0:08

In the year 1858, the French

0:11

novelist Gustave Flaubert arrived

0:14

in North Africa,

0:16

hoping to find inspiration for his

0:18

latest book.

0:21

Flaubert was a seasoned traveler

0:23

and a decade or so earlier had embarked

0:26

on a grand tour of Cairo, Constantinople,

0:29

Greece, and Italy. But

0:32

the writer who now departed on this new

0:34

set of travels was like a different

0:36

man.

0:38

Although only 37 years old, he

0:40

was plagued by sickness and prone

0:43

to fits of depression,

0:45

and the novel he had been working on

0:47

for the last year was threatening to

0:49

drive him mad. The

0:52

publication of his most famous work two

0:54

years before, the novel Madame

0:56

Bovary had brought him fame and

0:58

wealth, but now he was attempting

1:00

to write a piece of fiction quite unlike

1:03

anything he had ever attempted. It

1:05

would be a story from classical history

1:08

that took place in an empire that

1:10

had once flourished in the north of

1:12

Africa, had become the most powerful

1:14

society in the ancient world, and

1:17

then had vanished in its entirety

1:20

more than 2,000 years ago.

1:21

empire

1:23

that had been largely forgotten beside

1:25

the more well-studied societies of

1:28

classical Greece and Rome.

1:30

This was the empire of Carthage.

1:34

He had spent the last months locked up in his

1:36

study like a hermit,

1:38

surrounded by the work of ancient historians,

1:41

trying to bring the lost city of Carthage

1:43

back to life.

1:45

But But the writing just wouldn't come, as

1:48

he wrote to his friend, Ernest Fadeau.

2:00

can't find a single word. Just

2:03

think of what I've let myself in for, to resuscitate

2:06

an entire civilization with

2:09

nothing whatsoever to go on."

2:12

Flaubert made the decision that something

2:14

would have to change. He

2:16

wrote of his intentions to his friend, Mademoiselle

2:20

Le Royer de Chant-Pis. I

2:23

absolutely must take a trip to Africa,

2:26

so toward the end of March I'll

2:28

return to the land of dates. Once

2:30

again, I live on horseback

2:33

and sleep under a tent. I

2:35

need only to go to El Gef

2:37

and explore the environs of Carthage

2:40

in order to acquaint myself thoroughly with

2:43

the landscapes I'll be describing."

2:47

When he arrived in the French colony

2:49

of Tunisia, Flaubert jotted

2:51

down hurried impressions in his notebooks

2:54

as he explored the ruins of the ancient

2:56

cities of Utica and Carthage,

2:59

now all but buried beneath

3:01

the modern Tunisian capital of Tunis.

3:05

In the green wheat full of flowering poppies,

3:08

the road climbs little,

3:10

sloping to the left and arrives

3:12

at a valley, flat plains

3:14

in the middle, at a league's distance,

3:18

ruins like palm trees and, here

3:20

and there, blocks of masonry.

3:23

are walking on the remains of a Roman

3:25

road. As

3:28

he walked among the ruined walls of

3:30

this ancient city, Flaubert

3:32

felt himself connected to the ancient

3:35

people he had been trying to write about,

3:38

and saw ways of life that

3:40

must have remained almost unchanged

3:42

since the days of Carthage.

3:45

In the south,

3:46

the village of Sidi Bousaidh,

3:48

the sea behind, like a great

3:51

block of indigo. All

3:53

Carthage now stretches out before

3:55

me,

3:56

A camel on a terrace turning

3:58

a well. Flies are buzzing,

4:01

weeds hang from the holes like

4:03

chandeliers. A bird

4:06

takes flight with the sound of a wing, another

4:08

sings, very fine dust,

4:11

silence, green marks

4:13

on the walls, livid and

4:15

thick water in some basins.

4:20

By the time he had finished his wanderings

4:22

among the Carthaginian ruins of Tunisia,

4:25

Flaubert decided to completely rewrite

4:28

the draft of his book

4:30

as he writes to Mademoiselle de Champs-Pies.

4:34

Everything I had done on my novel

4:37

has to be done over.

4:38

I was on the wrong track entirely, so

4:42

it turns out that a little over a

4:44

year since I first had the idea for the

4:46

book, and after working hard

4:48

on it most of that time, I am

4:51

still only at the beginning." Armed

4:56

with his Tunisian notebooks, Flaubert

4:59

finished his book four years later, and

5:02

it was published under the title

5:04

of Salam Bo. The

5:06

book was an enormous success.

5:09

It inspired plays and later

5:11

even silent films, and it

5:14

is credited with renewing public interest

5:16

in a city and a culture that

5:19

had once been considered a side note

5:21

of history. As

5:23

Flaubert walked those ruined walls

5:26

and sunken harbors, as he kicked

5:28

his way through the dust and scree

5:30

of the crumbling city ruins,

5:33

he must have asked himself again and

5:35

again, what did it feel like

5:37

to walk the streets of that ancient

5:39

city? What was it like to

5:41

see Carthage at the height

5:46

of its Golden Age? What would it have

5:48

felt like to see this entire city, its

5:52

streets and houses, its temples

5:54

and theaters,

5:57

its harbors and its homes,

5:59

utterly Thank

6:01

you very much. My

6:34

name's Paul Cooper, and you're listening

6:36

to the Fall of Civilizations podcast.

6:39

Each episode, I look at a civilization

6:41

of the past that rose to glory and

6:44

then collapsed into the ashes of history.

6:47

I want to ask, what did they have in common,

6:50

what led to their fall, and what did

6:52

it feel like to be a person alive at the

6:54

time

6:55

who witnessed the end of their world?

6:57

In this episode,

6:59

I want to tell one of the most dramatic stories

7:02

to come down to us from the ancient world,

7:05

the rise and fall of the Empire

7:07

of Carthage. I want

7:09

to show how this city rose out

7:11

of the Phoenician states of the eastern

7:14

Mediterranean and set out on

7:16

voyages of discovery and settlement

7:18

that put them at the center of the ancient

7:22

world. I want to describe the unique culture

7:24

that flourished on the shores of North

7:26

Africa, I want to tell the

7:28

story of how the city of Carthage

7:30

was destroyed and its memory

7:33

nearly wiped from the earth.

7:50

The Mediterranean Sea is a vast

7:52

body of saltwater that lies

7:55

between the continents of Europe and

7:57

Africa. It's by

7:59

far the largest inland sea on

8:01

the planet stretching around

8:03

four thousand kilometers from end to

8:06

end and in the west it's

8:08

connected to the atlantic ocean by a

8:10

thin opening at the straits

8:12

of gibraltar

8:15

the coastline of this see

8:17

is more than forty six thousand kilometers

8:20

long or enough to wrap around

8:22

the entire circumference of the planet

8:25

and this coastline has provided a

8:27

home to countless cultures and

8:29

civilizations over history one

8:33

of these coaches emerged on the east

8:35

and most corner of the mediterranean coast

8:38

on a stony stretch of sure in

8:40

what is today lebanon overlooked

8:43

by towering mountains covered

8:45

in see the forest hear

8:48

a series of city states rose up

8:50

more than four thousand years ago that

8:52

would give rise to a culture that would

8:54

one day be called

8:55

the phoenicians the

8:58

largest of these cities were named

9:00

tire side on and babe

9:03

loss pinched

9:05

as they were between the waves to the west

9:08

and the forested mountains to the east

9:10

the territory's they ruled over were

9:12

never large but

9:14

this relatively isolated geography

9:16

also meant that they were somewhat protected from

9:19

invaders

9:22

the people we know think of as phoenician

9:24

wouldn't have ever used that word phoenician

9:28

is a term invented later by their

9:30

great rivals the greeks and

9:32

it's unclear if these cities ever thought

9:34

of themselves as a unified people

9:38

they had a common phoenician language

9:40

and will united by the worship of certain

9:42

gods among them but

9:45

hum on heroic god named

9:47

malka and his wife start

9:49

day but there's very little in

9:51

the historical record to suggest

9:54

a common identity architecture

9:56

or literature

9:58

even the greek word phoenician has

10:00

a somewhat mysterious origin.

10:03

In the earliest texts such as

10:05

Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, the

10:07

word foynique is used to

10:09

describe a particular color of purple

10:12

or crimson, and it is

10:14

also used to describe a date palm

10:16

possibly due to the reddish color

10:18

of its fruit when ripe. So,

10:21

it's possible that the word came to

10:23

be used as a result of one

10:26

of the Phoenicians earliest

10:30

and most successful industries.

10:36

The Phoenicians of Tyre and other

10:38

cities were

10:41

the first people to color their clothes

10:43

with a particular kind of dye derived

10:47

from the bodies of predatory

10:50

sea snails

10:52

known as the muraks or rock snail. a defense

10:54

mechanism against predators, and

10:58

depending on the species, can produce

11:01

a vivid red or purple color quite

11:04

unlike anything else available in the ancient

11:06

world. From

11:08

the moment these dyes were first used by Phoenicians around

11:13

the 16th century BC, their colors became

11:16

immediately sought after. But the process of

11:18

producing these dyes was

11:21

difficult and costly. It could take of these snails

11:24

to make a single gram of dye,

11:26

and so these fabrics were extremely

11:29

expensive. The color purple

11:32

would

11:32

soon become associated with enormous

11:34

wealth and as a consequence with

11:37

royalty. This color

11:40

would be known as Tyrian purple

11:42

after the Phoenician city of Tyre

11:44

and later Imperial purple. It

11:47

would dye the robes of the emperors

11:49

of Assyria, Rome, later

11:51

Byzantium. The

11:54

first century Roman writer Pliny

11:56

the Elder writes about the effect

11:59

this color hat. on anyone who

12:01

saw it. For

12:03

purple, the rods and axes

12:05

of Rome clear a path and

12:08

it likewise marks the dignity of boyhood.

12:11

It distinguishes senator from noble and

12:13

it is summoned to secure the favor of

12:15

the gods. It illuminates every

12:18

garment and on the triumphal robe

12:20

it is blended with gold. But

12:23

why the price?

12:26

It's possible then that the term foynique

12:29

came to be used by the Greeks to

12:31

describe these traders from the rocky

12:33

coast of Lebanon as the makers

12:36

of purple or the purple people.

12:39

The name of the mythical creature the phoenix,

12:42

an immortal bird with red feathers,

12:44

also seems to derive from the same

12:47

word.

12:49

With their dye industry booming, the

12:52

Phoenicians began to set out on ever-longer

12:54

voyages out into the Mediterranean

12:57

Sea, all in search of ever

12:59

more of these priceless snails,

13:02

and these longer voyages would require

13:04

new developments in shipbuilding.

13:08

Since as early as the third millennium

13:11

BC, Phoenician sailors from

13:13

the city of Biblos had developed

13:15

ships with curved hulls perfectly

13:18

suited for traveling on the waves, and

13:20

they had developed techniques for waterproofing

13:23

the hulls of their ships using bitumen

13:26

or pitch.

13:28

In the Hebrew Bible, the 6th

13:30

century BC book of Ezekiel

13:33

contains one poetic description

13:35

of a Phoenician ship.

14:00

and served as your banner.

14:02

Your awnings were of blue and purple

14:05

from the coasts of Elisha. The

14:10

Phoenicians were also some of the earliest

14:12

people to notice the Pole Star

14:15

or Polaris, a star

14:17

that happens to align more or less perfectly

14:20

with the rotational axis of the earth.

14:23

This means that while all other stars appear

14:25

to rotate in the sky throughout the

14:28

night as the earth turns,

14:30

the pole star remains more or less

14:32

fixed in place. This

14:34

made it exceptionally useful as a navigation

14:37

tool, a fixed reference point

14:40

in the sky. In Greek,

14:42

this star would even come to be known as

14:45

Phoenike or the Phoenician

14:47

star.

14:50

The

14:50

Phoenician's early voyages around

14:53

the Mediterranean led to them encountering

14:55

many other peoples. Among

14:57

these, they began to cultivate a reputation

15:00

as uncompromising traders and

15:03

shrewd businessmen, something that

15:05

seems to have gained them some degree of

15:08

unpopularity. Homer's

15:11

Odyssey, probably written down in

15:13

the 7th or 8th century BC

15:16

from even more ancient oral traditions,

15:19

describes the Phoenicians as cunning

15:21

and untrustworthy,

15:24

in contrast to

15:28

the supposedly noble Greeks. There

15:31

there came Phoenicians, men famed for their ships, greedy

15:34

knaves bringing countless trinkets

15:38

in their black ship. It seems

15:40

the Phoenicians had become adept

15:42

at metalworking too. The

15:45

following passage in Homer's Odyssey brought

15:47

by traders from the Phoenician city

15:50

of Sidon.

