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CARTHAGE

Carthage archaeological site

Carthage (10 miles north of modern Tunis in Tunisia) was once the greatest city in the world. It was the home of Hannibal, who threatened Rome with his elephants and huge armies, and was the center of a great Phoenician trading empire that extended across North Africa and the Mediterranean. The period when Carthage was the dominate power in the ancient world is called the Punic Era. Little more than foundations and walls remain of the great city today.

Carthage has also been portrayed as one of the world’s most decadent cities. In his novel “Salambo” , Flaubert depicted Carthage as a city of unimaginable wealth and indescribable debauchery and violence, in addition to romanticizing Hannibal and his elephants. This apect of Carthage’s reputation is at least partly due to the fact that most of what we know about it is based accounts by its enemies, Greece and Rome.

In 814 B.C., the Phoenician city state of Tyre founded Carthage — Qart-hadasht or “new city” — in northern Africa. Today, Carthage is an affluent neighborhood of Tunis in Tunisia. It emerged as powerful city state when Tyre was sacked by the Babylonians in 6th century B.C. Today, ancient Carthage is a modern, wealthy suburb of Tunis.

Plutarch called the Carthaginians a "course and gloomy people." Appian describe them as "cruel and arrogant." The Greek historian Plybius wrote in the 2nd century B.C. they " were far superior, both in the speed of their ships and they way they built them, and also in the experience and skill of their seamen.”

Carthage After the Punic Period

In 44 B.C., Julius Caesar decided to build a new city on the site of destroyed Carthage but he was assassinated before his plan could be realized. Beginning in A.D. 31 his successor Augustus reduced the height of Byrsa Hill by 16 feet by removing 245,000 cubic meters of rock, earth and ruins and built a Roman city on the resulting plateau with, according to one Roman historian, seven story buildings. The city expanded under Hadrian and Antonine.

What Punic Carthage is thought to have looked like

In the early centuries of the Christian era, Carthage was a great center of Christian learning , second only to Alexandria. It was occupied by the Vandals and prospered under the Byzantines. In A.D. 698, Carthage was seized by the Arabs. After that Carthage declined while new cities such as Tunis appeared and prospered. After centuries of neglect the bishopric of Saint Cyprien was restored and a massive basilica was built on Mount Byrsa by the French. Some development occurred when a rail line was built between the coast and Tunis.

Ruins of Carthage are not all that impressive as the Romans reduced the city to rubble and what buildings were left after the Romans and Christians were looted for their stone by the Arabs. What remains is a scattering from different ages. Little remains from the time when Carthage was ruled by the Carthaginians. Most of the ruins date to the Roman period or later. Some ruins are intermixed with modern homes, villas and gardens.

The Punic port is comprised of two stone-lined “cothons” (artificial harbors): a circular one with berths for 220 military vessels and a rectangular one for merchant ships. Archeological work has indicated the ports were carved into the shoreline and the harbors were dredged from a marshy area.

Sights in Carthage

Carthage is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A good place to begin a visit of Carthage is from the summit of Byrsa Hill, the Acropolis of Punic and Roman Carthage. Most of the ruins from Punic Carthage are in the Punic Quarter. Mostly what you find here are foundations, crumbled walls, and the remains of water tanks, drains, plaster walls and tiled floors. The Tophet is an ancient graveyard, where thousands of victims of child sacrifices were buried. So many sacrifices were carried out that the children are buried in several layers, one on top of the other. Some have suggested that the sacrifices were carried at the sanctuary of Tanit and Baal Hamon but there is no archeological proof to back that up

Remains from the Roman period include a Roman forum, old streets on a plateau of Mount Byrsa; an amphitheater, a theater, and settlement of villas on the Hill of the Odeon. The Villa of Voliere is set around a courtyard colonnade and has a terrace from which there are wonderful views in the direction of the Gulf of Tunis. On another hill are the massive cisterns of Malga, which provided water for Roman Carthage and were fed by the great Zaghouan aqueduct.

The amphitheater was once of the largest one the Roman empire but little of it is left due to the removal of stone for other buildings. The oval arena hosted gladiator battles. The 500-seat Roman theater has been painstakingly restored. In July and August, it is the site of an international festival of music and dance. Carthage also contains the remains of circus that was 526 meters long and 129 meters wide, with an arena area that was 77 meters wide. It held 55,000 people. Unfortunately nothing is left but foundations and a single capital.

