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88-508: The etymology of the term remains uncertain. It may derive from a Punic term for an indigenous population of the area surrounding Carthage . (See Terence for discussion.) The name is usually connected with Phoenician ʿafar "dust" (also found in other Semitic languages ), but a 1981 hypothesis asserted that it stems from the Berber ifri (plural ifran ) "cave", in reference to cave dwellers . (See Tataouine .) The same word may be found in

176-502: A praetor . The existing power structures, infrastructure, and urbanized culture continued largely unchanged. In 216 BC, two Sardo-Punic notables from Cornus and Tharros, Hampsicora and Hanno, led a revolt against the Romans. Punic culture remained strong during the first centuries of the Roman domination, but over time the civic elites adopted Roman cultural practices and Latin became first

264-539: A century, the population of Carthage rose to 30,000, meanwhile, the "mother city" of Tyre , once the economic and political capital of Phoenicia, began to lose its status in the seventh century BC. Phoenicia was eventually conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire , by which point Carthage had become the wealthiest and most powerful of all the Phoenician colonies. Around this time, a distinct culture began to emerge from

352-534: A clade with ancient Canary Island inhabitants thought to be representative of the original founding population. Surprisingly, no individuals with large amounts of Levantine ancestry were detected in this group of Tunisian Punics. One possible explanation is that the colonial expansion of Phoenician city-states at the start of the Iron Age did not involve large amounts of population mobility, and may have been based on trade relationships rather than occupation. According to

440-614: A craniometric analysis indicated likely Mediterranean / European ancestry as opposed to African or Asian. In 2016, it was revealed that the individual belonged to the rare U5b2c1, which is the earliest evidence of this European lineage in North Africa. Mitochondrial analysis of 10 Punic samples from the necropolis of Tharros in Sardinia (5th – 3rd century BC) shows affinities with North African and Iberian populations. A recent genetic study has linked haplogroups E-M81, E-FGC18960 and E-V65 to

528-464: A direct or indirect object ('me, him', 'to me, to him') or as a possessive ('mine, his') the personal pronoun takes the form of a suffix. These suffixes can be combined with verbal forms, substantives, and paricles. Examples: The paradigm for the suffixed personal pronouns is: The relative pronoun, 'who, that, which', in both Punic and Neo-Punic is’ Š ( ’īs ). In late Neo-Punic M’ ( mū ) (originally an interrogative pronoun, 'what?') emerged as

616-462: A given verbal form may depend on: The numbers from one to ten are: Punic and Neo-Punic take part in the so-called "Semitic polarity ": the numbers 3-10 take the feminine form with masculine nouns, and vice versa. Thus with masculine BN ( bin , 'son') or YM ( yom , 'day'), numbers take the feminine form ending in -T , while with feminine ŠT ( sat , 'year'), they take the masculine form without -T . For example: Multiples of ten take

704-451: A large number of loanwords from Italian . However, Punic was indeed spoken on the island of Malta at some point in its history, as evidenced by both the Cippi of Melqart , which is integral to the decipherment of Punic after its extinction, and other inscriptions that were found on the islands. Punic itself, being Canaanite, was more similar to Modern Hebrew than to Arabic. Today there are

792-449: A number of common Berber roots that descend from Punic, including the word for "learn" ( *almid , *yulmad ; compare Hebrew למד ). Punic is known from inscriptions (most of them religious formulae) and personal name evidence. The play Poenulus by Plautus contains a few lines of vernacular Punic which have been subject to some research because unlike inscriptions, they largely preserve the vowels . Like its Phoenician parent, Punic

880-410: A second relative pronoun. Both pronouns were not inflected. The combination ’Š M’ ( ’īs mū ) was also used in late Neo-Punic. A pronoun Š- ( si- ) was used to express an indirect genitival relationship between two substantives; it can be translated as 'of'. This uninflected pronoun was prefixed to the second of the two substantives. Example: There are two interrogative pronouns: Neither of

968-453: A substantive and indicates that that substantive is an object in the sentence (mostly a direct object). Word order in Punic and Neo-Punic can vary, but this variation has its grammatical limits. For example, in a clause with an imperfect prefixing form the subject can either precede or follow the verb. However, as a rule, if the verb precedes it refers to the present, while if the subject precedes,

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1056-668: Is a series of trilingual funerary texts found in the Christian catacombs of Sirte , Libya : the gravestones are carved in Ancient Greek , Latin and Punic. It might have even survived the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb , as the geographer al-Bakri describes a people speaking a language that was not Berber , Latin or Coptic in Sirte , where spoken Punic survived well past written use. However, it

