Mago (
Punic: 𐤌𐤂𐤍, MGN)[1] was a
Carthaginian writer, author of an
agricultural manual in
Punic which was a record of the farming knowledge of Carthage. The Punic text has been lost, but some fragments of
Greek and
Latin translations survive.
Work
Mago's long work was divided into 28 books. It incorporated local
Berber and
Punic traditional practices. Carthage being a Phoenician colony and North Africa the granary of the central Mediterranean, knowledge of agricultural and veterinary practices was extensive. It began with general advice which is thus summarized by
Columella:
One who has bought land should sell his town house so that he will have no desire to worship the household gods of the city rather than those of the country; the man who takes greater delight in his city residence will have no need of a country estate.
After Rome's destruction of Carthage in 146 BC, the Carthaginian libraries were given to the kings of
Numidia according to Roman sources, but no record of their existence or location has never been identified. Most likely, the library’s contents were destroyed by Rome with the rest of the once-great city. Uniquely, Mago's book was retrieved and brought to Rome.[3] It was adapted into Greek by
Cassius Dionysius and translated in full into Latin by
D. Junius Silanus, the latter at the expense of the
Roman Senate.[4] The Greek translation was later abridged by
Diophanes of Nicaea, whose version was divided into six books.[5]
Extracts from these translations survive in quotations by Roman writers on agriculture, including
Varro,
Columella,
Pliny the Elder, and
Gargilius Martialis. This is a partial list of surviving fragments:
^Miles, Richard (2010). Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization. United States: Penguin Books. p. 13.
ISBN978-0-14-312129-9.
^Pliny, Naturalis Historia 18.22
[1], cf. 1.18;
Cicero, De Oratore 1.249; Varro, Rerum Rusticarum 1.1.10; Columella, De Agricultura 1.1.13, 12.4.2.