the coast. At first, he had recourse to an apparent submission, with a view to deceive the vigilance of his opponent, and he even attempted to corrupt the soldiers, w T hom he dared not to encounter in the field. The imperial lieutenant, who was not igno- rant of the character of the prince with whom he condescended to negotiate, listened to his expressions of repentance and promises of fidelity ; but, at the same time, kept a watchful eye over his proceedings, and was busy in making preparations for the war in which he was aware that all their professions of mutual friendship must ultimately terminate. Nor was it long before these suspicions were realized. A conspiracy, which aimed at the life of Theodosius, was detected, and involved in capital punishment some of the principal adherents of the Mauritanian chief, although he himself, who was ready to profit by their success, effected his escape into his native * Ammian. Marc ell. lib. xxix. c. 5. THE BARBARY STATES. 93 dominions, and left them to their fate. But the Roman general having determined that his life also should pay the penalty of his rashness, in presuming to attack the subjects of the empire, pursued him into the fastnesses of Mount Atlas, and finally suc- ceeded in making him prisoner. Firmus, however, resolved to disappoint the triumph of his adversary, who had meant to make him a public example ; and, adopting the maxims of his age and country as to the right of the human being to shorten or protract his own existence, relieved himself from shame by committing suicide. a. d. 386. But the death of this tyrant did not se- cure permanent tranquillity to the African provinces. Gildo, his brother, had been allowed to retain the vast possessions which had been forfeited by treason : and as his fidelity and services to the empire seemed to merit a still higher reward, he was raised to the dignity of a count, and invested with the command of the Roman territory. As, however, his power increased, his insolence and cruelty became daily more intolerable ; and, profiting by the dissensions which preceded the accession of Theodosius to the throne, he hesitated not to announce himself the sovereign of Africa. During twelve years, the coun- try groaned under the domination of an upstart, who seemed at once to disregard his native land, and to encourage the factions by which it was divided. At length, when Arcadius was elevated to the government of the East, the count, who had promised to respect the authority of Honorius, his rightful sovereign, chose to transfer to the former his allegiance and aid, which the ministers of that weak prince advised him to accept. But at this important crisis the councils 94 MODERN HISTORY OF of the West were directed by Stilicho, a brave sol- dier and experienced statesman, who prevailed upon the senate to denounce Gildo as a rebel and public enemy. Troops were assembled and transports were prepared to carry the revenge of the republic against the ungrateful Moor, to strip him of the honours which he had abused, and to punish the numerous crimes laid to his charge. The command of a small army of veterans was confided to Mascezel, another son of the house of Xabal, who, being obliged to fly from the ferocious jealousy of his brother, had sought refuge in Italy, where he heard of the in- human massacre of his wife and children, whom he was compelled to leave behind.* a. d. 598. Gildo, who soon received notice of the preparations which were making against him, ex- erted his utmost activity and means to collect an army which might successfully repel the meditated invasion. He endeavoured, by the most profuse liberality, to secure the attachment of the regular troops who had joined in his revolt; while he drew from the deserts of Getulia and the valleys of Atlas a large body of natives who were accustomed to re- gard him as their hereditary prince. Seeing around him a host amounting, it is said, to 70.000 men, he boasted that his cavalry would trample under their horses' feet the few cohorts which accompanied his brother, or drive them back into the sea. But the issue of the first battle disappointed all his hopes ; the sense of duty returned to the legionary soldiers on whom he chiefly relied; and his Xumidians, perceiving themselves deserted by their confederates, fled in irretrievable confusion. The vanquished * Claudian. de Bell. Gild. v. 389, &c. Orosius, lib. vii. c. oti. 7 THE BARBARY STATES. 95 despot threw himself into a ship and attempted to escape into Greece ; but the wind proving contrary, the mariners were under the necessity of returning to the African shore, where he was immediately seized and committed to a dungeon. Aware of the insult and pains which awaited him, should he be delivered either to Mascezel or the Romans, he imitated the example of Firmus, and with his own hands put an end to his life." 5 " a. d. 4i3. But Africa, at the troubled period now under our consideration, did not long enjoy the blessing of peace procured for it by the wise mea- sures of Stilicho. The consternation occasioned by the invasion of the Goths had hardly passed away, when Heraclian, who presided over that province, displayed the standard of rebellion and assumed the title of emperor. Collecting a formidable army, which he conveyed across the Mediterranean in 3000 boats, he landed near the mouth of the Tiber, with the intention of proceeding to Rome ; but, being met on the way by one of the imperial com- manders at the head of an inferior force, he sustained a severe defeat, which compelled him to relinquish his hazardous enterprise. Upon returning to Car- thage, he found that the whole country, disdaining his pretensions to a dignity to which his talents were unequal, had returned to their allegiance. He soon discovered, too, that the punishment of unsuc- cessful treason awaited him ; he was condemned to be beheaded, and his fortune, amounting to nearly ,£200,000 of our money, was confiscated for the use of the public, or conferred upon his conqueror.t * Zosimus, lib. v. Claudian, de Cons. Stilich. v. 357. •f Oros. lib. vii. c. 42. Zosira. lib. vi. Sozomen. lib. ix. c. 12. 96 MODERN HISTORY OF a. d. 427. The time, however, was now fast ap- proaching when the African provinces were to be lost to the Roman empire. Under the administra- tion of Placidia, who directed the government of the West in the name of her son, Valentinian the Third, the safety of the commonwealth was sacri- ficed to the jealousy of two chiefs, iEtius and Boni- facius. The latter, whose conduct had been misre- presented at court, was recalled from his command ; when, apprehensive that his life was in danger, he resolved upon the most desperate measures, in order to defeat the designs of his enemies. Not satisfied with arming the provincials and declaring his inde- pendence, he invited from Spain the aid of the Vandals, who, led by their king, the sanguinary Genseric, crossed the Straits and established their camp in Mauritania. His followers, who did not at first exceed 50,000, received a rapid augmenta- tion of very active allies. The Moors, who had endured rather than acknowledged the sovereignty of Rome, seized with eagerness an occasion so fa- vourable for abjuring it, as well as for gratifying their revenge on their ancient oppressors. Thou- sands of them issued from the neighbourhood of the Sahara, and the wilds of the mountain-range by which its northern limits are defined ; and, re- gardless of future consequences as they might affect their native governments, placed themselves under the banners of the warlike prince who had vowed hostility to their enemies. An accession to his num- bers was also obtained from the heretical Donatists, who had been recently expelled from the Catholic church, and subjected to severities little in harmony with the mild spirit of the Gospel. To these perse- THE BASBARY STATES. 97 cuted fanatics, Genseric appeared in the light of a powerful deliverer, from whose zeal, not less op- posed than their own to the orthodox faith, they might reasonably expect a repeal of those hateful edicts of which they had been made the victims. It admits not of any doubt, that the co-operation of these dissentients from the established creed contri- buted materially to the conquest of Africa; and that the loss of the most important province of the Western Empire was at least accelerated by the intolerant spirit which then prevailed among the dominant sect of Christians.* a. d. 430. No sooner had Bonifacius discovered the fraud of his rival, than he deeply regretted the precipi- tance of which he had been guilty in inviting the alli- ance of the barbarians. But amidst the confusion and distress to which the province was already reduced, his repentance was unavailing : for, although Car- thage and certain other Roman garrisons professed their readiness to obey the orders of Valentinian, the country at large was under the control of the Van- dals, who could not be prevailed upon to relinquish their prey. Assembling the small band of veterans who still adhered to his standard, and such provin- cial troops as seemed worthy of his confidence, he resolved to make one effort to retrieve the bad ef- fects of his error, by attacking Genseric in the field. A battle was fought, in which, though the count displayed equal courage and skill, he was worsted with considerable loss, and compelled to leave his de- fenceless territory to the rage of a savage conqueror. The misery inflicted upon Northern Africa by * Chronicles of Prosper and Idatius, quoted by Gibbon, chapter xxxiii. F 93 MODERN HISTORY OF the soldiers, and more especially by the native allies, of this celebrated leader, has been described in vivid colours by several writers, both ecclesiastical and civil. Seven fruitful provinces, it is said, were de- stroyed by these invaders. Wherever they met resistance, they put all to the sword ; when a city was taken, its defenders were buried in its ruins : and where hidden wealth was suspected, torture was applied^ without remorse, to both sexes and all ag^s. They took pleasure in effacing every mark of civilisation and improvement ; rooting up trees, whe- ther planted for use or for ornament, pulling down churches, and even slaughtering the inhabitants in order that their unburied bodies might infect the air, and spread still farther the ravages of mortality. It may well be believed, that the generous mind of Bonifacius was painfully distressed by beholding the ruin which he had occasioned, the rapid pro- gress of which he was totally unable to repress. After the loss of the battle already mentioned, he retired into Hippo Regius, now called Bona, where he was instantly besieged by Genseric, who regarded him as the only obstacle to the fulfilment of all his wishes relative to Africa.'' The Vandals did not display, in the reduction of strongholds, the same military qualities which se- cured to them so many victories in the open plain : and hence, fourteen months were spent before any material impression was made on the walls or re- sources of Hippo. The wants of the garrison were * MarmoL L'Afrique ; tome ii. p. 434. He tells us that the Bona of modern j-eographers was formerly named Hippo : ; - On la nom- moit autrefois Hippone, qui est sur la coste de la mer Mediterranee au golfede Xumidie." THE BARBARY STATES? 99 supplied by sea ; the sick were refreshed, and the wounded removed ; while the besiegers, who relied exclusively upon the surrounding country for pro- visions, were occasionally compelled by the pres- sure of famine to relinquish their attempt. At length, a powerful army, composed as well of the troops of the East as of the West, debarked on the coast, with orders not only to relieve the count from the disgrace of a protracted blockade, but also to drive the barbarians from the province. Bonifacius, finding himself at the head of a force at once so numerous and well appointed, resolved to give battle to his former ally ; and with this in- tention he marched out against him into the neigh- bouring fields, where he made arrangements for a decisive conflict. The combatants met with equal eagerness, — the one to avenge the injuries which had been inflicted upon the property and reputation of the empire, the other to complete the subjugation of a country which he was determined to add to his numerous conquests. On this occasion, as well as on the former, the fortune of war declared in favour of the Vandals ; the legions of Rome and the squadrons who followed Aspar from the shores of the Bosphorus, were scattered by the impetuous onset of the rude warriors of the North ; and the Italian general, who no longer put any confidence in arms, fled to the ships with the remainder of his troops. It may not be unseasonable to remark, that the imperial lieutenant who, to fortify his pri- vate interests, invited a furious enemy into his go- vernment, fell in a skirmish with iEtius, who had originally poisoned his mind with suspicion, and drawn upon him the frown of the court.* * Procopius De Bell. Vandal, lib. i. c. 3. 100 MODERN HISTORY OF a. d. 451. After this distinguished success, the pro- gress of the Vandals was more rapid and destructive than ever. But, as is usual in all such cases, Gen- seric soon discovered that the distracted state of the country, and the multitude of factions, whence he had derived so much advantage in his struggle with the Romans, would prevent him from consolidating his power as sovereign of Northern Africa. Influ- enced by such considerations, he entered into a treaty with the emperor, whereby he bound himself to cede that extensive region which constitutes the modern kingdoms of Morocco and Algiers, and was known to ancient history under the denomination of the Three Mauritanias. He perceived, in fact, that without a large maritime force he could not defend the whole line of coast extending from the Atlantic Ocean to the remotest bounds of Tripolis ; and, accordingly, acting upon the most obvious poli- tical motives, he consented to relinquish a territory which it would have proved almost impossible for him to retain. But his apparent moderation was only meant as a cloak to conceal his ambitious designs. He had fixed his eyes on Carthage, the Rome, as it was called, of the African kingdoms ; and, while he per- mitted the subjects of Valentinian to occupy the western deserts, he pushed on with the determina- tion to make himself master of the provincial capi- tal. This celebrated city appears to have been taken by surprise ; at least no details of siege or battle are supplied by the historians who record its fall ; though there is in their statements the most perfect agreement as to the date of its overthrow, and the complete desolation by which it was accompanied. 2 THE BARJBARY STATES. 101 In the year 439,, being nearly six centuries after its destruction by Publius Emilianus Scipio, the colony and town of Dido became the booty of igno- rant soldiers, whose maxim it was to live by their swords.* The King of the Vandals, whatever might have been his private wishes, could not save from pillage the wealthy metropolis which had just fallen into his hands. After permitting his troops to enjoy the usual freedoms consequent upon a successful assault, he issued an edict, commanding all persons to de- liver into the hands of certain officers their gold, silver, jewels, and other valuable effects ; and, at the same time, giving an assurance, that the slight- est attempt to conceal any part of their property would be punished with death, as an act of treason against the state. The lands, also, were measured with suitable care, that they might be divided among the triumphant warriors according to their respective rank or merits ; Genseric reserving for his personal share the fertile domain of Byzacium, with the adja- cent territory of Numidia and Getulia. It is impos- sible to measure the losses, sufferings, and privations, which the higher class of citizens were doomed to endure under the military despotism now imposed upon them by their conquerors. The Christian writers of that age, who witnessed the misery which they could not relieve, have deplored in eloquent terms the cruel persecutions directed against their orthodox brethren by the agents of the Arian prince. Regardless, or ignorant, perhaps, of the peculiar tenets which marked his creed, this tyrant viewed mere difference of opinion as a proof of insubordi- * Procopius De Bell. Vandal, lib. i. c. 5. 102 MODERN HISTORY OF nation,, and as indicating that love of liberty which, on a favourable occasion, might instigate those who cherished it to undermine his regal power, or dis- pute his prerogative. His severities and intolerance filled Italy and even the Eastern Empire with exiles, who had no resource but the compassion of the pub- lic ; and, although there may be some exaggeration in the narratives through which the main facts have reached our times, the most careless reader cannot fail to perceive that the triumphs of Genseric im- posed a train of frightful calamities on the finest provinces of Northern Africa. Actuated by the desire to render his conquest permanent, and also, perhaps, to extend its limits, the barbarian prince turned his attention to the equipment of a fleet. He had acquired, indeed, a rich and fertile territory ; but he was aware that, as long as the Romans could command the Medi- terranean, he must be constantly liable to a sudden attack, directed at pleasure against any part of his extensive coast. His resolution to create a naval power, in every point of view so essential to his security, was pursued with a steady perseverance. In the glens of Mount Atlas he found an inexhaust- ible supply of timber ; and the inhabitants of the seaport-towns which he had lately reduced were acquainted with the art of shipbuilding. Nor was it long before a formidable armament was seen to issue from his harbours, prepared not only to protect their own shores, but even to carry terror to those of their enemy. Having no inducement to seek new lands or additional subjects among the tribes of the Desert, Genseric saw the possibility of in- creasing his treasures as well as his reputation by THE BARBARY STATES. 103 making a descent on Italy itself. The death of Valentinian, which paralysed the Roman govern- ment, seemed to secure for his attempt the certainty of success ; and accordingly, after due preparation, he boldly wafted an army of Vandals to the mouth of the Tiber. a. d. 455. It is no part of our task to describe the sacking of Rome, nor to examine into the motives which led to that memorable catastrophe. The pil- lage, we are assured, lasted fourteen days and as many nights ; and all that could be found of public or private wealth was eagerly conveyed to the ships of Genseric. Among the spoils, the splendid relics of two sanctuaries, or rather of two religions, ex- hibited an instructive example of the uncertainty of earthly things. Though paganism had been abo- lished, the statues of the gods and heroes were still respected ; and the curious roof of gilt bronze which had once adorned the Capitol was reserved for the hands of this rapacious invader. The holy instru- ments of the Jewish worship, — the golden table, and the candlestick with seven branches, originally framed according to the particular instructions of God himself, had been ostentatiously displayed to the Roman people in the triumph of Titus. They were afterwards deposited in the Temple of Peace ; and, at the end of 400 years, the plunder of Jeru- salem was transferred from Rome to Carthage by the chief of a marauding army, who derived their origin from the shores of the Baltic* Genseric, although he gained an easy victory over the metropolis of the West, was too well acquainted * Sidonius Panegyr. Avit. p. 441, &c. Procop. De Bell. Van- dal, lib. i. c. 4, &c. Victor Vitens. De Persecut. Vandal, lib. i. c. 8. 104 MODERN HISTORY OF with the resources which still remained to the em- pire to attempt a permanent conquest. He accord- ingly returned to Africa loaded with treasure, and accompanied by thousands of captives, comprehend- ing some eminent individuals of both sexes, whom he distributed among his followers. The success which had crowned the invasion of Italy could hardly fail to induce a repetition ; and hence, about seven years later, a large fleet of Moors and Vandals approached the coast of Campania, where the crews, encountering little resistance, gra- tified their avarice and cruelty at the expense of the unprotected inhabitants. But, wiiile thus em- ployed, they were attacked by the imperial troops, who, after great slaughter, chased them to their ships, — a check which, though it rendered them more cautious in their movements, did not deter the leaders from renewing their depredations on the least-guarded parts of the extended shore. It therefore became necessary for the safety of the commonwealth to attack the pirates in their own settlements, and if possible to root out that armed confederacy, which, despising industry and the arts, taught the people to make a trade of war, and live on plunder. Marjorian, who had now as- cended the throne, possessed talents and spirit equal to such an enterprise; but he found not in the Roman youth a corresponding patriotism, and was obliged to recruit his legions among the barbarians who had spread themselves over Germany and along the banks of the Danube. Never was the sceptre of Genseric in greater hazard than when the emperor collected in the Bay of Carthagena a fleet of more than 300 large ships, with the usual proportion of THE BARBARY STATES. 