A Fresh Look at the Ancient Punic Metropolis

Most of what we know about Carthage was written by their enemies – first the Greeks, then the Romans. They are described as greedy, treacherous, and brutal. Yet even Cicero, a Roman politician born 40 years after Carthage was wiped out, grudgingly admitted that “Carthage would never have held an empire for six hundred years had it not been governed with wisdom and statesmanship.” No Carthaginian literature, and very little of their art, architecture, or material culture survives.

Destroyed and rebuilt many times, the site of the city of Carthage lies in what is now a suburb of modern Tunis, on the North African coast. Founded, according to legend, in 814 BCE by the Phoenician princess Dido, for centuries it was an outpost or colony of the great commercial city of Tyre in Lebanon. By 509 BCE Carthage was independent enough to negotiate a commercial treaty with the new Roman republic, setting out respective spheres of interest and trading rules.

The long history of Carthage was dominated by a struggle for control of the “three-sided island” — Sicily; first against the Greeks, and later against the Romans. With Rome, there were three bitter “Punic Wars,”

• First Punic War: 23 years (264-241 BCE), in which Carthage lost Sicily and was forced to pay a huge indemnity

• Second Punic War: 17 years (218-201 BCE) , the “Hannibalic War,” in which Carthage lost Spain, and much territory in North Africa, and was deprived of its fleet.

Third Punic War: 3 years (149-146 BCE), in which Carthage was completely destroyed.

Following its catastrophic losses in the First Punic War, Carthage carved out a new empire in Spain, bided its time, and prepared for a the next round with Rome. The brilliant generalship of Hannibal Barca (c. 247-181 BCE) brought Carthage to the brink of victory in the second war, but the resilience of Rome proved unbeatable in the end. Despite the harsh terms imposed on Carthage after the second war, the city’s fortunes revived in a few decades, and Rome’s final war of extermination brought the story to a grim end. MacDonald concludes:

“Despite the best efforts of the Romans to control their story in the aftermath, we have seen how the physical remains of Carthage are emerging to tell a different narrative of the lost Carthaginians. We can now meet the heroic warriors, beautiful queens and intrepid explorers, the colonizers, villains and victims, along with the priestesses, artists, farmers, merchants, parents, children and grandparents.” (p. 300)

A problem for readers of Carthaginian history is that the Punic language provided very few male personal names, so the same names recur generation after generation. The index lists seven different Hamilcars, four Hannibals, ten Hannos, and eight Hasdrubals!

In recent years, new archaeological findings have improved our understanding of Carthage and this book provides a deep dive into this material, making it accessible for non-specialists. For example, isotope analysis of bones found in mass graves of warriors killed at the two battles of Himera, Sicily, in 480 and 409 BCE indicate that mercenaries employed by opposing Greek and Carthaginian forces grew up in very distant locations, as far away as the shores of the Baltic Sea and the steppes of Central Asia.

The narrative is enhanced by illustrations and excellent, clearly drawn maps, with a section of well-chosen color plates. There are numerous pictures of coins, which are among the most common surviving Carthaginian artifacts.

Carthage: A New History will be read with enjoyment by students of ancient history. Although this is not a specifically military history, it firmly grounds the many wars and battles it covers in their varied geographic, social, economic and cultural context.

The author, Eve Macdonald, is Senior Lecturer in Ancient History at Cardiff University in Wales. She has a degree in Classics from the University of Alberta and completed a Master of Arts at UCL Institute of Archaeology and then a Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Ottawa. Her previous publications include Hannibal: A Hellenistic Life (Yale, 2015.)

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Our Reviewer: Mike Markowitz is an historian and wargame designer. He writes a monthly column for CoinWeek and is a member of the ADBC (Association of Dedicated Byzantine Collectors). His previous reviews include The Cambridge Companion to Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, Archaic Greece, Amazons: The History Behind the Legend, The Byzantine World, Classical Controversies, Reassessing the Peloponnesian War, War and Masculinity in Roman and Medieval Culture, Nemesis: Medieval England's Greatest Enemy, The Wars of the Roses: A Medieval Civil War, The Emperor and the Elephant, Tiberius, The Roman Empire and World History, Leadership in the Ancient World: Concepts, Models, Theories, A History of the Greek World from 479 to 323 B.C., Commanders and Command in the Roman Republic and Early Empire, Love, War and Diplomacy: The Discovery of the Amarna Letters and the Bronze Age World They Revealed, Nikephoros II Phokas (912-969): The White Death of the Saracens, 1453: The Conquest and Tragedy of Constantinople, and  Naval Warfare under the Byzantine Empire: From Justinian I to the Fourth Crusade.  

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Note: Carthage, A New History is also available in paperback, audio, & e-editions.

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