Daily Life in Carthage at the Time of Hannibal

Daily Life Series #4

by Gilbert Charles-Picard, A.E. Foster (Translator)

French

Genres: History, Africa, Ancient History, Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1959

About the author

Gilbert Picard, called Gilbert Charles-Picard, was a 20th-century French historian and archaeologist, a specialist of North Africa during Antiquity.
The son of Hellenist Charles Picard (1883–1965), he was born at Nercillac. He was married to Colette Picard, also an historian of antiquity and curator of the site of Carthage, and was the father of Olivier Picard, also an Hellenist, former director of the French School at Athens and a member of the Institut de France.
He began his career in Algeria where he explored several sites, and also sojourned in Rome and Carthage. His sister, the philosopher Yvonne Picard, was a member of the French Resistance and died at Birkenau prison camp in 1943.
Gilbert Charles-Picard won the Prix Broquette-Gonin awarded by the Académie française in 1960 for his work La Civilisation de l'Afrique romaine.
He died in Versailles in 1998, aged 85.

Reviews

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Daily Life in Carthage..." is a serious work of scholarship. I understand this, and I mean no disrespect when I state that it is also the dullest book I have ever delved into.

If you suffer from occasional insomnia, get a copy and keep it handy at the bedside. On average, five or ten minutes -- tops -- sends me back to a deep, refreshing sleep.

[Bruce Bowen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Carthage is really interesting. This text was kinda dense but it gets the job done I suppose.

[Bob Newman · Rating 3 out of 5]

The whole earth book of ancient Carthage

Published in French in 1958 and in this edition three years later, this book will no doubt satisfy your long-held wish to know more about Carthage, the city founded by the Phoenicians on the Tunisian coast of North Africa in 814 B.C. and destroyed centuries later by a Roman army in 159 B.C., thereby terminating a couple of hard-fought wars between the two Mediterranean rivals. Perhaps you once read “Salammbo”, the famous novel about Carthage written by the French novelist, Flaubert. It seems his view was quite fictitious, based on a rich imagination if nothing else. The present volume is far more down to earth, though, because the French historical style is somewhat different from the Anglo-American one, I had some doubts about some of the statements made—that is, I wondered “how did you know that?” However, readers will definitely get a large part of what was known of the ancient city and its environs back 65 years ago. Not being a Carthage maven, I can’t say if more has been discovered and written up. Besides the history, which certainly includes the famous march over the Alps by Hannibal, a maneuver which nearly did Rome in (all the elephants except one succumbed to the weather after reaching Italy), you will find sections on the economy, the society, everyday life, commerce, the arts, the military, and diplomacy. There is also a special section on the famous voyages of Carthaginian navigators who, if they didn’t sail completely around Africa as legend suggests, probably did sail close to what is now Cameroon, anticipating the Portuguese by over a thousand years. Possibly they also reached Ireland, Brittany, and even Norway in one incidence, but the facts are disputed.

At any rate, if Carthage interests you, this is a readable work, if not super-interesting, because in its effort to include everything it cannot cover all subjects equally. It kind of drones on, but it's got the information. If you don’t know much about the time and place, it’s a good place to start.

P.S. This is one of the early numbers of a whole French series about life in various cities of the world at various times. I believe most are translated into English.

[Mark Dunstan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very entertaining read which delves into many aspects of Carthaginian life.