*** Welcome to piglix ***

History of Carthage


Carthage was founded in the 9th century BC on the coast of North Africa, in what is now Tunisia. It developed into a significant trading empire throughout the Mediterranean, and was seen as home to a wealthy and brilliant civilization. After a long conflict with the emerging civilisation of Ancient Rome, known as the Punic Wars, during which advantage shifted from one side to the other and Hannibal conducted a campaign in Italy after first crossing the Alps, Rome finally destroyed Carthage in 146 B.C. A Roman Carthage was established on the ruins of the first.

The city started as one of a number of Phoenician settlements in the western Mediterranean that were created to facilitate trade from the city of Tyre on the coast of what is now Lebanon. Most Phoenician cities had fewer than 1,000 inhabitants, but Carthage and a few others developed into large, self-sustaining, independent towns. Ancient sources concur that Carthage had become perhaps the wealthiest city in the world via its trade and commerce. The founding of Carthage is variously given in ancient sources as somewhere between 1215 BC and 1234 BC. Modern sources feel the city was founded sometime between 846 and 813 BC. According to tradition, the city was founded by Queen Dido. The initial city covered the area around a hill called Byrsa, paid an annual tribute to the nearby Libyan tribes, and may have been ruled by a governor from Tyre, whom the Greeks identified as "king". Utica, then the leading Phoenician city in Africa, aided the early settlement in her dealings. The date from which Carthage can be counted as an independent power cannot exactly be determined, and probably nothing distinguished Carthage from the other Phoenician colonies in Africa during 800–700 BC. When the Phoenician trade monopoly was challenged by Etruscans and Greeks in the west and their political and economic independence by successive empires in the east, Phoenician influence from the mainland decreased in the west and Punic Carthage ultimately emerged at the head of a commercial empire.

The mainland Greeks began their colonization efforts in the western Mediterranean with the founding of Naxos in Sicily, and Cumae in Italy, and by 650 BC Phoenicians in Sicily had retreated to the western part of that island. Around this time the first recorded independent action by Carthage takes place, which is the colonization of Ibiza. By the end of the 7th century BC, Carthage was becoming one of the leading commercial centers of the West Mediterranean region, a position it retained until overthrown by the Roman Republic. Carthage would establish new colonies, repopulate old Phoenician ones, come to the defense of other Punic cities under threat from natives/Greeks, as well as expand her territories by conquest. Mago I, a general of the army, had assumed power in Carthage by 550 BC. Mago and his sons, Hasdrubal I and Hamilcar I, established the warlike tradition of Carthage by their successes in Africa, Sicily and Sardinia. In 509 BC, a treaty was signed between Carthage and Rome indicating a division of influence and commercial activities. This is the first known source indicating that Carthage had gained control over Sicily and Sardinia, as well as Emporia and the area south of Cape Bon in Africa. Carthage may have signed the treaty with Rome, then an insignificant backwater, because Romans had treaties with the Phocaeans and Cumae, who were aiding the Roman struggle against the Etruscans at that time. Carthage had similar treaties with Etruscan, Punic and Greek cities in Sicily. By the end of the 6th century BC, Carthage had conquered most of the old Phoenician colonies e.g. Hadrumetum, Utica and Kerkouane, subjugated some of the Libyan tribes, and had taken control of parts of the North African coast from modern Morocco to the borders of Cyrenaica. It was also fighting wars in defense of Punic colonies and commerce. Greek cities contested with Carthage for the Western Mediterranean culminating in the Sicilian Wars and the Pyrrhic War over Sicily, while the Romans fought three wars against Carthage, known as the Punic Wars.


...
Wikipedia

...