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Blogging has gone too far!

homeworkhelp2 — Tue, 13 May 2008 20:27:06 +0000

this blogging is getting ridicoulous ,as , for that matter is this blog but hey!. i just read 3! 1500 word reports!. ON THE THICKNESS OF MILKSHAKES!!!!!! get over it you silly bloggers. this is getting pathetic. i am losing patience, but, thank you readers of this blog for joining in in my pathetic moaning about blogging.

WRITTEN IN A BLOG!!!

LOL.

random carthage trivia. n4.

homeworkhelp2 — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:56:29 +0000

Serial production for carthaginian ships - every worker does a small part of the work allowing for large amounts to be made quickly and with skill.

Etruscan - friends of carthage - military aid.

had multiple gods

The Settlement Period

(all dates BC)

814 Carthage founded by Elissa (Dido), sister of the King of Tyre.
800? First Phoenician presence on Sardinia.
770 Founding of Gadir, gateway to Spanish silver.
700-500 Heavy Greek colonization of Sicily, Southern Italy, Southern Provence, Andalusia and Cyrenaica, encircling Carthaginian territory.
654 Carthage founds colony in the Balearic Islands at Ibiza.
600 Carthage fails to prevent Phocaean Greek colony at Massilia (Marseilles).
580 First attempt by Greeks to drive Phoenicians out of Sicily.
574 Tyre falls to Nebuchadnezzar.
550 Carthage allies with the Etruscans against the Greeks.
550 Carthaginian force led by Malchus defeats Greeks in Sicily, but is vanquished in Sardinia. Malchus banished, marches on Carthage, is caught and executed.
550? Carthaginian colonies formed along coast of Africa, Algeria, Hadrumetum, Leptis.
539 Asian Phoenicia falls to Cyrus the Great of Persia.
535 Carthage, with Etruscans, destroys Phocaean colony in Corsica and closes Sardinia-Corsica off to the Greeks.
510 Dorieus, a Spartan prince, is expelled from Tripolitania.
510 Rome throws off Etruscan rulers and establishes independent republic.
507 First treaty with Rome
498 Hippocrates and Theron seize control in Syracuse and attempt to throw Phoenicians off western part of the island.
480 Alliance with Persia fails to destroy Greeks, military defeat in Sicily as fleet is cut off by superior Athenian forces (Himera). Revolution overthrows Mago dynasty and establishes Court of 104 Magistrates.

The Early Republic

480 Carthaginian force under Hamilcar the Magonid defeated by Sicilian Greeks at Himera cutting off access to the East. Hamilcar commits suicide on the battlefield.
479-450 Carthage conquers most of Tunisia. Colonies in North Africa founded or strengthened. Mago’s expedition across the Sahara.
410 Phoenicians in Spain join with Celtiberians to secede from Carthage, denying the state important silver and copper revenues. Overland tin trade cut off.
410 Himilco’s expeditions in the Atlantic. Hanno’s expeditions to Morocco and Senegal.
409 Carthage initiates attempts to conquer Sicily. Hannibal, grandson of Hamilcar, takes the fortified towns of Selinus and Himera by use of siege towers.
405 Hannibal Mago and hundreds of troops die in epidemic outside fortified town of Acragas. Himilco, his relative, takes over command, is defeated by force out of Syracuse, and has supply disrupted in naval action. Syracusan forces strengthen garrison.
405 Carthaginian squadron breaks through Greek blockade — the besieged escape under cover of night, Punic forces collect spoils.
405 Himilco takes town of Gela, defeating Syracusan force, then takes town of Camarina.
405 Himilco marches on Syracuse. Army is laid low by epidemic. Himilco seeks peace. Syracuse grants control of most of Sicily and must pay tribute to Carthage. Treaty confirms Dionysius I as dictator (tyrannos) of Syracuse. First Sicilian War concluded.
398 Dionysius sacks Motya — Carthaginians permanently relocate main Sicilian base to fortified town of Lilybaeum.
397 Himilco drives Dionysius back to Syracuse and resumes siege. In naval action, sinks or boards 100 Syracusan naval vessels and takes 20,000 prisoners.
396 Epidemic lays Punic forces low for a third time in Sicily. Dionysius capitalizes and defeats Himilco in pitched battle. He survives, but upon return to Carthage, starves himself to death. Fighting continues.
393 Carthaginian force under Mago, nephew of Himilco, defeated trying to re-take Messana.
392 Mago defeated a second time. Truce signed.
384 Carthage renews war, initiating minor skirmishes.
375 Carthage defeated at Cabala — Mago and 10,000 soldiers killed. Mago’s son Himilco defeats Dionysius near Himera — truce favorable to Carthage concluded.
367 Dionysius attacks Carthaginian base at Lilybaeum — stopped when fleet defeated by warships under Hanno the Great.
366 Dionysius I dies, still at war with Carthage.
360 Hanno the Great crucified following unsuccessful attempt to usurp power.
350 Carthage leading Western power.
348 Second treaty with Rome.
343 Mago sails to Syracuse to drive out the usurper. Fails and commits suicide in order to avoid court martial upon his return. Hasdrubal and Hamilcar make a second attempt, losing a battle at Segesta. Hasdrubal executed. Gisco, son of Hanno the Great, authorized to make peace — Sicily divided along Halycus River. 2nd Sicilian War ends.
340 Power struggle in Syracuse ends with Timoleon of Corinth victorious.
338 Uneasy, yet prosperous peace in Sicily.
334 Alexander the Great conquers the Eastern World. Carthage makes peace with the Greek empire and with the Lagos monarchy in Egypt.
323 Alexander dies.
315 Agathocles of Syracuse takes Messana.
311 Agathocles lays siege to Acragas and crosses the Halcyus, violating the peace treaty.
310 Carthaginian force under Hamilcar, grandson of Hanno the Great defeats Greek force at Himera. Siege of Syracuse begins.
309 Agathocles sails force of 14,000 to Africa. Carthage meets with 40,000 foot, 1000 cavalry and 2000 chariots under Bomilcar and Hanno. Greeks are victorious, Carthage losing 3000 on the battlefield, but city is impregnable. Siege of Syracuse continues.
308 Greeks form local allies — Egypt contributes 10,000. Greeks control Tunisian province and fighting continues.
308 Bomilcar tries to make himself dictator in Carthage. Is defeated and tortured to death.
307 Greek victory outside Syracuse. Hamilcar captured and killed.
307 While Agathocles oversees events in Syracuse, Carthage defeats the Greek and allied forces. Despite Syracusan reinforcement, Greek cause in Africa is doomed. Greeks desert to Carthaginian commanders Hanno and Himilco in vast numbers. Treaty favorable to Carthage concluded.
306 Third treaty with Rome.
300 Pytheas explores the Atlantic, Euthymenes the coasts of Africa.
289 Agathocles dies. Pre-war division of Sicily resumes. 3rd Sicilian War ends.
279 Pyrrhus of Epirus, relative of Alexander the Great, invades southern Italy and Sicily. Defeats Phoenicians and forces them off the island, leaving Lilybaeum as the only remaining stronghold.
279 Agreement with Rome against Pyrrhus.
277? Carthage sinks 70 of Pyrrhus’ 110 ships and Pyrrhus gives up the war.
272 A woman hurls a tile from a rooftop as Pyrrhus invests Argos, killing him before he can begin his second invasion of Sicily.