Antonine Baths (at the edge of the water in Carthage) were the fourth largest baths in the Roman empire and the largest outside of Rome. Requiring 17 years of slave labor to build and completed in A.D. 162, the baths covered nine acres and had separate wings for men and women with separate rooms for hot, lukewarm and cold baths and changing rooms, massage rooms, and gymnasiums. Signs and diagrams at the site give visitors a sense of where everything was.

Antonine baths ruins,

The baths are entered through the Parc Archeologique des Thermes. Little remains other than the basement where wood used to heat the water-heating fires was stored. Slaves ran around preparing the baths and water for them was channeled from aqueducts and cisterns. A large granite column, capped by a white capital, has been arbitrarily re-erected to give an idea of the height of the entre structure. The column and capital are 15 meters high. Eight such columns were originally used to support the frigidarium (cold water bath).

Roman Sights in Tunisia

West of Tunis is an area mountains, forests and agriculture land. Defying the image that many people of North Africa, it is surprisingly wet and green, with lakes, streams and fields that helped made it the bread basket of the Roman Empire. Dougha (about 100 miles west of Tunis and 40 miles east from Le Kef) is an impressive but difficult-to-get-to set of Roman ruins situated on the edge of the Tebersouk Mountains Built in A.D. 168, they spread across a hillside overlooking a valley with olive groves and wheat fields. Lightly visited by tourists, Dougha was added to the UNESCO list World Heritage Sites in 1998. It is widely regarded as the best-preserved of all the Roman cities in Tunisia.

The main attractions in Dougha include an A.D. 2nd century Roman theater with 25-rows of tiered seats, a colonnaded stage and acoustics that are so precise that a whisper from the stage cand be heard in the highest seats. A paved Roman road leads from the theater to the forum, with several buildings clustered around it, including a Capitoline Temple, a 3rd century triumphal arch. Nearby is a group of barrel-vaulted cisterns that supplied water to the temples. On the edge of city is the Mausoleum of Atebam, a Punic monument built in 202 B.C. and covered with carbed reliefs and topped by a pyramid.

Zaghouan (30 miles south of Tunis) is the home of the Mausoleum of Sid Ali Azouz, and a Roman Temple of Waters, with the remains of a water tower, fountains, and arches. The Roman Aqueduct (on the road to Zahouan) was the world's longest ancient aqueduct. It was 87.6 miles and ran from the springs of Zaghouan to Djebel Djougar. Built by the Romans during the reign of Hadrian (A.D. 117-138), it originally had a capacity of 7 million gallons a day. In 1895, 344 arches still survived.

Jebel Zaghouan (overlooking Zaghouan) is a craggy limestone massif that is six miles long and two miles wide, with its highest peak at 4,249 feet high. Over the centuries the upper slopes have been a vital source of water. The Romans built a stone reservoir on the mountain and was used to supply water to the aqueduct described above. Today it supplies water to Tunis.

Zaghouan aqueduct

Thuburdo Majus (30 miles south of Tunis) is an archeological site at a Roman city that was home to 12,000 people in the A.D. 2nd and 3rd centuries, There are remains of a capitol, forum and baths and buildings with Corinthian columns

Gladiatorial Arena of El Djem, Tunisia

The amphitheatre in the Tunisian city of El Djem is considered one of the most impressive Roman remains in all of Africa and was used as the setting for the gladiator battles in the Hollywood film ‘Gladiator’. In fact, there are two amphitheatrer in El Djem. The smaller one is much less famous than the large one, and is not as well preserved. [Source: Ancient Origins, June 25, 2018]

Florence Fabricant wrote in the New York Times, “The amphitheater, in better shape than the Roman Colosseum and considered more advanced in its engineering, is now used for a summer music and theater festival. But in Roman times, this third century arena, an oval nearly 500 feet long that could hold 30,000 spectators on many tiers of seats, is thought to have been used for more bloodthirsty events, involving not only gladiatorial combat to the death but also throwing prisoners and slaves to the lions. [Source: Florence Fabricant, New York Times, October 18, 1998]

