Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Africa: Vol. XXIV. 1876–79.

The Barbary States: Carthage

Carthage

By Virgil (70–19 B.C.)

(From The Æneid, Book I)
Translated by C. P. Cranch

THERE was an ancient city, Carthage, held

By Tyrian settlers, facing from afar

Italia, and the distant Tiber’s mouth;

Rich in resources, fierce in war’s pursuits:

And this one city, Juno, it was said,

Far more than every other land esteemed,

Samos itself being less. Here were her arms,

Her chariot here; e’en then the goddess strives

With earnest hope to found a kingdom here

Of universal sway, should fate permit.

But of a race derived from Trojan blood

She had heard, who would o’erturn the Tyrian towers

One day, and that a people of wide rule,

And proud in war, descended thence, would come

For Libya’s doom. So did the Fates decree.