The Late Republic

263 First War with Rome begins over Sicily.
262 Rome victorious at Messana. Syracuse goes over to Romans. Acragas falls to Romans.
261 Carthage raids Italian coast. Rome builds its first fleet. Carthaginian defeat at sea off Mylae. Commander Hannibal crucified. Victory at Thermae.
257 Another sea defeat and Romans land in Africa, take Tunis. Carthage, under forces led by Hasdrubal and Bostzer, defeats Rome before the gates, largely with Numidian cavalry, led by Greek mercenary leader Xanthippus.
256 Hanno the Great II expands territory in North Africa.
253 Rome wins a brilliant naval victory off the Aegates Islands, west of Sicily, cutting off African supply bases. Hasdrubal defeated outside Panormus and is executed by his own forces. Truce called.
247 Hamilcar Barca re-organizes forces on Sicily, but receives no reinforcement.
241 War ends in defeat. Sicily is lost, fleet destroyed and finances ruined due to crippling indemnity.
241-237 Mercenaries revolt and stir up poverty-stricken peasants in Libya and Utica. Eventually defeated by Hamilcar. Rome obtains Sardinia-Corsica as price of staying neutral.
237 Hamilcar Barca reconquers Spain.
229 Hamilcar dies, succeeded by son-in-law Hasdrubal.
228 Carthago Nova (Cartagena) founded by Hasdrubal.
226 Treaty with Rome defines Ebro River as boundary between spheres.
221 Hasdrubal assassinated by an Iberian — succeeded by Hannibal.
219 Hannibal and brother Hasdrubal conquer the entire Peninsula up to the Ebro.
218 Hannibal takes Roman-supported town of Saguntum.
218 Hannibal marches over the Ebro, into the Alps and invades Italy with the help of Gallic allies. Victory over Cornelius Scipio at Ticinus. Victory at Trebia over Sempronius Longus. Rome defeats Hanno in Spain and Rome is victorious at sea near Lilybaeum — Malta lost to Carthage.
217 Victory at Lake Trasimene over Flaminius.
216 Victory at Cannae over Terentius Varro. Greek sovereigns Philip V of Macedonia and Hiero of Syracuse join Carthage’s cause, though without committing deeply.
214 Syracuse falls to Roman forces commanded by Marcellus.
210-205 Scipio with aid of Numidian Prince Massinissa conquers Spain for Rome. Scipio invades Africa, takes Tunis.
204 Scipio allies with Libyans, Moors and Numidians and Numidian Prince Massinissa to take the war to Africa. Carthage backs rival Numidian Syphax who along with Hasdrubal Gisco is defeated by Scipio in two successive battles. Mago is defeated in northern Italy attempting to reinforce Hannibal. A peace treaty is declared and Hannibal returns to Africa.
202 Carthaginan attack on Roman convoy which has run aground re-opens the war. Hannibal defeated at Zama to end Second War with Rome. Fleet reduced to ten triremes, domain limited to eastern Tunisia, Massinissa installed as king of the Numidians at Cirta (Constantine), high indemnities and Carthage denied permission to wage war.
202-150 Trade with North Africa and Greece continues. Agriculture improved to bring in new revenues.
195 Hannibal becomes Suffete. State reform, new methods of election.
194 Hannibal flees to court of Antiochus to escape his Roman enemies.
183 Hannibal dies by his own hand to escape Romans in Bithynia.
150 Carthage attacks Numidians in response to Massinissa’s land grabs. Numidia victorious and further indemnities exacted.
149 Rome declares war in retaliation for treaty violation.
146 Carthage falls to Scipio Aemilianus. City burnt to the ground. “Delenda est Carthago.”

iberia = spain?

the gladius swqord. ibearian. was awesome

Eacus - iberian god of weather.

