Carthage Must Be Destroyed (64 page)

62
Huss 1985, 57–74.

63
Bunnens (1979) in particular presents an imperialist Carthage and erroneously pushes the idea of the Phoenicians themselves as imperialist colonizers rather than traders.

64
Schulten 1922. Most recently Braun (2004, 302) has argued as a likely guess that Carthage destroyed Tartessus around 500 BC and took over its trade.

65
Justin 44.5.1–3. This is not the only story told of tensions between the indigenous Spanish and Gades. Macrobius, a Roman author of the fifth century AD, tells the story of a certain King Theron who attacked the city (
Sat
. 1.20.12). See also Vitruvius 10.1–3. This much later Roman military text asserts that the battering ram had been first been used by the Carthaginians at this siege. Although no date for the incident is given by Vitruvius, he goes on to say that it was before Philip of Macedon’s siege of Byzantium of 340–339 BC, where Philip copied the same technique. The story is also mentioned by another treatise written in the earlier period (Athenaeus 4.9.3: Krings 1998, 229–60; Barcelo 1988, 1–22, 38–42).

66
Justin 18.7.1–2.

67
Ibid. 19.1.1–6; Pausanias 10.17.9

68
Van Dommelen 1998, 123–4; Tronchetti 1995, 728–9.

69
There is also clear evidence that during this period the Nuragic people were going through a period of profound social and political transformation (Webster 1996, 179–94).

70
Bechtold 2008, 75; Fentress & Docter 2008, 104.

71
Van Dommelen 2002, 130—37; 1998, 124–5.

72
Barcelo 1988, 46—7.

73
For southern Spain (Toscanos), see Wagner 1989, 150–51. For Ibiza, see Gómez Bellard 1990, 178—83. Supposedly the first Carthaginian colony was Ebusus, founded in 654 BC. However, many scholars now believe that it may initially have been a secondary foundation, possibly set up by settlers from a Phoenician settlement on the Spanish mainland, which came under Carthaginian influence only in the later decades of the sixth century BC, when the region was troubled by the collapse of the Tyrian–Iberian trading route. This change is typified by the introduction of rock-cut burial chambers, steles and statuettes.

74
Whittaker 1978.

75
Ibid., 59.

76
Fruits, cereals and vegetables = Hurst & Stager 1978, 338–40. Analysis of wood used to burn sacrificial pyres also shows evidence that from the fourth century onwards almonds, peaches, apricots and plums were being cultivated in or near Carthage (Stager 1982). Meat and fish = Van Wijngaarden-Bakker 2007, 841, 848. Dogs make up only around 3 per cent of the bone sample, but often show signs of having been butchered.

77
Bechtold 2008, 40—43; Morel 2004, 14; Lancel 1995, 257–302.

78
For evidence from field surveys in Carthage’s hinterland see Greene 1983.

79
Diodorus 20.8.3–4. One and a half centuries later, when another invading force tramped its way to Carthage, exactly the same fecundity was there to be witnessed by the awestruck troops (Appian 8.18.117).

80
Kerkouane has often been presented as an anomaly (Van Dommelen 1998, 122), but the lack of evidence for a major Punic presence in other parts of Cap Bon probably has more to do with the limited number of field surveys conducted in the region.

81
For the fullest study of Kerkouane see Fantar 1984. For a short description, Lancel 1995, 280–88.

82
There is also evidence that a number of female deities were worshipped here, including Astarte, Tanit (the mother of Sid) and Demeter.

83
Mezzolani 1999.

84
For a good study of the local Libyan populations in Iron Age North Africa see Hodos 2006, 158–99.

85
Huss 1985, 70–74. In a Greek maritime text dated to the third/second century BC, the influence that the Carthaginians possessed over large swathes of North Africa is made clear in emphatic terms. ‘As many townships or emporia as have been written about in Libya, from the Syrtis by Hesperides as far as the Pillars of Heracles in Libya, are all of the Carthaginians’ (Pseudo-Scylax 111).

86
It was in this region that the Carthaginians planted huge numbers of olive trees, the crop for which its farmland is still famous for today.

