Punic people

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This article is about the Punic people. For the Punic language, see Punic language. For the civilisation, see Ancient Carthage.
Sardo-Punic mask showing a Sardonic grin
Punic praying statuette, c. 3rd century BC
The Punic Building in Żurrieq, a modern structure incorporating Punic ruins
Model of the Punic port, Carthage

The Punic people or Western Phoenicians, were a group of Semitic peoples in the Western Mediterranean who traced their origins to the Phoenicians of the coasts of Western Asia. In modern scholarship, the term 'Punic' – the Latin equivalent of the Greek-derived term 'Phoenician' – is exclusively used to refer to Phoenicians in the Western Mediterranean, following the line of the Greek East and Latin West.

The largest Punic settlement was Ancient Carthage (essentially modern Tunis), but there were other settlements along the North African coast from Leptis Magna in modern Libya to the Atlantic, as well as western Sicily, southern Sardinia, the southern and western coasts of the Iberian Peninsula, Malta, and Ibiza. Their language, Punic, was a dialect of Phoenician, which is a Northwest Semitic language originating in the Levant.[1]

The first Phoenicians settled in the western Mediterranean in the twelfth century BC[citation needed] and formed part of trading networks linked to Tyre, Arvad, Byblos, Berytus, Ekron and Sidon in Phoenicia proper. Although links with Phoenicia were retained throughout their history, they also developed close relations with other peoples of the western Mediterranean such as Sicilians, Berbers, Greeks and Iberians, and developed some cultural traits distinct from those of their Phoenician motherland. Some of these were shared by all western Phoenicians, while others were restricted to individual regions within the Punic sphere.

The western Phoenicians were arranged into a multitude of self-governing city-states. Carthage had grown to be the largest and most powerful of these city-states by the fifth century BC and gained increasingly close control over Punic Sicily and Sardinia in the fourth century BC, but communities in Iberia remained outside their control until the second half of the third century BC. In the course of the Punic wars (264–146 BC), the Romans challenged Carthaginian hegemony in the western Mediterranean, culminating in the destruction of Carthage in 146 BC, but the Punic language and Punic culture endured under Roman rule, surviving in some places until Late Antiquity.

Terminology[edit]

A Carthaginian coin from Sicily depicting a horse in front of a palm tree (called "Phoinix" in Greek), 4th century BC.

The English adjective "Punic" is used in scholarship to refer to the Western Phoenicians. The proper nouns "Punics" and "Punes" were used in the 16th century, but are obsolete and in current usage there is no proper noun. "Punic" derives from the Latin poenus and punicus, which were used mostly to refer to the Carthaginians and other western Phoenicians. These terms derived from the Ancient Greek word Φοῖνιξ ("Phoinix"), plural form Φοίνικες ("Phoinikes"), which was used indiscriminately to refer to both western and eastern Phoenicians. Latin later borrowed the Greek term a second time as "Phoenix", plural form "Phoenices", also used indiscriminately.[2]

Numismatic evidence from Sicily shows that some western Phoenicians made use of the term "Phoinix",[3] but it is not clear what term (if any) they used for themselves. A passage from Augustine has often been interpreted as indicating that they called themselves "Chanani" ('Canaanites'),[4] but it has been argued by Josephine Crawley Quinn that this is a misreading,[5] since although this term is "applied to Levantine people" in the Hebrew Bible, "there is no other evidence for self-identification as Canaanite, and so we might suspect him of learned optimism."[6] However, this opinion is not shared by all scholars.[7] St Augustine's quote reads: "When our rural peasants are asked what they are, they reply, in Punic, 'Chanani', which is only a corruption by one letter of the alphabet of what we would expect: What else should they reply except that they are 'Chananei'?".[8]

In modern scholarship, the term 'Punic' is exclusively used to refer to Phoenicians in the Western Mediterranean. Specific Punic groups are often referred to with hyphenated terms, like 'Siculo-Punic' or 'Sardo-Punic'. This practice has ancient roots: Hellenistic Greek authors sometimes referred to the Punic inhabitants of North Africa ('Libya') as 'Liby-Phoenicians'.

