Carthage — The Phoenician Empire of the Western Mediterranean (c. 814-146 BC)
Founded by Phoenician merchants from Tyre on the Gulf of Tunis, Carthage grew from a trading post into the dominant commercial power of the western Mediterranean, controlling trade routes from North Africa to Iberia. Its centuries-long rivalry with Rome ended in the city's complete destruction in 146 BC.
Events
Phoenician Merchants Found Carthage
Merchants from the Phoenician city of Tyre established the settlement of Qart-hadasht ("New City") on the North African coast, according to the traditional date preserved by ancient historians Timaeus and Justin. The site offered an excellent harbor and access to Mediterranean trade networks. Carthage began as one of many Phoenician trading colonies but was positioned to outgrow its parent city.
Location: Gulf of Tunis, modern Tunisia
Tyre Falls to Babylon and Carthage Becomes Independent
After a prolonged siege, Tyre fell to Babylonian forces, cutting Carthage off from its founding metropolis. Carthage emerged as the effective leader of the western Phoenician colonies, directing its own trade empire. Over the following centuries it established colonies and trading posts across North Africa, Iberia, Sardinia, and western Sicily.
Location: Tyre, Phoenicia (modern Lebanon)
First Treaty with Rome Divides the Mediterranean
Carthage and the young Roman Republic concluded their first recorded treaty, defining spheres of influence in the western Mediterranean. The treaty restricted Roman trade in Carthaginian waters while acknowledging Roman interests in Latium. The agreement showed Carthage as the established power treating Rome as a minor regional player — a relationship that would not last.
Location: Rome and Carthage
Defeat at Himera Checks Carthaginian Expansion in Sicily
A Carthaginian army under Hamilcar was defeated by the Greek cities of Sicily at Himera, in a battle ancient sources placed on the same day as the Greek victory over the Persians at Salamis. The defeat halted Carthaginian expansion on the island for decades and became embedded in Sicilian Greek identity. Carthage remained a major power but confined its Sicilian ambitions for a generation.
Location: Himera, Sicily
Carthage Renews the Sicilian Wars
Carthaginian forces under Hannibal Mago sacked the Greek cities of Selinus and Himera, reopening the contest for Sicily. Decades of on-and-off warfare against Greek Syracuse followed, drawing both powers toward eventual collision with Rome. The Sicilian wars established the pattern of large mercenary armies that characterized Carthaginian warfare.
Location: Selinus and Himera, Sicily
The First Punic War and the Loss of Sicily
After 23 years of war over Sicily — the longest continuous conflict of the ancient world to that point — a Roman fleet destroyed the last Carthaginian navy at the Aegates Islands. Carthage ceded Sicily and paid a large indemnity. The loss of its first war against Rome forced Carthage to restructure, and its unpaid mercenaries revolted in the brutal Truceless War that followed.
Location: Aegates Islands, western Sicily
Hannibal Crosses the Alps and Wins at Cannae
In the Second Punic War, Hannibal led an army with war elephants from Iberia across the Alps into Italy in 218 BC, then crushed Roman armies at Trebia and Trasimene. At Cannae in 216 BC his envelopment destroyed a Roman army of over 50,000 men in a single day — one of the deadliest battlefield defeats any state absorbed before the modern era. Rome refused to surrender and rebuilt its armies.
Location: Cannae, southern Italy
Defeat at Zama Ends Carthaginian Great-Power Status
Scipio Africanus, who had studied Hannibal's tactics, defeated him at Zama after Carthage's ally Masinissa of Numidia defected to Rome. The peace terms dismantled Carthaginian power: the fleet was surrendered, war elephants prohibited, and a 50-year indemnity imposed. Carthage survived as a wealthy but disarmed trading state under Roman supervision.
Location: Zama, North Africa
Rome Destroys Carthage in the Third Punic War
After a three-year siege, Roman forces under Scipio Aemilianus captured Carthage, burned the city, and enslaved its surviving inhabitants. The decision followed years of advocacy in Rome by Cato the Elder ("Carthage must be destroyed") against a faction that opposed war, and was justified partly by Carthage's recovery of prosperity in violation of the treaty's spirit. Carthaginian territory became the Roman province of Africa.
Location: Carthage, Tunisia
Rome Rebuilds Carthage as a Roman City
Augustus refounded Carthage as a Roman colony, and it grew into one of the largest cities of the Roman Empire and a center of North African Christianity. The Punic language survived in rural North Africa for centuries, and the memory of Carthage shaped Roman literature and identity. The destruction of 146 BC thus closed the Carthaginian state but not the city's later history.
Location: Carthage, Tunisia