The Punic people, or western Phoenicians, were a Semitic people in the Western Mediterranean who migrated from Tyre,

Phoenicia Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their his ...

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

during the Early Iron Age. In modern scholarship, the term ''Punic'' – the Latin equivalent of the Greek-derived term ''Phoenician'' – is exclusively used to refer to Phoenicians in the western Mediterranean, following the line of the Greek East and Latin West. The largest Punic settlement was

Ancient Carthage Carthage () was a settlement in modern Tunisia that later became a city-state and then an empire. Founded by the Phoenicians in the ninth century BC, Carthage reached its height in the fourth century BC as one of the largest metropolises in ...

(essentially modern

Tunis ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...

), but there were 300 other settlements along the

n coast from

Leptis Magna Leptis or Lepcis Magna, also known by other names in antiquity, was a prominent city of the Carthaginian Empire and Roman Libya at the mouth of the Wadi Lebda in the Mediterranean. Originally a 7th-centuryBC Phoenician foundation, it was great ...

in modern

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Suda ...

Mogador Essaouira ( ; ar, الصويرة, aṣ-Ṣawīra; shi, ⵜⴰⵚⵚⵓⵔⵜ, Taṣṣort, formerly ''Amegdul''), known until the 1960s as Mogador, is a port city in the western Moroccan region of Marakesh-Safi, on the Atlantic coast. It ...

in southern

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to A ...

,''Itineraria Phoenicia'' Edward Lipiński p 466
/ref> as well as western

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

, southern

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label= Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, aft ...

, the southern and western coasts of the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, def ...

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

, and

Ibiza Ibiza (natively and officially in ca, Eivissa, ) is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea off the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. It is from the city of Valencia. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, in Spain. Its la ...

. Their language, Punic, was a dialect of Phoenician, one of the Northwest Semitic languages originating in the

Levant The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is ...

. Literary sources report two moments of Tyrian settlements in the west, the first in the 12th century BCE (the cities Utica, Lixus, and Gadir) that hasn't been confirmed by archaeology, and a second at the end of the 9th century BCE, documented in written references in both east and west, which culminated in the foundation of colonies in northwest Africa (the cities Auza,

Carthage Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classi ...

, and

Kition Kition ( Egyptian: ; Phoenician: , , or , ; Ancient Greek: , ; Latin: ) was a city-kingdom on the southern coast of Cyprus (in present-day Larnaca). According to the text on the plaque closest to the excavation pit of the Kathari site (as of ...

) and formed part of trading networks linked to Tyre,

Arvad Arwad, the classical Aradus ( ar, أرواد), is a town in Syria on an eponymous island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is the administrative center of the Arwad Subdistrict (''nahiyah''), of which it is the only locality.Byblos, Berytus, Ekron, and

Sidon Sidon ( ; he, צִידוֹן, ''Ṣīḏōn'') known locally as Sayda or Saida ( ar, صيدا ''Ṣaydā''), is the third-largest city in Lebanon. It is located in the South Governorate, of which it is the capital, on the Mediterranean coast. ...

in the

n homeland. Although links with Phoenicia were retained throughout their history, they also developed close trading relations with other peoples of the western Mediterranean, such as Sicilians,

Berbers , image = File:Berber_flag.svg , caption = The Berber ethnic flag , population = 36 million , region1 = Morocco , pop1 = 14 million to 18 million , region2 = Algeria , pop2 ...

, Greeks, and Iberians, and developed some cultural traits distinct from those of their Phoenician homeland. Some of these were shared by all western Phoenicians, while others were restricted to individual regions within the Punic sphere. The western Phoenicians were arranged into a multitude of self-governing city-states.

had grown to be the largest and most powerful of these city-states by the 5th century BCE and gained increasingly close control over Punic Sicily and Sardinia in the 4th century BCE, but communities in Iberia remained outside their control until the second half of the 3rd century BCE. In the course of the

Punic wars The Punic Wars were a series of wars between 264 and 146BC fought between Rome and Carthage. Three conflicts between these states took place on both land and sea across the western Mediterranean region and involved a total of forty-three ye ...

(264–146 BCE), the Romans challenged Carthaginian hegemony in the western Mediterranean, culminating in the destruction of Carthage in 146 BCE, but the Punic language and Punic culture endured under Roman rule, surviving in some places until

late antiquity Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English h ...

