Who Was When

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Ancient Carthage

AfricaHeartland today: Tunisia

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A Phoenician colony on the coast of present-day Tunisia that grew into the leading sea power of the western Mediterranean. Its traders and soldiers reached Sicily, Sardinia and Iberia, until three wars with Rome ended in 146 BCE, when Roman troops destroyed the city.

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Key events

  1. Colonists from Tyre found Carthage on the Bay of Tunis, by later tradition in 814 BCEDisputed

    The date and the story of Dido come from later Greek writers; Timaeus is the first known to give 814 or 813 BCE. The earliest dated finds are from the mid-8th century BCE.

  2. Gelon of Syracuse and Theron of Acragas defeat a Carthaginian army at Himera; its commander Hamilcar dies
  3. Carthage loses its fleet off the Aegates Islands, leaves Sicily and agrees to pay Rome an indemnity
  4. Hamilcar Barca crosses to Iberia and begins building a Carthaginian base in the south of the peninsula
  5. – Hannibal takes Saguntum, then leads his army over the Alps into Italy: the Second Punic War begins
  6. Scipio defeats Hannibal at Zama, in North Africa, and the war ends on Rome's terms
  7. – Rome besieges Carthage for three years, takes it in 146 BCE after seven days of street fighting, destroys the city and enslaves its people