What is Punic?

The Punics, (from Latin pūnicus meaning Phoenician) were a group of Western Semitic speaking peoples originating from Carthage in North Africa who traced their origins to a group of Phoenician and Cypriot settlers. Contrary to other Phoenicians they had a landowning aristocracy who established a rule of the hinterland in Northern Africa and trans-Sahara traderoutes. In later times one of these clans conquered a Hellenistic inspired empire in Iberia, possibly having a foothold in Western Gaul. Like other Phoenician people their urbanized culture and economy was strongly linked to the sea. Overseas they established control over coastal regions of the Maghreb, Tripolitania, Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily, the Baleares, Malta, other small islands of the Western Mediterranean and possibly along the Atlantic coast of Iberia, although this is disputed. In the Baleares, Sardinia, Corsica and Sicily they had strong economic and political ties to the independent natives in the hinterland. Their naval presence and trade extended throughout the Mediterranean to the British Islands, the Canaries, and West Africa. Famous technical achievements of the Punic people of Carthage are the development of uncolored glass and the use of lacustrine limestone to improve the purity of molten iron.

Most of the Punic culture was destroyed as a result of the Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage, while traces of language, religion and technology could still be found in Africa during the early Christianisation. After the Punic Wars, Romans used the term Punic as an adjective meaning treacherous.

In archaeological and linguistic usage Punic refers to a Hellenistic and later era culture and dialect from Carthage that had developed into a distinct form from the Phoenician of the mother city of Tyre. Phoenicians also settled in Northwest Africa (the Maghreb) and other areas under Carthaginian rule and their culture and political organisation were a distinct form. Remains of the Punic culture can be found in settlements from the Iberian Peninsula in the West to Cyprus in the East.

Culture in the period 814BCE-146BCE

The Punics took their religion from their Phoenician forefathers, who worshiped Baal Hammon and Melqart, and merged it with African deities and some Greek and Egyptian, such as Apollo, Tanit, and Dionysis, even depicting Baal Hammon in human form looking much like the Greek god Zeus. This was not unusual, the Phoenicians themselves had influenced the Hebrews in much the same way about 500 years earlier. Their culture became a melting pot, since Carthage was a major hub of trade in the known world, but they still kept many of their old cultural identities and practices, such as possible child sacrifice. It is a possibility children were sacrificed for religious purposes. One of Hannibal Barca's brothers may have been a sacrifice because Hamilcar Barca, his father, had fathered 4 children but we only have three names: Hannibal Barca; Hasdrubal Barca; and Mago Barca . So, it is a possibility, not an unusual one either as many cultures of the time made sacrifices, such as the Greeks, Gauls, and even the Romans themselves on occasion would make human offerings, though more often done with an animal which was also probably the case with Carthage.

Sicilian and Punic Wars

Being trade rivals with Magna Grecia, the Punics had several clashes with the Greeks over the island of Sicily in the Sicilian Wars. They eventually fought Rome in the Punic Wars, but lost due to being outnumbered, lack of full governmental involvement, and reliance on their navy as the power of their military. This enabled a Roman settlement of Africa and eventual domination of the Mediterranean Sea. Cato the Elder famously ended his speeches with the imperative that Carthage should be utterly crushed, a view summarised in Latin by the phrase Praeterea censeo Carthaginem esse delendam, meaning simply, "Moreover, I declare, Carthage must be destroyed!". They were eventually incorporated into the Roman Republic in 146 BCE with the destruction of Carthage, but Cato never got to see his victory because he died in 149 BCE.

Culture in the period 146BCE-c.700CE

The annexation of Carthage wasn't the end of the Punics. Although the area was romanized and 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. People of Punic origin prospered again as traders, merchants, and even politicians of the Roman Empire. Carthage was rebuilt around 46 BCE by Julius Caesar, which was considered a bad gesture by some because the ruins of Carthage were cursed and so would be anyone who built on its site (Caesar ironically died 19 months later). However, Carthage again prospered and even became the number two trading city in the Roman Empire, until Constantinople took over that position. As Christianity spread across the Roman Empire, it was especially successful in Northern Africa and Carthage became a major Christian city even before the religion was legal. The Punic population still spoke the language and it is even possible that Saint Augustine himself was Punic, as he was aware of Punic words. One of his more well known passages reads: "It is an excellent thing that the Punic Christians call Baptism itself nothing else but salvation, and the Sacrament of Christ's Body nothing else but life." ("Forgiveness and the Just Deserts of Sins, and the Baptism of Infants", 1.24.34, AD 412)

The last remains of a distinct Punic culture probably disappeared somewhere in the chaos during the Fall of Rome. The demographic and cultural characteristics of the region were thoroughly transformed by turbulent events such as the Vandals' wars with Byzantines, the forced population movements that followed and, finally, the Arabic conquest in the 7th century.

See also

• Phoenician languages
• Carthage
• History of Tunisia
• Poenulus ("The Puny Punic"), a comedy by Plautus, shows the vision the Romans had of Punics. A number of lines are in the Punic language.
• Punica, the genus of pomegranates, known to Romans as mala punica ("the Punic apple").

References

B. H. Warmington, Carthage (2d ed. 1969) T. A. Dorey and D. R. Dudley, Rome against Carthage (1971) N. Davis, Carthage and Her Remains (1985).