Carthage

Carthage

"Aeneas marvels at the mass of buildings, once huts, marvels at the gates, the noise, the paved roads. The eager Tyrians are busy, some building walls, and raising the citadel, rolling up stones by hand, some choosing the site for a house, and marking a furrow: they make magistrates and laws, and a sacred senate: here some are digging a harbour: others lay down the deep foundations of a theatre, and carve huge columns from the cliff, tall adornments for the future stage. "
Aeneid, I, 421-429 (translation A.S. Kline)
For Virgil, Carthage becomes the perfect setting of the first part of his poem: after years of peregrinations in the Mediterranean, Aeneas and his fellows are shipwrecked by a tempest on the African coasts of Carthage and there they are rescued by the inhabitants. At the first sight, the city of Carthage inspires in Aeneas a feeling of wonder and admiration: there he meets the queen, Dido. She offers to him hospitality and the Trojan hero remains fascinated. The queen, enchanted by the narration of his journey, falls in love with Aeneas. So begins their overwhelming passion that unleashes the wrath of the Libyan king Iarba who was intentioned to marry the queen. However the fate requires Aeneas to continue his journey: Carthage is not the destination to which is committed. So the Trojans set sail through Italy and Dido, desperate for the betrayal and tormented by the pain, kills herself cursing Aeneas and his descendants, invoking eternal hatred between their peoples.
Mosaic in Hadrumetum (modern city of Sousse); early III cent. A.D. (Tunisi, Bardo Museum): Virgilio with two Muses bearing on his leg a scroll with the 8th and 9th lines of I Book of the Aeneid: “Musa mihi causas memora, quo numine laeso. Quidve …”
(crédit photos INP et AMVPPC)
Pierre-Narcisse Guérin, Aeneas telling to Dido the adversities of Troy, 1815
(Parigi, Museo del Louvre)

Phoenician Carthage and Mediterranean Sea

According to the tradition Carthage, «Qart Hadasht» (“the new city”), was founded in 814 b.C. by the Phoenician princess Elissa-Didone.
Brysa Hill where Didone founded in 814 b.C. Qart Hadasht
(crédit photos INP et AMVPPC)
Since VII. cent. b.C the settlement lived an early urban development and an unrestrainable commercial expansion with intense cultural relations in the Mediterranean. However only after VI. and then VII. century B.C., the city strengthens its establishment in the Western Phoenician world, involving, with the northern coast of Africa where its possessions comprehended the borders of modern Algeria and Libya, also Sicily and Sardinia Islands and later the Iberian Peninsula. In this period Carthage established strong boundaries with the Etruscans, with which made a solid alliance against the Phocaeans. The Phocaeans exercised an aggressive piracy in the Tyrrhenian Sea. The war against Carthage took place in 540-535 b.C. with an epic battle at Aleria, in the sea around Corsica. The Phocaeans defeated Carthage but with huge losses that conducted to an effective Etruscan-Punic predominance in this sea. Subsequently Carthage conquered the western part of Sicily, where it established a strong alliance with Elymian cities and Sardinia, particularly important for its mineral and agricultural resources.
Stone stele depicting the bow of a vessel and a Punic inscription, from the tophet of Carthage. Carthage, National Museum.
(Carthago 2020)
In 509 b.C. the city of Carthage concluded a treaty with Rome at that days rapidly expanding in Latium. By the Greek historian Polybius (Stories 3, 22-23), we learned the contents of that agreement whose text was affixed on the walls of Capitolium, in Rome: Romans was not allowed to sail near the coasts of Carthage and near the coasts of Sardinia Island as well as Carthaginians was not allowed to settle in Latium neither attack the cities submitted to Rome. Carthage was situated on the sea in the middle of the wide Gulf of Tunis, on a peninsula connected to the mainland through a long isthmus lined by a wide gulf on a side and on the other side by the lake of Tunis. The most ancient Punic settlement (Didon Neighbourhood) develops by the end of IX. and beginnings of VIII century b.C., and it was identified on the coast: a port city with a regular urban plan which reached an extension of almost 25 hectares during the VII century. In the Magon Neighbourhood, situated near the beach, we can observe an orthogonal system. At the end of III century b.C. these area becomes the seat of rich residences with peristyles and fine decorations comparable with the Pompeian Domus.

