Catalogue information

LastDodo number
7270493
Area
Coins
Title
Zeugitana, Carthage AE19 300-264 BCE
Country
Face value
Year
-280
Variety / overstrike
Head of State
Type
Designer
Series
Theme
Material
Weight
5
Diameter
19
Thickness
Punch
Shape
Obverse
Reverse
Edge
Privy mark
Mint mark
Number produced
Krause and Mishler number
Catalogue number
SNG Copenhagen 149
Details
Obv; Horse head right, without letter or symbol in right field Rev; wreathed head of Tanit left. Carthage was founded in about 830 BCE on the coast of North Africa, in what is now Tunisia. It developed into a significant trading empire throughout the Mediterranean, and was home to a wealthy and brilliant civilization. After a long conflict with the emerging civilization of Ancient Rome, known as the Punic Wars, during which Hannibal conducted his famous campaign in Italy after first crossing from Iberia over the Pyrenees and the Alps, with war elephants. Rome finally destroyed Carthage in 146 B.C. Later Roman Carthage was destroyed following the Muslim invasion of 698, and it remained undeveloped for more than a 1,000 years, until Ottoman rule, and subsequent establishment of the French protectorate of Tunisia in 1881. Tanit was a Punic and Phoenician goddess, and the chief deity of Carthage alongside her consort Ba`al Hammon.