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Phoenicians and Greeks were colonizing the Mediterranean for centuries before Rome rose to power. There were some important differences in their colonization strategies. The Greeks were disunited and city states were colonizing independently. All were looking for places to settle excess (and sometimes dissident) population. The Greeks tended to colonize the islands, the northern side of the Mediterranean and the eastern part of North Africa. They wanted cities and hinterland for agricultural proposes.
The Romans eventually called the Greek colonies of Italy and Sicily "Magna Graecia", and that could give the wrong impression of unity among the Greek colonies. They actually fought amongst themselves constantly -- just as the Greek city states who originally had sent out the colonists continued to fight amongst themselves. The only thing that might unite a group of Greek colonies was an outside threat; at one point the Greeks of Sicily united against the Phoenician/Carthaginian threat and threw their enemies off the island -- but only temporarily.
The Phoenicians, on the other hand were looking for trade. They set up small urban colonies where Phoenician factors (i.e., tradesmen) could set up shop and sell finished goods to the interior, where they could buy raw materials and local handicrafts for the home market, and perhaps where they could either set up light industries or organize pre-existing light industries.
Some Phoenician colonies, like Utica and Carthage (from northern Semitic, Kart Hadasht = new city; equivalent to the Greek Neapolis) grew into larger entrepots where goods were consolidated for shipment back to Phoenicia or Phoenician shipments were broken down for onward distribution to smaller colonies. They were close neighbors on the Gulf of Tunis but had been set up by rival Phoenician trading cartels from Sidon and Tyre. Carthage always overshadowed Utica; several Tyrian trading families invested heavily in Carthage and had large trading organizations there. When the Phoenician homeland was conquered and divided into four client kingdoms in 539 BC by Cyrus the Great, Carthage became the leader of the "new Phoenicia" in the Western Mediterranean.
Even in their largest colonies like Carthage, Phoenicians were always very thin on the ground in their settlements; they hired (and sometimes enslaved) locals to work for them and, eventually, to serve as land troops and mariners. The use of mercenary troops would eventually prove to be disadvantageous.
Polybius is our main source of information on the Punic wars. Livy used the works of Polybius as the basis of his writings on the Punic wars, but he obviously used other sources, now lost, as well. A third Historian, Appian of Alexandria, wrote in the 2nd century AD using Polybius as his source on the Third Punic War, and it's a good thing he did, because the volumes by Polybius about the Third Punic war have never been found.
The Punic wars were initially concerned with shipping and particularly with shipping through the narrow passage between Carthage and Sicily. As Rome grew, it needed more food than if could produce in Italy, so shipping became critical for Rome's continued growth. Carthage controlled the sea lanes, and, for a long time, the Romans participated in unequal treaties with the Carthaginians -- Rome paid the Carthaginians to let Rome trade. Ships, of course were essential. Rome had cargo ships, but very few fighting ships. Meanwhile Carthage was mass producing warships. And that's not an exaggeration either about numbers or about shipbuilding methods; Carthaginian warships were built up of standard interchangeable parts. We know this not only from contemporary accounts, but also from recovered Carthaginian ships like the half of a Carthaginian ship shown in (c), above, that was recovered off the coast of Marsala at the western tip of Sicily; it was brand new when it was sunk by the Romans, and it still retains marks giving assembly instructions ("tab a into slot b", etc.) Other recovered ships had identical parts.
But the ancient Romans were excellent copyists and craftsmen. According to contemporary accounts, they recovered a Carthaginian warship that wrecked on the instep of the Italian boot and quickly were building "Carthaginian class" warships.
According to Greek and Roman legend, Carthage was founded by princess Elissa (perhaps "Elishat" in Phoenician). She is also known as Dido, which means "Wanderer".
The only full account of the founding of Carthage that survives before Vergil's treatment is that of Vergil's contemporary Gnaeus Pompeius Trogus in his Philippic histories as rendered in a digest or epitome made by Justin two hundred years later.
According to Justin (18.4–6), a king of Tyre, whom Justin does not name, made his very beautiful daughter Elissa and son Pygmalion his joint heirs. But on his death the people took Pygmalion alone as their ruler though Pygmalion was yet still a boy. Elissa married Acerbas her uncle, who as priest of Hercules (that is, Melqart) was second in power to King Pygmalion. Rumor truthfully told how Acerbas had much wealth secretly buried, and King Pygmalion had Acerbas murdered in hopes of gaining the wealth. Elissa, desiring to escape Tyre, pretended to wish to move into Pygmalion's palace. But then Elissa ordered the attendants whom Pygmalion sent to aid in the move to throw all Acerbas' bags of gold into the sea as an offering to his spirit, or so it seemed. In fact the bags contained only sand. Then Elissa persuaded the attendants to join her in flight to another land rather than face Pygmalion's anger when he discovered what had supposedly become of Acerbas' wealth. Some "senators" also joined her.
The party arrived at Cyprus where the priest of Jupiter joined the expedition. There the exiles also seized about 80 young women who were prostituting themselves on the shore in order to provide wives for the men in the party.
Eventually Elissa and her followers arrived in Libya where Elissa asked the local inhabitants for a small bit of land for a temporary refuge until she could continue her journeying, only as much land as could be encompassed by an oxhide. They agreed. Elissa cut the oxhide into fine strips so that she had enough to use it to surround an entire nearby hill, which was therefore afterwards named Byrsa 'hide'. That would become their new home. Many of the locals joined the settlement and both locals and envoys from the nearby Phoenician city of Utica urged the building of a city. In digging the foundations an ox's head was found, indicating a city that would be wealthy but subject to others. Accordingly another area of the hill was dug instead where a horse's head was found, indicating that the city would be powerful in war.
An early Greek form of the Dido legend has her forced into an unhappy marriage with a north African prince. She asks to burn all the mementos of her first marriage, and, when the fire is going nicely, hops in. Vergil changes that to a happy tryst with Aeneas that ends when he runs off to fulfill his Italian destiny. After he leaves, and having borne his child, she leaps int the fire where she is burning mementos of their affair. The child, therefore, hates Rome, and the Punic Wars are the eventual result.
During the Roman period in North Africa, the Aeneas legends were very popular decorative motifs. This mosaic from a Roman villa near Carthage confounds the Aeneas and Odysseus legends. Whoever it is, he's tied to the ship's mast to hear the song while his crew, their ears stopped with wax, rows on.
There was constant tension between the aristocracy, who wanted peace, almost at any price, so they could get back to commerce, and the "Kings" (only an approximate translation), each of whom was the commander-in-chief of Carthaginian forces. It appears that sometimes (as it also sometimes happens today) parts of the military establishment acted independently and with no regard to the wishes of the civilian government. This also, by the way, seems to have happened at times in Rome.
Not much of Punic Carthage is left. The Romans leveled the city at the end of the Punic Wars, and, starting during the reign of Augustus, built a new Roman Carthage on the same spot. The Romans went to a great deal of effort to wipe out (and eventually replace) all the Carthaginian towns. One that they apparently missed was near the place now occupied by the Tunisian city of Kerkouane on the east side of the Cap Bon peninsula. (Cap Bon was the French colonial name for the Bay of Tunis.) So we do have some identifiable Punic urban ruins that can be studied.
The ruins near Kerkouane include Punic houses. While the Romans bathed in groups, the Punic population of this city appear to have wanted their privacy.
FYI: I have adopted the conventional form of referring to the population of the Carthage urban area as Carthaginian and the other Semitic population as Punic -- that's what the ancient Romans did, too, thence the "Punic" Wars. Most of the population of the areas under Carthaginian dominance were either "Numidians", i.e., dessert tribesmen, or "Libyan", i.e. the indigenous coastal population, so named by the Greeks and so called by the Romans.
Did Carthage discover America? Here's a scientist who thinks it might be so.
The strategic situation in the western Mediterranean developed in such a way that eventually there were only two powers left -- and both of them had become accustomed to expansion. When their interests impinged upon each other, there was bound to be conflict.
After Cyrus captured Phoenicia, Carthage became the metropolis of the Punic territories. It conquered the other Punic settlements and took over the coastal agricultural areas. North Africa became an exporter of grain and other agricultural products. That fact attracted the avaricious attention of Roman agribusiness moguls.
As noted before, there were both Greek and Punic colonies on Sicily. When Carthage took over the "empire" in North Africa it also accepted protective responsibility for the Sicilian Punic colonies (and for the ones on Corsica and Sardinia -- where Carthage got its wood for shipbuilding. The Greek colonies on the island were constantly fighting with their neighbors, whether Greek of Punic, and Carthage did not hesitate to intervene. In fact, Carthage relished the opportunity; its own agribusiness moguls had seen the good crop land on Sicily.
We now, once again get into some murky circumstances -- we only have the Roman side if the story. We will jump past the Pyrrhic wars in which the Romans and Carthaginians (but not necessarily in concert) depleted the forces of Pyrrhus of Epiros, who had been called in to protect some Greek colonies on the eastern end of Sicily. Suffice it to say that Roman forces were now in control of all of Southern Italy and that the toe of the boot is only two miles from the east coast of Sicily.
The small time Greek king of Sicilian Syracuse had hired some Campanian mercenaries in one of his local wars, and when he died they were demobilized. The mercenaries called themselves Mamertines (i.e., "Martians" = adherents to Mars = Mamer in the Campanian dialect, the god of war). Instead of going back to the Campania (in Roman territory, near Naples), they took over the Greek town of Messana (today Messina) just two miles across the Straights of Messina from Italy. The local folks of Messana pushed the mercenaries onto a small hook of land on one side of the harbor and onto a hill behind the hook, but they could not force them out of that stronghold. Meanwhile the Mamertines were raiding Syracusan territory and indulging in a bit of piracy in the straights. That meant that the Messana port was unusable by the Greeks of the town. They had to get help or face ruin. Some Syracusans and Messanese asked Carthage to intervene on their behalf, and Carthage responded positively, garrisoning the rest of Messana and skirmishing with the Mamertines. The Mamertines asked the local Roman commander in Rhegium for support, and a Roman force was ashore in Messana within hours. Rome was at war with Carthage. The First Punic War began that quickly.
