Carthage, near modern Tunis, was founded around 800 BC (BCE) by

Phoenicians from Tyre, who called it "Karthadasht," meaning "new city."

Initially a Phoenician trading post, it soon developed into a thriving city-state
with a fortified harbor. At the height of its power, Carthage controlled much of the
coastal central and western Mediterranean, including parts of North Africa,
France, Spain, Corsica, Sardinia, western Sicily and numerous small islands
(Malta, Lampedusa, Ibiza). Punic, the Carthaginian language, was a dialect of
Phoenician spoken in the Carthage region well into the Christian era, long after
Phoenician ceased to be spoken in Phoenicia or elsewhere.
Western Sicily bears traces of the Carthaginian presence, particularly in the
Punic walls of Palermo and Erice, and of course the archeological sites at Mozia
and Marsala. A number of Carthaginian artworks and inscriptions (such as the
stela shown here) are preserved in Sicilian museums. In Sicily, Greek and
Roman structures were built upon most of the Phoenician and Carthaginian
ones, leaving little superstructure comparable to the island's majestic Greek
temples or Roman amphitheatres.
The word "Punic" (Latin Poenicus and later Punicus) refers to the civilization
of Carthage, its language and art, and derives from the Greeks' word
Phoinikes, meaning "Phoenician." Initially, Carthage was Phoenician in every sense, and its
importance --as well as its population-- grew with the political decline of Phoenicia, eventually
becoming the largest Phoenician city. It is quite possible that the Phoenicians were already present in
northeastern Tunisia as early as 1100 BC. Utica, near Carthage, was probably their
first settlement in the region and in Roman times did not always find itself in harmony
with its larger neighbor.
While this "residual" civilization remained essentially Phoenician over the centuries,
some minor "indigenous" African influences were evident by 500 BC, complemented
by local developments which eventually made Carthage somewhat distinct from the
societies of Phoenicia. "Ethnic drift" of this kind is normal, and in time Carthage
emerged as a city-state, and mini-empire, in its own right. By 500 BC, as Phoenicia
fell to the Persians, Carthage emerged as a regional power, falling into open conflict
with the Greeks.
Greek antipathy pre-dated the Phoenicians' forced alliance with the Persians against
Greece. This led to some interesting developments, such as the alliance of Carthage
with the Etruscans of central Italy. Etruscan power declined after 500 BC, and the
emerging Romans looked to the Greeks as a cultural influence.
The cities of Zis (Palermo) Solus (Solunto), Lilybaeum (Marsala) and Motya (Mozia) were the most
important Carthaginian centres in Sicily, inherited by Carthage from their ancestors (the "original"
Phoenicians), though Eryx (Erice) and other cities were certainly influenced by Phoenician and
Carthaginian culture. It was not unusual for certain Greek cities of western Sicily to trade with the
Carthaginians despite an official state of war. The city of Syracuse, Sicily's largest and most important
Greek city, exercised a particularly anti-Carthaginian policy, but could not always dissuade Selinus
(Selinunte) from entering into alliance with the Carthaginians.
Unfortunately, the Carthaginians have often been portrayed in an unfairly negative light. Intrinsically,
however, the Greeks and Romans had no more right than the Carthaginians to colonize Sicily or any
other place, and enjoyed no moral superiority to them. Indeed, they, not the Carthaginians, were
often the aggressors. Each had colonies in France and Spain, and neither was prepared to allow
Carthage free control of the central and western Mediterranean, including the Strait of Gibraltar. This
was pure hegemony in its worst form. In many respects, the cultures of the Carthaginians, Greeks
and Romans --and even the people themselves-- were remarkably similar. Roman culture owed

much to Hellenic culture, and the Greeks had been strongly influenced by the Phoenicians.
Objectively speaking, there is no historical indication that the few Carthaginian cities of Sicily were
any less prosperous than the Greek ones.