Terminology

The English adjective "Punic" is used in modern academic writing to refer to the western Phoenicians. The proper nouns "Punics" and "Punes" were used in the 16th century, but are obsolete and there is no proper noun in current use. "Punic" derives from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

and , which were used mostly to refer to the Carthaginians and other western Phoenicians. These terms derived from the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...

word (), plural form (), which was used indiscriminately to refer to both western and eastern Phoenicians. Latin later borrowed the Greek term a second time as , plural form , also used indiscriminately. Numismatic evidence from Sicily shows that some western Phoenicians made use of the term "Phoinix", but it is not clear what term (if any) they used for themselves; they may have called themselves 𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍𐤌 (, "

Canaanites {{Cat main, Canaan See also: * :Ancient Israel and Judah Ancient Levant Hebrew Bible nations Ancient Lebanon 0050 Ancient Syria Wikipedia categories named after regions 0050 Phoenicia Amarna Age civilizations ...

"). A passage from

Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Afr ...

has often been interpreted as indicating that they called themselves Canaanites ( in

Latin language Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of ...

), Augustine writes: : "When our rural peasants are asked what they are, they reply, in Punic, ''Chanani'', which is only a corruption by one letter of the alphabet of what we would expect: What else should they reply except that they are ''Chananei''?". However, it has been argued by J.C. Quinn that this is a misreading, since although this term is "applied to Levantine people" in the Hebrew Bible, "there is no other evidence for self-identification as Canaanite, and so we might suspect him of learned optimism." However, this opinion is not shared by all scholars. In modern academic writing, the term ''Punic'' exclusively refers to Phoenicians in the western Mediterranean. Specific Punic groups are often referred to with hyphenated names, like ''Siculo-Punic'' or ''Sardo-Punic''. (This practice has ancient roots:

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

Greek authors sometimes referred to the Punic inhabitants of central northern Africa (''Libya'') as ''Liby-Phoenicians''.)

Overview

Like other Phoenician people, their urbanized culture and economy were strongly linked to the sea. They settled over Northwest Africa in what is now

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

, Morocco, Tunisia and

and established some colonies in Southern Iberia, Sardinia, Sicily,

Ebusus Ibiza (natively and officially in ca, Eivissa, ) is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea off the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. It is from the city of Valencia. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, in Spain. Its la ...

, Malta and other small islands of the western Mediterranean. In Sardinia and Sicily, they had strong economic and political ties to the independent natives in the hinterland. Their naval presence and trade extended throughout the Mediterranean and beyond, to Atlantic Iberia, the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isl ...

, the Canaries. Technical achievements of the Punic people of Carthage include the development of uncolored glass and the use of

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...

from lakeside deposits to improve the purity of smelted iron.

Religion

The Punic religion was a direct continuation of the

n variety of the polytheistic

ancient Canaanite religion The Canaanite religion was the group of ancient Semitic religions practiced by the Canaanites living in the ancient Levant from at least the early Bronze Age through the first centuries AD. Canaanite religion was polytheistic and, in some case ...

. At Carthage, the chief gods were

Baal Hammon Baal Hammon, properly Baʿal Ḥammon or Baʿal Ḥamon ( Phoenician: ; Punic: ), meaning “Lord Hammon”, was the chief god of Carthage. He was a weather god considered responsible for the fertility of vegetation and esteemed as King of t ...

(purportedly "Lord of the

Brazier A brazier () is a container used to burn charcoal or other solid fuel for cooking, heating or cultural rituals. It often takes the form of a metal box or bowl with feet. Its elevation helps circulate air, feeding oxygen to the fire. Braziers h ...

").Walbank, Frank William (1979). ''A Historical Commentary on Polybius'', Volume 2, Clarendon Press, p. 47 and his consort Tanit, but other deities are attested, such as

Eshmun Eshmun (or Eshmoun, less accurately Esmun or Esmoun; phn, 𐤀𐤔𐤌𐤍 '; akk, 𒅀𒋢𒈬𒉡 ''Yasumunu'') was a Phoenician god of healing and the tutelary god of Sidon. History This god was known at least from the Iron Age period at ...

Melqart Melqart (also Melkarth or Melicarthus) was the tutelary god of the Phoenician city-state of Tyre and a major deity in the Phoenician and Punic pantheons. Often titled the "Lord of Tyre" (''Ba‘al Ṣūr''), he was also known as the Son of ...

, Ashtart (Astarte),

Reshef Resheph (also Reshef and many other variants, see below; phn, 𐤓‬𐤔‬𐤐‬, ''ršp''; Eblaite ''Rašap'', Egyptian ') was a deity associated with plague (or a personification of plague), either war or strong protection, and sometimes ...

