Salammbô

Salammbô is a historical novel set in Carthage in the third century BC. After the first war with Rome, the city's unpaid foreign mercenaries rise in revolt and march on it. Salammbô, the daughter of the general Hamilcar and a priestess of the moon goddess Tanit, becomes entangled with Mathô, a rebel leader who is drawn to her. Flaubert builds the ancient world in rich and sometimes harsh detail, with its temples, feasts, rituals and battles. The book mixes exotic spectacle with a stern view of power, faith and violence, and stands apart from his novels of modern French life.