Jordana Leavesley

‘The total destruction of Carthage by the Romans in 146BC was an act so extreme
that it shocked even the most hardened commentators and historians in the ancient
world’ (Chalk and Jonassohn, 1990, p.74). What contribution had Carthage made to
the Mediterranean world prior to its destruction?

Fictionalised representation of Hannibal crossing the

Alps. Source: Social Studies for Kids.

1
Jordana Leavesley

‘The total destruction of Carthage by the Romans in 146BC was an act so extreme
that it shocked even the most hardened commentators and historians in the ancient
world’ (Chalk and Jonassohn, 1990, p.74). What contribution had Carthage made to
the Mediterranean world prior to its destruction?

Carthage, a spectacularly prosperous city and once one of the largest in the western

Mediterranean, was destroyed by Rome in an act that was arguably genocide. While

no literary or historical records from the city survive, by combining archaeological

remains with Greek and Roman sources, a greater understanding of Carthage and its

impact on the western world can be obtained. This includes looking at the city’s

Phoenician heritage, its ships, navigational skills and trade, its agriculture,

manufacturing and art, its political systems, taxation of colonies and the threat it posed

to Rome. When all of these things are considered, the conclusion is inescapable –

Carthage played a major role in the formation of the Mediterranean world and

civilisation as a whole is poorer for its loss.

The Phoenicians first appear in the Iron Age, absorbing the culture of the Bronze Age

Cannites.1 They were explorers and, as such, managed to expand their interests and

influence throughout the western Mediterranean.2 Aegean cultures were traditionally

credited with paving the way for the western world through a mixture of Judeo-

Christian doctrine and ancient Greek intellectualism; however, modern research

shows that the city states established by the Phoenicians stimulated western

civilisation, by introducing eastern influence.3 With a business model inherited from

1
Charles Gates, Ancient Cities: The archaeology of urban life in the Ancient Near East and Egypt,
Greece and Rome, Abingdon, 2011, p. 189.
2
Gates, Ancient Cities: The archaeology of urban life in the Ancient Near East and Egypt, Greece and
Rome, p. 200
3
John C. Scott, ‘The Phoenicians and the formation of the Western World’, Comparative Civilisations
Review, issue. 78, 2018, p. 25.

2
 Jordana Leavesley

Mesopotamia, which used a mixture of public and private capital to invest in both long-

distance trade and manufacturing at home, the Phoenicians became the

intermediaries of Europe and Asia.4 One such item of eastern culture was the abacus,

which probably reached Greece through Phoenician trade.5 This transfusion of

eastern goods and technologies by the Phoenicians to Archaic Greece became the

foundation of western civilisation.6

As major sea traders, ships and exploration were key aspects of Phoenician life. 7

These were merchant ships, capable of carrying cargo and of being steered. They

opened trade routes to Spain and founded the city of Gadir.8 They also started the art

of navigation, with the Northern Star known as the Phoenician Star by the Greeks. 9

They influenced construction techniques, with Bronze Age Phoenicians developing a

lime mortar, which the Greeks used as the basis for cement and the Romans would

eventually turn into concrete.10 The Greeks also adopted the Phoenician use of

weights and measures for trade transactions and are said to have inherited their fine

music and a religious sporting festival from Phoenician culture as well.11 As talented

craftworkers and manufacturers of a highly desired purple dye,

the Phoenicians were able to expand their trade networks and

establish city states around the western Mediterranean.12 A

Weights adopted by Greeks, source: Masters
of the Ancient Mediterranean, p. 42.
4
Scott, ‘The Phoenicians and the formation of the Western World’, p. 25, 28.
5
Ibid., p. 33.
6
Ibid., p. 25, 39.
7
Gates, Ancient Cities: The archaeology of urban life in the Ancient Near East and Egypt, Greece and
Rome, p. 193.
8
Aurora Higueras-Milena Castellano and Antonio M. Sáez Romero, ‘The Phoenicians and the Ocean:
trade and worship at La Caleta, Cadiz, Spain’, The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, vol.
47, no. 1, 2018, p. 81.
9
Scott, ‘The Phoenicians and the formation of the Western World’, p. 30.
10
Ibid., p. 27, 33.
11
Ibid., pp. 32-33.
12
Rhys Carpenter, ‘Phoenicians in the West’, American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 62, no. 1, 1958, p.
35; John C. Scott, ‘The Phoenicians and the formation of the Western World’, Comparative Civilisations

3
Jordana Leavesley

standardised form of communication followed swiftly, with literacy being required to

enter into trade agreements.13 The Greeks, who had a high regard for Phoenician

accomplishments, borrowed this alphabet to create their own, which would become

the basis of the Latin alphabet in years to come.14 Written language, along with

numerical systems are necessary for a society to organise its information, and, as

such, the introduction of the Phoenician alphabet assisted in the transfer of culture

from the Near East to the West.15 The Phoenicians established territorial colonies and

sent forth their people, skilled in seafaring, engineering and manufacturing.16 Their

greatest accomplishment was then born into the world and it would eventually assume

the leadership of all Phoenician cities.17

Said to have been founded by a Phoenician princess in the eighth century BCE and

with a legend that it would one day be the most prosperous city in the world, Carthage

was an autonomous Phoenician city state.18 Archaeological finds confirm the date of

the city and show evidence of urban planning to house its sizeable population. 19 With

its own institutions, social classes, history and customs, the prosperous city of

Carthage would one day rule over an empire that included North Africa, Southern

Review, issue. 78, 2018, p. 31; John C. Scott, ‘The Phoenicians and the formation of the Western
World’, Comparative Civilisations Review, issue. 78, 2018, p. 32.
13
Robin Osborne and Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, ‘Cities of the Ancient Mediterranean’, The Oxford
Handbook of Cities in World History, 2013, p. 51.
14
Osborne and Wallace-Hadrill, ‘Cities of the Ancient Mediterranean’, p. 51; Carpenter, ‘Phoenicians in
the West’, p. 35.
15
Scott, ‘The Phoenicians and the formation of the Western World’, p. 28, 32.
16
Ibid., p. 25, 29.
17
Ibid., p. 36.
18
Justin, The Foundation of Carthage, XVIII.V-VI; Walter Ameling, ‘Carthage’, The Oxford Handbook
of the State in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean, Peter Fibiger Bang and Walter Scheidel (eds),
2013.
19
Dexter Hoyos, Hannibal’s Dynasty: Power and politics in the western Mediterranean, 247-183 BC,
London and New York, 2003, pp. 24-25; Walter Ameling, ‘Carthage’, The Oxford Handbook of the State
in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean, Peter Fibiger Bang and Walter Scheidel (eds), 2013.

