Carthage arose several centuries earlier than the small Gallic settlement of Lutetia, which later became Paris. It already existed at the time when the Etruscans appeared in the north of the Apennine Peninsula - teachers of the Romans in art, navigation and crafts. Carthage was already a city when a furrow was made around the Palatine Hill with a bronze plow, thereby completing the ritual of founding the Eternal City.
Like the beginning of any of the cities whose history goes back centuries, the founding of Carthage is also associated with legend. 814 BC e. - the ships of the Phoenician queen Elissa moored near Utica, a Phoenician settlement in North Africa.
This legend has no scientific confirmation yet, and the most ancient finds, which were obtained as a result of archaeological excavations, date back to the 7th century BC. e.
The Phoenicians brought knowledge, craft traditions, a higher level of culture to these lands and quickly established themselves as skillful and skilled workers. Along with the Egyptians, they mastered the production of glass, succeeded in weaving and pottery, as well as in leather dressing, patterned embroidery, and the manufacture of bronze and silver items. Their products were appreciated throughout the Mediterranean. The economic life of Carthage was built, as a rule, on trade, agriculture and fishing. It was in those days that olive groves and orchards were planted along the shores of present-day Tunisia, and the plains were plowed up. Even the Romans marveled at the agrarian knowledge of the Carthaginians.
The industrious and skillful inhabitants of Carthage dug artesian wells, built dams and stone water tanks, cultivated wheat, cultivated gardens and vineyards, erected multi-storey buildings, invented various mechanisms, watched the stars, wrote books …
Their glass was known throughout the ancient world, perhaps even more so than Venetian glass in the Middle Ages. The colorful purple fabrics of the Carthaginians, the secrets of which were carefully hidden, were incredibly prized.
The cultural impact of the Phoenicians was also of great importance. They invented the alphabet - the same alphabet of 22 letters, which served as the basis for the writing of many peoples: for the Greek writing, and for Latin, and for our writing.
Already 200 years after the city was founded, the Carthaginian state becomes prosperous and powerful. The Carthaginians founded trading posts in the Balearic Islands, they captured Corsica, and eventually began to take control of Sardinia. By the 5th century BC. e. Carthage has already established itself as one of the largest empires in the Mediterranean. This empire covered a significant territory of the present Maghreb, had its possessions in Spain and Sicily; the fleet of Carthage through Gibraltar began to enter the Atlantic Ocean, reaching England, Ireland and even the shores of Cameroon.
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He had no equal in the entire Mediterranean. Polybius wrote that the Carthaginian galleys were built in such a way “that they could move in any direction with the greatest ease … If the enemy, violently attacking, pressed such ships, they retreated without endangering themselves: after all, light ships are not afraid of the open sea. If the enemy persisted in pursuit, the galleys turned around and, maneuvering in front of the enemy ships' formation or covering it from the flanks, again and again went to the ram. Under the protection of such galleys, heavily laden Carthaginian sailing ships could sail safely.
Everything was going well for the city. At that time, the influence of Greece, the constant enemy of Carthage, was greatly diminished. The rulers of the city supported their power by an alliance with the Etruscans: this alliance was a kind of shield, which blocked the Greeks' way to the trade oases of the Mediterranean. In the east, things were also going well for Carthage, but at that time Rome turned into a strong Mediterranean power.
It is known how the rivalry between Carthage and Rome ended. The sworn enemy of the famous city, Marcus Porcius Cato, at the end of each speech in the Roman Senate, no matter what was said, repeated: "But still, I believe that Carthage must be destroyed!"
Cato himself visited Carthage as part of the Roman embassy at the end of the 2nd century BC. e. A noisy, prosperous city appeared before him. Major trade deals were concluded there, coins of different states settled in the chests of the exchangers, the mines regularly supplied silver, copper and lead, ships left the stocks.
Cato also visited the provinces, where he was able to see lush fields, lush vineyards, orchards and olive groves. The estates of the Carthaginian nobility were in no way inferior to the Roman ones, and sometimes even surpassed them in luxury and splendor of decoration.
The senator returned to Rome in the darkest mood. As he set out on his journey, he hoped to see signs of the decline of Carthage, the eternal and nemesis of Rome. For more than a century, there has been a struggle between the two most powerful Mediterranean powers for the possession of colonies, convenient harbors, for domination of the sea.