Ataecina = iberain god equivelant to the greek goddess Persephone. - the greek goddes of springtime.

candamius - iberian god equivelant to jupiter.

Cariociecus = god mars - greek god ares.

cartage trivia. n3.

homeworkhelp2 — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 18:54:12 +0000

The Carthaginian Empire

Main article: Carthaginian Empire

Carthaginian Empire in the 3rd century BC

The Carthaginian Empire was one of the longest living and largest empires in the ancient Mediterranean. Reports state several wars with Syracuse and Rome, leading finally to the destruction of Punic Carthage during her third war with Rome.

[edit] Army

Main article: Punic Military Forces

According to Polybius, Carthage relied heavily, though not exclusively, on foreign mercenaries,^[6] especially in overseas warfare. The core of its army was from its own territory in Africa (ethnic Libyans and Numidians, as well as “Liby-Phoenicians” — i.e. Punics proper). These troops were supported by mercenaries from different ethnic groups and geographic locations across the Mediterranean who fought in their own national units; Celtic, Balearic, and Iberian troops were especially common. Later, after the Barcid conquest of Iberia, Iberians came to form an even greater part of the Carthaginian forces. Carthage seems to have fielded a formidable cavalry force, especially in its African homeland; a significant part of it was composed of Numidian contingents of light cavalry. Other mounted troops were African Forest Elephants, trained for war, which were used for frontal assaults or as anti-cavalry protection and were used for many other uses. An army could field up to several hundreds of these animals, but on most reported occasions less than a hundred were deployed. The riders of these elephants were armed with a spike and hammer to kill the elephants in case they charged toward their own army

[edit] Navy

The navy of Carthage was one of the largest in the Mediterranean, using serial production to maintain high numbers at moderate cost. The reputation of her skilled sailors implies that there was in peacetime a training of oarsmen and coxswains, giving their navy a cutting edge in naval matters. The trade of Carthaginian merchantmen was by land across the Sahara and especially by sea throughout the Mediterranean and far into the Atlantic to the tin-rich islands of Britain and to West Africa. There is evidence that at least one Punic expedition under Hanno sailed along the West African coast to regions south of the Equator, describing how the sun was in the north at noon.

Polybius wrote in the sixth book of his History that the Carthaginians were “more exercised in maritime affairs than any other people.”^[7] Their navy included some 300 to 350 warships. The Romans, who had little experience in naval warfare prior to the First Punic War, managed to finally defeat Carthage with a combination of reverse engineering captured Carthaginian ships, recruitment of experienced Greek sailors from the ranks of its conquered cities, the unorthodox corvus device, and their superior numbers in marines and rowers. In the Third Punic War Polybius describes a tactical innovation of the Carthaginians, augmenting their few triremes with small vessels that carried hooks (to attack the oars) and fire (to attack the hulls). With this new combination, they were able to stand their ground against the superior Roman numbers for a whole day.

[edit] Fall of Carthage

The fall of Carthage was at the end of the Third Punic War in 146 BC.^[8] In spite of the initial devastating Roman naval losses at the beginning of the series of conflicts and Rome’s recovery from the brink of defeat after the terror of a 15-year occupation of much of Italy by Hannibal, the end of the series of wars resulted in the end of Carthaginian power and the complete destruction of the city by Scipio Aemilianus. The Romans pulled the Phoenician warships out into the harbor and burned them before the city, and went from house to house, capturing and enslaving the people. Fifty thousand Carthaginians were sold into slavery.^[9] The city was set ablaze, and in this way was razed with only ruins and rubble to field the aftermath. After the fall of Carthage, Rome annexed the majority of the Carthaginian colonies, including other North African locations such as Volubilis, Lixus, Chellah and Mogador.^[10] Through a series of misunderstandings, a belief that the Carthaginian farmland was salted to ensure that no crops could be grown there developed in the modern period.^[11]

[edit] Roman Carthage

Roman villas, Carthage

When Carthage fell, its nearby rival Utica, a Roman ally, was made capital of the region and replaced Carthage as the leading center of Punic trade and leadership. It had the advantageous position of being situated on the Lake of Tunis and the outlet of the Majardah River, Tunisia’s only river that flowed all year long. However, grain cultivation in the Tunisian mountains caused large amounts of silt to erode into the river. This silt was accumulated in the harbor until it was made useless, and Rome was forced to rebuild Carthage.

By 122 BC, Gaius Gracchus founded a short-lived colonia, called Colonia Iunonia, after the Latin name for the punic goddess Tanit, Iuno caelestis. The purpose was to obtain arable lands for impoverished farmers. The Senate abolished the colony some time later, in order to undermine Gracchus power. After this ill-fated attempt, a new city of Carthage was built on the same land, and by the 1st century it had grown to the second largest city in the western half of the Roman empire, with a peak population of 500,000. It was the center of the Roman province of Africa, which was a major breadbasket of the empire.

Carthage also became a center of early Christianity. In the first of a string of rather poorly reported Councils at Carthage a few years later, no fewer than seventy bishops attended. Tertullian later broke with the mainstream that was represented more and more by the bishop of Rome, but a more serious rift among Christians was the Donatist controversy, which Augustine of Hippo spent much time and parchment arguing against. In 397 at the Council at Carthage, the biblical canon for the western Church was confirmed.

