Carthage was one of the most powerful and important cities of the ancient world, founded on the northern coast of Africa, near modern Tunis , as a Phoenician commercial hub, which later became a new colony, towards the end of the 9th century BC. by settlers from the cities of Tire and Cyprus. Tradition gives us an exact year for the foundation of the city, that is 821 BC, and this leads us to assume that the city of Carthage was founded about two centuries before Rome, even if, the tradition speaks of a certain parallelism between the two cities, the foundation of Rome is shrouded in mystery and it is assumed that Rome was founded no earlier than the seventh century.
The strategic position of the city of Carthage and the parallel decline of the Phoenician civilization in the western Mediterranean, gave the Carthaginians the opportunity to fill the power vacuum by taking a leading role in the maritime control of the Mediterranean, giving life to a real empire, or perhaps it would be better to say, a network of influences and alliances, which extended from North Africa to the coasts of Spain, Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica and the naval technology inherited from the Phoenicians, allowed the Carthaginians to go even beyond the columns of Hercules, sailing along the Atlantic coast of northern Europe and Africa, pushing north, at least as far as the Icelandic coasts and south, to the coast of the Gulf of Guinea.
The immense riches of the mercantile civilization of Carthage constituted one of the main social and urban accelerators, merging into territorial investments that allowed the city to gradually expand its borders in the southern area of the region, where numerous tree crops, livestock and manufacturing activities were built. refined to make Greek and Egyptian productions pale.
The birth of a class of landowners historically it coincides with the birth of a landed aristocratic class (the aristocrats in the "ancient" world are none other than the great landowners) , halfway between the traditional nobility and the modern bourgeois class, since the landowners of Carthage are also the great Carthaginian traders, nevertheless there was also a class of rich merchants, who had preferred to invest their wealth in numerous ships and commercial freight rather than in productive activities, and the coexistence of these two distinct wealthy classes would have produced numerous conflicts in the creation of a political sphere and above all in the definition of a political orientation for the Carthaginian state.
The political clash would have led Carthage and the Carthaginians to create a new model of political representation, the two elite groups were represented by two magistrates , elected annually, among the families of wealthy merchants and landowners, these magistrates, apparently similar to the Roman consuls, were called Sufeti , which we can roughly translate into “judges” , their job was to preside over the senate and administer justice. The Sufetians were elected by an assembly of citizens who also had the task of making decisions in case of differences between the Sufetians and the Senate . The task of the senate was to promulgate laws, direct foreign policy and recruit armies, and it was essentially an aristocratic body, made up exclusively of noble citizens who remained in office for life.
Internally, the Senate was divided into commissions of five members which had the task of electing a select council , called “the court of the hundred” made up of about one hundred senators who were given unlimited powers.
On the cultural level Carthage was in effect a Phoenician city, which spoke the language of the Phoenicians, which used the writing of the Phoenicians, which kept the customs and habits of the Phoenician civilization unaltered and which venerated the gods of the Phoenicians and the most ancient archaeological artifacts concerning the city of Carthage have been dated around the nineteenth century BC, presumably the period of the foundation of the city dates back to 800 BC
On the geopolitical level Carthage would have been engaged in a war with Greece and Rome for almost 150 years, this period also includes the three Punic wars, fought between Rome and Carthage, and before addressing the war dynamics, it is appropriate to explain why we speak of Punic warfare.
Closed the Punic parenthesis, let's go back to the clash between Carthaginians, Greeks and Romans. The clash initially involved Carthaginians and Greeks while the Romans were not involved, because they were militarily inferior to the Carthaginians and "politically insignificant" it was also linked to Carthage by an “unequal” alliance treaty stipulated between Rome and Carthage around 509 by King Amilcare I, in which Rome was in a subordinate position with respect to Carthage.
This clash between the Carthaginians and the Greeks began for the political control of Sicily, considered a natural bridge between northern Africa and the Italian peninsula, therefore the key to the control of the Italian peninsula and the western Mediterranean.
