Editing Carthage (section)

==Ancient history==
{{Main|History of Carthage}}

Greek cities contested with Carthage for the Western Mediterranean culminating in the [[Sicilian Wars]] and the [[Pyrrhic War]] over [[Sicily]], while the [[Roman Republic|Romans]] fought three wars against Carthage, known as the [[Punic Wars]],<ref>Herodotus, V2. 165–167</ref><ref>Polybius, World History: 1.7–1.60</ref> from the Latin "Punicus" meaning "Phoenician", as Carthage was a Phoenician colony grown into an empire.

===Punic Republic===
{{Main|Ancient Carthage}}

[[File:Carthaginianempire.PNG|thumb|upright=1.15|Downfall of the Carthaginian Empire
{{legend|#0076ae|Lost to Rome in the [[First Punic War]] {{nowrap|(264–241 BC)}}}}
{{legend|#0fff4b|Won after the First Punic War, lost in the [[Second Punic War]]}}
{{legend|#519EFD|Lost in the Second Punic War {{nowrap|(218–201 BC)}}}}
{{legend|#bf01fe|Conquered by Rome in the [[Third Punic War]] {{nowrap|(149–146 BC)}}}}
]]
The Carthaginian republic was one of the longest-lived and largest states in the ancient Mediterranean. Reports relay several wars with Syracuse and finally, Rome, which eventually resulted in the defeat and destruction of Carthage in the Third Punic War. The [[Punic people|Carthaginians]] were [[Phoenicia]]n settlers of primarily [[Southern Mediterranean]] and [[Southern Europe]]an ancestry.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Matisoo-Smith |first1=Elizabeth A. |last2=Gosling |first2=Anna L. |last3=Boocock |first3=James |last4=Kardailsky |first4=Olga |last5=Kurumilian |first5=Yara |last6=Roudesli-Chebbi |first6=Sihem |last7=Badre |first7=Leila |last8=Morel |first8=Jean-Paul |last9=Sebaï |first9=Leïla Ladjimi |last10=Zalloua |first10=Pierre A. |date=2016-05-25 |title=A European Mitochondrial Haplotype Identified in Ancient Phoenician Remains from Carthage, North Africa |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=11 |issue=5 |pages=e0155046 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0155046 |doi-access=free |issn=1932-6203 |pmc=4880306 |pmid=27224451|bibcode=2016PLoSO..1155046M }}</ref> [[Phoenicia]]ns had originated in the [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]] coast of the [[Levant]]. They spoke [[Canaanite languages|Canaanite]], a [[Semitic languages|Semitic language]], and followed a local variety of the [[ancient Canaanite religion]], the [[Punic religion]]. The Carthaginians travelled widely across the seas and set up numerous colonies. Unlike Greek, Phoenician, and Tyrian colonizers who "only required colonies to pay due respect for their home-cities", Carthage is said to have "sent its own magistrates to govern overseas settlements".<ref name="ingentaconnect.com"/>

[[File:Tunisie Carthage Ruines 08.JPG|right|thumb|Ruins of Carthage]]

The fall of Carthage came at the end of the Third Punic War in 146 BC at the [[Battle of Carthage (c. 149 BCE)|Battle of Carthage]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Wine: The 8,000-Year-Old Story of the Wine Trade |first=Thomas |last=Pellechia |year=2006 |location=London |publisher=Running Press |isbn=1-56025-871-3 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/wine8000yearolds00thom }}</ref> Despite initial devastating Roman naval losses and [[Hannibal]]'s 15-year occupation of much of Roman Italy, who was on the brink of defeat but managed to recover, the end of the series of wars resulted in the end of Carthaginian power and the complete destruction of the city by [[Scipio Aemilianus]]. The Romans pulled the Phoenician warships out into the harbor and burned them before the city, and went from house to house, capturing and enslaving the people. About 50,000 Carthaginians were sold into [[slavery in ancient Rome|slavery]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001198.html|title=Ancient History|work=infoplease.com}}</ref> The city was set ablaze and razed to the ground, leaving only ruins and rubble. After the fall of Carthage, Rome annexed the majority of the Carthaginian colonies, including other North African locations such as [[Volubilis]], [[Lixus (ancient city)|Lixus]], and [[Chellah]].<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=14906| title = C. Michael Hogan (2007) ''Volubilis'', The Megalithic Portal, ed. by A. Burnham}}</ref> Today a "Carthaginian peace" can refer to any brutal peace treaty demanding total subjugation of the defeated side.