87
Bechtold 2008, 47–48, 75.

88
Greene 1986, 109–16; Fentress & Docter 2008, 105.

89
Fantar 1984.

90
Pliny
NH
18.22. Fantar 1998, 118. Mago is in fact cited on 66 occasions by Greek and Roman writers (Devillers & Krings 1994, 490–92). Selection and care of cattle = Columella
Agr
. 6.1.3; Varro
Agr
. 2.5.18. On fruit trees = Pliny
NH
17.63—4, 131. The Roman writer Pliny the Elder intimated that Mago was not just an agricultural specialist but had also held a generalship, which has led some to speculate that he was indeed the individual whom a Greek source said had ‘transformed the Carthaginians from the Tyrians that they had been into Libyans’ (Pliny
NH
18.22). For the dating of Mago to the fifth century BC see Fantar 1998, 114–15; Lancel 1995, 257–9.

91
Hurst & Stager 1978, 338—40.

92
For evidence of the start of winemaking in Punic North Africa see Greene 2000.

93
Lancel 1995, 269–79.

94
Pytheas supposedly sailed up through the Pillars of Hercules, up the Atlantic coast of France, along the English Channel and up to Scandinavia, the Baltic region, the mouth of the river Don and even the Orkneys, before exploring the Atlantic coast all the way down to Gades. See Dion 1977, 175–222, for a full discussion of the voyage. There is, however, no evidence to back up Dion’s assertion (175–6) that the expedition had been commissioned by Alexander the Great. Dion seems to have been heavily influenced by the Hellenocentric claims of Arrian (
Anabasis
5.26.1–6) that, after his conquest of Asia, Alexander intended to turn to the West.

95
Pliny
NH
2.169 for the idea that they were contemporaneous and sanctioned by the Carthaginian state.

96
Bello Jiménez 2005, 17–34.

97
Festus Rufus Avienus 114–29, 380—89, 404—15. See Picard & Picard 1961, 236–7, for arguments about the veracity of Avienus’ claims. Pliny the Elder in his
Natural History
(2.169) also mentions Himilco’s voyage ‘to explore the outer coasts of Europe’.

98
Picard & Picard (1961, 239) argue that these monsters were probably whales, although such sea monsters are a common cliché in Greek and Roman descriptions of northern lands, and acted as a cipher for general wildness and otherness.

99
Herodotus 3.115; Diodorus 5.21.30; Strabo 2.5.15, 3.2.9, 3.5.11, 6.2.5; Pliny
NH
4.119, 7.197, 34.156–8.

100
Hanno 1; Blomqvist 1979, 5. The voyage of Hanno has been variously dated by scholars to the first half of the fifth century BC (Demerliac & Meirat 1983, 9) or the first half of the sixth century BC (Lacroix 1998, 345). For the single manuscript from which the
Periplus
has been dated to the tenth century AD see Lacroix 1998, 343.

101
Hanno 1—8. The two fullest attempts to track Hanno’s voyage are Demerliac & Meirat 1983 and Lacroix 1998.

102
Hanno 9–12. Others have suggested that the site of these mountains was the area around Monrovia, the capital of Liberia.

103
Hanno 13–14.

104
Lacroix 1998, 375–80.

105
Pliny
NH
6.200.

106
Hanno 15–18. Some have speculated that the premature return of Hanno’s mission was a smokescreen for the fact that the Carthaginian fleet secretly carried on their journey and circumnavigated Africa (Lacroix 1998, 380–84). This relies solely on Pliny’s assertion that Hanno had successfully sailed from Gades to Arabia by circumnavigating Africa (
NH
2.169). However, all other sources attest to the fact that Hanno did indeed turn back owing to lack of water, burning heat, and rivers of fire flowing into the sea (Arrian
Indike
43.11—12; Pomponius Mela 3.89).

107
Bello Jiménez 2005, 56–67, 82–6. Demerliac & Meirat (1983, 64–7) suggest the more realistic number of 5,000 people.

108
J. Taylor 1982; Bello Jiménez 2005, 85–6. The suggestion that this was in fact a secret mission to break the Arab trading monopoly by bringing gold from the mines of the Zimbabwe/Transvaal region of southern Africa via the Strait of Gibraltar is extremely far-fetched (Lacroix 1998, 276—342).

109
Demerliac & Meirat 1983, 49—55.

110
Demerliac & Meirat 1983.

111
Ibid., 46–55, for a possible model of how this North Atlantic trading operation might have worked. The Carthaginians may also have been seeking regular sources of amber and copper from the Baltic and Scandinavia.

112
For the lack of archaeological evidence, Bello Jiménez 2005, 104–5.

113
Lancel (1995, 102–9) argues that the descriptions of the early stages of the voyage in terra cognita along what is now the Moroccan coast were based on historical events, but that accounts of the latter stages that describe voyaging along the coast of western sub-Saharan Africa were literary fabrications.

