Carthaginian (green), Etruscan (blue), and Greek (yellow) maritime spheres of influence in the Western Mediterranean (c.509 BC).
Carthaginian (green), Etruscan (blue), and Greek (yellow) maritime spheres of influence in the Western Mediterranean (c.509 BC).
7 comments
>”*The Romans cannot wash their hands in the Mediterranean without our permission*”
An old Carthaginian saying.
[Should have posted this one, it’s better but I have only seen it now](https://it.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:West_Mediterranean_sea_areas_of_influence_509BC-it.svg).
Too much Carthage, I see. War is the solution. The reason Greece beat Carthage first, way before the Punic Wars over the control of key-places, like Sicily.
The thing is, land doesn’t tell us much.
Demography and political systems (united/divided) do.
Do we have population estimates for Carthage, Etrutria, Greece and Rome?
It could very well be that at some point Rome had a ton of people in a very small area. I know that during the Punic Wars that was one of the reasons they won out, they just had a ton more men available to throw into battle and after battle.
And small Rome conquered all of this
Before Barcid expansion at late III century, any carthaginian influence in Iberia and Northern Morocco is very dubious. Material culture is clearly different in western mediterranean and “mediterranean atlantic” (mediterranean climate on atlantic coasts) compared with central mediterranean, with carthaginian materials appearing in significant amounts only in that central region (Tunisia, eastern Algeria, italian islands, Malta, western Lybia).
Most archaeologists propose a different cultural and trade sphere during VI-III centuries BC for western mediterranean and mediterranean atlantic around Iberia and northern Morocco coasts, maybe also western Algeria, which is usually called in spanish, portuguese and french archaeologic historiography “The Straits Circle”. It seems that could have existed some Gadir (Cádiz) maritime primacy in the area from VI to III century BC instead, as gadirite materials or from its continental hinterland are very common in all the region (Gadir coins, ceramic stamps and amphorae) while carthaginian/northern tunisian coasts materials are rare until late III century.
Carthaginians never controlled that much in mainland Africa. They only controlled ports and cities from Northern Algeria to Morocco. There is no way they controlled Cirta (modern day Constantine) when it was the capital of the Massyles Confederation and later Kingdom of Numidia