What Was The City Of Carthage Like Before Rome Eradicated It? | Lost Treasures | Odyssey

[Music] [Music] thank you across North Africa physical reminders of Roman occupation are widespread close to Tunis is an incredible archaeological site where the remains provide strong indications of a vibrant Roman way of life [Music] [Music] thank you but there was a city here long before the arrival of the Romans and evidence has been found of this earlier more mysterious community [Music] veiled images of horror and darkest Deeds centered at the topet sanctuary Deeds would shock the rest of the Civilized World until the city's complete destruction in the fires of War it then rose again as one of the finest settlements of the Roman age named after the Roman name for its inhabitants this was the city of Punic Carthage one of many Phoenician outposts [Music] foreign it was a trading center which maintained close links with Tire but with the fall of that City to King Nebuchadnezzar in 574 BC Carthage emerged as the major Phoenician territory in its own right for the next 400 years it was one of the greatest powers of the whole of the ancient world in that time Carthage grew into a large and prosperous City the Greek writer strabo suggested that as many as 700 000 people lived here this figure may be slightly overstated but there's no doubt that it was one of the largest settlements of its time it was a City built on trade its inhabitants were famous across the known world as sea-going merchants they applied the whole of the Mediterranean and Beyond in their distinctive Phoenician round boats these were fast sail-powered vessels with an enormous cargo capacity the Sailor Merchants put this capacity to good use they bought and sold Metals jewelry Pottery foodstuffs animals and anything else that would make a profit for them and their City [Music] discover the past with exclusive history documentaries from history hit and uncover the secrets of some of the most famous people and events in history delve into the history of the Ancients with history hits exclusive offering of documentaries explore with us the enchanting Temple of Karnak will take a deep dive into the fascinating pre-history of Scotland we also aim to bring you the stories and legends that shaped our world through our award-winning podcast Network sign up now for a free trial and odyssey fans get 50 off their first three months just be sure to use the code Odyssey at checkout as I see going people the carthaginians were fortunate with their City's location situated on a Promontory on the Gulf of Tunis Carthage possessed two superb harbors although both have long since silted up we can consider what these Harbors would have looked like during the city's greatest days the first Harbor was devoted to Merchant shipping in its day this must have been a bustling Dockside environment with goods from across the known World busily loaded and unloaded in search of these Goods the carthaginians expanded the boundaries of that known world outside it's a bit difficult to see why Carthage is such an important city in the ancient Mediterranean after all Tunis isn't a particularly important city in mediterranean-wide politics today but in the ancient Mediterranean the logic of where the sea routes take you makes Tunisia and the Gulf of Tunis which is where Carthage is situated absolutely Central to all the patterns of movement which are so essential for ancient culture Athens savacus Alexandria and Rome itself in later Antiquity all shared with Carthage a Fame Which derived from being this kind of Mediterranean Center for those who go to Carthage and see the ruins there is the charm of its position lovely spot by the Sea and for those who like something a bit stronger there is the association with the dark habit of child sacrifice we have accounts of the practice of child sacrifice in Carthage from the Greeks and Romans but mostly what we know about the child sacrifice is from the remains in the sacrificial Precinct the toefet as it's called after name in the Bible where the little monuments were set up to these children that were sacrificed the origins of Punic Carthage can be traced to the beginning of the Millennium before Christ to present-day Lebanon then known as phenicia this was the collective name for a group of small independent states dominated by the cities of sidon and Tire the Phoenicians were Traders as sea going people whose commercial contacts stretched as far as the Atlantic coast of Spain it was this desire to trade that led this ancient people to set up small settlements along the North African coast and elsewhere one of these would become the great city of Punic Carthage Carthage developed into an important and prosperous City for three main reasons really first of all its position in the Mediterranean it overlooks the point where the Mediterranean Narrows into a sort of strait between Italy or Sicily and North Africa only 88 miles at the Narrows and so it sits at a sort of Crossroads for navigation in the Mediterranean going East-West or north south from North Africa up to Italy second reason is it's moment in history it was established when essentially civilization developed cities existed in the east of the Mediterranean when resources or a particularly valuable resource metal and in particular tin and silver was available at the extreme West End of the Mediterranean in Spain so ships were sailing right along the Mediterranean to get this resource and Carthage was obviously well placed on that route and then the third reason would be the