Carthage: A Biography (Cities of the Ancient World)

Description

Carthage tells the life story of the city, both as one of the Mediterranean’s great seafaring powers before 146 BC, and after its refounding in the first century BC. It provides a comprehensive history of the city and its unique culture, and offers students an insight into Rome’s greatest enemy. Hoyos explores the history of Carthage from its foundation, traditionally claimed to have been by political exiles from Phoenicia in 813 BC, through to its final desertion in AD 698 at the hands of fresh eastern arrivals, the Arabs. In these 1500 years, Carthage had two distinct lives, separated by a hundred-year silence. In the first and most famous life, the city traded and warred on equal terms with Greeks and then with Rome, which ultimately led to Rome utterly destroying the city after the Third Punic War. A second Carthage, Roman in form, was founded by Julius Caesar in 44 BC and flourished, both as a centre for Christianity and as capital of the Vandal kingdom, until the seventh-century expansion of the Umayyad Caliphate. Carthage is a comprehensive study of this fascinating city across 15 centuries that provides a fascinating insight into Punic history and culture for students and scholars of Carthaginian, Roman, and Late Antique history. Written in an accessible style, this volume is also suitable for the general reader. Cover Half Title Series Page Title page Copyright page Contents List of illustrations Maps Acknowledgements 1. Dido's city Foundation The early city Society and state 2. Trade and the beginnings of empire Trade, wealth, and growth Commercial expansion and territorial hegemony Two famous Atlantic enterprises 3. City life and religion Religion at Carthage Child sacrifice? The cityscape The enclosed harbours 4. Society and government Names Art and literature Aristocrats and military families Population and people Government Carthage's fleets Carthage's armies 5. Politics, politicians, and Carthage in Libya Sixth-century bc politics: Malchus The Magonid family dynasty Politics in the fourth century: the first Hanno 'the Great' Later fourth-century politics: Mago, Gisco, and after Third-century stresses The era of the Barcids Reform and disaster 6. Carthage versus the Greeks The fifth-century Sicilian wars Carthage versus Dionysius Disaster at the river Crimisus The trauma of Agathocles Carthage's last Greek war 7. Fighting Rome Carthage and Rome before 264 bc“ Messana, Syracuse, and Acragas Carthage's longest war The Truceless War The Barcids, Spain, and Rome The Second Punic War: Hannibal's offensive The war's middle years The Metaurus and Zama 8. The death of Punic Carthage Peace and Masinissa The Third Punic War begins Carthage besieged Scipio Aemilianus takes command The fall of Carthage Aftermath Why was Carthage destroyed? 9. Colonia Iulia Concordia Carthago The road to recolonisation The refoundation of Carthage Proconsuls, government, and taxes The major public structures Culture and wealth Imperial politics and impacts 10. Christianity and Carthage The second and third centuries Donatism vs orthodoxy 11. Carthage Vandalised Count Bonifatius and the Vandals Geiseric, king of Carthage Vandal government and religion Vandal Carthage: literature and propaganda 12. Byzantine Carthage Reconquest and reconstruction Warfare and violence Carthage, North Africa, and the Three Chapters A coup d’état from Carthage Carthage in the seventh century The first Arab invasions The fall of Carthage 13. Conclusion Appendix on sources References Index