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The West
Chapter 11
Early Carthage
from its foundation to the battle of Himera (ca. 814–480 bce)
Hédi Dridi
Retracing the history of Carthage, and especially that of the archaic period, is not an easy task, since archaeological research and the epigraphic sources can only partially make up for the disappearance of the Carthaginian historical literature.* The historian is therefore constrained to turn toward the Greek and Roman sources, which have the inconvenience of being disparate, fragmentary, largely compiled long after the events in question, and in the final analysis emanate from sources, if not hostile, at least ignorant of non-Classical cultures such as those of the Phoenician and Punic civilizations. It is therefore important to always maintain a critical distance from the Classical tradition and to confront these with the archaeological and epigraphic data, when available.
Carthage’s Foundation
Relying on the Classical sources, it is toward the mid-ninth century bce that a new Phoenician foundation saw the light some 30 km south of Utica, which is to say over two centuries after the establishment of the first Phoenician colonies of Lixus, Cádiz, and Utica in the western Mediterranean, at the end of the twelfth century bce, (Pliny the Elder HN XVI 216, XIX, 63; Velleius Paterculus I, 2, 3–4). Its Phoenician name was Qart Hadasht, meaning “New Town,” which was transcribed as Karkhedôn in Greek and Carthago in Latin. This is a quite a common name, also found on Cyprus (see Lipiński 1992, s.v. Carthage de Chypre), in Sardinia (see Amadasi Guzzo 1992), and on the Mediterranean coast of Iberia (Carthago Nova, present-day Cartagena). Such place names can be considered to represent new establishments, whether created ex nihilo or elevated to a new status (refoundation) by the incorporation of a new population, often in a colonizing context.
The multiplicity of sources that mention the foundation of Carthage, their diversity, and even internal contradictions (e.g., Appian Lib. 1, 1, in contrast with and 8, 51) reflect the debates that arose since antiquity (Van Compernolle 1959: 139–235). In this respect, we can discern three traditions: the first is attached to Philistus of Syracuse (first half of the fourth century bce) and his near-contemporary Euxodus of Cnidus, which establishes the foundation as dating prior to the fall of Troy, situated in 1215 bce in this historiographical tradition (Lancel 1992: 33–34); it attributes the foundation to two eponymous founders from Tyre, Azoros and Karkhedon (FGrH III B 556 F 47 for Philistus; skolion to Euripidus, The Trojan Women 221 for Eudoxus; Lasserre 1966: F 360; Van Compernolle 1959: 139–40). The second tradition is attached to Timaeus of Taormina (Tauromenion), who wrote in the third century bce; Timaeus dated the foundation of Carthage thirty-eight years prior to the first Olympiad, as reported by Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Roman Antiquities I 74, 1)—that is, 814 bce. Finally, the third tradition, which we could term “Levantine” in the sense that it is based on Near Eastern sources and more specifically on the archives from Tyre, is attached to Menander of Ephesus, who wrote in the first half of the second century bce; according to this tradition, which was transmitted by Josephus (Against Apion I, 116–26), the foundation of Carthage would be dated between 825 and 820 bce (Bunnens 1979: 315–29; Gras et al. 1989: 203–204).
The latter two traditions, therefore, provide dates in the final quarter of the ninth century bce, and, contrary to Philistus, they designate Elissa (‘Ališat, in all likelihood), the sister of Pygmalion, king of Tyre, as the founder of the city (FGrH III C 783 T 3c for Menander of Ephesus; FGrH III B 566 F 82 for Timaeus of Taormina). Timaeus, who additionally states that Elissa took the name of Dido (Δείδω) (the name later popularized by Virgil) when she landed on the shores of Africa, appears to have known the foundation myth transmitted to us by Justin. Writing in the third century CE, Justin and gives us the most detailed version, embellished by the famous ruse of the oxhide (XVIII, 5; compare the excerpts that follow; see also Scheid and Svenbro 1985). The convergence of the last two traditions and their coherence has permitted the date of 814 bce to impose itself progressively as the traditional date for the foundation of Carthage.
