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ITALY AND TURKEY WAR BECAUSE OF AN ANCIENT LOVE AFFAIR Rodney Y. Gilbert THERE is a virus in some love ;af ; fairs especially in a dismal love affair, .which? makes itself felt be yond the . .traditional third "and fourth . generations, infects nations and outlives them. Homer took quite a few thousand lines to relate ; how a little; ro mance overturned a great nation and filled 10,000 homes with mourning, but that was neither the first nor the ?last case. : Take this ■ trouble ■in ? north - Af rica ffor instance, the war between the Turks in Tripoli and the scions of old Rome. : Those who have no nose for romance and refuse to admit the over whelming influence of?the dead ages on present events. will you that it is an .-": old * struggle—dates 5 back sto *, the settlement of the Russb-Turkish- treaty in I*7*, : when Italy was told by .the In tervening powers that 4 she could occupy Tripoli by pacific ; measures. An'bid struggle. Indeed!" -_ Why, it^Jbegan in an age when * the Russians were - gnawing bones. on the - frozen steppes, and? the Turks -were :i mere yellow men on the outer fringe of China's budding civiliza tion. Arid. what? is more, It began in a love affair.?*< "?":: : -*■"?- Before Rome was ; founded, and while Aeneas was . still scouring the?seas, hunting a landing-place J, after trie Tro jan war, he put Into Carthage and saw Dido, founder and ;queen of; the Phoene cian settlement. Hiorbus, king of J the Numidians, loved Dido, but Dido and Aeneas fell violently in love with each other. Zeus did not favor the mateh — so he sent Mercury down to deliver an ultimatum. Aeneas, sailed away to found Rome, out of which grew what ever" power is left to Italy, and Dido killed herself, thereby spiting Hiorbus and: filling "Numidians and Carthage-? nians alike with the spirit of revenge and a cordial destestation" for the peo ples across the sea. ?; . ? ;";.,- --? This Is an .old? time .romance, dead about 2,500 years, the historians would tell you, but are not the children of \ Aeneas'; men, still warring » with the -children of the ; Numidians acrossVthe, sea and with the * tribesmen ?whose ? fathers were ruled by n Carthage??? A • veritable chain of ; : those trans-Meditet ranean conflicts? ■ beginning with Dido and -trailing in blood through "all the : centuries, involving a score of peoples, stretches down ;to the present conflict when Admiral Aubrey -. of ?. x the * Italian fleet hurls? Invective and steel at '•Has suna Pasha and the Lybian- Arabs. The - historian scorns Dido ;? in fixing the cause for the war and talks? much of ; diplomatic affairs \ between the * porte and * the " powers ? and ? of > the? desirable -, 'commerce of north Africa which Italy 1/ .would absorb, but ;? then'? the historian ; has no appreciation of £ romance—he lis' " a "mere chronologist. v^'V?;".' »?>*■*''::- I<\S~ Certainly he can not deny that Rome .and Carthage? fought t long and bloody wars? "several;,, "centuries? 'before the ; Christian era, >or that^Belisarius of Pa? later | Roman i empire (crossed ; the same : -waters to ' attack : the same shores 'in the rsixth* century A. D., or that the knights of; St. John, representing the clerical power of Rome in the days of the cru saders, made the same crossing and ; warred in .the. same fields. But. for the benefit of ' all modernists, -it?" might be l well to review the present .trouble from the time of the treaty of '78 and ;;then,? as Balzac said, . "Let .us talk of real people"— to Dido and' the heartless Aeneas for.-the ."sake of-old romance. . Every one knows the story of the ■recent events. In the latter part of September -Italyb sent' a fleet to Trip- : oil and gave Turkey notice- that '. a similar movement on her part would be a declaration of war. Constants-; ".riople buzzed like 3'a;-, hive with con sternation and ;?a?:few?; torpedo boats arid transports were sent Vto ** Africa, ? only to go down under /"-the"? guns? of ; ; Admiral Aubrey—Sclpio Africanus the second. It took the Romans 17 days ,*■-tojtfurn; all of Carthage in 146 B. C, j .' i and :In ? about the same time, accord ?ing *<to recent? reports, the sailors vand? soldiers of Italy took Tripoli': and : killed every native man. and woman in > 's it. But the men from the Lybian des ert, ""of the same blood as the men ,: ■ - who were » Morbus' subjects, ?'have not * ; quit- - yet. and It Is said that there . are 60,000 or more of them in the hills i about the ■ city r of. Tripoli. . So?the -.old? /feud- Is? still 1 on. .the " old fire, which 'has burned on. the north arid south? shores of the Mediterranean for nearly 8,000 years has not burned out. If the shades keep :up their interest in ; .? things terrestial there are several? mil lion of them, veterans of ; this same time honored war, watching the pres ent , struggle from the pagan hades, the Christian heaven, the Mohammedan paradise with Its seven stories, and from wherever the Phoenicians and J;Qartha'genlaris went. Not a few Turk \ Greeks, Saracens, Vandals of Genseric's ! ' following raised their?