Eve MacDonald

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

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!

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.

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

'This is not only history reclaimed, this is history at its best!' Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, author of Persians: the Age of the Great Kings 
 
Carthage was a power that dominated the western Mediterranean for almost six centuries before its fall to Rome. The history of the realm and its Carthaginians was subsumed by their conquerors and, along the way, the story of the real Carthage was lost. An ancient North African kingdom, Carthage was the home of Hannibal and of Dido, of war elephants and enormous power and wealth, of great beauty and total destruction. 
 
In this landmark new history, Eve MacDonald tells the essential story of the lost culture of Carthage and of its forgotten people, using brand new archaeological analysis to uncover the history behind the legend. A journey that takes us the Phoenician Levant of the early Iron Age to the Atlantic and all along the coast of Africa, Carthage puts the city and the story of North Africa once again at the centre of Mediterranean history. Reclaimed from the Romans, this is the Carthaginian version of the tale, revealing to us that, without Carthage, there would be no Rome.

Eve MacDonald

Praise for 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 ...

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 ...

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 stor ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 stor ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 stor ...

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter