Carthage Today
Marcombes, Henry
CARTHAGE TODAY By HENRY MARCOMBES MOST of the pilgrims to the Eucharistic Congress are staying in Tunis, ten miles from Carthage. Tunis is now a city of 186,000 inhabitants. Carthage, which, in...
...he is the genie of Aladdin...
...The ruins which one sees today are nearly all Roman...
...This did not mark the end of Carthage or its history...
...a new city rose there in the reign of Julius Caesar, and it was the capital of the Roman province...
...Therewill come another day...
...As the American haggles, it is the voice of destiny speaking...
...he is the gift of Allah...
...Carthage was captured by the Vandals in 439 and became the capital of Genseric...
...Allah wills it...
...At last the tourist leaves the shop in a huff...
...Of the population of 500,000 persons who endured the final siege in 147 B. C, less than fifty thousand lived to be sold into slavery...
...The price of that rug is 80 francs...
...It is the ruins of this Roman city which litter the countryside today...
...Ceremonies in Carthage are being held in the Cathedrale de Saint Louis, one of the most famous churches in Africa, and which surmounts the hill on which the modern town of Carthage is built...
...In preparation for the Congress, shops are already being improvised at vantage points near ruins and along the main street, loaded with rugs and bronzes and woodwork which are the glory of the Arab craftsman...
...Mektoub...
...So many of them will be here for the Congress...
...It was at Carthage that Tertullian lived, that Saint Perpetue and his companions, Christian pioneers, were delivered to the lions in the amphitheatre in A. D. 203, and Saint Cyprien died for the faith in 258...
...The conquerors then destroyed the city, ploughed it, and sowed salt on the ground "that nothing may grow...
...That is the American price," he immediately told me in perfect French...
...From this hill one may obtain a superb view of the surrounding country, dotted with ruins...
...The main street lined with palms leads down to a sea so blue it seems it would color one to touch, the same sea which the Carthaginian galleys dominated for centuries before they were conquered by the Romans, after three of the bloodiest wars which ever darkened the pages of history...
...Virtually nothing remains of the original Carthage, founded about 814 B. C. In the peaceful, palm-shaded town which one sees today, close to half a million persons were massacred in the six days of street slaughter which marked the final triumph of Rome...
...It was never rebuilt...
...Up goes the price of the rug to the highest point in the Arab's imagination...
...The ground on which the little town which bears the name of Carthage stands today is probably more deeply soaked with human blood than any other ground in the world...
...Carthage, which, in the days when it ruled the Mediterranean had a population estimated as high as 1,000,000, is now a pretty little town of less than two hundred houses and many Roman ruins...
...In 533, Belisarius occupied it in the name of Justinian of the eastern Roman empire...
...In this amphitheatre, the ruins of which may still be seen, thousands of the early Christians were killed...
...I entered one of these beside the ruins of the Basilica Majorum, where the Saints Perpetue and Felicite preached before their martyrdom...
...American pilgrims in Carthage are safely advised to begin bargaining at one-third of the original price asked, even if it is marked...
...Americans must understand the Arab mentality before they attempt to do business with them...
...It will be the scene of an important ceremony on the second day of the coming Congress...
...The population today is chiefly Arab, men and women who dress in long flowing white robes, the women's faces veiled...
...At the end of the seventh century came the Turk, and the Roman city was destroyed...
...An Arab who might have been a European except for his red fez, saw me admiring a beautiful rug which was marked 150 francs ($6.00) and looked to me like a bargain...
...It is visited by many tourists and has been gaining favor as a winter resort, but there are at present only three good hotels, and they are small...
...Here are the mental processes of the Moslem rug merchant when an American enters his shop, in the words of the proprietor of one of the few "fixed-price" shops in Tunis: "To the Arab, the American is more than merely a customer ; he is destiny...
...Down goes the quality of the goods, to the lowest value to be found in the shop...
Vol. 12 • May 1930 • No. 2