15:52

Then the son of Pelias set

15:54

forth other prizes, a mixing

15:57

bowl of silver richly wrought.

16:00

In beauty, vah the goodliest in

16:02

all the earth, Cydonians, well

16:04

skilled in deft handiwork, had watered

16:07

cunningly. A man of the Phoenicians

16:10

brought it over the murky deep and landed

16:12

it in harbor.

16:18

As a seafaring people, the

16:20

Phoenicians had a clear preference for building

16:22

their cities on narrow, easily defended

16:25

peninsulas, and where possible on

16:27

islands set just offshore.

16:30

Their

16:33

most influential city of Tyre was a perfect

16:35

example, located

16:37

on a small island just off the

16:39

rocky coast. In

16:43

the Hebrew Bible, the prophet Ezekiel gives us a sense

16:45

of the trade that the people

16:47

of Tyre drove with

16:50

their surrounding neighbors. Tarshish

16:52

did business with you because They

16:54

exchanged silver, iron, tin,

16:57

and lead for your merchandise. Greece,

17:00

Tubal and Meshech did business with you. They

17:02

traded human beings and articles of

17:05

bronze for your wares. Men

17:07

of Beth Tugama exchanged chariot

17:09

horses, cavalry horses, and mules.

17:12

Aram exchanged turquoise, purple

17:14

fabric, embroidered work, fine

17:17

linen, coral and rubies. Judah

17:20

and Israel traded with you. They

17:22

exchanged wheat from minith, honey,

17:27

olive

17:29

oil, and balm. While the natural defenses

17:32

of their geography had

17:34

kept cities like Tyre independent

17:37

for much of their history,

17:42

The first millennium BC

17:44

was an age of iron

17:48

and an age of empires, a

17:51

world of increasingly violent and

17:55

aggressive neighbors. the

17:58

power

18:04

From its heartland in what is today

18:06

Iraq, the Assyrian war

18:08

machine would periodically stretch

18:10

its power right to the coast of the

18:13

Mediterranean and threaten to engulf

18:15

the Phoenicians. One

18:18

inscription from the palace of an Assyrian

18:20

king gives just one example of

18:22

the typical fate of a city conquered

18:25

by the Assyrians.

18:27

That city I destroyed. I

18:30

flung my soldiers like lightning

18:33

upon them. I piled

18:35

up heaps of heads in front of his great

18:37

gate.

18:39

Bands of captive soldiers. I

18:41

impaled on stakes, on

18:43

every side of his city.

18:46

His palm trees I cut down, and

18:49

from the city of Amidi I

18:51

departed. The

18:55

Phoenicians had every reason to

18:57

be nervous. At the start

18:59

of the 8th century BC, the

19:02

Assyrian king Adad-Nirari III

19:05

conquered the territory of northern Syria

19:07

as he boasts in his royal palace

19:10

inscriptions. Conquering

19:13

from the Saluna mountain of the rising sun

19:15

and from the banks of the Euphrates, The

19:18

country of Hati, Amura in

19:20

its full extent, the land of

19:22

Tyre, the land of Sidon,

19:25

the land of Israel, the land of

19:27

Edom, the land of Philistia.

19:30

I made them submit to my feet, imposing

19:33

upon them tribute." The

19:36

Assyrians were now breathing directly

19:38

down the necks of the Phoenician cities

19:40

of the coast. But as time went

19:43

on, the Phoenicians were able to carve

19:45

out a niche for themselves that ensured

19:47

they were quite simply too useful

19:50

for the Assyrians to destroy.

19:58

The Mediterranean Sea had long

20:00

been an insurmountable challenge to

20:05

many of the region's great powers. The Assyrians

20:10

referred to it as id Marathi or the Bitta

20:12

River, which they believed to flow

20:14

around the whole earth, while

20:17

the Egyptians referred

20:19

to

20:20

it as wajweir or the Great Green. These

20:23

empires were freshwater

20:26

river cultures and navigated barges.

20:29

For this reason, they had always remained

20:31

wary of the rougher waters of

20:33

the sea.

20:35

Assyria relied heavily on

20:37

many of the commodities brought into the region

20:40

by Phoenician traders, incense,

20:43

silver, and purple dye for their palaces,

20:46

bronze, and iron for their armies.

20:49

So, Assyria offered the cities of

20:52

Tyre and Sidon something

20:54

of a deal. They would

20:56

be allowed a degree of independence

21:00

so long as they ensured a

21:02

constant flow of metals

21:05

and other resources into Assyria, and

21:07

so long as they acted as a kind

21:09

of navy for hire, providing their ships and

21:12

sailors to Assyria

21:14

in times of war. The Phoenicians

21:19

had little choice but to accept. But

21:22

there was one problem. The Assyrian were truly staggering,

21:25

and if they were going to be met, it would

21:27

require a drastic expansion

21:30

of the Phoenician trade network.

21:36

At first, the Phoenicians set up

21:38

simple trading posts. Anywhere,

21:41

they could find good supplies of metal.

21:44

Archaeology shows they set up trading

21:46

communities in Cyprus to take

21:48

advantage of its rich stores of copper,

21:51

and in Sardinia, the Mediterranean's

21:53

second largest island, rich

21:56

in copper, iron, silver, and

21:58

lead.

21:59

At these sites, local people usually

22:01

did all the actual mining, while

22:03

the Phoenicians simply turned up

22:05

to buy the goods and take them away

22:08

by ship.

22:09

From Cyprus and Sardinia, Phoenician

22:12

sailors pushed on into the west of

22:14

the Mediterranean

22:15

and set up a small colony of Utica

22:18

in North Africa,

22:20

and even reached southern Spain where

22:22

they found that the mines practically

22:24

overflowed with silver, iron, and

22:27

other metals. Archaeologists

22:29

have found huge Phoenician furnaces

22:32

in this region, designed for smelting

22:34

metal ingots for transportation on

22:37

an industrial scale, all

22:39

to satisfy the demands of the fearsome

22:41

Assyrian kings.

22:44

Before long, the Phoenicians were

22:46

sailing out through the Straits of Gibraltar,

22:48

then known as the Pillars of Hercules,

22:51

and out into the Atlantic Ocean. They

22:54

set up a colony at Lixus on

22:56

the western coast of Morocco and

22:58

pushed further down the coast to settle

23:01

what is now the Moroccan port town of

23:03

Esawera, more than 4,000 kilometers

23:06

from their homeland.

23:11

To finance these expeditions, the

23:14

Phoenicians developed innovative monetary

23:16

systems that in some ways represented

23:19

a form of ancient capitalism. Phoenician

23:22

society was dominated by powerful

23:24

trading firms, usually run by

23:26

a certain family, and they pioneered

23:29

the use of interest-bearing loans

23:31

for voyages, even developing

23:33

maritime insurance policies which

23:36

paid out if your ships were destroyed

23:38

in a storm or plundered by

23:40

pirates.

23:41

But perhaps the

23:44

greatest of their innovations was something

23:46

that we use every day, and

23:48

that is the alphabet.

23:53

Up until that point,

23:55

writing had been a cumbersome and

23:57

difficult task.

24:00

Cuneiform writing systems that

24:02

had been developed by the Sumerians thousands

24:04

of years before and the hieroglyphics

24:07

of the Egyptians were both difficult

24:09

to learn and relied on the services

24:11

of a learned class of scribes who

24:14

spent years of their lives learning them.

24:16

But the Phoenician alphabet was a master

24:19

class in simplicity. It

24:21

had only 22 letters and

24:24

could be used to spell out words phonetically,

24:26

leaving out any vowels.

24:28

Quite ingeniously, the

24:30

shapes of the letters also gave a clue

24:33

as to how they were pronounced.

24:35

Their letter B, for instance, was

24:38

named Bet, which was the Phoenician

24:40

word for house, and its

24:42

symbol was drawn with a pointed

24:45

roof. This simplicity

24:47

drastically reduced the amount of time it

24:49

took to learn and meant that common

24:52

traders and merchants may have

24:54

had some ability to read and write and

24:56

to keep records essential

24:59

for the complex business of buying

25:01

and selling across the sea.

25:04

The Phoenician alphabet was such a good

25:06

idea that it was adopted almost wholesale

25:09

by the Greeks as the Greek historian

25:11

Herodotus recounts.

25:14

These Phoenicians who came with Cadmus

25:17

brought with them to Greece, among many

25:20

other kinds of learning,

25:21

the alphabet.

25:23

As time went on, the

25:25

sound and form of the

25:27

letters were changed and, after

25:29

being taught the letters by the Phoenicians,

25:32

the Greeks who were settled around them used

25:35

them with a few changes of form.

25:40

With the addition of some letters for vowels,

25:42

what resulted was the Greek alphabet,

25:45

which means that the Phoenician writing system

25:47

is the foundation of all Western alphabets

25:50

used today.

25:54

The

25:54

earliest piece of Phoenician writing

25:57

was found on an inscribed tablet

25:59

known as the Nora Stone, unearthed

26:01

in Sardinia, apparently commemorating

26:04

a Phoenician captain who may have died

26:07

in conflict with the local people.

26:10

He fought with the Sardinians at Tarshish

26:13

and he drove them out. Among

26:15

the Sardinians, he is now at peace and

26:18

his army is at peace. Milchaton,

26:22

son of Shubna, general

26:24

of King Pume. But

26:28

for the most part, the Phoenicians seem

26:30

to have interacted with the people they met relatively

26:33

peacefully, and most of all,

26:35

profitably.

26:40

Before long, the cities of Tyre, Sidon,

26:43

and Biblos found themselves at

26:45

the far east of a sprawling trade

26:48

network.

26:49

Keeping such a loose and disparate

26:51

collection of colonies together was

26:53

no easy task, but It seems

26:56

that here, the Phoenician religion played

26:58

a key role.

27:02

The people of Tyre worshipped a heroic

27:05

god known as Melkart, a

27:07

warrior hero who the Greeks would

27:09

later associate with Hercules. Temples

27:13

to Melkart were set up at multiple

27:15

Phoenician trading posts, and

27:18

most had an olive tree, a symbol

27:20

of the city of Tyre growing in

27:22

their central courtyard.

27:24

The grandest of these temples was

27:27

built at the furthest Phoenician colony

27:29

from Tyre, then known as Gardes,

27:32

what is now the Spanish city of Cadiz.

27:36

This colony sat on the Atlantic coast

27:38

just outside the Straits of Gibraltar,

27:41

but it made up for its extreme distance

27:43

from Tyre with its immense

27:45

opulence.

27:48

At the center of the temple stood an olive

27:50

tree with its branches and leaves

27:52

wrought out of solid gold, holding

27:55

emerald

27:57

fruits in its branches. the

28:00

temple, as were pigs, and

28:02

the priests of Melkart went barefoot,

28:05

wearing a band of Egyptian flax

28:07

over their bare heads.

28:09

The Greek geographer Strabo recounts

28:12

the following description of the settlement

28:14

of Gardeis. Now

28:17

these islands are this side of what

28:19

are called the Pillars of Heracles. Gades,

28:22

however, is outside the pillars. Here

28:25

live the men who fit out the most and largest

28:28

merchant vessels, both for our sea

28:30

and the outer sea. They say

28:33

the Tyrians believed that the two capes

28:35

which formed the strait

28:37

were the ends of the inhabited world. A

28:41

great ceremony known as the Adjursus,

28:44

or awakening, was conducted each

28:46

year in the temple of Gaudes.

28:49

During this time, all foreigners

28:52

were asked to leave the city and

28:54

a great effigy of the god Melkart

28:56

was set afloat on the sea and burned.

29:00

Even

29:02

this temple was a crucial part of

29:05

the Phoenician trading system. The

29:08

institution worked to guarantee the quality of metal

29:12

ingots produced in Gardeys by

29:14

giving them a special stamp and acted as a

29:16

guarantor between merchants

29:18

entering into contracts, with

29:21

punishments promised from Melkart if any dared to go

29:23

back on their word.

29:28

With Phoenician trade increasingly

29:31

drifting westward, the center

29:34

of their power would soon also shift

29:36

in that direction to a place

29:38

where they would finally be free of the overbearing

29:41

empires constantly breathing down

29:43

their necks. They would soon

29:46

found a city on the shore of

29:48

North Africa right at the center

29:50

of the Mediterranean world, a city

29:53

that would become one of the largest and

29:55

wealthiest on earth.

29:57

city would one day be known.

