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'''Carthage''' was an ancient city on the coast of northern [[Africa]] near modern day [[Tunis]], in [[Tunisia]]. It began as a colony of the [[Phoenicians]] and eventually became a great naval power that exerted influence across the [[Mediterranean Sea]].
'''Carthage''' was an ancient city on the coast of northern [[Africa]] near modern day [[Tunis]], in [[Tunisia]]. It began as a colony of the [[Phoenicians]] and eventually became a great naval power that exerted influence across the [[Mediterranean Sea]].
The emerging power of [[Rome]] brought the two into conflict starting in [[Sicily]] in the middle of the 3rd century B.C. Carthage was eventually destroyed by Rome after the course of three wars, the [[Punic Wars]] which were monumental for their time period.
==Roman Domination==
The emerging power of [[Rome]] brought the two into conflict starting in [[Sicily]] in the middle of the 3rd century B.C. Carthage was eventually destroyed by Rome after the course of three wars, the [[Punic Wars]] which were monumental for their time period. Carthage was an independent power, until its lands were taken by Rome following the Third [[Punic War]]. During its time as a Roman principality, it developed a thriving Christian community. [[St. Augustine]] of [[Hippo]] hailed from what was once Carthaginian land, as did the [[Donatist|Donatists]], a Christian sect which Augustine succeeded in branding as heretical.
==After Rome==
Carthage stayed in Roman hands until the fall of the Empire. By 500 CE, with the fall of the western Empire, Carthaginian lands passed to the [[Visigoths]]. The [[Byzantium|Byzantine]] arm could not reach far enough to take Carthage until the reign of [[Justinian]]. In his monumental - and, ultimately, failed - attempt to reconquer Rome, Justinian's general [[Belisarius]] liberated the lands that been Carthage in the ancient equivalent of a [[blitzkrieg]]<ref>Belisarius is said to have exclaimed that the Visigoth's meals were still on the table by the time Roman arms controlled the city again, so quickly had the barbarians fled.</ref>, and integrated the territory into Byzantium.
This tenure proved brief indeed. While Belisarius' armies went on to fight - and eventually win - a [[Pyrrhic victory]] in Italy, the resulting loss of life, decimation of the Italian peninsula, and loss of Byzantine treasury, left the empire an easy target for the [[Islam|Islamic]] armies which would emerge in just 100 years. After the initial onslaught of Mohammed's armies, Carthaginian lands fell from Roman hands for the rest of history.
[[Category:Ancient History]]
[[Category:Ancient History]]
[[Category:African Cities and Towns]]
[[Category:African Cities and Towns]]