For the purpose of defining their role in central Mediterranean history, and their ethnic identity as a
people, we may say that the Carthaginians constituted a society in significant ways
distinctive of Phoenician society beginning around 500 BC. (Admittedly, this is not a
perfect means of distinguishing the latter Carthaginians from their mother culture,
but it coincides with other key developments, such as the re-colonization of Zis and
other Sicilian localities established earlier by the Phoenicians; it also corresponds
with the emergence of the Carthaginians as colonizers rather than traders, and with
certain social movements in Carthage. Though the distinction between Phoenicians
and Carthaginians was primarily social rather than genetic, Phoenician populations
were known to amalgamate to some extent with "native" peoples such as Elymians
and Iberians. The Phoenician article describes this civilization.)
In 580 BC, around the time the Phoenicians and Persians were defeated at Salamis
in Greece, the Carthaginians suffered a serious defeat by Syracusan troops at the
battle of Himera, east of Palermo. At home, Carthage gradually evolved from a form
of monarchy into an oligarchy.
By 410 BC, Carthage was again expanding into Sicily, where Selinus and Himera
were attacked and essentially destroyed the following year. Not surprisingly,
problems with the Siceliots (Greek Sicilians) were to continue, but a truce was
established in 392 BC by Dionysos I, a Syracusan general and tyrant (leader).
In 341 BC, Corinthian and Syracusan troops defeated a Carthaginian force at the
battle of the River Crimisus. This, however, served to check Carthaginian influence
only temporarily. Agathocles, a later leader of Syracuse, having lost an earlier battle
against the Carthaginians, invaded north Africa in 310 BC, but this was not the end
Carthage.
The arrival of the Mamertines at Messina in 289 signaled the earliest Roman
inroads into Sicily. The Syracusans formed an alliance with the Romans against the
Carthaginians, but Syracuse itself fell to a Roman invasion in 212 BC, despite the
aid of the brilliant Archimedes.
The task of defeating the Carthaginians now fell to the Romans. It was not an easy
or simple matter. The First Punic War (264-241 BC) had resulted in a marginal
victory, though the power of both Syracuse and Carthage were checked and the
Strait of Messina brought under Roman control. Hamilcar Barca. In 254 BC the
Romans defeated Carthaginian forces in Panormos (Palermo). In 251, a second
battle was fought at Palermo, this time against Carthaginians led by Hamilcar
Barca in fighting just outside the city. Again, the Romans were victorious.
With the Sicilian Greeks seemingly defeated, the Second Punic War (218-201 BC) concentrated on
Carthage and her cities in Iberia (Spain). An unexpected revolt in Syracuse in 211 was put down. This
was a diversion, as the Second Punic War obviously was not an exclusively Sicilian conflict. Rival
Carthaginian-Roman claims in Iberia and the western Mediterranean were the real issue. It was in
this war that the general Hannibal (son of Hamilcar) crossed the Alps with an army of Carthaginians
and Gauls (and elephants as well as horses) to confront a Roman and Sicilian force. He was
defeated at Zama (in Africa) in 202 BC and Carthage lost her Iberian colonies. For a time, Rome
allowed defeated Carthage a degree of autonomy.
A Third Punic War broke out in 149 BC, only to result in the destruction of Carthage in 146 BC.
Tragically, this meant the violent death or enslavement of thousands of men, women and children,

and the effective end of classical Carthaginian civilization. Carthage eventually re-emerged as a city
of the Roman Empire, preserving some vestige of its former culture. In the Christian era, it was home
to Saint Augustine. Utica (which sided with Rome in the Third Punic War), not Carthage, became the
capital of Rome's colony of Africa. What was left of Carthage was sacked by Vandals in AD 430. In
698 it was finally destroyed by Arabs during the Muslim Arab migration westward across north Africa
and into Sicily and Spain.
The Carthaginians cannot be said to have contributed as much to Western Civilization as the Greeks
or the Romans. Yet, they nearly defeated both, and we cannot know what the Carthaginians might
have achieved if they could have spent more time nurturing their society instead of constantly
defending it.