1144-495: Is attested by Tertullian in his Apologeticus , where he reports that Tiberius crucified the priests of "Saturn" on the same trees they consecrated to the god. Tertullian also mentions the goddess Juno Caelestis as a romanization of Tanit. Carthage was rebuilt about 46 BC by Julius Caesar , and settlements in the surrounding area were granted to soldiers who had retired from the Roman army. People of Punic origin prospered again as traders, merchants and even politicians of

1232-704: Is chon chen liful yth binim ys dybur ch-innocho-tnu agorastocles yth emanethi hy chirs aelichot sithi nasot bynu yid ch-illuch ily gubulim lasibithim bodi aly thera ynnynu yslym min cho-th iusim Yth alonim ualoniuth sicorathii sthymhimi hymacom syth combaepumamitalmetlotiambeat iulecantheconaalonimbalumbar dechor bats . . . . hunesobinesubicsillimbalim esse antidamos sonalemuedubertefet donobun.hun ec cil thumucommucroluful altanimauos duber ithemhu archaristolem sitt esed anec naso ters ahelicot alemu [y]s duber timur mucop[m] suistiti aoccaaneclictorbod es iussilim limmim colus Punics The Punic people , usually known as

1320-421: Is likely that Arabization of Punic speakers was facilitated by their language belonging to the same group (both were Semitic languages) as that of the conquerors and so they had many grammatical and lexical similarities. The idea that Punic was the origin of Maltese was first raised in 1565. Modern linguistics has proved that Maltese is in fact derived from Arabic , probably Siculo-Arabic specifically, with

1408-507: Is not shared by all scholars. In modern academic writing, the term Punic exclusively refers to Phoenicians in the western Mediterranean. Specific Punic groups are often referred to with hyphenated names, like Siculo-Punic or Sardo-Punic . (This practice has ancient roots: Hellenistic Greek authors sometimes referred to the Punic inhabitants of central northern Africa ( Libya ) as Liby-Phoenicians .) Like other Phoenician people, their urbanized culture and economy were strongly linked to

1496-476: Is only a corruption by one letter of the alphabet of what we would expect: What else should they reply except that they are " Chananei "? It has been argued by J.C. Quinn that this is a misreading, since although this term is "applied to Levantine people" in the Hebrew Bible, "there is no other evidence for self-identification as Canaanite, and so we might suspect him of learned optimism." However, this opinion

1584-536: Is the last ancient writer to indicate that the Punic language was widely spoken. The last remains of a distinct Punic culture probably disappeared somewhere in the chaos during the fall of the Western Roman Empire . The demographic and cultural characteristics of the region were thoroughly transformed by turbulent events such as the Vandals ' wars with Byzantines and the population movements that followed, as well as

1672-617: The 11th century BC , Phoenician merchants , sailors , and artisans begin to settle in western Sicily , having already started colonies on the nearby parts of North Africa . Within a century, they established major Phoenician settlements at Soloeis (Solunto), present day Palermo and Motya (an island near present-day Marsala ). Others included Drepana (Trapani) and Mazara del Vallo . As Carthage later grew in power, these settlements sometimes came into conflict with them, such as Motya, and Phoenician city-states in western Sicily were eventually fully integrated into Carthage by

1760-575: The 6th century BC . The Phoenicians integrated with the local Elymian population as shown in archaeology as a distinctive “West Phoenician cultural identity”. It is unclear when the Phoenicians began to seriously colonize North Africa. Writers in antiquity, such as Pliny the Elder , dated the beginning of the colonization efforts to the 12th and 11th centuries BC, as several legends describe interactions between Phoenician colonists and famous figures from

1848-817: The Carthaginians (and sometimes as Western Phoenicians ), were a Semitic people who migrated from Phoenicia to the Western Mediterranean during the Early Iron Age . In modern scholarship, the term Punic , the Latin equivalent of the Greek-derived term Phoenician , is exclusively used to refer to Phoenicians in the western Mediterranean, following the line of the Greek East and Latin West . The largest Punic settlement

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1936-694: The Garamantes , a North African people, used to live in caves. The Greeks called an African people who lived in caves Troglodytae . Punic language The Punic language , also called Phoenicio-Punic or Carthaginian , is an extinct variety of the Phoenician language , a Canaanite language of the Northwest Semitic branch of the Semitic languages . An offshoot of the Phoenician language of coastal West Asia (modern Lebanon and north western Syria ), it

