PhoenicianCarthaginian

Phoenician-Carthaginian refers to the historical cultural and political span that begins with the Phoenician city-states of the Levant and extends to the Carthaginian state centered in Carthage on the North African coast. The term highlights the close ethnolinguistic and cultural connections between the eastern Mediterranean Phoenicians and their western Mediterranean successors, who built one of the ancient world’s most durable maritime networks.

Phoenicians were Semitic-speaking communities based along the coastal cities of the Levant, including Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos. From roughly the second millennium BCE they developed extensive trade routes across the Mediterranean, establishing colonies and trading posts. They were renowned for shipbuilding, urban settlement, craft production, and their commercial acumen, which facilitated the exchange of goods such as glass, textiles, metals, timber, and the iconic Tyrian purple dye.

A defining achievement attributed to Phoenician-Carthaginian culture is the development of one of the earliest alphabets, a writing system that influenced later Greek and Latin scripts and contributed to widespread literacy in the region. In the western Mediterranean, Phoenician traders established a durable presence that would culminate in Carthage.

Carthage, founded by Phoenician colonists in what is now Tunisia, grew into a powerful city-state and maritime empire. It controlled territories and influence across the western Mediterranean, including parts of Iberia, Sicily, Sardinia, and North Africa, while maintaining religious and social practices rooted in Phoenician tradition.

Conflict with Rome culminated in the Punic Wars (264–146 BCE). Rome defeated Carthage, destroyed the city in 146 BCE, and incorporated its territories into the Roman Republic. The Phoenician-Carthaginian legacy persisted in Mediterranean trade networks, urban development, and the spread of alphabetic writing.