ritual, when sculptured deities were to be overthrown, when symbols of a despised creed were to be carved on post and lintel, and when the names of Tertullian, St. Cyprian, and St. Augustine were to add new lustre to a country entering upon the last stages of imperial decay.

From the time when the first adventurers from the Syrian coast entered the sheltered inlets of the African shore-a remote period, even before Saul was made king of Israel and while Priam sat on the throne of Troy-down to the seventh century of the Christian era, when the Arabs passed over it like a whirlwind, this fair land has been the battle-field where destinies of nations have been sealed, and where heroes and warriors have sought their last resting-place. The myths that surround its earlier development and shed a halo of romance over the career of its primitive races are somewhat obscured by the sterner facts of later times-by wars innumerable, wars of invasion and local disturbances, succeeded by a long period of piracy and power misused, and finally by neglect, abandonment, and decay. The legend of Dido still hangs over Carthage hill, the spirit of Hannibal haunts the fateful Zama, and the banks of the Medjerda hold in everlasting memory the story of Regulus and his affrighted army. The air is full of myths and old-world stories which faithfully represent the traditions of the country in its varying fortunes; and slight as may be their connection with events in pre-historic times, yet they serve as foundations for an historic superstructure of never-failing interest. The earlier records are fragmentary, but we learn that the library of the Carthaginians, written in Phoenician characters, was presented by the Romans, after the fall of Carthage, to the kings of Numidia; and that Sallust, as proconsul of that province in the time of Julius Cæsar, borrowed largely from it while writing his history of the Jugurthine war. In all probability Sallust was unacquainted with either the Libyan or the Phoenician tongue (the former being the language of the primitive inhabitants of the country), and consequently

obtained much of his information through interpreters. Moreover, he must have felt little interest in a people who had been for so many centuries the sworn enemies of Rome. Punic literature was probably limited, Greek being usually spoken by educated Carthaginians. Hannibal, we are told, wrote in Greek. There is little doubt, however, that most of the earlier records passed to Alexandria, which became the rival of Athens as a seat of learning. With the burning of its library by fanatical Arabs in the seventh century many a link between the old world and the new was severed, and reliable information concerning the laws and traditions, and the manners and customs of a people, who were the fathers of navigation and the founders of commerce, was swept away.

Writers of antiquity who have recorded their impressions of North Africa are numerous enough, but their statements are not always accurate, and their descriptions of localities and monumental remains too frequently untrustworthy. Many of them derived their knowledge from various sources, especially from enterprising navigators, Phoenician or Greek, who sailed to various commercial ports on the shores of the Mediterranean. They wrote without personal knowledge of the country or its extent, and had limited acquaintance with its inhabitants or the Libyan tongue which then prevailed. Herodotus, Polybius, Sallust, Strabo, Pliny the Elder, Plutarch, and the Spanish geographer Pomponius Mela are the chief authorities down to the close of the first century.' These were followed by Suetonius, the favoured secretary and friend of the Emperor

As an instance of looseness of statement, Strabo the geographer, in the time of Augustus, says it was the general impression that the sources of the Nile were not far off the confines of Mauritania, crocodiles and other animals found in the Nile being indigenous in the rivers of that country (lib. xvii. p. 454). Dion Cassius also says: 'I have taken particular care to inform myself about the Nile. It visibly takes its rise from Mount Atlas. This mountain, which is near the ocean on the west side, is infinitely higher than all the rest upon earth, which gave the poets occasion to feign that it supported the heavens. Never did anybody ascend to the top. The foot of this hill is marshy, and from these morasses proceeds the Nile.' (Vide Dion Cassius, abridged by Xiphilin, Manning's translation, 1704, vol. ii. p. 277.)