At first the Carthaginian forces, led by King Amilcare , were defeated in Sicily, by the forces of Gerone, the tyrant of Syracuse, around 480 BC. and during the battle Amilcare I lost his life. The Carthaginian defeat and the death of Amilcare put into question the treaty of alliance with Rome, which in the meantime had begun to nourish many interests for Sicily.
Subsequently Carthage would again attempt to conquer Sicily and again would be hindered in its hegemonic project, this time by the Syracusan tyrants Dionysius the Younger, Dionysius the Elder, Agatocle and from Pirro , king of Epirus. The intervention of Pyrrhus in the clash between the Carthaginians and the Greeks of Sicily would also have brought Rome into the field, which from that moment on would have been engaged in a series of three major wars against Carthage, but let's go in order.
The second Carthaginian attempt to conquer Sicily fails approximately in 276 BC, however, despite the defeat, Carthage continues to possess some territories in western Sicily. Twelve years later, in 264, the First Punic War would begin , which lasted from 264 to 241 BC and represents the real beginning of the clash of civilizations between Carthage and Rome which would have ended only in 146 BC. with the definitive destruction of Carthage by Rome and throughout this period, the only real protagonist would have been the Carthaginian Barca family .
The Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca it was defeated in Sicily and subsequently to the Egadi islands (241), this defeat would have put an end to the first Punic war and would have had the effect of ceding the Carthaginian territories in Sicily to Rome.
Subsequently Amilcare would have moved his armies to Spain where he would have clashed again with Rome, leaving the baton to his son-in-law Amilcare and his son Annibale Barca .
Hannibal is universally recognized as one of the greatest leaders of antiquity and if well in this post, from here on his name will be recurring, I invite you to deepen the discourse on his figure, through this article entitled " Who was Hannibal? "
The Second Punic War begins in 218 in Spain, from here Hannibal would have started a long march to the east, in an attempt to gather a large army made up of all the enemies of Rome, it is a strategic necessity since Carthage was mainly a maritime power while the strength of Rome was represented by its land army which over the centuries had been enveloped by a growing aura of invincibility, aura confirmed by the numerous defeats inflicted on the ancient and powerful Carthage.
Hannibal Barca then decides to openly challenge Rome, bringing the clash to Italy and in doing so he would have given a clear image of the false Roman invincibility, going as far as the gates of Rome and going even further, and gathering around him an immense army. In this circumstance Hannibal would have made the famous crossing of the Alps bringing a mighty army complete with war elephants to Italy from the north . Despite this, Hannibal would have been defeated in 201 and this defeat would have cost Carthage the cession of Spain and numerous Mediterranean islands.
Se vuoi approfondire la caduta di Cartagine ti consiglio questo post in cui parlo della Caduta di Cartagine raccontata dagli storici greco romani Polibio, Diodoro e Appiano
In 149 by the will of Cato the Elder , Rome and Carthage would clash again, but by the middle of the second century Carthage was no longer the superpower of past centuries, and the defeat of the ancient naval colossus came swift and relentless, in 146 Carthage was defeated for the last time and subsequently the city would be permanently razed to the ground and the occupation of the site was prohibited for a period of 25 years.
In 122 on the ruins of Carthage Rome would have built a new city called Colonia Junonia but thirty years later the city had already fallen into ruin and remained so at least until 46 when Julius Caesar, visiting the site, ordered that a new city would rise in that place. The Caesarian desire to give life to a new Carthage would join the many reasons that would soon lead to his assassination, however, in 29 BC. Octavian would have founded in that place a city called Colonia Julia, becoming one of the most important Roman cities, for a long time second only to Rome, managing to survive for many centuries. In 425 the city was fortified and in 439 the Vandal king Genseric was able to conquer it, making it the capital of his kingdom for at least a century. In 533 the city was conquered by the Byzantine Empire and renamed Justinian Colony in honor of Emperor Justinian I, surviving at least until 697 when the Arabian conquest of the region would have led to the abandonment and subsequently to the destruction of the city which, if well, was in a strategically very significant and important position for the control of traffic in the Mediterranean , rapidly fell into decline and finally destroyed by the Ottoman advance in the 14th century.