UNESCO Ancient Civilizations of Africa (Editor G. Mokhtar)

Ancient Civilizations of Africa
status. Inhabitants of the rest of the conquered territory were obliged to
pay tribute and provide troops.
The number of Phoenician settlements on the coast was added to by
those now sent out by Carthage herself, though we are ignorant of some
of their names. Like the original settlements, they were small places, of
a few hundred, established where native inhabitants came to trade their
goods, as is indicated by the fact that the Greeks called them emporta -
markets.
The boundary between the Carthaginian empire and the area of Greek
colonization in Cyrenaica was on the Gulf of Sidra, but settlements on
the coast of Libya were few. The most important was at Lepcis where
it is probable that permanent settlement was made when the expedition
of Dorieus to the vicinity showed that there was a danger of Greek
intrusion. At Sabratha, there was a settlement by the early fourth century.
Lepcis became the administrative centre of the settlements round the Gulf
of Gabes and is known to have been a wealthy place at the end of the
Carthaginian period, and its Phoenician culture even remained dominant
for over a century under Roman rule. The source of its wealth is generally
held to be trans-Saharan trade, since the area was the terminus of the
shortest route by way of Cidamus (Ghadames) to the Niger. However,
we do not know in what this trade consisted, except that semi-precious
stones are mentioned. The agricultural wealth of the area in Roman times
owed its origin to the Carthaginian settlers. Further sites on the Gulf of
Gabes were Zouchis, which became well known for its salted fish and purple
dye, Gigthis (Bou Ghirarah) and Tacapae (Gabes). Continuing northwards,
Thaenae (or Tina) was where the southern limit of the city's inland
territory reached the sea. Traditionally Lepcis Minor and Hadrumetum
were founded from Phoenicia, not Carthage, and the latter became the
largest town on the east coast of Tunisia. From Neapolis (Nabeul) a
road ran across the base of Cap Bon to Carthage.
West of Carthage lay Utica, second only to Carthage in importance;
it was, like Carthage, a port though now seven miles inland. It retained
at least a nominal independence of Carthage till a late stage. Beyond it,
the coast as far as the Straits of Gibraltar offered a number of anchorages
but few of them developed to the same degree as those on the Tunisian
coast, no doubt primarily because of the greater difficulty of access into
the interior. Known or probable sites include Hippo Acra (Bizerta), Hippo
Regius (Bone), Rusicade (Skikda), Tipasa and Icosium (Algiers). A number
of places in Roman times (besides Rusicade) contained the Phoenician
element rus meaning 'cape', e.g. Rusucurru (Dellys) and Rusguniae
(Natifou). Tingi (Tangiers) is referred to in the fifthcentury but was
presumably known to the Phoenicians as soon as they regularly sailed to
Cadiz.
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