CarthageCarthage

"For 600 years, the ancient kingdom of Carthage dominated the western Mediterranean, rising from a small city on the coast of North Africa, founded in the ninth century BCE, to the region's largest, richest empire in the third. The home of Hannibal and Dido, of war elephants and enormous wealth, beauty, and technological sophistication, at its height Carthage commanded one of the ancient world's great navies and territory spanning the coast of northwestern Africa, modern-day Spain, Sardinia, Sicily, and beyond. It was inevitable that the Carthaginians came to vie with Rome for ultimate supremacy over the Mediterranean; the epic conflict stretched over more than one century, three wars, and 43 years of active fighting. When at last Carthage fell and the city was destroyed, the history of the realm and the Carthaginians was subsumed by their conquerors, and the story of the real Carthage was lost. In this groundbreaking new history-the first in more than a decade-rising-star ancient historian Eve MacDonald tells the essential story of the lost culture of Carthage and of its forgotten people, using brand-new archaeological analysis to uncover the history behind the legend. Taking readers on a journey from the Phoenician Levant of the early Iron Age to the Atlantic and all along the coast of Africa, Carthage puts the city and the story of North Africa once again at the center of Mediterranean history. Reclaimed from the Romans, this is the Carthaginian version of the dramatic tale-revealing to us that, without Carthage, there would be no Rome"-- Provided by publisher.