Major events

• 814 BC: traditional date for the foundation of the city, though many believe that the actual date was some two generations later because of the lack of earlier remains.
• 574 BC Tyre fell to Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar.
• 509 BC: first treaty with Rome.
• 480 BC: defeated at Himera in Sicily
• ca. 410 BC onwards: overthrew various Sicilian cities including Himera.
• 310-307 BC: Agathocles, tyrant of Syracuse, led an expedition into Carthaginian territory that nearly managed to capture Carthage.
• 264-241 BC: First Punic War.
• 218-201 BC: Second Punic War.
• 149-146 BC: Third Punic War.
• 42 BC: Lepidus successfully established a Roman colony at the site.
• 29 BC: Octavian sent further settlers to Carthage.
• 238 AD: Gordianus I Africanus staged his rebellion against Maximinus I here.
• 311-314 AD: A quarrel about who should succeed to the vacant bishopric of Carthage led to the Donatist dispute.
• 439 AD: Carthage taken by the Vandals under Gaiseric (Genseric).
• 533 AD: Belisarius retook the city from the Vandals on behalf of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I.
• 697 AD: The Arabs took the city.

Historical significance

Carthage was founded by Phoenician settlers from Tyre, on the coast of Palestine. These Phoenicians were famous for their trade in the murex mollusc that yielded a highly-prized brilliant purple dye, and it is likely that the settlement, founded on a peninsula near the mollusc beds, was chosen for its commercial suitability. Its Phoenician name, Kart Hadasht (meaning 'New Capital' as well as 'New City'), however, could also point to the added purpose of founding the town as a potential alternative capital in the West at a time when Tyre was being threatened by the Assyrians. Although Carthage was not the first Phoenician colony in the Western Mediterranean, it soon became the most important. During the 7th C. the city became independent of Tyre and began to control the surrounding tribes, in turn founding colonies and expanding to become one of the largest cities of antiquity. During the 6th C. it began to interfere in the affairs of cities in W. Sicily and beyond; with its defeat of a Phocian fleet at the battle of Alalia (off Corsica) in 535 BC, Carthage was free to extend its influence to Sicily, Sardinia and even Spain. The Carthaginian engagement of the Sicilian Greeks in 480 BC at the same time as the Persians under Xerxes were invading Greece seems to have been part of a coordinated plan that met with failure. The Carthaginians were defeated at Himera (in Sicily), the Persians at Salamis (480 BC) and then at Plataia (479 BC). For most of the 5th century, Carthage pursued a policy of retrenchment and consolidation, overthrowing the Mago dynasty and replacing it with an aristocracy that built up Carthage's military might. By 409 BC Carthage was ready to take on the Greek cities in Sicily, taking Selinus and other Sicilian cities at the turn of the century. Only the staunch opposition of Syracuse, led by Dionysius, prevented their domination of the whole island.

While Rome was still in its infancy, the two states coexisted in relative peace, even signing a peace treaty in 509 BC that recognized Africa, Sardinia and part of Sicily as Carthaginian territories (further treaties in 348 BC and 306 BC). Readers of Virgil's Aeneid, however, will be more used to the picture of the two as intractably opposed, a hostility that the poet puts down to the failed love affair between the Carthaginian queen Dido and Aeneas, the forefather of the Latins. In historical terms this conflict came to a head in the 3rd C. BC, when Rome's expansion into Sicily, Corsica and Sardinia brought her into direct conflict with Carthage. The First Punic War began in 264 BC when Rome came to the aid of the Mamertines in Sicily against Carthage. After a series of defeats, the Romans finally emerged victorious in a battle off the Aegates Islands in 241BC. Carthaginian expansion in Spain in pursuit of its wealth in metals (esp. silver and tin) under Hamilcar prompted the Second Punic War. Hannibal took the initiative by invading Italy, achieving stunning military successes (e.g. at Lake Trasimene and at Cannae, 217-216 BC) before Scipio Africanus' defeat of Hasdrubal in Spain forced him to return to Spain. Eventually Scipio defeated Hannibal too at the battle of Zama (an unidentified site to the South West of Carthage in the kingdom of Numidia) in 202 BC, and Carthage became a dependent of Rome, having to pay heavy war reparations and dismantle her military might.

