Summary of Richard Miles's Carthage Must Be Destroyed

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 The Phoenician cities were not a united political entity until over a thousand years later, when the Romans created the province of Phoenicia. However, despite their weaknesses and the threat posed by the major powers of the Near East, they had long safeguarded their political independence.
#2 The Phoenician city states were able to continue their independence and prosperity by being masters of sea. They were able to exchange luxury goods with other states, and they used these goods to transport bulk raw materials back to the Near East.
#3 The collapse of the Bronze Age palace societies and the emergence of a free market led to a golden age for the Phoenician city states. The relationship between business and the state was further reinforced by the presence of the patriarchs of the mercantile firms on a powerful council of elders.
#4 The Phoenician cities were able to expand their trading networks greatly after they were able to avoid any threats from their neighbors. They began to export luxury goods, such as embroidered garments and cloth dyed in deepest purple.

Sujets

• Histoire
• Roma (serie de televisión)
• Ancient history
• Rome
• Ancient
• History

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 12 mai 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798822507203
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Richard Miles's Carthage Must Be Destroyed
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5 Insights from Chapter 6 Insights from Chapter 7 Insights from Chapter 8 Insights from Chapter 9 Insights from Chapter 10 Insights from Chapter 11 Insights from Chapter 12 Insights from Chapter 13 Insights from Chapter 14 Insights from Chapter 15
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The Phoenician cities were not a united political entity until over a thousand years later, when the Romans created the province of Phoenicia. However, despite their weaknesses and the threat posed by the major powers of the Near East, they had long safeguarded their political independence.

#2

The Phoenician city states were able to continue their independence and prosperity by being masters of sea. They were able to exchange luxury goods with other states, and they used these goods to transport bulk raw materials back to the Near East.

#3

The collapse of the Bronze Age palace societies and the emergence of a free market led to a golden age for the Phoenician city states. The relationship between business and the state was further reinforced by the presence of the patriarchs of the mercantile firms on a powerful council of elders.

#4

The Phoenician cities were able to expand their trading networks greatly after they were able to avoid any threats from their neighbors. They began to export luxury goods, such as embroidered garments and cloth dyed in deepest purple.

#5

The lack of predators in the political food chain allowed the Phoenician cities to grow and thrive. They were able to establish a regional prominence because they controlled the resources of the mainland, including access to fresh water.

#6

By the tenth century BC, the balance of power among the Phoenician cities had begun to change, with Tyre, under the leadership of its kings Abibaal and then Hiram, becoming dominant. The Israelites signed a commercial agreement with Tyre that allowed the city to expand its territory.

#7

The Phoenician city of Tyre also underwent a religious revolution, with the king replacing the old gods with a new god, Melqart, who would rule over their pantheon with his consort, the goddess Astarte.

#8

The Tyrians worshiped Melqart, the king, as the bridge between the temporal and celestial worlds. The king even introduced an elaborate new ceremonial to celebrate the annual festival of Melqart.

#9

The importance of Melqart to the people of Tyre was reflected not only in his role as the founder of their city, but also in his gift of the first boat, which gave them the means to cross the great expanse of the Mediterranean.

#10

The Phoenician traders were able to expand their commerce by expanding their network of clients. They would establish enclaves among the indigenous communities they traded with, and these commercial contacts developed into more permanent relationships.

#11

Cyprus had been a part of the Phoenician trade route since the second millennium BC, and the first Tyrian colony was at Kition, on the site of a previously abandoned mercantile settlement. The paucity of Greek pottery and other luxury foreign goods found by archaeologists at Kition shows that it was not set up as a typical trading hub.

#12

The Assyrian kingdom, although keen to claim publicly its relationship with other Near Eastern states as a simple matter of total submission brought about by brute military force, was also engaged in a more subtle strategic game that involved the control of inter-regional trade networks.

#13

The Assyrian king Adad-Ninari III conquered northern Syria in the eighth century BC. This development could be considered a mixed blessing for the Tyrians. On the positive side, the Assyrian seizure of northern Syria removed some of their commercial competitors. However, the loss of an important Tyrian source of precious metals was compounded when the conqueror demanded those metals as tribute.

#14

The first western Phoenician colonies were established in the late ninth or early eighth century BC. The Nuragic people who had dominated the island since the early Bronze Age possessed a complex society with a sophisticated material culture.