population of Carthage that it had the population to exploit these resources commercially and they exploited the possibilities of their city and made it successful in that way tradition says that Carthage was founded by Elisa a Phoenician princess Frontier also known as Dido according to the Greek historian timayos Dido fled Tire following the murder of her husband by her brother King Pygmalion fearing for her life she left phenicia with a fleet of ships to seek a new beginning in Africa arriving in what is now known as Northern Tunisia in 814 BC she struck a deal with the local tribesmen she would buy from them as much land as could be enclosed within the hide of an ox by cutting the oxide Into Thin strips Dido and her Entourage were able to acquire Bursa Hill and its adjoining Beach this cunningly acquired territory would be named after the Phoenician for New City cart hadashed or Carthage the story that we know from the ancient historian time years of the origins of Carthage is particularly interesting because it's such a common Greek type of story about the origins of an overseas settlement just the kind of story with which the Greeks who founded cities up and down the Mediterranean explained how they had come to be in new places so far away from their Homeland if it was a story about an ordinary Greek city it wouldn't be particularly interesting in its own right it's so like so many others but Carthage of course doesn't sound like a Greek city it's a city belonging to the Phoenicians it speaks a language which is different from Greek it worships different gods but what this story reminds us of is that if you thought about who you were as a people if you thought about what your city meant and how powerful it was if you wanted to place it in the tradition of other cities that had succeeded by the 5th Century BC and certainly by the fourth and the third when taimirs is writing you needed a story which fitted in to the kinds of ways in which Greeks talked about their City foundations and what this story shows us about the carthaginians is that gradually as time went by they became culturally blended with the rest of the Mediterranean World while retaining their own sense of their identity while retaining The Phoenician language and Phoenician religion their pursuit of any trading opportunity was remarkable in the 5th Century BC an admiral named Hano LED an expedition to the west coast of Africa there is strong evidence that he journeyed as far as the Gulf of Guinea if he did make such a journey it would remain unsurpassed for two thousand years his compatriot Hamilton led a similar Voyage to the north looking for tin in particular it's quite possible that his Fleet journeyed as far as Ireland in their quest for profit and wealth kano's Voyage was really something of an exception the vast majority of the trading voyages were much more local they were within the Mediterranean or just going through the Straits of Gibraltar to Cadiz or the northern coast of Morocco the carcinogenian Voyages up to Britain up to Cornwall in pursuit of Cornish tin probably at some moment carthaginian sailors did get to Cornwall but generally this was not something that happened um the way the trade probably worked was that the carthaginians from Carthage traded with other carthaginian people based in Spain Cadiz for example the west coast of Spain who traded further up the Atlantic coast up to Modern France and then people from the west coast of France would actually have crossed the made the sea Crossing to Cornwall so it's trade in several stages not directly from Carthage itself next to carthage's commercial Harbor was the circular military Harbor the base of a feared and Powerful Fleet it's not surprising that carthaginian prowess in the construction and use of cargo vessels was matched by their abilities with ships of War it was the Phoenicians who first introduced the system of deploying oarsmen in Banks one above the other these were the famous byereems and trirenes time and time again these fighting vessels would sail from carthage's military Harbor to engage the enemy of the day Punic Carthage was frequently at War the desire to secure trade routes and colonies led to many conflicts with rival Mediterranean powers the Greeks and later the Romans engaged Carthage in some of the bloodiest battles of the ancient world the Greek Sicilian colony of Syracuse was a regular foe Sicily isn't just the biggest island of the Mediterranean it's also slap bang in the middle of the Mediterranean so throughout the last 2 500 years or so it has always been a Flashpoint because its North Coast faces towards the Western Mediterranean its South Coast faces towards Africa and the east coast and this is quite important faces towards Greece which means that from the 8th Century BC on there were a number of very important Greek cities on the east coast of Sicily the most important of these was Syracuse which in many respects was as important as Athens was in what we call Mainland Greece and the west of Sicily is only a matter of about 18 miles away from North Africa so not surprisingly again throughout history those who hold power in North Africa have sought to control the Western end of Sicily those on the Eastern side of Sicily have looked towards Greece have looked for most of the first Millennium A.D towards the Greek speaking World towards Byzantium later on while the northern side of Sicily looks towards Western Europe so it isn't surprising that there are constant conflicts here so Sicily had constant struggles between the