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.

Autorentext
Gustave Flaubert (December 12, 1821 May 8, 1880) was a French novelist who is counted among the greatest Western novelists. He is known especially for his first published novel, Madame Bovary (1857), and for his scrupulous devotion to his art and style, best exemplified by his endless search for "le mot juste" ("the precise word").