What was the Secret Weapon of the Carthaginian Empire?

 

When the Romans conquered Carthage in 146 BC, they came with wrath, seeking to eradicate any trace of the ancient superpower. The legendary Roman commander, Scipio Africanus, reduced the city to a charred ruin, and had its fertile fields ritually cursed and plowed with salt, inadvertently sending a message to the ancient world… a message that would eventually become lost to history: that FARMING, rather than maritime trade and commerce, had been the true backbone and a source of power for a city that was once the jewel of the North African coast and the master of the Mediterranean Sea.

 The writings of a civilization that invented the phonetic alphabet and taught it to the Greeks and the Romans was consigned to flames – all but one collection… the 28 written works of Mago.

 Other important ancient works about agriculture existed, such as Theophrastus’ treatises, written 200 years before, or Virgil’s famous writings, that came 200 years after the destruction of Carthage.

 Yet the Romans, despite hating the Carthaginians with a vengeance, were keen to preserve Mago’s 28 books and translate them into Latin. For it was his instructional texts that made the Carthaginians renowned across the ancient world for their production of staple and luxury foods and drinks, and had empowered the coastal metropolis to pay off an immense indemnity imposed on it after the First Punic War, even after the Romans had broken its maritime commercial empire with a network of alliances hostile to Carthage.

 This is the story of Mago, whom the ancient peoples of the Mediterranean called, “The Father of Farming”.

 In today’s world, it is warfare, diplomacy, and even commercial trade that we view as the pillars of strength to determine the might of a nation. But there was once a time where the most influential powers of the contemporary day knew that this was not truly the case.

 It was when the victorious Roman troops marched through the once-great city and imperial capital of Carthage, plowing salt into the fields, burning the fallen glory of the Carthaginians, and cursing the lands of the local farmers, that the truth became clear. It was not warfare, nor trade, nor even diplomacy that had made the juggernaut of Carthage so mighty and strong, but instead, it was agriculture that had built the state.

 From the birth of Carthage, the message sent by the Romans in their vengeful spree of destruction had remained true. All the way back in 814 BC, a Phoenician queen by the name of Elissa had fled the treacherous grasp of her own brother, who had already ruthlessly murdered her husband in a fit of envy. The queen and her loyal subjects who had fled with her eventually reached the coast of North Africa, where they were fed and sheltered by the local Berber people. But, when the chieftain informed Elissa that she may only purchase as much land as she could cover with an ox hide, it is said that she then cut an ox hide into as many tiny strips as she possibly could, and then laid them out to encircle an area of roughly 2 ½ square miles, cleverly claiming the entire mountain crest for herself and her people.

 The chieftain conceded to her ingenious plan, and hence, the first plot of land that would become the splendorous power of Carthage, was founded and called Byrsa.

 This hill may have been a small seed of what was to come for the Carthaginians, but it was nonetheless a crucial center point for the Queen and her future empire. Byrsa would grow to house the heart of Carthage’s military and a spectacular walled citadel overlooking the rest of the city. The prominent hill was likely given the name Byrsa from the Phoenecian word barsat, meaning “stronghold” - which is exactly what it was. As the new settlers began to expand their territory further down the hill and into the surrounding city, the new name of Carthage replaced that of the hill - although Byrsa would still remain an important part of the developing republic.

 The name of Carthage itself is said to have meant “New City”, implying it was a “New Tyre” - a nod to where the early Carthaginians had come from. From Byrsa to Carthage, this new city was even more than just a military stronghold too.

 It is also true that commercial trade would become a significant part of life at Byrsa and eventually Carthage as a whole. With her, Queen Elissa had brought a handful of heavily skilled sailors and merchants, which helped to turn Byrsa - and soon Carthage - into a booming trade center for the Mediterranean.

 Trading with nations as far as the British Isles, the new Carthaginians became rich in no time. But it wasn’t just about trading furs or other popular materials for these merchants. In fact, much of their riches came from edible and drinkable products, such as wine. And this comes as no surprise… Homer may have been the first to describe the vast and fertile lands of what would soon become the center of Carthage. It is “capable of yielding any crop in due season”, he explained, and, “the vine would never wither, and there is plenty of land level enough for the plow, where farmers could count on cutting a deep crop every harvest time, for the soil below the surface is exceedingly rich…[and] at the head of the harbor is a stream of fresh water, running out of a cave in a grove of poplar trees”. And this was something that the Carthaginians knew as well, and they took full advantage of it. Farming became a significant part of the budding imperial power, and one man, in particular, was the mastermind of it all: Mago.

