This ancient city, located in what is the modern city of Tunis, Tunisia, was founded by the sea-faring Phoenicians some time in the 1st Mill BC (about the time of David). It grew into a powerful maritime empire commanding vast swath of the Mediterranean. As Rome began to reach out its imperialist tentacles the two city-empires came naturally into fiece conflict and eventually resulted in more than a century of wars that came to be known as the Punic Wars ('punic' being the Greek-Latin name for Phoenicia) beginning 264 BC. These wars nearly resulted in the conquest of Rome when, during the "Second Punic War" (218-210 BC), the Carthaginian general Hannibal, crossed the Alps with elephants in tow to threaten the city of Rome itself. The wars ended in 146 BC when—at about the same time that they captured and destroyed Corinth—the Romans sacked and razed the city of Carthage for seventeen days. The Romans later rebuilt the city under Emperor Antoninus, which was eventually captured and destroyed by the Umayyad Muslims in 698.
Further Reading:
"Carthage" World History Encyclopedia.
html N 5-6(Open on Phone)
Archaeological Site of Carthage UNESCO-NHK.
Youtube N 3 mins. (Open on Phone)
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