Carthage is founded
A Tyrian colony in Tunisia grows into the dominant power of the western Mediterranean.
- When
- Known to
- ± 30 years
- Era
- Iron Age, Holocene
Tradition dates the founding of Carthage to 814 BCE by Dido, fleeing her brother in Tyre; archaeology broadly supports a late ninth-century date. Positioned on the strait between the eastern and western Mediterranean, it grows into a maritime empire controlling North Africa, Sardinia, western Sicily and southern Spain, with a mixed constitution Aristotle admired. Its long conflict with Rome lies ahead.