114
Desanges 1978, 85. ‘On ne peut au Périple arracher son revêtement grec, sans en estomper les détours jusqu’à l’inanité’ (tr. Lancel 1995, 108).

115
Lonis 1978, 147—50; Blomqvist 1979, 11. Lancel’s (1995, 106) argument against Lonis’s thesis is a qualification but not a refutation.

116
Bello Jiménez 2005, 71–81. The Canary Islands are mentioned by the Numidian king Juba II (25 BC—AD 25), who acquired much of his geographical knowledge from Punic sources (Pliny
NH
6.37).

117
Herodotus 4.42; Demerliac & Meirat 1983, 30–37. Herodotus (4.43) also mentions a later, unsuccessful, attempt at circumnavigating Africa by a Persian noblemen, Sataspes. Pliny (
NH
5.8) actually states that the object of the mission was the circumnavigation of Africa. This is also mentioned as the main aim of the expedition by Pomponius Mela (3.93).

118
Herodotus 4.196.

119
All black Africans were usually collectively described by the Greeks and Romans as ‘Ethiopians’.

120
Pseudo-Scylax 112.

121
This is Lancel’s (1995, 108) position, although he is sceptical of whether the latter parts of the voyage took place at all.

122
Zimmerman Munn 2003.

123
Aristotle
Pol
. 6.3.5.

124
Van Dommelen 1998, 115; Campus 2006.

125
Van Dommelen 1998, 124.

126
For instance, at the old Phoenician colony of Motya, in Sicily, the tophet was greatly enlarged and monumentalized with its own wall and sanctuary.

127
This was particularly the case on Sardinia, with the quantity of Attic pottery found on the island quadrupling from the first half to the second half of the fifth century BC (Tronchetti 1992, 364–77).

128
Bondì 1995b, 352.

129
Huss 1985, 498–9. Others have suggested that it may in fact have been a sign of aristocratic privilege. Bordreuil & Ferjaoui (1988, 137–42) discuss an inscription found in Tyre which mentions a ‘Son of Carthage’, and a number found in Carthage that refer to ‘Sons of Tyre’. They see these as merely an admission of the individual’s heritage rather than a legal status. Some of the outsiders appear to have been able to hold certain rights in Carthage on account of their citizenship of other Punic and Phoenician city states, with Carthaginians enjoying reciprocal privileges.

130
Peserico 1999. This was particularly true of amphorae, which by the end of the seventh century BC had become very regionally diverse across the western Phoenician world. For a good discussion of one such Phoenician grave collection found in Sardinia, see Fletcher 2006, 175–85.

131
Moscati 1986, 61–71. The steles produced in some western Phoenician cities, such as Motya and Tharros, do show clear stylistic parallels with Carthage, all displaying a strong preference for simple designs of motifs portrayed symbolically rather than representationally, such as the betyl (sacred stone) and altars and bottle shapes. Architecturally, these cities also stand out for the strong Egyptian architectural influence and the use of cippi, throne-shaped votive monuments (ibid., 74–7). These designs are very much in contrast to those at Sulcis and Monte Sirai, where the steles were decorated with motifs mainly portrayed in a realistic way. However, it is not clear whether the Sardinian and Sicilian cities had been influenced by Carthage or vice versa. There are also stylistic connections between Motya and Tharros, such as the popularity of the motif of a feminine figure clutching a religious sign or artefact to her chest, which is not found in Carthage (Moscati 1986, 78–9). It is also clear from epigraphic evidence that Phoenicians in northern Sardinia had a close relationship with the Phoenician city of Kition on Cyprus, perhaps through colonization. The oldest Phoenician inscription found in the western Mediterranean mentioned that Kition was the mother city of the Sardinian town of Nora (Krahmalkov 2001, 5).

132
Cicero
Scaur
. 42. There are references to ethnic groups created by the intermixing of Phoenician and Punic incomers with indigenous populations in Africa, Spain and Sardinia. On cultural hybridization in the Punic world see Van Dommelen 2006.

133
Van Dommelen 2006, 134.

134
Van Dommelen 1998, 153.

135
This idea was first formulated by Richard White in his study of the interactions between Western settlers and indigenous populations in the Great Lakes region of North America from the late seventeenth to the early nineteenth century (White, 1991). This model has been used extensively by the ancient historian Irad Malkin in relation to the archaic Mediterranean (Malkin 2002, 151–3; 2005, 238–9).