FOREWORD.

established by the ancients and the moderns, from which one deduces the qualities necessary for those one might wish to construct to be considered complete, and the manner of correcting the defects of others that do not have the same advantage.

Since such a vast subject could not be properly treated without knowledge acquired through long and learned experience, I have again found in M. de Caux Jean-Baptiste de Caux de Blanquet (1693–1757), a prominent French military engineer. the assistance I had reason to expect from his zeal for the interests of His Majesty, which he has primarily kept in view, to say nothing of the friendship that has linked us for a long time. I also owe much to the reading of a manuscript memoir on the properties of seaports, presented to King Philip V by M. Flobert, Chief Engineer in the service of Spain, so well known for the brilliant operations that distinguished him in the recent wars in Italy and elsewhere.

Having accompanied the descriptions I provide of some ancient ports with plans, I believe I should add that they were drawn based on what the best authors have written; if they seem to differ in any way from the remaining vestiges, this can only be attributed to the changes the sea has caused to the adjacent coasts. For example, those who know Carthage will no longer find New Carthageoriginal: "Carthage-la-Neuve." This refers to the city of Cartagena in Spain, founded by the Carthaginians and later captured by the Romans. in the position it was in when ScipioScipio Africanus the Elder, the Roman general who captured New Carthage in 209 BC. conquered it, matching the plan I provide. This city was then on a peninsula, which was attached to the mainland only by a narrow strip of land, whereas today this peninsula is merged with the Spanish coast due to the succession of siltationFrench: attérissements. The gradual accumulation of soil, sand, or sediment deposited by water, which eventually creates new land and alters coastlines. begun since that time in the part of the