2024-541: The Hebrew Bible describing the sacrifice of children by burning to Baal and Moloch at a place called Tophet . The ancient descriptions were seemingly confirmed by the discovering of the so-called Tophet of Salammbô in Carthage in 1921, which contained the urns of cremated children. However, modern historians and archaeologists debate the reality and extent of this practice. Some scholars propose that all remains at

2112-579: The Levant . Literary sources report two moments of Tyrian settlements in the west, the first in the 12th century BC (the cities Utica , Lixus , and Gadir ) that hasn't been confirmed by archaeology, and a second at the end of the 9th century BC, documented in written references in both east and west, which culminated in the foundation of colonies in northwest Africa (the cities Auza, Carthage , and Kition ) and formed part of trading networks linked to Tyre , Arvad , Byblos , Berytus , Ekron , and Sidon in

2200-415: The Muslim conquest of North Africa in the 7th century AD. After the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb , the geographer al-Bakri described a people who spoke a language which was not Berber , Latin, or Coptic , living in Sirte , where spoken Punic survived well past written use. Whether this refers to some remnant Punic population is uncertain; if it does, it represents the last known record of

2288-452: The Phoenician homeland. Although links with Phoenicia were retained throughout their history, they also developed close trading relations with other peoples of the western Mediterranean, such as Sicilians, Sardinians, Berbers , Greeks, and Iberians , and developed some cultural traits distinct from those of their Phoenician homeland. Some of these were shared by all western Phoenicians, while others were restricted to individual regions within

2376-625: The Roman Empire . The emperor Septimius Severus had Punic ancestry. As Christianity spread in the Roman Empire, it was especially successful in northwest Africa , and Carthage became a Christian city even before Christianity was legal. Saint Augustine , born in Thagaste (modern-day Algeria ), considered himself Punic, and left some important reflections on Punic cultural history in his writing. One of his more well known passages reads: Augustine

2464-452: The Trojan War , such as Aeneas . Archaeological evidence, on the other hand, generally implies that the colonies began in the 8th century BC as, barring a few exceptional sites, any material evidence of Phoenician habitation before this time period is lacking. The Phoenician colonial system was motivated by economic opportunity, not expansionist ideology, and as such, the Phoenicians lacked

2552-515: The diphthongs ay and aw , respectively (for example Punic mēm , 'water', corresponds to Hebrew mayim ). Two vowel changes are noteworthy. In many cases a stressed long ā developed into / o /, for example in the third person masculine singular of the suffixing conjugation of the verb, baròk , 'he has blessed' (compare Hebrew baràk ). And in some cases that / o / secondarily developed into ū , for example mū , 'what?', < mō < mā (cf. Hebrew māh , 'what?'). In late Punic and Neo-Punic

2640-404: The glottal stop and pharyngeal and laryngeal consonants were no longer pronounced. The signs’ , ‘, h, and ḥ thus became available to indicate vowels. The ‘ayn ( ‘ ) came to be regularly used to indicate an / a / sound, and also y and w increasingly were used to indicate / i / and / o, u /, respectively. But a consistent system to write vowels never developed. In this section "Grammar"

2728-592: The prestige language , and later the speech of the majority of the inhabitants. The island of Ibiza derives its name from Phoenician : 𐤀𐤁𐤔𐤌 , ʾBŠM , "Dedicated to Bes ". (Latin Ebusus ). A city, the Sa Caleta Phoenician Settlement , which has been excavated, was established in the mid-seventh century. Diodorus dates this foundation to 654 BC and attributes it to the Carthaginians. From

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2816-434: The tophet were sacrificed, whereas others propose that only some were. Tunisia was among the areas settled during the first wave of Phoenician expansion into the west, with the foundation of Utica and Hippo Regius taking place around the end of the twelfth century. Further Phoenician settlements, were established in the following centuries, including Hippo Diarrhytus and Hadrumetum . The foundation of Carthage on

2904-475: The tophet , and by a marked degree of cosmopolitanism . Carthage gained direct control over the Cap Bon peninsula, operating a sandstone quarry at El Haouaria from the middle of the seventh city and establishing the city of Kerkouane in the early sixth century. The region was very fertile and allowed Carthage to be economically self-sufficient. The site of Kerkouane has been extensively excavated and provides