carthaginians from North Africa in the west the Greeks in the East and with the Rise of Rome to power in Italy during the second half of the 4th Century BC we have a third element the Romans so it isn't really surprising that Greeks Romans and carthaginians should have fought over Sicily 4th Century BC was a time of almost continuous conflict between the Greeks and the carthaginians ancient authors describe battles of terrible cruelty in 397 BC the carthaginian colony of matya was besieged and its entire population wiped out by the Greeks this Slaughter was in response to an earlier atrocity when three thousand Greeks were tortured and killed by the carthaginians in the history of Punic Carthage at War incidents like these were regular occurrences one of the factors that contributed to this was carthaginian religion [Music] they worshiped a number of Phoenician Gods most notably the husband and wife deities Bal and turn it the importance of the goddess tarlet to the population can still be seen today in the precinct known as the tophet sanctuary symbol can be seen everywhere on the steli or tombstones placed here over 2 000 years ago this ancient Place reveals why the carthaginians were so despised by their neighbors here were placed thousands of small urns each containing the ashes of sacrifices offered to the Gods the sacrificial victims of the carthaginians were children most of the remains in the urns we can actually tell how old they are from the teeth bones of infants when they're cremated they're just dust in many cases or very tiny fragments the teeth give you a very good indication of how well they are so this is how we know how old they are what seems to have sometimes happened is that you find the remains of a neonatal child and a two-year-old this has been interpreted as meaning that the neonatal child was a second or third child that was promised before birth that when this child was born it was going to be offered up in sacrifice to the gods maybe it was born still born so the family had to then choose the next oldest child that between neonatal and two years being a fairly natural Gap in childbearing but on this whole question of child sacrifice that is controversy between experts there are some people who say that the children weren't actually sacrificed live that these were children who had already died of natural causes infant mortality must have been high then as in many other earlier societies and that they were offered to the Gods others say they were certainly sacrificed as live children our general knowledge of the ancient Mediterranean World thinking of the Greeks and Romans as well would lead us to think that probably they were actually sacrificed live for example in Roman law parents could not be held guilty of murder if they killed a child that was under a year old so even up to a year old you weren't properly a human being in Roman law and this concept probably applied in Carthage the difference in Carthage from the Greeks and Romans was that the killing of children was institutionalized as a Public Act of Devotion to the Gods the practice of child sacrifice Remains the most notorious aspect of carthaginian religious life but their belief in its beneficial effect was strong this was proved infamously in 307 BC in that year syracuseian troops landed in North Africa with the intention of conquering Carthage itself terrified the priest leaders of the city prayed for the intercession of Baal to appease him no fewer than 500 children were strangled in public they were then burnt and their ashes deposited in the tophet sanctuary although horrifying the carthaginians believed their procedure worked for reasons still obscure the syracuseian forces withdrew from Africa one of the reasons why it is thought that child sacrifice continued in Carthage and indeed seems to have been done increasingly as time went on rather than decreasing was that it was socially convenient that it was a form of postnatal Family Planning families could reduce their size so that their inheritance and wealth was not split up and reduced to greatly and at the same time by carrying out this religious Act of devotion it meant that they were favored publicly by their gods and were seen to be special within that Society not all aspects of carthaginian religion were so gruesome the deity eshman was venerated as the god of good health in his honor a magnificent Temple was constructed located on Bursa Hill the Temple of ashmun was possibly the finest architectural achievement of Punic Carthage no Trace if it remains today but it is mentioned Often by ancient writers it's enormous 60-step staircase was its most striking feature it can almost be considered a wonder of the ancient world in the 3rd Century BC this Temple dominated the skyline of a city at the peak of its powers prosperous and stable the city of Carthage was the center of a far wider area of influence in the hinterland agriculture thrived figs citrus fruits and olives were grown so was the date palm which was carthage's emblem this can be seen on many surviving coins of the age animal husbandry also flourished cattle sheep poultry and horses were reared while carthaginian honey and Beeswax were famed throughout the world in the politics of the region the city's influence spread across North Africa and the Western Mediterranean it was undoubtedly a great world power [Music] around this time a new power began to rise whose military forces would bring disaster this power was Rome as well as in the territory immediately around the city the Empire that