 Ruins at Bithia | |
  Shown within Italy | |
| Alternative name | Bitan |
|---|---|
| Location | Chia, South Sardinia, Sardinia, Italy |
| Coordinates | 38°53′45″N8°53′7″E / 38.89583°N 8.88528°E |
| Type | Settlement |
Bithia or Bitia [1] was a Phoenician, Carthaginian, and Roman town located near Chia in the extreme south of Sardinia, Italy. Most of the ruins have been submerged underwater.
Bithia was founded by the Phoenicians in the 8th century BC as Bitan (Punic : 𐤁𐤉𐤕𐤏𐤍, BYTʿN, [1] [2] "Palace"). It fell under Carthaginian control until the Punic Wars, when it became Roman. Punic culture survived well into the Roman period. [3] It was abandoned in the early 7th century, when the population fled inland to escape Arab raids.
In 1963, following heavy storms, some ruins of the city came to light. Still observable are the remains of a Punic temple on the island of Cardolinu, on which are also found artifacts that seem to indicate the presence of a tophet. Additional remains of houses and a second temple dedicated to Bes are located at the foot of the promontory on which stands the Spanish tower called "Chia", the current name of the modern village.
Carthage was an ancient city in Northern Africa, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classical world. It became the capital city of the civilisation of Ancient Carthage and later Roman Carthage.
Hamilcar was a common Carthaginian masculine given name. The name was particularly common among the ruling families of ancient Carthage.
Sulci or Sulki, was one of the most considerable cities of ancient Sardinia, situated in the southwest corner of the island, on a small island, now called Isola di Sant'Antioco, which is, however, joined to the mainland by a narrow isthmus or neck of sand. South of this isthmus, between the island and the mainland, is an extensive bay, now called the Golfo di Palmas, which was known in ancient times as the Sulcitanus Portus (Ptol.).
Motya was an ancient and powerful city on San Pantaleo Island off the west coast of Sicily, in the Stagnone Lagoon between Drepanum and Lilybaeum. It is within the present-day commune of Marsala, Italy.
Ruspina was a Phoenician, Carthaginian and Roman town located in Monastir, Tunisia, situated in Roman times in Africa propria, and mentioned by Pliny the Elder and Ptolemy.
The Province of Sardinia and Corsica was an ancient Roman province including the islands of Sardinia and Corsica.
Soluntum or Solus was an ancient city on the Tyrrhenian coast of Sicily, near present-day Porticello in the comune of Santa Flavia, Italy. The site is a major tourist attraction. The city was founded by the Phoenicians in the sixth century BC and was one of the three chief Phoenician settlements in Sicily in the archaic and classical periods. It was destroyed at the beginning of the fourth century BC and re-founded on its present site atop Monte Catalfano. At the end of the fourth century BC, Greek soldiers were settled there and in the 3rd century BC the city came under the control of the Roman Republic. Excavations took place in the 19th century and in the mid-20th century. Around half of the urban area has been uncovered and it is relatively well preserved. The remains provide a good example of an ancient city in which Greek, Roman and Punic traditions mixed.
The Punic religion, Carthaginian religion, or Western Phoenician religion in the western Mediterranean was a direct continuation of the Phoenician variety of the polytheistic ancient Canaanite religion. However, significant local differences developed over the centuries following the foundation of Carthage and other Punic communities elsewhere in North Africa, southern Spain, Sardinia, western Sicily, and Malta from the ninth century BC onward. After the conquest of these regions by the Roman Republic in the third and second centuries BC, Punic religious practices continued, surviving until the fourth century AD in some cases. As with most cultures of the ancient Mediterranean, Punic religion suffused their society and there was no stark distinction between religious and secular spheres. Sources on Punic religion are poor. There are no surviving literary sources and Punic religion is primarily reconstructed from inscriptions and archaeological evidence. An important sacred space in Punic religion appears to have been the large open air sanctuaries known as tophets in modern scholarship, in which urns containing the cremated bones of infants and animals were buried. There is a long-running scholarly debate about whether child sacrifice occurred at these locations, as suggested by Greco-Roman and biblical sources.
The Punic people, usually known as the Carthaginians, 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 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 dialect of Phoenician, one of the Northwest Semitic languages originating in the Levant.
