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originals. In literature only a few technical works appeared. Thus, little is known of the everyday life of Carthage, its government, or its language. Religion in Carthage involved human sacrifice to the principal gods, Baal and Tanit, the equivalent of the Phoenician goddess Astarte. The Greek gods Demeter and Persephone and the Roman goddess Juno were adapted to later religious patterns of the Carthaginians.
Carthage engaged in war almost continually with Greece and with Rome for 150 years. Wars with Greece, beginning in 409 bc, concerned the control of Sicily, which lay only about 160 km (about 100 mi) from Carthage and formed a natural bridge between North Africa and Italy. Carthage first encountered defeat in Sicily in 480 bc, when the Carthaginian general Hamilcar (fl. 5th cent. bc) commanded a force that hoped to expand Carthaginian influence throughout Sicily, but was defeated by Gelon, the tyrant (ruler) of Syracuse. Further Carthaginian attempts to conquer Sicily were thwarted by armies under the command of the Syracusan tyrants Dionysius the Younger, Dionysius the Elder, Agathocles, and Pyrrhus, king of Epirus. After their final defeat in 276 bc, the Carthaginians continued to hold territory in Sicily; 12 years later the first of the Punic Wars against Rome began.
Punic Wars
The First Punic War (264–241 bc) brought to the fore the Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca. Defeated in Sicily, Hamilcar invaded Spain. His conquests in southern Spain were completed by his son-in-law Hasdrubal and by his son Hannibal. Carthage ceded its holdings in Sicily to Rome after the final Roman victory at the Aegates Islands. During the Second Punic War (218–201 bc), Hannibal marched eastward along the northern shore of the Mediterranean from Spain and finally crossed the Alps into Italy. Hannibal's final defeat, however, resulted in the loss of Spain and various island possessions of Carthage. In the Third Punic War (149–146 bc), the Romans under Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemelianus Africanus Numantinus destroyed the city of Carthage. In a final gesture of contempt, the Romans spread salt over the ruins. The victors thus fulfilled the wish of the Roman statesman Cato the Elder.
Occupancy of the site was forbidden for 25 years. In 122 bc a new city, Colonia Junonia, was founded; it lasted only 30 years. In 46 bc Julius Caesar visited the site and proclaimed that a city should be built there. His wishes were fulfilled by the Roman emperor Augustus, in 29 bc, when a city called Colonia Julia Carthago was founded. This new city flourished until, according to some historians, it was second only to Rome in prosperity and administrative importance. Roman Carthage also became a center of Christianity, being the seat of a bishop from late in the 2d century. St. Cyprian was bishop there in 248; Tertullian, a Christian ecclesiastical writer, lived and worked in Carthage in the 3d century; and St. Augustine was bishop of nearby Hippo in the early 5th century.
Carthage was fortifed against barbarian attack in 425. In 439 the Vandal king Gaiseric subjugated the city. It remained the Vandal capital until 533, when the Byzantine general Belisarius captured the city, renaming it Colonia Justiniana Carthago in honor of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I. In 697 the city was seized by the Arabs, and in 698 it was again destroyed. A great deal of archaeological activity was carried on at the site, particularly in the late 19th century, uncovering early Punic artifacts and Roman, Byzantine, and Vandal buildings. Today Carthage is a wealthy suburb of Tunis.
The PUNIC WARS, are the names given to the three wars between Rome and Carthage in the 3d and 2d centuries bc. The adjective Punic (Lat. Punicus) is derived from Poeni, the name by which the Carthaginians, being of Phoenician descent, were known to the Romans.
First Punic War
The First Punic War (264–241 bc) was the outcome of growing political and economic rivalry between the two nations. It was initiated when a band of Campanian mercenary soldiers (Mamertines), besieged in the city of Messana (now Messina), in Sicily, requested aid from both Rome and Carthage against Hiero II, king of Syracuse. Carthage already controlled part of Sicily, and the Romans, responding to this request with the intention of driving the Carthaginians from the island, provoked a declaration of war. After building their first large navy, the Romans defeated a Carthaginian fleet off the Sicilian port of Mylae (see MYLAE, BATTLE OF,) in 260 bc, but failed to capture Sicily. In 256 bc a Roman army under Roman general Marcus Atilius Regulus established a base in North Africa, but the following year the Carthaginians forced it to withdraw. For the next 13 years the war was fought in the area of Sicily. It ended with a major naval victory for the Romans in 241 bc. Sicily was then ceded to the Romans, who also seized the Carthaginian islands of Sardinia and Corsica in 237 bc.
Second Punic War
Hamilcar Barca, a distinguished Carthaginian general of the First Punic War, devoted the remainder of his life to building up Carthaginian power in Spain to compensate for the loss of Sicily. His son Hannibal became commander of the Carthaginian forces in this area in 221 bc, and in 219 bc he attacked and captured Saguntum, a Spanish city allied with Rome. This act brought on the Second Punic War (218–201 bc). In the spring of 218 bc Hannibal swiftly marched a large army through Spain and Gaul and across the Alps to attack the Romans in Italy before they could complete their preparations for war. He crossed the dangerous mountains and secured a firm position in northern Italy. By 216 bc he had won two major victories, at Lake Trasimeno and the town of Cannae, and reached southern Italy. In spite of his requests, Hannibal received insufficient reinforcements and siege weapons from Carthage until 207 bc, when his brother Hasdrubal left Spain with an army to join him. Hasdrubal crossed the Alps, but in a battle at the Metaurus River, in northern Italy, he was killed and his troops defeated. Meanwhile, the Roman general Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, known as Scipio Africanus the Elder, had totally defeated the Carthaginians in Spain, and in 204 bc he landed an army in North Africa. The Carthaginians recalled Hannibal to Africa to defend them against Scipio. Leading an army of untrained recruits, he was decisively defeated by Scipio at the Battle of Zama in 202 bc. This battle marked the end of Carthage as a great power and the close of the Second Punic War. The Carthaginians were compelled to cede Spain and the islands of the Mediterranean still in their possession, relinquish their navy, and pay an indemnity to Rome.
Third Punic War
In the 2d century bc, however, Carthage continued to be commercially successful and, though only a minor power, a source of irritation to Rome. The Romans were further incited by the speeches of the censor Cato the Elder, who demanded Delenda est Carthago (“Carthage must be destroyed”). A minor Carthaginian breach of treaty gave the pretext for the Third Punic War (149–146 bc), in which the Romans, led by Scipio the Younger, captured the city of Carthage, razed it to the ground, and sold the surviving inhabitants into slavery.
For further information on this topic, try Classical history and Rome.
An article from Funk & Wagnalls® New Encyclopedia. © 2005 World Almanac Education Group. A WRC Media Company. All rights reserved. Except as otherwise permitted by written agreement, uses of the work inconsistent with U.S. and applicable foreign copyright and related laws are prohibited.
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