4
Jordana Leavesley

Spain, Sardinia, Corsica and Western Sicily. 20 Situated

on the Mediterranean coast, on the southern side of the

peninsula, next to the gulf of Tunis and with a large bay to

the north and low hills on the coast, Carthage held a

commanding geographical position.21 It was this strategic

situation, one with excellent defensive and trade potential,

Map of western Mediterranean
that allowed the city to flourish.22 Enjoying a network of and North Africa. Source:
Oxford Illustrated History of the
Roman World, p.118.
links throughout North Africa, including trade, territory,

revenue and military service, and surrounded by fertile land, Carthage became a major

commercial hub and , eventually, the largest and richest city in the western

Mediterranean.23

With perhaps a quarter of a million people residing in it and dependent on it, Carthage

was defended by a massive wall, thirty-five kilometres in length, with tower blocks of

up to four stories situated every fifty-five to sixty-five metres. 24 In addition to this, the

city had an outer ditch, some twenty metres wide and an inner ditch of a little over five

metres wide. Carthage was a spacious city, with public buildings, temples and high

20
Ameling, ‘Carthage’; M. Cary and H.H. Scullard, A History of Rome, Hampshire and New York, 1975,
p. 115.
21
Cary and Scullard, A History of Rome, 1975, p. 113; Hoyos, Hannibal’s Dynasty: Power and politics
in the western Mediterranean, 247-183 BC, p. 24.
22
Hoyos, Hannibal’s Dynasty: Power and politics in the western Mediterranean, 247-183 BC, p. 25;
Matthew Dillon and Lynda Garland (eds), Ancient Rome: From the Early Republic to the Assassination
of Julius Caesar, London, 2005, p. 173.
23
Josephine M. Crawley, Imperialism and Culture in North Africa: the Hellenistic and Early Roman Eras,
Berkeley, 2003, p. 39; Naphtali Lewis and Meyer Reinhold, Roman Civilisation – Volume 1: The
Republic and the Augustan Age, New York, 1990, p. 207; H.H. Scullard, ‘Carthage’, Greece and Rome,
vol. 2, no. 3, 1955, p. 98; Cary and Scullard, A History of Rome, p. 115.
24
Mary Beard, SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, London, 2015, p. 209; Hoyos, Hannibal’s Dynasty:
Power and politics in the western Mediterranean, 247-183 BC, p. 24; C.R. Whittaker, ‘Do theories of
the ancient city matter?’, Urban Society in Roman Italy, Tim J. Cornell and Katherine Comas (eds),
London and New York, 1995, p. 13.

5
 Jordana Leavesley

apartment style blocks lining a single main street that spiralled around the town.25 It

boasted comfortable houses, complete with bathrooms and drains and with rooms

arranged around a central courtyard with mosaic paving. Though little excavation has

been done in the residential area, the building style and pottery remains indicate an

eastern Mediterranean flair, which would influence the building designs of African

towns connected to the city.26 Further to this, Carthage had stabling for three hundred

elephants and barracks for twenty thousand infantry soldiers and another four

thousand cavalry. Outside the city was an industrial area with kilns, metalwork shops

and dye production, but it was the two enclosed harbours below the city that inspired

the most awe.27 Vividly described by Appian, they consisted of a rectangular bay for

merchants and a circular naval base, known as a Cothon, complete with docks and

wharves, surrounding an ‘Admiral’s Island’, on which was built a tower to see over the

outer walls.28 With over one hundred and fifty ship sheds built

of stone and a monumental man-made sea wall, the

archaeological remains depict a metropolis built with state of

the art resources, technology and a considerable feet of

engineering ingenuity.29

Reconstruction of the harbours at

Carthage. Source: Wealth of Africa:
Carthage.

25
Strabo, Geography, in Dillon and Garland (eds), Ancient Rome: From the Early Republic to the
Assassination of Julius Caesar, XVII.III.XIV; Hoyos, Hannibal’s Dynasty: Power and politics in the
western Mediterranean, 247-183 BC, p. 24; Gordon Campbell (ed), The Grove Encyclopedia of
Classical Art and Architecture, 2007.
26
Scullard, ‘Carthage’, Greece and Rome, p. 98; Campbell (ed), The Grove Encyclopedia of Classical
Art and Architecture, 2007.
27
Richard Miles, ‘Carthage, the lost Mediterranean civilisation’, History Today, vol. 60, no. 2, 2010, p.
15.
28
Appian, The Punic Wars, XX.XCVI; Hoyos, Hannibal’s Dynasty: Power and politics in the western
Mediterranean, 247-183 BC, p. 24.
29
Strabo, Geography, XVII.III.XIV; Dexter Hoyos, ‘Carthage after 201BC: African prosperity and Roman
Protection’, Cassicum, vol. 41, no.1, 2015, p. 26; Henry Hurst and Lawrence G. Stager, ‘A Metropolitan
Landscape: The late Punic port of Carthage’, World Archaeology, vol. 9, no. 3, 1978, p. 341, 344.