It's easy to surmise that the whole sequence of events was planned at least by the local Roman commander in Rhegium and maybe higher up the chain of command. The Roman forces were certainly ready to move onto Sicily at a moment's notice.
A quick scorecard of the Punic Wars.
The quinquereme was the capital warship of both the Carthaginian and the Roman navies -- and there was nothing in any other Mediterranean navy to match them. The Romans knew nothing about "modern" naval architecture at the start of the war and knew even less about how to man ships. But the Romans were fast learners and copiers. Initially they bought "borrowed" ships and impressed crews from former Greek ports on the Italian mainland, but the Romans were soon building huge fleets of quinquerimes at a much faster rate than the Carthaginians would match. That's "would", not "could". Rome was willing to spend, but the shekel-pinching Carthaginian aristocracy held back. Historians once doubted the Polybian claims of the many hundreds of ships built by the Romans -- needed because the Romans lost whole fleets in early naval battles and even more due to inexperienced officers who would steer into any storm that was available. But finds of sunken Roman warships of the period indicate that Rome very rapidly started to mass produce ships with identical and interchangeable prefabricated parts -- tab a into slot b. The rapidly expanding Roman navy also mass produced interchangeable "prefabricated" crews -- efficiently trained in land-bound mockups before being put aboard newly commissioned ships.
The corvus ramp often is credited with turning around Roman naval fortunes in the First Punic War. It allowed Roman marines (really just detachments of land soldiers) to swarm aboard Carthaginian ships and fight as if they were on land. There was little defense against this tactic, but the corvus made already unstable shallow draft ships even more wobbly. A new tactic was soon found; catapults shot heavy grappling darts, enemy hulls were reeled in, and the marines scrambled over to do their bloody work.
The Romans never liked to ram enemies. The heavy bronze rostrum (ram) on the ship's bow was designed for quick disengagement, but there was always the chance of getting stuck and going down with the enemy ship. Besides that, Romans would rather capture and re-use enemy ships than sink them. Even if you did have to scuttle the enemy craft, you would want to bring home the rostrum of the enemy ship either as a trophy or because it was the most expensive part of a ship. When Rome was in full ship-building fettle, the bronze rostrum was probably more costly than all the rest of the ship. It was also much more efficient to recycle rostra than to make them new.
Roman naval engineers became quite imaginative. They built tall siege towers on catamarans and soon were producing dreadnought battleships 165 feet long, 35 feet wide, and carrying 600 crew and up to that many marines. They, of course, also carried siege towers that could literally tower over defensive bastions of Punic port towns.
The land war on Sicily was won at sea. As we have seen, the Romans figured out how to attack Punic port cities with siege towers mounted on ships. All they had to do was keep the inhabitants from fleeing inland. The Romans had troops ashore from the beginning, but they were faced by Hamilcar Barca, an experienced Carthaginian General who relied on quick movements and lightning attacks; he had earned the name Barca, which means "Lightning" in northern Semitic languages. Both the Romans and the Carthaginians initially used the Macedonian phalanx, and the Romans were outclassed by the Carthaginians. The Romans soon started to line up and to arm their troops differently -- they lined up in maniples, smaller more maneuverable units, and each trooper carried a short Iberian sword called a gladius and a large body sized shield instead of the long lance and shorter shield of the phalangist.
The phalanx of spears looked and was formidable -- the lances were more than twenty feet long and the moving front edge of the phalanx prickled with the lances of four to five following rows of marching lancers. If one lancer fell, his whole file (sixteen or more deep) moved forward and never stopped its forward progress.
And that was the problem with the phalanx. It could move forward, but all those interlayed long spears made turning virtually impossible. A turn would require all the spears to be lifted simultaneously (causing great vulnerability while they were up), then all the men would have to turn 90 or 180 degrees, then all spears would have to come down again. Diagonal movements -- anything other than forward, back, or sideways required the phalanx to wheel in unison. Any of these movements would be hard to coordinate in the heat of battle. In anything other than flat, obstacle-free terrain, phalanges could quickly just get stuck in one position. When both sides used the phalanx, they would march at each other and then engage in a shoving match. Phalanx flanks were extremely vulnerable to attack by auxiliary cavalry. Even if the phalanx could continue to attack in a forward direction, it was vulnerable to the new Roman deployment. Maniples were massed into legions, but they could move independently in any direction -- even lone troopers could fight in any direction that was necessary. In a front-on battle, each Roman troop might face as many as ten lances, but let him step between the lances and he could kill a lancer, slide sideways a bit and kill another, and another. If a number of Roman troops did the same, they could cut right through a phalanx. And that's what Roman troops were trained to do. The normal forward movement of Roman units (as trained) was to step forward and thrust with the gladius to the right side (between the enemy shields), and repeat, and repeat.
So why did the Romans loose battles? all the early battles in the 2nd Punic war? Basically due to lack of competent Generals and to shortages of cavalry. Meanwhile, Hannibal quickly abandoned the Phalanx and did what the Romans did.
Having lost the war at sea, Carthage accepted a punitive treaty and simply abandoned Hamilcar Barca and his men on Sicily. Hamilcar fought on using guerrilla tactics for a while, but he eventually made a deal with the Romans, who allowed Hamilcar to evacuate his men and their weapons. Hamilcar returned to his estate in the Tunisian countryside and left his subalterns in charge of the evacuation. The Firsts Punic War was over.
For additional images and more detailed information on the First Punic War, see http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf003FirstPunicWar.html.
The plan devised by the subalterns was good; Carthaginian troops (mostly mercenaries, as usual in the Carthaginian forces) were sent Carthage city in tranches to be demobilized and be paid out and sent out of town before the next tranche arrived. But the penny-pinchers in the Carthaginian Senate decided to keep all the returned troops in town and then try to negotiate a cheaper payout. The result was many too many disgruntled troops in town. There soon was violence.
The Carthage Senate finally sent the mercenaries to a neighboring town with a promise of cash to follow, but then delayed again. The mercenaries chose leaders and marched on and took Carthage city. The Senate finally agreed to pay them out, but it was too late. The mercenaries had realized their strength. They took the proffered money and then moved on to Utica. The Senate reluctantly asked Hamilcar Barca to put down the mercenary rebellion knowing full well that he just might take power away from them.
Hamilcar ruthlessly put down the rebellion in three battles, the location of only one of which is known. After accepting the unconditional surrender of the the mercenaries after the final battle -- a siege at a box canyon called "The Saw"-- Hamilcar slaughtered all 40 thousand prisoners, the mercenaries and other tribesmen who had come to their banner. He then marched back to Carthage.
Strictly legal: The treaty that ended the First Punic War imposed massive monetary penalties on Carthage to be paid over twenty years. That may have been why the Carthaginian Senate didn't want to pay the back salaries and bonuses that Hamilcar had promised the mercenaries when he was trying to keep up the fight for Sicily. Anothe result of the financial squeeze was that Carthage could not pay its bills for ship-building materials and pay its mercenary garrisons in Corsica and Sardinia. The garrisons revolted and offered their future services -- and the islands -- to Rome, but Rome refused. The Punic settlers on the islands asked Carthage to put down the revolt of the garrisons, but Carthage refused. The settlers eventually defeated the garrisons and took over control of the islands. They asked for Roman protection, and this time Rome agreed. It was all strictly legal -- once the mercenary garrisons lost contol, according to Roman legalists, Carthaginian possession of the islands lapsed, and the people of the islands could freely place themselves and the islands in Roman hands. All strictly legal. Rome got the islands and with them the all-important forests that would build Roman fleets and not Carthaginian ships.
The solution to the Hamilca Barca problem faced by the Carthaginian Senate was to give him something that would take a long time to digest -- he would not soon come home hungry. The lower half of the Iberian peninsula (which turned out to be the most valuable half) had been in Punic hands for some time. Hamilcar was sent to Iberia, knowing he would not be able to resist the opportunity to conquer the rest of the peninsula. He set off with what henceforth would be known as the "Barcids" and took on the task. Iberia became a Barcid Family operation with brothers and sons taking over various portfolios. In a short time, Iberia was more productive and rich than the North African homeland. The Capital of Barcid Iberia, another Kart Hadasht ("New Carthage" to the Romans and Cartagena today) was soon the economic powerhouse of all the Punic territories, and Iberia was also certainly the center of Punic military power.
Hamilcar concentrated this military power on overcoming the "Celto-Iberians" of the northern half of the peninsula. He had some success, but the job was not done when he drowned crossing a river on his way to yet another battle. His son-in-law, Hasdrubal the Fair, used diplomacy more than force to consolidate the peninsula and also made an important new treaty with Rome that fixed the Ebro River as the boundary between their spheres of incluence. (FYI, Iberia is named after the Ebro River.) Hasdrubal was killed by a Celtic assasin in 221 BC. At 26 years of age, Hannibal, the eldest son of Hamilcar Barca, succeeded Hasdrubal, and things again took a military rather than a diplomatic turn.
For more images and more information on Barcid Spain, see http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf004MercenaryWarBarcidSpain.html.
Before he could cross the Alps, Hannibal had to cross the Pyrenees. His column of 90,000 infantry, 20,000 cavalry, and a huge bagage train was reduced to 50,000 (infantry and cavalry) before he reached the Rhone River. He had thought to continue along the coast and take the easier coastal routhe through the Alps, but he had no way of knowing that the Roman fleet on its way to Saguntum, commanded by one of the Scipios (the father of Scipio Africanus the Elder) would stop to resupply and re-water at Massilia (= modern Marseilles).
Scipio's pickets spotted the van of Hannibal's army. Hannibal swung north along the Rhone and was thereafter committed to a much more difficult route through the Alps. He crossed the Rhone some ways inland, probably just north of the delta. Scipio could not pursue Hannibal's army with the forces he had at Massilia. He sent forward the Saguntum relief force under subalterns and himself went back to northern Italy where he would organize a force to meet Hannibal.
This is a graphic representation of the shrinking of Hannibals force as it moved from Iberia to the Italian side of the Alps.
