History of Carthage

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Location of Carthage and Carthaginian sphere of influence around 264 BC Chr.

This article deals with the history of the ancient commercial republic of Carthage ; for the following history of the city see the main article Carthage .

Foundation of the city of Carthage

Carthage was founded in the late 9th or first half of the 8th century BC. Founded by Phoenician settlers from Tire . In contrast to the older Utica , they called the city Qart-Hadašt , which means "new city". The ancient tradition dates the founding of Carthage to the year 814 BC. The oldest archaeological finds can be traced back to 760 BC at the earliest. BC, which is why some historians reject the literary tradition.

The founding legend

The founding myth of Carthage tells how the Phoenician princess Elissa (known to the Romans as Dido ), the sister of the Tyrian king Pygmalion , fled from her power-hungry brother and landed on the African coast. The local chief promised her as much land as she could encompass with a cow skin. Dido then cut the cowhide into wafer-thin strips, put them together and was able to mark a large piece of land. According to legend, this coastal strip formed the Byrsa , the nucleus of Carthage. After the founding of Carthage, Elissa sacrificed herself on a stake to guarantee the city's prosperity. After Virgil's Aeneid , Aeneas , the legendary progenitor of the Romans, visited Dido in Carthage. The epic describes how Dido falls in love with Aeneas. When he leaves at the behest of Jupiter , Dido kills himself at a stake. But first she swears vengeance and thus creates the basis for the later conflict between Rome and Carthage.

Rise of the Carthaginian Empire

For the first two centuries Carthage was still dependent on its mother city, Tire. During this time there were repeated waves of emigration due to various chaos of war in the mother country. When the Phoenician motherland in 539 BC Was conquered by the Persians , Carthage broke away from the influence of Tire. Due to Persian influence, the Phoenician cities were no longer able to guarantee the protection of their colonies overseas. By this time Carthage had already built up a considerable fleet of its own. Therefore, from 539 BC onwards, Carthage was able to Took over the leadership role over the Phoenician cities of the western Mediterranean and developed into an important sea and trading power.

The Punic sailors went on long voyages of discovery. In the 5th century BC Admiral Hanno explored the west coast of Africa and probably reached the Gulf of Guinea . After the exhausting Peloponnesian War (end of 411 BC), in which Syracuse was also involved, the Carthaginians used the weakness of the Sicilian Greeks for momentous expansion. From 409 BC The Carthaginians conquered further areas of this island starting from the western bases in Sicily, Drepana ( Trapani ), Panormos ( Palermo ), Eryx ( Erice ) and Solus ( Solunto ).

Under Mago I and his successors, the Magonids , Carthage began a colonial policy of expansion. The Carthaginians founded colonies in the Balearic Islands ( Ibiza 654 BC), Corsica , Sardinia and on the North African coast and they took over the Phoenician colonies on the south-eastern coast of Spain , where many natural resources were developed, but also agricultural products had great economic there Meaning. Southeast Spain is likely to have even surpassed Sicily as a granary . Products were even exported to the Roman Empire.

The Carthaginians destroyed the legendary empire of Tartessos , which according to ancient sources lay on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir (Baetis), and temporarily closed the Strait of Gibraltar to Greek ships. Every Greek ship has been rammed and sunk. Cossyra ( Pantelleria ), Malta (which the Phoenicians called Malet, the Romans Melite) and Sicily were extremely important as bases for securing trade routes. The expansion took the Carthaginians along the north-western African coast to the Canary Islands . Statements by ancient authors suggest that they also knew Madeira . Whether they also sailed to the Azores is unclear and disputed: whether Carthaginian coins were actually discovered on Corvo in 1749, as claimed , has been doubted early on. Reaching the American coast is considered unlikely.

The thesis, which goes back to the German linguist Theo Vennemann and his students, that the Carthaginians exerted political and cultural influence in what is now northern Germany for a long time and thereby decisively influenced the Germanic language family, is currently rejected by the vast majority of researchers.

Conflict with the Greeks

The greatest threat to the building of a Carthaginian empire were the Greek colonies , notably Nikaia ( Nice ) and Syracuse . Around 537 BC BC the Carthaginians / Punians, in alliance with the Etruscans , forced a sea battle against the Phocaeans, who had founded Alalia : The Phocaeans were driven out in the battle of Alalia and Alalia became Etruscan. 480 BC The Carthaginians first waged a campaign against Gelon , the tyrant of Syracuse, who tried to take control of the island. In the battle of Himera 480 BC BC lost the Carthaginians devastatingly. In the same year the famous battle of Salamis took place between Persians, on whose side Phoenician ships were used, and a united Greek fleet. The Greeks defeated the Persian fleet.

In Ephoros of Kyme the claim emerges that the Carthaginians had allied themselves with the Persian king Xerxes I , who led a campaign against Athens and Sparta in the same year , but this is at least doubtful and possibly an ex eventu assessment ; most likely it was that the Punians were out to eliminate their old rivals. However, the Punic offensive on Sicily failed when the Carthaginian army led by Hamilcar was defeated in the battle of Himera . 474 BC Another battle was lost in front of Kyme (Cumae) against a Greco-Sicilian fleet led by Syracuse. The crushing defeat put an end to Carthage's aggressive expansion in the central Mediterranean for decades. In the period that followed, Carthage concentrated on expanding territorial control in North Africa. At the same time, trade focused more on the western Mediterranean.