Approfondimenti

Informazioni aggiuntive

La città è strettamente legata al racconto del mitico viaggio di Enea, cantato da Virgilio nell’Eneide, come punto di arrivo dell’eroe troiano sulle coste laziali.
Secondo la tradizione ripresa da Virgilio, infatti, appena sbarcato Enea fece il primo sacrificio, in un luogo presso il fiume Numico (oggi Fosso di Pratica: Numico_1), dove poi sarebbe sorto un santuario dedicato a Sol Indiges. Inseguendo una scrofa bianca gravida, l’eroe percorse una distanza di 24 stadi: qui la scrofa partorì trenta piccoli e il prodigio offrì ad Enea un segno della volontà degli dei di fermarsi e fondare una nuova città. L’eroe incontrò Latino, il re della locale popolazione degli Aborigeni, il quale, dopo aver consultato un oracolo, capì che i nuovi arrivati non dovevano essere considerati degli invasori, ma come uomini amici da accogliere. Enea sposò dunque la figlia di Latino, Lavinia, e fondò la città di Lavinium, celebrando la nascita di un nuovo popolo, nato dalla fusione tra Troiani e Aborigeni: il popolo dei Latini. Il mito racconta che Enea non morì, ma scomparve in modo prodigioso tra le acque del fiume Numico e da questo evento fu onorato come Padre Indiges: Il padre capostipite.

La piazza pubblica della città aveva una pianta rettangolare, ornata sui lati lunghi da portici, su cui si aprivano diversi edifici: uno di questi aveva forse la funzione di “Augusteo”, luogo dedicato al culto imperiale, come sembra indicare il ritrovamento di splendidi ritratti degli imperatori Augusto, Tiberio e Claudio. Sul lato corto occidentale si affacciavano un edificio elevato su un podio, forse la Curia (luogo di riunione del governo locale), e un tempio, risalente ad età repubblicana.

Il santuario, situato ad est della città antica, era dedicato alla dea Minerva, che a Lavinium è dea guerriera, ma anche protettrice dei matrimoni e delle nascite. È stato trovato un enorme scarico di materiale votivo databile tra la fine del VII e gli inizi del III sec. a.C., costituito soprattutto da numerose statue in terracotta raffiguranti soprattutto offerenti, sia maschili che femminili, alcune a grandezza naturale, che donano alla divinità melograni, conigli, colombe, uova e soprattutto giocattoli: le offerte simboleggiano l’abbandono della fanciullezza e il passaggio all’età adulta attraverso il matrimonio


Eccezionale il ritrovamento di una statua della dea, armata di spada, elmo e scudo e affiancata da un Tritone, essere metà umano e metà pesce: questo elemento permettere di riconoscere nella raffigurazione la Minerva Tritonia venerata anche in Grecia, in Beozia, e ricordata da Viirgilio nell’Eneide (XI, 483): “armipotens, praeses belli, Tritonia virgo” (O dea della guerra, potente nelle armi, o vergine tritonia…)

Il culto del santuario meridionale nasce in età arcaica ed era caratterizzato da libagioni. Nella fase finale il culto si trasforma invece verso la richiesta di salute e guarigione, documentato dalle numerose offerte di ex voto anatomici. Sono state trovate iscrizioni di dedica che ricordano
Castore e Polluce (i Dioscuri) e la dea Cerere. La molteplicità degli altari e delle dediche è stata interpretata come testimonianza del carattere federale del culto, quindi legato al popolo latino nel suo insieme: ogni altare potrebbe forse rappresentare una delle città latine aderenti alla Lega Latina, confederazione che riuniva molte città del Latium Vetus, alleatesi per contrastare il predominio di Roma.

Dionigi di Alicarnasso, vissuto sotto il principato di Augusto, afferma di aver visto in questo luogo, ancora al suo tempo, nel I sec. a.C., due altari, il tempio dove erano stati posti gli dèi Penati portati da Troia e la tomba di Enea circondata da alberi: «Si tratta di un piccolo tumulo, intorno al quale sono stati posti file regolari di alberi, che vale la pena di vedere» (Ant. Rom. I, 64, 5)
Alba

