FIRE and BRONZE:
A
Novel of Carthage
by
Robert Raymond
She was a princess in Tyre eight centuries before Christ. She defied her brother the king, marrying the high priest and setting temple and throne on a collision course. The Nobility rebelled at her urging, plunging the Phoenician crown city into bloody civil war. In the end, her husband would fall before the king’s own blade. She would be forced to exchange her husband’s vast wealth for a tenuous promise of life.
But she was a woman of wit and guile. Onboard the ship fetching the fortune home, she threw the riches overboard, pointing out that with this action the sailors now shared the king’s ire. They defected with her, a ragged band of seamen and exiled nobles. Fleeing west, they settled on a forsaken shore in North Africa. Here she established her city. Carthage was born.
This is the story of Elisha, a historical character of legend. It is a texture of the classic foundation myths attributed to her, from stealing away eighty Cypriot temple women to using a single oxhide to claim her city’s land. It is a mixture of the known and conjectured, rich in atmosphere and detail. Actual Phoenician words are sprinkled through the text, capturing the essence of the Mediterranean world of 814 B.C.