Thread by @Polyhistor13

Carthage was undoubtedly one of the great ancient civilizations, yet aside from specialists, knowledge about it usually is limited to the Second Punic War or, at most the conflict with Rome as a whole. This thread is concerned with its rise to power before it was brought down.

Despite its greatness, there is remarkably little source material on Carthaginian history, especially before the Punic wars, which led the renowned scholar Werner Huß to declare there couldn’t be written a history of Cartage but only chapters of it.

The sources we have were almost exclusively written by Greek or Roman authors (the only exceptions being usually short inscriptions, predominantly about religious matters) which means we are forced into an outside perspective. But let’s see what we can find out regardless

The Phoenicians were renowned merchants and sailors who dominated Mediterranean trade for an enormous amount of time, including the first half of the first millennium BC. Accordingly, they set up many colonies to strengthen their commercial dominance.

Carthage is said to have been founded as such a colony by the city of Tyre in 814 BC although even in antiquity earlier dates were argued for but as the late date is accepted by almost all scholars of the subject, we shall not dwell on it here for too long and assume its truth.

The location of the new city had three major advantages: its natural harbour, the proximity to Sicily, and, most importantly, the extremely fertile farmland around it. The soil around the city was so fertile the fields yielded two full harvests per year.

This enabled Carthage’s fast rise to power and soon its sphere of influence grew and came to encompass more and more of North Africa. This should however not be thought of as direct control (like Roman provinces) but rather as a tributary system.

It has to be noted though that during this time Carthage grew so much that not even the land around it was enough to feed the population, which sparked an expansion abroad, mostly toward Sardinia and Sicily. Both places were famed for their farmland as well.

This is the context in which the first Carthaginian to feature (somewhat) prominently in our sources operated.
Malchus was a nobleman who was entrusted with leading an expedition to Sicily around 580 BC.

Although the source reports are sketchy we can be certain he had great success and probably conquered several big cities, Selinus, Motya, and Panormus are some candidates for it.
Sometime later he also expanded Carthaginian control in North Africa.

Due to his martial prowess, around 540 BC he was eventually sent to campaign in Sardinia, where he established a permanent Punic foothold. After this accomplishment, however, his army got defeated and together with him was sent into exile by the Carthaginian nobility.

Acting as it would later be typical for Roman generals from the Late Republic he resisted his fate and instead marched on Carthage, took it, overthrew the old government and became its ruler.
However, this state didn’t last, and he was overthrown and killed by a man named Mago.

Mago seemed to have been a savvy politician who established a ruling dynasty that lasted for ~200 years. In addition, he was very militarily active and expelled the Greeks from Corsica, thus securing a permanent Punic presence there.

Corsica wasn’t the only theatre he fought in. He won the battle for control of southeastern Spain against the Greeks of Massalia, took Gades and brought about the collapse of the Iberian realm of Tartessos. He thus became the most powerful man in the Western Mediterranean.

Mago’s sons Hasdrubal and Hamilcar largely continued his policy of foreign expansion in Sardinia but also repelled a Greek attempt to establish a colony in Africa. After Hasdrubal’s death, ~510 BC Hamilcar got dragged into wars on Sicily.

He had success at first and consolidated Carthage’s hold on its western half but in 480 BC he lost the disastrous battle of Himera and Carthage’s domain was limited to the western coast. The sources on Carthage remain silent until his grandson, Hannibal waged the next war.

Hanibal Mago first appeared in 410 BC when he was entrusted to lead a new campaign in Sicily because the Greeks there had been weakened by the Peloponnesian War. Hannibal conquered Selinus and Himera, making Carthage the greatest power in Sicily.

Carthage‘s enemies (mainly Syracuse) were forced to sign an armistice but challenged Hannibal again in 406 BC. He immediately laid siege to Acragas, the second most powerful Greek city, but died of a camp disease. His relative Himilco took over from him and took the target.

Having sacked Acragas, Himilco proceeded to take Gela and Camarina, forcing the Syracusans to sign a peace treaty in 405 BC that made Carthage the hegemon of Sicily.
This concludes the story of Carthage’s rise to power; it would spend the next centuries trying to maintain it.