This date, stemming from the literary sources, has, however, been regularly questioned, given its lack of confirmation from the archaeological record, at least until recently. In this respect, recent research, and in particular that undertaken by the University of Hamburg on the coastal plain, has helped bridge the gap between the literary and archaeological data. The earliest archaeological occupation levels have been dated to 760 bce, on the basis of late Greek Geometric pottery (Niemeyer et al. 2007: 453–91; Docter et al. 2008: 380). More recently, the results of a radiocarbon dating program on faunal remains associated with equivalent levels, excavated by the University of Ghent in an area close by, have suggested a date at the end of the ninth century bce for the levels in question (Docter et al. 2008: 382–84 and figs. 8–13). Looking beyond the ongoing debates regarding the validity of the different dating methods, it appears undeniable that the dates obtained from archaeological research are sufficiently close to the traditional date of 814 bce for us to maintain that Carthage was most probably founded during the second half of the ninth century, and most likely during its last quarter. It is worth reproducing here the excerpts from Timaeus and from Justin’s Epitome of Trogus about Elissa and the founding of Carthage:
Theiosso: Timaios says this was what Elissa was called in Phoenician – she being the sister of Pygmalion, king of Tyre. And he says that she founded Carthage in Libya. When her husband was killed by Pygmalion, she put her possessions on shipboard and fled with some of the citizens, coming to Libya after great hardship. Because of her extensive wanderings she was called Deido by the locals, that is, by the Libyans. When she founded the aforementioned city, the king of Libya desired her as wife, but she refused him. She was, however, pressured by her citizens. On a pretext of performing a ritual to free her from her oaths (not to marry), she constructed a large pyre by her house; when it had been lighted, she threw herself from her abode onto the pyre. (FGrH III B 566 F 82 = BNJ 566 F 82; translation by Craige Champion)
*
Justin’s Epitome: [18.4, 3] Meanwhile their king died at Tyre, appointing his son Pygmalion and his daughter Elissa, a maiden of extraordinary beauty, his heirs. But the people gave the throne to Pygmalion, who was quite a boy. Elissa married Acerbas, her uncle, who was priest of Hercules, a dignity next to that of the king. Acerbas had great but concealed riches, having laid up his gold, for fear of the king, not in his house, but in the earth; a fact of which, though people had no certain knowledge of it, report was not silent. Pygmalion, excited by the account, and forgetful of the laws of humanity, murdered his uncle, who was also his brother-in-law, without the least regard to natural affection. Elissa long entertained a hatred to her brother for his crime, but at last, dissembling her detestation, and assuming mild looks for the time, she secretly contrived a mode of flight, admitting into her confidence some of the leading men of the city, in whom she saw that there was a similar hatred of the king, and an equal desire to escape. She then addressed her brother in such a way as to deceive him; pretending that “she had a desire to remove to his house, in order that the home of her husband might no longer revive in her, when she was desirous to forget him, the oppressive recollection of her sorrows, and that the sad remembrances of him might no more present themselves to her eyes.
” To these words of his sister, Pygmalion was no unwilling listener, thinking that with her the gold of Acerbas would come to him. But Elissa put the attendants, who were sent by the king to assist in her removal, on board some vessels in the early part of the evening, and sailing out into the deep made them throw some loads of sand, put up in sacks, as if it was money, into the sea. Then, with tears and mournful laments, she invoked Acerbas, entreating that “he would favorably receive his wealth which he had left behind him, and accept that as an offering to his shade, which he had found to be the cause of his death.” Next she addressed the attendants, and said that “death had long been desired by her, but as for them, cruel torments and a direful end awaited them, for having disappointed the tyrant’s avarice of those treasures, in the hopes of obtaining which he had committed fratricide.” Having thus struck terror into them all, she took them with her as companions of her flight. Some bodies of senators, too, who were ready against that night, came to join her, and having offered a sacrifice to Hercules, whose priest Acerbas had been, proceeded to seek a settlement in exile.
[18.5] Their first landing place was the isle of Cyprus, where the priest of Jupiter, with his wife and children, offered himself to Elissa, at the instigation of the gods, as her companion and the sharer of her fortunes, stipulating for the perpetual honour of the priesthood for himself and his descendants. The stipulation was received as a manifest omen of good fortune. It was a custom among the Cyprians to send their daughters, on stated days before their marriage, to the sea-shore, to prostitute themselves, and thus procure money for their marriage portions, and to pay, at the same time, offerings to Venus for the preservation of their chastity in time to come. Of these Elissa ordered about eighty to be seized and taken on board, that her men might have wives, and her city a population. During the course of these transactions, Pygmalion, having heard of his sister’s flight, and preparing to pursue her with unfeeling hostility, was scarcely induced by the prayers of his mother and the menaces of the gods to remain quiet; the inspired augurs warning him that “he would not escape with impunity, if he interrupted the founding of a city that was to become the most prosperous in the world.” By this means some respite was given to the fugitives; and Elissa, arriving in a gulf of Africa, attached the inhabitants of the coast, who rejoiced at the arrival of foreigners, and the opportunity of bartering commodities with them, to her interest. Having then bargained for a piece of ground, as much as could be covered with an ox-hide, where she might refresh her companions, wearied with their long voyage, until she could conveniently resume her progress, she directed the hide to be cut into the thinnest possible strips, and thus acquired a greater portion of ground than she had apparently demanded; whence the place had afterwards the name of Byrsa. The people of the neighbourhood subsequently gathering about her, bringing, in hopes of gain, many articles to the strangers for sale, and gradually fixing their abodes there, some resemblance of a city arose from the concourse. Ambassadors from the people of Utica, too, brought them presents as relatives, and exhorted them “to build a city where they had chanced to obtain a settlement.” An inclination to detain the strangers was felt also by the Africans; and, accordingly, with the consent of all, Carthage was founded, an annual tribute being fixed for the ground which it was to occupy. At the commencement of digging the foundations an ox’s head was found, which was an omen that the city would be wealthy, indeed, but laborious and always enslaved. It was therefore removed to another place, where the head of a horse was found, which, indicating that the people would be warlike and powerful, portended an auspicious site. In a short time, as the surrounding people came together at the report, the inhabitants became numerous, and the city itself extensive.
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