Carthage gradually built up in other words was a commercial empire which was run in increasingly innovative ways for the profit of the carthaginian aristocracy the political class there the trouble was that in being a Mediterranean Hub and in increasingly exploiting all the economic opportunities of the parts of the Mediterranean world with which Carthage had contact the city wasn't alone in Italy since the 5th Century BC maybe since the 6th Century BC another state another city had been doing very much the same and that city was Rome Roman Carthage already in the 6th Century BC had a pact not to trespass on each other's commercial territory as the 4th Century went by the Romans rather like the carthaginians began to run the parts of Italy that they had contact with increasingly for their own profit so as the time went by Carthage came to have a rival both in terms of its Mediterranean Horizons and in terms of the organization of territory for productive purposes 264 BC war broke out between the two sides with Syracuse again the flashpoint for Carthage the conflict began well Rome's experience of Naval Warfare was nothing compared to its enemies a succession of Roman fleets were either destroyed in battle or Shipwrecked this resulted in a catastrophic loss of life while in 255 BC 17 000 Romans were killed in a single battle in North Africa in 17 years of War Rome lost 15 percent of its population of adult men unfortunately for Carthage the Romans had not lost their resolve at the Battle of the egitis islands in 241 BC a new Roman Fleet finally triumphed over their enemy bringing victory in the first of the Punic Wars The crucial thing about why the Romans won their battles against the carthaginians was one of the factors that made the Romans win all of their battles it's not to do with tactics it's not so much to do with training it's to do with a Roman peculiarity the Romans were very good at actually killing people in single hand-to-hand combat the Romans emphasized the fact that in Warfare you don't just need other things that you do need the support of the Gods is very very important of course and having a good Commander is very important too but the first of the virtues in Roman eyes and this is explicitly stated in speeches that the Romans themselves make is the ability to actually stick bits of metal into your opponent and in Roman history it is actual hand-to-hand fighting that is what the Romans are best at so that's why the Romans manage to win victories both at CNN land they have the grappling hooks with which they effective they turn a sea Battle from an exercise in skill and seamanship into an exercise at fighting on land and in that kind of a battle these unspeakably awful Romans and they're described by ancient writers as unspeakably awful are just much much better at simply killing the enemy the two subsequent Punic Wars would seal the fate of Carthage fighting resumed in 218 BC with the famous carthaginian Hannibal the dominant figure he secured his place in legend by Leading an army from carthaginian territory in Spain into Italy itself his March over the Alps with an army of men and elephants is a story still told today once in Italy he proved himself a brilliant General at can I in 216 BC his forces defeated the Romans in one of the bloodiest battles ever fifty thousand Romans may have been killed compared with less than 6 000 on Hannibal's side however Hannibal's Brilliance as a general would not be enough to win the war the Romans adopted a long-term strategy refusing to engage Hannibal's troops in open combat in addition the Roman general Scipio destroyed carthage's forces in Spain cutting off their supply lines with Hannibal now isolated in Italy Scipio decided to force a final battle he led an army to attack Carthage itself hoping to lure his enemy back from Italy to lead his homeland's defense his Hope was realized on the 25th of October 202 BC the forces of Scipio and Hannibal met at the Battle of Zama it was the great carthaginian General's first and only defeat for his Nation it was the beginning of the end the Romans imposed a humiliating peace settlement Carthage lost her Navy her colonies and much of her own territory she was also forbidden to wage war under any circumstances was completely defeated in the Second Punic War it gave up but it wasn't the end Rome didn't choose to destroy Carthage at that point there was as it turned out another 50 years of history for Carthage and the remarkable thing is the speed with which Carthage recovered and not just recovered to its former levels of power and prosperity but rapidly increased in size in prosperity and once again in power to a level which was perhaps greater than anything that had seen been seen before in the third century at the same time in the aftermath of the Second Punic War the Mediterranean was continuing to grow in prosperity both the dominions of Rome and those that were left to Carthage were increasingly engaged in trade and in the sorts of profitable agriculture that the carthaginians had been specializing in and it's for these reasons that a new clash between Rome and Carthage was probably inevitable in 154 BC neighboring New Media began to Annex carthaginian territory including valuable farmland Carthage protested to Rome but the Romans did nothing eventually the new median provocations became too much Carthage fought back fully aware of the inevitable response from Rome in 149 BC 84 000 Roman troops arrived in Africa on a mission of Destruction Carthage was quickly besieged the City's population