The Carthaginian people (sometimes Punic people or Western Phoenicians) represent ancient Carthage, an Antiquity Age civilization in Civilization VII. They are available with the Carthage Pack within the Crossroads of the World Collection, which was released on March 4, 2025.
The Carthaginians' civilization ability is Phoenician Heritage, which allows them to gain an additional copy of the Merchant or Colonist unit whenever one is created, but prevents Towns from being converted to Cities. Their associated wonder is Byrsa, and their unique components are as follows:
- Unique units: Numidian Cavalry (military), Colonist (civilian)
- Unique buildings: Cothon, Dockyard
- Unique quarter: Punic Port
- Unique civics: Shipsheds , Wisdom of Tanit, Sicilian Wars
Intro[]
The children of Tyre come from afar to claim their destiny. From the center of the world, they will command an empire that knows no equal.
From humble colony to economic hegemony, Carthage rose from the shores of North Africa to dominate the Mediterranean Sea. Its sleek ships ferried goods and riches all over the known world, while at home, the city of Carthage was famed for its master craftsmen and deep agricultural knowledge. Competition with first Greece, then Rome, honed renowned generals and a powerful navy. But war was Carthage’s undoing, and the city was destroyed in 146 BCE.
Strategy[]
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Civilopedia entry[]
The Bronze Age collapse in the 12th century BCE brought many civilizations around the Mediterranean and Near East to their knees. Climate change, technological imbalances, invasions, and other factors combined to eat away at centralized governments, resulting in the collapse of empires and the dispersal of people from urban centers into smaller rural settlements.
But not all civilizations faded into darkness. Phoenician city-states had been on the rise for at least two centuries, first mentioned in Egyptian accounts of conquest over their coastal settlements in the Levant. They had become centers of trade, facilitating contact between Europe, North Africa, and Asia, but had struggled against empires seeking to control their economic power in the region. After the Bronze Age collapse, these powers stumbled or fell, and their influence over the Phoenicians dissipated. Now truly independent, the Phoenicians began to flourish in earnest, and, filling the power vacuum left behind, they soon controlled trade throughout the Mediterranean. They began establishing colonies across the Mediterranean, along the European and North African coasts as far as Morocco and Spain, seeking good natural harbors, access to local markets, and control over nearby resources.
Around 814 BCE, a group of colonists from Tyre arrived at the Gulf of Tunis in modern-day Tunisia. The location was ideal for a new settlement. An easily defendable hill overlooked a harbor that both provided shelter from storms and stood in close proximity to the Strait of Sicily, a bottleneck for Mediterranean trade. The Tyrians quickly began to build their colony, which they named “qrt-ḥdšt” (“new city”). Today, we call it Carthage.
This fairly mundane story of the founding of Carthage is not the same legend later sources recount. The more exciting version tells of Dido (Elissa), queen of Tyre, who fled her city after her brother Pygmalion stole her inheritance and murdered her husband. Arriving in North Africa, she made an agreement with a local Berber chief – she could claim as much land as could be covered by a single ox hide. Dido cut her hide into strips and used them to encircle the entire hill of her future city.
Carthage existed as a minor colony for several centuries, until Alexander the Great smashed through the Levant in the fourth century BCE. In 332, he sacked Tyre, destroying the center of Phoenician power and sending Tyrian refugees scattering. Many ended up in Carthage, and the population boom combined with the fall of Tyre enabled the city to quickly become the new center of power and riches in the Mediterranean.
The wealth of Carthage came mainly from trade, tribute, and taxes. Unlike other Phoenician city-states, which consolidated their power within their own walls, the Carthaginians pursued an agenda of territorial conquest to expand their borders. Relying on their powerful navy, and combining their own armies with those of the neighboring Numidian Kingdom, they subjugated other Phoenician colonies and conquered new territory on both sides of the Mediterranean. There are several theories about why Carthage pursued an expansionist agenda, from their need to establish dominance in the face of competing Greek and Roman trade to the rise of military leaders in the Carthaginian government. Whatever the reason, Carthage typically did not exercise direct control over its new holdings, but preferred a hegemonic approach, collecting tribute from its settlements and colonies and leveraging them as trading hubs.
