Visit to Tunisia (5): Carthage
What remained of Wednesday afternoon was devoted to Carthage. Located in the north-east suburbs of Tunis, this was the capital of the ancient Carthaginian civilisation that was a major trading empire from the 6th century BC. It was home to Hannibal and his elephants.
However, it was destroyed by the Romans in 146 BC. About a century later, Julius Caesar had it rebuilt as Roman Carthage on its ruins centred on the Hill of Byrsa. It became the second city in the Roman Empire after Rome itself. Arab invaders levelled the city once again in the late 15th and early 16th centuries.
Today it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There is so little left to see: hardly anything compared to Uthina and almost nothing contrasted with Dugga. We focused on the Antoine Baths and the end of the viaduct by the huge cistern.
Our guide was bitter about the Romans. He told of us the three Punic Wars between the rival Carthaginians and Romans, which took place from 264-241 BC, 218-201 BC and 149-146 BC respectively, and asserted that the third was “not a war but genocide”. Apparently the Romans did not just kill the Cathaginians but obliterated their civilisation, and even poisoned the land with salt.
He also reaffirmed the axiom that history is written by the victors. The Carthaginians were descended from the Phoenicians, who gave the Ancient World the alphabet, but most accounts of Carthage were written by Romans who lived long after the events and had never visited the site.