Polybius and Livy describe the condition of the downward slope into Italy as having new snow falling and fallen on snow from the previous winter. That's one of the main clues about Hannibal's route, as that only happens in the Clapier Pass. It also describes the danger of the descent. The snow covered slope is extremely steep, and, the year of Hannibal's passage, it was even more treacherous because of a recent rockslide that completely blocked the trail. The landslide debris had to be moved to get the infantry and elephants past the blockage. In the several days of getting past the landslide, Hannibal lost more than 10,000 men. The army straggled down into the Taurini plain with about 35,000 exhausted troops and only seven remaining elephants (out of 50 that started). Six more elephants died soon thereafter from exposure, exhaustion, and possibly starvation.
Hannibal's scouts had been in communication with Gaulish tribes on both sides of the Alps probably for at least a year. A Transalpine Gaul tribe had betrayed and ambushed him. Now he was face to face with the Taurini Gauls (who gave their name to modern Torino = Turin). The Taurini Gauls were expected to join up with Hannibal's forces and fight together against the Romans who had just recently occupied Taurin territory. But the Gauls were not initially impressed by the straggling remnants of of Hannibal's army. Within a short time, however, after Hannibal received some reenforcements of men and supplies through northwest Italian ports, the Taurini Gauls did join up. It also helped that even Hannibal's depleted forces were able to win some great victories in the north against badly led Roman armies.
The Romans lost major battles at Trebia and at Lake Trasimene. At Trebia General Sciopio was saved by his son, who would become Africanus the Elder. At Trasimen, the Roman army was lured into a trap and was cut to pieces between the lake shore and the hills above the lake. And there was an even greated debacle at Cannae. Roman forces there were suckered into the sagging center of the Carthaginian line. Carthaginian auxiliaries and cavalry closed the sack trapping 60,000 Roman troops inside. It took several hours for the Cathaginians, by then fighting Roman style and with captured Roman weapons, to kill 50,000 surrounded Romans and to capture 10,000 more. Only a few thousand Romans escaped, many of them cavalrymen, to carry the horrible news back to Rome. Those who escaped were permanently garrisoned on Sicily as punishment for the great loss. Rome's manpower pool was severely depleted.
It was after Cannae that Fabius Cunctator became the chief Roman strategist and commander. Cunctator meant "Delayer", and that's what he did best. Cannae, which occurred in 216 BC was the last set piece battle until the Battle of Metaurus in 207 BC, and Metaurus was on a much smaller scale. Hannibal had tried everything to provoke the Romans to do battle, even at one point marching toward Rome (and he probably could have taken it if he tried).
Despite all his efforts, Hannibal never got another set piece battle in Italy. He could take outlying towns, but he couldn't hold them; his army had to live off the land and couldn't stay in one place for long, so he had to move on leaving any towns/territory he conquerred to fall back into Roman hands. Some towns taken by Hannibal tried to ally themselves with him, but the severe punishment meted out on such towns by the Romans, after Hannibal had to move out, soon stopped such defections. Hannibal was meanwhile depleting his forces and supplies, and Rome always was able to find more men and supplies.
The Battle of Metaurus was fought by Hannibal's younger brother Hasdrubal, the second son of Hamilcar, who had led a relief column through the Alps after he had barely escaped from an Iberian battle against that Scipio who would become Africanus the Elder. The Romans won at Metaurus and, according to legend, sent the head of Hasdrubal to his brother Hannibal as a sign that all was lost.
The Romans, after Metaurus -- at least some of them -- had regained their confidence. Scipio (later Africanus, Elder) had roundly defeated the Punic remnants left in Iberia. He rushed home with the mad idea of leading an expedition to North Africa to take on Carthage on its home ground. In 205 BC, Scipio was elected Consul, but Fabius Maximus Cunctator and his senatorial followers defeated Scipio's invasion plan in the Senate -- too risky, and besides, Scipio might just become too powerful for the Senate to control. Scipio then got his plan passed by the people in a general comitium, effectively overruling the Senate. The Senate still had the purse, however, and refused to appropriate funds for the expedition and didn't give him an army.
Scipio scraped up what money he could find -- from family and friends -- and headed off to Sicily. There he found more money from Roman agricultural speculators, who were doing quite well on island estates captured in the First Punic War and who were willing to risk some of their capital on the chance of gaining even bigger land grabs in North Africa. Scipio also offered all the veterans who had been sent to permanent garrison duty on Sicily after Cannae a chance to redeem themselves. They were eleven years older than they were at Cannae, and they hadn't really fought since Cannae, but they were keen to fight for their honor and to end their Sicilian exile. Scipio bought and built enough ships to carry his forces to North Africa and landed them near Utica.
Carthage was only lightly defended and there was no General to lead what forces there were. Scipio easily defeated the Carthaginian home forces. In this crisis the Carthaginian Senate bowed to the inevitable and called Hannibal and his Italian expeditionary force home to Carthage. Hannibal gathered his forces and prepared to defend the homeland. He had elephants and a numerical advantage in infantry, and he thought he had enough cavalry to defeat the Roman force, which, of course was small -- mostly those Cannae veterans.
"Thought he had enough cavalry?" Hannibal had brought in a Numidian prince named Syphax to lead thousands of well armed and well trained Numidian cavalry to the field. But he discovered in 203 BC that, since all the way back when he was romping through Iberia, Scipio had been in contact with a rival Numidian prince named Massinissa. Massinissa led a huge force of Numidian cavalry in a surprise nighttime attack of the camp of Syphax. The element of surprize helped Massinissa even though Carthaginian regular troops were sent to help Syphax. The defeat of Syphax led to further defections of Numidians to the side of Massinissa -- and Massinissa was on the side of Scipio.
Scipio had made promises to Massinissa and Massinissa had made promises to the Numidian Cavalry, whose sub chieftains also probably realized (as Hannibal may have realized himself) that the Carthaginian cause was lost. We don't know exactly what deals were made, but we do know that when the armies lined up for the climactic battle of Zama most of the Numidian cavalry lined up with the Romans.
When Scipio faced Hannibal at Zama, it was a reverse of the situation in any previous set piece battle between the two sides. For once, Carthage had an infantry advantage, 50,000 to Rome's 34,000. But Rome, this time, had a decisive advantage of horse. Massinissa's 6,000 Numidians were added to 3,000 Roman cavalry. Syphax led about 3,000 Numidians to face Massinissa's 6,000. And fewer that 1000 Carthaginian mounted troops -- poorly trained and hardly "cavalry" faced the 3,000 Romans, some of whom, frankly, weren't much better than the Carthaginians. But the Romans were well mounted; Scipio had impressed at least 1,000 Sicilian "knights" into his army, and when they objected, he let them off on the condition that each would provide a good horse for one of the Cannae cavalry veterans.
Hannibal had more elephants than he had ever had at any previous battle. He massed 80 of the beasts in front of his first infantry line. In the event, they were successful counteracted by the Roman infantry.
At the very beginning of the battle Massinissa on one wing and the Roman cavalry on the other wing routed the smaller cavalry forces that confronted them. Meanwhile, the Roman infantry knew what to do against elephants. Roman trumpeters scared some of them into turning back and running through the Carthaginian infantry. Then, as the remaining elephants approached the Roman lines, the highly trained Romans opened gaps in their lines, through which the elephants ran. Elephants will only charge into people if they have no other choice. As the elephants charged through the gaps, the Romans speared them in their flanks, killing many. Those that were not killed ran panicky through the gaps and off the back end of the battle field. After the elephants were gone, the Romans closed the gaps and did a standard Roman infantry charge into the poorly trained Carthaginian front line and through it, and then through the Carthaginian second line. Just as Hannibal's veterans in his third line were about to engage the now tired Roman front line, the Romans dropped back and and gave way to their own second line -- and Massanissa's and the Roman cavalry returned from their chase and crashed into the rear of the Hannibal's army.
By the end of the Zama battle almost the whole Carthaginian force was dead, wounded, or captured, whereas the Romans had relatively few casualties. The second Punic War was finished and Rome was once again victorious. Hannibal was allowed to go free as a mark of respect for his abilities, and, in fact, became, for a while, one of the chief magistrates of Carthage. The price for peace that Rome exacted was high. Carthage had to disarm including dismantling its war fleet, it had to cede all captured North African territory to Rome, and it had to seek Roman approval for any local military activity. Finally, Rome demanded crippling monetary payments stretched out for years into the future -- or at least Rome wanted them to be crippling, but Rome hadn't reckoned with Carthaginian business acumen. In just one generation Carthage was back at the top of the Western Mediterranean commercial heap.
As noted above, our main source of information about the Punic wars is Polybius, but his books on the Third Punic War are lost. Luckily when Appian of Alexandria wrote about the Third Punic War, he used Polybius as his main source, so we still have Polybius, albeit filtered by Appian. For more images and information on the Third Punic War, see http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf007ThirdPunicWar.html.
By 149 BC both Rome and Carthage were riven by factions. Cato and his faction in the Roman Senate (who had started out as ideological followers of Fabius Maximus, who had died in 203 BC before the end of the Second Punic War) had now become hawks. For years, Cato famously ended every one of his many Senate speeches by saying the "Carthage must be Destroyed". They were opposed by the Scipios and their faction. Scipio Africanus the Elder had died in 183, but a relative, who had been adopted by a son of Scipio Africanus the Elder, was moving forward from the political horizon. This new Scipio, already using the agnomen Africanus (the Younger, by inheritance) acknowledged that Carthage was a potential danger to Rome (economic if not otherwise) but wanted to preserve it as a worthy enemy, i.e., something against which to hone Rome's sword. Scipio had already honed the Roman sword in Spain when he put down a dangerous rebellion there in 151 BC.
Meanwhile in Carthage there were three factions. The Numidian leader, Massinissa, now an old man, was nibbling away at Carthaginian territory. One faction in Carthage wanted to take him on, despite Massinissa's support from his old allies in Rome, and despite the fact that fighting Massinissa could lead to a confrontation with Rome. A second Carthaginian faction was willing to let Massinissa be active at the fringes and to do whatever it took to appease Rome; this was the old Carthaginian faction that wanted peace to allow them to pursue their commercial aspirations. A third and much smaller faction actually advocated making the Numidian Massinissa, who had good contacts in Rome, the leader of Carthage.