According to to UNESCO: “This amphitheatre is built entirely of stone blocks, with no foundations and free-standing. In this respect it is modelled on the Coliseum of Rome without being an exact copy of the Flavian construction. Its size (big axis of 148 metres and small axis 122 metres) and its capacity (judged to be 35,000 spectators) make it without a doubt among the largest amphitheatres in the world. Its facade comprises three levels of arcades of Corinthian or composite style. Inside, the monument has conserved most of the supporting infrastructure for the tiered seating. The wall of the podium, the arena and the underground passages are practically intact. This architectural and artistic creation built around 238 AD, constitutes an important milestone in the comprehension of the history of Roman Africa. The Amphitheatre of El Jem also bears witness to the prosperity of the small city of Thysdrus (current El Jem) at the time of the Roman Empire.

According to Ancient Origins: “Whilst the exact date of the amphitheatre’s construction is uncertain, it has been speculated that work began in A.D. 238. This year is also known as the ‘Year of the Six Emperors’, as there were six people recognised as emperors of Rome during this year. The amphitheatre may have been commissioned by one of these emperors, Gordian I or his grandson (also one of the six emperors), Gordian III. The year A.D. 238 was not exactly a peaceful year for the Roman Empire, and it was an uprising in the Roman-ruled areas of Africa that made Gordian I, who incidentally was nearly 80 years old at that time, the emperor of Rome. [Source: Ancient Origins, June 25, 2018]

Interior of the Amphitheatre of El Jem

Roman Mosaics in Tunisia

Museums under the control of the Institut National du Patrimoine in Tunisia — particularly the El Jem Museum in northeast Tunisia — possess some of the world’s finest Roman-era mosaics. Many have been unearthed over the last 200 years and carefully preserved in Tunisia’s museums with the help of the Getty Museum. [Source: Geraldine Fabrikant, New York Times, April 11, 2007]

Describing an A.D. 4th century mosaic discovered in 1974 in Kelibia (now in northeastern Tunisia), Geraldine Fabrikant wrote in the New York Times, Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, sits gazing languorously at herself in the river after a musical solo on an aulos, an ancient double-reed pipe. The river itself is symbolized by an elderly yet muscular man sitting across from her. Athena looks vaguely unhappy, perhaps because the constant playing, which involved using her mouth as a kind of bagpipe, has distorted the shape of her lips...In the ancient mythological tale, she threw the instrument on the ground in anger. The satyr Marsyas, depicted in the right-hand corner of this mosaic, picked it up and challenged Apollo to a competition. Infuriated by his arrogance, Apollo had Marsyas flayed.In other works: “Muscular gods ride chariots drawn by superb sea horses; voluptuous, half-nude women pour jugs of water down their own backs. Rabbits eagerly nibble grapes, and ferocious lions devour their prey. The panoply of tales told in stone sheds some light on how a wealthy Roman elite lived in North Africa between the second and sixth centuries.

Bulla Regia (near Jendouba, about 40 miles north of Dougha) is an ancient Roman city famous its mosaics and unique villas that were built halfway underground to provide some relief from the heat in the winter and insulation from the cold in the winter. A typical villa was owned by a rich olive or grain merchant and had two stories and courtyard reached by by one or more staircases and surrounded by arched underground rooms.

The best mosaics that were found here are now in of the Bardo Museum in Tunis. Several villas remain in good condition and have in situ mosaics. They are named after the mosaics found in them: the Hunting Palace, the Peacock Palace, the Fishing Palace, the House of Treasures and the House of Amphitrite (a sea goddess and wife of Poseidon). The villas are often locked. If so get the keys from the caretaker.

Bulla Regia sits on terraces of 617-meter-high Jebel Rebia. It was one of the richest cities in Roman Tunisia. Other ruins include a thermal bath, a theater, a Temple of Apollo and Isis, a Christian basilica and baptistry. In the small museum are sarcophagi and artifacts unearthed at the site.

Triumph of Neptune mosaic from the Bardo National Museum in Tunis

Bardo National Museum

Bardo National Museum(three kilometers from the Tunis city center) contains the world’s finest collection of mosaics and is regarded as the best museum in the Maghreb. Beautifully situated inside the garden at the palace of a Turkish bey built on the foundations of a 13th century Hafid palace, the museum itself is regarded as a work of art. The ceilings are decorated with plaster tracery, tiles, painted beams and chandeliers, Around a mosaic-filled courtyard are balconies supported by arches and columns.

