Meaning certain
Hannibal
Transliteration:Ḥnbʿl
“Grace of Baal”, “Baal has been gracious”
A very common name in inscriptions, long before the son of Hamilcar Barca.
Carthage · Daily life
Daily life in Carthage
What did people eat, what did they wear, what did they call their children? The answers come in fragments: levelled houses, grave goods, thousands of short inscriptions, and the often mocking gaze of Greeks and Romans.
6th – 2nd c. BCKerkouane · ByrsaArchaeology and texts
Before we start
How do we know?
Excavations
Kerkouane, abandoned around the mid-3rd c. BC and never rebuilt, and the Punic quarters of Byrsa show the houses; the necropolises yield tableware, jewellery and toys.
Inscriptions
Thousands of votive stelae, mostly from the tophet, give names, trades, genealogies, sometimes a date. They are short and almost all religious.
Foreign writers
Cato, Plautus, Plato, Livy and Justin speak of Carthage from the outside, often as enemies. We quote them, keeping a critical distance.
The house
Around the courtyard
Punic houses survive only at ground level, but they tell of family life: water, hygiene, privacy.
LayoutStraight streets, regular blocks: at Kerkouane as in the so-called Mago and Hannibal quarters of Carthage, each house is arranged around an open courtyard.
EntranceA narrow corridor links the street to the courtyard: from outside, household life stays out of sight. A room on the street may have been a shop.
WaterEach household has its own cistern, filled by rainwater; a soakaway takes waste water. Water is a private matter.
BathingAt Kerkouane, many houses have a small washroom with a plastered hip bath fitted with a seat: a rare comfort in the ancient world of the time.
FloorsThe pavimentum punicum, red mortar studded with stone chips, sometimes bears the sign of Tanit near the entrance.
Upper floorsIn Carthage, staircases prove there were one or more upper storeys; Appian speaks of six-storey buildings, without archaeological confirmation.
Food
Grain, cheese, honey and fish
No Punic cookbook has survived. Meals are reconstructed from excavated remains, utensils and a few Latin texts.
Cato’s “Punic” recipe
Puls punica
- 1 poundof alica (emmer wheat groats)
- 3 poundsof fresh cheese
- ½ poundof honey
- 1egg
Put the alica in water and let it soak well.
Pour it into a clean bowl.
Add the fresh cheese, the honey and the egg; mix everything well.
Transfer to a new pot, and cook.
Cato gives no time or temperature: a Roman pound weighs about 327 g.
The Latin text
“Pultem punicam sic coquito. Libram alicae in aquam indito, facito uti bene madeat…”
“Cook Punic porridge thus. Put a pound of alica in water, make sure it is well soaked…”
Cato the Elder, De agricultura, 85 (mid-2nd c. BC)
Note: this is a Roman recipe “in the Punic style”. It tells us what Romans associated with Carthage, not necessarily what Carthaginians ate every day. Cereal porridge was, in fact, the Romans’ own staple too.
Cereals
Bread and porridge
Wheat and barley were the basis of meals, as flatbreads, loaves and porridge. A terracotta model of an oven, like the tabouna still used in Tunisia, was found in a Carthaginian tomb.
The sea
The economy →Fish and garum
Tuna, dried or salted fish, shellfish; and garum, the fermented fish sauce whose use the Punic world spread around the Mediterranean.
Orchards
Figs, pomegranates, dates
Figs, grapes, olives, almonds; the pomegranate, which Romans called the “Punic apple” (malum punicum, Pliny the Elder, book XIII); and dates from the palm, the emblem on Carthage’s coins.
Wine
Agriculture →Passum
Mago gave the recipe for this wine made from sun-dried grapes steeped in must; the Roman agronomist Columella copied it (De re rustica, XII, 39).
Plato, Laws, II, 674a
A law against wine
According to Plato, a Carthaginian law forbade wine to soldiers on campaign, to magistrates during their year of office, and to pilots and judges on duty.
Cato in the Senate
The fig of Carthage
To show that the enemy was only three days away by sea, Cato is said to have brandished a fresh fig picked in Carthage before the Senate (Pliny the Elder, XV, 74-76).
Read the story →Handle with care
Dog on the menu?
Justin (XIX, 1) claims that the Persian king Darius ordered the Carthaginians to stop eating dog. The anecdote, isolated and late, cannot be verified.
