A Study of The Historical Significance of Carthage

When the term “great civilisation” comes up, the first that come to mind are the Romans, the Romans, The Egyptians and the Mayans, but what determines greatness, what makes a civilisation live on in history while others turn to dust and are lost to the ages. Is a civilisation great because of how long lives? Is a civilisation great because it claims any territories? Is a civilisation great because it spawns heroes? Many would argue that if a civilisation is great it would be widely remembered today, I would disagree, my reason for this is the city of Carthage, despite the wealth of Carthage and the might of the Carthaginian military, it is generally unknown. This essay will argue that Carthage is one of the greatest civilisations that ever existed in Africa if not the world, regardless Carthage put Africa figuratively on the map.

To start with what makes Carthage great we need to look at the founding of Carthage. Carthage was founded by the Phoenicians which were renowned as intrepid seafarers, skilled engineers, clever merchants, talented artisans and scribes that passed on their alphabet to their neighbours and eventually to modern Western civilisation. The Founder of Carthage is commonly believed to be Dido, the information regarding Dido comes from a variety of Greek and Roman histories as well as chronicles of Dido’s home city, Tyre, where it is recorded that King Pygmalion of Tyre had a sister known as Elisha or Aliyisha, which was known as Dido by the Greeks . As Dido was royalty it can be assumed she had a privileged upbringing and that she had duties to perform as a princess one of which was an arranged marriage between her and her mother’s brother. Her brother Pygmalion became greedy and sought to seize the wealth of Dido’s husband and had him killed, fearing for her life Dido fled . Dido left with members of the city’s aristocracy which shows that even in a weak seat of power she was a respected leader, Dido fled with the members of the aristocracy to Cyprus, where her cunning gained her eighty virgins who were destined to be prostituted in a temple of Aphrodite, the goddess of love. These virgins that were saved signalled to her party that she was very cunning and wise, Dido and her party then landed in a peninsula in North Africa, part of what is now known as Tunisia. Dido traded for land in the peninsula and so Kirjath-Hadeschath was founded a hundred years before the Roman empire, known by the Greeks as Karchedon, by the Romans as Carthago and today as Carthage .

It should be noted that Carthage was not a city driven by war and invasion, but a city built on the foundations of agriculture, AE Foster writes; “At first the Carthaginian settlement was essentially an urban one, even though its economy was largely agricultural. Most of the population, and in particular the wealthier classes, lived in the town, where even the poorer classes, including the slaves, generally enjoyed a standard of living well above that of their rural counterparts” , this statement shows us that even though Carthage was not based on war or trade, it as a city was wealthy this is proven when even the slaves had an enjoyable standard of living. Carthage’s wealth allowed for them to become a world power at the time, a world power so great they were able to stand up to the Romans.

Carthage as has been mentioned avoided war in the early years of it’s life, as can be seen in the writing of Bosworth,”…to keep for themselves the gold they had so hardly won, rather than lavish it on foreign mercenaries in the hope of extending their sway inland, or in vain attempt to resist the mighty monarchs of Egypt, of Assyria, or of Babylon? Their strength was to sit still, to acknowledge the titular supremacy of anyone who chose to claim it, and then when the time came, to buy the intruder off.” This shows us that the people of Carthage were not violent and preferred to avoid war, does this show greatness? This shows us that Carthage had restraint, this restraint shows that Carthage had power and they knew how to use it. Just because Carthage was not outright violent, does not mean they were cowards. The Carthaginian military throughout the ages has had remarkable victories as well as devastating losses most which form part of the Punic wars. The Punic wars were a series of three smaller wars that were fought from 264 BC to 146 BC. The first Punic war was fought between 264 BC and 241 BC, the leading general of Carthage at the time was Hamilcar Barca who was not only an impressive general but the father of a man that would become one of Rome’s greatest adversaries. The war was fought for the control of Sicily . After 23 years the war was lost, this shows us how much of an impressive general Hamilcar was, he was able to hold off an army that had superior numbers and greater technology for 23 years. Leaders like Hamilcar were the people that built the Carthaginian reputation and made it great.

