Carthage
146 BC → today

Carthage after Carthage

The Punic city burned in 146. On its ruins another Carthage lived for seven centuries, faded away, served as a quarry, and was reborn as a town and a World Heritage site.

Ruins of the Antonine Baths on the Gulf of Tunis
Antonine Baths, 2nd century — Roman Carthage by the gulf
7 centuries

as a Roman, Vandal and Byzantine city, from 29 BC to 698

30,000

seats in the Roman amphitheatre, of which only the arena survives

1979

the archaeological site joins the UNESCO World Heritage List

17,010

inhabitants in the municipality of Carthage (2014 census)

Timeline of the ages

Twenty-two centuries on the same hill

Each age built on top of the last one, or with its stones.

  1. Roman era
    29 BC – 439

    Carthage refounded

    122 BCGaius Gracchus tries to settle a colony, Junonia, near the cursed site; the project dies with him.
    44 – 29 BCDecided by Caesar, the refoundation is carried out under Augustus: Colonia Iulia Concordia Carthago rises on the very site of the Punic city.
    1st c.Capital of Africa Proconsularis. The top of Byrsa is levelled to carry the forum.
    145 – 162After a great fire, the Antonine Baths are built by the sea (Colette Picard).
    3rd – 4th c.Won over to Christianity, the city lives through the persecutions and becomes one of the great spiritual centres of the Latin West.
  2. Vandal kingdom
    439 – 533

    Genseric's capital

    439Genseric's Vandals seize Carthage and make it the seat of their kingdom.
    455The Vandal fleet that sacks Rome sails from Carthage.
    5th c.The Arian Vandal kings turn on the Catholic Church of Africa: bishops exiled, churches confiscated.
  3. Byzantine era
    533 – 698

    The Empire returns

    533Belisarius, Justinian's general, retakes the city, which becomes again a prosperous capital and the seat of the government of Africa.
    Late 6th c.Byzantine Africa is entrusted to an exarch, both civil and military governor, based in Carthage.
    610Heraclius, son of the exarch of Carthage, sails to Constantinople, takes the throne and founds a dynasty there.
  4. Arab conquest
    698

    Tunis takes over

    698Hassan ibn al-Nu‘man takes the city (Grimal). Looted and burned, it is emptied of its people, who are moved to Tunis.
    8th c.Tunis becomes the main city and will give the country its name; the name Africa, turned Ifriqiya, will end up designating the whole continent.
    10th c.After nearly two centuries of abandonment, the site is settled again in the Fatimid period, according to Gibbon.
  5. Middle Ages – 18th century
    9th – 19th c.

    A marble quarry

    SpoliaColumns, capitals and marble slabs are stripped to build mosques, palaces and churches: in Kairouan, in Tunis, and as far as Europe.
    1270Saint Louis lands at Carthage during the Eighth Crusade and dies of dysentery before Tunis. The failure of the expedition closes the age of the Crusades.
    16th c.The village of the time — a mosque, a college, some twenty shops and about 500 peasants — is ruined by the Spanish garrison of La Goulette, installed by Charles V.
    18th c.Only two farming hamlets occupy the former capital: Douar Chott and La Malga.
  6. Beylik and protectorate
    1830 – 1956

    Summer palaces, a cathedral and excavations

    1830The bey grants France a plot on Byrsa. Louis-Philippe sends an architect to find where Saint Louis died: unable to, he picks the finest viewpoint, where a chapel is built.
    19th c.Dignitaries of the beylik make it their summer retreat: Mustapha Khaznadar's palace in Salammbô, the Zarrouk palace, Mustapha Ben Ismaïl's palace (Revault).
    1884 – 1890Under the French protectorate, the Cathedral of Saint Louis crowns Byrsa; it becomes the primatial church of Africa for Cardinal Lavigerie.
    1919A beylical decree of 15 June creates the municipality of Carthage.
    1928 – 1929Le Corbusier builds the Villa Baizeau, his only work in Tunisia.
  7. Independent Tunisia
    1956 – today

    A town and a World Heritage site

    1960Bourguiba chooses a colonial-era villa by the sea to become the presidential palace.
    1972As the city spreads, UNESCO launches a major international campaign to save Carthage.
    1979The archaeological site is inscribed on the World Heritage List.
    1985The mayors of Rome and Carthage, Ugo Vetere and Chedli Klibi, sign a symbolic peace treaty ending the Third Punic War.
    2003The Malik ibn Anas Mosque opens on the Odeon Hill.
2nd – 5th century

Christian Carthage

As the metropolis of Roman Africa, Carthage becomes one of the hearths of Latin Christianity: its writers shape the theological language of the West and its bishops hold many councils.

397A council of Carthage settles the list of biblical books recognised by the Church of Africa.
411The Conference of Carthage gathers over 500 Catholic and Donatist bishops; the imperial commissioner Marcellinus condemns Donatism.
484The Vandal king Huneric summons Catholic and Arian bishops: the meeting opens a new persecution.
c. 155 – c. 220

Tertullian

Born in Carthage, the first great Christian writer in Latin. His Apology pleads the Christian cause against pagan accusations.

203

Perpetua and Felicity

A young noblewoman and her slave, martyred in the amphitheatre of Carthage. The account of their passion draws on Perpetua’s own diary.

† 258

Cyprian

Bishop of Carthage from about 249, he leads his Church through the persecution of Decius and is beheaded under Valerian.