Overview[edit]

Like other Phoenician people, their urbanized culture and economy were strongly linked to the sea. Overseas, they established control over some coastal regions of Berber Northwest Africa in what is now Tunisia and Libya as well as Sardinia, Sicily, Ebusus, Malta and other small islands of the western Mediterranean. In Sardinia and Sicily, they had strong economic and political ties to the independent natives in the hinterland. Their naval presence and trade extended throughout the Mediterranean and beyond, to Atlantic Iberia, the British Isles, the Canaries.[9]

Technical achievements of the Punic people of Carthage include the development of uncolored glass and the use of lacustrine limestone to improve the purity of iron.

Most of the Punic culture was destroyed as a result of the Punic Wars fought between Rome and Carthage, from 264 to 146 BC,[10] but traces of language, religion and technology could still be found in Africa during the early Christianisation, from AD 325 to 650. After the Punic Wars, Romans used the term Punic as an adjective meaning treacherous.

Distribution[edit]

Tunisia[edit]

Tunisia was among the areas settled during the first wave of Phoenician expansion into the west, with the foundation of Utica and Hippo Regius taking place around the end of the twelfth century.[11] Further Phoenician settlements, were established in the following centuries, including Hippo Diarrhytus and Hadrumetum.

The foundation of Carthage on the site of modern Tunis is dated to the late ninth century BC by Greek literary sources and archaeological evidence. The literary sources attribute the foundation to a group of Tyrian refugees led by Dido and accompanied by Cypriots. Archaeologically, the new foundation is characterised by the focus of religious cult on the gods Tanit and Baal Hammon, by the development of a new religious structure, the tophet, and by a marked degree of cosmopolitanism.[12]

Carthage gained direct control over the Cap Bon peninsula, operating a sandstone quarry at El Haouaria from the middle of the seventh city and establishing the city of Kerkouane in the early sixth century.[13] The region was very fertile and allowed Carthage to be economically self-sufficient.[14] The site of Kerkouane has been extensively excavated and provides the best-known example of a Punic city from North Africa.

Punic control was also extended inland over the Libyans. Punic influence on inland regions is seen from the early sixth century, notably at Althiburos, where Punic construction techniques and red-slip pottery appear at this time.[13] Armed conflicts with the Libyans are first attested in the early fifth century, with several revolts attested in the fourth century (398, 370s, 310-307 BC). In the late fourth century, Aristotle reports that the Carthaginians dealt with local discontent by resettling poor citizens in cities in Libya.[15][16] These settlements had to provide tribute and military manpower when required, but remained self-governing. There is some onomastic evidence for intermarriage between Punic people and Libyans in the fourth and third centuries BC.[17]

Sardo-Punics[edit]

Ruins of the Punic and then Roman town of Tharros

From the 8th century BC, Phoenicians founded several cities and strongholds on strategic points in the south and west of Sardinia, often peninsulas or islands near estuaries, easy to defend and natural harbours, such as Tharros, Bithia, Sulci, Nora and Caralis (Cagliari). The north, the eastern coast and the interior of the island continued to be dominated by the indigenous Nuragic civilization, whose relations with the Sardo-Punic cities were mixed, including both trade and military conflict. Intermarriage and cultural mixing took place on a large scale. The inhabitants of the Sardo-Punic cities were a mixture of Phoenician and Nuragic stock, with the latter forming the majority of the population.[18][19] Sardinia had a special position because it was central in the Western Mediterranean between Carthage, Spain, the river Rhône and the Etruscan civilization area. The mining area of Iglesiente was important for the metals lead and zinc.

The island came under Carthaginian dominance around 510 BC, after that a first attempt at conquest in 540 BC that ended in failure.[20] They expanded their influence to the western and southern coast from Bosa to Caralis, consolidating the existing Phoenician settlements, administered by plenipotentiaries called Suffetes, and founding new ones such as Olbia, Cornus and Neapolis;[21] Tharros was probably the main centre.[21] Carthage encouraged the cultivation of grain and cereals and prohibited fruit trees.[22] Tharros, Nora, Bithia, Monte Sirai etc. are now important archaeological sites where Punic architecture and city planning can be studied.