, Sakon, and

Shamash Utu (dUD " Sun"), also known under the Akkadian name Shamash, ''šmš'', syc, ܫܡܫܐ ''šemša'', he, שֶׁמֶשׁ ''šemeš'', ar, شمس ''šams'', Ashurian Aramaic: 𐣴𐣬𐣴 ''š'meš(ā)'' was the ancient Mesopotamian sun god ...

. The Carthaginians also adopted the Greek goddesses

Demeter In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Demeter (; Attic Greek, Attic: ''Dēmḗtēr'' ; Doric Greek, Doric: ''Dāmā́tēr'') is the Twelve Olympians, Olympian goddess of the harvest and agriculture, presiding over crops, ...

and Kore in 396 BCE, as well as the Egyptian deities, Bes, Bastet,

Isis Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kin ...

Osiris Osiris (, from Egyptian ''wsjr'', cop, ⲟⲩⲥⲓⲣⲉ , ; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎𐤓, romanized: ʾsr) is the god of fertility, agriculture, the afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He wa ...

, and Ra. Different Punic centres had their own distinct pantheons; in Punic Sardinia, for example, Sid or Sid Babi (known to the Romans as Sardus Pater and apparently an indigenous deity) received worship as the son of Melqart and was particularly associated with the island. The Carthaginians appear to have had both part-time and full-time priests, the latter called (singular , cognate with the

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

term

kohen Kohen ( he, , ''kōhēn'', , "priest", pl. , ''kōhănīm'', , "priests") is the Hebrew word for " priest", used in reference to the Aaronic priesthood, also called Aaronites or Aaronides. Levitical priests or ''kohanim'' are traditionally ...

), led by high priests called , as well as lower-ranking religious officials, called "servants" or "slaves" of the sanctuary (male: , female: or ), and functionaries like cooks, butchers, singers, and barbers. Sanctuaries had associations, referred to as in Punic and Neo-Punic inscriptions, who held ritual banquets. Some Phoenician communities practiced sacred prostitution; in the Punic sphere this is archeologically attested at Sicca Veneria (

El Kef El Kef ( ar, الكاف '), also known as ''Le Kef'', is a city in northwestern Tunisia. It serves as the capital of the Kef Governorate. El Kef is situated to the west of Tunis and some east of the border between Algeria and Tunisia. It ha ...

) in western Tunisia and the sanctuary of

Venus Erycina Venus (), , is a Roman goddess, whose functions encompass love, beauty, desire, sex, fertility, prosperity, and victory. In Roman mythology, she was the ancestor of the Roman people through her son, Aeneas, who survived the fall of Troy and f ...

Eryx Eryx is a French short-range portable semi-automatic command to line of sight (SACLOS) based wire-guided anti-tank missile (ATGM) manufactured by MBDA France and by MKEK under licence. The weapon can also be used against larger bunkers and smaller ...

in western Sicily. Punic sacred prostitution is mentioned by Latin author Valerius Maximus, who describes how Carthaginian women gained gifts by engaging in prostitution with visitors at Sicca Veneria. Various Greek and Roman sources describe and criticize the Carthaginians as engaging in the practice of sacrificing children by burning. Many ancient Greek and Latin authors describe some version of child sacrifice to "Cronos" (Baal Hammon). These descriptions were compared to those found in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' Baal Baal (), or Baal,; phn, , baʿl; hbo, , baʿal, ). ( ''baʿal'') was a title and honorific meaning "owner", "lord" in the Northwest Semitic languages spoken in the Levant during antiquity. From its use among people, it came to be applied t ...

and

Moloch Moloch (; ''Mōleḵ'' or הַמֹּלֶךְ‎ ''hamMōleḵ''; grc, Μόλοχ, la, Moloch; also Molech or Molek) is a name or a term which appears in the Hebrew Bible several times, primarily in the book of Leviticus. The Bible strongly ...

at a place called '' Tophet''. The ancient descriptions were seemingly confirmed by the discovering of the so-called ''Tophet of Salammbô'' in Carthage in 1921, which contained the urns of cremated children. However, modern historians and archaeologists debate the reality and extent of this practice. Some scholars propose that all remains at the ''tophet'' were sacrificed, whereas others propose that only some were.