*weapons?; and " went down in one, 4 conflict "or another "i»<ln!* the long; war across seas. Italy now threatens to end the war by tak ing - Turkey's (Island? possessions, but, •while Turkey has nothing to .'do* with , . old Carthage, that was just what Rome did about. 241 B. C. to Carthage—she seized precious Sardinia and Corsica, •; . and the ' war is < still; onTV?*', .-'J-,*?;??.* ??"*' Now, to go back to Dido, this is the way It all started, or at least this is the way Rome and Carthage started, '. and they started the fighting In earn est: When the Numidians and the people of the Lyblan deserts • were i dwelling.-; In north Africa in '-cheerful^ i barbarity and Latinus was reigning over the soil where Rome was later built, Aeneas, the homeless wanderer, '. and Dido, the vagrant princess, met -' on the ;• shores of Africa near where -Tunis now stands, and fell in love. ' Dido was the daughter of the king of the merchant city of Tyre, arid had been married, to her "'uncle Acerbas, -M^rW Jilted Dido &»»%- k mWkW MsLw^ m. S **v^ mm. ' 'inn X FOR 300CWE»R5 ™tHE ; Mediterranean . - ******** . ™ -»»—^- Nations 1- Have nATIOnS nlw& S.vFoiiCHT ' Each Other or Tripoli's 5 AMDS priest * of' Hercules. y Acerbas'. had * great' wealth and when ; j Dido's .;* brother. Pygmalion, killed .him, she seized upon the horde and with a following of faithful Tyrians put out upon the Medi terranean and hunted new .quarters. * At ; Byrsa she met Hiorbus, king of the Numidians, '? and cheated s him out of o enough to build a citadel. The Phoenicians were clever and poor HlOr bus was a* mere barbarian?; She bar gained that she should pay a small amount for i the land which an oxhide? ■.would';'. cover. -Hiorbus. ."bit" and the shrewd, princess"sliced. a v hide up Into threadlike strips.. tied them end to end. and circled off ;n^ plot of" ground big enough for a settlement. Of course, fell in love with her. v .^ ? . , . . - Then came Aeneas, travel weary and battle scarred, with a rare pedigree, for 'he": was the ' sen *of a. goddess and % a •.prince of Troy, and determined to win the wise widow and end his seagoing. But the gods interfered, or at least that | was the story he told her aid he l sailed away '-like;- many another mariner who : • hungers for the sea, found the mouth of | the Tiber, was welcomed by La tin us and | married Lavinla. evidently was able <,o keep him from wandering, so there he stayed arid? from the -. union ; grew Rome. Meanwhile poor Dido, de» testing the crude Numidlan, mounted a funeral pyre and slew nerself. Her town grew on, however, no longer Byrsa, but Kart Hadisha, or the "new city" in Phoenician —later abbreviated to Carthage. And the dynasty of Aeneas flourished and built* a city, but the lova of Dido and Aeneas I was j dead and the • bitterness which follows ran love affair grew with the '.prospering cities. The stronger they grew the more jealous they were and j the more the merchants 'on'the'African shore, great sailors and traders, hated the soldiers :: of j Italy, landsmen who despised the sea and sent the, scum of the population out in boats. •'■'• Carthage controlled the trade of the * i whole Mediterranean. No foreign power could enter the ports of her colonies, but had to trade with the mother city. Her population, when the. great : clash came, -'was- close Mo.'a million and her ; traders, scouring: the seas from India to ■ ' ' --'■ "-••"", : ~-> \ - ' * .-^uarfflfir*! Britain and penetrating into the heart of the deserts of Africa and Arabia, brought : back.?. enormous '"".wealth s and dumped it into the market places of the trade center. "No Roman can wash his hands in the sea without Carthage's permission," ";the; merchant princes boasted, and it was almost literally true. But then when the great conflict came Rome had an army of 700,000 in fantry and g 70,000 cavalry (arid* her but-; posts reached to Spain on the west and into the wildernesses of Gaul in all directions. Pyrrhus the pirate defied Carthage ;on the ; seas ?- : and ?/ fattened yon' the i wealth of Sicily» where Carthage ruled 1 and traded. But they drove him out and he returned to his native i Epirus prophesying the fsplendid § struggle be tween. Rome and / his seafaring ene mies. Perhaps Pyrrhus was not fully avenged by the event which followed, but at any rate, If his shade still hov ers In Epirus, he had the satisfaction of seeing an f s Italian war vessel^sehd one of the Tripoli squadron to the bot tom and drive two ashore on ! his own Epirus »little? more than a .month? ago." Not only do the events repeat them selves in this unending struggle, but • tire setting is the s same. *?/// ?'-;>/;?*;.,• "= i.fThe?; first great war began about 275 B. C. a and lasted J for twenty-three years. : : Carthage had wealth, but- at the ; end; Carthage paid jin tribute most of what Rome left her and; saw Sar • dinia and Corsica garrisoned with the legionaries. Then Hamilcar of > Car-; thage, in 236 B. C„ attacked Rome upon .her? wing. He ..'invaded/:Spain; with Hasdrubal, his son in law, and the famous Hannibal. Rome was •■panic, stricken . when Hannibal crossed the Alps, laid waste Northern Italy and threatened the capital itself. But he was held in check and when he re turned to Africa Sclpio met him. on his own ground and, Carthage went into her vaults " and treasure ? boxes T again, to buy the Romans off. The last of the Carthage which Dido founded -fell before ."