Ahab was a king of Israel. he was born in 875 BC and died in 853 BC. The husband of Jezebel, he allowed the worship of Baal and defended the kingdom against the Syrians and Assyrians. Research Ahab
The Carthaginians were a powerful Phoenician people based in the city of Carthage. Carthage was the most famous city of Africa in antiquity, capital of a rich and powerful commercial republic, situated in the territory now belonging to Libya. Carthage was the latest of the Phoenician colonies in this district, and is supposed to have been founded by settlers from Tyre and from the neighbouring Utica about the middle of the 9th century BC. The story of Dido and the foundation of Carthage is mere legend or invention.
The history of Carthage falls naturally into three epochs. The first, from the foundation to 410 BC, comprises the rise and culmination of Carthaginian power; the second, from 410 to 265 BC, is the period of the wars with the Sicilian Greeks; the third, from 265 to 146 BC, the period of the wars with Rome, ending with the fall of Carthage.
The rise of Carthage may be attributed to the superiority of her site for commercial purposes, and the enterprise of her inhabitants, which soon acquired for her an ascendency over the earlier Tyrian colonies in the district, Utica, Tunis, Hippo, Septis, and Hadrumetum, Her relations with the native populations, Libyans and nomads, were those of a superior with inferior races. Some of them were directly subject to Carthage, others contributed large sums as tribute, and Libyans formed the main body of infantry as nomads of cavalry in the Carthaginian army. Besides these there were native Carthaginian colonies, small centres and supports for her great commercial system, sprinkled along the whole northern coast of Africa, from Cyrenaica on the east to the Straits of Gibraltar on the west.
In extending her commerce Carthage was naturally led to the conquest of the various islands which from their position might serve as entrepots for traffic with the northern shores of the Mediterranean. Sardinia was the first conquest of the Carthaginians, and its capital, Caralis, now Cagliari, was founded by them. Soon after they occupied Corsica, the Balearic, and many smaller islands in the Mediterranean. When the Persians under Xerxes invaded Greece the Carthaginians, who had already several settlements in the west of Sicily, co-operated by organizing a great expedition of 300,000 men against the Greek cities in Sicily. But the defeat of the Carthaginians at Himera by the Greeks under Gelon of Syracuse effectually checked their further progress (480 BC).
The war with the Greeks in Sicily was not renewed until 410. Hannibal, the son of Gisco, invaded Sicily, reduced first Selinus and Himera, and then Agrigentum. Syracuse itself was only saved a little later by a pestilence which enfeebled the army of Himiico (396). The struggle between the Greeks and the Carthaginians continued at intervals with varying success, its most remarkable events being the military successes of the Corinthian Timoleon (345-340) at Syracuse, and the invasion of the Carthaginian territory in Africa by Agathocles in 310 BC. After the death of Agathocles the Greeks called in Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, to their aid, but notwithstanding numerous defeats (277-275 BC), the Carthaginians seemed, after the departure of Pyrrhus, to have the conquest of all Sicily at length within their power. The intervention of the Romans was now invoked, and with their invasion in 264 BC, the third period of Carthaginian history begins.
The first Punic war in which Rome and Carthage contended for the dominion of Sicily, was prolonged for twenty-three years, from 264 to 241 BC, and ended, through the exhaustion of the resources of Carthage, in her expulsion from the island. The loss of Sicily led to the acquisition of Spain for Carthage, which was almost solely the work of Hamilcar and Hasdrubal. The second Punic war, arising out of incidents connected with the Carthaginian conquests in Spain, and conducted on the side of the Carthaginians by the genius of Hannibal, and distinguished by his great march on Rome and the victories of Lake Trasimene, Trebia, and Cannae, lasted seventeen years, from 218 to 201 BC, and after just missing the overthrow of Rome, ended in the complete humiliation of Carthage. The policy of Rome in encouraging the African enemies of Carthage occasioned the third Punic war, in which Rome was the aggressor. This war, begun in 150 BC, and ended in 146 BC, resulted in the total destruction of Carthage.