409 BC The Carthaginian Empire tried again to conquer Sicily under Hannibal Mago , while Syracuse was involved in the Peloponnesian War . Starting from their western Sicilian bases, the Carthaginians advanced east. They were able to bring Selinus , Himera , as well as Acragas (Agrigento), Gela and Henna (Enna) under their control. They fought their way to a river, which was also called Himera (today Salso, flows into the Mediterranean at southern Licata). The Himera River geographically divides the island into a western and an eastern half. This river was therefore long considered the demarcation line between the Carthaginian Empire and Syracuse. A campaign against Syracuse in 405 BC BC failed because the Carthaginian army was weakened by an epidemic to which Hannibal Mago fell victim. Carthage and Syracuse signed a peace treaty, but it was concluded as early as 398 BC. Was broken by Dionysius I , the new tyrant of Syracuse. 397 BC BC Dionysius founded the city of Tyndaris on the north-eastern coast of Sicily as a bulwark against the Carthaginian expansion. The Carthaginians repulsed Dionysius' attack, conquered Messina and then again unsuccessfully besieged Syracuse. Ultimately, with the inclusion of the Greek cities in its sphere of influence, Carthage remained exposed to a much desired strong cultural influence.

A third war against Syracuse followed in 315 BC. When Agathocles of Syracuse attacked the Carthaginian possessions in Sicily. Carthage's counter-attack was successful; The Carthaginians conquered most of the island and besieged Syracuse again. 310 BC BC Agathocles made the desperate decision to break through the blockade and attack the enemy in Africa with the help of Greek mercenaries recruited by the Macedonian Ophellas . Carthage had to recall his army from Sicily and defeated Agathocles' expeditionary army. Nevertheless, Agathocles was able to negotiate a peace treaty that secured him rule over the eastern part of Sicily.

Conflict with Rome - the three Punic Wars

Western Mediterranean 279 BC

In two contracts from the years 348 BC BC and 306 BC Carthage and the emerging Rome delimited their spheres of interest. The Carthaginians committed themselves to stay away from Italy, while the Romans left Sicily to the Carthaginians. The expansion of Rome and conflicts of interest around Sicily led to a conflict between the two powers, which was fought in the three Punic Wars.

The First Punic War (264–241 BC) began when the Romans came to the aid of the Mamertines , a group of Italian mercenaries in Messina . The decision to go to war was ultimately made at sea, even if there were fighting in Sicily and North Africa. The Romans feared the fast, seaworthy, and well-armed Carthaginian warships, which the Greeks called penters and the Romans called quinqueremen . It was only when a Carthaginian ship ran aground off Italy that the Romans were able to catch up technologically by replicating the Carthaginian ships. Since the Romans equipped the ships with boarding bridges ( Corvus ) and manned them with foot soldiers, they were even superior to the Carthaginians in battle. After the Romans had defeated the Carthaginian fleet in the Battle of the Aegatic Islands , Carthage was forced to die in 241 BC. Cede Sicily. After the end of the war, a dispute over the payment of the Carthaginian mercenary army sparked the mercenary war in which, in addition to the unpaid mercenaries, parts of the Carthage-dependent population of North Africa rose against the rulers. The conflict lasted four years until 237 BC. And weaken Carthage so that Rome could use the situation in its favor. Carthage could not afford a new conflict with Rome at this time and agreed to an addition to the Lutatius Treaty, which provided for the cession of Sardinia and Corsica and a payment of 1200 talents to Rome.

In the period that followed, Carthage tried to expand its sphere of influence in Spain. As a result of this expansion, a treaty was concluded between the Carthaginian general Hasdrubal and Rome, in which he undertook not to cross the Iber with warlike intentions. The reasons for which Rome wanted to conclude this so-called Hasdrubal or General Treaty is disputed due to the sources. Due to Hannibal's breach of this treaty, Rome declared war on Carthage. The general Hannibal crossed the Alps with 38,000 soldiers and 37 war elephants (→ Hannibals Alpenüberquerung ) and invaded Italy, where he inflicted heavy defeats on the Romans in the Battle of Lake Trasimeno and in the Battle of Cannae . Although numerous Italian allies of Rome had switched sides, Hannibal, cut off from supplies, could not seriously endanger Rome. Under Scipio Africanus the Elder , the Romans achieved success in Spain. 204 BC BC Scipio finally landed in North Africa, forcing Hannibal to return. At the Battle of Zama , Carthage was decisively defeated. 201 BC Carthage had to submit to a tough peace treaty. It had to cede Spain to the Romans, abandon its navy, pay tributes and could only wage wars with Rome's permission. With that Carthage lost its status as a great power.

Carthage recovered economically from the war defeat, but in the following period had to deal with the aggressive expansion of the neighboring Numidians under King Massinissa . After the sacking of Massinissa on Carthaginian territory, Carthage defeated 150 BC. BC, which gave Rome an excuse to finally destroy Carthage in the Third Punic War (149–146 BC).

Famous Carthaginians

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Diodor , Bibliothèque historique 5.19 f .; Plutarch , Sertorius 8.2 f .; Pliny the Elder , Naturalis historia 6.36.
  2. ↑ Alexander von Humboldt already skeptical : Critical investigations into the historical development of geographical knowledge of the New World and the progress of nautical astronomy in the 15th and 16th centuries. Volume 1. , Berlin 1836, pp. 455ff.
  3. ↑ See most recently Robert Mailhammer, Theo Vennemann: The Carthaginian North: Semitic Influence on Early Germanic . Amsterdam 2019.
  4. ↑ See app for this. Ib. 7, 26–27 and Pol. 2, 13.
  5. ↑ Klaus Bringmann : The Ebro Treaty, Sagunto and the way into the Second Punic War . In: Klio 83, 2001, pp. 369-376. Ebro contract, p. 373f.