Cartagena was founded about the year 243 b.c. by the Carthaginian Hasdrubal, and was called Carthago Nova or New Carthage, to distinguish it from the African city of Carthage. It was conveniently situated opposite to the Carthaginian territory in Africa, and was early noted for its harbour. Its silver and gold mines were the source of great wealth both to the Carthaginians and to the Romans. In 210 b.c. this important place, the headquarters and treasure city of the Punic army, was stormed and taken with great slaughter by P. Scipio. The city continued to flourish under the Romans, who made it a colony, with the name Colonia Victrix Julia Nova Carthago. In a.d. 425 it was pillaged and nearly destroyed by the Goths. Cartagena was a bishopric from about 400 to 1289, when the see was removed to Murcia. Under the Moors it became an independent principality, which was destroyed by Ferdinand II. of Castile in 1243, restored by the Moors, and finally conquered by James I. of Aragon in 1276. It was rebuilt by Philip II. of Spain (1527-1598) for the sake of its harbour. In 1585 it was sacked by an English fleet under Sir Francis Drake. In 1706, in the War of the Spanish Succession, it was occupied by Sir John Leake; and in the next year it was retaken by the duke of Berwick. On the 5th of November 1823 it capitulated to the French. In consequence of the insurrection in Spain, Cartagena was in 1844 again the scene of warfare. On the 23rd of August 1873 it was bombarded by the Spanish fleet under Admiral Lobos; on the 11th of October a battle took place off the town, between the ships of the government and the rebels, and on the 12th of January 1874 Cartagena was occupied by the government troops.
See Biblioteca histórica de Cartagena, by G. Vicent y Portillo (Madrid, 1889, &c.); Fechos y fechas de Cartagena, by I. Martinez Rito (Cartagena, 1894); and Serie de los obispos de Cartagena, by P. Diaz Casson (Madrid, 1895).
CARTAGO, the capital of the province of Cartago, in Costa Rica, Central America; 13 m. E.S.E. of San José by the trans-continental railway. Pop. (1900) 4536. Cartago is built 4930 ft. above sea-level, on the fertile and beautiful plateau of San José, and at the southern base of the volcano Irazú (11,200 ft.). Some of its older buildings, especially the churches, are of considerable interest; but all bear marks of the volcanic disturbances from which the town has suffered on many occasions—notably in 1723, when it was nearly overwhelmed by the bursting of the flooded crater of Irazú, and in 1841, when it was shattered by an earthquake. There are hot mineral springs much frequented by invalids at Bella Vista, a suburb connected with the town by a tramway 3 m. long. The local trade is chiefly in coffee of fine quality, which is readily cultivated in the rich volcanic soil of the neighbourhood. Cartago is said to have been in existence as early as 1522; it was probably named in 1563 by the Spaniard Vazquez de Coronado, to whom its foundation is often ascribed. Though several times plundered by buccaneers, it retained its importance as the capital of Costa Rica until 1823, when it is said by tradition to have contained 30,000 inhabitants. Its prosperity rapidly diminished after the transference of the seat of government to San José, in 1823, but somewhat revived with the development of railways after 1871.
CARTE, THOMAS (1686-1754), English historian, was born at Dusmoon, near Clifton. He was educated at Oxford, and was first brought into notice by his controversy with Dr Henry Chandler regarding the Irish massacre, in which he defended Charles I. His attachment to the Stuarts also caused him to remain a non-juror, and on the discovery of the plot of Atterbury, whose secretary he was, he was forced to flee to France. There he collected materials for an English edition of De Thou and Rigault, which were purchased and published by Dr Mead. Being recalled to England through the influence of Queen Caroline, he published, in 1738, A General Account of the Necessary Materials for a History of England. The first volume of his Central History of England, which is only of value for its vast and careful collection of facts, was published in 1747. By the insertion in it of the statement that the king’s evil had been cured by the Pretender, Carte forfeited the favour of most of his patrons. He, however, continued to publish; and the 2nd volume appeared in 1750, the 3rd in 1752, the 4th in 1755. He published also a Life of James, duke of Ormond, containing a collection of letters, &c. (3 vols., 1735-1736; new ed., in 6 vols., Oxford, 1851), and a History of the Revolutions of Portugal, with letters of Sir R. Southwell during his embassy there (London, 1740). His papers became the property of the university of Oxford, and were deposited in the Bodleian library.
CARTER, ELIZABETH (1717-1806), English poet and translator, daughter of the Rev. Nicholas Carter, was born at Deal, in Kent, on the 16th of December 1717. Dr Carter educated his children, boys and girls, alike; but Elizabeth’s slowness tired his patience, and it was only by great perseverance that she conquered her natural incapacity for learning. She studied late at night and early in the morning, taking snuff and chewing green tea to keep herself awake; thus causing severe injury to her health. She learned Greek and Latin, and Dr Johnson said concerning a celebrated scholar that he “understood Greek better than any one whom he had ever known except Elizabeth Carter.” She learned also Hebrew, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and lastly some Arabic. She studied astronomy, ancient geography, and ancient and modern history. Edward Cave was a friend of Dr Carter, and in 1734 some of Elizabeth’s verses, signed “Eliza,” appeared in the Gentleman’s Magazine, to which she contributed for many years. In 1738 Cave published her Poems upon Particular Occasions; in 1739 she translated from the French an attack on Pope’s Essay on Man by J.P. de Crousaz; and in the same year appeared her translation from the Italian of Algarotti’s Newtonianismo per le Dame, under the title of Sir Isaac Newton’s Philosophy explained for the use of the Ladies, in six Dialogues on Light and Colour. Her translation of Epictetus (1758) was undertaken in 1749 to please her friends, Thomas Secker (afterwards archbishop of Canterbury) and his niece, Catherine Talbot, to whom the translation was sent, sheet by sheet, as it was done. In 1762 Miss Carter printed a second collection of Poems on Several Occasions. Her letters to Miss Talbot contain an account of a tour on the continent undertaken in 1763 in company with Edward and Elizabeth Montagu and William Pulteney, 1st earl of Bath. Dr Carter, from 1762 to his death in 1774, lived with his daughter in a house at Deal, which she had purchased. An annuity was settled on her by Sir William Pulteney and his wife, who had inherited Lord Bath’s fortune; and she had another annuity from Mrs Montagu. Among Miss Carter’s friends and correspondents were Samuel Johnson, Bishop Butler, Richard Savage, Horace Walpole, Samuel Richardson, Edmund Burke, Hannah More, and Elizabeth Vesey, who was a leader of literary society. She died in Clarges Street, Piccadilly, on the 19th of February 1806.
Her Memoirs were published in 1807; her correspondence with Miss Talbot and Mrs Vesey in 1809; and her letters to Mrs Montagu in 1817. See also A Woman of Wit and Wisdom (1906), a biography by Alice C.C. Gaussen.