30:00

as carthage

30:07

like so many aspects

30:09

of our modern understanding of the phoenicians

30:12

the name carthage is itself a distortion

30:15

filtered through the accounts of others

30:18

in latin the city was known as

30:20

car fargo while the greeks called

30:22

it cocker done but

30:24

to it's inhabitants it was known

30:26

as caught her dashed for and

30:28

phoenician the new city like

30:33

many great cities of it's time carthage

30:35

soon developed it's own founding math

30:38

it

30:38

begins with a princess of tire named

30:41

alyssa or ls shier in

30:43

the legend the king of tire promises

30:46

that upon his death his kingdom

30:48

would be split between his two children

30:50

his daughter alice shire and his son

30:52

pygmalion but when the old

30:54

king dies the treacherous brother

30:57

pygmalion refuses to accept

30:59

the splitting of the kingdom and moved

31:01

to sees everything for himself even

31:04

killing l a shy as husband to remove

31:06

any potential rivals stricken

31:09

with grief l a shy

31:11

of fleas down to the docks along

31:13

with a ragtag band of her royal

31:15

guards and temple women and

31:18

their they set sail westwood's and

31:20

make for africa the

31:22

roman writer just us drawing

31:24

on an earlier greek text writes

31:27

his rendition of this story

31:29

along with a cutting deception to slow

31:31

down any greedy pursuers

31:35

alyssa put the attendants who

31:37

was sent by the king to assist in her

31:39

removal on bought some vessels

31:42

in the early part of the evening and

31:44

sailing out into the deep made

31:46

them throw some loads of sand

31:48

put up in sacks as if it was money

31:51

into the see this

31:53

group of refugees sale

31:56

along the coast of north africa until

31:58

eventually they set shore near

32:01

the Phoenician colony of Utica. They

32:03

camp on a nearby hill known

32:05

as Bursa, and the king who rules

32:08

there, a man named Yabras, takes

32:10

pity on them, but not too

32:12

much pity.

32:14

He offers to sell them a plot of land

32:16

on the hill no bigger than an oxhide.

32:20

But Elishaia is cunning. She

32:23

cuts the oxhide into thin strips,

32:25

lining them up to enclose the entire hill,

32:28

a much larger area of land than

32:30

the Mysili king had intended. Bound

32:34

by his word, Yabas has no choice

32:36

but to give them the land he promised, and

32:38

so the city of Carthage is born.

32:41

Justinus recounts the city's early

32:44

flourishing. Carthage

32:47

was founded, an annual tribute

32:49

being fixed for the ground which it was to occupy.

32:52

At the commencement of digging the foundations,

32:55

an ox's head was found, which

32:57

was an omen that the city would be wealthy

32:59

indeed, but laborious and

33:02

always enslaved. It

33:04

was therefore removed to another place,

33:06

where the head of a horse was found, which,

33:09

indicating that the people would be warlike

33:11

and powerful, portended an auspicious

33:14

sight. In a short time,

33:17

as the surrounding people came together at the report,

33:20

the inhabitants became numerous and

33:22

the city itself extensive.

33:28

From the hilltop of Bursa, the

33:31

city grows and grows, soon

33:33

eclipsing King Iabus' town of

33:36

Utica, which makes him understandably

33:38

jealous. He demands that Elleshire

33:41

marry him so that he can absorb

33:43

her flourishing town and everything

33:45

she owns into his kingdom.

33:48

If she refuses, he will burn Carthage

33:50

to the ground. Faced

33:53

with the choice of this capitulation or

33:55

the destruction of her new city, Elishaia

33:58

build a great pyre.

34:00

climbs onto it, saying that she must

34:02

indeed go to her husband, meaning

34:04

not a yabbos, but the man her brother

34:07

had killed on the other side of the sea,

34:09

waiting for her in the afterlife.

34:13

This tragic but noble self-sacrifice

34:16

has proven irresistible to generations

34:19

of poets, and the Roman poet

34:21

Virgil gives one rendition of

34:23

this scene.

34:25

When the pyre of cut pine and oak

34:28

was raised high, in an innermost

34:30

court open to the sky.

34:33

The queen hung the place with garlands

34:36

and wreathed it with eunearial foliage.

34:39

She laid his sword and clothes

34:42

and picture on the bed. She

34:44

lingered a while, in tears

34:47

and thought. Then cast

34:50

herself on the bed and spoke

34:53

her last words, accept

34:56

this soul

34:57

and loose me from my sorrows."

35:03

In honor of Elleschia's sacrifice,

35:06

her people gave her the title of Dido,

35:09

meaning female warrior or heroine,

35:11

and this is the name by which she would be known to

35:14

later Roman writers. This

35:18

baroque tale of love and tragedy

35:20

has all the hallmarks of ancient literature,

35:23

and we can't assume that it bears any relationship

35:26

to what actually happened. Some

35:28

details of the tale do accord with

35:30

what archaeology tells us, that

35:33

the Carthaginian Phoenicians drew

35:35

their origins back to the city of Tyre,

35:38

and that the city was founded close to the

35:40

older settlement of Utica, which it soon

35:42

eclipsed in size. But

35:44

perhaps more important than any of this is

35:47

the sense that this founding myth might give

35:49

us of the way the Carthaginians thought

35:51

of themselves and their

35:55

city's place in the world as a city of

35:59

survivors who had found refuge here on

36:00

coast, a city of sailors

36:02

and adventurers. They were

36:04

resourceful and drove a hard bargain.

36:07

They were clever, fond of outwitting

36:09

their enemies, always finding a way

36:12

to make a little go a long way.

36:15

Also, perhaps that they

36:17

would die before they gave up their

36:19

freedom. of

36:25

the truth of its origins. It's clear

36:30

from archaeology that after its founding

36:32

in the 8th century BC, the new colony

36:35

of Carthage did grow

36:38

exceptionally quickly. In many ways, it

36:41

was the perfect Phoenician settlement. Carthage

36:44

was built in a small bay that

36:46

itself belonged to a vast natural harbor known

36:50

today as the Bay of Tunis. The city sat on top of

36:52

a that looked

36:55

down over the glittering blue waters

36:58

of the

36:59

Mediterranean in the north and it

37:01

was also easily defended on

37:03

its landward side where a range of rocky hills the

37:08

land into

37:11

a series of narrow approaches, protecting the city

37:15

from any would-be attackers.

37:17

The Roman writer Appian writes one description

37:21

of the city's location. The city

37:23

lay in a and was in the form of a peninsula.

37:26

It was separated from the mainland by an Isthmus

37:29

about five kilometers in width. From

37:32

this Isthmus, a narrow and longish

37:34

tongue of land about a kilometer

37:36

wide extended towards the west

37:39

between a lake and the sea.

37:42

Near to the site of Carthage flows

37:45

a river known today as the Magyerda,

37:47

which originates in the high Atlas

37:49

Mountains of North Africa. This

37:52

river flows for 460 kilometers to the sea and

37:56

brings crucial fresh water into the

37:58

bay, turning the otherwise arid landscape

38:00

green and providing water for

38:06

drinking and for irrigation. As a result,

38:09

the land here

38:11

was abundant with

38:13

wheat, grapes, olives, and dates. In the distance over

38:17

the bay to the south rises the blue outline

38:20

of the mountain, Jebel-Rasas, literally

38:23

the mountain of lead, a rugged outcrop

38:26

of Jurassic limestone climbing

38:28

hot desert winds known as

38:31

the Sirocco would blow in from the Sahara

38:33

during the summer season, rattling

38:35

the shutters on the windows and the leaves

38:38

of the date palms. At the end

38:40

of summer, thunderstorms would

38:42

roll in from the sea.

38:49

As well as its ideal geography, the

38:51

city's location in the Mediterranean world

38:54

was also perfect.

38:58

Carthage sat at a crucial halfway

39:00

point between the city of Tyre and

39:02

the wealthy mines of Spain, but

39:05

it was also only about 200 kilometers by

39:07

boat from the island of Sicily

39:10

and about 300 kilometers from Sardinia,

39:13

two crucial sites of Phoenician

39:15

industry that were only growing in

39:17

importance. Pottery

39:19

found in even the earliest layers of

39:21

Carthage shows a huge range

39:24

of styles, coming from Greece,

39:26

Italy, Spain, and all the

39:28

Phoenician colonies.

39:31

The Phoenician world was now a web,

39:33

with Carthage sitting right at

39:35

its center. The

39:38

city in these early days must

39:41

have been a humble sight.

39:43

She paints a picture of a

39:45

simple collection of mudbrick buildings

39:48

lining the seashore.

39:49

But within a century, this had exploded.

39:53

One graveyard soon had to be moved

39:56

in order to make space for a quarter filled

39:58

with metalworking workshops.

40:00

and the settlers built a wall about

40:02

three meters in height to protect

40:04

their burgeoning town. And

40:06

soon, more monumental buildings

40:09

would be constructed. The Roman

40:11

poet Virgil imagines the activity

40:14

that must have accompanied the growth of this town

40:17

from tiny settlement to booming city.

40:21

Aeneas found where

40:23

lately huts had been, marvelous

40:25

buildings, gateways, cobbled

40:27

ways, and din of wagons. There

40:30

the Tyrians were hard at work,

40:32

laying courses for walls, rolling

40:34

up stones to build the citadel, while

40:37

others picked out building sites and

40:39

ploughed a boundary furrow. Laws

40:42

were being enacted, magistrates and

40:44

a sacred senate chosen. Here

40:47

men were dredging harbours, there they

40:49

laid the deep foundations

40:51

of a theatre and quarried massive

40:53

pillars." Rather

40:56

than what we can glean from archaeology,

40:58

we know very little about the early history

41:01

of Carthage.

41:02

Apart from a few short inscriptions,

41:05

no Carthaginian texts have

41:07

survived into the modern day. In

41:10

terms of written history, we have virtually

41:12

complete silence from that part of the Mediterranean

41:15

for the first 200 years or so of its

41:17

existence.

41:19

Beyond that, we have to rely

41:21

on the writings of others. From

41:25

the work of Greek writers, we learn

41:27

that Carthage was a republic.

41:29

It was ruled under a kind of

41:31

oligarchic system governed by

41:34

a council of its wealthiest citizens.

41:38

The Greek philosopher Aristotle, writing

41:40

in the fourth century, spoke

41:42

approvingly of the Carthaginian system

41:44

of government

41:46

and compares it to that of the Greek city-state

41:48

of Sparta.

41:52

also appears to have a good constitution

41:55

with many outstanding features as compared

41:57

with those of other nations but

41:59

most... resembling the Spartan at some

42:01

points. Many regulations at

42:03

Carthage are good, and a proof of a

42:06

well-regulated constitution is that

42:08

the populace willingly remain faithful

42:10

to the constitutional system and that neither

42:12

civil strife has arisen in any degree

42:15

worth mentioning,

42:16

nor yet a tyrant. But

42:20

Aristotle also warns that

42:23

the Carthaginian system put too much emphasis

42:25

on the wealth of its rulers rather

42:27

than their competence and expresses concerns

42:30

that this could lead to corruption.

42:32

They think

42:35

that the rulers should be chosen not only

42:37

for their merit but also for their wealth,

42:40

as it is not possible for a poor man to

42:42

govern well or to have leisure

42:44

for his duties. It is

42:46

a bad thing that the greatest officers

42:49

of state,

42:50

the kingship and the generalship, should

42:53

be for sale. All this law

42:55

makes wealth more honored than worth and

42:57

renders the whole state avaricious,

43:00

and it is probable that those who purchase

43:02

their office will learn by degrees

43:04

to make a profit out of it. The

43:07

highest echelons of Carthaginian

43:09

society were divided between the civil

43:12

leaders, the shofatim, or judges,

43:14

and the rabim, or generals, who

43:17

took care of military matters.

43:20

These highest positions, senators,

43:22

and the heads of committees drew no

43:25

salary for their work, and so they

43:27

could realistically only be held by

43:29

those who could support themselves on private

43:32

incomes, usually successful

43:34

merchants or wealthy landowners.

43:37

But there was a certain fairness to this. There

43:39

seems to have been no barrier other

43:42

than wealth, and people from common

43:44

backgrounds who became wealthy could

43:46

quickly rise to the highest parts

43:48

of government. Certain

43:51

powerful families were constantly

43:53

vying for the most powerful positions,

43:56

but was no hereditary royalty

43:58

in Carthage.

44:00

It's possible that the myth of Elishaia

44:02

or Dido may have played a role

44:04

in maintaining this situation.

44:07

Since, according to the legend, the city

44:09

was founded by a woman who had no children,

44:12

no one could ever claim to be her true

44:14

descendants or have any kind

44:17

of ancestral right to

44:19

rule.

