City
Carthagine Colonia
Carthage
Listen to the story
Carthagine Colonia lies on the Tabula directly across the sea from Rome, hardly by chance. The city's Phoenician name meant 'new city'; the added word colonia marks the Roman colony founded on Caesar's plan in 44 BC, a century after Rome had destroyed the city in 146 BC. Its ruins lie near Tunis in Tunisia. Yet Rome's old rival gets only an ordinary town symbol and black letters squeezed between coast and road, while Rome stands in red beside a large picture, its oversized harbour set right opposite Carthage, a city famed for its own port. Scholars read this as the map settling the old rivalry in Rome's favour.