(modern Carthago)

Foundation

A city in north Africa (Tunisia), situated on a peninsula projecting seaward from the Gulf of Tunis, linked to the mainland by an isthmus less than 3 miles wide (at one point). The city stood at the narrow waist of the Mediterranean, only 75 miles wide, and was in easy reach of lucrative purple mollusc (murex) beds. A southward-facing bay behind a small headland provided a spacious and sheltered port, which has now been identified. This was later supplemented by two artificial harbors. The ancient citadel (the Byrsa) was constructed on a low hill overlooking the sea.
After the collapse of the Hittite empire, the Phoenicians began to prosper. They were a seafaring people intent on trade, not territorial hegemony. With the press of the growing Assyrian empire in the 9th century, and perhaps an increase in population, the Tyrians sent colonists to the site. Carthage would grow to rival her mother city of Tyre and she is the only colony that founded new colonies in Spain, Sardinia, Sicily and North Africa.

The most important of the colonies of the Phoenicians (developed from trading posts) in north Africa, the "New City" of Carthage (Kart-Hadasht), was established by settlers from Tyre (es-Sur)- tradionally in 814 BC, although a date some 2 generations later is often preferred. When the settlers arrived in what is Tunisia, they encountered the native population of Berbers who had been in the area since the ninth millennium BCE. The resulting culture we call Punic was an amalgamation of native and Punic elements. The Berbers, who had been semi-nomadic, adopted urban living. The legend of Dido, described in various ways by Virgil and others, celebrates the foundation.

During the 7th century, however, Carthage became independent of Tyre and began to bring other Phoenician settlements in the western and central Mediterranean under its control, in addition to subduing the native trives of north Africa.

6th Century BC

About 535, supported by the Etruscan city-state Caere, the Carthaginians defeated a Greek (Phocaean) fleet at a naval battle named after Alalia in Corsica, and subsequently extended their authority in Sardinia, Spain, and (western) Sicily, where struggles with the Greeks continued for centuries.

3rd Century BC

Friendly relations with Rome terminated in the First Punic War (264-241), resulting in the defeat of Carthage and surrender of sicily, followed (after rebellions) by the loss of Sardinia and Corsica as well. The subsequent establishment of Hamilcar for a second Carthaginian empire in Spain (237-39) led to the Second Punic War (218-201), of which the principal event was the prolonged, often victorious, but eventually unsuccessful invasion of Italy by Hannibal. Large-scale operations also took place in Spain, which the Carthaginians finally lost, together with the war.

2nd Century BC

Their subsequent revival, however, provoked the romans into launching the Third Punic War (149-146), resulting in the destruction of Carthage and the annexation of its principal territory as the new province of Africa, which assumed immense importance as the granary of Rome. The old Carthaginian sacrificial area (tophet) and cemeteries can be seen, and a prolonged serries of reconstructions of the circular harbor on the neighboring Ilot d Amiraute (from c 200 BC onward) have now been revealed.

1st Century BC

After an abortive attempt by Gaius Gracchus to establish a Roman colony on the derelict site (under the name of Junonia), this was achieved, in accordance with a plan of Julius Caesar, by Lepidus in 42/40. Octavian (Augustus) drafted a further batch of settlers in 28; air photography has revealed in elaborately organized colonial countryside.

1st Century AD

The city was now the capital of the province (producing a short-lived free-lance ruler, Clodius Macer, in AD 68).

2nd Century AD

In the 2nd Century, Carthage became an outstanding cultural and educational center, particularly well-known for its orators and lawyers; it ranked as the "Rome of Africa," the second city of the west and the second or third of the entire empire in the size of its population, which ammounted to more than 300,000. The most impressive Roman monument of Carthage is the symmetrically designed, vaulted, thermal establishment of Antoninus Pius (AD 138-61) on the seashore, which was fed by an 82-mile long aqueduct from Zaqui (Zaghouan) and stands today in an archaeological park. Carthage played a leading part in the early history of Christianity, being the birthplace of Tertullian (c 160-240). It was adorned with many new buildings, Commodus (180-92) established a new fleet (the Classis Herculea) at its port.

3rd Century AD

Carthage was where the episcopal see of St. Cyprian (c 200-58) was created. Septimius Severus (193-211) celebrated his "indulgence" to the city on the imperial coinage. In 238, however, in protest against the oppressive regime of Maximinus I, Gordianus I Africanus and his son instituted a rebellion at Carthage, which was recognized by the Roman senate but immediately suppressed by the governor of Numidia, Capellianus. In 296/7 the Tetrarchy of Diocletian, in connection with frontier operations, instituted a mint at the city.

4th Century AD

The mint of Diocletian was used during the brief usurpation of Domitius Alexander against Maxentius (308). In c 311-14 a quarrel concerning the bishopric prompted the establishment of the Donatist heresy, which remained the dominant church of the region for the rest of the century.

Fall of Roman Empire

The Donatist heresy was condemned by 570 bishops meeting at the Synod of Carthage (in the Baths of Gargilius) in 411, through the advocacy of St. Augustine; whierupon one of its supporters, Heraclianus, proclaimed himself emperor there (following other damaging coups d etat toward the end of the preceding century) but was put to death (413). Although walls were constructed c 425, invading Vandals under Gaiseric (Genseric) seized Carthage almost without resistance, thus inflicting an almost fatal blow upon the western empire. It now became the capital of an independent Vandal state until recovered by Belisarius (553), on behalf of the eastern (Byzantine) emperor Justinian I, under whom the city experienced a major revival, until it fell to the Arabs in 697. One of a number of new studies of the site has investigated its complex, long distance trading operation during the 5th, 6th, and 7th centuries.
Since the edifices of all the different epochs for the life of the city provided subsequent builders with an inexhaustible supply of stone, what remains of the ancient town is limited. Nevertheless, for the past decade or more, international excavation has been active, on a remarkable variety of different sectors, although up to now scarcely 1/50th of the area between the walls has been investigated- and the locations of the earliest settlment and harbor still remain uncertain. There are also a number of fragmentary Roman monuments in the city. The "Theodosian Wall" dates from c 425. The best preserved of several early churches is the remarkable and complex Basilica of Damous el-Karita, north of the forum, dating back in part to the time of Saint Augustine (354-430). The mosaics of Bigua monastery are of the later 5th century. The new Musee Romain et Paleochretien has now been opened at Dermech.