> another Sclpio—the nameAwaa ominousin: 146 B. 1 C.-.arid 1-nothing but charrQd 'ruins marked the V; site %ot The San Francisco Sunday Call : "Aeneas* love making until Augustus rebuilt the city,*- no longer . Carthage"""* .? then, but Junonia. ; a Roman icity with/ scarcely a memento; of , the Phoeni- • I cian occupation. ;?'But^ the S. animosity was not dead, | norswas Dido's empire ? to; digest its humility in peace. ?Gen eerlc the Vandal established a bar ?.'barian empire theref in 45^9 A.|D. Has san, the? Saracen herald-of ; the Mos lems, wiped out the last ; traces of the city in 647..- Before' him, Belisarius, ? the * general of the forces -of Justinian, paid Carthage?a" visit in 533, remod- ... ? eled it with the sword and torch and proudly? naihed it .Tustiniana. Carthage -"was dead, but Southern Europe was «, cot done with Northern Africa. Just . as Hannibal : has | entered;- Spain ; when Rome was a military power and threatened ?to ? Africanize • Europe, so ihe ? wild I men of | North * Africa, fired i with the ? zeal I**"of Moslemlsm. :**ans,'jLj'blans, Semites of many tribes, the = people of <Didb?and:*Hiorbus, en tered-Spain? again and were .checked at Tours by Karl Martel In 732. Karl Martel represented: the pontifi :■■-cal power of Rome in his , age, as op posed to r the Moslem power of the dark men of northern The issues had changed 'a; trifle?; Dido and Aeneas were myths, the military power of Rome and , the: J commercial^ prestige of :: Carthage •were gone, but the ancient animosity had v only taken on a new ; garment ; and the same races selected much the same ■?»eoil%tb fight out their differences. ?: "Then"' the same Ferdinand with whom .Columbus? dealt, as "= king of Sicily and -'*' also -of Aragon, took up the feud and not only drove the Moors past Gibral "? tar but ? followed ;>in?; the ;, time worn ? tracks of | Hannibal along ■ northern Africa? seizing' Moslem strongholds and ■lestablishing the prestige of the Latin :as far east as the " present city of. Trip ?:oli. He occupied the city itself about ?151 ?a:ID:'-;; Carthage was; no longer ? worth taking, but Tripoli was simply a suburb of Carthage in her prosperous days, and? Ferdinand * was working in the old tramping ground of the Sciplos, : of?Genseric, of f Belisarius and | all th"3taw - others who came ? across ! the seas from* the north like Aeneas. -..? Close upon his trail came the Knights - of St. JOhn, offspring of i the ; crusaders, ? withy the -ecclesiastical? power of * Rome " blazoned on their shields and banners. That was about- 1530 A. D., and then *:came the Interlopers, the Turks, who ? knew nothing of ' the • old trouble at all, but just swept in from Tartary ■ like so many wolves, ravenous and overwhelm ing:; ... - - . ?v Perhaps there were no further- Inva sions or counter Invasions worth re r cording up to the last century, ; when all .«j Europe began pushing across the Mcd- I iterranean —Spain into Morocco, France * into Algiers ' and t Italy into Tripoli. But for a time immediately before that < movement began? north ; Africa ; had its fling again. * Who has not heard of the Barbary pirates? : Where the merchant ships of the old Carthage coasted and lorded -it^ over : the puny fleets of all other nations, dictating how often Rome should ; "wash * her hands In the sea," the pirates Tunis arid? Tripoli made lif^"" hideous for' the seamen of the northern "shores? and exacted ? tribute \ ifrom the merchants of all nations. ,Even the United States,?in? Its Infancy, had to struggle with the wayward ; sons of old Carthage, which only shows how :modern and, at the "same, time, how rusty and moth eaten with age is the feud. . . £?' And now Italy ; hangs by a. bare claw hold upon the rim of Tripoli, ', and : ths desert men are?crowding? in - from the wastes of all. north Africa, fanatical with the old hate, to push /the"Roman eagle Into the sea again. The story of ';this war without "; end does *'- not begin with the diplomatic phrases ;"bf? the Russo-Turkish treaty, but Is lost in the ;myths and legends which preceded his "tory? It has.been Rome against Tripoli, ~B* •bary? Justiniana, Junonia, Carthage, | Ka't Hadisha and "ByrsarNames change and rulers change. The fates have not favored Africa in the strugr- but she dies hard, as the records show. A hun dred times the men from the north have plowed and harrowed the same narrow strip which lies between the great des ert jmd the sea with steel and "have sown it with salt, but the old soil pro duces the .same* crop with" each sue- 1 generation, When Dido intro-i duced Carthage to history she engraved its name in characters which time does riot seem able. to erase, and the child-en of Aeneas may yet be busy for a long while rubbing out the last faint trac ings and plowing under 3 the last bound ary^ one: of her empire.