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[Debuting Tomorrow] Inside the Walls of Carthage ft. Max Miller of Tasting History
🕑 Added 2023-08-07 16:00:08 +0000 UTCWe are super stoked about the release of The City of Carthage documentary featuring Max Miller from Tasting History where he'll be recreating the Puls Punica (Carthaginian porridge). Here's a preview of what's to come in this video. Enjoy!
Intro
The city of Carthage was a metropolis of its time. With a cosmopolitan population of around 750,000 souls and the riches of a vast Empire at its fingertips, this African city would have rivaled Rome in its prime. Sadly much of this rich history is lost to us. But in this video we will bring you back in time to visit this lost treasure, from its gargantuan triple walls, to its massive naval harbor, its Edenic garden district, its bustling acropolis, and more. So today let us step inside the walls of Ancient Carthage and welcome our friend Max Miller who will join us for a taste of life in this famous city.
Origins
While the city of Carthage would eventually emerge as one of the grandest of its age, it certainly had humble beginnings. According to legend, this began in 814 BC when Dido and her Phoenecian entourage from Tyre established a colony on a promontory jutting out from the African coast.
It was an ideal strategic location at the hub of Mediterranean trade routes with defensible terrain in the form of a series of hills and surrounding shores. The only problem was that Hiarbas, a local African king, controlled the land. According to tradition, when Dido requested the land for a city, Hiarbas laughed at her and told her mockingly that she could found her city on whatever land she could cover with an oxhide. Dido, in a show of Punic craftiness, then cut the oxhide into thin strips which she used to outline a claim large enough for an entirely new city. This tale is preserved in the name of the central hill of Carthage, the Byrsa hill, which in Greek translates to ox-hide. Regardless of the veracity of the legend, archaeology seems to back up the idea that some of the earliest habitation in the area occurred around the vicinity of the Byrsa hill.
Early City Layout
In these early years, a mix of residential and commercial buildings sprung up to occupy the space between the defensible acropolis and the emerging merchant port. Within these grounds would have also been a central agora for meetings and market activities as well as numerous temples and public buildings. An early wall likely protected key parts of the burgeoning town with evidence that around the 5th century BC, powerful fortifications were built along the sea-front.
But with the boons of a growing Empire bearing fruit, little could stop the Carthaginian citizens from spilling out beyond its confines. As each new generation arose they fueled a new wave of development across the lands. Fields, orchards, farmhouses, villas, water canals, roads, warehouses, workshops, stables, and more sprung up as far as the eye could see. Soon even the ancestors, once laid to rest upon the nearby hills, were being encroached upon by their descendants.
Late City Layout
By the time of the Punic Wars in the 3rd century BC, Carthage had grown to an enormous size, covering much of the promontory, and boasting a peak population estimated at three quarters of a million people. By now its demographic makeup consisted of not just Phoenecian immigrants but also local Libyans, Numidians, Greeks, Italians, Iberians, Celts, and all manner of folk from the wider Mediterranean which were drawn in one way or another to the cosmopolitan metropolis.
The city itself would have been broken out into a series of districts though their exact demarcations from this period largely elude us. For now we can at least present some general areas of interest and spend some time visiting each one in turn.
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