[383] Notitia Occid.
[384] Named consecutively from east to west the seven provinces were Tripolis, Byzacium, Zeugitana ("Proconsular Africa," cap. Carthage; now Tunisia), Mauritania Sitifensis, M. Caesariensis (these two constitute the modern Algeria), and Tingitana (now Morocco). All lay along the irregular coast.
[385] Cape Bon (Ras Addar).
[386] The remains of these works are still to be seen under water. They were so considerable in Bruce's time that he fancied most of Carthage must have been submerged; Travels, etc., 1790, i, p. xxi. The best compendious guide to the existing ruins of Carthage is Babelon's Carthage, Paris, 1896. He was one of the excavators, and gives a large map which indicates everything remaining on the site.
[387] Procopius, De Bel. Vand., i, 20, etc.
[388] Ibid., 15, etc. Now the Lake or Lagoon of Tunis. Carthage was at the north-west corner, Tunis diagonally at the opposite one. About two miles long, one and a half wide.
[389] See Appian's description of the Punic harbours, the Cothon, etc.; viii, 96. The entrance at this time was probably that artificially excavated by the Carthaginians after Scipio had blocked that in previous use. The harbour was most likely restored by the Romans to very much its former state. Rambaud has adopted this view in his archaeological restoration of Carthage (c. 690), which he put into novelistic form; L'Empereur de Carthage, Paris, 1904. Dureau de la Malle argues from texts that Carthage was not "rased to the ground," as the formal expression is, but merely dismantled; Topog. de Carthage, Paris, 1835, p. 103, et seq. Certain ponds now in existence seem to represent the inland ports, but an opposition view has been taken; C. Torr, Classical Rev., 1891.
[390] The island apparently is still there, but no remains of buildings have been uncovered so far. For what has been done see Babelon, op. cit.
[391] Some ruins still remain and sufficient of the structure to present an imposing appearance existed well into the last century. Being quarried for later purposes, the relic has gradually lost its distinctive form; see Beulé, Fouilles à Carthage, Paris, 1861, p. 29.
[392] Victor Vit., De Persec. Vand., ii, 5 (written c. 487, and proves the existence of the stairway, etc., in the fifth century).