Vandal Empire in 500 AD, centered in Carthage.

The political fallout from the deep disaffection of African Christians is supposedly a crucial factor in the ease with which Carthage and the other centres were captured in the 5th century by Gaiseric, king of the Vandals, who defeated the Roman general Bonifacius and made the city his capital. Gaiseric was considered a heretic too, an Arian, and though Arians commonly despised Catholic Christians, a mere promise of toleration might have caused the city’s population to accept him. After a failed attempt to recapture the city in the 5th century, the Byzantines finally subdued the Vandals in the 6th century.

During the emperor Maurice’s reign, Carthage was made into an Exarchate, as was Ravenna in Italy. These two exarchates were the western bulwarks of Byzantium, all that remained of its power in the west. In the early 7th century, it was the Exarch of Carthage, Heraclius (of Armenian origin), who overthrew Emperor Phocas.

[edit] Arabs

The Byzantine Exarchate was not, however, able to withstand the Muslim conquerors of the 7th century. Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik in 686 AD sent a force led by Zuhayr ibn Qais who won a battle over Byzantines and Berbers led by Kusaila, on the Qairawan plain, but could not follow that up. In 695 AD Hasan ibn al-Nu’man captured Carthage and advanced into the Atlas Mountains. A Byzantine fleet arrived, retook Carthage but in 698 AD Hasan ibn al-Nu’man returned and defeated Tiberios III at the Battle of Carthage. The Byzantines withdrew from all of Africa except Ceuta. The Roman Carthage was destroyed, just as the Romans had done in 146 BC. Carthage was replaced by Tunis as the major regional center. The destruction of the Exarchate of Africa marked a permanent end to Roman or Byzantine influence there, as the rising tide of Islam shattered the empire.

[edit] Culture

[edit] Language

Carthaginians spoke Punic, a subset of Phoenician.

[edit] Commerce

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Carthaginian commerce was by sea throughout the Mediterranean and far into the Atlantic and by land across the Sahara desert. According the Aristotles the Carthaginians and others had treaties of commerce to regulate their exports and imports.^[12]

The empire of Carthage depended heavily on its trade with Tartessos and other cities of the Iberian peninsula, from which it obtained vast quantities of silver, lead, and, even more importantly, tin ore, which was essential to the manufacture of bronze objects by the civilizations of antiquity. Its trade relations with the Iberians and the naval might that enforced Carthage’s monopoly on trade with tin-rich Britain and the Canary Islands allowed it to be the sole significant broker of tin and maker of bronze. Maintaining this monopoly was one of the major sources of power and prosperity for Carthage, and a Carthaginian merchant would rather crash his ship upon the rocky shores of Britain than reveal to any rival how it could be safely approached. In addition to being the sole significant distributor of tin, its central location in the Mediterranean and control of the waters between Sicily and Tunisia allowed it to control the eastern nations’ supply of tin. Carthage was also the Mediterranean’s largest producer of silver, mined in Iberia and the North African coast, and, after the tin monopoly, this was one of its most profitable trades. One mine in Iberia provided Hannibal with 300 Roman pounds(3,75 talents) of silver a day.^[13]

Carthage’s economy began as an extension of that of its parent city, Tyre. Its massive merchant fleet traversed the trade routes mapped out by Tyre, and Carthage inherited from Tyre the art of making the extremely valuable dye Tyrian Purple. It was one of the most highly-valued commodities in the ancient Mediterranean, being worth fifteen to twenty times its weight in gold. High Roman officials could only afford togas with a small stripe of it. Carthage also produced a less-valuable crimson pigment from the cochineal.

Carthage produced finely embroidered and dyed textiles of cotton, linen, wool, and silk, artistic and functional pottery, faience, incense, and perfumes. It worked with glass, wood, alabaster, ivory, bronze, brass, lead, gold, silver, and precious stones to create a wide array of goods, including mirrors, highly-admired furniture and cabinetry, beds, bedding, and pillows, jewelry, arms, implements, and household items. It traded in salted Atlantic fish and fish sauce, and brokered the manufactured, agricultural, and natural products of almost every Mediterranean people.

Punic pendant in the form of a bearded head, 4th–3rd century BC.

In addition to manufacturing, Carthage practiced highly advanced and productive agriculture, using iron plows, irrigation, and crop rotation. Mago wrote a famous treatise on agriculture which the Romans ordered translated after Carthage was captured. After the Second Punic War, Hannibal promoted agriculture to help restore Carthage’s economy and pay the war indemnity to Rome (10000 talents or 800,000 Roman pounds of silver^[14]), and he was largely successful.

Carthage produced wine, which was highly prized in Rome, Euturia (Etruscans), and Greece. Rome was a major consumer of raisin wine, a Carthaginian specialty. Fruits, nuts, grain, grapes, dates, and olives were grown, and olive oil was exported in competition with Greece. Carthage also raised fine horses, similar to today’s Arabian horses, which were greatly prized and exported.

Carthage’s merchant ships, which surpassed even those of the cities of the Levant, visited every major port of the Mediterranean, Britain, the coast of Africa, and the Canary Islands. These ships were able to carry over 100 tons of goods. The commercial fleet of Carthage was comparable in size and tonnage to the fleets of major European powers in the 18th century.