Both in Rome and in Carthage, political alliances were always shifting and either Roman faction and either of the first two Carthaginian factions might hold power at any given time.
Cato's faction in Rome sent fact-finding commissions to Carthage that returned saying Carthage was re-arming. The Scipio faction said it was not.
Polybius, in his history (as reported by Appian) said that Rome was seeking a pretext for war and that Carthage had provided one by retaliating after a Massinissa raid. But the Rome war faction faction said that Carthage had retaliated with a force of 25,000 infantry and 400 Cavalry, and, therefore, clearly was not "disarmed". Massinissa repelled the Carthaginian counterattack and Rome mobilized and declared that Carthage had resumed the war. Modern historians have pretty much sided with Polybius and said the pretext for the Third Punic War was entirely too thin -- preemptive war is very unpopular these days.
After Rome declared that a state of war again existed, the Carthaginian peace faction took over, executed the leaders of the attack on Massinissa, and asked Rome what Carthage could do to restore peace.
Rome demanded hostages from all the main Carthaginian families and total disarmament of Carthage. Carthage agreed. Two hundred Carthaginians were sent to Rome, and Carthage surrendered "all" of its arms. The appeasement backfired when Carthage turned over enough arms and armor to equip an army of 200,000 mercenaries. The Roman peace faction was aghast; Carthage clearly had re-armed in contravention to the treaty. And Rome's appetite had been whetted.
Rome made a another "final" demand: the Carthaginians had to destroy their own city and move inland to where they would no longer be a threat. When the Carthaginian envoys returned to Carthage with this demand, they were lynched and the war party took over again. They quickly "rearmed" to defend the city. "Rearmed" is in parentheses because it was obvious that the gear they had turned over to Rome was only part of what they had. Rome launched an expeditionary force and the Third Punic War began in earnest in North Africa.
Fifty years had elapsed since the last war with Carthage. The first Roman commanders in this war were inexperienced political generals, and they lost consistently against the Carthaginians, who had at least some experience fighting Massinissa. The only exception -- the only experienced general -- for the Romans was the Younger Scipio, who had led a successful campaign in Spain. But Scipio was too young to be elected Consul and so could not be given command. Scipio went back to Rome and campaigned for the Consular office even though under age. The Senate and the People of Rome (SPQR) suspended the age requirement and sent Scipio back to Carthage as Commander-in-Chief. Although Scipio had not wanted the war with Carthage, he had been put in charge of its destruction.
Scipio made short work of Carthage. He established a tight naval blockade, and working from a headquarters in Utica (Utica, ever willing to stab Carthage in the back in the hope of gaining commercial advantage in the post-war), he attacked from the north side of the city. At one crucial moment, the defenders of the city broke down the wall of the military harbor and sallied forth against the naval blockade with dozens of hastily assembled military ships. The attempt to break the blockade failed, but it proved, once again, that Carthage had really had not disarmed. It also left a hole in the seaside defenses.
Scipio's army then poured into the city from the its sea side and began to work its way up to the citadel at the top of the Bursa hill. The fighting in the streets was vicious -- Scipio quickly leveled a three block wide path to the citadel, killing everyone in his path. The citadel was surrounded with about 50,000 citizens and defenders inside (along with a few Roman defectors from years past). After it was set afire, the defenders surrendered.
Appian, on the authority of Polybius (who was in the city with Scipio) said that of the 250 to 500 thousand people who lived in Carthage at the start of the attack, only those who surrendered from the citadel survived, and they survived as slaves.
The Roman defectors, Polybius said, all burned up in the fire at the big temple at the center of the citadel. The city commander, Polybius said, surrendered, but his wife took her kids and jumped with them into the fire. The wife and kids story sounds like embroidery to reflect the story of the death of Dido/Elissa in the Aeneas myth, but who knows? Suicide martyrs are quite common in Semitic history/mythology.
Scipio followed the orders of the Roman Senate and leveled what was left of Carthage. Scipio, according to Polybius, wept at the destruction of Carthage but not out of pity for Carthage. Polybius said he asked Scipio why he wept, and Scipio replied that he foresaw a similar fate for Rome at some time in the future.
The new metropolis of North Africa would be Utica -- at least until the time of Augustus, who established Carthage anew and shifted back to his new Carthage the headquarters of the Roman governorate. Rome ruled north Africa, eventually all the way across to Egypt, until the Vandal conquest from 429 to 439 AD. Count Belesarius took it back for Byzantine "Rome" in the middle of the next century and it stayed in Byzantine hands until the Arab Muslim invasions in the middle of the 7th century.
Polybius lived on until 118 BC, and was a protege of the Scipios until he died. He wrote most of his histories late in life, which including the books on the Punic Wars and on the political organization of Rome and Carthage. His histories might have had a pro-Scipio slant, but in the text he did not hesitate to show where he thought the Scipios were mistaken.
He was writing for the Greek audience in his Attic homeland, and he was trying to show how Rome succeeded in expanding throughout the Mediterranean -- and why Greek resistance to Roman expansion was futile. When the Greeks rebelled anyway, he was sent, as a Roman diplomat diplomat, to restore Roman peace. His efforts were successful, and monuments still stand in Greece attesting to how Polybius was the savior of his country. Of course those monuments were set up by the Greeks who agreed to the Roman conquest. Some of those monuments that lasted into the 20th century were destroyed by Greek Communists during and immediately after World War 2.


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We completed the testing and commissioning of our mining facility , which is fully operational as of quarter 3 of 2012. The facility was officially inaugurated by His Royal Highness Prince Mishaal bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Prince of Najran on 2 October 2012. During 2011, the activities of the company were mostly focused on the completion of the construction and the start of the commissioning phase of ore treatment plant, which effectively started on 28 November. The treatment process is carried out in accordance with the engineering designs and through the established stages which include crushing, grinding, floatation, and dewatering. The Port of Jazan on the Red Sea is the export route and is situated 450 km from the mine.
The total Measured and Indicated Resource at Al Masane Deposit is 9.4 million tonnes of massive sulphide ore grading at 4.23% Zn; 1.21% Cu, 0.97g Au/t and 31 g Ag/t. Total Inferred Resource is 0.6mt, grading at 7.42% Zn, 1.00% Cu, 1.18 g Au/t and 13g Ag/t.
Al-Masane is the first mine in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to export copper and zinc concentrates to overseas smelters. The mine's reserves are estimated at 4.9 million tons of zinc and copper bearing ore, according to JORC compliant resource and reserve reports.
In addition to the main reserve of copper and zinc, the processed ore contains 0.97g of gold and 31g of silver per ton.
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Check out our most recent & up-to-date News, Tender details, Press release & new Photos etc..


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Shares in gold miner Centamin (TSX:CEE) (LON:CEY) shot up more than 6% Wednesday after the company published fourth-quarter results that slightly exceeded full-year production guidance, and vowed to lift output again in 2018.
The Egypt-based company generated 544,658 ounces of gold in 2017, compared to the expected 540,000 ounces. Centamin is now targeting 580,000 ounces in production for 2018, up from an estimate of 550,000-560,000 ounces.
Centamin's gold production guidance from its Sukari mine in Egypt is 580,000 ounces, a 6% increase from 2017.
Gold production of the company in the fourth quarter of 2017 stood at 154,298 ounces, which was 1.4% lower than its third quarter output, but which still represented a 12.8% increase over the fourth quarter production of 2016.
The company's London-listed shares jumped on the news and were trading 6.08% higher to 163.52 pence at 2:17PM GMT.
Centamin, which plans to expand operations to Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso, said it has seen continued positive results from drilling at Sukari, its only operating mine and Egypt's sole gold-exporting mine.
"All sections of the mine continued to perform well, maintaining strong operational momentum throughout the fourth quarter which we look forward to building on in 2018," chief executive Andrew Pardey said in a statement.
Sukari has produced around 100 tonnes of gold since it started operations in January 2010 and still has about 20 years of economic reserves and resources in both open pit and underground areas.
The mine's average monthly production spans between 1.2-1.5 tonnes of gold, and shipments from the mine represent about 2% of all of Egypt's exports, according to Centamin.
The company is scheduled to announce annual results for the year 2017 on January 31.


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Ed James moved to Dallas, Texas from Northern Virginia. He studied engineering and business management at Arkansas State University and proceeded to serve in the United States Marine Corp. Passionate about entrepreneurial business creation joined 7-Eleven Corporation in April 2005, and currently serves as Franchisee Recruiting Specialist. He's also Vice Chair Trustee Board at Church of Disciples United Methodist Church, and active member of both national and local chambers of commerce.


text:
Angel of Petawawa
Published: January 15, 201212:00 am Updated: March 29, 20191:09 pm
She looked like a pin-up of Betty Grable, hair curled into seductive blonde sausages, naked shoulders like two perfectly rounded scoops of ice cream.
"Need a ride, soldier?"
Mario tugged off his cap. "Oh, only if I'm not taking you out of your way, Muh-Miss. I'm headed to, to St. Catharines."
The lady laughed. Mario smiled, not certain what was funny.
"What do you think, Charlie?" she said.
"You kiddin'? It's two hunnert miles in the opposite direction."
The deep voice came from behind the wheel, a peaked cap outlined by moonlight. Confused, Mario reached for his papers until he realized the driver wasn't an officer but a chauffeur.
"Get in, young man," said the lady. "Tonight of all nights, it's impossible for a Canadian soldier to take us out of our way."
Peering in at the lady through the open window of the roadster, Mario thought he saw a skinny white dog baring a mouthful of needle sharp teeth.
Saying a quick mental prayer that this wasn't a dream – patri, figli e spiritu sancti – he opened the back door.
The roadster was a midnight blue Rolls: pre-war model, thirty-seven or -eight. As Guglielmo had told Mario when they were still working at the foundry, the minute Hitler invaded Poland, Rolls Royce stopped making cars and started cranking out Spitfire engines. Those Brits, they don't miss a trick, said Guglielmo sliding his thumb sharply down his cheekbone.