The constitution of Carthage, like her history, remains in many points obscure. The name of king occurs in the Greek accounts of it, but the monarchical constitution, as commonly understood, never appears to have existed in Carthage. The officers called kings by the Greeks were two in number, the heads of an oligarchical republic, and were otherwise called Suffetes, the original name being considered identical with the Hebrew Shofetim, judges. These officers were chosen from the principal families, and were elected annually. There was a senate of 300, and a smaller body of thirty chosen from the senate, sometimes another smaller council of ten. In its later ages the state was divided by bitter factions, and liable to violent popular tumults. After the destruction of Carthage her territory became the Roman province of Africa.
Twenty-four years after her fall an unsuccessful attempt was made to rebuild Carthage by Caius Gracchus. This was finally accomplished by Augustus, and Roman Carthage became one of the most important cities of the empire. It was taken and destroyed by the Arabs in 638. The religion of the Carthaginians was that of their Phoenician ancestors. They worshipped Moloch or Baal, to whom they supposedly offered human sacrifices; Melkart, the patron deity of Tyre; Astarte, the Phoenician Venus, and other deities, which were mostly propitiated by allegedly cruel or lascivious rites, though these accounts are most likely exagerated propaganda by enemies of the Carthaginians. Research Carthaginians
Elijah was the most distinguished of the prophets of Israel. He lived in the 9th century BC, during the reigns of Ahab and Ahaziah, and until the beginning of the reign of Jehoram, his special function being to denounce vengeance on the kings of Israel for their apostasy. He incurred the anger of Jezebel, wife of Ahab, for slaying the prophets of Baal, but escaped to Horeb, afterwards returning to Samaria to denounce Ahab for the murder of Naboth. Elijah at length supposedly ascended to heaven in a chariot of fire, or so claims Elisha, his successor,claiming to have seen the event. Research Elijah
Hasdrubal (more correctly Asdrubal, 'Baal is his help'), was the name of several Carthaginian leaders, particularly the brother of Hannibal, the hero of the Second Punic War. On the departure of Hannibal for Italy, in 218 BC, he was left in command of the army in Spain, in which capacity he carried on a long series of military operations against the Roman troops, which were commanded by Cnaeus and Publius Scipio. His brother Hannibal requiring his assistance in Italy, Hasdrubal led an army from Spain into that country in 207 BC, but before he could join forces with his brother he was defeated on the right bank of the Metaurus by Nero and Livius. Nero is said to have thrown Hasdrubal's head into Hannibal's camp, by way of announcing the defeat and death of his brother. Research Hasdrubal
In Phoenician mythology, Ahat (Aqhat) was a mortal hero, the son of a local ruler, Daniel, given to him by the god El. As a grown up, Ahat was given a bow made of twisted horns. The goddess Anat coveted the bow and when Ahat refused to give it to her she sent Yatpan, her attendant to kill him. Ahat was killed, the bow being lost in the struggle, and in punishment Baal stopped the rains from falling causing the crops to fail. Research Ahat
In Syrian, Canaanite and Phoenician mythology, Anath is a goddess of earth, grain, and sacrifice. She is the sister or consort of Baal and is the strength of life, a bloodthirsty maiden and a violent Virgin. Research Anath
In Canaanite mythology, Baal was the god of fertility. He was the son of El. In Phoenician mythology, Baal was the god of fertility, the storm, and winter rains, whose annual struggle with Mot, the god of harvesting crops, symbolized for Phoenicians the renewal of the earth's vegetation each spring. Research Baal
Yamm, also known as Yam, Jamm, was the Phoenician god of sea and water. Yamm, wishing to be ruler of all the other gods asked El to grant him the necessary powers. El agreed on condition that Yamm defeated Baal. In the battle Yamm was killed by Baal who scattered his remains and crowned himself king. Research Yamm
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Ahab
