the citadel-wall, but to the city-wall on the landward
side, of which the wall along the south side of the
citadel-hill was an integral part (Oros. iv. 22).
In accordance with this view, the excavations at
the citadel-hill on the east, north, and west, have
shown no traces of fortifications, whereas on the south
side they have brought to light the very remains of
this great wall. There is no reason for regarding
these as the remains of a separate fortification of
the citadel distinct from the city wall; it may be
presumed that further excavations at a corresponding
depth—the foundation of the city wall discovered
at the Byrsa lies fifty-six feet beneath the present
surface—will bring to light like, or at
any rate analogous, foundations along the whole landward
side, although it is probable that at the point where
the walled suburb of Magalia rested on the main wall
the fortification was either weaker from the first
or was early neglected. The length of the wall
as a whole cannot be stated with precision; but it
must have been very considerable, for three hundred
elephants were stabled there, and the stores for their
fodder and perhaps other spaces also as well as the
gates are to be taken into account. It is easy
to conceive how the inner city, within the walls of
which the Byrsa was included, should, especially by
way of contrast to the suburb of Magalia which had
its separate circumvallation, be sometimes itself called
Byrsa (App. Pun. 117; Nepos, ap. Serv.
Aen. i. 368).
10. Such is the height given by Appian, l. c.;
Diodorus gives the height, probably inclusive of the
battlements, at 40 cubits or 60 feet. The remnant
preserved is still from 13 to 16 feet (4-5 metres)
high.
11. The rooms of a horse-shoe shape brought
to light in excavation have a depth of 14, and a breadth
of 11, Greek feet; the width of the entrances is not
specified. Whether these dimensions and the
proportions of the corridor suffice for our recognizing
them as elephants’ stalls, remains to be settled
by a more accurate investigation. The partition-walls,
which separate the apartments, have a thickness of
1.1 metre = 3 1/2 feet.
12. Oros. iv. 22. Fully 2000 paces, or—as
Polybius must have said—16 stadia, are=about
3000 metres. The citadel-hill, on which the
church of St. Louis now stands, measures at the top
about 1400, half-way up about 2600, metres in circumference
(Beule, p. 22); for the circumference at the base
that estimate will very well suffice.
13. It now bears the fort Goletta.
14. That this Phoenician word signifies a basin
excavated in a circular shape, is shown both by Diodorus
(iii. 44), and by its being employed by the Greeks
to denote a “cup.” It thus suits only
the inner harbour of Carthage, and in that sense it
is used by Strabo (xvii. 2, 14, where it is strictly
applied to the admiral’s island) and Fest.
Ep. v. -cothones-, p. 37. Appian (Pun. 127) is
not quite accurate in describing the rectangular harbour
in front of the Cothon as part of it.