This was the first Rolls Mario had seen outside of a movie house and the only vehicle of any kind he'd seen in two hours of hitchhiking with nothing but the creak of cicadas and the clack of his boot heels for company. To pass the time, he had fallen into humming a dreamy hymn to home cooking, his footsteps a metronome: ri-SOT-to, po-LEN-ta, agno-LOT-ti, zabag-LION-e, mine-STRON-e and a particularly wonderful BOUILL-ia-baise when his mother could get the fish. Belly empty, his mouth began to water.
With his head stuffed full of the rhythm of a breakfast of hot cas-TAGNE con latte, he didn't notice the approaching car until the headlights caught him full in the face. He was so startled that he forgot to stick out his thumb. As the car slowed, then stopped, he stood on the gravel edge of road that fell into a weed-choked ditch, one of many that Guglielmo had dug in and around Petawawa.
The roadster's headlights were the only glimpse of light beyond the harvest moon that hung in the sky like the red circle on the back of Guglielmo's shirt, that time Mario passed him a pack of smokes through the barbed wire fence. A gift from Guglielmo's wife Anna, mailed to Mario for safe passage; this little act of kindness could have got Mario into trouble – even taken into custody – but with his blonde hair and Canadian Infantry uniform, the guard had assumed that Mario was just a soft-hearted Canuck sharing tobacco from his care package with some poor bastard of a POW. Or so the guard would think, as long as he didn't hear the rag ends of Mario's accent: flattened, clipped, beaten down in the forge of the Ottawa Valley, but not completely gone. New acquaintances in Petawawa often squinted at him and asked What are ya, a Frenchman?
No words were exchanged as Guglielmo took the Chesterfields from Mario: he simply touched his nose twice before turning away. That's when Mario saw the red target between Guglielmo's shoulder blades, and watched him saunter over to the guard and proffer a few smokes; the guard looked away as he slipped them into his tunic pocket. Even behind barbed wire, Guglielmo knew how to grease the wheels.
The back of the roadster was as roomy as a good-sized pantry, with a butter-soft leather seat as wide as the chestefiore in Mario's parents' front parlour. When he crawled in next to the lady, he glanced a bit nervously at the skinny white dog, until he realized it was a length of fur ending in the head of a sharp-toothed rodent. A fur, on a hot August night? And since when did fur coats have teeth?
"Why are you staring?" asked the lady.
Mario nodded at the fur. "I, I, I thought it was a dog."
Up front, the driver snorted.
The lady frowned and rapped on the sliding window between the front and back seats: "That'll be enough," she told the driver, then turning to Mario, added: "It's a mink stole."
For a moment Mario wasn't sure he had heard the word correctly.
"A meenka?" he tried.
"Mink," repeated the woman, then added. "A nasty little animal with sharp teeth and lovely fur."
Mario nodded. In Petawawa he had met lots of animals you could describe this way, beautiful but malevolent. Once, on maneuvers, he came face-to-face with a beast with bristling silver fur, canine in appearance, but too wild for a farm dog.
The dog-like animal had stared at him, mouth half open to reveal a picket fence of gleaming teeth. Mario thought he heard a low growl. It occurred to him that this dog might actually be a wolf, something he had never seen in Canada although his father had told him about hunting them with shotguns back in the Old Country. Pop had probably never been as well-armed as Mario was as a private in the Canadian Infantry. Even the old Franchi was confiscated from the hall closet once the family was put on the list of Enemy Aliens.
Unlike Mario, the wolf was accustomed to moving fast in deep snow. Mario gripped his rifle a little tighter but after a few careful paces forward, the doglike beast stopped and almost seemed to grin at him as if to say: If you and I went to your mamma's house for a meal, would she give me something good? And then, thinking better of Mario and his gun – which he'd only ever fired at straw men in farmers' fields – the animal turned tail and ran, setting off a fall of icing-sugar from some low-hanging branches. Mario was left alone in hip-deep snow with his silent weapon and a pounding heart.
That had been ages ago, January, before the thick heat and black flies made Mario long for the deathly cold of a Northern Ontario winter. Even though he was still in the army, everything else had changed since then. In May, the Germans surrendered and Mario's heart was filled with joy thinking he'd be able to go home, until his regiment received news that they'd be moving west to "help the Americans," as he explained in a letter to Juliana. He was going to British Columbia, and from there, to Japan.
All that changed again in early August when the Americans dropped a super-weapon on Hiroshima and again on Nagasaki. Mario guessed that the Americans had figured out how to split the atom – no surprise there, with the great Italian physicist Enrico Fermi on their side. Mario paid attention to such things.
Like a magician conjuring doves from a box, the lady produced two crystal glasses, rims spreading like lilies, and handed one to Mario. From a bucket of ice at her feet, she picked up a heavy green bottle and filled both their glasses.
"So, soldier, what shall we drink to?"
Mario, always a little shy with strange women, said: "Whatever you please ma'am," then braver, added something he'd heard the other guys say: "It's your party."
The driver made a derisive sound, somewhere between a grunt and a laugh. The lady rapped again on the sliding window.
"That'll be enough," she said, then turned to Mario. "Don't mind Charlie, he's a vet, too, you know."
"Oh yeah?" said Mario. "What theatre?"
"Not this lousy war," answered the driver with a touch of scorn in his voice. "The Great War. France. I was at Vimy."
Mario felt put in his place.
The lady lifted her glass and gave him another smile. "How about we toast to the end of the lousy war?"
"Sure," he said, uncertainly; he was worried that he might not be demobilized, peace or no peace. There had already been talk of his regiment being re-enlisted to fight the Russians. Nonetheless, he lifted his glass and took a sip: fizzy sweetness filled his mouth, like Brioschi mixed with white wine. It was the first time he'd ever tasted champagne.
The lady watched him over the rim of her glass. "We haven't been properly introduced, have we? You can't keep calling me ma'am and I can't keep calling you soldier. I'm Alice Fraser. And you?"
"Muh, muh, muh…."
The darn stammer again – it always happened when he was nervous. To make matters worse, he couldn't decide whether today he should be "Mark" or "Mario."
The stammer decided for him. "Muh, muh, Mario."
"Ah, a French-Canadian boy. Thought so! You have the teensiest bit of an accent."
Mario sipped his drink. No point in explaining things to her. What was he anyway – Italian? Canadian? British subject? Enemy alien? Safer to change the subject.
"Puh, peace!" exclaimed Mario. "I can't believe it."
"How can you not? The world is going crazy! It's parties from one end of Renfrew County to another! I should imagine that's why you went AWOL and started hitchhiking in the middle of nowhere."
Mario lowered his glass, resting it on his knee; whatever was in this stuff was going to his head.
"No, Miss Fraser. I duh, didn't go AWOL. I, I found a non-com to sign a 72-hour leave, so long as I go back to Petawawa."
For the first time the lady's movie star smile collapsed into a puzzled frown. "But the War's over, sweetie."
Mario took a deep breath, suddenly aware of just how bone weary he was. He waved his hands, trying to find the right words; he still hadn't been able to teach himself not to gesticulate, as they called it in basic training. "I got to be demobilized first. Paperwork, ruh, rubber stamps. My discharge papers."
Alice Fraser shook her head at him. "Then why in heavens' name go to St. Catharines tonight? Some good parties going on in Ottawa where I live. We could go there now and have you back in Petawawa tomorrow, although I can't guarantee you won't have a sore head."
Mario slid his hand down the stem of the glass. Good crystal, something he used to see when he caught a glimpse of the officer's mess, a spread of heavy white plates and shining glassware, as glittering and luxurious as any table he had ever seen, even if the food looked miserably bland – boiled beef, mushy peas.
Julianna would love a set of glasses like this one. For their wedding, they had used his mother's wine glasses bought at Eaton's after one of his father's little houses had sold. That would have been, what, 1938? When Mario was eighteen. A different time, a different world, when Pop could still make a living in construction, hiring Irishmen who'd been laid off from pick-and-shovelling the Welland Canal.
"I got a telegram from my mother this morning," he told the lady. "My wife, she's in labour. Our first baby. Maybe she's even had him by now. Or her."
The woman smiled down into her glass. "Well, well. A married man. What are you, eighteen? Twenty?".
"Twenty-five," declared Mario, slightly offended: why did everyone always take him for a kid?
"For a man of your years, you certainly are sweet looking. I guess the war was easy on you."
Mario felt an uneasy sense of stepping into deep, deep water.
"I didn't mean to embarrass you," she said softly. "Am I making you nervous?"
"Nuh, no," Mario lied.
Alice Fraser lifted her glass. "And what would your little wife say to all this?"
Mario searched for an answer.
"She, she'd say, thank you for bringing her husband home." He paused. "She, she's been real worried since I wrote her I was going to Japan."
Alice Fraser shook her head and gave a laugh; not one of merriment. She almost sounded angry.
Mario threw back the rest of his drink. He had to get the hell out of here. Now.
"Ma'am, muh, miss…"
"Miss Alice, I, you, can let me off right here."
Alice Fraser sighed. Sipped her drink. "I said Charlie and I would take you home, and take you home we shall. How long were you out there on the highway?"
Mario checked his wristwatch. "Two hours. And a half."
"You must be all-in. Why don't you get a little shut-eye? It will be hours before we're anywhere close to St. Catharines."
With that, Alice Fraser removed the glass from his hand.
As if granted permission, Mario laid back his head on the seat and closed his eyes. Exhaustion did the rest.
He found himself at Club Italia, 1939. Only this wasn't a dream, not really, but a memory. The night Mario first danced with Juliana. Gu, as always, was greasing the wheels.
"Go dance! The girls all got eyes for you," he kept urging Mario. "They think you look like Lesley Howard, that nob in Gone With The Wind."
"Ah, ah, c'mon, Gu," muttered Mario, embarrassed.
"È vero! And Anna says that one, the little firecracker in the red skirt, wants you to ask her to jitterbug."
Mario had known Juliana most of his life, really, their families were paesani. But with her thick black curls and shapely legs, she seemed out of Mario's league. Besides – and this was unusual for the girls from the neighbourhood – Juliana had her grade eight and was almost finished high school. She wasn't just a cute little thing, she had a head on her shoulders.