resolved to fight to the end famously the city's women cut off their hair to make ropes for catapults for three long years The Siege continued then in 146 BC the Romans broke through What followed is barely credible in 10 days the city was taken house by house Street by Street the battle raged in a scene from Hell buildings were set Ablaze the dead piled high in the streets soon only the Temple of eschmoon remained in the hands of Carthage ten days into the battle General has drabal surrendered after the likely loss of over a half a million people the final dramatic act Punic Carthage came when has drabal's wife learned of the surrender disgusted with what she felt was her husband's cowardice she left the temple and threw herself and her children into the city fires but this gesture of Defiance the story of Punic Carthage reached its horrifying conclusion in the middle of the second century BC the Romans decided that the way to make their mark on history the way to establish once and for all that the people who decided whether ancient cities had a future or not in the Mediterranean the people who made that decision were going to be the Romans and the Romans only and in 146 they made that absolutely clear in choosing within a few months of each other to destroy one 600 year old city from the Western Mediterranean and won 600 year old city from the Eastern Mediterranean and Carthage was the city in the West Covent was the city in the East and both cities were not just destroyed humiliated defeated Foster surrender but symbolically annihilated so that their histories were seen to come to a formal end the destruction was total the city was raised to the ground and its few surviving inhabitants condemned to slavery the ground where it had stood was cursed and according to some sources covered with salt the once massive city became a deserted Wasteland but not for long [Music] in the first century BC Caesar visited the ruins he announced that a new city should be built there under his successor Augustus his wishes were carried out the Romans refunded Carthage having destroyed it because they had knocked out what is probably the best location for a major city in the central part of North Africa Carthage overlooked this narrow part of the sea from Sicily in Italy so it was an obvious place for a major Harbor and it was also in immediate contact with one of the most fertile agricultural areas of North Africa where both wheat and from slightly further afield in Tunisia olive oil were produced in enormous quantities and shipped over to Rome plus when the Romans destroyed Carthage they'd knocked out a great population and Cultural Center in North Africa it was where the centers of some of the major religious cults were you can't do that and leave it with a vacuum so they had to put something in its place and So eventually Roman Carthage comes back partly to be a place for Roman colonists but also very much to re-establish the city for the north Africans under Roman control 29 BC 3 000 Roman colonists arrived the founders of the new city of Colonia Julia carfago over the next centuries this city would be known by the same name as its predecessor these were the days of Roman Carthage unlike its predecessor much of it can still be seen today the first and second Carthage is displayed similarities and differences the early centuries A.D saw Roman Carthage become a large and prosperous City like its predecessor shipping was important as a source of wealth the famous Harbors were enlarged agriculture flourished as before and the layout of Roman Carthage had much in common with Punic Carthage the main difference between the two cities was the essentially peaceful life enjoyed by the inhabitants of the Roman City efficient Roman Administration contributed to this as did the abolition of the old bloodthirsty Punic religion the Africans who began to inhabit the new city adopted the Roman Pantheon of Gods the Romans took over the carthagin in gods and goddesses and essentially allowed their religion While most of their religion to take place they didn't like the practice of child sacrifice it went on for a while it seems after the Roman conquest of Africa but eventually died out slowly but for example tanit the principal goddess of Carthage became well two Roman goddesses I mean well a whole number of Roman goddesses but two principally one is Juno and one of the capitoline Triad one of the principal goddesses of Rome and this was politically convenient to the Romans because they could put one of their principal goddesses into Carthage and she immediately was associated with the principal goddess of Carthage but more widely Tani became a less known Roman goddess called chilestis and there are Cults to kalistis well over North Africa and in Rome itself and cholest is meant effectively turnied Bale became Saturn who was also a very old Roman deity and this was essentially done with the other carthaginian gods undoubtedly agriculture was as important to Roman Carthage as its Punic predecessor Roman food requirements resulted in annual shipments of up to half a million tons of grain from North Africa to Rome large Estates grew up where slavery was often used as the source of Labor for the owners of such a state though life was far from hard against an essentially peaceful political background it was a good time to be a wealthy man in tunis's Bardo Museum can be seen the famous Lord Julius mosaic the depiction of life on a 4th Century estate the wealthy landowner can be seen with his servants around him looking almost like