This struggle went on with varying success, but the Romans were able to forever oust the Carthaginians from Sicily and Andalusia. As a result of the African victories of Emilian Scipio, Carthage paid Rome an indemnity of 10 thousand talents, gave his entire fleet, war elephants and all the Numidian lands. Such crushing defeats should have bled the state, but Carthage was reviving and getting stronger, which means that it will again pose a threat to Rome …
So the senator thought, and only dreams of impending vengeance dispersed his gloomy thoughts.
For three years the legions of Emilian Scipio besieged Carthage, and no matter how desperately its inhabitants resisted, they could not block the path of the Roman army. The battle for the city lasted six days, and then it was taken by storm. For 10 days Carthage was given up for plunder, and then razed to the ground. Heavy Roman plows plowed what was left of its streets and squares.
Salt was thrown into the ground so that the Carthaginian fields and gardens would no longer bear fruit. The surviving inhabitants, 55 thousand people, were sold into slavery. According to legend, Emilian Scipio, whose troops took Carthage by storm, wept as he watched the capital of a mighty state die.
The winners took away gold, silver, jewelry, ivory, carpets - everything that had accumulated over the centuries in temples, sanctuaries, palaces and homes. Almost all the books and chronicles of the Punic Wars were destroyed in the fires. The Romans transferred the famous library of Carthage to their allies - the Numidian princes, and since that time it has disappeared without a trace. Only a treatise on agriculture by the Carthaginian Magon has survived.
But the greedy robbers who ravaged the city and razed it to the ground did not rest on this. It seemed to them that the Carthaginians, whose wealth was legendary, had hidden their jewels before the last battle. And for many more years, treasure seekers scoured the dead city.
24 years after the destruction of Carthage, the Romans began to rebuild a new city in its place according to their own models - with wide streets and squares, with white-stone palaces, temples and public buildings. Everything that could somehow survive the defeat of Carthage was now used in the construction of a new city, which was being revived in the Roman style.
In less than a few decades, Carthage, which had risen from the ashes, turned in beauty and importance into the second city of the state. All historians who described Carthage during the Roman period spoke of it as a city in which "luxury and pleasure reign".
But Roman rule was not eternal either. By the middle of the 5th century, the city fell under the rule of Byzantium, and after a century and a half, the first military units of the Arabs came here. In retaliation, the Byzantines returned the city to themselves, but only for three years, and then it remained forever in the hands of the new conquerors.
The Berber tribes greeted the arrival of the Arabs calmly and did not interfere with the spread of Islam. Arab schools were opened in all cities and even small settlements, literature, medicine, theology, astronomy, architecture, folk crafts began to develop …
During Arab rule, when dynasties at war with each other were replaced very often, Carthage is relegated to the background. Once again destroyed, it could no longer rise, turning into a symbol of majestic immortality. The people and the ruthless time left nothing from the former greatness of Carthage - a city that ruled over half of the ancient world. Neither the Germanic lighthouse, nor the stone from the fortress wall, nor the temple of the god Eshmun, on the steps of which the defenders of the great ancient city fought to the last.
Now on the site of the legendary city - a quiet suburb of Tunisia. A small peninsula cuts into the horseshoe-shaped harbor of the former military fort. Here you can see the fragments of columns and blocks of yellow stone - all that remains of the palace of the admiral of the Carthaginian fleet. Historians believe that the palace was built so that the admiral could always see the ships he commanded. And yet only a pile of stones (presumably from the acropolis) and the foundation of the temple of the gods Tanit and Baal testify that Carthage was in fact a real place on earth. And turn the wheel of history differently, Carthage instead of Rome could become the ruler of the ancient world.
Since the middle of the twentieth century, excavations have been conducted there, and it turned out that not far from Birsa, a whole quarter of Carthage was preserved under a layer of ash. To this day, all our knowledge of the great city is mostly evidence of its enemies. And therefore the testimonies of Carthage itself are now becoming increasingly important. Tourists from all over the world come here to stay on this ancient land and feel its great past. Carthage is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, and therefore it must be preserved …
N. Ionina