The Roman refoundation of Carthage: the monumentalization of the landscape of the Byrsa hill in the Augustan project

Abstract

With the end of the Punic Wars (264 - 146 BC), Rome overcame Carthage and became the hegemonic power in control of the Mediterranean. The Phoenician city had become an element of strong alterity in the Roman imagination, which made some Latin authors conceive terrifying accounts of its land and nature. Of mortal enemy, Carthage became one of the largest urban centers of the Roman Empire, as can be seen in the opulence of its architecture. Augustus had to devise a set of strategies that would make possible the refounding of a Roman colony in the old Punic city, and begin the process of economic exploitation of the region.In this project we will look at how the Augustan refounding plan begun in 29-28 BC laid the foundations for urban planning that was perpetuated throughout the Roman phase of Carthage. The Roman emperor managed a series of rivalries between the Roman settlers and the populations that inhabited the surrounding Punic city at the time of its refoundation. By granting them Roman citizenship, Augustus invited the descendants of the Libyan-Punic culture to participate in the power game that was built in the form of what became the Roman Empire. (AU)