###
They founded settlements across the Mediterranean --places like Palermo,
Carthage, Ibiza and Cadiz-- and their alphabet was the precursor of Greek, Roman,
Aramaic and Hebrew writing (and indirectly Cyrillic and Arabic as well). Yet, the
Phoenicians have been overshadowed by the societies they influenced, particularly
the Greeks and Romans. The Bible's Old Testament refers to "Canaanites"
generically in referring to the early Phoenicians who inhabited the eastern
Mediterranean coast of what is now Lebanon, Israel, Palestine and part of Syria.
Phoenicia, as it was called by the Greeks, ranging from the Eleutherus River in the
north to Mount Carmel in the south, and extending some distance inland through a
mountainous region where cedar forests formerly thrived, was a wealthy region of
independent city-states which traded with Egypt as early as 2000 BC (BCE).
It has been suggested that the Phoenicians, essentially a Semitic people, arrived in
the Middle East from the Persian Gulf sometime around 3000 BC. However, the
evidence for this remains inconclusive. Today, their primary descendants include the
Lebanese, Palestinians, many Syrians and some
Egyptians. Beyond the shores of the eastern
Mediterranean, the people of Sicily, Spain,
Sardinia, Tunisia and Malta boast at least some Phoenician blood,
as well as a distinguished Phoenician cultural heritage.
By 1000 BC, the seafaring Phoenicians, the greatest traders of
their time, were moving beyond the Strait of Gibralter to trade with
Cornwall (to exploit its tin mines) and, it is thought, to navigate
around Africa. There is a theory that they also reached America.
Their trading colonies in western Sicily were founded around 800
BC and included Motia and Solunto as well as what are now
Marsala and Palermo. When the Phoenicians' descendants, the
Carthaginians, re-populated these coastal settlements three
centuries later, the result was open conflict with the Greeks and
then the Romans (leading to the Punic Wars). By 800 BC, both the
Etruscans and Greeks had adapted the Phoenician alphabet to
their own needs. Sicily's native peoples (the Sicanians, the Sicels
and the Elymians) used the Phoenician alphabet almost unaltered.
Relations with the Egyptians were usually good, but over time the
Phoenicians found themselves at odds with the neighboring
Assyrians. Their differences with their Greek neighbors dated from
the Phoenicians' alliance with the Persians.

The Phoenicians identified themselves by the cities of their birth. Phoenicia owes its name to a Greek
word, phoinix referring to the purple dyed goods of coastal Canaan, where a non-fading, reddishpurple dye was made from the glands of murex mollusks, the dye of Tyre ("Tyrian Purple") being the
best known --and eventually much preferred by the Greeks and Romans. Phoinikes literally means
red people. Canaanites were sometimes called Sidonians (for their city of Sidon). By 1900 BC,
Ugarit, in northern Phoenicia, traded with Crete and other eastern Mediterranean cities.
The Phoenicians' Semitic language was closely related to Hebrew and distantly related to Aramaic
and to the Semitic languages of Mesopotamia, such as Assyrian and Babylonian, yet Phoenician
civilization was clearly distinct from these other cultures. By AD 100, Aramaic had become the
popular language of Phoenicia, but Carthaginians spoke the Punic dialect of Phoenician until the
sixth century. (This Carthaginian language was essentially similar to "classical" Phoenician, but
characterized by what are thought to have been some "native" north African elements.) The place
name Gades (now Cadiz) comes from the Phoenician word for wall. The word bible comes from the
Greek word for book, which the Greeks took from the name of the Phoenician city of Byblos, famous
for its papyrus, a product they imported in vast quantities.
The Phoenicians' arrival in western Sicily, circa 800 BC, coincided with the Greek settlement of the
island's eastern areas. Initially, the Phoenicians' Sicilian cities were primarily trading centers, while
the Greeks sought full-scale colonization of Sicily. Eventually, the Greeks fought a war against the
Sicels of eastern Sicily, though the Phoenicians seem to have co-existed peacefully with the
Elymians of the west, effectively co-founding towns such as Eryx (Erice).