In 238 BC, following the First Punic War the Romans took over the whole island, incorporating it into the province of Corsica et Sardinia, under a praetor. The existing power structures, infrastructure, and urbanized culture continued largely unchanged. In 216 BC, two Sardo-Punic notables from Cornus and Tharros, Hampsicora and Hanno, led a revolt against the Romans.[23] Punic culture remained strong during the first centuries of the Roman domination, but over time the civic elites adopted Roman cultural practices and Latin became first the prestige language and then the speech of the majority of the inhabitants.[24]

Ibiza[edit]

The island of Ibiza derives its name from Phoenician: 𐤀𐤁𐤔𐤌, ʾBŠM,[25] "Dedicated to Bes".[26][27] (Latin Ebusus). A city, the Sa Caleta Phoenician Settlement, which has been excavated, was established in the mid-seventh century. Diodorus dates this foundation to 654 BC and attributes it to the Carthaginians.[28][29]

History[edit]

814–146 BC[edit]

The Punic religion was based on that of their Phoenician forefathers, who worshiped Baal Hammon and Melqart, but merged Phoenician ideas with Numidian and some Greek and Egyptian deities, such as Apollo, Tanit, and Dionysus, with Baal Hammon being clearly the most important Punic god.[30] Punic culture became a melting pot, since Carthage was a big trading port, but the Carthaginians retained some of their old cultural identities and practices.

The Carthaginians carried out significant sea explorations around Africa and elsewhere from their base in Carthage. In the 5th century BC, Hanno the Navigator played a significant role in exploring coastal areas of present-day Morocco and other parts of the African coast, specifically noting details of indigenous peoples such as at Essaouira.[31][32] Carthaginians pushed westerly into the Atlantic and established important settlements in Lixus, Volubilis, Chellah and Mogador, among other locations.

Greek–Punic and Roman–Punic Wars[edit]

Being trade rivals with Magna Graecia, the Carthaginians had several clashes with the Greeks over the island of Sicily in the Sicilian Wars from 600 to 265 BC.

They eventually also fought Rome in the Punic Wars of 265–146 BC but lost because they were limited in numbers, and talented commanders, had a misguided strategy in Hannibal's invasion of Italy, and misjudged the strength of their navy, especially in the first Punic War. They were soundly defeated by Scipio Africanus in Africa in 202 BC. That enabled Roman settlement of Africa and eventual domination of the Mediterranean Sea. Cato the Elder famously ended all his speeches, regardless of their subject, with the imperative that Carthage be utterly crushed, a view summarised in Latin by the phrase Praeterea censeo Carthaginem esse delendam meaning, "Moreover, I declare, Carthage must be destroyed!". Although the Carthaginians were eventually conquered in 146 BC, with their city destroyed, Cato never got to see his victory, having died 3 years earlier.

146 BC–AD 700[edit]

The destruction of Carthage was not the end of the Carthaginians. After the wars, the city of Carthage was completely razed and the land around it was turned into farmland for Roman citizens. There were, however, other Punic cities in Northwest Africa, and Carthage itself was rebuilt and regained some importance, if a shadow of its ancient influence. Although the area was partially Romanized and some of the population adopted the Roman religion (while fusing it with aspects of their beliefs and customs), the language and the ethnicity persisted for some time.[citation needed]

People of Punic origin prospered again as traders, merchants and even politicians of the Roman Empire. Septimius Severus, emperor of Rome and a proud Punic, was said to speak Latin with a Punic accent. Under his reign Carthaginians rose to the elites and their deities entered their imperial cult. Carthage was rebuilt about 46 BC by Julius Caesar and settlements in the surrounding area were granted to soldiers who had retired from the Roman army. Carthage once again prospered and even became the number-two trading city in the Roman Empire, until Constantinople took over that position.

As Christianity spread in the Roman Empire, it was especially successful in Northwest Africa, and Carthage became a Christian city even before Christianity was legal. Saint Augustine, born in Thagaste (modern-day Algeria), considered himself Punic, and left some important reflections on Punic cultural history in his writing.[33] One of his more well known passages reads: "It is an excellent thing that the Punic Christians call baptism itself nothing else but ‘salvation’, and the sacrament of Christ's body nothing else but ‘life’".[34]

The last remains of a distinct Punic culture probably disappeared somewhere in the chaos during the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The demographic and cultural characteristics of the region were thoroughly transformed by turbulent events such as the Vandals' wars with Byzantines, the forced population movements that followed and the early Muslim conquests in the 7th century AD.[citation needed]

Genetics[edit]

Recent genetics studies based on Ancient DNA showed that Punic people from Sardinia, Ibiza, South Iberia and Italy had strong genetic relationships to ancient North-African and eastern Mediterranean sources.

