Ancient Carthage (from Phoenician 𐤒𐤓𐤕 𐤇𐤃𐤔𐤕 Qart-ḥadašt[1]) was a Semitic civilization centered on the Phoenician city-state of Carthage, located in North Africa on the Gulf of Tunis, outside what is now Tunis, Tunisia. It was founded in 814 BC.[2][3] Originally a dependency of the Phoenician state of Tyre, Carthage gained independence around 650 BC and established a hegemony over other Phoenician settlements throughout the Mediterranean, North Africa and what is now Spain[4] which lasted until the end of the 3rd century BC. At the height of the city's prominence, it was a major hub of trade with political influence extending over most of the western Mediterranean. For much of its history, Carthage was in a constant state of struggle with the Greeks on Sicily and the Roman Republic, which led to a series of armed conflicts known as the Greek-Punic Wars and Punic Wars. The city also had to deal with the volatile Berbers,[5] the indigenous inhabitants of the entire area where Carthage was built. In 146 BC, after the third and final Punic War, Carthage was destroyed and then occupied by Roman forces.[6] Nearly all of the other Phoenician city-states and former Carthaginian dependencies fell into Roman hands from then on. The Phoenicians established numerous colonial cities along the coasts of the Mediterranean[7] in order to provide safe harbors for their merchant fleets,[8] to maintain a Phoenician monopoly on an area's natural resources, and to conduct trade free of outside interference.[9] They were also motivated to found these cities to satisfy the demand for trade goods or to escape the necessity of paying tribute[10] to the succession of empires that ruled Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos, and by fear of complete Greek colonization of that part of the Mediterranean suitable for commerce.[11] The Phoenicians lacked the population or necessity to establish large self-sustaining cities abroad, and most of their colonial cities had fewer than 1,000 inhabitants, but Carthage and a few others developed larger populations.[12] Although Strabo's claim that the Tyrians founded three hundred colonies along the west African coast is clearly exaggerated, colonies were established in Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Iberia,[13] and to a much lesser extent, on the arid coast of Libya. The Phoenicians were active in Cyprus, Sardinia, Corsica, the Balearic Islands, Crete and Sicily, as well as on the European mainland at present-day Genoa in Italy and Marseille in present-day France.[14] The settlements at Crete and Sicily were in perpetual conflict with the Greeks,[15] but the Phoenicians managed to control all of Sicily for a limited time. The entire area later came under the leadership and protection of Carthage,[16] which in turn dispatched its own colonists to found new cities[17] or to reinforce those that declined with the loss of primacy of Tyre and Sidon. The first colonies were settled on the two paths to Iberia's mineral wealth — along the North African coast and on Sicily, Sardinia and the Balearic Islands.[18] The centre of the Phoenician world was Tyre,[19] which served as its economic and political hub. The power of this city waned following numerous sieges by Babylonia,[20][21] and then its later voluntary submission to the Persian king Cambyses and incorporation within the Persian empire.[22] Supremacy passed to Sidon, and then to Carthage,[23] before Tyre's eventual destruction by Alexander the Great in 332 BC.[24] Each colony paid tribute to either Tyre or Sidon, but neither had actual control of the colonies. This changed with the rise of Carthage, since the Carthaginians appointed their own magistrates to rule the towns and Carthage retained much direct control over the colonies.[25] This policy resulted in a number of Iberian towns siding with the Romans during the Punic Wars.

• published: 30 Oct 2013
• views: 8