Bab Bab 5 · TANITH

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copper cupola swelled among the palm trees; the dark Moloch was below

the cisterns, in the direction of the pharos. At the angles of the

pediments, on the tops of the walls, at the corners of the squares,

everywhere, divinities with hideous heads might be seen, colossal or

squat, with enormous bellies, or immoderately flattened, opening their

jaws, extending their arms, and holding forks, chains or javelins in

their hands; while the blue of the sea stretched away behind the streets

which were rendered still steeper by the perspective.

They were filled from morning till evening with a tumultuous people;

young boys shaking little bells, shouted at the doors of the baths; the

shops for hot drinks smoked, the air resounded with the noise of anvils,

the white cocks, sacred to the Sun, crowed on the terraces, the oxen

that were being slaughtered bellowed in the temples, slaves ran about

with baskets on their heads; and in the depths of the porticoes a priest

would sometimes appear, draped in a dark cloak, barefooted, and wearing

a pointed cap.

The spectacle afforded by Carthage irritated the Barbarians; they

admired it and execrated it, and would have liked both to annihilate it

and to dwell in it. But what was there in the Military Harbour defended

by a triple wall? Then behind the town, at the back of Megara, and

higher than the Acropolis, appeared Hamilcar’s palace.

Matho’s eyes were directed thither every moment. He would ascend the

olive trees and lean over with his hand spread out above his eyebrows.

The gardens were empty, and the red door with its black cross remained

constantly shut.

More than twenty times he walked round the ramparts, seeking some breach

by which he might enter. One night he threw himself into the gulf and

swam for three hours at a stretch. He reached the foot of the Mappalian

quarter and tried to climb up the face of the cliff. He covered his

knees with blood, broke his nails, and then fell back into the waves and

returned.

His impotence exasperated him. He was jealous of this Carthage which

contained Salammbô, as if of some one who had possessed her. His

nervelessness left him to be replaced by a mad and continual eagerness

for action. With flaming cheek, angry eyes, and hoarse voice, he would

walk with rapid strides through the camp; or seated on the shore he

would scour his great sword with sand. He shot arrows at the passing

vultures. His heart overflowed into frenzied speech.

“Give free course to your wrath like a runaway chariot,” said

Spendius. “Shout, blaspheme, ravage and slay. Grief is allayed with

blood, and since you cannot sate your love, gorge your hate; it will

sustain you!”

Matho resumed the command of his soldiers. He drilled them pitilessly.

He was respected for his courage and especially for his strength.

Moreover he inspired a sort of mystic dread, and it was believed that

he conversed at night with phantoms. The other captains were animated

by his example. The army soon grew disciplined. From their houses the

Carthaginians could hear the bugle-flourishes that regulated their

exercises. At last the Barbarians drew near.

To crush them in the isthmus it would have been necessary for two armies

to take them simultaneously in the rear, one disembarking at the end of

the gulf of Utica, and the second at the mountain of the Hot Springs.

But what could be done with the single sacred Legion, mustering at most

six thousand men? If the enemy bent towards the east they would join the

nomads and intercept the commerce of the desert. If they fell back to

the west, Numidia would rise. Finally, lack of provisions would

sooner or later lead them to devastate the surrounding country like

grasshoppers, and the rich trembled for their fine country-houses, their

vineyards and their cultivated lands.