2992-505: The 16th century, but are obsolete and there is no proper noun in current use. "Punic" derives from the Latin poenus and punicus , which were used mostly to refer to the Carthaginians and other western Phoenicians. These terms derived from the Ancient Greek word Φοῖνιξ ( "Phoinix" ), plural form Φοίνικες ( "Phoinikes" ), which was used indiscriminately to refer to both western and eastern Phoenicians. Latin later borrowed

3080-478: The 4th century, Bir ed-Dreder LP2 . Augustine of Hippo (d. 430) is generally considered the last major ancient writer to have some knowledge of Punic and is considered the "primary source on the survival of [late] Punic". According to him, Punic was still spoken in his region (Northern Africa) in the 5th century, centuries after the fall of Carthage, and there were still people who called themselves "chanani" (" Canaanite ") at that time. He wrote around 401: And if

3168-683: The 5th century; the empire reconquered it as the Praetorian prefecture of Africa in AD 534. The Latin name Africa came into Arabic after the Islamic conquest as Ifriqiya . The name survives today as Ifira and Ifri-n-Dellal in Greater Kabylie ( Algeria ). A Berber tribe was called Banu Ifran in the Middle Ages , and Ifurace was the name of a Tripolitan people in the 6th century. Herodotus wrote that

3256-643: The 5th century BC, Hanno the Navigator played a significant role in exploring coastal areas of present-day Morocco and other parts of the African coast, specifically noting details of indigenous peoples, such as at Essaouira . Carthaginians pushed westerly into the Atlantic and established important settlements in Lixus , Volubilis , Chellah , and Mogador, among other locations. Being trade rivals with Magna Graecia ,

3344-428: The 8th century BC, Phoenicians founded several cities and strongholds on strategic points in the south and west of Sardinia , often peninsulas or islands near estuaries, easy to defend and natural harbours, such as Tharros , Bithia , Sulci , Nora and Caralis ( Cagliari ). The north, the eastern coast and the interior of the island continued to be dominated by the indigenous Nuragic civilization , whose relations with

3432-585: The Afri), based on the stem Afr- with the adjective suffix -ic , giving Africus , Africa , Africum in the nominative singular of the three Latin genders. Following the defeat of Carthage in the Third Punic War , Rome set up the province of Africa Proconsularis . Afer came to be a cognomen for people from this province. The Germanic tribe of the Vandals conquered the Roman Diocese of Africa in

3520-625: The Carthaginians had several clashes with the Greeks over the island of Sicily in the Sicilian Wars from 600 to 265 BC. The Carthaginians eventually also fought Rome in three Punic Wars between 265 and 146 BC but they were defeated in each one. In the First Punic War , they lost control of Sicily. In the Second Punic War , an invasion of Italy by Hannibal was unsuccessful in forcing

3608-641: The Greek comedy, and Plautus took parts of this Punic version to give his Carthaginian character authentic speech. Moreover, in this way he could enter puns by introducing in his play would-be translators who, to comical effect, claimed to, but did not in fact, understand Punic, and thus gave nonsensical 'translations'. Yth alonim ualonuth sicorathi symacom syth chy mlachthi in ythmum ysthy alm ych-ibarcu mysehi li pho caneth yth bynuthi uad edin byn ui bymarob syllohom alonim ubymysyrthohom byth limmoth ynnocho thuulech- antidamas chon ys sidobrim chi fel yth chyl

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3696-595: The Greek term a second time as "Phoenix" , plural form "Phoenices" , also used indiscriminately. Numismatic evidence from Sicily shows that some western Phoenicians made use of the term "Phoinix", but it is not clear what term (if any) they used for themselves; they may have called themselves 𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍𐤌 ( knʿnm , " Canaanites "). A passage from Augustine has often been interpreted as indicating that they called themselves Canaanites ( Chanani in Latin ), Augustine writes: When our rural peasants are asked what they are , they reply, in Punic, " Chanani ", which

3784-581: The Mediterranean and beyond, to Atlantic Iberia, the British Isles , the Canaries . Technical achievements of the Punic people of Carthage include the development of uncolored glass and the use of limestone from lakeside deposits to improve the purity of smelted iron . The Punic religion was a direct continuation of the Phoenician variety of the polytheistic ancient Canaanite religion . At Carthage,

3872-407: The Punic language is rejected by you, you virtually deny what has been admitted by most learned men, that many things have been wisely preserved from oblivion in books written in the Punic tongue. Nay, you ought even to be ashamed of having been born in the country in which the cradle of this language is still warm. Besides Augustine, the only proof of Punic-speaking communities at such a late period