a king his wife too is shown in a Regal disposition as she receives a necklace from a maidservant while all around are scenes of everyday life on the land mosaics such as this are amongst the finest artistic achievements of Roman Carthage many can still be seen both in their original location and in modern museums [Music] although many have been badly damaged over the centuries they offer a fine illustration of life in those days the continuing importance of sea going is a theme that occurs time and time again [Music] wild animals can also be seen in many of the works that survive with sea creatures a popular source of subject matter images such as these can be legitimately considered works of art in their own right for the ancient historian however it is the depictions of everyday life in Carthage that provide the most significant information in the center of the Lord Julius Mosaic is seen the Villa of the landowner there can be no doubt that this was a luxurious residence confirmation of the fine homes enjoyed by the wealthy is also provided by archeology the remains of several fine Roman homes can be seen today in an area known as the park of the Roman Villas this site from the later period of Roman carthage's history is a popular destination for visitors here the love of floor mosaics can be clearly seen as can the Roman enthusiasm for straight roadways this would have been an exclusive area in which to live although this may not be immediately apparent from the surviving stones the modern visitor can easily imagine what these buildings look like during their period of habitation the physical and historical evidence however leaves us in no doubt that these were once fine residences for the well-off citizens of Carthage homes such as these would have been enjoyed not only by native Romans but by romanized Africans the Roman system of administration enabled Africans to play a full role in the life of the city in the second century in particular native Africans began to excel in the legal profession and in Academia the University of Carthage was noted throughout the empire the great African Christian Saint Augustine was educated there perhaps because of this openness the history of Roman Carthage in its first centuries is free from major political upheavals and War in comparison with Punic Carthage the Roman City's existence seems almost serene with the absence of the war's destructive forces attention was instead focused on the construction of great buildings of these perhaps none were greater than the antonine baths completed in ad 146 during the reign of Emperor antoninus Pius the baths named after him were almost unrivaled in the Roman Empire their remains are still clearly visible today though substantial in itself this surviving structure represents only the basement of what was once a Triumph of engineering and architecture the antonym bars in Carthage were the fourth largest building in the Roman world only some of the really great baths in Rome like the bars of caracala and arcletian were bigger when he went to the baths you entered a place where you could change and leave your clothes and then you had a choice of bathing experience you could go to hot humid wet heat and sweat you could go to hot dry heat and feel very hot and dry or you could go to various types of warm and cold baths the way the baths were heated was underfloor Heating either brick pillars or I think in the case of the antonine bars they're actually made of stone support the floors which are suspended above the ground and then there are furnaces outside and the hot air from the furnaces is leading under the floors and then piped up through the walls so the whole structure is heated up in the antonine bars there was also a huge open-air swimming pool actually linked with the seed because the bars are located right on the seafront but one of the most spectacular features of the antonym bars was the huge covered Hall at the center which was very very lavishly decorated architecturally it had huge marble columns 40 feet high and this was a place where you could hang around and socialize and engage in local politics and do these sorts of things this wonderful construction was a Marvel of the Roman age in Africa for centuries carthaginians enjoyed its facilities for those citizens the baths provided more than leisure they were an integral part of the city's social life where both important issues and everyday gossip could be discussed it was not uncommon for a citizen to spend most of the day within the baths complex there is no doubt that for many wealthy citizens leisure activities took up a great part of their daily life other surviving physical remains confirmed this close to the site of the antonym baths located the remains of one of Roman carthage's two theaters like the bards this structure was completed in the second century and likewise provided a focus for the social life of the City built to a typical Roman semicircular design and with an audience capacity of some five thousand it's not difficult for the modern visitor to imagine performances here in Roman times carthaginian citizens would have enjoyed a wide variety of artistic work the words of the author are pulius are worth recalling to give a flavor of the artistic achievements that took place here an African who also graduated from the University of Carthage he once stood here prior to a production of his work floridies addressing the audience he outlined his view on the purpose of a theater such as this in this Auditorium what is important is not the