44:21

Instead, the city was governed

44:23

by a number of different semi-democratic

44:26

bodies made up of wealthy

44:28

citizens. One of these

44:30

was called the Tribunal of the 104 and

44:32

another, the

44:34

Council of Elders, a kind of

44:36

senate. The

44:38

highest executive position was

44:40

held by two elected officers

44:42

who ruled simultaneously and

44:44

who were elected each year. The

44:47

arrangement was complex and

44:49

likely prone to corruption, but

44:52

for the most part, it seems to have worked.

45:00

While Carthage flourished, the

45:02

Phoenician cities that had given birth to it

45:05

began to flounder. Tyre

45:07

and Sidon were still under the

45:10

boot of Assyria and around 670

45:13

BC, the Assyrian king Esarhaddon

45:16

began to place harsh restrictions on

45:18

who they

45:21

could trade with.

45:24

Hadon forced

45:27

the Phoenicians of Tyre to place

45:31

a trade embargo on the pharaohs. Without

45:33

access to their once most lucrative market,

45:38

these cities went into decline.

45:40

Soon, the king of Tyre was not even allowed

45:42

to open messages the

45:45

following surviving fragment of one

45:47

treaty shows.

45:49

Nor must you open a

45:51

letter which I send you without

45:53

the presence of the royal deputy. If

45:56

the royal deputy is absent, wait for

45:58

him and then open it.

46:00

If a ship of the people

46:02

of Tyre is shipwrecked off the coast

46:04

of the land of the Philistines or anywhere

46:06

on the borders of Assyrian territory, everything

46:09

that is on the ship belongs to Esahedon,

46:13

king

46:14

of Assyria. As

46:16

a result of the decline of cities

46:19

like Tyre and Sidon, it's

46:21

likely that large numbers of Phoenicians

46:23

would have fled to what was now the

46:26

undisputed capital of the Phoenician

46:28

world, the booming port town

46:31

of Carthage. They

46:33

brought with them their language, their

46:35

knowledge, their gods, and

46:37

their gold.

46:40

By the 6th century BC, Carthage

46:43

was one of the largest and wealthiest cities

46:46

in the Mediterranean, and its sailors,

46:48

the finest in the world, would soon

46:51

embark on voyages of exploration

46:53

that would not be matched

47:02

By this time, the Phoenicians

47:04

had already sailed right

47:07

to the end of their world, through the Pillars

47:10

of Hercules and

47:12

out into the Atlantic Ocean. But

47:16

their exploration didn't stop there. In fact,

47:18

if ancient sources are to be believed, successfully

47:22

sail around the entire coast of

47:24

Africa. Herodotus

47:27

recounts one expedition that supposedly

47:29

took place around 600 BC, sponsored by

47:31

a

47:32

pharaoh of Egypt

47:34

named Nekos, although he is

47:36

frustratingly vague and short on

47:38

detail. The expedition

47:41

apparently set sail from Egypt's

47:43

Red Sea coast, voyaged around

47:45

the Horn of Africa and the South

47:47

African Cape,

47:49

before sailing north through the Gulf of

47:51

Guinea and back into the Mediterranean

47:53

through the Pillars of Hercules.

47:57

instructing

48:01

them to sail on their return voyage

48:03

past the pillars of Heracles until

48:05

they came into the northern sea and

48:08

so to Egypt. So

48:11

the Phoenicians set out from the Red Sea and

48:13

sailed to the southern sea. Whenever

48:16

autumn came they would put in

48:18

and plant the land in whatever part of

48:20

Libya they had reached and

48:22

there await the harvest. Then

48:26

having gathered the crop they sailed on

48:29

so that Just after two years had passed,

48:31

it was in the third that they rounded the

48:33

pillars of Heracles and came to

48:36

Egypt. There

48:38

they said, what some may believe

48:40

though I do not, that

48:42

in sailing around Libya, they

48:45

had the sun on their right hand."

48:50

Interestingly it is this

48:52

detail that Herodotus personally finds

48:54

unbelievable that has caused modern

48:57

scholars to take the claim more seriously.

48:59

The change in the position of the sun relative

49:02

to the ship suggests that the voyage

49:04

did indeed cross the Tropic of Cancer,

49:07

and perhaps even the equator, causing

49:09

the summer sun to appear in the north.

49:12

Modern estimates consider a journey time

49:14

of three years to be a reasonable duration

49:17

for a circumnavigation of Africa that

49:19

would have been about 20,000 kilometers

49:22

long, or half the way around

49:24

the world.

49:25

If this story is true, then it means

49:27

the Phoenicians may have rounded the cape

49:30

of Africa more than 2,000 years before the Portuguese

49:34

explorer Bartolomeu Dias

49:36

would do the same thing in 1488,

49:39

opening up the passage to India and

49:41

the age of European colonialism.

49:50

More solidly-attested voyages

49:52

of Phoenician discovery would see an

49:55

explorer named Hanno the navigator

49:57

sail out into the Atlantic Ocean through

49:59

the...

50:00

of Hercules and sail perhaps

50:02

as far south as Cameroon or

50:04

Gabon in West Africa.

50:07

His voyage is recounted in a Greek translation

50:10

entitled The Periplus or

50:12

Travel Account of Hano, supposedly

50:14

an accurate copy of an inscription

50:17

that actually hung in the temple of Baal-Hamon

50:20

in Carthage. It

50:22

was decreed by the Carthaginians that

50:25

Hano should undertake a voyage beyond the

50:27

pillars of Hercules and found Phoenician

50:29

cities.

50:31

We sailed accordingly with 60 ships

50:33

of 50 ores each and the body

50:35

of men and women to the number of 30,000 and

50:38

provisions and other necessaries.

50:42

Proceeding

50:42

a day's sail we came to the

50:44

extremity of the lake that was overhung

50:46

by large mountains, inhabited

50:49

by savage men clothed in the skins

50:52

of wild beasts, who drove us

50:54

away by throwing stones and hindered

50:56

us from landing. Sailing

50:59

thence, we came to another river

51:01

that was large and broad

51:03

and full of crocodiles and hippopotamuses.

51:07

Hano writes down vivid descriptions

51:10

of seeing active volcanoes spewing

51:13

lava into the ocean, possibly the

51:15

active volcano Mount Cameroon.

51:19

And then quickly sailing forth, we

51:21

passed by a burning country full

51:23

of fragrance, from which great

51:26

torrents of fire flowed down to the

51:28

sea,

51:29

and we sailed along with all speed,

51:31

being stricken by fear.

51:34

After a journey of four days, we

51:37

saw the land at night covered with flames,

51:40

and in the midst there was one lofty fire,

51:42

greater than the rest, which seemed

51:45

to touch the stars.

51:48

Hano even seems to have been the first

51:51

to write down an encounter with what

51:53

may have been Earth's largest living

51:55

primates, with We

52:00

arrived at a bay called the Southern Horn,

52:02

at the bottom of which lay an island full of

52:05

savage people, the greater part of

52:07

whom were women, whose bodies

52:09

were hairy and whom our interpreters

52:11

called guerillais. Though

52:14

we pursued the men, we could not seize any

52:16

of them, but all fled from

52:18

us, escaping over the precipices

52:21

and defending themselves with stones. We

52:25

women were however taken, but

52:27

they attacked their conductors with their teeth

52:30

and hands and could not be prevailed

52:32

upon to accompany us.

52:34

Having killed them, we flayed them

52:36

and brought their skins with us to Carthage. We

52:39

did not sail farther on,

52:41

our provisions failing us."

52:44

These hairy creatures may

52:46

have been chimpanzees, monkeys,

52:49

or what we today would call gorillas,

52:52

of which can be encountered in the region

52:54

of Cameroon.

52:56

On Hanos return, the hairy

52:58

skins he brought home were kept

53:00

in the temple to the god Tanit in

53:03

Carthage, and according to Pliny the

53:05

Elder, would remain in the city for

53:07

as long as it existed. In

53:10

the 19th century, when the American

53:12

physician and missionary Thomas Storton

53:15

Savage and the naturalist Jefferies

53:17

Wyman wrote the first scientific

53:19

description of a gorilla, they gave

53:21

them the name Troglodytes Gorilla

53:24

after the mysterious description in Hano's

53:26

writing,

53:27

and the name has stuck ever since.

53:34

Another explorer named Himmelko

53:37

sailed out into the Atlantic and went

53:39

in the opposite direction,

53:41

sailing north up the coast of Spain

53:43

and France, and even on to the British

53:45

Isles. Here, he saw

53:48

Celtic tribespeople sailing

53:50

in coracles made of deer skin, a

53:52

sight he found remarkable.

53:55

They cleave the tempestuous

53:57

sea and the current of the ocean abounding

54:00

in monsters with woven boats. Indeed,

54:03

these people do not know how to fashion

54:06

keels with pine and maple,

54:09

but in a miraculous thing

54:11

they always fit out vessels from hides

54:14

stretched together and often travels

54:16

through the immense sea in a skin.

54:20

Himmelko also brought back

54:22

stories of the vast expanse of the Atlantic

54:24

to the west, a frightening

54:27

sight to the sailors brought up in

54:29

the enclosed inland sea of

54:31

the Mediterranean. Beyond,

54:34

towards the area to the west, there

54:37

is a sea without end.

54:39

The ocean lies open across

54:42

a wide area and the sea

54:44

stretches out. No

54:47

man has entered upon these seas

54:49

because the sea lacks winds that

54:51

would drive the ships along

54:53

and no breeze from the sky favors

54:56

a ship.

54:58

It also seems that he may have seen whales

55:01

swimming out there in the ocean, which

55:03

were then nearly four times more numerous

55:06

than they are today.

55:09

Here and there, see

55:11

monsters swim amid the slow

55:14

ships sluggishly crawling along.

55:17

Himilco reported that he had once

55:19

seen these creatures in the ocean and

55:22

proved their existence.

55:24

These we have related to you revealed

55:27

a long time ago deep in the

55:29

annals of the Carthaginians.

55:35

In 2019, a team of 20 modern sailors

55:39

successfully piloted a replica

55:41

of a single-masted Carthaginian merchant

55:44

vessel across the Atlantic Ocean,

55:47

departing from the site of Carthage and

55:49

landing in the Caribbean five months

55:51

later,

55:52

demonstrating that Phoenician ships

55:54

had the ability to reach the Americas 2,000

55:57

years before Columbus.

56:04

As the city of Carthage grew, its population

56:07

boomed.

56:08

While some ancient writers

56:11

record it as having a population of more

56:13

than 700,000 people, this

56:15

is thought to be unlikely. But

56:18

estimates based on the size of the city and

56:20

the size of civilian armies drawn

56:22

up in times of crisis have suggested

56:25

that the population may have reached 400,000.

56:28

By the year 400 BC, the

56:31

city walls had been rebuilt to

56:33

now stand a towering 15 metres high,

56:36

with a triple line of ditches and

56:38

defences on the landward side.

56:41

The hill of Birsa, where legend

56:44

has it that Elishaia played her trick

56:46

with the oxhide, was now itself ringed

56:48

with an inner defensive wall

56:50

and loomed over the rest of the city as

56:53

a fortified citadel. The

56:55

Roman writer Appian writes the following

56:58

description of the city. On

57:01

the seaside, the city was protected by a single

57:03

wall. Toward the south and the

57:05

mainland, where the citadel of Berza

57:08

stood on the Ithmus, there was a triple

57:10

wall. The height of each wall

57:12

was 15 metre without counting parapets

57:15

and towers, which were separated

57:17

from each other by a space of 60 metres.

57:21

One of the most remarkable features of ancient

57:24

Carthage was the innovative design

57:26

of its harbor known as the Cothon.

57:32

Likely built sometime in the 3rd

57:34

or 2nd century BC,

57:37

this comprised a large rectangular

57:39

commercial harbor for civilian

57:41

ships that led into a unique

57:43

circular docking bay for the military

57:46

ships of Carthage's war fleet.

57:48

The harbor was so large that

57:50

today the shape of its outline can

57:53

still be seen in the coast of the city

57:55

of Tunis.