105 transports and smaller vessels, and was prepared to throw into his kingdom a host of warriors not less savage than those with whom they were about to engage. But treason saved the Vandals from a sanguinary invasion, and disappointed all the hopes of Marjorian. Guided by secret emissaries, the Af- rican admiral surprised the flotilla as it lay on the Spanish coast ; and, setting it on fire, reduced the greater part to ashes and dispersed the remainder.* Among the prisoners brought to Carthage after the fall of Rome, was Eudoxia, the widow of Va- lentinian, whose eldest daughter became the wife of Hunneric, the heir of the Vandal monarch. This connexion with the imperial family conveyed to the aged warrior a claim on Rome, which seemed to justify his incessant inroads upon its territory. In the spring of each year he equipped a formidable squadron in the most convenient ports, and con- ducted his designs with so much secrecy, that no one on board knew the destination of the ships un- til they had been some time at sea. " Leave the determination to the winds/' replied the barbarian to his pilot, who asked whither he should steer ; ce they will conduct us to the guilty coast whose inhabitants have provoked the justice of Heaven." But on all occasions, Genseric, whose plans were regulated on a fixed principle, appeared to regard the possession of wealth as the most infallible to- ken of the divine displeasure ; for he never failed to direct his prows against those devoted shores where fertility and commercial riches promised the most abundant pillage. a. d. 468. At length the fears or resentment of the * Idatius, as quoted by Gibbon, c. xxxvi. 106 MODERN HISTORY OF Eastern Empire gave birth to the resolution of deli- vering Italy and the Mediterranean from the grievous scourge to which they had been so long subjected by the new masters of the Barbary States. The armament fitted out by Leo, and which sailed from Constantinople to Africa, is described as consisting of more than 1100 vessels, having on board about 100,000 men. Basilicus, to whom the direction of the whole was confided, gained at first some advan- tages over his wily adversary, which supplied to the latter a sufficient apology for proposing a negotiation; while the imperial lieutenant, as if he had resolved to walk openly into the snare which was spread before him, suspended his operations and listened to terms. During the truce which ensued, Genseric had recourse to his usual expedient ; he charged some of his largest ships with combustibles, and sending them, amidst the darkness of night, into the crowd- ed lines of the enemy, completed their destruction, and thereby put an end to the campaign which had for its object the extinction of his kingdom. He again became undisputed master of the sea, and had the satisfaction to terminate his reign without being any more disturbed by the Romans either of the East or the West.* a. d. 555. The weakness of the government in Italy was favourable to the growing power of the Vandals, who, during the lapse of more than half a century, encountered no foe by land or by water to whom they were not superior. But the accession of J us- tinian to the throne of the whole empire, of which the undivided authority had been conveyed to the city of Constantine, led to new efforts for the reco- * Procop. de Bell. Vandal, lib. i. c. 6. Zonoras, lib. xiv. THE BARBARY STATES. 107 very of Africa, now so long severed from the im- perial dominions. The sceptre of Genseric had al- ready passed through his son Hunneric to his grand- son Hilderic, who, being of a mild disposition and proving unfortunate in war, was dethroned by Ge- limer, a chief possessing popular qualities and a high military reputation. The emperor, on this oc- casion, felt the influence of various motives, among which prevailed a feeling of respect for the degraded prince and resentment towards his oppressor ; but it was not until after the most mature deliberation, that, yielding to the calls of honour and policy, he announced his determination to expel the usurper, and resume the protection of the province.* To accomplish this object, so important to his own fame as well as to the stability of the empire, he made choice of the renowned Belisarius, who had gained many laurels in the Persian war, from which he was just returned. Nor were the preparations commanded by Justinian unworthy of the last con- test between Rome and Carthage. Five hundred transports, navigated by 20,000 sailors, carried to the opposite shore of the Mediterranean an army still more formidable for its experience and discipline than for its numbers. Landing at the most convenient point, though at a considerable distance from the capital, the general impressed on the minds of his soldiers the necessity of cultivating the friendship of the natives, who, he assured them, were eager to throw off the yoke of the barbarians, and to submit to the milder dominion of the Roman emperor. The conduct of the people soon proved the justness of his anticipations. So far from concealing their per- * Procop. lib. i. c. 9. 108 MODERN HISTORY OF sons or their goods,, they made haste to supply with provisions the camp of the invaders ; and one town after another opened its gates to the imperial com- mander, who accepted their allegiance in the name of his august sovereign. Belisarius, instructed hy the misfortunes of those who, in the days of Genseric, had attempted the re- duction of Africa, moved cautiously along the coast accompanied by his fleet, from which he could at all times receive assistance or supplies. The ap- proach of the legions to Carthage filled the mind of the usurper with anxiety and fear ; having sent part of his army for the reduction of Sardinia, while he had neglected to restore those fortifications by which the capital was at one time defended, and which, on the present occasion, would have enabled him to await with safety the concentration of his scattered forces. His military establishment was hardly inferior to that of the emperor ; as he could command the services of more than 150,000 fighting- men. But he knew that the deposed king had still many friends, who, he could not conceal from him- self, were more likely to augment the ranks of the invader than to oppose his progress. He therefore at first had recourse to the usual expedients for pro- tracting the interval which might precede the main attack of his enemy: nor was it until he found that B disarms could not be diverted from his ob- ject by treaty or conference, that he formed his plan for a general engagement. Dividing his troops into three portions, he intrusted to his brother a large body of foot, and to his nephew 2000 cavalry, placing himself at the head of his guards, with whom he hoped to make an impression on the centre of his THE BARBAE- Y STATES. 109 antagonists. But his skill and valour proved un- equal to the chances of war and the discipline of the Romans. Before he was aware that the battle had begun, the best of his soldiers were either slain or compelled to save their lives by a tumultuous flight. He made a vigorous elfort to retrieve the fortune of the day, before he would consent to turn his horse's head towards the Desert, the only stronghold to which he could retire.* Steady to his purpose of revenge, he had pre- viously given orders to take away the life of Hilde- ric, that the conquerors might not have the satisfac- tion of replacing him on the throne, — a disappoint- ment which was amply compensated to Justinian, by finding the only obstacle removed that could have prevented him from assuming in his own per- son the sovereignty of the African province. The surrender of Carthage soon followed this decisive victory : the citizens, eager to receive the imperial deputy as the deliverer of their country, instantly opened their gates to his soldiers, and their har- bour to his ships ; and his entrance into the city, which had lately trembled under the despotic rule of Gelimer, was celebrated by a splendid festival. So gentle was the transition from the domination of the Vandals to the legitimate sway of the emperor, that the trade of the port was not interrupted ; the shops continued open and busy ; and the military, at the close of day, retired to their quarters, as if they had been the wonted garrison. But the usurper, although beaten, was not yet entirely subdued ; for such was the nature of the late conflict, that his army was rather scattered than * Procop. lib. i. c. 21. 110 MODERN HISTORY OF cut off; and as his followers had now no surer re- source than war, they were not unwilling to second his endeavours for the recovery of his crown. The Moors, sympathizing in his misfortunes, or inflamed with the love of pillage, supplied him with some hardy recruits. The Arians, who foresaw in the success of Justinian the rejection of their creed by the African churches, flocked to his standard ; and his brother Zano, who had reduced Sardinia, brought with him several thousand veterans, whose former triumphs had taught them to despise the degene- rate Romans. Belisarius, who did not fail to watch the progress of events, was perfectly aware that the combined forces of the barbarian chiefs greatly out- numbered his own; and, consequently, that, in whatever conflict might ensue, his sole reliance must be placed in the superiority of his arms and disci- pline. Under this impression he encouraged the enemy to make an attack in the night ; trusting that the darkness would at once conceal the disparity of the contending bodies, and aid his plan for throw- ing the Vandals into confusion. The result an- swered his expectation, though the victory was not purchased without great loss; the conquerors of Sardinia, under their brave leader, having repeat- edly driven back the Roman cavalry, and fought hand to hand w T ith the chosen guards of the impe- rial commander. Zano was found among the slain ; butGelimer once more departed from the field, where he left behind him all his power, and much of his former reputation. He outstripped the speed of some light troops, who were sent in pursuit of him ; upon which, Belisarius, knowing that it would be vain to follow his rapid retreat into the fastnesses of THE BARBARY STATES. Ill Mauritania, desisted from the attempt, and esta- blished his winter-quarters at Carthage.* The expectations of the Roman general were not disappointed in regard to the effect of his mild policy on the temper of the Vandals. Finding themselves deserted by a leader who had seduced their affec- tions from their lawful prince, they readily submit- ted to the government of a sovereign who appeared to advocate the claims of justice and humanity. All the cities comprehended in the modern states of Tripoli, Tunis, and Algiers, acknowledged the au- thority of Justinian ; while the power of his arms gradually extended as far as the town of Septem, the Ceuta of European geographers. Africa was accordingly divided into seven provinces, which were placed under the inspection of a Pretorian Pre- fect, who, in his civil capacity, enjoyed the assist- ance of a corresponding number of consulars and presidents, whose duty it was to administer the laws of the empire. a. D.534. The conquest of Barbary was soon complet- ed by the surrender of Gelimer, who had taken refuge in a fortress situated on one of the Atlas mountains. After enduring a siege accompanied with more than the usual privations, the usurper yielded his person, on the conditions of having his life spared and a pro- vision secured ; though he was afterwards compel- led to grace the triumph of Belisarius, when this hero entered Constantinople after the manner of Roman conquerors. But in other respects, the Vandal king had no reason to accuse the generosity of the emperor ; for he was allowed an ample estate in a pleasant district of Asia Minor, where he * Gibbon, chap. xliv. 112 MODERN HISTORY OF spent the remainder of his days in comparative affluence and undisturbed repose. From this period the descendants of the warlike barbarians, who followed the standard of Genseric from Spain into Africa, cease to occupy the atten- tion of history as a separate people. Justinian, act- ing upon the usual maxim of a victorious state, in- duced the boldest and more generous of the Vandal youth to accept service in his army ; and it is re- lated, that five squadrons of horsemen, drawn from their best families, distinguished themselves by their bravery in the Persian wars. The lower classes, again, who soon found their opinions and habits exposed to another change of religion and govern- ment, mixed imperceptibly with the dominant po- pulation ; and hence, except in the casual occur- rence of fair complexions and yellow hair, which have met the eyes of recent travellers on the borders of the Desert, no evidence now remains of the me- morable conquest effected by German tribes on the shores of Barbary. The peace, which might have been expected to follow so many victories and the extinction of a warlike people, was soon interrupted by the restless spirit of the Moors, who thought themselves enti- tled to aspire to the eminence from which the sub- jects of Gelimer had been compelled to descend. During the decline of the Vandalic power, these migratory herdsmen had extended their range from the pastures of Mauritania to the towns on the sea- coast, and, in fact, had taken possession of the greater part of that fine district which stretches from the ocean to the neighbourhood of Algiers. Belisarius, by gratifying the vanity of their chiefs, THE BARBARY STATES. 113 had, as long as his arms were employed against the Vandals, secured their neutrality ; but no sooner did he set sail for Constantinople, than they mas- tered their bands and proceeded towards the capital. Solomon, to whom the command of the province was confided, made haste to meet them in the field ; and, although his troops sustained a check when engaged with the outposts of the enemy, he renew- ed the attack with so much coolness and resolution, that he cut in pieces about 60,000 of their number. Pursuing his advantage, he followed them into the heart of their country, where, by reducing one of their strongest posts, he compelled them to sue for terms of accommodation. a. d. 558. But Africa, meanwhile, was rapidly sink- ing back into the state of barbarism from which it had been raised by the Phoenicians and Romans ; and every step of intestine discord was marked by the triumph of savage man over the institutions of civilized society. The Moors, who had succeeded to the quarrels of the Vandals not less surely than to their lands, showed themselves still more impa- tient of the restraint imposed by law, and the op- pressions which seemed to attend the collection of the revenue. An act of treachery, perpetrated by one of the nephews of Solomon, inflamed their re- sentment, and once more drove them to open rebel- lion. A battle ensued, in which the prefect was slain, after losing the greater part of his army; though the victory, achieved by the insurgents at an immense waste of life, failed to establish their power. Many of their bravest leaders had perished in the conflict, while the arrival of fresh troops and skilful commanders soon secured for the imperial G 114 MODERN HISTORY OF cause the ascendency which for a moment appeared to be in danger. But, it has been truly observed, the successes and defeats of Justinian were alike pernicious to mankind ; and such was now the de- solation of the African provinces, that in many parts a stranger might wander whole days without meet- ing the face either of a friend or an enemy. The nation of the Vandals, as has just been noticed, had already disappeared, though they once amounted to 600,000 individuals, and could boast of being able to equip for the field 150,000 warriors. The num- ber of Moorish families extirpated during their se- veral insurrections was still greater ; while, on the other hand, the Romans with their allies sustained, from the ravages of the climate and the fury of the barbarians, an extent of loss not much inferior to that which their antagonists had to bewail. When Procopius, the annalist of these destructive wars, first landed, he admired the populousness of the cities and country, successfully employed in the labours of commerce and agriculture. In less than twenty years, that busy scene was converted into a silent solitude ; the more wealthy escaped to Sicily and Constantinople ; and it has been confidently affirm- ed, that 5,000,000 of the natives were consumed by disease, famine, and the sword, during the reign of the Emperor Justinian.* a.d.647. A state of inactivity, the effect of weak- ness and disunion, had continued nearly 100 years, when the mixed inhabitants of Xorthern Africa were roused, as if from a slumber, by the Saracens under Abdallah, the lieutenant of the Caliph Othman. At * Procop. Anec. c. 18, quoted by Gibbon, chap, xliii. See also Procop. De Bell. Vandal, lib. ii. c. 19, &c THE BARBARY STATES. 115 the head of 40,000 armed men, he advanced from Egypt into the wilderness of Barca, — a stranger to all parts of the vast continent which stretched out before him, or only knowing that there were exten- sive lands to conquer and numerous tribes to subdue. After a fatiguing march, the privations of which were somewhat lightened by the use of the camel, he found himself in presence of an enemy near the walls of Tripoli. Preferring the chance of a battle to the delay of a siege, the disciple of Mohammed marshalled his troops and awaited the attack of the Greeks, who were led by the Prefect Gregory. A conflict of long duration and various fortune termi- nated in a decisive victory in favour of the invaders. The Grecian general fell in the action ; his daugh- ter, who fought by his side, was taken prisoner ; and a large proportion of the wealth which still remain- ed in the wasted province rewarded the valour of the Arabians. But such a victory was not gained without a heavy loss, which, being still farther ag- gravated by the inroads of a pestilential disease, Abdallah found it expedient to relinquish his con- quests, and to fall back upon the Nile.* a. d. 680. The dissensions which distracted the ca- liphate secured for the Barbary States a period of doubtful repose ; during which, it should seem, the provincials were doomed to sulfer as severely from the legal exactions of their European governors as from the forced tribute of the Mohammedan princes. Akbah, a brave commander, was accordingly sent by the ruler of the Moslem to reclaim the ground which their arms had gained ; and, in this instance, their * Vie de Mahomet par Gagnier, tome iii. p. 45. Leo African, p. 585. Edit. 1632. 116 MODERN HISTORY OF progress was facilitated by the good wishes of the people, whose afflictions had rendered them indiffer- ent to national fame, religion, and lineage. Meet- ing with little resistance, he marched through Mau- ritania, driving the natives before him, till at length he reached the borders of the Desert and the shores of the Atlantic. He made himself master also of the chief towns on the ocean, as well as the coast of the Mediterranean, and had, as he imagined, com- pleted the subjection of the whole country, when intelligence was conveyed to him that the inhabit- ants of the eastern districts were in a state of open revolt. He hastened to quell the insurrection, but lost his life and army in the attempt. His succes- sor, Zobeir, shared the same fate : for, after earning many laurels as a commander of the faithful, he was overthrown by a powerful armament sent from the Grecian capital." The invasion of Akbah was rendered memorable by the foundation of Kairwan or Cairoan, a town of which the remains are still found about fifty miles south from Tunis, and twelve from the sea. His ob- ject was to give birth to an Arabian colony in a re- tired part of the province, where his countrymen might find a refuge against the accidents of war, and in which they might place their families and booty during the labours of a campaign. A wall of brick surrounded the rising capital, which was afterwards decorated with a governor's palace, a mosque sup- * Ockley, History of the Saracens, vol. ii. p. 129. Morgan has collected numerous u testimonies" of the pride, insolence, and avarice of the Romans, and ascribes their loss of Africa to their in- supportable tyranny, p. 162. See also Salvianus de Providentia, lib. iv., and Procopius, De Bello Gothico, lib. iii. THE BARBARY STATES. 