6
Jordana Leavesley

Necessity is the mother of invention and it goes without saying that harbours of this

nature must have been built to service not only a sizable navy, but a flourishing

shipping trade. As Phoenicians, the Carthaginians had a legacy of being the greatest

of seafarers.30 The had an undisputed command of the sea and were pioneers in the

fields of navigation and commerce.31 They used cedar from the mountains in Lebanon

for shipbuilding and were acknowledged as being superior at naval warfare, as they

trained for it longer and were better equipped than other cities. 32 Polybius spoke of

their occupation being more about sea-going than any other people and the size and

impact of their navy was admired during the Punic Wars.33 The Carthaginians were

expert ship builders and invented the quinqueremes,

which the Romans then used as a model for their own

ships, after one belonging to Carthage fell into their

hands.34 As the Carthaginian ships were made with

pre-fabricated, mass-produced timber, with each

Artist’s impression of
piece identified by letters, the Romans were able to quinqueremes.
copy not just theSource: Sutori.
design of the

ship, but also the method of production.35 Had the Romans not captured this ship,

they would have been unable to continue their warfare on water, as according to

Polybius, they lacked the expertise.36

30
Jo-Ann Thompson, ‘Hanno of Carthage’, Stamps, vol. 242, no. 9, 1993, p. 253; Scullard, ‘Carthage’,
p. 104.
31
Scullard, ‘Carthage’, p. 104.
32
Polybius, The Rise of the Roman Empire, London, 1979, VI.LII; Gates, Ancient Cities: The
archaeology of urban life in the Ancient Near East and Egypt, Greece and Rome, p. 189.
33
Polybius, The Rise of the Roman Empire, VI.LII.
34
Polybius, Histories, in Dillon and Garland (eds), Ancient Rome: From the Early Republic to the
Assassination of Julius Caesar, I.XX.XV; Dillon and Garland (eds), Ancient Rome: From the Early
Republic to the Assassination of Julius Caesar, p. 183; Scott, ‘The Phoenicians and the formation of
the Western World’, p. 37.
35
H.H. Scullard, ‘Carthage and Rome’, The Cambridge Ancient History, vol. 7.2, A. Drummond (ed),
1990, p. 549.
36
Polybius, Histories, I.XX.XVI.

7
Jordana Leavesley

The Carthaginians were explorers who traded in goods and seeds found in the channel

around Carthage show that among other items, they were transporting figs, grapes,

pomegranates, peaches, melons, plums, olives, small quantities of nuts and lotus. 37

Hanno, the great Carthaginian sailor, explored the West African coast, a region that

the Portuguese would map two thousand years later. 38 Hanno was a man of

importance, who must have travelled south of the equator in order to see the gorillas

that were described in his journey, though the Carthaginians were secretive about the

exact details due to competition in trade. 39 Nevertheless, Hanno’s great expedition

was a major event of its time and is still viewed as historical in terms of Carthaginian

colonisation.40 So famous was the tale of Hanno, that when Roman playwright Plautus

depicts a Carthaginian explorer in his play The Little Carthaginian, he shows him to

be a multilingual man of honourable disposition, though he also mocked Carthage for

being known to trade in anything, including panthers.41

Treaties made with Rome both before and between the Punic Wars indicate that

Carthage’s trading interests were of foremost importance to them.42 They are known

to have traded with Athens from around 600BCE and had trade routes across the

Black Sea and Strait of Gibraltar. 43 Their geographical location put them in a good

37
Cary and Scullard, A History of Rome, p. 116; Hurst and Stager, ‘A Metropolitan Landscape: The late
Punic port of Carthage’, p. 340.
38
The Voyage of Hanno the Navigator, XVIII; Erich Gruen, Rethinking the Other in Antiquity, Princeton,
2011, p. 137.
39
Thompson, ‘Hanno of Carthage’, p. 253.
40
Carpenter, ‘Phoenicians in the West’, p. 52.
41
Plautus, The Little Carthaginian, 1355; Frank Chalk and Kurt Jonassohn, ‘Carthage’, The History and
Sociology of Genocide: Analyses and Case Studies, 1990, p. 81.
42
Dillon and Garland (eds), Ancient Rome: From the Early Republic to the Assassination of Julius
Caesar, p. 175.
43
Nathan Pilkington, An Archaeological History of Carthaginian Imperialism, 2013, p. 359; Kirsten
Parkin, ‘Changing tides: how Carthage’s religious changes are reflective of their cultural changes’,
Classicum, vol. 44, no. 1, 2018, p. 33.

8
Jordana Leavesley

trading position to trade with Spain and, eventually, their strong knowledge of the

oceans and exploitation of colonial manpower allowed them to control trade in the

western Mediterranean.44 The Carthaginians were middlemen, exchanging gold from

Africa and silver from Spain.45 They exported horses, textiles, grain and slaves, along

with luxury goods, such as wine and robes.46 Knowledge of these goods comes from

ancient sources and, more recently, shipwrecks, with a Carthaginian ship located in

Spanish waters revealing that, at the time it was wrecked, it was transporting amber

from the Baltic region, local Phoenician ceramics, tin from northwest Iberia, elephant

tusks from North Africa and copper from throughout the Mediterranean.47

The Carthaginians also traded in fruit grown in their own fertile hinterland and much of

this was fruit that required grafting to grow, a considerable agricultural enterprise and

testament to the advanced state of Carthaginian agriculture.48 So famous were they

for this trade, that the Romans referred to the pomegranate as the Punic Apple. The

lavish territory outside of Carthage was divided into market gardens with orchards,

olives and vines, all under irrigation. There were also villas, gardens and livestock,

such as cattle, sheep and horses.49 Hannibal was said to have occupied his soldiers

during times of peace by employing them to plant olive trees and Diodorus described

the country houses and gardens of Cap Bon as being the wealthy farming estates of

Carthaginians.50 Technological advances were shared with the western

44
Patrick Hunt, ‘The Locus of Carthage: Compounding Geographical Logic’, The African Archaeological
Review, vol. 26, no. 2, 2009, p.151.
45
Scullard, ‘Carthage’, p. 105; Simon Hornblower and Anthony Spawforth (eds), The Oxford Classical
Dictionary, New York, 2003, p. 295.
46
Chalk and Jonassohn, ‘Carthage’, p. 79; Gates, Ancient Cities: The archaeology of urban life in the
Ancient Near East and Egypt, Greece and Rome, p. 189.
47
Jason Urbanus, ‘Masters of the ancient Mediterranean’, Archaeology, vol. 69, no. 3, 2016, p. 42.
48
Hurst and Stager, ‘A Metropolitan Landscape: The late Punic port of Carthage’, p. 340.
49
Crawley, Imperialism and Culture in North Africa: the Hellenistic and Early Roman Eras, p. 219.
50
Hoyos, ‘Carthage after 201BC: African prosperity and Roman Protection’, p. 25.

