Salammbô is an 1862 historical novel by Gustave Flaubert. It is set in Carthage immediately before and during the Mercenary War. Flaubert's principal source was Book I of the Histories, written by the Greek historian Polybius. The novel was enormously popular when first published in 1862. The novel was translated in English by Eleanor Marx in 1886, where it was introduced to the English-speaking world and became a bestseller. The novel jumpstarted a renewed interest in the history of the Roman Republic's conflict with the North African Phoenician outpost of Carthage.