117 ported by 500 columns of granite and marble, and several schools of learning.* a. d. 698. A few years before the close of the seventh century, Hassan, the viceroy of Egypt, was ordered to attack Carthage, and subject the whole of the sur- rounding country to the religion and authority of the caliph. But he had hardly reduced the metropolis of Africa, when a large force arrived from Constan- tinople, which compelled him to retire to Kairwan, the town whose origin has just been described. The issue of a battle, however, again put the city of Dido into his hands ; and a second engagement, which took place near Utica, proved so disastrous to the Greeks, that they fled to their ships, and finally re- linquished the country. a. d. 699. The Moors having witnessed, not without secret satisfaction, the discomfiture and retreat of those haughty conquerors, resolved to secure for their own use the territory which their forefathers had allowed to be wrested from their hands. This people, who, when the Roman empire possessed its early power, were feeble or unresisting, had gra- dually become formidable after the seat of govern- ment was transferred to the East ; and now, when the imperial troops were expelled in disgrace, they thought themselves sufficiently strong to oppose with success the victorious bands of the Saracens. As- sembling their tribes under the standard of Cahina, whom they reverenced at once as a prophetess and * Leo African, p. 575. " Cairaoan sive alio nomine Caroen no- bilissimum oppidum conditorem habuit Hucba — a Mediterraneo mare xxxvi. a Tuneto verum centum fere abest milliaribus, neque aliam ob causam conditum fuisse dicunt quam ut in eo exercitus cum omni praeda Barbaris atque Numidis adempta, secure se con- ten ere possent." 113 MODERN HISTORY OF a sovereign, they attacked the veterans of Hassan with such enthusiastic fury, that he was unable to keep his ground, and at length had the mortifica- tion of seeing his old soldiers turn their backs be- fore a horde of barbarians conducted by a woman. He withdrew into Egypt, where he waited for a reinforcement, with which he still hoped to recover Africa, and to annex it permanently to the domi- nions of the caliph. Nor was it long before the ex- travagance of the Moorish queen enabled him to realize his expectations. The Moslem returned ; gained an easy victory over her disorderly and fa- natical bands ; and, as she herself fell in the first battle, her followers made but a slight effort to maintain the cause of independence, the love of which had carried them into the field. From this epoch, Northern Africa may be regard- ed as a section of the great Mohammedan empire. The successor of Hassan, who trusted not less to the Koran than the sword, laboured so successfully to make proselytes to the creed of Islamism, that he had the satisfaction to see the people gradually re- conciled to the divine authority of the prophet and to the justice of his arms. Thirty thousand of the young men were enlisted in his service ; and the similarity of habits between the Arab in the Desert and the Moor in the Sahara soon obliterated what- ever distinction each might have been disposed to maintain. If the Berbers, according to their own tradition, originally issued from that eastern penin- sula which is washed by the Red Sea and the Per- sian Gulf, their relationship to their conquerors could not be called in question ; and, at all events, at the present day, every shade of difference, whe- THE BARBARY STATES. 119 Moorish Artisan and Female. ther in blood or religion, has entirely disappeared, except such as may have been perpetuated by the pursuits of active life. The shepherds, who still follow the customs of their ancestors, display pecu- liarities which do not belong to the artisans who seek a subsistence in large towns ; but there is not either in their complexion or features any charac- teristic which may not be confidently ascribed to their occupation and manners. The foregoing plate presents a faithful likeness of a Moor in the class of society to which he belongs, accompanied by a fe- male in the costume of her rank and sex. During the ascendency of the Mussulmans in Africa, the capital of their dominions was Kairwan, 120 MODERN HISTORY OF the city built by Akbah, where their viceroys usu- ally had their abode, and whence they extended their cares to the government of the western pro- vinces and even of Spain. At this period the Arabs occupied the principal towns along the coast, both because they might be called upon to defend them against the fleets of Constantinople and the corsairs of the opposite shores, and also because it was not yet thought expedient to dispute with the Moors the possession of those lands between the sea and the Desert which had descended to them as an in- heritance, or fallen into their hands as a conquest. Even these precautions did not prevent a succession of bloody wars waged by the old inhabitants against the regular troops, whose duty it was to repress their ravages as they issued from the defiles of Mount Atlas. a.d. 8oo. About the 184th year of the Hegira, the celebrated prince, Haroun al Raschid, the fifth of the Abbassides, intrusted to Ibrahim ibn Aglab the government of Africa. This ambitious captain soon threw off his allegiance, assumed the supreme power in his own person, and laid the foundation of a dynasty, the Beni Aglab or Aglabites, which continued during eleven successions and more than 100 years. Rostam, who was sent to restore the authority of the caliph, so far forgot his duty as to follow the example of his predecessor, and seized certain provinces, which he converted into an inde- pendent kingdom. Nearly at the same epoch, the remainder of the Barbary States, including the whole of the Tingitana, became the prey of Edris, a descendant of Ali, the son-in-law of Mohammed ; and, in this way, no part of Africa, with the single THE BARBARY STATES. 121 exception of Egypt, acknowledged fealty to the suc- cessor of the prophet. Edris is venerated by the natives of Mauritania as the founder of Fez, — of that part of it, at least, which is now denominated the Old City. a. d. 909. The rise of the Fatimites, in the person of Al Mahadi, suppressed for a time all the other dynasties of the West. He assumed the title of caliph, and governed Africa with a rod of iron ; making also several attempts to add Egypt to his dominions, in one of which he reduced the city of Alexandria. His grandson Moez, who succeeded in conquering the rich valley of the Nile, removed the seat of his government to Cairo, where, claim- ing the honours due to the successor of their great apostle, and commanding his name to be introduced into the public prayers of the mosque, he inflicted upon his church the scandal of a schism. When he left Barbary, he consigned the charge of the provincials to Yussuf ibn Zeiri, who, assert- ing the independence of that fine country, gave rise to a dynasty of princes, who figure in the Spanish histories under the corrupt appellation of Zegris. This family, there is reason to believe, enjoyed royal power in the territory of Algiers down to the year 1148, when the last sovereign of their race was killed in battle by the forces of Roger, king of Sicily and Calabria, who, in their progress to the Holy Land, were induced by a feeling of revenge to de- bark on the African coast. When Moez was on the throne of Egypt, he gave permission to an immense multitude of Arabs to pass through that country on their way to Barbary; whither they carried with them a great number of 122 MODERN HISTORY OF camels,, the first which were naturalized in the north- ern parts of the continent. It is said that no fewer than 50,000 warriors accompanied this emigration, who, as they went to seek new lands for their flocks and herds, produced a deep impression on the whole province, and effected a material change in the distribution of property. Leo Africanus relates that they took Tripoli, and put most of the inhabit- ants to the sword ; destroyed Capes, in the neigh- bourhood of Tunis ; and next attacked Kairwan, the metropolis of the Saracenic princes, in the sack of which they were guilty of the greatest inhumani- ties. They soon overran all the plain country, and penetrated into many parts of the Southern Numi- dia ; for, like their countrymen at home, being ge- nerally mounted on fleet horses, they evaded the pursuit of the Moors, who were more accustomed to fight on foot. It is from these families of Arabs, whom Moez encouraged to pass the Red Sea, that the wandering tribes have sprung, who still employ the camel in the African deserts, and follow the nomade life at once as shepherds and merchants. The Saracens who followed the standard of Akbah count themselves more noble than the hordes just described, not only because these last remained longer ignorant of the orthodox faith, but also be- cause they have stained the purity of their descent by intermixture with foreign nations. a. d. ii48. It would be equally tedious and fruitless to trace the history of the several dynasties which, du- ring the weakness of the caliphate, rose and disappear- ed in Barbary. The Almohades and Almoravides lay claim, perhaps, to some attention, from their inter- course with the Moslem princes,, who at that period THE BARBARY STATES. 123 occupied a large portion of the Spanish peninsula. The latter, who revived for a time the spirit of the Mohammedan creed, found their efforts crowned with great success, and, in fact, extended their con- quests into the south and west, which they were also able to retain during the lapse of nearly a hundred years. But the events which follow upon the commence- ment of the thirteenth century will enter with bet- ter effect into the narrative which respects the Bar- bary States, taken separately; the condition, indeed, in which they naturally present themselves to the view of the reader after the fall of the dynasty founded by Abu Beker, and the suspension of the general government under the descendants of the prophet. To this part of our undertaking we shall return, so soon as we have taken a brief review of the religion and literature of Northern Africa, from the dawn of history down to the date of its con- quest by the Arabian Mussulmans. 124 v RELIGION AND LITERATURE CHAPTER IV. Religion and Literature of the Barbary States. The Religion and Literature vary with the successive Inhabitants — Superstition of the Natives — Human Sacrifices continued by the Carthaginians — Worship of Melcarth, Astarte, and Baal — No sacred Caste or Priesthood — Religious Rites performed by the Chief Magistrates — Introduction of Christianity — Accom- plished by the Arms of Rome — Different Opinions as to the Date of Conversion and the Persons by whom it was effected — State- ments of Salvian and Augustin — Learning and Eloquence of the African Clergy, Tertullian, Cyprian, Lactantius, and the Bishop of Hippo — Works of these Divines — Death of Cyprian and Au- gustin — The Writings of the Latin Fathers chiefly valuable as a Record of Usages, Opinions, and Discipline — Church revived under Justinian — Invasion of the Moslem — Christian Congrega- tions permitted to exist under the Mohammedan Rulers — Condi- tions of Toleration — Africans gradually yield to the Seducements of the new Faith, and the Gospel is superseded by the Koran — Barbary States the only Country where Christianity has been to- tally extinguished — Attempt made to restore it by the Patriarch of Alexandria — Five Bishops sent toKairwan — Public Profession of the Gospel cannot be traced after the Twelfth Century — A few Christians found at Tunis in 1533 — Learning of the Arabs — Great Exertions of Almamoun — He collects Greek Authors, and causes them to be translated — He is imitated by the Fatimites of Africa — Science cultivated by the Mohammedans Five Hun- dred Years — Their chief Studies were Mathematics, Astronomy, and Chemistry— Their Progress in Chemical Researches — Ne- glect Literature, properly so called — Prospect of Improvement from the Settlement of European Colonies in Northern Africa. The religion and learning of the Barbary States will be found to vary with the several races of men by whom they have been successively occupied since OF THE BARBARY STATES. 125 the era of the Phoenicians ; the original inhabitants having left no record of their opinions, either in re- gard to the material world, or to those more lofty objects which interest the belief and the imagina- tion. The ancient Getulians, it is probable, like their neighbours of the Desert, had no literature ; while, as to faith and worship, they may be sup- posed to have shared in that universal superstition which connects the veneration of mankind with those physical manifestations which accompany the peri- odical production and decay of all organized forms. The energies of nature, whether displayed in the firmament or in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, associate themselves in the rude mind with certain emblems which are conceived to have some affinity to the immaterial principle whence the source of all events has its rise ; and this association, however arbitrary or remote, confers upon the meanest things a relative sanctity, by which they seem to become, not only worthy of respect, but also of a species of religious confidence and trust. Hence the origin of fetichism ; the notion that a piece of wood or a polished stone may be the seat of an invisible power, and which may be described as a species of Pantheism, common to every climate at a particular stage of civilisation. Every object en- dowed with qualities, fitted either to bestow a sig- nal benefit or to inflict a serious injury, was re- garded as the abode or the instrument of a mysteri- ous agent, whose divinity might be propitiated by attention or offended by neglect. Taken by itself, this simple belief may be viewed as nothing more than the parent of ridiculous usages and absurd ap- prehensions, being a stranger to those bloody rites 126 RELIGION AND LITERATURE which have been sometimes engrafted upon it by the priests of a darker superstition,, who demand for their gods the most horrible sacrifices. The Tynan colonists who followed their exiled princess to Carthage had been accustomed in their own land to witness the frightful spectacle of hu- man bodies laid upon the altars of their demons. The worship of Moloch, which prevailed among all the Aramaean nations, was not unknown on the east- ern shores of the Mediterranean ; and, in all parts of the world, the same barbarous immolations were practised by the votaries of this idol, who condemned to the fire or the knife the noblest children in their land. In times of peace and tranquillity, the off- spring of slaves were substituted for the heirs of more distinguished families ; but when pestilence or an unsuccessful war afflicted the state, victims were selected from the highest ranks, and consigned to a cruel death. Diodorus relates that the Cartha- ginians, finding themselves oppressed by the arms of Agathocles, turned their thoughts to the cares of religion ; and, suspecting that undue substitutions had taken place in the choice of human sacrifices, ordered 200 children of exalted birth to be of- fered up without delay. Nor was this held enough to appease the anger of the god, and to retrieve the fortunes of the republic ; on which account, 300 individuals, whose consciences accused them of ne- glect in their pious duties, presented their bodies also, in order to make a fuller atonement for the sins of the people. On such occasions, the nearest relative was not allowed to shed a tear, lest the of- fering should be thereby rendered unacceptable.* * Diodor. Sicul. lib. xs. c 14. OF THE BARBARY STATES. 127 The subjects of Dido appear to have also wor- shipped a tutelar deity, denominated Melcarth, — King of the City, — who exhibited some of the fea- tures of the Baal, the sun-god, whom the Greeks and Romans identified with their Hercules; and there is no doubt that Astaroth, or Astarte, the em- blem of increase, was adored by the Carthaginians with ceremonies corresponding to her attributes.* But what objects or powers of nature were origi- nally represented by these beings, or rather appella- tions, it is not of any consequence to determine. It is clear, at the same time, that this religion, if such it might be called, was patronised by the com- monwealth, and, in fact, became a part of the go- vernment. There was, however, no distinct order of priests or sacred caste in Carthage, as there was in Egypt; nor are there any usages whence we might conclude that sacerdotal functions were he- reditary in certain families, who, on that account, were possessed of dignity and emolument. But it is not less certain that the duties of the priesthood were discharged by the highest persons in the country, and had outward marks of honour attached to them ; so that some of the more important of these ap- pointments were deemed not unworthy the sons of their kings. Indeed, the weightiest affairs of the nation were so intimately connected with religious ceremonies, that it seems probable the magistrates were also invested with the chief of the sacerdotal of- fices, and directed the zeal of the people on all great occasions. The generals, too, were authorized to offer sacrifice even during the time of battle ; while * I should prefer the derivation of Melcarth n*)N *|btt, King of the Way, meaning the zodiac, or solar path. 128 RELIGION AND LITERATURE prophets accompanied the armies, without whose advice the most popular commander was not free to act. All the great enterprises, moreover, of their forces, by land and sea, their treaties with foreign princes, and their accessions of territory, were re- corded in the principal temples. Again, no distant settlement was ever planted without the addition of a sanctuary, to connect the colony with the parent state, and whence missions were occasionally sent, with the view of perpetuating the connexion be- tween the sacred metropolis and her affiliated de- pendencies.* Among the native authors none stand so high in point of literary reputation as Juba, the king of Mauritania, who appears to have inherited a large share of the knowledge possessed by the Carthagi- nians. Availing himself of the annals left by that enterprising people, he is understood to have written at some length on the civil and natural history of Africa ; but, as his works are entirely lost, we can only judge of their merits from certain references made to them by Pliny, in his chapter on the geo- graphy of the Barbary States. This learned Roman, on the authority of the Mau- ritanian prince, attempts to delineate the courses of the Xiger and the Nile, — an undertaking which, though unattended with any degree of success, serves at least to mark the limits of ancient inquiry with regard to these celebrated rivers. The naturalist, it is manifest, confounded some lakes and streams on the western coast of Morocco, not only with the sources of the Joliba, but even with one of the * Heeren, vol. i. p. 142. OF THE BARBARY STATES. 