Distribution

Tunisia

Tunisia was among the areas settled during the first wave of Phoenician expansion into the west, with the foundation of Utica and

Hippo Regius Hippo Regius (also known as Hippo or Hippone) is the ancient name of the modern city of Annaba, Algeria. It historically served as an important city for the Phoenicians, Berbers, Romans, and Vandals. Hippo was the capital city of the Vandal Kin ...

taking place around the end of the twelfth century. Further Phoenician settlements, were established in the following centuries, including

Hippo Diarrhytus Bizerte or Bizerta ( ar, بنزرت, translit=Binzart , it, Biserta, french: link=no, Bizérte) the classical Hippo, is a city of Bizerte Governorate in Tunisia. It is the northernmost city in Africa, located 65 km (40mil) north of the cap ...

and

Hadrumetum Hadrumetum, also known by many variant spellings and names, was a Phoenician colony that pre-dated Carthage. It subsequently became one of the most important cities in Roman Africa before Vandal and Umayyad conquerors left it ruined. In the early ...

. The foundation of Carthage on the site of modern

Tunis ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...

is dated to the late 9th century BCE by Greek literary sources and archaeological evidence. The literary sources attribute the foundation to a group of Tyrian refugees led by Dido and accompanied by Cypriots. Archaeologically, the new foundation is characterised by the focus of religious cult on the gods Tanit and

, by the development of a new religious structure, the tophet, and by a marked degree of cosmopolitanism. Carthage gained direct control over the Cap Bon peninsula, operating a sandstone quarry at

El Haouaria El Haouaria is a coastal town and commune in the Nabeul Governorate, Tunisia. As of 2004 it had a population of 9,273. See also *List of cities in Tunisia This is the list of 350 cities and towns in Tunisia. In the list by governorate, ...

from the middle of the seventh city and establishing the city of Kerkouane in the early sixth century. The region was very fertile and allowed Carthage to be economically self-sufficient. The site of Kerkouane has been extensively excavated and provides the best-known example of a Punic city from North Africa. Punic control also extended inland over the Libyans. Punic influence on inland regions is seen from the early 6th century, notably at Althiburos, where Punic construction techniques and red-slip pottery appear at the time. Armed conflicts with the Libyans are first attested in the early 5th century, with several revolts attested in the fourth century (398, 370s, 310-307 BCE). In the late 4th century,

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ...

reports that the Carthaginians dealt with local discontent by resettling poor citizens in cities in Libya. These settlements had to provide tribute and military manpower when required, but remained self-governing. There is some onomastic evidence for intermarriage between Punic people and Libyans in the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE.

Sardo-Punics

From the 8th century BCE, Phoenicians founded several cities and strongholds on strategic points in the south and west of

, often peninsulas or islands near estuaries, easy to defend and natural harbours, such as

Tharros Tharros (also spelled Tharras, Archaic Greek: , Hellenistic Greek, Tarras or Tarrae, Τάρραι) was an ancient city and former bishopric on the west coast of Sardinia, Italy. It is currently a Latin Catholic titular see and an archaeolog ...

, Bithia, Sulci, Nora and Caralis (

Cagliari Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitant ...

). The north, the eastern coast and the interior of the island continued to be dominated by the indigenous Nuragic civilization, whose relations with the Sardo-Punic cities were mixed, including both trade and military conflict. Intermarriage and cultural mixing took place on a large scale. The inhabitants of the Sardo-Punic cities were a mixture of Phoenician and Nuragic stock, with the latter forming the majority of the population. Sardinia had a special position because it was central in the western Mediterranean between Carthage, Spain, the river

Rhône The Rhône ( , ; wae, Rotten ; frp, Rôno ; oc, Ròse ) is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and southeastern France before discharging into the Mediterranean Sea. At Ar ...

, and Etruria.

Iglesiente The Iglesiente is a traditional and geographical subdivision of Sardinia, Italy. It encompasses the northern province of Carbonia-Iglesias and the south-western one of the province of Medio Campidano, and its main center is Iglesias. Languages ...

was an important mining area for the metals

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cut, ...

and

zinc Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...

. The island came under Carthaginian dominance around 510 BCE, after that a first attempt at conquest in 540 BCE that ended in failure. They expanded their influence to the western and southern coast from

Bosa Bosa is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Oristano (until May 2005 it was in the province of Nuoro), part of the Sardinia region of Italy. Bosa is situated about two-thirds of the way up the west coast of Sardinia, on a small hill, abo ...

to Caralis, consolidating the existing Phoenician settlements, administered by plenipotentiaries called ''Suffetes'', and founding new ones such as

Olbia Olbia (, ; sc, Terranoa; sdn, Tarranoa) is a city and commune of 60,346 inhabitants (May 2018) in the Italian insular province of Sassari in northeastern Sardinia, Italy, in the historical region of Gallura. Called ''Olbia'' in the Roman age ...

