(Phoenician Qart hadasht literally “new town”), a slave-owning city-state in North Africa, which subjugated a significant part of coastal North Africa, the southern part of Spain, and a number of islands in the Mediterranean Sea from the seventh to the fourth century b.c. Phoenician colonists from the city of Tyre founded Carthage in 825 b.c. Owing to its convenient geographic location, Carthage soon became a major trade center. The city also maintained close contacts with the countries of the eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea, Italy, and Tartessus.
Carthage was an oligarchical state, with power in the hands of groups of the commercial-agricultural aristocracy, who continually fought with each other for superiority and influence. Legislative power belonged to the council of ten (which was changed to the council of 30 in the middle of the fifth century b.c.) and the council of elders (which was expanded in the middle of the fifth century b.c. from 100 to 300 members). Supreme executive power was held by two elected suffetes (magistrates). The council of 104 was created to control the magistrates and particularly the military leaders. The magistrates were elected on the principle of “nobility and wealth.” The popular assembly did not play a significant role; it assumed power only in the case of disagreement between the magistrates, having the right in such a case not only to discuss the proposals introduced by the magistrates but also to introduce its own measures. Sources mention bribery and corruption as characteristic features of political life in Carthage.
Large-scale agriculture based on the use of slaves was widely developed. In handicraft production, half-slave producers were exploited along with the slaves. Besides the private workshops, there were state facilities where the labor of state slaves was exploited. The agricultural population of the territories subject to Carthage were obligated to pay a tax of one-tenth of the grain harvest. The exploitation of the subject peoples provoked frequent uprisings. The Phoenician colonies (Utica, Hippo, Leptis Magna, Leptis Minor) that were part of Carthage’s empire had a social and political structure resembling that of Carthage and, apparently, enjoyed internal autonomy. They were obliged to pay a duty tax on their trade.
In 534 b.c., Carthage, in alliance with the Etruscans, defeated the Phocaean Greeks at the battle of Alalia. Later, Carthage destroyed Tartessus. As a result of these victories, Carthage consolidated its supremacy in the western Mediterranean and its monopolistic position in the area’s trade. However, after suffering a defeat at the hands of the Greeks in the battle of Himera (c. 480 b.c.), Carthage was forced to halt its offensive against the Greeks for a long time. In the middle of the fifth century b.c., Carthage subjugated the Libyan agricultural population of North Africa. By this time, the empire that Carthage had created included North Africa, western Sicily, southern Spain, and Sardinia.
At the end of the fifth century b.c., Carthage renewed the struggle for Sicily, which it conducted with varying success against Syracuse for about 100 years. By the third century B.C. almost all of Sicily except Syracuse was under its power. Sicily was the main objective of the struggle between Carthage and Rome during the First Punic War (264–241 b.c.). After suffering defeat both in Sicily itself and on the sea, Carthage was forced to relinquish Sicily to Rome as well as pay Rome a considerable indemnity. Riots among the mercenaries, from whom the Carthaginian government had withheld payment after the conclusion of the war, triggered a major uprising of the Libyan peasantry (241–238 b.c.), in which runaway slaves also took part. Carthage suppressed this revolt with great difficulty.
In the 230’s and 220’s b.c., power in Carthage passed into the hands of a democratic group led by Hamilcar Barca, who advocated renewing the war with Rome. Between 237 and 219 b.c., the Carthaginians not only reestablished their economic and military power but also significantly extended their domains in Spain (up to the Iberus River) under the command of Hamilcar Barca (until 229 b.c.), Hasdrubal (until 221 b.c.), and Hannibal. The siege and capture of the city of Saguntum, a Roman ally, led to the Second Punic War (218–201 b.c.). In the war, the Romans and the Carthaginians waged a struggle for supremacy in the western Mediterranean and for dominance in trade and navigation. By invading Italy and inflicting a series of crushing defeats on the Romans (the most important of which was the battle at Cannae in 216 b.c.), Hannibal created an immediate threat to Rome’s existence. However, he was unable to retain the initiative. The Romans massed their forces for a retaliatory strike and carried the war to Africa. After the defeat at Zama (202 b.c.), the Carthaginians were compelled to conclude a peace treaty with Rome, which deprived Carthage of its possessions in Spain and also prohibited Carthage from waging war without Rome’s consent.
In 149 b.c. the Romans, fearful of the growth of Carthage’s economic power, began the Third Punic War (149–146 b.c.), as a result of which Carthage, after a three-year siege, was completely destroyed and its inhabitants sold into slavery. Part of the Carthaginian territory was transferred to the Numidians, and the rest became the Roman province of Africa. Excavations have been conducted in North Africa since the 1850’s.
The art of Carthage, Phoenician in origin, was influenced by the art of ancient Egypt and Greece. Majestic buildings were constructed in the city (multistoried houses, temples, mausoleums), mostly of stone and sun-dried brick. One of the few surviving buildings is the mausoleum of Ateban in Dougga (Thugga—200 b.c.; architect, Abarish), a towerlike structure topped by a pyramid. The art of Punic Carthage can be judged from items found in burials near the city; jewelry, clay lamps, vessels, statuettes, grimacing masks, and sarcophagi with relief depictions of human figures.
I. SH. SHIFMAN