129 main branches of the Egyptian Nile ; thereby lead- ing his readers to suppose that the army of Corne- lius Balbus, after crossing the Great Desert, had actually visited the banks of the mysterious current whose outlet into the Atlantic has been recently dis- covered. Nor was the curiosity of Juba confined to the African continent. In his times, some conjectures had reached the ears of the learned respecting those islands which lie scattered in the great ocean at va- rious distances from the land ; and in which were imagined to be assembled all the beauty and de- lights incident to their happy climate, and all the felicities that ever fall to the lot of man upon earth. Of these fortunate isles he had ascertained the names of six, which, though they do not precisely coincide with those recorded by Ptolemy and Sebosus, be- long unquestionably to the same group/" Long prior to the days of this monarch, literature flourished under the most favourable auspices on the eastern section of the Barbary coast. As the Cyrenaica was originally occupied by colonies from Greece, it is hardly necessary to remark, that its towns were distinguished as seats of learning and phi- losophy. That favoured district gave birth to Aris- tippus, the founder of a well-known sect, to Calli- machus, Eratosthenes, Anniceris, Carneades, Syne- sius, and several other writers, who hold a prominent place in the annals of wisdom, genius, and industry. The doctrines of the Cyrenaic school, originating with Aristippus, were not a little singular, particu- * Plinii Histor. Natural, lib. v. p. 66. Juba Ptolemaei pater, qui primus utrique Mauritania^ imperavit, studiorum claritate me- morabilior etiamque regno. H 130 RELIGION AND LITERATURE larly when carried to the extent to which they were pushed by Carneades. They so far resembled the tenets of Epicurus as to identify virtue with hap- piness ; proceeding on the ground that no action or sentiment can be esteemed good which does not conduce to the gratification, or at least to the well- being of mankind. The disciple of Aristippus adopt- ed these notions in their fullest import ; and intro- duced, moreover, those interminable speculations which respect the basis of human belief on ques- tions of ethics, and the foundations of knowledge when applied even to physical science. Like Pyr- rho, he denied that the perception of external things is real or immediate ; and, of course, that outward objects have any other existence, or rather can be proved to have any other existence, than what they borrow from the mind of him who contemplates them. Hence he was led to teach, that it is the part of a truly wise man to persist in doubt, and to secure for himself an entire suspension of the deter- mining faculties. But, as these opinions belong to the theories of the Grecian schools, rather than to the native genius of Africa, it will be held sufficient to have thus briefly alluded to them. The introduction of the Gospel effected a great and most beneficial change in the habits of the peo- ple as well as in the pursuits of the higher orders. Rome, by her arms, had opened a path for the Christian missionaries into all the northern shores of Africa, from the mouth of the Nile to the vicinity of Algiers ; and the blessings of the new faith were accordingly enjoyed in most of the principal cities of that province, before they could make their way across the Alps into Gaul and Germany. This happy OF THE BARBARY STATES. 131 result was facilitated by the intercourse which the Jews maintained between Syria and Asia Minor, on the one hand, and the thriving towns of the Pentapolis and the Carthaginian states, on the other, — a fact which is finely illustrated by a reference in the Book of Acts, where, among the strangers at Jerusalem who witnessed the triumph of Chris- tianity over the prejudices of education, are men- tioned " dwellers in Egypt, and in the parts of Li* bya about Cyrene." In truth, numbers of Hebrews appear to have settled in the Cyrenaica long prior to the reign of Augustus. As a proof of this, besides the fact already mentioned, we find that some of them took part with their Alexandrian brethren in disputing against the first martyr, St Stephen; while converted Jews of Cyprus and Cyrene, fleeing from the persecution raised by the adherents of the Mosaical Law, were the first preachers of the new faith to the Grecians of Antioch. It has, indeed, been remarked, that the inhabitants of this part of the empire derived their knowledge of the true re- ligion from the same source which had diffused among them the language, the sentiments, and the manners of Italy. In these important circumstances, Africa was indeed gradually fashioned to the imita- tion of the capital ; and, in respect to the reception of the Gospel, it displayed much more ardour than the districts which stretch along the Rhine, though the latter were benefited by a more frequent inter- course. The Christians in Barbary soon formed one of the principal sections of the primitive Church ; while the practice of appointing bishops to the most inconsiderable towns, contributed to increase the importance of their religious societies. 132 RELIGION AND LITERATURE There prevails among ecclesiastical historians no small discrepancy of opinion as to the precise period at which our religion was introduced into Africa, — a difference which may perhaps be explained by suggesting that what was true with respect to one part of the coast might not be strictly applicable to the whole. Salvian, on the one hand, maintains that the Church of Carthage was actually founded by the Apostles themselves; while Petilianus, on the other, asserts that the Africans were the last people in the empire to receive the truth. Doro- theus and Nicephorus relate that Simon Zelotes preached the faith in Mauritania, where he also enjoyed the assistance of St Peter in these pious labours ; adding, that Epoenetus, one of the Seventy, was about the same time appointed Bishop of Car- thage. But Augustin, a much better authority, positively declares that his countrymen received the saving doctrines from the Romans, who sent mis- sionaries across the Mediterranean to confer upon their colonists the two great blessings of a sound belief and a taste for learning. Whatever doubts there may be as to the period when the glad tidings were first conveyed to the Barbary shores, there can be none with regard to their rapid and extensive promulgation, wherever the legions pitched their camp or could maintain the authority of law. Were we to estimate the number of Christians by that of the highest order of clergy, we should, per- haps, greatly exceed the real amount ; and yet there appears good reason to conclude that a large portion of the inhabitants, before the middle of the fourth century, had ranged themselves under the banners of the Cross. Even after the slaughter perpetrated OF THE BARBAE. Y STATES. 133 by the Vandals, the bishop of the capital, whose name was Reparatus, presided in a council in which were assembled no fewer than 217 prelates. Per- secution had not materially thinned their numbers ; for, to use the phrase of an eloquent author, the more they were cut down, the more abundantly did they spring up.* The African province was celebrated for the great learning and eloquence of its divines, long before Christianity became the established religion of Rome. The names of Tertullian, Cyprian, Lac- tan tins, and Augustin, still reflect honour upon her schools ; and there are others less orthodox in their opinions, whose memories will be preserved in con- nexion with certain theological speculations which owe to them either a beginning or a marked degree of countenance. The first of the divines now men- tioned, after studying law, became a presbyter at Car- thage, and was highly esteemed as a writer of great genius, as well as a complete master of the Latin tongue. His piety, though ardent, did not escape the austerity and moroseness which began to cloud the age to which he belonged ; nor did his zeal protect him from the inroads of those heresies which had already disturbed the belief of the East and the West, especially the absurd notions of Montanus. Cyprian, the renowned bishop of Carthage, had, in his own person, sufficient learning and talent to distinguish any community. He was, it must not be concealed, characterized by a certain severity of wisdom which frequently created opposition, and gave birth to disputes, whence arose to himself, * " Plures efficimur quoties metimur a vobis, semen est sanguis Christianorum." — Tertulliani Apologet. 134 KELIGION AND LITERATURE as well as to others, much contumely and suffer- ing. His works, a large portion of which still re- main, place him unquestionably at the head of the Latin fathers, whether we take into considera- tion the importance of his subjects or the ability with which they are handled. They breathe, at the same time, such an elevated spirit, that it is impossible to read them without partaking of the enthusiasm which must have inspired the mind of the author. It has, indeed, been remarked, that he would have been a better writer had he been less attentive to the ornaments of rhetoric ; and a better bishop, had he been able to restrain the vehemence of his temper, and to distinguish with greater acute- ness between evangelical truth and that which only bore the semblance of it. When the second persecution was raised against the Christians, under the Emperor Valerian, this prelate was summoned to appear before the procon- sul of Carthage, by whom, when he had refused to sacrifice to idols, he was condemned to be banished. He was sent to a little town, then called Curebis, about fifty miles from the capital, where he was treated with great kindness by the natives, and fre- quently visited by the more faithful adherents of the Church. Orders having been received by the imperial lieutenant to take away his life, Cyprian was seized by a band of soldiers and conducted to the city. His answers to the usual questions re- specting his faith soon established the charge urged against him of believing in the Gospel ; upon which Galerius Maximus, who at that time exercised the government, pronounced upon him the sentence of death. No sooner were the words uttered than the OF THE BARBARY STATES. 135 martyr exclaimed, " God be praised!" He was then led to the place of execution, where he suffered with great firmness and constancy, — sealing with his blood the truths which he had taught, and in which he exhorted others to repose their confidence. The writings of this distinguished confessor are held in high esteem, for this reason, among others, that they are capable of being usefully quoted in supporting the doctrines and discipline of the Church. His letters are particularly valuable, not only as presenting the chief incidents of his life, but also as supplying some valuable materials for ecclesiastical history. The third century has not transmitted to us any account which delineates so clearly the spirit, the taste, the discipline, and the habits of the great community of believers. Lactantius, who for the elegance of his style was called the Christian Cicero, was celebrated as a pro- fessor of rhetoric before he was intrusted with the education of Crispus, a son of the Emperor Constan- tine. His " Divine Institutions" do honour to his zeal as a member of the Church, and entitle his name to a prominent place in the history of Africa. A more popular treatise, written by him on the iC Death of Persecutors," manifests the great inte- rest which he took in the cause of the Gospel, and also communicates a variety of facts connected with the biography of the leading men of those remote ages, which might otherwise have been lost to our ecclesiastical records. When opposed to writers who took the field in defence of paganism, the African orator never fails to gain a triumph ; but, it must be added that, when he undertook the office of an expositor of Sacred Scripture, he adopted too freely 136 RELIGION AND LITERATURE the principles which he had condemned in his Gen- tile antagonists. But among the divines whom Africa produced during the third and fourth centuries, none holds a higher place than Augustin. This learned man was horn at Tagasta, and pursued his studies at Car- thage ; in which city, both his morals and his theo- logical opinions received so deep a taint, that it was long before his character rose to the reputation which the voice of the Church has ever since confer- red upon him. He allowed himself in early life to become a convert to the doctrines of Manes, which, it has been suspected by able writers, were afterwards engrafted upon his speculations when labouring to systematize the several books of the inspired volume. It is true that he openly abjured all connexion with the Persian school, and even employed his great ta- lents in exposing their principal tenets ; but it is ma- nifest, nevertheless, that, in supporting his peculiar views on predestination and grace, he condescended to use arguments more closely allied to the sect whom he had abandoned, than to the gospels which he meant to illustrate or recommend. His zeal against the Pelagians, with whom he had success- fully contended, carried him towards those extremes which characterized his conclusions on the disputed articles of freewill, election, and original sin. Being raised to the office of bishop at Hippo Re- gius, the modern Bona, he had soon an opportunity of displaying the steadfastness of his belief and the firmness of his character. When Genseric, at the head of his Vandals, had overrun the greater part of the province, he met with a determined resist- ance at the episcopal city just named, which he there- OF THE BARBARY STATES. 137 fore resolved to level with the dust. When consult- ed by the Christians,, whether they ought to pro- vide for their safety by flight, or to await the onset of the barbarians, he decided in favour of the latter, as more becoming their duty ; and, when the place was actually invested, he encouraged his flock, as well by his example as by his eloquent discourses, to defend themselves against the fierce heretics who threatened at once their lives and the purity of their faith. Dreading, however, that he himself might fall into the hands of the exasperated enemy, he is said to have prayed that he might be relieved by death before the means of defence should be exhausted ; and it is well known that his desires in this respect were gratified, for he was gently remov- ed, in the third month of the siege, from the fright- ful calamities which impended over his country. When the city was destroyed by the soldiers of Genseric, the library of Augustin was saved from the flames. In it were found his own writings,, comprehending no fewer than 230 separate treatises on theological subjects, an exposition of the Psalms, and a great number of homilies. The learning of this prelate appears to have been confined to the Latin language ; the most competent critics never having been able to discover in his works any to- kens of an intimate acquaintance with Greek. His style, too, though inspired with the eloquence of passion, is not unfrequently clouded by a false and affected rhetoric, the vice of the age in which he lived, not less than of the country to which he owed his birth. But, notwithstanding these disadvan- tages, his fame has filled the whole Christian world ; and not without reason, as a variety of great and 138 RELIGION AND LITERATURE shining qualities were,, no doubt, united in his cha- racter. A lofty genius, a zealous pursuit of truth, an indefatigable application, a sincere piety, and no small skill in the art of composition, contributed to establish his reputation upon the most lasting basis. It is, indeed, admitted, that the accuracy of his judgment was by no means in proportion to the eminent talents now mentioned, and that upon many occasions he was more guided by the impulse of a warm imagination than by the dictates of wis- dom and prudence. Hence that ambiguity which appears in so many of his tracts, and which some- times renders the most attentive reader uncertain with respect to his real sentiments. Hence also the just complaints which have been made of the con- tradictions so frequent in his volumes, and of the eagerness which he shows to dilate upon subjects before he has made himself master of their different bearings. His theological dogmas, as is known to every one, were some centuries afterwards adopt- ed by the powerful mind of Calvin, who gave to them that harmony and mutual dependence in which consists their greatest strength. During this period the literature of the Western Empire was still preferred to that of the Greeks, who, prior to the conquest of the Vandals, had only a very slight intercourse with any part of Africa west- ward of the promontory of Carthage. For this reason, the works of the Christian Fathers, whose names we have just rehearsed, present little that is truly valuable, either in the form of criticism on the lan- guage of the Sacred Scriptures, or of doctrinal ex- position. Their chief importance, therefore, will be found to consist in the record they exhibit of the OF THE BARBARY STATES. 139 usages, opinions, and discipline of the Church in those early times, when as yet there were no secular motives to give a colour to innovation, or to with- draw the minds of the faithful from the standard of belief and practice left by the Apostles, whose au- thority was still so recent. Science as yet was very little cultivated by the divines of Africa. It was reserved for the Arabs to transplant into that country the mathematical knowledge of the Grecian sages, as well as the seve- ral hypotheses in relation to the physical laws of the universe, which had been inherited by the country- men of Thales, Parmenides, and Aristotle. The attention of the learned, from the reign of Domi- tian down to the fall of the Western Empire, was confined almost exclusively to the accomplishments of rhetoric and declamation ; pursuits, the effects of which may still be traced in the debasement of their style, and the general corruption of taste. Poetry and the fine arts were neglected, if we except sculp- ture, the aid of which was occasionally required to complete the magnificence of public buildings. The prosperity and confidence secured to the Af- rican provincials by the victories of Justinian were enjoyed By the Church, which, when relieved from the apprehension of external enemies, directed her cares to the purification of her doctrines, and the necessary reforms of discipline. No remarkable event occurs in her history till the rise of Moham- medanism, when the barbarians of the Arabian de- serts issued forth to establish the religion of their prophet ; offering to the civilized world the choice of conversion, tribute, or death. As the generals of the caliph had to encounter a resolute opposition on 140 RELIGION AND LITERATURE the part of the imperial troops, and made hut slow progress in reducing the principal towns, the Chris- tians were ahle to maintain their faith long after the greater portion of the Barbary States had submitted to the Moslem. We find, accordingly, that at the distance of 200 years from the invasion of Akbah, a number of congregations continued to exercise the rites of the Gospel in different quarters of the pro- vince. Many of the natives, Moors or Berbers, had been admitted by baptism into the rank of be- lievers ; and these, though they did not appreciate very highly the doctrines they professed, would not yield them at once to the haughty conquerors. The existence of a Christian Church in Barbary, so long after the domination of the Saracens was established, may be partly ascribed to the toleration which those fanatics were permitted to exercise be- yond the boundaries of Arabia. According to the maxims received from their prophet, the holy land which had been first favoured with his revelations was to be kept pure from the contamination of in- fidels ; but the same rigid notions did not extend to other countries, if possessed by a people who be- lieved in Moses or Jesus Christ. All were, indeed, invited to accept the more perfect doctrines of the son of Abdallah ; but if they were unwilling to re- ceive the boon, they might enjoy freedom of con- science and of religious worship, upon paying an annual sum into the treasury of Mecca or of Bagdad. It is probable, therefore, that the many thousands of Africans who swelled the list of converts, must have been allured rather than intimidated to declare their belief in the impostor. The minds of the multitude were tempted by the invisible as well as temporal OF THE BARBARY STATES. 141 rewards held forth by the preachers of Islamism ; and in the revolution which was thereby produced, every member of the new society rose to the natural level of his capacity and courage. At length the influence of these mixed motives was so powerfully felt, that the Koran superseded the New Testament along the whole southern coast of the Mediterranean, — a victory of darkness over light which has been perpetuated to the present day. The architectural monuments of Christianity on the Barbary shores are much fewer than might have been expected. We learn from the Notitia, that there were at one period about 600 Episcopal sees ; though, from want of geographical minuteness in the description, it is not possible to determine the situa- tion of more than 100. It has also been a matter of surprise, that, while amidst the ruins of these cities there remain many altars and other tokens of pagan idolatry, the relics of Christian worship should be so scanty. An attempt has been made to explain this fact, by referring to the great hatred and con- tempt which the Saracens have always entertained towards the Nazarenes, and which have led them to obliterate all traces of a faith so little in accordance with their own. They are farther incited to this work of destruction by the hope of finding coins, or pieces of lead and iron ; portions of which metals were used in the structure of churches, as also in protecting the repositories of the dead. But what- ever may have been the motives to which this rage for demolition is to be ascribed, it is admitted by travellers, that hardly any crosses or other emblems of the Gospel are found among the dilapidated walls of the African provinces.