9
Jordana Leavesley

Mediterranean, including an agricultural device known as the Punic Cart; a type of

threshing machine.51 Recognition of superior knowledge in the field of agriculture was

given to the famous twenty-eight volume work by Mago, which was preserved after

the destruction of the city and translated into Latin on command of the Roman

senate.52

The Carthaginians not only exported produce grown on their land, but also items

manufactured by them, such as luxury rugs, carpets, beds and cushions, ivory

carvings and glass.53 In addition, they had an industry that dried and salted fish and

another producing the greatly sought after Tyrian purple dye, made from a shellfish

known as Murex.54 There was also pottery industry, but finer articles were imported

from Greece and Southern Italy, both for trade and their own use. Their manufacturing

industry was capable of producing vast numbers of things in short periods of time,

such as described by Strabo, after having given over two hundred thousand suits of

armour, along with three thousands catapults to Rome before the commencement of

the third Punic War, they were then able to quickly manufacture more equipment, at a

rate of one hundred and forty shields, three hundred swords, five hundred spears and

one thousand catapult missiles per day. 55 In addition to this, they constructed one

hundred and twenty new ships in a period of two months and these feats were able to

be accomplished as the Carthaginians kept craftsmen on a retainer at the public

expense.56

51
Miles, ‘Carthage, the lost Mediterranean civilisation’, p. 16.
52
Beard, SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, p. 210.
53
Hornblower and Spawforth (eds), The Oxford Classical Dictionary, p. 295; ‘The Wealth of Africa:
Carthage’, British Museum, 2010.
54
Gates, Ancient Cities: The archaeology of urban life in the Ancient Near East and Egypt, Greece and
Rome, p. 189; Urbanus, ‘Masters of the ancient Mediterranean’, p. 41.
55
Strabo, Geography, XVII.III.XV.
56
Ibid.

10
Jordana Leavesley

Carthaginian artwork was influenced by the Egyptians and the Greeks, but although a

reflection on Mediterranean style, it did not follow it exactly.57 Both Plutarch and H.H.

Scullard were of the view that Carthage produced little in the way of art and that their

literature was all technical manuals and no poetry. 58 Scullard went on to say that their

pottery was unadorned and subsequently cheap looking and that, although Rome had

not achieved much in the way of art by this time in their own period, they were capable

of doing so in a way that Carthage never could.59 This belief in the dullness and

inferiority of Carthaginian artwork stems from pro-Roman bias and aesthetic prejudice

over critical judgment.60 Carthaginian art,

although simple, was often very

expressive, as can be seen in the

overexaggerated features on masks

designed to ward off evil spirits and the

Terracotta Mask to ward off Bearded man, source:
intricate curls of bearded hair. evil in tomb, source: Livius. Wikipeadia.

There is a limit to what can be gleaned on the operation of a society by the study of its

cities, but where Carthage is concerned, the evidence of great qualities is reflected in

their domination of North Africa and the western Mediterranean.61 Carthage had been

a prosperous city long before Rome and its population consisted of free citizens, free

foreigners and the non-free.62 While its own citizens mainly served in the navy,

mercenaries were used to make up an infantry and although this has been criticised

57
Campbell (ed), The Grove Encyclopedia of Classical Art and Architecture, 2007; Miles, ‘Carthage,
the lost Mediterranean civilisation’, p. 17.
58
Cary and Scullard, A History of Rome, p. 149.
59
Scullard, ‘Carthage’, p. 105; Cary and Scullard, A History of Rome, p. 149.
60
Carpenter, ‘Phoenicians in the West’, p. 38.
61
Whittaker, ‘Do theories of the ancient city matter?’, p. 22; Scullard, ‘Carthage’, p. 103.
62
Lewis and Reinhold, Roman Civilisation – Volume 1: The Republic and the Augustan Age, p. 164;
‘Carthage’, Brill’s New Pauly Encyclopedia, 2006.

11
Jordana Leavesley

by Roman writers as folly, they were still loyal, effective and capable, on occasion

besting Rome.63 Its system of government was admired by Aristotle, who included the

study of it in his school. 64 Aristotle was impressed that Carthage held the loyalty of

the common people and that it had had neither rebellion nor tyrant. 65 Carthage was a

large city that required officials to run it and Aristotle criticised what he saw as the

wealthy having control over the city through the sale of higher office. However, it

should be borne in mind that he did also consider the Carthaginians’ reasons for their

position of buying power, in that a person without wealth is without the leisure to rule

well.66 Aristotle was very willing to criticise constitutions, so his thoughts on Carthage

were largely praise. Polybius also wrote of Carthage’s well-designed constitution, but

being pro-Roman, detailed how the Carthaginian government was in decline, whereas

Rome’s was ascending.67 Despite writing of Rome’s primacy in this area, Carthage

and its government was still portrayed as the benchmark for success.68

Commerce in the Carthaginian empire was not only found in trade, but in taxing their

municipalities, a system continued by the Romans after Carthage fell. 69 Carthage had

considerable wealth and resources at its disposal, as is evident from their continued

prosperity after the end of the second Punic War, despite still owing money to Rome

as part of the peace treaty.70 The area of Africa surrounding the city of Carthage

