Wealth first, then armies
Carthage was founded as a trading colony and remained a commercial power throughout its history. The accounts of its generals and battles, written by Greeks and Romans, can make it look like a purely military state. A better way to understand it is to start with the money. Its fleet and its army were largely paid for out of trade, taxes on subject territories and farming, and its ability to hire fighters from across the western Mediterranean was a direct result of that wealth. The wars themselves belong to other articles; this one looks at what lay behind them.
The commercial network
Carthage sat in a position that was hard to beat for sea trade: on the narrow waist of the Mediterranean, between Sicily and the coast of North Africa. From there, ships could reach the Levant, Italy, Sardinia, the Iberian Peninsula and the Atlantic coast. Its merchants built on older Phoenician routes and on the city’s inherited skills in shipping, including the techniques associated with Phoenician shipbuilding.
The main trading interests included:
- Metals. Iberia was a major source of silver, and tin from the Atlantic was a valuable import for bronze making. Control of the sources and the sea lanes mattered more than any single port.
- Agricultural produce. The Carthaginian hinterland produced grain, olives and wine. The farming manual attributed to Mago shows that the elite took estate management seriously.
- Manufactured goods. Fine textiles, dyed cloth, pottery, glass and metalwork moved through the harbours, together with goods from Greece and Egypt that Carthage re-exported.
- Other cargo. Ivory, ostrich eggs and slaves are among the items attested in the wider region, though the evidence for volume is thin.
An exploring tradition also existed. A text known as the Periplus of Hanno describes a voyage down the Atlantic coast of Africa, though scholars disagree about how far the voyage went and about the details. It would fit with the Atlantic voyages that Phoenician sailors are credited with more generally.
Trade was regulated by treaty. The historian Polybius preserves the texts of several agreements between Carthage and Rome, which limited where each side’s ships could sail and trade. Their dating and wording are debated, but they show that commerce and diplomacy were closely linked.
Money and ancient economies
Carthage began striking coinage mostly in connection with Sicily, in the later fifth century BCE or so, where it needed to pay troops in a region that already used coins. Later issues in silver and gold circulated more widely. Sophisticated coin minting was one of the ways the city turned metal from Iberian mines into an instrument of power. In the wider study of ancient economies, Carthage stands as an example of a state that mixed private enterprise with state interest, since the same wealthy families often held both political office and trading ventures.
An army that was bought
Carthage had a citizen militia, but for much of its history it preferred to avoid sending its own citizens to fight overseas. Instead it recruited a mixed force, with a core of citizen officers. The soldiers typically included:
- Libyan infantry from subject or allied communities in North Africa.
- Numidian light cavalry, respected by both friends and enemies.
- Iberians and Celtic troops from Spain and Gaul.
- Slingers from the Balearic Islands.
- Greeks and Italians hired for particular campaigns.
The arrangement had real advantages: it kept citizens at home and allowed Carthage to put experienced soldiers in the field quickly. It also had a risk. Hired troops are loyal only as long as pay arrives, and the contract with them is largely financial. Writers such as Polybius describe a violent revolt of unpaid soldiers that followed the end of the First Punic War, in the 240s BCE, when the treasury was depleted and settlement negotiations broke down. The episode shows both how dependent the state was on paid troops and how dangerous that could be. Later campaigns also used war elephants, which were bought and trained as part of the military machine.
The fleet
The navy was the more traditional arm. Carthage drew on a large pool of skilled seamen and shipwrights, and its dockyards, including the circular harbour, could build and shelter many warships. A Punic warship recovered off western Sicily shows that parts were marked with letters, apparently to speed assembly, which suggests organised, semi-standardised production. The oared warships of the period were similar in type to the Greek trireme and its larger successors. The cost of building, crewing and repairing a fleet was enormous, so it was the trade income that made naval power possible.
Why the model was fragile
Because Carthage depended on sea trade, silver and paid forces, it was exposed to setbacks in any of the three. Loss of ports or of Iberian mines reduced both income and the ability to pay soldiers. Relations with subject peoples in North Africa, who supplied taxes and manpower, were sometimes strained. When Rome’s naval strength grew, the very advantage that had protected Carthage was challenged.
The end in 146 BCE
After the Punic Wars, Carthage lost its overseas territories and was left with a smaller commercial city that nonetheless recovered some prosperity. In 146 BCE, after a siege, Rome captured and destroyed the city. Its markets, shipyards and harbours were wrecked, and the commercial network that had made it rich passed into other hands. The siege and the aftermath are covered in a separate article on the destruction of Carthage.