Dress and adornment
Linen, purple and jewellery
No Punic garment has survived. We know them from stelae, terracottas, sarcophagi — and from foreigners’ jibes.
TunicMen and women wore a long tunic, often unbelted: that is how Plautus dresses the Carthaginian Hanno in his comedy Poenulus (early 2nd c. BC).
PriestsLinen robe, tall headdress, shaved head: this is the image on the stele shown here. Silius Italicus likewise describes the priests of Melqart at Gades as barefoot and dressed in linen (Punica, III).
Cloak and purpleA draped cloak completed the outfit. Purple dye, taken from the murex, was produced locally: Kerkouane has yielded heaps of crushed shells.
HairMasks and terracottas show bearded men, and women veiled or with long hair falling to the shoulders.
JewelleryHeavy necklaces, earrings, nose rings (nezem), signet rings: gold and hardstones were worn in abundance.
PerfumeColoured glass flasks, incense burners and bronze mirrors accompanied the dead: care of the body went all the way to the grave.
AmuletsSmall glass masks, figures of Bes or the wedjat eye, gold or silver cases worn around the neck: protection against the evil eye.
A cliché to question
Punic “softness”?
To Greeks and Romans, Phoenicians were refined merchants, perfumed and covered in jewellery, hence unmanly. Plautus plays it for laughs: long robe, no belt, servants with rings in their ears.
Such signs were ordinary in the Near East and say nothing about a lack of rigour. Livy himself describes Hannibal as frugal, sleeping on the ground in his soldier’s cloak, dressed like his peers.
Plautus, Poenulus, l. 975 ff. · Livy, XXI, 4
Punic names
Names that are prayers
Most Carthaginian names are short sentences invoking a god. Written without vowels, right to left, they often reach us distorted by Greek and Latin.
Meaning certain
Hasdrubal
Transliteration:ʿzrbʿl
“Baal is my help”
Borne by Hamilcar’s son-in-law and by one of his sons, and by Carthage’s last leader in 146.
Meaning probable
Hamilcar
Transliteration:Ḥmlqrt
“Brother of Melqart”
The most common reading (ʾḥ-mlqrt): the name ties its bearer to the god of Tyre.
Meaning probable
Bomilcar
Transliteration:Bdmlqrt
“In the hand of Melqart”
That is, under his protection. Borne by a general who tried to seize power in 308 BC (Diodorus, XX, 44).
Meaning debated
Himilco
Transliteration:Ḥmlkt
“Brother of the Queen” (?)
Milkat, “the Queen”, may be a divine title; the reading is debated. Name of the Atlantic navigator (Pliny, II, 169).
Meaning probable
Mago
Transliteration:Mgn
“Gift” (of the gods)
Probably from the root mgn, “to give”. Name of the agronomist and of Hannibal’s youngest brother.
Meaning probable
Hanno
Transliteration:Ḥnʾ
“Grace, favour”
A shortened form of a ḥn- name, with the god left implicit. Name of the navigator of the Periplus and of Hanno the Great.
Meaning certain
Adherbal
Transliteration:ʾdrbʿl
“Baal is mighty”
Borne by the admiral who defeated the Roman fleet at Drepana in 249 BC (Polybius, I, 49-51).
Meaning certain
Abdmelqart
Transliteration:ʿbdmlqrt
“Servant of Melqart”
Names in ʿbd-, “servant of”, followed by a divine name, are among the most frequent on the stelae.
Meaning certain
Amotmelqart
Transliteration:ʾmtmlqrt
“Handmaid of Melqart”
The female counterpart, attested on the votive stelae of Carthage, where women make offerings in their own name.
Meaning probable
Sophonisba
Transliteration:Ṣpnbʿl
“Baal has protected”
Greek and Latin form of a Punic name reconstructed as Ṣapanbaʿal: a probable reading, not a certain one.
Meaning debated
Elissa
Transliteration:ʾlšt
Meaning unknown
Greek transcription of a Phoenician name reconstructed as ʾlšt; its meaning, like that of Dido, is still debated.
Reading a Punic name
The building blocks
A Punic name combines a divine name with a word or a verb. In inscriptions, each person is followed by their lineage, sometimes over several generations (“X son of Y son of Z”); the same names often pass from grandfather to grandson, hence so many Hannibals and Hasdrubals.