Merchants at first favored the ports of the east: Egypt, the Levant, Greece, Cyprus, and Asia Minor. But after Carthage’s control of Sicily brought it into conflict with Greek colonists, it established commercial relations in the western Mediterranean, including trade with the Etruscans.

Carthage also sent caravans into the interior of Africa and Persia. It traded its manufactured and agricultural goods to the coastal and interior peoples of Africa for salt, gold, timber, ivory, ebony, apes, peacocks, skins, and hides. Its merchants invented the practice of sale by auction and used it to trade with the African tribes. In other ports, they tried to establish permanent warehouses or sell their goods in open-air markets. They obtained amber from Scandinavia and tin from the Canary Islands. From the Celtiberians, Gauls, and Celts, they obtained amber, tin, silver, and furs. Sardinia and Corsica produced gold and silver for Carthage, and Phoenician settlements on islands such as Malta and the Balearic Islands produced commodities that would be sent back to Carthage for large-scale distribution. Carthage supplied poorer civilizations with simple things, such as pottery, metallic products, and ornamentations, often displacing the local manufacturing, but brought its best works to wealthier ones such as the Greeks and Etruscans. Carthage traded in almost every commodity wanted by the ancient world, including spices from Arabia, Africa, and India and slaves.

These trade ships went all the way down the Atlantic coast of Africa to Senegal and Nigeria. One account has a Carthaginian trading vessel exploring Nigeria, including identification of distinguishing geographic features such as a coastal volcano and an encounter with gorillas (See Hanno the Navigator). Irregular trade exchanges occurred as far west as Madeira and the Canary Islands, and as far south as southern Africa. Carthage also traded with India by traveling through the Red Sea and the perhaps-mythical lands of Ophir (India/Arabia?) and Punt, which may be present-day Somalia.

Archeological finds show evidence of all kinds of exchanges, from the vast quantities of tin needed for a bronze-based metals civilization to all manner of textiles, ceramics and fine metalwork. Before and in between the wars, Carthaginian merchants were in every port in the Mediterranean, buying and selling, establishing warehouses where they could, or just bargaining in open-air markets after getting off their ship.

The Etruscan language has not yet been deciphered, but archaeological excavations of Etruscan cities show that the Etruscan civilization was for several centuries a customer and a vendor to Carthage, long before the rise of Rome. The Etruscan city-states were, at times, both commercial partners of Carthage and military allies.

[edit] Government

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The government of Carthage was an oligarchal republic, which relied on a system of checks and balances and ensured a form of public accountability. The Carthaginian heads of state were called Suffets (thus rendered in Latin by Livy 30.7.5, attested in Punic inscriptions as SPΘM /ʃuftˤim/, meaning “judges” and obviously related to the Biblical Hebrew ruler title Shophet “Judge”). Greek and Roman authors more commonly referred to them as “kings”. SPΘ /ʃufitˤ/ might originally have been the title of the city’s governor, installed by the mother city of Tyre. In the historically attested period, the two Suffets were elected annually from among the most wealthy and influential families and ruled collegially, similarly to Roman consuls (and equated with these by Livy). This practice might have descended from the plutocratic oligarchies that limited the Suffet’s power in the first Phoenician cities.^{[citation needed]} The aristocratic families were represented in a supreme council (Roman sources speak of a Carthaginian “Senate“, and Greek ones of a “council of Elders” or a gerousia), which had a wide range of powers; however, it is not known whether the Suffets were elected by this council or by an assembly of the people. Suffets appear to have exercised judicial and executive power, but not military^{[citation needed]}. Although the city’s administration was firmly controlled by oligarchs^{[citation needed]}, democratic elements were to be found as well: Carthage had elected legislators, trade unions and town meetings. Aristotle reported in his Politics that unless the Suffets and the Council reached a unanimous decision, the Carthaginian popular assembly had the decisive vote - unlike the situation in Greek states with similar constitutions such as Sparta and Crete. Polybius, in his History book 6, also stated that at the time of the Punic Wars, the Carthaginian public held more sway over the government than the people of Rome held over theirs (a development he regarded as evidence of decline). Finally, there was a body known as the Hundred and Four, which Aristotle compared to the Spartan ephors. These were judges who oversaw the actions of generals^{[citation needed]}, who could sometimes be sentenced to crucifixion.

Eratosthenes, head of the Library of Alexandria, noted that the Greeks had been wrong to describe all non-Greeks as barbarians, since the Carthaginians as well as the Romans had a constitution. Aristotle also knew and discussed the Carthaginian constitution in his Politics (Book II, Chapter 11).

During the period between the end of the First Punic War and the end of the Second Punic War, members of the Barcid family dominated in Carthaginian politics. They were given control of the Carthaginian military and all the Carthaginian territories outside of Africa.

[edit] Carthaginian ethnicity and citizenship

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In Carthaginian society, advancement was largely relegated to those of distinctly Carthaginian descent, and the children of foreign men generally had no opportunities. However, there are several notable exceptions to this rule. The Barcid family after Hamilcar himself was half Iberian through their mother, Hamilcar’s wife — a member of the Iberian nobility, whose children all rose to leading positions in both their native cultures. Adherbal the Red and Hanno the Navigator were also of mixed origin, the former identified from his Celtiberian epithet, and the latter from a coupling much like the later Barcids. Other exceptions to this rule include children of prominent Carthaginians with Celtic nobles, as well as a single half-Sardinian admiral who was elevated simply by virtue of his own ability.