marble Paving the architecture of the proscenium or The Colonnade of the stage neither is it the height of the upper galleries the brightly colored box seats or the other seats in a semicircle it is not the fact that one day a mime will play A Burlesque in the same place where on other days a tragic actor will recite comic actor will speak dialogue a tightrope Walker will risk his life or a play actor Will gesticulate in other words all kinds of performers present themselves to the public each according to his own brand of Art the pulis's words provide a clear indication that culture and the Arts played an important part in the life of Roman Carthage but for many citizens entertainment was a far less cultured experience Chariot racing took place before enthusiastic crowds at the circus while the remains of carthage's Amphitheater are another fine relic of the Roman way of life in those days places of spectacle the theater the circus the amphitheater were very important to the Roman way of life first of all As a source of mass entertainment the amphitheater has sometimes rudely been associated with a football ground in that you saw contests between Gladiators and people like that so they were a form of entertainment which had wide appeal entertainments there were paid for by local bigwigs who wish to further their own political careers and one way of doing this was to ingratiate themselves with the population by laying on particularly super performances in the amphitheateral circus it was very important for these bigwigs to do this so that they established their position and develop their careers and so this is very much saying look I paid for these games and they were pretty exotic and special you know I'm a pretty exotic and special guy foreign Gladiators would fight each other and the famous bestiari would risk their lives against the fiercest of wild beasts in this Arena the huge Acclaim men would take on animals like bear leopard and lion creatures like these will also be led into the arena for a far darker purpose the public death of criminals many surviving mosaics depict their terrible fate before an enthusiastic audience in the 3rd Century A.D this same cruel treatment would be meted out not only to offenders but to another group of people these were followers of a new religion that began to sweep over North Africa Christianity several early Christian Martyrs met their deaths here condemned for refusing to accede to The Cult of the emperor practiced at the time in ad 203 Saints Felicity and perpetua became the most famous Christians to die in this Amphitheater cast into the arena with fellow Christians the two women actually survived the initial engagement with leopards Bears bulls and other fearsome beasts their deaths would eventually come from a gladiator's sword it is perhaps in this taste for violence that the characters of the Roman carthaginian were similar to their Punic predecessors we can only guess at how many unfortunates met their death here in the name of entertainment the deaths of the Christian Martyrs in places like this failed to stop the spread of Christianity this was despite continuing persecutions by the 4th Century it was the dominant belief system in North Africa in Carthage this period saw the creation of the fine Villas and mosaics that can still be appreciated today but the relative piece of the first two centuries A.D was now beginning to fade into history the new Christian Church was riddled with dispute and schism as the Roman Empire itself began to crumble rivalries and rebellions manifested themselves across the Roman world this culminated in the split between the Western Empire based at Rome and the Eastern Empire based at Constantinople in addition to these internal pressures Rome came under increasing threat from Barbarian forces such as the Huns Goths and Vandals it was the vandals who would start the process leading to the end of the second Carthage a tribe of Barbarians originally based in Germany they spread from their Homeland through what is now France and Spain before Crossing into North Africa in 429 A.D under their King gasiric the vandals captured Carthage in 439 A.D unlike the Romans of 146 BC however they chose not to destroy it instead it appears that the vandals simply settled into the fine lifestyle that so characterizes Roman carthage's history despite this the Vandal Invasion marks the end of the Glorious age of the city in 533 A.D the city was reclaimed by the forces of the Eastern Roman Empire the emperor at the time was the great Justinian and Carthage was renamed Colonia justinianna carthaggio in his honor the return of the Empire may have eventually initiated a return to carthaginian importance but the rise of a second great new religion ended any hope of a new golden age following the death of Muhammad in 632 A.D the Muslims began to spread across Northern Africa in ad 697 Carthage was seized by Arab forces the following year it was destroyed for good Carthage would not rise again and a story which began some 1500 years before had finally come to an end story remains one of the most fascinating in the history of the ancient world

Channel: Odyssey - Ancient History Documentaries

Views: 15,914

Keywords: ancient history, classical history, ancient civilisations, classical antiquity, history documentary, classical documentary, Carthage, ancient rome documentary, ancient rome in 20 minutes, hannibal, fall of carthage documentary

Id: fCuCTciFhdY

Length: 49min 39sec (2979 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 12 2023