* * Shaw's Travels (Edinburgh edition, 1808), vol. i. p. xxvii. 142 RELIGION AND LITERATURE It is remarkable that the Barbary States are the only land from which the benefits of the Gospel, after being long and fully enjoyed, have been totally withdrawn. The arts which were planted there by the colonists of Phoenicia and Rome were lost during the dark reign of ignorance ; and the doc- trines which had been diffused by the zeal of Cy- prian and Augustin were suppressed by the fanati- cism of barbarous warriors. Five hundred churches, we are told, were overturned by the hostile fury of the Donatists, the Vandals, and the Moors ; after which the energy and numbers of the clergy gra- dually decreased, until the people, deprived of know- ledge and hope, sunk submissively under the Ara- bian yoke. About the middle of the eighth century, within fifty years after the forces of the Greek emperors were expelled, Abdoulrahman, the governor of Africa, wrote to the Caliph Abul Abbas, that the infidels by their conversion had exempted themselves from tribute ; indicating thereby the rapid and extensive propagation of the Mohammedan faith. During the next age, an attempt was made by the Patriarch of Alexandria to revive the dying embers of Christianity. Five bishops were sent to Kairwan with the view of rallying the scattered members of the Church ; but as these missionaries belonged to a schismatical communion, no record of their labours has been preserved. It would seem, however, that the semblance at least of episcopal authority was re- stored at Carthage ; for, in the eleventh century, the successor of St Cyprian is known to have implored the protection of the Roman pontiff, to shield him at once from the furious intolerance of the Saracens and the insubordination of his own colleagues. In OF THE BARBARY STATES. 143 less than 100 years after that incident, the worship of Christ and the succession of the apostolical priest- hood were abolished throughout the whole province ; or if any believers remained, they concealed them- selves under those compliances with the prevailing superstition which were allowed and adopted on the principle of convenience. When Charles the Fifth, in the year 1533, landed on the coast, a few families of Latin Christians were encouraged to avow their faith both at Tunis and Algiers. But the seed of the Gospel was soon afterwards entirely eradicated ; and the extensive province from Tripoli to the At- lantic has lost all memory of the religion and lan- guage of Rome.* As the theology of Mohammedanism is not closely connected with literature, it is in vain that we look for any fruits of professional study among the ex- pounders of the Koran. Their first efforts, after the Ommiades assumed the Western Caliphate, were confined to the elucidation of their sacred books, the laws enjoined by their prophet, and to the cultiva- tion of poetry ; this last being the amusement or the labour of all rude tribes. When, however, their civil wars were brought to an end, the Moslem, un- der the dominion of the Abbassides, acquired a taste for science, especially for those branches of it which contribute to the success of astronomy. Almamoun, the seventh of that dynasty, pursuing the path which * Gibbon, chapter li. Cardonne, Histoire de l'Afrique, tome iii. p. 168. In allusion to the communication mentioned above, this author remarks, that, " II (Abdoulrahman) unit sa lettre, par re- presenter a ce prince qu'il ne devoit plus s'attendre a recevoir des tributs de l'Afrique ; que tous les peuples avoient embrasse le Ma- hometisme, et avoient fait cesser par-la tous les impots auxquels etoient assujettis les infideles." 144 RELIGION AND LITERATURE had been marked out for him by his predecessors, employed confidential agents in Armenia, Syria, and Egypt, to collect the works of the Greek philoso- phers, which he also ordered to be translated into the language of Arabia, and illustrated by the most skilful interpreters. Humbling himself so far as to become a pupil to the nation whom his arms had subdued, he set an example of assiduous application to his subjects ; exhorting them to peruse with at- tention the instructive writings which he had pro- cared for their learning, and to make themselves masters of the rare wisdom which had exalted the countrymen of Plato and Euclid. " He was not ignorant/' says Abulpharagius, u that those are the elect of God, his best and most useful servants, whose lives are devoted to the improvement of their intellectual faculties. The mean ambition of the Chinese, or the Turks, may glory in the industry of their hands, or the indulgence of their sensual pro- pensities; though these dexterous artists must* view with hopeless emulation the hexagons and pyramids of a bee-hive, and acknowledge the superior strength of lions and tigers. The teachers of philosophy are the real luminaries of the world, which, without their aid, would again sink into ignorance and bar- barism."* The ardour of Almamoun extended itself to the Fatimites of Africa, who now deemed it an honour to become the patrons of the learned. The emirs of provinces were smitten with a similar emulation, and science met with an ample reward in all parts of the Mohammedan empire. The royal library is said to have consisted of a hundred thousand manu- * Dynast, p. 160. 5 OF THE BARBARY STATES. 145 scripts, elegantly transcribed and splendidly bound, which were freely lent to the students in the capi- tal, as well as at Kairwan and Alexandria. In every city the productions of Arabic literature were co- pied with much industry, and collected with great care. The treasures of Africa, however, were sur- passed by those of Spain, where the Ommiades had formed an establishment containing six hundred thousand volumes. Cordova, with the adjacent towns of Malaga, Almeria, and Murcia, could boast of having produced three hundred authors ; while, in the kingdom of Andalusia, there were, it is said, no fewer than seventy public libraries. Nor was this zeal for the promotion of science confined to one family or one age. On the contrary, it conti- nued to adorn the ascendency of the Arabians about live hundred years, when it was terminated by the great irruption of the Mongols, who succeeded in spreading a cloud of ignorance and barbarism over a large portion of Asia and of the West. This period of light in the several caliphates of Bagdad, Egypt, and Spain, beginning in the eighth and ending in the fourteenth century, coincided with the darkest and most inactive ages of Europe; but since the sun of knowledge rose again in the latter division of the globe, the shades of intellectual night appear to have fallen with increased obscurity upon all the kingdoms of Northern Africa.* It is not undeserving of remark, that some trea- tises, of which tne Greek originals are lost, have been preserved to us through the medium of Arabic trans- lations. As mathematics, astronomy, and physic, * Abulpharag. Dynast, p. 160, quoted in the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. lii. I 146 RELIGION AND LITERATURE were the favourite subjects of investigation among the learned ^Mohammedans, it is not surprising that there should have been found in their repositories regular versions of Euclid, Apollonius, Ptolemy, Hippocrates, and Galen. In the department of me- taphysics, as also in that of the law of nature and nations, great value was attached to the speculations of Plato and Aristotle, those distinguished masters of reasoning and founders of the most celebrated schools in Greece. The Arabians, whose ingenious spirits inclined them to the study of dialectics, pre- ferred the philosophy of the latter; and as it afford- ed a plausible instrument for conducting debate, and more especially for methodizing the conclusions attained by argument or observation, it was adopt- ed generally in the seminaries established by the Saracens. Useless when applied to the interpreta- tion of physical phenomena, it afforded no aid to those who wished to detect the principles by which the movements of the material universe are regu- lated ; and, as in all respects it was better calculat- ed for the detection of error than for the investiga- tion of truth, it is not wonderful, that upon the re- vival of learning in Europe, the natural sciences should have presented themselves in nearly the same imperfect state in which they had been left, many centuries before, by the sages of Athens. The climate of Africa, as well as the habits of the oriental people who now inhabited the upper coast, encouraged the pursuits of practical astronomy, — a species of knowledge which was supposed to confer upon the adepts in its profounder mysteries an ac- quaintance with the destiny of individuals and of nations. The most costly apparatus was supplied OF THE BARBARY STATES. 147 by the Caliph Almamoun, and he had the satisfac- tion to find that his mathematicians were able to measure a degree of the great circle of the earth, and to determine its entire circumference at twenty- four thousand miles. But it was in chemistry that the Saracens made the greatest advances, and con- tributed most to the progress of modern science. They first invented and named the alembic for the purposes of distillation ; analyzed the substances of the three kingdoms of nature ; proved the distinc- tion and the affinities of acids and alkalies ; and con- verted the poisonous minerals into salutary medi- cines. It is true, no doubt, that the object of their most eager research was the transmutation of metals, and the elixir of immortal health ; and that their secret processes were aided by all the powers of mystery, fraud, and superstition. But it is equally certain, that the results of their numerous experi- ments tended to widen the boundaries of real know- ledge; to suggest better methods of manipulation; and finally to open a path into those spacious fields where man has reaped the most abundant fruits of ingenuity and perseverance.* It must be acknowledged, that the protracted do- mination of the Turks in Africa, and the destruc- tion of the capital so long occupied by the Com- manders of the Faithful, have occasioned the disap- pearance of the greater part of those monuments by which the scientific triumphs of the Arabs are else- where perpetuated. The catalogue of the Escurial * In the library of Cairo, the manuscripts of medicine and astro- nomy amounted to 6500, with two fair globes, the one of brass, the other of silver. — Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispana, torn. i. p. 417. See Gibbon, chap. lii. 148 RELIGION AND LITERATURE still bears testimony to the extent of their labours, both as commentators and translators ; while lists of works, edited or composed by the scholars of Bag- dad, prove that the court of the Abbassides was not less auspicious to the enterprises of literary zeal. But of the distinction which belonged to Kairwan in this respect, no traces now remain in the savage country of which it was once the ornament and the defence. The fame of that city, at one time filled with palaces and schools, is only to be heard in the form of an echo from contemporaneous writers, who nourished in Spain or Italy ; and is, in our days, faintly resounded in the compilations of Abulphara- gius, Renaudot, Fabricius, Asseman, Casiri, and the learned D'Herbelot. The preference shown by the African Mussul- mans to science, when compared with the lighter and more elegant studies of poetry, kept them igno- rant of Grecian literature, even while they occupied the provinces where it had attained its highest emi- nence. The Arabians, in fact, disdained to use any other language than their own, the beauty and co- piousness of which they never ceased to extol. Finding among their Christian subjects persons whom they could employ to form translations, they selected the most distinguished names in medicine and astronomy; but it has been remarked, that even in those seats of learning where the Arabic manuscripts are most numerous, there has not been discovered the version of a poet, an orator, or an historian. They were content that the annals of the world, prior to the era of their prophet, should be reduced to a short legend of the Jewish patriarchs and the Persian kings. The Greeks, on their part, OF THE BARBARY STATES. 149 actuated by a foolish vanity, were little disposed to communicate to their conquerors those graces of style and diction by which their own compositions were recommended to the finest taste. Hence the Mohammedans, even after their long residence in the Grecian colonies and Roman cities on both sides of the Mediterranean, never manifested in their writings a simple dignity of manner, a just appre- ciation of visible or intellectual beauty, a chaste de- lineation of character and passion, or an accurate conception of dramatical propriety, even in their most splendid fictions. The fifteenth century closes our researches into the religion and literature of the ancient Barbary States ; because at that period the dynasties which had hitherto connected them with the language and habits of Western Asia, gave way to a ruder sove- reignty, emerging from the remote regions of the North. The domination of the Turks has not yet been alleviated by the enjoyment of learned ease, nor ennobled by the pursuits of science. A brighter era has, perhaps, begun to dawn on those desolate tracts ; and were the example recently given by France cautiously but resolutely followed by other Euro- pean powers, and colonies established along the whole line of coast, civilisation, so long banished, might yet be restored ; Christianity would again re- sume her mild sway over the consciences and mo- rals of the inhabitants ; and learning, accompanied by the arts, would once more shed her blessings on the land where Cyprian preached and Tertullian wrote. It is not, however, to be concluded, that the Moors and Arabs are entirely indifferent to the educa- 150 RELIGION AND LITERATURE Coffeehouse and School at Byrmadrais. tion of their children,, or to the respect which always attends the possession of knowledge. Philosophy, mathematics, and medicine, which a few centuries ago were their peculiar inheritance, are,, it is true, very little studied among them. Their wandering life, and the oppression of the Turkish government, do not permit the enjoyment of that quiet, freedom, and security, without which the pursuit of letters cannot be attended with success. At the age of six, boys are sent to school, where they learn to read, to write, and repeat their lessons at the same time. They make no use of paper ; but, instead of it, each pupil has a thin smooth board, slightly daubed over with whiting, or fine sand, which may be wiped off and renewed at pleasure. OF THE BARBARY STATES. 151 After they have made some progress in the Koran, which is the principal book used in their seminaries, they are initiated in the several ceremonies of their religion. These acquirements, which may be at- tained by all, are seldom exceeded by any, even by those who devote their lives to contemplation. The erudition of the Mussulmans is confined to some en- thusiastic commentaries upon the sacred text, the outlines of a very inaccurate geography, and me- moirs of recent times ; for such histories as are older than their own era present nothing but a compound of distorted facts and extravagant romance. Of navigation, a practical acquaintance with which seems so essential to their prosperity as pirates and merchants, they scarcely know the simplest ele- ments. Their proficiency is limited to the rude art of what is called pricking a chart, and distinguish- ing the eight principal points of the compass. When Dr Shaw was in the country, the chief astronomer, whose duty it was to regulate the hours of prayer, had not trigonometry enough to project a sun-dial. Chemistry, once their favourite study, is now con- fined to the distillation of rose-water. The names of Avicenna and Averroes are hardly known. The quadrants, astrolabes, and other instruments left by their ancestors, are looked upon rather as curiosities than prized as useful inventions. Algebra and arithmetic, which owe so much of their advancement to the ancient Arabs, are not familiar, even in their most elementary form, to one person in a thousand among their descendants. The labours of Diophan- tus and of Albugiani are lost or neglected ; and the progeny of the brave and accomplished Saracens seem not aware of the obligations under which Eu- 152 RELIGION, LITERATURE , &c. rope stands to them for having preserved the fruits of Egyptian art and Grecian philosophy. In such unfavourable circumstances, it cannot be expected that any branch of practical knowledge should be properly studied. There are not, indeed, wanting many persons who prescribe in physic, perform upon a variety of musical instruments, and engage in other professions which seem to imply some acquaintance with the mathematical and che- mical sciences. Yet, we are assured, such attain- ments have no foundation in principle, but are en- tirely the result of practice, aided by great quick- ness of thought and vigour of memory. The abili- ties of the people are allowed to be considerable; their ingenuity and perseverance are equal to the most arduous undertakings ; and the philanthropist has not to deplore the absence of any thing except a regular encouragement to industry. THE CYRENAICA AND PENTAPOLIS. 153 CHAPTER V. The Cyrenaica and Pentapolis. Modem Acceptation of the Term Barbary — Desert of Barca— Dis- trict of Marmarica— Its desolate State— Remains of ancient Im- provement — Derna— Natural Advantages— Habits of the People —Want of good Harbours— Attempt of Americans to colonize it —Ruins — Opinion of Pacho — Excavations and Grottos — Cyrene —Details by Herodotus — War with Egypt— Successes of the Persians — Form of Government— Cyrene subject to Egypt — Persians — Saracens— Present State of the Cyrenaica— Marsa- Suza— Ruins— Apollonia— Monuments of Christianity — Tombs —Theatres — Style of Architecture— Amphitheatre — Temples — Stadium — Hypogea— Notion of petrified Village — Account by Shaw — Remark by Delia Cella — Journey of Captain Smyth — State of Ghirza— Fountain of Apollo — Description of it— Exa- mined by Captain Beechey — Plain of Merge — Barca — History of — Doubts as to its real Position — Opinion of Delia Cella — Ptole- meta or Dolmeita — Fine Situation of the Town — Streets covered with Grass and Shrubs — Extent of the City — Ruins — Theatres — Magnificent Gateway — Supposed of Egyptian Origin — Hypo- thesis of Delia Cella — Disputed by Captain Beechey — Taucra, or ancient Teuchira — Unfavourable as a Seaport — Complete Demo- lition of its Buildings — Ruins of two Christian Churches — Tombs — Variety of Greek Inscriptions — Mode of Burial — Bengazi, or Berenice — Miserable Condition of the Place — Plague of Flies — Population — Character of Inhabitants — Gardens of the Hespe- Tides — Glowing Descriptions of them by ancient Writers — Position indicated by Scylax — Labours of Captain Beechey — Conclusion. It has been already stated that Barbary, according to the modern acceptation of the term, may be view- ed as comprehending four great pashaliks or govern- ments; all of which profess to own a subjection, more or less restricted, to the supreme authority of 154 THE CYRENAICA AND PENTAPOLIS. the Grand Turk. In describing these extensive provinces,, which stretch from the borders of Egypt to the shores of the Atlantic, we shall at first proceed from east to west ; having in some degree prepared for this arrangement by laying before our readers, in a former volume, all the facts which recent en- terprise has brought to light, regarding that perilous desert which, commencing at the left bank of the Nile, touches the sea in the neighbourhood of the greater Syrtis. The discoveries of Brown, Pacho, and others, who in later times have penetrated this dreary wilderness, have rendered familiar to the student of geography every thing that can be deemed interesting relative to Siwah, the seat of the ancient Ammonium, and those smaller oases by which the surface of the surrounding waste is relieved and di- versified. Moving along the coast westward from Alexan- dria, the traveller, upon reaching the 28th degree of longitude, finds himself in the district of Mar- marica, where the classical port of Parsetonium may still be recognised under the modern appellation of Al Bereton. This wild country is not recommended to the European eye either by its natural beauties or its historical remains. The soil, of a parched and barren aspect, refuses nourishment to those groves of laurel, myrtle, juniper, and arbutus, which in other parts adorn the northern edge of the Desert, and present an air of freshness to the mariner who approaches the shore. Traces are not wanting, in- deed, of happier times, when a race of men possess- ing industry and taste must have occupied its sur- face. Canals, constructed for the purpose of irri- gation, cross the plain in various directions, even THE CYRENAICA AND PENTAPOLIS. 