"But I don't know how to jitterbug," protested Mario, letting Gu propel him forward with a laugh.
Then, the dream rushed him forward in time. He was at the foundry, the winter they took Guglielmo away.
There was no rhyme or reason to these things. Both Mario and Guglielmo had been fingerprinted the year before, both had been warned to report to the local police station every time they left town. But only Guglielmo was taken into custody.
Old Mister Sands provided a partial explanation: "We're doing a lot of machining for the Forces. I need you. You're skilled labour, Mark. You're worth more to the war effort here than cooling your heels in some camp."
"What about Guglielmo – I mean, Bill? He's a good worker too. He was here before me."
Sands shrugged. "You fit in better than Bill does. You seem more like a Canadian. You should thank your mother for your blonde hair and blue eyes – customers don't even think you're Italian. And Bill's always hanging around at that club. Maybe he is a Fascist, who knows?"
Mario looked at his boss in surprise. Sands sometimes seemed to forget that Mario was the immigrant and Guglielmo the one born in this country.
"Mr. Sands, Bill's no Fascist. The Fascists were the reason my folks left Italy. They, they tortured one of my Pop's cousins; they, they do this awful thing with castor oil –"
Sands raised his hands. "Simmer down, I read the papers you know."
"Guglielmo – Bill – he's not like that."
Sands crossed his arms. "Yeah, but what about the rest of them hotheads, filling the young guys' heads with ideas? This is war, son. They could be fifth columnists."
Mario struggled to control his emotions: he knew exactly why Sands was uncomfortable with Gu and his friends. Their slick black hair, their loud laughter, their religion, their language, their music, the way they whistled at women in the street. Drinking homemade wine out on the sidewalks in the evenings, when the police weren't looking. Dragging tables outside to eat, sometimes with old Caruso records blasting on the gramophone.
"It's a social club, Mr. Sands. They play cards and talk and have a little fun. Is that against the law in Canada?"
Sands shrugged again. "That's what they claim they're doing. But who knows what they're babbling about? They could be plotting anything."
Mario went back to work without a word. As he set up a part to be machined, he noticed that his hands were shaking.
That evening, at the kitchen table with Ma and Pop, there was a knock at the door. Ma stiffened, eyes wide, her hand on Mario's arm until Pop opened the door to one of the neighbourhood kids.
"Signora Carlucci tol' me, come get you, Mario," said the kid, scratching his neck. "The Mounties, they wrecked their furnace."
Mario got up and went for his jacket. Ma got up and followed him.
"Non andare," whispered his mother, clutching his arm. "È pericoloso."
"You end up in jail too, you not careful," warned Pop.
But Mario had already put down his fork and was pulling on his boots. "If I end up in jail, I end up in jail. Guglielmo's wife is in the family way. You want me to leave her to freeze to death?"
"Sette zu, her people will help her," insisted his mother.
Mario looked down at Ma. She wasn't hard hearted. She had lost two older children to illnesses in the Old Country and lived in terror of losing Mario, too. She gripped the sleeve of his coat.
"I'm just going to fix their furnace," Mario assured her, gently unfastening her fingers.
In the end, his father came with him, the two of them trudging through wet snow drifting to their ankles, hands in their pockets as they marched in silence the five blocks to Guglielmo's house, a tiny stucco bungalow not far from the foundry. Anna met them at the door, her face red with tears and worry, her pregnancy hump protruding through the shawls that covered her. The house was freezing.
When she saw Mario she burst into tears. "Bless you, bless you! Everyone else is too afraid to come!"
In the basement, they found the boiler broken in pieces, scattered haphazardly on the dirt floor. Mario crouched down and surveyed the damage. It was going to be hard working down here in this low space; every time he stood, he smacked the top of his head on the ceiling pipes.
"Why they'd do this?" muttered Mario, rubbing his eyes. "Taking a man's furnace apart and not putting it back together? Makes no sense."
"They say they look for guns," whispered Anna.
"You know where they take him, Missus?" asked Mario's father.
Anna wiped her face with her shawl. "They no say. But the neighbour next door, he say they take his father to Toronto, then make them go up north. A place with an Indian name."
Petawawa, said Mario to himself. He'd heard of others being sent there, starting in nineteen-forty. Not long after they'd closed down the high school for a week and dispersed the older Italian male students, including Guglielmo and himself. When the school re-opened, it was without the Italian boys, Mario's hopes of a university education disappearing overnight. A few of the guys from the neighbourhood had disappeared, too. That's when the word Petawawa starting going around. A camp where they sent soldiers but also prisoners of war.
Mario and his Pop worked through the night, calling on a friend down the street who had been a welder. As the house grew colder, Mario's fingers began to go numb. Finally, he sent Pop home with Anna on his arm. Once his mother saw the pregnant woman, she'd look after her, danger or no.
After that night, Mario took care of Anna and her son – or tried to. When the bank account went empty, Mario sent a little extra from his paycheque. He talked to the priest, to the neighbours. He even got Sands to chip in.
Pop worried. "You gotta stay clear of this business or they take you too."
"Guglielmo got me my job after they threw us out of school," insisted Mario. "You just want to leave his wife and child to starve?"
"Her paesani should help her."
"Her paesani are afraid."
"You oughta be afraid too," Pop pointed out. "They take you, maybe me too. Then what happen to mamma? Something happen to you, it kill her." And there the conversation ended.
When Mario's draft notice came in the mail, he showed it to Sands. The old man shook his head.
"Those idiots! You're worth more building parts for tanks than riding in one."
"Don't think I'll be doing that either," said Mario, examining the paper. "It says something about Military Intelligence."
Sands spit into the sawdust on the foundry floor. "You know what they say about Military Intelligence? It's a contradiction. Anyway, good luck to you, Mark. You get out of this in one piece, there's always a job for you here."
And with that , Mario followed Guglielmo to Petawawa, his early months in the Forces overlapping with the final months of Guglielmo's detention. After that one visit through the barbed wire fence, Mario was relieved to receive a letter from Anna, telling him that a judge had signed Guglielmo's release. They could simply find no reason to keep the man locked up.
But a few months later, another letter came from Guglielmo himself, saying that he'd been drafted into the Canadian expeditionary forces. He wrote to Mario that when he showed up at home in uniform, his little boy started crying at the sight of him.
I guess I'm a real Canadian now, he wrote to Mario in a letter heavy with blacked out sentences. The censor made sure that almost nothing was left of what Gu wanted to say.
When Mario married Juliana, Guglielmo stood up for him before they shipped him out to Sicily. A friend took a snapshot, Mario and Guglielmo both in uniform, Juliana's hand through Mario's elbow.
Guglielmo was sent home six months later, minus an arm. Despite not being "in one piece," Sands grudgingly did the right thing and offered Gu his old job back. But the gulf had grown too wide. Gu signed up for correspondence courses in accounting and agreed to help get Mario's father's construction business back on its feet.
This war won't last forever. When it ends, they're going to need houses for all the vets, he wrote to Mario. Anyway, whoever heard of a one-armed ditch-digger? I'm better off using my head than my back.
Mario awoke in the car to a soft, floral-scented weight on his shoulder: Alice Fraser asleep, her mouth open, snoring softly. The empty champagne bottle rolled at her feet.
Gently Mario adjusted her so that she was arranged more modestly on the seat.
Up front, music softly played. Moonlight Serenade. They must be within broadcasting range of Kingston or Toronto or some other big city.
"Where are we Charlie?" Mario asked in a low voice.
"Just comin' to the edge of Hamilton. Almost home, buddy."
He looked down at Alice Fraser asleep beside him, her blonde curls in disarray.
"She doesn't seem very happy," commented Mario.
"No reason to be," said Charlie. "Lost her fiancé on D-Day."
"Oh Jesus," said Mario, breaking his own rule about taking the Lord's name in front of women. He said a silent prayer of thanks that he was being sent back home, to his mother and Juliana.
Up front, he could just see the outline of Charlie's jaw. They were on the Number 8 Highway now, familiar country, the headlights catching the rows of fences and fruit trees that rolled for miles. Good land around here, thought Mario approvingly, peach orchards and strawberry fields. It was even decent earth for grape growing, something Pop wanted to get into in a big way. The August air wafting in through the window smelled of home, sweet with that heavy smell of ripening peaches.
"Y'know Charlie," said Mario. "Muh, miss Fraser was wrong. I'm, uh, not, Fuh-French-Canadian. I was buh-born in Italy."
"Yeah, I figured it was something like that," said Charlie. "Anyway, war's over for you now, so who cares?"
"Right," agreed Mario. "So, you say you saw action in France? What regiment were you in?"
Charlie cleared his throat. "Didn't say nothing about action. I was in the construction battalion. Digging trenches, building shelters."
"Ah, an engineering unit," said Mario, nodding. "I, I'd like to be engineer myself one day."
Charlie snorted. "Engineering's a nice way to put it. Ditch digging, more like."
Mario chuckled and looked out the window. He was beginning to like Charlie. Next to him Alice Fraser groaned in her sleep. Mario put a hand lightly on her head which lay somewhat immodestly on his khaki covered thigh. But he didn't try to move her, instead praying for her future happiness.
"Brace yourself. We're coming into town," announced Charlie. They could hear the crowd on St. Paul Street before they saw it. Shouting, singing, music, the roar so loud Mario could feel it in his bones. And then, thumping: the revellers pounding the car doors and jumping on the hood. Someone spraying beer through the open window, shouting, Get out here soldier!
"Jesus," said Mario, breaking his rule again. The car was stuck fast in a throng of people. Mario looked out in amazement at the joyous faces and dancing bodies pressed against the sides of the car.
"Don't think we can go much faster than you can walk, pal," observed Charlie. "You want to hoof it to the hospital from here?"
Charlie turned around to look back at Mario, a smile on his face.
It was only then that Mario realized that Charlie was a black man. He opened his mouth to express his surprise, then shut it. What was there to say? They were both vets, after all.
Mario nodded. "Thanks, Charlie."
