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Ancient Carthage: A Visual History

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Visual history of an empire

The Phoenician city that ruled the western Mediterranean, produced Hannibal, and was wiped off the map by Rome in 146 BC.

Existed
814 BC to 146 BC
Duration
668 years
Existed
About 814 to 146 BC
Peak area
About 300,000 km2 including Spain (220 BC)
Peak population of the city
Perhaps 400,000 to 700,000
Government
Oligarchic republic; two annual suffetes
Ended by
Rome, 146 BC

Carthage was founded by Phoenicians from Tyre around 814 BC on the coast of Tunisia and grew into a maritime empire controlling North Africa's coast, Sardinia, western Sicily, the Balearics and southern Spain. A merchant oligarchy governed through two suffetes and a senate; its fleets and mercenary armies fought the Greeks of Sicily for centuries. Three Punic Wars with Rome (264-146 BC) included Hannibal's crossing of the Alps and Cannae, but ended with Scipio Aemilianus's destruction of the city after a three-year siege in 146 BC and the sowing of its site with a curse.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Ancient Carthage. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

1,000 BC800 BC600 BC400 BC200 BC0200400600Ancient Carthage (814 BC to 146 BC)Open: Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt (Kushite)Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt (Kushite) (744 BC to 656 BC)Open: Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt (Saite period)Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt (Saite period) (664 BC to 525 BC)Open: Achaemenid EmpireAchaemenid Empire (550 BC to 330 BC)Open: Greco-Persian WarsGreco-Persian Wars (499 BC to 449 BC)Open: Macedonian EmpireMacedonian Empire (359 BC to 323 BC)Open: Wars of Alexander the GreatWars of Alexander the Great (335 BC to 323 BC)Open: Ptolemaic KingdomPtolemaic Kingdom (305 BC to 30 BC)Open: First Punic WarFirst Punic War (264 BC to 241 BC)Open: Second Punic WarSecond Punic War (218 BC to 201 BC)Open: Roman-Greek warsRoman-Greek wars (214 BC to 148 BC)Open: Third Punic WarThird Punic War (149 BC to 146 BC)Open: Roman EmpireRoman Empire (27 BC to 476)

Carthaginian territory

075150225300814 BC: 1500 BC: 100300 BC: 200264 BC: 220241 BC: 150220 BC: 300201 BC: 50146 BC: 0800 BC700 BC600 BC500 BC400 BC300 BC200 BC146 BCthousand km2 (approximate)

Timeline of the Ancient Carthage

  1. 814 BC
    Foundation of CarthageTraditional date.
  2. 480 BC
    HimeraDefeat by the Sicilian Greeks.
  3. 264 BC
    First Punic War begins
  4. 241 BC
    Sicily lost
  5. 218 BC
    Hannibal crosses the Alps
  6. 216 BC
    Cannae
  7. 202 BC
    Zama
  8. 149 BC
    Third Punic War begins
  9. 146 BC
    Carthage destroyed

Queen Dido's city

Legend says Elissa (Dido) fled Tyre and bought as much land as an ox-hide could cover, cutting it into strips. Carthage grew as Tyre declined under Assyria and Babylon, taking over the Phoenician colonies of the west. It fought the Sicilian Greeks from 480 BC (Himera) to the fourth century, explored the Atlantic (Hanno's voyage down West Africa) and dominated trade in silver, tin, purple dye and grain, with a harbour that could shelter 220 warships.

The Punic Wars

The First Punic War (264-241) over Sicily was won by Rome's new navy; Carthage lost Sicily and, in the mercenary revolt that followed, Sardinia. Hamilcar Barca built a new empire in Spain; his son Hannibal took Saguntum in 219, crossed the Alps with elephants and destroyed Roman armies at Trebia, Trasimene and Cannae (216), where perhaps 50,000 Romans died. He stayed in Italy 15 years but Rome would not surrender; Scipio invaded Africa and beat him at Zama in 202.

Carthago delenda est

Stripped of its empire and fleet, Carthage recovered commercially so quickly that Cato ended every speech with 'Carthage must be destroyed'. Rome provoked a war in 149; the Carthaginians armed themselves from scratch and held out for three years. In spring 146 Scipio Aemilianus took the city street by street, sold 50,000 survivors into slavery and razed it. Roman Carthage was later founded on the site and became the second city of the western empire.

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8 surprising things about the Ancient Carthage

  1. The story that the Romans sowed Carthage's ruins with salt is a modern invention, first recorded in the nineteenth century.
  2. Hannibal is said to have sworn eternal enmity to Rome at the age of nine on his father's altar.
  3. Carthaginian child sacrifice, long dismissed as Roman slander, is supported by the thousands of infant urns in the Tophet cemetery, though the debate continues.
  4. Hanno the Navigator's account of sailing down West Africa mentions hairy people the interpreters called 'gorillas', giving the ape its name.
  5. The Carthaginian agronomist Mago's 28-volume farming treatise was the only Punic work Rome bothered to translate.
  6. Cannae remains a set-piece of military academies as the perfect battle of encirclement.
  7. Rome's word for the Carthaginians, Poeni, gives us 'punic', and 'Punic faith' meant treachery.
  8. The Carthaginian circular military harbour, the cothon, could hold 220 ships and its remains are visible today.

Sources

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