Carthage: The Cultural Differences Between Greece And Rome

Carthage was a colony of Tyre, before becoming a commercial giant, it was the capital city on the coast of North Africa.(Morey, W,C, 1901). The government of Carthage was similar to that of Rome in structure, they had two suffettes which were the equivalent of Roman consuls, it also had a council of elders called the ‘Hundred’ which were the equivalent of the senate of Rome.

The government was although similar in some respects was also greatly different, as we have seen before in Greece, Carthage was ruled by a few wealthy families (Morey, W,C, 1901). The main problem Carthage had was that it failed to understand the Roman philosophy of incorporating its citizens from conquered cities, therefore Rome had more loyalty from their citizens than Carthage could hope for.

Militarily Carthage was superior to Rome in the fact that the military was run by what I can only assume were professional generals, whereas Rome had its military in the hands of the consuls who were forever changing, so there was no continuity in the higher ranks of the Roman legions.

Carthage was a major power in Africa and Sicily off the coast of Italy with their trading agreements. They were absolutely the commercial hub of the region, with an extremely powerful navy. This would have put them on a par with Rome in the most powerful empire in the region. Carthage

Now came to the fore the Roman fortitude they dug deep in the face of adversity, wealthy citizens payed for a new fleet and another two hundred ships were built. These ships met the Carthagian fleet at the Aegates islands and defeated the Carthagian fleet forcing them to sue for peace. They had to pay a lot of reparations to Rome, but Rome was now a power at sea as well as on the land.(Morey, W,C,