The overshadowed ancient empire that rivalled Rome with maritime might and an iron fist

The Phoenicians founded one of antiquity’s greatest Mediterranean powers.

An ambitious and powerful network of seafaring traders along the eastern Mediterranean coast, they built a commercial empire whose crowning capital was Carthage: a city that rivalled (and for much of its history outshone) both ancient Greece and Rome. It was from here that they imposed a ruthless influence across the region.

“I feel like this is something that has been lost in ancient histories that move from Greece first to Rome second. They miss out this massive third power, which was sometimes bigger than both,” says historian Josephine Quinn, speaking on the HistoryExtra podcast.

But this great power began only as a cluster of small port cities, overshadowed by mighty neighbours. So how did the Phoenicians rise to command vast trade routes, create colonies across the western Mediterranean, and challenge the future dominance of Rome?

The Phoenicians: masters of the seas

Centred on the harbours of modern-day Lebanon and Syria – notably Tyre, Sidon and Byblos – the early Phoenicians developed a reputation as “extraordinary navigators”.

“They discovered the Pole Star and founded settlements in the western Mediterranean long before the Greeks were sailing around the region,” explains Quinn.

As pioneers of open-sea sailing who steered by the stars, they also proved formidable traders. They carried cedar wood, glassware, textiles and most famously purple dye made from murex shells – a commodity so costly that it became the colour of kings.

For centuries they acted as middlemen of the Mediterranean, linking Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece and beyond. Their alphabet, a streamlined script of 22 letters, spread westward and would later form the basis of Greek and Latin writing systems.

From survivors to empire-builders

In their early centuries, Phoenician cities were indeed overshadowed by powerful neighbours. “During the Bronze Age, they were stuck in between enormous empires: the Egyptians, the Hittites and the Babylonians,” says Quinn.

Phoenician independence was precarious, and kings of Tyre or Sidon appear in surviving letters pleading with pharaohs or paying tribute. But around 1200 BC, the great Bronze Age states collapsed: Egyptian power waned, the Hittites disappeared, and Mycenaean Greece fell into turmoil.

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This so-called ‘Bronze Age collapse’ remains the subject of debate among historians and archaeologists, but whatever its cause, the Phoenicians emerged as the main beneficiaries.

“Once those kings disappeared, that’s when they had the motivation and knowledge to really take advantage and come into their own,” Quinn explains.

This resulting ‘golden age’ of Phoenician power, spanning roughly 1000–500 BC, saw their colonies multiply and their ships travel further than ever before.

Westward expansion

The Phoenicians sailed beyond the Levant and into the central and western Mediterranean, establishing colonies on the islands of Cyprus, Malta, Sicily and Sardinia, as well in north Africa and on the Iberian Peninsula.

Crucially, it was in these colonies that the settlers founded a chain of new cities which, according to Quinn, became “even more powerful and wealthy than their Phoenician mother cities”.

It was this gradual westward shift that marked the rise of Carthage.

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Carthage: a mega city of the Mediterranean

Founded around 800 BC by settlers from Tyre, Carthage (in modern-day Tunisia) grew into a true superpower. Its location, with access to both the Mediterranean and rich north African hinterlands, made it a commercial crossroads.

“Carthage was a mega-city, and it controlled trade and shipping in most of the western Mediterranean,” Quinn explains.

By the fifth century BC, Carthage had eclipsed Tyre and Sidon. At its height, it may have housed as many as 400,000 inhabitants, dwarfing most Greek poleis. Its sphere of influence stretched across north Africa, Spain, Sardinia and Sicily. Its merchants dominated trade, and its powerful navy made Carthage the master of western waters.

Carthage was also culturally distinctive. Though founded by Phoenicians, it developed its own traditions, religion and political system. Its oligarchic government, centred on a council of elites, was described by Aristotle as one of the best-ordered constitutions of his time.

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But Carthage’s dominance rested not just on commerce and control of economic routes. It also wielded great military power. Its war fleets patrolled trade routes, and treaties spelled out its control.

“We have various Carthaginian treaties that talk about how people who are not Carthaginians should not go past certain ports. And then there’s a wonderful Greek author, Eratosthenes, who explains that if you did, Carthaginian ships would just come along and toss you into the sea. So they really enforced their control … it really was their sea,” Quinn says.

The city’s power extended inland, too. Carthage employed mercenary armies to defend its territories and fight its wars. Wealth from trade paid for soldiers, ships and fortifications, cementing its dominance.

Rome’s greatest rival?

From the third century BC, Rome and Carthage collided in the Punic Wars – three great conflicts that shaped the trajectory of the Mediterranean. At the outset, Rome was still a regional power in Italy, while Carthage commanded fleets, colonies and enormous wealth.

The wars were brutal, encompassing sea battles that destroyed entire navies, sieges that starved cities, and campaigns that swept across Spain and north Africa. The most famous episode came when the powerful general Hannibal led Carthaginian armies – as well as elephants – over the Alps to devastate his enemies.

But Rome was able to withstand the attacks, and after more than a century of intermittent war, it crushed Carthage in 146 BC, razing the city and claiming its empire.

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“You can’t underestimate the power of Carthage in the west and what an extraordinary task it was for the Romans to actually overtake them in the end,” says Quinn.

Now, Carthage is known to many as Rome’s defeated enemy, while the Phoenicians are reduced to an obscure and mysterious precursor. But for hundreds of years before Rome’s rise, the Mediterranean was already shaped by the Phoenician cities and the maritime empire of Carthage: a power that wielded its might with an iron fist, and for much of its history, stood taller than either of its more famous rivals.

Josephine Quinn was speaking to Emily Briffett on the HistoryExtra podcast. Listen to the full conversation.