Carthage: A Steeped History in Legend and Grandeur

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Carthage, according to legend, was founded by the Phoenician Queen Dido in or around 813 BCE (Mark). The true origins of how the city came to exist is clouded by time and steeped in legend. It started out as a small port city on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea across the Sea from Rome. The city of Carthage was a colony of Tyr (Morey, Ch. 14). Carthage began as a small trade stop for Phoenician traders to resupply and repair their ships.

The first great injection of grandeur came in the form of wealthy refugees, a perplexing idea to many. In the year 332 BCE the Phoenician city of Tyre was lost to Alexander the Great (Mark). Many, if not most, of the citizens who's lives were spared by Alexander the Great were rich enough to buy their …show more content…

Once the conflict of the Punic wars began over the conquest of Sicily, Rome realized it needed to match Carthage's navy. Rome knew that they needed to best Carthage at sea, and they also knew that Carthage had a serious advantage on them in these waters. The Roman Triremes could not stand against the Carthage quinquiremes. The Romans salvaged a wrecked Carthage quinquireme and quickly fashioned their own fleet based off the design. Meanwhile, Rome's soldiers were trained in oar rowing. The final tactical decision for the Romans was to use their superior soldiers at sea. Boarding planks were built onto the Roman vessels so that the soldiers could board Carthage's vessels and attack their sailors hand to hand. This strategy led to an incredibly successful and decisive victory at sea that led to the Roman victory during the Punic war.

In conclusion, Carthage was an incredibly successful city. Owing it's success to many factors. Some of those factors were not very pleasant, such as the defeat of one city and the culling of it's poor citizens. Or the subjugation of Carthage's native neighbors and African Tribes. But Carthage will be remembered most as an ancient super power, with incredibly brilliant leaders, and a navy that defined the Mediterranean

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