63
Polybius, The Rise of the Roman Empire, VI.LII; Dillon and Garland (eds), Ancient Rome: From the
Early Republic to the Assassination of Julius Caesar, p. 174, 180.
64
Aristotle, ‘The Constitution of Carthage’, Politics, MCCLXXIIbXXIV-MCCLXXIIIbXXV; Denis
Feeney, ‘Carthage and Rome: Introduction’, Classical Philology, vol. 112, no. 3, 2017, p. 302.
65
Aristotle, ‘The Constitution of Carthage’, MCCLXXIIbXXIV-MCCLXXIIIbXXV.
66
Ibid.
67
Polybius, The Rise of the Roman EmpireVI.LI.
68
Erich Gruen, Rethinking the Other in Antiquity, Princeton, 2011, p. 120.
69
Whittaker, ‘Do theories of the ancient city matter?’, p. 14; Feeney, ‘Carthage and Rome: Introduction’,
pp. 305-306.
70
Livy, The War with Hannibal, XXX.XLII; Cary and Scullard, A History of Rome: Down to the Reign of
Constantine, p. 147.

12
Jordana Leavesley

underwent socio-economic and cultural change as a result of Carthaginian influence.71

It was not just their technological and agricultural advancements that benefitted the

cities under Carthage’s rule, but their beliefs and systems of worship. The

Phoenicians who settled Carthage brought with them the old Near Eastern deity

Astarte, who would later be known as Tanit. The votive offerings on tombs suggest a

belief in the afterlife and although there is much speculation regarding their practise of

child sacrifice, there is little archaeological evidence to support the proposition. 72 They

were a musical people, with two cymbals located in the tombs of a priestess and

documented stories of high-status women being skilled in music. 73 H.H. Scullard

labelled their culture as ‘unattractive and repulsive’, but admitted that there was too

little evidence to gain a clear picture of their aesthetic nature, showing, again, his pro-

Roman bias on the subject.74 What is known though, is that Carthage developed from

a Phoenician outpost into a multicultural city state and a superpower in terms of its

political, trade and military prowess and this made it Rome’s ultimate foe. 75

Carthage and Rome fought three great Punic Wars against each other, with Rome

defeating Carthage each time, but suffering heavy and humiliating losses all the

same.76 The Battle of Cannae in 216BCE saw tens of thousands of Roman troops

slaughtered on a single afternoon, a defeat at the hands of a brilliant general, who

71
Crawley, Imperialism and Culture in North Africa: the Hellenistic and Early Roman Eras, p. 194, 216.
72
J.H. Schwartz, F.D. Houghton, L. Bondioli and R. Macchiarelli, ‘Two tales of one city: date, inference
and Carthaginian infant sacrifice’, Antiquity, vol. 91, no. 356, 2017, p. 443, 452; Hoyos, Hannibal’s
Dynasty: Power and politics in the western Mediterranean, 247-183 BC, p. 27.
73
Mireia López-Bertran and Agnés Garcia-Ventura, ‘Music, gender and rituals in the Ancient
Mediterranean: revising the Punic evidence’, World Archaeology, vol. 44, no. 3, 2012, p. 400.
74
Scullard, ‘Carthage’, Greece and Rome, p. 105.
75
Parkin, ‘Changing tides: how Carthage’s religious changes are reflective of their cultural changes’, p.
33; Scott, ‘The Phoenicians and the formation of the Western World’, p. 39; Arthur Grenke, Genocide
from Antiquity to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century, 2011, p. 49.
76
Grenke, Genocide from Antiquity to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century, p. 48; John Boardman,
Jasper Griffin and Oswyn Murray (eds), The Oxford Illustrated History of the Roman World, Oxford and
New York, 1986, p. 29.

13
Jordana Leavesley

crushed the much larger Roman army and sowed panic in the Roman populace.77

Hannibal could have continued to Rome and have likely taken the city at this point, but

did not and Carthage eventually lost the second Punic War, as they had the first. 78

Part of the peace settlement was the agreement not to wage war with any of Rome’s

allies without the permission of Rome and this would prove the catalyst to the third

and final Punic War, when after years of provocation, Carthage raised an army against

their neighbour, Masinissa. Although they lost and apologised, Rome, still haunted by

the memory of Hannibal, viewed this technical infraction as a breach of their peace

treaty.79 The Roman senator Cato the Elder had for years pushed for the destruction

of their old foe, calling out ‘Delenda est Carthago’ at the end of every speech – Cartage

must be destroyed.80 Increasing demands from Rome culminated in the ultimatum

that Carthage must abandon its city and move ten miles inland. For Carthage, a

people of the sea, who derived their livelihood, economic status and identity from their

ability to sail, explore and trade, this was a death sentence and with their refusal, came

Rome’s declaration of war.81

Three years later and after a two year siege, the ancient city of Carthage was reduced

to rubble and most of its inhabitants sold into slavery.82 According to Appian, the

sacking of the city took six full days and nights, with soldiers rotated in order the

77
Livy, The War with Hannibal, XXII.LI; Polybius, Histories, III.CXVIII.V; Boardman, Griffin and Murray
(eds), The Oxford Illustrated History of the Roman World, p. 29; Beard, SPQR: A History of Ancient
Rome, p. 180.
78
Livy, Rome and the Mediterranean, London, 1976, XXXIII.XIII; Beard, SPQR: A History of Ancient
Rome, p. 181.
79
Grenke, Genocide from Antiquity to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century, p. 49; Cary and Scullard,
A History of Rome: Down to the Reign of Constantine, p. 148.
80
Plutarch, Life of Cato, in Lewis and Reinhold, Roman Civilisation – Volume 1: The Republic and the
Augustan Age, XXV.I-XXVI; Ben Kiernan, ‘The First Genocide: Carthage, 146BC’, Diogenes, vol. 51,
no. 3, 2004, pp. 27-28.
81
Cary and Scullard, A History of Rome: Down to the Reign of Constantine, p. 148; Grenke, Genocide
from Antiquity to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century, 2011, pp. 49-50.
82
Beard, SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, p. 209.