Lavinium fu considerata anche il luogo delle origini del popolo romano: all’immagine di Roma nel momento della sua espansione e della crescita del suo potere era utile costruire una discendenza mitica da Enea, figlio di Venere, onorato per le sue virtù, per la capacità di assecondare gli dèi; di conseguenza si affermò anche la tradizione per la quale Romolo, il fondatore di Roma, aveva le sue origini, dopo quattro secoli, dalla medesima stirpe di Enea.
Secondo questa tradizione Ascanio Iulo, il figlio di Enea, aveva fondato Alba Longa, città posta presso l’attuale Albano, dando l’avvio a una dinastia, che serviva per colmare i quattrocento anni che separano le vicende di Enea (XII sec. a.C.) dalla fondazione di Roma (VIII se. a.C.), quando, dalla stessa stirpe, nacquero i gemelli Romolo e Remo, secondo la tradizione allattati da una lupa. Questi erano dunque i nipoti del re di Alba Longa. La madre era Rea Silvia e il padre il dio Marte. Romolo uccise Remo e poi fondò Roma nel 753 a.C. Lavinium diventava così la città sacra dei Romani, dove avevano sede i “sacri princìpi del popolo romano”.

Il Borgo sorge su una altura occupata nell’antichità dall’acropoli di Lavinium. In età imperiale vi sorge una domus, testimoniata da pavimenti in mosaico in bianco e nero (Borgo_1). Una civitas Pratica è ricordata per la prima volta in un documento del 1061, mentre nell’epoca successiva si parla di un castrum che fu di proprietà del Monastero di San Paolo fino al 1442. La Tenuta di Pratica di Mare, comprendente anche il Borgo, allora definito “Castello” (Borgo_2), divenne poi proprietà della famiglia Massimi e in seguito fu acquistata nel 1617 dai Borghese. Il principe Giovan Battista, nel tentativo di valorizzare il territorio con l’agricoltura, ristrutturò il villaggio nella forma che ancora oggi rimane, caratteristica per la sua pianta ortogonale e la sua unitarietà. Dalla metà dell’Ottocento la malaria, che devastava la campagna romana, causò lo spopolamento del borgo, finché Camillo Borghese dal 1880 si impegnò nell’opera di ricolonizzazione, restaurando il palazzo e intervenendo con una importante opera di riassetto della tenuta, dove fu impiantata una singolare vigna a pianta esagonale. Il Borgo e la tenuta rappresentano una preziosa area monumentale e agricola ancora intatta all’interno della zona degradata di Pomezia e Torvaianica.

Domus of Carthage
Byrsa Hill. Hannibal Neighbourhood
(crédit photos INP et AMVPPC)
The citadel, located on the Byrsa Hill and the village were defended by walls, renovated and extended during the V century and then in III-II century. The peninsula, at its steepest parts was defended by a unique wall but the isthmus was protected by a triple defensive line. A huge necropolis, used since VIII century, was situated outside the walls. The Punic city had harbours: a mercantile port and a naval port.
Brysa Hill: Hannibal Neighbourhood (II sec. b.C.). The monumental centre of roman Carthage covers the remains of the Punic capital.
(crédit photos INP et AMVPPC)
Punic harbour of Carthage
(crédit photos INP et AMVPPC)
Near to the mercantile port, located in the area of Salmmbo, was situated the wide tophet, The tophet was a religious open-air area of adoration, used continuously by the population from the foundation of the city until its destruction. In this area plenty of urns and stelae was discovered, most of them bearing inscriptions of vows pleading protection and help from the gods.
The Sanctuary of tophet
(crédit photos INP et AMVPPC)

The clash with Rome: the Punic Wars

Consequently the first agreement with Rome, other treaties of military and commercial nature was established between Carthage and the Romans (in 348, 306 and 279-8) but with the time the rivalry for the hegemony in the Mediterranean Sea heightened even more between Rome, the greatest expanding power of that time and Carthage, a city with a marked commercial vocation. The first conflict (264-241 b.C.) unleashed for the possession of Sicily, situated at the centre of Mediterranean Sea, in a very strategic position and precious granary. The battle took place mainly on the sea and ended with the victory of Rome but with huge losses for both. The protagonist of the second Punic War (218-201 b.C) was Hannibal, the great strategist who crossed the Alps and inflicted to Rome several defeats on Italian territory with severe distructions and almost 200.000 deaths; but Scipio Africanus, carried the war to Africa and in Zama he obtained a definitive victory (202 b.C). The last Punic War (149-147 b.C) represented the third and final act of a long rivarly: the Carthagines started to rearm their armies and to rebuild the harbour. Rome, alarmed by these initiatives tried to impose to the citizens to abandone the city and to rebuild the settlement at 90 stade of distance from the sea.
Bronze male bust known as “Scipio Africanus”
(Naples, Archaeological National Museum)
(from Carthago 2020)