Owing to this social organization, citizenship in Carthage was exclusive only to those of a select ethnic background (with an emphasis on paternal relationships), though those of exceptional ability could escape the stigma of their background. Regardless, acceptance of the local religious practices was requisite of citizenship — and by extension any sort of advancement, which left many prominent and well regarded peoples out of the empire’s administration.

[edit] Religion

Main article: Religion in Carthage

Ruins of Punic houses on the Byrsa Hill

Stelae on the Tophet

Carthaginian religion was based on Phoenician religion, a form of polytheism. Many of the gods the Carthaginians worshiped were localized and are now known only under their local names.

[edit] Pantheon

The supreme divine couple was that of Tanit and Ba’al Hammon. The goddess Astarte seems to have been popular in early times. At the height of its cosmopolitan era, Carthage seems to have hosted a large array of divinities from the neighbouring civilizations of Greece, Egypt and the Etruscan city-states. A pantheon was presided over by the father of the gods, but a goddess was the principal figure in the Phoenician pantheon.

[edit] Caste of priests and acolytes

Surviving Punic texts are detailed enough to give a portrait of a very well organized caste of temple priests and acolytes performing different types of functions, for a variety of prices. Priests were clean shaven, unlike most of the population. In the first centuries of the city ritual celebrations included rhythmic dancing, derived from Phoenician traditions.

[edit] Punic stelae

Cippi and stelae of limestone are characteristic monuments of Punic art and religion, and are found throughout the western Phoenician world in unbroken continuity, both historically and geographically. Most of them were set up over urns containing cremated human remains, placed within open-air sanctuaries. Such sanctuaries constitute striking relics of Punic civilization.

[edit] Child sacrifice

Carthage under the Phoenicians was notorious to its neighbors for child sacrifice. Plutarch (c. 46–120) mentions the practice, as do Tertullian, Orosius, Philo and Diodorus Siculus.^[15] Livy and Polybius do not. The Hebrew Bible also mentions child sacrifice practiced by the Canaanites, ancestors of the Carthaginians, and by some Israelites.

Modern archaeology in formerly Punic areas has discovered a number of large cemeteries for children and infants. But there is some argument that the reports of child sacrifice were based on a misconception, later used as blood libel by the Romans who destroyed the city. These cemeteries may have been used as graves for stillborn infants or children who died very early.^{[citation needed]} Modern archeological excavations have been interpreted as confirming Plutarch’s reports of Carthaginian child sacrifice.^[16] In a single child cemetery called the Tophet by archaeologists, an estimated 20,000 urns were deposited between 400 BC and 200 BC, with the practice continuing until the early years of the Christian period. The urns contained the charred bones of newborns and in some cases the bones of fetuses and 2-year-olds. These remains have been interpreted to mean that in the cases of stillborn babies, the parents would sacrifice their youngest child. There is a clear correlation between the frequency of cremation and the well-being of the city. In bad times (war, poor harvests) cremations became more frequent, but it is not possible to know why. The correlation could be because bad times inspired the Carthaginians to pray for divine intervention (via child sacrifice), or because bad times increased child mortality, leading to more child burials (via cremation).

Accounts of child sacrifice in Carthage report that beginning at the founding of Carthage in about 814 BC, mothers and fathers buried their children who had been sacrificed to Ba`al Hammon and Tanit there.^{[citation needed]} The practice was apparently distasteful even to Carthaginians, and they began to buy children for the purpose of sacrifice or even to raise servant children instead of offering up their own. However, in times of crisis or calamity, like war, drought or famine, their priests demanded the flower of their youth. Special ceremonies during extreme crisis saw up to 200 children of the most affluent and powerful families slain and tossed into the burning pyre.

It has been argued by some modern scholars that evidence of Carthaginian child sacrifice is incomplete, and that it is far more likely to have been Roman blood libel against the Carthaginians to justify their conquest and destruction^{[citation needed]}. Skeptics suggest that the bodies of children found in Carthaginian and Phoenician cemeteries were merely the cremated remains of children that died naturally. Sergio Ribichini has argued that the Tophet was “a child necropolis designed to receive the remains of infants who had died prematurely of sickness or other natural causes, and who for this reason were “offered” to specific deities and buried in a place different from the one reserved for the ordinary dead”.^[17] The few Carthaginian texts which have survived make absolutely no mention of child sacrifice, though most of them pertain to matters entirely unrelated to religion, such as the practice of agriculture.

carthages history. n2.

homeworkhelp2 — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 18:38:12 +0000

The Carthaginian Empire was an informal empire of Phoenician city-states throughout North Africa and modern Spain from 575 BC until 146 BC. It was more or less under the control of the city-state of Carthage after the fall of Tyre to Babylonian forces. At the height of the city’s influence, its empire included most of the western Mediterranean. The empire was in a constant state of struggle with the Roman Republic, which led to a series of conflicts known as the Punic Wars. After the third and final Punic War, Carthage was destroyed then occupied by Roman forces. Nearly all of the empire fell into Roman hands from then on.

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[edit] Extent of Phoenician settlement

In order to provide a resting place for merchant fleets, to maintain a Phoenician monopoly on an area’s natural resource, or to conduct trade on its own, the Phoenicians established numerous colonial cities along the coasts of the Mediterranean. They were stimulated to found their cities by a need for revitalizing trade in order to pay the tribute extracted from Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos by the succession of empires that ruled them and by fear of complete Greek colonization of that part of the Mediterranean suitable for commerce. The Phoenicians lacked the population or necessity to establish self-sustaining cities abroad, and most cities had fewer than 1,000 inhabitants, but Carthage and a few other cities developed into large cities.

