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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: 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.
Salammbo |