Carthage may have had many great generals, like Hamilcar and his son Hasdrubal , but no Carthaginian general was ever as renowned as Hamilcar’s other son Hannibal Barca, Hannibal Barca is seen as one of Rome’s greatest adversaries, in fact when Carthage ultimately surrendered to the Romans they didn’t want Carthage but instead they requested Hannibal Barca,” Rome, indeed, hardly needed such an invitation; she had made peace with Carthage, but not with Hannibal. If she no longer feared the city, she feared one of its simple citizens” . Rome Feared Hannibal because he was one of the greatest strategists of Africa. Hannibal is mostly remembered for one of the greatest military moves in history, marching an army through the alps. Hannibal was tactical in his planning and favoured a longer route through Gaul to the Alps, to avoid Romans near the coast, when looking at the writings of Livy,” This was not the most direct route to the Alps, but Hannibal preferred it as the farther he got from the coast the less likely he was to encounter Roman resistance, and he had no wish for a trial of strength until he reached Italy” , it shows us that Hannibal was meticulous in his planning and that he had a mind for war. Romans called the Alps the “Fence of Italy”, Hannibal nevertheless made history when he marched an army over the Alps in the October of 218 BC. The army consisted of about 25 000 men, 37 war elephants and many pack animals, this move was viewed as one of the boldest military manoeuvres because no army of that size had ever crossed the Alps . Hannibal’s goal was not to conquer Italy but to burn it to the ground. Hannibal suffered many setbacks in the Alps such as ambushes from Gaulic tribes and heavy snowstorms. Even though the losses are recorded to be about a third of his men Hannibal marched on into Northern Italy. This is an example of the determination that made Carthage great and by extension Africa. Hannibal marched on with his troops into Cartagena, where he amassed one of the greatest armies the ancient world had ever seen, numbering near 90 000, consisting of Carthaginians and mercenaries from Numidia and Libya , this was not just an achievement to the ancient world, but to Africa for creating a great army consisting of African soldiers which took the battle to the Romans. Hannibal used his army and battled to Cannae where it is reported that they surrounded an army twice their size and killed nearly 50 000 troops in one afternoon. Hannibal’s plan ultimately failed as the Romans won the war of attrition.

When looking at the stories of Carthaginian heroes such as Dido, Hamilcar and Hannibal, it is easy to say their actions were only beneficial to Carthage and that their actions had no benefit to Africa as a whole. To disprove this, we simply need to look at the closer details, Dido by founding Carthage brought trade to it’s neighbours and therefore empowered the relationships between African countries, because of Dido’s Phoenician descent she and her party of aristocrats and slaves brought a set of skills to Africa that helped Africa to develop technologically. Hamilcar Barca who was believed to be a descendant of Dido bought time for Africa, the reason for this statement is that if Rome had taken Sicily 23 years earlier, their army would have been much stronger by 241 BC and who knows how far the Romans would’ve expanded in that time, Hannibal carried his father’s torch in this regard as the war that he raged against Rome drained Rome of their ability to wage war for some time. If nothing the Carthaginians along with their allies bought time for Africa, if the Carthaginians had never fought against Rome, how far would the Romans have invaded in Africa, would they have reached Central Africa? Would they have conquered Southern Africa?

In conclusion Carthage was a great city that was located in what is today known as Tunisia, Carthage was founded by a great queen known as Dido. One of Dido’s descendants was the general Hamilcar Barca who fathered two great Carthaginian generals; Hannibal and Hasdrubal Barca. Hannibal Barca waged one of the greatest campaigns against the Romans who were the global superpowers of the time, all in all it can be said that Carthage can be considered as one of the greatest African kingdoms based on the merits of their wealth and their military prowess. Carthage gave Africa protection for a time against the romans as well as Phoenician technologies.