155 ascending the sides of the hills ; and cisterns meant to retain the excess of moisture supplied by the rainy season, are still found in such a state of preservation as to indicate the plan on which they were built, and the materials of which they consisted. It admits not of doubt, that, when the Cyrenaica was subject to the King of Egypt, this province must have enjoyed a considerable share of wealth and importance. The labours bestowed on agriculture prove at once the extent of the population and the value attached to the produce of land ; and even at the present clay there are every where vestiges of ancient habitations, which, though they serve only to throw an additional gloom over regions condemned to desertion and melancholy, afford the best evidence that they were at one time blessed with at least a partial civilisation, and with such improvement as belonged to the parent state. The Gulf of Bomba presents itself as a principal feature in this scene, in which geographers are will- ing to recognise the harbour of Menelaus, mentioned by Herodotus, Strabo, and Ptolemy. No positive traces, it is true, can be discovered of the power or taste of the Cyrenians, though it is certain that their dominion extended so far to the eastward. The Bedouins, moreover, unite in declaring that, at a little distance from the bottom of the bay, there is a lake with a small island in the centre, co- vered with architectural relics of a superior order. The statements of such guides, however, are, for the most part, unworthy of trust, not only from ig- norance, but also from that habit of exaggeration to which all rude tribes are addicted. The specimens, accordingly, which fell under the notice of M. Pacho, 156 THE CYRENAICA AND PENTAPOLIS, were executed in the Egyptian style, with very little regard to elegance, and bearing no marks of that refined genius which characterized the buildings of the Grecian colonists in the Pentapolis. The frontiers of Tripoli and Egypt are. as might be expected, extremely unsettled, being beyond the reach of either government, and affording a retreat to the thieves, the outlaws, and malecontents of both. Pitching their tents in the neighbourhood of the gulf, they make incursions into the adjoining dis- tricts, and plunder every one who has the misfortune to fall in their way. They are ever on the watch for the caravans and pilgrims who traverse the De- sert on their journey to Mecca : and this is the only route used by the people of Morocco, who are said of all Moslem to be the most fervently devoted to the prophet. It might seem, indeed, that the equi- page of a penitent would not hold out any tempta- tion to these rapacious freebooters : for. wrapped up in a tattered cloak, without shoes or headdress, and carrying no provisions besides a bag of barley-meal, he might appear rather an object of compassion than of plunder, even in the eyes of an Arab, But it is well known that under this semblance of extreme poverty the hajjis often conceal a quantity of gold- dust, which being brought from the interior of Africa to Fez, is thence conveyed as an article of commerce to the holy city. The hope of seizing this valuable booty subjects every traveller to the misery of being stripped and narrowly examined ; and it is related, that a few vears ago an uncle of the Moorish em- ■ D peror, though escorted by 3000 men, was assailed by this horde of marauders and pillaged of all his treasures. THE CYRENAICA AND PENTAPOLIS. 157 The face of the country, from the gulf just de- scribed to Derna, is very uneven, rocky, and un- productive, with the exception of some glens or re- cesses in the hilly parts, which are covered with beautiful evergreens. The territory belonging to the latter place consists of a narrow plain of most fertile land, situated upon a small bay, and girdled on the south by a range of hills which at either ex- tremity dip into the sea. Within this enclosure flourish great numbers of palm-trees, whose rough tops are seen spreading over the softer forms of the vine, the pomegranate, the fig, olive, and apricot. In the centre of the plain, and surrounded by gardens full of orange and lemon trees, the exterior of the town is seen to great advantage ; but though its streets are more than usually regular, the houses are very low and small ; and, being built only of pebbles cemented with clay, appear very uncomfort- able. Their dwellings, indeed, exhibit the most painful evidence of the ignorance and idleness of the people ; for the adjacent hills abound with ex- cellent limestone, as well as with timber of the most suitable description for domestic architecture. Two abundant springs of pure water issue from the rocks which overhang the town ; one of which, collected in an aqueduct, supplies the inhabitants, and serves to irrigate the contiguous fields ; while the other is con- veyed to Demensura, a village about a mile distant. This copious moisture applied to the surface, com- bined with that which filters from the rocks through the subsoil, gives rise, in the glowing climate of Af- rica, to a strength of vegetation of which Europe can present no example. Derna, we are told, contains all the elements of 158 THE CYRENAICA AND PENTAPOLIS. an abundant subsistence for a large population. Ex- cellent meat and milk are brought thither by the Arabs, who feed their flocks on the neighbouring hills ; the valley is admirably fitted to bear all kinds of corn ; the most exquisite fruits abound throughout the winter ; and the natives have it in their power to carry on a lucrative trade in the honey which is produced in great quantities by the prodigious swarms of bees that multiply on the rocky heights. But these sources of prosperity are dried up by the withering influence of a despotic government. The laws afford no protection ; and confidence between the sovereign and the people has entirely disappeared. Besides, the more peace- ful residents are never safe from the incursions of the Bedouins, who frequently enter the town in armed bands, and indulge in the most savage plun- der. Fatalism, too, that offspring of Mohammedan superstition, continually exposes the occupants of the town to the ravages of the plague, which is con- veyed to them through their intercourse with Egypt, A few years ago, that destructive disease raged so fiercely, that the number of its inhabitants was re- duced from 5000 to 700. The natural advantages belonging to this district, and which, in the hands of a civilized people, might be converted into the means of distinguished wealth and power, are, to a certain extent, neutralized by the want of good harbours. This defect has been considered as the principal reason why no foreign nation, desirous of having a permanent footing in that section of the Mediterranean, has attempted to establish itself at Derna. The bay, it is clear, offers no secure asylum for shipping, while the anchorage- THE CYRENAICA AND PENTAPOLIS. 159 ground is described as being intersected by sharp calcareous strata, which would soon tear in pieces the strongest cables. It is said that the United States of America, notwithstanding these unfavour- able circumstances, expressed a wish to form a co- lony on this part of the coast, and even offered to purchase a portion of the territory from the Pasha of Tripoli. Their proposal being rejected, they are understood to have at length taken forcible posses- sion of Derna ; but it is added that, not long after- wards, they suddenly desisted from their enterprise and quitted the place, leaving behind them a bat- tery mounting six pieces of cannon, and a water- mill which is still in use. Mr Blaquiere endeavours to account for this relinquishment of an abortive undertaking, by in- sinuating, that the Americans, when at war with the pasha, between 1801 and 1804, seduced his brother, Sidi Hamet, who had been appointed to this government, to surrender the country into their hands. " Their object/' says he, " was that of holding this man up as a bugbear to frighten his highness into terms. These transatlantic heroes, however, after various though ineffectual attempts, were obliged to pay for a peace with Tripoli, and most shamefully abandoned poor Sidi Hamet to his fate^ by only stipulating for his return to Derna, in- stead of allowing him a pension." But it is pro- bable, that the true reasons were more profound and diplomatic than those now assigned, and that the warriors of the United States were withdrawn lest umbrage should be taken by France or Eng- land. Captain Beechey, who describes the battery as a castle, observes, that the remains of it are still 160 THE CYRENAICA AND PENTAPOLIS. to be seen ; but that the guns are now thrown down, and the building itself is a mere heap of ruins.* A ravine which stretches back from the town into the mountains is of considerable extent, hav- ing on its sides some picturesque gardens adorned with trees. In the rainy season a large body of water rushes down into the sea, and is sometimes so deep and rapid as to become wholly impassable, separating one half of the houses from the other. On the eastern bank is the principal burying-ground of the place, distinguished in particular by a lofty tomb, raised on four arches, under which the body is laid, with its usual covering of snow-white ce- ment, and a carved turban at the head. Above the town a few sepulchres may be observed, though in a very decayed condition, and which must have been originally excavated out of the solid rock. Fragments of columns, and some large stones, evi- dently prepared for more stately buildings than the walls of Arab houses, indicate that Derna once ac- commodated a people to whom the arts and com- forts of life were not altogether unknown. A French author, whose name has been already * Mr Blaquiire remarks, that "the bay is exposed to easterly and northerly winds, but has excellent anchorage, and ships of any class may approach near the shore, it being- very bold. It is im- portant to observe, that vessels passing- by Derna may obtain sup- plies of water and fresh provisions at a very trifling expense ; and Lord Keith's fleet received supplies from this place during the me- morable campaign of Egypt The French government, aware of the importance of Deraa. sent Gantheaume with his squadron and a body of troops there in 1799, to disembark them for the purpose, as he informed the governor, of re-enforcing the army of Bonaparte in E^-ypt ; but his request was not acceded to, owing to the jealousy of the pasha, and the French adimral did not think it prudent to force a landing." — Letters from the Mediterranean, vol. ii. p. 6. THE CYRENAICA AND PENTAPOLIS. 161 mentioned, is of opinion that the proper city has entirely disappeared, and that its place is supplied by five villages ; two of which, Eljebeli and Man- sour, are erected either immediately over, or closely adjoining to, ancient sepulchral grottos. This de- parture from the custom of the Moslem has been jus- tified by necessity, or at least by the great usefulness of such excavations in so rainy a country; and hence, without perplexing themselves with any in- quiries as to the primary use of these vaults, they have converted them into workshops and recepta- cles for grain. The inhabitants construct their houses in such a manner that these caves are in- cluded in their yard or court. Viewed as objects of art, they present nothing remarkable, being equally devoid of inscriptions and of every other species of ornament. The workmanship, in short, is very rude. The grottos of the latter village are hewn in the sides of the mountain, the rocky sur- face of which is sometimes bare, and sometimes co- vered with verdure. The largest have been con- verted into manufactories, containing one or more looms, perfectly resembling those still used in the hamlets of the south of France. In the neighbourhood there are other excavations of a similar description. Some at a little distance eastward from the city are called Kennissiah, or the Churches. These are found at the summit of the steep rocks that border this part of the coast, and against which the sea dashes its waves. Steps, still seen at intervals, have been formed to the very top of the elevation ; but the water which is- sues from the clefts of the rocks, and a carpeting of moss, render the pathway slippery, and even dan- K 162 THE CYREXAICA AND PENTAPOLIS. gerous. The ascent being accomplished, there is seen a little semicircular esplanade, round which runs a low bench, designed as a resting-place to the families of Derna who repair thither to perform their funeral-rites. The largest of the grottos ap- pears to be an ancient sanctuary, afterwards con- verted into a Christian chapel. All the others must have been merely tombs ; though the irregularity of their position and the inequality of the rocks render their appearance extremely picturesque. Arches and niches are to be seen in them of every form and di- mension, from the full Roman semicircle to the per- fect ogive of the middle ages. The district of Derna has acquired a factitious importance from a modern arrangement, by which it is made to comprehend the Cyrenaica together with the five Grecian towns whence originated the name of Pentapolis. The history of Cyrene, the oldest of these establishments, is given by Herodo- tus in his usual manner, mixing fable with facts, and connecting real events with the legends of a su- perstitious age. A colony of Spartans having join- ed the descendants of certain Phoenicians in the island of Calista, engaged in a variety of exploits suitable to the spirit of the times, under Theras their chief. Migrating from place to place, they at length agreed to consult the oracle as to their final residence ; when their leader received instructions to build a house in Libya. Some time elapsed before the meaning of the prophetess was clearly under- stood ; nor was it until after they had been taught % by severe suffering the true import of the response, that a party under Battus, the son of Polymnestus, guided by Corobius, a native of Crete, set sail for THE CYRENAICA AND PENTAPOLIS. 163 Africa, and landed on an island situated in the Gulf of Bomba* Following the directions of the oracle, the new settlers removed from Platea, the island on which they first took up their abode, and, making choice of the high ground on the shore of the neighbouring continent, built there the city of Cyrene, about the third year of the thirty-seventh Olympiad, nearly six centuries and a half before the reign of Tiberius Csesar. After the death of Battus and his son Ar- cesilaus, another migration from Greece added so much to their numbers that it became necessary to extend their borders into the Libyan territory. The natives applied to Egypt for help against the in- vaders ; and an army sent by Apries, the Pharaoh Hophra of the Scriptures, soon appeared on the western edge of the Desert, prepared to check the in- roads of the Lacedaemonian colonists. But the skill and resolution of these foreigners proved equal to the emergency which was thus created ; for, meeting the Egyptians at a place indicated by Herodotus, near the Fountain of Theste, they inflicted upon them so severe a defeat, that few were left to convey to Mem- phis the tidings of their calamity. Success, however, did not cement the bonds of their union, nor confer security upon their rising commonwealth. On the contrary, a series of dissensions led to the separation of a large body, who, abjuring the authority of their prince, founded a new establishment at Barca as the rivals or enemies of their Grecian brethren. This misunderstanding was soon followed by war, in which the Cyrenians sustained some heavy losses. Insurrection and murder carried their horrors into * Herodot. Melpomene, c. 147-169. 164 THE CYRENAICA AND PENTAPOLIS. both countries, and the interposition of Egypt was again implored by Pheretime, the mother of Arcesi- laus, the fourth of the name. Aryandes, the deputy of Darius Hystaspes, listened to the complaint of his royal supplicant, and sent towards the scene of con- tention an able general at the head of a command- ing force ; but before adopting decisive measures, he despatched a messenger to the people of Barca, desiring to be informed whether they were guilty of the crimes laid to their charge. On their acknow- ledging that they had put to death the King of Cy- rene, he gave orders that his troops should advance, accompanied by a fleet, which proceeded along the coast. After a long siege, Barca fell into the hands of the Persian leader, who, in violation of a sacred promise, committed the inhabitants to the revenge of the enraged Cyrenians, by whom they were but- chered in the most inhuman manner. The town itself appears to have fallen into decay, and, at no great distance of time, to have been relinquished in favour of the port, which gradually rose into some consequence. From this period till the conquest of the Persian empire, the atfairs of Cyrene are hardly mentioned in contemporaneous history. Aristotle remarks that, in his time, the government was republican ; and it is not improbable that, after the extinction of their royal line and the success of the army directed by Aryandes, the whole country became subject to the oriental viceroy, in the form of a province. At the time when the dispute took place between the peo- ple of Carthage and the Cyrenians, concerning the limits of their respective domains, it may be pre- sumed, from the account transmitted of it by Sal- THE CYRENAICA AND PENTAPOLIS. 165 lust,, that democracy was already established among the descendants of the Spartan emigrants. At all events, it is asserted by Strabo, that they continued to enjoy their own laws till Egypt was subdued by the arms of Alexander. After the death of the Macedonian hero, their country once more became the prey of contending adventurers, and was at length delivered into the hands of King Ptolemy by the general Ophelias. A brother of the Egyp- tian monarch, named Magas, reigned in Cyrene fifty years ; and it continued to be ruled by the Grecian dynasty of princes, now seated on the throne of the Pharaohs, till Ptolemy Physcon conferred it upon his illegitimate son Apion, who afterwards bequeathed it by will to the Eomans. The senate, it is well known, accepted the bequest, but allowed the several cities of the Pentapolis to be governed by their own magistrates ; and the whole territory, in consequence, soon became the theatre of civil discord, and exposed to the tyranny of ambitious rivals, all of whom aspired to the local sovereignty. Lucullus, who visited it during the first Mithrida- tic war, restored it to some degree of tranquillity ; but the source of dissension and internal broils was not entirely removed until the Cyrenaica, about se- venty years before the birth of Christ, was formally reduced to the condition of a Roman province. At a later period it was united in one government with the island of Crete, — an arrangement which sub- sisted in the days of Strabo, whose attention, as the geographer of the empire, was particularly drawn to its territorial distributions. It is conjectured that the period during which Cyrene enjoyed the greatest prosperity was when it 166 THE CYRENAICA AND PENTAPOLIS. acknowledged the authority of the Egyptian kings who succeeded Alexander, — an epoch when art was in the highest perfection, and literature in equal esteem. For the same reason, it appears probable, that when the Romans, to punish a tumult, de- stroyed a large portion of the city, they must have spared the temples and other public buildings ; for the principal remains which meet the eye of the traveller are decidedly Grecian, of an early age, ap- parently still more ancient than even the Ptolemaic dynasty. A similar remark applies to the tombs ; although among them there is a greater variety, embracing examples of all styles in the successive eras of African or European architecture. History does not supply us with the means of determining to what causes its final desertion ought to be ascribed ; but it admits not of any doubt, that, in the fifth century, it was already a heap of ruins, and that its wealth and honours were transferred to the episcopal city of Ptolemais. The entire de- vastation of the Greek settlements, however, in that part of Africa, was not effected till the reign of Chosroes, the Persian emperor, who, in the year 616, overran Syria and Egypt, and even advanced as far as the confines of the modern Tunis. u His western trophy was erected," says Gibbon, " not on the walls of Carthage, but in the neighbourhood of Tripoli ; the Greek colonies were finally extirpated ; and the conqueror, treading in the footsteps of Alex- ander, returned in triumph through the sands of the Libyan desert." The Saracens completed the work of the Persians ; and for seven centuries this once fertile and populous region has been lost to ci- vilisation, to commerce, and even to geographical THE CYRENAICA AND PENTAPOLIS. 