14
Jordana Leavesley

preserve their energy and provide respite from the hideous sights of slaughter that

even by ancient standards were excessive and unnecessary.83 The archaeological

remains of bones found at the site indicate the validity of these stories of the abject

horror inflicted on the Carthaginians.84 Polybius, who was present at the fall of

Carthage, wrote that the punishment meted out by the Romans was not only harsh,

but final.85 Mass killing, even in the ancient world, was exceptional, but Rome had

sought to set an example for others who might think of crossing them. 86 It was Roman

imperialism that led to the destruction of Carthage and Rome claiming its place in

history.87

As for what remained of this once great city, Polybius wrote how the Carthaginians

had been destroyed as a people, with the remnants of its citizens dispersed among

many groups, breaking social organisations and the networks of a community. 88 Their

ruling aristocracy died with their city and the man who ordered their destruction was

said to have wept over the ashes of the mighty capital and a people who had shown

courage and determination in the defence of their home.89 For Rome, their interactions

with Carthage had compelled them to define themselves and justify their actions,

which were considered by many as a failure of moral character.90 Although simplistic

83
Appian, Roman History, in Dillon and Garland (eds), Ancient Rome: From the Early Republic to the
Assassination of Julius Caesar, VIII.DCXX; Beard, SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, p. 209.
84
Beard, SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, p. 210.
85
Polybius, The Rise of the Roman Empire, XXXVI.IX.
86
Grenke, Genocide from Antiquity to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century, p. 44; Lewis and
Reinhold, Roman Civilisation – Volume 1: The Republic and the Augustan Age, p. 207.
87
Ameling, ‘Carthage’, The Oxford Handbook of the State in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean,
Bang and Scheidel (eds),; Beard, SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, p. 210.
88
Chalk and Jonassohn, ‘Carthage’, The History and Sociology of Genocide: Analyses and Case
Studies, p. 75; Grenke, Genocide from Antiquity to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century, p. 54.
89
Ameling, ‘Carthage’, The Oxford Handbook of the State in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean,
Bang and Scheidel (eds); Gruen, Rethinking the Other in Antiquity, p. 139; Scullard, ‘Carthage’, Greece
and Rome, p. 104.
90
Livy, The Early History of Rome, London, 2002, p. 4; Feeney, ‘Carthage and Rome: Introduction’, p.
309; Richard Bauman, Human Rights in Ancient Rome, London and New York, 2012, p. 25.

15
Jordana Leavesley

in argument, Sullust believed the seeds of Rome’s eventual downfall were sown when

they mercilessly destroyed Carthage, as not only were they lusting for power, but now

no longer had a rival to strive to meet. 91 Many modern scholars have also criticised

the unnecessary and brutal destruction of the long-standing city, but none with such

venom as the words put into the mouths of Carthaginians by Roman writers. 92

There is a temptation to believe that culture and knowledge exists, where perhaps

there was none.93 There is a temptation to dismiss the lack of evidence as a mixture

of the lack of Carthaginian sources and anti-Carthaginian propaganda.94 There is a

temptation to believe too much in the dream of a vibrant, prosperous culture, cut down

in its prime, but in the case of Carthage, such belief is probably too little. 95 The

accomplishments of Carthage far outlived their doomed city, with their language

becoming the official language in North Africa, their art, building and agricultural

techniques continued by their enemy Masinissa, their achievements and knowledge

appropriated by their enemy in Rome and their endurance renowned in the ancient

world.96 Carthage had an old relationship with Greece, of a similar status to that of

Rome and their books were said to contain great wisdom.97 The Greeks viewed them

91
Beard, SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, p. 38; Ronald Syme, The Roman Revolution, Oxford,
2002, p. 154, 249; Lewis and Reinhold, Roman Civilisation – Volume 1: The Republic and the Augustan
Age, p. 490.
92
Dillon and Garland (eds), Ancient Rome: From the Early Republic to the Assassination of Julius
Caesar, p. 228; Beard, SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, p. 516.
93
Miles, ‘Carthage, the lost Mediterranean civilisation’, p. 14.
94
Iván Fumadó Ortega, ‘Colonial representations and Carthaginian archaeology’, Oxford Journal of
Archaeology’, vol. 32, no. 1, 2013, p. 54.
95
Miles, ‘Carthage, the lost Mediterranean civilisation’, p. 17.
96
Chalk and Jonassohn, ‘Carthage’, The History and Sociology of Genocide: Analyses and Case
Studies, pp. 92-93; Ameling, ‘Carthage’, The Oxford Handbook of the State in the Ancient Near East
and Mediterranean, Bang and Scheidel (eds); Gruen, Rethinking the Other in Antiquity, pp. 139-140;
Scullard, ‘Carthage and Rome’, p. 486; Josephine Quinn, ‘Translating Empire from Carthage to Rome’,
Classical Philology, vol. 112, no. 3, 2017, p. 328.
97
Gruen, Rethinking the Other in Antiquity, p. 138; Miles, ‘Carthage, the lost Mediterranean civilisation’,
p. 17; Michael Sommer, ‘Networks of commerce and knowledge in the Iron Age: the case of the
Phoenicians’, Mediterranean Historical Review, vol. 22, no. 1, 2007, p. 104.

16
Jordana Leavesley

as scientists and farmers and philosophers and they had a proud heritage, as is

evident from the depiction of elephants on their coins. 98 Rome, whose own city was

not materially richer than Carthage, had been determined in their will to destroy a

culture of significant importance, even praying to the Carthaginian gods to forsake

their own.99 Had events been different and Carthage had

conquered Rome, it is quite plausible that the history of western

civilisation would have taken a decidedly different path.100 Carthaginian coin, source:
Carthaginian Coinage.