57:57

Appian describes the unique design

57:59

of this. the aba the

58:01

harbors of communication with each other and

58:03

a common entrance of the see twenty meters

58:06

wide which could be closed with i

58:08

in chains the first

58:10

port was the merchant vessels and here

58:12

were collected all kinds of ships tackle

58:15

within the second part was an island which

58:18

together with the port itself was enclosed

58:20

by high and banquets these

58:22

embankments were full of shipyards which

58:24

had capacity for two hundred and twenty vessels

58:28

above the were magazines for that tackle

58:30

of furniture to

58:32

ionic columns stood in front of each

58:34

doc

58:35

on the island was booed the admiral's house from

58:38

which the trumpet gave signals the

58:40

herald delivered orders and the admiral

58:42

himself overlooked everything

58:47

at this time carthage had

58:50

the largest and most powerful fleet

58:52

in the mediterranean and the military

58:54

port was built to conceal the ships

58:56

docked within and ensure that know

58:58

spies could glean any of their secrets

59:02

or keep tabs on their movements

59:05

the early lane near the entrance to the harbour

59:07

and rose to a considerable height so

59:09

that the admiral could observe what was going

59:11

on at sea while those who approaching

59:14

by water could not get any clear

59:16

view of what took place within

59:17

not even the incoming

59:20

merchants could see the dogs for double

59:22

walling closed them and they

59:24

were gates by which merchant ships could

59:27

pass the first poor to the city without

59:29

traversing the dock yards such

59:31

was the appearance of carthage at the

59:33

time between

59:40

the harbor and the citadel of bit of

59:42

so on the hill stood the

59:44

agoura the large open marketplace

59:47

of the city where all manner

59:49

of goods and foods could be bought

59:52

archaeological studies of plant matter

59:55

found in carthage show that the

59:57

ancient carthaginian enjoyed a

59:59

varied diet Walking

1:00:01

through the markets of the city, you will be

1:00:03

able to buy wheat, barley, and other

1:00:05

grains, numerous vegetables

1:00:07

like artichokes and cabbages, pulses,

1:00:10

and lentils, and fruits including pomegranates,

1:00:13

grapes, figs, olives,

1:00:16

peaches, plums, and melons, as

1:00:18

well as nuts like pistachios and almonds.

1:00:21

Olives were pressed into oil, and

1:00:24

its people ate fish like gray

1:00:26

mullet, sea perch, eels,

1:00:28

and dolphins, as well as the meat

1:00:30

of sheep, pigs, goats, chickens,

1:00:34

and occasionally even dogs.

1:00:36

The Carthaginians, like most people in the

1:00:38

ancient world, were obsessed with a pungent

1:00:41

salty source known as garum,

1:00:43

which was brewed from the fermenting of fish

1:00:46

entrails, and which was probably

1:00:48

similar to the fish source used

1:00:50

today in East Asian cuisine.

1:00:54

In the wreck of one Carthaginian

1:00:56

ship found off the coast of Sicily

1:00:59

in Marsala, archaeologists

1:01:01

have also uncovered the remains of cannabis

1:01:03

stalks, which may have been chewed by

1:01:06

the ship's rowers, and could also

1:01:08

have been enjoyed on land, either

1:01:10

chewed or brewed into a tea.

1:01:13

Wine was particularly beloved too,

1:01:16

and especially a particular kind of sweet

1:01:19

dessert wine made from sun-dried

1:01:21

grapes.

1:01:23

One agricultural handbook, written

1:01:25

by a Carthaginian named Margot, has

1:01:28

survived in fragments of Greek

1:01:30

and Latin translation, and it describes

1:01:32

the process of making this wine.

1:01:36

Pick some well-ripened early grapes.

1:01:39

Discard any that are mildewed or damaged.

1:01:42

Lay down reeds and spread the grapes

1:01:45

out in the sun on top.

1:01:46

Cover them at night so that the dew will

1:01:49

not moisten them. When they

1:01:51

are dried, pick the grapes off

1:01:53

stems and put them in a jar or pitcher.

1:01:56

Add some unfermented wine, the

1:01:58

best you have, until the grapes are

1:02:00

just covered. After six

1:02:02

days, when the grapes have absorbed it all and

1:02:05

are swollen, put them in a basket,

1:02:07

put them through the press, and collect

1:02:10

the resulting liquid. Bottle the liquid

1:02:12

in stopper jars and after 20 or 30 days,

1:02:15

when the fermentation is over, coat

1:02:17

the lids with plaster and cover

1:02:20

them with leather.

1:02:23

As a typical Phoenician city, Carthage

1:02:25

initially had a small footprint in

1:02:28

North Africa, and in its early days,

1:02:30

it was reliant on its overseas territories

1:02:33

in Sardinia and Sicily for

1:02:35

more than half of its food brought

1:02:37

across the sea on grain ships. But

1:02:40

in the 6th century, it began to expand

1:02:43

its territory around the city. The

1:02:46

Carthaginians either expelled

1:02:48

local people or came to agreements

1:02:50

with them, and built a network of towns

1:02:52

and forts to the south, east, and west,

1:02:55

and began to farm the land themselves.

1:03:00

A

1:03:03

later writer, Diodorus of Sicily, would pen the following

1:03:05

description of the abundant hinterland

1:03:07

that would

1:03:11

soon stretch beyond the city. All

1:03:13

the lands were set with gardens and orchards

1:03:18

watered

1:03:18

by numerous springs and canals. There

1:03:21

were well-constructed country houses built

1:03:23

with lime along the route,

1:03:25

The land was cultivated with vines,

1:03:28

olive trees, and a whole host

1:03:30

of fruit trees.

1:03:31

On both sides, there were herds of oxen

1:03:34

and sheep grazing on the plain, and

1:03:36

near the main pastures and the marshes,

1:03:39

there were studs of horses.

1:03:41

In its outposts in Sardinia,

1:03:44

Spain, and Sicily, Carthage began

1:03:46

a similar process, turning

1:03:48

what had once been small trading posts

1:03:51

into more solid and fortified territories

1:03:57

with their own agricultural land. more.

1:04:00

or less self-sufficient, as the

1:04:02

Roman writer Appian describes.

1:04:06

Gradually acquiring strength,

1:04:08

they mastered Africa and the greater part

1:04:10

of the Mediterranean, carried

1:04:12

war into Sicily and Sardinia and

1:04:15

the other islands of that sea, and also

1:04:17

into Spain.

1:04:18

They sent out numerous colonies.

1:04:21

They became a match for the Greeks in power

1:04:24

and next to the Persians in wealth.

1:04:28

The typical Carthaginian house was

1:04:31

built around a central courtyard, and

1:04:33

the wealthier dwellings had an upstairs

1:04:35

and a terrace.

1:04:37

Finer houses had cupboards and

1:04:39

shelves built into the walls, and

1:04:41

often a clay-bread oven. We

1:04:44

can imagine the smells of this baking bread

1:04:47

wafting through the city streets, along

1:04:49

with the pungent aromas from the tanneries

1:04:52

and wineries, the smells of animals

1:04:54

and incense, fish and

1:04:57

salty garum sauce.

1:04:59

Wealthy houses also

1:05:01

contained elaborate bathrooms with

1:05:04

separate changing facilities and baths

1:05:06

plastered with water-resistant stucco.

1:05:10

Before bathing, oil would be applied to

1:05:12

the body,

1:05:13

and a bronze tool known as a stridgel

1:05:16

was used to scrape dirt from the skin.

1:05:19

While in Greek houses, these bathrooms

1:05:22

were usually built off the kitchen, the

1:05:24

Carthaginians built their bathrooms next

1:05:26

to the entrance to the house, suggesting

1:05:28

that there was some sort of ritual purpose

1:05:31

to the bathing,

1:05:32

separating the dusty, unclean world

1:05:35

of outside from the clean inner

1:05:37

space of the home. A

1:05:43

variety of animals would have been visible

1:05:45

on the crowded city streets.

1:05:48

These would have included beasts of burden

1:05:50

like donkeys, oxen, and horses,

1:05:53

stray dogs and cats, and noisy

1:05:55

caravans of camels coming

1:05:59

in from the desert. to have drawn animals as

1:06:01

curiosities from all parts

1:06:04

of Africa. A

1:06:06

species of huge lion known

1:06:08

as the Barbary Lion could be found

1:06:10

all across this region and would later

1:06:13

be captured for spectacles, including

1:06:16

in the Roman arenas. A

1:06:18

species of monkey known as

1:06:20

the Barbary Macaque is also native

1:06:23

to this area.

1:06:25

Diodorus of Sicily records one

1:06:27

account of Carthaginians keeping these

1:06:29

monkeys as apparently much

1:06:31

beloved pets.

1:06:34

In these cities many of the customs

1:06:36

were very different from those current among

1:06:39

us, for the apes lived

1:06:41

in the same houses as the men, being

1:06:43

regarded among them as gods, just

1:06:46

as the dogs are among the Egyptians,

1:06:48

and from the provisions laid up in the storerooms.

1:06:51

The beasts took their food without hindrance

1:06:54

whenever they wished. For any

1:06:56

who killed this animal, as if he had

1:06:58

committed the greatest sacrilege,

1:07:04

death was established as the penalty.

1:07:08

Around this time, monkeys began appearing as a motif in

1:07:11

the art of regions of Italy, Sardinia and elsewhere,

1:07:15

suggesting that the Carthaginians were even exporting

1:07:17

this animal to other

1:07:19

regions. Some

1:07:22

Barbary macaques were mummified in Egyptian

1:07:25

tombs alongside pharaohs, dated

1:07:28

to around this time, has even been unearthed

1:07:32

as far away as Northern Ireland.

1:07:34

And

1:07:37

of course, in vast stables to the south of the city, were

1:07:40

kept the animals that in most people's minds are most

1:07:44

inseparably associated with the city of Carthage.

1:07:53

The North African elephant is an

1:07:55

extinct subspecies of the African

1:07:58

elephant that lived north of Sahara

1:08:00

Desert.

1:08:01

Carthaginian paintings on walls,

1:08:04

coins, and mosaics show that these

1:08:06

elephants had the swooping backs and

1:08:08

large ears typical of the

1:08:10

African elephant that roams the savanna.

1:08:13

But it was considerably smaller

1:08:16

and was likely similar in size to

1:08:18

another surviving subspecies, the

1:08:21

African forest elephant.

1:08:23

These reach a shoulder height of about

1:08:25

two and a half meters, only a little

1:08:27

taller than the largest shire horses,

1:08:30

but of course, their thick and heavy frames

1:08:33

mean they weigh more than 15 times

1:08:36

the average horse.

1:08:38

For this reason, these elephants were

1:08:40

used by the Carthaginians as fearsome

1:08:43

weapons of war.

1:08:46

Some historians have speculated

1:08:48

that Carthage may also have imported

1:08:51

some much larger Indian elephants,

1:08:54

which were at that time being used by

1:08:56

the Seleucid dynasty in Syria.

1:09:00

One elephant that was the pride of the later

1:09:02

Carthaginian army was known by

1:09:04

the name Surus, which some

1:09:06

have translated to mean the Syrian.

1:09:10

If true, this Syrian elephant

1:09:12

would have towered as much as a meter over

1:09:15

the smaller Carthaginian elephants and

1:09:17

would have been a truly terrifying

1:09:19

sight on the battlefield. In

1:09:23

India and Southeast Asia, it has always

1:09:25

been common to use elephants as work

1:09:27

animals to transport heavy loads

1:09:30

for construction. But it's not clear

1:09:32

whether the Carthaginians used their elephants

1:09:34

in this manner or whether these precious

1:09:37

animals were only reserved for

1:09:39

their power and prestige to

1:09:41

be used as living tanks on the battlefield,

1:09:44

as the writer Pliny the Elder describes.

1:09:46

when

1:09:49

tamed are employed in war and

1:09:52

carry into the ranks of the enemy towers

1:09:54

filled with armed men and

1:09:57

on them in a very great measure depend

1:10:00

the ultimate result of the battles that

1:10:04

are fought in the east. They

1:10:07

tread under foot whole companies and But

1:10:11

I think it's not hard to imagine that,

1:10:15

as in India, elephants may also have been

1:10:18

used ceremonially in

1:10:20

festivals and parades to carry kings

1:10:23

and generals, of

1:10:25

this new empire.

1:10:34

While Carthage didn't hesitate

1:10:37

to go to war, to defend its interests

1:10:40

and protect its trade,

1:10:41

it was not at heart a warrior

1:10:44

culture and it never suffered a conflict

1:10:46

to continue any longer than it absolutely

1:10:49

had to.

1:10:50

The Carthaginians often relied on

1:10:55

diplomatic solutions and agreements to avoid fighting

1:10:57

with their various neighbors

1:11:00

in the Mediterranean. One

1:11:02

such agreement was settled in the year

1:11:04

509 BC with

1:11:06

a minor city-state in central Italy in

1:11:09

the region of Latium

1:11:11

whose people spoke a small

1:11:14

italic dialect called Latin. This

1:11:17

city's people had just that year king

1:11:20

and abolished kingship in the city

1:11:25

for good. In place of a king, they had

1:11:27

brought in the rule of a pair of elected

1:11:30

consuls drawn from the aristocracy, a

1:11:34

system strikingly similar to and perhaps even inspired

1:11:36

by

1:11:37

the

1:11:40

Carthaginians.

