CAR'THAGE (Lat. Carthago, Gk. Kapxtio/fw, Karcht'don). The greatest city of antiquity on the north coast of Africa, situated in aboutlatitude 30° 50' N. and longitude 10° 20' E., near the modern Tunis, on a peninsula extending into a small bay of the Mediterranean Sea. It was founded, according to legend, by Dido (q.v.), a Pluenieian queen, who had tied from Tyre after the murder of her husband ; hut more probably it originated in an emporium or factory estab lished by the colonial merchants of Utica, and the capitalists of the mother city Tyre, on ac count of the convenience of its situation. The native name of the city seems to have been Kart Had:slut, the 'new town,' probably with refer ence to Tyre, which was always recognized by the Carthaginians as their mother city. Unfor tunately, we know very little of its growth. Our information only begins after Carthage had be come one of the greatest commercial cities of the world, and we have but very scanty and one sided accounts of it even then. The number of inhabitants in n.e. 149, just before the Third Punic. War, is said to have been about 700,000. The population was partly of Phanician. partly of Libyan descent. The territory which the Carthaginians acquired by the subjugation of the Libyan tribes, and by the ultimate annexa tion of other older Plicenieian colonies, with which they had at first been simply in alliance, such as Utica, lladrumetum. Hippo, the two Leptes, etc., extended in the middle of the Fifth Century n.c. southward to Lake Triton, east ward to the Great Syrtis, and westward to the Atlantic. At first, Carthage was essentially city, and even paid a ground rent to the Libyan tribes until the Fifth Cen tury. It was the maritime power of the Car thaginians which enabled them to extend their settlements and conquests to the other coasts of the Mediterranean. At the la ginning of the Sixth Century n.c, Carthage appears as the ally of the Plu•ni•ians in Sicily. now crowded by the Greeks into the western part of the island. After ehe•king the Greek advance and founding colonies of their own, the Carthaginians reduced the coasts of Sardinia. Raman (q.v.) founded col
onies on the west coast of Africa beyond the Ftraits of Gibraltar, and llimilco visited the coasts of Spain and Cant.
With the establishment of this control over the western :Mediterranean, Carthage also estab lished her trading policy. No foreign traders were allowed at any of her western colonies, and only the harbors of Carthage were open to foreign ships. All traders found elsewhere were drowned. This policy led the Cartha ginians to form an alliance with the Etrus cans, and in n.c. 540. in the battle of Alalia, they checked the attempts of the Creeks to en croach upon tbeirterritory. Massilia (Marseilles) alone held its position on the coast of Can]. The first treaty with the Romans was concluded in me. 509, the second in B.C. 34S. the third in B.C. :300. The connected history of Carthage begins with the Fifth Century B.C.. a period of wars between the Carthaginians and the Creeks in Sicily. The Carthaginian army under Damilear was destroyed by Gelon, at ilimera, in n.e. 4S0, and for a time the Greeks were free from attack. in B.C. 410 wars broke out anew, and the Creek cities of the southern coast of Sicily were plun dered and destroyed. At Syracuse the pestilence compelled the Carthaginians to raise the siege, and under the leadership of Dionysius I.. the tyrant of Syracuse, the Greeks recovered much of their lost territory. After several unsuccessful attempts to drive the Carthaginians from the island, Dionysius, in B.C. 3S3. made a treaty which gave them the land west of the river lIaly cus. A later invasion of the Carthaginians was repelled by Thnolcon (q.v.), in n.c. 343, but thirty years later, when Agathocles was tyrant of Syracuse, the war began again, and Syracuse was once more besieged. Deserting his city, Agathocles crossed to Africa, and for three years ravaged the almost defenseless territory of Car thage, though not strong enough to attack the city. After his death the Carthaginians again increased their dominions in Sicily, and although Pyrrhus contended successfully against them at first, he left that island entirely in n.c. 275.