A Guide to the Ancient City’s Ruins in Tunisia

Modern Carthage is a residential suburb (population 26,000) in Tunisia, the capital of Tunisia. But at its heyday, the seaside town was the seat of the Carthaginians, and the North African Empire of the Carthaginians made money for ancient Greece and Rome. Established on the cape overlooking the Gulf of Tunisia in the ninth century BC, Carthage once and for all, its Roman rival replaced Carthage once and for all in the third (and last) war of anonymity in 146 BC. Since then, it has become a Roman colony. In 1979, the ruins of ancient Carthage were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Who founded Carthage?

The city’s creations are shrouded in legends, with the most famous versions in Virgil’s Enid. An exiled princess Dido fled Tyre – southern Lebanon – with her allies – to escape her murdered, longing powerful brother Pygmalion. Dido, based on Carthage’s oral history Qart-ḥAidaYingshimeaning “new city”. (The city of Cartagena in Spain has the same etymology as it was founded by General Carthage).

However, it is not clear whether the account is accurate. The earliest archaeological evidence dates back about a century after 814 BC, and we do not know whether the residues of early settlements simply cannot survive, or whether the Carthaginians exaggerated the age of their cities.

How did Carthage become so influential?

Thanks to its location – in the center of the Mediterranean, closest to Africa in Europe (outside the Strait of Gibraltar), Carthage became a wealthy trading port specializing in rare purple dyes and precious metals. By the third century BC, Carthage was the second largest metropolis after Alexandria, with the empire extending across North Africa, Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily and most of the Iberian Peninsula. At its peak, it has over 200 marinas. Yet despite all its wealth, historians found that Carthage’s cultural life had less evidence than other wealthy Mediterranean capitals, although this could be the result of Roman robbery.

Why did Carthage plunder?

For more than a century, the Roman and Carthage Empire fought for the Mediterranean rule in a series of conflicts called Punic Wars (264-146 B.C.). Initially, both the Carthaginians and the Romans expanded their scope around the Mediterranean and thus enjoyed an uneasy coexistence. However, when the Roman Empire took over the entire Italian peninsula, its leaders turned their eyes to Sicily, where the Carthaginians had strongholds, triggering the first anonymous war. In the end, Rome gained the upper hand.

The subsequent anonymous war continued to disappear on the territory of the Carthage Empire. The second was incited by Hannibal, the Carthage General, who was so loud and sounded. Eventually, the Carthaginians were defeated by the Roman troops led by the same talented Scipio Africanus. In the Third Anonymous War, the Roman Empire was closed on Carthage, with the aim of defeating the roots of the Carthage Empire. The capital was besieged for three years and ended up being a creepy last attack, with most of its residents slaughtered. The city was plundered, and those who had not been killed (about 50,000 Carthaginians) were brought to slavery.

What have survived the ruins of the ancient city today?

Nothing, that’s for sure. The Romans’ damage to the city was almost almost the total. They did indeed launch their own construction projects at the site in the decades after Carthage’s fall, such as the Bathrooms in Anthonynus and the Carthage Circus. But much of the development of Rome was covered by subsequent invaders in the region: the destroyers, the Byzantines and the Arabs. Some well-preserved ruins can be found on Byrsa Hill, the center of the ancient city where Dido first settled. There you can find several residential shells and cemetery’s brackets. This may be a resting place for children who sacrificed ritually, although it may be part of Roman propaganda.