====Salting legend====
{{main|Salting the earth#Carthage}}
Since at least 1863,<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |author1-link= George Ripley (transcendentalist) |author2-link=Charles Anderson Dana |author1-last=Ripley | author1-first=George |author2-last=Dana |author2-first=Charles A. |encyclopedia=The New American Cyclopædia: a Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge |title=Carthage |url=https://archive.org/stream/newamericancycl01danagoog#page/n508/mode/1up | access-date =29 July 2020 |year=1858–1863 |publisher=D. Appleton |volume=4 |location=New York |oclc=1173144180 |page=497}}</ref> it has been claimed that Carthage was [[Salting the earth|sown with salt]] after being razed, but there is no evidence for this.<ref name="Carthage 1988 pp. 308">{{cite journal |first=B. H. |last=Warmington |title=The Destruction of Carthage: A Retractation |journal=Classical Philology |volume=83 |issue=4 |year=1988 |pages=308–310 |doi=10.1086/367123 |s2cid=162850949 }}</ref><ref>Stevens, 1988, pp. 39–40.</ref>

===Roman Carthage===
[[File:Karta Karthago.PNG|thumb|[[Roman Carthage]] City Center]]
[[File:Carthage romaine.jpg|thumb|Layout of [[Roman Carthage]]]]
{{main|Roman Carthage}}
When Carthage fell, its nearby rival [[Utica, Tunisia|Utica]], a Roman ally, was made capital of the region and replaced Carthage as the leading center of Punic trade and leadership. It had the advantageous position of being situated on the outlet of the [[Medjerda River]], Tunisia's only river that flowed all year long. However, grain cultivation in the Tunisian mountains caused large amounts of [[silt]] to erode into the river. This silt accumulated in the harbor until it became useless, and Rome was forced to rebuild Carthage.

By 122 BC, [[Gaius Gracchus]] founded a short-lived [[Colonia (Roman)|colony]], called ''[[Colonia Junonia|Colonia Iunonia]]'', after the Latin name for the Punic goddess [[Tanit]], ''Iuno Caelestis''. The purpose was to obtain arable lands for impoverished farmers. The [[Roman Senate|Senate]] abolished the colony some time later, to undermine Gracchus' power.

After this ill-fated effort, a new city of Carthage was built on the same land by [[Julius Caesar]] in the period from 49 to 44 BC, and by the first century, it had grown to be the second-largest city in the western half of the [[Roman Empire]], with a peak population of 500,000.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://weburbanist.com/2010/09/26/bridges-that-babble-on-15-amazing-roman-aqueducts| title = 'Bridges That Babble On: 15 Amazing Roman Aqueducts', Article by Steve, filed under Abandoned Places in the Architecture category| date = 26 September 2010}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=June 2021}} It was the center of the [[Africa (Roman province)|province of Africa]], which was a major breadbasket of the Empire. Among its major monuments was an [[Carthage amphitheatre|amphitheater]].