, Cornus, and Neapolis;

was probably the main centre. Carthage encouraged the cultivation of

grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit ( caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legum ...

and

cereals A cereal is any grass cultivated for the edible components of its grain (botanically, a type of fruit called a caryopsis), composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran. Cereal grain crops are grown in greater quantities and provide more food ...

and prohibited fruit trees. Tharros, Nora, Bithia,

Monte Sirai Monte Sirai is an archaeological site near Carbonia, in the province of South Sardinia, Sardinia, Italy. It is a settlement built at the top of a hill by the Phoenicians of Sulci (today's Sant'Antioco). The history of studies in Monte Sirai has ...

etc. are now important archaeological sites where Punic architecture and city planning can be studied. In 238 BCE, following the

First Punic War The First Punic War (264–241 BC) was the first of Punic Wars, three wars fought between Roman Republic, Rome and Ancient Carthage, Carthage, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the early 3rd century BC. For 23 years ...

the Romans took over the whole island, incorporating it into the province of

Corsica et Sardinia The Province of Sardinia and Corsica ( la, Provincia Sardinia et Corsica) was an ancient Roman province including the islands of Sardinia and Corsica. Pre-Roman times The Nuragic civilization flourished in Sardinia from 1800 to 500 BC. The a ...

, under a

praetor Praetor ( , ), also pretor, was the title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to a man acting in one of two official capacities: (i) the commander of an army, and (ii) as an elected '' magistratus'' (magistrate), assigned to discharge vari ...

. The existing power structures, infrastructure, and urbanized culture continued largely unchanged. In 216 BCE, two Sardo-Punic notables from Cornus and Tharros,

Hampsicora Hampsicora (3rd century BC - Cornus, 215 BC) was a Sardo- Punic political leader and landowner of Sardinia, and the leader of the major anti-Roman revolt () in the province of 215 BC. The sources describe Hampsicora as the richest among the ...

and Hanno, led a revolt against the Romans. Punic culture remained strong during the first centuries of the Roman domination, but over time the civic elites adopted Roman cultural practices and Latin became first the prestige language, and later the speech of the majority of the inhabitants.

Ibiza

The island of

derives its name from phn, 𐤀𐤁𐤔𐤌, , "Dedicated to Bes". (Latin ''Ebusus''). A city, the Sa Caleta Phoenician Settlement, which has been excavated, was established in the mid-seventh century. Diodorus dates this foundation to 654 BC and attributes it to the Carthaginians.

History

Origins

It is unclear when the Phoenicians began to seriously colonize North Africa. Writers in antiquity, such as

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...

, dated the beginning of the colonization efforts to the 12th and 11th centuries BCE, as several legends describe interactions between Phoenician colonists and famous figures from the

Trojan War In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans ( Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and ...

, such as

Aeneas In Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas (, ; from ) was a Trojan hero, the son of the Trojan prince Anchises and the Greek goddess Aphrodite (equivalent to the Roman Venus). His father was a first cousin of King Priam of Troy (both being grandsons ...

. Archaeological evidence, on the other hand, generally implies that the colonies began in the 8th century BCE as, barring a few exceptional sites, any material evidence of Phoenician habitation before this time period is lacking. The Phoenician colonial system was motivated by economic opportunity, not expansionist ideology, and as such, the Phoenicians lacked the numbers or even the desire to establish an "empire" overseas. The colonies were therefore independent city-states, though most were relatively small, probably having a population of less than 1,000. Some colonies, such as

, were able to grow much larger. Effectively establishing a monopoly on the continent's natural resources, the colonies' wealth exploded, which was compounded by an influx of Phoenician traders fleeing from increasing tributary obligations to foreign powers and trade interference. Within a century, the population of Carthage rose to 30,000, meanwhile, the "mother city" of Tyre, once the economic and political capital of Phoenicia, began to lose its status in the seventh century BCE. Phoenicia was eventually conquered by the

Neo-Assyrian Empire The Neo-Assyrian Empire was the fourth and penultimate stage of ancient Assyrian history and the final and greatest phase of Assyria as an independent state. Beginning with the accession of Adad-nirari II in 911 BC, the Neo-Assyrian Empire grew ...

, by which point Carthage had become the wealthiest and most powerful of all the Phoenician colonies. Around this time, a distinct culture began to emerge from the admixture of local customs with Phoenician traditions, which also gave rise to a nascent sense of national identity. Tyre's status and power continued to diminish under Neo-Assyrian, and subsequently

Neo-Babylonian The Neo-Babylonian Empire or Second Babylonian Empire, historically known as the Chaldean Empire, was the last polity ruled by monarchs native to Mesopotamia. Beginning with the coronation of Nabopolassar as the King of Babylon in 626 BC and be ...

