Carthaginian Empire

Abstract

From the 7th century bce Carthage acquired dominance over the other Phoenician colonial cities in North Africa, Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica, together with the territories around them. After about 450 she also mastered her own fertile hinterland called Libya (modern northern Tunisia). Mediterranean‐wide trade, including with Rome, and revenues from the empire made Carthage a major power. A military power more than a naval one, Carthage warred repeatedly with the Greek states of Sicily, especially Syracuse, between 500 and 270 bce. Defeated by Rome in the First Punic War (264–241), she lost her Sicilian and other island territories, but conquered a new land empire in Spain. The Second Punic War under Hannibal's leadership (218–201), however, deprived her of this and restricted her to Libya, with her own destruction by Rome following in 146 bce.