{"id":2960,"date":"2010-06-06T10:59:08","date_gmt":"2010-06-06T10:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/carthage\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T07:22:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T07:22:43","slug":"carthage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/carthage\/","title":{"rendered":"Carthage"},"content":{"rendered":"

C<\/strong>arthage<\/strong> is today a suburb of the North African city of Tunis.<\/p>\n

Al Barone wrote(k)<\/sup> that it “was founded by\u00a0Phoenician\u00a0settlers from the city of\u00a0Tyre, who brought with them the\u00a0city-god Melqart.\u00a0Philistos of Syracuse\u00a0dates the founding of Carthage to c.\u00a01215 BC, while the Roman historian Appian\u00a0dates the founding 50 years prior to the Trojan War\u00a0(i.e.\u00a0between 1244 and 1234 BC, according to the chronology of Eratosthenes). The Roman poet\u00a0Virgil\u00a0imagines that the city’s founding coincides with the end of the Trojan War. However, it is most likely that the city was founded sometime between 846 and 813 BC.<\/em>“<\/em><\/p>\n

Gerard Gertoux argues(h) <\/sup>that recent discoveries push this date back to at least 870 BC, if not further. Prior to that, the Roman poet, Silius Italicus (100-200 AD), tells us, that according to legend, the land there had been occupied by Pelasgians<\/a>(e)<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

South of Carthage, in modern Tunisia, there are fertile plains that were the breadbasket of Rome and even today, can produce two crops a year, despite a much-disimproved climate.<\/p>\n

The Atlantis narrative offered by Plato has indicated that part of North Africa was\u00a0 Atlantean territory along with a number of islands and southern Italy (Tim 25 a-b & Crit. 114c). As the foundation of Carthage, by the Phoenicians, appears to have taken place after<\/em><\/strong> the defeat of Atlantis, it might be worth investigating the possibility that Carthage was the development of an earlier Atlantean city. The demise of Atlantis must have left a power vacuum, inviting exploitation by anyone with expansionist ambitions, such as the Phoenicians.<\/p>\n

In 500 BC, Hanno<\/a>, the Navigator was dispatched from Carthage with the intention of establishing new African colonies. Around a century later, another Carthaginian voyager, Himilco, is also thought to have travelled northward(f)<\/sup> in the Atlantic and possibly reached Ireland, referred to as ‘isola sacra’. Christopher Jones has claimed on his website(d)<\/sup> that Himilco reached Britain and<\/strong> <\/em>Ireland in the 5th century BC.<\/p>\n

Cecil Torr (1857-1928) the British antiquarian and author published a paper in 1891 entitled The Harbours of Carthage<\/em>(j)<\/sup> in which he suggested that the layout of Carthage may have inspired some of Plato’s descriptions of Atlantis. However, we are now aware that some of these features did not exist until after Plato’s time.<\/p>\n

Sometime later\u00a0Victor B\u00e9rard<\/a><\/span>,\u00a0 pointed out[0160<\/a>]<\/sup> the similarity of Carthage with Plato\u2019s description of Atlantis.\u00a0The prominent Atlantis sceptic Sprague de Camp<\/a> at least complimented B\u00e9rard that his theory was ”\u00a0more difficult to eliminate<\/em> ” than those of other researchers and authors. After all, de Camp concedes that Carthage was ”\u00a0in the right direction from the point of view of Greece<\/em> “, which cannot be said of Crete, for example. Atlantisforschung <\/em>discusses at some length, de Camp’s view of B\u00e9rard’s Atlantean Carthage theory(I)<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

Frank Joseph<\/a> followed Lewis Spence<\/a> in suggesting that Carthage may have been built on the remains of an earlier city, that had been Atlantis or one of her colonies. In like manner, when the Romans destroyed Carthage after the Punic Wars, they built a new Carthage on the ruins, which became the second-largest city in the Western Empire.<\/p>\n

The circular lay\"carthagenorthafrica200bc\"<\/a>out of the city with a central acropolis<\/a> on Byrsa hill, surrounded by a plain with an extensive irrigation system, has prompted a number of other authors, including Massimo Pallotino<\/a>[<\/sup>222<\/sup><\/a>]<\/sup> and C. Corbato[<\/sup>223<\/sup><\/a>]<\/sup> to suggest that it had been the model for Plato\u2019s description of Atlantis. This idea has now been adopted by Luana Monte<\/a>(c)<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

