Download Ancient Cities: The History of Carthage AudioBook Free
"Ceterum autem censeo Carthaginem esse delendam." ("Furthermore, I contemplate it crucial that Carthage be demolished.") (Cato the Elder) At its peak, the rich Carthaginian Empire dominated the Mediterranean against the likes of Greece and Rome, with commercial businesses and influence stretching from Spain to Turkey, with several points in history it had an extremely real chance of replacing the fledgling Roman Empire or the declining Greek poleis (city-states) completely as get good at of the Mediterranean. Although Carthage certainly preferred to exert economic pressure and effect before resorting to immediate military vitality, (and even travelled as far as to rely mostly on mercenary armies paid with its vast wealth for much of its history,) it nonetheless produced a number of exceptional generals, from the likes of Hanno Magnus to, of course, the fantastic bogeyman of Roman nightmares himself: Hannibal. Through smart use of power projection, both by maintaining a large and incredibly lively navy to dominate the seaborne routes along which the majority of their vast trading empire's lifeblood flowed and by paying allies with gold or recruiting mercenary armies to combat for them, Carthage was able to go from a Phoenician settlement to 1 of the very most powerful trading empires of antiquity. However, the Carthaginians' foreign policy got one fatal flaw; on the centuries, that they had a knack for picking the most detrimental enemies they could possibly enter into turmoil with. The first serious clash of civilizations which Carthage was involved in was with Greece. Alas for the Carthaginians, Carthage wouldn't normally endure another major confrontation.
