Editing Carthage (section)

===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.