Some 300 colonies were established in Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Iberia, and to a much lesser extent, on the arid coast of Libya. The Phoenicians controlled Cyprus, Sardinia, Corsica, and the Balearic Islands, as well as minor possessions in Crete and Sicily; the latter settlements were in perpetual conflict with the Greeks. The Phoenicians managed to control all of Sicily for a limited time. The entire area later came under the leadership and protection of Carthage, which in turn dispatched its own colonists to found new cities or to reinforce those that declined with Tyre and Sidon.

The first colonies were made on the two paths to Iberia’s mineral wealth — along the North African coast and on Sicily, Sardinia and the Balearic Islands. The centre of the Phoenician world was Tyre, serving as an economic and political hub. The power of this city waned following numerous sieges and its eventual destruction by Alexander the Great, and the role as leader passed to Sidon, and eventually to Carthage. 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 Carthagineans appointed their own magistrates to rule the towns and Carthage retained much direct control over the colonies. This policy resulted in a number of Iberian towns siding with the Romans during the Punic Wars.

[edit] Treaty with Rome

In 509 BC a treaty was signed between Carthage and Rome indicating a division of influence and commercial activities. This is the first known source indicating that Carthage had gained control over Sicily and Sardinia.

By the beginning of the 5th century BC, Carthage had become the commercial center of the West Mediterranean region, a position it retained until overthrown by the Roman Republic. The city had conquered most of the old Phoenician colonies e.g. Hadrumetum, Utica and Kerkouane, subjugated the Libyan tribes (with the Numidian and Mauretanian kingdoms remaining more or less independent), and taken control of the entire North African coast from modern Morocco to the borders of Egypt (not including the Cyrenaica, which was eventually incorporated into Hellenistic Egypt). Its influence had also extended into the Mediterranean, taking control over Sardinia, Malta, the Balearic Islands and the western half of Sicily, where coastal fortresses such as Motya or Lilybaeum secured its possessions. Important colonies had also been established on the Iberian peninsula. Their cultural influence in the Iberian Peninsula is documented, but the degree of their political influence before the conquest by Hamilcar Barca is disputed.^[1]

Antonine baths ruins, from the Roman period

[edit] The Sicilian Wars

Further information: the Sicilian Wars

[edit] First Sicilian war

Carthage’s economic successes, and its dependence on shipping to conduct most of its trade, led to the creation of a powerful Carthaginian navy to discourage both pirates and rival nations. This, coupled with its success and growing hegemony, brought Carthage into increasing conflict with the Greeks, the other major power contending for control of the central Mediterranean.

The island of Sicily, lying at Carthage’s doorstep, became the arena on which this conflict played out. From their earliest days, both the Greeks and Phoenicians had been attracted to the large island, establishing a large number of colonies and trading posts along its coasts. Small battles had been fought between these settlements for centuries.

By 480 BC, Gelo, the tyrant of Greek Syracuse, backed in part by support from other Greek city-states, was attempting to unite the island under his rule. This imminent threat could not be ignored, and Carthage — possibly as part of an alliance with Persia, then engaged in a war with Greece — fielded its largest military force to date, under the leadership of the general Hamilcar. Traditional accounts give Hamilcar’s army a strength of three hundred thousand men; though these are almost certainly exaggerated, it must nonetheless have been of formidable force.

En route to Sicily, however, Hamilcar suffered losses (possibly severe) due to poor weather. Landing at Panormus (modern-day Palermo), he was then decisively defeated by Gelo at the Battle of Himera. Hamilcar was either killed during the battle or committed suicide in shame. As a result the nobility negotiated peace and replaced the old monarchy with a republic.

[edit] Second Sicilian war

By 410 BC, Carthage had recovered after serious defeats. It had conquered much of modern day Tunisia, strengthened and founded new colonies in North Africa, and sponsored Mago Barca’s journey across the Sahara Desert, Hanno the Navigator’s journey down the African coast, and Himilco the Navigator’s exploration of the European Atlantic coast. Although, in that year, the Iberian colonies seceded — cutting off Carthage’s major supply of silver and copper — Hannibal Mago, the grandson of Hamilcar, began preparations to reclaim Sicily, while expeditions were also led into Morocco and Senegal, and also into the Atlantic.

In 409 BC, Hannibal Mago set out for Sicily with his force. He was successful in capturing the smaller cities of Selinus (modern Selinunte) and Himera, before returning triumphantly to Carthage with the spoils of war. But the primary enemy, Syracuse, remained untouched and, in 405 BC, Hannibal Mago led a second Carthaginian expedition to claim the entire island. This time, however, he met with fierce resistance and ill-fortune. During the siege of Agrigentum, the Carthaginian forces were ravaged by plague, Hannibal Mago himself succumbing to it. Although his successor, Himilco, successfully extended the campaign by breaking a Greek siege, capturing the city of Gela and repeatedly defeating the army of Dionysius, the new tyrant of Syracuse, he, too, was weakened by the plague and forced to sue for peace before returning to Carthage.

In 398 BC, Dionysius had regained his strength and broke the peace treaty, striking at the Carthaginian stronghold of Motya. Himilco responded decisively, leading an expedition which not only reclaimed Motya, but also captured Messina. Finally, he laid siege to Syracuse itself. The siege was close to a success throughout 397 BC, but in 396 BC plague again ravaged the Carthaginian forces, and they collapsed.

