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[61] [62] Carthage's growing wealth and power, along with the foreign subjugation of the Phoenician homeland, led to its supplanting of Sidon as the supreme Phoenician city state. [63] Carthage's empire was largely informal and multifaceted, consisting of varying levels of control exercised in equally variable ways.
Greek cities contested with Carthage for the Western Mediterranean culminating in the Sicilian Wars and the Pyrrhic War over Sicily, while the Romans fought three wars against Carthage, known as the Punic Wars, [74] [75] from the Latin "Punicus" meaning "Phoenician", as Carthage was a Phoenician colony grown into an empire.
Carthage archaeological site J. M. W. Turner's The Rise of the Carthaginian Empire (1815). The city of Carthage was founded in the 9th century BC on the coast of Northwest Africa, in what is now Tunisia, as one of a number of Phoenician settlements in the western Mediterranean created to facilitate trade from the city of Tyre on the coast of what is now Lebanon.
Carthage was founded by Phoenicians coming from Tyre, probably to provide an anchorage and supplies to the Tyrian merchants in their voyages. [57] The city's name in Punic , Qart-Ḥadašt ( 𐤒𐤓𐤕 𐤇𐤃𐤔𐤕 ) , means 'New City'. [ 58 ]
The end of the Carthaginian Empire came after the destruction of Carthage in 146 BC, which occurred at the end of the Third Punic War, the final conflict between Carthage and Rome. [8] This took place about 50 years after the end of the Carthaginian presence in Iberia, and the entire empire came under Roman control. [8]
Phoenician art was largely centered on ornamental objects, particularly jewelry, pottery, glassware, and reliefs. [115] Large sculptures were rare; figurines were more common. Phoenician goods have been found from Spain and Morocco to Russia and Iraq; much of what is known about Phoenician art is based on excavations outside Phoenicia proper.
The Phoenician colonial system was motivated by economic opportunity, not expansionist ideology, and as such, the Phoenicians lacked the numbers or even the desire to establish an "empire" overseas. The colonies were therefore independent city-states, though most were relatively small, probably having a population of less than 1,000.
Nevertheless, during the Persian era, many Phoenicians left to settle elsewhere in the Mediterranean, particularly farther west; Carthage was a popular destination, as by this point it was an established and prosperous empire spanning northwest Africa, Iberia, and parts of Italy.