Oran Barb

Ancient Carthage ( KAR-thij; Punic: 𐤒𐤓𐤕𐤟𐤇𐤃𐤔𐤕, lit. 'New City') was an ancient Semitic civilization based in North Africa. Initially a settlement in present-day Tunisia, it later became a city-state, before growing into the Carthaginian Empire, a major power led by the Punic people who dominated the ancient western and central Mediterranean Sea. Carthage was settled around 814 BC by colonists from Tyre, a leading Phoenician city-state located in present-day Lebanon. In the 7th century BC, following Phoenicia's conquest by the Neo-Assyrian Empire, Carthage became independent, gradually expanding its economic and political hegemony across the western Mediterranean. By 300 BC, through its vast patchwork of colonies, vassals, and satellite states, held together by its naval dominance of the western and central Mediterranean Sea, Carthage controlled the largest territory in the region, including the coast of northwestern Africa, southern and eastern Iberia, and the islands of Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Malta, and the Balearic Islands. Tripoli remained autonomous under the authority of local Libyco-Phoenicians, who paid nominal tribute. Among the ancient world's largest and richest cities, Carthage's strategic location provided access to abundant fertile land and major maritime trade routes that reached West Asia and Northern Europe. This commercial empire was secured by one of the largest and most powerful navies in classical antiquity, and an army composed heavily of foreign mercenaries and auxiliaries, particularly Iberians, Balearics, Gauls, Britons, Sicilians, Italians, Greeks, Numidians, and Libyans. Carthage's unique system of government combined at different times elements of democracy, oligarchy, and republicanism, including early examples of separation of powers. As the dominant power in the western Mediterranean, Carthage inevitably came into conflict with many neighbours and rivals, from the Berbers of North Africa to the nascent Roman Republic. Following centuries of conflict with the Sicilian Greeks, its growing competition with Rome culminated in the Punic Wars (264–146 BC), which saw some of the largest and most sophisticated battles in antiquity. Carthage narrowly avoided destruction after the Second Punic War, but was destroyed by the Romans in 146 BC after the Third Punic War. The Romans later founded a new city in its place. All remnants of Carthaginian civilization came under Roman rule by the 1st century AD, and Rome subsequently became the dominant Mediterranean power, paving the way for the Roman Empire. Despite having been one of the most influential civilizations of antiquity, Carthage is mostly remembered for its long and bitter conflict with Rome. Due to the destruction of virtually all Carthaginian texts after the Third Punic War, much of what is known about its civilization comes from Roman and Greek sources, many of whom wrote during or after the Punic Wars, and to varying degrees were influenced by the hostilities. Popular and scholarly attitudes towards Carthage historically reflected the prevailing Greco-Roman view, though archaeological research since the late 19th century has helped shed more light and nuance on Carthaginian civilization.