During the eighth century before the Christian era the Tyrian and Sidonian colonies in North Africa and Spain began to detach themselves from any political submission to the Phoenician State in Syria, a kingdom then much harassed by the Assyrians and henceforth doomed to lose its independence under the alternate sway of Egypt, Assyria, Chaldaea, Persia, and Macedonia. Carthage became the metropolis of Western Phoenicia, of the Canaanite[18] settlements in Berberland and Iberia. The North African coast was dotted at frequent intervals, from Leptis (Lebda) in Tripoli to the mouth of the Draa on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, with Canaanite trading or governing cities. More especially was the Tunisian or African[19] coast under their domination, from the Island of Meninx-Jerba (the land of date-palms and Lotos-eaters) to what is now called Bona in Algeria; this last being one of the several towns anciently named Ubbo or Hippo. One such was the modern Benzert (Bizerta), the Hippo-Diarrhytos of the Greeks and the Hippon-Zaryt of late Roman and Byzantine times. From Carthage, the metropolis, there ran a causeway, of which traces still remain, up the valley of the Majerda river (the Bagradas of old times) to the date-palm country, the fruitful land of the shallow salt-lakes and the hot springs—a region which is some day going to be of the greatest importance in North Africa for its medicinal waters, its never-failing springs of sweet water, its fertile soil and genial climate. The Carthaginians also held from time to time desert cities of commanding position in what is termed the Matmata country, between the land of the “Shatts” or lakes and the Tripolitan frontier. But it is doubtful even here if Carthaginian rule extended as much as 100 miles inland; and elsewhere in North Africa, away from Tunisia, the Carthaginians only held what they occupied. At the least weakening of their power the Berber tribes were ready to revolt and take part with their enemies. The Carthaginian troops were mainly recruited in Barbary, and were mercenaries. They frequently mutinied and turned against their Syrian employers. Yet occasionally Carthage produced a man like Hannibal who could win the confidence of these Berber soldiers and lead them to fight the battles of Carthage in Spain, Sicily, and Italy. But in the outlying districts of North Africa, especially in Morocco, tradition states that the Berbers occasionally rose as a nation and destroyed the Carthaginian settlements.