The Phoenicians were the most civilized people of the Near East and the greatest businessmen and conduits of culture of the ancient world (e.g., they gave us all the alphabet). Their expansion westward across the Mediterranean, driven by the trade in metal ore, is told in myth, archaeology, and the accounts of the people they impacted (including the Berbers, Etruscans, Greeks and Romans). The Phoenician settlement at Carthage (modern Tunisia) soon became the most powerful and cultured city of the western Mediterranean, their ships dominating trade routes. Conflict thus became inevitable with the Etruscans, Greeks and Romans, which culminated in the three Punic Wars. In the Second Punic War, Hannibal terrorized the Romans like no other enemy they had ever encountered, but in the end the Romans erased Carthage entirely. 

Yet Carthage remains eternal: in myth, painting, literature and grand opera.

Hannibal, Rome’s Nightmare

Patrick Hunt will describe how Hannibal, the great Carthaginian general, weaponized nature—making Roman armies cross icy streams, and face fog and dust storms, in his almost two decade war against Rome in Italy starting in 218 BC. Brilliantly defeating multiple Roman legions even when outnumbered, Hannibal’s flexible craftiness and ability to get in the minds of his enemy, by employing a staggering arsenal of tactics, are still admired and emulated in modern warfare. It is likely that Roman legions would never have conquered their empire had Hannibal not first schooled Rome in his methods of professional warfare. Even Machiavelli created his famous dictum “better to be feared than loved” based on Hannibal. So it is fatefully ironic that the general who won so many battles, but could not win the war, only wanted Rome to leave Carthage alone. Hannibal’s policies ultimately failed when the Romans totally obliterated Carthage in 146 BC.

Legendary Carthage

Douglas Kenning will illustrate how mythology expresses in narrative the varied ways a people understand themselves and their world. In the case of Carthage we began with the Rape of Europa, which led to the stories of Phoenix and Cadmus, which led to the stories of the Phoenician princess Elissa, which led to the story of Dido and Aeneas as told by Virgil. Few mythic cycles were as important as this one in ancient times, being fundamental to any understanding of Carthaginian values and behavior (e.g., Hannibal casting himself as Hercules) and how the Romans viewed their international role and their foreign policy. And for this reason, few mythic cycles are as important across subsequent Western arts, especially painting and music.