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}} The city of Carthage (; ') is a city in Tunisia that was once the center of the ancient Carthaginian civilization. The city developed from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC into the capital of an ancient empire. The area of Carthage was inhabited by Berber people who also became the bulk of Carthage's population and constituted a significant part of its army, economy and administration. Native Berbers and settling Phoenicians in Carthage mixed in different ways including religion and language, creating the Punic language and culture. The name of Carthage, (ラテン語:Carthago) or ''ラテン語:Karthago'', ''Karkhēdōn'', Etruscan: '' *Carθaza'', is derived from the Phoenician ' meaning "New City" ( '; (ヘブライ語:קרת חדשה) '), implying it was a 'new Tyre'.〔(Carthage: new excavations in Mediterranean capital )〕 The first civilization that developed within the city's sphere of influence is referred to as Punic (a form of the word "Phoenician") or Carthaginian. The city of Carthage is located on the eastern side of Lake Tunis across from the centre of Tunis. According to Greek historians, Carthage was founded by Canaanite-speaking Phoenician colonists from Tyre (in modern Lebanon) under the leadership of Queen Elissa or Dido. It became a large and rich city and thus a major power in the Mediterranean. The resulting rivalry with Syracuse, Numidia, and Rome was accompanied by several wars with respective invasions of each other's homeland. Hannibal's invasion of Italy in the Second Punic War culminated in the Carthaginian victory at Cannae and led to a serious threat to the continuation of Roman rule over Italy; however, the Romans gained the upper hand by invading Africa and defeating Carthage at the Battle of Zama in 202 BC. Following the Third Punic War, the city was destroyed by the Romans in 146 BC. However, the Romans refounded Carthage, which became the empire's fourth most important city and the second most important city in the Latin West. It later became the capital of the short-lived Vandal kingdom. After its conquest by Belisarius, it remained one of the most important cities until the Muslim conquest, when it was destroyed a second time in 698. The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote extensively on Carthaginian politics, and he considered the city to have some of the best governing institutions in the world, along with those of the Greek states of Sparta and Crete.〔(Aristotle and Hamilton (p. 43) )〕〔(Constitution of Carthage )〕〔http://www.shsu.edu/~his_ncp/AriCar.html〕 ==Topography== Carthage was built on a promontory with sea inlets to the north and the south. The city's location made it master of the Mediterranean's maritime trade. All ships crossing the sea had to pass between Sicily and the coast of Tunisia, where Carthage was built, affording it great power and influence. Two large, artificial harbors were built within the city, one for harboring the city's massive navy of 220 warships and the other for mercantile trade. A walled tower overlooked both harbours. The city had massive walls, in length, longer than the walls of comparable cities. Most of the walls were located on the shore and thus could be less impressive, as Carthaginian control of the sea made attack from that direction difficult. The of wall on the isthmus to the west were truly massive and were never penetrated. The city had a huge necropolis or burial ground, religious area, market places, council house, towers and a theater and was divided into four equally sized residential areas with the same layout. Roughly in the middle of the city stood a high citadel called the Byrsa. Carthage was one of the largest cities in Hellenistic times and was among the largest cities in pre-industrial history. Whereas by 14 A.D. Rome had at least 750,000 inhabitants, and in the following century may have reached 1 million, the cities of Alexandria, Antioch, and Carthage numbered only a few hundred thousand or less. According to the not always reliable history of Herodian, Carthage rivaled Alexandria for second place in the Roman empire. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Carthage」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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