Though the Carthaginians' culture was essentially Phoenician, it is more accurate to
define it as a "residual" Phoenician (or "Punic") civilization of northern Africa, much
as medieval Norman society represented residual Nordic civilization in northwestern
France. In Sicilian history, the Phoenician presence began around 800 BC and
lasted until around 500 BC. By that time, with the original Phoenician settlements of
Sicily underpopulated, the Carthaginians "rediscovered" Sicily. That's when they
encountered conflict with Greek expansionism. Later still, the Romans defeated the
Carthaginians during the Punic Wars. (The Carthaginians will be featured in another
article in this series.)
Today, Punic Palermo is regarded by many to have been the most important
Phoenician town in Sicily. However, such a view reflects a Carthaginian and Roman
perspective, rather than a purely Phoenician one. In fact, until circa 600 BC the
settlements now identified with Marsala and Solunto may still have been more
important than Zis (as Palermo was probably known to the Phoenicians), whose
strategic and economic prominence emerged during the later (Carthaginian) period.
Preserved on easily-destroyed papyrus, Phoenician literature has largely vanished.
Consequently, the Phoenicians' history was written primarily by their enemies, and
not usually in a favorable light. The culture of the Phoenicians (and Carthaginians)
was disparaged by generations of Hellenistic and Roman scholars, and this
perspective found its way into the modern era. Underlying motives may have
reflected dominant Romanist (and Paleo-Christian) and Judaic ideas, but the trend
may simply have been part of a subtle effort to disdain a defeated people in favor of
the victors. Certain oft-cited social phenomena (such as the Carthaginians' reputed
ritual sacrifice of children) were not unique to the Phoenicians, nor were they even
necessarily known to most Greeks and Romans. Indeed, many Phoenician deities
corresponded to Greek (and then Roman) ones, and their society and religion were
not markedly different from what one would have encountered in ancient Athens or
Rome.
Unfortunately, the cultural bias against the Phoenicians and their descendants
continues to this day. For example, while there exist in Sicily more traces of Greek

culture than Phoenician civilization, popular travel guidebooks and histories published today virtually
ignore the Phoenicians and Carthaginians except for a note here or a paragraph there. To a certain
extent, this reflects the "classical" emphasis of the authors' historical instruction (and also the idea
that to most tourists Phoenician walls are considered less interesting than Greek temples and
amphitheatres).
There was a strong Egyptian influence on Phoenician art. The two stelae shown above, found at
Mozia (Motya), are a fine example of this. Phoenicia itself, and in turn the Phoenician colonies across
the Mediterranean, was a cultural crossroads which brought Assyrian and Babylonian myths,
literature and other knowledge westward, first to Greece and then to places like Sicily, Tunisia and
Spain. It is thought that this "eastern" cultural influence brought about Greece's "Golden Age" of art
and literature, effectively establishing the framework of Western civilization as it has come to be
known and appreciated. Egyptian culture was not overlooked, though the Egyptians had their own
commercial (and eventually even dynastic) links with the Greek world.
Certain Phoenician settlements offered specific resources --silver in Spain and tin in England. In
Sicily terra cotta (ceramic) objects seem to have been the major product.
It is fair to say that the Phoenicians dominated Mediterranean sea travel, trade and commerce for
over two thousand years, a reality which probably made the ambitious Greeks at least slightly
envious. Yet, for most of their glorious history the Phoenicians were not a maritime military power as
we understand that term. Phoenicia was never an empire. For most of its history, Phoenicia was an
essentially peaceful, loosely-united "confederation" of independent city-states which usually
maintained good relations with its powerful neighbors to the east and south.
There is little doubt that the Phoenicians influenced early Sicily. In many cases, however, we cannot
state with certainty whether particular developments (such as the introduction of papyrus in Sicily) are
more properly attributed to the Phoenicians or to the Greeks. Bearing in mind that in Sicily the
Phoenicians were essentially traders and the Greeks primarily colonists, it seems probable that the
Greeks did indeed introduce the cultivation of edible olives on a wide scale, and perhaps grapes too.