354 – 430

Augustine

Born in Thagaste, he studies and then teaches rhetoric in Carthage. As bishop of Hippo, he often returns to preach and sit in councils.

What outlived Rome

The Punic language, the sufetes and renamed gods: see also the fall of Carthage →

Architecture

Opus africanum

This masonry with stone piers, already found at Kerkouane, reappears in the Roman period, even in the Capitol of Dougga.

Art

The African mosaicists

With fine local marbles, the workshops of Africa spread their bestiaries and mythological scenes throughout the Empire.

Cults

Neo-Punic sanctuaries

Thinissut, Bou Kornine, El Hofra near Cirta, the “Ghorfa” stelae: African Saturn, heir to Baal, is worshipped until the early 4th century (Lancel).

Institutions

Sufetes, sometimes three

Roman towns in Africa still elect sufetes in the 2nd century; some have three, which some Semitists read as a Berber contribution (Lipinski).

Books

The Punic libraries

Handed to the Numidian kings in 146, they may have been used by Sallust for his Jugurthine War; the point is debated, and by Augustine’s time they are only a memory.

Language

A bridge to Arabic?

For Stéphane Gsell, and later M’hamed Hassine Fantar, the long survival of a Semitic language may have eased the Arabisation of the Maghreb.

Archaeology

Who excavated Carthage?

1833Christian Tuxen Falbe — the Danish consul draws the first accurate plan of the ruins.
1859Charles-Ernest Beulé — he digs soundings on Byrsa Hill and at the ports, looking for the Punic city.
From 1875Father Delattre — this White Father excavates Punic cemeteries and basilicas for decades; his collections are the origin of the National Museum of Carthage.
1892 – 1905Paul Gauckler — director of antiquities of the Regency, he explores in particular the Punic cemeteries.
1921The tophet — discovery of the Salammbô sanctuary, excavated in the following years.
After 1956The Tunisian school — M’hamed Hassine Fantar, Abdelmajid Ennabli, Azedine Beschaouch… who alerts the public to the threat that building poses to the site.
1972 – 1995Save Carthage — UNESCO’s international campaign: Germans (F. Rakob, 5th-century BC rampart and seaside quarter), Americans (L. Stager, tophet and merchant harbour), British (H. Hurst, Admiralty island), French (S. Lancel, Punic quarter of Byrsa)…
Dido Building Carthage, painting by Turner
Turner, Dido Building Carthage, 1815 — National Gallery, London
Rediscovery

Carthage reimagined

  • 17th century: Samuel Bochart’s Geographia sacra takes an interest in the role of the Phoenicians; in the 18th, the Nora Stone in Sardinia fascinates scholars.
  • 1817: Turner exhibits The Decline of the Carthaginian Empire, companion to his Dido; he devotes about ten major canvases to the subject.
  • 1920: Stéphane Gsell judges Carthaginian art harshly; archaeology in the later 20th century has largely nuanced that verdict (Lancel).
  • Bourguiba makes the founding queen a figure of national feeling; major exhibitions (Palazzo Grassi 1988, Institut du monde arabe 2007–2008) bring Carthage to a wide public.
World Heritage

The archaeological site today

Mostly Roman remains, with Punic islands, scattered across a residential town.

The Antonine Baths
2nd c.Seafront

Antonine Baths

Built between 145 and 162 after a great fire, among the largest in the Roman Empire. Only the lower level, the service rooms, survives (Ennabli and Slim).

The Punic quarter on Byrsa Hill
Punic · RomanNational Museum

Byrsa Hill

Beneath the Roman forum, a residential quarter from the early 2nd century BC: shop on the street, cistern below, corridor to a courtyard (Lipinski). On top, the National Museum and the Acropolium, the former cathedral.

The foundation →
The lagoons of the Punic ports
Salammbô

The Punic ports

Two lagoons keep the shape of the basins: the merchant harbour and the circular naval harbour with its Admiralty island (Stager, Hurst).

The economy →
Stelae of the Salammbô tophet
SalammbôOpen debate

The tophet

Sacred enclosure of Tanit and Baal Hammon. The long-held theory of child sacrifice is challenged by specialists such as Sabatino Moscati.

Religion →
Dominus Julius mosaic, found in Carthage (Bardo Museum)
Odeon HillBardo

Park of the Roman villas

Near the theatre, the “Villa of the Aviary” is named after its mosaic. The great mosaics of Carthage, such as the Dominus Julius, are in the Bardo Museum.

2nd c.

The theatre

Built for about 5,000 spectators, it was little more than a ruin in the early 20th century; heavily restored, it hosts the Carthage International Festival.

30,000 seats

The amphitheatre

Only the arena has survived more than a thousand years of looting. Perpetua and Felicity were martyred there in 203.

Douar Chott

The circus

All that remains is a long hollow in the landscape.

La Malga

The cisterns

Huge Roman reservoirs at the end of the Zaghouan aqueduct. Nearby lies the cemetery of the officiales, the proconsul’s staff (Le Bohec).

Visiting

The main difficulty is dispersion: the remains form islands among villas and gardens. The TGM train, which crosses the town (Salammbô, Byrsa, Dermech, Hannibal stations…), takes you from one area to the next.

Read also

149 – 146 BC

The fall of Carthage

The siege, the fall of Byrsa, and the salt myth.

Places

In the footsteps of Carthage

From Kerkouane to Cartagena, the sites to visit.

Today

Carthage lives in Tunisia

The name of Africa, the town, the festivals.

Sources

History written by the victor

What Rome told, what we know.