Carthaginian Empire

Founded about 814 BC as a colony of Tyre it became a major commercial and maritime power that dominated the western Mediterranean until the mid third century BC.Having this dominate power Carthage inevitably came into conflict with its neighbors Berbers of North Africa to the nascent Roman Republic. Following a centuries-long series of conflicts with the Sicilian Greeks, its growing competition with Rome culminated in the Punic Wars (264–146 BC), which saw some of the largest and most sophisticated battles in antiquity, and nearly led to Rome's destruction. In 146 BC, after the third and final Punic War, the Romans destroyed Carthage and established a new city in its place.

The specific date, circumstances, and motivations concerning Carthage's founding are unknown. All surviving accounts of Carthage's foundation come from Latin and Greek literature, which are generally legendary in nature but may have some basis in fact. The myth is that it was founded by colonists from the ancient Phoenician city-state of Tyre, led by its exiled princess Dido (also known as Queen Elissa or Alissar) Elissa's brother, Pygmalion (Phoenician: Pummayaton) had murdered her husband, the high priest of the city, and taken power as a tyrant. Elissa and her allies escape his reign and establish Carthage, which becomes a prosperous city under her rule as queen.

The Roman historian Justin, writing in the second century AD, provides an account of the city's founding based on the earlier work of Trogus. Princess Elissa is the daughter of King Belus II of Tyre, who upon his death bequeaths the throne jointly to her and her brother Pygmalion. After cheating his sister out of her share of political power, Pygmalion murders her husband Acerbas (Phoenician: Zakarbaal), also known as Sychaeus, the High Priest of Melqart, whose wealth and power he covets.^[20] Before her tyrannical brother can take her late husband's wealth, Elissa immediately flees with her followers to establish a new city abroad.

Upon landing in North Africa, she is greeted by the local Berber chieftain, Iarbas (also called Hiarbas) who promises to cede as much land as could be covered by a single ox hide. With her characteristic cleverness, Dido cuts the hide into very thin strips and lays them end to end until they encircle the entire hill of Byrsa. While digging to set the foundation of their new settlement, the Tyrians discover the head of an ox, an omen that the city would be wealthy "but laborious and always enslaved". In response they move the site of the city elsewhere, where the head of a horse is found, which in Phoenician culture is a symbol of courage and conquest. The horse foretells where Dido's new city will rise, becoming the emblem of Carthage, derived from the Phoenician Qart-Hadasht, meaning "New City"The city's wealth and prosperity attracts both Phoenicians from nearby Utica and the indigenous Libyans, whose king Iarbas now seeks Elissa's hand in marriage. Threatened with war should she refuse, and also loyal to the memory of her deceased husband, the queen orders a funeral pyre to be built, where she commits suicide by stabbing herself with a sword. She is thereafter worshiped as a goddess by the people of Carthage, who are described as brave in battle but prone to the "cruel religious ceremony" of human sacrifice, even of children, whenever they seek divine relief from troubles of any kind.