An outline, era by era

Carthage until 146 BCE

Classical Antiquity · ~500 BCE – ~500 CE

Carthage was a Phoenician city on the coast of present-day Tunisia, near modern Tunis. Settlers from Tyre founded it, traditionally in 814 BCE. Over the following centuries it grew into the leading power of the western Mediterranean, with a large fleet, wealthy trade networks and territory in North Africa, Sicily, Sardinia and Iberia. It was governed by a council and elected magistrates called suffetes, and it hired many of its soldiers.

Carthage's rivalry with Rome led to three wars, known as the Punic Wars, between 264 and 146 BCE. In the second, Hannibal invaded Italy and won famous victories before being defeated at Zama in 202 BCE. In the third war Rome besieged the city and destroyed it in 146 BCE. Most Carthaginian writings were lost, so much of what we know comes from Greek and Roman authors, who were often hostile, along with excavations and inscriptions.

Things happened, and the rest is history

  1. Treaties between Rome and Carthage

    Event

    What happened

    Around 509 BCE, according to the historian Polybius, Rome and Carthage make their first treaty, setting limits on where each side's ships and traders may go. Later treaties renew these terms. They show two trading powers recognising one another in the western Mediterranean. In 279 BCE the two cities even join in an alliance against Pyrrhus of Epirus.

    The rest is history

    For about two centuries the two states cooperated more than they fought. That changed when both became involved in Sicily. Polybius read the treaty texts, which were kept on bronze tablets in Rome, and his account is the main source. The exact date and wording of the first treaty are debated. The peace ended in 264 BCE, when the First Punic War began.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryPolybius. Histories, Book 3, chapters 22 to 26. Greek history, c. 150 BCE. Loeb Classical Library edition, trans. W. R. Paton, revised by F. W. Walbank and Christian Habicht, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010.
    2. BookMiles, Richard. Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization. London: Allen Lane, 2010.

  2. The Punic Wars with Rome

    Event

    What happened

    In 264 BCE Rome and Carthage clash over Messina in Sicily, starting the First Punic War. Rome builds a fleet and wins at sea, and Carthage gives up Sicily in 241 BCE. In the Second Punic War, from 218 to 201 BCE, Hannibal crosses the Alps and defeats the Romans at Cannae in 216 BCE, but Scipio defeats him at Zama in 202 BCE. Carthage loses its empire and its fleet and must pay a large indemnity.

    The rest is history

    Carthage survived as a trading city, but Rome now held Sicily, Sardinia and Iberia. Some Romans came to see its recovery as a threat. In 149 BCE Rome declared a third war. Carthage resisted a siege of about three years, and the city fell in spring 146 BCE. The best narrative sources are Polybius and Livy, both writing from the Roman side.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryPolybius. Histories, Books 1 to 3 and 15. Greek history, c. 150 BCE. Loeb Classical Library edition, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010.
    2. BookGoldsworthy, Adrian. The Fall of Carthage: The Punic Wars 265-146 BC. London: Cassell, 2003.

  3. The Battle of Himera and the Sicilian wars

    Event

    What happened

    Carthage fights Greek cities in Sicily for much of its history. In 480 BCE a Carthaginian army under Hamilcar is defeated at Himera by Gelon of Syracuse. In 409 BCE Carthaginian forces destroy Selinus and Himera, and in 406 BCE they capture and destroy Akragas. A peace in 405 BCE leaves Carthage in control of western Sicily, and fighting continues under Dionysius of Syracuse and later rulers.

    The rest is history

    These wars left western Sicily under Carthaginian control but never gave Carthage the whole island. Syracuse remained a strong rival until Rome entered the contest. The long struggle gave Carthage experience in naval and siege warfare and drew it toward Sicily, where the First Punic War began. Our accounts come mainly from the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, writing in the first century BCE, so the Carthaginian side is seen through Greek eyes.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryDiodorus Siculus. Library of History, Books 11 and 13. Greek history, 1st century BCE. Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
    2. BookLancel, Serge. Carthage: A History. Oxford: Blackwell, 1995.

  4. Hanno's voyage and Carthaginian reach beyond Gibraltar

    Event

    What happened

    Carthage keeps trading posts in Iberia, Sardinia and North Africa, and its ships sail beyond the Strait of Gibraltar. A Greek text called the Periplus of Hanno, a translation of an account attributed to a Carthaginian named Hanno, describes a voyage down the Atlantic coast of Africa with settlers.

    The rest is history

    The Periplus survives only in Greek, and its date, route and interpretation are uncertain. Scholars disagree about how far south the voyage went, and some doubt details of the settlements. The text is cautiously taken as a sign of Carthaginian interest in Atlantic trade, though how far that trade reached is debated. The harbours at Carthage itself, a circular naval basin and a trading harbour, have been excavated and belong to the later period.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryPeriplus of Hanno. Greek translation of a Punic text, date debated, preserved in a medieval manuscript. Ed. Carl Müller, Geographi Graeci Minores, Paris, 1855.
    2. BookHurst, Henry. Excavations at Carthage: The British Mission, Volume II, Part 1: The Circular Harbour, North Side. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.

  5. Hannibal's march and Zama

    Event

    What happened

    In 218 BCE Hannibal leads an army from Iberia over the Alps into Italy. He beats the Romans at the Trebia, Lake Trasimene and Cannae, but cannot take Rome or gather enough allies. In 204 BCE Scipio lands in Africa, and in 202 BCE he defeats Hannibal at Zama.