1:11:42

This city's name was Rome. The Romans

1:11:44

at that time were

1:11:47

among several powers in central Italy,

1:11:49

to the north, and powerful tribal

1:11:51

confederacies like the Samnites, all

1:11:54

fighting for dominance in the plains

1:11:57

of central Italy. The

1:11:59

Carthaginians… Carthaginians

1:12:00

seem to have taken note of

1:12:02

this regional development and proceeded

1:12:04

to sign a treaty with this new

1:12:06

Roman republic, the contents

1:12:09

of which the Greek historian Polybius

1:12:11

records.

1:12:13

There shall be friendship

1:12:16

between the Romans and their allies, and

1:12:18

the Carthaginians and their allies, on

1:12:21

these conditions. Neither

1:12:24

the Romans nor their allies are to sail

1:12:26

beyond the fair peninsula, unless

1:12:28

driven by stress of weather or the

1:12:30

fear of enemies. If any one

1:12:33

of them be driven ashore, he shall

1:12:35

not buy or take anything for himself,

1:12:37

save what is needed for the repair of his ship

1:12:40

and the service of the gods. And

1:12:43

he shall depart within five days. Carthage

1:12:46

shall build no fort in Lachium, and

1:12:49

if they enter the district in arms, they

1:12:51

shall not stay a night therein."

1:12:57

The theme of this treaty was simple,

1:13:02

you leave us alone and we will

1:13:05

leave you alone. While Rome was at this point very

1:13:07

much on the Carthaginians'

1:13:09

radar, it seems that they considered

1:13:12

this Italian city republic to

1:13:23

Around the year 410 BC,

1:13:26

Carthage began minting its own silver

1:13:28

coins, and each coin would be stamped

1:13:30

with the symbol of a palm tree, in

1:13:33

Greek known as voinique, now

1:13:35

becoming a symbol of Phoenician

1:13:37

identity.

1:13:39

Carthage was now presenting itself

1:13:41

as the new champion of the Phoenician

1:13:44

people, the capital of the

1:13:46

Phoenician world. It

1:13:48

was now

1:13:50

beginning to look a lot like an empire,

1:13:53

and like all empires, it soon found

1:13:56

an increasing need to defend and It's

1:14:00

often said that Carthage relied on mercenaries

1:14:02

to fight its wars, but this is something

1:14:04

of an oversimplification. While

1:14:07

these kinds of armies for hire did

1:14:09

make up one part of their forces, in

1:14:12

fact, there were all kinds of reasons that people

1:14:14

came to fight for the Empire of Carthage.

1:14:17

Many of their soldiers were sent to fight

1:14:19

for them as part of treaties, just

1:14:21

as the Phoenicians had once promised to

1:14:23

send their ships to fight for Assyria.

1:14:26

As Carthage expanded to conquer new

1:14:29

peoples all along the North African

1:14:31

coast and across the Mediterranean,

1:14:33

ever more power and variety was

1:14:36

added to its forces.

1:14:38

When war came, each ally

1:14:40

and province would send fighters

1:14:42

of a particular kind based on

1:14:45

what they specialized in. The

1:14:48

North African power of Numidia

1:14:50

to the west of Carthage sent powerful

1:14:52

and experienced cavalry and javelin

1:14:55

throwers, while

1:14:58

colonies in the island of Mallorca

1:15:00

would send slingers, and

1:15:02

peasant spearmen with large round shields were

1:15:05

conscripted from the fields of Libya

1:15:08

in the east. Celts

1:15:10

from Spain made up some part of their forces, up

1:15:14

fighting

1:15:17

people and

1:15:22

that was the citizens of Carthage

1:15:28

The Carthaginian system relied

1:15:30

largely on making life

1:15:33

as comfortable as possible for the

1:15:36

people of the capital. Few

1:15:39

Carthaginian politicians ever risked the

1:15:41

unpopular move of conscripting

1:15:43

its citizens into the

1:15:43

army, and

1:15:46

so they amassed their forces out of units brought

1:15:48

from all the four Each

1:15:50

army of Carthage was its own unique

1:15:53

patchwork and would have spoken dozens

1:15:55

of different languages, as the Greek historian,

1:15:58

Polybius, writes. it

1:16:01

was therefore impossible to assemble them

1:16:03

and address the was a body or to do so

1:16:05

by any other means for how

1:16:07

could any general be expected to know all

1:16:09

the languages and

1:16:10

again to address them through

1:16:13

several interpreters repeating

1:16:15

the same thing four or five times

1:16:17

was

1:16:17

if anything more impractical

1:16:22

it

1:16:22

was a system that had many weaknesses

1:16:25

but as loud the empire to raise large

1:16:27

armies at short notice and

1:16:29

amount of since they could never be accused

1:16:31

of sending good carthaginian men

1:16:33

to die the politicians of

1:16:35

the city were largely insulated

1:16:38

from the consequences of going to

1:16:40

war but

1:16:42

soon at these army's would find themselves

1:16:44

embroiled in a bitter struggle

1:16:46

that would test this system to it's breaking

1:16:49

point and threaten to bring the

1:16:51

whole empire to the brink of destruction

1:16:54

these

1:16:54

was would erupt over what

1:16:57

would soon become the most fought over

1:16:59

piece of land in the mediterranean

1:17:01

that is the island of

1:17:04

sicily

1:17:13

sicily is the largest

1:17:16

island in the mediterranean sea

1:17:19

it

1:17:19

sets off the southern end of

1:17:21

italy separated by the narrow

1:17:23

waters of the straits of mussina

1:17:26

only three kilometers wide at

1:17:28

it's narrowest point sicily

1:17:31

is most prominent landmark is

1:17:33

the volcano mount etna towering

1:17:35

three thousand meters

1:17:38

over it's eastern coast and

1:17:40

due to the islands particularly violent geology

1:17:43

this is one of the most active volcanoes

1:17:46

in the world although

1:17:50

we think of it today as part of europe

1:17:53

sicily is actually on the northern edge

1:17:55

of the african continent or plate

1:17:57

right at the impact point where

1:18:00

European plate is grinding

1:18:02

it downwards into the earth's mantle.

1:18:05

The collision of these titanic forces

1:18:08

means that Mount Etna erupts an

1:18:10

average 200 times every year.

1:18:14

The volcanic ash spewed by

1:18:17

this volcano gives the soil

1:18:19

of Sicily an incredible fertility,

1:18:22

meaning that its farmlands have always

1:18:24

been rich. At

1:18:26

first, Carthage enjoyed an

1:18:28

unrivaled position on the island, trading

1:18:31

with the Sicilian locals in the west,

1:18:34

just a short hop away from their capital

1:18:36

in Africa. But soon, they

1:18:38

would come into conflict with another group

1:18:41

of people that, for much of this history,

1:18:43

would be their greatest rivals

1:18:44

on the sea and the land, a

1:18:47

people who were at the same time

1:18:50

also busy establishing colonies across

1:18:53

the Mediterranean. These

1:18:56

were the Greeks.

1:19:02

The Greeks, like the Phoenicians, were

1:19:05

expert sailors and had built

1:19:07

a number of thriving colonies in

1:19:09

southern Italy in what is now Turkey

1:19:11

and in the Black Sea.

1:19:13

Beginning in the 8th century BC,

1:19:16

Greek explorers and traders began

1:19:18

expanding their interests onto the island

1:19:21

of Sicily.

1:19:23

Like the Phoenicians, the Greeks at this

1:19:25

time weren't a unified people.

1:19:28

They spoke four different dialects of

1:19:30

Greek and countless sub-dialects,

1:19:33

and came from dozens of independent

1:19:35

city-states and island kingdoms

1:19:37

that often fought with each other more bitterly

1:19:40

than with any foreigners.

1:19:42

But despite these internal divisions,

1:19:44

the Greeks would expand across the southern portion

1:19:47

of Italy and Sicily,

1:19:49

and joined up this series of colonies

1:19:51

into an area that they would call

1:19:53

Megale Halas or Greater

1:19:56

Greece.

1:20:00

Wherever they went, Greek settlers

1:20:02

were in part inspired by

1:20:04

the myth of their hero, Heracles,

1:20:07

who the Romans would call Hercules.

1:20:10

He was a half-divine warrior

1:20:12

who traveled the length and breadth of Europe,

1:20:15

performing his famous twelve labors,

1:20:18

and meanwhile performing great deeds

1:20:20

wherever he passed through. Wherever

1:20:23

a new Greek colony sprung up around

1:20:26

the Mediterranean, a new installment

1:20:28

of the Hercules myth would quickly be

1:20:30

added to show that this

1:20:32

had also been one of his stops. In

1:20:35

some places, he was celebrated for slaying

1:20:37

giants and mythical beasts, while

1:20:40

in others, his feats were more mundane.

1:20:43

In the Greek colonies of southern Italy, he

1:20:46

was remembered for banishing a plague of flies

1:20:48

that was harming the livestock. In

1:20:51

Crete, he had rid the island

1:20:52

of wild beasts,

1:20:54

In Sicily, he had caught an errant

1:20:57

bull and bested the king

1:20:59

in a wrestling match.

1:21:01

In Spain, Diodorus of Sicily

1:21:03

recounts that, depending on who you

1:21:05

asked, Hercules was credited

1:21:07

with either creating the Straits of Gibraltar

1:21:10

by tearing the land apart or

1:21:12

with narrowing it to keep out sea

1:21:14

monsters.

1:21:16

Whereas before that time, a great space had

1:21:18

stood between Africa and Europe, he

1:21:21

now narrowed the passage in order that

1:21:23

by making it shallow and narrow, he

1:21:25

might prevent the great sea monsters from passing

1:21:28

out of the ocean and into the inner sea.

1:21:31

Some authorities, however, say

1:21:33

just the opposite, namely that the

1:21:35

two continents were originally joined and

1:21:37

that he cut a passage between them, that

1:21:40

the ocean was mingled with the sea. On

1:21:43

this question, however, it will be possible

1:21:46

for every man to think as he

1:21:48

may please.

1:21:51

one of the most dramatic episodes of these

1:21:53

tales during his tenth labor.

1:21:56

Hercules is tasked with stealing

1:21:58

the red cattle of the the

1:22:00

ogre Gerion, who lived

1:22:02

in Arithia in southern Spain, close

1:22:05

to the Phoenician colony of Gades.

1:22:07

Since Gerion lived so far in the

1:22:09

west, it was said, the hides of his

1:22:12

cattle had been stained red by

1:22:14

their close proximity to the setting

1:22:16

sun.

1:22:18

After killing Gerion, Hercules

1:22:20

takes his cattle

1:22:21

and herds them all the way back home to

1:22:24

Greece, a meandering route that

1:22:26

took him from Spain through southern

1:22:28

France and over the soaring snowy

1:22:30

mountains of the Alps, and on

1:22:33

into Italy as Diodorus recounts.

1:22:37

Hercules then made his way to

1:22:39

Italy, and as he traversed

1:22:42

the mountain pass through the Alps, he

1:22:44

made a highway out of the route which

1:22:46

was rough and almost impossible. The

1:22:49

barbarians who had inhabited this

1:22:51

mountain region had been accustomed

1:22:53

to butcher and to plunder such armies

1:22:56

as pass through when they came to the difficult

1:22:58

portions of the way, but he

1:23:01

subdued them all.

1:23:05

The story of Hercules bringing these

1:23:07

cattle from Spain over these mountains

1:23:10

was the dramatic pinnacle of a series

1:23:12

of myths that would become known as

1:23:14

the Heraclean Way.

1:23:17

It was a series of stories that would

1:23:19

be told to countless generations of Greek

1:23:21

settlers, and then to the children

1:23:24

of the Romans who followed them.

1:23:26

As the Phoenician hero god Melkart

1:23:29

became increasingly associated with Hercules

1:23:32

in later years, these stories would

1:23:34

also be told to the children of Carthage.

1:23:38

With stories of this wandering hero on their

1:23:40

lips, the Greek settlements in eastern

1:23:43

Sicily grew. For

1:23:45

several centuries, they maintained

1:23:47

an uneasy peace with the Carthaginian

1:23:50

colonies in the west of the island. But

1:23:53

as both powers began to require

1:23:55

greater amounts of land, they

1:23:57

would soon find themselves on a collision.

1:24:00

force.

1:24:00

The

1:24:02

exact dating and details of

1:24:04

these wars is still fiercely

1:24:06

contested, but it's clear that by

1:24:08

the late fifth century BC, Sicily

1:24:11

had erupted in warfare between

1:24:13

Carthage and the Greeks. Soon,

1:24:17

it would resemble a piece of meat being

1:24:19

torn apart by two hungry dogs.