Carthage's subsequent revival of fortune in the first half of the 2nd C. BC led Rome to decide to neutralize the potential threat posed by Carthage once and for all by destroying the city and annexing its territory. Cato the Elder's famous slogan - delenda est Karthago ("Carthage must be destroyed") - may be familiar to you. So at the end of the Third Punic War the city was razed and its ground symbolically salted to prevent regrowth. Two centuries later, however, the Romans themselves colonized the site. The first attempt in 122 BC under Gaius Sempronius Gracchus, named colonia Iunonia, failed, but Julius Caesar's plan to found a colony on the site, though cut short by his assassination in 44 BC, was put into effect soon afterwards by his successor Octavian Augustus, who then sent a second wave of colonists in 29 BC to strengthen the existing foundation. As the capital of the province of Africa and as a major point of embarkation for Rome's grain supply, Carthage, now known as colonia Iulia Concordia Karthago quickly grew to be one of the largest and most important cities of its time, with a population that has been estimated at over 300,000. Commodus (180-192) chose it as the base for a new fleet (the Classis Herculea), and its strategic significance was not lost on the Roman senate, who recognized the claim of its governor Gordianus I Africanus and his son when they staged a short-lived rebellion there against Maximinus I.

Carthage also played an important part in the history of the early Christian church. When the bishopric of Carthage became vacant, the question of who should be appointed prompted a bitter debate, since there were accusations that the chosen candidate had been invested by a libellaticus (someone who had renounced his faith in the face of persecution), thereby rendering the appointment invalid. Failure to resolve this dispute led to the formation of a breakaway church known as the Donatists, which remained the dominant church in North Africa for the rest of the century. Despite falling into the hands of the Vandals from ca. 425 AD until it was recovered by the Byzantine empire under Justinian I in 553 AD, the city continued to thrive until its conquest by the Arabs in 697 AD.

What survives of the ancient city does not do justice to its importance. This is because subsequent builders plundered ancient structures for stone, while its artistic heritage suffered the unwelcome attentions of 19th century collectors seeking to enrich their private collections. Traces of houses from the last quarter of the 8th century have been discovered, as have remains of the cemeteries and the tophet where child sacrifice to Ba´al took place. There were two artificial harbors, a rectangular commercial harbor, and a circular one around the island Ilot d'Amirauté housing the Carthaginian navy. Of the city itself, the grid pattern of the Augustan settlement is still visible, as are the amphitheater, the circus, the theater, the odeum, and thermal baths built during the reign of Antoninus Pius (138-161 AD) and served by an aqueduct eighty-two miles in length. In ca. 425 AD the massive Theodosian wall was built to guard against the Vandal threat. There are also several early churches including the remarkable Basilica of Damous el-Karita. Archaeological work continues to make important discoveries.

Mythology and religion

The most famous mythical figure in Carthage's past was Dido. The first book of the Aeneid tells how she, fleeing from her evil brother Pygmalion, arrived at the site of Carthage and founded the city by buying as much land as could be surrounded by a buffalo hide. By ingeniously cutting the hide into thin strips and laying them end to end, she was able to demarcate enough land to build the citadel of Byrsa, which got its name from the Greek word for 'hide'. Queen Dido offered hospitality to Aeneas and his weary band of Trojan refugees, and offered them a permanent home. Through the machinations of the goddesses Juno and Venus, Dido fell in love with Aeneas. But after a passionate liaison, Aeneas and his men stole away (under divine orders!), leaving the bitter queen to commit suicide after uttering a curse on Aeneas and his descendants that would plague relations between the two nations ever after (see the events section above).

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