Sidi Mehrez celebrating Carthage




From an Oxhide to a Civilization
Carthage in History



Sahib Tabi Minaret, Tunis This is a collection of 265 readily available full-text books spanning 2500 years (history, geography, literature, language, travel), 37 videos, 36 selected archaeology articles from several French academic journals including Mélanges de l'école française de Rome, Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire, and Revue de l'Occident musulman et de la Méditerranée (see persee), and 41 carefully gleaned websites on Carthaginian civilization and its remains. The selections are mostly in English and French, but occasionally in German, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Ancient Greek, Latin, or Arabic. They include the Periplus of Hanno (500 BC), the Aeneid of Virgil (29-19 BC), and Metamorphosis of Ovidius (8 AD), classical historical works by Romans, Greeks or Arabs, such as Herodotus (500 BC), Appian (c.95-165 AD), Justin (2nd C AD), Polybius (c203-120 BC), Diodorus (1st C BC), Livius (59 BC - AD 17), Sallust (86-34 BC), Strabo (63 BC- 24 AD), the Wonderful Tales of Al-Bakri (1040-1090 AD) with its French translation by the Irish Baron de Slane, Al-Edrisi's "Book of Roger" (1100-1166 AD) and its companion The Book of the Fragrant Garden by al-Himyari (1463), Ibn Khaldun (1332-1418), Yaqut Al-Hamawi, al-Qalaqshandi, Ibn al-Wardi, Al-Muqri, and Al-Omari, the confessions of St. Augustine (354-430 AD) and epistles of St. Cyprian (d. 258 AD), both Carthaginian natives, Middle Ages works by Leo Africanus (1494-1554), Ottoman Admiral Piri Reis (1465–1554 or 1555), Cervantes (1547-1616), Marmol (1520-1599), Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593), le Chevalier d'Arvieux (1635-1702), and the Nuremberg Chronicle (1493), early 18th century contacts by Western consuls and travelers (Grosvenor, Temple, Bruce, Playfair, etc.) in the Barbary Coast, with 19th century classics of A. Graham, A. Dumas, Baron de Slane, E. Babelon, G. Flaubert, G. de Maupassant, Delattre, and many others. Included are also the exploits of St. Louis, King of France (d. 1270 in Carthage), Emperor Charles Quint (16th C), and Barbarossa and his pirates, as well as their military duals off the shores of Carthage and Tunis. There are also books on the archaeology of Carthage, its art, and its settlements, and some rather fantastic accounts on Phoenicians and the new world, and the Phoenician roots of some European nations! The bulk of these books come from the website archive.org (universal access to human knowledge). This collection is not complete, and one should consult Gallica the digital service of the Bibliotheque nationale de France for the full-texts of classics by Ernest Renan (Mission en Phenicie, 1864), Stephane Gsell (Histoire ancienne de l'Afrique du Nord, 1920), Paul Gauckler (l'Archeologie de la Tunisie, 1896) and records of the monumental work of Louis Carton, among many collectable nuggets.

An Excellent DVD from the History Channel on Carthage from Queen Dido to the Punic Wars

Amulet of Phoenician god Bes found on the isle of Ibiza in the Balearics

National Geographic


Carthage and Tunis

Historical Texts

Phoenician and Carthaginian Language

Queen Dido (c. 814 BC)

King Hanno the Navigator sails beyond the Pillars of Hercules
Oldest Surviving Carthaginian Text (600 B.C.)

Hannibal Barca (248-183 or 182 BC) and Hamilcar Barca (c.270-228 BC)

Literary Works

Famous Carthaginians

The Archaeology of Carthage

Carthaginian and Phoenician Art

Phoenician and Carthaginian Settlements

Fantastic Accounts

Other Websites


Sidi Bousaid, 1876

Video Archives of UPenn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology: The Video Collections of Watson Kintner (1967), and "Arthur and Kate Tode" (1951)




The Wonders of Carthage

Ministere de l'enseignement 
superieur Presidence