RISE OF CARTHAGE

By Reynaldo Angga Yonathan 楊華鋒 405595322

 Knowing about the ancient civilization then most must know about the Ancient Roman
Civilization, and by knowing Rome most at least know or at least had heard of Carthage through
Punic wars by Rome. But today Carthage is only remembered in its dramatic fall by Rome, as history
are written by the victor there is only a fragment of how Carthage rise to power and ultimately fall
by the hands of Rome.

The rise of Carthage is linked with the Phoenicians, a cultural group that lives in the coastal
area of Middle East of modern day Lebanon, Northern Israel, and Western Syria. These ancient
bronze age people lived in a series of independent City-States which included with the settlement of
Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos. By mastering the ocean travels and trade, they managed to dominated the
ancient world market and grow wealthy from their profits. Their power over the economy of
Mediterranean only grew as times goes on, however in 1200 BCE the bronze age collapse threatened
to bring the whole Mediterranean crashing down. Yet surprisingly, the Phoenician proved to be
resilient and even managed to capitalize on an open market. As a result, a great city such as Tyre
rose to pre-eminence, leading the growing movement to expand on existing trade network by
founding hundreds of outpost and colonies across Mediterranean and by 800 BCE, there were
Phoenician colonies everywhere from Cyprus, Sicily, Spain and North Africa. But in doing so, they
found a fierce competition from their Greek rivals, who were also colonizing the Mediterranean in
places like Southern Italy.

The creation of Carthage was speculated to be around 814 BCE from the flourishing
Phoenician trade network with its foundation myth revolve around Dido, the princess that fled from
Tyre bringing Colonist whilst escaping his brother Pygmalion that had just murder her husband, the
high priest of Tyre and seized power in the city. With its founding in Modern day Tunisia, it has
strategically positioned the colony to take advantage of the trade route across Mediterranean as
geographically, the city itself located at the tip of peninsula with natural protection and close access
to the sea. Historically, Carthage are likely to begin as a small trade settlement as a subordinate to
the locals, being forced to pay rent for the use of the land. Beside Carthage, there were other elder
Phoenician settlement in the region like Utica and Hippacra that may have some degree of control
over Carthage. Despite its infancy though, Carthage manage to grow rapidly and within a century it
reached a population of 30,000 people with bustling economic activity.

However, the turning point for Carthage would come with the decline of their mother city
Tyre, as in 586 BCE the city came under siege by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II for at least
13 years. Although Tyre manage to beat back the Babylonian it came not without a cost, as for 13
years this permanent damage got Tyre cut off from its colonies. To make matters worse, the silver
trade had begun to collapse which had ripple effect for Tyre and the Phoenicians settlement in
Spain. By the time Cyrus of Persia finally conquered the Phoenician in 539 BCE, the once great city of
Tyre had witnessed a half-century of decline. With this, the Phoenicians settlement on the west
suddenly faced with a power vacuum, but for Carthage they could not have been a better situation.
As they began to rise locally by the 5 th century BCE, shaking of the shackle from the Native Libyans,
and quickly became the leading regional power with great influence over Utica, Hippacra, and other
Phoenicians settlement of North Africa.

From here on, the new city began to look out across the Mediterranean with the intent to
claim Tyre’s former throne. Yet whereas Tyre had dominated the colonies almost solely from
economic pressure, Carthage began to mix military force in the mix and their Navy became
formidable and feared. With their armies being deployed in foreign lands, Carthage had established
a new form of hegemony which more closely resembled a traditional empire compared to the more
traditional system under Tyre. As Carthage spheres’ of influence grew, so too their cultural
dominance as the Punic language spread as the primary Phoenicians dialect across the empire as
even the Greek itself borrows their writing system that will become the Latin language and modern
day English language.

This new empire was not afraid to flex its muscle and the Carthaginian expansions in the
following century was both fast and forceful. Around 600 BCE the Carthaginians occupied Ibiza in a
move to dominate near Spain while at the same time seeking to project power into the seas around
Southern France. In the following centuries, the Carthaginians found themselves fighting wars in
Africa, Sicily, and Sardinia under the Semi-Mythical General Malchus. His successor Mago I the
kicked off the long rule of Magonids clan, which would dominate Carthage politically for roughly 180
years and under their reign the military power of Carthage would grew even further with a great
emphasis on the deployment of powerful armies and fleets across the Mediterranean, as by 500 BCE
this were used to dominate North Africa, Southern Spain, and Mediterranean Islands including
Sardinia and Western Sicily. However, this last region would become the bane of Carthage as over
the next 300 years, 11 wars would be fought and the spark of Punic wars against Rome would
ultimately lit and will become the fall of Carthage.