Carthage

Deploying the latest archaeological discoveries with deep and revealing research, Eve MacDonald’s Carthage shines welcome new light on the ancient origins and trajectory of the mysterious North African empire that challenged Rome’s power in the Mediterranean * Professor Adrienne Mayor *This is a book full of memorable insights. It is an important and much-needed reorientation of the ‘familiar’ ancient historical narrative. Eve MacDonald persuasively demonstrates how North Africa was once a central node of civilization, that the city of Carthage was a sophisticated political power-house , and that there was nothing inevitable about the supremacy of Rome while the Carthaginians were around. This is not only history reclaimed, this is history at its best! * Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones *The raving Dido, Hannibal’s elephants, and Sophonisba drinking the poisoned cup which is her wedding gift: these episodes are just the start of Eve Macdonald’s epic history of Carthage. In between, she gives us stories of derring-do on the oceans, vast sea battles with fleets of more than three-hundred ships, war trumpets, flaming javelins, whole populations enslaved, and the most thorough examination possible of Carthaginian society, politics, and government. More than two millennia after its destruction, Carthage now has its Iliad. * Professor Martyn Rady *It is often said, for good reason, that the winners write history – and for too long, the story of Carthage has been told by its conquerors. The Romans who burned the city of Carthage to the ground in 146 BCE have been the guardians of its story for centuries: but Eve MacDonald’s important new book puts Carthage, at last, at the centre of its own tale. The narrative that emerges is both deeply-researched history, eking details out of archaeology, linguistics and DNA alongside ancient historiography, and, at the same time, epic in its sweep – and a long-awaited riposte to Rome’s monopoly on the history of its conquests. * Emily Hauser, Sunday Times bestselling author of Mythica *

Dr. Eve MacDonald is Senior Lecturer in Ancient History at Cardiff University. An archaeologist and ancient historian, she has worked and published extensively on the history and material culture of Carthage, North Africa, and the Middle East. She is a leading expert on the region and the author of Hannibal- A Hellenistic Life (Yale University Press, 2015). She has also appeared in podcasts (History Hit- The Ancients, Hannibal’s Winter War) and documentary films for Channel 4 and PBS’ Secrets of the Dead. Carthage is her first book for the trade.