Islands, trained from infancy to sling with stones or balls of lead.
The generals were Carthaginians; the government distrusted them,
watched them closely, and when they were defeated, had them crucified.

=The Carthaginians.=--Carthage had two kings, but the senate was the
real power, being composed of the richest merchants of the city. And
so every state question for this government became a matter of
commerce. The Carthaginians were hated by all other peoples, who found
them cruel, greedy, and faithless. And yet, since they had a good
fleet, had money to purchase soldiers, and possessed an energetic
government, they succeeded in the midst of barbarous and divided
peoples in maintaining their empire over the western Mediterranean for
300 years (from the sixth to the third century B.C.).

=The Phoenician Religion.=--The Phoenicians and the Carthaginians had a
religion similar to that of the Chaldeans. The male god, Baal, is a
sun-god; for the sun and the moon are in the eyes of the Phoenicians
the great forces which create and which destroy. Each of the cities of
Phoenicia has therefore its divine pair: at Sidon it is Baal Sidon (the
sun) and Astoreth (the moon); at Gebel, Baal Tammouz and Baaleth; at
Carthage, Baal-Hamon, and Tanith. But the same god changes his name
according as he is conceived as creator or destroyer; thus Baal as
destroyer is worshipped at Carthage under the name of Moloch. These
gods, represented by idols, have their temples, altars, and priests.
As creators they are honored with orgies, with tumultuous feasts; as
destroyers, by human victims. Astoreth, the great goddess of Sidon,
whom they represented by the crescent of the moon and the dove, had
her cult in the sacred woods. Baal Moloch is figured at Carthage as a
bronze colossus with arms extended and lowered. When they wished to
appease him they laid children in his hands who fell at once into a
pit of fire. During the siege of Carthage by Agathocles the principal
men of the city sacrificed to Moloch as many as two hundred of their
children.

This sensual and sanguinary religion inspired other peoples with
horror, but they imitated it. The Jews sacrificed to Baal on the
mountains; the Greeks adored Astarte of Sidon under the name of
Aphrodite, and Baal Melkhart of Tyre under the name of Herakles.

PHOENICIAN COMMERCE

=Phoenicians Occupations.=--Crowded into a small territory, the
Phoenicians gained their livelihood mainly from commerce