As he picked his duffel bag off the floor of the car, Alice Fraser sat up blurrily, her hand on her forehead. Mario took her hand in his, and kissed it.
"Thank you, Miss Fraser. I wouldn't've made it home tonight without you. You've been an angel God sent to help me, I think."
Alice Fraser shook her head. "You're the angel, soldier. Get along to your wife, now."
Mario tried to open the door, but the pressure of the crowd was too great. Finally he pushed his duffle bag through the window and followed it out, feet first. The crowd caught him and carried him away; he found himself swimming in the direction of Hotel Dieu Hospital, bodies buoying him up.
Ahead, on the hospital steps, he could see his father standing next to Guglielmo, whose left sleeve was pinned emptily to his shirt. When Mario finally staggered up the stairs, they both rushed down to embrace him.
"Buona fortuna! You have a daughter!" shouted Guglielmo, pounding his back. "If you're lucky she'll have Juliana's looks and your brains."
Mario kissed his father, whose face was streaked with tears – the first time he'd ever seen Pop cry. "How's Juliana doing?"
Pop wiped his face with the back of his hand. "She good, even though the doc almost didn't make it through the street. She give us the first Canadian baby in the family."
Guglielmo laughed. "Hey, we're all Canadians now. Go see your little girl," and with his good arm, he pushed Mario firmly through the hospital door.
Dedicated to the memory of my father, Attilio "Tee" Favro, enemy alien, private in the Canadian Infantry, electrician and plant engineer, whose wartime experiences and long journey home on the night of August 15, 1945 inspired this story.
Terri Favro grew up in the Niagara area and lives in Toronto where she works as a freelance copywriter and magazine writer. Her work has been shortlisted three times for the CBC Literary Awards.
First published in Accenti Magazine, Issue 24.
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The Fourth Wife
Author Ed Fiorelli
The Blue House
Published: August 21, 200712:00 am Updated: October 24, 202111:08 pm
Author Delia De Santis
Author Loretta Di Vita

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


❉ Titan's Guides hark back delightfully to a less busy era of beyond-the-screen backstory.
❉ Matt Barber's essay on a fan favourite will change the way you next watch it, writes Nick Mellish.
❉ New clip from demonic thriller out this Christmas on VOD, featuring 'The Haunting of Hill House's Arianne Martin.
❉ The debut novel from World Of Crap's Jenny Morrill is beautifully ranty and viciously funny.


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Tag: The Unwritten
The Problem with Vertigo
Can someone please explain to me what the hell DC Comics is thinking when it comes to the promotion of its Vertigo imprint? Vertigo is the home for creator-owned mature series over at DC, and its currently on a roll with a good number of great regular series (DMZ, iZombie, Northlanders, Sweet Tooth), as well as a growing line-up of one-shot graphic novels. These are the kinds of books that people who don't usually read comics would probably like, and yet Vertigo's website makes absolutely no sense for non-comics readers. The only pages found on the site are for individual issues, which is fine for a graphic novel, but not for a series. Last week I read through the current run of The Unwritten (#1-17), and wanting to recommend it to people, I had to link to the Wikipedia page because there was no decent page to link to on the Vertigo page, that would explain properly what the series was about.
Something needs to be done in order to give new readers — anyone who's heard of a series and wants to know more about it — a place to do that. And even though I'm not a particular fan of all the publisher-specific iPad apps out there (all spinoffs of the Comixology app), the one that would make the most sense is a Vertigo-branded one, for people who have absolutely no interest in the super-hero fare that DC Comics mostly publishes. Sure, you can buy the Vertigo books through the DC app, but the mainstream audience that you could get reading these book are not going to find them there.
Pictured, the cover to The Unwritten #17, illustrated by Yuko Shimizu, who has done all the covers for the series. That particular issue is rather amazing, presented in the form of an actual choose-your-own-adventure story (but I do recommend reading everything that comes before it first).
Tags Comics, Comixology, DC Comics, Technology, The Unwritten, Vertigo, Yuko Shimizu


When Elsa Brodmann was growing up, her parents wouldn't let her watch much TV. When she did get a chance to settle in front of the small screen, it often was tuned to old movies from the 1950s and '60s.
"Other girls my age had a crush on Luke Perry. I had a crush on Gene Kelly and James Cagney," said Brodmann, who changed her name from Jennifer to Elsa a few years ago, in part inspired by one of her favorite designers, Elsa Schiaparelli.
Next The Kalla Chronicles: Fashion at Cornell?


What to Consider when Hiring a Freelancewriter You might want to reconsider if you are reluctant to hire a freelance author. They will work more challenging than a member of staff because they will not get paid unless they finish a project. A full-time, in-house writer may not complete the task by the due date, and you must pay them. The only way you can stop the contract is when you fire the person immediately. Hiring a freelancer will save your company money. You do not have to pay other advantages, employee's compensation, and employee expenses such as PTO time, health-related and disability. Moreover, the surroundings are saved by a freelancer because their office is in their dwelling! Here are five tips for hiring a qualified Freelance writer. Make sure that the freelancer can create. Most freelance authors could have a web-based portfolio. Please examine their authorship. Please do not look over their website; study what the person has done. They put together a writing portfolio to showcase their authorship. If you read their authorship you will save time. Make sure the freelancer knows what is required concerning Search Engine Optimization. In the advent that you do not know, what SEO means to make sure to ask a freelance author what it entails. They can use your keywords and phrases when the write websites, posts, and internet content. If you are not familiar with what keywords/phrases to use, ask them to supply you with a consultation.
Make sure the freelancer is compatible with your firm and you. Do not hire them if you get the feeling a special writer might not be an excellent fit for the business. There are numerous authors to pick from. Get quotes and select the one, which works for you.
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Humarian presents Probonix for dogs and cats. Administering the product is simple. Pet owners just put the recommended number of drops onto their pet's food or in their water once a day. The product uses eight of the most effective probiotic strains to support general gut health and immune system function in pets. It is an organic, non-GMO, all-natural supplement free from gluten, dairy, sugar, soy, eggs, fish/shellfish and peanuts/tree nuts.


This is a list of Hollywood Movie releases in September 2013. Every one of us love watching the movies in theatres. Watching a movie is great for passing free time. Everyone has their favorite kind of movies. Some people like action movies, some likes drama and some likes comedy movies. If you are also a great movie buff and you want to know about the movies releasing next month. Then this article might be helpful for you. September 2013 will see the release of 7 Hollywood movies. There are some interesting movies lined up for this month. Riddick, Insidious Chapter 2 and Cloudy 2: Revenge of the Leftovers are the much awaited movies. Personally I am looking forward for the release of Cloudy 2 : Revenge of the Leftovers. Which movie you are looking forward to watch in September. Do share with us in the comments section. Don't forget to share this article with your friends to make them aware of the next month's movie release dates.


text:
- Volume 81, Issue 1, 1974
Navigate this Journal
Physiology And Growth
Localization of α-l-Arabinofuranosidase and Acid Phosphatase in Mycelium of Sclerotinia fructigena
E. C. Hislop, Vivien M. Barnaby, Claire Shellis and F. Laborda
α-l-Arabinofuranosidase (AF) and acid p-nitrophenyl phosphatase (AP) were secreted by Sclerotinia fructigena grown in a liquid pectin/ammonium tartrate medium. 'Gentle' mechanical manipulation of mycelium solubilized most of the AF and much of the AP, while brief acid treatment considerably inactivated both enzymes. Both enzymes were present predominantly in a soluble form in homogenates prepared for subcellular fractionation, but some particulate activity of both was recovered from a sucrose density gradient in a fraction which also contained mitochondria. Azo-dye techniques with appropriate 1-naphthyl derivatives as substrates and p-(acetoxymercuric) aniline diazotate as capturing agent produced similar staining patterns for both enzymes in the light and electron microscopes, but the distribution of β-glycerophosphatase activity as visualized by the Gomori technique was more variable. A proportion of the activity of the enzymes remaining after fixation was located between the plasmalemma and the hyphal wall, in vacuoles in the cytoplasm, and in spherosome-like bodies. Some evidence was obtained for structure-linked latency of both enzymes and for their secretion by a process of reverse pinocytosis.
Polyacrylamide-gel Electrophoresis of Enzymes during Morphogenesis of Sclerotia of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum
A. L. Wong and H. J. Willetts
SUMMARY: Succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (Glu-6-PDH) from Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (Lib.) de Bary were moderately active in submerged mycelium while in non-sclerotial aerial mycelium arylesterase and acid phosphatase were very active. In sclerotial initials, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (Gly-3-PDH) and SDH were at their highest level of activity, Glu-6-PDH and phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (PGDH) were moderately active, laccase activity increased markedly, and tyrosinase was detected for the first time, its activity being moderate. In young compacting sclerotia, the activities of Glu-6-PDH and PGDH increased, Gly-3-PDH and SDH showed lowered activities, and laccase activity decreased. Suppression of the glycolytic Krebs-cycle pathway and the stimulation of the pentose phosphate pathway seem important during the compaction and maturation of sclerotia. Tyrosinase may be involved in sclerotial initiation.
A Method of Isolating Anucleated Yeast Protoplasts Unable to Synthesize the Glucan Fibrillar Component of the Wall
Marie Kopecká, M. Gabriel and O. Neáas
A mixture of nucleated and anucleated protoplasts was produced from log-phase Saccharomyces cerevisiae by the use of snail enzymes. The mixture was separated by centrifugation, and anucleated protoplasts were studied by means of light and electron microscopy. Anucleated protoplasts did not synthesize glucan fibrils even though they seemed to contain all other basic structures in their cytoplasm, and the structure of the plasma membrane was unchanged. This was in sharp contrast to ordinary nucleated protoplasts which synthesized glucan fibrils even after inhibition of protein synthesis by cycloheximide. The reason for this behaviour of anucleated protoplasts is not clear. Such anucleated yeast protoplasts represent the first example of uniform anucleated fungi produced by a reproducible method.