According to Olalde et al. 2018,[35] "In the southeast [Spain], we recovered genomic data from 45 individuals dated between the 3rd and 16th centuries CE. All analyzed individuals fell outside the genetic variation of preceding Iberian Iron Age populations and harbored ancestry from both Southern European and North African populations, as well as additional Levantine-related ancestry that could potentially reflect ancestry from Jewish groups. These results demonstrate that by the Roman period, southern Iberia had experienced a major influx of North African ancestry, probably related to the well-known mobility patterns during the Roman Empire or to the earlier Phoenician-Punic presence; the latter is also supported by the observation of the Phoenician-associated Y-chromosome J2"

According to Fernandes et al. 2020[36] "Phoenician colonies were established in the Balearic Islands during the Iron Age. The Ibiza individual published previously from a collective burial in a Punic hypogeum and dated to 361–178 cal. bc is not consistent with forming a clade with any of the Bronze Age Balearic individuals and has a qualitatively different ancestry profile; for example, a North African source of ancestry is required to obtain a fit (our model is 10.8 ±2.7% Iran_Ganj_Dareh_Neolithic and 89.2 ±2.7% Morocco_LN ancestry)."

According to Marcus et al. 2020[37] "All six individuals from the Punic Villamar site were inferred to have substantial levels of ancient North-African ancestry (point estimates ranging 20–35%)... Beyond our focal interest in Sardinia, the results from individuals from the Phoenician-Punic sites Monte Sirai and Villamar shed some light on the ancestry of a historically impactful Mediterranean population. Notably, they show strong genetic relationships to ancient North-African and eastern Mediterranean sources. These results mirror other emerging ancient DNA studies and are not unexpected given that the Punic center of Carthage on the North-African coast itself has roots in the eastern Mediterranean. Interestingly, the Monte Sirai individuals, predating the Villamar individuals by several centuries, show less North-African ancestry. This could be because they harbor earlier Phoenician ancestry and North-African admixture may have been unique to the later Punic context, or because they were individuals from a different ancestral background altogether. Estimated North-African admixture fractions were much lower in later ancient individuals and present-day Sardinian individuals, in line with previous studies that have observed small but significant African admixture in several present-day South European populations, including Sardinia"

Two other studies published in 2021 in the journal Annals of Human Biology also show a strong genetic proximity with the populations of North Africa of several individuals from Sardinia and Italy. According to Sarno et al.[38], "With respect to the ancient Punic samples from Tharros, it is worth noting how they appear genetically closer to North African populations; indeed, rather than clustering with other modern Sardinians, they instead occupy an intermediate position on the right side of the PCA plot between North African groups and Southern European Iberian populations". Accorging to De Angelis et al. "The genomic legacy with the south-eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea and the Central and Western Northern-African coast funerary influence pave the way for considering people buried in QCP [Quarto Cappello del Prete, Italy] as resembling a Punic-derived human group." [39]

