Flaubert read about 400 scholarly books before he wrote Salammbo.
Flaubert's main source was Book I of Polybius's Histories. The novel kickstarted a renewed interest in the history of pre-Imperial Rome's conflict with the North African Phoenician colony of Carthage.
Tanit[1] was a Punic and Phoenician goddess, the chief deity of Carthage alongside her consort Baal-hamon.[2][3] She was also adopted by the Berber people
Chapter 13. "Moloch". Carthaginian children are sacrificed to Moloch. Hamilcar disguises a slave-child as his son Hannibal and sends him to die in his son's place.
