Carthage

State · 650–145 BCE · at its largest around 218 BCE

Phoenician city in present-day Tunisia, founded from Tyre, that built a western Mediterranean empire and fought Rome in the Punic Wars until its destruction in 146 BCE.

Its battles, in Battle View

Battle of Cannae (216 BCE)
Battle of Zama (202 BCE)

On its lands while it lasted

Etruscan civilization (c. 900–27 BCE): Civilization of ancient Etruria in central Italy, organised in city-states, which strongly influenced early Rome before being absorbed by it.
Carthage (c. 814–146 BCE): Traditionally founded by Phoenician settlers from Tyre, Carthage grew into the capital of a maritime empire that dominated the western Mediterranean until Rome destroyed it.
Tripoli (602 BCE): Capital of Ottoman Tripolitania (1864–1911), Kingdom of Libya (1953–1968), State of Libya (2014–today).
Latin alphabet (c. 600 BCE): The Romans took their letters from the Etruscan form of the Greek alphabet, as on the Lapis Niger; the Latin alphabet is now the most widely used writing system in the world.
Pythagoras (c. 570 BCE – 495 BCE): Greek philosopher born on Samos who founded a school at Croton in southern Italy; the Pythagorean theorem bears his name.
Founding of the Roman Republic (509 BCE): The Romans expelled their last king, Tarquin the Proud, and established a republic governed by elected magistrates and the Senate.
Bordeaux (501 BCE): Capital of Duchy of Gascony (768–1065).
Riace bronzes (c. 450 BCE): Two life-size Greek bronze statues of warriors, found in 1972 on the seabed off Riace in Calabria; rare surviving bronze originals of classical sculpture, now in Reggio Calabria.
Tangier (402 BCE): Capital of Tangier International Zone (1924–1956).
Via Appia (312 BCE): Begun in 312 BCE by the censor Appius Claudius Caecus, the Appian Way linked Rome with Capua and was later extended to Brundisium (Brindisi), the port for Greece and the East.
Archimedes (c. 287 BCE – 212 BCE): Mathematician and engineer of Syracuse who approximated pi, formulated the principle of buoyancy and the law of the lever; killed when the Romans took the city.
Punic Wars (264–146 BCE): Three wars between Rome and Carthage for control of the western Mediterranean ended with Rome's destruction of Carthage in 146 BCE.
Hannibal (c. 247 BCE – 183 BCE): Carthaginian general who crossed the Alps with war elephants in the Second Punic War and inflicted major defeats on Rome, notably at Cannae in 216 BCE.
Second Punic War (218–201 BCE): War in which Hannibal invaded Italy across the Alps and won major victories before Rome, under Scipio, defeated Carthage at Zama in 202 BCE.
Battle of Cannae (216 BCE): Hannibal encircled and destroyed a much larger Roman army in southern Italy, one of the most famous tactical victories in history.