Neapolis was an ancient city of Sardinia founded by the Carthaginians in the sixth century BC, and apparently one of the most considerable places on that island. It was situated on the west coast, at the southern extremity of the Gulf of Oristano, at the present-day località of Santa Maria di Nabui, in the comune of Guspini, Province of South Sardinia.
The city of Carthage was founded in the 9th century BC on the coast of Northwest Africa, in what is now Tunisia, as one of a number of Phoenician settlements in the western Mediterranean created to facilitate trade from the city of Tyre on the coast of what is now Lebanon. The name of both the city and the wider republic that grew out of it, Carthage developed into a significant trading empire throughout the Mediterranean. The date from which Carthage can be counted as an independent power cannot exactly be determined, and probably nothing distinguished Carthage from the other Phoenician colonies in Northwest Africa and the Mediterranean during 800–700 BC. By the end of the 7th century BC, Carthage was becoming one of the leading commercial centres of the West Mediterranean region. After a long conflict with the emerging Roman Republic, known as the Punic Wars, Rome finally destroyed Carthage in 146 BC. A Roman Carthage was established on the ruins of the first. Roman Carthage was eventually destroyed—its walls torn down, its water supply cut off, and its harbours made unusable—following its conquest by Arab invaders at the close of the 7th century. It was replaced by Tunis as the major regional centre, which has spread to include the ancient site of Carthage in a modern suburb.
Phoenicia under Roman rule describes the Phoenician city states ruled by Rome from 64 BCE to the Muslim conquests of the 7th century. The area around Berytus was the only Latin speaking and Romanized part of Aramaic-speaking Phoenicia.
Ancient Carthage was an ancient Semitic civilisation based in North Africa. Initially a settlement in present-day Tunisia, it later became a city-state and then an empire. Founded by the Phoenicians in the ninth century BC, Carthage reached its height in the fourth century BC as one of the largest metropoleis in the world. It was the centre of the Carthaginian Empire, a major power led by the Punic people who dominated the ancient western and central Mediterranean Sea. Following the Punic Wars, Carthage was destroyed by the Romans in 146 BC, who later rebuilt the city lavishly.
Hanno, whose full name was in Phoenician 𐤇𐤍𐤀 𐤁𐤍 𐤇𐤍𐤁𐤏𐤋 Hna Ben Hanibal) or Hanno son of Hannibal, was, according to Diodorus Siculus, a Carthaginian general during the First Punic War.
In several ancient Semitic-speaking cultures and associated historical regions, the shopheṭ or shofeṭ was a community leader of significant civic stature, often functioning as a chief magistrate with authority roughly equivalent to Roman consular powers.
Cartennae or Cartenna was an ancient Carthaginian and Roman port at present-day Ténès, Algeria. Under the Romans, it was part of the province of Mauretania Caesariensis.
The remains of six Punic-Roman towers have been identified in Malta. They are believed to have been built while the island was part of the Punic or Roman Empires. Their architecture suggests a late Punic origin, and they remained in use throughout the Roman period, until at least the 3rd century AD. Evidence suggests that the towers were used to defend the island. The towers are clearly all built on high grounds, in specific locations, and could considerably communicate with signals from one to another. Similar towers are also found in nearby Tunisia with the same defensive system. In the context of time some locals still lived in caves with few others living in vernacular housing with similar characteristics to nearby Sicily.
Melite or Melita (Latin) was an ancient city located on the site of present-day Mdina and Rabat, Malta. It started out as a Bronze Age settlement, which developed into a city called Ann under the Phoenicians and became the administrative centre of the island. The city fell to the Roman Republic in 218 BC, and it remained part of the Roman and later the Byzantine Empire until 870 AD, when it was captured and destroyed by the Aghlabids. The city was then rebuilt and renamed Medina, giving rise to the present name Mdina. It remained Malta's capital city until 1530.
Rusazus was a Phoenician, Carthaginian, and Roman town located near Cape Corbelin, Algeria. Its ruins are near the town of Azeffoun.
The history of Phoenician and Carthaginian Sardinia deals with two different historical periods between the 9th century BC and the 3rd century BC concerning the peaceful arrival on the island of the first Phoenician merchants and their integration into the Nuragic civilization by bringing new knowledge and technologies, and the subsequent Carthaginian presence aimed at exploiting mineral resources of the Iglesiente and controlling the fertile plains of the Campidano.
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