UNESCO Ancient Civilizations of Africa (Editor G. Mokhtar)

Ancient Civilizations of Africa
building sufficiently high to give a view over intervening buildings out to
sea. The city walls were of exceptional dimensions and held out against
every attack till the final Roman assault. The total length (including that
along the sea) was about 22 miles, the crucial sector of the two-and-a-half
miles across the isthmus of Carthage being 40 feet high and 30 feet thick.
An inner citadel with an enceinte of about two miles enclosed the hill known
as Byrsa, no doubt the oldest part of the city. Between the harbour and
the Byrsa was an open public space equivalent to a Greek agora, but it
does not seem that it ever had the regular planned or monumental aspect
which came to characterize Greek cities. The city seems to have developed
unplanned, with narrow winding streets, and we hear of buildings up to
six storeys in height, as at Tyre itself and at Motya in Sicily. As for
temples, although these are said to have been numerous, they are unlikely
to have been substantial till the later stages of Carthaginian history when
Greek cultural influence became pronounced, since most of the evidence
goes to show that the Carthaginians were essentially conservative in
religious matters and long remained faithful to the concept of simple
enclosures without monumental buildings. The population at its height can
only be the subject of an educated guess; a figure of 700 000 given by
Strabo is an impossible density but may refer to the city and the whole
of the Cap Bon area. A more likely figure of 400 000, including slaves,
would put Carthage on a par with Athens of the fifth century.
Carthaginian political institutions
The only aspect of Carthage to receive praise from Greeks and Romans
was its political constitution which seemed to ensure the stability so highly
cherished in antiquity. Details are obscure, and it is not always certain
that they have properly understood the facts, but the main outlines seem
to be as follows. Hereditary kingship prevailed in the Phoenician cities
till hellenistic times, and all our sources likewise refer to kingship at
Carthage; for example, Hamilcar, defeated at Himera, and Hanno, the
leader of the African expansion, are so described. It is probable that in
calling them kings the classical authors were thinking as much of their
sacral and judicial as their political and military powers. The position was
in principle elective, not hereditary, but several generations of the Magonid
family held the position. During the sixth and fifthcenturies they appear
also to have been the military leaders of the state when occasion demanded.
During the fifthcentury a process began whereby the power of the kings
was diminished. This appears to be associated with the rise to power of
the sufets, the only Carthaginian political term transcribed for us by Roman
writers. The word combines the meaning of judge and governor and since
in the third century two (perhaps more) were elected annually, it was easy
to compare them with Roman consuls; and the term sufet remained in
use in North Africa in areas of Carthaginian culture for at least a century
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