Notable Punic people[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Notes

  1. ^ Christopher S. Mackay (2004). Ancient Rome: A Military and Political History. Cambridge University Press. p. 61. ISBN 978-0-521-80918-4.
  2. ^ Prag, Jonathan R. W. (2006). "Poenus Plane Est - but Who Were the "Punickes"?". Papers of the British School at Rome. 74: 1–37. doi:10.1017/S0068246200003214. S2CID 162396151.
  3. ^ Jenkins, G. Kenneth (1974). "Coins of Punic Sicily, Part II". Schweizerische Numismatische Rundschau. 53: 27–29.
  4. ^ Augustine Unfinished Commentary on Paul's Letter to the Romans 13
  5. ^ Quinn, Josephine Crawley (2019). In Search of the Phoenicians. Princeton University Press. pp. 33–35. ISBN 9780691195964.
  6. ^ Quinn, Josephine Crawley. "The Cultures of the Tophet Identification and Identity in the Phoenician Diaspora" (PDF): 411. Retrieved May 30, 2021. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  7. ^ Salimbeti, Andrea; D'Amato, Raffaele (2014). The Carthaginians 6th-2nd Century BC. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781782007777.
  8. ^ Shaw, Brant D. (2011). Sacred Violence African Christians and Sectarian Hatred in the Age of Augustine. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521196055.
  9. ^ The Phoenicians retrieved 12 October 2009
  10. ^ Chris Scarre, "The Wars with Carthage", The Manawy Historical Atlas of Ancient Rome (London: Penguin Books, 1995), 24–25.
  11. ^ Dridi 2019, p. 141.
  12. ^ Dridi 2019, p. 142-146.
  13. ^ a b Dridi 2019, p. 147-150.
  14. ^ Hoyos 2019, p. 158-159.
  15. ^ Aristotle, Politics 2.1273b: 19-20
  16. ^ Hoyos 2019, p. 157-159.
  17. ^ Hoyos 2019, p. 160.
  18. ^ Brigaglia, Mastino & Ortu 2006, p. 25.
  19. ^ Piero Bartoloni (2004). Monte Sirai (PDF). Carlo Delfino Editore. pp. 38–39. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
  20. ^ Brigaglia, Mastino & Ortu 2006, p. 27.
  21. ^ a b Brigaglia, Mastino & Ortu 2006, pp. 30–31.
  22. ^ Brigaglia, Mastino & Ortu 2006, p. 28.
  23. ^ Casula 1994, p. 104.
  24. ^ Casula 1994, p. 110.
  25. ^ Head & al. (1911), p. 3.
  26. ^ "Ibiza Literature, Literature in Ibiza". Liveibiza.com. Retrieved 2013-03-26.
  27. ^ Kuhbier, Heinrich; Alcover, Josep Antoni; Guerau d'Arellano Tur, Cristòfol, eds. (1984). Biogeography and Ecology of the Pityusic Islands. Monographiae Biologicae, Volume 52. The Hague, The Netherlands: Dr. W. Junk (Kluwer). p. 1. ISBN 978-90-6193-105-8.
  28. ^ Diodorus Bibliotheca 5.16.2-3
  29. ^ Dridi 2019, p. 147.
  30. ^ Moscati, Sabatino (2001). The Phoenicians. I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-85043-533-4.
  31. ^ Hanno (5th century BC). Periplus of Hanno. Carthage. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  32. ^ Hogan, C. Michael (2 November 2007). Burnham, A. (ed.). "Mogador: promontory fort". The Megalithic Portal.
  33. ^ Ju. op. imp. 6.18. noli istum poenum monentem vel admonetem terra inflatus propagine spernere
  34. ^ Augustine of Hippo (412). Forgiveness and the Just Deserts of Sins, and the Baptism of Infants. 1.24.34.
  35. ^ Inigo Olalde. The genomic history of the Iberian Peninsula over the past 8000 years (2018). Science, 15 Mar 2019, Vol 363, Issue 6432, pp. 1230-1234, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aav4040
  36. ^ Fernandes, D.M., Mittnik, A., Olalde, I. et al. The spread of steppe and Iranian-related ancestry in the islands of the western Mediterranean. Nat Ecol Evol 4, 334–345 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-1102-0
  37. ^ Marcus, J.H., Posth, C., Ringbauer, H. et al. Genetic history from the Middle Neolithic to present on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia. Nat Commun 11, 939 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14523-6
  38. ^ Stefania Sarno, Elisabetta Cillion, Patrizia Serventi, Sara De Fanti, Andrea Corona, Francesco Fontani, Mirko Traversari, Gianmarco Ferri, Anna Chiara Fariselli, Donata Luiselli. Insights into Punic genetic signatures in the southern necropolis of Tharros (Sardinia) (2021). Annals of Human Biology Volume 48, 2021 - Issue 3. https://doi.org/10.1080/03014460.2021.1937699
  39. ^ Flavio De Angelis. Ancient genomes from a rural site in Imperial Rome (1st–3rd cent. CE): a genetic junction in the Roman Empire (2021). Annals of Human Biology Volume 48, 2021 - Issue 3. https://doi.org/10.1080/03014460.2021.1944313

Bibliography

  • Davis, Nathan (1985) Carthage and Her Remains London: Draf Publishers. ISBN 9781850770336
  • Dorey, Thomas Alan and Dudley, D. R. (1971) Rome Against Carthage New York: Vintage ISBN 9780436131301
  • Dridi, Hédi (2019). "Early Carthage: From its Foundation to the Battle of Himera (ca. 814–480 BCE)". In Doak, Brian R.; López-Ruiz, Carolina (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of the Phoenician and Punic Mediterranean. Oxford University Press. pp. 141–152. ISBN 9780190499341.
  • Warmington, B. H. (1969) Carthage (2d ed.) Praeger.
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