Historian H.H. Scullard believed that it was only fitting that Carthage fell to Rome, as

Rome had, in comparison, made a greater contribution to the western world, by

passing on Greek culture.101 This bias not only disregards the impact Carthage and

the Phoenician people had on Greek culture long before any Roman involvement, but

also ignores Polybius’ advice to historians. “For a good man ought to love his friends

and his country and share his friends’ hated of their enemies and their love of their

friends; but, when a person takes on the role of a historian, he has to forget everything

of this sort… for, just as a living creature deprived of its eyes is totally incapacitated,

so when history is deprived of truth, nothing is left but an unprofitable tale”. 102

Carthage, one of the world’s greatest ancient civilisations, was unnecessarily

annihilated by the Romans. Fortunately for humanity, the Carthaginian legacy

surpassed the city of Carthage and its achievements are still on display. Among these

98
Gruen, Rethinking the Other in Antiquity, p. 122; Miles, ‘Carthage, the lost Mediterranean civilisation’,
p. 11.
99
Macrobius, Saturnalia, in Dillon and Garland (eds), Ancient Rome: From the Early Republic to the
Assassination of Julius Caesar, III.IX.VII; Dillon and Garland (eds), Ancient Rome: From the Early
Republic to the Assassination of Julius Caesar, p. 174.
100
Scullard, ‘Carthage’, Greece and Rome, p. 98; Parkin, ‘Changing tides: how Carthage’s religious
changes are reflective of their cultural changes’, p. 36.
101
Scullard, ‘Carthage’, Greece and Rome, p. 106; Beard, SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, p. 170.
102
Polybius, Histories, I.XIV.IV-VI.

17
Jordana Leavesley

were the creation of an alphabet adopted by the Greeks and ships copied by the

Romans. They revolutionised agriculture with the invention of new, time-saving

technologies and provided Rome with an inheritance of the western Mediterranean

world; a world bound by culture, economics and politics. This trading nation, renowned

for their knowledge of navigation and bilingualism, set the standard in the Hellenistic

world. They were the descendants of the culturally giant Phoenicians and went on to

change life as we know it. Carthago diu vivere!

18
Jordana Leavesley

Bibliography

Primary Sources:

Appian, The Punic Wars, https://www.livius.org/sources/content/appian/appian-the-

punic-wars/, accessed 03 Feb 19.

Appian, Roman History, in Dillon, Matthew., and Garland, Lynda. (eds), Ancient Rome:
From the Early Republic to the Assassination of Julius Caesar, Routledge, London,
2005.

Aristotle, ‘The Constitution of Carthage’, Politics,

http://www.livius.org/sources/content/carthage-s-constitution, accessed 24 Jan 19.

Justin, The Foundation of Carthage, http://www.livius.org/sources/content/the-

founding-of-carthage/, accessed 24 Jan 19.

Livy, Rome and the Mediterranean, translated by Henry Bettenson, Penguin Books,
London, 1976.

Livy, The Early History of Rome, translated by Aubrey De Sélincourt, Penguin Books,
London, 2002.

Livy, The War with Hannibal, translated by Aubrey De Sélincourt, Penguin Books,
London, 1972.

Macrobius, Saturnalia, in Dillon, Matthew., and Garland, Lynda. (eds), Ancient Rome:
From the Early Republic to the Assassination of Julius Caesar, Routledge, London,
2005.

Plautus, The Little Carthaginian, https://www.loebclassics-

com.exproxy.une.edu.au/view/LCL260/2012/volume.xml, accessed 03 Jan 19.

19
Jordana Leavesley

Plutarch, Life of Cato the Elder, in Dillon, Matthew., and Garland, Lynda. (eds), Ancient
Rome: From the Early Republic to the Assassination of Julius Caesar, Routledge,
London, 2005.

Plutarch, Life of Cato, in Lewis, Naphtali., and Reinhold, Meyer., Roman Civilisation –
Volume 1: The Republic and the Augustan Age, Columbia University Press, New York,
1990.

Polybius, Histories, in Dillon, Matthew., and Garland, Lynda. (eds), Ancient Rome:
From the Early Republic to the Assassination of Julius Caesar, Routledge, London,
2005.

Polybius, The Rise of the Roman Empire, translated by Ian Scott-Kilvert, Penguin
Books, London, 1979.

Strabo, Geography, in Dillon, Matthew., and Garland, Lynda. (eds), Ancient Rome:
From the Early Republic to the Assassination of Julius Caesar, Routledge, London,
2005.

The Voyage of Hanno the Navigator, http://www.livius.org/articles/person/hanno-I-the-

navigator/, accessed 24 Jan 19.

Secondary Sources:

Ameling, Walter. ‘Carthage’, The Oxford Handbook of the State in the Ancient Near
East and Mediterranean, Peter Fibiger Bang and Walter Scheidel (eds), 2013, Oxford
Handbooks Online.

Bauman, Richard., Human Rights in Ancient Rome, Routledge, London and New
York, 2012.

Beard, Mary., SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, Profile Books, London, 2015.

20
Jordana Leavesley

Boardman, John., Griffin, Jasper., and Murray, Oswyn. (eds), The Oxford Illustrated
History of the Roman World, Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, 1986.

Campbell, Gordon. (ed), The Grove Encyclopaedia of Classical Art and Architecture,
Oxford University Press, 2007,
http://www.oxfordreference.com.ezproxy.une.edu.au/view/10.1093/acref/978019530
0826.001.0001/acref-9780195300826-e-0221?rskey=aF9aPj&result=223, accessed
26 Jan 19.

Carpenter, Rhys., ‘Phoenicians in the West’, American Journal of Archaeology, vol.

62, no. 1, 1958, pp. 35-53.

Cary, M., and Scullard, H.H., A History of Rome: Down to the Reign of Constantine,
Palgrave, New York, 1975.

Castellano, Aurora Higueras-Milena., and Romero, Antonio M. Sáez., ‘The

Phoenicians and the Ocean: trade and worship at La Caleta, Cadiz, Spain’, The
International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, vol. 47, no. 1, 2018, pp. 81-102.

Chalk, Frank,, and Jonassohn, Kurt., ‘Carthage’, The History and Sociology of
Genocide: Analyses and Case Studies, Yale University Press, 1990, pp. 74-93.

