Carthage

(Extract from The Aeneid, 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.