Carthage also became a [[Early centers of Christianity#Carthage|center of early Christianity]] (see [[Carthage (episcopal see)]]). In the first of a string of rather poorly reported councils at Carthage a few years later, no fewer than 70 bishops attended. [[Tertullian]] later broke with the mainstream that was increasingly represented in the West by the [[primacy of the Bishop of Rome]], but a more serious rift among Christians was the [[Donatism|Donatist controversy]], against which [[Augustine of Hippo]] spent much time and parchment arguing. At the [[Council of Carthage (397)]], the [[development of the Christian biblical canon|biblical canon for the western Church was confirmed]]. The Christians at Carthage conducted [[Persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire|persecutions against the pagans]], during which the pagan temples, notably the famous [[Temple of Juno Caelestis, Carthage|Temple of Juno Caelesti]], were destroyed.<ref>Brent D. Shaw: ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=F8ZRPTgcjrcC&pg=PA234 Sacred Violence: African Christians and Sectarian Hatred in the Age of Augustine] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221126122954/https://books.google.se/books?id=F8ZRPTgcjrcC&pg=PA234 |date=2022-11-26 }}''</ref>

[[File:NE 500ad.jpg|thumb|The [[Vandal Kingdom]] in 500, centered on Carthage]]
The Vandals under [[Gaiseric]] invaded [[Africa (Roman province)|Africa]] in 429. They relinquished the facade of their allied status to Rome and defeated the Roman general [[Bonifacius]] to seize Carthage, the once most treasured province of Rome.<ref name=":0" /> The 5th-century Roman bishop [[Victor Vitensis]] mentions in his ''Historia Persecutionis Africanae Provincia'' that the Vandals destroyed parts of Carthage, including various buildings and churches.<ref>{{cite book |last=Leone |first=Anna |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qO7mlDvtuZ0C&pg=PA155 |title=Changing Townscapes in North Africa from Late Antiquity to the Arab Conquest |year=2007 |isbn=978-8872284988 |page=155 |publisher=Edipuglia srl }}</ref> Once in power, the ecclesiastical authorities were persecuted, the locals were aggressively taxed, and naval raids were routinely launched on Romans in the Mediterranean.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last1=Brown |first1=Thomas |title=The Oxford History of Medieval Europe |last2=Holmes |first2=George |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1988 |location=Great Britain |page=3 |language=en}}</ref>

After a failed attempt to recapture the city in the fifth century, the [[Byzantine Empire|Eastern Roman Empire]] finally subdued the Vandals in the [[Vandalic War]] in 533–534 and made Carthage capital of [[Byzantine North Africa]]. Thereafter, the city became the seat of the [[praetorian prefecture of Africa]], which was made into an [[exarchate]] during the emperor [[Maurice (emperor)|Maurice's]] reign, as was [[Ravenna]] on the Italian Peninsula. These two exarchates were the western bulwarks of the Byzantine Empire, all that remained of its power in the West. In the early seventh century [[Heraclius the Elder]], the exarch of Carthage, overthrew the Byzantine emperor [[Phocas]], whereupon his son [[Heraclius]] succeeded to the imperial throne.

===Islamic period===
{{main|Muslim conquest of the Maghreb|Battle of Carthage (698)}}

The Roman [[Exarchate of Africa]] was not able to withstand the seventh-century [[Muslim conquest of the Maghreb]]. The [[Umayyad Caliphate]] under [[Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan]] in 686 sent a force led by [[Zuhayr ibn Qays]], who won a battle over the Romans and [[Berbers]] led by King [[Kusaila]] of the [[Kingdom of Altava]] on the plain of [[Kairouan]], but he could not follow that up. In 695, [[Hassan ibn al-Nu'man]] captured Carthage and advanced into the [[Atlas Mountains]]. An imperial fleet arrived and retook Carthage, but in 698, [[Hasan ibn al-Nu'man]] returned and defeated Emperor [[Tiberios III]] at the [[Battle of Carthage (698)|698 Battle of Carthage]]. Roman imperial forces withdrew from all of Africa except [[Ceuta]]. Fearing that the Byzantine Empire might reconquer it, they decided to destroy Roman Carthage in a [[scorched earth policy]] and establish their headquarters somewhere else. Its walls were torn down, the water supply from its aqueducts cut off, the agricultural land was ravaged and its harbors made unusable.<ref name="Edmund">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UB4uSVt3ulUC&q=carthage+walls+aqueducts+698&pg=PA536|last=Bosworth|first=C. Edmund|title=Historic Cities of the Islamic World|year=2008|publisher=Brill Academic Press|isbn=978-9004153882|page=536}}</ref>

The destruction of the Exarchate of Africa marked a permanent end to the Byzantine Empire's influence in the region.