Rule of Carthage had evolved from a monarchy into a republic by the fourth century. At the top were two suffetes (judges) elected from the most powerful families. They ruled together with a senate of 200-300 members. A civilian assembly voted on laws and measures put forth by the suffetes and senate. Civil and military power were kept separate – generals were elected or appointed, and had no say in political affairs; the suffetes likewise lacked control over the armies.
The city itself was dominated by the Byrsa, a citadel perched at the top of the hill overlooking the sea. On the slopes below were four residential quarters and a large port. Beyond the urban center was farmland – Carthage was well-versed in agriculture, and successfully cultivated a wide variety of crops that both fed the city and provided ample surplus for exports. Carthaginian farming knowledge was so valued that one of the only texts to survive the city’s destruction was an agricultural treatise by the writer Mago.
Carthage’s expansion did not come without repercussions. The first big clash came against Greece. Even before Carthage had grown from a small colony into a prominent city, the Greeks had been a major competitor to the Phoenicians, slowly chipping away at their monopoly on Mediterranean trade. The rise of Carthage transferred this friction to the New City, and soon the two empires were at each other’s throats. Starting in 480, Carthage fought a series of wars with Greece over control of Sicily.
By the third century, Rome had replaced Greece as Carthage’s main rival. Once again, Sicily was the powder keg that ignited the First Punic War in 264. After over two decades, the Romans emerged victorious, and Carthage lost all holdings in Sicily while facing a new internal revolt from their mercenary forces. But in 218, war broke out again. The Second Punic War saw famed Carthaginian general Hannibal lead his army overland through Gaul and across the Alps to attack the Romans from the north. He defeated a massive Roman army at Cannae, but, lacking reinforcements, he was unable to finish the conquest. The Romans successfully kicked the Carthaginians out of Italy and Spain and emerged victorious once again, now becoming the dominant power in the western Mediterranean. Carthage was stripped of all overseas holdings and its navy was reduced to a mere ten warships – politically it had essentially become a subordinate state of Rome.
The city was also forbidden to wage war. 50 years later, Carthage broke this rule, mobilizing an army to retaliate against Numidian incursions into its territory. The Romans had no investment in the conflict between Carthage and Numidia, but the scars of the Second Punic War ran deep. Despite having the upper hand in their political relationship, Rome was perpetually suspicious of Carthage, which had begun to rebuild its economic power through its traditional methods of trade and agriculture. Cato the Elder famously ended every speech in the Senate with the line "Ceterum autem censeo Carthaginem esse delendam” (“Furthermore, I consider that Carthage must be destroyed”). Carthage’s mobilization against Numidia provided the casus belli Rome had been waiting for. War was declared, the city was besieged, and Carthage was razed to the ground.
Cities[]
Citizens[]
| Males | Females |
|---|---|
| Hamilcar | Arishat |
| Hanno | Siphonbaal |
| Mago | Batbaal |
| Hasdrubal | Batnoam |
| Gisgo | Muttunbaal |
| Bodo | Ummashtart |
| Azarbaal | Hanbi |
| Bostar | Amoashtart |
| Mattanbaal | Yzebel |
| Bomilcar | Zyabqot |
Trivia[]
- The Carthaginian civilization symbol is the Sign of Tanit, a representation of the goddess Tanit commonly found in Carthaginian archeological sites.
- The Carthaginian civilization ability references their origin as a Phoenician colony.
Soundtrack[]
| Original Track | № | Based on | Credits | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Carthage (Antiquity Age)" | Hurrian Hymn No. 6 | Composed by Roland Rizzo Sandro Friedrich, aulos, bone flute & ney |
4:53 |
Gallery[]
.jpg "Carthaginian city in-game (Civ7).jpg (600 KB)")
.png "Byrsa in-game (Civ7).png (3.56 MB)")
.png "Carthaginian Background (Civ7).png (1.85 MB)")
Videos[]
See also[]
- Carthaginian in other games
External links[]
| Civilization VII Civilizations [edit] | |
|---|---|
| Antiquity | |
| Exploration | |
| Modern | |
| 1 Requires DLC | |