167 knowledge. For three parts of the year Cyrene is uninhabited, except by jackals and hyenas ; while, during the remainder, the wandering Bedouins, too indolent to ascend the higher range of hills, pitch their tents chiefly on the low ground southward of the summit on which the city is built. But most readers will be disposed to take a greater interest in its present condition than in its ancient history, and to read the events and acquisitions of the past in the relics which still remain of primi- tive art and magnificence. The latest and best authorities on this subject are Delia Cella, an Ita- lian physician, M. Pacho, and the two Beecheys ; all of whom examined the Pentapolis in person, and have also published their observations on the inte- resting country through which they passed. In proceeding westward along the coast of the Cyrenaica, the traveller finds his attention arrested by the ruins of Apollonia, once a port and seat of merchandise belonging to the African Greeks. It is situated in a bay formed by high cliffs, which, being very precipitous towards the sea, render it al- most inaccessible by land, except through those deep ravines that occasionally open upon the shore. A succession of rocks projecting into the water, from east to south-west, probably served as the base of the ancient mole, which on that side protected the har- bour ; and upon the remains of this natural bastion are the vestiges of buildings, of which some are also seen rising out of the waves. On the beach are the ruins of certain houses of importance ; among which are several columns of Pentilic marble, still en- tire, large blocks of wrought granite, and a few arches that seem to have supported a magnificent 168 THE CYRENAICA AND PENTAPOLIS. edifice. Near the hills are the remains of an aqueduct, constructed for the purpose of conveying water to the town ; and upon the stones are nume- rous inscriptions, which, though defaced by time, serve as records of the power of the Romans, and their frequent intercourse with this part of Africa.* We learn from the same authors, that Greek in- scriptions are also found among the different frag- ments of those antique piles ; and one, in particu- lar, which the Italian discovered near the sea, has given rise to some discussion. He remarks, that it was executed in strange and whimsical characters, very troublesome to copy; but which, he thinks, supply a memorial of the people, who, at various periods, have frequented or ruled over Apollonia.t This port, the ancient harbour of Cyrene, and known in former times by the appellation of So- suza, is now denominated by the Arabs Marsa- Suza. That it is the celebrated port of the chief seat of the Grecian settlements there can be no doubt, as well from its magnificent remains as from its position, which coincides with that laid down by the best geographers ; being 100 stadia from Nau- stadmos, 160 from the promontory Phycus, and 80 from Cyrene. Surrounded by precipitous heights towards the interior, its principal use at present is to afford an asylum to the natives, when pursued by those bands of robbers who dwell near the Gulf of Bomba, and who sometimes extend their preda- * Delia Cella, p. 160. A D. . . E A E. S E V Ti DE.M CVMIC AE. — D V CVN f Beechey, p. 568-580. Delia Cella, p. 160. THE CYRENAICA AND PENTAPOLIS. 169 tory excursions as far as the recesses of the moun- tains which form the western boundary of Derna.* The actual condition of this remarkable place af- fords a strong instance in support of the opinion ad- vanced by most travellers in Northern Africa, that the Mediterranean is encroaching fast on its south- ern shores, while it is gradually receding from those of Italy, Dalmatia, and the Morea. From this cause, portions of the elevated ground on which the front of the town was built, are continually falling in ; the scene or stage of the principal theatre out- side the walls has been wholly swept away by the waves ; and the tombs along the beach are com- monly filled with water. The public edifice now mentioned appears to have rested partly on the na- tural rock and partly on the citadel ; and the seats must have been approached from above, there being no entry at either side. As the ranges of the sub- sellia are still very perfect, the effect of the build- ing, as it now presents itself, is that of a stupen- dous flight of steps leading down from the bank on which they repose to the level of the orchestra, long ago washed away by the sea. The ground-plans of several other buildings in Apollonia may still be traced with no small degree of certainty. Those of the Christian churches in parti- cular are very decided, as well as the remains of a noble structure, of a similar form, at the western extre- mity of the town. The handsome marble columns, which now encumber the edifices which they once adorned, afford evident proofs that no expense had been spared in the erection of these magnificent * Delia Cella. Scyl. Perip. Strabo, lib. xvii. 170 THE CYRENAICA AND PENTAPOLIS. temples ; for the material of which they are com- posed is not found in this part of Africa, and must have been transported from a great distance at an immense cost. On the centre of the shafts of some of these pillars, Captain Beechey observed the figure of a large cross engraved : they have all been origi- nally formed of single pieces, some of which still re- main entire, and would, he thinks, be no inappro- priate ornaments to churches of modern construc- tion. The reflection which rises in the mind of the gallant officer is at once natural and becoming: he regards these splendid monuments of Christia- nity, in a country labouring under ignorance and su- perstition, as affording pleasing memorials of early piety, and recalling the active times of Cyprian and Anastasius, of the philosophic Synesius, — himself a Cyrenian, — and other distinguished actors in those memorable scenes which Northern Africa once pre- sented to an admiring world. But the grass is now growing over the altar-stone, and the munificence which gave birth to these stately buildings is visi- ble only in their ruins. But Cyrene itself is still more interesting than its port. Its position, we are told, is on the edge of a range of hills, about 800 feet in height, descending in terraces one below another, till they are each met by the level ground, which forms the summit of the next declivity. At the foot of the upper one, on which the city was built, is a fine sweep of table-land, most beautifully varied with wood, among which are scattered tracts of barley and corn, and meadows covered a great part of the year with verdure. Ravines, the sides of which are thickly planted with trees, intersect the country in various THE CYRENAICA AND PENTAPOLIS. 171 directions, and supply channels for the mountain- streams in their passage to the sea. This elevated platform extends east and west as far as the eye can follow it ; while the lower range, which runs along the whole coast of the Cyrenaica, is likewise richly wooded, and diversified with deep glens. The height of the latter may be estimated at 1000 feet ; and the city, which was placed on the upper one, must have been about 1800 feet above the level of the Mediterranean, of which it commanded a most extensive view. The prospect, indeed, is described as truly magnificent, and is said to remain in the mind undiminished in interest by a comparison with others, and to be as strongly depicted there af- ter a lapse of years, as if it were still before the eyes in all the distinctness of reality. It has been stated that the sides of the mountains do not descend abruptly to the plain below, but in terraces, one under another, which at length termi- nate on the level of the beach. The inhabitants have skilfully taken advantage of this formation, and shaped the ledges into roads, leading along the side of the hill, and which seem to have originally com- municated with one another by means of steps cut in the rock. These drives are to this day distinctly lined with the marks of chariot- wheels, deeply in- dented in their stony surface. In most instances, the cliffs rise perpendicularly from one side of these aerial galleries, and are excavated into innumerable tombs, which have been formed with immense labour and care, — the greater number being adorned with architectural fa9ades built against the polished rock, and thereby contributing much to the beauty of the scene. The outer sides of the esplanades, where the 172 THE CYRENAICA AND PENTAPOLIS. descent takes place from one range to another, are or- namented with sarcophagi and monumental tombs ; while the whole space between the terraces must have been completely Wed with similar structures. These,, as well as the excavated sepulchres, exhibit very superior taste and execution ; and the clusters of dark-green furze and slender shrubs, with which they are now partly overgrown, give, by their con- trast of form and colour, an additional effect to the multitude of white buildings which spring up in the midst of them. The tombs generally consist of a single chamber; at the end of which, opposite the door- way, is an elegant facade, almost always of the Doric order, cut in the rock with considerable taste and exactness. It usually represents a portico ; and the number of columns by which it was supported varied accord- ing to the length of the room. Between the pillars were niches cut deep into the mountain, for the re- ception of the ashes or bodies of the deceased ; the dimensions of which were also regulated by the height of the columns and their distance from one another. In several of these vaults were disco- vered remains of painting, exhibiting historical, al- legorical, and pastoral subjects, executed in the man- ner of those found at Herculaneum and Pompeii ; some of which, we are assured, were by no means inferior to the best specimens preserved in these cities. It appears, moreover, that the different mem- bers of the architecture must, in many instances, have been coloured ; examples which may be ad- duced in confirmation of an opinion founded on the recent discoveries at Athens, that the Greeks, like the Egyptians, were in the habit of staining their THE CYRENAICA AND PENTAPOLIS. 173 buildings, and thereby sullying the modest hue of their Parian and Pentilic marbles. In a ravine on the western side of the city, there was likewise found a number of tombs, similar in most respects to those already described. In truth, the various terraces formed into roads seem to prove that the people of Cyrene delighted in streets of sepulchral monuments, and were wont to take their pastime surrounded by the mouldering bo- dies of their ancestors. In passing along the gal- leries here, Mr Beechey discovered one instance of a mixture of two orders of architecture in the same building, — the portico being raised on Ionic columns, surmounted with a Doric entablature. But, if the excavated tombs are objects of much interest, those also which have been built on every side of this ancient town are no less entitled to no- tice and admiration. Several months, it is said, might be employed in making drawings of the most conspicuous of these elegant structures; many of which are erected in imitation of temples, although there are scarcely two of them exactly alike. A judicious observer might select from these mauso- leums examples of Grecian and Roman taste through a long succession of interesting periods; and the progress of the architectural art might thus be sa- tisfactorily traced, from its early state among the first inhabitants of Cyrene, to its final decay in the hands of Italian colonists during the decline of the empire. Innumerable busts and statues originally adorned these mansions of the dead, and many of them are still seen half-buried beneath heaps of rubbish and soil at the foot of the buildings, of which they once occupied the most elevated parts. 174 THE CYRENAICA AND PEXTAPOLIS. Those entirely above ground are usually observed broken into several pieces, or so much mutilated as to have become mere trunks ; but there is no doubt that great numbers are still existing in a perfect state, very little sunk under the surface, which might be procured at a trifling expense. Mr Beechey mentions, in regard to these remains of art, an ab- surd inconsistency in the Arab character. The very same statue which they would walk over day after day, without ever honouring it with a glance in passing, will in all probability be shivered to atoms the moment it becomes an object of particular no- tice/" It need scarcely be observed, that the style of ar- chitecture in which the monumental tombs have been constructed varies according to the date of the building, and apparently, also, to the consequence of the persons interred in them. The order employ- ed, more especially in the earlier examples, is for the most part Doric. From certain circumstances it is concluded, that the custom of burying the en- tire corpse very generally prevailed in Cyrene and other cities of the Pentapolis ; and this is one of the few instances in which any analogy is perceived be- tween the customs of the Grecian colonists and those of the Egyptians. It is certain, however, that the practice of burning the bodies., and of preserving the ashes in urns, prevailed also among the inhabit- ants of the Cyrenaica, as it did in the other states whose origin was similar. But the tombs are not the only structures of which the plan and the materials may still be re- * Proceeding's, &c. p. 500, &c. THE CYRENAICA AND PENTAPOLIS. 175 cognised. The ground on which the city stood is, indeed, so greatly encumbered with decayed vege- tables, and a thick stratum of new soil, that it is no easy matter to detect the numerous columns and statues which lie half buried in its bosom. Mr Beechey and his friends discovered the remains of two theatres ; but so much was the mould now r mentioned heaped about the walls, that, had it not been for the semicircular shape of the green masses which presented themselves to the eye, no one could have suspected they concealed the ruins of large edifices. The pillars which once ornamented the scene in the larger of these buildings had been thrown from the basement on which they formerly stood, and were scattered in various places along the whole length of the range. Among them were se- veral statues, which appeared to have been por- traits, executed with great freedom and taste, and beyond were the Corinthian capitals of the columns, which had rolled in their fall to some distance from their position. These, as well as the bases, were composed of a fine white marble, the polish of which was in general very perfect ; and the shafts, con- sisting of a coloured species, were formed of single pieces, which added considerably to the effect pro- duced by the costliness of the material. The able artist, on whose description we now rely, thinks that this theatre must have been Roman, and is disposed to ascribe it to the time of Augustus or of Hadrian. The whole depth of the building, in- cluding the seats, the orchestra, and the stage, appears to have been about 150 feet, and the length of the scene about the same. The porticos in the rear of the seats are 250 feet long, and the space be- 1J6 THE CYRENAICA AND PENTAPOLIS. tween these and the colonnade at the back of the scene, is of equal extent. The edifice would thus ap- pear to have been comprehended in a square of 250 feet, not including 'the depth of the portico behind the subsellia, which, it is admitted, is rather uncer- tain. Like many of the Grecian theatres, it has been built against the side of a hili, which, as at Apollo- nia, forms the support of the seats, the highest range of which must have been on a level with the platform at the back, from whence the spectators descended to the lower benches. The situation of this place of amusement is said to be extremely de- lightful, and worthy of a structure which, when perfect, must have been a very beautiful object ; the richness of the materials of which the columns were formed adding greatly to its effect, in respect of splen- dour, if not precisely in point of taste. * The plan of the other theatre varies materially from that of the one now described, and its propor- tions are also very different. Instead of being ap- proached from above, like the other, there are five passages by which the spectators entered, and two communicating with some place beneath the front of the stage, which, however, are so much blocked up with rubbish, that it is impossible to explore them. Some rows of seats were found hollow, — a fact which seemed to give a degree of confirmation to a statement mentioned by Vitruvius, that the Greeks were in the habit of placing in the interior of their benches in public buildings a species of brazen vase, by means of which the sound was considerably improved. No materials remain to * Beechey, p. 50B. We quote the opinions of Mr Beechey, the Captain's brother. 6 THE CYRENAICA AND PENTAPOLIS. 177 confirm the conjecture; for, although the vacant spaces in the subsellia were carefully formed, as if with the view of accomplishing some object, nothing was found in them except a few pieces of pottery. No part of the stage, if we omit the lower section of a wall, is now standing. The width of the or- chestra, where it joins the proscenium, is not more than sixty feet, and its depth about eighty, while the space occupied by the seats could not be more than forty. There are, however, extensive remains of certain buildings which must have been attached to the eastern side of this theatre ; so large, indeed, as to have enclosed public walks, and to have been ornamented with numerous porticos and statues. Among these last there is one which, from the Am- nion's head, and the eagles which decorate the armour, is supposed to represent a Ptolemy ; while near it is another, which must have been meant to do honour to a Berenice, an Arsinoe, or a Cleopatra. On the outside of the walls, westward of the an- cient city, there are the ruins of an amphitheatre, which must likewise have been a striking object. It has been constructed on the verge of a precipice, commanding a most extensive and beautiful view, and receiving in all its purity the freshness of the northern breeze, so grateful in an African climate. Part of it, as usual, is built against the side of a hill, which supported the seats fronting the precipice ; and that portion of it which bordered upon the verge of the Desert rose abruptly from the edge, like a stupendous wall, overlooking the country below. The foundations of this part of the edifice appear to have been remarkably strong, and are even now very complete ; but the subsellia raised upon them 178 THE CYRENAICA AND PENTAPOLIS, have been tumbled from their places, and lie around in broken masses. On the side which has the hill for its basis nearly forty rows of seats are still remain- ing, one above the other: and though each of these is fifteen inches in height, the edge of the precipice appears from the upper range to be quite close to the lowest, although in fact the whole of the arena, not less than 100 feet in diameter, intervenes between them. There are traces of a Doric colonnade along the margin of the cliff, forming the north side of one of the enclosed spaces contiguous to the ami: theatre. The capitals are said to be beautifully executed. As few remains of dwelling-houses are observed on the northern side of the town, it is supposed not to have been very closely inhabited. Ther : however, to have been no want of public edi- fices : for travellers have distinguished the ruins of two spacious temples, as well a.s of the stadium, that ornament of Grecian towns. Of the former, the largest is 169 feet in length and 61 in breadth. The architecture is Doric of the early style: and the capitals, though much defaced, still exhibit prooi of excellent taste and workmanship. The smaller temple, besides being built on rising ground, has the additional elevation of a very solid basement, con- siderably above the level of the surface. The di- mensions are 111 feet by 50. The capitals of some fluted columns lying at the bottom of the eminence are of no decided order, and present, it is thought, a mixture of Greek and Egyptian, — a combination which will not be deemed improbable within the precincts of Gyrene. The stadium has felt more than either of the fanes now described the wasting THE CYRENAICA AND PENTAPOLXS. 