The Action of Bacteriophage Ω8 on Two Strains of Escherichia coli 08
Barbara Wallenfels and K. Jann
SUMMARY: Bacteriophage Ω 8 is propagated in Escherichia coli e56b (o8: K27−: H−), a non-capsulated strain. Another non-capsulated strain, E. coli 2398 (o8:K?−:H−), is killed by bacteriophage Ω 8 without phage propagation. This strain was formerly believed to be E. coli 093:K?−:H−, cross-reacting with strain e56b. We have established chemical and serological identity of the o8-specific lipopolysaccharides of the two strains.
The o8-specific lipopolysaccharides of both strains inhibited the infection of Escherichia coli e56b with bacteriophage Ω 8 equally well. The adsorption rate constants of Ω 8 were identical for the two strains of E. coli o8. Evidence was obtained with 32P-labelled bacteriophage Ω 8 for penetration of viral DNA into both bacteria] strains. In host strain e56b, phage particle synthesis occurred normally. In strain 2398 the viral DNA was not degraded but its expression was blocked. The killing effect of D 8 on E. coli strain 2398 is supposed to be due to damage of the cytoplasmic membrane, which could not be reversed under the influence of viral information. This was indicated by a blockage of cellular respiration, β-galactoside transport and RNA as well as protein synthesis.
Effect of Lactose on Soluble-glucan Production and on the Ultrastructure of Sclerotium rolfsii Sacc. Grown in Submerged Culture
Y. Okon, I. Chet, Naomi Kislev and Y. Henis
A significant increase in mycelial dry weight and a decrease in production of extracellular glucan were observed when lactose was added to a submerged culture of Sclerotium rolfsii grown in a liquid glucose-synthetic medium. When added as a sole carbon source, lactose at 2·5 % (w/v) induced the formation of dark, spherical, compact bodies. The ultrastructure of these bodies is compared with that of sclerotia formed on solid media.
Growth of Bacillus subtilis and Spore Germination in Soil Observed by a Fluorescent-antibody Technique
A. Siala and T. R. G. Gray
SUMMARY: Vegetative bacteria of Bacillus subtilis placed in contact with an acid forest soil initially declined in number but grew after the development of fungal hyphae. Growth did not occur in sterile soil, nor in alkaline forest soil unless fungal growth was stimulated. Spores of B. subtilis would not germinate in the same acid forest soil unless fungal growth took place, and hardly germinated at all in the alkaline soil. Roots of seedlings of Pinus sylvestris inhibited both vegetative growth and spore germination. These results are consistent with the observed distribution of vegetative bacteria and spores of B. subtilis in forest soils.
Death of Nystatin-resistant Mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae during Refrigeration
V. Karunakaran and J. R. Johnston
Deoxyribonucleic Acid Homology among Strains of the Lobster Pathogen 'Gaffkya homari' and Aerococcus viridans
Katherine F. Kelly and J. B. Evans
On the Role of Menaquinone-6 in the Electron Transport of Hydrogen: Fumarate Reductase System in the Strict Anaerobe Desulfovibrio gigas
E. C. Hatchikian
Absence of Mannose in the Extracellular Polysaccharide of Fast-growing Rhizobia
Beverley Humphrey, Margaret Edgley and J. M. Vincent
Polyamine, Magnesium and Ribonucleic Acid Levels in Steady-state Cultures of the Mould Aspergillus nidulans
M. E. Bushell and A. T. Bull
Results from experiments in vitro strongly suggest that major roles can be ascribed to polyamines in controlling the stability, activity and synthesis of ribonucleic acids. Furthermore, functional substitution of polyamines for inorganic cations, particularly magnesium ions, in cell-free protein synthesis is well substantiated (see Cohen, 1971). Recently we have been analysing the effects of culture conditions on the chemical composition of Aspergillus nidulans and have found fluctuations in polyamine and magnesium concentrations in response to a changing environment, while biomass and RNA remained constant. This paper describes the influence of steady-state growth rate on hyphal concentrations of spermidine, spermine and Mg2+ ions.
Alteration of Macromolecular Synthesis and Membrane Permeability by a Streptococcus sanguis Bacteriocin
R. Schlegel and H. D. Slade
Although the elaboration of bacteriocins by streptococci has been described previously (Brock & David, 1963; Kuttner, 1966; Kelstrup & Gibbons, 1969; Overturf & Mortimer, 1970; Kramer & Brandis, 1972), few attempts have been made to purify and characterize these bactericidal factors (Kramer & Brandis, 1972). Streptococcus sanguis (strain Challis) produces a streptocin which is lethal for Streptococcus sanguis (strain Wicky) and can be purified by ammonium sulphate fractionation and Sephadex G-100 column chromatography. We exposed sensitive strain Wicky cells to Challis streptocin and observed macromolecular synthesis and membrane permeability.
Two Compatibility Groups among Coll Plasmids
Sheila Howarth-Thompson, Helen M. Heffernan and Maureen D. Buchan
20 | 50 | 100 per page
Volume 168 (2022)
Tweets by @MicrobioSoc
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CHEMISEPT 80 has a broad fungicidal and bactericidal effect, being able to destroy Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria (incl. Tbc) and viruses (HBV, HIV, Rota).The product is an effective agent for quick disinfection of the skin. The disinfectant contained in the product penetrates into the deep layers of the epidermis, which guarantees that also rubber gloved hands remain microbe free during a long operation. The effect of the product lasts 3 hours.
All products of the series contain pure ethyl alcohol with minor volatility in order to prevent the development of respiratory allergic reactions. Panthenol is added for relaxing irritated skin, improving subcutaneous circulation, preventing bedsores, stimulating recovering normal microflora and protective functions of the skin.
Apply 3 ml of CHEMISEPT 80 onto previously washed and dried hands and rub until the hands are dry. The time of effect is 30 seconds.
3 - 6 ml of CHEMISEPT 80 is rubbed into the hands twice during 1, 5 minutes. Both hands and arms should be disinfected.


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Goodwood Festival of Speed – June 26-29
Posted: 26th June 2014 09:37
Williams Formula 1 star Felipe Massa and 1996 world champion Damon Hill will both drive at the Goodwood Festival of Speed with the legendary team on June 26-29.
The 2014 Festival of Speed theme is 'Addicted to Winning' and there can be few grand prix entrants more appropriate to this than Williams; its 114 victories and nine constructors' titles making it the third most-successful outfit in history.
Massa, who started last weekend's Austrian Grand Prix from pole position, will drive the FW18, which Hill famously took to the 1996 drivers' title, and which won 12 of the 16 GPs held that season, on the Saturday of the event.
A modern Williams Martini Racing F1 car will also be at Goodwood and will be situated in the F1 Paddock presented by Sky Sports for the duration of the event.
Hill, who took 21 grand prix wins, 20 pole positions, 19 fastest laps and 40 podium finishes with Williams, will also have a run-out on Goodwood's iconic 1.16-mile hill.
The British motor racing hero is the seventh F1 World Champion to be added to the Goodwood entry list, joining John Surtees, Sir Jackie Stewart, Emerson Fittipaldi, Kimi Raikkonen, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button.
Completing the Williams line-up will be reserve driver Felipe Nasr, the 2011 British Formula 3 champion, who is in contention for the GP2 title this year. The 21-year-old Brazilian will also get behind the wheel of the FW18 during the weekend.
Felipe Massa said: "This will be my first time back at Goodwood since 2003 when I drove the Ferrari F2002. It will be nice to go back as there is always a great atmosphere at Goodwood and it's a great event. I'm really happy to be able to get behind the wheel of one of the team's historic cars. It will be fantastic to drive such an incredible car as the FW18. I'm also looking forward to driving in front of all the amazing fans that have a true love of all motor sports."
Goodwood Festival of Speed on social media:
YouTube: http://youtube.com/goodwoodtv
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/festivalofspeed
Twitter: http://twitter.com/fosgoodwood


Martha Coakley did not lose the election on Tuesday. Charlie Baker won it.
Both candidates — haunted by four-year-old criticisms of their failed bids for US senator and governor, respectively — put the ghosts of 2010 to rest for good this week.
In fact, they'd left them behind months ago, but some critics hadn't noticed. Tuesday showed them. There was undeniable redemption in Baker's victory, and, however painful it had to be, in Coakley's narrow defeat. In their speeches Wednesday, each was gracious and calm. They both had proven what they needed to, the razor's edge outcome an affirmation for both of them.
"I feel like we both won," Coakley said, and she was right, in a way.
The governor-elect found the man who eluded him, and voters, before: Measured and moderate, he left behind the small, angry figure who sought the corner office last time. In his place was a man with a heart — his odd tale of the fisherman notwithstanding — who made a convincing case that he would be a great manager and a check on Democrats on Beacon Hill.
Ultimately, she learned the wrong lessons from her 2010 Senate loss to Scott Brown.
He won because he went after votes all over the state, refusing to cede Democratic strongholds in the cities. Those visits to Dudley Square went way beyond the modest gains he made there: They sent a clear message to independent and sometime Democratic voters everywhere that Baker was listening to, and cared about, everyone.
He convinced conservatives to stand by him with tough talk on taxes, welfare, and undocumented immigrants. Those issues had resonated with voters emerging from English High in Lynn on Tuesday.
He was like a lot of the Baker voters coming out of the school that afternoon: A few of them had harsh words for Coakley, but most — persuaded in part by millions in ad buys — were driven by issues Baker had highlighted.
He won, too, because of something that has little to do with either gubernatorial candidate: Voters were angry at President Obama and wanted to send a message.
Coakley, Nuccio allowed, was "a good attorney general, anyway." That attorney general grew into a relentless, and frequently terrific, campaigner. Coakley worked her heart out meeting voters across the state. She arrived at the rationale for her candidacy that eluded her four years ago: She had proven she cares about the state's most vulnerable citizens, and she was the one they could trust.
If she had run that campaign in 2010, Coakley would be a US senator today. She was very nearly the state's next governor.
And now this person of remarkable accomplishments, grace, and resilience looks to be leaving public life. That's a big loss.
Here were two well-matched opponents. They fought hard, and well. The voters of Massachusetts got a great, if bruising, campaign. Nobody choked.
To suggest otherwise is to deny both candidates the credit they deserve.