The History of Punic era Tunisia, part I introduces the region during its long period under the sway of a Semitic civilization, initiated in the western Mediterranean by the Phoenicians as early as the 12th century BCE. Later they founded here the city-state of Carthage. Eventually this Punic presence displaced the Berbers as the prevailing culture in the region. Legends arose about the beginning of this city, whose wealth and power grew to be great and famous among the ancients.
Although the native Berbers retained their ethnic identity while under the influenced of Carthage, nonetheless they borrowed many of the city's cultural advances. Regarding government and commerce, agriculture and war, they were either mastered or retreated to satellite positions the periphery.
As a transplant from its Phoenician base, Punic culture developed and prospered on African soil, where it underwent its own cultural transformations. The city-state expanded the range of its commercial dominance across the western Mediterranean, incorporating the many other trading outposts, towns and cities, founded by Phoenicians. Searching for trading opportunities, new regions were explored by sea. A rivalry with the Greeks, who followed the Punic expansion westward across the Mediterranean, was inevitable, yet faded. The city and the lands surrounding it rose to new heights; its trading partners and allies also prospered. Yet another rival appeared in the western Mediterranean; after three eventful wars, to Rome in the end Carthage fell.
Most ancient literature concerning Carthage comes from Greek and Roman sources. Considering the rival political-economies of Hellenic Sicily versus Carthage, and of Republican Rome versus Carthage, both Greek and Roman authors generally viewed Carthage as the antagonist. Yet only in this light can we perceive many of the fascets of the Punic city, that is, by the early light given us by various ancient Greek and Roman authors.
Apart from inscriptions, hardly any Punic literature has survived, none in its own language and script. A brief catalogue would include: three short treaties with Rome (Latin translations); several pages of Hanno's log-book on his fifth/forth century maritime exploration of the Atlantic coast of Africa (Greek translation); fragments quoted from Mago's fourth/3rd century treatise on agriculture (Latin translations); the Roman playwright Plautus (d.184 BC) in his Poenulus incorporated a few speeches in Punic, which are transcribed into Latin letters; and the many inscriptions in Punic script, many, but extremely short usually, e.g., a dedication with divine or personal names. Once "the City Archives, the Annals, and the scribal lists of suffets" existed, but evidently these were destroyed in the horrific fires during the Roman capture of the city in 146 BC.
Punic books (Latin: libri punici) reportedly did survive the fires; these works were given by Roman authorities to the newly augmented Berber rulers.Over a century after the fall of Carthage, Gaius Sallustius Crispus or Sallust (86-34) reported seeing volumes written in Punic, which once had been in the possession of the Berber king, Hiempsal II (r.88-81). By way of informants and translators, Sallust used these books to write his brief sketch of Berber affairs.Yet in the end most Punic writings that survived the destruction of Carthage "did not escape the immense wreckage in which so many of Antiquity's literary works perished."Accordingly, the long and continuous interactions between the Punic citizens of Carthage and the Berber communities surrounding the city, their political life, economic arrangements, cultural ties, social interactions, and as kin, are not known to us from Punic accounts.
Regarding Phoenician writings, few remain and these seldom refer to Carthage. Reportedly a Phoenician History by Philo of Byblos (64-141) existed, but only fragments of this work survive.The highly valued works of Sanchuniathon, a Phoenician who wrote on religion and the origins of civilization, are themselves completely lost, but some little content endures twice removed.An explanation proffered for why so few Phoenician works endured: early on (11th century), archives and records began to be kept on papyrus, which does not long survive in a moist coastal climate.Also, both Phoenicians and Carthaginians were well known for their secrecy.
Discussed immediately following is the celebrated ancient work on agriculture written by Mago of Carthage, which survives only via quotations in several later works written in Latin.
Although the native Berbers retained their ethnic identity while under the influenced of Carthage, nonetheless they borrowed many of the city's cultural advances. Regarding government and commerce, agriculture and war, they were either mastered or retreated to satellite positions the periphery.
As a transplant from its Phoenician base, Punic culture developed and prospered on African soil, where it underwent its own cultural transformations. The city-state expanded the range of its commercial dominance across the western Mediterranean, incorporating the many other trading outposts, towns and cities, founded by Phoenicians. Searching for trading opportunities, new regions were explored by sea. A rivalry with the Greeks, who followed the Punic expansion westward across the Mediterranean, was inevitable, yet faded. The city and the lands surrounding it rose to new heights; its trading partners and allies also prospered. Yet another rival appeared in the western Mediterranean; after three eventful wars, to Rome in the end Carthage fell.
Most ancient literature concerning Carthage comes from Greek and Roman sources. Considering the rival political-economies of Hellenic Sicily versus Carthage, and of Republican Rome versus Carthage, both Greek and Roman authors generally viewed Carthage as the antagonist. Yet only in this light can we perceive many of the fascets of the Punic city, that is, by the early light given us by various ancient Greek and Roman authors.
Apart from inscriptions, hardly any Punic literature has survived, none in its own language and script. A brief catalogue would include: three short treaties with Rome (Latin translations); several pages of Hanno's log-book on his fifth/forth century maritime exploration of the Atlantic coast of Africa (Greek translation); fragments quoted from Mago's fourth/3rd century treatise on agriculture (Latin translations); the Roman playwright Plautus (d.184 BC) in his Poenulus incorporated a few speeches in Punic, which are transcribed into Latin letters; and the many inscriptions in Punic script, many, but extremely short usually, e.g., a dedication with divine or personal names. Once "the City Archives, the Annals, and the scribal lists of suffets" existed, but evidently these were destroyed in the horrific fires during the Roman capture of the city in 146 BC.
Punic books (Latin: libri punici) reportedly did survive the fires; these works were given by Roman authorities to the newly augmented Berber rulers.Over a century after the fall of Carthage, Gaius Sallustius Crispus or Sallust (86-34) reported seeing volumes written in Punic, which once had been in the possession of the Berber king, Hiempsal II (r.88-81). By way of informants and translators, Sallust used these books to write his brief sketch of Berber affairs.Yet in the end most Punic writings that survived the destruction of Carthage "did not escape the immense wreckage in which so many of Antiquity's literary works perished."Accordingly, the long and continuous interactions between the Punic citizens of Carthage and the Berber communities surrounding the city, their political life, economic arrangements, cultural ties, social interactions, and as kin, are not known to us from Punic accounts.
Regarding Phoenician writings, few remain and these seldom refer to Carthage. Reportedly a Phoenician History by Philo of Byblos (64-141) existed, but only fragments of this work survive.The highly valued works of Sanchuniathon, a Phoenician who wrote on religion and the origins of civilization, are themselves completely lost, but some little content endures twice removed.An explanation proffered for why so few Phoenician works endured: early on (11th century), archives and records began to be kept on papyrus, which does not long survive in a moist coastal climate.Also, both Phoenicians and Carthaginians were well known for their secrecy.
Discussed immediately following is the celebrated ancient work on agriculture written by Mago of Carthage, which survives only via quotations in several later works written in Latin.
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