- Punic civilization survived many centuries after the fall of Carthage in 146, partly through the Numidian Kingdom and partly through the many cities that simply surrendered to the Romans without opposition. This subject stands outside my area of research, but I will try my best to cover the important details. The Numidians inherited among other things the Punic language, Punic art and perhaps architecture, Carthaginian administrative practices and organization (however loose that might have been), and much of the Carthaginian state library (which eventually fell into hands of Juba II of Mauretania after the end of the Numidian Kingdom), although I do not wish to detract from the Numidians’ own accomplishments. While kingship was unique to the Numidians (the Carthaginians never possessed a monarchy), some cities followed Carthaginian tradition in choosing suffetes (špṭm, or “judges”) as their magistrates. Many royal inscriptions are also bilingual in Punic-Lybic. In the Phoenician (or Liby-Phoenician) cities once dominated by Carthage and afterwards ruled by Rome, Punic remained the common language (eventually evolving into “Neo-Punic”) while their citizens continued to elect suffetes as their local magistrates. Emperor Septimius Severus (145-211 A.D.) illustrates this quite well: a native of Lepcis Magna, Severus spoke Punic fluently and eloquently, while his grandfather of the same name had served as suffete before the office finally became that of the duovir. Inscriptions from the former Carthaginian territories are often bilingual in Punic-Latin and reveal a mishmash of cultural influences. Take, for example, the Neo-Punic text engraved on this altar from Bir Tlelsa:
- Dedicated to the Mighty Baal by Baalshillek son of Marcus Avianius… who renovated and consecrated [this altar] at his own expense. (KAI 138; adapted and abridged for readability)
- Here we find a man with a traditional Phoenician name (Baalshillek) making an offering to a traditional Phoenician god (Baal Adir), and yet his father bears a distinctly Roman name (Marcus Avianius, rendered as m‘rq’ ‘wy‘ny). Or consider this bilingual inscription erected in Lepcis Magna sometime during the first century A.D.:
- …the Mighty Ones of Lepcis and the People of Lepcis, by the merits of his ancestors and by his own merits, granted him permission to forever wear the broad purple-striped [toga]…” (KAI 126)
- Here we see the survival of Punic political institutions; note that the “Mighty Ones” (’drm) was almost certainly the same title for the Carthaginian Senate, while the Latin parallel to this inscription (IRT 318 & 347) states primo ordo et populus (First Order and People) as opposed to the more-Roman senatus populusque (Senate and People). According to the Christian apologist Tertullian (c. 160-c. 225), a native of Roman Carthage, locals continued to practice child sacrifice in his own day. Activities went “underground,” so to speak, after the proconsul employed harsh measures against the priests (apparently crucifixion; Apologeticum 9.2) He may very well be telling the truth. One Neo-Punic inscription (rendered in the Latin alphabet) has been interpreted as an allusion to such practices:
- A sum of 200 Tibas was made as vow for the child during his life and for the life of my son Odosilim for whom the sacrifice (promise) was accomplished [by] Sisan Siluan[us]… (IRT 893)
- We jump ahead two centuries to the time of Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430). Although most Punic institutions had long given way to Roman ones, Augustine himself understood some Punic, while many of his congregants evidently understood Punic only (or at least better than Latin). He also attests to the survival of Punic literature. To quote the man himself: “If the Punic language is rejected by you, you virtually deny what has been admitted by most learned men, that many things have been wisely preserved from oblivion in books written in the Punic tongue.” (Epist. 17.2, transl. J. G. Cunningham)
What was the fate of Punic civilization following the destruction of Carthage?
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