Carthage · 814-300 BC

Carthage: a trading empire of the western sea

Long before it fought Rome, Carthage ruled the western Mediterranean with merchant ships, not legions. Students explore its double harbor, its outposts from Spain to Sicily, and the voyage of Hanno down the coast of West Africa.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
50 minutes
Ages
11–14
On the map
3 steps, 814 BC to 480 BC
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

Long before it fought Rome, Carthage ruled the western Mediterranean with merchant ships, not legions. Students explore its double harbor, its outposts from Spain to Sicily, and the voyage of Hanno down the coast of West Africa.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Locate Carthage, Gadir, Sardinia, Sicily and Ibiza and explain what Carthage wanted from each.
  • Describe how Carthage was governed and why Aristotle praised its constitution.
  • Explain the voyage of Hanno and what it tells us about Carthaginian seamanship.
2

Explore the map

15 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

814 BC

A colony becomes a capital

Open the map in 814 BC, the traditional founding year, on the bay of Tunis with the Cities layer on. Carthage was planted by settlers from Tyre on a peninsula with a hill, the Byrsa, and a lagoon. Zoom in and judge the harbor, the narrow sea toward Sicily and the farmland behind. Why here?

Open this view on the map
b

500 BC

The western sea

Jump to 500 BC and zoom out. The map shows the Carthaginian Empire stretching along the African coast, across Sardinia and western Sicily and into southern Spain. These were mostly ports and trading posts, not deep conquests. Count the islands under Carthaginian control.

Open this view on the map
c

480 BC

Himera

Go to 480 BC and look at northern Sicily. That year a Carthaginian army lost to the Greeks of Syracuse at Himera, by tradition on the same day as the battle of Salamis. For 70 years after, Carthage left Sicily alone and grew rich on trade instead. Find Himera on the north coast, west of Palermo.

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

15 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Carthage was ruled by two elected judges (suffetes), a council of elders and an assembly, with no king after about 500 BC. Aristotle compared it to Sparta and praised it. What does that tell you about Greek views of Carthage?
  2. Carthaginian armies were mostly hired soldiers: Libyans, Iberians, Celts, Greeks. What are the advantages and risks of an army that fights for pay?
  3. Hanno sailed down the coast of West Africa with, he claimed, sixty ships and thousands of settlers. The report survives in a Greek translation. How far he got is disputed. Why would a state keep its sailing routes secret?
  4. Carthage tried to keep other ships out of the western sea beyond Sardinia. Is a sea something a state can own?
  5. Most of what we know about Carthage was written by Greeks and Romans, its enemies, because the city's own library was lost when it was destroyed in 146 BC. How do historians correct for that?
4

Game round

10 min

Play one round of Rule History as Hannibal Barca, Carthage's greatest general. Then look back three centuries: in 500 BC Carthage had no Hannibal and no wish to conquer. Discuss: when did a trading city decide it needed armies, and was that choice its undoing?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

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