A gold coin of Carthage

A gold coin of Carthage showing a stunning profile of their mother goddess TANIT (equivalent to Asdghig or Astarte) on one side, and on the other side one of the symbols of Carthage, the horse. On many coins a palm tree is also featured.

Carthage was founded on the coast of North Africa around 850 BC by the Phoenicians.

GARDA = կերտ = city

CARTHAGE = CART-HATASHT = Phoenician ‫???-????‬‎ (qrt-ḥdš) = “city new” or “NEW CITY”.

Tigranogerta and Artagigarta are two Cities in ancient Armenia that carry the same root. In Armenian GERDEL means “to build” and Tigranagerd meant “built by Tigran” or basically “city of Tigran”.

The name Phoenician comes from the Greek Φοινικιά (Phoiníkē). One of its meanings is “palm Tree”. They were famous traders and emerged in history after 3000 BC., became the second most powerful city state in the Mediterranean and almost changed the course of history when Hannibal defeated the Romans at Cannae.

The tide turned against him however when Scipio africanus invaded North Africa and drew him out of Italy. Hannibal was ultimately defeated at the battle of Zama in 202 BC. He escaped to the East and made it his goal to assemble an army and destroy Rome.

He became an advisor to Antiochus III, who lost a decisive battle against Rome at Magnesia in 190 BC. Hannibal then had to put more distance between himself and the Roman armies, and moved Eastwards to find refuge in the court of the Armenian king Artashes I. In the Ararat valley Hannibal advised the Armenian king as to the new strategic location of his capital Artaxiat (Artashat), and may even have supervised its construction.

by Joseph Sarkissian