Phase 2

A Colony of Tyre

  Utica the ancient city was located between Carthage in the south and Hippo Diarrhytus (now Bizerte) in the north, near the outflow of the Medjerda River into the Mediterranean Sea. It is traditionally considered the first colony founded by the Phoenicians in North Africa according to Sabatino Moscati, in his book “The World of the Phoenicians.”  Utica was established as a port located on the trade route leading to the Straits of Gibraltar and the Atlantic, thus facilitating Phoenician trade in the Mediterranean. 

  Between 825 BCE and 814 BCE: the Carthaginians built a settlement with a Cothon which one day would become the port of Carthage.  A cothon was an artificial, protected inner harbor-island such as that built in Carthage ( BSJ Isserlin - Antiquity, 1971).  Cothons were usually constructed in the Phoenician cities.  The cothon at Carthage is divided into a rectangular merchant harbor followed by an inner protected harbor reserved for military use only. This inner harbor was surrounded by an outer ring of structures divided into a series of docking bays for ship maintenance, along with an island structure at its centre that also housed navy ships.   Each individual docking bay featured a raised slipway. Above the raised docking bays was a second level consisting of warehouses where oars and rigging  were stored along with supplies such as wood and canvas. On the island-structure, there existed a raised ‘cabin’ where the admiral in command could observe the whole harbor along with the surrounding sea. Altogether, the inner docking complex could house up to 220 ships.  An outer wall protected the entire harbor and the main entrance could be closed off with iron chains in time of war ( Geans, G. E. (1891). The harbours of Carthage).

Early Carthage and its Cothon

  In circa 1000 BCE the Phoenicians began visiting Sardinia with increasing frequency, presumably initially needing safe over-night and/or all-weather anchorages along their trade routes from the coast of modern-day Lebanon as far afield as the African and European Atlantic coasts and beyond. The most common ports of call were Caralis, Nora, Bithia, Sulcis, Tharros, Bosa and Olbia.  While the Phoenicians stayed on the coastline, their relationship with the Sardinians was peaceful.

The Remains of Nora on Sardinia

  The Balearic Islands is an archipelago in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula.  The Phoenicians took possession of these islands in very early times (Strabo) a remarkable trace of their colonization is preserved in the town of Mago (Maó in Minorca).  The two largest islands (the Balearic Islands, in their historical sense) had numerous excellent harbors, though rocky at their mouth, and requiring care in entering them (Strabo, Eustathius of Epiphania). Both were extremely fertile in produce.

  Another Phoenician colony at this early date existed on Sicily was named  Motya. It was an ancient and powerful city on an island off the west coast of Sicily, between Drepanum (modern Trapani) and Lilybaeum (modern Marsala).  It was originally a colony of the Phoenicians, who were fond of choosing similar sites, and probably at first, merely a commercial station or emporium, but gradually rose to be a flourishing and important town. The Greeks, however, according to their custom, assigned it a legendary origin, and derived its name from a woman named "Motya", whom they connected with the fables concerning Herakles.  According to coin-finds, the name "Motya" comes from Phoenician word “Mtw” and means “wool-spinning center.”All three of these cities would eventually become colonies of Carthage.

Motya 5th Century BCE

  The city of Carthage developed from a Phoenician colony of the first millennium BC into the capital of an ancient empire. Berber people also became the bulk of Carthage’s population and constituted a significant part of its army, economy and administration inhabited the area of Carthage. Native Berbers and settling Phoenicians in Carthage mixed in different ways including religion and language, creating the Punic language and culture. 

  Therefore, those courtiers who had accompanied Queen Elissa/Dido became the next rulers of Carthage. They may have ruled in her stead or reestablished communication with Tyre and Carthage became its colony and it soon became more popular than its sister city Utica 40 miles away. This may have been due to it location and harbors.
  After Dido’s death, there is no record of rulers of Carthage until 580 BCE. Why? We do not know enough conclusively to say what happened. Nevertheless, apparently by the year 580 BC they had gotten rid of the Tyrian governors (if they ever existed).  This is when the last two kings of that dynasty are mentioned now in that record.  Therefore, we can mark the monarchy of Carthage to have begun around this time.  However, I have made a discovery of a Carthaginian king that is recorded in the Prism of the Assyrian king Esarhaddon written in about 675 BCE.  It says a king known by the name of Damusi ruled Carthage.
  The initial city was centered around Byrsa, paid an annual tribute to nearby Libyan tribes, and was ruled by a governor of Tyre at first, whom the Greeks identified as a “king.” Utica the leading Phoenician city at this early date in Africa aided in the early settlement of Carthage The date that Carthage became an independent power cannot be exactly determined, and probably nothing distinguished Carthage from other Phoenician colonies circa 800-700 BCE.
  The first colonial activity concerning the Carthaginians was possibly the founding of the coastal town of Nora on Sardinia. By the 6th century, BCE the Carthaginian maritime power took control of the island.  Although Punic wealth was to become legendary, the standard of cultural life engaged by the Carthaginians may have been below that of the larger classical cities of the world.  Punic interests were turned towards trade rather than art, and Carthage controlled much of the western trade in the luxurious purple dye found in the murex snail shell.

Murex Snail Shell

Probable Colors of the Murex Snail Shell Dye

This dye was used to color the robes of royalty throughout the ancient western world.  It also was known as “Tyrian purple”.
   Arguments about the virtual lack of Punic literature are largely moot, when the Romans sacked the city; Carthage’s libraries and archives either passed on to the Numidian kings and did not survive destruction or were destroyed by the fire.  Only 20 books on agriculture by a Carthaginian writer named Mago survived and were preserved by the Romans.
  Elsewhere in the 7th-6th century BCE the Assyrians initiated a period of expansion in the Middle East, took possession Tyre, subjugated it, and forced them to pay tribute from about 745-605 BCE. This is when they may have come across  a king of Carthage in Tyre.
  When that empire collapsed, the colony of Carthage had taken on a more distinct Punic character indicating the emergence of a distinct culture in the western Mediterranean.  By 650 BCE Carthage had begun to establish her own colonies.  By 600 BCE Carthage was at war with the Greeks on her own away from the African mainland.  By this time, Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon was conducting a 13-year siege of Tyre.

Siege of Tyre

  By 585 BC, Carthage was probably independent of its mother city in political matters.  However, close ties with Tyre remained.  Carthage continued to pay annual tribute to Tyre (for the temple of Melqart) at irregular intervals over the centuries. Carthage inherited no colonial empire from Tyre and had to build her own.  It is likely that Carthage did not have an empire prior to 600 BCE.

Etruscan Map

  The first alliance of great importance came with the Etruscans.  This civilization’s name was given to a people and culture of ancient Italy and Corsica whom the Romans called the Etrusci or Tusci.The origins of the Etruscans are lost in prehistory.  The main hypothesis is that they were the indigenous people stemming from the Villanovan culture.  The mining and commerce of metal, especially copper and ivory, led to the enrichment of the Etruscans and an expansion of their influence on the Italian peninsula  and the western Mediterranean Sea led to their interests colliding with the Phocaean  Greeks,  especially in the 6th century BCE., where  Phocaea Greeks who had founded major colonies that were in the west. These included Alalia on Corsica, Emporiae and Rhoda in Spain, and especially Massalia (Marseille) in France (Stillwell, Richard, The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites).   This led the Etruscans to form an alliance with Carthage, whose interests also collided with these Greeks.