3960-595: The Punic population of Ibiza was primarily male dominated. According to Olalde et al. (2018): According to Fernandes et al. (2020): According to Marcus et al. (2020): Two other studies published in 2021 in the journal Annals of Human Biology also show a strong genetic proximity with the populations of North Africa of several individuals from Sardinia and Italy. According to Sarno, Cillion, de Fanti, et al. (2021): Accorging to de Angelis, Veltre, Romboni, et al. (2021): In 2022, 30 ancient individuals from Carthaginian and Etruscan port cities around

4048-451: The Punic sphere. The western Phoenicians were arranged into a multitude of self-governing city-states. Carthage had grown to be the largest and most powerful of these city-states by the 5th century BC and gained increasingly close control over Punic Sicily and Sardinia in the 4th century BC, but communities in Iberia remained outside their control until the second half of the 3rd century BC. In

4136-487: The Romans as Sardus Pater and apparently an indigenous deity) received worship as the son of Melqart and was particularly associated with the island. The Carthaginians appear to have had both part-time and full-time priests, the latter called khnm (singular khn , cognate with the Hebrew term kohen ), led by high priests called rb khnm , as well as lower-ranking religious officials, called "servants" or "slaves" of

4224-548: The Romans to surrender and the Carthaginians were subsequently defeated by Scipio Africanus in Spain and at the Battle of Zama in northern Africa in 202 BC, marking the end of Carthage's position as a major Mediterranean power. Finally, in the Third Punic War , Carthage was destroyed in 146 BC. Victory in the Punic Wars enabled Roman settlement of Africa and eventual domination of

4312-498: The Sardo-Punic cities were mixed, including both trade and military conflict. Intermarriage and cultural mixing took place on a large scale. The inhabitants of the Sardo-Punic cities were a mixture of Phoenician and Nuragic stock, with the latter forming the majority of the population. Sardinia had a special position because it was central in the western Mediterranean between Carthage, Spain, the river Rhône , and Etruria . Iglesiente

4400-399: The absolute state or the so-called construct state. A word in the construct state has a close relation with the word that follows, a relation that is often translated by "of". For example, in the combination "sons of Hanno", "sons of" would be in the construct state, while "Hanno" would be in the absolute state. Morphology: The demonstrative pronoun 'this, these' was: The definite article

4488-620: The addition of Steppe-related ancestry . A second cluster contains seven individuals who are genetically similar to Bronze Age Sicilian and central Italian populations, as well as some individuals from the Hellenistic Iberian Greek colony of Empúries . A last individual, who projects near modern Mozabite and Moroccan populations in PCA space can be modelled with a combination Morocco Early Neolithic and Anatolia Neolithic ancestry. When compared to other ancient individuals, this individual forms

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4576-470: The adherence of Carthaginian scribes to a traditional Phoenician orthography, but there are occasional hints that the phonology and grammar of Punic had begun to diverge from Phoenician after the sixth century BC. The clearest evidence for this comes from Motya in western Sicily, but there are also traces of it in sixth-century Carthaginian inscriptions and it is unclear whether these developments began in western Sicily and spread to Africa or vice versa. From

4664-476: The admixture of local customs with Phoenician traditions, which also gave rise to a nascent sense of national identity. Tyre's status and power continued to diminish under Neo-Assyrian, and subsequently Neo-Babylonian , vassalage, and by the sixth century BC, its voluntary submission to the Achaemenid Empire had severely circumscribed what little power it retained. Its status as the pre-eminent Phoenician city

4752-507: The best-known example of a Punic city from North Africa. Punic control also extended inland over the Libyans . Punic influence on inland regions is seen from the early 6th century, notably at Althiburos , where Punic construction techniques and red-slip pottery appear at the time. Armed conflicts with the Libyans are first attested in the early 5th century, with several revolts attested in

4840-756: The central Mediterranean, in Tunisia, Sardinia, and central Italy were sequenced. In Tunisia a highly heterogeneous population was observed in Kerkouane , spanning from modern Mozabite populations to modern Sicilian populations, consisting of three primary genetic clusters. One of the genetic groups includes four individuals who have genetic continuity with preceding Maghrebi neolithic farmers, suggesting that these individuals represent an autochthonous North African population. One individual can be modeled with 100% Morocco Late Neolithic farmer ancestry, while three individuals can be modeled predominantly with this component, along with