The Phoenician alphabet- bʿl“lord”, Baal
- mlqrt“king of the city”, Melqart
- ḥn“grace”
- ʿzr“help”
- ʿbd“servant”
- ʾmt“handmaid”
- bd“from the hand of”
- ʾḥ“brother”
Time
Months, festivals and household gods
The Punic calendar is known only in scraps: a few month names, a few festivals, mostly through inscriptions and Greek writers.
The calendar
Lunar months
The word yrḥ means both moon and month. In Carthage, years were dated by the names of the two suffetes in office. Here are months attested in Phoenician and Punic inscriptions; their order in the year is a reconstruction.
zbḥ šmš“Sacrifice of the sun”. Named on the gold tablets of Pyrgi (c. 500 BC).
mrpʾMeaning debated, perhaps linked to healing (root rpʾ).
pʿltMeaning unknown.
krrMeaning unknown.
ḥyrMeaning unknown.
mpʿMeaning unknown.
ʾtnmAlso known from the Bible (Ethanim, 1 Kings 8:2).
blBul, named on the sarcophagus of Eshmunazar at Sidon and in the Bible (1 Kings 6:38).
Festivals
The awakening of Melqart
In Tyre, King Hiram is said to have instituted the “awakening” (Greek egersis) of Heracles-Melqart (Menander of Ephesus, quoted by Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, VIII, 146). Punic inscriptions mention a priestly title, “raiser of the god” (mqm ʾlm), linked to this rite; how it unfolded is unknown.
Every year Carthage sent an embassy to Tyre with offerings for Melqart: Carthaginian envoys were there during Alexander’s siege in 332 (Arrian, Anabasis, II, 24).
EgersisOfferings to TyreDemeter and Kore (396)
Household religion
Gods at home
At the thresholdAt Kerkouane, some entrance floors bear the sign of Tanit: protection placed where one enters.
Against evilHanging grimacing masks, amulets of Bes or Horus: demons were kept away from the house as from the body.
Light and incenseOil lamps and incense burners, sometimes shaped like a divine head, served in daily life as in worship.
New godsIn 396 BC Carthage adopted the Greek cult of Demeter and Kore (Diodorus, XIV, 77): piety travelled too.
Music, games, childhood
Tambourines and feeding bottles
Children’s graves and terracotta figurines give a glimpse, a very partial one, of leisure and education.
MusicFigurines show women holding a tambourine (frame drum) against the chest; the Phoenician world also knew double-pipe players. These images are often linked to worship.
InfantsChildren’s graves yield ceramic feeding bottles and protective amulets; bells and rattles have also been reported.
GamesKnucklebones, a game common to the whole ancient Mediterranean, also appear in Punic contexts; Carthage’s own rules escape us.
LearningScribes, priests and merchants could write. Mago’s treatise on agriculture was written in Punic; Rome had it translated into Latin after 146 (Pliny, XVIII, 22).
GreekThe elite learned it: Hannibal was taught by Sosylus of Sparta (Cornelius Nepos, Hannibal, 13). Yet Justin (XX, 5) reports a temporary ban on studying it in the 4th c., after an act of treason.
Death and memory
After life
Necropolises outside the walls, shaft tombs, grave goods, tophet stelae: funerary rites are covered with religion, and tomb architecture with Punic art.
Further readingSources for this page
15 references
Ancient sources
- Cato the Elder, On Agriculture (De agri cultura)85 — puls punica
- Plautus, Poenulus (The Little Carthaginian)l. 975 ff.
- Plato, LawsII, 674a
- Livy, History of RomeXXI, 4
- Polybius, HistoriesI, 49–51
- Diodorus Siculus, Library of HistoryXIV, 77; XX, 44
- Justin, Epitome of Pompeius Trogus' Philippic HistoriesXIX, 1; XX, 5
- Cornelius Nepos, Hannibal13
- Pliny the Elder, Natural HistoryII, 169; XIII; XV, 74–76; XVIII, 22
- Columella, On Agriculture (De re rustica)XII, 39
- Silius Italicus, PunicaIII
- Flavius Josephus, Jewish AntiquitiesVIII, 146 — quoting Menander of Ephesus
- Arrian, AnabasisII, 24
- Appian, Libyca (The African Book) — six-storey buildings
Modern scholarship
- Gilbert Charles-Picard, Colette Picard, La Vie quotidienne à Carthage au temps d'Hannibal, Paris, Hachette, 1958 — the standard survey of the subject