[Teaser] Carthaginian Navy

Here's a little teaser of the script for our newest documentary on the Carthaginian Navy. Enjoy!

Intro

Before the Punic Wars, the Carthaginians stood as the most pre-eminent naval forces of the era. This was a legacy centuries in the making built over many wars often overlooked by history. Today let us get to know these forgotten sailors of North Africa and the warships with which they forged a vast Empire that nearly took down the Romans. This is the proud history of the Carthaginian Navy!

Origins

At its peak, the Carthaginian navy was considered  one of the most powerful sea powers in Antiquity. This was the proud culmination of a long naval tradition dating back to their Phoenecian forbearers in the Bronze Age. It was these coastal cities of the Levant which had first pioneered methods of navigation and ship construction that allowed them to dominate the seas before and even after the Bronze Age Collapse of the 1200s BC. By the 9th century BC, Phoenicians had founded hundreds of outposts across the Mediterranean, enabling the formation of lucrative trade networks that linked far-flung markets across the known world. Tradition holds that Carthage would be founded in 814 BC by the city of Tyre as a part of these endeavors. Strategically located at the nexus of east-west and north-south trade routes, it was almost inevitable that the city would rise to dominate the seas.

Little is known about how this process occurred. Speculatively we can assume that the heart of the early colony was its bustling port and merchant sector capable of hosting dozens, if not hundreds of ships of all sizes. Most would have been fishing or trade vessels. Yet it seems likely that at some point, the young nobility of Carthage would have seen fit to begin equipping their ships for battle in the same manner as their Phoenician home cities with which they kept regular contact. While there are no records of outright wars in this period, there would still have been a need to combat piracy, raid neighbors, and establish naval superiority over rivals.

By the 6th century BC, the power of the Phoenician mother cities began to wane as the silver trade collapsed and they were attacked by neighboring land powers. The western colonies were now on their own. It is at this point that Carthage would truly begin its rise to power. The upstart first began by shaking off the yoke of the local Libyans before next establishing regional dominance over Utica, Hippo Acra, and the other Phoenician settlements of North Africa. From here, the New City began to look out across the Mediterranean, intent on claiming Tyre’s old throne. Yet, whereas Tyre had dominated the colonies almost solely through economic pressure, Carthage began adding military force into the mix. Her navy became formidable and feared, and her army began seeing deployment in foreign lands. In these ways, Carthage established a new model of hegemony that more closely resembled that of a traditional empire compared to the previous system under Tyre. Let us now take a closer look at the warships with which Carthage ruled the waves.