A Republic the Greeks Admired
Carthage’s political system impressed its rivals. Aristotle singled it out as an “excellent form of government,” a mixed constitution balancing suffets (yearly magistrates), a council of elders, and popular assemblies. A powerful court of 104 judges oversaw generals and officials; an oligarchic elite wielded wealth and land, yet the city knew neither tyrants nor major internal revolts for centuries.
This commercial republic ruled an empire of colonies, sent magistrates to govern overseas, and commanded mercenary armies led by dynasties like the Magonids and later the Barcids—Hannibal’s family.
The Long Road to Annihilation
Rivalry first with Greek cities, then with Rome, sharpened over Sicily. The three Punic Wars pitted Carthaginian seamanship and Hannibal’s audacious fifteen‑year occupation of much of Italy against Roman resilience. Rome suffered devastating naval disasters and near‑defeat, yet recovered.
In 146 BC, during the Third Punic War, the struggle narrowed to a single, terrible question: would Carthage continue to exist?
Siege, Fire, and Slavery
The final siege lasted nearly three years. When Scipio Aemilianus at last broke into the city, Roman soldiers pulled Phoenician warships from the harbor and burned them in full view of the walls. They then went house to house, fighting street by street.
Roughly 50,000 survivors were sold into slavery. The city was set ablaze and razed; what had been among the wealthiest, most populous cities in the world was reduced to rubble. Later ages would invoke a “Carthaginian peace” to describe peace terms so brutal they left the defeated side utterly prostrate.
The famous story that Rome sowed the ground with salt is a much later legend with no ancient evidence. The reality needed no embellishment: Carthage had been made a deliberate example of what happened when a mercantile empire defied Rome and lost.