Andis Kaulins <\/a><\/span>has suggested that \u201cancient Tartessus (which was written in Phoenician as Kart-hadasht) could have been the predecessor city to<\/em> Carthage on the other side of the Strait of Sicily.<\/em> Plato reported that<\/em> Tartessus<\/a> <\/i><\/span>was at the<\/em> Pillars of Herakles<\/i>.\u201d(a)\u00a0 <\/span><\/sup>Kaulins places the ‘Pillars’ somewhere between the \u2018toe of Italy\u2019 and Tunisia.<\/span><\/p>\n

Richard Miles has written a well-received history[1540<\/a>]<\/sup> of Carthage, a task hampered by the fact that the Carthaginian libraries were destroyed or dispersed after the fall of the city, perhaps with the exception of Mago’s agricultural treatise, which was translated into Latin and Greek and widely quoted.<\/p>\n

Delisle de Sales<\/a> placed the Pillars of Heracles in the Gulf of Tunis.<\/p>\n

A book-length PhD thesis by Sean Rainey on Carthaginian imperialism and trade is available online(b)<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

(<\/sup>a<\/sup>)\u00a0<\/sup>Pillars of Heracles \u2013 Alternative Location (archive.org)<\/a><\/p>\n

(b)<\/sup> https:\/\/ir.canterbury.ac.nz\/handle\/10092\/4354<\/a><\/p>\n

(c) <\/sup>ARTICOLO: Cartagine come Atlantide? (archive.org)<\/a><\/p>\n

(d)<\/sup> https:\/\/gatesofnineveh.wordpress.com\/2011\/12\/13\/high-north-carthaginian-exploration-of-ireland\/<\/a><\/p>\n

(e)<\/sup> http:\/\/www.loebclassics.com\/view\/silius_italicus-punica\/1934\/pb_LCL277.425.xml?result=1&rskey=K0cyB6&readMode=recto<\/a><\/p>\n

(f) <\/sup>http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20250615055315\/http:\/\/phoenicia.org\/himilco.html<\/a><\/p>\n

(h)<\/sup> <\/span>https:\/\/www.academia.edu\/2421053\/Dating_the_foundation_of_Carthage?email_work_card=view-paper<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

(i)<\/sup><\/span> Atlantis Rising<\/em> magazine\u00a0 #39 p69\u00a0 http:\/\/pdfarchive.info\/index.php?pages\/At<\/p>\n

(j)<\/sup><\/span> \u00a0The<\/em> Classical Review<\/em>.\u00a05<\/strong> (6): 280\u2013284. June 1891<\/p>\n

(k) <\/sup>https:\/\/www.academia.edu\/5333030\/The_Amazingh_Warriors_of_Amazon_and_Carthage<\/a><\/p>\n

(l)<\/sup> Atlantis in Karthago – Die Lokalisierung des Victor B\u00e9rard \u2013 Atlantisforschung.de<\/a> (German)
\n<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Atlantis in Carthage – The localization of Victor B\u00e9rard – Atlantisforschung.de (atlantisforschung-de.translate.goog)<\/a> (English)
\n<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carthage is today a suburb of the North African city of Tunis. Al Barone wrote(k) that it “was founded by\u00a0Phoenician\u00a0settlers from the city of\u00a0Tyre, who brought with them the\u00a0city-god Melqart.\u00a0Philistos of Syracuse\u00a0dates the founding of Carthage to c.\u00a01215 BC, while the Roman historian Appian\u00a0dates the founding 50 years prior to the Trojan War\u00a0(i.e.\u00a0between 1244 and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7391,213,2194,2196,678,7277,4004,1697,124,6221,5058,4003,2083,294,78,5588,2195,1072,90,48,4658,5587,2801,4002,4657,2881,13,382,2193,46,2197],"class_list":["post-2960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-al-barone","tag-andis-kaulins","tag-byrsa-hill","tag-c-corbato","tag-carthage","tag-cecil-torr","tag-christopher-jones","tag-delisle-de-sales","tag-frank-joseph","tag-gerard-gertoux","tag-gulf-of-tunis","tag-hamilco","tag-hanno","tag-ireland","tag-lewis-spence","tag-mago","tag-massimo-pallotino","tag-pelasgians","tag-phoenicians","tag-pillars-of-heracles","tag-punic-wars","tag-richard-miles","tag-romans","tag-sean-rainey","tag-silius-italicus","tag-sprague-de-camp","tag-tartessos","tag-trojan-war","tag-tunis","tag-tyre","tag-victor-berard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2960"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66933,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2960\/revisions\/66933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}