The Founding of Carthage and the First Punic war
I am going to tell you about the founding of Carthage. It was founded in 814 B.C. and was located on the coast of Africa. Legend says that it was founded a Phoenician queen named Dido. The legend said that when Queen Dido went off to start her own country because of her brother that took over after her father died. She went to Africa and said to someone, “Will you sell me whatever land I can lay a bull hide on” ? Thinking that she would lay it on as a piece of land only big enough to stand on, he said, “Yes.” She then took a bull hide and cut it into strips and spread them over an area of land that was large enough to start a small city. It was because he was honest, he sold the land to her. After Carthage had been built, it became a very good trading post but, it was always at war.
The purpose of the three Punic Wars was to decide who would control the Mediterranean trading routes. Carthage had put together a pretty good naval army while Rome had a more dominate land army. The first war lasted twenty-three years and wore down the Romans and the Carthaginians. Rome won the war and decided the peace treaty terms. Carthage had to leave all of Sicily, return all war prisoners, and pay 30 tons of silver right away and 6.6 tons annually for ten years. I hope you like my essay for this week.
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