Most of the Roman mosaics and sculptures date to the A.D. 2nd and 3rd centuries. A few date back to Carthaginian times. Nearly all of the mosaics were excavated from villas, where they were mostly constructed on floors. In the museum they are displayed on walls and in roped off areas in the floors.

Some of the mosaics feature geometric designs and patterns. Others depict hunting, shepherding, fishing and banqueting scenes as well as portraits and scenes from Roman mythology. Not only are they beautiful but they give an extraordinary insight into the daily life and wealth of Roman Tunisia. One of the most famous mosaic shows Neptune surrounded by spiny lobster, scorpion fish, shrimp, rays, grouper, monkfish, eels, tuna, octopus, sea urchins, crabs and cuttlefish. Another shows Ulysses tied to a mast, tempted by the sirens.

In addition to mosaics, the Bardo also contains a wonderful collection of statues, sarcophagi, stelae, ceramics, jewelry, fabrics, guns, musical instruments and ancient treasures. There are 6,000 objects on display from the prehistoric, Punic, Roman, Christian, Byzantine and Arabic periods. Another 100,000 objects are in storage. Impressive statues include a large statue of Apollo unearthed near the theater in Carthage, “Virgil and the Muses” and a collection of emperor heads. Other interesting pieces include votive offerings from Carthage.

Seignor Julius mosaic, AD 5th century, Carthage, at the Bardo

Leptis Magna and Sabratha in Libya

Romans left impressive ruins in Libya at Cyrene,Leptis Magna, and Sabratha. Leptis Magna in western Libya is one of the largest and best preserved Roman cities. The city, constructed during the reign of the Roman Emperors Augustus and Tiberiusin the early A.D. 1st century , was remodelled by Emperor Septimius Severus (ruled A.D. 193 to 211), who was born there, and became a thriving urban center complete with a theater, market square, baths and basilica. The theatre of Leptis Magna is one of the oldest Roman theatres made stone.

“Archaeological Site of Leptis Magna” was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982. According to UNESCO: Enlarged and embellished by Septimius Severus, it was one of the most beautiful cities of the Roman Empire, with its imposing public monuments, harbour, market-place, storehouses, shops and residential districts.” In its prime Leptis Magna was home to about 100,000 people.

According to Kanaga Tours Leptis Magna, as its name suggests, was the most important Roman settlement in Africa and today, second in integrity of state of preservation only to Pompeii. Its limestone buildings and monuments have been able to withstand the elements because they have been entirely buried by sand for centuries, arriving remarkably intact to the present day, despite having been despoiled of most of its decorations.

Probably founded in the 7th century BC, as a Phoenician port, it was first under Carthaginian influence, becoming part of the Roman sphere of control from the 2nd century B.C.. It flourished in strategic importance under Augustus and Hadrian, as a commercial seaport, especially in the traffic of ferocious beasts from sub-Saharan Africa bound for the Empire’s circuses, and finally exploded in splendour under Septimius Severus, who, as a native of Leptis Magna himself, transformed it into one of the grandest cities in the Mediterranean in the 2nd century AD, once he became Emperor.

Zilten Mosaic at Leptis Magna

The ruins include colonnaded streets, forums, basilicas and temples, baths and amphitheatres, and imposing monuments, arranged according to the proverbial urban sumptuousness of Imperial Rome. Everything in Leptis Magna celebrated the luxury and glories of Rome, from the monumental Arch of Septimius Severus to the luxurious Hadrianic Baths, once entirely covered in splendid marble and mosaics, from the Nymphaeum, originally adorned with marble statues, to the magnificent colonnaded street that connected the port to the Severan Forum, embellished with capitals of Gorgon and Medusa heads, still standing there today. And again, the imposing Severan Basilica, dedicated to the cult of Hercules and Dionysus, the Trajan and Tiberius Arches, the Market, the Circus and the Amphitheatre outside the walls, without forgetting the port with its stone quays and lighthouse, which unfortunately a clumsy enlargement at the time inexorably exposed to silting up, in fact one of the main causes that decreed the decline of the city a few centuries later.