It is clear from archaeological evidence that the town of Carthage continued to be occupied, as did the neighborhood of Bjordi Djedid. The [[Baths of Antoninus]] continued to function in the Arab period and the eleventh-century historian [[Al-Bakri]] stated that they were still in good condition at that time. They also had production centers nearby. It is difficult to determine whether the continued habitation of some other buildings belonged to Late Byzantine or Early Arab period. The Bir Ftouha church may have continued to remain in use although it is not clear when it became uninhabited.<ref name="Ediguplia">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qO7mlDvtuZ0C&pg=PA179|title=Changing Townscapes in North Africa from Late Antiquity to the Arab Conquest|author=Anna Leone|pages=179–186|isbn=978-8872284988|year=2007|publisher=Edipuglia srl }}</ref> [[Constantine the African]] was born in Carthage.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H13CAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT145|title=A Short History of Science to the Nineteenth Century|isbn=978-0486169286|last1=Singer|first1=Charles|date=2013|publisher=Courier Corporation }}</ref>

The [[Medina of Tunis]], originally a Berber settlement, was established as the new regional center under the [[Umayyad Caliphate]] in the early 8th century. Under the [[Aghlabid]]s, the people of Tunis revolted numerous times, but the city profited from economic improvements and quickly became the second most important in the kingdom. It was briefly the national capital, from the end of the reign of [[Ibrahim II of Ifriqiya|Ibrahim II]] in 902, until 909, when the [[Shi'ite]] [[Berber people|Berbers]] took over [[Ifriqiya]] and founded the [[Fatimid Caliphate]].

[[Carthage (episcopal see)|Carthage]] remained a residential see until the [[high medieval period]], and is mentioned in two letters of [[Pope Leo IX]] dated 1053,<ref>''[[Patrologia Latina]]'' {{cite web| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=r8EUAAAAQAAJ| title = vol. 143, coll. 727–731| last1 = (Contractus)| first1 = Hermannus| year = 1853}}</ref> written in reply to consultations regarding a conflict between the bishops of Carthage and [[Africa (Roman province)#Episcopal sees|Gummi]]. In each of the two letters, Pope Leo declares that, after the Bishop of Rome, the first archbishop and chief metropolitan of the whole of [[Africa (Roman province)|Africa]] is the bishop of Carthage. Later, an archbishop of Carthage named Cyriacus was imprisoned by the Arab rulers because of an accusation by some Christians. [[Pope Gregory VII]] wrote Cyriacus a letter of consolation, repeating the hopeful assurances of the primacy of the Church of Carthage, "whether the Church of Carthage should still lie desolate or rise again in glory". By 1076, Cyriacus was set free, but there was only one other bishop in the province. These are the last of whom there is mention in that period of the history of the see.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bouchier|first1=E.S.|title=Life and Letters in Roman Africa|date=1913|publisher=Blackwells|location=Oxford|page=117|url=https://archive.org/stream/lifelettersinrom00boucuoft#page/116/mode/2up|access-date=15 January 2015}}</ref><ref>François Decret, Early Christianity in North Africa(James Clarke & Co, 2011) p. 200.</ref>

The fortress of Carthage was used by the Muslims until [[Hafsid]] era and was captured by the Crusaders during the [[Eighth Crusade]]. The inhabitants of Carthage were slaughtered by the Crusaders after they took it, and it was used as a base of operations against the Hafsids. After repelling them, [[Muhammad I al-Mustansir]] decided to raze Cathage's defenses in order to prevent a repeat.<ref name="Mustansir">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BHlUDwAAQBAJ&q=carthage+mustansir+walls&pg=PA113|title=Crusades – Medieval Worlds in Conflict |editor=Thomas F. Madden |editor2=James L. Naus |editor3=Vincent Ryan |pages=113, 184|isbn=978-0198744320 |year=2018 |publisher=Oxford University Press }}</ref>