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Fearing for her life in the
Phoenician city of Tyr, Queen Dido fled with her
followers to the Western Phoenician provinces.
Legend says that on landing in the coastal areas of Northern Tunisia, Dido promised the local inhabitants that she will settle in an area no bigger than a cow-skin.
She then cut the skin in such
thin layers that she had enough room to build her
city. Kart-Haddash, a Semitic word for “New
City”, was born in 814 BC and grew into the strongest
and wealthiest city of the region. It conquered
land all the way west to Spain and led expeditions as
far as Nigeria.
The Carthaginian merchants were
known to be the best traders of the Mediterranean.
But this wealth brought envy, and after three wars fought against the Greeks, the Carthaginians had to continue on fighting the Romans. One particular war stands out as the most ferocious Rome ever had to fight: an 18 years war in Italian soil led by the Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca and his marching elephants.
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