#15

The Phoenician settlements in the West were an emphatic response to aggressive Greek colonization in the region. However, there is evidence for Phoenician–Greek cooperation in some of these early colonies.

#16

The Euboeans and Phoenicians had a long shared history in the eastern Mediterranean. They had been continuously involved in Aegean trade since the fourteenth century BC. The flow of goods to Greece from the Near East was increasing, and Greek pottery was beginning to be exported in large quantities to the central and western Mediterranean.

#17

The Greeks borrowed many things from the Phoenicians, such as the alphabet, which they used to create the first Greek alphabet. The Greeks also adopted many Phoenician economic practices, such as interest-bearing loans, maritime insurance, joint financing of commercial ventures, and deposit banking.

#18

The Mediterranean Sea has acted as an agent of both diversity and unity throughout history. It has provided the means for those who live on its edges to interact with one another, and it has been the birthplace of many different cultures.

#19

The distinction between the Phoenicians as a people and the exquisite artefacts they produced was clear in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, which were both products of a time when both Greek and Phoenician colonial expansion in the Mediterranean was reaching its zenith.

#20

During the second half of the eighth century BC, Phoenician activities shifted to the central Mediterranean. The most distant of all the Mediterranean islands from the European and African mainland, Sardinia was a natural stepping stone to the far western reaches of the sea.

#21

The Phoenicians were the first to reach Tartessus, a region in southern Spain, and the mines there were rich in minerals and metals. The Tyrians quickly established a successful economic relationship with the local Tartessian elites, with the Phoenicians concentrating on the transportation of the ingots back to the Levant.

#22

The Phoenicians were the first to establish a colony in Spain, at Gades, just beyond the Pillars of Hercules on the south-western coast of Spain. The site was chosen because of its fantastic natural harbour. It was there that the ore from the Spanish mines could be transported.

#23

The Phoenician city of Gades was the center of Tyrian interests in Spain, and it even established a number of secondary colonies in North Africa and what is now Portugal. The Tyrian king appointed commercial agents to oversee the trading operations and governance of the colonies.

#24

The temple of Melqart at Gades was the center of the Tyrian colonial community in the western Mediterranean. It served as the vital umbilical cord through which wealth flowed from Spain back to Phoenicia.

#25

The Tyrians were the first to establish a network of trading emporia and colonies that stretched from Cyprus to Spain. However, they were also the first to be subjugated by the Assyrians, who imposed heavy customs duties on products such as wood and ensured that Phoenician merchants did not break the trade embargo against Egypt.

#26

The pressures that Tyre faced during the seventh century BC certainly played a part in creating favorable conditions for the growth of its western colonies. With a founder who was constantly distracted by the battle for its own political survival, the city could not develop in the same way as it did in the old world of the Near East.
Insights from Chapter 2

#1

The city of Carthage grew up around this myth, and it was said that Mattan, king of Tyre, had dictated that the kingdom was to be split between his son Pygmalion and his daughter Elissa. However, the people of Tyre were afraid of the instability that such an equitable settlement might cause, and so they protested.

#2

The city of Carthage was founded by the Phoenicians in 814 BC, and was ruled by a succession of Tyrian kings. The city was extremely important in the construction of Carthaginian elite identity, as it was based on the worship of Melqart, Astarte, and other Tyrian deities.

#3

The city was founded in exceptional circumstances, and its rapid growth was reflected in its Phoenician name, Qart-Hadasht, or New City. The city was a key coordinate on a Tyrrhenian trading circuit that included Sant’ Imbenia, Pithecusa, and Etruria.

#4

The diet of the early settlers was made up of barley, wheat, oats, grains, lentils, pulses, olives, fruits, and wine. There was a complete absence of domesticated birds such as chickens in the early settlement.

#5

The city of Carthage was established as a proper colonial foundation by the Phoenician mercantile elite, and it was they who would control Carthage for most of its existence. The city was a major consumer of food and raw materials that it could not produce itself, which had a major impact on the organization of other Phoenician colonies in the central Mediterranean.

#6

The Carthaginian elite were very proud of their Tyrian heritage, but they were not slavish adherers to the city’s economic and political agenda. They maintained a strong trading relationship with Egypt, despite being forbidden from such activities by their Assyrian ally.

#7

The religious life of the city was also autonomous. The temples were the greatest and wealthiest institutions in Carthage, and it was members of the elite who constituted the chief-priesthoods that governed them. The two most significant deities in Carthage were Baal Hammon and his consort, Tanit.