Carthage, its legends and modern versions

Edgar Knowlton writes: "!I recall George Alfred Henty's The Young Cathaginian, which I read as a child, and its exciting portrait of the army's scaling of the Swiss Alps with elephants Hanno, Hannibal, etc. Also among the Spanish and Portuguese I have met the names Anibal and Amilcar (a desk clerk at the Hotel Duas Nacoes in Lisbon), with stress on the "i." in both names. A late and able mayor of Maui was Hannibal Tavares. And of course the place name Cartagena. I myself have always felt considerable sympathy for Carthage, as representing Phoenicians, more for Dido than for Aeneas, Of course Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas" with Dido's beautiful lament,. "When I am laid in earth," is an emotionally engaging piece of music. For me at least Hannibal remains a noble historical figure, ability plus underdog".

RH: . This takes us to our learning history project. We were brought up with the Roman version lo history; "Delenda est Cartago! "Carthage must be dsstroyed!" was a patriotic battle cry. In fact it ws the cry of a military regime bent on destroying a people of Phoenician traders. We were fed th4 version given in Book II of Virgil's Aeneid, in which Aeneas tells Dido the horrible story of tre destruction of Troy; "Infandum, regina, jubes renovare dolorem". Dido had an equally sad past. A daughter of the king of Tyre, she had fled to Africa when her husband was murdered and she founded Carthage. She found an Aeneas a kindred spirit and fell in love with him. When the call of duty forced Aeneas and his men to leave for the conquest of Italy, she committed suicide.

The novel Salambo by Gustave Flaubert, a student of the Marquis de Sade, is written in a much nastier mood. Here is a review: Flaubert's Salambo is an often stirring mixture and intertwining of the history of the Punic Wars and of the myths held by the people of ancient Carthage. The novel begins and ends with a banquet held in the gardens of Hamilcar, the Carthaginian leader. The mercenaries are feasting in these gardens at the beginning and a wedding feast is being held at the end, with an important leader of the Barbarians as "the special guest of honor." The book describes in great, often gory detail the horrors and the carnage of war. The gods must be appeased if there is no food or if the soldiers are dying of thirst. These rituals include children being sacrificed with, perhaps, Hamilcar's son being one of the victims. Cannibilism is an alternative to mass starvation. Torture is the sport of kings and the masses alike. In the middle of all these goings on is Hamilcar's daughter, the lovely and exotically beautiful Salambo. Her conniving to recapture the Zaimph from Matho, the Libyan leader of the Barbarians, includes some of the most erotic passage in 19th century literature. Her pet serpent. the Zaimph, figures very prominently in these scenes. A priest advises Salambo that without recovering the Zaimph, an important holy relic, Carthage is doomed to defeat.

RH: The novel has been translated into English and has enjoyed some popularity. How does history taught in Tunisia today tell or omit the stories told by Virgil and Flaubert? Two much esteemed WAISers, Dick and Pat Payne, spent much of their professional life in Tunisia. We would be grateful for any comments they have on this. Incidentally, in the US there are twelve towns named "Carthage", so it must have had some American admirers.