1:24:24

The economy of the island suffered. Warlords

1:24:27

established themselves as the tyrant rulers

1:24:32

of its cities, and banditry

1:24:36

and lawlessness spread. For much of these

1:24:39

centuries of fighting, the Carthaginians were happy

1:24:41

to let the wars with the

1:24:43

Greeks simmer on. The citizens

1:24:46

of its capital

1:24:48

never went to war, and so long as the peace

1:24:50

and comfort of their city was never disturbed,

1:24:52

it must have felt to long

1:24:55

way from home. But

1:24:58

the final episode of these conflicts,

1:25:00

known as the Seventh Sicilian War,

1:25:03

would puncture this sense of invulnerability.

1:25:08

That's because Carthage would find itself

1:25:11

in a life-or-death struggle with

1:25:13

a man who would bring the war home to their

1:25:15

shores in dramatic fashion. He

1:25:18

was a king of Syracuse, a A

1:25:20

Greek city-state on the southeastern

1:25:23

coast of Sicily and his name

1:25:25

was Agathocles.

1:25:40

Agathocles began life as

1:25:42

a commoner in the Sicilian colonies,

1:25:45

the son of Apota in the port city

1:25:47

of Syracuse. At

1:25:49

first he learned his father's trade, but

1:25:52

soon entered the army and rose through

1:25:54

its until he was able

1:25:56

to enact a military coup and

1:25:59

seize the throne of the the

1:26:00

city in the year 317 BC.

1:26:04

Agathocles had a high opinion of himself,

1:26:07

and as the tyrant of Syracuse, he

1:26:10

minted silver coins that portrayed

1:26:12

himself as the heir to Alexander

1:26:14

the Great, the greatest of all the

1:26:16

Greeks. Like

1:26:18

Alexander,

1:26:20

Agathocles had dreams of

1:26:22

conquest. He soon set

1:26:24

about subjugating cities all around

1:26:27

him, as the historian Diodoros

1:26:29

of Sicily recalls.

1:26:32

Agatha Cleese began unhampered

1:26:34

to subject the cities and strongholds to

1:26:36

himself, mastering many

1:26:38

of them quickly he made his power secure.

1:26:41

In fact, he built up for himself a host

1:26:43

of allies, ample revenues,

1:26:45

and a considerable army. He

1:26:48

had picked a mercenary force comprising 10,000 foot

1:26:50

soldiers and 3,500 horse. Moreover,

1:26:56

he prepared a store of weapons and of missiles

1:26:58

of all kinds, since he knew

1:27:00

that the Carthaginians would shortly wage war

1:27:03

against him.

1:27:06

As predicted, it wasn't long

1:27:08

before the Carthaginians began to

1:27:10

see Agathocles as a serious

1:27:13

threat.

1:27:14

Carthage amassed a huge army

1:27:16

in its usual way, gathering

1:27:19

mercenaries and levies from all

1:27:21

of its territories and allies, slingers,

1:27:27

spearmen, cavalry, elephants, likely speaking a dozen different

1:27:29

languages, and

1:27:33

sailed all of them to Sicily. On

1:27:35

the way, many of their ships were wrecked in a storm, but

1:27:38

the force that arrived was still easily enough

1:27:41

to overpower the tyrant Agathocles

1:27:43

as

1:27:45

Diodorus recounts. As

1:27:47

Agathocles saw, the forces of the He

1:27:50

surmised that not a few of the strongholds

1:27:54

could go over to the Phoenicians and also those of the cities that

1:27:57

were offended with him. river

1:28:00

in central Sicily, Agathocles

1:28:02

retreated east to his port capital

1:28:04

of Syracuse, where the Carthaginians

1:28:07

surrounded the city and laid siege.

1:28:11

For Agathocles, it looks like

1:28:13

all hope was lost, but

1:28:16

it's here in this desperate moment

1:28:19

that he decided on a truly daring

1:28:21

course of action.

1:28:23

He hatched a plan to break

1:28:25

free of the siege by ship,

1:28:27

set sail for Africa, and make

1:28:29

a desperate strike at the heart

1:28:32

of his enemy, the city of Carthage

1:28:34

itself.

1:28:36

When he saw that all his allies had changed

1:28:38

sides, and that barbarians were

1:28:40

masters of almost all Sicily except

1:28:43

Syracuse,

1:28:44

and were far superior in both land

1:28:46

and sea forces,

1:28:47

he carried out an undertaking that was unexpected

1:28:50

and most reckless. determined

1:28:53

to leave an adequate garrison for the city,

1:28:56

to select those of the soldiers who were fit,

1:28:58

and with these to cross over into Libya.

1:29:01

For he hoped that if he did this,

1:29:04

those in Carthage who had been living luxuriously

1:29:07

in long continued peace and

1:29:10

were therefore without experience in the dangers

1:29:12

of battle would

1:29:13

easily be defeated. When

1:29:17

the Carthaginians saw the Greek fleet leaving

1:29:20

Syracuse, they believed Agathocles

1:29:22

to be fleeing and they pursued him. They

1:29:25

chased the Greeks, harrying them

1:29:28

across the sea for hundreds of kilometers,

1:29:30

pelting them with arrows and sling stones.

1:29:34

But luck was on the side of the Greeks and

1:29:37

Agathocles and his soldiers were

1:29:39

able to land on the beaches of Africa.

1:29:44

Agathocles must have feared that his

1:29:46

soldiers would lose courage and attempt

1:29:48

to flee, and so he ordered their

1:29:50

ships to be burned in an offering

1:29:53

to the gods as Diodorus

1:29:55

recounts. Standing

1:29:58

by the stern, he bade the others also.

1:30:00

to follow his example. Then

1:30:02

as all the captains threw in the fire and the flames

1:30:04

quickly blazed high, the trumpeters

1:30:07

sounded the signal for battle and the army raised

1:30:09

the war cry, while all together

1:30:11

prayed for a safe return home. This

1:30:14

Agathocles did, for it was clear

1:30:17

that if the retreat to the ships was cut off,

1:30:19

in victory alone would they have hope for

1:30:21

safety. Nevertheless, when

1:30:24

all the ships were aflame and the fire was

1:30:26

spreading widely, terror laid

1:30:28

hold upon the Sicilians

1:30:30

as they considered the vastness

1:30:32

of the sea that separated them from home. From

1:30:36

the city walls of Carthage, the

1:30:38

fires of the burning ships would have been

1:30:40

visible on the horizon and now

1:30:42

fear was beginning to spread among

1:30:45

its citizens.

1:30:47

For them, war was something that

1:30:49

happened in other places. The

1:30:52

city had never been significantly threatened

1:30:54

before and there were virtually no

1:30:56

forces there to defend it.

1:30:59

Panic and great confusion seized upon

1:31:01

the city. The crowds rushed to

1:31:04

the marketplace and the Council of Elders

1:31:06

consulted what should be done. In

1:31:08

fact,

1:31:09

there was no army at hand that could take

1:31:11

the field against the enemy. The

1:31:13

mass of the citizens who had no experience

1:31:16

in warfare were already in despair

1:31:19

and the enemy was thought to be near the walls.

1:31:23

For the first time, the citizens of Carthage

1:31:25

would actually have

1:31:28

to fight. They

1:31:30

were conscripted en

1:31:32

masse, given long spears and shields,

1:31:35

perhaps given some rudimentary training,

1:31:38

and along with the small complement

1:31:41

of city guards, marched out to

1:31:44

meet the Greeks in battle. The

1:31:46

Carthaginians hoped to make up for the poor

1:31:48

quality of their citizen troops with

1:31:52

sheer numbers and vastly out they were confident

1:31:54

of victory, but

1:31:55

that was not to be the case. When

1:31:59

they met, The

1:32:00

experienced and now desperate

1:32:02

Greeks smashed the citizen soldiers

1:32:05

of Carthage, ran them off the battlefield,

1:32:07

and flooded into their camp. Here,

1:32:11

Diodorus writes that they made a telling

1:32:13

discovery.

1:32:16

In the camp of the Carthaginians were

1:32:18

found, along with other goods, many

1:32:20

wagons in which were being transported

1:32:23

more than 20,000 pairs of manacles. Carthaginians,

1:32:28

having expected to master the Greeks easily,

1:32:31

had passed the word along among themselves

1:32:33

to take alive as many possible and, after

1:32:36

shackling them, to throw them into slave

1:32:38

pens.

1:32:40

With this army defeated, the city

1:32:42

of Carthage was now completely surrounded

1:32:44

by hostile forces and

1:32:47

Diodorus can't help but comment on

1:32:49

the ridiculous nature of the situation.

1:32:53

In Sicily, the Carthaginians

1:32:55

who had defeated Agathocles in a great battle

1:32:58

were besieging Syracuse, but

1:33:00

in Libya, Agathocles

1:33:02

had brought the Carthaginians under siege.

1:33:07

It's here that the Carthaginians, in

1:33:10

their desperation, seem to have

1:33:12

turned to an ancient ritual that

1:33:14

forms one of the darkest and most

1:33:17

controversial aspects of their history,

1:33:30

Human sacrifice was,

1:33:33

at certain times, a feature

1:33:36

of various societies in the

1:33:38

ancient world. Rituals

1:33:41

of this kind have been attested in several indigenous

1:33:46

American societies, and in the early as well

1:33:48

as the cities of Phoenicia like

1:33:53

Tyre and Sidon. The book of kings records

1:33:56

one king of the Levantine kingdom

1:33:58

of Moab,

1:34:00

child when a war isn't going

1:34:02

his way.

1:34:03

In Ireland, Britain, and northern

1:34:05

Germany, during the Iron Age, sacrificial

1:34:09

victims were richly strangled

1:34:11

and cast into bogs where

1:34:13

the acidic waters mummified

1:34:15

them in a state of perfect preservation.

1:34:20

This idea of a deadly exchange

1:34:22

with the gods seems to be one that

1:34:24

recurs in human psychology and

1:34:27

has independently arisen in multiple

1:34:29

cultures.

1:34:30

The idea that if we want to ask the gods

1:34:33

for a great favor, we have to give

1:34:35

them something truly precious

1:34:37

in exchange,

1:34:38

and what could be more precious than

1:34:40

a human life. With

1:34:43

the writing down of the Hebrew Bible and

1:34:46

the law codes of Moses, this

1:34:48

practice was condemned and

1:34:50

outlawed in much of the Levant, and

1:34:53

from then on, animals were sacrificed

1:34:55

in the place of human victims. Entire

1:34:58

and other Phoenician cities, the practice

1:35:01

also seems to have died out in the first

1:35:03

millennium. But there is one place

1:35:06

it seems to have continued well

1:35:08

into the second century BC, and

1:35:10

that is Carthage.

1:35:14

These were violent times when

1:35:17

human life was cheap, but

1:35:19

even so, these rituals were mentioned

1:35:21

with some revulsion

1:35:25

by several ancient writers,

1:35:29

among them the Greek philosopher

1:35:31

Plato. With us, for instance,

1:35:33

human sacrifice

1:35:35

is not legal but unholy, whereas

1:35:37

the Carthaginians

1:35:40

perform it as a thing they account

1:35:42

wholly illegal, and that too when some

1:35:47

of them even sacrifice their

1:35:49

own have been an authentic sacrifice,

1:35:52

giving up the life of one of your own children

1:35:54

in the hope of receiving favor from the gods.

1:35:58

But before long, wealthy Carthaginians

1:36:01

found a way around this.

1:36:03

In fact, they seem to have developed a macabre

1:36:06

industry, a trade in other people's

1:36:08

children for sacrifice.

1:36:11

The writer Plutarch describes this

1:36:13

system

1:36:14

and gives a sense for the atmosphere of these

1:36:17

grisly rituals.

1:36:19

Those who had no children would buy little ones

1:36:22

from poor people and cut their

1:36:24

throats, as if they were so many

1:36:26

lambs or young birds. Meanwhile,

1:36:29

the mother stood by without a tear

1:36:32

or moan. But should

1:36:34

she utter a single moan or let fall a

1:36:36

single tear, she had to forfeit

1:36:38

the money, and her child was sacrificed

1:36:41

nevertheless, and the whole area

1:36:43

before the statue was filled with

1:36:45

a loud noise of flutes and drums

1:36:48

so that the cries of wailing should not

1:36:50

reach the ears of the people.

1:36:55

For a long time, it was assumed that

1:36:57

these stories were exaggerations,

1:37:00

pieces of Greek propaganda designed

1:37:02

to demonize their enemies in Carthage.