, vassalage, and by the sixth century BCE, its voluntary submission to the

Achaemenid Empire The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest em ...

had severely circumscribed what little power it retained. Its status as the pre-eminent Phoenician city was then usurped by its rival city-state,

– but Sidon too was under Persian subjugation, leading the way for Carthage to fill the power vacuum as the leading Phoenician political power.

650–146 BCE

With Phoenicia's decline, Carthage had become effectively independent from Tyre by 650 BCE. Carthaginians carried out significant sea explorations around Africa and elsewhere from their base in Carthage. In the 5th century BCE,

Hanno the Navigator Hanno the Navigator (sometimes "Hannon"; xpu, 𐤇𐤍𐤀 , ; ) was a Carthaginian explorer of the fifth century BC, best known for his naval exploration of the western coast of Africa. The only source of his voyage is a '' periplus'' trans ...

played a significant role in exploring coastal areas of present-day Morocco and other parts of the African coast, specifically noting details of indigenous peoples, such as at Essaouira. Carthaginians pushed westerly into the Atlantic and established important settlements in Lixus, Volubilis,

Chellah The Chellah or Shalla ( ber, script=Latn, Sla or ; ar, شالة), is a medieval fortified Muslim necropolis and ancient archeological site in Rabat, Morocco, located on the south (left) side of the Bou Regreg estuary. The earliest evidence of t ...

, and Mogador, among other locations. Being trade rivals with

Magna Graecia Magna Graecia (, ; , , grc, Μεγάλη Ἑλλάς, ', it, Magna Grecia) was the name given by the Romans to the coastal areas of Southern Italy in the present-day Italian regions of Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania and Sicily; the ...

, the Carthaginians had several clashes with the Greeks over the island of Sicily in the Sicilian Wars from 600–265 BCE. The Carthaginians eventually also fought

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

in three

Punic Wars The Punic Wars were a series of wars between 264 and 146BC fought between Rome and Carthage. Three conflicts between these states took place on both land and sea across the western Mediterranean region and involved a total of forty-three ye ...

between 265 and146 BCE but they were defeated in each one. In the

, they lost control of Sicily. In the

Second Punic War The Second Punic War (218 to 201 BC) was the second of three wars fought between Carthage and Rome, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the 3rd century BC. For 17 years the two states struggled for supremacy, primarily in Ital ...

, an invasion of Italy by

Hannibal Hannibal (; xpu, 𐤇𐤍𐤁𐤏𐤋, ''Ḥannibaʿl''; 247 – between 183 and 181 BC) was a Carthaginian general and statesman who commanded the forces of Carthage in their battle against the Roman Republic during the Second Pu ...

was unsuccessful in forcing the Romans to surrender and the Carthaginians were subsequently defeated by

Scipio Africanus Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus (, , ; 236/235–183 BC) was a Roman general and statesman, most notable as one of the main architects of Rome's victory against Carthage in the Second Punic War. Often regarded as one of the best military co ...

in Spain and at the Battle of Zama in northern Africa in 202 BCE, marking the end of Carthage's position as a major Mediterranean power. Finally, in the Third Punic War, Carthage was destroyed in 146 BCE. Victory in the Punic Wars enabled Roman settlement of Africa and eventual domination of the entire Mediterranean Sea.

146 BCE–700 CE

The destruction of Carthage did not mean the end of the Punic people. After the wars, the city of Carthage was completely razed and the land around it was turned into farmland for Roman citizens. There were, however, other Punic cities in northwest Africa, and Carthage itself was rebuilt and regained some importance, if a shadow of its ancient influence. Although the area was partially romanized and some of the population adopted the

Roman religion Religion in ancient Rome consisted of varying imperial and provincial religious practices, which were followed both by the people of Rome as well as those who were brought under its rule. The Romans thought of themselves as highly religious, ...

, while fusing it with aspects of their beliefs and customs, the language and the ethnicity persisted for some time. The cult to Baal Hammon, and the consequent sacrifice of children, though banned by Rome, continued openly under the guise of worshipping to

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...

until at least the proconsulate of Tiberius Iulius Secundus in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

(131-132). This is attested by

Tertullian Tertullian (; la, Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus; 155 AD – 220 AD) was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He was the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of L ...

in his '' Apologeticus'', where he reports that Tiberius crucified the priests of Saturn on the same threes they consecrated to the god. Tertullian also mentions the goddess Juno Caelestis as a romanization of Tanit. People of Punic origin prospered again as traders, merchants and even politicians of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...