4928-690: The chief gods were Baal Hammon (purportedly "Lord of the Brazier ") and his consort Tanit , but other deities are attested, such as Eshmun , Melqart , Ashtart , Reshef , Sakon, and Shamash . The Carthaginians also adopted the Greek goddesses Demeter and Kore in 396 BC, as well as the Egyptian deities Bes , Bastet , Isis , Osiris , and Ra . Different Punic centres had their own distinct pantheons; in Punic Sardinia, for example, Sid or Sid Babi (known to

5016-492: The course of the Punic wars (264–146 BC), the Romans challenged Carthaginian hegemony in the western Mediterranean, culminating in the destruction of Carthage in 146 BC, but the Punic language and Punic culture endured under Roman rule, surviving in some places until late antiquity . The English adjective "Punic" is used in modern academic writing to refer to the western Phoenicians. The proper nouns "Punics" and "Punes" were used in

5104-416: The dialect of Punic spoken after the fall of Carthage and after the Roman conquest of the former Punic territories in 146 BC. The dialect differed from the earlier Punic language, as is evident from divergent spelling compared to earlier Punic and by the use of non-Semitic names, mostly of Libyco-Berber or Iberian origin. The difference was due to the dialectal changes that Punic underwent as it spread among

5192-500: The diffusion of the Phoenician language in the Western Mediterranean. According to Penninx (2019): Recent genetics studies based on Ancient DNA showed that Punic people from Sardinia, Ibiza, South Iberia and Italy had strong genetic relationships to ancient north African and eastern Mediterranean sources. Zalloua, P., Collins, C.J., Gosling, A. et al. in 2018 showed that Eastern Mediterranean and North African influence in

5280-406: The entire Mediterranean Sea. The destruction of Carthage did not mean the end of the Punic people. After the wars, the city of Carthage was completely razed and the land around it was turned into farmland for Roman citizens. There were, however, other Punic cities in northwest Africa, and Carthage itself was rebuilt and regained some importance, if a shadow of its ancient influence. Although the area

5368-483: The fifth-century BC, a shared set of alphabetic, orthographic, and phonological rules are encountered in Punic inscriptions throughout the western Mediterranean, probably due to Carthaginian influence. Punic literary works were written in the period before 146 BC. For example, Mago wrote 28 volumes about animal husbandry . The Roman Senate appreciated the works so much that after taking Carthage, they presented them to Berber princes who owned libraries there. Mago's work

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5456-412: The form of a plural ( -īm ) of the word for 10 or 3-9: One hundred is M’T ( mīt ), its dual M’TM ( mitēm ) is 200; 1000 is ’LP ( ’èlef ), and 10,000 is RB’ ( ribō ). An important particle is the so-called nota objecti , or accusative particle , ’YT (’et) (rarely ’T ; usually T- before a substantive with definite article or with demonstrative pronoun). It is placed before

5544-491: The fourth century (398, 370s, 310-307 BC). In the late 4th century, Aristotle reports that the Carthaginians dealt with local discontent by resettling poor citizens in cities in Libya. These settlements had to provide tribute and military manpower when required, but remained self-governing. There is some onomastic evidence for intermarriage between Punic people and Libyans in the 4th and 3rd centuries BC. From

5632-454: The fourth century AD, Punic was still spoken in what is now northern parts of Tunisia and Algeria , other parts of Northwest Africa, and the Mediterranean . A version of Punic, known as Latino-Punic was written in the Latin alphabet and is known from seventy texts. These texts include the 1st-century Zliten LP1 and the second century Lepcis Magna LP1 . They were even written as late as

5720-490: The leading Phoenician city under Mago I , but scholarly attempts to delineate the dialects lack precision and generally disagree on the classification. The Punics stayed in contact with the homeland of Phoenicia until the destruction of Carthage by the Roman Republic in 146 BC. At first, there was not much difference between Phoenician and Punic. Developments in the language before 146 BC are largely hidden from us by

5808-476: The name of the Banu Ifran from Algeria and Tripolitania , a Berber tribe originally from Yafran (also known as Ifrane ) in northwestern Libya . The classical historian Flavius Josephus asserted that descendants of Abraham 's grandson Epher invaded the region and gave it their own name. This ethnonym provided the source of the term Africa . The Romans referred to the region as Africa terra (land of

