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Hokitika Guardian, 22 July 1927, Page 2

In a recent publication “Vanished Cities of Northern Africa," the author, Mrs Stella rt Er.skine, says a rc- ■ viewer, takes us to a terrain rich in associations. Hither, in the dawn of history came the Phoenicians, peaceful traders from Tyre. Then the Kartlmginians. part Phoenician, part African, rose to power, challenged the growing might of Rome and were overthrown. Rome, in her turn, had eventually to yield to the vandals who were ousted by the Eastern Empire. Next, the Arabs carried the crescent to the shores of the Atlantic, followed by the Turks and the Barbary Corsairs, who kept the Mediterranean in terror, until the beginning of the nineteenth century. Finally, the French occupation instituted a new era. In Northern Africa, there are few pre-Roman remains. Of the original Karthage nothing is left. In 116 B.C'. the long struggle with Rome ended with the capture of the city. The stern decree "Defenda est Kartlmgo" was fulfilled Karthage was razed to the ground, the site ploughed with salt, and the survivors of the siege and sack driven out to shift for themselves. The author’s sympathies are with Karthage. hut there was no room for both in the ancient world. One had to go. A hundred years later. Julius Caesar, in bivouac, near the ruins, dreamed that be saw a great host and heard their bitter weeping. When lie awakened he scribbled two words on bis tablets, which indicated his determination to rebuild the city. He was assassinated, but Augustus, his adopted son, and the first Emperor, carried out his" wishes and Karthage came to life again. Northern Africa was garrisoned by the famous Third Augustan Legion for four hundred years. It bore the Roman eagles deep into the Sahara, and where it camped great cities sprang lip, at Tim gad. Susa (the Hadrunietum of the ancients), Lambaesis, and many another place are to be seen, stately temples and theatres, triumphal col- 1

unrns and arches, arenas, and aqueducts, which offer testimony to Rome’s prowess as a builder. Northern Africa "'as the granary of Italy; the counfrv smiled with cornfields, olive grooves and vines. But the Turks undid the work of centuries. The Ottoman blight settled on the land until the advent of the French, who are gradually restoring its former prosperity. Mrs Erskine has written a vivid account of the splendours of those long vanished days, and Major Benton Fletcher lias supplied some very effective illustrations in colour and lino to adorn the publication.