Salammbô

Gustave Flaubert

After the First Punic War, Carthage cannot keep promises made to its mercenaries and is attacked. The fictional title character, a priestess and daughter of Hamilcar Barca, the leading Carthaginian general, is the object of the obsessive desire of Matho, a mercenary leader. With the help of the scheming freed slave Spendius, Matho steals the sacred veil of Carthage, the Zaïmph, which causes Salammbô to enter the mercenary camp to recapture it. The zaïmph is an ornate jeweled veil that is draped around the statue of the goddess Tanit in the sanctuary of her temple: the veil is the guardian of the city and its touch brings death to the perpetrator.