5896-505: The northern Berber peoples . Sallust (86 – 34 BC) claims Punic was "altered by their intermarriages with the Numidians ". That account agrees with other evidence found to suggest a North African Berber influence on Punic, such as Libyco-Berber names in the Onomasticon of Eusebius . Neo-Punic is mostly known from inscriptions, including Lepcis Magna N 19 (= KAI 124 ; 92 AD). Around

5984-416: The notation " XX (xxxx)" is used, where XX is the spelling in Punic characters (without vowels), while xxxx is a phonetic rendering, including vowels, as can be reconstructed from Punic language texts written in the Latin or Greek alphabets. Nouns, including adjectives, in Punic and Neo-Punic can be of two genders (masculine or feminine), three numbers (singular, dual, or plural), and in two 'states',

6072-531: The numbers or even the desire to establish an "empire" overseas. The colonies were therefore independent city-states, though most were relatively small, probably having a population of less than 1,000. Some colonies, such as Carthage , were able to grow much larger. Effectively establishing a monopoly on the continent's natural resources, the colonies' wealth exploded, which was compounded by an influx of Phoenician traders fleeing from increasing tributary obligations to foreign powers and trade interference. Within

6160-506: The people's existence. In 1994, a Punic burial crypt was discovered on Byrsa Hill, near the entry to the National Museum of Carthage in Tunisia. Inside this crypt were the remains of a young man along with a range of burial goods, all dating to the late 6th century BCE. An osteological analysis of the young man from Byrsa, or Ariche, as he has become known, determined that he was approximately 1.7 m tall and aged between 19 and 24 years, and

6248-472: The same lines. Charles Krahmalkov is of the opinion that the first ten lines are Neo-Punic, the next ten Punic. Krahmalkov proposed the theory that Plautus, who often translated Greek comedies into Latin, in this case too reworked a Greek original, the Karkhedonios ('The Carthaginian'; Athenian comic poet Alexis wrote a play with this title). In this case, there probably also existed a Punic translation of

6336-413: The sanctuary (male: ˤbd , female: ˤbdt or mt ), and functionaries like cooks, butchers, singers, and barbers. Sanctuaries had associations, referred to as mrzḥ in Punic and Neo-Punic inscriptions, who held ritual banquets. Some Phoenician communities practiced sacred prostitution ; in the Punic sphere this is archeologically attested at Sicca Veneria ( El Kef ) in western Tunisia and

6424-583: The sanctuary of Venus Erycina at Eryx in western Sicily. Punic sacred prostitution is mentioned by Latin author Valerius Maximus , who describes how Carthaginian women gained gifts by engaging in prostitution with visitors at Sicca Veneria. Various Greek and Roman sources describe and criticize the Carthaginian practice of sacrificing children by burning. Many ancient Greek and Latin authors describe some version of child sacrifice to "Cronos" (Baal Hammon). These descriptions were compared to those found in

6512-464: The sea. They settled over Northwest Africa in what is now Algeria , Morocco, Tunisia and Libya and established some colonies in Southern Iberia, Sardinia, Sicily, Ebusus , Malta and other small islands of the western Mediterranean. In Sardinia and Sicily, they had strong economic and political ties to the independent natives in the hinterland. Their naval presence and trade extended throughout

6600-421: The site of modern Tunis is dated to the late 9th century BC by Greek literary sources and archaeological evidence. The literary sources attribute the foundation to a group of Tyrian refugees led by Dido and accompanied by Cypriots . Archaeologically, the new foundation is characterised by the focus of religious cult on the gods Tanit and Baal Hammon , by the development of a new religious structure,

6688-522: The specific root consonants certain deviations of the standard verbal paradigm occur. For example in the group I- n (verbs with first consonant N- ) the n may disappear through assimilation . Summary: In Punic there was no one-on-one correlation between form and use. For example, the suffix form (perfect) is often translated by a present tense, but it may also refer to the past or future. Tense, aspect, and mood of verbal forms were determined by syntax, not by morphology. The tense, aspect and mood of

6776-443: The two pronouns was inflected. In Punic and Neo-Punic there was no exclusive indefinite pronoun. Whenever such a pronoun might be needed, it was circumscribed by means of words like ’ḤD (’ḥḥad) , 'one', ’Š (’īs) or ’DM (’adom) , 'a man, a person', or KL (kil) , 'all'. The nucleus of Punic and Neo-Punic verbs is a "root" consisting of three or, sometimes, two consonants. By adding prefixes and suffixes, and by varying