1:37:05

But more modern archaeological discoveries

1:37:08

have more or less confirmed that child

1:37:10

sacrifice did take place, at

1:37:12

least at some times and at least by some

1:37:14

people in the city.

1:37:16

Large collections of buried urns containing

1:37:19

the cremated remains of children have

1:37:21

been found in large temple sites

1:37:23

known as Tofets. Some

1:37:26

of these temples are exceedingly large,

1:37:29

with collections of cremation urns

1:37:31

exceeding 2,000 in number.

1:37:34

Archaeology has uncovered masks

1:37:37

and symbols at these sites, incense

1:37:40

burners, and other paraphernalia

1:37:42

of ritual, suggesting that

1:37:44

the ceremonies were highly structured.

1:37:50

It is worth being cautious with these findings.

1:37:53

At most of the sites, analysis has

1:37:56

shown that the vast majority of these children's

1:37:58

remains are of... stillborn

1:38:00

babies or babies

1:38:02

that had died of natural causes.

1:38:04

At a time when child mortality has

1:38:07

been estimated at around 30 to 40%, the Carthaginians may have

1:38:11

considered the tragedy of infant death

1:38:14

to be a kind of sacred sign,

1:38:16

a human life being taken back

1:38:18

by the gods,

1:38:20

and the bodies of these children were burned

1:38:22

in the toffets as a result.

1:38:25

The relative lack of children's remains in

1:38:27

the regular graveyards of the city seemed

1:38:29

to show that these toffettes were

1:38:32

at least in part cremation sites

1:38:34

for the remains of children who had died of

1:38:36

other causes.

1:38:38

But analysis of the ages of

1:38:40

other remains at other times don't

1:38:43

seem to fit with patterns of child mortality.

1:38:46

However, the ritual had begun, at least

1:38:49

in the later years of the city, it had

1:38:51

evolved into something much darker

1:38:53

and

1:38:55

crueler. The

1:38:57

inscriptions at these later sites of sacrifice

1:39:01

left over the cremation urns don't seem

1:39:04

to leave much room for interpretation,

1:39:07

as this typical example shows.

1:39:10

To Lady Tenet, face of Baal and

1:39:14

Lord Baal Hamon, the thing that Arish, son

1:39:17

of Borashtot, son of Baal-Shalom, vowed

1:39:19

because the Lord heard his

1:39:24

voice. There are countless of

1:39:26

these inscriptions and

1:39:29

they all follow this pattern. The child

1:39:31

was not offered up front but

1:39:33

was promised in advance if the gods

1:39:36

came through on their request. The

1:39:39

Greek historian Claytarchus seems to

1:39:42

confirm this order of events. The Phoenicians

1:39:44

and above all the Carthaginians, whenever they were made

1:39:48

a vow by one of their children.

1:39:51

If they would receive the desired things,

1:39:53

they would sacrifice to the gods.

1:39:56

A bronze chronos, having been erected

1:39:58

by them, stretched out upward

1:40:00

hands over a bronze oven to burn the

1:40:02

child. The flame of the

1:40:05

burning child reached its body until

1:40:07

the limbs, having shriveled up and smiling

1:40:10

mouth, appeared to be almost laughing.

1:40:12

It would slip into the oven.

1:40:16

We can't imagine the kinds of things

1:40:18

people might have asked for in exchange

1:40:20

for these sacrifices.

1:40:23

Perhaps in some instances, we can

1:40:25

imagine the ritual was performed out of desperation,

1:40:30

an extreme measure. Other

1:40:32

times, perhaps the wishes were

1:40:33

trivial, good

1:40:36

weather on a journey maybe, good fortune

1:40:38

and wealth in the year to come,

1:40:42

or the downfall of a business rival. Whatever their

1:40:44

wish was, it seems that if it went on to come true,

1:40:49

the child's fate would be sealed. With

1:40:51

only fragmentary second-hand accounts archaeological

1:40:55

sites, we're left guessing about the questions

1:40:57

that desperately need answers, how

1:41:00

widespread this practice was in society,

1:41:03

why and when people engaged in it,

1:41:06

and how the majority of Carthaginian

1:41:09

citizens felt about it. With

1:41:18

the army of Agathocles drawing

1:41:20

near, and their last citizen

1:41:22

defenders defeated in the field,

1:41:24

the Carthaginians began

1:41:28

to believe that their gods must

1:41:30

be angry with them. At least some people in the city believed

1:41:35

that it was this practice of sacrificing the

1:41:37

children of the poor

1:41:39

instead of their own that was to blame, as

1:41:43

Diodorus of Sicily recounts. They

1:41:46

also alleged that Cronus had turned

1:41:47

against them. As

1:41:49

in former times, they had been the noblest

1:41:51

of their sons, but more recently,

1:41:54

secretly buying and nurturing children

1:41:57

they they had sent these to the sacrifice.

1:42:00

when the had given thought to these things

1:42:02

and saw their enemy and camped before there

1:42:04

was they were filled with superstitious

1:42:06

dread for they believe that they

1:42:08

had neglected the owners of the gods that

1:42:10

had been established by their fathers

1:42:13

in

1:42:13

their zeal to make amends for their

1:42:15

omission they selected two

1:42:17

hundred of the noblest children and

1:42:20

sacrifice them publicly and

1:42:22

others who are under suspicion sacrifice

1:42:24

themselves voluntarily in number

1:42:26

not less than three hundred in

1:42:29

this time of pero the citizens

1:42:31

of carthage reverted to a kind

1:42:33

of suicide or religious fundamentalism

1:42:37

but

1:42:37

this would not be the end of the city

1:42:40

a gothic lee's rampaged around the

1:42:42

countryside of carthage for years

1:42:45

but the city's formidable triple world

1:42:47

defenses would keep him at bay

1:42:49

and soon the greek king ran

1:42:52

out of steam it

1:42:53

his absence some of his sicilian

1:42:56

vassals we're taking the opportunity

1:42:58

to declare independence he

1:43:00

hurried back home leaving his

1:43:02

inexperience son in charge of

1:43:04

his army who was easily outmaneuvered

1:43:07

by carthaginian generals by

1:43:10

the time a gothic lee's returned to

1:43:12

africa he saw that the situation

1:43:14

had become untenable

1:43:16

and he fled back home to sicily

1:43:20

but

1:43:20

his achievements had been significant

1:43:24

he had left a lasting impression on

1:43:26

the people of carthage

1:43:27

laid waste to that countryside

1:43:30

terrified them so deeply that they

1:43:32

had slaughtered their own children and

1:43:34

likely left them on the brink of

1:43:36

bankruptcy

1:43:38

a peace treaty in three o seven

1:43:40

b c essentially returned

1:43:43

the situation to exactly how it had

1:43:45

been before the war started the

1:43:48

example of a gothic layers of

1:43:51

a daring strike at the heart of your enemy

1:43:53

right

1:43:53

at the moment they least expect it

1:43:56

was an example that later carthaginian

1:43:58

generals would remain

1:44:00

the and learn from was

1:44:02

it was also an episode that other powers

1:44:04

in the region paid particular attention

1:44:07

to

1:44:08

carthage had once

1:44:10

been considered the region's major power

1:44:13

but a small greek army had come

1:44:15

within a hair's breadth of bringing it

1:44:17

to it's knees

1:44:19

the historian pluto talk puts

1:44:21

it bluntly in the mouth of one

1:44:23

of his characters

1:44:26

for who could keep his hands of libya

1:44:29

or carthage when

1:44:30

that city got within his reach a

1:44:32

city which are gothic please slipping

1:44:34

stealthily out of syracuse and

1:44:37

crossing the sea with only a few ships

1:44:39

narrowly missed take

1:44:43

the first who would seek to take advantage

1:44:45

of this perceived weakness was

1:44:48

a greek king named paris

1:44:55

paris was the king of the

1:44:57

greek kingdom of epidurals

1:45:00

around what is today southern albania

1:45:03

his name meant fiery or

1:45:05

red haired coming

1:45:07

from the same route as the english

1:45:09

word pyre and

1:45:11

blue talk recalls that he seems

1:45:13

to have suffered from some kind of

1:45:15

developmental disorder that fused

1:45:18

together the teeth of his upper jaw

1:45:20

giving him an unsettling look in

1:45:24

the aspect of his countenance paris

1:45:26

had more of the terror

1:45:28

and of the majesty of kingly power he

1:45:30

had not many teeth but his upper jaw

1:45:33

was one continuous bone on

1:45:35

which the usual intervals between the teeth

1:45:38

were indicated by slights depressions

1:45:42

just

1:45:42

like a gothic please paris

1:45:44

had an immense high opinion of himself

1:45:47

and fancied himself as the inheritor

1:45:49

of the legacy of alexander

1:45:52

it

1:45:52

is later life he styled himself

1:45:55

as a hero of the hellenic world

1:45:58

the defender of everything good Greek.

1:46:00

Right at that moment, the

1:46:02

Greeks who needed the most defending were

1:46:05

the beleaguered colonies in southern

1:46:07

Italy,

1:46:07

the region known as Megali

1:46:10

Halas or Greater Greece.

1:46:15

These city-states were suddenly

1:46:18

being menaced by a powerful new

1:46:20

force in the region, a people

1:46:23

from the river plains of central Italy

1:46:26

that the Greeks considered to be barbarians,

1:46:28

and

1:46:29

that had recently emerged as

1:46:31

something of a regional superpower.

1:46:34

This was the once small and

1:46:37

insignificant city-state Republic

1:46:39

of Rome. Throughout

1:46:45

the fourth century BC, this

1:46:48

bizarre Republic had begun

1:46:50

expanding into the hinterlands of

1:46:52

its region of Latium and brought

1:46:54

a number of other cities under its

1:46:56

control. From there,

1:46:58

they had managed to upset the power balance

1:47:01

of central Italy and toppled

1:47:03

a number of well-established rivals,

1:47:06

absorbing all of Latium and

1:47:08

the region of Campania.

1:47:10

Wherever they went, the Romans

1:47:13

took a remarkably clever and pragmatic

1:47:15

approach to absorbing other peoples

1:47:18

into their society.

1:47:20

Empire like Carthage

1:47:22

kept full citizenship only

1:47:25

for the people living in their home city,

1:47:27

Rome was far more generous with citizenship.

1:47:31

Unlike the armies of Carthage, Rome's

1:47:33

legions were made up of citizen soldiers,

1:47:36

and with every free man now a citizen,

1:47:39

they were able to draw on vast reserves

1:47:42

of manpower.

1:47:45

As Rome grew in size and influence,

1:47:47

Carthage took notice. About 160

1:47:51

years after the first treaty they had signed,

1:47:54

they penned a new, expanded

1:47:56

agreement with Rome.

1:47:58

new treaty.

1:48:00

added the condition that Rome would not

1:48:02

try to found any cities in Carthaginian

1:48:04

territory, suggesting that

1:48:07

Roman expansion had become at

1:48:09

least a small concern for

1:48:11

the region's major power. But

1:48:14

for the most part, relations between

1:48:16

Rome and Carthage were friendly, if

1:48:19

suspicious. Carthage

1:48:21

welcomed the rise of Rome as a

1:48:23

potential ally against their mutual

1:48:25

enemies, the Greeks. One

1:48:28

district of the city of Rome

1:48:30

was known as the Vicus Africa,

1:48:33

or African Quarter, suggesting

1:48:35

that a population of Carthaginian merchants

1:48:38

already lived and traded in the city. It

1:48:41

seems Carthage viewed Rome not

1:48:43

as an unwelcome rival, but

1:48:46

as a new potential source of customers.

1:48:50

But for the Greek colonies of southern Italy,

1:48:53

Rome was a voracious new predator.

1:48:58

As

1:49:03

Roman power expanded, the

1:49:05

Greeks found themselves surrounded, and

1:49:08

many of them began sending out letters

1:49:10

of distress to the fiery Greek

1:49:13

king, Pyrrhus.

1:49:15

One of these colonies was the city of

1:49:18

Tarentum, as Plutarch

1:49:20

recalls. The Romans

1:49:22

were at war with the people of Tarentum, who

1:49:24

being able neither to carry on the

1:49:26

war nor put an end to it,

1:49:29

wished to make Pyrrhus their leader and

1:49:31

summon him to the war, believing

1:49:33

him to be a most formidable

1:49:36

general.

1:49:38

Pyrrhus couldn't resist this opportunity

1:49:41

to position himself as the valiant

1:49:43

defender of Greek civilization

1:49:46

against these Latin barbarians.

1:49:49

He gathered an armada and a large

1:49:51

army complete with 20 war elephants,

1:49:54

and in the year 280 BC,

1:49:57

he sailed to southern Italy in full

1:49:59

force. Himself

1:50:02