Hadrian, Apuleius of Madaura, Ptolemy the renowned geographer of Alexandria, Dion Cassius the Bithynian, and Aurelius Victor, a Roman biographer of the fourth century In later times we have Procopius, the Greek secretary attached to the army of Belisarius; Leo Africanus, an Arab of Granada in the sixteenth century; and numerous African authors, among whom El-Bekri and El-Edrisi, who flourished in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, are the most conspicuous. Then, after a long interval, we have a succession of European travellers, whose voluminous notes paved the way for more systematic research. The most noticeable are Shaw, an Oxford divine; Peysonnel, a professor of botany; Bruce, British consul at Algiers; and Sir Grenville Temple, a cavalry officer. It seems invidious to select a few names in more recent times where so many are worthy of recognition, but the labours of those who have best served the cause of archæology, and whose names are inseparably associated with the literature and monumental remains of North Africa, cannot be passed over. The contributions of Berbrugger, De la Mare, Guérin, Ravoisié, Pellissier, Cherbonneau, Léon Renier, and Charles Tissot in the last century, supplemented in our own days by a long array of valuable notes by our late Consul-General Sir Lambert Playfair, have added largely to our knowledge of the topography and antiquities of the country. To De la Mare we are indebted for an illustrated, though unfortunately incomplete, work on monumental Algeria; to Ravoisié we owe some careful measurements and restorations (on paper) of the principal remains in the northern regions; and to Renier, Wilmanns, and others a wealth of deciphered inscriptions which constitute in themselves a fair outline of many centuries of national life in this great Roman colony. The researches also of officers attached to the Bureau Arabe,' as well as the expert knowledge of many curators of local museums, have filled up numerous gaps in the general history of Roman Africa. And in the present generation the establishment of a 'Commission

des Monuments historiques' has not only resulted in more intimate acquaintance with matters of topography, but has brought into the field of African literature many French authors

of known repute. Again, the bibliography of the entire country, including Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Tripoli, has also been the subject of much thoughtful and enlightened labour. Some idea of the extent of the literature associated with North Africa may be gathered from the fact that the five English volumes devoted entirely to its bibliography comprise no less than 1215 pages.1

The rise and progress of Roman Africa are necessarily interwoven with the history of the Roman people, and form some of its most interesting chapters during the long period which elapsed between the close of the second Punic war, B.C. 201, and the fall of Rome, A.D. 455. Gibbon's scholarly pages treating of this branch of his subject are masterpieces of erudition, and are the outcome of diligent investigation of the works of Greek and Roman authors. But he wrote at a time when archæological inquiry was hardly recognised as a branch of knowledge, when little assistance could be given by observant travellers, who hesitated to explore a trackless region inhabited by barbarian hordes, and when the historian had to rely on his own interpretation of many conflicting statements by authors of antiquity. Mommsen has lived in a more favoured age. He has had at his disposal the notes of a long array of modern travellers and antiquaries, and has been able to correct or substantiate the statements of ancient authors by the light of recent research.

It is difficult for the traveller, as he journeys across the now

› A Bibliography of Algeria. By Sir R. Lambert Playfair. Pp. 430. London: John Murray. 1888. A supplementary volume by the same author and publisher. Pp. 321. 1898.

A Bibliography of Tunisia. By Henry Spencer Ashbee, F.S.A. London: Dulau & Co. 1889.

Pp. 144.

A Bibliography of Tripoli and the Cyrenaica. By Sir R. Lambert Playfair. Pp. 58. London: 1889.

A Bibliography of Morocco. By Sir R. Lambert Playfair and Dr. Robert Brown. Pp. 262. London: John Murray. 1892.

deserted plains of North Africa, to realise, in these far-off days, the extent and completeness of Roman colonisation. No other nation has left so many enduring marks of its presence as the Roman, and in no other country, outside Italy, is there such a wealth of inscriptions as in North Africa. Stone and marble, bearing the impress of human agency, are scattered over the land, and the familiar lettering is there also as a mute memorial to widespread contentment and prosperity.

It is not within the scope of this outline of historic inquiry to trace the methods by which the Romans achieved success in colonisation where other nations have failed. This branch of the subject has proved attractive to many authors of high repute, especially in the present generation, and still presents an unexhausted field for further critical investigation. Nor does the writer of the following pages claim originality in the treatment of this subject, or any ability to impart special information not open to students of Roman history, who may care to pursue their inquiries in some of the more remote regions of Northern Africa. Notes and observations during frequent journeys in various parts of the country,' and a study of the inscriptions and monumental remains of the Roman occupation, have supplied a large proportion of the material embodied in this volume. Archæology is the willing handmaid of history. Without such help the history of the Romans in Africa would be less attractive, and our acquaintance with their progress and decline more fragmentary. Every week the spade of the explorer contributes something to our knowledge; either some undiscovered monument on the plains, or an inscribed stone to tell its own unvarnished tale of place or person long passed away. The chief aim of the present work is to trace as far as possible the extent of the Roman occupation, the degree of civilisation attained in the first four centuries of the Christian era, and to show how conspicuous a part was played by North Africa in the building up of a great Empire.

Travels in Tunisia. By Alexander Graham and Henry Spencer Ashbee. London: 1887.