6864-419: The verb refers to the future. The repertoire of possible ways in (Neo-)Punic to express a certain combination of tense, aspect, and mood seems to be more restricted than in Phoenician, but at the same time the rules seem to have become less strict. Act V of Plautus's comedy Poenulus opens with Hanno speaking in Punic, his native language, in the first ten lines. Then follows a slightly different version of

6952-803: The vowels that are inserted into the root, the various forms of the verb are formed. These belong to six "stems" (conjugations). The basic, and most common, stem type is the Qal. The other common stems are: A few other stems are found only very rarely: The paradigm of the Qal is (the verb B-R-K ( barok ), 'to bless', is used as an example): The following Niph‘al forms are attested in Punic and Neo-Punic (verb: P-‘-L , fel , 'to make'; < Phoenician pa‘ol ): The following Pi‘el forms are attested in Punic and Neo-Punic (verb: Ḥ-D-Š , ḥados , 'to make new, to restore'): The following Yiph‘il forms are attested in Punic and Neo-Punic (verb: Q-D-Š , qados , 'to dedicate'): Many (Neo-)Punic verbs are "weak": depending on

7040-525: Was Ancient Carthage , but there were 300 other settlements along the North African coast from Leptis Magna in modern Libya to Mogador in southern Morocco , as well as western Sicily , southern Sardinia , the southern and eastern coasts of the Iberian Peninsula , Malta , and Ibiza . Their language, Punic , was a variety of Phoenician , one of the Northwest Semitic languages originating in

7128-474: Was an important mining area for the metals lead and zinc . The island came under Carthaginian dominance around 510 BC, after that a first attempt at conquest in 540 BC that ended in failure. They expanded their influence to the western and southern coast from Bosa to Caralis, consolidating the existing Phoenician settlements, administered by plenipotentiaries called Suffetes , and founding new ones such as Olbia , Cornus , and Neapolis ; Tharros

7216-437: Was evolving from Phoenician ha- to an unaspirated article a- . By 406 BCE, both variants were attested in the same inscription ( CIS I 5510 ). Although in later times the h- was no longer pronounced, the "historical" spelling H- kept being used, in addition to ’- and Ø-, and one even finds Ḥ- . The personal pronouns, when used on their own, are: (forms between [...] are attested in Phoenician only) When used as

7304-529: Was partially romanized and some of the population adopted the Roman religion , while fusing it with aspects of their beliefs and customs, the language and the ethnicity persisted for some time. The cult to Baal Hammon, and the consequent sacrifice of children, though banned by Rome, continued openly under the guise of worshipping Saturn until at least the proconsulate of Tiberius Iulius Secundus in Africa (131–132). This

7392-430: Was principally spoken on the Mediterranean coast of Northwest Africa , the Iberian Peninsula and several Mediterranean islands , such as Malta , Sicily , and Sardinia by the Punic people , or western Phoenicians , throughout classical antiquity , from the 8th century BC to the 6th century AD. Punic is considered to have gradually separated from its Phoenician parent around the time that Carthage became

7480-418: Was probably the main centre. Carthage encouraged the cultivation of grain and cereals and prohibited fruit trees . Tharros, Nora, Bithia, Monte Sirai etc. are now important archaeological sites where Punic architecture and city planning can be studied. In 238 BC, following the First Punic War the Romans took over the whole island, incorporating it into the province of Corsica et Sardinia , under

7568-401: Was then usurped by its rival city-state, Sidon – but Sidon too was under Persian subjugation, leading the way for Carthage to fill the power vacuum as the leading Phoenician political power. With Phoenicia's decline, Carthage had become effectively independent from Tyre by 650 BC. Carthaginians carried out significant sea explorations around Africa and elsewhere from their base in Carthage. In

7656-407: Was translated into Greek by Cassius Dionysius of Utica . A Latin version was probably translated from the Greek version. Further examples of Punic works of literature include the works of Hanno the Navigator , who wrote about his encounters during his naval voyages around what is today Africa and about the settling of new colonies in Iberia, North Africa and the Mediterranean. Neo-Punic refers to

7744-447: Was written from right to left, in horizontal lines, without vowels. Punic has 22 consonants. Details of their pronunciation can be reconstructed from Punic and Neo-Punic texts written in Latin or Greek characters (inscriptions, and parts of Plautus's comedy Poenulus , 'The Little Punic'). The vowels in Punic and Neo-Punic are: short a, i, and u ; their long counterparts ā, ī, and ū ; and ē and ō , which had developed out of

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