Carthaginian Government

Definition

The government of Carthage was based on a system of elected officials accountable to a popular assembly. Unlike its founding city, Tyre in Phoenicia, Carthage did not have a monarchy but its politics was dominated by an aristocratic elite which was composed of competing clans and which held all important political, judicial, and military positions. As in other contemporary ancient cultures participation in political life and the popular assembly of the city was limited to those who held citizenship – indigenous and free males. Although the system was praised by such noted figures as Aristotle, some of the exact workings of the Carthaginian government have remained elusive, a situation further confused by Greek and Roman writers using their own familiar terminology to describe the political institutions of Carthage.

More about: Carthaginian Government

Timeline

  • c. 814 BCE
    Traditional founding date for the Phoenician colony of Carthage by Tyre.
  • 539 BCE
    Etruscan & Carthaginian alliance expels the Greeks from Corsica.
  • 510 BCE - 509 BCE
    First treaty between Rome and Carthage.
  • 306 BCE
    Carthage and Agathocles of Syracuse sign a peace treaty and divide Sicily between them.
  • 255 BCE
    Carthage sues for peace during the First Punic War but the Roman consul Regulus' excessive demands are rejected.
  • 241 BCE - 238 BCE
    The rebellion of the mercenaries: Unpaid mercenaries under the leadership of Mathos and Spendios rebel against Carthage. Despite a peace treaty, Rome seizes the opportunity to strip Carthage of Sardinia and Corsica.
  • 146 BCE
    End of the Third Punic War. Carthage is destroyed and its lands become the Roman province Africa.
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