. Carthage was rebuilt about 46 BCE by

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, an ...

and settlements in the surrounding area were granted to soldiers who had retired from the Roman army. Carthage once again prospered and even became the number-two trading city in the Roman Empire, until

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

took over that position. The emperor

Septimius Severus Lucius Septimius Severus (; 11 April 145 – 4 February 211) was Roman emperor from 193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna (present-day Al-Khums, Libya) in the Roman province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through the customary suc ...

had Punic ancestry, and was said to speak Latin with a "Punic accent". Under his reign Carthaginians rose to the elites, and their deities were incorporated into the local imperial cult. As Christianity spread in the Roman Empire, it was especially successful in northwest Africa, and Carthage became a Christian city even before Christianity was legal. Saint Augustine, born in Thagaste (modern-day

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

), considered himself Punic, and left some important reflections on Punic cultural history in his writing. One of his more well known passages reads: : "It is an excellent thing that the Punic Christians call

baptism Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost ...

itself nothing else but ‘''salvation''’, and the sacrament of Christ's body nothing else but ‘''life''’". The last remains of a distinct Punic culture probably disappeared somewhere in the chaos during the

fall of the Western Roman Empire The fall of the Western Roman Empire (also called the fall of the Roman Empire or the fall of Rome) was the loss of central political control in the Western Roman Empire, a process in which the Empire failed to enforce its rule, and its va ...

. The demographic and cultural characteristics of the region were thoroughly transformed by turbulent events such as the

Vandals The Vandals were a Germanic peoples, Germanic people who first inhabited what is now southern Poland. They established Vandal Kingdom, Vandal kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula, Mediterranean islands, and North Africa in the fifth century. The ...

' wars with Byzantines, the forced population movements that followed and the Muslim conquest of North Africa in the 7th century AD.

Genetics

mtDNA

Mitochondrial analysis of 10 Punic samples from the necropolis of Tharros in Sardinia (5th-3rd century BC) shows affinities with North African and Iberian populations.

Y-DNA

A recent genetic study has linked haplogroups E-M81, E-FGC18960 and E-V65 to the diffusion of the Phoenician language in the Western Mediterranean. According to Penninx (2019) :"When the Phoenicians migrated over the Mediterranean to the west and established their the city of Carthage, they had people with Y-DNA E-M81, and some people with E-FGC18960 and E-V65. Philip K. Hitti (professor in Semitic languages) explained that they named themselves Mauri (“presumably of Phoenician origin, meaning ‘western’ ”) in his book “''History of the Arabs''”.

auDNA

Recent genetics studies based on Ancient DNA showed that Punic people from Sardinia, Ibiza, South Iberia and Italy had strong genetic relationships to ancient north African and eastern Mediterranean sources. Zalloua, P., Collins, C.J., Gosling, A. ''et al.'' in 2018 showed that Eastern Mediterranean and North African influence in the Punic population of Ibiza was primarily male dominated. According to Olalde ''et al''. (2018) :"In the southeast

pain Pain is a distressing feeling often caused by intense or damaging stimuli. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, ...