The distruction

After two years of siege, P.Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus expunged the city in 146 b.C.; he interrupted the isthmus linking the settlement to the main land and built an high watchtower closing the access to the harbours, blocking definitively the city which burned for 17 days. Carthage was cursed and forbidden to all. The possessions of the city was annexed to the bigger province of Africa with Utica as capital.

La reconstruction and the Roman colony

A first project of reconstruction for the city was conceived in 123 b.C. when the Lex Rubria, wanted by Caius Gracchus decided to send there 6000 settlers in order to establish the Iunonia Carthago colony. The initiative had no success. In 46 b.C. after the victory of Julius Caesar over the Numidians, Rome decided to revive Carthage: the Concordia Iulia Carthago was established and become the great capital of the Proconsular province of Africa. Numerous settlers was sent and the territories dived to start the construction of private houses and public buildings: the city under construction of the queen Dido visited by Aeneas in the Aeneid is actually the new Carthage of the Augustan era at the time of Virgil.
William M. Turner, Dido building Carthage, or The Rise of the Carthaginian Empire, 1815, oil on canvas (London, National Gallery)
(from Carthago 2020)
Altar of Gens Augustae from Carthage (Augustan Age; Tunisi, Bardo Museum). On four sides: the escape of Aeneas, the goddess Rome, scene of sacrifice, Apollo protector of Augustus. The masterpiece testifies the pietas of Augusts honouring his ancestors and the gods (on one side) and the pietas of Aeneas, legendary progenitor of the Emperor. On the right: panel depicting the escape of Aeneas bearing his father on his shoulders while holding the hand of his son Ascanius the scene refers to the prestigious origins of the family of the Emperor Augustus, descending from Iulius-Ascanius, nephew of Venus. The image of the goddess alludes also to the myth of the foundation of Carthage.
(crédit photos INP et AMVPPC)
The ancient city was buried under metres of soil and debris and covered by an enormous artificial platform where the forum was built; the streets were traced following a wide regular plan creating rectangular blocks; porches, temples, the temple of Aesculapius, cisterns, judiciary basilica and thermae was built. At the foot of the hill the building for entertainments was built: theatre, amphitheatre and circus.
The Theatre
(from webgis.gislab.unipa.it)
The Baths of Antoninus
(crédit photos INP et AMVPPC)
The harbours continued to be used for commercial purposes and was equipped with wide warehouses for storage of goods, built just over the ancient tophet. During the Imperial era the commerce of the city reached a great level of prosperity; products from the inland territories, especially grain, were distributed in the Mediterranean market and in particular to Rome: the association of Navicularii of Carthage opened a headquarters also in the city of Ostia in the Square of Corporations. .
Mosaic of the headquarted of navicularii of Carthage, Ostia, Square of Corporations (incription CIL XIV, 4549, 18: navicul(arii) Karthag(inienses) de suo)
Read more
⦁ Russo, F. Guarneri, P. Xella, J.A. Zamora Lòpez (a cura di), Carthago. Il mito immortale, catalogo della mostra, Roma 2020
INTRODUCTION

Carthage was the most important colony founded by the Phoenicians in the western Mediterranean. Situated at the intersection of the routes which linked North Africa to Egypt, East, Italian and Iberian Peninsulas, this city gave an enormous contribute to the development of Mediterranean civilisation. Punic metropolis at the beginning and then capital of the African Romance province, during its history Carthage has been always opened to the “Mare Nostrum”; a city which gave and took a lot. In the Aeneid, Carthage is the theatre of the touching history of passion, love, abandonment and death between the Phoenician Dido and the Trojan Aeneas.

Map

Modulo di contatto

Donec leo sapien, porta sed nibh rutrum, bibendum posuere libero.


  Ho letto l'informativa e autorizzo il trattamento dei dati secondo quanto riportato nella Privacy Policy
  Autorizzo l'invio di comunicazioni commerciali (facoltativo)

 

Comments are closed.