However, there is no clear evidence that the Phoenicians did not introduce certain grape varieties
--and perhaps winemaking itself. That said, the cultures of the Aoelian (Lipari) Islands and certain
coastal Ionian communities enjoyed contact with "Hellenistic" cultures, such as those of the Minoans
and Myceneans, centuries before the arrival of the Phoenicians. At issue, however, is the fact that the
Hellenistic record provides the first documented evidence of these developments, with no surviving
Phoenician record existing to challenge it. In this way, the Phoenicians may be the "Vikings" of the
Mediterranean, their adventurous, seafaring legacy known to us but their contributions rarely
confirmed by reliable (and unbiased) written records.
It is a fact that the Phoenicians controlled the Strait of Gibralter and navigated some distance
southward along Africa's Atlantic coast. Their theorized (but unproven) circumnavigation of Africa,
mentioned by the Greek historian Herodotus, would have been a remarkable achievement, but it has
also been postulated that the Phoenicians ventured across the Atlantic to the Americas. Based on the
shipbuilding technology of their time, both voyages would have been challenging, though perhaps not
impossible. An interesting aspect regarding the African theory is that, presumably through the
Phoenicians and Greeks, it became known with certainty that Africa was a continent set in a sea, and
not an infinite land mass --something which could not otherwise have been known to ancient peoples.
In any event, reaching England appears to have been a reasonably simple task for the Phoenicians.
Most of their landings in Sicily were the results of shorter voyages of just a few days' duration,
departing from ports in Tunisia or Sardinia.
Carthage, the greatest Phoenician colony, was probably founded by traders from Tyre shortly before
800 BC (though some scholars claim a foundation of circa 860 BC), Zis (Palermo) and Gadir (Cadiz)
probably just a few decades later, with Motya (Motia) and Solus (Solunto) settled about the same
time. Mount Eryx was a point of reference for Phoenician navigators. The origins of the town of Eryx
(Erice) are somewhat "multicultural," as this appears to have been an Elymian center before the

arrival of the Phoenicians, who established there a temple to Astarte (their goddess of fertility), later
identified with Aphrodite by the Greeks, and with
Venus by the Romans. By 580 BC, the Greeks
were already attempting to drive the Phoenicians
from Sicily. They failed, but in the 550s the
Carthaginians formed an alliance with the
Etruscans intended to check Greek
expansionism in the central Mediterranean. The
Elymians (who were gradually amalgamating
with the Greeks) played little part in this, though
Segesta and other Elymian towns eventually
became Hellenized in every respect.
Owing partly to events in Phoenicia, Carthage
and the other Phoenician cities across the
Mediterranean soon became independent. The Assyrians captured Phoenicia in 842 BC and
controlled the region for two centuries. The Babylonians briefly controlled Phoenicia from 612 BC. In
539 BC, Phoenicia fell to the Persians, who seem to have permitted a degree of autonomy. In the
Persian Wars (490-479 BC) against Greece, the Phoenician fleet played a key role, though it suffered
serious losses at the Battle of Salamis (480 BC). The Phoenicians' forced alliance with Persia
appears to have earned the antipathy of the Greeks of the central Mediterranean, and this
resentment was directed toward the Phoenician societies of Carthage, Zis and Motya.
Alexander the Great captured Tyre in 332 BC, bringing Phoenicia into the Greco-Macedonian sphere
of influence. The culture of Phoenicia rapidly became Hellenized, though Aramaic was already the
language of the common people and continued to be used. Distant Carthage preserved the original
language and culture of the Phoenicians.
The Phoenician-Carthaginian influence represents one of two major Semitic colonizations in Sicily,
the other being that of the medieval Saracens (Moors). Until 1492, there were also Jewish
communities present in many cities.
Thus far, genetic traces of the Phoenicians have been more clearly identified in the population of
Malta than among Sicilians, though much research remains to be undertaken in this area. It is
reasonable to presume that the Phoenician-Carthaginian genetic link, if identified, would be more
pronounced in western Sicily than in the island's eastern regions. The cultural link is certainly a
powerful one; it includes the letters on this page.
About the Author: Palermo native Vincenzo Salerno has written biographies of several famous
Sicilians, including Frederick II and Giuseppe di Lampedusa.