ShmoopTube

00:04

When studying African history, a lot of people study Egypt and…then call it quits. [Man studying egyptian history]

00:09

Like pyramids and pharaohs were the only things of note on an entire continent for several

00:13

thousand years.

00:14

It probably won't surprise you to hear that there were one or two other things happening [Parts of Africa waving]

00:18

in ancient Africa.

00:20

Like how about the ancient city of Carthage?

00:23

Now, Carthage actually gets mentioned pretty often in classical history, but a lot of people

00:27

don’t think of it as part of Africa. [Carthage highlighted on a map]

00:29

It's treated like a piece of southern Europe that just happened to accidentally land in

00:33

North Africa.

00:35

Oopsies. [Southern Europe falls into North Africa]

00:36

Most large ancient cities had elaborate foundation myths, and Carthage was no exception.

00:41

Greek and Roman writers claimed that Carthage was founded by a Phoenician Queen named Elissa, [Dido on stage at a concert]

00:47

or Dido.

00:48

She was from a Phoenician city called Tyre, which is in modern-day Lebanon.

00:53

When her dad died, Dido and her brother, Pygmalion, both ascended to the throne. [Dido's dad dies on a throne]

00:57

Pygmalion wasn’t so good at sharing.

01:00

By that we mean that he killed Dido’s husband and exiled her and some of her followers. [Pygmalion kills Dido's husband with a sword]

01:05

But Dido showed the world what she was made of and carved the great city of Carthage out

01:09

of a hunk of Northern Africa.

01:12

Legend says that the local king, Iarbas, told Dido and friends that they could build [Iarbas with an ox]

01:17

a settlement as large as an ox-hide.

01:19

Doesn’t sound that big, right?

01:21

Well, the future Carthaginians got around it by slicing the ox-hide super thin and pulling

01:28

it to a city-sized amount of area. [Dido and carthaginian pulling an ox-hide]

01:31

Like almost every story of ancient heroes and heroines, Dido’s tale ends tragically.

01:35

Some say that King Iarbas tried to force her to marry him, and she killed herself with

01:39

a sword on top of a funeral pyre. [Dido killing herself on a funeral pyre]

01:42

Others say that she got super depressed when the hero Aeneus dumped her.

01:46

And then she… killed herself on a funeral pyre.

01:49

They really like the funeral pyre bit. [Dido jumps in a funeral pyre and people cry]

01:52

Don’t be too sad though.

01:54

Nobody is sure if the legend of Dido is true.

01:56

In fact, nobody’s even sure if ancient Carthagenians believed in it, since the legends come down

02:01

to us through Greek and Roman writers.

02:03

One thing that nobody disputes, though, is that there was an ancient city called Carthage, [People asking for a ticket to Carthage]

02:07

founded in modern day Tunisia.

02:09

It’s also agreed that Carthage was founded by Phoenicians, who were a seafaring people

02:14

with settlements all around the Mediterranean. Phoenician man steering a boat]

02:17

The Phoenicians were great sailors and loved to explore and trade.

02:20

…which made Carthage rich and powerful.

02:22

That is… until they got into it with Rome.

02:28

What started as a little dust-up in Sicily turned into years of conflict called the Punic [Carthage man and Roman man fighting with swords]

02:33

Wars.

02:34

These wars didn’t work out too well for Carthage.

02:36

After the first one, Carthage was forced to give up a bunch of land to Rome.

02:39

The Second Punic War saw the rise of one of the most famous Phoenicians ever, the great [Hannibal appears in a field]

02:44

general Hannibal.

02:45

This is the guy who’s famous for marching an army, complete with battle elephants, over

02:50

the Alps.

02:51

You heard that right. [Hannibal riding an elephant]

02:52

Battle.

02:53

Elephants.

02:54

Hannibal won a bunch of impressive victories, but could never take Rome itself.

02:57

Eventually, he was defeated, and Carthage once again had to eat humble pie. [Carthage man eating humble pie]

03:02

In the Third Punic War, the Romans sieged Carthage and eventually burned it to the ground.

03:07

Not very neighborly, we guess.

03:08

But neither is using battle elephants. [Battle elephants drinking tea]

03:10

A hundred years later, Julius Caesar ended up building a new settlement on the site of

03:15

Carthage, and it became one of the biggest cities in Northern Africa.

03:18

These days, the modern city of Tunis sits on all that history. [Tunis sitting on rubble]

03:21

We hope it has a cushion.

03:23

History’s full of lumps.

Full Transcript