 Mago was a genius of agriculture and a great writer of such works. In fact, he was so deeply influential and wrote with the authority of a great leader, that when the Romans annihilated the remains of the city, destroying everything in sight, including literature, it was only the works of Mago, dubbed “the Father of Farming” that would survive the flames… In his 28 books on the matter, Mago dazzled the Carthaginians and Romans alike with his unprecedented expertise on the realm and practice of farming. The Roman Senate revered his writing and ordered that every last word be translated into Latin and preserved for years to come.

 In these pages read many messages for all those who took an interest - messages that would prove just how crucial agriculture could be to the strength of a nation.

 “Anyone who has bought land should sell his town house so that he will have no desire to worship the households of the city rather than those of the country...The man who takes great delight in his city residence will have no need of a country estate” was one piece of advice that the Romans took extensively seriously. The Romans were also obsessed with Carthaginian wine and the recipes written by Mago for the production of that exact product, explaining that you must “Pick some well-ripened early grapes. Discard any that are mildewed or damaged. Drive forked branches or stakes made of rods tied into bundles into the ground at a distance of about 4 feet apart. Lay reeds across them and spread the grapes out in the sun on top. Cover them at night so that the dew will not moisten them. When they are dried, pick the grapes off stems and put them in a jar or pitcher. Add some unfermented wine, the best you have, until the grapes are just covered. After six days, when the grapes have absorbed it all and are swollen, put them in a basket, put them through the press, and collect the resulting liquid. Next, press the mass, adding fresh unfermented wine made with other grapes which have been left in the sun for three days. Stir it well, and put it through the press. Bottle the liquid of the second press in stoppered jars so it will not turn sour. After 20 or 30 days when the fermentation is over, decant it into fresh vessels. Coat the lids with plaster and cover them with leather.”

 Thus, not only were the works of the Father of Farming filled with a plethora of information, but they even provided step-by-step instructions for certain crops or foods that had made his people rich through its trade. “Soak the wheat in plenty of water and then pound it with a pestle, dry it in the sun, and put it back under the pestle. The procedure for barley is the same. For 20 parts of barley, you need two parts of water”, Mago details in another one of his lists. But, recipes and generalized tips were still not all that the expert shared with his readers. As gifted as he was with crops and food-making, Mago was also well versed when it came to the animals of the farms.

 Oxen were particularly important members of any farm, as they provided manure for the soil, they were able to pull the plows, and would eventually be a source of hides - just like the one that had been used to birth the city and empire…

 Mago was particular about his oxen as well.

 In one section of his works he says of the great beasts, “They must be young, stocky, sturdy of limb with long horns, darkish and healthy, a wide and wrinkled forehead, hairy ears and black eyes and chops, the nostrils well-opened and turned back, the neck long and muscular, and dewlap full and descending to the knees, the chest well-developed, broad shoulders, the belly big like that of a cow in calf, the flanks long, the loins broad, the back straight and flat or a little depressed in the middle, the buttocks rounded, the legs thick and straight, the hooves large, the tail long and hairy and the hair on the body thick and short, red-brown in color and very soft to the touch.” It was these advices and some which have been lost, including the methods for domesticating the marvelous African elephants that the Carthaginians used in warfare, that made Mago such an incredible source of information beyond any normal degree. And yet, through all of the praise and awe that he inspired through his works, some would say that it was those exact books that, also, sealed the fate of Carthage in the end… “Carthage must be destroyed!” were the words of Cato the Elder, seemingly foreshadowing the tragic fate of the once-mighty city. Even before the fall of the extraordinary Carthage to the omnipotent Romans, in 310 BC, the Greeks had attempted to capture the city and upon their invasion, had no problem feeding their troops with the overabundant crops of the Carthaginians. And this could have been the same for the Romans when they finally marched on Carthaginian soil, but knowing all too well what the fruit of Carthage’s agricultural labors could be if left to prosper, the Romans had other plans…

 So as the salt mixed with the once fertile soil and the flames engulfed much of what remained, the Romans stripped away every last hope for Carthage to revive itself in the same way it had built itself up. Or in any way. This was the end of the line for the Carthaginians, yet, it was only the start of a new era of farming and agriculture for the Romans. It was no coincidence that the works of Mago escaped the blaze alone. And the demand by the Roman Senate to translate every single piece of his writing into Latin for Romans to study and utilize for their own farming practices reminds us, in conjunction with the salt they rubbed in the Carthaginian wound, that farming was and would continue to be the fourth pillar of a nation’s power…