179 hand of time; the course is overgrown with the rankest vegetation, and nearly all the masonry has disappeared. The length is somewhat more than 700 feet, the width being about 250 ; and, like the theatres, it seems to have had some contiguous buildings subsidiary to its uses, and comprehended in its plan. Still, it is allowed that in the tombs are preserved the finest specimes of Grecian art now extant in Cyrene ; nearly the whole of this famed city, including its public and private structures, be- ing reduced to an undistinguishable mass of rubbish. But there is reason to doubt whether many of the grottos which wear the appearance of repositories for the dead, were not rather originally intended as abodes for the living. This is the opinion of M. Pacho, who found in a mountain between Cyrene and Apol- lonia a vast number of excavations, which had not in his eyes the slightest indication of a sepulchral design. Some of x them are so capacious that you may enter them on horseback. Several are adorned in front with a monolithic portico, and an open hall ; others have either a straight or a winding avenue ; and one of them is distinguished by a handsome stair- case, cut in the solid rock, and adorned with an arched roof of masonwork. This expensive canopy, he thinks, was intended to shelter from the rains the inhabitants of Cyrene, who came hither to inspect the merchandise sent from their port ; for., €e doubtless," he adds, " these large hypogea were magazines." They have for many years offered a con- venient residence to the Arabs of Barca ; and whole tribes have successively taken up their abode in them. Hordes of banditti, it is true, have occa- sionally invaded these peaceful retreats ; have driven 180 THE CYRENAICA AND PENTAPOLIS. away their occupants, and made them a receptacle for their plunder; but their ascendency has never been of long duration. The neighbouring tribes have united ; the robbers have been dispersed ; and the lawful proprietors have gained possession of their troglodytic town.* In the ravine beyond the western limits of the city, this traveller discovered an excavation which, in point of magnitude and beauty, surpassed all that he had examined in any other quarter. It appears to be situated about half-way between the bottom of the dell and the level of the plain above, from both of which there are regular approaches cut with infinite care. Having entered the cavern, he found himself in a vast quadrangle surrounded with a low bench. At the farther end is a square altar, above which is a larger niche, designed, as he ima- gined, to receive the statue of the presiding deity. The walls are overgrown with a rank vegetation, which it is necessary to tear down in order to de- cipher the inscriptions with which they are covered. It may be seen at the first glance that they belong to very different epochs ; every corner of the exca- vation being bedaubed in the most fantastic manner. Some are deeply engraved in letters of five or six inches long, while others are in so small a character as to be scarcely perceptible. Besides which, here and there occur a number of unconnected names, such as Aristo teles, Alexander, Jason, and Agathocles. It would seem, continues M. Pacho, that the place was an excavated temple, consecrated probably to one of the principal divinities of Cyrene, and that strangers came to visit it in the discharge of a sacred * Voyage dans la Marmarique, p. 193. THE CYRENAICA AND PENTAPOLIS. 181 duty. The situation, too, of this religious monu- ment, near the only forest which is found in the vicinity of the town, appears to accord perfectly with the presumed object and origin of this wood ; leading back the mind to the very earliest period of the Greek colony in Libya. The majestic cypresses which compose it are thus viewed as the descendants of those trees which the chief of the Battiades con- secrated to the service of the gods.* It is not improbable that the scenes now described gave rise to the fiction of the " petrified village" mentioned by Shaw, and which for a time excited no small interest among the philosophers of Europe. The Tripoline ambassador at London, to whom in- quiries were addressed relative to so strange a phe- nomenon, reported, on the authority of a friend who had been upon the spot, that it comprehended a large town of a circular figure, which had several streets, shops, and a magnificent castle, belonging to it ; that his informant saw different sorts of trees, but mostly the olive and the palm, all turned into a bluish or cinder-coloured stone ; that there were men also in different postures and attitudes, some of them ex- ercising their trades and occupations, others holding bread and similar articles in their hands ; that of the women some were giving suck to their children, while others were sitting at their kneading-troughs ; that in entering the castle there was a man lying upon a gorgeous bed of stone, with guards standing at the doors armed with pikes and spears ; and that he ob- served different sorts of animals, such as camels, oxen, asses, horses, sheep, and birds, all of them converted into stone, and of the same bluish colour. Some of * Voyage, &c. p. 230. Modern Traveller, Africa, vol. i. p. 174. 182 THE CYRENAICA AND PENTAPOLIS. the figures were said to want their hands, others a leg or an arm. It was farther related, that several pieces of petrified money had been brought from thence; not a few of which were as large as an English shilling, with a horse's head on the one side and unknown characters on the other." The Necropolis of Cyrene, with its numerous statues and chambers, variously coloured, might well suggest to the superstitious mind of an ignorant Bedouin the notion of a petrified town. Delia Cella affords the materials of a different explanation, by alluding to the depositions which take place in the natural caves of calcareous mountains. He visited one of these near Safsaf, which, he remarks, had acquired great celebrity from the credulity of the neighbouring inhabitants, who, in the stalactites, discover the images of petrified gods, men, and mon- sters, every one giving to each fantastical form the name which suits his fancy.t Dr Shaw had been induced to perform a danger- ous journey to Hani am, in Numidia, having been assured by the Arabs, with the most solemn assever- ations, that a number of tents might be seen there, surrounded by cattle of different kinds converted in- to stone. On arriving, however, at the place, he had the mortification to find that all the accounts which he had heard were idle and fictitious, and without the smallest foundation except in the extra- vagant brains of the natives. He tells us, moreover, that about forty years prior to the time at which he wrote, M. Le Maire, the French consul at Tripoli, * Travels or Observations relating" to several Parts of Barbary, vol. i. p. 286. Edinburgh edition, 1808. -f- Travels in Barbary, p. 163. THE CYRENAICA AND PENTAPOLIS. 183 made inquiry, at the desire of his court, into the truth of the popular rumour as to petrified bodies at Ras Sem. The janizaries, who, in collecting the tribute, travel every year through the district in question, promised to gratify his wishes ; adding, however, that, as an adult person would be too heavy to carry, they could only undertake to bring him the body of a young child. After a great many difficulties, de- lays, and disappointments, they at length produced a little Cupid, which they had found, as he afterwards learned, among the ruins of Leptis, and, to conceal the deceit, they broke off the quiver and some of the other characteristics of this insidious deity. Adepts in fraud, they represented to the Frenchman that, if they had been detected in the act of putting into the hands of an infidel one of the unfortunate Mussulmans whose remains they had visited, they should certainly have been strangled by their coun- trymen; and, upon the ground of this frightful hazard, they raised a charge for 1000 dollars. In short, his most earnest inquiries, supported by the offer of great rewards, brought nothing to light. After sending a number of individuals expressly, and at no small cost, to make discoveries, he could never learn that any traces of walls, buildings, ani- mals, or articles of furniture, were to be seen with- in the verge of the petrified district.'* Captain Smyth, of his Majesty's ship the Adven- ture, like the learned author just named, was pre- vailed upon to travel as far as Ghirza on a similar mission ; being informed by the Sultan of Fezzan, who had recently returned from a marauding ex- pedition, that he passed through the desolate city, * Travels, vol. i. p. 292. 184 THE CYRENAICA AND PEXTAPOLIS. which abounded in spacious buildings, and was or- namented with such a profusion of statues as to have all the appearance of an inhabited place. This account, supported by several collateral cir- cumstances, impressed him with the idea that it must be the celebrated Ras Sem, and consequently inspired him with a strong desire to repair thither. After a toilsome march of nine days' duration, he was sorely disappointed on seeing some badly-con- structed houses, of comparatively modern date, and a few tombs at a small distance. On approaching the latter, he found them of a mixed style, and in very indifferent taste, decorated with ill-propor- tioned columns and clumsy capitals. The regular architectural divisions of frieze and cornice being neglected, nearly the whole depth of the entabla- tures is loaded with absurd representations of warriors, huntsmen, camels, horses, and other ani- mals, in low relief. The human figures are mise- rably executed and generally small, varying, even on the same tomb, from three feet and a half to twelve inches.* In the neighbourhood the captain observed a monumental obelisk of heavy proportions, and near it four tombs, presenting a similar style and orna- ments with those already described. They are re- markable, however, as combining more distinctly a mixture of Greek and Egyptian architecture, and are placed so as to give a singular interest to the scene. A wandering Bedouin, who had resided some time in the valley, produced a fine medal, in brass, of the elder Faustina, which he had found in * Captain Smvtlvs Journal is printed in Captain Beechers work, p. 504-512. THE CYRENAICA AND PENTAPOLIS. 185 the immediate vicinity. The tombs appear to have remained uninjured by the action of either the sun or the atmosphere, and therefore the sculpture, if such it ought to be called, continues in its original completeness. As these edifices are near the Fezzan road, people from the interior have been occasionally induced to examine them ; and, being the only specimens of the art they ever saw, they have, not unnaturally, on their arrival at the coast, described them in glowing colours. It is the opinion of Captain Smyth, that it must have been this nucleus, as he calls it, which soon swelled into a petrified city, and, at length, not only attracted the curiosity of Europe, but also obtained general belief in Africa. It has been deemed a species of pilgrimage, as the caravans pass, to resort thither, and to utter or inscribe a prayer for the unhappy Moslem who are confined to that dreary solitude in the form of stone. Notwithstand- ing the diminutive size and despicable execution of the carved figures, the Turks view them with ad- miration and respect, extolling the powers of art which, in its imitations, can approach so near to the wonderful works of nature !* Such was the only direct issue of the journey * It is still more probable, that the idea of a petrified city has been suggested by the appearance of Cyrene and other towns of the Pentapolis. Bruce, who also visited Ras Sem, remarks, " I was not fortunate enough to discover the petrified men and horses, the women at the churn, the little children, the cats, the dogs, and the mice, which his Barbarian Excellency assured Sir Hans Sloane existed there ; yet, in vindication of his excellency, I must say that, though he propagated, he did not invent this falsehood ; the Arabs who conducted me maintained the same stories to be true till I was within two hours of the place, when I found them to be false." It is deserving of notice, that the Ras Sem of Shaw and Bruce cannot now be identified. 186 THE CYRENAICA AND PENTAPOLIS. to the petrified city at Ghirza; in the coarse of which, however, though the result fell short of his expectations, more was obtained and accomplished by Captain Smyth than has yet rewarded the ex- ertions of any other travellers who have compared the actual state of particular districts with the florid descriptions given of them by the Arabs. As an apology for the deception practised by the natives on themselves, as well as on strangers, it is proper to observe that, in the opinion of Mr Beechey, who accompanied his brother, all the excavated tombs were originally adorned with paintings in body-colour, representing compositions either of figures or animals. The prevailing tints are blue and red. The triglyphs and some other members of the facades were invariably stained blue, the mouldings and other details red ; while the larger parts of the entablature seem to have been uni- formly left plain. In an excavated tomb with a Doric portico, there was found a series of beautiful little subjects painted on the frieze of an interior facade, each composition occupying one of the me- topes. The outline of these highly-finished groups has been very carefully put in with red ; the lo- cal colour of the flesh and the draperies has then been filled in with body-colours, and the lights touched on sharp with a full and free pencil, greatly resembling the fine execution of the paintings at Herculaneum and Pompeii. No object at Cyrene appeared more interesting than the Fountain of Apollo, whence issues a stream well calculated to refresh the weary traveller. At the foot of the hill which supplies the water is an excavated chamber, from which there is an opening THE CYRENAICA AND PENTAPOLIS. 187 cut into the interior of the rock, to a distance not yet ascertained ; and along this channel the cur- rent flows with great rapidity, till it precipitates itself into a basin formed to receive it on a level with the floor of the apartment. On one side of the cascade are two cellars, or rather one di- vided into two parts ; and in the farther section is a second basin, sunk below the level of the chamber, which appears to have originally communicated with the stream by means of a small aperture in the rock just above it. This reservoir, it is thought, must have been originally devoted to the service of the priests, who had the charge of the sacred fountain, in the performance of their religious ceremonies. Nearly opposite to it is what appears to be the prin- cipal entrance, where was found a tablet broken into two pieces, and also the fragment of a fluted column. On the former, which is of white marble, are sculp- tured three female figures in excellent style, and finished with all the delicacy and taste of the most refined periods. In front of the approach, two por- ticos appear to have been erected ; and on a part of the cliff, at right angles with the face of the precipice, is an inscription in Doric Greek recording the name of the founder. The channel or passage, we are told, is formed entirely in the rock from which the stream issues, and continues in an irregular course more than a quarter of a mile into the heart of the mountain. The sides and roof of it are flat, where time and the action of the current have not corroded the surface ; but the bottom is encumbered with stones bedded fast in the clay. The height in general was about five feet ; though in some places where there appear 188 THE CYRENAICA AND PENTAPOLIS. to have originally been flaws or fissures in the stone, the roof was so much raised as to enable the visiters to stand upright. After advancing about thirteen hundred feet, it becomes so low that a man cannot proceed farther without creeping upon his hands and knees, and then finishes in a small aperture scarcely a foot in diameter, beyond which it is not possible to proceed.* Captain Beechey mentions a singular fact as to inscriptions found on the sides of the channel into which he and his friends had adventured. They observed that the clay, washed down in con- siderable quantities by the current, was occasionally plastered against the sides, and smoothed very care- fully with the palm of the hand. In this they thought they perceived something like letters, which upon a more minute examination they discovered to be sentences in the Greek language ; several of which, from their dates, must have remained on the wet clay more than fifteen hundred years. The preservation of these, says the gallant author, " may certainly be accounted for by the dampness of the place, and its extreme seclusion, which would con- spire to prevent the clay from cracking and drop- ping off, and from being rubbed off by intruders ; but we were not prepared to meet with inscriptions engraved on so yielding a substance, and certainly not to find that, having once been written, they should have remained on it down to the present day, as perfect as when they were left there by those * " The mouth of this fountain," says Delia Cella, " is very in- geniously excavated, and is connected with a tunnel extending- far into the heart of the hill, into which I penetrated a few yards, not- withstanding the assurances of my guides that it was the usual resi- dence of malignant spirits." THE CYRENAICA AND PENTAPOLIS. 189 whose visit they were intended to commemorate. They consist, of course, chiefly in a collection of names, many of which are Roman ; and the earliest of the most conspicuous dates which we remarked and copied (for it would take whole days to read and copy them all), were those of the reign of Dio- clesian. We could collect no other facts from those which we read, than that a priest appears to have officiated at the fountain after Cyrene became a Roman colony, whose name and calling are usually written after the name of the visiter. They are, in general, very rudely scratched with a point of any kind, — a sword or knife perhaps, or the stone of a ring,— and often with the point of the fingers. We observed a few Arabic inscriptions among the rest ; but were so much occupied in reading over the Greek ones, in order to gain some intelligence respecting the fountain, which might serve to throw light upon the period at which the channel was excavated, or other questions of interest, that we neglected to copy them. There is an appearance in one of the Greek inscriptions of an allusion to the name of Apollo, the deity to whom we suppose this fountain to have been sacred ; but the letters are not sufficiently clear to establish the fact decidedly, although we do not see what other sense could be given to the words in question with so much probability of being that which the writer intended ; and it is plain that the sentence, as it now stands, is incomplete. We could not succeed in finding any Greek dates of antiquity, although the Greek names are very numerous ; but a person accustomed to the many negligent ways of writing the character, with plenty of time and light at his disposal, might probably succeed in finding 190 THE CYRENAICA AND PENTAPOLIS. Greek inscriptions of more interest than we were able to discover in the mass of writing here alluded to,, — a great portion of which; as might naturally be ex- pected,, consists of rude scrawls and hasty scratches. That the fountain continued to be an object of cu- riosity, and probably of religious veneration, after the cession of the country to the Romans, may, however, be inferred from what we have stated ; and a minimum may at least be established with respect to the date of the excavated channel, if we cannot ascertain the precise time of its formation, or whether it was cut at one or several periods. Some hours had elapsed from the time of our en- tering to that of our reappearance ; and we really believe, that the Arabs of the place, who had col- lected themselves round the fountain to see us come out, were extremely disappointed to find that no accident had befallen any one of the party, in spite of the demons so confidently believed to haunt its dark and mysterious recesses."* Leaving Cyrene, the traveller whose face is turned towards Tripoli soon finds himself in the midst of beautiful scenery, and on the road to the magnificent plain of Merge, in which was situated the celebrated town of Barca, the second in import- ance of the whole Pentapolis. The path, deeply marked with chariot- wheels, and thereby indicating * Proceedings of the Expedition to explore the Northern Coast of Africa, &c. By Captain F. W. Beechey, R. N., F. R. S. 3 p. 551. Respecting the allusion to Apollo, Captain Beeche} T imagines " the words to have been \<7ri hgio; rou fAiynr*]ov AtfoXXavog, but the o; is wanting after A-raXXa/v, and the ^ in pzyitrrou ; in which latter word also the s and y look more like an a. and