It all sorts of influences-Greek, Phoenician, Italian, the Iberian Peninsula, Nubians, and the Libyans in North Africa-and it melded them together into something that is unique.”
Thanks to its vast control over trading ports and various North African land routes, “Carthage was the great connector. ‘Carthage must be destroyed’Īround 200 B.C., “Carthage the original Mediterranean superpower,” says Miles. Now, Carthage is seeing revitalization efforts helmed by the Tunisian Ministry of Culture and the European Union that aim to restore several Carthaginian sites, providing visitors with an improved experience and better protecting what remains of the city’s nearly lost legacy.
“With Carthage, you’re dealing with something where there are huge holes,” says Richard Miles, author of Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization. Since the Romans sacked the city and destroyed most of its libraries and archives, “virtually nothing” known of the Carthaginian people has been gleaned from primary sources.