Crawley, Josephine M., Imperialism and Culture in North Africa: the Hellenistic and
Early Roman Eras, University of California, Berkeley, 2003.

Dillon, Matthew., and Garland, Lynda. (eds), Ancient Rome: From the Early Republic
to the Assassination of Julius Caesar, Routledge, London, 2005.

Feeney, Denis., ‘Carthage and Rome: Introduction’, Classical Philology, vol. 112, no.
3, 2017, p. 301-311.

Gates, Charles. Ancient Cities: The archaeology of urban life in the Ancient Near East
and Egypt, Greece and Rome, Routledge, Abingdon, 2011.

21
Jordana Leavesley

Grenke, Arthur., Genocide from Antiquity to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century,
The Edwin Mellen Press, 2011.

Gruen, Erich., Rethinking the Other in Antiquity, Princeton University Press, Princeton,
2011.

Hornblower, Simon., and Spawforth, Anthony. (eds), The Oxford Classical Dictionary,
Oxford University Press, New York, 2003.

Hoyos, Dexter., ‘Carthage after 201BC: African prosperity and Roman Protection’,
Cassicum, vol. 41, no.1, 2015, pp. 25-32.

Hoyos, Dexter,. Hannibal’s Dynasty: Power and politics in the western Mediterranean,
247-183 BC, Routledge, London and New York, 2003.

Hunt, Patrick., ‘The Locus of Carthage: Compounding Geographical Logic’, The

African Archaeological Review, vol. 26, no. 2, 2009, pp. 137-154.

Hurst, Henry., and Stager, Lawrence G., ‘A Metropolitan Landscape: The late Punic
port of Carthage’, World Archaeology, vol. 9, no. 3, 1978, pp. 334-346.

Kiernan, Ben., ‘The First Genocide: Carthage, 146BC’, Diogenes, vol. 51, no. 3, 2004,
pp. 27-39.

Lewis, Naphtali., and Reinhold, Meyer., Roman Civilisation – Volume 1: The Republic
and the Augustan Age, Columbia University Press, New York, 1990.

López-Bertran, Mireia., and Garcia-Ventura, Agnés., ‘Music, gender and rituals in the
Ancient Mediterranean: revising the Punic evidence’, World Archaeology, vol. 44, no.
3, 2012, pp. 393-408.

Miles, Richard., ‘Carthage, the lost Mediterranean civilisation’, History Today, vol. 60,
no. 2, 2010, pp. 10-17.

22
Jordana Leavesley

Ortega, Iván Fumadó., ‘Colonial representations and Carthaginian archaeology’,

Oxford Journal of Archaeology’, vol. 32, no. 1, 2013, pp. 53-72.

Osborne, Robin., and Wallace-Hadrill, Andrew., ‘Cities of the Ancient Mediterranean’,

The Oxford Handbook of Cities in World History, Peter Clark (ed), 2013, pp. 50-51.

Parkin, Kirsten., ‘Changing tides: how Carthage’s religious changes are reflective of
their cultural changes’, Classicum, vol. 44, no. 1, 2018, p. 33-41.

Pilkington, Nathan., An Archaeological History of Carthaginian Imperialism, Columbia

University, 2013.

Quinn, Josephine., ‘Translating Empire from Carthage to Rome’, Classical Philology,

vol. 112, no. 3, 2017, pp. 312-331.

Scott, John C., ‘The Phoenicians and the formation of the Western World’,
Comparative Civilisations Review, issue. 78, 2018, p. 25-40.

Scullard, H.H., ‘Carthage’, Greece and Rome, vol. 2, no. 3, 1955, pp. 98-107.

Scullard, H.H., ‘Carthage and Rome’, The Cambridge Ancient History, vol. 7.2, A.
Drummond (ed), Cambridge, 1990, pp. 486-572.

Schwartz, J.H., Houghton, F.D., Bondioli, L., and Macchiarelli, R., ‘Two tales of one
city: date, inference and Carthaginian infant sacrifice’, Antiquity, vol. 91, no. 356, 2017,
pp. 442-454.

Sommer, Michael., ‘Networks of commerce and knowledge in the Iron Age: the case
of the Phoenicians’, Mediterranean Historical Review, vol. 22, no. 1, 2007, pp. 97-111.

Syme, Ronald, The Roman Revolution, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2002.

Thompson, Jo-Ann., ‘Hanno of Carthage’, Stamps, vol. 242, no. 9, 1993, p. 253.

23
Jordana Leavesley

Urbanus, Jason., ‘Masters of the ancient Mediterranean’, Archaeology, vol. 69, no. 3,
2016, pp. 38-43.

Whittaker, C.R., ‘Do theories of the ancient city matter?’, Urban Society in Roman Italy,
Tim J. Cornell and Katherine Comas (eds), Routledge, London and New York, 1995,
pp. 9-26.

‘Carthage’, Brill’s New Pauly Encyclopedia, https://referenceworks-brillonline-

com.ezproxy.une.edu.au/entries/brill-s-new-pauly/carthage-
e609590?s.num=444&s.rows=50&s.start=400, accessed 17 Jan 19.

‘Carthaginian Coinage’, https://www.ancient.eu/Carthaginian_Coinage/, accessed 03

Feb 19.

‘Livius’, https://www.livius.org/category/punic/, accessed 03 Feb 19.

‘Social Studies for Kids’,

http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/articles/currentevents/hannibal-route.htm,
accessed 03 Feb 19.

‘Sutori’, https://www.sutori.com/item/the-quinqueremes-were-originally-carthaginian-
ships-and-were-mainly-used-to-help, accessed 03 Feb 19.

‘The Wealth of Africa: Carthage’, British Museum,

https://www.britishmuseum.org/pdf/Carthage_StudentsWorksheets.pdf, 2010,
accessed 14 Jan 19.

‘Wikipedia’, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Carthage, accessed 03 Feb 19.

24