we recovered genomic data from 45 individuals dated between the 3rd and 16th centuries CE. All analyzed individuals fell outside the genetic variation of preceding Iberian Iron Age populations and harbored ancestry from both southern European and north African populations, as well as additional Levantine-related ancestry that could potentially reflect ancestry from Jewish groups. These results demonstrate that by the Roman period, southern Iberia had experienced a major influx of North African ancestry, probably related to the well-known mobility patterns during the Roman Empire or to the earlier Phoenician-Punic presence; the latter is also supported by the observation of the Phoenician-associated Y-chromosome J2". According to Fernandes et al. (2020) :"Phoenician colonies were established in the Balearic Islands during the Iron Age. The Ibiza individual published previously from a collective burial in a Punic hypogeum and dated to 361–178 cal. BC is not consistent with forming a clade with any of the Bronze Age Balearic individuals and has a qualitatively different ancestry profile; for example, a north African source of ancestry is required to obtain a fit (our model is 10.8 ± 2.7% and 89.2 ± 2.7% ancestry)." According to Marcus et al. (2020) : "All six individuals from the Punic Villamar site were inferred to have substantial levels of ancient north African ancestry (point estimates ranging 20–35%) ... Beyond our focal interest in Sardinia, the results from individuals from the Phoenician-Punic sites Monte Sirai and Villamar shed some light on the ancestry of a historically impactful Mediterranean population. Notably, they show strong genetic relationships to ancient North-African and eastern Mediterranean sources. : These results mirror other emerging ancient DNA studies and are not unexpected given that the Punic center of Carthage, on the north African coast itself, has roots in the eastern Mediterranean. Interestingly, the Monte Sirai individuals, predating the Villamar individuals by several centuries, show less north African ancestry. This could be because they harbor earlier Phoenician ancestry and north African admixture may have been unique to the later Punic context, or because they were individuals from a different ancestral background altogether. Estimated north African admixture fractions were much lower in later ancient individuals and present-day Sardinian individuals, in line with previous studies that have observed small but significant African admixture in several present-day south European populations, including Sardinia" Two other studies published in 2021 in the journal Annals of Human Biology also show a strong genetic proximity with the populations of North Africa of several individuals from Sardinia and Italy. According to Sarno, Cillion, de Fanti, ''et al''. (2021), : "With respect to the ancient Punic samples from Tharros, it is worth noting how they appear genetically closer to north African populations; indeed, rather than clustering with other modern Sardinians, they instead occupy an intermediate position on the right side of the PCA plot between north African groups and southern European Iberian populations". Accorging to de Angelis, Veltre, Romboni, ''et al''. (2021) : "The genomic legacy with the south-eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea and the Central and Western Northern-African coast funerary influence pave the way for considering people buried in QCP uarto Cappello del Prete, Italyas resembling a Punic-derived human group." In 2022, 30 ancient individuals from Carthaginian and Etruscan port cities around the central Mediterranean, in Tunisia, Sardinia, and central Italy were sequenced. In Tunisia a highly heterogeneous population was observed, spanning from modern Mozabite populations to modern Sicilian populations, consisting of three primary genetic clusters. One of the genetic groups includes four individuals who have genetic continuity with preceding Maghrebi neolithic farmers, suggesting that these individuals represent an autochthonous North African population. One individual can be modeled with 100% Morocco Late Neolithic farmer ancestry, while three individuals can be modeled predominantly with this component, along with the addition of

Steppe-related ancestry In archaeogenetics, the term Western Steppe Herders (WSH), or Western Steppe Pastoralists, is the name given to a distinct ancestral component first identified in individuals from the Eneolithic steppe around the turn of the 5th millennium BCE, ...

. A second cluster contains seven individuals who are genetically similar to Bronze Sicilian and central Italian populations, as well as some individuals from the Hellenistic Iberian Greek colony of

Empúries Empúries ( ca, Empúries ) was an ancient city on the Mediterranean coast of Catalonia, Spain. Empúries is also known by its Spanish name, Ampurias ( es, Ampurias ). The city Ἐμπόριον ( el, Ἐμπόριον, Emporion, meaning "tr ...

. A last individual, who projects near modern Mozabite and Moroccan populations in PCA space can be modelled with a combination Morocco Early Neolithic and Anatolia Neolithic ancestry. When compared to other ancient individuals, this individual forms a clade with ancient Canary Island inhabitants thought to be representative of the original founding population. Surprisingly, no individuals with large amounts of Levantine ancestry were detected in this group of Tunisian Punics. One possible explanation is that the colonial expansion of Phoenician city-states at the start of the Iron Age did not involve large amounts of population mobility, and may have been based on trade relationships rather than occupation.

Notable Punic people

, Carthaginian general *

, Carthaginian navigator and explorer *

Hamilcar Barca Hamilcar Barca or Barcas ( xpu, 𐤇𐤌𐤋𐤒𐤓𐤕𐤟𐤁𐤓𐤒, ''Ḥomilqart Baraq''; –228BC) was a Carthaginian general and statesman, leader of the Barcid family, and father of Hannibal, Hasdrubal and Mago. He was also father-i ...

, Carthaginian general, father of Hannibal * Hasdrubal Barca, Carthaginian admiral, brother of Hannibal *

, Sardinian rebel *

Hasdrubal the Boetharch Hasdrubal the Boetharch ( xpu, 𐤏𐤆𐤓𐤁𐤏𐤋 , ''ʿAzrubaʿal'') was a Carthaginian general during the Third Punic War. Little is known about him. "Boetharch" was a Carthaginian office, the exact function of which is unclear, but whic ...

, the main Carthaginian leader during the Third Punic War * Mago, agricultural writer

References

Bibliography

* * * * {{Pre-Roman peoples in Spain Ancient history of North Africa Ancient peoples of Africa Phoenician people