    The rest is history

    The peace of 201 BCE forced Carthage to give up its fleet and to pay a large indemnity over fifty years. It also barred the city from making war without Rome's consent. Hannibal later served as a magistrate and then went into exile, dying around 183 BCE. The campaign remained a model of generalship for later writers.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryLivy. Ab Urbe Condita, Books 21 to 30. Latin history, c. 20 BCE. Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
    2. BookLazenby, J. F. Hannibal's War: A Military History of the Second Punic War. Warminster: Aris and Phillips, 1978.

  6. Dido and the founding of Carthage

    Origin story

    The legend

    Dido, also called Elissa, a princess of Tyre, flees after her brother Pygmalion murders her husband. She sails to North Africa and asks the local people for land. They offer her only as much as an ox hide can cover, so she cuts the hide into thin strips and encircles a hill, which becomes the citadel Byrsa.

    The rest is history

    The story is told in Latin by Justin, summarising Pompeius Trogus, and appears in a different form in Virgil's Aeneid. The ox-hide tale may come from a Greek pun on the Greek word byrsa, hide, and probably not from the Phoenician word for citadel. Tyre really did send colonists west, and the traditional date is 814 BCE. The earliest archaeological layers at Carthage date to about the late eighth century BCE.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryJustin. Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus, Book 18. Latin, 2nd or 3rd century CE.
    2. BookAubet, Maria Eugenia. The Phoenicians and the West: Politics, Colonies and Trade. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

  7. Child sacrifice at the tophet

    Popular belief

    The legend

    Greek and Roman writers say the Carthaginians burn their children as offerings to the gods Baal Hammon and Tanit. In the story, in times of crisis, such as the siege by Agathocles in 310 BCE, hundreds of children are sacrificed.

    The rest is history

    The accounts come from hostile writers such as Diodorus and Plutarch, and may exaggerate. Excavations at the tophet in Carthage found urns with burnt remains of infants and animals under stone markers. Scholars disagree whether these were sacrifices or burials of children who died young. Some analyses suggest many were stillborn or very young, while others read the inscriptions as evidence of offerings. The question is still debated.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryDiodorus Siculus. Library of History, Book 20, chapter 14. Greek history, 1st century BCE. Loeb Classical Library.
    2. ArticleSchwartz, Jeffrey H., Frank Houghton, Roberto Macchiarelli, and Luca Bondioli. "Skeletal Remains from Punic Carthage Do Not Support Systematic Sacrifice of Infants." PLoS ONE 5, no. 2 (2010): e9177.

  8. Hannibal's oath and the vinegar on the rocks

    Folk tale

    The legend

    As a boy of nine, Hannibal is said to swear before his father Hamilcar never to be a friend of Rome. In another tale, he clears a way through the Alps by heating the rocks with fire and splitting them with vinegar.

    The rest is history

    The oath is reported by Polybius, who says Hannibal himself told it to the king Antiochus III many years later. It may be true, but it was recalled long after. The vinegar story comes from Livy, writing about two centuries later, and modern scholars doubt it, since vinegar would not break rock well and Polybius does not mention it. Hannibal did cross the Alps in autumn 218 BCE, though the pass he used is still debated.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryPolybius. Histories, Book 3, chapter 11. Greek history, c. 150 BCE. Loeb Classical Library.
    2. PrimaryLivy. Ab Urbe Condita, Book 21, chapter 37. Latin history, c. 20 BCE. Loeb Classical Library.

  9. Cato's "Carthage must be destroyed"

    Popular belief

    The legend

    The Roman senator Cato the Elder ends every speech, whatever the subject, with the words "Carthago delenda est", Carthage must be destroyed. The cry is said to have pushed Rome into the Third Punic War.

    The rest is history

    Plutarch and later writers report that Cato ended speeches this way, though the exact words come from later sources. Cato did visit Carthage in 153 BCE and came home alarmed at its recovery. Other senators, such as Scipio Nasica, are said to have argued for sparing it. The decision for war in 149 BCE had several causes, including Carthage's conflict with the Numidian king Masinissa. Historians generally see Cato as one voice among many.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryPlutarch. Life of Cato the Elder, chapters 26 and 27. Greek biography, c. 100 CE. Loeb Classical Library.
    2. BookKiernan, Ben. Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007.

  10. Rome salts the earth of Carthage

    Popular belief

    The legend

    After the city falls in 146 BCE, the Romans plough it under and sow the land with salt so that nothing will ever grow there again.

    The rest is history

    No ancient source says that salt was sown at Carthage. The story seems to appear in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Ancient writers do report that Carthage was burned, its walls pulled down and its people killed or enslaved. Gaius Gracchus proposed a colony on the site in 122 BCE, called Junonia, but it was short-lived and its exact status is debated. Julius Caesar planned a new colony, which was carried out under Augustus, and Roman Carthage became a major city of North Africa. Excavations have found the burned layer of 146 BCE under the Roman streets.

    Sources

    1. ArticleRidley, R. T. "To Be Taken with a Pinch of Salt: The Destruction of Carthage." Classical Philology 81, no. 2 (1986): 140-146.
    2. BookMiles, Richard. Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization. London: Allen Lane, 2010.

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