Sicily by this time had become an obsession for Carthage. Over the next sixty years, Carthaginian and Greek forces engaged in a constant series of skirmishes. By 340 BC, Carthage had been pushed entirely into the southwest corner of the island, and an uneasy peace reigned over the island.

[edit] Third Sicilian war

Mediterranean sea nations in 323 BC

In 315 BC, Agathocles, the tyrant of Syracuse, seized the city of Messene (present-day Messina). In 311 BC he invaded the last Carthaginian holdings on Sicily, breaking the terms of the current peace treaty, and laid siege to Akragas.

Hamilcar, grandson of Hanno the Navigator, led the Carthaginian response and met with tremendous success. By 310 BC, he controlled almost all of Sicily and had laid siege to Syracuse itself. In desperation, Agathocles secretly led an expedition of 14,000 men to the mainland, hoping to save his rule by leading a counterstrike against Carthage itself. In this, he was successful: Carthage was forced to recall Hamilcar and most of his army from Sicily to face the new and unexpected threat. Although Agathocles’ army was eventually defeated in 307 BC, Agathocles himself escaped back to Sicily and was able to negotiate a peace which maintained Syracuse as a stronghold of Greek power in Sicily.

[edit] Pyrrhic War

Main article: Pyrrhic War

Between 280 and 275 BC, Pyrrhus of Epirus waged two major campaigns in the western Mediterranean: one against the emerging power of the Roman Republic in southern Italy, the other against Carthage in Sicily.

Pyrrhus sent an advance guard to Tarentium under the command of Cineaus with 3,000 infantry. Pyrrhus marched the main army across the Greek peninsula and engaged in battles with the Thessalians and the Athenian army. After his early success on the march Pyrrhus entered Tarentium to rejoin with his advance guard.

In the midst of Pyrrhus’s Italian campaigns, he received envoys from the Sicilian cities of Agrigentum, Syracuse, and Leontini, asking for military aid to remove the Carthaginian dominance over that island.^[2] Pyrrhus agreed, and fortified the Sicilian cities with an army of 20,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry and 20 War Elephants, supported by some 200 ships. Initially, Pyrrhus’ Sicilian campaign against Carthage was a success, pushing back the Carthaginian forces, and capturing the city-fortress of Eryx, even though he was not able to capture Lilybaeum.^[3]

Following these losses, Carthage sued for peace, but Pyrrhus refused unless Carthage was willing to renounce its claims on Sicily entirely. According to Plutarch, Pyrrhus set his sights on conquering Carthage itself, and to this end, began outfitting an expedition. However, his ruthless treatment of the Sicilian cities in his preparations for this expedition, and his execution of two Sicilian rulers whom he claimed were plotting against him led to such a rise in animosity towards the Greeks, that Pyrrhus withdrew from Sicily and returned to deal with events occurring in southern Italy.^[4]

Pyrrhus’s campaigns in Italy were inconclusive, and Pyrrhus eventually withdrew to Epirus. For Carthage, this meant a return to the status quo. For Rome, however, the failure of Pyrrhus to defend the colonies of Magna Graecia meant that Rome absorbed them into its “sphere of influence“, bringing it closer to complete domination of the Italian peninsula. Rome’s domination of Italy, and proof that Rome could pit its military strength successfully against major international powers, would pave the way to the future Rome-Carthage conflicts of the Punic Wars.

[edit] The Punic Wars

Further information: Punic Wars

Carthage electrum coin, ca. 250 BC. British Museum.

Mediterranean nations in 200 BC.

When Agathocles died in 288 BC, a large company of Italian mercenaries who had previously been held in his service found themselves suddenly without employment. Rather than leave Sicily, they seized the city of Messana. Naming themselves Mamertines (or “sons of Mars”), they became a law unto themselves, terrorizing the surrounding countryside.

The Mamertines became a growing threat to Carthage and Syracuse alike. In 265 BC, Hiero II, former general of Pyrrhus and the new tyrant of Syracuse, took action against them. Faced with a vastly superior force, the Mamertines divided into two factions, one advocating surrender to Carthage, the other preferring to seek aid from Rome. While the Roman Senate debated the best course of action, the Carthaginians eagerly agreed to send a garrison to Messana. A Carthaginian garrison was admitted to the city, and a Carthaginian fleet sailed into the Messanan harbor. However, soon afterwards they began negotiating with Hiero; alarmed, the Mamertines sent another embassy to Rome asking them to expel the Carthaginians.

Hiero’s intervention had placed Carthage’s military forces directly across the narrow channel of water that separated Sicily from Italy. Moreover, the presence of the Carthaginian fleet gave them effective control over this channel, the Strait of Messina, and demonstrated a clear and present danger to nearby Rome and her interests.

As a result, the Roman Assembly, although reluctant to ally with a band of mercenaries, sent an expeditionary force to return control of Messana to the Mamertines.

The Roman attack on the Carthaginian forces at Messana triggered the first of the Punic Wars. Over the course of the next century, these three major conflicts between Rome and Carthage would determine the course of Western civilization. The wars included a Carthaginian invasion led by Hannibal, which nearly prevented the rise of the Roman Empire.

Shortly after the First Punic War, Carthage faced a major mercenary revolt which changed the internal political landscape of Carthage (bringing the Barcid family to prominence), and affected Carthage’s international standing, as Rome used the events of the war to base a claim by which it seized Sardinia and Corsica.