In June 2005, archaeologists from the University of Hamburg uncovered five colorful mosaics created during the 1st or 2nd century that were nine meters (30 feet in length). The exceptionally well-preserved mosaics depict a warrior in combat with a deer, four young men wrestling a wild bull to the ground, and a gladiator resting in a state of fatigue and staring at his slain opponent. The mosaics decorated the walls of a cold plunge pool in a balneae within a Roman villa at Wadi Lebda in Leptis Magna. The gladiator mosaic is noted by scholars as one of the finest examples of representational mosaic art ever seen—a "masterpiece comparable in quality with the Alexander Mosaic in Pompeii." The mosaics were originally discovered in the year 2000 but were kept secret in order to avoid looting. They are currently on display in the Leptis Magna Museum.

The Sabratha ruins were also inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1982. The monumental theatre, dating back to the Severan era, is one of the most magnificent of its kind. It is beautifully situated overlooking the azure waters of the Mediterranean and is visible from a long distance away. Much smaller than Leptis Magna, Sabratha was home to about 20,000 inhabitants but was equally monumental in its urban and architectural ambitions. The Temple of Antoninus, the Capitol and the Curia, the Justinian Basilica and the Forum, the Temple of Isis and Serapis, the Baths of Oceanus and the Theatre, are among the most impressive monuments. They were once decorated with marble, columns, mosaics and frescoes.

Thamugadi, the Roman City in Algeria Hidden Under Sahara Sands

Saharan sands buried Thamugadi — a once thriving Roman military outpost in Algeria — preserving it for centuries and leaving it forgotten until the Scottish explorer James Bruce rediscovered it 1765. Founded by the emperor Trajan around A.D, 100 in the North African province of Numidia, Thamugadiwas also known as Timgad or Tamugas. Home to veterans of the Third Augustan Legion, it prospered for hundreds of years but was an attractive target for pirates and raiders. After a Vandal invasion in 430 and repeated attacks the city was abandoned during the 700s. Today, on the ground below the city’s Arch of Trajan, with its 6½-meter (20-foot) -high portal, you can see deep ruts from the wheeled vehicles that entered the city via the busy Roman roads. [Source Rubén Montoya, National Geographic History, July 31, 2019]

Thamugadi was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1982. Research undertaken by French scholars in the 1800s has enabled historians to piece together the history of the city. Rubén Montoya wrote in National Geographic History: Originally named Colonia Marciana Trajana Thamurga, in honor of Emperor Trajan’s sister, Thamugadi was laid out in a grid. In the mid-third century A.D., the city’s population peaked at 15,000. They enjoyed fine public buildings, including a magnificent library and a total of 14 baths. The comfort of Thamugadi’s facilities, and the presence of mosaics, has often prompted comparisons with Pompeii.

Theater at Leptis Magna

The city’s location was key to protecting the Roman Empire’s southern borders. North Africa was a center of grain production, and Rome’s Third Augustan Legion was stationed in Thamugadi to protect the grain and its transport to Rome. Several hundred men would be discharged from the legion every two years, and they settled in Thamugadi as a kind of pension for their service. Their presence also served as a deterrent to invaders.

The city was a manifestation of Roman might on the empire’s southern border. Its diverse population saw those who worshipped the old gods living alongside Christians. For a while, it was a stronghold of the heretical Christian sect the Donatists. The general crisis mounting on the borders of the Roman Empire eventually took its toll on Thamugadi. After being looted by the Vandals during the fifth century, the city began to sink into ruin. After the fall of the western Roman Empire, Thamugadi enjoyed a brief resurgence as a Christian center, and a fort was built outside the city in 539. But the city was abandoned either before or during the Arab invasions of the 700s.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Rome sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Late Antiquity sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; “Outlines of Roman History” by William C. Morey, Ph.D., D.C.L. New York, American Book Company (1901) ; “The Private Life of the Romans” by Harold Whetstone Johnston, Revised by Mary Johnston, Scott, Foresman and Company (1903, 1932); BBC Ancient Rome bbc.co.uk/history/ ; Project Gutenberg gutenberg.org ; Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Live Science, Discover magazine, Archaeology magazine, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP, The New Yorker, Wikipedia, Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopedia.com and various other books, websites and publications.

Last updated October 2024